The Alchemist

kehte hain,
agar kisi cheez ko dil se chaho,
to poori kayanat usse tumse milane ki koshish me lag jaati hai
- Om Shanti Om

“When you want something, all the world conspires in helping you to achieve it.”
- The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho

Does it hold true the other way?
Does the whole world conspires against you when you want to achieve something or want someone?

Maribetta Trek - part 1

Last whole week I tried my best to convince people for a trip to Hampi. But somehow it didn't work. And then I left it on Nams to arrange a some small trek on weekend. Thursday night we got the good news that we were going to 'Somewhere'.

Nams's plan was like this - 'Some' of us are ready for the trek. 'Some' of us are not free on Saturday morning. So we leave 'Sometime' in afternoon to drive down to 'Someplace'. It's an hour long drive, and a small trek. We will trek in evening and stay on the top. Sleep there in night, enjoy the lovely morning and then come back after breakfast. Then drive back to Bangalore. We will be back by noon.

So far so good.

Satuday morning 11am I get a call from Nams. She says, "We are supposed to leave at 12 noon. Jiju is taking his car. We will 'Somehow' adjust in that. So come fast, we have to collect the sleeping bags and food stuff." I, still half-awake on a lovely Saturday morning, rushed through my morning chores and met her at 12:10 pm. I haven't had lunch as yet and a 'lunch-time' was not there in Nams's itinerary. I am missing something for sure.

12:45 we pick the sleeping bags and move to drop them to Sheru's place. I see a ray of hope. Sheru is supposed to be a good cook. So like a besharam, I ask her to invite me for lunch. She obliges (I hope she did not think that this lunch will compensate the IceCream deal). Khichdi is on the menu and trust me it sounds so great on a day when you have taken it for granted that your are missing your lunch. We wait at Sheru's place for khichdi to get prepared and in mean time Nams calls other. They are all 'on their way'. Jiju is 'ready'.

I have nice khichadi at 1:30pm [yes, you read it right. We were 'supposed' to leave at 12] and then move to Tasty Bites to pick up food for evening. It's 2:30 and now Nams recalls that she has to take permission from her dad. There's not much time left for that, so chuck permission. She informs her about the trek. The stage is set for a mahasangram as soon as she is back from trek [coming soon in next episode of kyunki apni bhi kabhi ek beti thi]. Nams collects her bag and we all meet on Kanakpura Road. Jiju is 'ready' and is 'on his way'. The eternal wait. He comes at 4:00 pm and finally we are all set to go.

We are 7 of us and Jiju's car can not accomodate more than 5. Matter-of-factly I was asked to ride my Honda Dio. I knew it was coming. God save me!!!

In the mean time I get a call saying one of my uncle [some family friend. I have not met him in this lifetime] is coming to town at 4:30 and he is supposed to stay at my place. I am in dharam-sankat. I think for a moment, and eureka!!! Call ravi/chandu/saurabh and tell him to host the uncle. Afterall even I have not met this uncle yar. Problem solved. :)

And we start on our journey.

5 of them in Jiju's car.
And 2 of us on my ram-pyari dio. :)

sunday morning musing

Two months back when I was contemplating about resigning from the work, I tried to imagine my life two months from that time; Time when all my interviews would be over and the eternal wait for results would be my only companion. Brilliant - one word that will describe whatever I saw in those dreams. A life filled with rainbow colors and soothing sounds.

Today when I seat at that junction, I see the picture is not exactly what I saw. It's very different, in fact. I can always crib about things that happen around me, and attribute all the missing color to such events. But it is not going to serve any purpose. The fact will remain that I simply let it happen this way. I just got settled in the lazy life and let myself get drifted in whatever came my way. I did not chart my own paths. And that made all the difference.

When I look back to those days of office-home-classroom hustle and bustle, I feel so strange. I find it difficult to imagine myself in those situations. I feel proud of each one of those moments, coz I know I cannot have dreamed them for myself. They just came my way. And I went with the flow. Again, I did not chart my own paths. And that made all the difference.

Now, if I try to imagine my life 2 month hence, the picture is not so clear. There are too many ifs-and-buts before anything becomes certain. Somehow I have got used to this flowing with the wind lifestyle, and I know I am going to enjoy it for a long time to come. When they ask me what do you want to specialize in your MBA course, my answer is invariably "I don't know as of now, I would want to go there and have a feel of everything before deciding anything." Some of my well wishers have scolded my for this indecisiveness but I know I am just saying "I want to go with the flow" in a sophisticated way.

ps: I know today is Saturday, but then for a jobless person each day is sunday. :)

guerilla marketing

bangalore rain

I felt it while in train the last time I was coming from Mumbai. Bangalore rain is one of those things that made me stay here 7 years back. And this is one thing that will make my parting from city so bloody difficult.

While in train, I could feel the cool breeze carrying the smell of wet soil. It was raining at a distance. How I wish that I was near that horizon getting drenched in the first rain of the season. Within minutes we were in mid of rains. What a relief it was after the humid and tiring Mumbai summer. More so coz it was something I have been in love with.

It is raining again. I can smell the damp soil.

This is the best time to be in Bangalore.

Bangalore Rocks!!!

Required

A recruitment ad for AajTak [you will find it in your favorite job site in near future]:

Post: Social Networking Specialist [Job Code: AJTK01]
Job Responsibility: Applicant will be involved in researching the social life of celebrities. The job will involve finding authentic reference material from Orkut/Hi5/Facebook.
Skills: Applicant should be a certified Orkut expert. Knowledge of Facebook will be a plus. [Candidates with less than 350 orkut friends please do not apply]

Post: Sports entertainment Specialist [Job Code: AJTK02]
Job Responsibility: Applicant will have to work as our inhouse expert on WWE and TNT wrestling games. He/she will have to host an 1-hour show on heroics of Khali on daily basis. In future there are plans to extend this to some other upcoming athletes from Indian origin.
Skills: Knowledge and understanding of WWE/TNT is must. Application should be well versed in life-history of Khali.

Post: Kareena affair expert [Job Code: AJTK03]
Job Responsibility: Application will be involved in tracking the ever changing world of love-affairs for our beloved Kareena. He/she will host a 1-hour show thrice a week updating the world about love-life of Kareena.
Skills: Knowledge about history of Kareena's love-affairs is a must. Applicant should be a qualified mobile-movie maker. He should be an expert in finding Kareena's ex-Boyfriends in any social gathering where Kareena is present.

....

PJ naam he mera

Got this in a forward yesterday. :)

B.L.A.C.K.I.S.

I am a BLACKI.

First time I heard this term, I thought it is one of those 2000 words that every MBA-aspirant is supposed to know. Damn!!! I should have done those word lists before the exams.

As soon as I got the chance, I asked another BLACKI the meaning of being a BLACKI. I hoped it was not a cult or something. As it turned out, it is one of those pagalguy slang word that every CAT-taker is supposed to know. Damn!!! why did I not become a pagal-guy? :)

And in the due course I came to know some more such words. It's a really nice world out there. My favorite is puys which is basically a shorthand for PagalgUYS.

And here comes the spoilers. Now that 7th IIM is on its way to be established (RGIIM Shillong), what will be the new name for the bonds (007)?
My vote for BLACKIS. :)

ps: I have become a BLACKIS today. The call letter from RGIIM reached my door sometime back. I wonder what they have been doing all these while. :)

linkin park - opening

Yes, here it is. I have found the new anthem. This song is playing continuously on my system for some days now.

Simply brilliant.

Song - Opening
Album - Reanimation
Artist - Linkin Park

peace

I slept for 4 hours in afternoon.
What a joy it was!!!

random thought generator

Nehru-Gandhi family has done one good thing for our country. They did not follow the British way of naming their kids [actually the same system used to be followed in India also]. So we don't have Jawahar Nehru II or Rajeev Gandhi Jr. Imagine how our country would have looked like if they had had such family names.
- Rajeev Gandhi III Indian Institute of Management, Bellari [RG3IIM]
- Jawahar II Road, Amethi
- Rahul Gandhi Jr. Internation Air Port, Raibareli
- Sonia Gandhi Sr. Grameen Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme 2020 [Surely ver 30 of these scheme will also come into reality].

Indian Railways have come a long way from those a-cockroach-a-seat arrangements to today's cleaned-by-ppp-venture. Still most of the new changes and improvements have just been able to touch only a few of the trains. Its more like that 80-20 rule of management. I traveled Bangalore-Mumbai by two different trains in last one month. And the difference was clearly visible. Udyan Exp can anyday beat Coimbtore Exp on scale of cleanliness or service.

And why cannot the authority control the menace of Eunuchs and Beggars in train? In every five minutes someone will come to disturb your peace. The vendors from IRCTC also do not mind these intrusion in their territory. Another challenging question is how to streamline food-vending business on train. Though we have a IRCTC run pantry car in the train, vendors from outside keep coming to sell you stuff whose quality is not guaranteed. Train should be made exclusive for IRCTC vendors once it is off the platform. These demarcation should help vendors on the station too.

One of the most common you are asked before an MBA interview [while waiting outside with the group] these days is "oh so are you on pagalguy?" Man this pagalguy is the talk of the town. Hats off to whoever thought of this concept and is helping so many lives. My initial reaction to this site was that it is just a crap, but now I know that it is actually a boon for CAT-takers. Give-&-Take rocks!!!

every army needs a flag

And I have just found mine.

:)

S8-43

Last time it was S8-43 seat. This time it is S8-43.

Sometime It is very difficult to run away from somethings.

Sunday morning dose of hockey

Sports is a good teacher. How Dream-a-Dream has utilized it as a medium to channelize raw energy of so many children is an inspiring story. My knowledge and association with the hockey program has been very less. But somehow each session I attended has been a really good learning time.

Meeting No. One

I recall visiting Ananya on my day 2 at D-a-D. We had been there with a guest volunteer from Sweden. He wanted to teach the kids game of Ultimate Frisbee. A very nice game. But more important was the fact that it was my first interaction with these kids. The way they accepted me in their world was an eye opener for me. The smile on their face of so natural and contagious. Their simplicity was really inspiring.

And I continued with D-a-D. I feel that visit to Ananya and my meeting with Vishal played the most crucial role in my association with D-a-D. I really owe it up to them.

Meeting No. Two

Next time I watched these kids playing hockey was on KSHA stadium in Shantinagar in some school level tournament. They were playing against Sarla Birala Academy (SBA). D-a-D team (or KSHA team as it is better known as) played really matured game and won the match easily. That day I sat in the gallery with the parents of SBA kids. Their reactions during the match were really interesting. Initially they seemed ignoring the KSHA team and writing them off as minnows (with some amount of sympathy factor). But as the match progressed, many of them seem to start enjoying the performance by these kids. They seem to respect them for what they showed on the field. And that was the victory for KSHA team in my definitions. Take me as I am and respect me for what I am. Another interesting observation from this match was the team skills that were displayed by KSHA team. They seemed to be working as one entity and really enjoyed each other's success. I could surely say at that moment that we have succeeded in channelizing them so well. For a cause. For themselves.

Meeting No. Three

Third time I watched these kids playing was last Sunday. Again the opponent were SBA. SBA campus on Bannerghatta Road served as the venue. One of the first thing I could notice while entering the school was its grand building and well maintained fields. I thought that our kids also will find it amusing. But most of them just seem too uninterested in that. When someone like me who has been part of a similar school had jaws open at the scene of majestic main building, how could these kids accept it so matter of factly? I could not find the answer at that moment.

Match started on time and soon we were all fully lost in the game. First half was not a good show for KSHA team. That one of their key player was too indulged in playing glorious [he was not at all passing the ball, kept dodging 2-3 players and then losing the control] was one of the thing that everyone noticed. This was a real change from the last time I saw these kids. KSHA was trailing behind by two goals at half-time.

In the break these observations was brought in to the notice of that player, and he accepted it too. But then he had his own complaints too. And one of the loudest [that I could hear from a distance] was "put his photo in paper tomorrow, and he will win the game for you" [not the exact words, but the tone was the same]. And this was something really unexpected. I have known this 'team' for its team-skills and selfless game. This charge was something of a shock for me.

But second half of the game was totally different from the first half. Somehow the pep-talk given in the break worked well with the players and the 'team'. The usual team game was on display and everyone enjoyed it. Final score of 5-3 in KSHA's favor says a lot about the effort that was put in second half.

And the post match analysis

Coming back to my observations from the game, these players [or at least some of them] have been part of this team for a long time. They have been playing quality hockey [even the captain of SBA agreed to it after the match] and have done well as a team. But what I felt that day was the team is getting in a new phase. I feel there are two changes that are coming in this team with the time.
1. Some of the older players have reached a stage where their ego has become bigger than the game [or the purpose of playing it]
2. Because of the age and experience, now there is wide difference in the quality of game of senior players as compared to the newcomers.

And that brings me to the question that, isn't it the right time to give the seniors their due respect and get something more challenging for them. The motive here would be to channelize the energy again and keep them motivated. Moving them to a different league would also mean that even the small kids will have a good chance of playing. [for the first time I heard many of the kids requesting the coach to let them play in the match]. I am sure that this is going to be another giant of a challenge for D-a-D. But I feel if we do not start working on it now, we will miss the purpose.

ps: Whatever I have written here is something that I felt at that moment. It's strictly my personal observations. Most of it could be wrong, or overstated owing to my ignorance. But I strongly feel that itz coming.

The Bridge on the River Kwai

Excellent movie. It should be used as a teaching aid in a modern day classroom. Colonel Nicholson is a character that can be used as a model for a leader.
He does not relent to the Japanese camp commander on the issue of 'captured officers' right of exemptions of manual labour'. He stands by the principles and more importantly makes sure his officers get what is their rightful honor.
He takes up the task of building a better bridge for Japanese citing two reasons.
1. He wants to show the Japanese the superior British ingenuity.
2. He wants his team to be busy in some work or other. Sitting idle would do a lot of harm to their moral and motivations.
True indeed. A team's pride in its capabilities and moral is its biggest strength.

Dhoni has been a refreshing change that Indian Cricket has gone through. He seem to have done a magic on this batch of cricketers. His confidence, his commitment is really commendable. Watching the team [both the young as well as old players] these days is a treat in itself. The way Sachin and Yuvi were cheering each other while batting was a superb example of newly found pride in our capability. Bhajji and Praveen looked so energetic on the field. Everyone supporting each other. We should be really thankful to the mighty Australians to have given us a chance to build such a great team spirit. We have stood the strongest in the face of challenge. And that is the biggest win for Indian cricket team in this summer.

index of happiness

I recently had a realization that my frequency of blogging is directly proportional to peace of my mind. It will not take much time for anyone to come to conclusion that I have lost some peace of mind in last few days. Yes I have. And I am trying hard to get back each bit of it.

Last few days have been too uneventful to find a mention at this blog place. I had lots of things to share but somehow could never find the enthusiasm to sit and compile them. There is a fight going on inside me and I am just not able to sort it out.

Today, just to distract my mind, I watched the cricket match. And man... what a match it was. Australians were brought to their humble(?) feet. They were stripped of their soul and pride. Some of them actually gave away their clothes too. Bhajji's act after the match shows the maturity and sincerity we Indian showed in the game. Thank God this tour came to an end. I hope they will learn something from it. Arrogance is a disease that has been affecting Australians for long now.

Second event that caught my attention was ransacking of Sasken office by KRV goondas. Some more 'Sons of the Soil'. How can someone enter a private property and still get away with it. What happened [or at least what was communicated to the outside world] is that the alleged employee were taken action against from the company. I do not endorse what that employee did or is supposed to have done but atleast Sasken or the media should have got the full episode in public view. Those goondas just seem to have escaped after all the rioting. Guess what some of the employee also joined them. If this is the kind of Globalization we seem to enjoy, God save us.