when you have to write, write, don't talk

musings

2008-11-26T08:08:00.000-08:00

just a random updates of some of things around which my daily life rotates.. friends form a big part of it but space is limited here to write about them :)

books - have purchased 5 odd books during the last one month, reading "wind-up bird chronicle" for more than a month now.. still 200 pages left.. written in typical of murakami style though different in the length of the story.. this story is told in 600 pages, unusual for murakami.. don't know how the story will unfold in the remaining 200 pages but for the time being will rate "norwegian wood" as the top murakami book that i have read..

movies - finally watched memento. yes full 8 year late, but as they say, der aaye durust aaye.. movie is really amazing, have to watch some portions of it again to understand it properly.. though still not clear about everything.. was reading some discussion about the movie and read this tagline by one of the person based on the movie's theme.. it goes like this "i remember, therefore i am".. found this tagline quite interesting.. a hindi version of this movie is going to release around christmas, it's called ghajini, don't expect it to be as good as the original.. they are sure gonna focus a lot on the romance with many songs which might spoil the charm of the original.. also watched into the wild and loved it.. wish i could take the courage to do something like that.. one of my batchmate from iimc (abhimanyu) has resigned from job long time back and is on a bike-trip all across india.. you can read about his daily accounts here .. good to see that at least some people are pursuing their passions rathing than fighting in the rat-race..

music - after rock on (where i like all the songs except for the zehreelay), the next album that i liked was dostana.. music is by vishal-shekhar and the songs have a very fresh appeal to them.. 2 of 3 best songs (jaane kyun and khabar nahin) are actually sung by vishal himself while the 3rd one (kuch kam) is by shaan.. next came yuvraaj, a collaboration of gulzar + a.r. rahman but this doesn't come even remotely close to the magic of dil se.. though the music is different in that some of the songs are a fusion of indian & western classical but i think it could have been better.. my personal favorite is manmohini money.. next in line is rab ne bana di jodi, stars srk and the newcomer anushka sharma and is directed by aditya chopra of ddlj fame.. music by salim-sulaiman and lyrics by jaideep sahni (they have collaborated in earlier srk movie chak-de india too).. the album has just 4 tracks and an instrumental track but simply love all the tracks.. the most unique number is without doubt the phir milenge chalte chalte track.. sung by sonu nigam, it consists of 5 stanzas.. the lyrics of each stanza is composed of the lyrics of the songs from the movies and name of the movies of one particular actor, the 5 stanzas thus take care of raj kapoor, dev anand, shammi kapoor, rajesh khanna and rishi kapoor in this particular order.. this also matches the chronological order in which these actors were the kings of bollywood.. what else each stanza of the song starts with the signature tune of a hit song of the respective actor.. you have to listen to this song to understand what i am saying here.. after this only last week i downloaded songs of sorry bhai.. liked only 2 songs (jalte hain and mere khuda), coincidently both are sung by kk.. though not as good as the songs sung by him in gangster, woh lamhe or metro, but still always good to hear the refreshing voice of kk.. may be if the music was composed by pritam, it could have made the difference.. lastly, i downloaded ghajini soundtrack last night, this one is a.r. rahman + prasoon joshi (earlier they worked on rang de basanti and taare zameen par).. till now have listened to only one song, tu meri guzarish sung by javed ali (last heard in jashn-ae-bahara in jodha akbar), but this has really grown on me very fast, actually from the first listen itself.. don't know if i will care to listen to other songs :)

sports - playing football regularly every saturday, hope this continues.. also playing squash regularly every sunday except for the last sunday, my squash partner was out.. he is also out for the coming sunday but will be playing with another of my office colleague.. the court will be closed down for many months from december for some renovation work, will have to look for another court then.. one thing that i miss is tennis, haven't played since may :(

office - obviously this has to come at the end :) nothing great on this front, except that my colleague has gone on leave since yesterday.. he won't be there till next friday.. so i have to manage the work all by myself for 9 days, of which i have successfully completed 2 days.. besides the usual work, today i gave a briefing of all the products that i work on to two of the sales team member, the whole session lasted for 2.5 hours with a break.. at the end of it, they told me that i taught them very well and so i felt good.. my previous teaching experience is the stint as the statistics tutor in second year of iimc.. that was also a good experience for me.. one thing that i have noticed is that i teach better when i teach a small group and when i am teaching on a paper using a pen as compared to teaching a big group and teaching on a black/white board using a chalk/sketch pen.. i don't know what is the reason for this but i felt the same thing at iimc also.. even in office, when i was briefing a bigger sales team yesterday, i don't think it was as good as it went today..

reality bites

2008-10-27T08:22:00.000-07:00

i came across the following article yesterday.. though after reading its contents, one would surely remember metallica's "sad but true", nonetheless it is very hilarious if you focus at the language of the content which bears a striking resemblance to the financial jargon..

Investment banking groom valuations fall in Wedding

Hyderabad : The subprime crisis in the US has made its effects felt in India as well, this time in the highly lucrative weddings futures market in Andhra Pradesh. "An IIM passout at a US investment bank like Lehman Brothers was as good as it got, a few weeks back. But now parents of brides want to stay as far as possible from such profiles", said Dr Rajan, an expert with over 20 years of experience in the matrimonial industry.

The first visible effects were noted in the online space yesterday with scores of investment banking profiles being "blocked" by women across matrimonial & social networking sites. Apparently the average "Be my friend" request index from 20 - 26 years old women to investment bankers have dropped from 24 to 2 in a period of three weeks. "As Indians, we have always been trained to think longterm", said an unrepentant Sophia after deleting 6 investment bankers from her Friends list.

Mrs Narayani, head of the Old Wives & Aunts Network, the most powerful lobby working in this industry said that the offline impact will also be felt sooner than later. "As of today, we are downgrading Financial services, Investment banking & Outsourcing from 'Marriage Material (MM)' to 'Ignore Politely (IP)'. But we stand committed to all deals that have been mutually agreed upon before Sep 15th, provided the groom can present evidence of fresh employment & adequate capital reserves", she said.

Raj Malhotra, a Lehman Brothers investment banker who was holding out, hoping for a better valuation said "Maybe I should not have waited so long & should have accepted the buyout offer from the Mysore based girl". Utopia has also learnt that a number of investment bankers have lowered their next quarter projections and are now ready to marry any girl who will let them.

It is also reported that the worst fears of any banker - the girl insisting on a sense of humour - might also come true as the market prepares itself for a long winter.

Comment: For those who are grinning - Well done, For those who are left behind - Dont worry, its just a matter of the next cycle (5 year +-)

some of the noteworthy similarities are commented on below:

weddings futures market : as if weddings are an asset class on which futures are traded in the market

be my friend request index : like the Sensex and Nifty there is index in matrimonial sites

index dropped from 24 to 2 in 3 weeks : 90% fall in 3 weeks, wow !! this is even worse than the year to date fall in stock indices

Old Wives & Aunts Network : some kind of rating agency like S&P, Moody's

downgrade from MM to IP : just like a stock is downgraded from Buy to Sell

15 Sep date : a date for perfect market timing, sell all your investments before market starts to go down

not to mention terms like better valuation, buyout offer, next quarter projections.. might have missed many more :) goes on to show how the current financial crisis has become a true global crisis engulfing things which are not even remotely connected with finance..

tennis and edberg

2008-08-26T09:22:00.000-07:00

i have copied this article from rediff verbatim to keep it in my recods.. edberg was my favorite player when i started watching tennis during the late eighties and early nineties.. i became a huge fan of him while watching the wimbledon 1990 final against boris becker.. he was a great player of serve and volley.. in fact the logo of australian open grand slam tennis tournament is dedicated to his unique style of service.. besides being a good tennis player, he was a great sportsman and won the atp sportsmanship award 5 times !! the article follows now:

Stefan Edberg: A Champion reflects

Seventeen years ago, the US Open showcased a maestro at work as Stefan Edberg put together a flawless display of tennis to defeat Jim Courier. The legendary sportsman reflects on the win, his rivalries and the state of tennis today.

It came as a surprise to many that Stefan Edberg had gone his first eight visits to the US Open without a title. But in 1991, the stars finally aligned for the Swede.

Edberg and American Jim Courier both entered their first US Open final on a roll. Edberg, ranked No. 2 at the time, was coming off a straight-sets semifinal win over long-time rival Ivan Lendl. Courier, who did not drop a set en route to the title match, had defeated defending champion Pete Sampras in the quarterfinals and sentimental favorite Jimmy Connors in the semifinals.

With the on-court temperatures eclipsing the 90 degree mark, Edberg put on one of the best performances in a US Open final. With a perfect display of serve and volley tennis, he completed a 6-2, 6-4, 6-0 masterpiece victory to capture his first US Open title.

Afterwards, Courier said, "I remember walking off of the court knowing there was no way I could have beaten him on that day. He played a nearly flawless match in every facet."

Edberg followed it up with a repeat title performance one year later in what would turn out to be his final Grand Slam title, but the 1991 championship remains his favorite US Open memory. "Lifting the trophy after beating Courier was the best match of my life," he says.

Courier, who would finish No. 1 in 1992 after Edberg held the top spot the previous two years, said about their rivalry, "I had many a fierce battle with Stefan inside the lines and I consider him one of the all-time gentlemen of our sport. Our match-ups were interesting ones as we had contrasting styles. He knew what I was going to do and vice versa and it was simply a matter of who executed better on the day as to who won."

But theirs wasn't the only classic rivalry Edberg was involved in during his outstanding career. The Swede played long-time nemesis Boris Becker 35 times, and also battled countryman Mats Wilander, Lendl, and Michael Chang at least 20 times each. Edberg says, "Thinking back, I was lucky to play in this era of great players."

From 1983-1996 when Edberg competed on the ATP circuit, he faced nine players who were current or former No. 1s at least nine times: Jimmy Connors (6-6), John McEnroe (6-7), Lendl (14-13), Mats Wilander (9-11), Boris Becker (10-25), Courier (4-6), Pete Sampras (6-8), Andre Agassi (3-6), and Thomas Muster (10-0).

Edberg, in remembering his own rivals, is highly intrigued by the rivalry between Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer, which has taken center stage in the world of tennis.

"Wherever they play, they reach the final and they've had an incredible run," says Edberg, from his countryside home outside of Grimslov, Sweden.

"They have very few letdowns and I've never seen anything else like that. There hasn't been two guys dominating the game the way they've had, as much as they've done. This rivalry is great for tennis and the quality of matches are extremely high level. Now you need a new name or two, like (Novak) Djokovic, and it would be nice to see some new faces coming up."

Edberg, who won the ATP Sportsmanship Award so many times it was renamed in his honor in 1996, is impressed by the way Federer and Nadal have handled themselves during their lengthy stays at the top two ranking positions.

"What an incredible record to stay at the number one position for 237 weeks to one of the best players ever playing the game," he says of Federer's record reign at No. 1. "It's also a tribute to his sportsmanship as well.

"Nadal is a great player with incredible charisma and fighting spirit and he deserves the No. 1 ranking, especially after winning one of the greatest Wimbledon finals ever following the French Open win."

No stranger to playing in championship finals himself, Edberg won six Grand Slam singles titles twice at Wimbledon (1988, '90), the US Open (1991-92) and Australian Open (1985, '87) in addition to three Grand Slam doubles crowns.

During Edberg's run to his last Slam title at the US Open in 1992, the serve-and-volleying Swede defeated three straight opponents in five sets, including Chang in the semifinals in the longest match in US Open history at five hours and 26 minutes.

"That was by far the most difficult Slam tournament in my career," says Edberg, who capped it off with a four-set win over Pete Sampras in the final. "I beat Chang in a marathon and then had to come back the next day to play Sampras."

Edberg looks at today's game and says he's a little disappointed not to see any serve-and-volley players like from his era. "You have some bigger servers today but they don't follow-up going to the net. With Boris and Goran (Ivanisevic) you wouldn't get any rhythm and if you dropped your serve it was extremely difficult to come back and win the set.

"Being a serve-and-volleyer myself, it would be nice to have one, two or three. The guys are playing good, effective tennis today but it would be nice to have variation of styles. I played Chang and he would stay back. You look at Borg and McEnroe and they had different styles. That would be the only thing I wish to see variation."

But Edberg continues: "Tennis is in pretty good shape right now and Federer-Nadal have played some quality tennis matches. It's also nice to see (Novak) Djokovic playing well and up there."

Today, the 42-year-old Edberg is a part-owner and board member of the Swedish investment company Case Assets Management, and lives in the Swedish countryside with his wife Annette and two children, Emilie, 15, and Christopher, 11.

And, while he'll be watching the action at Flushing Meadows closely, Edberg predicts that this year's US Open will come down to the Big 3 of Federer, Nadal and Djokovic, with "Federer winning once again!"

east or west, olympics and ice-cream

2008-08-23T10:44:00.000-07:00

i had successfully avoided getting addicted to nicotine and ethanol, but i think i am failing against caffein.. surprisingly, it is not in the form of liquid coffee that most people resort to for avoiding sleep during boring office hours or exam preparations.. i don't mean to say that i don't drink coffee at all, i go for my daily dose of medium latte or mocha depending upon whether i am feeling more sleepy or hungry :) sadly, the caffein addiction has come in form of something to which i can never say no, "ice-cream".. yes, i have been eating loads and loads of this coffee flavor ice-cream, even if i eat a heavy dinner i need to have my daily 95gm of "espresso croquant" unless it is out-of-stock at all the nearby seven-eleven, park-n-shop or wellcome stores.. and just like people have their favorite brand of sutta or daaru, i am loyal to movenpick when it comes to coffee icecream.. i don't like compromising on quality and so prefer to wait for the movenpick stock to get replenished rather than falling for the lowly hagan-das :P the other problem that i face is logistics, earlier a few times i had purchased the 500gm pack at a cost of approx 85 hkd but now for months i had not been able to find the 500gm pack at any of the stores.. so i have to regularly purchase this 95gm cup now which comes for around 26 hkd and is roughly 1.5 times costlier than the 500gm pack:( also while the 500gm pack used to last for roughly a week, it is difficult not to eat the entire 95gm cup once opened and leave something for the next day.. so in a way now i am eating roughly 500gms in 5 days :( i hope this excess of caffein doesn't cause much harm to my body..

at the beijing olympics, indians have given their best performance till date winning 3 medals (1 gold and 2 bronze).. in the past, we had won 2 silvers in 1900 and 1 gold & 1 bronze in 1952.. i was hoping (for a change) that federer would continue his bad form in doubles also and lose against our team in QFs but he seemed determined to win an olympic gold, if not in singles then in doubles, and so our team of paes and bhupathi couldn't win a medal in tennis.. anyways hoping that the medal count will only increase at london in 2012 :) on a lighter note, i am wondering what was going through vijender singh's mind during the boxing semi-final match yesterday.. he was assured of a medal irrespective of the result, a bronze if he lost and a silver or a gold depending on the result of final if he advanced.. but he must have been under a lot of pressure during the match not because the whole nation was praying for his win but because bipasha basu had promised to go on a date with him if he wins a gold.. think of poor vijender, first he had to win the semi-final, then the final and then eventually to date bips "usse john abraham ki laash ke upar se gujarna padta" !! looks like vijender also heard about the change of guard in bollywood with aishwarya, preity and rani getting replaced by katrina, deepika and genelia as the brand ambassadors of nakshatra, bsnl and munch respectively :) so he took it easy and decided not to get involved in too much fighting over bips, guess his decision if the proposal had come from kareena.. would he have played it "saif" even then ?

talking of olympics, the two week long tournament held in beijing is coming to an end on sunday.. to the surprise of many, china had overthrown america as the winner of maximum golds even though america still managed to hold the numro uno spot when it comes to total number of medals.. but going by their performance in this tournament, one just thinks that china mightn't have to wait for too long and may end up winning the most medals in london.. though there has been much criticism of the way china had prepared its athletes for the olympics.. at a very young age, many chinese kids are sent to these sports camps where they are groomed for years in the various sports, they have to follow a very strict and dedicated schedule in which they are cut-off from their families.. at the end of this training period, only a select few are chosen to represent the country at the olympics while the rest are more or less discarded.. now the ones who get discarded are likely to face a very tough life going ahead since due to the sports training program, they also miss on the schooling part.. since all the people who stay at these sports camps are cut-off from the rest of the world, they have no option but to marry someone from the camp itself.. but even then the husband and the wife have to stay in different wards.. all in the name of "focus" for games and avoiding any trace of "personal life".. china had tried to use this tournament to project a good image especially after the worldwide criticism over its actions againts the monks in tibet.. it had used "one world one dream" as the theme of this olympics to convey a message that it is more open-minded and accepting nation than what the world thinks of it.. but in my view, using these kinds of dedicated sports camps is a curtailment of human rights in itself..

critic or no critic, america will have to do something to stop the chinese dragon from breathing fire in london olympics.. else they will lose their stronghold on the arena of global sports.. their position as the powerhouse in global politics is already getting a threat by the resurgence of russia.. since the breakdown of ussr, america had consolidated its position as the powerhouse for the last 15 years or so.. but as they say, nothing is permanent accept change.. the conflict between russia and georgia over occupancy of south ossetia gave russia a chance to make incursions in georgia.. and though they have finally accepted to withdraw their troops from georgia after numerous demands of ceasefire from america and france, tension still persists in the region with claims that russians are not fully complying with the terms of ceasefire.. in fact, the western powers (america and europe) had to accept almost all the terms put forth by russia for bringing ceasefire in the region.. many are taking this as a re-emergence of eastern powers with china also keeping a mum over this whole matter since it plays to their advantage only (with their crackdown on monks in tibet being severely criticised by the west).. with the white house elections due in next three months, rest assured the new president (be it obama or mccain) will surely be a busy man from day one..

ps: i ate 2 cups of coffee icecream yesterday..

pps: no offence meant to vijender or any other resident from bhiwani..

ppps: waiting for "rock on" to hit theatres next week, more on it later..

random queries

2008-07-02T08:04:00.000-07:00

1. there are two things that can't be divided by boundaries: birds and music, i don't think i need to explain this point.. i can't think of other things at this moment.. let me know your thoughts..

2. read this article on rediff which summarises the indian political scene in a very nice way.. irrespective of which party is ruling at center, the prime minister (be it manmohan singh now or atal bihari vajpayee earlie) finds it difficult to take actions which could be in nation's benefit either because of the dissent from his own party members (who will keep on threatening to resign as MLAs and weaken the ruling party) or from the supporting parties (like CPI, CPIM, SP, BSP etc etc. who will keep on threatening to withdraw support from the coalition).. if in some exceptional case, all is agreed between the ruling party and its subsidiaries, there is always the opposition party waiting precisely for this moment where they can make their presence felt by opposing the idea suggested by the ruling party irrespective of what it is and its consequences.. they just have to oppose it, i guess that's where they get the name "opposition party" from.. they will surely come up with some convoluted logic to suggest how this idea suggested by ruling party is not in the interest of nation and will ask the PM to resign or face a no-confidence motion in the parliament.. i have no clue how this chaos can be solved..

3. there is this exchange of contradictory opinions between the two leading characters Red and Andy (played by Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins respectively) in the movie Shawshank Redemption.. i don't know which of this makes more sense in real life though ideally being a natural optimist, one should stick with Andy's version.
Red: Let me tell you something my friend. Hope is a dangerous thing. Hope can drive a man insane.
Andy: Remember Red, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.

4. on a lighter note, my orkut fortune today read "you are soon going to change your present line of work".. for some time now, i had been thinking if i am really good enough for this line, the answer is yes.. then i think if this line is good enough for me, the answer is no.. so then what are the alternatives ?? i don't know but will surely think about them.. for the uninitiated, my present line is finance (credit derivatives structuring to be precise, for those who look for details)..

5. am going to india for a week long trip this friday after 8.5 months of coming to hongkong, in fact this is the first leave that i will be taking since i joined my current job.. have also been thinking about when will i go back to india, the answer varies depending upon how things turn up in coming days/months.. since i don't know what will happen in future, don't want to mention now what course will i take.. let us see.. for the time being, looking forward to india trip and having a blast of time at thakur's wedding.. a long wait, but as they say, all is well that ends well..

the sound of music

2008-06-25T08:25:00.000-07:00

finally watched the musical "we will rock you" last saturday, the show was running since mid of may and it was the second last day of performance.. though i have seen live music concerts in the past, this was my first experience of a musical.. and it turned out to be a good one.. the prods/sets were good, music was rocking and the plot was awesome.. the screenplay is very cleverly written and all the songs fit in their situations very well.. it was a show worth spending 400 hkd (in fact, our seats were upgraded to the area with tickets worth 600 hkd)..

as some people can guess from the name of the musical, it is a compilation of songs by the band Queen.. the plot is set in a futuristic world where all musical instruments are forbidden and development of original music is prohibited.. the world is controlled by a software company and only computer generated music is in fashion.. the company tries to suppress any rebel who thinks of rock music or is against the idea of computer generated music.. the hero with the help of his lady love sets out on a journey to discover the secret land where a small groups of rebels are hiding, there he realizes that he is the chosen one who has to find the musical instruments hidden by freddie mercury & co.. in the end, he is successful in his conquest, the company is destroyed and the saga of rock music is re-established in the world..

the musical made me realize the importance of music.. at least for me, it is a very important part of my day-to-day life.. every day after coming back from work, i listen to old/new hindi/english songs till the time i go to bed.. for people like me who live alone and don't have someone to talk to on a regular daily basis, you need a way to relax.. some prefer to work it out in gym, i prefer to lose myself in music.. it has a very soothing effect and helps to get over the pains of office hours.. at times like these, i so wish i had put some more effort in learning guitar.. let's see, may be i give it another try in future and be third time lucky..

kahin to hogi woh

2008-05-28T08:40:00.000-07:00

singer: rashid ali, vasundhara das
lyricist: abbas tyrewala
music: a.r. rahman
movie: jaane tu ya jaane na

(rashid ali)
kahin to, kahin to, hogi woh duniya jahan tu mere saath hai
jahaan main, jahaan tu, aur jahaan bas tere mere jazbaat hain
hogi jahaan subah teri, palkon ki kirnon main
lori jahaan chaand ki, sune teri baahon main

jaane na kahan wo duniya hai
jaane na woh hai bhi ya nahin
jahaan meri zindagi mujhse
itni khafa nahin

(vasundhara das)
saansein kho gayi hain kis ki aanhon main
main kho gayi hoon jaane kis ki baahon main
manzilon se raahein dhoondti chali
kho gayi hain manzil kahin raahon main

(rashid ali)
kahin to, kahin to, hai nasha teri meri har mulaqaat main
honthon se, honthon ko, choomte o rehte hum har baat pe
kehti hai fiza jahaan, teri zameen aasmaan
jahaan hai tu meri haseen, meri khushi meri jaan

jaane na kahan wo duniya hai
jaane na woh hai bhi ya nahin
jahaan meri zindagi mujhse
itni khafa nahin

after a long long time, a mesmerizing song by rahman, got hooked to this one the very first time i listened to it.. though a friend says that the music looks influenced by MLTR but to me this is a vintage rahman !! may be it is the effect of the way rashid ali sings the song, he simply pours his heart out.. and listening to the refreshing voice of vasundhara das is always a joy.. abbas tyrewala as a debutant has written some magical heart-touching lyrics.. thanks a lot guys for this number..

quotes

2008-05-03T10:34:00.000-07:00

1. this one is by ayrton senna.. the three times formula one world champion from brazil who died at an age of 34 suffering severe head injuries after his car crashed due to the steering wheel failure at the san marino grand prix in imola (italy) on 1 may 1994.. simply amazing words..

If I ever happen to have an accident that eventually costs me my life, I hope it is in one go. I would not like to be in a wheelchair. I would not like to be in a hospital suffering from whatever injury it was. If I'm going to live, I want to live fully. Very intensely, because I am an intense person. It would ruin my life if I had to live partially.

2. this one is by woody allen from the movie annie hall and is actually from his stand-up comic days.. like it for the optimism that it conveys.. though there are bad periods in life, they remain for a very short period.. all is always well in the end.. that's how i interpret this quote..

There's an old joke - um... two elderly women are at a Catskill mountain resort, and one of 'em says, "Boy, the food at this place is really terrible." The other one says, "Yeah, I know; and such small portions." Well, that's essentially how I feel about life - full of loneliness, and misery, and suffering, and unhappiness, and it's all over much too quickly.

serendipity

2008-04-30T08:51:00.000-07:00

i watched serendipity for some Nth time last friday.. i was really in that philosophical mood thinking what and why of the events that happen in life.. the movie is very interesting and emphasises the idea that everything happens in life according to a pre-destined plan.. the word serendipity means a fortunate accident and the movie shows that the accidents (whether good or bad) which happen in our everyday life keep giving us some signals and ultimately lead us to our fate.. it is upto us to read & interpret these signs carefully and accept them to maintain a harmonious balance with universe..

so far so good.. i do believe in these metaphysical concepts of fate & destiny.. but does that mean there is no point in putting efforts ? if everything is supposed to happen as per a plan, will it happen automatically even if we keep sitting all the while.. what happens in the movie confuses me to some extend.. Sara Thomas is a strong believer in this "theory of fate" and so tells Jonathan Trager that if they are destined to meet again, they will meet again in future and so they shall wait for the appropriate "signs".. Jonathan tries to desperately search for her in the ensuing years but all in vain and ends up accepting the fate that they are not destined for each other.. in one of the discussions with his good friend where Jonathan explains that he has got many signs that he and Sara are not meant to be together and his friends argues that the so called "signs" do not fulfill the definition of a sign, Jonathan retorts that in that case even the absence of signs is also a sign in itself..

what i fail to understand is whether he would have discovered these signs or "absence of signs" if he was just resting at his home all the while and not tried to search for Sara.. ?? i think not.. so if he had not put efforts, he would not have been able to accept his fate that they are not made for each other..

but then the story takes a turn.. Jonathan's fiancee gifts him the first edition of "love in the time of cholera" as a wedding gift, the same book in which Sara had written her full name and phone number.. now Jonathan thinks this is a sign and restarts his search for Sara and even though he couldn't find her this time also, he ends up calling off his wedding..

my initial thought is his fiancee would have gifted him this book and so he would have come to know of Sara's details anyways.. whatever search he did for her earlier or his interpretation of signs would not have been of any use.. he could have waited all this while for his fiancee to gift him the book and now only started looking for Sara.. but on the other hand his fiancee gifted this particular book because she had seen him looking for this book in every possible bookshop.. why was he searching for this book ?? because Sara had told him that she will write her details in the book and sell it to a bookshop and he will find it only if they are meant to be together..

similarily, when Sara started seeing some signs (poster of the movie "cool hand luke" which was Jonathan's favorite movie), she decided to search for him.. she didn't think that since one sign had come, she can keep on waiting for more signs to materalize.. clearly both the protaganists made some efforts from their sides (inspired by signs or no signs whatever) and ended up being together..

conclusion is, even though we can't change our fate, we can always put some efforts from our side to try to achieve what we are destined for, rather than just waiting for things to happen as mere spectators.. in the end, we will achieve our goal only if it was meant for us, but at least we won't have the regret that we never made efforts to achieve it.. and in fact we can always look at it from an optimistic perspective, that the goal was way below our standards and there must be some good if we haven't been able to achieve it.. i must say that this last suggestion is more to boost the morale at that time just like the apple on top of the tree story :)

though not directly related to the above concepts of fate, but still a beautiful discussion in the movie life in a metro.. it goes something like this when roughly translated in english.. "if you have bought a brand new car but you keep it in your garage waiting first for all the traffic signals in mumbai to go green, then you will keep on waiting forever because unless you bring your car out of the garage onto the roads you will never find out if the traffic signals are green or not.. you have to take a chance"

i will end it here.. i have a feeling that this has been a very confusing writeup.. i hope that at least i am able to understand it if i read it again in future :)

when you say nothing at all

2008-04-21T08:14:00.000-07:00

this is a very beautiful song and has been sung by various singers.. the one that became quite famous is the one by ronan keating which was also in the soundtrack of notting hill.. the version i like the most is by alison krauss.. two weeks back, i was in macau with some of my friends and we were having dinner at a portugese restaurant before boarding our return ferry to hk.. a small group of musicians were performing songs there and suddenly the lady started singing this song and all five of us were spellbound.. she was singing it very sweetly and all of us found ourselves humming the song along with her.. for me that live song performance was the highlight of macau trip.. the lyrics are produced below..

it's amazing how you can speak right to my heart
without saying a word you can light up the dark
try as i may i could never explain
what i hear when you don't say a thing

the smile on your face lets me know that you need me
there's a truth in your eyes saying you'll never leave me
the touch of your hands says you'll catch me if ever i fall
you say it best when you say nothing at all

all day long i can hear people talking out loud
but when you hold me near you drown out the crowd
old mr. websters could never define
what's being said between your heart and mine

the smile on your face lets me know that you need me
there is a truth in your eyes saying you'll never leave me
the touch of your hands says you'll catch me if ever i fall
you say it best when you say nothing at all

issi baat pe ek sher bhi arz kiya hai.. don't know if this is correct or not.. just felt like putting it here..

ishq wahi hai jo ek tarfa ho
izhaare-e-ishq to khwahish ban jaati hai
hai agar ishq to aankhon main dikhao
zubaan kholne se ye numayish ban jaati hai

song of the day

2008-03-27T08:25:00.000-07:00

singer: soham chakrabarthy
lyricist: sayeed qadri
music director: pritam chakraborty
movie: life in a metro

in dino dil mera, mujhse hai keh raha
tu khwaab saja, tu ji le jara
hai tujhe bhi ijaazat, kar le tu bhi mohabbat

berang si hai badi zindagi, kuchh rang to bharoon
main apni tanhaayi ke vaaste, ab kuchh to karoon
jab mile thodi fursat, mujhse kar le mohabbat
hai tujhe bhi ijaazat, kar le tu bhi mohabbat

usko chhupa kar main sabse kahin, le chaloon kahin door
aankhon ke pyaalon se peeta rahoon, uske chehre ka noor
iss jamane se chhup kar, poori kar loon main hasrat
hai tujhe bhi ijaazat, kar le tu bhi mohabbat

i really don't give a damn if the music by pritam is original or from a korean song as long as i get to hear the ever refreshing voice of soham and amzingly beautiful lyrics by sayyed qadri.. i recommended this song to pankaj today, he listened to it once and told me that he is adding this song to his favorite list.. feels good that people like my recommendations :)

vietnam trip

2008-03-25T08:38:00.000-07:00

finally after a long wait, i made my first trip out of hong kong during the long weekend over good friday and easter.. knowing the fact that everybody would be thinking alike, we started looking for possible destinations quite early only to realise that we have again been beaten in this game.. we were getting tickets for vietnam and were close to finalizing hanoi, when pankaj told us that that there were no tickets available from tokyo to hanoi.. so we unanimously agreed to go to ho chi minh city (as if we had many other options !!).. anyways so the tickets got booked and we were lucky enough to find some rooms in a hotel 2 days before our departure..

the four of us met at the airport express station on friday and seeing the long queue there (and the short time we had before the flight departure) thought it wise to go straight to airport and do the check-in there itself.. when we reached the airport it seemed as if entire hk was flying out on that day.. we were sure that we could never make it to the flight in time if we checked-in through the normal queue.. luckily one of us had the marco polo privilege card of cathay, so we dumped all the stuff that could not be taken as cabin-baggage in his suitcase which he would check-in quickly though the short marco-polo line.. the rest of us used the no-baggage line and it appeared as if we had finally put a crack but our friend got struck at the marco-polo counter since supposedly the flight was over-booked and there were no tickets left.. the sorting out of the entire issue took another 10-15 min and after that there was a very long and congested queue at the security check.. but there was no going back, once we had the security check, we ran at full speed and managed to get into the train by couple of seconds.. the train dropped us at the departure terminal and from there onwards it was again a 1-2 minute sprint to reach the flight gate on time.. we managed to reach the flight on time and took off for ho chi minh city..

the first thing that took me by surprise as we landed on the ho chi minh airport were the small size of the buildings.. there were houses all around the periphery of the airport and they were on average having 2-3 floors.. it was a much welcome change from the high rises of hong kong and actually reminded me of my home town jaipur.. it was as if the tall buildings of hk have been uniformly shrunk by some external force.. we queued up in the long line for visitors at the immigration check but some local guy asked us to go to the shorter line for vietnamese citizens.. the officer in-charge there was a dangerous looking guy giving side glances to us as if he will eat all of us alive.. i was the first one in the queue and as expected when i went to him, he started making fun as to why i was in the line which is for vietnamese and not for indian, i didn't argue much since i didn't want to be denied entry.. after all of us were through we bought some local currency (dong which we renamed as dongrila) and hired a cab to our hotel.. the second surprise followed as soon as we entered the cab that this is a right-hand drive city.. to add to the confusion of the second hand drive was the plethora of two vehicles we encountered as soon as we hit the road.. whatever few four vehicles were there, were getting lost in the uncountable number of scooter, mopeds and bikes.. to give some idea, was later told that with an approximate population of 8 million the city has nearly 3 million two vehicles, so on average every family has at least one two vehicle..

anyways after the half an hour drive we reached our hotel which also had some history associated with it.. during the vietnam war, this place had many bathing rooms for american soldiers and after the war was over, the hotel was constructed here.. since it was time before pankaj's flight arrived in city, we had lunch at the hotel and decided to stay there itself.. after pankaj arrived late afternoon, we had some snacks and then left for our first walk around the city.. crossing the road was a great experience.. there were no traffic policeman and not all crossing had a traffic light, so the idea is to start crossing the road without panic even if traffic is coming and they will move past you without even touching you, the drivers are really expert at this.. i actually quite enjoyed this and soon became adept at this after becoming confused a couple of times initially due to the right hand driving traffic.. we took an hour long boat ride on the saigon river which reminded me of some of the scenes from movie platoon, after which we enjoyed the cool breeze at a river side cafe and then headed for some live music and drinks at another hotel followed by dinner at our hotel.. before hitting the bed, we booked a cab for the next day to take us to cu chi tunnels..

next day we left for our tour of cu chi tunnels (read more about them here) with our guide.. on the hour long drive he kept telling us about the tunnels and the city in general.. though it became boring sometimes but was quite informative on the whole.. how the city which was called saigon earlier got its present day name, how the french brought rubber tree to saigon, how the civil war started and america got involved and above all about the 250km long underground tunnels used by the vietnamese guirellas to resist the american forces.. CP put by pankaj amazed me, if only he had used this talent at iimc, our dude has come a long way it seems he he :)) the trip of the tunnels was an amazing experience, there were remains of a american battle tank that was destroyed in the war, the big craters left in the ground by the B52 bombs dropped by the american forces and then the tunnels themselves which run as deep as 10 meteres in the ground.. the ingenuity of the vietnamese people was great, they actually used the metals scraps of the bombs dropped by american to make spears which they used in hidden traps to kill american troops, the manner in which they made the outlet for the smoke of the tunnel kitchen so as to keep it unnoticed by the planes, keeping the clothes of dead american soldiers near the air ventilators on ground so that the ventilators dont draw suspicion from the sniffer dogs of americans.. we just walked some 35 meters on the first level of the tunnel and wondered how they can live in such claustrophobic conditions for years and more so on the the deeper levels where it was not even possible to walk but people can only crawl.. besides this there was a shooting range where i had my first experience of firing a pistol :) on our way back we went for lunch at a local place, our guide thankfully arranged for some vegetarian food for me as well :P after this we went to the war remnants museum where there were on display some of the aircrafts and tanks used in the war along with numerous pictures describing the condition of american and vietnamese troops and the vietnamese locals during the period of war.. two of these pictures were pultizer prize winners too.. after this we went to the notre-damn cathedral which was built by french to be a replica of the cathedral in paris (though my friends who have seen the paris one didn't agree to this) and then booked a tour to mekong delta for the next day with our guide.. myself and pankaj stayed in the hotel watching a movie while the others went for a massage, when they returned we again hit the streets, went to a place called apocalypse now, didn't find it interesting, then went to another place which was also quite dull and so returned back to sleep..

next morning we were supposed to check-out the hotel and leave for mekong delta by 8 am but as expected there were some delays and we left at 9 only.. reached our destination after a two hour drive and purchased some local hats which gave us the appearance of shambu shikari and rice peasants :) we were told that mekong is the longest river in asia (if i remember correctly) and flows through tibet, burma, laos, thailand, cambodia and vietnam.. there are 4 islands around the mekong delta named after the animals considered lucky here - unicorn, turtle, dragon and phoenix.. we were supposed to visit unicorn and turtle as part of our cruise :P we noticed eyes on all the boats that were cruising along the river and were told that it is believed that this keeps all the evil forces and harmful animals likes crocodiles away from the river.. on the unicorn island, we drank honey tea (we actually tasted honey from a bee-hive with bees all around our fingers), listened to some local music & songs and then took a boat ride along a very narrow canal (boats coming from both direction but rowed with extreme dexterity by the locals) back to our boat.. after this we went to the tortoise island where we saw the coconut cookie making workshop (& actually bought some, they tasted real good) and took a short ride on horse-cart.. the boat took us back to the mainland and from there we left for the place where the lunch was arranged for all of us.. after this there was a further one hour drive, we reached the airport well in time and after having some light snacks did the usual hisaab-kitaab of the trip.. as in most cases in past, i was appointed the accountant and performed my job with full accountability :) we bade goodbye to pankaj whose flight was 5 hours after us and btw he lost his ipod in the process :)) thanks to the marco polo membership, two of us got upgraded to a business class seat and had a convenient ride (watching the movie Dhamaal) back to hk..

so now i can also say that i have been to "The Nam".. don't know if i will visit hanoi in future.. let's see.. the ending is abrupt but couldn't think of a better way.. till the next time..

long time.. another place.. post remains the same..

2008-03-18T07:48:00.000-07:00

i just realized that my last post was on 1 october 2007 and thought of writing one before the expiry of this semi-annual period. i will keep this post random with uncorrelated updates and very boring (ya ya, i know that is always the case but i felt like putting this disclaimer still) for the readers of my blog, if any :)

so much has happened since my last post, notable being my shifting of job (yes, once again !!) and moving to hk.. job is ok, frankly i have stopped expecting much from jobs now and so i don't mind the work that i do.. still there is good learning and it gives me access to the sell-side of the market which is a different experience.. thanks to the nature of job, which involves dealing with absolutely dumb sales-guys and very arrogant traders on a regular level, my patience level is on an increasing trend.. i wonder when will it meet a resistance level and the bull rally will fade.. i know, a poor joke.. apologies :)

anyways leaving the job aside which eats up the 5 days, i tend to do decent enough timepass over the weekends.. saturday morning usually play football for 1-2 hours, a bunch of 10 guys make it 5 a side which results in a good passing game and avoids crowding on the field.. this could be followed by an hour of tennis or squash on the evening.. if we have a hindi movie release on a weekend, we tend to watch it without fail however costly the ticket is :) not all hindi movies release here but the good thing is that the dvd of each movie comes here very soon after its india release and the dvd price is very very reasonable and the print is also very decent..

speaking of movies, i can pick three movies that i have watched since coming here and liked a lot, the unique aspect of these movies is they are in different languages: my sassy girl (korean), jab we met (hindi) and bomarillu (kannada).. i won't delve into the details as to what i liked about each of these movies, one thing i would say is that all three of them are very similar in some aspects and very different in the others.. they surely are very very feel good :)

there have not been any blockbuster soundtracks during last 6 months in which all the songs were great, but still there have been some albums which i liked very much and found the majority of the songs in them to be repeat listen.. oldest the lot has been jab we met.. mohit chauhan has seriously come a long long way.. from the days of boondein, dooba dooba, sabse peeche hum khade to guncha, khoon chala and now "tum se hi".. this is indeed the loveliest song that i have heard in a long time and can listen to it any time any day.. add to this the lively songs like "aao milo chalo" and "ye ishq haaye" and u have a rocking must have album.. i liked taare zameen par for the kind of variety that prasoon joshi again put in the lyrics of the album (just like rang de basanti), the result might not have been as successful as RDB but we surely have some great songs in "maa" and "kholo kholo".. ar rahman made a return to the foray with jodha akbar, the music didn't meet the general expectations but i quite liked it.. call it my slight bias for anything that has rahman but songs like "jashn bahara" and "in lamhon ke daaman main" areery touching especially in the context of the story.. and then we have "azeem-o-shaan" which becomes so much special because of the awesome percussion by sivamani.. another recent addition has been "you me aur hum" which is composed by vishal bhardwaj (am again biased for this guy) and the songs are best described as chirpy.. i am sure most of my married friends will find the songs of this album quite interesting :) and the last addition has been jannat with music composed by pritam and lyrics by sayed qadri.. yes the team of life in a metro is back and though there is neither james nor soham (i love "in dino") but there is KK :) who effortlessly croons "haan tu hai" and "zara sa".. and there is this bunch of new singers with rana mazumder simply leaving you mesmerized by the variation in the pitch of his voice in the song "door na ja" (fast becoming my fav) and rupam islam who for sure leaves an impression on the listener in the song "jannat jahan" which is a very fast pace song..

lastly some updates on the books.. recently read norwegian wood (was on the shelves for a long time) and liked it a lot.. murakami simply has written one of the most unrestrained story, while reading it i had the feeling that the protagonist is narrating each and everything happening is his life without any scruples which i found quite interesting..i read the book in a relatively short time and knowing me (i am a very very slow reader) this also points to the fact that it is one of those books where once you start reading it, you find it difficult to give up in between and you feel like completing it on that very reading.. i have become an even bigger fan of murakami-san.. these days reading "my name is red" by orhan pamuk.. quite different, calls for a slow reading.. but very vivid in description and shows the depth of knowledge that author has on the subject he is writing about.. the story continues with each chapter being narrated by a character in the story, so it is different from roshoman but still an interesting read..

ok.. so i think i will put a full stop to the random updates that i have provided here.. i usually don't feel like stopping once i start writing but i am afraid that one day it will become so boring that even i might not be able to re-read it in future and forfeit the main purpose for which i am writing this.. hopefully will write soon more within a week.. keeping my fingers crossed.. hasta la vista..

that thing called volatility

2007-10-01T03:39:00.000-07:00

even though a statistical term but used all the time in financial world, volatility is defined as the standard deviation of change in the price of an asset.. it's an indicator of the stability in the market, high volatility indicates that things are going hay wire.. another characteristic of volality is its asymmetricness, volatility tends to drop when investors are making money and everybody is feeling happy while it tends to shoot up when investors start losing money and everybody crying foul.. so why so much talk of volatility.. well that is the talk of town these days.. so i thought may be i will also add my bit to the turmoil..

the benchmark of market volatility is CBOE VIX which stands for chicago board options exchange volatility index.. it is calculated based on the implied volatility of options traded with S&P 500 index (another benchmark, this time of broad stock market in US) as the underlying.. those who want to learn the actual calculations involved in the computation of VIX can read the white paper here..

coming back, this vix has been trading between 10-13 since start of 2007 when suddenly in february end, the first panic of subprime started and it reached levels close to 20.. panic calmed down and the index dropped below 15 in three weeks time.. everything was fine again until the end of june when the subprime fear (which was contained in US earlier during the feb-mar panic) started spreading to EU & Asia and to other asset classes considered unrelated to subprime.. vix went crazy and jumped above 30, a level last seen during the end of dot-cum bubble in 2002.. after 2.5 months of lunacy, where investors were selling practically anything and everything except their clothes may be, some sanity is finally returning to the markets.. and vix has also obliged by dropping below the level of 20 since mid september..

so why suddenly so much talk of finance & markets.. well given the kind of work i do, i happened to notice some similarity between the reaction of investors to the financial markets & that of indians to the performance of our cricket team in 2007.. both have been extremely VOLATILE !! considering that these two are very distinct & unrelated things (one may doubt this considering the amount of money involved in betting of matches), i was really tempted to see the correlation between the two events..

before i proceed with the results of my study, let me give a brief background on the performance of men in blue in 2007 just for the sanctity of this post (given that cricket flows in the blood of 99% of indians, i don't think this is required, but still).. our team went to the cariebean islands amidst huge uproar in early march and returned back in even greater uproar after they were knocked out even before super eight... burning posters/effigies greeted the players everywhere they went, their homes were attacked as usual and most of them have to take police protection for a few days.. these were the same players who were being cheered up & prayed for by the whole of our nation.. anyways things started to cool down and there were lots of changes in management apart from coming up of many different domestic leagues.. so when the time came to tackle the new format, a young team was sent to south africa for the first 20-20 tournament with the big three (sachin, ganguly & dravid) backing off realizing that their age doesn't permit them more demading tasks like mining diamonds :)

so our youthful team led by jharkhand-e-ratna mahendra singh dhoni went with zero expectations (he himself requested this of the countrymen with the genuine excuse that they have played only one 20-20 match before).. but their skills proved too good and they ended up winning the tournament after defeating biggies like south africa, australia and pakistan (twice :P) en route !! two days after the victory when the team arrived in mumbai and took the streets in "vijay-rath" from airport to wankhede stadium, it was as if the ganesh festival (which concluded only the day before) has been extended by a day this year.. at least this is what a 2 year old kid (subset of that 1% who don't have cricket in their blood) used to chanting "ganpati bappa morya" and watching big statues being carried on trucks/carts would have thought of the hue-and-cry that ensued.. it could be best summed up in dhoni's own words - "i have heard that this city never sleeps, but my team brought it to a standstill".. good one mahi..

knowing that i have already bored you a lot by now, i will give it a fast conclusion.. i have deduced that there is a high positive correlation (will need more data points from future to quantify the same) between the volatility in the financial markets & the volatility in the performance of indian cricket team.. furthermore, the latter is at a lag of 1-2 weeks of the former.. volatile markets from february end to march mid followed by extremely poor performance in cricket from march mid to march end; and then volatility again peaking in markets from july start to september first week followed by extremely good cricket performance starting from september mid.. given the fact that at times of high volatility in the financial markets all asset classes across all geographies get highly correlated to each other, this adds "performance of indian cricket team" as another asset class to the over burgeoning pool of traded assets across the world :)

as the men in blue get ready for the seven match series with australia, at least one eye of match fixers/betters should be on the markets in the first ten days of october.. volatile markets in this period could give them some indication that our team will either win or lose badly in the series which end by the last week of this month.. also they might invest some money buying straddles to hedge their exposures in fixed matches.. :P

khelo india khelo..

separated by 50 years, but still

2007-07-30T13:28:00.000-07:00

inspired by thakur's post on mehfooz, here are two songs i have developed a strong liking for in recent days..

the first one titled "hum hain raahi pyaar ke" from the movie "nau do gyarah" (1957), great trio of singer kishore kumar, lyricist majrooh sultanpuri & musician sachin dev burman, and to top it all filmed on the evergreen dev anand :)

hum hain raahi pyaar ke, humse kuchh na boliye
jo bhi pyaar se mila, hum ussi ke ho liye

dard bhi hume kabool, chainn bhi hume kabool
humne har tarah ke phool, haar main piro liye

dhoop thi naseeb main, dhoop main liya hai dum
chaandni mili to hum, chaandi main so liye

dil pe aasra kiye, hum to bas yunhi jiye
ek kadam pe hans liye, ek kadam pe ro liye

raah main pade hain hum, kab se aap ki kasam
dekhiye to kam se kam, boliye na boliye

for some reasons, the above song brings an instant smile to my face, i really don't know why.. probably it's the irony that while the lyrics are so pragmatic in everyday life, it's difficult to follow them nonetheless.. or may be it's just the reflection ki abhi tak koi mila nahi hai :)

the second one titled "saiyyan" from the album "kailasa - jhoomo re" (2007), sung composed & music directed by kailash kher in assitance with his band members naresh & paresh..

heere moti main na chahoon, main to chahoon sangam tera
main to teri saiyyan, tu hai mera
saiyyan.. saiyyan..
tu jo choo le pyaar se, aaram se mar jaon
aa jaa chanda baahon main, tujh main hi gum ho jaon main
tere naam main kho jaon
saiyyan.. saiyaan..

mere dil khushi se jhoome, gaayen raatein
pal pal mujhe dubaayen, jaate jaate
tujhe jeet jeet haaroon, ye praan praan waaroon
haaye aise main nihaaroon, teri aarti utaaroon
tere naam se jude hain saare naate
saiyaan.. saiyyan..
banke maala prem ki, tere tan pe jhar jhar jaaon
baithoon naiyya preet ki, sansaar se thar jaaon main
tere pyaar se tar jaaon
saiyyan.. saiyyan..

ye naram naram nasha hai, badhta jaaye
koi pyaar se ghungatiya, deta uthaaye
ab baawra hua mann, jag ho gaya hai roshan
ye nayi nayi suhagan, ho gayi hai teri jogan
koi prem ki pujaran mandir sajaye
saiyyan.. saiyyan.. saiyyan.. saiyyan..
heere moti main na chahoon, main to chahoon sangam tera
main na janoon.. tu hi jaane.. main to teri.. tu hai mera..
main na janoon.. tu hi jaane.. main to teri.. tu hai mera..
main to teri.. tu hai mera..

now this is one of those songs that touches the heart & soul.. and as thakur agrees (and chamad partially feels, given his appreciation for quality music is still in a nascent stage :P) it's hard to describe the feeling in words..

lots more to write.. hopefully very soon in the next or next to next post.. once again, tashakor!! for bearing with me.. shubh raatri.. shabba khair.. lekin, kabhi alvida na kehna :P fir milenge..

india on fire

2007-05-29T10:43:00.000-07:00

normally this type of heading will suggest some sporting victories by our country but in this post i have no intention of talking abt indian hockey team retaining bronze in the azlan shah tournament or viswanathan anand being crowned as the number one chess player in the world or sachin tendulkar scoring back to back test centuries against bangladesh.. i am writing abt our country literally being on fire among the recent happenings..

firstly there was a bomb blast in the hyderabad mosque, not to forget the timely diffusion of a couple more by the police.. then a few days later, three bomb blasts took place in gorakhpur followed by recovery of bombs & other explosives from the railway stations at faizabad & farukhabad.. the fact that these three cities happen to be in uttar pradesh just make you wonder if this was a mere coincidence or a political plot to tarnish the image (!!), as if they have any, of the recently victorious BSP.. absolutely anything is possible in our land of political, religious & cricket fanatics !!

come to the economic capital "mumbai" and you can't stop wondering what will happen when the power lands in the hands of shiv sena.. recently when a few marathis working in the "big bazaar" chain were fired by their employers because of over-staffing, within hours their "masihas" gathered in big numbers and promptly closed down all the outlets of big bazaar in the city.. obviously there was destruction of property like breaking off the mirrors in nearby parked cars, buses etc, that was quite anticipated.. after all this is maratha land and so nobody has the right to remove marathis from any form of employment.. in fact, some time back the younger thackeray (raj or udbhav, don't remember) voiced his concern over the high proportion of bhaiyyas (those from UP) and biharis among the auto/taxi wallah community in the city, which should ideally belong to the marathis "the original inhabitants of the city".. as you might have correctly guessed, the big bazaar owners gave up and retained the fired marathis, guess they realized that they are losing more as a result of outlet closure then they would by keeping the extra labour :) recently, the sainiks were at their hilarious best when they gathered outside a newly opened restaurant of the "bombay blue" franchise (btw, i simply love their cheese nachos with mexican beans :P) and demanded that the name be changed to more appropriate "mumbai blue" since the city is no longer called "bombay".. this is when there are multiple chains running under the "bombay blue" name for years now, may be they are unaware, in any case please don't inform them, i don't want the one next to my offic closed down :)

moving north again, there is big fight going on in punjab between akali takht and dera sachcha sauda.. frankly, i have no clue abt either of these two communities, came to know of their existence when they showed people fighting with swords openly on the streets across many cities in punjab.. for the uninitiated, the chief of this dera community, a fellow called "ram rahim singh" (wow !! what a secular name) appeared in one of his meetings dressed like sikh guru gobind singh and the akali takht took this as an imitation & insult.. i am sure that he must have been appearing in that kind of dress in the past also, only to go unnoticed by the takht leaders.. anyways so the takht demanded the closure of all "deras" and an apology by baba ram rahim while the other party stood firm that they won't apologize etc etc.. finally after days of pampering, when the dera leader gave in and furnished an apology, it was rejected by the takht leaders as "not graceful in language & spirit".. i am sure this is going down the wires like the battle for top spot between barcelona & real madrid in spanish football league :P

and then the latest one in rajasthan.. thousands from gurjar community blocked the jaipur agra national highway near dausa district demanding the inclusion of their community in scheduled tribe category.. eleven were killed in the ensuing clashes between the gurjars & police in dausa, karauli & bundi.. promptly enough, opposition congress party has demanded a resignation from the ruling BJP :) i was mentioning this to pankaj that ours is probably the only country where people fight to prove themselves backwards !! there is already so much uproar over the reservation bill at the center and pankaj rightly pointed that no political party is opposing the bill.. as always there is a political angle in this issue with the backward classes forming a big chunk of the vote bank, and so by not opposing the bill, the opposition parties are indirectly supporting the bill if not openly.. after all, turning of tables doesn't take much time.. i guess the day is not far when there will be reservation in private jobs too.. let's see..

add to these, the regular killings/disruptions by the members of ulfa & naxal movements and terrorists roaming around freely carrying explosives.. there is so much unrest that i was wondering if there will ever be peace.. or may be there is no point worrying abt the future & better to just live in the moment.. don't know !!

and the award goes to

2007-05-06T01:50:00.000-07:00

come february and there is a very high probability that when you switch on the idiot box, you will be watching a movie awards night and will get bored to death hearing this line (title of the post) spoken repeatedly on the show.. you have the golden globe and oscar awards representing hollywood but our very own bollywood beats them hands down when it comes to hosting award shows (at least in the number).. till the 80s (or the early 90s, i am not sure), we had the much revered filmfare awards as the one and only way to recognise & reward the talent in hindi movies.. now we have a plethora of them, looks to me that every entertainment magazine & channel has one award going by its name (after all who wants to lag behind in this world of fierce competition).. so to add to the oldie filmfare, we now have stardust award, zee cine award and very likely sony award, star gold award etc etc..

another dauting task that bollywood has successfully completed is spreading their popularity globally.. so apart from these multitude of award shows hosted in mumbai, we now have the iifa awards hosted in some exotic land outside india (dubai in 2006, yorkshire in 2007).. presence of former miss world aishwarya "sunehri" rai at the cannes film festival also drew the attention of hollywood to the glam quotient (read "vague dressing sense" in her case) of bollywood.. pardon me for digressing here but since this was a golden moment in the history of our country, i would like to inform that aishwarya recently married abhishek bachchan (who got dozens of "gillette mach 3" as wedding gift), if you were not aware of this then it shows that neither you read newspaper nor you watch tv and should kill yourself.. coming back to the topic, how can we ignore the contribution of aamir "ace" khan who did the uphill task of taking bollywood to oscars by earning the best foreign language film nomination for lagaan (a task last achieved by mira nair for the movie Salaam Bombay some 15 years before him).. such was his dedication for bringing glory to bollywood, that an actor who had earlier renounced bollywood awards (declining to receive the best actor award for Raja Hindustani) by saying that they were below standard (or something similar) did everything possible to win the coveted oscar, only to lose the final match to No Man's Land..

but he did show his patriortism for the country by this act (after all there was no personal interest in promoting lagaan on the streets of america..) which he later repeated with all fervour by jumping to the rescue of Narmada Bachao Andolan (complete lack of knowledge over the issue was quite clear from his tv interviews at that time) while painting everything yellow, thanks to his superhit movie Rang De Basanti.. our countrymen, suddenly woken from their slumber by this movie, simply couldn't stop appreciating this "fighting for a cause" attitude of his and forgot to pay any attention to mrs. kavita gadgil (mother of late flight lt. ajay gadgil who died in a MiG crash and was the inspiration behind the character of Madhavan in RDB) who didn't receive the fair credit from the makers of RDB for parting with the story of her son for the movie.. after reading this i felt quite bad for appreciating a movie which has been playing with public emotions in such a way..

i return to the topic under discussion and now try to focus on the quality of the awards.. ok, so these awards are considered to be the battle between the best in the year and so when your pick loses, you feel bad but console yourself that it lost to a better pick.. the kind of emotion you feel when shawshank redemption loses all its 7 nominations to equally good if not better classics like forrest gump.. but here in bollywood, we have hrithik roshan winning the best actor filmfare award for Dhoom-2, you feel disappointed (after initially wondering if hrithik was the hero or the villain of the movie) that the award didn't go to sanjay dutt for munnabhai (if hrithik was hero) or saif ali khan for omkara (if hrithik was villain) but then realize and feel happy that at least hrithik didn't win it for Kkrish.. another saving grace was that aishwarya didn't win the best actress award for dhoom-2, had there been award like best acting in a sporting role she would surely have won it for her basketball dribbling stunts in the movie :)

all this reminds you that indeed these are meant to be popular awards given on the basis of popularity of a particular movie/actor, sometimes bad things can be more popular than the good ones and assuming this you can console your heart that may be dhoom-2 won it for all the wrong reasons.. may be movies like dhoom-2, kkrish, kabhi alvida na kehna were so bad that they overshadowed the better movies of the year by being more popular of the lot and grabbing the majority of trophies.. i also wonder that when they can have critics awards for best movie/actor/actrees primarily to please the egoes of those who failed to win the main award, why can't they introduce more awards to appreciate more realistic cinema like Dor, Khosla Ka Ghosla which were given a blind eye by the juries in the main categories.. may be in a way, we the viewers are also responsible for this, since we flock the multiplexes for utterly meaningless movies thereby making them a commercial hit while giving a pass to the so called low-profile but meaningful cinema..

btw Hrithik did win the best actor award for Kkrish, it was zee cine award !!

disclaimer : author would like to add that the views expressed above are his own and are not intended to hurt the fans of aamir khan, aishwarya rai, hrithik roshan, abhishek bachchan, dhoom-2, kkrish..

जो बीत गयी सो बात गयी

2007-04-20T23:38:00.000-07:00

जीवन में एक सितारा था
माना वो बेहद प्यारा था
वो डूब गया तो डूब गया
अम्बर के आंगन को देखो
कितने इसके तारे टूटे
कितने इसके प्यारे छूटे
जो छूट गए फिर कहॉ मिले
पर बोलो टूटे तारों पर
कब अम्बर शोक मनाता है
जो बीत गयी सो बात गयी

जीवन में था वो एक कुसुम
थे उसपे नित्य न्योछावर तुम
वो सूख गया तो सूख गया
मधुबन की छाती को देखो
सूखी कितनी उसकी कलियां
मुरझायी कितनी वलेर्रिया
जो मुरझायी फिर कहॉ खिलीं
पर बोलो सूखे फूलों पे
कब मधुबन शोर मनाता हैं
जो बीत गयी सो बात गयी

जीवन में मधु का प्याला था
तुमने तन मन दे डाला था
वो टूट गया तो टूट गया
मदिरालय का आंगन देखो
कितने प्याले हिल जाते हें
गिर मिट्टी में मिल जाते हें
जो गिरते हें कब उठते हें
पर बोलो टूटे प्यालों में
कब मदिरालय पछताता हैं
जो बीत गयी सो बात गयी

मृदु मिट्टी के हैं बने हुए
मधु घट फूटा ही करते हैं
लघु जीवन लेकर आये हैं
प्याले टूटा ही करते हैं
फिर भी मदिरालय के अन्दर
मधु के घट हैं मधु प्याले हैं
जो मादकता के मारे हैं
वो मधु लूटा ही करते हैं
वो कच्चा पीने वाला हैं
जिसकी ममता घट प्यालों पर
जो सच्चे मधु से जला हुआ
कब रोता हैं चिल्लाता हैं
जो बीत गयी सो बात गयी

a beautiful poem written by shri harivanshrai bacchan.. read it first as part of hindi syllabus in middle school.. couldn't make much sense of it then.. came to my head all out of a blue today and so felt like putting it here.. to be very honest, still can't make much sense of it other than literally :)

वाह उस्ताद वाह

2007-04-18T08:51:00.000-07:00

सारे जहाँ से अच्छा हिंदुस्तान हमारा, हम बुलबुले हैं इसके ये गुलसितां हमारा।

यही जवाब राकेश शर्मा का था जब इंदिरा गांधी ने उनसे पूछा कि चन्द्रमा से धरती कैसी दिखाई दे रही है। इन पंक्तियों को एक मुद्दत के बाद हिंदी में लिखकर और फिर उसी को पढ़कर काफी अच्छा लग रहा है। और ये सब संभव हुआ श्री नितिन अरोरा और सुश्री अनुपमा दत्ता के प्रयासों से, आप दोनों का हार्दिक धन्यवाद। अधिकतम जानकारी के लिए कृपया यहाँ मूषक दबाएँ।

पिछले तीन महीनों से मैं कुछ लिखने की सोच रहा हूँ पर किसी ना किसी कारण से लिख नहीं पा रहा था। फिर जब आज पता चला की इस मंच पर अब हम हिंदी में अपने विचार व्यक्त कर सकते हैं, तो रहा नहीं गया। आशा है जल्दी ही वापिस आऊंगा, तब तक के लिए इजाज़त दीजिए। धन्यवाद।

the year that was

2007-01-14T02:28:00.000-08:00

i was supposed to write this two weeks back but it kept getting delayed. finally i decided it's high time and since i still have few hours before i leave to catch up the play "kaifi aur main" in the evening, i had come to the office (yes !! and that too on a sunday since i don't have intenet at home) to write this post. after thinking over the happenings of 2006 for some time, unlike what i wrote at the beginning of my previous post, i won't call these "favorite" moments. these are just some events that happened during last year and left a mark on me in some way or the other. some of them might look very vague to the readers but here i go.

1. fifa world cup 2006

so the golden trophy travelled back to europe this time (i won a weekender gift voucher for giving the correct answer "germany" while watching a match @ brigade road CCD at time of my internship during the 2002 world cup :P) and the organizers made sure that all the hype surrounding the tournament doesn't go in vain. now i haven't seen all the world cups but for me without doubt this was the best. fabulous stadiums were chosen for the matches, big live screens were put up at numerable venues across german cities (the moving screen on the boat in frankfurt was really innovative) and players made sure that they didn't break the heart of their fans across the globe. relatively new teams like ghana, ivory coast, australia, japan played fearlessly & with conviction against their big rivals and if not for a last minute foul (or was it a dive ?) on fabio grosso resulting in a penalty from which fransesco totti scored (with ease as always), australia could have ended the world cup dreams of italy there itself.

even though i supported germany in the semi-finals against italy and almost cried when they lost after holding italy for almost 120 minutes (grosso scored a brilliant goal in the last minute when match was heading for penalty shootout after remaining goal-less even after extra time), i think they deserved to win the cup. coming to the tournament with the media criticism surrounding the match-fixing scandal that rocked their domestic league, most believed that they won't be able to play good. but showing great wit, determination & fighting spirit on the field they proved all their critics & media wrong. conceding only one goal in 6 matches (and that too an own goal) on their way to the final, they actually brought the famous term "sicilian defense" to life on the field.

while this was the last world cup for some of the great footballers, it was also the first one for the new breed that has already gained recognition in their domestic leagues. players like christiano ronaldo, robie van persie, cesc fabregas, wayne rooney, lucas podolski, lionel messi will make sure that in the years to come, the fans won't miss the departed. even in the "best young player award" category there was so much competition this time and i think ronaldo would have won it over podolski if not for the media criticism following his involvement in rooney's red card episode in the quarter final. but then zidane also won the "best player award" even after receiving a red card in the final (turning point of the match, france lost it there itself) following his fracas with matterazi ?? or was it more like a farewell to the great footballer who single handedly (or should i say "headedly", brazil will never forget those 2 killer goals he scored with headers in 1998 final) took france to glory in 1998 world cup & made a mockery of brazilian side in the quarter finals this year also ?? anyways let's not discuss about it, as always "judge's decision" is final in this case too.

i will conclude this (and i can see a smile on your face, i now this was too boring for some) by something which touched me most during this world cup. and it was the wholehearted welcome shown by german people to all the visiting fans, they played the perfect host. the arrogance & indifference that is regularly associated with germany was thankfully missing in their home fans. after the semi-final loss, they gave a standing ovation to their team even with tears in their eyes & were so enthusiastic & jubiliant when germany comfortably won against portugal to get 3rd place. it was a display of great sporting spirit & patriortism in its purest form. and the farewell they gave to the team & klinsman (german coach who was highly criticized earlier for bringing a different style of game to the team) by frolicking the streets with "danke" written over their shirts was simply awesome. i for one, take this opportunity to thank fifa for organizing such a lively world cup & to the german & visiting fans for making it such a big success that even the world soccer's governing body took notice & deservingly gave its annual Fair Play Award to the 2006 World Cup fans (in recognition of what it called a 'highly impressive example of unity and understanding between different peoples').

as expected, i was not able to complete my post on sunday (thanks to my slow writing speed) and so sat after the office hours to complete it today. here we go again.

2. (pit)master prince

this story is a perfect inspiration for all those who aspire to do something great it life, it shows how a small undeliberate act can bring nation wide fame to your personality. so the story unfolds in the red soil of kurukshetra (18 bloody days of mahabharata is enough to retain the colour for ages) where a little known kid named prince (unaware that he is about to get "king" like iconic status) fell into a 50-60 feet deep pit some evening and all hell break loose. within hours all media channels rushed to the spot trying to get a glimpse of the destiny child (i don't think many 5-year kids would survive after falling from such height), thankfully enough they didn't portray him as a possible avatar of lord vishnu who had come to rid the world of pollution & corruption.

anyways so full fledged attempts began with the villagers trying to get the kid out of the pit, and when they failed the military was finally called to rescue. minutes became hours and hours became days while the entire nation prayed for the well-being of the kid. there were non-stop aaratis happening at all temples in the country, all big politicians were sending their good-lucks (for the first time in years, politicians of different parties working for the same cause, really commendable !!) for the safe rescue of the kid and all the tv channels were giving a minute by minute account of the happenings in & around that pit of kurukshetra (won't be surpised if the local parties vow to turn it into a world-heritage site during the next elections, poor kauravs & pandavas will be crying that day feeling ignored by the people & jealous of the kid :P). i am sure if the kid hadn't been safely rescued by our military people, this entire single episode could have become the longest running serial with the highest TRP rating beating all the sas-bahus of ekta-kapoor's world.

finally after spending close to 50 hours, all the while feeling proud of the fact that he has brought the nation to a stand-still, master kid came out of the pit unscathed. "ghee ke deeye" were lit across homes in kurukshetra as if shri rama has returned from another "van-vaas", there was a party like atmosphere across the streets witnessed only when india defeats bangladesh by 1 run/wicket in the final over of some cricket match and am sure big-scale "aatish-baazi" would have happened at the offices of bjp/congress as if it was the birthday of atal-ji or sonia-ji. i for once thought of slapping the kid if i was around and asking him what was on his mind while taking the plunge into the pit, i somehow was not able to imagine a 5 year falling in an open pit for any good reason, i really wonder if 5 year olds are so dumb. the media attention didn't end here itself and when master prince felt a little "uneasy" a few days later (may be he ate too much mud lying in the pit all those hours), all surrounded him with their cameras asking him & his family how he was doing.

anyways what this entire incident left me wondering was what would have happened to the kid had it not drawn the attention of the media. i am sure that if not for the media coverage, the kid had very little chances of coming out alive from the pit. it was only because of the continuous telecasts on the television (however boring & painful it had become) that the nation came to know of the incident in an otherwise ignored town and the rescue mission came to life. media is a very powerful tool and if used for good cause like this one (i have already written about the role of media in the jessica lal case in my previous post), can actually do good for our country. so rather than showcasing the bday parties of politicians & engagement celebrations of filmstars, it should judiciously try to bring forth the issues of the masses so that problems are solved at the root level & our nation can prosper.

3. judiciary verdicts

i had dedicated my previous entire post to this cause, please refer to it.

4. mumbai train blasts

serial blasts took place in the jam-packed first class compartments of local trains in mumbai on the evening of july 11th and the world was never the same for innumerable families. i remember that i had gone as usual to have some evening snacks and when i came back to my seat, was surprised to see most of the people staring on the tv screen on the trading disk. i was shocked to hear that a bomb has blasted in the local train. within next 30 minutes while most of us hadn't come out of the shock of this news, there were news of many more blasts in different trains. it was as if almost all the stations on the western track had been targetted by the terrorists. most of the people on the floor were making frantic calls to check for the well being of their family members who commute by the local trains around that time but not to much avail as telephone network had been cut-off deliberately by the authorities to prevent panic from spreading (i still don't think this was a wise decision, news was all over the place anyways and cell phone was the only means for people to check for the safety of their family members), there were a few who were still busy doing their trades (so as to meet their daily profit targets).

i came back home early and tried calling my home but still no network, hoping all the while that they were not much worried since i stayed very close to office then and used an auto-rickshaw daily to commute but almost shuddered at the thought of those parents whose children used the local trains and were killed in the blasts. finally late towards the night, was able to talk to my parents & friends and felt better for some time. switched on the tv, saw the helpless state of people who had suffered injuries & the families whose members died, couldn't control my emotions this time around. i was all alone at that time, no friends around (and both my room-mates were out of india) to talk too and so i kept watching television for some time. media was showing how people staying close to the bomb-affected stations had rushed to the help in their full capacity, felt happy for some time having seen the solidarity of people, there is indeed some good left in this world.

next day was a different day. people were back to work, local trains were back on tracks and allthough apprehensive, commuters were using them to reach their destinations. mumbaikars fight back, spirit of mumbai never dies - headlines like these were on all television channels, inevitable comparions were made to the serial blasts that took place in the city in 1993 & how the city was functional like ever the very next day. all this is perfectly true and having stayed in other big cities like kolkata & bangalore, i have no doubts left that mumbaikars are most helpful & positive people that i have seen. but i feel that this bouncing back in face of adversity also has something to do with the fact, that there is no other alternative for them. many of them are the sole bread-earners for their family and they have to go to work to earn daily wage even if a bomb blast took place in the building next to their office, most of them have so low wages and they can't afford to travel by taxis if a bomb blast took place in the local the previous day, they have to take the locals and they have to go to work thinking that it's just another day, they simply don't have any choice with them.

now six months later, city & its inhabitants are back to normal, the memories can't be eroded but at least had been buried in some remote corner of their minds. everything looks rosy at one moment, but do we really know what will happen the next second. life has become so insecure, or the better word would be unpredictable. may be it really is in the best interest to stop thinking what will happen the next moment & enjoy every second of our lives. after all we are independent people and shouldn't live as if our lives are controlled by these bloody terrorists. i remember that i didn't commute by local trains in the coming many days after the blasts, i think it was more of a coincidence that i didn't travel to some distant place frequently during that period, but i would be lying if i didn't accept that some fear had indeed set up in my mind. i clearly remember it was 15th of august and i had gone to powai to meet some of my friends. on my way back, i finally gave up all my apprehensions and boarded the slow local from kanjurmarg to kurla. it was quite late in the night, compartments were almost empty, and so i prefered to stand at the door. i felt the cool night breeze of the rainy season on my face & felt so light and free after a long time that i can't describe the feeling now. i felt that it was a big coincidence that my apprehensions were allayed on the independence day. now when i think about that night of freedom, it brings a smile to my face as i write about it and i remember the beautiful words of rabindranath tagore - "where the mind is without fear and the head is held high, into that heaven of freedom, my father, let my country awake".

mumbai has absorbed me in its entirety, i simple love this city and now don't fear commuting by local train at all. as they say, in the long run we are all dead, so why worry about it. so ending the post with one of my favorite quotes - jiyo, hanso, muskurao, kya pata, kal ho na ho..

let justice be done

2006-12-21T14:58:00.001-08:00

with 2006 drawing to a close, everybody especially the print and electronic media have started looking at the year with discussions like "tell us who was the best actor/actress", "what were the special events of 2006", "personality of the year" and the list goes on and on.. though i plan to write some of my favorite 2006 moments before the clock ticks to midnight of 31st dec, for the time being i will focus on one particular surprise of 2006 : judiciary verdicts. indian judicial system has seen a great turnaround this year and something which was condemned as being a puppet in the hands of few influentials and politicians, is finally being hailed for giving some hard hitting verdicts this year and that too in cases which were pending and whose files were tasting dust for many years now.
starting with the latest and the one that made me very happy, life sentence to manu sharma for a crime he committed more than 7.5 year back, killing model jessica lal when she refued to serve him drink after closing of the bar at a party (she was bartending only as part of some modeling assignment) by shooting her at point blank. i think this case will go down in the history of indian judiciary for so many twists and turns during the entire trial with so many eye witnesses turing hostile (shyan munshi for one surely got more media attention for his hostile act than his cameos in the movies like jhankar beats and ahishta ahista), the killers & his aides being acquitted by a lower court eary this year, first of its kind nation-wide campaign with people demanding justice for jessica by lightening candles (probably they got inspired by rang-de-basanti, though ndtv wants to take the honour by claiming that it was their "send-a-sms" campaign that first brought to light the injustice being done to jessica among the masses), the case being re-opened by delhi police and taken to high court, and finally manu sharma being convicted on bina ramani's (owner of the restaurant where the murder happened) testimony when many had given up hope because he was being defended by the top-notch lawyer ram jethmalani (after the verdict, he went on to say that police had forced bina ramani to testify against manu sharma, another one in the series of ludicrous statements he made to protect his client from the ultimate verdict). with manu sharma & his aides notably vikas yadav (chief accused in the nitish katara's murder) belonging to very influential families, manu sharma being a son of former rajya sabha member and also related to the ex-president dr. shankar dayal sharma, what the verdict does more than giving justice is reaffirming the faith of the masses in the judiciary. it's like what sam says to frodo (in lord of the rings - the two towers) that there is some good left in this world and it is worth fighting for. at the same time, the case has raised a very pertinent issue of witnesses turning hostile with bina ramani correctly pointing out that the eye witnesses need to be given police protection so that they don't get intimidated by the accused and thus prevent them from turning hostile. police is now starting an enquiry on many witnesses of the murder for giving false testimonies earlier in favor of the guilty but what was police doing when these witnesses might have been threatened by manu sharma & co. for changing their statements in the court. as in putting oneself in shyan munshi's shoes, he is all set to testify against the accused but he receives a threat call that his family will be killed if he does so, he will obviously be scared for his family and change his statement to protect them. so is it really justified to blame people like shyan munshi and put them to trial without knowing the actual circumstances which might have forced them to alter their testimonies. may be some more thought needs to be put into this by the police and judiciary so that delay in verdicts like this one can be avoided in future. for the time being, let's hope that "manu sharma suffers in jail" (a comment made by sabrina lal, sister of jessica lal), i agree with pankaj now that life sentence is better punishment than death (where you are hanged and die within a minute without suffering prolonged pain) for these crimes, we can be sadistic for people like manu sharma who (on being acquitted earlier) had planned a bare-foot walk to some himalayan temple in praise of god and now says "i deserved this".
for a change a couple of politicians also bore the grunt of the crimes they committed more than a decade back and as such would have even forgotten the acts in their day-to-day life. Shibu Soren, MP for JMM (that is jharkhand mukti morcha for you) and former union minister and CM of jhankhand was given life sentence for plotting the death of his private secretary who had come to know of the deal between Congress & JMM to save the goverment of Narasimha Roa in the no-confidence motion. it came as no surprise to many that soren fall ill at hearing the verdict and JMM called for observing a "black day" in protest of the verdict in ranchi (capital of jharkhand). they surely love their leader, whom they call "guruji" with all due respect for giving gyan on how to save falling governments, and will decice the heir to his vacant berth in parliament after discussing with him. in another verdict, former cricketer and outspoken commentrator Navjot Singh Sidhu who is also MP for BJP got 3 year sentence for causing the death of a patiala resident following a fight over car parking, thankfully he maintained his outspoken attitude and didn't feign any illness.
the important question now is can this trend continue in the coming years. we still have lots of politicians and influentials who have cases pending against them in the court. the case of nitish katara is another one just like that of jessica lal and has been marred with similar kind of delays with bharti yadav, sister of the prime accused vikas yadav, making very confusing testimonies and supposedly changing her statements time and again. pankaj is of the view that this came as a surprise for the politicians, they were busy fighting over topics like whether there should be a re-trial for afzal guru (who had earlier this year been given death sentence for conspiring in the parliament attack of 2001, another long delayed verdict which is now being questioned for its fairness as well by socialites like arundhati roy) and after realizing that judiciary is getting out of hands, they will come up with some new amendment etc. to cut down on the powers of judiciary in near future so that they can focus on their misdeeds without any worries. already we saw shri lalu prasad yadav (fame for his stint as railways minister has reached to harvard now after iima) and his beloved wife shrimati rabri devi getting "baa-izzat bari" in the disproportionate assets case with mr. lalu commenting afte the verdict that judiciary is like God to him. being the last in the series of verdicts this month, is this a signal of changing time with power & politics again getting a strong hold on justice. i hope this is not the case and our judiciary keeps nailing down the criminals in future with same fervour as it has displayed this year. and so after looking at the verdict on the accused of mumbai serial bomb blasts and jessica lal murder, i await the verdict on the accused of mumbai train blasts and nitish katara murder (thankfully though, the prime accused vikas yadav has already got 4 years for conspiring to destroy evidence in the jessica lal case).

music unlimited

2006-11-18T13:41:00.000-08:00

i think i fell in love with music in my childhood only.. partially it was heriditary, my dad being such a big fan of old hindi songs that he used to recognize the song & the movie from the starting tune of the song playing on the radio and to add to that he even used to remember the lyrics.. i had grown up pretty much in his footsteps as far as hindi music is concerned and am myself a big fan of old hindi classics and simply can't stop admiring the great voices and musicians of the golden era.. so this is how the initial 17 years of my life went by with i adding the new breed of talent like sonu nigam (every single song of his album "deewana" was a gem with "dil se dil tak baat pahonchi" being my fav) and a.r. rahman (one of the most talented musician and singer that modern india has seen) to the kitty.. i don't remember listening to english pop songs, forget the rock, and when somebody answered "byran adams" to a music round question in a school quiz competition, i wondered who the hell is that and when unnat said in that "yeh PSPO nahi jaanta" tone, i first time felt that may be i am seriously missing something..

my first taste of english rock came in my first year at iit in form of roxette and it was like what they say "love at first sight"... we used to have these cacophony kind of sessions in namit's room where we used to switch off the lights of rooms and wings, play roxette songs on his music system on full volume and create a disco kind of atmo using the torches that we had.. it was great fun and songs like "the look", "sleeping in my car" became an instant hit with me.. but that was pretty much of it in my first year.. things changed drastically in my second year and it started after the ragging session :) i heard the closing lines of an english song playing in one of the hostel wings and thought "yaa.. this is really something".. very soon i was about to discover that the song that i heard that night was "sweet child of mine".. axl rose simply rocked in the vocals and slush was at his best on guitars.. even if someone doesn't like "guns & roses" for the nasty band that they were, do read the lyrics of this song.. it is awazing, i wonder how axl rose came up with such beautiful lyrics.. it was supposed to be written for his girlfriend though he claimed that he wrote this song in the memory of his mother (not sure about this)..

anyways leaving G&R here and moving ahead with the story, my first teacher was my second year roomie prithviraj sen.. he used to play the song hotel california on his guitar and inducted me to his knowledge of english songs.. he told me that "hotel california" is regarded by many as one of the best songs of the 20th century (he also confessed that when he had proudly told this in front of thakur, thakur had laughed at him saying this is a common knowledge stuff.. on this i thought thakur would have prolly strangled my neck for not even knowing this song) and lots of other things on the history of english songs.. i spent the remaining days of my college listening to english rock and becoming a big fan of bands like pink floyd, nirvana, guns & roses, metallica, dire straits, def leppard, queen, aerosmith, roxette..

but there was more to come in form of the second lesson on english songs, thakur being the teacher this time.. after a long wait in bangalore, he finally got his music system and then one day we went on a shopping spree (some 20 casettes at a go).. one of the casette was "pub classics" and after i liked the songs by car, reo speedwagon and enquired him on these, he introduced me to the retro music.. not sure about the definition but these are like the soft rock songs from 70's, 80's and mid 90's.. these were quite different from the kind of rock songs that i have been hearing till then.. the lyrics looked more meaningful to me in these soft songs as compared to the rock songs that i have been listening to in the college where sometimes the lyrics used to get lost in the loud guitar & drum.. then i bought that "college classics 1" casette which i think is one of the best compilation of retro songs.. still got the blues, jealous guy, karma chameleon, crazy little thing called love, don't worry be happy, all i need is a miracle, wild world.. and many more gems like these in a single album..(prithvi used to have this casette and i kind of liked these songs at that time also but he lost it and my second teaching got delayed)..

over the next 2 years, i had shifted more towards this retro classic music while still being loyal to many of the rock bands that i liked earlier.. i am still not into that hard rock/metal songs and i am sure will never be.. anyways if you are now wondering as to why i am writing all this (and its 5 am IST) then i will answer your queries.. after shifting to my job in mumbai i missed these songs for a long time.. finally i got some of my CDs when i went home this diwali and now i am back listening to the retro tracks and rock songs whenever i get time.. what's more, i have been to a place called "not just jazz by the way" here where they have bands playing live music every day and on weekends it is always retro classics and rock.. these bands are really very stud and some of the songs they play so well that you fell you are listening to the original song, notably being sultans of swing (on my first trip there) and another brick in the wall (on my second trip there).. today was my third trip there in 15 days (and i know many more will be coming in the future) and got a chance to listen to gary lawyer.. his band played some awesome numbers from queen incl. crazy little thing called love.. also after getting lots of recommendations from my friends, went to the first indian installment of hard rock cafe that opened in mumbai just 2 months back.. they have done quite a good work with the place and am sure in time they will also start showing the song videos.. but somehow the feel that you get in listeing to live music (given that they are playing it good) can never be matched by listening to the original song on a speaker.. so given a choice, i will vote for "not just jazz by the way" over "hard rock cafe".. digressing from the main topic, i think overall these are the things that make mumbai such a great place.. let me end this post here abruptly and go to sleep.. goodnight.. ohh before that, a big round of thanks to my dear friends prithviraj sen and anshuman thakur for their gyaan on english music and making me a big fan of it..

finally..

2006-10-28T11:35:00.001-07:00

after 4 months, i am here again penning, i mean, writing down some of the thoughts and updates on the happenings in this long break from world of blogging.. i think this will be one of those long and boring posts :)

so to being with i shifted job from citigroup to abn amro, but does it make much of a difference, after all it's another bank and even if i change job in future it will again be another bank, no marketing/consulting firm in a sensible state of mind will recruit me and even if they try, i will give them a pass :) i won't bore you to death by trying to explain the nature of my work nor will i answer any stupid questions like what are your working hours, how much money do you get in hand, where do you eat during office hours.. after all this is my blog (remember that "this is my college" hit dialogue from iimc-xl meet 05) and not a forum for meeting your old relatives who ask these questions every time you meet them.. so i will end the most useless update here itself and move to something more interesting..

soon after joining the new firm, i went to london (yes the capital of great or greater or whatever britain) for a month.. i felt like going back to india the moment i landed on the heathrow airport..
rest as they is history.. had quite a boring routine there.. work in office from 9 in the morning to 6 in the evening and coming back to the same hotel room.. sigh.. went to the famous monument called stone-hedge on the very first weekend there, (yeah it is the same thing u see in the window's wallpaper) bunch of stones placed vertically or horizontally or in whatever possible way the laws of physics allow.. that was my first and last visit out of london during my stay there :) within london i watched a live soccer match (my birth-right being a passionate soccer fan), saw the 221-b baker street (where my distant relative sherlock holmes did a study in scarlet) and bought a beatles shirt for myself (the only shopping i did there).. speaking more of london, yes it is a great city, certainly the city with most diverse population in the world.. but still mumbai rocks (and mumbai also has the most diverse population if not in the world, at least within india, but more on mumbai later).. i seriously don't know how one of my friend (not to be named on a public forum else he runs the risk of losing his life by the noble hands of shiv-sainiks) starts dreaming about london every time he listens to the song "yeh jo desh hai tera", sometimes i think why let the shiv-sainiks dirty their hands with his blood and rather not do the act myself (hoping that he is not reading all this, else i am dead) :P

the best thing that happened to me while in london was that i finally started reading shantaram (after 4.5 months of purchase) and i loved every paged of it.. the book based on the real life incidents of gregory david roberts (if you want to find more about him, go to http://www.google.com/ and type "shantaram" in the text-box that is visible to your eyes on the screen) is set in mumbai.. causeway, leopold's, haji-ali, mahalaxmi, gateway, cuffe parade, colaba, marine drive, regal theatre, bandra - it just captures all of these places in the most beautiful and picturesque way a book can do and filled my mind with the nostalgic memories of my city every time i came across any of these names while turning the pages of this book (refereed as "bible" by another friend of mine, again protecting his identity to save him from religious fanatists claiming for copyright violations on the title "bible") while lying on the bed in the desolate corner of my hotel room in london..

i know this post has already become long and borish, but i will still continue.. i really don't care for the feelings of the reader when i am in the writing mood.. okay, so i was talking about shantaram being described as bible.. i haven't read bible so i can't comment on this comparison but the book is certainly in an all-together different league.. the journey of the protaganist (named Lindsay and lovingly called linbaba in the novel) is a victory of sheer will-power against all odds of the world.. sometimes i think that if i had even 20% of the will power that lindsay had, i would be a different man :) the novel holds you from the very first page (where it talks about freedom of hating or forgiving your oppresors as being a great choice for you) and unfolds in a stronger way in every next page with the progess of story and introduction of new characters.. karla, didier, lisa, abdullah, khader khan, naseer, tariq will remain in my memory for years to come and how can one forget the ever smiling & greeting face of prabaker (pure reflection on a typical indian).. it is really difficult to choose one character as the best in this novel, as every character has been developed in a very strong way in this book but my top 4 picks will be - lindsay (coming out clean from such difficult events in life where 99.999999999% of the people would have given up), karla (most mysterious lady i have ever read about and for coming out with at least half of the quotable quotes of this book), khader khan (his philosophy of life and for that "sometimes you do the wrong thing for the right reasons") and abdullah (always being there for his friends when they needed him most).. for whatever reason if you haven't read this book, do read it, you will not regret my advice this time :) i used to read a chapter per day on average but it surely is one irresistible novel once you open it and have known people like thakur reading it in a couple of days (if you are going for this rapid-action read, do keep some ration within the reach of your hands always)..

if you have read this far, this means that you have lot of free time and so i am sure that you can bear with me for the last portion of the post..soon after coming back to india, i went to bangalore to catch with my old friends and believe me had more fun in those 2.5 days than the aggregate of 30 days that i stayed in the firang land (you can check out the snaps in my yahoo photo album).. as for mumbai, i am missing the cafe frappe @ carter road CCD in the light drizzle now that the rainy season is over here but this doesn't change my opinion that mumbai is the best city in the world :P

i went to home this diwali after 3 years and got my guitar also with me :) for those unaware, this will be my third attempt at learning guitar and i already possess two identical f-cut givson guitars at my home.. in fact i was afraid that if i go for a new guitar this time again, my mom (already troubled with storing 2 guitars at home) would have broken the previous two guitars to create some space for the third guitar that she anticipates will be there soon :) also watched the last f1 race of the season at home, and with schumi driving his ferrari for the last time and coming up from 18th place to the 4th place, it was worth watching every second of it.. what schumi said at the end of race "today, we (ferrari) could have overtaken any car on the planet" speaks highly of what is coming next season with felipe massa & kimi raikonnen leading the charge for ferrari.. watch out, renault !! it will take some miracle for you to win the constructor title a third time with alonso also gone now...

random thoughts

2006-06-17T10:07:00.000-07:00

1. the policy of "naiki kar dariya main daal" should be put to restricted use else it might turn into a burden for the rest of your life. doosron ka itna bhala na karo ki khud ka bhala karna hi bhool jao. one should think first about urself before doing charity service for the world.
2. the irony of life is that u don't get what u want and u don't want what u get. life is really unfair.
3. in life sometimes u are in a situation which appears all rosy to u and u dont want to give it up but in ur stubborness u end up missing the various opportunities that u cud have made ur life much more happier.
4. this soccer world up is the best of all that i have seen. till now except for some rare matches, most have been well balanced.. most of the debutante teams r giving the old warriors a great fight, it's just that they fail to match their counterpart's experience and end up losing after producing a marvellous battle.
5. u can't be told what soccer is, u have to play it for urself.
6. read this awesome quote by english striker wayne rooney on a billboard.. "40 years can be erased in 90 minutes". those familiar with soccer world cup history know the significance of this quote, england won the world cup first and last time in 1966, 40 years back.

quotable quotes

2006-05-13T11:57:00.000-07:00

we have these Bloomberg terminals in the office which provide continuous updates on the global news. apart from that, a new quote is displayed on the screen every day before you logon to it. a couple of nice ones that i have seen in the past few days.

1. Courage is resistance of fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear. - Ken Kesey (the guy who wrote "one flew over the cuckoo's nest")

2. Life is what happens to you while you are busy making other plans. - John Lennon (i don't think he needs any introduction)

will be updating this with more quotes in the coming days.

tim lak lak

2006-05-13T10:13:00.000-07:00

"college ke gate ke uss taraf hum life ko nachate hain aur doosri taraf life humko nachati hai"

from the very moment i heard this dialogue, i was sure this will be haunting me time n again. so here i am fresh out from college and remembering this almost every day now that i have re-entered the corporate world. so what exactly is the problem in making big bucks after leaving college. isn't this what you and your parents always dreamt of. so let me take things one by one and start with the root cause of all problems in this world, money.

"yeh duniya kya chahe, money money, yahan rishte naate money money"

when i said above that money is the root cause of all problem, there was some reasoning behind that. the problem is when u earn "less" money, u start looking at those who r earning more than u and u think "what the hell" and when u earn "more" money, u start asking for even "more" because then there is no end to it. another problem is that with the economy doing great, any "tom dick n harry" is making money these days like anything. good people weren't getting jobs when i passed out of iit and a salary which was luxury at that time, is less than the average salary of a passing out iitian these days. and with the media hyping the iims as if just an entry into the coveted institute is a lottery, everygoddamn relatives asks you only your salary when you are at home.

compare this to the life that one enjoyed at the college. education loan provided by various banks was the answer to every financial trouble and one was never hesitant in spending money. had the confidence that one can repay it when he starts earning the greenbuck.

the second problem with corporate life is that life becomes a routine. one wakes up everyday at the same time, gets ready, works 11-12 hrs in office, get back home, have dinner and sleep early to wake up at time the next morning. basically one becomes a clock himself while setting up the alarm in his clock everyday. there is a hardly any day when there are any surprises. i really don't know how people "get a kick" from this kind of daily schedule. contrast this to the college life, there were no worries. if one is late some day in going to bed, he can always miss the morning lecture rather than waking up on time to reach the class in a zombie state. plus you can play the sport of ur choice every evening, listen to song on your p/c whenever u feel like and the list goes on and on. basically you were not bound by rules n regulations to comply with and u can always "break free". had the confidence that one can complete his courses and earn the degree/diploma for which he has come to the college.

the third and probably the biggest problem is that in the corporate world, u are working for someone else. you might be getting a great salary, but don't forget that the firm is making a hell lot more than that by utulizing ur services. after hearing the "kick" syndrome from many ppt presenters, i am sure some people are really kicked in their back when they fail to perform to their marks in the firm. i remember my 4th and 5th term when i was the stats tutor. that was one thing i did out of my own interest and i put more time and effort for the tutorship as compared to many courses but at the end of tenure, that thing really gave me a lot of satisfaction. i got only two thousand for three months tenure, and i obviously agree here that one can't make a life with this kind of salary, but the point is that earning even that small amount of money made me feel nice because i earned it doing something i felt good about and enjoyed thouroughly.

i know thakur will say that i am again at my "eternal crib" and so i think that this is the truth of life and one has to accept and start enjoying it. may be then one will also start getting the "kick".

more randoms

2006-03-01T05:15:00.000-08:00

1. today was my last exam at iimc, hopefully this will also be the last exam of my academic life. as of now i am in no mood to pursue higher studies and so i plan to focus whole-heartedly on my job. there was a long dunking session as per the "old and sentimental" traditions of iimc, reminded me of my iitb days. the contrast is so clear in my thoughts, there we started our free campus life with inter-hostel dunking between h2 and h3 on 15th august 1999 midnight (the freshies attained freedom from the strict hostel rules imposed by seniors that day), and here we sorta had this dunking session at a time marking almost the end of our student life.

2. watched RDB for the third time a couple of weeks back, now i plan to give it a break. will watch it again sometimes when i am in jaipur after wrapping up the things from here. the idea being that very frequent viewing of the movie will diminish its impact on the mind and soul.

3. varun tagged me regarding the 5 places i would like to see before they blind me. the lucky five are:
a. new zealand (scenic beauty, kiwis)
b. australia (sydney, kangaroos, kaolas)
c. alaska (ice-cappings)
d. austria (scenic beauty, ice caves)
e. mauritius (beaches)
as such i would also like to visit switzerland once just to see if the hype is true

this was a very short post from my standards. sorry for disappointing you. just wanted to write something today.

paint it yellow

2006-02-08T00:37:00.000-08:00

so when do u say that a movie is a hit ? long time back i read that if the viewers can think or remember abt the movie after watching it, then the director has proved his point and from that point of view the movie is a hit. the same is the case with "rang de basanti". i don't know if commercially this movie will be a hit like the way other SRK movies are but from the fact that the movie is doing a terrrific business in metro cities and the youth have been able to relate to this movie, there is no doubt that the movie is a hit.

there are so many details in the movie which the viewer tends to give a miss in the first viewing and remembers only after coming back when he is deep in thought abt this movie. at least this happened with me and that's why i deservedly gave the movie a repeat watch.

for me the movie is FLAWLESS !! except for the NDTV propaganda towards the end of the movie, there is not a single painful moment in the movie. i have read a lot of public reaction for this movie. people have been concerned abt 2 main things: one, the tragic end of the movie and two, the drastic step of killing the defence minister by the protagonists in this movie.

according to me this was the perfect end for the movie. the whole movie talks abt how our revolutionaries fought for our freedom at such a young age and even sacrifised their lives to give us a better India. the movie then draws a parallel with how the present day youth has gone sick of the prevalent corruption in the country and they are ready to do any sacrifice to amend the society. moreover the director has drawn such a fine parallelism that the movie starts and ends with the same dialogue. "i always believed there are two kind of men in this movie. one who go to their deaths crying and other in silence. and then i met the third kind". at the start of the movie, director shows bhagat singh, rajguru and sukhdev going to be hanged but with a smile at their faces and at the end, DJ and Karan are smiling as they await their certain deaths by the commandoes. so i feel ending the movie in a different way would have probably killed the spirit of this movie.

as for the second point, there are many things to say. first of all, in the movie itself it is shown how they realize that killing the defence minister was probably not right and they now feel sorry abt it. and i don't think that the intention of the director was to show that the only way to change the society is to take arms. what the director was trying to say is that one should realize that we are responsible for our society and instead of just complaining abt the bad things like corruption we should be more proactive in contributing to and changing our society. the reason why there is so much corruption in our country is because we ourselves are promoting it by giving up on our morality and principles & giving bribes etc to get our work done easily. and secondly, personal loss is a big thing which can change the hearts of anyone. in this movie, the turning point was the death of their friend, a friend they looked upto as an ideal and someone who was very dear to them. what followed in the movie is perfectly realistic and i think that their drastic step was very much justified. as thakur also pointed to me, in other bollywood movies also e.g. sarfarosh, it was a personal tragedy which changed the protagonist and prompted him to do something for a bigger cause.

coming back, this movie is really one of the finest in a very very long time. the script, dialogues, cinematography and music, everything is perfect. in fact as prasoon joshi, lyricist, said in the curtain raiser, "music and songs are the voice of this movie". the timing of the songs in the story is amazing and the lyrics are awesome and perfectly complement the mood and storyline of this movie. in fact many a times, the timing of the song simply amaze the viewer. everybody was thinking that "luka chuppi" will be a song between aamir and his mother but it didn't turn out that way. as for me, as the movie was drawing to an end, i was sure that they have removed the "roobaroo" song from the movie and so it was again a surprise. but the best picturized song will be "khalbali" without any doubt. whether we take the present day scenes with all the friends dancing without a care of this world and jumping in water or the past scenes where our revolutionaires are on a hunger strike, the citematography of binod pradhan in this song is breathtaking. i had not seen a better juxtaposition of song and movie scene than the lines "jiddi, jiddi jiddi yeh sama" in the khalbali song with the scenes where britishers are forcefully feeding the revolutionaries but they are adamant not to break their hunger strikes.

hats off to rakeysh mehra for daring to make such a different and though provoking movie. whether it goes on to become a hit or not, it will remain with the viewers for a long time.

some of my fav scenes in the movies:
1. laxman pandey auditioning for the role of ram prasad bismil and saying the lines of "sarfaroshi ki tamanna ab hamare dil main hai"
2. karan getting up on the car even when in a drunken state and saluting the india gate
3. karan repeating the lines of ajay on radio "koi bhi desh perfect nahin hota, usse perfect banana padta hai" after a 5 sec silence
4. the ending dialgoue between karan and DJ
5. ajay proposing sonia for marriage followed by the "tu bin bataye" song

just a few thoughts

2005-12-06T09:51:00.000-08:00

finally i am little free right now. papers of 3 heavy courses in last 36 hours has been a terrible experience. luckily there is no exam tomorrow and so for a change, i can take good amount of sleep tonight. anyways as i sit in front of the computer, i am contemplating about some of the happenings in this semester.

1. my coffee intake has increased heavily this semester. till last semester i remember having a coffee at CCD only at nights when i were feeling sleepy but had to work for some projects etc. but this semester, i am having on an average 3 coffee glasses (and they are really big glasses) each day. and having a glass or two at night hours is becoming a habit irrespective of whether i have to continue working at night. i know coffee addiction is bad, may be i should do something about this.

2. i remember being extremely fussy about some of my personal belonings in bangalore. some of my friends didn't like when i used to repeatedly ask them to take good care of the CDs that they have taken from me etc. i also thought that may be i should take things little lightly and now i repent doing the same. a friend here took a couple of CDs around 4 months back, hasn't cared to return them and whenever asked for the same, gives some reason to end the talk. i am quite sure that he has lost it. another guy took a CD and has lost it (at least he cared to tell this). so now i think that may be some habits should not change otherwise it is you only who suffer the most.

3. some days back, there was a cricket match at eden gardens here. since India was also playing many people from the college went to the stadium. almost all of them returned with sad faces because India lost badly that day. but the sad part was the way others who didn't go were making fun of them. the kind of behavior appeared pathetic to me because at least others went there to cheer for their team and their nation rather than the bunch of those who kept sitting in their rooms and did nothing but discussing how iim-c is better than iim-b or iim-a.

4. a friend of mine taught a very good funda of being happy. the mantra is remembering the old hindi proverb "naiki kar, dariya main daal". earlier i used to think a lot about how people take undue advantage of you, but have now realized that one has to do the things in best manner for one's own satisfaction. so he should be happy with the effort that he has put without worrying if others are freeriding on him or not. hopefully the "dariya" willn't get flooded one day.

5. i have always believed in the funda of "everything happens for some good". so when i didn't go on student exchange program this semester, i was sure that there is something good in that. as the semester is coming to a close, i can think of the following advantages:
(i) courses: i have taken some very good courses this semester. there is a course entirely devoted to "game theory" and its applications. it's really very interesting courses and makes you thing how vast is the scope of game theory. then there is a course on "econometrics" which covers very in-depth analysis of regression techniques, the most fundamental tool used for studying any economic data. the professor of this course is among the best profs i have met here and would surely rank him in the same league as prof. saibal chattopadhya who teaches statistics here. then there is the course on "quantitative applications in finance", another in-depth course on analysing financial time series data. overall, this is amongst the most practical courses that i have studied here and it was very insightful, not to mention, very tough too.
(ii) projects: i had projects in four courses this semester and two of them were individual projects. one of the individual project is still not over but the other three projects have turned out to be very good and i hope the same for the one that is remaining. i don't know how much marks i will get in the projects, but when one knows that he has given his best, why should he care any more for the results.
(iii) misc: in both the group projects, i got a chance to work with pushkar and sid (two of my good friends here) and learnt many things from them. they do things (calcutions, writing reports) very systematically and in an orderly fashion, which though i tend to do in my routing life, i sort of skip when it comes to doing projects. i feel that these things are equally important to follow in your professional life. so after working on the "quanti finance" project with them, i applied the same principles while doing the "econometric" project and feel that it has turned out better.

okay, so i think i will call it a day and go for my coffee break :)

sports movies

2005-11-13T12:09:00.000-08:00

lots of movies have been made on the theme of sports. though all of them have their own great moments, but most of them fail to excel either because of weak direction or weak script (e.g. excess focus on the sport resulting in disinterest of those who don't understand much of sports). here is a pick of 5 sports movies which have touched me in some way or the other.

1. jo jeeta wohi sikandar: i can really write for hours about this movie. i think if any movie comes close to "sholay" in being a complete movie in recent years, this has to be the one. friendship, love, songs, dances, action, teenage crush: it had all. but one thing that came out on top was the sporting spirit. this movie was loved by people of all ages simply because everyone could relate it to either their past or present. i remember missing parts of it when first watched it on VCR and had to wait for many days before finally watching it the late night show at Shalimaar theatre. it was a script which could have gone wrong but thanks to stalwards like Mansoor Khan and Nasir Hussain, bollywood now has one of the movies to be proud of. the movie has some great comic scenes: the munna-tunna fight between aamir and mamik (his elder brother in movie), the entire sequence where aamir takes pooja bedi on a jeep-ride pretending to be a xavier's boy, the fight between students over a girl at the coffee parlour etc. the soundtrack was great with "Pehla Nasha" being rightly labelled as the most romantic number ever. there is a scene in the movie when his brother is in coma and so his dad isn't eating dinner when he serves it, so aamir goes out of his home, sits on the street and starts crying. ayesha julka comes there, she puts her shawl around aamir and he rests his head on her shoulders. there is not a single dialogue that gets exchanged between them, and it is my favorite romantic scene. besides all this, none of my iit batchmates can forget that "veer bahadur ladke kaun, sabse aage ladke kaun" which became the slogan of our batch for every sports event we participated in.

2. lagaan: now what new can i say about this one, the whole world knows about this one. the movie that came so close to winning an oscar, the one movie that combined two things very close to the heart of every indian: independence and cricket. no one could have imagined that a hindi movie with 4 hrs length and more than an hour of onscreen cricket, can keep the audiences glued to their seats and create an atmosphere similar to that of an indo-pak cricket match. hats off to the Team ashutosh gowarikar.

3. chariots of fire: i think this is most under-rated movie of all time considered by many as slow and boring. my word on this one, simple Fabulous. it is a true story based on the lives of 2 athletes, very opposite in nature, but both vying for a gold medal in the 1924 olympics. one, eric liddell who runs because he thinks God has given him this ability to run and so when he runs, he is actually pleasing God and two, harold abrahams who runs to prove superiority and escape from prejudice faced by the people of his community. both of them ultimately win their gold medals and go on to become missionary. this is a visual treat specially for all those who love to run. all the racing sequences have been shot brilliantly keeping in mind every minutest possible detail. showing the 100 m race in its full speed followed by the replay of same race in slow motion which shows every athelete fighting hard for the position and a beautiful sound in the background. simple Awesome. one of my favourite quotes from this movie: "so where does the power come from to see the race to its end. from within"

4. million dollar baby: there have been many movies on boxing before with the famous Raging Bull (on a real life story) and the rocky series, but i don't think any of them touched the hearts of audiences like this one. to start with, the movie has the great trio-combo of hillay swank (who is determined to become a boxer), clint eastwood (who rejects to coach her), morgan freeman (who keeps pushing eastwood in accepting swank as his student). secondly, the movie was directed by the great man "clint eastwood" himself. so there was nothing to go wrong when to top it all, there was such a beautiful script. swank achieves her dream with her determination and support from eastwood & freeman, only to meet a fatal accident during one of the boxing matches which damages her brian and puts her in a condition where she is just counting her days. the last scene where eastwood has a sentimental fatherly talk with swank and removes her oxygen mask (so that she meets a peaceful death rather than spending rest of her days like a vegetable) is extremely touching. the movie rightfully went on to win the major oscar trophies.

5. cinderella man: again a movie based on the real life story of a boxer. i watched this movie just a few days back and though close to 25% of the movie length is composed of only boxing, the theme of the movie is so strong that it towers everything else. a great boxing champion who loses a couple of matches and then faced by the depression-era goes from prosperity to poverty (great camerawork when the shot shifts from a scene of rich household to extremely poor household). in order to protect and serve his family, whom he loves the most, he makes a comeback to the ring and goes on to win the heavyweight title. though some of the scenes depict intense violence but i personally think that this shouldn't deter someone from watching this movie. after all, the true winner in this movie is the "love for one's family". i won't be surpised if russell crowe goes on to win an oscar for best acting. an inspiring quote from renee zellweger (who plays his wife) to russell crowe just before his final fight goes something like this: "you just remember who you are, you are everybody's hope, and the kid's hero and the champion of my heart". a must watch for anybody who loves his family.

very touching

2005-10-31T08:07:00.000-08:00

10th Grade

As I sat there in English class,
I stared at the girl next to me.
She was my so called 'best friend'.
I stared at her long, silky hair,
and wished she was mine.
But she didn't notice me like that,
and I knew it. After class,
she walked up to me and asked me for
the notes she had missed the day before.
I handed them to her.
She said 'thanks' and gave me a kiss on the cheek.
I want to tell her, I want her to know
that I don't want to be just friends,
I love her but I'm just too shy,
and I don't know why.

11th grade

The phone rang. On the other end,
it was her. She was in tears,
mumbling on and on about how her
love had broke her heart.
She asked me to come over because
she didn't want to be alone, So I did.
As I sat next to her on the sofa,
I stared at her soft eyes, wishing she was mine.
After 2 hours, one Drew Barrymore movie,
and three bags of chips, she decided to go home.
She looked at me, said 'thanks' and gave me a kiss
on the cheek..
I want to tell her, I want her to know that
I don't want to be just friends,
I love her but I'm just too shy,
and I don't know why.

Senior year

One fine day she walked to my locker.
"My date is sick" she said, "hes not gonna go" well,
I didn't have a date, and in 7th grade,
we made a promise that if neither of us had dates,
we would go together just as 'best friends'.
So we did. That night, after everything was over,
I was standing at her front door step.
I stared at her as She smiled at me
and stared at me with her crystal eyes.
Then she said- "I had the best time, thanks!"
and gave me a kiss on the cheek.
I want to tell her,
I want her to know
that I don't want to be just friends,
I love her but I'm just too shy,
and I don't know why.

Graduation.

A day passed, then a week, then a month.
Before I could blink, it was graduation day.
I watched as her perfect body floated like an angel
up on stage to get her diploma.
I wanted her to be mine-but
she didn't notice me like that, and I knew it.
Before everyone went home,
she came to me in her smock and hat,
and cried as I hugged her.
Then she lifted her head from my shoulder
and said- 'you're my best friend, thanks' and
gave me a kiss on the cheek.
I want to tell her, I want her to know
that I don't want to be just friends,
I love her but I'm just too shy,
and I don't know why.

Marriage.

Now I sit in the pews of the church.
That girl is getting married now.
and drive off to her new life,
married to another man.
I wanted her to be mine,
but she didn't see me like that,
and I knew it.
But before she drove away,
she came to me and said 'you came !'.
She said 'thanks' and kissed me on the cheek.
I want her to know that
I don't want to be just friends,
I love her but I'm just too shy,
and I don't know why.

Death.

Years passed, I looked down at the coffin
of a girl who used to be my 'best friend'.
At the service, they read a diary entry
she had wrote in her high school years.
This is what it read:
"I stare at him wishing he was mine;
but he doesn't notice me like that,
and I know it. I want to tell him,
I want him to know that
I don't want to be just friends,
I love him but I'm just too shy,
and I don't know why.
I wish he would tell me he loved me !
.........'I wish I did too...'
I thought to my self, and I cried.

random updates

2005-09-24T11:34:00.000-07:00

1. the LGBs (small greenish insects) are back in campus. these will be a big menace for the next 2 months or so. our lives will become a living hell. god, please help us pour souls.

2. this is also the PPO season. i thought that people will be happy after getting placed in the big investment banks and other prestigious firms. but now i find most of them discussing and cribbing about their pay packages. i don't know how these people think of so many issues at the same time and not just be happy for the time being with the offer. i am sure they will find it difficult to spend the full fat-salaries that they are getting right now.

3. looks like my stars are not right these days. few days back on my way to lecture, just as i crossed a tree, a snake fell from it onto the ground. 5 seconds delay on my part and it would have landed on me instead of the ground. today on our way to city in the metro, just before the Kalighat station, there was an uproar in the front coach. soon we saw smoke coming out of that coach and people rushing towards our coach and then to the gates shouting "fire" and "bomb". the three of us tried to maintain calm and got down at the stop. contemplating that it could be because of wearing out of brakes which will delay start of metro (i won't deny that we were afraid too in case it was really a bomb), we decided to catch a taxi. the incident was an indicator of how in actual mishaps, a lot of people die simply because of the stampede caused by the commotion. thanks god for your blessings.

4. a lot of B-school competitions are happening these days. people here are very enthusiastic about these. they try to form teams with academically good folks so that they could easily win the competition. online quizzes are most common in these. the usual scene during such quizzes is that the team-members occupy 3-4 computers in neighbouring rooms. then from the central room (where 1-2 members sit filling up the answers), the members will shout the question (multiple choice most of the time) and its available options and other members will try to Google and find the best possible answer from among the options. i know for sure that not more than 5% students attempt these quizzes honestly or for that matter out of genuine interest. for others whether it's a source of easy money or a good CV point (e.g. winner of this-and-that quiz at XYZ's business festival), i don't know and nor do i participate in such events, but i do enjoy the whole scene that transpires.

5. for a change, prof. sarkar is in good mood these days while talking to us. there can be two possible reasons for this exceptional phenomenon which is worthy of entering the record books of iim calcutta, (a) he has realized that we really did a great job as statistics tutor and (b) he has nobody else to look forward to this semester. we had a long discussion on friday evening (which at time turned into a bargaining session) where he tried to coax us in agreeing to his terms and we tried all our efforts to reduce the tutorship load. finally we agreed to design more problems with the purpose of improving the quality of statistics handout (given as reading material to students) and he had promised to include our names in the future handouts. so it would be something like "this handout is designed and compiled by" and the list will include my name also (hope so for the time being). wow, sounds great to me.

6. i watched spiderman 2 again last night. this is another of those series, where the sequel has turned out to be better. tobey maguire looks adorable as peter parker aka spiderman and the beautiful kirsten dunst also looks perfectly suited for the role of mary jane watson. further, the idea of sticking with your responsibilites come what may looks very challenging to me.

the mis-adventure

2005-09-17T09:02:00.000-07:00

as promised in one of the episodes of my travelogue, here is an account of the great adventure that some of us had while returning back from chandrtal. this is a bit long covering a time span of about 2 hours of our trek, so please be a little patient. for your visual assistance, i refer to some pics from time to time, these can be accessed here

GET, SET, GO.

starring: pal,jugnu,niranjan,avneet,palit,deepankar & myself

everything was going well. the seven of us were walking in a group on our back-trek from chandrtal when deepankar gave this idea. "yaar kyon na neeche utar kar along the river walk karen". since most of us were really bored of walking, we thought that this will be a real fun and so agreed instantaneously. to give the readers some idea of the distance we had to climb down, the pic titled "river bed from the road" will be of some assistance. at start the climb was very easy because we were moving down on rocks. but after a point we had to walk sideways since it was no more possible to walk down and we had to get to the other side of the rock to walk along the river. this was when the trouble first started. there were no rocks to hold on while moving sideways, so at each step we were slipping down if we didn't move from that position fast. you can get a better picture of the scene from the pic titled "climbing down to the river bed", there are only small stones and pebbles not the big rocks. the guy in red is niranjan and the guy behind him is jugnu.

what happened next could be described as funny but nevertheless it was really dangerous. at a point, niranjan stopped for some seconds and he actually started slipping. he tried hard to stop by getting into a spiderman kind of position but couldn't help much. since me and palit were close to him, we moved down and asked him to hold his hand. assured that help is there, niranjan now started asking others to take a snap of him in that "hangman" pose. it was really funny, all of us asking him to give his hand and he shouting for photo. anyways, we managed to get him up and it was all well again. for the next 45 minutes, we simply walked across the boulders next to the river Beas taking frequent breaks. all this time, we were just inches away from the river and the flow of water was so fast that if someone accidently slips and lands into the water, he couldn't do anything irrespective of how good a swimmer he was. this gave me a little reassurance that all of us are on equal footings since i don't know swimming and so was apprehensive at the start.

the pic titled "walking along the river" was taken at the end of river walk. in the pic the path looks very easy and even the water flow looks almost nil, don't get misled as that was simply because river takes a sideways turn at this point. niranjan is the front guy followed by pal and deepankar in that order. it was only after reaching this quiet river bed that we realized that our task is just 50% done, oh pardon me, actually just 35% done. our hopes of moving along the river and then climbing the road at an easy incline were shattered, when we realized that we couldn't move any further without crossing the river which in turn would be the most reckless decision of our lives. now the only option was to climb up the mountain (around 200 meters i guess) and reach the road. the pic titled "at the river bed" features palit and we had to climb half the height of the structure that you see to his left in the pic (actually that looks like a continous range till the very top, but there is a road there at half the distance, between the place where brown sand ends and greyish white sand starts).

so while jugnu and avneet decided to look around for the best place to start the climb, the rest of us decided to take a break. they zeroed down on 2 places which could best be seen in the pic titled "now how do we climb up". the first is the greyish smooth slope you can see just behind aveent in the pic and the other is at the rightmost end of the pic which also had some rocks/boulders. the first one was approximately 45 degrees slope all through but looked difficult to climb because of the absence of rocks and other things that we could hold onto in case of slipping. at the same time, the second one was also 45 degrees for most of its length except last 75 meters or so (where it looked steeper) and in addition it had big boulders all along. so all except deepankar (who went for the first one) agreed to climb the second one. it would be only later that we would regret doing so because as i had already said about distances in mountains, the same also holds true for heights, you can never say anything for sure just from a distant view, deepankar's climb which looked tougher turned out to be very easy in comparison to ours. anyways so now it was for the 6 of us to defy all odds and climb that mountain.

so we started with jugnu and avneet in the lead, me and palit following them and in the end niranjan and pal. it was a tedious but still an easy walk for first 50 meters after which it started getting difficult. the main problem we were facing was that as the person in front was climbing, many loose rocks were coming out and falling down, so the person down had to be on constant lookout of things happening above him. we kept moving this way till we reached the half-way in about 20 minutes and then took a 5 minute break pondering how to proceed further. the reason being that till now it was almost a 45 degrees slope, but all of sudden we were facing a good 65-70 degrees slope for the next 70 meters or so. at this point we also changed our order a bit. me and palit decided to take the lead leaving jugnu and avneet (the good trekkers among us) for the assistance of niranjan and pal who were trailing behind. their situation had been best captured in the pic titled "climbing our way up". this pic was taken from the above-mentioned half-way and at the bottom you can see the river beas. i was happy that in case i fall at least i won't die of drowning, the sharp rocks will do the needful much before i fall in the river.

the next 30 minutes that followed can be described as one of the most difficult and exhausting time of my life. the rocks and boulders were very very loose and i was afraid that by mistake i would let some loose. in fact what followed was exactly what i was dreading. i grabbed up one boulder (which looked to be stable) with one hand and just as i was about to catch hold of the other one, the first one came out and started to roll down. i almost started slipping and with all last ditch efforts stopped myself by digging both of my palms in the sand. (this later became a nice lesson of climbing: rely more on gripping sand by the palms rather than by the rocks). at this point let me shift to what was happening with others. the boulder that i had let loose had started to fall at full speed and as i was told later by others, they heard some rock falling from above and it went down bisecting the points at which pal and niranjan were standing. pal later recollected, that he was multitasking at that point: saying his prayers to all possible gods that came to his mind. after this incidence, niranjan declined to budge from his position and had to coaxed by avneet by promising the remaining pepsi when they reach the road (at this point let me tell you that niranjan is a real pepsi freak, he can do anything for a pepsi). the greed for pepsi set niranjan in real motion and the four of them started again. in the meantime, i heard a big "YO" from palit. he had completed this steep climb, from his position he could see the road and it was now a mere 30 degree climb for another 30 meters or so. this really boosted my spirits and i started climbing real fast. finally we reached the road, thanked god and congratulated each other. this was followed by a long 15 min break (in which we actually started worrying a little about others but were sure that jugnu and avneet would prevent any mishap) before pal appeared and then the remaining three joined after 5 min. after all of us had taken sufficient long break, we started for our destination, this time on road, with smiles and a sense of accomplishment on our faces.

now when i think about that climb, i feel that i mightn't have been able to do that in case i was alone. it was because i had friends around me and the mutual inspiration that we were sharing that helped us climb that feet. also i would like to thank farhan akhtar for the concluding rock climbing scene in the movie Lakshya, i was remembering that scene all through my climb. it's just a matter of coincidence that i don't have a single pic of mine in this climbing experience, would have treasured it for the rest of my life.

travelogue - part 3

2005-09-16T13:03:00.000-07:00

here is the third and final episode from where i left in the previous post:

the next morning we were woken up by the guides. the reason was that for a change there were clouds (rarely seen at those heights) and the first rays of the sun coming out of the mountains and passing through the clouds were presenting a beautiful view. we undid our tents for the last time, packed up our bags and started the back-trek soon after the breakfast. our small group was walking real fast and by 10 (2.5 hrs of walk), we estimated that we would reach Bartal in another hour. at that very point, something mischievous got into the head of deepankar. he gave us the idea of taking a shortcut via walking along the river bed. we were in real adventurous mood. so 7 of us decided to leave the road and get down to where the river was flowing and walk along with it for some distance and then climb back to the main road. what followed had been described as "near-death experience" by one of our group member and requires a separate detailed account. all i can say is that in the next 2 hrs we covered barely 1.5-2 km and when finally we reached the place where our bus was waiting, we found that our guides were real angry with us for not following the road. the whole experience reminded me of "never take shortcuts in life". anyways so we had some cold drinks at a shop, boarded our bus and left for manali.

the rest of the bus ride was normal except that we were worried whether we would be able to cross the rohtang pass before it gets dark. the reason being that it gets all misty there and it is not possible to drive in dark. if it so happened, we would have to camp at rohtang itself and we were in no mood to put up the tents again. luckily for us, we crossed the rohtang in time and so reached our hotel at manali around 9 pm. after sleeping in tents and sleeping bags for so many days, the sight of proper bed with matress and quilts was heart-warming and we all crashed into bed immediately after having our dinner. next day after the breakfast, we decided to check out some local places. so we decided first to visit the "hot water spring" and from there to visit the "hidimba temple". the spring was a letdown, i was expecting something like a real spring coming out of the surface and throwing water in the air. unlike my imagination, there was this small rectangular pond which was getting the water from some source. first we decided to leave without taking a dip but on second thoughts the idea didn't sound appealing. so we landed into the water and then only realized why it is called "hot water" spring. it was so damn hot that it was impossible to stand under the flowing water for more than 5 seconds at a go. from there we took an auto and reached the Hidimba temple. for the mythologically-unaware, she was the wife of gada-dhaari Bheem (second of the Pandava brothers). there was also a temple, actually a small altar under a tree, of great Ghatotgacha (son of Bheem and Hidimba). within the compounds of the temple itself, there were local people offering the visitors to take a picture with rabbits and yaks (yes, there were two of them). on our way back, we came to hear about some monastries so we visited them too. i went to a monastry for the first time in my life and it felt really good. the entire atmosphere there is very quiet and soothing to the mind. we returned back to our hotel in time to watch the Italian grand prix which was won by my favorite team Mclaren.

the next morning we finally said goodbye to manali and left for chandigarh at 10:30. the journey was again very normal, actually it would be more appropriate to say that after our "real adventure", things like bus falling in the valley etc etc have lost all its significane and looked like very trivial means of meeting god. we reached chandigarh at around 10 in the night, had our dinner at a restaurant which was real bad. we reached the station in good time to catch the kalka mail but this time we got divided into 2 groups with our compartments being at almost the opposite ends of the train. the train journey went peaceful, there was no bomb-scare this time and we finally reached the joka-land next morning in time to attend the morning lecture, only to realize that i had no lecture on wednesday.

this is the end of my story. looking forward for more such trips in future. thanks for bearing with my bad and boring english.

travelogue - part 2

2005-09-15T13:29:00.000-07:00

here is second episode from where i left in the previous post:

next morning we again packed up our bags and started for Chandratal. this was again supposed to be around "14-15 km" long but the only added advantage was that we were no longer required to carry the heavy sleeping bags. the ponies were doing the favour for us. just a 500 meter walk and the guide started climbing up an incline. thinking that this is the only route, though we could see a normal road going ahead, we followed suit. the climb turned out not be a very difficult one and when we were finished, we were happy because the few who were coming by road had to walk more than 1 km on the dusty road. after that, it was like another routine walk for many kilometers but we took breaks more frequently on this trek. after walking for close to 4 hrs (including another good incline and this one didn't have stones also, but it was all sand so we didn't slip) we came to a place where the guide told us that now the chandratal lake is just 2 km away. further he added that it is 1 km of straight walk and 1 km of decline, that's it. after this, he continued ahead but 4 of us decided to rest thinking that we are almost there and rest of the folks are far behind us. we slept there, even with sun straight into eyes, for more than an hour and when we woke up realized that all others have passed by. this was like the story of rabbit and turtle, though we were not having any race. anyways so we started for what would turn out to be the longest 2 kms of my life, adding to it the fact that for miles there was not a single human being in front of or behind us. we were badly missing civilization. it was not before walking for 4-5 km that we got sight of lake and this fact really invigorated us. thankfully, there was a shop there which supplied consumer goods and we filled our stomachs with some food and cold drinks.

after taking some rest, we put up our tents and had photo-session with the lake. the lake is spread over an area of approximately 2.5 square km and is a source of medicinal herbs. infact the greenish-blue colour of the lake water is due to the numerous herbs at the lake-bed. but there were some bad news in store for us. one of the group members was in real bad shape, in fact he had to be given oxygen at night for quite some time and only then he was able to say a word. many others were having severe headaches and some were simply feeling very bored at the prospect of continuous walking whole day. so it was decided that these people will go back to manali the next morning and the rest will proceed further. we were actually only halfway our final destination, Baralachala Pass (altitude 4600 meters), and had more than 2 days of trek left which also offered 2 river crossings. but when we woke up the next day to restart, we came to know that the plan had changed completely. in view of the fact that some of the people were not well and that there was no further means of retreat once we move ahead of chandratal lake, it was decided by the guides to cancel further trek. so the guy who was not well was taken back on ponies to the place from where bus was available to manali, a couple of guides and 2 of our group members also accompanied him. later we came to know, that he became all well as soon as he reached manali.

since the rest of us were to leave the next day only, we had one full day to enjoy the place. the guides encouraged and three of us took a dip in the lake water, it was real cold but soon we forgot that fact because after missing bath for more than 3 days (in which we walked and sweated a lot), the touch of cold water was feeling very nice. later in the afternoon, we came to know that avneet has gone alone and that too without water to climb a mountain top. so when he didn't come back for long, we got worried and three of us decided to go on a lookout for him. me and jugnu were in floaters only but we gave up the idea of changing into shoes thinking that we won't be doing much of a climb. it was a rocky mountain, so the initial climb was quite easy and we took only a couple of breaks in the first around 100 meters of climb. but after that we really started feeling the pain of oxygen-thin air. after every few steps, we were taking a break. also there were still no sings of avneet so we had to climb even more. we walked for another 100 meters, and it took real long, and finally decided to give up assuming that avneet must have gone on some other peak. so we decided to climb down which turned out to be real fun. when it was another 100 meter to go down, god knows what got into my head, i started running (one wrong foot especially with floaters and i would have been rolling down on rocks, but for some reasons unknown to me, i could not resist the temptation) and climbed the remaining distance in about 2 minutes. it felt nice to be back into the tent and soon avneet also joined us. as assumed, he had gone in some other direction, he actually climbed for more than 2 hrs and finally successfully touched a glacier. at this point, i remember the story. when someone asked a great mountaineer "why do you climb all these mountains" and the answer was "because they are there". nothing unusual happened rest of the day. this was the silence before the storm that was to enter in the lives of some of us the very next day.

i will conclude my trip details in the next episode.

travelogue - part 1

2005-09-14T12:45:00.000-07:00

after my end term exams, i went on a trek to himalayas. since this was my first trek of this sort, i decided to write an account of the same. here is the first part:

we boarded the Kalka Mail for chandigarh. since it was a real big group, people were having good fun. i went to sleep early (after effects of sleeping less bcos of exam on the previous day) and i when i woke up in the morning, realized that the train is running some 5-6 hrs late. on enquiry found out that there was some big engine problem at night, some wire had broken, which led to the long halt and the delay. soon we found out from someone, that in newspapers this has been reported as a "bomb scare on kalka mail". it was hilarious, these newspaper people can distort any news. anyways, rest of the day went as usual and we reached chandigarh early morning. there we had great food at ashin's place and then took our chartered bus for manali. the driver was driving real slow plus he was repeatedly playing the audio casette of fida, that was real painful but compensated by the good scenic views that we were getting. we reached manali very late night, went to the hotel and soon dozed off.

next day, we boarded the bus that was to take us to our base camp. this time we were also accompanied by our guides who will be later helping us with tents, food etc during the trek. we stopped at a place called "mahri" for lunch. from there, the rohtang pass was visible though still at a great height. after another hour and half drive, in which we covered only 11 kms, we were finally on rohtang top. people clicked some snaps of the beautiful locale with clouds floating all around you. anyways so we started again as we had to reach our base camp before it got dark. the road was pathetic as expected, there were big digs at places least expected and so we were using the services of heavy-weights amongst us to keep the bus balanced. supposedly before "2" kms of our base-camp, the bus was stopped and we were asked by our guides to walk till the place. after 45 min of walking which was aimed at getting us in shape for the coming days, we finally caught sight of our bus. we also realized never to believe these mountain guys for what they say of distances, their notion of 1 km is quite different from ours.

we were taught how to put our tents, it was a nice learning experience as most of us were doing it for the first time. but the best part was the night sky. i don't remember looking at such a clear and bright sky in my lifetime, there were simply infinite stars and that too in big bunches and we had great difficulty in identifying even the simple constellations. another breathtaking view was the "glow of the milky way" which was later explained by pankaj. numerous shooting stars were observed with one having a real long trail. finally a few of us spotted a small object in the sky moving real fast and then suddenly coming to a halt. we started joking that it could be one of the UFOs when ashin commented that it could be the ISS (international space station). we all were like "wow" !!

next morning after breakfast, we started our trek. we had to walk 14 kms (note: the mountain "kms") and reach the camp at Bartal. the terrain was plain but we were having difficulty because of the heavy sleeping bag that we were carrying along with our rucksacks. so we took the first halt after an hour at a waterfall and had some food. of all the things that we were carrying in our lunch packet, only the chocolates looked good. we started again and after trekking for another hour decided to rest adjacent to the Beas river. this turned out to be a long stop, some of us had fun in water, others who were more tired dozed off. the third and last part of the walk was the most painful. the terrain was a desert (really !!), we were not expecting this at such an altitude (and then we thought of the real desert The Gobi). the problems were enhanced by passing sumos/jeeps who were leaving long trail of dust all around us. finally when we saw a bridge 200 mts ahead, assuming that our camp will be after this bridge only, we gave up. it was 2 in the afternoon and the direct sun was taking its toll. just then, a few of our groupmembers came and told us that the camp is just 50 mts from our resting place. so we mustered our courage and asked our jaded spirits to give one final shot and reached the camp.

i will continue from here in the next episode.

art of teaching

2005-08-17T18:21:00.000-07:00

I always thought of teaching as a very boring and thankless job but realized that the truth is quite different after got myself involved in some teaching business this semester. Every year, few second year students are appointed as tutors for the statistics course (which is a compulsary course for the first year students) so as to help the weak students. Because of my interest in the subject, I applied for the same and thanks to my good grades in statistics (the only subject), I was among the 6 chosen ones.

As per the guidelines set by the course coordinator (the tough guy, he-who-must-not-be-named) we were required to submit a sample mid-term and end-term paper in lines of the actual paper. For the first time, I realized how tough it is to set an original question paper and why many professors here prefer to "free-ride" by repeating the same question paper year over year. It was a nice expression, first I had to think hard to develop a problem and then had to solve it to make sure that it can be solved and an answer exists for the same. Anyways to our disappoinment, our first attempt was discarded as C.R.A.P. by lord voldemort and we were asked to "managementize" our questions. If you are thinking what the heck does that mean, let me explain by a simple example. If my question says "ram tosses a coin" then the equivalent managementized question should read as "ceo of wipro tosses a coin". I don't understand the rationale but since the decision was unquestionable, gave it another try and thankfully this time it was gracefully accepted. And with this, I also became the official tutor for the course.

Next came the most interesting part of this whole exercise. I am talking about the tutorial sessions. The idea behind this is to hold extra sessions for those who are finding it difficult to cope up with the subject. I was very apprehensive before the first session but it went on smoothly. I tried to give my only explanations for basic and conditional probability and it was nice to see that they found it useful. Only 12 turned up (in a class of 45) but that is fine as long as others are pretty confident about their skills. For the second session the attendance reduced to only 4 but this was actually much better than the previous one since I was able to focus on the doubts of individual students in a much better way.

Thing didn’t end here, we gave multiple practise problems/quizzes to the first year students and even held doubt clearing session the day before the actual exam. Even on the day of exam which was to start at 10:30, a student came and wake me up at 8 (I had gone to sleep at 3:30 and planned to wake up at 10:30). He had some doubt in a question and when I started reading the question, he felt that I am feeling sleepy and said “dada, aap please face dho ke aa jao, fir better rahega”. Anyways I told him that is not required and continued with his problem.

Finally when the paper ended, the 6 of us tutors were bombarded with all kinds of thanks messages from the juniors for our efforts and time spent. We had put up sincere efforts for this cause and it had turned out to be, if not full, a half course for us. So when our efforts were appreciated, it felt real nice.

Though I have no intention of becoming a professor in future, but all this had made me realize why teaching is still considered such a respected profession. It's not a boring job as I thought earlier, but a highly interesting and challenging one. I now remember how my dad always go fully prepared for his lectures to the medical students and when he comes back, there is a feeling of joy exuding from his very look. I am sure all good teachers feel pleasure in teaching and make the subject matter interesting and challenging for their students. It's tough to be a good teacher.

all's well that ends well

2005-07-28T13:33:00.000-07:00

someone has rightly made the above quote and the events that transpired before my viewing of the movie Sarkar are a testimony to that. i had mentioned in one of my posts long time back that i was awaiting the release of this movie with all curiousity. so when the movie released, i rushed to the theatre on the very weekend to grab the tickets. but i forgot that there were many more like me, even a step ahead of me, who had done the advance booking of the shows. so i had to content myself with watching Parineets for a second time. after that there was the usual pressure of exams, all of us were deep engrossed in our studies and so the event got postponed.
finally the exams ended but there was no relief on the weekend also due to the scheduling of lectures at the odd hours on saturday and sunday. to make matters worse, because of clashes in the lectures, it was becoming increasingly difficult for all of us to go together for the movie. in vain, i decided to apply my successfully tested formula of going for a movie alone. thanks to choti (my friend named aditya), atleast i had some company till the theatre. so on a clear saturday afternoon, the two of us left the campus to pursue our individual dreams: choti had already watched Sarkar, he was after Paheli this time. we reached the theatre in time but since it was a weekend, there was a long queue at the ticket counter. the situation was made worse by the pathetic management at the ticket counter, a single counter was operating at such a rush hour. anyways believing in the philosophy of "never give up" i decided to join the long queue, and asked choti to find out if the tickets were available.
when he returned, it was apparent from his face that he had some bad news in store for me. "paheli available, sarkar fast-filling". but this was not to dampen my spirit. i asked choti to go and have his lunch while i stand in queue for the tickets. as the queue moved ahead a little, i was able to catch a glimpse of screen which displays the availability of tickets. choti's position was secured with ample tickets available, but i was wondering if i had to return back empty-handed. at one time, it displayed "sold out" against the 3:30 show of sarkar and my heart received a big blow. but since i had to get choti's ticket, there was no point in leaving the queue now. finally when my chance came at the ticket counter, i tried my last ditch effort. "one ticket Paheli, one ticker Sarkar please". in came the reply "only one ticket of sarkar left, first row from screen" and then he showed me the seat position, it was the cornermost seat.
had it been some other day, i might have said No. but this was no ordinary day for me. luck was with me till this point, why not test it further. so i paid for the tickets and came out of the queue thanking the almighty god. choti returned in time for his movie show at 2:55, we decided the place where we would meet after our movies in the eveving and then parted ways. he left for his movie and i proceeded to crosswords. there i purchased a book and returned back to the theatre. the show started with a trailer of mangal pandey and then the movie followed. all my apprehensions came to an end when i was able to watch the movie properly even from that supposedly hostile seat. as luck would have it, the occupants of the 3 seats next to me didn't turn up and so i shifted to an even more comfortable position, albeit in the same row. and all i can say about the movie is that it is a must watch and only in theatre. yes, comparisons are bound to be made with Godfather but then didn't people enjoy Kaante which was a remake of Reservoir Dogs. i think if the viewer goes with a open and unbiased mind, he is likely to enjoy the movie very much.
cutting the matter short, i don't care whether others like the movie or not. for me it was worth the money and time spent and travelling done to and fro from campus to the city. i think that day the stars were with me and they really made my day.

significance of last post

2005-07-17T03:36:00.000-07:00

the post that i made yesterday would have appeared very useless to someone who had cared to read it. why the heck was he writing about his hectic weekend academic schedule, they must have thought. so let me clear all your doubts, the last post was intended to be that way so that i could build up on it and make this post. now some will say that is very selfish of me, first making the people read some insignificant piece of crap and then giving another usless explanation for the same. sorry folks, that's me.

thanks to those, who have still not given up and cared to read further. there is something in store for them. i hope the title of my last post must have struck a chord with at least a few of the readers. that title was inspired by a song composed by four students of design program at iit kanpur as a tribute to the students of iit kanpur. anyone who has listened to the song will agree with me that it has been composed and sung very professionally, even the video is very aesthetic and the kanpur campus looks beautiful. the song is a true reflection of the campus life, which is full of fun and joy even with some momentary hectic schedules. another thing that i pondered upon after listening to the song is that we realize the value of something only after we had lost it. i still remember during our final year at iit bombay, we wished that the year ends soon so that we would be out of campus. but now i miss the iit campus and life there badly.

i like the iit kanpur song very much and thank the creators (adil, riaz, shoubik and parag) behind it for creating such a beautiful composition. after listening to the song many times and taking the help of my neighbour (an ex-iitk student), i had come up with the lyrics of the song which is produced below. hope you like the lyrics. oh, i almost forgot, i had to run for the lecture. tata.

Dinbhar Kaam

Rahen Kahan, Yeh Hai Kya Ho Raha
Ek Pal Nahin Hai, Chaain Yahan
Dil Ka Sukoon Hai, Kho Saa Gaya
Ek Hulchul Bin, Raain Yahan

Nahana Dhona, Khaana Peena
Subah Ko Uthna, Class Ko Jaana
Cycle Puncture, Late Ho Jaana
Professor Se, Daant Hai Khaana
Kya Hai Museebat, Apni Haalat Koi Naa Samjhe
Presentation Aur Submission,
Midsem Endsem Ka Hai Tension
Mummy Bole Ghar Aa Jaana
Teacher Bole Na Na Na Na

Dibhar Kaam, Nahin Aaraam
Koi Yeh Bataye, Kahan Jaaye Hum
Mil Jaaye, Aisi Tarkeeb Ki
Aaye Khushi, Mit Jaaye Hur Gum

Naya Semester, Fees Hai Bharna
Mess Bill To Hai, Time Pe Dena
Cell Phone Ko, Recharge Hai Karna
Dhobi Bole, Paise Dena
Ye Hai Haqeeqat, Apni Kismat Koi Naa Jaane
Atm Ke Line Main Lagna
Draft Banane Form Hai Bharna
Jaib Ho Khaali To Ghabraana
Yaaron Se Fir Paise Lena

Dibhar Kaam, Nahin Aaraam
Koi Yeh Bataye, Kahan Jaaye Hum
Mil Jaaye, Aisi Tarkeeb Ki
Aaye Khushi, Mit Jaaye Hur Gum

Fir Bhi Yaaron, Hum Hain Hanste
Download Karke, Gaane Sunte
Rave Jaake, Hum Movie Dekhte
Ice-Pice Jaake, Icecream Khaate
Aise Hi Chalta, Apna Jeevan Zindadil Hum
Aadhi Raat Ko Yaaron Ke Sung
CC Canteen Chal Ke Jaate
Chai Coffee Aur Cold-Drink Peete
Gaate Bajate Fir So Jaate

Dibhar Kaam, Nahin Aaraam
Koi Yeh Bataye, Kahan Jaaye Hum
Mil Jaaye, Aisi Tarkeeb Ki
Aaye Khushi, Mit Jaaye Hur Gum

Dibhar Kaam, Nahin Aaraam
Koi Yeh Bataye, Kahan Jaaye Hum
Mil Jaaye, Aisi Tarkeeb Ki
Aaye Khushi, Mit Jaaye Hur Gum

Dibhar Kaam, Nahin Aaraam
Koi Yeh Bataye, Kahan Jaaye Hum
Mil Jaaye, Aisi Tarkeeb Ki
Aaye Khushi, Mit Jaaye Hur Gum

dinbhar kaam, nahin aaraam

2005-07-16T02:56:00.000-07:00

great. the exams are over. but hold on. what am i saying? is the situation really any better than that during the exams, or is it even worse than that? it really is worse than the five exam days, at least we had no lectures during those days and to study or not was a question of personal discretion. but now that the exams are over, i have no choice but to attend the lectures.

so when i returned to my room yesterday at 3:45 after the exam, i knew exactly what was in store for me and accordingly decided against indulging in any celebrations. so i attended FSA(*) lecture from 6 in the evening to 10 in the night with a small half an hour break for dinner (thanks god, they granted our request to have some food). today was no different, had FIM(**) lecture from 10 in the morning till 1:45 in the afti, and not to forget the evening lecture by some hotshot from ONGC. even this sunday is extremely busy day with the 4 hour FIM lecture in the morning and then the Stratman lecture in the evening. that reminds me, we are required to submit a writeup for the case to be discussed in tomorrow evening class which pre-requires studying lots of reference (read "junk") material before proceeding any further.

but this is not where it ends. there is life beyond the lectures too. i have to meet my summer guide on monday after going through the changes that he had suggested in my draft summer report. also there is the portfolio writeup to be submitted to the IAPM(***) professor by sunday night. last but not the least, there is the deadline that our respected chairman has set, failing to comply with, we will be again summoned to his office and then have to listen to his long lecture. so you see my friend, life is not fair enough. and these are only my weekend academic commintments, am in no mood right now to think about the coming week.

* Financial Statement Analysis and Security Valuation
** Fixed Income Market
*** Investment Analysis and Portfolio Management

course titles are quite long, aren't they :)

tag team partners

2005-07-02T14:05:00.000-07:00

when i was tagged by jat, i din't get much as to what i am supposed to do. as a matter of fact, i am still not sure. but i will give it a try.

history:
at school, i hated reading. the very idea of getting a novel issued from the library appeared useless to me. i tried my hands on a couple of novel, but in vain. in a nutshell, i restricted myself only to reading the textbooks during my school days. things changed drastically after i joined iit. pondering over the course books seemed a not-so-exciting activity to me. entire first year was spent in finding that "one" activity which could fill up the long boring hours. in the second year, my roommate pode-lal (prithvi raj sen) was finally able to convince me and "coma" (by robin cook) was graced with the privilege. since then, i have read lots of books chiefly in following categories: humour, adventure, thriller. apart from these, novels which reflect on some human virtues are a favorite with me. the reading spree stopped once i entered iim, i have read a single novel during my entire first year here. i am not sure if things will improve once this term is over, but once i am out of the campus, i am sure gonna revive my old reading habits.

salient features:
1. collection: 30-40 odd books.
2. last reading: the bourne identity.
3. unfinished business: city of joy.
4. top five: lord of the rings, to kill a mocking bird, the godfather, love in the time of cholera, rita hayworth and shawshank redemption.
5. on shelves: to sir with love, barbarians at the gate.

though this tag game didn't look exciting initially, but now on second thoughts, this at least motivated me to post something after 2 weeks. thanks jat boy.

ghosts and the darkness

2005-06-18T13:46:00.000-07:00

do ghosts exist or not ? this is one question that has intrigued researchers and normal people (like you and me) all around the world for many centuries. i have also had similar discussions, lasting whole nights, with my friends during the college days. though nobody knows the answer for sure, but i have found one common thread in all these discussions. no matter what stand the group takes, one starts feeling some mystic force in the environment after such discussions and it becomes real hard to discard the existence of ghosts. i will cite three real life incidents, spread over last 8 months, that made me rethink.

the mid-term examinations of the second semester were over. myself, chamad, thakur, chirag and pal decided to board pal's car and proceed towards the main city. the agenda was to watch "Vaastu Shashtra" supposedly a supernatural thriller. the movie was spooky and gripping in the start but by the end it turned fad as it started showing ghosts coming from every nook and corner to kill the pretty sushmita and her kid. all was well till now except for the fact that thakur din't watch the movie but just listen to it, he had covered his eyes. anyways so we left the theatre and started the talks on ghost and related theories. in no time, there was almost no traffic as it was close to 1:30 am plus the discussions were so engrossing that we lost track of time, we reached the taratala bypass. since the road lights were up, pal preferred to drive with the head-lights switched off. soon we reached an area where there were no lights. just as pal switched the head-lights on, and by this time we were engorssed in a heated discussion over ghots, the lights fell on the road side and took our breathes away; pal almost lost control on the steering for a second. there were 5-10 white sculptures each around 5-6 feet in height standying by the road with arms wide open. the talks that we were having coupled with the storyline of the movie had created such an effect on our minds, that as the headlights illuminated the sculptures all of a sudden in the quiet dark surroundings, we misidentified them as white ghosts all set to attack us. though the incident lasted only a couple of seconds, it took a few minutes before we all returned to the normal state.

i had planned a trip to orissa with pulkit, rajesh (call him AT) and shrikanth. we had had a nice day, sighting of a rare species of dolphin in the chilka lake, fun at the beach, casual walk across the village. we had rented a room at a government lodge for a day and had decided to leave for konark by the early morning bus. while the dinner was getting ready, we decided to do a little star-gazing session. pulkit, as usual, helped us in identfying various constellations (though now i only remember orion). soon AT initiated some discussion on the movie "Blair Witch Project" (based on the real life story of 3 students of UMD who ventured to find a witch; when there was no news from them for months, eventually police started investigating but could only find their dead bodies and some video-tapees which were edited to make this movie) and the fact that he himself was planning to do a similar adventure. slowly our talks became more and more focussed on ghosts, witches etc. and thanks to our hungry stomachs we decided to put a pause on the discussion. i am quite sure that except for AT, the stomach of three of us was tickling not because of hunger. anyways , we went to bed after the dinner only to spoil our nights as AT decided to continue the discussion. the room was already pitch-dark, and so when all of sudden AT exclaimed "i see a dead body hanging from the fan", the room now acquired a pin-drop silence also. none of us had the guts to lift the quilt above our head and see whether a dead body was indeed hanging from the fan or not. silence was finally broken by the sheepish laugh of AT and it was only after we had kicked and scolded him real hard for this joke, that the room appeared to come back to life. not sure about the fan, but three dead bodies were lying on the bed for some time indeed. it was probably the worst night of my life till that date. pulkit confined the same months later.

the last one happens to be the latest also. during my summer internship at pune, i was put up at a small 1 bhk flat close to my office. on one saturday, i wake up late as usual only to find water all around my sports and leather shoes. the surpising aspect was that this place was far away from the bathroom so there was almost no chance as if my roommate might have spilled some water after washing clothes. also the water had stayed there only even though floor sloped a little down from that place. when i popped up the mystery to my roommate, his first reaction was "abe, kahin bhoot to nahin aa gaya" and i felt like "oh no, not again". what happened that night confirmed my feelings. as i was about to catch sleep, i felt some pinching in my little toe. i wake up all of a sudden and found very small skin portion removed from the toe and little blood at the location. also there was no mosquiton or any other insect in the vicinity. to add to the growing suspicion in my mind, i got a glimpse of the mountains behing the window of my room and all those stories of ghosts in the hilly areas came to my mind. the window that till now was a source of fresh cool air in the night soon became the source of a nightmare. i don't remember the number of hours i spent strolling in my room and lying on the bed with lights on and eyes open before eventually going in slumber, but no doubt this has been "the" worst night of my life even surpassing the previous one.

though none of the incidents involve any ghost sightings, but they give the feeling as if ghosts do exist, may be in some other world, when we talk so much about them they are able to listen to us and then try to make their presence felt to us in our world. even as i write this post at such late hours, i feel some mysterious feeling about my sorroundings. hope i get a good sleep. good night and sweet dreams.

silver jubilee

2005-06-12T15:39:00.000-07:00

after much confusion, finally i have chosen the courses for this semester. yes, my internship is over and i am back to this place called joka management in local lingo. and now that i think of those 9 weeks, i can't stop thinking about my favorite timepass in pune. as most of the readers might already be knowing, it was none other than watching movies in the closeby multiplex E-Square. of the 25 movies (and hence the title of this post) that i watched in theatres during my summers stint starting from 1st april (the day i landed in mumbai) and ending on 6th june (back to kolkata), i graced the above mentioned multiplex on 21 such occasions. since watching close to 3 movies a week in theatre is no small deal (at least i feel so), i thought of dedicating a post to this great feat that i had achieved. given below is the complete list of the movies watched in chronological order and my personal opinion about the movie (max 1-2 line). as this will turn out to be a boring exercise for most of the readers, proceed further only if you have nothing good to do in life. your courage will surely be appreciated by the author. the default theatre is e-square, pune and has been specified within braces in case of any exception.

1. Zeher (shreyas,mumbai): fast paced and so viewer didn't get time to look for goof-ups, great songs, paisa vasool
2. Meet The Fockers : good comedy but the prequel was better, ben stiller was great as usual
3. Miss Congeniality 2 (r mall, mumbai): okayish comedy, here again the first part was better
4. Lucky : fundoo russian locales, sallu bhaiyya was cute but only few could hear the dialogues of sneha ullal
5. Khamosh : the less said, the better
6. Mumbai Express : watch only if you are a fan of Vijay Raaz and Saurab Shukla
7. Kuchh Meetha Ho Jaaye : the most bogus and pathetic movie i had watched
8. Hitch : a great comedy romantic movie, will smith is great as a dating consultant, even the supporting cast rocked big time
9. Waqt : typical family drama, only plus point are the comic scenes between rajpal yadav and boman irani
10. Page 3 : great depiction of the elite socialite class of mumbai and their double-standards, must watch for those who love good cinema
11. Hazaron Khwaishen Aisi : a very dark and serious movie on the naxalite movie, still undecided whether i liked this movie or not
12. Kaal : the movie is not as bad as most people say, the suspense is good plus the 2-hour length comes as a relief to those who find this movie a junk
13. Kya Kool Hain Hum : a out and out comedy, fun to watch in a group, don't risk watching it with your parents
14. Kingdom Of Heaven : good depiction of the holy wars but the battle scenes are no match to that of Gladiator
15. Main Aisa Hi Hoon : better watch its hollywood inspiration I Am Sam
16. Flight Of Phoenix : another of those rescue-from-great-distress movies, still can be watched if there is no other option
17. Jo Bole So Nihaal : utterly crap and nonsensical movie
18. Kya Kool Hain Hum : same as above
19. Star Wars 3 : after the disappointing part 1 and 2 this one was a welcome change, great direction and special effect, perfect ending to blend with part 4
20. Naina (west end, pune): supposed to be a supernatural thriller, but turned out to be no thrills and no frills movie
21. Lemony Snickets : a very cute movie about the struggle of 3 orphaned siblings to save themselves from the clutches of their greedy benefactor
22. Nazar : good suspense but story is not as chilling like 100 Days, still can be watched once
23. Kung Fu Hustle : better than all of those jackie chan action movies, great comedy and great action, a must watch
24. Bunty Aur Babli : very innovative storyline but drags a lot due to songs, both Big B and Junior B act good but aishwarya rai looks sick in the item mujra
25. D (innovative, bangalore): another of those slick ganster movies from ram gopal varma's factory but this is no Satya

this brings me to the end of the post. just wanted to add that yesterday only i watched Parineeta and liked the movie. saif ali khan has acted great and vidya balan looks very beautiful. furthermore, calcutta has been created magnificently in the movie.

indian autowallahs : a case study

2005-05-22T01:19:00.000-07:00

objective: to present the result of the study conducted on the salient features of the autowallahs across the various cities of india.

sources: cities where i had spent substantial amount of time to have a good understanding of the autowallah's business. these include jaipur, mumbai, bangalore and kolkata

1. jaipur: in my hometown, i had used the services of auto mainly for commuting to school from home and back. the autos used to be jam-packed with school going kids, i remember most of the time the total capacity used to be around 13-14. still the auto drivers were nice people, realizing that we might confuse with other auto, they used to be there at the main gate of school in the afternoon guiding us towards the right auto. our family actually had good relationship with one of my auto-drivers, his name was kaan singh. he always consulted my father in case of any health related problem to himself or his family. he even agreed to become my student when at school, we were asked to teach an illiterate person as part of the nationwide literacy drive. we all were very happy when he passed the basic-level written exam conducted after his teaching was complete. having said all this, i feel i might be a bit biased towards the autodrivers from jaipur because much of my interaction with them happened at a tender age.

2. mumbai: the city that never sleeps and the place where i spent the best days of my life. the best thing about the autowallahs here is there highly professional nature. they won't generally take less than what the meter show (though sometimes they accept 50-100 ps less in case both the passenger and the driver don't have change), but more importantly they won't charge you more. they make it a point to return your change even if it's just 50 paise. and similar is the case even if it's night charge. one more thing, they don't start charging night-fares before the stipulated time. for all these things, i find the mumbai autowallahs very honest citizens. the capacity is restricted to 3 but if you plead them, they might agree to 4 but charge some extra money for that. another thing about them, is the funny sound that they make out to attract the wannabe passenger's attention (thakur n varun are good at imitating that sound).

3. bangalore: the story started one day when myself and bhase kumar were returning back to his senior's place where we were put up temporarily. on the way, to my utter surpise, bhase told me that it's customary to call the autodrivers SWAMI in bangalore (i still don't know who fooled bhase in believing this crap). anyways so we get down at our place and bhase pays him a 50 rs note, our fare as per meter was arnd 38 rs, and there goes the auto at full speed without paying back the change. bhase kept shouting Swami, Swami for some seconds, and probably for the last time (he also concluded that Swami is too reverent a word for these autodrivers). these kind of incidents happened many more time with us and i reached the conclusion that these autowallahs are a complete opposite picture to those in mumbai. they won't take even 25 ps less than the meter reading but are always on a run to leave without paying back the change. night fare starts as much as 1-2 hr before the stipulated time and if you want them to take 4 passengers be ready to pay an exorbitant charge. i still remember the day when myself, thakur and chamad took an auto to the urvashi theatre and felt like winning a battle when we payed the autowallah 3 rs less than the meter reading.

4. kolkata: like anyone else, the autowallahs in the city of joy are referred to by the popular word DADA. we use them mostly for commuting from the campus to shokar bazar and from there to tollygunge metro station and back. though there is no meter system in the auto, the fares are so cheap that we never feel like complaining. rs 3.5 from campus to shokar bazar (arnd 3 km) and rs 5.5 from shokar bazar to tollygunge (arnd 5 km) is not expensive from any angle. the autowallah are also able to make their money even with these cheap fares as the autos are 5-seated, besides the normal 3-passenger back seat, there is a hand-made wooden seat to the right and one to the left of the driver. all and all, the autodrivers here are nice people. only problem is when they start fighting by shouting at the top of their voice (just like anyone else in the bongland) adding to the agony of the passengers already stuck in a jam-packed traffic.

conclusion: ours is a country of diversity and the autowallahs have not disappointed a bit. you go from one city to another and you are sure to find a big difference in the way they operate their business.

the ever charismatic amitabh bachchan

2005-05-21T10:08:00.000-07:00

i have finally found some time from my busy weekend schedule to update my blog. though i plan to write many posts, thought of starting with this one. felt like writing this after reading varun's post on big b declaring himself as a "beggar for roles" on some tv show. the discussion ended on the note that big b should not get himself stereotyped in playing fatherly roles like the one in recently released movie Waqt where he played the DAIDAA of akshay kumar.
i still believe that big b was just being modest when he said that he is afraid of not getting roles. he hasn't lost his old charisma at all, in fact he has become one of the biggest brand of india. the fact that Cadburys asked him to promote their product (after the insect in dairy milk episode) and the daily milk sales bounced back from a dip following the tv commercial featuring big b with the line "kyonki hum keh rahe hain", says it all. though building a temple in his name is no sanity, but there is no denying the fact that indian people still regard him as much as they did in the 80s (people all over the country prayed for his recovery after his near-fatal accident while shooting for movie Coolie) and have even come to trust him a lot.
agreed that he has not been successful always, e.g. his stint with politics and the abcl fiasco. but he has never given up and always bounced back. though not directly involved in mainstream politics, he is almost there by virtue of his wife jaya bhaduri, so-called bhai amar singh and close alliances with mulayam singh yadav and anil ambani. as for abcl, he had paid all his debts thanks to the popular tv show "kaun banega crorepati". i think it would be fair to say that no other star could have carried the show in a better way than big b, proof lies in the fact that none other tv quiz shows have gained as much popularity among the viewers across india as kbc.
now the next question raised was regarding playing stereotypes roles. at the age of 65, the most obvious role to play is obviously of a father. i personally(and for that matter, hope other big b fans also) won't like big b gyrating with heronies a half/third of his age, no way. and i think even he realised the fact after his new innings in bollywood started on a bad note with super flop movies like lal badshah, suryavansham etc. what's so wrong in playing roles of a father or grandfather when that kind of role suits the age perfectly. and the fact remains, that if one analyses his roles in late 70s and 80s, did he not play stereotypes roles even then. either a good honest cop or a bad person with a good heart who dies in the end, these were the stereotyped roles he played with perfection and people loved it all. on the contrary, if we exclude his fatherly roles, he is getting more variety these day. in my view, the honest but unsucessful and aging a.c.p. of Khakee was one of the finest portrayal of a police officer in recent movies. and then we had Black, another role never before played by anyone in bollywood.
people are waiting for his new avatar in Sarkar (where he is portraying the marlon brando of godfather) and they won't be complaining simply because he plays the father of 3 in that movie. with the KBC series all set to restart shortly, i think he will be adding even more stars to his popularity, the phenomenon that Big B already is. way to go Bachchan Saab.

listed on GSE

2005-05-16T01:23:00.000-07:00

thanks to all the regular viewers of my blog, i have finally got listed on GSE aka Google Search Engine (and not any other stock exchange). yeh sab aapke pyaar aur protsahan ka hi natija hai. main apne hridya ke antar-stahl se aap sab ka shukriya karna chahoonga (learnt this line from the maths teacher at ntse camp @ darbar school). after many years of hardwork, my blog page has come above the link of my humnaam "@ theory.tifr". looked too embarassing to me when someone searched for me and found me doing research in theoretical CS at none-other-than TIFR. somehow passed the theory courses at iit, tifr main to tauba-2.

vaise i wrote a long post last week but deleted it on my friend's request. will write more soon. don't go away, i'll be back.

lakshya, the word is lakshya

2005-05-06T05:40:00.000-07:00

those were the words of preity zinta when hrithik roshan meets her to tell that he has finally found his "woh kya kehte hain usse" aka lakshya. though i am fast approaching the age of 24 and have no intention to go to 18000 ft to discover myself, i love this movie. since the first time when i watched the movie in Inox @ kolkata sitting in the first row cornermost seat (for which i paid 180 bucks) to the fifth time i watched it after my third term, my appreciation for the movie has increased.
the movie has been shot just beautifully in the hilly terrains of kargil (u see the difference when u compare the dvd print of this movie with other movies) and the music is simply superb. 7 tracks incl the 2 instrumental complement the theme of the movie perfectly. my fav song keeps changing between the title song (which i play to full volume bfor leaving for exams hoping that it gives me some inspiration to crack the exam, which incidentally happens rarely), the romantic number "agar main kahoon" or the senti song "kitni baatein" (a word of advice abt this song, movie has only 1 stanza, for the other 2 listen to the mp3, lyrics r too good)depending on the circumstances that i find myself in.
above all, what i like abt the movie is the concept and the way the story evolves around it. though neither i belong to a rich family having a servant like murli who wakes me up every morning with a glass of juice and whom i ask to switch on the geyser, nor a big brother like udesh whom i can ask to courier me the latest jurrasic park dvds, nor a pretty girlfriend like romila dutta (sigh!!) who can inspire me to pursue my dream, but inspite of all this, i somehow feel related to the character of karan shergill everytime i watch the movie.
and the reason i feel that way is this. i passed out of iit and while working in bangalore, decided to pursue management. i appeared for cat and now i am at iimc but somehow i feel that i made this decision mainly because i wanted to escape from a coding job and partially owning to the "follow the herd" mentality. i don't remember any time when i suddenly woke up from my dreams and decided "yes, mba is what i have to do", i think all that i used to utter during my iim interviews was nothing but made-up and mugged-up lies. having said that and after my current tryst with working in a financial firm, i am sure i won't be thrilled with the kind of work i will be asked to do even after completing my mba.
so where do i go from here. sometimes i feel, i better study further, and something interesting than a mba this time. it' s coming of age for me and i feel that it's hightime i get serious about what i have to do after my mba. looks like in the end, this won't be less cumbersome a task than scaling the 18000 ft heights :)

powai: now and then

2005-05-04T02:31:00.000-07:00

i came to bombay first time in my life in june 1999. the purpose of the visit was the iit counselling and other formalities. though i din't stay in iit hostels during that trip (was put up in some remote part of mumbai known as bhivandi) but still managed to catch a glimpse of powai and hiranandani (located in powai but famous by its own name). hiranandani had just started to grow around that time and the buidlings and ongoing construction were simply awesome. watching the beautiful carved and painted tall complex (which i saw first in the Dilbar-Dilbar song) in reality was a breathtaking experience for me. anyways so i left mumbai with the dreams of returning back shortly and visiting the much hallowed lands of powai. i came back in july and on the weekend paid a trip to hiranandani with my friends. as adviced by seniors, we went to Hakone (a gaming zone in Galleria) and Go-Karting site. 6 years back those were the only two places for doing timepass as i remember now. things changed fast soon..
over the next 4 years during my iit stay, there were some additions to the HN area. a host of eating joints opened in the ever crowded galleries of Galleria. one just had to take a seat there and in no time, he was surrounded by the waiters from every eating joint, each trying to thrust his menu-card into the face of the visitor. but i was a brand loyal guy ordering mostly from Nutan Snacks (chamad, i hope u remember our order, 2 plate parantha: 1 aloo and 1 cheese, 1 bhel puri, 1 dahi puri). most of all i liked Baskin Robbins there. shortly Planet M store also opened there followed by the so called environment friendly e-cotel Rodas which became the favorite hang out place during the nights. a shopping mall Haiko also opened next to Planet M. a bad thing that happened to HN was the prolific growth of call-centers in that area. that was one reason for the house-full show at galleria whenever we went there. but i think these were just indicative of what was to follow..
in no particular chronological order, i will try to list the changing scene of HN. Haiko has shifted to the complex housing Planet M and Rodas. with the changing taste of people, they have opened Bowling facility also (i scored 133 there this weekend, jat beware !). the famous coffee-cum-hukka joint of Bandra, Mocha has replaced the old Haiko place. but inspite of its popularity it doesn't host the kind of crowd one gets to see at the bandra one. it looks like the designers & builders hadn't ignored the varying tastes of people. for those interested in food and drinks, places like Pizza Hut, Saffron Spice and many more have opened. for the literary kind, there is Crosswords around the corner and i am quite sure that Landmark would be eyeing some other corner of the locality. last but not the least, how can you forget the multiplexes. yes, finally apna powai is opening multiplex also and not one but two. i really feel sad about this because this may reduce the popularity of Shreyas which still remains my favorite theatre in mumbai :)..
all this leaves no doubt in the mind that powai area has undergone mass commercialization at a much faster pace during the last 2 years when compared with the 4 year period of my iit stay. but some things never change. one of them being the Bhayaji Tea center serving the most energizing tea in the locality. i visited the place this weekend and to my surprise found that the old man has been replaced by probably his son but the tea still tastes very sweat. another one is Shri Ganesh Rasvanti Grah located just outside the y-point gate serving the most refreshing and thirst quenching ganne-ka-jucie. i used to visit the place daily during the summers and it was the place where our cse batch used to celebrate our victories in games of football and cricket during the final year. what is most amazing is that despite the inflation and other factors, the price has remained Rs 5 per glass for the last 6 years (defying the quote "nothing is permanent except change") without any deterioration in the taste. another thing which hasn't changed at all, though on a negative side, is the horrendous traffic outside the main gate despite the opening up of flyovers at gandhinagar and seepz..
finally i would like to end this long post hoping that the BMC takes some quick steps to save the beautiful Powai Lake from drying up..

cricket vs football

2005-04-27T07:13:00.000-07:00

warning: the intention of this post is not to hurt the sentiments of all those who adore the game of cricket, but just to express the views of the author on the two popular sports

i think for someone born in India, it's real hard to avoid getting hooked to cricket in childhood itself. i was no exception. still remember the days when i used to play with the neighbouring kids and sometimes with my dad. even worse, when i was alone i still used to play it. it's very easy, u treat the front wall as a charging bowler, throw the ball at the wall and when it rebounds and comes back to you, you try to hit it for a four or six. the passion continued to grow on me and cricket remained my favorite sport throughout my schooling days.

things started to change when i joined college. even though we used to play cricket in our hostel wings, i found playing football in the water-filled slippery grounds more fun. i guess the drastic change in my interest came during the summers of 2002. i was doing summer internship at bangalore and the world cup (football offcourse) fever was at high. i used to even watch live matches, courtesy the tv at my co intern's room, screen at our office and cafe coffee day. since then this is the third year that i am following the european football with full dedication.

anyways finally coming to the point, cricket is over-hyped in our country. more than that, people tend to attach their sentiments with the outcome of a game in which india is playing. players are treated like god if they do good in just one match even though they might have performed real bad in several of the previous matches. most of all, i feel spending 8 hrs watching a match is a real waste of time especially when the viewer has a biased opinion. i rarely see the cricket viewers appreciating the game of the opponent in any match against their favorite indian team.

the first good thing about football is that indian team doesn't figure in the list :) so there is no point of attaching sentiments with the game for the sake of patriortism or otherwise. and secondly those 90 minutes of game on the football field are far more exciting than a 8 hour long boring cricket match.

ending the discussion, now i have shifted to football from cricket completely. i don't remember when i last played cricket, but i do play football every evening in campus unless there is a lecture at that time or exams are close by. above all, thanks for bearing with my views.

ps: chelsea play liverpool in the first leg of champions league semifinal tonight. may the best team win.

my first post

2005-04-27T01:10:00.000-07:00

well.. so i am here finally.. tried hard to resist the tempation of blogging but inspired by my friends jat n vyas gave in to the temptation at last.. hope it will also be a good way to pass some time during the not so busy office hours during my internship..

'll try to keep the first post short n sweet.. hereby ending the post with one of my favorite quotes: Say what you think and act how you feel, because those who mind don't matter,and those who matter never mind.

ps: as a matter of fact, the title of my blog is also an edited version (replace 'write' with 'shoot') of a famous quote from the movie "the good, the bad and the ugly"