Happy New Year

So a new year is being born,

Like the old cliche which says time n tide wait 4 no man, year 2006 is leavin and i am astounded. But along the way it meandered, it stopped, it ran,it tumbled and all along i was a mute spectator.

At the beginnin of the year i was stunned by the speed which things changed , i moved jobs from mcdowell to icici and it all semed to happen in a blur. The new job was supposed to keep me busy, it did, went to cochin, to mumbai and was told you would go to the united states someday. time ran , new financial products were introduced and learnt, hopefully i was also supposed to do sales and make money and if possible move abroad.New friends were made in mumbai, new ideas, the energy seemed to be an overdrive and then....

Then time tumbled and toppled and meandered almost to a halt.No work , went thru dozens of reports and dozens of gyaan session but like an new sword it was never put to test in the war, The anticipation turned to frustration and led to nearly 8 months of joblessness.I was told about 4 months in between that i would go to the middle east, muscat 2 be precise.

Meanwhile on a personal level learnt new hobbies, bloggin was a pasttime, networking was new and renewed thru orkut.School friends were met after nearly ten years, the joy was immense .New relatives, the joy of convocation of wearin a costume all made life interestin,

but somewhere there was a purpose amiss, while the desire to do somethin was immense, i was bound by nothin to do nothin.

Then had a accident and an upheaval, all of a sudden moved to Doha and it was a new world a new culture, new learning, a world in which i am frightened and pressurised, a world in which i am excited and anxious, a world in which i am joyful and sad,there is a desire to achieve but the worries of an uncertain future....

So time has suddenly shifted to supernova mooed and its moved to the next year of a life.

There are dreams , dreams of a new tommorow, dreams of that person who would make life interesting, dreams of a succesful tommorow and i am held back no more by nothin me.

So as i part with the old year, here is my ode to friends old, my dear parents and sis, to renewed and reborn friendships and to newer friends and most of all to time , me and my mentor a certain God who makes me evolve into somethin better every year.

so while thers a goodbye ,

here's the welcome to all those surprises, joy and sorrow anew and a resolution for the first time to make life enriched and to not remain a mute spectator but an active participant.

Happy new year folks!!! and lets have fun and the bubbly flow,,,.............

Nation and its symbols

What does patriotism mean , y does the concept of a nation mean so much to any individual on the planet??

concept of a nation state probably started on greece but we in India or China in these parts of Asia have had also our concepts built up if not anything by alexander's invasion .How important is symbolism to this. If you look at any sporting activity the national events r the best of the lot. People can no more war and they let sport do the talking or talk heavily while being involved in sports.Jingoistic or not , u see flag waving , u see coloured faces,u see caps and t-shirts and ofcourse you national animals .

symbolism and patriotism go hand in hand.

But can an individual be patriotic and not be so symbolic about it.

America is one of the best marketed concepts in the world.T-shirts , Uncle Sam, Mcdonald's Coke are all American symbols.You would find maximum Indian brands also carryin the 51 stars.It is indeed verycool to be American and most countries patronise the stars and the symbols.

So does it mean the American's are patriotic. Are Americans patriotic bcoz the nation is the best . By that i mean America gets the best manpower in all the fields from usually the rest of the world. And country is great if its pplare great.So now what makes Americans more patriotic.

We in India had to fight for the right to display the Indian flag as a part of our attire. We are one of the largest natiosn with huge number of permanent immigrations happening.Patriotism develops when as we see a Kagil war , or a cricket match, maybe with the Sania fervour a tennis match too.But we dont stand up for the anthem,, we are waitin to go abroad and have a better life.Though the last thing has changed with the advent of the big business in India somewhere we r not so sure about the nation.We r patriotic maybe but def not symbolic, We are also more divisonal internally, with caste language and religion also making our identities.Is this the cause for less patriotism.

Or we now gettin to blv in a global world and cannot think of ourselves as a single nation.

for a colleague here it was great to hear the anthem being played at the asian games when paes and bhupathi won the title.So is this a third idea, patriotism and concept of a nation is more developed , when i am abroad .While i am internally in a nation these are more trivial issues while my bread and butter amtter .Abroad the difference in culture means you 'd luv to be around Indians as you understand them best being a part of it.

I am still not sure what nationhood is, is it the culture which bonds ppl of a particualr region and alienates others, is it similarities in habits and culture which create a nation or is it just a concept found agreable by a vast majority and are therfore happy in that comfort and belief .Germany for a long time could not assert itself as a nation after the two world wars bcoz it was afraid of jingoism and hurt by excessive nationalism shown by its past till a world cup of football held ther.

Well i am not sure kaikoo this is so important but it gives evryone an identity to live with, something good to look upto and while it is a mental concept it is definitely a brand which agets aggressively marketed based on vested interests of individuals!!!!

inspirational

i cant write poetry but i found something nice so just posting that

Bertrand Russell:
Three passions have governed my life:
The longings for love, the search for knowledge,
And unbearable pity for the suffering of [humankind].
Love brings ecstasy and relieves loneliness.
In the union of love I have seen In a mystic miniature the prefiguring vision Of the heavens that saints and poets have imagined.
With equal passion I have sought knowledge.
I have wished to understand the hearts of [people].
I have wished to know why the stars shine.
Love and knowledge led upwards to the heavens,
But always pity brought me back to earth; Cries of pain reverberated in my heart Of children in famine, of victims tortured And of old people left helpless. I long to alleviate the evil, but I cannot, And I too suffer. This has been my life;
I found it worth living.

adapted

smashing weekends

Well thats what i hv had the last two weekends. While the last weekend i was busy with my cousin's engagement the previous weekend i was off to Bangalore enroute to Tiruchi . Took a bus but due to some massive roadwork around Devanahalli( the new Bangalore airport) reached bang around 10.Met up with a lot of old frnds and went to a couple of nice restaurants.

IndiJoe was reserved for the evening and the other was Saheb Singh Sultan.Those are supposedly the nomenclature by which the first three locomotive engines of the Indian railways were called.See now you have restaurants saying food for thought literally.Lovely ambience with decor of a railway platform and a bogie with ticket collectors being the concierge at the restaurant . Nice images and glasswork.We ate more of the breadsticks dipped with the yummy cheese. Abs smashing me sayeth

Also was great cathcing up with frnds. Mee being the unmariied person i had to hear a lot of talk abt seven year itch, to baby talk to spousial relationships.Smashing info for a guy like me .Insights to y i shld marry and y i shdlnt.

Also went a checked the homes of a couple of these frnds.the one who was plannin to buy was aksing q's and it was interesting to look at decor and interiors as a complex thing and a work of art and effort.

Well all in all a smashing day

Left to Tiruchi by a bus.Reached early morning and went to say hi to an old mentor.Ofcourse i am talking about the Ucchi Pillayar (Lord Ganesh ) at Tiruchi. The temple has not changed for 1000 years so 3 years since college wldnt have changed it.Lovely view of Srirangam and Cauvery from atop the hill.The Siva family sits on one side of cauvery and the Vishnu family on the other. Got a grt news while i was atop.My colleague had just become the father of a baby gal.So after prayers it was back to Vasanta Bhavan an old adda 4 idli sambar.Smashing!!!

Met my would be sis-in-law and then went to college to collect my convo certificate. My college has a ritual of combining the convocations of two batches and making it a informal sort of get together for 4 batches of students.I had no chance of attending my convocation in 2004 so was attending this meet of my juniors and sub-juniors. Wore that funny gown and went and picked my convo on stage and as the batch was not mentioned my sub-sub juniors were left wondering as to who this person was!!. Eitherways we all love this .There is something about going and pciking ur certificate on a podium from a distinguished person. We did not have any hats to throw but we managed with the bows and the apparel worn on the neck.It was smashing
Now next day i was supposed to go to Chennai by train but as i found a junior pal travelling by car i joined in

Next day morning we left for Chennai in a Maruti Esteem. hardly had we crossed Tiruchi and just b4 srirangam we smashed literally. A bus from the footpath veered into the path of the car. The bus on the other side of the road also moved into our path. In an effort to move away from the first bus we moved sideways and the second bus caught the front door of the car and we were asailed with the glss pieces of the window inspite of it being rolled down. the outer side of the car door was literally pulled and dragged along with second bus for half of a kilometre. Thankfully neither of the four of us i.e Dilip, Sandeep, Arun(my juniors) and me were not hurt though we were more than shaken and stirred.We said our thanks to the above mentioned dieties and to Maruti. The large iron rod in the door had saved us from more damage.

After a lot of consulatation travelled on to Chennai and then Hyderabad by train which was rather boring journey compared to the smashing others .

Yet i should say i had never hoped or asked for such a literally smashing experience!!!

What's in a name ??

Shakespear paaji obv didnt meet any Indians.Inspite of knowing so much about emotional dramas he never understood the power and emotion assosciated with a name.

A Dwivedi is a master of two vedas. a trivedi of three. Ask Mr Vangiparipu Venkat Sai Laxman whether he knows his entire name ,he would and surely many of the cricket fanatics that India produces will aslo remember that name though we call him VVS or Laxman in short. But there are others with as many names as the average number of bogies in an Indian train and then you wonder these people remember it all.Maybe thats how our elders went about trying to improve their kids memory :-)

The other important thing is the naming phenomenon. Kabir the great poet would not be called that but for divine intervention.The Qazi did not want to give sucha name to a poor child.

The other thing is about the names.Usually most people act exactly the opposite of their names.Typically like if a person is called suraj he would not be the bright spark and energy bundle but a cynic exuding negativity:-).

But of course this craze now for exotic names is very interesting.I thought this was restricted to India whn i read that even hollywood celebrities are now trying to find out exotic names so that they can be very unique among the celebrity lot.Calling a kid Maddox because its an exotic Vietnamese name is fine but i imagine what happens when the bundles of names ends.We might soon have small pox and chicken pox as colleagues.

Lastly we in India also want old names for cities.So Calcutta has become Kolkatta. And Bangalore is soon going to bcom or has become Bengaluru(no idea when they change the names it keeps happening)By the way benga in telugu and kannada means worry and ledu is not there.But for all the business having to change the location boards and all the railway stations will now have to re-paint the name.Well this seems to be actually the government is providing jobs for so many people by just changing the name of cities.

What kinda lesser mortal was shakespeare saab to say "whats in a name"??

Focault's pendulum

Well atlast i did manage to finish this book. As i meandered around trying to figure out where the author was meandering around i almost got tired.

I am sure there are many Umberto Eco's fans who found this book amazing but for me it was a lot of crap but a great meaning at the end. Wondered y i had to read about 520 pages to understand this

What the author according to me was trying to say is essentially two important things

1) Everybody tries to build an illusion. Say like my previous post where i took a load of garbage and said it taught me philosophy .Abs crap maybe but i was trying to figure whether others would blv in this. Thankfully they didnt. Probably it was not a story well told. There are some illusions which are common. Isnt there that great story about religion being the opium of the masses . Education is the best one. We are commonly indoctrinated on many issues. Upon this base we will each build our own brand of illusions which make up our ideology and thoughts. A major part of this is our core and the problem is when others differ from us in most of our core ideoligies. We will suffer fools (bcoz they are not different from us) but we will not suffer those who are different .This is when we become fanatics. Our life is built around these illusions.Largely most of us are moderate fools but the fanatics belong to institutions like Opus Dei, Aum shrinkyo and maybe the religious bigots .I built my own story of garbage and psycho babble just to see if there could be commonality but i found more takers for romance than for garbage.

2) Each of us have one high point in life post which we keep tryin to achieve the same. Sachin had his Sharjah post which he has never been the same.Dhirubhai had his shareconference .Unlike sex this is our un super climax on which we really enjoy.There are some who realise this and then go on to thru the motions of life trying to reach minor climaxes. There are others who never realise this and go on tryin to find the pinnacle life. Our pinnacle depends on our own illusion and this illusion will determine the climax and the choices

Now after trying to go thru this psycho- babble i am just trying to figure out what this means to me . I am not sure whether this means anything but this is what i have got from reading this book.

do i sincerely blv in this .I dont think so but it probably doesnt match my illsuison. Is it a paradox like to believe or not to believe . Maybe other guys wills hed some light

duh !!

sometimes traffic and life is a quick teacher??

i was travellin on a narrow flyover with a garbage truck in front.

To avoid the smell i overtook the truck and to my surprise and found an empty stretch.


A muse in my head behind evry problem there lies a beautiful road ahead.

Just as i started zippin and racing toward the end of the flyover i reached a broken piece of the road and almost had a fall.

Muse 2- Slow & steady wins the race

Muse-3 Behind everythin nice is a speedbraker so that u dont get carried away.

Not well put but i guess u get the drift and also i wonder y this happened coincidence or part of life's learnin crash course.

Don

Well since i have written some amount of artciles i thought why not try and write a review.Hence my first attempt at an Hindi movie : Don (2006).

So here it goes

It was not a holiday but i was gettin bored at office and when my friend called and said lets try Don at about 4 in the evening i said yes without much contemplation. I do enjoy AB movies but am def not a SRK fan .I have enjoyed a couple of his movies DDLJ and Swades one in which it was important he acted over the top and in the latter it was perfect acting. Also i had no intention of watchin Don after watchin the original but succumbed to boredom.

So as i entered tha hall surrounded by SRK's multitude of fans and awestruck gals i was ready to have fun but not sure abt it.??

Well the pace of the movie was stupendous. Sometime just b4 the break i wanted to take a break but 4 the right reasons i was a bit too engrossed and needed to give the eyes a rest.As engrossing as MI-2 if not a Bond movie .The second half was not as engrossing but the climax cinched it.Do not want to write about the story as most of us know it.For those who dont watch the movie.

Now the positives

1)SRK - very good acting,SRK seriously rocks as DON a bit over the top at times with his expresions but u dont mind that .In Vijay's role I preferred AB's performance but it is more easy for an Amitabh to be a UP Bhaiyya .SRK was a bit too Englis!! bhaiyya for my liking .Saif had better UPish diction in Omkara.But still we need to give Brownie points to SRK for attempting & carrying of a stellar AB role.

2)Farhan's premise was the dialogue"Don ko pakadna mushkil hi nahi namumkin hai, but the twist in the climax was very nice."Also the story adapatation is good . Pran's role being modified from a circus performer to a biometric expert is an amazing idea.Roma already learning karate b4 hand unlike in the old Don was better.

3)Good cinematography and action...Excellent cinematography n action scenes.Nice gizmos and cars and lastly i liked the touch.Arjuna Rampal using the latest equipment of a infra red keyboard a concept which is just being probably patented by the geeks of the techy world is very interestin!!!.Tech-savvy in Hindi movies .. impressive

4)Excellent costumes. Kareena is prob no match for Helen in grace but suave and sexy she is and she does manage to seduce the audience and me??.Isha looks goods adds glamour but is purely an item gal.Now she is A+ movie item gal.Congrats on the promotion Isha

5)Roma or Priyanka Chopra :for me it is Zeenat Aman who is the suave one but Priyanka is good .Costumes are amazing compared to Krrish and amazing looks .The swimsuit was nice but the other costumes could have been better.After watching her intro I did think that probably she can be our answer to catwoman or even Ms Zeta Jones in Entrapment.


Dissapointments

!) Music lets down the film.While Yeh mera dil was good, and Aaj ki raat was good the rest of the songs were a bit of a letdown.The title song had great visualizations but there was a lull in the tempo. Expected more from the trio of music composers

2)The second half shows y we r still not up there.Killing a mafia don ie. the Don's boss seems to be 2 easy.... .Few glitches while a helicopeter is there in the final fight Roma's save of the Don doesnt have this machinery interrupting why?? .Lastly the Malay police must be very easy.Worse than Indian police def..

3)Wasting Om Puri in that role...criminal act . neednt need him in the movie just another actor

Well what is my suggestion go for it def, dont compare and it is def a fullto timepass!!! and lastly if u r a SRK fan must watch it:-)

Ratings : ***

Traffic games

If not a oxymoron, it sounds funny.What do you infer from this traffic cops playing some cop's union games. some online website teachin u the rules of traffic.Well just read my entire post and u wld really be adding on ur comments on this...

Well this is a post after sometime, the delay being to some laziness and some mindgames being played. My mind was in utter chaos like the traffic jams of Bangalore and Hyderabad.again I mention the word traffic and without making you the proverbial curious cat let me talk about traffic in my city Hyderabad.

The Players

Pedestrians!!!
This guy or gal would qualify as the emperor of the domain over which he works. Remember the way you were taught to cross the road.First look left, then right and then cross. Well my co-city habitants are very straightsighted,skysighted etc.These rules dont apply here.Walk as you want and the others can weave around u irrespective of whether its a car,an auto or truck..

Cars!!!
Remember the phrase keep to the right end of the road.Overtake from left.Well we dont blv in that .Just take the Khairatabad flyover on amorning.In between cars and buses you wind bikes scattered.

Bikes!!!
Go slow!!! go fast!!! My strength, I am lithe ,i can weave out and weave in. Wheeling is fun but how about doing it in a city centre when astounded travellers and pedestrians and myself will look at myself in awe and feel i am the man!!!yo!!!.These are typically collegians or pulsar and yam addicts but then u have the terrific lunas .Man i am slow so i should be in the center of the road .abt others i care a hoot!!!

Buses!!!
Not as bad as Delhi but most young passengers could alight anywhere , could get in anywhere and the bus if its in traffic jam will blow the horn to no end!!!.It will stop not at a stop, would be atleast 20 meters away and ya will stop not on the side but in between the road.Also the passengers could spit out while the bus is movin. Bad luck if you are caught

Well I see you r gettin the picture

Lastly the most imp players

Autowallah or autowaadu or autokaaran... The king but for the kingmaker .This guy size is in between so he sets his own path.As rajni would say (en vari thanni vari!!!!) my path is unique.I do everythin all the above players will do but i can do much more.Abuse nickname is me .Meters are neatly done(we r no chennai yet).and dare you say anything to one then we gang up.

The kingmaker :

Welcome the most imp player.Bad salaries therfore i have to fine offenders .Traffic management comes later.Cm's and ministers and important ppl matter .Rules are for the public not for me as a kingmaker .If ther is traffic jam i will solve it but God says he will help those who help themselves and therefore i will help if the things become bad.Lastly i have a pecking order.The guy at the bottom has the boot .He manages the traffic and has to endure the pollution.Well i guees you know who this is.Nobody is cared of me for the right reasons.If i raise a baton ppl will try and escape and i wldnt mind I will catch the next bird and y r they scared of me only bcoz i can lighten thier pocket.Here i am the most helpful reducing thier burden and they run away!!!!!!

Well lastly some rules.

1)If somebody plays right make sure they dont do that gain.Abuses,Cuts etc will help
2)If you are at crosswords after the light turns red fro me i will continue moving along for atleast 15 secs before the baton is passed to the next set of members who start moving.If i am a bus doesnt matter blare the horn and move.
3)Rains are fun.Lets drench ourselves and others.Also it will soon be ajam so lets race fast with no consideration

Objective: To reach your destination in t5he fastest time and having no patience...

Lets PLAY

Well thats traffic for you in Hyd the city which scares the daylights of every other person from another city.Also you might have one q what am i in this.I am all of this just like naother Hyderabadi.Usually we r most sedate about 70% that is we follow the proper traffic rules and not the game.But 30% of us whobelieve in the game and play it in the true spirit with strategy and tactics. But this is enough to make my city the worst traffic city in the nation.This lack of rules makes this city have jams rather than lack of space and i am def surprised it has rather less no of accidents.

Well got to go reach my destination playing the traffic board and inspite of support from the players i will win- will def reach there.

God bless me and all ofcourse and hotspeed!!!:-)

RAIN!!!

For the umpteenth time this year there was rain in Hyderabad and yet there was this unbearable humidity and I was wondering why??. Was it the global warming and the artic icecap melting mentioned by a TV channel that was the cause.We've heard of tsunami's, hurricanes, typhoons, every water related disaster over the past few years

As usual Dad was planning for the next travel segment.
Mom suggested i go and get some vegetables for tommorow and some eats for dad's journey.. I should have complained , cribbed but somehow the pouring rain and the intense humidity made me decide to go out. I was planning to take the car and was opening the gates when I saw an old thaatha walking with an unmbrella.The pouring rain was slight drizzle infact and I decided to get an umbrella (If a thaatha (grandpa) could do it so could I reasoned my inane brain)

I walked over to the neighbourhood Trinethra and gave some business to Haldiram.No Indianness here just didnt find Kurkure abs Indian in taste, but owned by an MNC.
Just as I was payin the bill entered a young couple with a baby running into the supermarket along with their kid. The mother holding her baby now just put her for a moment into the cart at the supermarket.Whatever be the reason, whether it was the spokes of the cart or the lack of a comfort from its mother the baby let out a wail and startled most of us inside.I walked out immediately into the now pouring rain thx to the baby's wail.

A bulb from a bandi's (vendor-cart) seemed to throw its light on the raindrops reflected of the road to create the amazing set of diamonds. The bandi was selling hot mirchi's and aloo bondas. The rain and the heavy wind gave me a sufficent excuse to grab a bite of both. As I walked back towards home I saw another family sharing a single umbrella father , mother and son of abt 12 years and walking oblivious to the rain.

The newly formed rivulets and streams flowed as i walked down the slope of the road which leads to my house. I did wish that I could then immediately make those paper boats( the fav pasttime in rainy days during my childhood) and let them navigate along these.

All that was missing in this romantic moment was a gal of my dreams to suddenly appear a la bollywood style.

Well as the romantic in me popped up and the cynic took a backseat ireached tha gate and got drenched a bit b4 i got in.The smell of hot paranthas cooked by mom made me want to eat again but I and the mirchi bajji's in my stomach decided that I would capture this in my blog b4 i am back to my fav pasttime- eating !!

Well here is the post and I hope to hear from some frnds on the comment section on this part of my blog atleast. Lastly thanx for the rain ,I just hope ther is more:-)

Lage raho(continue) ya badal dalo(change it)!!

Life is all bout change, its always at a constant state of flux.Thats what makes change so important... Yet somehow the very word change makes one feel nervous. A new place, new person, a new job, a new environment all this at first sounds very uncomfortable.But change is important for growth!!!

Thats y it is always interestin to meet or to read about the harbingers of change. These ppl are internally driven and can motivate a lot of ppl for thier own good. One of my fav books is the biography of Jack Welch also nicknamed Neuton Jack. The man as CEO of GE brought so many changes including axing of ppl which meant they never liked him. Yet 20 years later he is seen as one of the most influential corporate leaders of modern America and now is as famous as the MNC that he once was an employee of.

Two things made me write abt this word in my blog. Personally I might soon move on to something better (hopefully) & two watched a movie called Lage Raho Munnabhai.

Bapu was always an interestin personality to me . I remember an Einstein quote which says that "people centuries later will never blv that a person such as Gandhi could have walked the earth." Respected internationally it is in India that we seem not to like him. Infact for a long time in child hood I would blv that he was the cause of partition...and the cause of our present troubles something which many of my friends continue 2 blv. But this movie and much b4 that a book called Freedom at Midnight made me realize the power of this naked fakir. A man who used just two words satya + agraha to move the colonial empire on which the sun cld never set. Something which most of us blv are just words and not weapons by any cost.Yet these are the words which changed the destiny of half the world and inspired future leaders of today such as Dalai Lama, Nelson MAndela and Desmond Tutu. These are the words which have also drafted the lives of all post- Independent India which includes the you and the me. Change was the last thing he feared and the first thing he wanted.

Today as i encounter my own nervousness and personal demons when there is fear caused by change or ... ,I always say to myself "Dont fear, Lage raho aur badal dalo..." and it has worked from workin in a company in a enviroment where fear pervaded . here am I wanting to change myself not out of fear or by anxiety but so that I cld grow.

As the movie says "Tension nahi lenaka"...

"Lage raho suri bhai ..."

A LITTLE BIT OF THIS AND A LITTLE BIT OF THAT!!!

Well 59 years of independence and it was indeed a bit of time-check for the nation.I read three reports regarding the status of the nation.

The first article was an interview with one of the oldest and venerated judge Mr V K Krishna Iyer who at 91 seemed rather sad that today nobody seems to follow the constitution.He seemed very bitter about India's socialistic ideals not gettin fulfilled and also that a marxist CM of Bengal saying his state was a capitalist state deeply saddened him. He was equally sad that Gandhi and Nehruvian ideals were not being followed.The only hopeful thing was young India

The second was a statement on how small Indian companies are going international not as body shoppers or producing low cost items but trying to be a niche upper crust brand in international venues. Y is this relevant today bcoz we r seen as a third world country promoting the former with a few exceptional companies.

The third was an article on how Warren Buffet had donated his money to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation instead of his immediate family.

For me each was an important cog to building a strong India.

The nation might be growing real fast.We have the best brains in the world and the most corrupt ppl. It would be amazing if we could thru technology reduce the amount of corruption to only the top brass of industry and political leadership and not to the lower bureacracy and the common man. This is where America is succesful.While corruption is a big issue and there are defence kikcbacks there is no corruption involved for building house, for getting a ration card , for a clerk's job in the government etc...

Two the idea of capitalism is not that bad.When an individual or a company is looking at being big, it always looks at improving individual productivity.The more entreprenurial we get , we get more innovative we get and the more productive.This is the basis of a good capitalist economy. Socialism makes ppl lazy and we get dependent on the state. Kerala,Soviet Union, West Bengal of the past are the best example of these failures.Socialism is more relevant when a capitalist like Warren Buffet and Bill Gates use their money to promote social causes.They have made money but also understand the social obligation.

Lastly the dream of young India and small India to grow big internationally is the only way forward. It makes me dream of something big and maybe achieve something sizeable.

We may not be ther and getting there. As a young Indian I am not a cynic. I think in the end there is hope, there is a way ahead. Something I do is identify small orphanages with commited people at the helm and donate in kind along with my group of college friends. I probabaly dont do enough but having done four projects in the last year I am more than happy.All these orphanages were run by young Indians who believed that they have to grow big but they have a responsibility to their nation.

Lastly an article read a few years back probably makes the moot point. An NRi returned to India after making sufficient money. He established a library in Bangalore with about a crore of money in Bangalore. He allows youngsters in Bangalore across all age and social groups to visit the library and browse for as low as Rs .50ps a day . The reason he takes that money he does not believe in a free meal.

That for me is the ideal ideal combining a little bit of socialism with the a little bit of capitalism and making our own version so that we could go ahead ..........

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY INDIA !!!

Time@#$

A precious commodity for most business managers, how much do i value it as a person. I know that i need to go early or either i get a scold from my boss or i sign in late and money is lost.I know i have to be right on time to be at a customer atleast 5 min advance neither more than that nor less than that states my joining manual with the current employer.

My dad an early riser would love me to wake up early and manage my time.

Well in many ways it is the most perishable commodity but to many ppl it could mean many things.

A software person on the bench is waiting and waiting and minutes seem hours, a person at the hospital waiting when his loved person id be in operated on and for him it also seems that minutes are more like hers . The same software person with his job and deadline the hours would seem like minutes and the kid who has fun ,hours seems like minutes.

Thats time for u absolutely incongrous.

Well y did i write this , i wanted to spend time, its probably a past time. Time and tide wait for no man runs the famous cliche.Yet we never understand the value of time, a day a moment... i do wonder tho i who have taken time to understand time have i lost time or gained time??.

Yama Hindu God of Death

dyin is easy but livin is hard

Actually this was the msg on my frnds gtalk. Set me into a thought debate .Is it true.

Livin is after all easy. u do what u r assigned 2 do and life takes u to death.Never been ther yet but i wonder what wld it be like moments b4 death. would be it a new experience, wld it be the fear of goin someplace new.would be it easy 2 die, a peaceful death or somethin very painful and hard.

Ask a patient dying with excruciating pain and he would say dying is easy than living with pain.There i go talking abt euthanasia and prob making this a CAT g.d.

I know it is hard when u r tryin to take u r own life, im sure it must be tough as hell,livin is relatively easy.

One of my favourite movies is called "Meet Joe Black". Brad Pitt and Anthony Hopkins bring great character to this movie.Pitt is a deathangel who comes to take Anthony Hopkins character(ahc) to the other world. He assumes the body of a man who ahc's daughter is in love with. Now AHC asks for time b4 they go to the netherworld.This short time is when AHC learns to live and also when the deathangel understands the importance of life and living.Finally when oits time to live AHC is ready to die happily after spending a few moments of happiness and life while Brad Pitt would love to be human and enjoy life!!!.Death is just a continuation of Life!!! as AHc puts it

About the debate Im not clear ,whether its easy or hard doesnt matter, but what i have understood is that having the life and being true to life is more important,its equally important that i take time to live and be happy and if i am blessed, will die peacefully and happily.

Mktng in the e-world.

The world is bcoming an increasingly internetconnected place. The other day i got my first taste of e-mktng. AXN gave me the first hand experience of this and also showed me the way to build loyal consumers.

My colleague wrote an article on "blind as a bat". An artcile basically if i can follow on the echo technology used by animals like bats n dolphins.

Well while that ws interesting , what was amazing was AXN actually mentioned the viewer in their website , added a comment to the blog and my colleague was telling me i am gonna be an avid viewer of AXN for a long time. One loyal customer gained.

Thats for u mktng as it shld be, absolute connect with its customer and audience!!!

Welcome indeed to the world of e-marketing

Growin up !!!

It was William Wordsworth who quoted " The child is the father of man".. Words which seems funny considering the biology of it.

But looking at it in a different light the wise and the genius among us always seem to have a child like innocence and child like enthusiasm for life.As a child i always seemed to want to grow up. I wanted to be everything from superman to another gandhi to even be arjuna and Big B of the morrow.There was enthusisam in taking a walk and admiring the beauty of the place, enthusiasm to travel in the old rickety ambassadors and the innocence of a kid who just does not bother abt gender.


Today's me is not there. Innocence is past. every body i meet i greet with a cynic 's view. From an age when I would say i can analyse anybody i meet and mostly come out with good views on everybody today i would like to talk about networking and meetin ppl. Y ,bcoz i am hopin that maybe someday they wld be helpful to me just as they hope i am to them. While it is a give n take relationship we r developin it does leave u lonely. My close frnds r mostly from my age of innocence. That is almost the case with most frnds.

I met this interesting individual recently who does not blv in anybody including his parents. Mukesh n Anil Ambani seem to fight n destroy the legacy of their Dad.God is a dirty word nowadays.Every other person is a athiest.

Well what i am i tryin 2 prove!!!. Just wish that one can still be looking at the world thru a child eyes and views. It would be so much more simple. Find joys in the smallest of things a flower, even the innocence and joy with which we cld meet strangers. God was a frnd then , can he again be now??

The only thing i can figure here is that Mr Wordsworth was right " the child is indeed the father of man". The child's inocence makes him sane in this crazy world.

Someday I wld like to be that a child and a happy one 2,!!!

The ramifications of a uni-polar world.

For a long time the world had two super powers U.S.S.R and the U.S.A . In this modern and technologically advanced world unfortunately there is a single power the States . This sad development has lead to so many abuses. Inspite of the U.S. being my favourite country for the way it handles a multi cultural democracy it also fosters upon itself and the world through an election a single man as a leader. And unfortunately as is the bane of democracy the election can always elect an absolutely innappropriate person to head the nation.

This in the recent past has lead to mishandling of issues from Iraq to Isreal to India. Notice the rather "I" policy that States seems to be following.It is always the US interest at first and not the world interests at large.Iraq is a mishap which is already happened, Isreal with all the problems that it face due to a largely Muslim neighbourhood and a militant Hezbollah has now become a violent aggressor .It gets its bombs from the states feeding the US war machinery which feeds the richest in America.

India is told to control its nuclear capabilities whereas Pakistan gets its F-16's.

The world looks for leadership but it is foolishness which is happening here.
In a fanatically religious world which happens to be a creation of the cold war and divided sides technology has meant the most destructive weapon.Information is available to all and misguided jihadists seem to be making the best of it trying to be the only power to take on the States and its allies specially Isreal.China the largest country is very inward looking.Where does a solution lie??

Unfortunately there is no solution to this unless there is a multi-polar world with almost equally powerful economies which does not seem to happen for some time to come!!!

What is the difference between man and Superman??.
Superman wears his underwear(undi's) outside.

Thus spks the old pj .

As the world revisits its oldest superheroes on the screen, Superman enhanced with 3d effects we in India also decided to meet our own and first Indian superhero Krrish.Well both of them r currently rocking the Indian box office and they are also going regional to speak to the common man in his own language.

What's the story like. They r both in luv with a gal and both r ready to fight with a villian who wears business suits and is more vile but far less techno-savvy compared to the villains of other superheroes like a Spiderman or Batman and both get their strength from the outer space (superman from his planet and its all jadoo literally for Krrish) .

What do we like so much bout these guys,that they have a grt costume, thy have a amazing strength, or that it just feels good to be aspiring to be the saviour of the world !!!.

Kaikoo shld one be a superhero , kya hai itna special??????.

A few days later we have terrorists inflicting bomb attacks on that battered city mumbai already troubled by exploding population, radical followers of a destroyers sena(shiv sena & simi ) and infrastructure problems too.

what was good tho about this incident was that the common man suddenly became superheroes.
Ppl carried injured on readymade stretchers, on their backs. Kids distributed evrything from water and food, donated blood.Communities didnt matter,it was the much viled jihadi community 's comman man which actually was the saviour helping a lot of the victims.

Media as usually reported (they cant do anythin else), our celebrities took a walk to disturb the evening traffic and yaa muslim community leaders imams requested their counterparts in the muslim world to not indulge in terrorism but infact did nothing.what was comforting infact was they helped by doing nothing and not playing the blame game.But alas not for long Modi is back typically to play villain and make us hindus aware of our identity and rights.

Well another thing happened last week Agni 3 failed , insat 4c failed and immediately q's were asked by the media of the scientific capability. Well they dont blv in failure as learning process anyway (esp super star tv , who cant accept one single failure of indian , they have to bash a indian cricket team for a failure or take it to extraordinary hghts when they have success) and nobody realises the effort our scientists put inspite of idiotic politicians , minimilastic budgets and all the embargoes by international counterparts which prevents them to succeed.

Even superman fails to krypton, spiderman is actually a kid who cant confess his love and yaa batman creates villains bcoz of his mistakes.

Well for all the iconic screen supeheroes I take my hat of to a persevering rahul dravid, a enduring abdul kalam and our indian scientists whose mistakes are a evolving process and most of all the common man of India who inspite of all the problems refuses to be a naxal and terrorist but prefers to be just that a common man with an aspiration of a better tomorrow.

I cldnt think of a punchline to close this but well thats what i am just a common man with not so grt a punch .Powaah!!!

well kaikoo(y) blogging kaiko(why)?? ?????????????
No idea !!!
It is probably a part of my online journey ,one more cog to creating an online me. While i started of from e-mailing to orkutting, i realised there was one part that got lost and that was blogging.

Let me start rambling and while i hope that i cld provoke a few ppl to listen(rather than hear me out) there is always the hope that my online self would listen to me and provoke me to go further.

As my mind dawdles on what to write trying to ape tarzan on swinging from a topic to another let me start of by introducing myself.

Me as the kaiko will tell u is a true blue hyderabadi with a fondness for irani chai , biryani and biscuts (biskuts and not cuts to get the hyderabadi lingo right!!!) and and also to show you the bigger picture a hyderabadi from India .

I always thought it would be easy to write a thought provoking article on journalism but as i find myself drifting trying to do a page 1 i do not find my ideal start. Since it is journalism that brought me here let me see if i cld bring u upto date on an article by barkha dutt( she the one who inspired preity in lakshya and atleast one fair and lvly ad) on the story of a modern woman on india.She is a topper in her school and would net get to join he best college in town for want of her parents being illiterate and ya also for not being the emerging middle class and the upper crust of indian society .Well so much for the fair and lvly ad and the india shining campaign.
well as a hindi song goes and the cynic in me says "bhai hum to jaise hai, waise hi rahenge" trying to be more british than the britishers in apost britain india and proving that colleges would like to be avialable to the crema da le creme or be the spring board for indian yuppies and not harbingers of change in modern india.

well its not so easy to ramble after all. i had to take barkha's help to ask kaikoo?? after all .But as my blogging journey evolves i hope to provoke quite a few of my frnds and yaa more importantly me!!!!