ZAPPed

One day after Saap had narrated an exceptionally fantastic tale of her adventure, Zapp was unusuallly more ecstatic and in disbelief asked, "Do these things really happen?"
"You should go to such places and find out for yourself, dear," replied Saap.
"Myself? How can I visit these places on my own? I am just a little kid and these places are so far away."
"Far away? How can you know they are far away till you go there? Then once you are there it doesn't matter how far it is, because you are already there."
"But I don't know the way?"
"I wouldn't worry about that either."
"Where do I start, which direction?"
"That shouldn't matter, you haven't seen any direction."
"And how far do I go?"
"Until you think you have found something."
"What if I don't find anything for long?"
"Do you have anything to find here?"
"What if I find something and I don't like it?"
"That should be the least of your concerns. Ultimately none of it will make any difference," said Saap, looking into a blank space.

ps: Taken from the book 'ZAPP:The Squirel who wanted to fly' by Rachit Kinger. link
About the book:
Set in the jungles amid nature's weirdest animals, "Zapp" is an allegory about individual freedom in contemporary society wherein a happy-go-lucky squirrel travels across the world in search of meaning, freedom and ironically, a sane society. Join Zapp, the brave squirrel, on an adventurous journey across the forests of Pinegrove, on a quest for life.

Incidentally Rachit has done his MBA from IIML. Finally I have found one good book that is written by an IIM grad. Highly recommended.

Jonathan Livingston Seagull

I read Jonathan Livingston Seagull for a second time a couple of days back. It's an inspiring story. I needed it desperately given the stress levels that I had touched just prior to the final placement process.

This final placement process is supposedly the time of reckoning for all of us here. We have been God's favorite child. Be it the change in program structure, the recession, change in placement process and many more such things - we have seen the most challenging of times. And mind you, we have come out strong every time. Sometimes I wondered if it would have been better if I had joined a batch earlier or a batch later (if I had an option!). Well, who knows. I did what was the best for me at that moment. And I have really enjoyed each and every moment from then onwards. I am happy with my results and achievements and that is more than enough for me.

Coming back to placements, it indeed is a very critical moment for each one of us. You may say it is the reward for the efforts we have put in. It can also be an indicator of evaluation of the efforts. Whatever it is, the fact remains that it is the stepping stone into a new world. We are about to leave the 'comfort' of this campus and enter the real world of business where we are expected to deliver results. From the word go. When all eyes are on you, it's a scary feeling. It's not that we are not ready to take up challenges and rise up to those expectations. It's more about finding a reason to do what we are expected to do. The reason. Jonathan's story is about the same. Finding reasons and not just doing things for survival. Kungfu Panda has a similar theme when the Panda tells to himself that 'I am not here to survive... I am here to live.'

Honestly speaking, today I feel that I have got what I wanted. That's my achievement. And my reason to live. Challenge myself and then achieve that goal - I have done it many a times.And the kick that life gets from it is just too amazing. I am in the hangover mood now. There is a lull now. It takes time to find a new goal, you know!
Till then, let me get senti about my last few days in this campus. :(

ps: Nokia to YesKiya. :D

Spiderman

Learnt one very important lesson today...

With Great Power Comes Great Responsibilities and Greater Humility.

I am Pritesh and I just did not like MNIK

Yesterday, I had this very interesting discussion on why MNIK is a bad product advertised well. I totally believed in what I said and the more I think about the more I am convinced as a consumer and as a marketer.

This movie has dealt with a very sensitive issues of discrimination and ill-treatment of Muslims in America and other countries in western world post 9/11. From whatever I read and heard about it in the media, the treatment of events that happened come out very much believable. However, that was not what the movie promised through it's trailers and publicity. It talked about triumph of a human in such a negative environment to bring some hope. SRK as the lead character was to share his dream of how to bring that change. How to do that small bit which will tell us 'Don't think it was end of the world. We can still make a difference.'

However when I see the execution, It really breaks my heart. I had huge expectations from this movie post reading the reviews (specially from some so-called movie critics). When I went to market (cinema hall), I had this perceived expectation from the movie (or if I can say brand MNIK) that I felt was left unsatisfied by the product. The movie as treated the issue at very trivial level, specially the 'i have a dream.. that i can bring a change' part. For most part of the movie, I felt the same self-indulgence that Anurag Kashyap had shown in No Smoking. It was all about SRK, who atleast to me, did a pathetic job as an actor. It was another 2012 for me where the protagonist is the center of the world and we as an audience are supposed to be fooled in being a slave of his adventures for 2 hours or so (much longer in the case of MNIK). Though he actually gets to meet the president (elect) but he missed his 'mission' altogether. There is only one message in the movie that 'I am Rizwan Khan and I am not a terrorist.' Mind you that he had said in first 10 minutes of the movie. I have said something similar as the title of the post. I think I have achieved a big mission too.

That was about the product. However, I feel the advertising did a great job making the buzz about this movie. Controversies regarding SRK, IPL and Shivsena's threats added on to the masala. In recent time it has become very clear that marketing has become an important element in success of any movie. 3 idiots showed us what wonders can good marketing strategy do to a good product. However, I am becoming a little skeptic regarding the controversies that are generated in media just before release of many a big banner films. My heart says they are just a co-incidence and need to come out as they show us the reality while my mind makes me believe that they are just orchestrated marketing gimmicks to create the big buzz for the movie. We all know now the low shelf life (movies in a theatre) that a movie enjoys due to piracy and rise of private entertainment channel. So may be the buzz is necessary to skim the market. I wish that is not the case, coz I as a marketer will never relate to that kind of exercise.

This post I think is as random as my discussion yesterday was. Sometime it is difficult to bring structure to an issue that also involves emotions. I think that is one of my weakness. I hope I am not the only one.

Countdown

I don't really believe in countdowns. A deadline is a deadline is a deadline. Be it fixed externally or set internally to keep up the challenge.

Still I am using a countdown right now. To keep an eye on the end goal. To keep reminding me that how close I am from the destination. Needless to say I am enjoying the journey too. It's like the Great Himalayan Expedition. Your end goal is to reach the summit (and of course come back alive) but you can not ignore the pleasure and pain that you experience in your journey. Each and every moment teaches you something. I am learning a lot of new things now. About myself. About things around me.

I remember the joy I had while preparing for my IIM admission interviews. It's more or less the same feeling now. My AIM is all set. I just hope the luck favors at the right moment.

It's all about dreams

ps: Raghu Dixit's music is very fresh (the album is old, just that I heard it now). Check out his full album call The Raghu Dixit project. You will surely enjoy most of the songs.

Indian Ocean live

Indian Ocean performed in DAIICT last night. It was going to be my second chance to see them live. It's been three years since their mesmerizing performance at Palace Ground as part of Bangalore Habba. A long enough gap to be yearning again for some more of them. So here I was - desperate, ready to go all the way to Gandhinagar, in spite it being the d-day (the day when I was to start my prep) for me. PooCh, as usual, came to my rescue and became my partner in crime. This was a brave and generous move considering the fact that one of his friends is in town. :)

5 of us - PooCh, Megs, Pissu, Anushree and me - started the not-so-long drive in PooCh's car at around 8:30 pm. A change of drivers for safety reasons, a long pit break at 'healthy che' for its yummi veg momos, random discussions on restaurants on SG highway and we reached the vanue - DAIICT campus. Once there, it was Anushree's territory. After all she is an esteemed alumni of this institute.

Talking about alma mater, I feel I have not been a good alumni of any of the institution that I belonged to. Sarafa and then RV - I never looked back. My relation with my work-places has been relatively better. I am at least in touch with people who really mattered and had been to office to meet them even after leaving the company. I feel, it's people, more than the building that give you compelling reasons to come back to a place. With WIMWI, I hope the bonds are stronger coz I really want to come back to this red brick temple again and again.


Gate-crashing has its own fun. Still, being the proud student of WIMWI, we decided to do the right thing - let the lady from the institute do the talking. And rightly, she arrange the guest entry for the gang. A quick bite at Dominos and we set off to watch the performance of the day. I must admit, it was a very lively crowd outside and near the cafeteria but as we approached the field where performance was to be held, I felt that the energy was missing. Supposadely 3000 plus guests were present there, but somehow the crowd seemed much smaller and dispersed. It is one of the disadvantage of having such a huge venue (which is not even lit properly) for such an event. Comparing it with our own LKP, I really see remarkable advantage of having a closed enclosure. It also helped us with lights and sounds during Chaos. So while the crowd seemed low on energy (or atleast lesser than I expected), the band itself also looked a little mellowed down version of what they used to be. Aseem da's unfortunate demise is really a big loss to world of music. I could feel his presence on the stage. The band did well to entertain the crowd playing all the popular numbers like bandeh, ma reva, leaving home, kandisa as well some other not so popular songs. Another comparison that I am taking liberty to make is about the stage presence.  I remember seeing them in Bangalore Habba and the way they involved crowd. That clearly lacked today. One of the reason to it was mentioned about the band that they could not see the crowd because of darkness. I agree. Unless an artist see the result of his magic, he can not reach the next level of involvement himself. On an overall basis, an ok ok performance. I am an Indian Ocean fan so I enjoyed all the songs. Still, it could have been better.

During Chaos, I argued with IKyu about why we did not invite Indian Ocean instead of some other artist. And his argument was that they have a very limited fan-following. So true. Sitting in my dorm room, I can count 10 kandisa fans but my mom always find them lot of chillam chilli. Clearly they can never be show-stoppers for the event like Chaos. Jo bhi hua acha hua. Sonu came and he rocked the stage and everyone loved him. Aal izz well - we heard one of our esteemed faculty say later that night when Sonu performed in LKP. That's the magic of a star.

Our date with food continued to Manek Chowk where we relished on some chocolate sandwiches and hot and spicy pav bhaji. This place reminds me so much of Sarafa in Indore (incidently, Manek Chowk is actually situated amidst the Sarafa bajar). Just a couple of months and I am going to be back to Indore. Enjoying my share of garadu and bhutte ka kis (or kiss?) :)

Till then, Muggo tucche muggo...

He is back

Lucky Ali is back...
With a new album XSUIE...
I have not heard the full songs yet  but listening to the previews I can tell you they are good.
Gosh... I can not believe it.

Thanks Saurabh for the info and link. :D