Changing redundancies…

October 20, 2007 2 Comments

We live in a world where redundancies are far too many and far too quick.

Last night, I was at the Mumbai airport, ready to catch a flight to New York, and I was reminded of my first trip to US back in 2004. Back then, I had taken a flight from Delhi. I did not have an iPOD then, I did have a cellphone which I used fairly sparingly. I  had borrowed a Discman from Moron with a few MP3 CDs adding to the weight of my bag.

Back then, people used to reach the airport 3 hours before the flight departure and there used to be chaos reigning everywhere. Now, even 2 hours gives you a 30-45 minute wait at the airport.

Anyway, back then, I had no idea how to kill my time, because Dad had ensured that I don’t have to go through the usual immigration queues. I was on the other side in about 15 minutes flat, and I was left with about 2 hours to kill.

Back then, I spent 2 hours just looking at people around me. I tried reading a book. I was a voracious reader back then. But my idea of enjoying a book is not sitting in a large hall where every minute someone is making an announcement about some flight leaving, and some boarding happening, and someone having lost his mobile phone. Back then, there weren’t too many people listening to pods or talking to girlfriends. In fact, those who hogged that solitary free phone (for local calls) talking to their girlfriends or their entire clan (yeah, the time required for both might actually be the same) invited hateful glances from those waiting in the queue. Back then, there were a lot of people like me. Looking around at faces. Eager to strike a conversation. Back then, there were laptops, but wi-fi was not the in-thing. Back then, Air India had television screens dropping from the plane ceiling showing movies that Indians and foreigners took turns at not being able to understand. People with nice CD players were given envious looks. People carried 2-3 books. And a whole lot of people looked bored. Dead bored.

Last night, I just noticed that things were different. People had cellphone, IPods, PSPs, and laptops with wi-fi connections keeping them busy. But these are gadgets that kept them busy while they were at the airport. Once you are inside the flight, the interactive TV takes over. There are 20-odd movies and several TV serials and music videos to choose from. Suddenly, the pod becomes redundant. The laptop is not needed unless you have some work that needs attention. Discman is history. Every seat has its own console. You can play some games too. These days, there are less people looking bored. Even on flights that keep you meaninglessly engaged for 16 hours at a go.  There are television screens with beaming newsreaders, several coffee and snack joints. There is free internet from Airtel for wifi enabled laptops. There aer sophisticated blackberries that people use to check their emails. There are English speaking Indians at the airport, a greater queue at the duty free, and a different kind of chaos. 80% of the young travelers have some variant of an iPod.

However, everything has a short-lived utility. Even relationships.

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थकान… Fatigue

September 13, 2007 3 Comments

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एक थका शरीर,
एक थके हुए िज्स्म की थकी तहरीर,
ईक थकी हुइ कहानी के थके िकरदार,
थकी थकी सी िफ़ज़ाओंं में बेनूर से रंग िबखरे हुए
जैसे थके हुए मौसम की खबर सुनाती हुई ईक  थकी हुई सी आवाज़
बहोत दूर से आ रही हो
कुछ ऎसी ही थकी हुई, ठह्री हुई रूह से िमलने को
जब ईक और थका हुआ िजस्म आता है
ईक थकी हुई आहट पैदा होती है
ईक थका हुआ एहसास मुकम्मल होता है

A tired body,
and the tired handwriting of a tired existence
like the tired characters of a worn-out story
like the colorless colors of a tired life
like the tired voice of the bearer of a fruitless season’s news

And so.. when a tired, drained out soul like this
meets another tired one
You can hear the footprints of a tired walk
You can feel the pulses of a tired emotion..

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Tanhai

September 8, 2007 Leave a comment

ईतना थक जाउंगा आइने से बातें कर के
क्या खबर थी की तन्हाई यूं खाली होगी

केहते हैं वो िक तन्हाई नहीं होती खला
िफर मेरा ईश्क, तेरी सोच ही ज़ाली होगी

चंद अफसाने, कई चेह्रॆ, और दो नम आंखें
गमज़दा दौर की कुछ और सच्चाई होगी

Inta thak jaoonga aaine se baatein kar ke
Kya khabar thee ki tanhai yun khali hogi

Kehte hain wo ki tanhai nahi hoti khala
Phir mera ishq, teri soch hi jali hogi

Chand afsaane, kai chehre, aur do nam aankhein
Gamzada daur ki kuch aur sachai hogi..

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In Conversation with Amit, In-flight Executive, Jet Airways

August 30, 2007 2 Comments

(These are my notes from my conversation with Amit, In-Flight Executive of Jet Airways en route from London to Mumbai, – August 29, 2007)

Amit has been working with Jet for about 3 years now. He started working in the domestic sector first, and then took up the international flights about an year back.

He was a part of the cabin crew initially, and is now an in-flight executive. Critical difference, I figured, was in the level of responsibilities. IFEs lead flights. Amit, here, was responsible for handling the entire Economy class of passengers (my guess is that this responsibility can be a handful).

Choice of Career – Amit mentioned that he was keen on being a part of the hospitality sector pretty much from the beginning itself. Entered the line of Hotel Management from Bandra itself (after his Class XIIth), he was a chef (4th in line from the head chef) at JW Marriott. A lot of people in the hotels do realize after a while the slowness in growth. I know it because my own cousin quit JW Marriott to join a cruise where the growth, excitement, money- everything is higher. Back to Amit – his view is that in the hospitality industry, airlines is where the highest growth is. Net net- he took up this job, and is probably one of the younger IFEs at Jet Airways.

About alternatives to being a IFE/Cabin Crew Member – Mentioned that there are a lot of alternative careers available if you decide to quit this amount of flying. People take specialized courses once in a while in areas such as HR, marketing, etc and move to specialized roles. He mentioned examples of people moving not only into Airlines, but mainline IT firms as well. His point of view is that the experience of handling a flight and the number of people that we interact with is so high, that it gears them up for handling a lot of stressful people situations as well. Even otherwise, when these guys are not flying, they are involved in a lot of training etc.

About the traveling – Amit mentioned that the travel is not so harassing as it seems simply because they get comfortable breaks between flights unlike us corporate travellers, where the travel part is just the begining of the pain. They dont have to carry any work home. Pang of jealosy, I did feel! 😉

On asking him about the places he had been to, he mentioned that all the sectors where Jet is flying right now, he has had a chance to go – Toronto, NY, London, Brussels, Singapore, etc. Jet is starting a UAE sector as well. However, he mentioned that after a while the amount of traveling you do within the location goes down – Same location every time, how much can you spend, are the kind of questions you ask yourself.

About Jet’s performance –

Jet is apparently strongly emerging as a strong competitor to many airlines, as evidenced by the Singapore Airlines comment where the opening line mentioned Jet explicitly as the biggest threat. Now, we all know that Singapore Airlines is considered to be one of the best airlines in the business.

He was all praises for the new crafts Jet has introduced, in terms of comfort, ambience, the shades used, etc. He insisted that those flights give you less of the tardy feeling of having been aboard a flight for so many hours. He encourages you all to try them at least once.

Another passenger onboard who is part of the international marketing team for Hiranandani Builders was all praises for the marketing efforts of Jet. Cited the case of a recent marketing event in Toronto where Jet had invited about 500 prominent people from business and Economics kinda areas and gave them an experience of the new crafts by even having seats/layouts the way it would be on the flights.

About important people on flights –

Interesting tidbits here. It came out during our conversations around how Jet is becoming a preferred airline on many circuits and is giving tough competition to mature players. The flight I had taken had Juhi Chawla on board (now I know that she isn’t that big a celebrity anymore, but that does not mean that she is pretty and famous and all that and all that and things like that). He mentioned that because you have to handle so many other activities for these important travelers (like film stars, politicians, cricket players, etc.) you automatically start understanding their travel habits, etc. And if they are frequent travelers, they also start recognizing faces and people who are taking care of their travel needs. Net result, it becomes something far more valuable than just a traveler-facilitator relationship. Interesting, isn’t it? I have seen people bragging about knowing important people so many times. But its quite interesting that for them, usually, a business class is about important people and they end up meeting/knowing a lot of interesting people, and probably the high and drama of meeting them tapers off after a while.

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Now, you might be wondering after reading this long post whether I am advertising Jet Airways, or the career of an in-flight executive. Neither. I just find it very interesting to understand people from different walks of life. Being on a flight with fewer passengers just helps get a chance to interact more. Its like having a conversation with the Mumbai cabbie about how he makes his living, the auto driver about his expensive music system when he is saving every penny for survival, or the musician or advertising professional who discovers his creative penchant very late in life.

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Brooding over coffee… a new idea

July 30, 2007 2 Comments

These days, it rains quite often. Both at Mumbai, and Delhi. When it rains, having a coffee at a Coffee Day or Barista seems far more interesting than having a coffee on a normal day. Especially, if your office happens to be 50 meters away from Bandstand, and the coffee comes with the picture perfect view of an ocean in turmoil, weather gods making everything a little more beautiful, and your spirits a delicate balance of serenity and thoughtfulness.

What do I think of while having a cuppa at the Barista, Bandstand one of these days – Was I like this when I was growing up? The answer is – NO! 

Back then, there were no Baristas. Back then, paying 45 bucks for a cup of coffee was not really possible for me. Back then, coffee was not the most important thing in my life. Back then, I did not need a break from the monotony of a daily life. And back then, having a conversation did not mean I had to take my mind off so many things. Back then, things were simpler! 

Question no.2 – What would be different if I were growing up today? Well, for starters, I grew up mostly in smaller towns – Raebareilly (UP), Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh), Ranchi (Jharkhand, then Bihar). Most of these towns, today, do have something like a Barista where people can be seen hanging out. Where, spending 45 bucks once in a while is no big deal.

Next Question – Why am I saying all this? Because, my guess is that the phenomenon will spread out. And very soon, we will have the next generation of small towns and cities coming up with these coffee parlours.

And hence – Biz Idea – Small town coffeeshop – Coffee2 (Coffee for two! Coffee too!! We have a coffee place too!!!)

What’s my point? There used to be this sardarji’s outlet in Ranchi, called Frankies. That, as far as I can remember, was the only decent Burger place in Ranchi back in 1990s. And it used to do roaring business. Will that place become extinct if a McDs came into being. I don’t think so!  And hence, the case for making an early move into the smaller towns, building loyalty, and harvesting it. Start small, cater to the small and growing. Be the Air Deccan of coffee shops. AD was not meant to be for those who fly business class, or where the company foots the bill for travel. It was supposed to bring air-travel to the masses. And needless to say, they have been successful. They have ushered in the modern aviation era in India. And I see them comfortably placed for the next generation of evolution as well. Simply because they are present in most of the remote destinations.

That’s as much as I would write from my bizidea notebook, while I think of the numbers!  I am sure many would disagree!  But the disagreements are what would interest me more! For two reasons – 1. you can give me some food for thought! 2. As JRD said – Despite all the difficulties, all the frustrations, there is a joy in having done something as well as you could and better than others thought you could. Let me add an Einstein to it as well – If at first the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it!

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Air Deccan Chronicles!

July 17, 2007 3 Comments

Air Deccan – a flight that is often very heatedly debated by all common people like me, you and the dog named boo. Every time I visualize the experience of taking an AD flight, its chaos on the left, chaos on the right, and more often than not, a mayhem in the center.

Air Deccan – Couple of Weeks Back

For the umpteenth time, I swore that I would not take an Air Deccan flight and for the umpteenth time, I took another AD flight. Funny, the initials match. AD giving a hard time to AD.

It starts off with their website, which in times not so far in the distant past, would crash the moment they announced discounted fares. I know of zealous people waking up at 5 in the morning and trying to log on to the AD website (Another coincidence – my previous blogger site had the word – zealots). And yours truly has also been guilty of this. Maybe not 5 in the morning, but definitely 2 in the night. Logging on to the site is like penetrating the defences of Rahul Dravid at the peak of his career. Its as fatal as trusting a depleted Newcastle team to win the EPL. You can hope, but you can not hope to see your coming true.

The second stage – After a lot of typing and clicking you reach the stage of authorizing payments. There is a significant chance that something will go wrong here. The payment would not get authenticated, or maybe, worse still, the payment will get lost somewhere in transit. The bank would have paid, AD would have gotten the payment, but they would not have realized that they have got the payment. You don’t have a ticket. Bank is happy. You are using your credit card. AD is happy. They have the money. They have an extra seat in their flight. (Not that they need a reason to overbook on their flights, I hear). Show me a better example of a greater social good at your expense.

Stage 3 – the traveling experience. You enter the airport. Shoddy baggage screening counters. Security checks that can be violated through at least ten different chains in a check-in baggage that are left just like that, between the time you get your baggage screened and leave it at the check-in counter. Counters – unmanaged. The processing time for each traveler is too high. Some people tell me that even that is by design. God forbid, if you ever run into a problem, there are chances that by the time you get to meet the manager and get your problem resolved, the flight would already have taken off.

You are finally issued a frail thin boarding pass which does not have a seat number.

Now comes the counter from where boarding passes are screened and flight boarding is announced. The moment a flight’s departure is announced, you can see all AD travelers scampering for being first in the queue. Reminds me of the rush in a national food scheme. In the end, everyone gets a decent enough seat. But the old economy culture of putting a rumal (handkerchief) from the window of a bus and then claiming that the seat is yours just because you put your rumal or gamcha (towel) there, is a sight to behold. Funny anecdote – in the first few flights of AD, couple of sophisticated people ambling into the craft at the end did not get any seats and had to sit on stools/chairs for the duration of the flight holding on to the aisle seats to avoid toppling over.

And finally, at the luggage belt, AD usually has luggage from 3-4 flights coming on the same belt, causing a huge commotion, and yet again, longer wait times.

 

A lot of this changed in my most recent experience with AD, this morning.

 

Air Deccan – Yesterday.

It was quite an intriguing thing. Air Deccan has started issuing seat numbers… Finally! And the dude on the counter was talking pleasantly. For a change! And the flight was a far more pleasant experience. There will still be a few of those who want to run and be the first one to get their boarding card checked (the flight won’t leave any sooner dude!), get on the bus (ditto), get down from the bus (more ditto), run to the stairs for getting on the flight (whats more than more? ditto), and repeat the drill the other way to reach the luggage belt (hmph!). Reminds of the line from Katha Collage – II, where the protagonist pehelwan mentions that the nation might have benefited a little more if these people were to invest their adrenalin rushes on something more productive!
How I love it when their luggage comes last! (some sadistic pleasure!!)

Anyway – a lot of other pleasant things about this Air Deccan flight (I am just trying to correct myself, because I don’t let go of any opportunity to do Air Deccan bashing either). It left 5 minutes before time. They had mentioned flight time as 5:45AM, boarding time as 5:25AM (all the flights have that). But having had all the passengers come on time, they decided to let the flight take air sooner. We reached Mumbai about 10 minutes before time. And on a pleasant morning in Mumbai, I was home by 8AM. Nice!

If only they are able to maintain this experience consistently.

 

A Thoughtful Musing – The womb of humanity carries not the foundation of tomorrow, but also the ruins of the past. Its either the conformation to the ruins or a rebellion against the disaster that shapes the future, much against what many would have you believe- individual brilliance

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Why Offer?

July 7, 2007 Leave a comment

This is my crib against an offer which was made to me without me having requested for it, and then being denied the pleasure of using it.

Yatra sent me an sms  – “Yatra.com presents ‘Lucky 7’ offer. Book any domestic flight for Rs.777 only. Offer valid between 7pm-8pm on 7-7-2007 only. Logon or call 09871800800. T&C apply. ” (Reproduced verbatim).

Well, apart from the T&C, it seemed pretty straight forward. Logon to the Yatra website between 7pm and 8pm (which was till about 20 minutes back) on 7-7-2007 (which is today)  and book any domestic flight for just Rs. 777. Nice!

Poor me logged on. Tried to book the ticket. In vain. For the first 5 minutes, there  was a “Problem Opening Page” (Firefox) /”Page cannot be displayed” (IE) . After that, there were “no flights found on the sector I requested” (Delhi – Mumbai Delhi – onwards 14th July, return -16th July). Ahh!! I kept refreshing, hoping for some airline to start operating on the requested sector.  You know.. shit happens!

Just to be sure, I kept calling the provided number. “All lines are currently busy. Please try again after some time.” I am sure there are far too many people out there looking for the cheaper tickets. So this could have happened. no grudges!

BUT BUT BUT… at 8:05PM, the site suddenly started operating in all its splendor, eastman color format. And suddenly, there were tickets available on the requested circuit. 899+taxes! or, build your own itinerary from the available flights. and there were so many of them. Miracles happen when you don’t need them anymore 😉 Thats life!

Now, I have always rated myself as one of those dumb guys who would fall for such simple T&C* offers. More so, after falling for this offer. Ahh.. one hour lost. Could have gone to the CCD at JATC and read a book with my cuppa! So much for a good weekend!

closing question – why offer, when there is no intention to fulfill?

*T&C – 1. The site may not open 2. We can tell you that there are no tickets available. 3. We can later tell you that the tickets are available without the scheme offer, in case you are interested.  and such fine prints! 

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The Salary Monster!

July 7, 2007 4 Comments

Saw this link which got me thinking-

1. The salaries in the Indian market have become obscene. So much so, that even though I think I am making good money, I feel that there is scope for improvement. Everytime I think I am doing well for myself, I meet at least 5 other people who can cause discontentment. By telling me how much they are earning! Whats the end figure? I don’t know! What’s a good salary? No idea!!

Faint memory – When my sister took hom Rs.7,500 as her first TCS salary in 1997, I was pretty excited. When I was completing my Economics undergraduate studies in 2000-2001, I believed a salary of 15-20K to be a good salary to have. Enough to start my career and achieve a few important financial milestone. and I am at a number several times my aspired salary. And I am still not happy…
2. The Indian offshoring industry is bringing its own demise – For me, two things have changed – one, the talent price has gone up and companies are finding their basic cost structure become gradually unfavorable. Two, there is an immense amount of billing rate pressure from clients. Combined with inflation, and the concentration of economic growth in a few cities/metros (NCR, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai) which has led to unprecedented cost of living in these cities, supply of money is still not able to cope up with the increasing demand for things money can buy. Net result.. everyone’s running. Everyone’s unhappy.

Aside : A friend is looking for a 1BHK. Preferably wants it in the Bandra to Dadar region. Budget – 20k. Don’t laugh.
For those who are in Mumbai, thats a paltry amount to look for a 1BHK in this stretch.
For those who don’t understand Mumbai, 20k for A ONE BEDROOM HOUSE!!!! Is he looking for a palace? NOOOOO!!! a kholi will do!
What could the companies have done? Not gone berserk with the salaries paid. Kept a check on where they are headed. Thought through a basic requirement – how to differentiate between campus and off-campus hiring. People who join form campus get a salary of X. They spend 6 months with a firm, and are out in the market, because they know they can get 2X. In a hurry to poach trained (for 6 months) talent, IT ocmpanies are ready to offer 2X. However, the talent is in a bigger hurry. He jumps again within 6 months to get 3X, 3.5 X and so on. Sooner than they realize, an Indian IT company has trained someone for 6 months (paying him X) and converted him into hiking monster who is never going to be happy with his salary. And we have a whole lot of companies ready to fuel their desire.

3. If the Rupee run continues, what will happen to the Indian IT industry – Now, this is a fundamental question that a lot of economists are debating. I don’t think I need to waste my breath gasping over it. However, the long and short of it is that the fundamental driver of growth of Indian IT industry, the cost arbitrage, will get eroded far more rapidly if the dollar becomes weaker. Even if the salaries were not to go up obscenely, the strengthening of rupee can damage the margins enough to make businesses unfavorable.

But I hear the government is noticing all this! 🙂

What do I think will happen? A lot of acquisitions. Smaller fries will get wiped out. Salaries will stagnate. And there will be more unhappiness all around! 🙂 But all that.. in good time! Make hay while the sun shines. And if you can, save cash! it may become more valuable than any other thing!

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Or-Cut-ting

July 4, 2007 2 Comments

I caught on to the Orkut phenomenon more than an year back. Initially, it was just another thing, but lately, the fascination of finding people that I haven’t talked to or seen in years was too much to resist. So, I became a regular. Being a part of communities that could possibly link me to my classmate from 80s and 90s seemed like an interesting thing to do!
However, three things that have managed to piss me off completely–

  1. Communities ‘ Culture – 99 out of 100 communities are full of Hitlers (Hitters—letchers). They all have the same kinda discussion threads – rate the profile pic, would you go out on a date with the person above you, blah blah. Guys tend to hit communities/threads with a seemingly higher number of girls. Girls tend to stick to communities where someone catches their imagination. After all, Bheja Fry reminded me that even girls can be Thurkeys! J

Now now, there are communities where something sensible is done/discussed, files/books etc are shared. But I am sure, even in those communities, there are n number of threads with n*100+ posts on such idiotic threads. While an orkut-present reader of this post may feel like kicking me for being generalized, remember that this outburst is about the masses.. If you belong to the classes, well, you don’t need to take it to your heart! And anyway, you’d know if you are the one I am talking that.

  1. Scrap Snooping – This is by far the most irritating phenomenon. Here is a snapshot of the questions I have received on mail/chat in the last few weeks –
    1. Who is Person X? bahut chat kar rahe ho aajkal?
    2. Who is Person Y? kaafi interested lag rahi hai tum mein?
    3. You got engaged? Saw that scrap in your scrapbook! And you didn’t even tell me?
    4. You’ve got 64 fans? That’s awesome!!
    5. Waise to busy rehte ho.. orkut pe scrap karne ka time kahan se milta hai?

Here is my retort –

A,B -Person X and Y are (of course) two women (why would you maaro that wise quip otherwise).. I studied with in 1994-1995. How is that your business? Person Y is an old time friend and we just lost touch somehow. Yes, there is lots to discuss! Is she interested? I don’t mind!

C -No! I haven’t got engaged! But if you don’t have a sense of humor yourself, you can ask dumb questions, rather than cracking wise quips.

D- well. As a matter of fact, on my screen also, it says 64 fans! Wow! Technology has really come a long way! I don’t know why they are my fans. And is there something awesome about having fans? Don’t think so! I know of people trading fan following as well on orkut. “You be my fan, I will be yours” kinds.

E- I reply to orkut messages in bulk at 2-3 in the night. If you are up for it, I can give you a callback at 3 as well. Game? Plus, I don’t have to shout at the top of my voice to send you a scrap. It doesn’t disturb others working along with me!

And in any case, what were you doing reading the scraps of others? Don’t you have anything better to do in life than to pry into someone else’s?

At one time, I was surprised to see a friend deleting all the scraps he was getting. His reaction – people tend to misuse this information. There are addresses, phone numbers, email ids that people leave on scraps, without realizing that this is information in the public domain. Let me not be the reason someone gets in a mess, more so if that someone is me!

Well, Point well taken!

  1. Stat-surfing – Again.. you can see a lot of people competing on numbers. Person X has 600 friends, while I have only 400. “Hey.. I am posting the 1000th scrap!” “25 testimonials? Neat!”

Let the kids do that. Grown ups- please act like grown ups!

And I still love Orkut. Its good to get back in touch with so many friends from yesteryears!

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Quite a bit of stuff..

July 2, 2007 Leave a comment

The last three days had a lot of interesting stuff happening all around –

1. Movies like Apne, Aap ka Suroor released. And I consciously stayed away from theatres. lsat heard, people had totally given up on a capped Himesh facing stiff competition from an animated Himesh [ Caricature of a caricature.. that’s intriguing] … and the Deol family’s emotional action movie. One helluva tearjerker, I hear! And going by Dharam paji’s performance at the IIFA awards, nothing short of an oscar nomination!!

2. Indian team finally won a series against South Africa. Last night, the way they started their batting, I wasn’t too hopeful. But it was a good chase in the end. A very very scratchy Yuvraj managed to hold on till the end, thanks to several dropped catches! A cat with whiskers using all his nine lives…

3. The prancing horses finally managed a 1-2. It was good to see Raikkonen at 1. And after a while, it was not because someone else goofed up. They were right up there from the start! 🙂 Good pitstop strategies this time, reminiscent of their glorious days.

4. Was watching A B Vardhan’s (CPI) defense of Pratibha Patil’s various glorious acts. It was great to see a leading politician defend the case with the wisdom of a 5-year old. “Everyone does it.. So what’s wrong if we are also doing it” citing the numerous cases of inappropriate candidatures here and there! Interestingly enough, Pratibha Patil has finally claimed that the allegations are false and baseless. How? Well, that’s not really important, is it?

5. I was writing a post on Air Deccan. Will post it later during the day.. but even before I say something, I saw this post on Y-Lal’s blog. That’s one senior from IIMB days that a lot of people used to admire. In short, everytime I think of an Air Deccan experience, its an equivalent of caught in a peak-hour 2nd class compartment of mumbai local. Whatever you go through is your problem, because we offer cheap services!

Welll…. so much to write.. I think I will pass!

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Insignificantly Significant: Gooney Recovery

June 26, 2007 4 Comments

This image is a distressful reminder of the way business is done in our country.

Like a lot of us, I missed this incident reported in the newspapers. On the surface of it, its just another death. When I think about it, it reminds me that my life is not that significant. I might be too insignificant in a bank’s larger scheme of things, and 15000 bucks might be required to break or shake the fortunes of the company. So what if there are other defaulters dealing with several crores contesting for the apex position in this country.

And on my death, while my family would talk about the scared voice –

Around 12.30 pm, Sunanda says, Yadaiah called her up and told her to arrange Rs 15,000 at any cost. According to her, Yadaiah sounded scared. “He said that he would not be allowed to leave unless he returned the money, and then he hung up,” Sunanda has told the police.

I will have a bank manager fabricating stories– 

In a statement, Rahul Virkar of ICICI Bank, said, “We are informed that Yadaiah had come to the office of our agency for making payments for the overdue instalments. We are informed that during the interaction with the representatives of the agency he felt unwell and requested to be accompanied to a doctor. We are further informed that the agency representatives had provided all possible support for his medical treatment.”

And our friend, the Police  will say –

Narasaiah said Elite`s agents had admitted to having taken Yadaiah to their office in Ameerpet and asking him to clear his debts. [Zee News Article]

 And in the same vein of contradictory statements –

A case was registered today under Sections 342 (Wrongful Confinement) and 304 (Culpable Homicide Not Amounting To Murder) of IPC. Inspector G Narasaiah said, “We are awaiting the post- mortem report. If it turns out to be a case of murder, the sections will be altered accordingly.”

 
Talk about playful cajoling by a factoring agency. Gentle reminder – Supreme court had come down heavily on commercial banks (again, driven by ICICI’s behavior) for using goons for recovering bad debts.

 Its appalling.

In another development, the AP State Human Rights Commission taking suo moto cognizance of the case has asked the city police to furnish a report on the circumstances leading to the death of Yadaiah. Justice B Subhasan Reddy, chairnman of the State Human Rights commssion has asked the ACP Panjagutta to  furnish a report by June 29. The commission will initiate action after receiving the report.

William Gladstone had mentioned in one of his popular speeches– Justice delayed is justice denied! But then, I think we have already moved from the judicial theory of arbitration to the political theory of arbitration. Its about collective coercion, and analyzing the power of the parties requiring arbitration. Justice usually sides with the powerful.

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Talent & Excellence

June 22, 2007 2 Comments

In two related-unrelated articles of Economic Times –

1. The first if from Corporate Dossier, written by Sharmila Ganguly from Spenta Consultants. I remember having a short conversation  with her more than a couple of years back, when they were looking for someone for the National Bank of Dubai & HSBC CIBM later on.

However, thats not important. The article is. Its something that I’ve always believed in. Excellence does not manifest itself in parts. Talent may! People who excel in life never take anything casually. Passion drives everything they do. After 18 hours of energy oozing all around, they have a smile on their face and determination in their head even as they hit the sack. And yes, I have had the pleasure of meeting a few of them!

Am I one of them? I don’t think so!  Might have wanted to be one! But as Shikamaru always says – mendokusē (“what a drag”) 😉

“Unko gauhar mile jo doob ke teh tak pahunche,
Main tha saahil pe mujhe ret ke zarRat mile.”

Gauhar – Pearl     teh – bottom    Saahil – Kinara/Beach     ret-Sand

Are you one of them?

2. This one, here, is just a pointer. The top headhunters of this country..  They identify talent, and the organizations hope that they are excellent. My guess is that these top Headhunters are able to identify people who are not just talented. They are able to identify excellent! Ahem Ahem! Do you know them?

Me.. I have interacted with a couple of them in the past!

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You’ve got time?

June 21, 2007 2 Comments

Its funny how the evening changes if you reach home early (?). Well.. I did leave office by 8 PM today!  THAT was like a BIG news for me. And a pleasant change. Even after taking care of a couple of things, I realized that I was home by 9:30.

Anyways.. so what did I do? I made some soup and pasta for myself…  put VH1 onTV. picked The Golem’s Eye for continuing from where I had left – yeah.. the point where the concept of Golem is introduced. But kept it aside. Started writing this. Plan to scrap at least 10 people on Orkut. Finish off all my pending blogreading. And then.. get back to my friend.. Golem!

So.. what do people do when they have time? Apart from spending a big part of it on cellphone?

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Turnaround

June 20, 2007 7 Comments

He turned around and left….

It seemed like the perfect setting. They had been talking to each other for an unusually high amount of time every day for the last 3 months. He was was everything for her. Everything except that one thing she yearned for him to be. They both knew it. They both knew that it could not come to be. Yet they prolonged their agony. The perfect sunset had a dark spot.

He used to wait for her outside her office. Drop her home. Talk to her for hours standing next to the ice cream trolley. Every day, the cellphone would ring. Every day, he said bye. Every day, he turned around and left.

Both of them wanted to end this. The suffering, the pain, the longing. They both knew it was not right. Yet, they continued fooling themselves. The temptation to give in was strong. The pragmatism to hold back, was equally compelling. Who would blink first? While cracking jokes, sharing anecdotes, till the wee hours of the night, thinking about all this, he would turn around and leave.

That day was the same. Yet, it wasn’t. That day, they both decided to end it. They agreed that it was not what they ever wanted. That day also, he waited for her outside her office. She finished work, came down, and sat next to him in the car. He drove back silently. After stopping at her home, he did not say anything. She kept looking at him. With hope, a silent prayer going up in the air, she clinged on to the belief that this was also not something that they ever wanted. He still did not say anything. She wanted to cry. It was over. He turned around and left.

The next evening, he said I Love You. It was a Saturday, one of the best weekends of his life…

Filed under Musings, Short Story Tagged with ,

Itsy Bits.. Life in the pits!

June 7, 2007 Leave a comment

Opening song of the day – Sham-e-gam ki kasam…. (Talat Mehmood, Movie: Footpath)

Chain kaisaa jo pahaluu mein tuu hii nahiin
Maar daale na dard-e-judaai kahiin
Rut hansiin hain to kyaa chaandanii hai to kyaa
Chaandanii zulm hai aur judaai sitam
Shaam-e-gam kii qasam

Dil pareshaan hain raat viiraan hain
Dekh jaa kis tarah aaj tanahaa hain ham
Shaam-e-gam kii qasam aaj gamagiin hain ham
Aa bhii jaa aa bhii jaa aaj mere sanam

Full lyrics here
Audio Link [ here ]

Itsy bits from the newspaper that caught my attention –

The new olympic logo has come under quite a bit of fire. For once, I think I can just stop at saying – I AGREE. This logo SUCKS!

JJ and 8 party co are forming a 3rd Front

When would we start covering our backs? Everyonez interested in opening up a front! Thats obscenely blasphemous! Imagine! Another front?

8 parties – JJ heads! Wow! Now, the front will have a lot of Saree to cover their.. err.. back and front!

AC Local Trains in Mumbai gradually seem like a possibility

I wonder- what will happen to those hundreds and thousands of people who just love hanging by the open gates of mumbai local, ready to inhale the fishy odor and sulphurous fumes of a stinky bandra track? There is an old saying – Kutte ko ghee nahi pachta! A dog cannot digest ghee (clarified butter?)

Its a veryyyy long day ahead with the final presentation expected to go on till about 2 or 3 in the night!

Closing song of the day (based on model predictions!)- Dhanyabhaag sevaa ka avasar paaya (Pt. Rajan Mishra, Pt. Sajan Mishra, Kavita Krishnamurthy, Movie: Sur Sangam)

Dhanyabhaag sevaa ka avasar paaya
Charan kamal ki dhool bana main
moksh dwaar tak aaya

Ghat mein goonja naad nirantar
jyot jali antar mein….
Sau sooraj ke ujiyaare mein..
maine mujhko paaya!
Dhanyabhaag sevaa ka avasar paaya

[ Damn it! No audio links or lyrics links for this song!]

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