Plunging into the Pensieve

Statistically Insignificant

2011-05-07T19:43:00.001+05:30

I had dreamt of graduating from an IIT, one of the finest educational institutions in the country, ever since I can remember. The major reason not being that it kinda guarantees healthy wallets later in life, but that it was always projected to be the place which would nurture the best in you and give you the strength to carve out your place in the world. It was a place which could provide the infrastructure, not only in terms of physical facilities but also in terms of mental conditioning needed to succeed in life and make you dreams come true. Which is probably why I am still having trouble accepting the fact that the Dean of what is apparently one of the finest centers of excellence, at least in the nation, if not the world, could actually call the death of 3 students out of 5000 as "statistically insignificant", right in the national media, and worse, get away with it.

There are two issues here: 1. increasing number of student suicides; 2: IIT administration's apathy towards students. I'm not talking about the first one here, that needs to handled by students themselves, by growing up and becoming stronger and more responsible. So, I am not suggesting that the rising number of suicides in IIT campuses is the administration's fault. Far from it, in fact. Deep down, we all know how most of us had spent our time in campuses. There were just so many of us who lived only for the Inter-IIT, Schroeter, Lit-Soc, Shaastra and Saarang. Even besides those, there were so many diversions which often became more important than the academic responsibilities. What angers me right now is not only the fact that a student felt his life was not worth more than one Dual-Degree Project, but its also the fact that the institute, whose basic character had been seeping into him, also felt the same.

For about a while now, IIT administrations, regardless of the campus, have been becoming increasingly apathetic towards their students. Back in our fourth year, after the unfortunate demise of a student following lack of timely action by the institute hospital's medical staff at IITKGP, their Dean had tried to calm the angry students by saying, "It's no big deal". I remember my own institute's attitude after medical negligence resulted in the death of one of my juniors on his own birthday during my final semester, "You guys give bumps, what do you expect." My five-year stay at the campus showed me more lives cut short and almost cut short by weakness than I would ever have wanted to see. And everytime, the administration was more worried about how it would "look" to the world outside rather than even bother asking what really went wrong. Maybe if they did try finding that answer out, they wouldnt have to worry about situations that could hurt their "image". The administration has always tried playing ostrich, pretending nothing is wrong, instead of trying to fix problems. IITK's grand solution was do away with ceiling fans. That escapist character, I guess, has become the very nature of the institute. Maybe that is why they cant tell the students to be strong and face their problems, because they are inept at doing that themselves.

It is a stressful atmosphere. Nobody in that institute has sucked at studies ever before. Early on, even the very fact that your marks are at 'class average' sting like acid. Away from home, lots of dreams at stake, and a time when growing up into full-blown adults brings its own emotional complications, tough times are a part of the package. They equip you to face reality.You need to be more responsible and pay more attention to the things that are really important. You need to work harder and use your time more wisely. You need to derive strength from the support system of friends around you and your profs. Trust me, there are plenty of good ones out there and they are a real support if you give them a chance. Of course, our mistrust stems from the openly paraded apathy of the administration, so, I guess, even these profs have a reason to be pissed.

If the Dean was asked to comment, why couldn't he simply have talked about the need for students to be stronger and more responsible, instead of saying that students living or dying simply did not matter.

Bones 522: The Way Forward

2010-07-06T01:45:00.001+05:30

For the uninitiated, Bones is this who-dunnit type crime series on Fox featuring a forensic anthropologist, an FBI agent and a whole team of other forensic experts who work to solve murders. The series had a way of very subtly depicting human relationships. How the synergies of people working together towards a common goal eventually cement themselves in the form of great friendships and long lasting attachments. Finally happened to see the fifth season finale today, a month after it aired. Apparently the series seems to be wrapping up. The finale shows all characters leaving the organization and setting out to embrace what they had wanted to do all along, before they had found comfort and a sense of belonging with each other, and with the organization. Somehow, made me think of the insti, the life there, the friends. Surprisingly, I have never cried missing home, but this episode made me miss IIT so much that it hurt, enough to bring tears, enough to call friends up and tell them how much I missed them, enough to bring me out of my hiatus and make me write a blog at 1 in the night. Life in the insti, with all its pains, was good. More so, it was safe, the "catch me whenever I fall" kind. Its been a month since I left the insti and all this is starting to truly sink in now. I'm in a city I absolutely love, doing a job I always wanted to do, but something doesnt feel right. And no, its not the awful Bombay traffic jams and deluges nor the insanely long working hours of the banking sector. Everything about the insti, from the magnificent main gate (yes, you will know its really magnificent once you compare it to the IITB one :P), the 3 km drive to GC, the steps in front of DOMS, Guru's sticky Maggi, the insti T-shirts to the dept rooftops, CTIDES and friends, seem to have catalyzed certain mutations in my genetic code and become part of my DNA, become part of who I am.Leaving the insti has been probably like leaving a part of myself behind. I remember, how five years back, I had shed buckets of tears over not having been allotted IIT Bombay but these last five years at IIT Madras have given me so much, friends, opportunities and dreams, taught me so much, to understand friendship, to love, to fight and to live. When I tell people today to trust in the wisdom of the Universe, it is because the Universe taught me it knew better. Thank You IITM.

100 Truths

2010-05-12T12:32:00.000+05:30

What do you do when you are totally bored? Yep, you play senseless mind-numbingly stupid Tags :P. For all practical purposes done and dusted with IIT Madras, waiting for my super-busy guides to conduct my viva, I have absolutely nothing to do these days. Sitting in the lab for the AC and the Net (which isnt much help given that most friends are offline or too busy to chat), this seems to be the most productive use of time at the moment.

The game is this: You answer the following questions, truthfully, needless to add. Post them and then Tag your friends. So, here I go:

1. Last beverage = Water
2. Last phone call = Home
3. Last text message = Abhishek, Srikanth (parallel text chats are quite common here :P)
4. Last song you listened to = Cut, by Plumb and All I Need, by Within Temptation (playing continuously on loop)
5. Last time you cried = A couple of hours back I guess (wanna go home!!!!)

HAVE YOU EVER:

6. Dated someone twice = does repeated breaking up and making up count?
7. Been cheated on = yes, by friends (or people who claimed to be :P)
8. Kissed someone & regretted it = No (Kissed by, a resounding yes)
9. Lost someone special = Yes
10. Been depressed = Yes
11. Been drunk and threw up = Yes

LIST THREE FAVORITE COLORS:

12. Sea Blue
13. Green
14. Yellow

THIS YEAR HAVE YOU: (2010)

15. Made new friends = Yes
16. Fallen out of love = No
17. Laughed until you cried = Yes

18. Met someone who changed you = No
19. Found out who your true friends were = YES
20. Found out someone was talking about you = yes
21. Kissed anyone on your friend list = Isn't your loved one supposed to be on your friend list?
22. How many people on your friend list do you know in real life = All I guess
23. How many kids do you want to have = 2
24. Do you have any pets = 2, a mom and a sister, will that count ;)
25. Do you want to change your name = Oh, so badly, too many Shrutis around
26. What did you do for your last birthday = Oh, dont even remind me
27. What time did you wake up today = 6:45 AM
28. What were you doing at midnight last night = Watching Heroes with Sis
29. Name something you cannot wait for = starting up
30. Last time you saw your Mother= 13th April 2010
31. What is one thing you wish you could change about your life= Have yet to find the exact butterfly I stepped on which cascaded into an avalanche :-|
32. What are you listening to right now = I'm dying to catch my breath, Oh why don't i ever learn, I've lost all my trust though i've surely tried to, Turn it around. Can you still see the heart of me? All my agony fades away, When you hold me in your embrace. Don't tear me down, For all i need, Make my heart a better place, Give me something I can believe... All I Need, by Within Temptation, amazing song!!
33. Have you ever talked to a person named Tom = No
34. What's getting on your nerves right now = delayed vivas, Chennai heat, creases on bedsheets...
35. Most visited webpage = 1. gmail, 2. facebook
36. Whats your real name = Shruti Srivastava
37. Nicknames = Everyone calls me with a different name
39. Zodiac sign = Libra
40. Male or female or transgendered= Female
41. Primary school = Carmel Convent Sr Sec School, BHEL, Bhopal, India
42. High School = Carmel Convent Sr Sec School, BHEL, Bhopal, India
43. College = IIT Madras
44. Hair colour = Black
45. Long or short = Long
46: Height = Highly confidential info
47: Do you have a crush on someone? = No
48: What do you like about yourself? = Resilience, I suppose
49. Piercings = Ears
50. Tattoos = None, yet ;)
51. Righty or lefty = Righty

FIRSTS :

52. First surgery = Corn, before JEE
53. First piercing = Class 2
54. First best friend = Jasmine Gujral
55. First vacation = of those I can recall (from my memory and not pictures in albums), Nainital, April 1993
56. First crush = Rahul Dravid

RIGHT NOW:

59. Eating = nothing
60. Drinking = nothing
61. Doing = Blogging, listening to two amazing songs on loop
62. Listening to = two amazing songs on loop ;)
63. Waiting for = my sister to wake up

YOUR FUTURE

64. Want kids? = Yes
65. Get married? = Yes
66. Careers in mind? = Heading to be a Financial Analyst, should be followed by being a Serial Entrepreneur eventually a VC :).

WHICH IS BETTER :

67. Lips or eyes = eyes
68. Hugs or kisses = Hugs
69. Shorter or taller= Taller
71. Romantic or spontaneous = Spontaneous
72. Nice stomach or nice arms = Arms, to hold
73. Sensitive or loud = Sensitive
74. Hook-up or relationship = Should I even answer that, relationship ofc
75. Trouble maker or hesitant = Trouble Maker

HAVE YOU EVER :

76. Kissed a stranger = NO
77. Drank hard liquor = Ahem
78. Lost glasses/contacts = Glasses, yes
79. Sex on first date = Ewww
80. Broken someone's heart = Sadly , yes, many people
81. Had your own heart broken= Yep
82. Been arrested = No, not yet, at least ;)
83. Turned someone down = Yes
84. Cried when someone died = Yes, the memories still bring tears
85. Liked a friend who is a girl? = liked as in?? you do like you friends, right?

DO YOU BELIEVE IN:

86. Yourself = Yes
87. Miracles = Depends
88. Love at first sight = Naah, it would be attraction, at best lust, not love.
89. Heaven = Well....
90. Santa Clause = No
91. Kiss on the first date = No, classic third date is fine.
92. Angels = Maybe, maybe not.

ANSWER TRUTHFULLY:

93. Is there one person you want to be with right now? = Yes, I hope he knows it
94. Had more than one boyfriend/girlfriend at one time? = No
95. Did you sing today? = Yes
97. If you could go back in time, how far would you go? = Like I said, need to pinpoint the exact butterfly.
98. If you could pick a day from last year and relive it, what would it be? = Last year Saarang, Delhi trip
99. Are you afraid of falling in love? = Afraid, yes, because anything that makes you feel that good can also hurt you immensely (High on the risk-reward frontier)
100. Posting this as 100 truths? = What does it look like :PP

Now, I TAG Nitin, Sirisha, Abhishek, Priyasha, Misha, Tarun, Punchar, Aruna, Abhishek, Aditi

The 90's! When Cell Phones were for the super rich and incoming was Rs.12 per minute!

2010-05-01T15:33:00.000+05:30

Been over a month since I blogged, no prizes for guessing that my DDP was behaving like a spoilt attention demanding child, but more on that in the posts that would follow. I'm not really a fan of forwarded mails or smses, but came across the following list on such a mail and just had to share it. You'll understand why if you grew up during the 90s :

1) You know the words to ‘In-pin-safety-pin’ and ‘akkad-bakkad’ by heart
2) Cricket is almost a religion for you, and you idolize at least one of Rahul Dravid/Sachin Tendulkar/Saurav Ganguly
3) You have read at least some Chacha Chaudhary or Tinkle comics
4) You’ve watched Shaktimaan on TV at least once in your life. And you can immediately recognize the character when you see him.
5) You have some ‘NRI’ relatives.
6) You couldn’t wait for it to be December so you could have the Toblerone chocolates your NRI relatives brought you
7) You watched Cartoon Network, and then the late night movies on TNT that came after Cartoon Network ended.
8) You watched corny dubbed versions of Small Wonder, Silver Spoon, and I Dream of Jeanie
9) You were THRILLED when McDonald’s opened in your neighborhood (or even eight kilometers away)
10) A visit to Pizza Hut used to mean a special treat
11) You have seen Kuch Kuch Hota Hai and Hum Aapke Hain Kaun at least 5 times each
12) You still remember the theme song of Hum Paanch. (Hum Paanch, Pam Pam Pam Paanch!)
13) You have played hours upon hour of running and catching, chor-police, lagori, saankli, ‘Doctor, doctor, help us!’, ‘Lock and key’
14) You have seen girls play ‘Amina Super Sina’ more times than you can remember. (And you still don’t know what it means!)
15) Dog ‘in’ the bone was your favorite co-ed game.
16) Much of your free time in school was spent playing UNO.
17) You collected trump cards of wrestlers, cricketers, and airplanes, and did not quite understand why your younger siblings were obsessed with Pokemon and the other Japanese trends that followed.
18) Your summer vacations were often synonymous with visiting your grandparents or cousins
19) Your parents, at some point, told you ‘Dark Room’ was a bad game to play. But you still loved playing it.
20) Bole mere lips, I love uncle Chips!
21) You know the song ‘Made in India’ by Alisha Chinai
22) You have seen many many many episodes of ‘Antakshari’ on Zee TV and know the only thing constant in the show is Annu Kapoor.
23) Many evenings have been spent watching little kids gyrate vulgarly on Boogie Woogie on Sony.
24) You were the coolest thing in class if you had a computer in your house while it was still the 90s.
25) You learnt LOGO and BASIC in school!
26) You couldn’t wait to start 4th standard so you could start writing with PENS instead of with pencils!
27) You often used terms and phrases like ‘two-say’, ‘same to you, back to you, with no returns’, and ‘shame shame, puppy shame, all the donkeys know your name.’
28) You most probably saw Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge at the cinema at least once. You also fantasized about singing songs in mustard fields as in the movie.
29) You have seen David Dhawan and Govinda movies and laughed at them.
31) You have said ‘haw’ or ‘yuck’ when you saw people kissing in English movies. (nowadays kids are used to it!)
30) Titanic was your FIRST favourite english movie.
31) You thought seeing English movies and speaking English made you the coolest thing ever.
32) You remember the Gujarat earthquake very clearly and could possibly tell everyone EXACTLY what you were doing when the earthquake occurred (yes, this happened in 2001, January 26, 2001, to be exact — but this group is about the things that Indian kids that GREW UP in the 90s remember and identify with).
33) Barbies for girls, and GI Joes for boys were the ultimate status symbols. You just wanted more more more and more. And how can I forget Hot Wheels, for both boys and girls?
34) You thought ‘imported’ clothes were definitely way better than ‘made in India’ clothes (never mind that a lot of clothes brought from overseas by NRI relatives were actually made in India, before ‘Made in China’ started appearing on EVERY existing thing)
35) "Jungle Jungle Baat Chali Hai Pata Chala Hai! Chaddi Pehen Ke Phool Khila Hai Phool Khila Hai!" You watched "The Jungle Book" every Sunday morning at 9.a.m" and just loved mowgli, bhalu and bagheera. A few years later, you watched Disney Hour, which had cartoons like Aladdin, Gummy Bears, Tail Spin, Uncle Scrooge!
36) At some point or other, cool was your favourite, and therefore, most overused word.
37) Captain Planet was your first introduction to environmental consciousness.
38) You have tried to convince people around you to not burst crackers on Diwali, and then gone straight back home and burst them yourself.
39) You have had endless packets of Parle Gluco G biscuits, and of Brittania Little Hearts biscuits.
40) You loved licking off the cream from the centre of Bourbon biscuits.
41) There were no Nike, Reebok, Adidas, Puma- Bata and Liberty was the way to go for your sports shoes.
42) You have probably consumed more Frooti in your lifetime than there is oil in Iraq.
43) You watched Baywatch on Star World when nobody was home even though (or because) your parents said you shouldn’t watch it.
44) You bought packets of potato chips for the specific purpose of collecting Tazos. And you had Tazos depicting everyone from Confucius to Daffy Duck to Daffy Duck dressed as Confucius.
45) For the longest time, the Maruti 800, the Premier Padmini, THE Fiat, and THE Ambassador were the only cars you saw on the road, and the Contessa was cool because it was bigger.
46) You would literally jump up in excitement if you ever chanced upon an imported car (Oh my gosh, is that really a MERCEDES?)!
47) You spent a good part of 1998 drooling over the Hyundai Santro and the Daewoo Matiz , debating which one was better.
48) You used to Fuzen gum. You also chewed Big (big) Babool and/or Boom Boom Boomer chewing gum. They were bright pink and disgusting tasting, but you loved them for the temporary tattoos.
49) Talking of temporary tattoos, you sometimes had contests with your classmates about who had more tattoos on their arm, leg, knee, hand, forehead, wherever.
50) You thought Mario and Contra were the coolest things ever invented, especially if you were a boy.
51) You knew that having the latest Hero or Atlas bicycle would make you the coolest kid on the block.
52) You can imitate Sushmita Sen’s winning gasp to perfection.
53) You have, at some point of time, worn GAP clothes (real or fake) like SRK in KKHH.
54) Seemingly senseless acronyms like SRK, DDLJ, DTPH, KKHH actually make sense to you..
55) You have at some point debated who was more beautiful- Aishwarya or Sushmita.
56) Baskin Robbins ice-cream was THE thing to have!
57) You know what Campa Cola is. And you also knew that Coca Cola was THE drink.
58) You would watch WWF keenly every evening/afternoon and loved Bret Hart "Hitman"! really thought Undertaker had seven lives and he made an “actual” appearance in the Akshay Kumar- starrer Khiladiyon ka Khiladi.
59) When all backpacks (or ’schoolbags’) and water bottles and tiffin boxes had strange cartoon characters that were hybrid versions of seven or eight different characters, and you still bought them, because a green man wih a water pistol, boots, a jet-pack, Johnny bravo hair, a rajasthani mustache, gloves, and underwear (long johns) over his pants, called ‘Mr. X’ was OBVIOUSLY a status symbol.
60) You remember the Nirma tikia jingle.
61) You remember the Nirma girl.
62) You remember the ‘doodh doodh piyo glass full doodh’ ad and also the ‘laal kaala peela, gulabi hara neela classic hai badia bristles wala’ and 'roz khao ande' ads.
63) You grew up reading, if you read at all, some or all of Nancy Drews, Enid Blyton books, Hardy Boys, Babysitters Club, Animorphs, Goosebumps, Sweet Valley series, Judy Blumes, and Tintin, or Archie comics. Because naturally, reading foreign authors made you much cooler than reading Tinkle.
64) Towards the late 90s (1998-99) at least some of us started our Harry Potter obsessions!
65) You absolutely HAD to go to Essel World if you were with cousins! “Essel World mein rahoonga main, ghar nahin nahin jaaonga main!” (I never went but always dreamed of going there!)
66) You watched the Bournvita Quiz contest on TV pretty religiously. The smarter ones amongst you actually took part in it and had your entire school and your entire extended families watch you on it!
67) Maggi 2 Minute Noodles = ultimate snack (and tiffin, lunch, dinner)!
68) If you grew up in the early 90s, you recall the nation’s obsession with Mahabharata on TV
69) In the later 90s, you religiously followed Hip Hip Hooray on Zee. Maybe Just Mohabbat on Sony too
70) You remember parzan dastur sayin "JALEBI!!!!" in the Dhara Ad
71) You eagerly awaited Friendship Day, so you could give friendship bands to all your friends, and get bands from them in return. Then, of course, those with the most bands loved to show them off.
72) Backstreet Boys' "Quit Playing Games" was one of the first english songs that you LOVED!
73) Andaz Apna Apna is and most probably will always be your favourite comedy flick!! "Aila Jhakaas!!!"
74) This list made you smile.

And I miss that age, it was sooo awesome!

PS: I guess with the days in the campus numbered (Hopefully. Prof, you listening/reading I hope), quite a few nostalgic posts about the last five years can also be expected to flow out.

Dear Mr Yadav

2010-03-25T22:37:00.000+05:30

Dear Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav

With all due disrespects, I would have wanted to draw your attention to your infamous sexist remarks in association with the Women's Reservation Bill, but I am sure the media has done that enough. What I would like to ask you, though, with all the politeness that I can muster, is, What the F*** were you trying to say? We are all aware that you are prone to severe bouts of verbal diarrhoea but we had never known it had gone to a terminal stage, you have our sympathies, sire. “What can I say about the kind of women who will enter Parliament. The wives and daughters of officers and businessmen, who invite whistles from boys.”, you had proclaimed, after careful thought and deliberation, as you continued to claim. I am sure you have been asked this question a zillion times but, seriously sir, what, in the name of heaven and earth and everything that lies in between, were you trying to imply? Would you care to shed some light on precisely how do you define the kind of women that invite whistles and catcalls from guys? Were you, by any chance, referring to the fact that the likes of you wont be able to stand educated women, the ones who wont blindly follow your instructions? You went ahead to establish a link between increasing the number of seats for women in Parliament and eve-teasing. Is that a confession, Mr Yadav? Are you trying to tell us all that more women in Parliament would actually become an excuse for the male members to salivate and lech? Dear God, I hope not. Your party members, in an effort to come to their dear M(C)P's aid, went a step further saying that what you really meant was that having more women in the governance would render men unemployed and out of sheer frustration they would resort to eve-teasing. (Your verbal diarrhoea seems to be highly contagious, whats worse, it seems to follow some rule of biological magnification upon being passed on). I am confident, sir, that the majority of males in this nation would have been thoroughly embarrassed by this corollary to your original theorem. I am an officer's daughter, Mr Yadav, and I would like to know how exactly my being so would invite catcalls and whistles. By the way, last I checked, you had a daughter-in-law whom you fielded in the bye-elections for the Ferozabad seat. What did she have to say about your little insight?

The Missing Slipper

2010-03-16T21:52:00.005+05:30

It all began with an article about teen actors minting millions, which reminded Arun of his long-cherished dream of acting in movies, along with his losing 4 pairs of slippers:

Arun: i always wanted to act

even now

http://omg.yahoo.com/news/top-box-office-teens/37349?nc

i mean movies

me: dont worry we'll make one

Arun: yeah

me: cast u in it

Arun: :yahoome: CTIDES productions present

Arun: The one and only Arun

me: in The Missing Slippers

Arun: sounds gr8

me: introducing Arun Srivatsan

and we will need an anorexic female opposite u

Arun: i need one pseud heroine and a rough villian

i need dream sequence in Swiss and action sequence in hongkong

i need emma watson for female lead

i love her

me: too many ppl do..

see with swiss n hk budget wud shoot

didnt Mash teach us to use finances wisely

Arbit can be the heroine better to take people from the team, only one girl and 'that' girl doesnt do pretty female roles

n Tarun can play the rough villian

Arun: pack

not Arbit

nice trrry

surely flop

remember Mash told

about selecting a nice team

Arbit heroine

me: he can convicne Isha Sharavani to be thr

Arun: iam not acting

ohk

me: she looks anorexic enuf to suit ur looks

Arun: dats nice

my looks demand only emma,

i will try and adjust with some isha

me: she wil look fatter than u dude

Arun: well, in dat case, ok

but atleas as a gueat appearence

emma shud be thr

can u see the relation

emma watson, Arun sriWatson

me: this will sooo go on my blog

rough hero ke liyeTarun is ok?

Arun: well, fine..........his bodyguard will be Kartik

Tarun seems fine..................

put a black glass on his eyes and some black leather jacket

give him a pistol

he wud look

but ask him to clean shave

me: and Robo as the mad scientist who tries inventing the algorithm for finding missing slippers

Arun: oh nice..................and whr r u?

me: im the director

Arun: u have to act

nothing doin

u must act

me: all roles taken

Arun: u can be police officer

who comes in the end of movie

u will get a double role

me: no the CIA director who is entrusted with the responsibility of ensuring the formula doesnt fall into tarun's hands

Arun: other one being a comedian

me: (ironical that i wud work to keep knowledge from tarun)

na females in comedies.. doesnt work with the audience

remember the rule KYC: know your customer

Arun: fair enough............i dint think of itme: so who is the producer

lsg or mash?

Arun: errr, producer is CTIDES rite?

me: ctides wud be the banner

one person wil have to take charge as the producer

Arun: well, then it shud be Mash

me: tarun cant- since he is the rough villian (looking like he does is arbit's facebook album)

Arun: his name is funky

me: ok..funky is good

plus lsg might not release the movie till a decade

Arun: dats thr

So mash be the producer

me: plus mash's wife can help us with the contracts in exchange for equity

official legal advisor

Arun: who will be my mother?

i need a mother in the movie

imp role

need some other young girl

with lot of makeup

to look old

pls pls

me: ed doesnt have girls sadly

pick one from our class

Arun: yeha

or may be MA

will also do

me: they'll look like ur daughters re

Arun: put make up na

me: the mother wont fit with the script re

Arun: see it will

thr will be flash back

where we will show

my mother buying that slipper

and telling me, keep it properly forever

me: ohhh..senti angle

Arun: yeah

me: we will need ekta kapoor on our board of directors

Arun: or the baalika vadhu team

me: we should give chance to our insti talent..

isha sharvani will drain the budget

we wil have to compromise on the Maa

Arun: well pack her

put MA junta

they r better

me: dont u need a nice dream sequence in switzerland?

Arun: for that she will be thr

other times pack

me: cameo, ah..

Arun: yeah

her typical

me: we'll ask some MA junta to play the Maa

Arun: MA ?

me: comeon they wud do fine

Arun: and yeha,,,dont ask some MA junta............Ask some nice MA junta.................I havemt spoken to MA junta atall,..........so u must do all thr work...............

me: ma newz has to be a good actress

dont discount btech

they might be interested

lets do one thing

have a talent hunt

we will raise spons money thru that

Arun: i will be thr..............

me: and get free publicity..bootstrapping

Mash will be so proud of usArun: one more thing this summer i wont be available., so shootign in Canada

me: lets do the dream song in cananda

good locations

nice snow et al

and more economical

switzerland has been used too much

we need to get innovative location

Arun: k.............will be cold.................may be freezing................the colder the better

Vancouver is fine i guess

me: its settled then

Arun: we will ask cheerleader of the winter olympics to dance behind me and the heroine

sasta bhi padega

me: romantic song re..no extras

they will look like kebab mein haddi

Arun: romantic song

yippppppppppe

i always wanted to do one

watever u say then

me: deal sealed

Old Label, Gold Label

2010-03-03T21:56:00.000+05:30

I have lived in Bhopal since I was six. It was in this city that I first fell in love, with books. When I had first walked into that shop above, it used to stock only books, and some greeting cards. With time, the shop got a few face-lifts, started retailing all kinds of gift items, music records et al. However, one thing that never changed, over the course of the last sixteen years, was the ability of its proprietor to make book shopping enjoyable. Ever since I started visiting the store to buy those 125-page illustrated abridged classics, he has helped me hunt books. As I grew older, he would recommend books, of various genres, that might be to my liking. Most of all, he knew the books. Despite having not visited for the past couple of years, when I walked into the store a couple of days back, he still remembered me, along with the books I used to like. In Chennai for the past five years, being a life-long bookaholic, I still frequent bookstores. However the experience of shopping for books at Odyssey or Landmark or Crosswords hardly compares to shopping at the bookstores in my hometown. While the range of books is definitely way more exhaustive, I miss the whole personal touch that Variety Gallery or Books World used to offer back home. I miss being asked my opinion on books I have read recently, I miss being offered advice on what to read in a particular genre. But most of all I miss being treated as a fellow book lover.

Let Your Light Shine

2010-02-23T18:48:00.003+05:30

My parents once told me of one of the toughest decisions they had taken concerning me, the choice of the school I was to attend. My mom was especially insistent on sending her daughters to a convent school. She said that convent girls had a way of their own. Of course, I never understood exactly what that meant till I graduated from school and joined IIT. Unsurprisingly, one of the people in this place I best connect with, is another convent girl (as we like to call ourselves). Be it the inculcated sense of ethics or the ingrained fearlessness, I have, for some time now, held this belief that convent girls are a class of their own. We were taught to stand up for what we believed in, no matter what the world said. So whether it was spreading awareness to eradicate parthenium or unleashing anti-cracker campaigns, the school stood in support as we chanted together we can, and we will, make a difference. We were encouraged to break the traditionally set boundaries for girls; we were told we did not need to live up to conventional expectations of being docile, quiet and passive. We were pushed to question the known along with the unknown. Simultaneously, we were also brought up to be compassionate and empathetic. The school's idea of a day trip included orphanages and old age homes on at least as many counts as parks and picnic spots. But most important of all, the school taught us to be secular in the real sense of the word. Even today, I feel the same sense of strength and tranquility inside a chapel as I do in a temple (and frankly, the number of instances I have sought the same in a chapel might be more, given that it was the place we used to turn to right before exams in school). While I was in school, I used to assume that our generation being secular was kind of a given, at least among the educated ones. I was pretty surprised when I realized that wasn't true. Trust me, I have seen educated elite in my institute who laud the massacre in Gujrat despite having borne eyewitness to those gruesome acts. Nearly all of us face that time in life when we think we have hit rock bottom, only to be handed a shovel. In one such lowest of lows, one of the things that helped me pull through, was my friend telling me, "Remember, you are a convent girl". Its not just about the compulsorily knee-length tunics and plaited hair and chins parallel to the ground signaling that the world is our oyster. It is about how we see ourselves when we look in a mirror; it is about knowing that the world is our oyster.

I will always remember this trip to San Callisto Catacombs on the outskirts of Rome. Nitin and I, both missionary school products, will always associate those twenty minutes, spent three storeys below the grounds, with that strong spiritual thread that made us both remember our school assemblies, the values imparted, and our silent promises to always live up to them.

Valentine Specials: Favorite Love Stories

2010-02-10T21:52:00.004+05:30

Just like any other kid, I grew up on fairy tales. As my mother and grandmothers tucked me into my bed at night, telling me my favorite bedtime stories, I really did believe that Snow White would wake up when kissed by true love or that Cinderella's prince will certainly come to find her and then they shall live happily ever after. On a different note, though, I do wonder why all fairy tale love stories were named after the damsels and the princes' names weren't even mentioned. Anyways, as I grew up, I did mature enough to realize that there was more to love than a pretty damsel and a valiant prince and an evil stepmother/ogre. That love was not about happily ever afters but more a case of moving to the next set of merely happily while overcoming subsequent stepmothers/ogres. Of course, the love stories I now read were very different from the childhood fairy tales. It were these stories that shaped my ideas about this weird, inexplicable yet amazingly strong feeling called love and also kind of made me fall in love with the idea of being in love. Presenting my top ten favorite love stories (among the ones I have read, of course):

Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen: I read it first when I was thirteen. My very first understanding of love stems from this book. As I seem to have ranted on previously, Fitzwilliam Darcy was my first love. For the first time in my life, I came to understand love as something deep that develops over time, accompanied by admiration and respect, as opposed to the at first sight tosh fed by the happily ever after fairy tales. Ask any girl who has read it, she would swear by it, and by Mr Darcy.
P.S. I Love You, Cecelia Ahern: There are some love stories that transcend life and death. This is one such story. Holly's life comes to an end after Gerry, her high school sweetheart-turned-husband of six years, dies following a battle with cancer. If only Gerry's love was weak enough to let her give up. Though separated in physical form, Gerry guides his love to adjust to a life without him, helping her live again, laugh again. Makes you realize that some memories might actually be enough to last a lifetime.
A Walk to Remember, Nicholas Sparks: I remember crying buckets at the end of the book. But somehow, I cant recall feeling really sad at the death of the book's central character. The book somehow represented hope and strength derived from love, that doesnt cease even when the one you love ceases to exist. I still dont know what touched me more, Jamie's guidance of the lost soul that was Langdon or Langdon's making sure Jamie had everything she had wished for before she finally goes.
Chicken Soup for the Romantic Soul: A collection of heart-warming love stories, contributed by regular people around the world. Seems like every ordinary couple has an extraordinary story behind them. Losing faith in love? Go read any two-page story from the book. And you will find yourself believing in the power of love once again.
2 States, Chetan Bhagat: Does not qualify as a love story in the real sense of the word. Neither does it explore any kind of deep attachment or profound bonding between its protagonists. But it explores something that only Indians can understand, the whole concept of a marriage not being a union of merely two individuals but some hundred individuals comprising two families, Indian families, implying not just parents but also their parents and their siblings, to the dai ma who changed your diapers to the kaka who used to get you chocolates.
Love Story, Eric Segal: Among the first mature love stories I read. Who has not felt a pang of pain for Oliver when he loses the love of his life Jennifer. That life isnt fair, after all they had so little time together. But what really brought tears to my eyes was the father-son reconciliation at the end of the book. A lot of people have categorized the book as as being diabetes-inducing sweet, but probably for the nostalgia associated or for the fact that I might still want to think of love as being that sweet and simple, it will always figure on my list of favorite love stories.
Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare: Has any talk of great love been complete without a mention of Mr Montague and Miss Capulet? A love story that has been cited as an example for generations. Albeit ending in tragedy, the story gave the term till death do us part a totally different meaning. There was a time I used to wonder why they had to go to all these lengths just to be with each other and why Juliet could not simply settle for Paris. Well, I was a teenager then. Now I appreciate that better.
Notebook, Nicholas Sparks: When I had first come across the words for better or for worse at an acquaintance's wedding, I used to believe it was kind of a given. Never had I understood how bad the worse could get and how deep would the love have to be to sail through a storm that you know can never end in happiness. I do wonder, though, how Nicholas Sparks manages to write love stories which end in tears but still leave your faith in this all powerful emotion cemented even more firmly.
Twilight series, Stephanie Meyer: To what lengths would you go to protect the one you love? Especially if the one you love could possibly be your favorite meal? And would you be willing to leave your soul behind to be with the one you love? Such has been the impact of Twilight and its sequels that one of my friends had once remarked, "Damn Edward Cullen! Why on earth do all girls demand an Edward-like lover?"
Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell: I read the book because my Mom told me that there was no love story as this one. Well, she was right. The book is painted in shades of grey and showcases the bitter side of love. With Scarlett's obsession for Ashley, Rhett's love for Scarlett, Melanie's faith in her husband, this book, set in the backdrop of the American Civil War, makes for a bitter love story, an all time great nonetheless.

Shruti Di

2010-02-09T06:08:00.008+05:30

In college, a lot of seniors have these juniors who are like, well younger siblings to them, if not kids. You know, the ones you kind of dote upon, the ones for whose achievements you feel way happier than you could possibly feel for your own, those kind of juniors. I have been pretty fortunate to have had seniors for whom I was such a junior and I have also had my share of such juniors. Given the placements semester and the speed at which it flew by, it had been a while though since I had caught up with them. When that finally happened, I learnt, within a span of four hours that one of them was in a serious relationship while a couple of others had started working out at the gym, seriously enough to wake up early on Sunday mornings. Well, suddenly felt kind of old and I felt this kids are growing up kind of feeling sweep over me. To top it all, I mentioned it to those juniors as well as to a couple of friends, only to hear that they were not surprised by my reaction and had often seen related flashes in me previously (that doesnt mean I'm entertaining any aunty jokes :-| ).

When I told my mom of the same, she told me that I had forever been a Shruti Di. That was the name coined for me by most people I knew in the officers' circle. I suppose Shreyas and Tanmay would be the ones who ought to shoulder most of the blame, given they called me Di despite being just few months younger. Of course, then, there was my sister Surabhi, Shreyas' sister and my cousin Sukriti, and Tanmay's sister, Soumya, who is pretty much like family, considering our parents have known each other for, like, ever. Given the amount of time the six of us spent together, owing to the fact that our three families practically constituted one unit, the infinite mehfils (bhopali equivalent of the insti fart sessions), movies, road trips and the like, can possibly explain that turning into an intrinsically programmed Shruti Di was, but, natural (that doesn't indicate any tolerance for Di jokes either).

Well, I realize I can't possibly feel complete without feeling that way. Life's simple little things :).

Save Our Tigers

2010-02-05T06:34:00.003+05:30

Are we really going to be the nation that would have hunted its own national animal to extinction? Aircel together with WWF has launched a Save Our Tigers campaign hoping to mobilize public opinion in support of the big cat. While public opinion has served as a remarkable means of pressurizing the authorities to ensure justice in past instances, will it be sufficient in this particular case? Is it possible to generate a voice loud enough such that the government is forced to act? And with numbers dwindling at a rate as this, will their action be in time to undo what years of recklessness and greed have done? Having grown up mouthing Suhaib Ilyasi's Remember, together we can, and we will, make a difference, why am I afraid that it might be too late for together now? Why do I have a feeling that I wont be taking my kids to Kanha National Park the way my parents used to take me? That I would have to make do with the city zoo or worse, with documentaries on National Geographic to tell them what this part of their heritage was like. While here I am, worrying if my future kids would get to see what a tiger really looked like, what about the tiger kid whose mother doesn't come back home?

Vampire-struck

2010-01-23T19:29:00.002+05:30

Before I begin, I must admit that like most high school and college girls around the globe, I am completely and irrevocably in love with vampires. In fact, I often have a tough time deciding which among Edward Cullen, Stefan Salvatore and Damon Salvatore should be ranked higher on the hotness scale. Most of my guy friends have adopted a weird habit of cursing all the abovementioned characters. The grapevine says men around the globe are baffled and at a complete loss to fathom the bizarre attraction these undead lethal creatures hold to girls around. They have come up with various hilarious theories for the same including one suggesting that women love vampires because the vampires are perfect depictions of gay guys. Preposterous, right? Guess its time to get a girl's perspective.

The fact that most of these fictitious vampires are described as being nothing short of Greek Gods makes up only the tip of the iceberg. They are also described as having these superhero characteristics, the mind reading, all the ultimate macho qualities, and top it all with extra dollops of sensitivity..and what do you get..its the perfect guy. Almost all high school movies have shown girls falling for the football team captains. The strong athletic vampires are no different from the typical high school jock who dates the prom queen and is every girl's dream hunk. With a difference, our new hero is empathetic and understanding, he listens, he shares, he even weeps. Be it as Edward or as one of the Salvatore brothers, he would go to any lengths to protect the love of his life, even if it involves putting himself in danger. Come on, which girl wouldn't fall for such a guy. His described lifestyle choice makes him shine out as a good guy, who makes a conscious decision not to be a monster, despite what nature has bestowed upon him, unlike most guys who use I am a guy, nature made me so as an excuse to get out of any and every thing girls want to do. Of course, we are bedazzled by him. And honestly, which girl has ever come across a guy who would pull back from a girls embrace because he doesn't want to hurt her. Of course, we swoon at him. Add to that the classic allure of the ultimate forbidden romance, he becomes totally irresistible. If only he were real. Call me vampire-struck, you bet!

Two Choices

2010-01-18T23:45:00.004+05:30

Ever wondered if human beings are intrinsically good or bad, rather would they, more often that not, think of their own gain as opposed to someone else's happiness. Paulo Coelho tried exploring this baffling question in his book, The Devil and Miss Prym. And most of us do assume that the answer to the above mentioned questions would be that human beings are rational, marginal thinkers who think of their gains before anything else. What comprises that gain is of course, debatable. Came across the following story and I believe it most certainly deserves to be shared:

What would you do?....you make the choice. Don't look for a punch line, there isn't one. Read it anyway. My question is: Would you have made the same choice?

At a fundraising dinner for a school that serves children with learning disabilities, the father of one of the students delivered a speech that would never be forgotten by all who attended. After extolling the school and its dedicated staff, he offered a question: 'When not interfered with by outside influences, everything nature does, is done with perfection. Yet my son, Shay, cannot learn things as other children do. He cannot understand things as other children do. Where is the natural order of things in my son?'

The audience was stilled by the query.

The father continued. 'I believe that when a child like Shay, who was mentally and physically disabled comes into the world, an opportunity to realize true human nature presents itself, and it comes in the way other people treat that child.' Then he told the following story:

Shay and I had walked past a park where some boys Shay knew were playing baseball. Shay asked, 'Do you think they'll let me play?' I knew that most of the boys would not want someone like Shay on their team, but as a father I also understood that if my son were allowed to play, it would give him a much-needed sense of belonging and some confidence to be accepted by others in spite of his handicaps.

I approached one of the boys on the field and asked (not expecting much) if Shay could play. The boy looked around for guidance and said, 'We're losing by six runs and the game is in the eighth inning. I guess he can be on our team and we'll try to put him in to bat in the ninth inning.'

Shay struggled over to the team's bench and, with a broad smile, put on a team shirt. I watched with a small tear in my eye and warmth in my heart. The boys saw my joy at my son being accepted. In the bottom of the eighth inning, Shay's team scored a few runs but was still behind by three. In the top of the ninth inning, Shay put on a glove and played in the right field. Even though no hits came his way, he was obviously ecstatic just to be in the game and on the field, grinning from ear to ear as I waved to him from the stands. In the bottom of the ninth inning, Shay's team scored again. Now, with two outs and the bases loaded, the potential winning run was on base and Shay was scheduled to be next at bat.

At this juncture, do they let Shay bat and give away their chance to win the game?

Surprisingly, Shay was given the bat. Everyone knew that a hit was all but impossible because Shay didn't even know how to hold the bat properly, much less connect with the ball. However, as Shay stepped up to the plate, the pitcher, recognizing that the other team was putting winning aside for this moment in Shay's life, moved in a few steps to lob the ball in softly so Shay could at least make contact.

The first pitch came and Shay swung clumsily and missed. The pitcher again took a few steps forward to toss the ball softly towards Shay. As the pitch came in, Shay swung at the ball and hit a slow ground ball right back to the pitcher. The game would now be over. The pitcher picked up the soft grounder and could have easily thrown the ball to the first baseman. Shay would have been out and that would have been the end of the game. Instead, the pitcher threw the ball right over the first baseman's head, out of reach of all team mates.

Everyone from the stands and both teams started yelling, 'Shay, run to first! Run to first!' Never in his life had Shay ever run that far, but he made it to first base. He scampered down the baseline, wide-eyed and startled.

Everyone yelled, 'Run to second, run to second!' Catching his breath, Shay awkwardly ran towards second, gleaming and struggling to make it to the base. By the time Shay rounded towards second base, the right fielder had the ball . the smallest guy on their team who now had his first chance to be the hero for his team. He could have thrown the ball to the second-baseman for the tag, but he understood the pitcher's intentions so he, too, intentionally threw the ball high and far over the third-baseman's head.

Shay ran toward third base deliriously as the runners ahead of him circled the bases toward home. All were screaming, 'Shay, Shay, Shay, all the Way Shay'

Shay reached third base because the opposing shortstop ran to help him by turning him in the direction of third base, and shouted, 'Run to third! Shay, run to third!' As Shay rounded third, the boys from both teams, and the spectators, were on their feet screaming, 'Shay, run home! Run home!' Shay ran to home, stepped on the plate, and was cheered as the hero who hit the grand slam and won the game for his team. 'That day', said the father softly with tears now rolling down his face, 'the boys from both teams helped bring a piece of true love and humanity into this world'.

Shay didn't make it to another summer. He died that winter, having never forgotten being the hero and making me so happy, and coming home and seeing his Mother tearfully embrace her little hero of the day!

We all have thousands of opportunities every single day to help realize the 'natural order of things.' So many seemingly trivial interactions between two people present us with a choice: Do we pass along a little spark of love and humanity or do we pass up those opportunities and leave the world a little bit colder in the process?

I remember back in the eighth or ninth grade, Club HP used to air a much loved advertisement about how a simple smile from one of their petrol bunk attendants was transferred from person to person, leaving each one a little happier, no matter how sticky a situation they may be in. Be it Munnabhai's jadoo ki jhappi or Eloise's Christmas joys, we all root for the angelic do-gooders who do nothing superhuman except spreading warmth around them. Then why is it that we choose not to try and incorporate a little of that in our own lives. Have we, in all our progress and development and advancement, forgotten what it was like to be human after all?

The Vampirism Test

2009-12-24T13:23:00.001+05:30

Published in the leisure section of a Bhopal-based newspaper:

You might be a vampire if:

You have a strong desire for blood.
You have a nameless craving that can never be fulfilled.
You can go without food or sleep for an unusual amount of time.
People find you interesting at first, then begin to avoid you.
Even when surrounded by others, you always feel alone.
You tend to be a night person by nature.
You have had a strong interest in vampires.
Sex tends to leave you feeling revitalized and full of energy.
You are very sensitive to sensory extremes.
You believe in reincarnations and have had past life visions.
Your relationships tend to be passionate and intense.
You look younger than you actually are.
You can see and/or read auras.
Animals tend to get along well with you.
When you will things to happen, they usually do.

I checked on 14 out of 15 traits. Whats your score?

Credits: Poster: Sirisha

Ek Duje Ke Vaaste: Why Good Girls and Nice Guys Are Never Together

2009-12-18T00:38:00.003+05:30

Came across the following piece:

Nice girls who will always remain 'a good friend'. Nice girls who are 'just one of the guys'. Nice girls who get punched on the arm (because they're just one of the guys), but never get kissed on the cheek. Or anywhere else.
This is for the women who talk of women's lib but are secretly too shy to actually ask a guy out. And who must haplessly watch him being asked out by a girl, who's I.Q. is about as high as her neckline (which, in case you missed the point, usually isn't too high). This is also for those girls who can never summon up the courage to tell a guy, that they think he's the best thing since sliced bread. And who will continue to think that while the guy in question flirts shamelessly with them in a half-assed attempt at making a completely different girl jealous. This is in honour of girls who give roses on Rose Day, but never get one back in return. The ones who have to resort to dropping hints in order to get asked out but, (since men are men and wouldn't take a hint unless it showed up naked on their doorstep bearing apple pie) who never get asked out anyway. This is in salutation to the girls who prefer playing hard to get, and who wonder why all the nice guys are dating women who play not-hard-to-get-at-all. This one is for the girls who've been repeatedly told that they're smart and cute and desirable – just not by the guys they actually care for. This is a voice for women who appreciate that under the macho-man-randy-savage testosterone drive, most guys are not too bad, as friends or as anything else, and who don't honestly want to be put on a pedestal and be worshipped for thinking so.
This is a tribute to girls who never have doors held out for them, never have chairs pulled for them, and never complain about it. This is for women who'd happily split the bill with a friend, boyfriend, husband if only they'd had one. And if only he'd let them. This is in defence of women who give tentative hugs out of the fear that they might send the 'wrong signals', who never drink too much at parties so they'd never have to be 'cared for' and who never, ever misbehave. And this is also for the girls who still stay friends with girls who openly flirt with their boyfriends, but who'd never dream of stealing their best friend's boyfriend, even if he's their intellectual soulmate. Because they're nice girls and nice girls don't do that sort of thing.
What nice girls do is get stood up, ditched and taken for granted. Nice girls get to be the friendly ear, someone to crib about ex-girlfriends, present girlfriends and women in general. Nice girls get to be doormats, someone whose house you can use to throw a surprise party for your girlfriend, and who's left to clean up after you go to drop your girlfriend home. Nice girls get to be someone you kiss when you're too drunk to notice and someone who'll accept your profuse apologies the next morning. Nice girls get to grow up believing the Cinderella story, the Ugly Duckling story and all the stories their boyfriends tell them about why they're getting calls from ex-girlfriends in the middle of the night.
This, dear nice girls, is for every time a guy told you that "any guy would be lucky to have you" and you wished he's stop saying that considering he wasn't doing the having bit himself. This is also for all the times you've watched your crush ogle at women whose idea of socializing involves high-pitched giggles and cleavage-baring antics. This is for all the hours of knock-knock jokes, breast jokes, beer jokes, women jokes, feminist jokes and dead baby jokes, of being a 'sport', being a 'pal', being the only one in the group not salivating over the Playmate of the Month, or not having any kind of Mortal Kombat score to discuss. This is for every time you wanted to but couldn't stop being sensible, for every fun thing you didn't do because it seemed 'inappropriate', every guy you pined for because he was, in some odd way or other, "off limits". This is for every time you wondered what the hell was wrong with you, if you set off an allergic reaction in men and if that wasn't the case then why all the men in the world have to have such a lousy taste in women.
The worst part of this story, girls, is that eventually most men look out for someone they can take home to mommy. Oh they'll shake their heads and laugh it off if you ever suggest it, but deep down that's what they really want. Eventually. While they're secretly fantasizing about lingerie models, the only one they'll really consider marriage material is the girl-next-door variety. Someone who needn't exactly be a chef extraordinaire, Salma Hayek's twin or winner of the Nobel Prize for Astrophysics. But also someone who won't embarrass the shite out of them by quaffing beer, flirting with their cousins at family get-togethers or insisting on dirty dancing with them in public. In other words, a 'nice' girl. And till men in general are hit by the proverbial bolt of lightning that, by god, she's the one I've always been looking for, your destiny is to live down the injustice, the humiliation, the heartache and the suffering. Go ahead, just do what you do best. Be nice.

And this one too:

Ode to the Nice Guys
This rant was written for the Wharton Undergraduate Journal

This is a tribute to the nice guys. The nice guys that finish last, that never become more than friends, that endure hours of whining and bitching about what assholes guys are, while disproving the very point. This is dedicated to those guys who always provide a shoulder to lean on but restrain themselves to tentative hugs, those guys who hold open doors and give reassuring pats on the back and sit patiently outside the changing room at department stores. This is in honor of the guys that obligingly reiterate how cute/beautiful/smart/funny/sexy their female friends are at the appropriate moment, because they know most girls need that litany of support. This is in honor of the guys with open minds, with laid-back attitudes, with honest concern. This is in honor of the guys who respect a girl’s every facet, from her privacy to her theology to her clothing style.
This is for the guys who escort their drunk, bewildered female friends back from parties and never take advantage once they’re at her door, for the guys who accompany girls to bars as buffers against the rest of the creepy male population, for the guys who know a girl is fishing for compliments but give them out anyway, for the guys who always play by the rules in a game where the rules favor cheaters, for the guys who are accredited as boyfriend material but somehow don’t end up being boyfriends, for all the nice guys who are overlooked, underestimated, and unappreciated, for all the nice guys who are manipulated, misled, and unjustly abandoned, this is for you.

This is for that time she left 40 urgent messages on your cell phone, and when you called her back, she spent three hours painstakingly dissecting two sentences her boyfriend said to her over dinner. And even though you thought her boyfriend was a chump and a jerk, you assured her that it was all ok and she shouldn’t worry about it. This is for that time she interrupted the best killing spree you’d ever orchestrated in GTA3 to rant about a rumor that romantically linked her and the guy she thinks is the most repulsive person in the world. And even though you thought it was immature and you had nothing against the guy, you paused the game for two hours and helped her concoct a counter-rumor to spread around the floor. This is also for that time she didn’t have a date, so after numerous vows that there was nothing “serious” between the two of you, she dragged you to a party where you knew nobody, the beer was awful, and she flirted shamelessly with you, justifying each fit of reckless teasing by announcing to everyone: “oh, but we’re just friends!” And even though you were invited purely as a symbolic warm body for her ego, you went anyways. Because you’re nice like that.

The nice guys don’t often get credit where credit is due. And perhaps more disturbing, the nice guys don’t seem to get laid as often as they should. And I wish I could logically explain this trend, but I can’t. From what I have observed on campus and what I have learned from talking to friends at other schools and in the workplace, the only conclusion I can form is that many girls are just illogical, manipulative bitches. Many of them claim they just want to date a nice guy, but when presented with such a specimen, they say irrational, confusing things such as “oh, he’s too nice to date” or “he would be a good boyfriend but he’s not for me” or “he already puts up with so much from me, I couldn’t possibly ask him out!” or the most frustrating of all: “no, it would ruin our friendship.” Yet, they continue to lament the lack of datable men in the world, and they expect their too-nice-to-date male friends to sympathize and apologize for the men that are jerks. Sorry, guys, girls like that are beyond my ability to fathom. I can’t figure out why the connection breaks down between what they say (I want a nice guy!) and what they do (I’m going to sleep with this complete ass now!). But one thing I can do, is say that the nice-guy-finishes-last phenomenon doesn’t last forever. There are definitely many girls who grow out of that train of thought and realize they should be dating the nice guys, not taking them for granted. The tricky part is finding those girls, and even trickier, finding the ones that are single.

So, until those girls are found, I propose a toast to all the nice guys. You know who you are, and I know you’re sick of hearing yourself described as ubiquitously nice. But the truth of the matter is, the world needs your patience in the department store, your holding open of doors, your party escorting services, your propensity to be a sucker for a pretty smile. For all the crazy, inane, absurd things you tolerate, for all the situations where you are the faceless, nameless hero, my accolades, my acknowledgement, and my gratitude go out to you. You do have credibility in this society, and your well deserved vindication is coming.

Makes one wonder which one is true ;). And if they both are. the dude in the picture above is definitely not doing his job well :P.

When Butchers perform Surgeries and Nanotechnologists dole out Justice

2009-11-08T04:42:00.001+05:30

With the placement season upon us, the campus has been witnessing the usual pre-placement talks by several firms who wish to recruit purely for the reason of a certified intelligence level that has been rated by an examination noted for its rejection rate. However, being a believer in Howard Gartner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences, it is quite natural to wonder about the possible consequences of a mismatch.

The consequences might not be that devastating upon hiring engineers to perform financial services (except , probably, an unhealthy dependence on mathematical models that has proven to be fatal in the past). However, imagine a situation where for the mere sake of fulfilling a legal requirement, an on-paper committee is created to handle legal mishaps in, say, an educational institution. While in corporate organizations, it is the Human Resources department that handles such issues, in some consultation with people possessing legal knowledge, academic institutes have been content with asking professors to fill in for such roles. After all, shouldn't they be allowed to enjoy the benefits of the lack of a proper corporate governance structure.

Imagine a situation where an electrical engineering academician is asked to tackle harassment complaints. Not really their fault that human behaviors don't follow the equations that our bright minds are used to. True ,they might have degrees to their credit and have patents and papers published, but often, they have zero knowledge of psychology, let alone criminal behavior or jurisprudence. Their methods of handling cases that come their way would make even first year law students roll around on the floor laughing. Researching methods on fabricating semiconductor devices does not teach you to validate evidences or cross question testimonies. People should stick to what they know. Not try to perform duties they know naught about. Deciding whether a punitive or preventive action has to be taken can only be done by understanding the case profile and the profile of the accused, something which cant be aided through IEEE. I mean, come on, I have a friend who has basic medical knowledge, despite her automotive engineering education, she can even tell you the required medication in case of common illnesses, but she doesn't go about performing surgical oncology procedures. Its an even bigger mess when the persons handling the wrong job, by virtue of being experts at their actual job, have a pretty high opinion of their intellect, which causes them to accept what they see and renders them incapable of accepting that there can be more to a situation than is meeting the eye. What they don't understand is that their clumsiness coupled with apathy can harm a life, damage a life, wreck a life, or even take a life. When they don't have the skill, they most certainly should not have the right to mess around with people's lives. Because while those lives involved might mean nothing to our high-bred academicians, they do to others.

Stand By Me

2009-10-29T20:03:00.001+05:30

A story of four young boys on the brink of adolescence, sharing an over zealous quest to find a dead child's body, Stand By Me explores the purity of childhood friendships. A recounted narrative, the film ends with the protagonist saying that he never had friends the way he did when he was twelve. 'Does anyone?', he asks. True, maybe it was the innocence of the early years or the inability to understand how the world functions, but there was something that reflects in the warmth one feels on hearing an old friend's voice albeit 2000 miles away. You probably dont cry to them about break ups the way you can cry to your college friends and its not watching endless hours of movies together but the 5 minute catching up sessions are like spa treatments. College friends are great, grown up and capable of handling grown up messes (very effectively, I must add) but probably feeling twelve again helps one reconnect with the non-messy side of life that used to be.
One can never have friends the way one did at twelve. No one can, or so he says,
But while the ending did remind me of old friends and brought a smile to my face with memories of carefree times, the words Stand By Me made me think of the friends here who have stood by me through really rough times. They know this is to them. Love you all :).

Karma Circle

2009-10-24T21:51:00.002+05:30

Flipping through Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets for the nth time, came across the following lines:

Draco Malfoy was no longer strutting about the school as though he owned the place.

On the contrary, he looked resentful and sulky.

On the other hand, Ginny Weasley, was perfectly happy again...

Loved it. Life's little pleasures. :).

For Everything Else, There's Mastercard

2009-10-23T18:35:00.001+05:30

Auto Fare Round-trip to Cream Centre: Rs 120

Refried Bean Tacos: Rs 125

Half-and-half Enchiladas: Rs 220

Total expenditure on the Thursday lunch: Rs 696

Authentic Mexican Meal after having craved for a month: Priceless :).

Credits

Of Seances, Spirits and the Subconscious

2009-10-05T06:52:00.004+05:30

Lemme begin by asking, Do you believe in ghosts?In black magic? In God?
This post probably stems from the psychological and para-psychological turmoils of the last few weeks. The recent bouts of insomnia ravaging my being have presented me opportunities to meditate upon excruciatingly weird issues, for reasons still unknown.
A rational scientific mind might argue to the non existence of such entities. But has it never happened that you do feel an unexplained presence in your life, even if it is your guardian angel? I have been blessed with an above average intellect and by virtue of pursuing my education in applied sciences, I have been bestowed with a pretty rational mind. But, yes, I do believe in the paranormal. Whether it happens as a result of the manifestations of the human brain or the existence is for real, not sure, but I do not deny the effects of such phenomena on life as such.
Possessed by an incessant urge to speak with a dearly departed, I began researching methods. Seances and planchits have been long advertised as means to do so.But whether they establish a communication channel between the spirit of the actual person or are just a manifestation of our hearts deepest desires is still unclear (ref). A friend recounted a story told to him by his father about a seance having gone horribly wrong, with an uninvited invisible guest showing up and refusing to leave; they were later rescued by an ancestor, who in their dreams told them never to do it again. That did it. Seance was out of question. Then I wondered if simply praying would work. Maybe it did, maybe not. I'm waiting for a reply. And something tells me I shall receive one ( Worry not, I am as sane as you are).
While we are on the subject of spirits, what are they precisely? Remnants of a life? Or the very life itself? Or the energy that makes the hydrocarbon matter come alive? Dan Brown's Angels and Demons presented theories drawing parallels between concentrated energy fields and the soul. Brown's latest, The Lost Symbol, puts forth a similar view point. Are we coming close to understanding the concept of God and divinity? Or are we just trying to explain it using what we already know? I remember Papa explaining to me the concept of wave-particle duality using the same funda, that people had tried classifying light as either a wave or a particle in the same way man had tried describing God as a human incarnation or a heavenly bright source of light. The Lost Symbol talks of divinity being intrinsic while Eric von Danniken talked of the Gods as being extra terrestrial colonizers. Is it really a mere energy field running through us all that makes sure all modules of this super program function without a glitch?
Speaking of inner manifestations and the hidden signals transmitted by our subconscious, I remembered this book I had read back in the summer of my freshman year. I dont recall the title but it had something to do with Wicca, as the practitioners like to call their craft, which is witchcraft or black magic to the unaware. It talked of how it was possible to program any human mind into dying of its own accord, apparently there lies a hidden, teeny-tiny portion of resentment in all our lives which when excited and nudged into wanting release, starts walking upon a path of self annihilation purely by choice. The hocus pocus of voodoo dolls and chants is to create the suitable atmosphere thereby allowing the victim to submit his mind willingly to the influence of the practitioner. Needless to say, the above cited was an example of black magic. The counterpart white magic uses the same technique for healing purposes.
Exploiting the power of the subconscious mind was branded witchcraft in the medieval times. When Rhonda Byrne packages the same as the Secret, she delivers a new kid on the block, something that has actually been around for ages. The Law of Attraction poses interesting questions, the first being why not a law of repulsion. Several interesting conversations circled around with the typical IIT minds trying to find a catch in the same. One argued using the string theory, while one tried to figure out if neurons could actually be radiating systems despite being covered with mylein sheaths.
Zillions of ways, countless cures to try to soothe pain and offer hope, each weird in its own way. Maybe they are all the grown up versions of the chocolate Mom gave you as a kid when you were crying, just to make you feel better. And, it works, even if for a very short span of time. So what if it might just be a temporary escape route, it helps, like booze. And frankly between booze and this nameless, faceless entity, most of us will always prefer the latter.
PS: Why am I writing this? Scroll up. The insomnia demons are on rampage and I'm so high on lack of sleep!!!

Tol Mol Ke Bol

2009-09-13T20:54:00.001+05:30

Found in a bowl in a friend's room. Guess the amount.. ;).

Pottermania Remembered

2009-09-07T23:44:00.002+05:30

People often said that the craze surrounding Harry Potter books and everything else that got associated with the boy wizard was over hyped. Well I dont know if it was a case of brilliant marketing or simply superb writing, the series has been an integral part of my growing up process. What probably clicked with kids (back then) of my age was that as we matured, the characters themselves matured, the plots grew darker. Every single HP fan has tried finding himself in some or the other character in the series. It had shots of thrill, drama, emotions, humour, everything. Every character, from the protagonist and his friends to guest appearances like Stan Shunpike and old Archie, seemed so real. The excitement of waiting for the next book, discussing theories, crying over Sirius and Fred and Lupin, to the eventual sadness from realizing that the defeat of the Dark Lord marked the end of an era in our lives. There are some quotes from the series, which I absolutely love, be they laced with sarcasm or deep sentiment:

Prizoner of Azkaban, Lupin: You heard James?
Goblet of Fire, old Archie, on being asked to wear Muggle trousers instead of lacy nightgowns: Thanks but I am comfortable with these, I like it breezy around my privates
Goblet of Fire, Dumbledore: Differences in habit and language are nothing as long as our aims are identical and our hearts open
Ron Weasley, Order of the Phoenix, when he sees the blood on Harry's hand: You said you were just writing lines
Dumbledore, Half Blood Prince: Please, Severus
Snape, Deathly Hallows: Look at me Harry
Harry, Deathly Hallows: Albus Severus, you are named after two headmasters of Hogwarts, one of them was a Slytherin and he was the bravest man I ever knew

Anymore, Anyone?

The Non-Males' Story

2009-08-31T14:52:00.001+05:30

This post probably takes birth following my friend's post on how hard it is to be one's true self when one carries two XX chromosomes instead of an X and a Y. I also had a conversation with an old friend who talked of why he did not want his sister to write JEE despite her being academically brilliant and having opted for the science stream in +2. The reason he cited was, this is an unhealthy environment for girls, it takes too much out of you being a girl in this place.How many of us can truthfully disagree with that? The first thing that a school junior of mine uttered, on being asked how she was finding IIT Bombay, was, it feels scary being a girl here.
Girls suffer the torment of being placed under a judgmental microscope practically everywhere but I'm just going to talk about this esteemed centre of excellence. For some crazy reason (I still cant figure out what), I always believed that education was associated with character and an open mind. My naivety in associating academic excellence with education is another issue. I can still recall the culture shock I got, back in my freshman year, when I realized that a majority of even the so-called educated guys in an esteemed and reverred academic institute were in character no way different from roadside hooligans.
Right from the freshie night anti-cheerings and the countless sick messages received to bets on what you would wear in class to gossiping of graphic liasons with every guy you speak with to attributing every single achievement of yours to unscruplous means, every girl here learns to accept that she cannot expect any respect from her male counterparts here.
A dear friend had once tried to surmise a reason for guys here being even worse than the guys in regular colleges, a fact that he believed to be the case. His reasoning was that nearly 95 percent of the guys who made it here had spent their growing up years absorbed in just books, obviously a healthy interaction with girls was absent, especially at a time when they were maturing. Upon coming here, they were introduced to countless hours of pornography that eventually resultsed in them viewing the female species as mere objects, nothing more.
Another reason that people kept pointing out was the male ego walking ten miles ahead of the entities themselves. Its hard for guys to accept that girls can be equal to them. When the equality in skill gets proven, its time to find other faults. The fact that they then no longer consider the girls female but coin a term non-males for them should give an indication of the levels to which they would go to display their contempt.
Whats even more disheartening is that when, in such a place, we girls should have stuck together, we failed to do just that. We turned out to be each others' worst enemies. Instead of supporting each other, we pulled each other down when one of us got something we all wanted.
You can attribute it to the male ego or the skewed sex ratio but the fact remains that it does take a lot out of you to retain your sanity here if you're a girl. Of course we do evolve to adapt to the environment. We get used to people talking rubbish and just accustom ourselves not to pay heed. And if we cannot develop that resistance and immunity to these arrows , we wear cloaks of invisibility and hide inside our shells, at least no arrows are launched then. We dont wear skirts to class even if its sweltering 41 degrees outside with an 88% humidity to match. We train ourselves not be hurt when we realize that erstwhile friends had been talking behind our backs. We accustom ourselves to keep our feelings inside us and not let them out even if they lead to insurmountable stress accompanied by pcos.
A place of learning should be characterised by freedom, to explore one's strengths and not by prejudiced societal diktats. People might argue that its the Indian society where we grew up but somehow I believed that people of such high mental callibre would have an associated moral fibre to think independently and choose what they believed was right. Sadly, I was disappointed.
PS: That apart, I must say I have been lucky to have friends here who have not only treated me with respect but also supported me in my endeavours. may their tribe increase. And unfortunately, most of the girls here have not been that lucky.

Third Degree

2009-08-28T17:02:00.000+05:30

The cover page of Greg Iles' Third Degree had something thought provoking to say.

PS: This is not plagiarism. It is through mutual consent ;).

The Piggy Paranoia

2009-08-22T20:19:00.000+05:30

The last few weeks have witnessed an obsessively incessant paranoia about swine flu. From mass quarantines to entire states declaring shutdowns, signs of people's fear are everywhere. Aren't we over-reacting, to say the least. I mean, come on, more people die of regular influenza every day, which is just as contagious. And an even larger number die every 3 hours of tuberculosis, which again falls into the highly contagious category. And I am not even talking road accidents yet. I seem to remember a similar scare following the Avian influenza outbreak and the SARS epidemic. I guess people do get scared and panic easily given this level of hoopla. Some might reprimand me for being insensitive and remind me that the diseases did claim lives. True. And so have cholera and drunken driving. I had intended to argue, by way of this post, that being so totally paranoid is not really rational, but halfway I realized I am just terribly missing Iced Tea (serving of any cold drinks has been suspended everywhere on campus as a precautionary measure).

Yeah that's the sign at Basera :(

Happy Birthday To Me: India turns 63

2009-08-20T23:16:00.001+05:30

This post comes a little later than its supposed publishing date but ah, never mind. I was home the previous week, the first Aug 15 at home after four years and in accordance with the Independence Day tradition of my pre-JEE days, I had wanted to watch the traditional Independence Day programmes on television; 63 things India should be proud of; the past year round-ups; promises ahead etc. Well it was different this year. Not only were they absent but every news channel seemed to be trying to grab its share of the TRPs and every pseudo-celebrity was vying for their fifteen seconds of fame commenting on King Khan being detained at Newark Airport. Also prominently present were Shahid Kapur and Priyanka Chopra busily promoting Kaminey. Somehow didn't seem right. Not like the festival I remembered.

Good to be Bad???

2009-08-17T21:17:00.001+05:30

Was having this discussion with my mom and she alleged that our generation has a problem of equating being "bad" to being cool. So arrogance is sexy, drinking and smoking is hep, its fetch to be unemotional and cold, being manipulative is admired, infidelity is studness. Then came across the following lines scribbled on the back of a notebook which made me wonder if she was right after all :

You think you know
But you never can
Nothing is ever what it seems
Masks are the latest fashion
Deceit runs through as the deepest passion

Adieu to the Maharani

2009-07-29T19:30:00.000+05:30

I was in my seventh grade, if I remember correctly, when I came across the name Maharani Gayatri Devi for the first time. It was on this show Rendevouz with Simi Garewal, Amitabh Bachhan was asked to name who, in his opinion, was the most beautiful woman in the world, and he answered, Maharani Gayatri Devi. I asked my mom, she told me about the Princess of Cooch Behar who went on to become the beloved Maharani of Jaipur, smashing several stereotypes along the way. Coincidentally, the India Today edition of that week carried a piece on her and I saw the above picture for the first time. There was something about her mannerisms, the air of sheer dignified grace about her that made me wish I could hold myself like that. I later learnt of how she was different despite being royalty, how she didn't stick to prescribed norms. I also remember this coffee table book, her memoirs, A Princess Remembers, at an Uncle's place and I distinctly recall a conversation which explained why it was so daring of her to play polo wearing riding breeches. I have talked about how rare such grace is today in one of my previous posts. She was an extraordinary woman who lived an extraordinary life. Here's my personal farewell to the Maharani.

The Cut-Off

2009-07-26T18:07:00.000+05:30

Today's Sunday supplement of Hindustan Times, Brunch, carried a short story by Chetan Bhagat. Titled The Cut-Off, it is the account of a school topper who plans to take his life because he will not be able to get into SRCC or Stephen's despite scoring 92% in his CBSE 12th Board Exams. "Everyone tells you how to live your life. But no one ever tells you how to end it.." is how the narration starts. It goes on to talk of the burden the eighteen year old carries from having made one calculation error in the exam. While he does draft a letter off to the Education Minister complaining of the lack of enough universities for even the top 5 students of every major school in the country, he eventually ends up blaming himself for not having worked enough to earn that extra 3 per cent that could have gotten him into SRCC. The expectations of parents, neighbours and relatives, disappointment at not living up to your own expectations, the futility of scoring 90% in boards, everything has been brought out in a way that it grips your small intestine, pulls it out and wraps it around your throat. The Hindustan Times E-Paper carries the story. Would recommend a reading, I'm sure most of us shall identify with at least parts of it. I know I do.

Mr Sibal, You Reading??

2009-07-25T11:52:00.000+05:30

While the HRD Ministry is busy making plans for further expansions of IITs, students are busy sending out signals begging them to stop. Over 500 students this year have refused to take admissions into the seats alloted to them at the new IITs (a reference article can be found here) .And I dont really blame them. Institutions do not become premier centres of excellence just by sticking labels on them. Though I agree that the chief reason for the global respect for IITs stems from the rejection rate and the selection process, what follows post admissions is considered equally crucial. The new IITs can be cited as case studies in frugalism and minimalism as far as infrastructures as concerned. A dearth of good or for that matter any faculty is something I am sure even they can't choose to ignore. Why would students want to risk their futures through such a compromise. They got through the toughest undergrad filtering examination on the planet, naturally they understand that a four room structure holding the Indian Institute of Technology Indore sign is not going to guarantee them a better future and definitely not enrich their education. They are aware that the nation has institutes other than the IITs which are highly reputed and house facilities to help their intellect grow. If enhancing the quality of education in the nation was the primary agenda of the Human Resources Development folks, why do they not consider it more worthwhile to spend a comparable amount on bettering the infrastructure and research facilities at the existing institutes. If I remember correctly, demand for more IITs was projected as the chief reason for their creation. Sorry to point it out to you sirs, but the numbers don't really support your claim.

Tagged!!

2009-07-23T21:30:00.001+05:30

There is this game that I have seen people play on the blogosphere, usually when they are out of topics to rant and rave about. Called Tag, it asks you to blog about something in particular, favorite songs, disastrous dates etc and then you pass the baton on, asking others to do the same. The rules of this one are as follows:
“Don't take too long to think about it. Fifteen books you've read that will always stick with you. First fifteen you can recall in no more than 15 minutes. Tag up to 15 friends, including me because I'm interested in seeing what books my friends choose”

Well, considering the fact that I have just spent close to two months here in a practically deserted hostel ( you know, haunted would have been better, I might have at least had the ghosts to talk to), books are what have kept me sane or close to sane. Anyways, this asks about the books you think will always stick. So, here I go:

Harry Potter series: Nearly everyone loves them and I'm no different, happen to belong to the class of people who used to draw the lightning scar on their foreheads with sketch pens and henna dyes and can recite anything related to the series, from the method of brewing the Draught of Living Death to Mrs Weasley's favorite song, A Cauldron of Strong Hot Love by Celestina Warbeck.
The Diary of Anne Frank: Someone rightly said that if marooned on a deserted island, he would like to have a copy of this book with him. A ray of sunshine bringing hope in the darkest times, Anne has always been a faithful companion since I was 15.
Chicken Soup Series: Not really putting them out as separate books. Love the simple, enriching, heartwarming stories that help me kinda keep faith in life, in others and in myself.
Pride and Prejudice: The first love story I ever read, the first crush I ever had, my notions of love, sharing and bonding all seem to stem from this classic.
Little Women: Another warm family bonding book that I love to this day and don't mind re-reading.
Freakonomics: A wonderful set of case studies about the hidden hand of economics in a host of world phenomena.
India Unbound: Probably sprung to mind because I recently heard Gurcharan Das speak at the E4SI workshop last weekend
What They Dont Teach You at Harvard Business School: An amazing insightful book on management skills by Mark McCormack. And no, HBS bumping me has got nothing to do with this choice.
Love From Your Friend, Hannah: Wow, don't really know how that came up. Was among my favorite books when I was 13. Its the story of a lonely young girl, growing up during the Great Depression, who finds unlikely friends in her pen pals which includes President Franklin Roosevelt.
Power of Positive Imaging, by Norman Vincent Peale: Describes a wonderful and strong motivational technique called imaging, which I would recommend all to try.
Strong Medicine, by Arthur Hailey: The protagonist in this book on the pharmaceutical industry, a strong ambitious woman named Celia Jordan somehow was one of my initial role models (as my sister likes to allege and she does know me).
Lisa's Story: The diary of a girl dying of leukemia, its a story of hope, of bringing in happiness in spite of what life offers, something I hope I never forget.
Why Do I Love These People: A book on helping understand family better, I guess its somewhat responsible for me loving mine, despite the stories they make me listen to during Diwali (sorry Ma, I told them it was Nani's).
Like a Flowing River: Beautiful short stories about life. Well I guess I love most of the books by Coelho, this one is special for a different reason, being a birthday gift to my best friend (who would also respond to the name of Mr Philosopher).
Catch 22: The book is by all means a classic satirical piece, but is extra special being a gift for my 21st birthday and the copy has motivational messages scribbled on over 20 percent of the pages by my friend.

I guess I could still go on, but the rule says 15 so 15 it is. By the way, I was Tagged by Pratik/ Punchar. Passing on the baton, I tag Nitin, Apurv, Sirisha, Aniket , Bhondu, Bhale, Hula, Abhi, Aruna, Tarun and Mrugen.
The game's on..

Bhai Dooj Tales Recounted

2009-07-22T13:56:00.001+05:30

The festival of Raksha Bandhan is approaching. While this festival celebrates a brother's eternal vow to protect his sister and safeguard her honour, there exists a variant that extols a sister's commitment of protecting her brother. Called Bhai Dooj, it is observed a couple of days after Diwali. In my family there has been a tradition of telling stories where a sister had saved her brother's life. Given the fact that this entire exercise happens at the Puja Mandap, it is extremely hard not to laugh or smirk. You would know why:
Once upon a time, long long ago, there was a brother-sister pair. The brother was married to an evil woman who was having an affair with, wait for it, a snake. The brother, his sister, his wife and her lover the snake would henceforth be referred to as bhai, behen, bhabhi and saanp respectively during the course of this narration. This is to help you understand better what it was like hearing the story at the Puja for each Diwali of my last 16-17 years of recallable existence.
Now the bhabhi wanted to kill the bhai so that she could be with the saanp. So she plots with the saanp and asks him to bite the bhai when he goes to the fields at dawn because its dark. The lucky bhai escapes because he sees the saanp. Again the lovers plot and decide that the saanp should hide in the turban as the bhai doesnt shake the turban before wearing. Lucky bhai (un)fortunately shakes the turban and escapes again. Then the saanp decides to hide in the shoe and this time the bhai gets suspicious and kills the saanp. He brings the body to bhabhi tells her how the saanp had been trying to kill him. Bhabhi pretends to be relieved that bhai is fine but then goes and cries infinitely when alone.
Now bhabhi cuts the saanp into 7 pieces and hides one each under the bedposts, one in her cupboard, one in her earthern lamp (diya) and one in her sindoor daan. She then says to bhai, "I have a riddle. If you can solve you throw me into the fire else I throw you into the fire". Bhai is astounded but she insists and he has to reluctanly agree. Here's the riddle:

Piyu more khatiya, Piyu more machiya
Piyu ka tel jale saari ratiya
Piyu sindoore lal

Stumped as he was, bhai admits defeat and requests bhabhi to allow him to visit behen one last time, especially since it was Bhai Dooj the next day. He meets her, behen does puja and all but she senses something amiss and insists on accompanying bhai back to his place. They are tired during the journey and rest under a tree where bhai falls asleep. Now this wasn't an ordinary tree, it was the meeting place of household earthern lamps or diyas. Of all the diyas assembled, there was one that was smelling a lot. On being asked by the other diyas he mentioned that his mistress kept a piece of her lover, the saanp, in him and he was smelly therefore. He also recounts everything bhabhi had tried doing to bhai, including the riddle and the ensuing punishment. For some reason (I never asked my grandmother what), behen realizes its her bhai-bhabhi being discussed. She wakes bhai and lands up at his house and says that she wants to take the riddle bhai couldn't decipher with the condition that if she fails bhabhi can kill both. Bhabhi agrees, behen pulls all 7 pieces out from their hiding places and assembles the saanp and then kills bhabhi and hence saves bhai's life.
You felt like pulling your hair at one reading, I have had several years of maintaining a straight face while the same thing was being narrated. By the way, I could really benefit if any of you knew another story for Bhai Dooj. Please.. Cant bear another Diwali with this one.

The Girl Effect

2009-07-22T11:43:00.001+05:30

Came across a fabulous pitch. Called the Girl Effect, it re-highlights the adage of improving the life of a nation by improving the life of the girl child. Tries to get the message across pretty effectively. Must Watch.

Ayan Sarkar: 7 Things I Wish I knew 10 Years Back

2009-07-22T11:16:00.000+05:30

As I mentioned in my previous post, the E4SI workshop was mind-blowing. At the risk of infringing intellectual property, I would like to iterate the most valuable lessons from a talk by Ayan Sarkar (Associate at McKinsey's NY Business Technology office) at the workshop, which incidentally were not about social enterprise models and change making in particular but about living life in general.

1. Life is not a Sprint, its a Marathon
2. Life is 80: 20, only 20 per cent of things are actually important and worth worrying about.
3. Make Mistakes, dont be afraid.
4. Have Fences, clear notions of whats wrong and you absolutely cannot and will not do.
5. Stand Up
6. Question the Known
7. Do Well, Do Good

Two Days at TransIndus

2009-07-21T23:57:00.000+05:30

Back from Bangalore after spending the weekend attending the E4SI concluding workshop. The heady cocktail of funding models, impact models, double bottom line, triple bottom line, microfinance and a host of other insights and tips about the citizen sector space, just leaves you high and motivated to make a difference. Featuring experts like the renowned author Gurcharan Das, Bindu Ananth from IFMR, Laura Perkin from NEN, Harish Hande from SELCO, Ayan Sarkar from McKinsey and others, together with over 20 motivated peers, the weekend helped cement whatever had been floating around in my head for sometime now. More on that to follow.
PS: Got bumped by HBS. Aah Never Mind ;)

Satyamev Jayte eh?

2009-07-16T23:32:00.000+05:30

A hugely popular game show in the West, Star Plus, in an attempt to salvage its plummeting TRPs, recently bought the format of the show which involves hooking the contestants up to a polygraph and asking questions which are scandalous to say the least. Not sure, however, if the Indian audience is ready for something of this sort. Oh yes, their taste in voyeuristic entertainment would not be an issue, given the success of Splitsvilla, Big Boss and Rakhi ka Swayamwar. Still there does exist a probability that the format might be too bold for the Indian audience to swallow. Anyways, my sister and I compiled a list of questions that we would have liked to ask people, living or dead, on such a show.

Pranab Mukherjee: Was CII influential in drafting the 2009 Union Budget?
Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose: Did you really die in the 1945 plane crash?
Shahrukh Khan: Have you and Karan Johar done it?
Sonia Gandhi: Did your decision to decline the Prime Ministerial post, after having been the Congress candidate for the job, have to do with the Bofors case?
Bill Clinton: Were there more before Monica?
Pravin Mahajan: Was there external influence in your brother's murder?
Marylin Monroe: Did Robert Kennedy discuss classified information?
Amelia Earhart: (Not really a Moment of Truth format question, but one I have wanted to know all the same) Where the hell did you go?

Further suggestions are welcome...

The Triumph of the Nerds

2009-07-12T01:45:00.000+05:30

An account of the rise of one of America's largest industries, after automobiles, arms and illegal drugs, the personal computer industry. Cringley, who prefers to be called an explainer rather than a historian, attributes the growth of the PC industry to accident. He describes the brains behind personal computing giants like Apple, HP and Microsoft as people who had just been trying to find ways of amusing themselves and giving themselves a sense of security from the bullies in the park who used to push them around when they were wiry, gawky, bespectacled kids. Focusing not on the companies but on their founders, the man builds a caricature-ish picture of each one of them. While he portrays Bill Gates as a megalomaniac, he paints Steve Jobs as a sociopath. Anecdotes of how kind Lady Luck and Lord Murphy had been on these amateurs are interesting and also helpful in understanding America's last great success story. The book also explores the new baggy tees, soda cans, basketball playing corporate culture that Apple, MS etc spawned as opposed to the suit-and-tie, coffee, golf playing cultures of IBM, Ford and Citicorp. Full of juicy insider gossip, the book is an OK/Globe for tech-buffs.

And The Good Shall Triumph

2009-07-10T11:26:00.002+05:30

Wonder why so many works of fiction, be it science, fantasy or crime, from Star Wars to Harry Potter to Hardy Boys, are all about the victory of the good over the evil. Why? Because people are essentially good people. They would always want the good to win, they believe the good shall win, even if they themselves indulge in bad practices once in a while. Coming across stories with the triumph of Good over Evil only reaffirms their faith in goodness.

Carrying Forward the Family Name

2009-06-30T17:17:00.001+05:30

One of the most hard-hitting advertisements I came across in recent times:

Happy and Gay

2009-06-28T22:25:00.002+05:30

Its weird seeing how much of thought and effort the government is willing to put into the Gay Debate. Sexual orientation and preferences are something personal and should be left to the prerogative of the individuals alone. But these dimwits find it more compelling to treat gays as criminals than punish the actual criminals. They actually do consider homosexuality a greater threat to society than rapes and murders. Bless them, Lord, with some brains, pray.

The Inconvenience Caused is Regretted

2009-06-27T19:47:00.000+05:30

Waiting at the domestic departures terminal of the IGI Airport. My flight, SG 309, to Chennai was scheduled to have taken off an hour back. There have been continuous announcements , each shifting the departure time only further. Am bored and irritated, even more so considering the fact that I could have spent these last two hours more productively at my best friend's home, where I had spent a rather happy part of the day (embarrassing photo albums topped by his mom's delightful cooking). Sitting here, listening to "May I have your attention please. SpiceJet flight 309 to Chennai has been delayed. The flight would now depart at 2030 hours. Inconvenience caused is regretted", isnt really what I had in mind.

F.R.I.E.N.D.S: TOW which was the favorite one

2009-06-11T01:55:00.000+05:30

Dont know if its because I seem to be needing some means of relaxation for the past few days or because I am simply too fond of the series, I just embarked on a zillionth re-run of Friends.And apparently it isnt just me, everyone who has followed the series has loved repeating it. There are some particular episodes that are especially fun to watch all over again

TOW the Football, the not-so-thanksgivingy fight for the Gellar Cup
TOW the Embryos, the episode with the embryos being transplanted into Phoebe, more memorable for the who-knows-whom-better quiz
TOW the Flashback, where Janice asks which of the 6 of them had almost...
TOW that could have been, if Ross was still married to Carol, Rachel married Barry, Joey a TV star, Monica still fat, Chandler out of work and Phoebe a stock trader
TOW where everybody finds out, about Monica and Chandler, they dont know that we know they know we know
And, of course, TOW All the Other Ones

Anyone wants to add any more here...

Back to School

2009-06-10T22:54:00.000+05:30

Nostalgia is actually a good thing. It helps you draw energy from your secret energy source, the good times. School was real fun. Teachers were heaven sent caricatures and classmates better at one-liners than the man Chandler Bing himself (and that is seriously some level). There are some things I can never forget and they make me roll onto the floor laughing even today

Our Class 7 class teacher's classic statement: Some are over ambitious, uttered with a typical nasal twang
Aditi's mimicking her Psuedo means false and poda means legs
Trying to convince our Principal Sr Reji to free the school's pet pigeons (with Mangala madam's support, on a different note, her perfume was something though..the bell around the cat)
Putting N fight to prepare dances and skits for the Bhopal Central Jail inmates as part of Dharam Bharti in Class 8
The slightly bordering on adult commentary we used to rattle off during Buddha Charita and Mahabharat class readings
Our homegrown Celine Dion's "We are working on it" when she was telling students about how her daughter has been pestering for a sibling
The whole class punished to write lines "I shall be disciplined in class" a 100 times by Tresiamma mam and everyone competing for who finishes first
The totally arbit prayer service on Dussehra with the Ramlila skit and Akanksha Tiwari's convincing Hanuman act
Using orange pens to underline keywords for Bhattu's geography paper
The various Venu-omous fiascos (She-who-must-not-be-named) in Class 10

I guess the list can go on...Miss those days, fighting with Jasmine over any and everything, Ritika squealing over Rahul Dravid (she still does that), Pragya's laughs accompanied by her really powerful pats that hurt, Abhisaar and her mimicries, Misha's chidiya fad fad karke udti hai, Aditi with her kali-kali songs, Aakansha's really really high pitched screams.. All of it..love you gals..

Womens' Bill: The rose paved road to the abyss

2009-06-08T15:03:00.000+05:30

It might come as a surprise for many, but I , being a woman, do see the idea of introducing a Womens' Bill as being preposterously ridiculous. This is because I am a woman and not in spite of. Any proponent who argues that the Bill seeks to bring about empowerment of women in the country is only kidding himself. The Bill shall make women dependent on its crutches and turn them handicapped for ever. True empowerment will happen when the nation shall willingly give deserving women their due without attributing their success to reservations and excuses. Merely incorporating more number of women in the Parliament does not translate to the uplifting of the status of women. Which is why no woman sang or cheered when Ms Pratibha Patil became the first woman President of the nation. Moreover the Bill might just became a weapon of installing puppets controlled by powerful males and shall further hinder the rising of the deserving females, since males can only stand a maximum number of women in positions of power. Having a Rabri Devi for a CM did not do much for the status of the women of Bihar. The Bill shall just remain a mere notion of women empowerment.
No self-respecting woman would like her rise to success being attributed to crutches the State wants to supply. She wants to be there on the basis of her merit and not her gender. She needs support from her family, especially from her father, her brothers, her husband, and from colleagues at the workplace. That is all she needs to help claim what is rightfully hers. If the State really wishes to help, it should provide incentives and facilities to help educate more girls, help create a safe environment for them to grow and prosper.

Re-emergence

2009-06-08T13:08:00.000+05:30

Well..back from a long period of dormancy..thanks to A niket. For insulting me repeatedly.. And as promised, I am acknowledging it here..
aniket: ek kaam karo

delete your blog

Taunting reminder mails..with chat excerpts

Shruti: yaar bahut saare blog likhne hain

aaj raat mein likhti hoon

Aniket: chod do, tumse nahi hoga

Shruti: oh ho

we will see!

Aniket: dekhte hain

And the others too

me: thinking of blogging

srikanth: rehne do

tum sirf bolti ho

So..Here I go

Well, a brief round up of whatever could not get its share of the limelight here so far:

The Sem- mixed bag, Mtech courses with ultimate boring content, and even more boring profs
The Parties- Hostel Nites saw how guys can cry like human hosepipes and how girls can act, when high..On a serious note, also began to accept that I too am going to miss this place a year later , despite my repeated vehement refusal to accept the fact
The Partings- Btech friends started leaving for home, traditional bidai scenes witnessed
The Wedding- attended my best friend's sister's wedding in Hyd, first South Indian wedding I have been to, Snow World being the cherry on the cake (or ice cream)
The Internship- @iDiscoveri as part of the E4SI fellowships immersion programme, still on. more on that to follow

Here's to Verity Season II

XOXO

Gossip Girl

2009-03-17T11:15:00.000+05:30

I always believed that its the pastime of jobless people with nothing else to do. Sadly realized thats its absolutely essential to stay tuned in to campus gossip, else you can end up shoving both your feet into your mouth...

You tease somebody about his girl..Ooops, they broke up..
You call someone names..Shucks, they're going around now..
Someone calls you saying they're standing for elections, you listen to the strategies, bored, but making the required nods and murmurs..Heck, they played a prank knowing too well you'd have no clue who the hell is contesting..
Someone calls you telling they're contesting. You respond with a Yeah Right, so am I. The person wins eventually..

Its been three weeks since this eventful weekend and I can finally recall it without tingling with mortification..Whew

The Year That Was: Hits n Pits of 2008

2008-12-30T14:09:00.000+05:30

Another year has gone by, leaving behind an assortment of bittersweet memories encompassing pride, joy, pain, resentment, shame, an eventful year all the same.

HITS: What the year ought to be proud of
CHANDRAYAAN: India's first unmanned mission to the moon,gave a major boost to India's space program, as India joins Asian nations China and Japan in exploring the Moon.

BEIJING OLYMPICS: India bagging 3 Olympic medals, in individual events, along with a gold, gave the nation three new heroes.

INDO US NUKE DEAL: After much opposition at home and abroad, India finally became a part of the Nuclear club, also in the course of affairs, defeating coalition politics and blackmails.

UNITED STATES OF OBAMA: Indicating a new era in American and international politics, Barack Obama became the first African American President of the world's most powerful nation promising to bring about the 'change we need'. Also promising a positive turn in the roller coaster ride thats Indo US relations.

PITS: The year packed its own cauldron of tears, anguish and resentment

GLOBAL FINANCIAL MELTDOWN: The bears took as ugly run around markets across the globe with the recession hitting nearly all sectors of the economy and the proponents of the laissez faire system all turned to the government for bailout packages.

MUMBAI CARNAGE: In the worst terror strike faced by the nation in recent times, the world watched while India's financial capital came under seige. It not only brought forth the increasing daring of the terrorist organizations but also gave an insight into their skilled training with the backing of hostile government establishments. It also showed us how the entire JuD operation was supported at every step by Indian incompetence.

RAJ THACKEREY AND MNS: Communal voilence raised its ugly head in the nation once again, starting with the row over the Amarnath land transfer, Bajrang Dal supported voilence in Orissa and Karnataka, and moving on to the Marathi and non-Marathi clash in Maharashtra which resulted ultimately in the death of three persons.

Terrorists in White Collars

2008-12-29T17:21:00.000+05:30

While this is definitely not condoning the heinous atrocities committed by those men on the right, its certainly saying that the deeds done by those in the left deserve reprimand too. The Lehman collapse can be viewed as a 2008 version of the Enron collapse. Crimes committed by intellectuals will remain crimes all the same. Introduction of highly sophisticated and complex trading instruments like exotics and other derivatives which resulted in gross over-valuations and price rise due to speculation eventually resulted in the average commoner, irrespective of nationality, losing a substantial part of his savings. Dangling the metaphorical carrots promising higher returns and lower risks and drawing high commissions with the hike in the volume of deals, the working man's hard-earned income was siphoned off to pay for corporate retreats and summer villas. The Armani-clad, ivy-schooled professionals are no less villians and must be dealt with appropriately

The Death of an Empire

2008-12-29T16:51:00.000+05:30

A case study on why Product Innovation is vital to the growth of an enterprise. Introducing daily soap operas targetting the country's middle class petticoat brigade housewives and their mothers-in-law, Ekta Kapoor turned the fortunes of a dying family business. Churning out products involving women who were either extremely dumb or extremely spiteful, industrial houses where takeovers could happen in a 4 hour period, where the ladies still spent all their time in the kitchen, wearing kanjeevarams and dangling magalsutras, she indentified a market that would eagerly lap up the trash her production house was churning out. However, expecting even that market segment to still be loyal to version 1.0 was pretty naive. Just to bring new products into the market, she launched clones of the previous products, for lack of an innovative product idea. Back in the early years of the decade, she was looked upon as an entrepreneur of great skill, with even the Times magazine running a feature on her. What followed countless K-serials later, was a court battle after her 8 year long daily soap was unceremoniously terminated along with the exclusivity contracts. With the stock prices having crashed and all the recent productions tanking, it seems Balaji telefilms is heading towards its demise.

F.R.I.E.N.D.S

2008-12-29T14:47:00.000+05:30

I am home, have nothing much to do. I am not supposed to be disturbing my kid sister who has her pre-board examinations a week from now (that she chooses not to study of her own accord is something my parents refuse to believe). Anyways, watching television seems to be the only pastime available, as I have realized how useless net seems to be without being accompanied by our LAN. In spite of countless shows running on an infinite number of television channels, all I feel like watching are FRIENDS re-runs and Best of FRIENDS on Star World and Zee Cafe. The series still appeals, even though I have watched the various seasons again and again. Some products just happen, pretty much like a Black Swan event. Probably because it was the first of its kind or because every character was so endearing or whatever the reason, none of the countless me-too sitcoms that it spawned off could attain the cult-like status achieved by FRIENDS. My mom still cant understand why people were so attached to the series and its characters in the first place. Maybe I can, since I know now how friends can form a support system, become a kind of a substitute family, when you stay away from home, with an unspoken agreement saying I'll be there for you.

Wanted: PR Consultants for the Indian Government

2008-12-27T15:39:00.001+05:30

The Indian bureaucracy and the police establishments should feature in case studies on "How to most effectively put both your feet into your mouth". Nowhere else in the world do we have investigating agencies sharing evidence and snippets on an ongoing investigation especially those pertaining to national security. The Indian police and government machinery is so eager to prove that they are not as incompetent as they are believed to be that they end up proving the charge to be correct. A proper approach would require the establishment to follow the classic JFK media policy: Minimum information with maximum politeness. Here, our officers are free not just to discuss crucial evidence on camera but also share their theories and future lines of investigation (and they have apparently been selected to the services through a rigorous examination system testing their intellect). While discussion of cases like the Arushi Talwar murder case botched up an investigation and helped murderers walk off scott-free, there is much more at stake when information related to concurrent operations and investigations involving national security are shared. The most recent case is the well publicized arrest and subsequent release of the RAW agent who had supplied SIM cards to the terrorist cells. It takes a lot of effort and risk to plant undercover agents in the field, after all, it is only through information gathered from covert intelligence sources that terror attacks can be prevented. But it takes only the stupidity of the Indian Police Force to blow up the cover, and that too on national television. Arresting an agent planted by your own intelligence unit can be circumstantial. But publicizing him as a terrorist in front of national and international media requires a really high level of dumbness that can only be achieved here. God save them, and us.

Pan IIT 2008

2008-12-26T23:51:00.000+05:30

This might probably come as a surprise, since I used to be among the first to get irritated with the way the PanIIT Summit was being organized, esp with an hour worth of work taking a full day. To add to that, it appeared as if it would be just a 3 day reunion/social networking gala while pretending to be a show of certified biggies discussing seemingly serious stuff. Well ,the shows over and, for a change, I admit, I was wrong. Sure, the summit is more about bringing together alumni and current students affiliated to the 7 campuses of the Indian Institutes of Technology, to have fun and they definitely do discuss who eventually married who after having dated whom, there is more to it that that. The 3 days are a means of meeting some really really amazing people. They do not all have to be high flying MDs and CEOs (though most of them are), whoever they are, there is something really endearing about each and every one of them, something to take home from every single encounter. The thing that really warmed my heart was probably seeing the likes of Santhanam, Sarath Naru and others, who, in spite of having been excessively busy in their professional lives, still wanted and managed to invest time and effort into organizing the show and pulling it off, really well, all out of the sheer attachement for the insti, something I'm probably beginning to feel, now that the time for most of my close friends to pass out draws near. IIT isnt just about being the toughest college to get into, there's something really positive and undescribeable attached to it. Have a feeling I'm gonna miss this place after all.

First Crush

2008-12-18T10:31:00.000+05:30

Probably the very first love story I ever came across ( SRK-Yash Chopra stuff does not qualify as a love story). I was 13, just moving into my teens, apparently able to discern some of the emotions portrayed in the book, and I fell in love for the first time. The only trouble was that every other female I knew had fallen in love with him upon their first encounter. Right from my mother, my friends to, later, my kid sister. Fitzwilliam Darcy was not the kind you would fall for in the first meeting. He was arrogant, kind of difficult to please and basically a snob. But gradually he warms his way into your heart. His endearing care and concern for Lizzy, going out of his way for her, without expecting anything in return, will eventually make you fall in love with him, make you wish you were his Elizabeth Bennet. Sad, they dont make them like him anymore. I have, of course, read and re-read the book several times over these eight years, the latest being last night, and I am amazed, pleasantly, at how it still makes me feel. Probably the only thing SRK ever got right in his love stories was this: You'll always carry a torch for your first love ;)

Confessions to a Serial Womaniser

2008-12-17T16:20:00.000+05:30

Confessions to a Serial Womaniser: Secrets of the World's Inspirational Women
by Zerbanoo Gifford

What links a hugging saint, a ground-breaking scientist who took on the multinationals, a French Resistance heroine who took on the Gestapo, a judge who took on Saddam Hussein, a high flier who was educated by an elephant, a spiritual giantess who danced with Fred Astaire, the original Cosmopolitan Girl, a politician who lives with two Oscars, a Bollywood actress worshipped by millions, a Chinese entrepreneur immortalized on a postage stamp and a princess who is able to touch her nose with her toes?
Some of the extra ordinary women one'll encounter in this amazing journey of a book which contains the wisdom of over 200 of the world's most dynamic women, from over 60 countries, who speak frankly about everything: their mothers, families, education, men, gurus, love, feminism, fairy stories, failures and successes. In an era that worships celebrity, this is a celebration of true celebrities - women who will leave a lasting legacy enriching the lives of future generations.
An amazing book, it helps understand the real meaning of achievement. It empowers and enriches you from within in a weirdly undescribeable way. A must read for everyone, man, woman alike.

Of Glamour and Grace

2008-12-17T15:49:00.000+05:30

There have been innumerable women who have been termed as "wow" women from time to time. The media as well as the masses today categorize the sultry hot bods as being wow. I mean comeon, there is more to feminine charm than pouty lips and a statistic represented by three numbers. True female beauty is about grace, poise and elegance rather than brazen sex appeal. The likes of Bipasha Basu, Priyanka Chopra, Angelina Jolie and the Victoria's Secret brigade can never stand a chance in front of a Maharani Gayatri Devi or a Jacqueline Kennedy. Its more about the carriage than what you carry around that counts. Unfortunately, couldn't get my friends to agree. I asked one of my friends, "Wasnt Audrey Hepburn beautiful?". "Well", was his reply, "she certainly looks graceful, but is flat." So much for guys.

Recession is Good

2008-12-17T11:28:00.000+05:30

Before you all choose to hunt me down for this utterance, pray read on:
Some of the deepest recessions that hit the global economy during the past few decades have given the world companies which we are today proud of. These successful giants trace their origins to the financial mess that has plagued the world from time to time.
1. IBM: founded as the Tabulating Machine Company during the recession of the 1890s, incorporated its present name in 1924, during the Great Depression
2. Hewlett-Packard: born at the end of the Great Depression in a Palo Alto Garage
3. Microsoft: the company that rules close to 90% of the world's desktops was founded during the economic crisis of 1975
4. Symantec: one the largest companies offering information security solutions, Symantec Corp was founded in 1982, when the world was reeling under the deep financial crisis of the 1980s
5. Wikipedia: Founded in 2001 following the burst of the dotcom bubble, the company rode through the post 9/11 recession due to its non-profit structure

Courtesy: indiatimes infotech

Jurassic Returns

2008-12-12T07:27:00.000+05:30

The period 230 million years ago to 65 mya was characterized by gigantic fearsome beasts walking the earth. But then an asteroid hit and all changed. The dinosaurs went extinct . The smaller mammals, on the other hand, survived on the frugal resources and also made a feast out of the carcasses of the dying dinosaurs.
Yes, the Jurassic age is back, or at least the end of it is back. With all due respects to the Lehmano-Rexes and Citigrouposaurs of the world (May they R.I.P.), its time for the smaller firms to grow and flourish eventually. The small shall rise. I hope my disheartened friends sitting for campus placements got the message

Resilience

2008-12-05T10:34:00.000+05:30

How much of enough is ENOUGH? This is a question that has been receiving a fair share of mileage in rallies, the media as well as personal conversations. The Indian Civilization, inspite of being among the oldest in the world, is one that has never been an aggressor. Of course, we have been invaded, plundered and colonized by several parties, ranging from Qutb-ud-Din Aibak to Babur to the British. We have socially evolved in a way to appear unfazed by everything. We have been a society that has, always, been able to, what is usually called, "move on". Floods and earthquakes ravage us, but we still find the courage to pick up the threads and start over. Serial blasts rip through the city, we still take the same metros, on the same routes,, the very next day. To a point, its a boon. We are a society that tries to take everything in its stride. It is probably what gives us the strength to fight and bounce back. But beyond a level, this resilience becomes a weakness. VJ Luke Kenney, as a panelist on NDTV's We The People, said that he was 13 when he encountered his first riots, he took the train the next day after the blasts, he too, like countless others, thought, "hota hai". And that, he believes, was his mistake. If we ourselves are fine with the terror atrocities being inflicted upon us and do not protest, why in the name of Christ would anyone else care. We are covered by a thicker skin as compared to many, but that does not mean that driving knives through it is acceptable. Our so-called resilience should not be mistaken for indifference or weakness. We must make it very clear that it's "not ok" this time. We shall make conscious efforts not to move on, to ensure that such incidents do not become the order of the day. As one Mumbai based entrepreneur correctly remarked, "Its high time we went from being resiliently defensive to resolutely offensive".