Life and times printed.........

Confessions of a shopaholic.. :P

2011-12-26T15:23:00.000-08:00

Yep, this is not essentially something which will help me get rid of my guilt, but nevertheless i need to give it a go somewhere. So, i am a proud owner of some of the nicest dresses in London. Why? I dont know, i liked them. How? i have no idea, i just thought they looked good and i should wear them sometime , someday; so why not buy them and squeeze into my almirah.. With whom?? I havent figured out yet, but may be dinner with special friends where i will have to force everyone to come well dressed, so that i could dress up.. But the fact of life is, i love them.. i have worn them 20 times since morning and am happy to wear and show them to anyone who asks me to do so.. :P
One of the dresses is black in color and other is red from neck to knee.. and then there is another black print frock which is out of the world simple and beautiful.. apart from this i also have a net top and a black JC frock which i thought i would return, only to be stopped by a friend, "No, this is too good, just keep it.." "Ok, if this is meant for me, it cant go anywhere.. :P".. havent checked my bank balance yet, but then i dont want to; those numbers dont mean a thing to me, these colors mean so much to me.. i dont even want to keep them in my almirah, i am going to have them all around me so that i could wake up from my sleep and see them.. :) I will also have to buy a red shoe else i can not wear the red dress.. some more tasks at hand before i reach there.. :)

Thank you God for giving me all these clothes today.. I know that not always can you buy what you like and you need to put a limit to everything.. I just wanted to do it today and i think i will stay low profile for next 6 months..

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

2011-12-22T00:28:00.001-08:00

Dear Blog,

Guess what? This is the year when three of us best of friends are together in London.. So, we had this long discussion on how life has been, i had very little to contribute (i guess out of sight is out of mind stands so true for me); according to Nimbz, i have bad memory and i dont remember anything about life so i keep smiling and looking at all of them while they speak; as per him nothing about me has changed, which he finds disturbing :).. Nimbz has all the series of Tom and Jerry and Friends , hence i become useless once i enter his home, i dont look at anyone and talk to anyone.. he has a karaoke kit too and we sang some 20 songs, in the worst of our voices, loudest of all.. But then Nimbz is a star, he can not get as bad with his singing as we all can, he sang his fav song with guitar and i was reminded of the most amazing lyrics from UB4.. it was an amazing day with so much fun.. Thank You God for this life, you are my favourite!.. :) Also, i have an amazing secret santa gift.. It is an ipod Nano blue in color.. I think i know who my Santa is :).. I had decided to punish myself for leaving overcoats, sandals and ipod on airport by not buying me replacement for an year (2011 has 2 jackets, one ipod and 2 pairs of shoes to its credit lost on airport)..I think my Santa knew that running without an ipod is so much of a task, so i have a new one which i have setup for myself (No one says no when Santa gives you something :P).. yey! I love christmas, its not only boring parties, it is also gifts.. Ok, i am not only taking gifts, i am being a good girl, i am also giving everyone gifts.. :)

For memory, the good lyrics.. :)
Wise men say only fools rush in
But I can't help falling in love with you
Shall I stay
Would it be a sin
If I can't help falling in love with you

Like a river flows surely to the sea
Darling so it goes
Some things are meant to be
Take my hand, take my whole life too
For I can't help falling in love with you

Your Truly

Changing moods of life..

2011-12-12T16:22:00.000-08:00

It was a normal weekend.. i was happy and tending to do lots of things, but not doing anything.. Got a call from one of my friends from college.. I had not met her in last one and a half years.. There are so many people i have just not found time to meet, but i have been in touch with her on call.. As i picked up the call, i heard a very heavy voice on the other end.. there was something wrong, she never cries.. As useless as i am in such situations, i could not ask her what was wrong, i could only use some lame words like things will be fine, whatever it is.. I have no clue why, but i cant ask anyone anything, i just dont find it important to make someone revisit something painful for my quest for information.. We stayed on call for half an hour, till she felt better.. i asked her if she would like to go home for some days, to which she agreed.. After sorting the tickets, i decided to visit her in person to hand over her tickets.. I had never seen her so sad in the time that i had known her; she is just not one of those people who get sad for no reason.. again, as useless as i am, i did not know what to ask.. i stared at doors, windows, looked at her, asked her if she would like to come out for coffee.. but her silence did not break.. She asked me if she could hug me to which i said yes.. again, i did not know what to ask, how to comfort her..
While i dont know what happened, i just know that it felt very heavy to see someone as happy as her sad.. everything within me sank, i felt so helpless with all my presence, i could not have changed anything for her.. I just know that such dormancy and sadness sets in when one loses hopes in life.. expectations, attachments and hopes can shatter people and that is why i hate them.. i just know that anything that kills spirit and smile is not worthy of tears; it needs to be thrown in dust bin without regrets and any further emotional investment.. I so hate broken spirits, i think its fine to loose, win, break bones, but worst is when something breaks your spirit to live and find meaning in life.. For now, i just pray to God that i see the same lovely smile and life back in her, it hurts to see broken spirit; it just makes me realize the vanity in human existence..

Neemrana fort to Reading..

2011-12-07T13:26:00.000-08:00

I always believe that we come across people for a reason, there is some connect.. This was one of the evenings when i was coming back from Reading.. There was a very interesting counter right in the middle of station with some offers around paint ball.. I am usually in hurry and hence tend to completely ignore anything around me.. But for some strange reason, i just stood on the counter and started talking to the guy who explained me about the scheme and where all can i avail the offer etc.. Suddenly he said in hindi," achaa hai, lei lo".. I was all smiles and where did you learn such perfect hindi from?? "well i was in India for sometime.. i ahve been to Rajasthan.."" Where in India are you from?".. I was born in jaipur and then ofcourse many cities.. ""Well well, have you been to Neemrana fort?? Have you seen the zipping that they have?? I set it up, i trained Hari on it, he now runs it".. "ofcourse, i have been to neemrana and i know zipping and the guy who ran it then".. its scary but good fun, its quite popular.. :D
We guys had this long discussion on how much he liked India, how he missed Hari who seemed to have settled in his heart, on the simplicity and love that India showered on him and how it changed him completely as a person.. In a very emotional tone, he told me that i was very lucky to be born in such a country, where people are simple, loving and nice; that he probably discovered family , love and affection in the innocence with which people welcomed him and made him feel at home in India.. I nodded my head in affirmation, i know that i am lucky to be born in India and i am very proud of the fact that i am an Indian.. there are many things which need to change and get better; it has its imperfections, but it has basics in place..
I had to move now, and his last words left me very touched.. Hari told me that i will see India everywhere , no matter where i go, i will feel the connect; i guess that is why Neemrana Fort to Reading i never thought i will find someone who has seen both places and can connect the dots for me.. Indeed, i never thought i will also meet someone who setup zipping in Nimrana in Reading.. :)

A winter evening..

2011-12-05T14:33:00.000-08:00

It was a colder than usual day.. I was too cold sitting in office, all that i wanted was to get inside my cosy blanket and sleep.. I wrapped up my work and walked towards home.. An old Indian couple travelled with me all the way from canary wharf to central london.. there is some sense of familiarity, may be in the skin tone, or oneness that we have due to similar roots.. they asked me if i could ensure that they get down at the right station.. they looked lost and nervous.. i started to talk.. So, uncle, is this your first trip to London? yes beta.. and then i could see the pride on their face.. "our son works here, he is big now, he has been calling us since many years, but i was too busy, this time he did not agree so we decided to come down.. he is very busy, so he cant take us around, but he has told us everything, its just that it gets dark too early so i thought if you could guide us.." "its fine uncle, i can find my way in London, so this is doable.."
And then uncle asked me about what do i do.. i had an interesting story to tell around work that i do( wonder where do i get it from?).. then came a rather sweet question.. "dont you feel scared staying so far away from home?" i thought for a while.. " No uncle, there is nothing to be scared of.. i dont remember any fears of survival being on my mind.. there is wierd sense of satisfaction in struggling and learning that, come what may, you will survive and God willing thrive.. :)" uncle had some more questions on London and western lifestyle and then unlike me, i managed to find way for them in one go.. uncle insisted that i have a cup of coffee with them.. as i gathered my stuff to walk out, uncle and aunty put their hands on my head very lovingly and said that your parents must be very proud of you..
i was taken aback by the moment.. there was something very unique about my dad, he was always very proud of us; he dint need reason for it.. whether we stood bottom in class ( i did , my KG report cards are scary:)), stood last in painting, did nothing.. he was always proud.. there was this unconditional love, faith and trust; no matter who you are, what you do, where you go, i will always have confidence that you will survive it.. sometimes well, sometimes may be not that well, but you will live it and most importantly not regret it.. i dont think end result really mattered to him, it was always about the journey and the spirit with which one went past it.. he would have never asked me "are you scared of anything?" he never did.. he would rather say, go and explore if you fall, call me :), but dont hold yourself.. Its one life, live in the moment; as long you dont hurt others, you have every right to live..

With lots of thoughts on my mind, i bid good bye and travelled back to a good night sleep.. From finding way to showing way, it must have been quite an experience, though beauty about life is, when you are in it, you dont know it.. :)

Happy Children..

2011-11-24T14:41:00.000-08:00

It was a normal day after a hectic week.. I just closed my eyes after end to end calls to gather myself back and dont know why, a thought hit me in my head; something told me i will be rich and successful.. i have no clue why that came to my mind, but it did and something tells me i have always known it, never wanted it, but headed towards it with complete calm and i will get there.. i freaked out with my closed eyes.. this is precisely what i dreaded, all the while life was conspiring for this.. but why? why will this happen and what is the purpose of this life.. some memories flashed infront of my eyes.. it took me to some of the worst aspects of life which left me shaken.. my visit to orphanage in Bangalore where kids did not know what being loved means, they ofcourse dont miss it, coz they dont know what it is.. the innocence in the eyes of 8 year old newspaper seller on new year night who was happy to see so many lights and people on street at night, happy to sell newspapers, he obviously did not know what childhood means.. it kept on getting complicated by every minute when i opened my eyes.. i packed my bags and headed to home, i was not at peace, something was wrong in the day.. there was conflict in my mind on what i was trying to achieve and what i needed to accomplish.. they are not disconnected, one is needed for other.. but i need to find the other and leverage first to make progress..

i have always felt passionately about "happy childhood" being a fundamental right to be granted to all.. i feel its the moral responsibility of human race to let every life live and enjoy its innocence till he is prepared to take on the big bad world.. nothing hurts me more than seeing a child who is hungry, not warm and working or someone who matures at that age to know what does not work.. i feel it is unfair to kill the hopes and foundation of life in someone who can not fight it back.. child needs to be a child and we as grown ups need to ensure that it is protected.. we need to give them all standard growth platform and bring them to a racing track from where they take off and create their space..for every happy child that is in home, we need to make sure that there is another who gets his childhood back and gets to live and grow exactly similar way.. unfortunately, i dont know the way today, i never knew the way to anything but i do manage to find way once i know the destination..
for now friends, i know we all are rich and successful enough to read out a story to a sad child,make his new year special,fund his nutrition and diet for an year, ensure an year's education for a child and reaffirm his hope in life and the fact that God did not do injustice to his life when he was helpless and innocent to build it for himself.. do make that extra effort to be successful in making this world a better place..

Aberdeen

2011-11-21T14:28:00.001-08:00

It is a lovely small town near north sea in Scotland. I happened to travel the same for work; this was a day trip. As any Scottish city, this too had highlandish roads, stone houses and high roofs and lively people (few that i met for sure :))..
While coming back taxi driver told me that this is one of the rich cities in England, as this is dominated by O&G.. he proudly mentioned that these firms do not impact the environment and have contributed to prosperity of the city.. Though he did mention that at some point Shipping and Fishing used to be the major driver of their economies which accoridng to him were more sustainable, but since the onset of oil exploration, these industries have moved their base.. All in all, an interesting day.. :)

The Saturday Night Adventure..

2011-11-20T15:19:00.000-08:00

One of those days in life when every trial is just perfect. Me and Kady decided to spend a saturday having "fun". And trust me Kady is fun woman, so she can make it happen. So, we started with a movie "Ides of March".. George Clooney is hot as ever, do i have to repeat it nth time, but Ryan Gosling had beaten him in this movie, he was as impressive and hot and handsome as one can get.. The movie was engrossing, had a very gripping story line and guess what? While wearing my coat, i dropped my keys in pop corn packet.. There was a frantic search for my keys with theatre staff wondering where did it fly only to be found in pop corn packet in my hand. Such is life, we all laughed at it; happens..
Then was a wild expedition.. We decided to try aunthentic greek place called Elysee.. This has live music band that plays at night, if you wish, you could tap feet on greek music or enjoy them doing it AND if all that wasnt enough, they break plates to give it the greek feel. Loved it, it was really an experience and food was good.. We ordered some mezze and then decided to food hop and go to Enamo, this is an oriental place where you can order from your table using a projected menu.. We tried a japanese drink and some food.. Must say, this is not a place you should miss for the feel of it.. Food is not bad either.. We then decided to move to Liecester square to track the night life of London (when you stay in central, you walk there :)).. The buzzing music, pub agents all marketing their music, their crowd etc.. We decided to visit a place and the music turned out to be real good.. You know how much i love dancing and when it comes to it, i do have stamina to carry on till eternity.. :)
We reached home and decided that we will have brunch at some nice place, do a red velvet cake in hummingbird and end the day.. If you havent, you must try this small place called Lantana for burnch in Charlotte place.. There is usually no place to sit and people waiting outside, but it is every bit worth the wait.. So, yes with that ended a day of good food, good places and fun.. Lets not talk about the follow up on laundry, and other works and yes a great home cooked meal at a dear friend's place on sunday.. That was the best really, home cooked food takes away the cake; (i did not cook it, so you can be fine, someone else's home cooked meal, alright!! .. :P). Indeed, we found love in a hopeless place. :)

Yellow diamonds in the light
And we're standing side by side
As your shadow crosses mine
What it takes to come alive

It's the way I’m feeling I just can't deny
But I've gotta let it go

We found love in a hopeless place

Shine a light through an open door
Love and life I will divide
Turn away cause I need you more
Feel the heartbeat in my mind

Do we really know what being educated means.. :)

2011-11-17T14:01:00.000-08:00

It is interesting how many graduates and post graduates our country churns out every year, but it is really sad to see that we have misunderstood the meaning of education and many of us have remained illiterate. Education does not mean adding degrees to your kitty, become proud and arrogant, make money and put to rest the case of every other existence. No, it means, humility to grow everyday, it means empathy to understand people around you and help them live and grow and it indeed means realization that you have just been one of those fortunate kids, to be born in families who could afford to give you dream and exposure to pursue, what forms the basis of your existence today. However, our education system has failed to broadly give people social mindset, it had probably given them maths, science and english. And now i kind of see why my friends who have studied far wide and have travelled tend to seem so normal to me against the ones who have always been comforted by the social edge that our nation gives.
It was an interesting evening. A friend of mine has moved to London and he decided to have a small get together. It was meant to be 5 of us close friends, but somehow one led to other and there were 20 of us :). I am not a big socialite. I am peace loving person who enjoys intelligent humour and conversation, i have kind and nice friends and we have been there for years that we have known each other, through thick and think. Crowd has never been easy for me. Only thing that comes to my rescue is that i can turn into a good listener to strangers and hence the small talk people can talk at me.. :P From that perspective it was an interesting evening. While i managed to run like a shadow behind my friend like a 2 year old child runs after her mother seeing so many unknown faces, and being a friend that he is, he ensured that he searched for me if i was not within his periphery. In one of the group conversations with majority of guys and few girls, one of the guys happened to discuss on how women blocked the seats in colleges, how they are not good enough for growth and jobs etc and as if that wasnt enough, how education is ruining their mindset and hence is a social issue. :D. I wanted to debate but, i just happened to tell him one thing, " I used to be against reservation for females in colleges etc, always thought it wasnt required. But males like you need 50% females sitting in your classroom to really give you a feel of their intelligence and capability and also make you understand that they are humans like you. Suppression is a social issue, it had to break someday for good. You will never really be literate and educated till you go through that. You will just be an insensitive idiot making money because he knows maths, science and english, you are not a human..".. And even better was what my friend told, " All that i learned through my educational years was power that diversity brings in.. Unique perspective that girls bring to table, that different people from different geos bring in and the fact that underneath we are all human, we all want to be happy, dream, feel good about our existence.. the social issue in India is the fact that you graduated with 2 girls in your classroom never thinking why only 2 and what does it feel like to be 2 in a class of 40.. what is really going wrong here is that your colleges dont churn out leaders, they add a layer of english to engineers and analysts.. as an alum you should ask for better female ratios in colleges and also understand them more to leverage their strength in making team work effective.."
It is interesting sometimes to know what people think. :) I used to think we all are equal, but i think i am just fortunate to have friends and family who have been educated in real sense. And while i was sitting in one corner and thinking why so much hatred for women and a constant attempt to push them down? My friend, who always finds me no matter which corner i hide in :), came and said, " you know, had it not been for girls and their brains in this world, there would not have been so many colors, designs, dishes, creativity and life.. they do well, no matter whatever be the challenges.. and on top of all that, they are , balanced, sweet and nice too.. ".. Me, "right and had it not been for guys who would have admired colors, designs, watched the same cricket match 10 times and make unbalanced decisions and take high risks to bring the economy where it is today.." ..We both laughed at the whole incident and decided that some fools learn it hard way.. :D

Noni Junior

2011-11-16T16:56:00.000-08:00

Dear Blog,

Noni Junior was born on 14th Nov 2011. I do not want him to complain that his birth date was not mentioned here just because his bua was busy :). A naughty one with 6 fingers again; Noni senior too has six fingers; there will be no fights, everything is equal. I so want to fly down and hold him, but i guess with no leaves with me, i will see how long can i be practical and understand. Everything about him right now is too small and dependent, i guess that is how we all were. He does not have a name, but ideally we would like to name him Golu Matolu provided he does not kill Noni senior and his bua when he grows up for their creativity and complete lack of worldly sense.. :P Noni senior is excited that someday this little bundle of joy will convert into a full fledged cricket partner for him. His parents are worried about his late nights and his liking to be treated well in cozy lap than be left in cots. He liked his dadi, she thinks he is just perfect. As for his bua, both Noni 1 and Noni 2 lead the list of my fav little boys in this world and ya its perfectly fine to stay awake, expect luxuries, be considered perfect by Dadi, plan to be spoilt and demanding with bua; you indeed are the bundles of joy and we all thank you for being you. :)

Yours Truly

The Kathi Roll company.. :)

2011-11-14T14:25:00.000-08:00

This is must try place for all Indians in London.. I still remember deep craving for some good food(read spices and hot meal) in London when Sanzz took me to this small lil shop in oxford street.. Those were first few days in London and i used to miss everything.. In the neck deep work, i had survived on sandwiches for a week.. So, with tears in my eyes, home on my mind and food to be the only practical solution to my rescue, i called my childhood friend, "Yaar, mujhe ghar jana hai. :P (nth time in one week, wonder from where do real friends get the tolerance:))".. "Hmm, how about dinner at a good place and then let us see if you want to go home?".. "Ya, i need food too, i am starving, i did not choose to be a model, i chose to eat and be merry, life is not heading in right direction..".. "Alright, we fix the starving problem and ething else after that?".. Yep..
So, we sat with a list of places to eat in and finally decided to relive some desi moments by visiting this small shop in street.. The ambience reminded me of college days, there was nothing fancy about it, my friend offered to choose best roll in the place for me and i trusted.. This place serves roti rolls with veg and non veg fillings.. wait, thats not the best part, they serve it with green chutney which is like a treat in the otherwise bland country.. Rest is history.. With every bite of roll, issues in my life started getting solved.. after 2 rolls life seemed to be ok and full ..:P
this has been one of my fav places to eat in since then, i can say once in a week is not really a lot.. the food here is simple AND TASTY, menu is minimal, people on counter are very friendly and its as rugged as it can get to let you be and not get killed with sophistication.. Yeah, you can laugh, talk, there is background music which gives it college canteen feel.. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.. There aren't many aunthentic Indian tasting places in London.. this one is a must try.. it can solve many issues at hand in your life with just one roll and no i am not paid for advertising for them, there are many like me who will endorse them.. :)

The Reading Diaries..

2011-11-10T14:19:00.000-08:00

So, i work for Energy Majors and life at that end is very different, its away from world, but very close to nature.. One of my usual visits these days is to a river side town Reading which head quarters some IT giants and then energy giants too.. I like travelling and this indeed is teaching me a lot.. :)
So, from day 1 of figuring out my way, to finding out my favs on the usual track is a journey i covered in last few days.. It was my first trip and i noticed that Thames Valley Park has lush green meadows with river running behind.. I was out of a meeting, day was almost ending and i wanted to open my shoes, walk on the grass, sit by river side and do nothing.. BUT, i told myself, control, understand that work day is over but this is still near office, what if someone recognizes you and thinks you are mad.. i queued, waiting for a taxi to pass by.. boom, there came two teenagers with a lovely dog.. "Excuse me! Do you know how to reach the meadows, and that river?".. "Ya, you cross the road and walk for few minutes, its right there.. Can i also come??" (Yours truly, i dont have very strong mind when it comes to such things:)).. So, me, two teenies and a dog.. we went to the river side, had a long walk and talk, till one of them asked me, where do you come from?? Oops, London, i need to take a train back.. interesting day; i loved every moment of it.. I decided that i needed to stay in a small town and also buy a cute dog at some later stage in life.. Lesson learnt part 1...
Today was another day.. While coming back from Reading last evening, i saw a little ice cream shop which intrigued me everytime i passed by.. i wanted to have an ice cream to come out of hectic last week which had left me sleepless.. i wanted, so i did get in.. the shop was beautiful, had candies, cholocates, lovely pastries and a small counter for ice creams.. the counter boy was cute and smiley, he helped me choose the ice cream i loved and i walked out.. Today, i remembered at 3 PM, that i had nothing to eat since morning.. i got dragged to the same shop.. as i stood on the counter waiting for my soup and sandwich, the lady on the counter asked, " what do you do?".. i do blah blah blah.. She cuts me short, "do you like it?".. yes, why do you ask that?? Well, i had a big business and i was lucky to be able to sell everything and open a chocolate and ice cream shop where i love all of my customers and i love the sandwich that i will make for you now, you know i love my job.. And i felt like asking this to you, coz the way you looked at my chocolates and ice creams, i thought you will own a shop like this one day.. :).. I smiled with no words; i did look at her shop with admiration a day back, it looked so made with own hands, small and beautiful.. i did think for a moment that i wish i had a shop like that..

Sure, may be someday lovely lady and i know i met you for a reason today, i believe in destiny :).. At one end there are meetings and numbers, at other there is simplicity, nature and contentment.. i find both in one destination.. :)

My Summer Travels..

2011-08-25T13:45:00.000-07:00

This is just a listing for my memory, but i do need to spend some more time over the long weekend to fill you on the most exotic of places in Europe.. Ladies and Gentleman, you take my words, Europe is bestowed with beauty by God and for all the fairness he is expected to shower, he did get biased here.. :)
So, it was 15 days, 7 countries, 3 different weather, atleast 8 different delicacies and lots of learnings and experience.. To the person who taught me the best thing ever, "Remember, its only money. It is meant to be exchanged for goods, so just go live.. " and to the quote i will never forget, " There are no strangers in this world, its only friends, we havent met.".. Those were some moments lived.. :)

So, here is my list of countries and my quick one lines:
- Belgium - Umm Chocolates
- Netherlands ( Its cute and one of the few lands where sea is higher than land, go figure out how:)) - As much as Amsterdam is fun for adults, rest of Netherlands is fairy tale for kids, with cheese, clogs and windmills..
- Germany - This is a hi tech country with river Rhine and Alps adding the dash of beauty ( Oops, did i say beauty with brains.. :))
- Switzerland - This is heavenly.. Did you know that Swiss don't fight for anyone but themselves.. They stay neutral in wars.. Is UN established for that??
- Rome - Vatican is as rich and Royal as any religious place can get..
- Venice - Cute! Like this merchant town.. Mysterious is the feel..
- Italy - Being an Indian, i just feel at home.. :P
- France - Class!! Style, food, wine and fashion.. And the city is beautiful, no one can take that away..
- Austria - Small, green and peaceful.. I would want to spend sometime just in Austria..
- Leicistan ( Aah , i dont remember the spelling, but this is the smalled country in Europe or may be competes with Rome:))
- Additional places in UK - Leeds, Dover, Canterbury, (Again) Isle of Whites, Stonehenge, Bath (recommend)

The snow at Mt Titlis, the waterfall inside the swiss mountains, the feel of venice, the grandeur of colossus, the austrain shimmer; everything just fills me with memories and peace.. I think i always feel that travelling adds a lot of perspective, tolerance and truly global mindset in people.. I got to see how borders change the look of land and everything associated with it.. Culture and people are accepted differences and i wonder if world can ever be truly global.. what i also learned was that there is huge element of local flavor to retailing and food in large part of europe.. what runs in UK is very different from what a country like Germany or France adopts.. under every similarity, there is a difference which is nurtured by years of learning and experience.. Value is in local innovation and doing something which appeals to the human soul of the land in question.. what i really liked about europe was that they have preserved and marketed their specialities well.. This is something Indian tourism cam dwell on.. The kind of geographical diversity and hence the culture and stories that India has to offer is unique in this world.. if India had the talent, infra and investment to market it well, it probably would have been the best one stop shop for a tourist.. There is a lot to learn, and do in this sector..

The european holiday was followed by a business trip to vegas again.. no, its not beautiful, its rich and grand and fun.. thats america for you.. if we dont have it, we will create it and live happily ever after.. :D

Learnings in life!!

2011-08-25T12:52:00.000-07:00

It is amazing how less we know about ourselves. And how end up losing to ourselves some of the unkown battles of life.. This is about an experience i had few months back.. i went for a buffet with some friends.. laughing and chatting on some things which mattered and some that dint.. there was a debate on what is that unavoidable quality in someone we really like.. no one knows.. so, there were some generic answers that came out.. on smartness, intelligence, compassion.. blah blah.. and then i happned to get up to take a second serving ( hungry as ever, yours truly:)).. i did not notice who was infront of me, i simply queued.. suddenly, a very kind looking and caring face turned towards me, you seem to be hungry?? i smiled, i said yes; had a long day.. and to the best gesture that anyone had ever done to me in last 10 years, the person turned and said how about me helping you choose the dishes that are good and also filling your plate along with mine.. i could not say anything, i followed silently.. i dont know what followed in my plate as my head was simply nodding, my mind was thinking how as a child i used to be chatter box and had it not been for papa consciously putting something in my plate, i would have filled my stomach with talks every night.. :) like everything else, this had to end, so it ended and i came back to my world with a plate full of best food..
it was my turn to talk, and God had told me the answer which i never thought was really my answer few minutes back.. i shouted: kindness, ability to think of others just the way you think for yourself and sometimes understanding that there is some other self who needs to take your thrill moment because his or her happiness will just add to yours.. the sexiest thing in life my dear friends, is a beautiful mind which shows in the patience in your voice, in the cure of your touch and your ability to drive your intelligence to bring out the best in everything around you.. i really had a plate full of best food and it had an effect which 1000 words could have never had on me.. :)

Primrose Hill!

2011-06-16T15:47:00.000-07:00

This is about how i have spent a fair deal of my summer in London this time. I wanted to take a break from my routine gymming and walking or running in Regent's park looked like a fair deal to me. Its a huge, beautiful park right in the heart of London and at walkable distance from my place. The more i discover it, more i like it. There is a small pond with ducks and cranes who do walk on the park lanes, there are huge football fields and so many people gather in evening to play, something i did all my childhood religiously. :) And then one day i walked through this rose garden to this 200 Plus feet hill in the center of the city. I was too tired by the time i reached there. Decided to sit on the hilltop, i could see whole of London and the transition from daylight to night; made my day and i knew i loved it, i am going to come here every evening and watch the day end. If there is anything that leaves one calm and at peace, i guess its the natural beauty and time spent with it in silence. Few days back while i was sitting on the hill and watching the horizon and expanse of the city, i just thought, this is what life is all about-- exploration and the feel of being with nature.. i was literally on top of the world, at peace with myself and smiling; watching the world go by.. I wondered if this was the best part of my life and if i will ever regret if tomorrow never comes.. :)(Yeah, i know i have to give free and unwanted gyaan to many, so tomorrow has to come but then.. :P)

Something too true to be neglected.. :)

2011-06-06T15:27:00.000-07:00

Read on a social networking site and thought it should stay with me somewhere, this is as raw and right as it can get.. :)

There is always (Truth) ... behind (Just Kidding)
A little (Emotion) ... behind ( I Don't Care)
There is always a little (Pain) ... behind (It's OK)
A little (I Need You) ... behind (Leave Me Alone)
And a lot of (Words) ... behind (Silence) ...

The Food expeditions..

2011-05-17T13:53:00.000-07:00

Dear Blog,
I have been having too much fun lately that i managed to ignore you. So, here is an update on the life lived and you know i so love it when it is lived. ;)
a) I went to France and i have fallen in love with the indeed so romatic city in the world.. While i travelled like there is no tomorrow and have many things to share with you, i loved the culture and aura.. Guess what? I had some of the heart throbbing pics taken on eiffel tower, and i managed to somehow mess up with those.. My camera somehow has everything else but for them.. Can you think what did i do? :( Ok, i get it, i have to go again and i dont mind committing some mistakes in life a hundered times.. :P
b) I have started my food exploration again. I went to Thai Metro near Goodge street and must say while i cant rate the ambience, i did like the food. Please do something about the ambience of hotels in Soho and Central London, trust me it sucks.. :)
c) I managed to lay my hands on greek sweet peppers in Andreas which is a Greek joint in central. Food was pretty average, but the owner is a greek God. So, on an average i will rate it high on related aesthetic sense and average on food. :)

Rest, life has been chill and you will see me covering up Europe in next few months. I will write in detail on Paris, though i still rate London as THE BEST; i somehow did get intrigued by France. It has got food and culture and wine and perfumes and clothes and fashion and BAD weather. I have been keeping busy, but we will meet again soon with more details. :)

Gary

World Cup

2011-04-03T14:58:00.000-07:00

Yes, this is april 2, 2011, it is after 28 years that men in blue lift up the world cup to show to the world that India and Indians stand tall.

I am not a die hard cricket fan, i do enjoy India Pakistan clash, but anything else never bothered me. But this event just stood up and stood high. My cell started buzzing non stop and friends from all over the world, just wanted to say, " see, your India won, your team won." I always feel there is something about our DNA, we are survivers. There are some things which are bad about us too, specially Indians do not essentially know how to treat women well, but all in all as i said we are survivers.

Must say, i was also high on emotions. Its a proud moment. We do not have the means, most of the players struggle to reach the national teams, they dont essentially get the world class facilties, but in the end when they win, we all win as a nation, inspite of all odds, we stand tall. It is not just world cup for many, its recognition, pride, hard work and tribute to the master blaster for his larger than life innings in endless cricket performances; yes i am talking of none other than Tendulkar. This probably was his last world cup. This cup is a tribute to his humility, focus and goodness which showed in his character for as many as 21 years of his cricket career. No, he was never rich, famous and arrogant; he was always rich, famous, humble, perfect and lovable. No wonder, with cup he was also lifted. :)

Thanks Team India, it is your hard work and nation's prayers, we mark this year in history; we are world champions in more than one way. :)

Broadly defining life!

2011-03-18T16:46:00.000-07:00

So, today is when i wanted to sit and think peacefully what is it that i like doing in life and would continue to do.. There are just so many things which i did not choose, but happened to be circumstantial and given that more often than not i take life as it comes, i have been fine and i always think when people cant think for themselves, God does.. :)

But somethings which i really think i would like to keep or bring in me till i die are:

-- Walk. I think i love to walk for miles with greens all around.. alone, with friends, with music, without music.. i just love to walk when everything around is silent.. i have noticed that i am not a party animal, i can manage with any kind of day, when i end it with a long walk.. anything i observe on my way teaches me something about life and it gives me time to talk about the day, think about the day and just dump the day with good thoughts and new learnings.. i have made some of the bestest friends during my walks..
-- Talk. Yes, many people know me as extrovert and equally know me as introvert.. fact of life is i love to talk to the right people.. talk about anything under the sun.. dumbest to smartest.. discuss on everything seen and unseen.. i like it when my day ends with talking and laughing with some of my good friends here.. i think, i do talk a lot, no matter where i go, i always find some people to hang around with and eat heads of.. the point is, i never regret the time spent talking, so thats something i will want to make an integral part of life..
-- Think. funny, but i like to think on anything and tell my mind to keep calm, have patience and pray to God to not give me the best , but give me the wisdom to handle good and bad with equal peace.. Thinking is just so impotant to keep ones mind from going off track.. if thoughts are streamlined right everyday, there is little that ups and downs of life can do.. i always wanted to learn to meditate, it probably is complex for me, but i can do simple streamlining of thoughts everyday to think good and do good..
-- Grow. no matter what it is, mental growth is very important for me.. i have realized it has no connection with a job.. it has got to do with your thoughts, what you learn from your surrounding, people around you, books you read and activities you do to make your day.. I have to change and change for good every passing day.. if i were to wake up as same human 2 years down the line, i will be disappointed.. there is just so much to change to be a "human"..
-- Empathize. Have a feeling of respect and understanding for all, no matter how my mind categorizes them.. this is tough one.. it deteorates with time, but it should ideally get better as you move in life.. i dont want to be judgemental and i dont want to categorize people and behave differently with different category..
-- Have fun. watch movie, eat ice creams, travel, eat out.. do whatever, but when i die, know that i lived it..
-- Tolerate. Neutralize feelings and thoughts. Diffuse the negativity out of any discussion and then take it on.. reactions are not worth everyone and every discussion..

In the end, i came to conclusion, i like to be happy and peaceful and it takes all of the above to maintain it. No matter what i live for, how i live; in the end i should make trade offs which dont come on the way to any of the above because thats probably what i want to achieve in life, everything else is just a means to it.

Liverpool

2011-03-02T14:22:00.000-08:00

It was march 1 and i had to travel to Liverpool on a weekday.. I took a night train from london , the journey is 2 hours. I had made a booking in one of the hotels near lime street which is in the heart of the city. I must admit, though the choice of hotel was made on internet, i quite liked it. I had some work on tuesday morning, so day started early, but it ended by mid day; then on was my tryst with the third largest city in England. I walked my way to the waterfront.. The river side is a beautiful walk and there is a nice pub overlooking the river which shows the liverpool soccer matches recording which you can enjoy over a coffee or drink.. I started with it.. It was good to grab bite on a riverside place..
I then decided to take a hop on and hop off tour on the bus to travel around the city.. The city boasts of magnificient old buildings.. the ports of Liverpool were famous for trade and slavery trade was prominent here.. i happened to spend a fraction of my time in museums near Albert Dock educating myself on the city and what it stood for in old times.. the city is associated with some magnificient ships like titanic which unfortunately wre also symbolic of tragey.. There are large cathedrals one of which is desingned by the guy who happned to also design the red telephone booths which i am sure all of us have either seen or been into..
The city to me looked quite small.. city center is paved walk, no traffic and gives a small town feel..
i might be wrong but i always like people in small towns.. they are more open and simple.. same was for liverpool.. they have some kind of accent which tends to grow on you.. food is average, nothing tht i came across worth mentioning.. BTW, they ahve some grand historically relevant pubs and hotels.. the beatles spirit is all around, there are special pubs which play their music and are meant for Beatles fans.. :)
I reached back to station well in advance as my long walk ended into it.. i decided to stay put in customer lounge.. a brit born chinese, who happned to be really sad entered into the place.. he started praising india women and india and given that he decided to completely ignore my laptop, i decided to talk for 5-10 mins.. frankly, it was kind of scary moment.. he started crying saying life is tough and lots of things which i could probably not comprehend.. i decided to stay cool and in name of humanity not to run away and leave the person in misery.. i got some food for myself and him.. he got better and smiled, in the end he said i wanted to die but not nemore after which i completely ignored him.. more people came in so felt better.. finally took trai back to london and sweet home..

People, London is damn expensive.. You can afford 10 times better lifestyle with same expense in any city outside.. :) [ will add pics of liverpool in time ]

Brand Creation

2010-09-24T15:19:00.001-07:00

It was a nice lazy friday evening.. i started back from office at 5 PM.. on my way back, i wanted to pick up something exotic to start my weekend.. i entered into the super mart and started checking out the shelves for something nice and soothing to eat or drink.. something in tea section attracted me.. it was a very attractive pack of tea.. i went closer to check on what was it.. this was tea with various flavors which is quite a big market in europe.. but this was something new, targetting the "organic and healhty" crowd.. as i held the pack in my hand, i could smell strong cardamom and liquorice.. i had picked up a detox pack.. retail being my passion, i went on hunting a bit more within the section.. i saw that this tea was priced almost 50% higher than the normal green tea that i buy.. but i just wanted it.. the marginal price difference did not look too much for a month's consumption..
Curious, i picked the pack, as i wanted to try this diffuser tea.. The curiousity has proven to be good, i guess.. i have a learning..
Here is what i saw how brands and commodities separate themselves out:
-- Certification from USDA Organic, Organic soil association and Kosher Parve
-- Detailed information on how i am different from other teas
-- Unique combination of ingredients
-- Elegant , soothing colors and packaging

This is "Pukka" detox tea for you.. It is an Indian sourced tea, marketed extensively in Europe and i must say, if you have it once, you would just want to try more of it.. its perception, attention to details and keeping eyes on niche markets.. they say your love and passion shows in everything you do.. looking at their product and then further into website and details, i feel entrepreneurship is about finding your passion and getting started to build it brick by brick.. in the end either you will find your way or you would have been through a journy which you shall never regret.. Not to forget India comes back to me in so many ways.. :)

Cirque Di Soleil

2010-09-23T15:44:00.000-07:00

I am not one of the theatre and art enthusiasts.. I like good things in life, but animation and television was what art meant for me.. then came this art which becomes the part of my subject line..
During my visit to Vegas, some of us decided to watch "Ka", a circque di soleil's show.. this is a theatre which involves circus gymnatics and theatre art.. I did not really know what was i going for till i landed in and got introduced to this amazing world of art..
Lavish stage concept and direction, amazing acting, superb flex bodies, music, a neat story line and an awestruck me.. the colors of clothes, the impact that this theatre left on me is memorable for life.. I just knew that artists are unique and desrve to be the guys in fortune's top 50 rich people to live in this world, if only world was a fair place to live in and people got rich for their relative value of skills..
I like the way th art has been preserved, a niche market created and priced well for the same.. the uniqueness and quality has drawn more investments and hence has helped the organizer improve the art by adding visuals, costumes and stage effects..
Truly inspiring.. all form of arts, all over the world, need some enthusiasts, who can build these up and offer to the world.. the right shall survive and thrive.. :)
For all the money that "KA" in Las Vegas seeks, its worth a lifetime experience.. if you are around, just go in..

Inspiration!!

2010-09-06T14:07:00.000-07:00

What is so common among all who do well and make their mark in life?? Most of us die ordinary.. we are born in comfortable setup, we know how to find faults, we know who can solve our problems for us and we die average.. with a few lakhs here and there, we die same..
Then, there are street hawkers, Dhiru bhai Ambani's, Chris Gardners of the world.. nothing seems to be working for them.. born in poverty, struggling for food, no one seems to be solving anything for them.. they dont have a choice but to fight and then one of such million fights turns their fate.. what dsnt change?? they keep fightng till they die, its an addiction, they dont realize till the end of their life that they achieved what they fought for long back.. With a lot of lakhs here and there and addiction to generate them, they die same.. just that they become inspiration for millions before they die..
So, what does really drive you to make your mark in life? Circumstances? Yes, in more cases than not.. Drive? Yes, if you dont fee like giving up, its a genetic disorder you have and you will carry it.. passion? you have to be mad enough to not be pulled by crowd of averagers who think you are hitting in dark, while they really are.. last but not least, perseverance to follow the silver lining in dark crowd till the last breath of your life!! Really, the ones who give inspirational speeches, dont really care about them.. their life is a never ending journey to move and learn.. there is never enough to stop and feel proud about and feel thankful about.. In the end, nothing is good or bad, great or faulty, right or wrong.. if you became an inspiration, you probably fought all your life and in the process never sat and looked back at life; if you did not, you probably did not fight for anything, so you dont know what is it to create and live a life of your own.. Life is equally exciting for the 0.5% who stand of stage and inspire and 99.5% who sit on chairs aspire..

Isle of Wights

2010-09-06T13:54:00.000-07:00

It was the 31st Aug 2010 long weekend.. one of my friends from India was in London and in an early morning discussion, we decided to head to Isle of Wights!
Its a simple travel from London.. We took a train from Waterloo to Southamptop, a free bus to ferry station, a fast ferry to Crowes, a family bus pass for isle of wights!! The journey is around 2 - 3 hours..
The must see attraction in Isle of Wights is : the Needles.. this is a beautiful cut of valleys that overlooks the sea.. The white cliffs and natural beauty around is extremely calming.. There is a ferry ride for 15 mins which can take you near the white cliffs and give you a view of the island from proximity of needles.. you can take a sitting trolley down the cliff to reach the sea side.. The journey from New port can be done in an open top Breezer bus.. the natural beauty of the island settles in your mind.. while coming back from needles, you can choose to take the coasters bus ride... this bus takes the sea side route through the Isle of Wights and covers almost whole of island .. Some of the sea side towns are beautiful and comfortable.. if you are the kinds who enjoys your peace of mind and love nature, then just stay on for a night before you move on.. you can always choose to stay out in coasters ride for 2.5 hours, come back to Rhyde or Crowes, take the last ferry at 11:15 to Southampton and a train back to London..
All in all a MUST SEE place around London.. Very beautiful countryside feel with sea all around.. very far away from crowd..

The Neemrana Palace

2010-09-06T13:46:00.000-07:00

This time when i visited India, i decided to spend a weekend off at Neemrana.. its an old fort which has been refurbished and converted into a resort.. Priced fairly, it does not really boast of the 5 star facilities, lavish lobbies and excellent room service.. this is a "true fort".. for those of you who want to go there, this has 11 floors, you might not realize it, but yes, you might climb 8 floors on your feet to reach to your room.. the rooms are very simple and have been decorated with old pots and craft from time of kingdom.. each room is different from other and has a history of its own which is preserved and explained in pictures and decors.. Small fort windows might lead to a scenic view of the village or a the back view of mountains.. there are cultural folk dances, buffet lunch and dinners and fire fox( zipping) activities which can be done in this resort apart from spending a lazy day and exploring the fort..
The fort has local staff which ensures that you get personal touch and you are taken care of.. all in all, a must once in lifetime experience.. a very well preserved heritage which shall make you relive the moments that you had read about in some tales..
Price : INR 4500 - 12500
Food : Buffet - Average
Services : Good but unique
Decor : Simple and elegant
Attraction: Pool and people
What you can see around : A Bowri and walk in the village
How Long : A day or two may be

A week in Las Vegas..

2010-09-06T13:33:00.000-07:00

This was around July 29th.. My first trip to US.. i was somehow never so keen on working in US.. and i must say that i probably like to be comfortable and not run after many things.. but i have realized one thing in life, what is most important in your life is ability to understand and appreciate differnt cultures, learn from all, adjust with all and take back the best of all.. Vegas is fun and lively..being an MBA i will appreciate the business sense of its establishment.. Mid of desert, no where is this "strip" of land.. showcases some of the world's largest hotels.. entire economoy is gambling and fun.. yep, this is like a dream world.. "sin" city.. they say whatever happens in vegas stays in vegas.. and trust me it does along with the money that you bet.. :P
I stayed in Aria resort, which is spacious, neat and well maintained, has a huge casino and a very interesting and cheap buffet with a real large spread.. This is in middle of strip, so you can turn right or left walk for 3-4 kilometers on either sides and be back on foot.. In Vegas one needs to visit all casinos, all casinos have some or the other attraction to attract people to its vast casino floors and entice them into this world of gambling.. Must see attractions: Paris, musical Fountains at Ballerio (This is a must watch), Lion habitat at MGM grand, volcano around Caesar's Palace, the venetian for its massive marble floor and venice look.. you just need to walk in the strip at night, park yourself at each of the casinos for sometime, watch the players and move.. remember, longer the time spent, more the chances of a rip off.. :)
Try the luxurious ice creams, the large sized paris drinks, and variety of food available all around.. While the public transport is bad, you should still hop on one of them and take a 2 hour bus drive in 2-3 dollars from one end of strip to the other.. For the shopping freaks, this is a brand's paradise.. But you find the low priced brand outlets at extreme ends of the strip, so could catch one at manageable price.. Caeser's palace shopping mall with a sky ceiling is worth a go.. all in all, really, it can be one of the most leisure holiday spot to laze around and enjoy..

Real world Ahead!

2010-07-14T15:01:00.000-07:00

So,it is just another day in life.. I did my honest work, came back home at 6 and decided to watch a movie.. As always i did not know which movie shall i watch till i reached the theatre.. I watched Woody Allen movie, quite liked it..
The day is over.. Another day in life.. I dont know what is it that i like to do.. I have been associated with innovation, sales and i always like what i do, but then there i something missing.. I always feel ething around me is too systematic.. An MBA is basically hired to run large systems with almost known and predictable inefficency.. There are some lucky ones who have to face extra ordinary situations during their tenure, but then owning extra ordinary challenges for someone's else' business is not really "luck".. If i see around me, everyone is struck in same mess.. A consultant is making ppts, investment banker - excels, PE guy - evaluations, reseacher knows that his data indicates preditable, but he does it anyway.. Its all standard.. Initially everyone feels, whats the big deal.. i mean handling 100 people was always me, thts where my leadership was proven and b school gave me an admit, thinking big and passion was always me.. BUT, am i using it?? NO, not really.. Someone used all that once, when he started his busiess.. then he grew it, got bored and handed it over to MBAs to run the systems and make money by solving systemic inefficiencies.. It is easy, fair money.. but then what?? Money does pull you, but then to an extent.. After that, there has to be more.. Somethng which is created by yu, challnges that are yours.. I used to think, i will never pick up book again, i am done.. but now i like to grow, read more on different subjects, think beyond work, think of new ideas, learn frm all cultures.. Thats something unique about ISB, when you come out, you just want to thnk and do.. Sometimes i used to wonder, why so many people, why 20 hours schedule.. It makes you hungry, makes you learn from differences, teaches you passion when u spend endless nights on your ideas.. it takes away all inhibitions.. it says, you are human, you can do a lot, you have 24 hours in a day, you have millions of friends and if you have a case, money is never an issue..
I have nt done justice to my degree yet, i am a part of a large system, i am good at it.. but my school did not make me an MBA, it made me a thinker, doer, it told me in multiple ways, nations progress from ideas, not following.. Now that i think of the last words that ISB had displayed on its exit when i left in 2009 " REAL WORLD AHEAD", i smile at them.. really.. thats so true.. The real world needs both followers and leaders, either you give in or you find your way.. this is the ultimate choice you will make..

Oxford, Stratford and Cotswolds

2010-07-08T13:36:00.000-07:00

Last weekend it was about exploring the intelleigentisia of Uk.. The day started on a bad note.. i was late for my journey.. i ran for about 2 kilometers to catch my bus 15 minutes late and lets not even talk about the dirty looks people gave me, but i was too exhausted due to my long run to think of other thoughts..
My frend Sreya was with me, so the journey till Oxford was cool with lots to discuss about.. We landed in Chist church college of oxford.. Its a heritge building, the Harry Potter kind of structure.. well, the movie it seems had one of its famous dining hall scenes from this college.. The old walls, massive structures, long portraits of famous writers and for me being from India, i wondered Humanities is such a vast field and can it be really taught in class rooms.. The pace has a story of its own.. We moved on to see the library, the book store and finally to the high street.. it was time to feed us something, we landed in a mexican shop for a roll, which was yummy..
Our next stop was Catswolds.. the place is known for stone houses and roofs.. its a very small town with a unique feel.. We got down to see a church.. it has lots of graves around and a tall structure, though it wasn't magnificient, but it has smething interesting in its simplicity and size..
We crossed the town to find our way to the birth town of Shakespeare.. its called stratford upon Avon..Avon is a river which flows through this small town, hence the name.. there was a river side carnival going on with lots of traditional food stalls and icea reams.. we decidedto walk around and be a part of the same.. a short walk through the town is enough to realize the difference between the cosmopolitan and small town feel.. there was pizza being baked on stone, fuklava, different varieties of olives, ice creams and what not.. Slurrrpp.. food is best when eaten in carnival.. :)
With this our journey ended.. All in all a nice short trip.. I would not rate it very high on natural beauty, but its high on historical importance..

Food and More of London

2010-07-01T16:35:00.000-07:00

There is lesser happening on this front.. I saw the guard chaging ceremony in Buchingham palace.. too crowded, nothing exciting, but still if you are here, you better see it once.. how they do it everyday is also quite wierd, but then they do it..
I tried some good food places:
-- Chiquittos - This is a mexican joint, i visited the one around Leicester Square.. DO NOT MISS ON NACHOS.. Food here is worth it..
-- Thai Food - This was in Cardiff.. Thai curries are worth giving a go, i can eat it anytime..
-- The brunch at local brundswick center..
-- My very own Kathi Rolls -- Thats amazingly spicy and tangy
-- food at Southall - If you want the paranthas and chaat, please do travel for an hour, its worth it.. And yes, you can even opt for langar..
-- The Krispy Creme doughnuts - They are bestest doughnuts..
-- The Greek Food - Falafel and Hummus - For vegetarians its almost a saviour
-- Sushi - This is healthy, but is an acquired taste and needs to be eaten will all sauces
-- My favourite crunchy oats and yogurt-- This has been my bfast many a times..
-- The apple crumble pie-- this is someting i found so so, but poeple are simple crazy about it..
-- I have done the London walk, i dont like hype about the star bucks

And yes, i did finally visit the Cineworld and saw the premiere showcase of Twilight saga or something like tht.. :)

What i still need to do:
-- London Theatre
-- Japanese food
-- East Ham
-- Wimbledon
-- Lebanese food
-- start on continental europe
-- Ireland
-- more places around London
-- Umm may be punting
-- The cruise

Will do will do.. But the summers are about to go and i have long list to cover..

Chatsworth and Matlock Bath

2010-07-01T16:03:00.001-07:00

This is one of cheap day trip on weekends.. A journey to Derbyshire.. This is a country side.. Chatsworth is the home of the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire.. yes, the royalty estate open for vistors and trust me it is worth the show off.. The place has large farm lands, lavish gardens, 126 rooms and huge mansion to boast of.. You enter into acres of greery and then you see this tall waterfall ( supposed to be the tallest gravity driven waterfall in the world ) and a mansion behind it.. There are lake, ducks, maze gardens, cascade garden, green house,a small museum showcasing the royal life and lineage of the duke and duchess.. and AGAIN i will mention, Europeans know how to create tourism business.. The historical artifacts are collected, a story is laid around them and organized to take the visitor down the memory lane.. I was partcularly impressed the artistic collection and taste.. You can cover the house in 40 minutes and then move on to view the gardens.. these are acres of green grass, a maze, a small tunnel, a small section of rock garden, kitchen garden.. ok, talk about it and you have it.. :) You can buy back books, try some patersseries or just lie down in grass and watch the world go by.. Well, as per my tour guide, there is some connection of this place with the notorious novel "Lady Chatterley's Lover".. Chatsworth has been selected as the United Kingdom's favourite country house several times.. Of particular interest to me were the cieling painting and the library and lavish dinish hall, some of the ceiling paitings gave a 3 D effct and looked magnificient.. Yep, thats about the Cavendish family, and Henry Cavendish the great scientist belonged to this family.. This has some connection with LAdy Diana.. The property being large and lavish could not have been maintained without being opened for visitors.. The collection from visits go to Chatsworth trust which is used to maintain the vast expanses.. You can even stay overnight in this estate for a handsome charge..
My next move after his was Matlock Bath.. This is also situated in Derbyshire.. There is a small railway station in this city , which can get you here.. We went to heights of Abraham from this place..At almost a thousand feet the Heights is home to some of the most stunning views of the Derwent Valley and beyond to Matlock and the wider Peak District.. We took a cable car to the moutain top.. the way up the mounatin is cable car is lovely as you see green moutains all around, a small river flowing by and the top of hill has mutiple things to explore.. This place has organized cavern trips.. The mining in this area is supposed to have begun in Roman days.. The tours in natural caverns take you back to mining days.. They hav beautiful animated way of showing how mining happened happened i old times.. the dark stonny walls of caverns have a story of their own to tell..
The place has a fossil factory which sells mutiple stone varieties and once can be picked if you like it.. :)
Nice 2-3 hours stay and you sit back in cable car to head back to home.. The thing i missed is the bakewell's pudding.. :(, nope, i could not go there.. All in all a fairly good day and a visit to discover the Derbyshire..

The Wales

2010-07-01T15:25:00.000-07:00

This was an interesting 3 day trip over long weekend, thanks to all the friends who planned it.. we guys started from London, took a bus to Cardiff..Cardiff is the capital of Wales, a nice and cozy medium sized city.. Ok, here i will mention the Thai dinner that we had and let me admit, the various Thai curries are just delicious and worth a go..
The night was spent at a frenz place, only to start next day on a car drive to larger part of wales.. Wales is beath takingly beautiful.. grass and greenery in acres and acres.. no much population and generally sweet pople.. The "welshness" is so evident in the air.. There are welsh horses, the sheep pens which just look lovely and give you a feel like white pearls have been sprinkled all over the green ground.. The sheeps are fat and healthy.. It is a farming nation, with happy people and prosperous and healthy life.. But you do feel its different from England..
The beauty about this country is, its not the destination that matters, its the journey, literally.. :) Our first stop was to Breacon Bacon National Park. Ok, there are no tigers and lions.. This is naural beauty, long lavish green grounds, lambs, some stylish small pubs and yes, we did trek to a waterfall.. I can compare it to som treks around Bangalore and Jim Corbett.. There are multiple walking trails in Wales and the idea of this place is to be on feet and cover these trails to discover the natural beauty of this place.. If you are not a nature lover, then you will this place a little dry.. The trail we took was waterfall country and it was lovely.. we did this walk on a rainy day..
We had a few hours spent on this and we started our drive to Snowdonia. This is in North Wales. And yes, we went for a trip to Snowdonia summit in a steam driven mountain railway.. the jorney up is beath taking, though you do envy the people trekking their way up, because they see all these well and experience better than the tain..This is the highest mountain peak in Wales at 3560 feet...The loveliest site are the small water bodies among green moutains.. it does look like this is how heaven should be.. Oh, did i talk about the English breakfast?? The roaster mushroom, tomatoes, marmalade, flavored yougurt and much more.. yu are done for the day if you had this and it is worth its size.. :) We tried mexican during lunch and yes do try the leak and potato soup.. Everything here is rich and fattening, the pure milk, cheese and even potato soup.. :) Its a country of mountains, animals, farmers, cold weather and lovely people, no calorie counts needed.. just trek!! :)
AND let me not miss this, every family seems to be having dog as a part of it.. there were big, small, lovely, dangerous ones all around with their families.. so, yes Dogs have a life here.. :)
We missed the castles around the place, while we drove to Pehrhyn, we were to late to enter and see the same..We managed to see the Dinorwig hydr power station and explored the largest man made tunnel.. It is a 1800 MW pumped storage hydroelectric scheme, near Dinorwig, Llanberis in Snowdonia national park in Gwynedd, north Wales. It comprises 16 km of tunnels, 1 million tons of concrete, 200,000 tons of cement and 4,500 tons of steel.. And not to mention the large motors and transformes driven by the pressure of water in reservoirs.. the tour is worth a go as this is another enginering marvel worth exploring.. You do feel bad about the destruction done to nature by Slate mining, but this is being restored now.. the whole hydro power station tour is explained by audio, and is very well structured to explain..

We stayed one night in this area, drove back to Cardiff.. The journey back was as beautuful as it culd get.. this area is worth picnicking, spedning some leasure time, you will see lots of caravans, lamb, some handsome horses, good food..

I should mention the way one of the pub was decorated around the waterfalls.. it had a huge collection of mugs collected form various places, hung o cielings, side of the walls and very tastefull done decor with a sewin machine occuoying the window seat.. :)

Thats Wales for you.. Coutry side, breath takingly beautiful, less populous, rich food, lambs, lots of moutains and yes, did i tell you?? From Snowdonia summit, you can see Wales, England and Ireland and the sea line.. It does look like heaven is here.. :)

The Sea towns - Brighton and Eastboune

2010-07-01T15:16:00.000-07:00

A weekend off in a low cost trip down the sea side with a bus full of people.. :) Brighton and Eastbourne are sea side towns, have famous piers with lots of games, fish and chips, lovely beaches, the sea birds, rides and small gullies in town to discover.. perfect for summer travel around the sea..
Wait.. whats the difference that you will find between the two towns??
Brighton is young and new and Eastbourne sea side looks upscale and contemporay.. If you ask my view, i would say Eastbourne looked better to me..
Though i am a veggie, but i can tell that fish and chips were fresh and an attraction, so if you do eat non veg, do sit in open air Pier restaurant and give it a go.. Oops, there was something for me too, the clotted cream fudge.. Yum.. try this.. it is made of sea water, so the slightly salty taste is worth it and difficult to find elsewhere... Do refrain fro honey combs if you do not have extremely sweet tooth, but do try the vanilla cone with chocolate stick..
Eastbourne had chalky sea side structure, it is an awesome view from Pier and if you walk towards the struture, you might get lost in the beauty and elegance of the place..
All in all a nice day out along sea side..

The Canterbury Tales

2010-07-01T14:57:00.000-07:00

Though i have been extremely lazy and late in updating my travels on blog, but better late than never..
So, my summers started with a drive to Canterbury with some friends.. after long and cold winters, the green and yellow fields of Europe are just mersmerising.. This city lies in South East england and a small drive from London.. The place is famous for its cathedral which houses many holy souls and boasts of magnificient architecture... We started early morning from London, had breakfast mid way and moved towards the city.. It shows signs of Roman inheritance all around.. the magnificient city wall, the ruins of a prison or the cathedral..
The city is close to sea, so you can check out the cathedral and drive towards the sea, mid way cath up wth the famous large wind mill and all the way in between see the country, fairy tale, small city life of Europe.. yes, it does look like a perfect dream..
An excerpt from wikipedia about this place abot what was its connetion with famous Canterbury tales-- "After the murder of Archbishop Thomas Becket at the cathedral in 1170, Canterbury became one of the most notable towns in Europe, as pilgrims from all parts of Christendom came to visit his shrine. This pilgrimage provided the framework for Geoffrey Chaucer's 14th-century collection of stories, The Canterbury Tales."

Canterbury Cathedral is a world heritage site, it is being restored and saved. The tourism industry in UK is extremely well stuctured, organized and preserved.. The sructure adds value to the otherwise common tourism industry..

We then moved to sea side to enjoy the beach and spend some quality time watching surfers, and trying to see the horizons of sea.. :)

The day ended with the journey back to London and OH did i mention the tunnel contructed through Thames, which one has to cross while entering to London when you travel to or from Canterbury?? Engineering marvels are a common site here and does make you feel that civil engineering found its way here..

The Tavel o u g e...

2010-03-21T14:44:00.000-07:00

So, i am in London for almost 2 months now.. Woo.. unbelievable, the pace at which time passes by.. And i have been ignoring my blog.. I hate myself for it.. Sorry, i was just trying to concentrate on work, which for sure is not more important than you or you need some of my attention on weekend for sure.. Sorry, but i was busy on weekends exploring London to get something for you.. :)
Here are places i visited:
-- Greenwich
-- Piccadiliy
-- Liecester
-- Camden Lock
-- Regent's Park
-- Oxford Circus
-- London Eye
-- Primose Hill
-- Sherlock Holmes' fictitious house

And much more.. Blog, let me tell you, this city is truly multi cultural.. In a crowd of 5 peole there are atleast 2 nationalities.. Its diversity in true sense..

And getting to food--
-- Fuklava
-- Drummer's street
-- Maryleboune woodland
-- Wagamama
-- Crussh
-- Pret
-- Camden local food mart
-- Spitalfield food mart
-- Pizza Express
-- Sprat

I tried 6 different cuisines and let me accept, i love Indian food. :)Though cakes and some sweets here are worth learning to cook..

And not to miss, i am now a member of Best Gym in Britain. Yo, i spend all my evenings working out in Reebok ad thats the reason i am spending less time here.. But dont you worry, i will soon work out the balance and give you more info on whee my life is heading.. As of now, time for me to drop dead!! CIAO..

Trust!

2010-03-05T16:31:00.000-08:00

So, i wonder whats so magical about trust? Is there a science behind it? Actually, its that inner feel, blink or gut feel. Its somewhere on the face and heart and mind. But no one knows what leads to it..

My journey to Canary Wharf is 45 mins, i love the new friends that i have made, all from different locations, aspirations and thought process, but we just connect.
While coming back in tube, i jumped in it last minute, there was an Indian guy who caught the tube with me almost every day around similar time. My spectacular last minute catch made him smile and ask me about my efficient run from almost 40 stairs.. :D

We got talking and with no basic questions on who, what, when, we just talked about India and work and about when he came back 3 years ago what he felt were challenges etc and i listened with interest and moved on..

Next day, we caught the same train again, the guy told me about the game he used to play while travelling back home and i tried my hand at it, i was pathetic..
anyway, next day again we were in same train. Suddenly, he came and handed over the game to me.. he said there is this guy stepping in, he is my peer and he will eat my head for next two stations. I dont want to end my game like this, i need to win this. Will you play it for me? A lil caught by surprise and nervous knowing that i could only contribute to failure in the game, i said how can i hold the fort to help you win, i am not good at it..

He said of little tht i know, i trust you.. you will not only hold the fort, you will do it with good scores.. with this he was greeted by his useless peer and i was on the game.. I have no clue what happened for next 10 mins, i just know i was sincerely trying to keep upto his trust, not really knowing what were the scores..

Next station the peer got down, he came, took the game, looked at me, gave me a wide smile and said "see, i told you, i trust u.. it dsnt take much.. its written all over the face..i won it.. you lived upto it.. " I smiled, i saw him switching it off and packing it.. I wondered what was the deal about? I mean, i had been fighting to keep the game on for last 10 mins, if he had to fold it, why did he waste my time? I went and asked him? He said i was just wondering if "trust" is a science or a gut feel.. I just had a gut feel that you are a nice friend and i can trust you with my game.. There was no science behind it.. I dint know your background, not if you had ever got scores that high, i just played it on gut feel and i was kind of right.. Next time when you see me, trust me, smile at me and talk to me.. your gut feel is better than a 100 questions that mind asks.. :)

My Valentine!

2010-02-14T14:48:00.000-08:00

This was an amazing day by all standards. I travelled around, had a candle lit dinner with some friends. Not that i really cared about this day ever, but now that its been coomercialized, it just gives me one more reason to have fun. However, to accept the fact, i never understood what love is all about.
I used to ask Dad if what i felt for him was love? He was always the perfect human on the earth for me for all the love that he showered on me. There wasn't a single day when i did not talk to him and sleep and he was the only person i ever thought of when in odd times or good. I remember my first crush, i thought i was in love.. :) I went to papa and asked if, am i in love? He smiled and said may be, its not something that happens in a day, it just grows and then it stays, there is no replacement, all mistakes just get ignored. Its blind in all senses, but it takes time to get blind, if midway, you open your eyes, you were never in love. I smiled at his words, i did not know what they meant. I just knew that i was in love with papa and the fact that he reads out stories to me, he holds my hand and walks when they are cold and then when there were times i saw no way forward, he just told me there is always a way that led to him and he will be there no matter what i was and who i was.
Its been years that i have talked to him, i will not in this life, its the law of nature. I lost myself for sometime trying to figure out what is life without love, only to know that its there everywhere. I just know that all that has gone into my being is his "love". Whatever i do is his love and passion and whatever i see is the world that he saw in my eyes. And yes, its indeed blind, there is no scope to open eyes. Papa, year on year, till i die, you will be my Valentine. You just made my life worth living by being you. You taught me what love, patience, goodness and honesty means. You taught me what forgiveness means and you also taught me that life will take 100 turns, true love will stand by. Needless to say, "I love you." If Valentines is about the "ONE" you love the most, this day is reserved for you. Thanks for giving me a life i love and loved ones i love and will love.

Cute

2010-02-13T10:37:00.000-08:00

Ok! if there is anything that i kind of like this country about, it is the BABIES.. Awe.. they are cho cute, fat, fair and ok.. I dont have words.. I feel like pulling cheeks of all of them.. They are adorable..Sometimes i feel that i should catch all of them and keep with me.. :)

Life Part 2

2010-02-12T16:26:00.001-08:00

It was 30th Jan 2010, i landed in London. I had taken an emirates through dubai. I had no feeling. I have been living out of my home for 10 years now. I miss family and home, but i take it as a matter of fact that life has to move on and more comfortably you adapt to it better it is. I just told myself i am 9 hours away from home and i earn enough to visit back India every month, so its ok.
The country is cold and i felt that i would freeze. I came out to take my company cab, my taxi driver was an asian, he asked me a few questions and said, madame, you will like this country.. have you been here before? I said, yes, but not to live. :)
I entered into the YMCA, got the keys of my room which was warm and cosy and slept off. I saw all Indian faces and nothing was very different but for the fact that everything around me was running. I was calm and composed and as always thinking on what next and how. I needed a cell to connect. I needed to call up my freinds and i needed to make new friends.

I met a girl at bfast table and connected. She taught me how to travel through tube and that was the starting point of my survival stint in this city. I have gone long way in two weeks. I kind of learned to find my way, figure out which soup or bread to stuff in to live and have made some friends for life. I like to learn about new culture, i like to meet new people. Everything about this place is an experience and learning. Its good to come out and survive in international location for some years and then think next in life. I miss my home, i miss the simplicity of my country and people. My first day in Canary Wharf, i looked out of the window from 15th floor sipping my cup of tea and looked around at the upper bank street. I saw people in black moving fast from one place to others, i saw empty floors and some buzzing with life.. Suddenly a thought crossed my mind, this is the place of competition, money, intelligence.. It lost millions in last 2-3 years and there must have been so many who lost their dreams jobs, money and life in the battle.. Here, i am, standing amidst the disaster in the business of making money and determination to make myself visible in the crowd of the black dots moving from one place to other. All the Best to myself and i know its important to be more than a dot in life. :)

The Corporate Is Joke!!

2010-01-05T10:14:00.001-08:00

Ah well, i cant hold myself from laughing since sometime.. The higher up you grow in life, more arbit you get.. Thats the status of some of the calls that i am a part of.. Sometimes i wonder if anyone knows what he/she is talking about, however everyone seems to be excited about the call and discussions in all directions.. Such meetings are usually so interesting that someones ends up setting up a series of them with a hope of driving some meaningful discussion at least on of the series of calls.. However, for me its like sitcome telecasted everyday at same time.. I tune into the conference and laugh my heart out..
Best are when you prepare for customer visits.. Poor customer has no business and no clue on what goes behind the scene in luring him.. While he is concerned about his hard earned money going out, and looking for sense to come out.. People out there might as well be concerned about the cake, color of balloons, paintings and torturous sessions that he must be subjected to.. These are serious topics.. What color balloons, which hotel, which taxi, what flight, who eats with whom.. And yes, who is the most boring speaker, lets get him in so that he puts the guy with money to sleep and torture him so much that he falls on his feet to give away all that he ever had..
Wooo.. This requires a lot of hard work, finally all sloggers wear the best of clothes sit in an electric car and take the "cat" around before putting it in concentration camp, meticulously prepared for putting it to death..
Isnt' the world fun place to be in? There is no sense anywhere behind all the seriousness on faces.. :D

Its only words.. :)

2010-01-03T08:55:00.000-08:00

Ever wondered how powerful can words be.. Of all said and done, people say love is silent and its a tune between two hearts, i think the most memorable words are the ones said when you express anything you love.. The "Love Story" being hit.. The novel was about two strong characters in love.. I cant express in words how much i love the way Eric Segal has portrayed the charms of a strong and witty women madly in love..
Tonight, i am going to put down some of the craziest feelings as captured in some memorable dialogues of romantic movies--

You've Got Mail
A love story around the sharing of words.. Impractical, but whoever said love was practical ever.. :)
"I like to start my notes to you as if we're already in the middle of a conversation. I pretend that we're the oldest and dearest friends- as opposed to what we actually are- people who don't know each other's names and met in a chat room where we both claimed we'd never been before. What will NY152 say today, I wonder. I turn on my computer, I wait impatiently as it boots up. I go online, and my breath catches in my chest until I hear three little words: You've got mail. I hear nothing, not even a sound on the streets of New York, just the beat of my own heart. I have mail. From you."

A Walk In The Clouds
"I know that she is good and strong and deserves all the love this world has to give. Can't you see that, how wonderful, how special she is?"

When Harry Met Sally
This is by far the cutest words anyone could have ever said to anyone..
"I came here tonight because when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible."
"I love that you get cold when it's seventy degrees out. I love that it takes you an hour and a half to order a sandwich. I love that you get a little crinkle above your nose when you're looking at me like I'm nuts. I love that after I spend a day with you I can still smell your perfume on my clothes, and I love that you are the last person I want to talk to before I go to sleep at night."

Somewhere In Time
Elise's soliloquy:"The man of my dreams has almost faded now. The one I have created in my mind. The sort of man each woman dreams of in the deepest and most secret reaches of her heart. I can almost see him now before me. What would I say to him, if he were really here? Forgive me, I have never known this feeling. I've lived without it all my life. Is it any wonder, then, that I fail to recognize you? You-- who brought it to me for the first time. Is there any way I can tell you how my life has changed? Any way at all to let you know what sweetness you have given me? There is so much to say...I cannot find the words. Except for these-- I love you! "

Shakespeare In Love
"If I could measure the beauty of her eyes, I was born to look into them and know myself."

Hope Floats
"Dancing is just a conversation between two people. Talk to me."

Ever After
And these are words of wisdom.. :P
Prince Henry:" And what happens if the person you're supposed to be with never appears or she does, and you're too distracted to notice?"
Leonardo da Vinci:"You learn to pay attention."
Prince Henry:" You told me it was a matter of life or death."
Leonardo da Vinci:"A woman always is."

The Englsh Patient
"The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen, nor touched, but are felt in the heart."

Don Juan DeMarco
"Have you never met a woman who inspires you to love? Until your every sense is filled with her? You inhale her. You taste her. You see your unborn children in her eyes and know that your heart has at last found a home. Your life begins with her, and without her it must surely end."

City of Angels
Nicolas Cage looked truly in love in this movie.. The all yours expression on his face is memorable..
"When they ask me what I liked best, I'll say it was you."

The Bridges of Madison County
And i love these words, isn't the first one amazing..
"It seems right now that all I've ever done in my life is making my way here to you."
"This kind of certainty comes but once in a lifetime."

The Accidental Tourist
"I'm beginning to think that maybe it's not just how much you love someone. Maybe what matters is who you are when you're with them."

A Beautiful Mind
"It's only in the mysterious equations of love that any logical reasons can be found. I am only here tonight because of you. You are all I am. You are all my reasons."
"Perhaps it is good to have a beautiful mind, but an even greater gift is to discover a beautiful heart."

The Notebook
Is it so common??
"I am nothing special; just a common man with common thoughts, and I've led a common life. There are no monuments dedicated to me, and my name will soon be forgotten. But in one respect I have succeeded as gloriously as anyone who's ever lived: I've loved another with all my heart and soul and to me, this has always been enough."

Runaway Bride
The dialogue i will never forget in my life..
"Look. I guarantee there'll be tough times. I guarantee that at some point, one or both of us is gonna want to get out of this thing. But, I also guarantee that if I don't ask you to be mine, I'll regret it for the rest of my life, because I know, in my heart, you're the only one for me."

Shall We Dance
"We need a witness to our lives. There's a billion people on the planet..... I mean, what does any one life mean? But in a marriage, you're promising to care about everything. The good things, the bad things, the terrible things, the mundane things..... all of it, all the time, every day. You're saying 'Your life will not go unnoticed because I will notice it. Your life will not go unwitnessed because I will be your witness'".

The Wedding Date
And this is cute!! :)
".....I think I'd miss you even if we'd never met."

PS: These are a collection of best ones picked up from various sources..

I want to be an entrepreneur!!

2010-01-01T06:20:00.000-08:00

Thats all i know about me.. One day i will plunge into doing something fun and interesting.. I know i am an entrepreneur and i have to be me some day...
Year on year, day on day, if there is anything that excites me its the desire to be me.. I am not slave to money, i like to work for doing something meaningful and exciting.. I want something which is mine and where i can use my creativity and mind.. I know i can do well in anything that i am out into then why not do something for me?? Something which is just mine..

Welcome 2010!

2009-12-31T12:43:00.000-08:00

Just back from party at Jinie's place. Affectionate he is, no one can say no to him.. Disclaimer: Not many people know each other here, just a crowd of strangers, so dance and be merry.. The second perfect thing was the host whose house was actually used for the party.. He is the best possible entertainer anyone would have come across. Some people are so lively that they can infuse life is anyone who even brushes against them.. :D Music was coming from the laptop of host, a hut like dance floor.. Songs like Scilia, kajrare, punjabi numbers.. Ok!! i know there is no trend, but then who cares.. :) 2 hours of good fun and yes we have those cheers smiley happy pics captured.. a new year with unknowns and yet so lovely..

N, S.. I miss you guys as always.. You have been with me since my childhood, the years when we had no money for parties, no fancy clothes, no loud music, just the peanuts, gajjak, rajai, some games and lots of innocence and love for each other.. Every little thing made us happy.. You know what? Nothing can beat that. Right at mid night, amidst loud music, all that i could think of is those wonderful days.. Its not the perfection, its the little fun talks we shared, dreams we nourished and plans we made.. This year sees N in Los Angeles, S in London and me in Blore.. i am happy that we all have moved on for better in life, our plans did not go waste, but we should rewind and relive atleast one day this year. :)

Bye Bye 2009

2009-12-31T06:43:00.000-08:00

My Dear Blog!! Love you, you have been the cutest of all things i value.. And as i bid goodbye to 2009, i want you to know that you will remain to be my fav. So, do you know what did i get on new year eve?? A t shirt "I will try to be nicer to you, if you try to be smarter".. A lovely yellow t shirt saying " happy fish"... A pink eye pencil and lots of other stuff.. How much i love being a girl.. :) I loved the year that went by, and i thank God for the wonderful moments he gifted me with.. I am sure 2010 will be even better, after all its my life, it has to get better and better and better.. :) And yes, i am heading for the party, else we would have had a nice long walk down the memory lane..

Sorry, i forgot to tell you about the earring!! they are good too.. give me loads next year plz... :D

Addiction..

2009-12-28T11:03:00.000-08:00

They say nothing succeeds like success. It gives you the kind of high which diminishes all other aspects of life. But then how about someone who has always been on a high?? Is it not dangerous to face the fact that life is not always same?? I met someone like that today, who probably failed for the first time in life.. Totally unable to let go.. I somehow lost respect for all the glory around the being.. If you cant take success and failure with equal grace then you are not educated and you are not matured enough to lead and grow.. Life will never show same colors, it has to give fair deal to all, if the deal is tilted towards your side, feel good, but dont take it for granted.. Success is niether a habit nor an addiction, it can very well go as it comes.. Do your best and understand that sometimes others best might beat yours.. If you are anywhere near successful learn to smile and improve and grow, dont give up..

New Year Grows...

2009-12-26T19:30:00.000-08:00

I was wondering what possibly could be the best things to do on new year??
- Travel - Visit some cool destinations
- Party - Choose the best party in town and just go and have fun
- Cake at home - This might sound boring to most, but this is how i spent most of my new years in childhood days, watching the new year programme on TV, cuddled in a rajai, cake and food and with papa.. Trust me nothing in this world can match the welcoming new year that way....

So, i start with Travel - one of the most favoured destinations in India on new year is Goa and 2 years back we went to a place called karvar near Goa to welcome the year.. Since it was slightly off Goa and we went for a camping trip, it was far away from madding crowd and an aamzing experience. The water came till our camps during high tide and the dance floor was right by the river side. It was awesome fun. Got to do with the people i went with and also the location we chose. Next year was ISB, and yes we did go to the cruise party(dont ask me where was the cruise:P), the ship had a dance floor, NO, it wasnt great, but we all together totally enjoyed what was on offer.. :) Though not on new year, but this jungle resort type of place in Dandeli could be another place to visit during new year.. The place is again established on river side and in general very calm and peaceful. Kerela could be a place to go to, but i dont know why, i feel its too talked about nd everyone is always there.. Next could be LEH, Ladakh.. wooooo.. i so badly want to visit ladakh.. Next Year, i am going there for sure..

Party- So, this is usually the most difficult part.. You want to stay in city, you dont want to stay at home and you dont want to go to a party which is not your type of music and which has cheap and drunk crowd.. Difficult choice.. Specially music can kill the point.. If the DJ is bad then you have almost spoiled your evening.. This happened with me once.. Some of the friends got booking done.. I followed like a loyalist.. I realized the music was bad, food was even worse and people were looking at you as if thats their only focus in life.. Finally, we decided to move out of the place and come back to home, watch movie in my friend's home theatre, ordered domino's pizza and talked our heart out about everything..

So, whats the safest bet?? I want to go back home and spend time with my family, play with my nephew and begin new year with people i love the most.. However, if that does not materialize, i would want to stay with my best pals and probably welcome the new year with them peacefully, does not have to be a fancy travel or party this time, i want to save these moments for life..

3 idiots!!

2009-12-25T10:28:00.000-08:00

This movie is a must watch for some of the most cheeful moments. Best fun was, today was another day, when i reached the movie hall last minute with friends. I had got the tickets done online and the transaction was successful, while the money was taken from my account, i did not have th tickets booked. I have a simple philosophy in life if i have come to watch the movie, i better watch it. I just told the ticket counter guy, we need to watch the movie, whats the option and i just have 10 mins. The guy guided me to a person on front counter. I had a small round of negotiation with him, he directed me to a small gallery behind the cinema and i discovered that behind running of all the gold class and super hot malls, there are simple doors where people sit to make these operations smooth. On the oldest posible computer, he booked some tickets for an audi which was added last minute to adjust such goof ups. I was amazed at the customer service of PVR today.
I ran with the confirmation numbers got the tickets and we barged into the movie hall. After all the run, early morning wake up, the movie was every penny worth it. Amir khan was at his best and the humour was a total connect. All in all, must watch and yes please do goof up with systems, thats when you get to know what keeps the perfect systems running. I saw a lot of things which back the running of PVR, thanks to the goof up.

The Countdown..

2009-12-24T11:16:00.000-08:00

So, this was a fun night.. nothing new.. as always, nandi, shiks, me and trust me aunty is spoilt since she has come here, she laughs her heart out with the crazy gang.. (Caution!! We can make a corpse beg to Hell Master to give him some life to laugh.. ) The topic of discussion was the fact that i had booked the ticket of movie 3 idiot for 10 AM on a holiday.. :D (Yours truly, you have to be sincere and on time when it comes to movies, akhir life mein har cheez time to time honi chahiye).. Well, the issue is - the movie is shot in IIMB, i like Amir khan( no, i am loyal to Ranbir Kapur and Tom Cruise, and.. OK!! I know i am using the word loyal, but then i like all, i always like all things without bias.. all goooood things i mean.. :P).. and then its supposed to be a fun movie.. I mean, its ok to getup at 7 AM on a holiday and watch movie.. Its all alright!! Why do you live and earn? ( I am not expecting the reply to be " to watch movies", but then something like that.. ).. But then i got into my serious convincing mode, such that anyone would ahve thought that the only motive to live is to watch this movie at 10 AM in morning, if you dont do that world will come to an end before 2012.. Shiks just gave up, knowing me she knew i could make a case around it and this probably is the best movie anyone could have ever watched even before its ratings came out.. having settled the movie part, we moved on to my relocation part.. I mean when will i go, what date, how, from where? Imagine! Did i ever think so much about life?? I will go, one day, somewhere, sometime to someplace from someplace.. The food has to be asian veg and yes i dont drink alcohol (thats kind of certain :P, some things i know, dont have to struggle with that) ..

By the end of the day, we all live to have fun and sleep with a smile, and i have seen that most arbit and senseless things have maximum value in life.. I know these days are may be last 15 days of my stay here, but i will live them to the fullest..

Here this day of my life is dedicated to my fav song these days - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTuY6JCsK-M

"Did you notice the Alisha's voice in this song??"

Change..

2009-12-23T09:40:00.000-08:00

They say change is inevitable, a part of life.. I kind of understand it and adapt to situations.. But some places give you such fond memories that despite knowing everything you want to stick on to it.. Bangalore from may to dec 2009 is one such part of my life.. In Kris Gartner's style i would say, "this part of my life is called happyness". :) I loved my batch and everyone in it from the bottom of my heart for all the smiles and laughter which i so badly needed in life..15 of us from different IIMs and ISBs. No connection to begin with and slowly we became a part of life.. Lunch together, houses around, office discussions and help at every step. I have this nasty habit of asking the same thing 100 times, i am sure people thought that either i was dumb or i irritated them, but they took it with a smile.. Its getting over, all are moving out.. Everytime someone goes, i have this feeling that its all getting over and somewhere i wish i could stop it but then i know things have to move on..
It was not just the batch, nandini, Shikha, my neighbour, hampi travel group.. everyone just added to the memories.. The thought of getting away is quite challenging, the change i want to resist, but my mind says you need to move on in life.. Everyday night for one hour i struggle with this..I know things never remain same, but these were good times and you just want them forever.. Future's uncertainity is always difficult on us.. I know on papers everything about my future is good.. But i will miss the fun i had here, i am not sure if i will get so many people of similar mental level to talk to and crack jokes with.. My home which was always a weekend away for me, will be very far..
I am resisting a change which is good for my life .. everyday i just pray to God and think that some miracle will happen and same life will be replicated in my new location or he will just keep me here.. something.. God, "This part of my life is called praying to you, i really really leave it all on you as always.. "

The Love you case study!!

2009-12-22T08:18:00.000-08:00

It was an amusing discussion with an old pal. This guy's dad was in army and he was a to the core flirt since probably he was born. :P.. Suddenly, he calls me after some 5 years and says i love you.. I thought it was some time pass trying to call, i said ok, thanks for loving a stranger, makes me feel good.. HANG ON, GARY!! xyz here.. :D.. Oops, why dint you tell me years back that you loved me buddy? Not that i would have liked to acknowledge it even then, but you would have come out of this nasty habit of joking at an early age.. Hee hee, turn around, i just saw you in spencers, i am standing 20 feet away from you and seriously i love you.. AWEEE... no for this surprise i love you too.. It was after years that we were meeting and it was a surprise to the core..
Got talking talking talking.. Flirtoo always has many stories to tell as if there was a huge queue of women ready to die for him kinds but in the end he is always single and ready to mingle. Well, nothing had really changed in his life, he had some 3 girl friends when he was studying in IIM and then when he started working 3 more and finally he was still single and ready to mingle.. :D I said Boss what goes wrong with all the women, they just cant stand you beyond 2 months :P?? (OK, he is fun loving, i can crack such jokes with him :)) He thinks for some time.. He goes, yaar this looks like a case study to me, the i love you case study.. I say i love you to 100 girls, hit rate is lets say 10%, conversion ratio is lets say 2% and then in the end final result is 0%. What should XYZ do to get a final result??

Idiot, what did you do in IIM? Wasted your life? Try and understand the customer segment, your sales pitch is always good, the services and value add part is zero.. With history of 100 gal friends you look like second Tiger Wood in making.. The case is solved, the final result might remain zero for the rest of your life, give your humbling past record which scares me to death..

He totally nodded his head and bought me an ice cream for all the gyaan.. (Ok, i get paid for all my arbit gyaan like a true MBA.. :P).. The love you case study was solved and i am so happy, i have a old lost buddy in town.. :D

Difficult to let go..

2009-12-21T09:48:00.000-08:00

There are some things in life which become an intergral part of life and even before you realize you just know that they are difficult to let go. One doll that i bought assuming i will get a rank 1 but i got a rank 2, you know how much i loved it for years?? My cousin broke an eye of my tall doll and me, generally known to be a non violent and non controversial kid, just gave him two tight slaps and did not know if even that was enough to cover up the loss. :P The broken doll stayed in my home till i went for my graduation and no one dared to touch it as they thought this could awaken the hidden violence in me. :D
Similarly, my best pals, i love them. Everyone knows i love them, and i never thought why and when that happened, i just know that sometimes it hurts to see them off on airport. Its not something new, i have been accustomed to letting go, but now i realize that with all the efforts, sometimes it is difficult to let people go.
Family, dearest to me. I have been away from my home for years now. Everytime i have to visit home, i am excited just the way my 4 year old nephew is and till date something within kills when i board the flight back to work.
India, i have been born and brought up here. I love every struggle involved, every problem at hand. Thats been my way of living and life for years now. Its time when i might have to move and i just know that its so difficult to let it go. I remember crying when my cousin broke the eye of my doll, dad consoled me and told that he will get a new one. I said its not about a better doll or new doll, i have invested time and love in it, it hurts to leave somethings you loved so much. Dad understood, he got me a 100 dolls after that, but the hurt doll never lost its place in my home. He always kept it at top and told me there are somethings difficult to let go and its good to come back to them. You dont leave things when you find better ones, you only love them more because they have made themselves imp enough in your life to let go.

2009-12-18T20:55:00.000-08:00

The runs between happening and not happening. The desire to do and not to do is a hairline difference. Sometimes, all you know if life is," i will give everything my best shot and till last breath" and you just know that if you want something you want it. You know the target and rest everything will find its way. I saw a lady scolding her kid few days back in a super market and typically using the word "Stubborn". I had been watching the kid, particularly because he was cute and i liked his attitude. He was observant and with cautious thinking and using rationale he picked up a box of chocolate which he thought was small and should not be an issue for his mom. However, for all good reasons as per her mom he should not have had chocolates. :( He kept quite for sometime and then lay straight on the floor with chocolate in hand and focus to eat. Mum scolded him again, this time he took the chocolate out and put it in his mouth with eyes sht as her very well knew that a slap was coming his way. :D.. I dont know, people may call him stubborn, i totally loved it. kids have this undying power and focus and they have fool proof strategies to attain what they want. As we grow, we just lose the so called "stubbornness" to get what we want. I think this hair line journey between happening and not happening is decided by the element of wanting it till end sometimes...

No solstice for me.. :(

2009-12-18T06:43:00.000-08:00

This is my first solstice after passing out of isb. I could not go. It was my biometric test for London visa. I hate international travel and locations and everything about it. :( I dont know what i have mised, i would have so loved to be back on campus and among my people. Never mind, one of my batch mates who could not make it to solstice as well decided to make things better for us. Aur kuch nahi to movie sahi.. if not the cool DJ and dance floor then a dinner may be.. ISB, i so totally love you, it hurts when i have to let go of you.. :(

Boredom at its best.

2009-12-13T11:08:00.000-08:00

What do you do when you have to go for a party when no one is your age, you have no common topic to talk about and you just know what you had so many better things to do than sit here and look in air??
Well, you dont really have a choice. Ok, things start getting better, there is music, and though i wont say i love cricket, but even that looked interesting to me. I finally thought i should just explore the business model of the place in question and see how things work. And last but not least, when ething else fails, all hopes rest on food. :D
Things were not that bad, there was a very desi dance floor, loud boxes of music, DJ no one will dance with in general, but then it all looked so heavenly. And i saw a huge gang of ppl, OK, they looked equally bored, but then better off. Dancing as always was awesome fun and kind of took away some frustration out of life. I came back home, tired, changed clothes and hit the bed thinking what was it all about? Sometimes, you just wish you could rewind the life and start living it all over again and could take better decisions like not going to the party and looking in air.

Funny..

2009-12-13T10:38:00.000-08:00

It was a sunday and i had to buy some urgent stuff. I had almost working weekend, so by the time i gathered myself, it was 6 o clk. I headed straight to the market. While coming back i took an auto. The auto driver seemed to be diving like formula one racer, missing hits by an inch and though generally i dont get scared, but so many times i survived Yam's land that finally i told him, "Bhaiya, dheere chala lo plz.".. HERE is the killer, "MADAM, mein pehle ambulance chalata tha, aise hi chalata tha, dheer nahi chalta, marne walo ke pass time kaha hota hai itna".. I did not know what to say.. I shifted myself to the center of the auto and kind of wondered why the hell did i have to choose him of the trail of autos infront of me.. On lighter note, i totally enjoyed the roller coaster ride..

The land beneath my feet..

2009-12-09T08:35:00.000-08:00

This is one off cases in life.. The land beneath my feet was just swiped away in a moment.. I was speechless and for one of the few times in life i did not negotiate and question because person infront was brutually honest.. I did not know what was it all about but i could see the strength of character and determination which i thought exists only in books.. Honesty and passion to do something in life which was not something i had seen in many.. I realized that you might have never had tea all your life because you dont like it, but then there will be some people who will not ask you for it and say this is all i have to offer you and you will know that this is something you cant deny because thats really all that anyone could ever offer to you..
I was asked my a frend to help a frend setup some new venture.. I am not a pro, i thought i will be just one brain added, but i will try.. The discussion went on for 3 hours.. During the discussion i just realized that its so much fun to talk to honest and passionate people.. There is a balance of opinion, there is acceptance and challenging.. And then there is so much of care for every word and learning and denial.. I was not working for a multi million dollar firm with no value for time and effort, i was talking to a human who has dreams and then the person realized that i had been sitting for 3 hours and all that was on offer was tea which could be prepared.. I was asked for tea and i know i dont have tea, but i could not say no, there were no vending machines, will this person make tea for me?? Yes, no work is small and no human is less than special.. As i was handed over the cup of tea, i realized that it was the most precious drink i have ever had..
Time for me to be ruthless.. What if you FAIL?? I dont work to fail and frankly failure does not know me.. I graduated from top b school in world, worked for the best firm, took a call on taking my own path, not to faill.. If i were to fail all these people would not have taken a chance on me and you would not have spent the time that u did and if you were to fail i would not have talked to you for more than 10 mins.. trust me we cant fail.. we can only do well or very well.. HMMM. they look like words to me, data?? Market?? The person opened the plan and i saw the kind of details which left me aghast..
Who did i meet? A character from a novel, or was it a real human? I have not seen such strong elements of confidence, intelligence, honesty and humility in one person at such a young age and with accomplishments to die for. I just realized, there are some people who will take away the land beneath your feet, not with the fancy things, but sheer stroke of honesty and no frills to offer.. Hats Off !!

The Ad campaign i will love forever..

2009-11-24T09:02:00.000-08:00

I am a marketing person, ok i know i am sales but i love creative stuff and i can proudly say that my advertising classes in ISB were fun and class apart, thanks to prof for them.. Now a days whenever i see ads, i try to see which part of human phscyche is it trying to address and whats the creative bit in it.. Recently smart and wit advertising has come into picture... I remember how much i loved to watch the fevicol ads at one point of time for the simple humour that it carried..
However, today i want to put forth the links of "Kuch Khaas hai hum sabhi mein" , yes you guessed it right, these are the lovely Cadbury ads which brought dairy milk to every household.. Amazing is how they matured their ads to cover all age groups and connected the product to spirit of life and trust me they remain to be one of my favs till date..
Here goes the links :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_2EEuW4r-w&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDuUIww9AIU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQBbT4t7l4k
http://www.youtube.com/results?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzlWQw7kJFo

And even this wasnt bad:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=womx9GYLVD0

Some ads will stay for ages and years, and yes, they are just emotional ads.. There is no science and logic involved. :)

Where life = Money!!

2009-11-21T23:43:00.001-08:00

Last week was a bit tough on my physcal self. I had 20 mins between a meeting and getting somethings sorted. I decided to run 2.5 and get the work squeezed in the 20 mins. Everything worked out well, just that while coming back i fell on stone stairs, had some scratches here and there, but dint bother till they started showing two days later.
Worse was thursday evening, i started getting some slight eye infection in my left eye, again i dint bother much, but it was paining too much by friday mrng. Not being from bangalore, i usually go to this brand hospital chain for any of my issues. They recently opened a lavish clinic near my home and having too much work on my plate, i thought i must just get started with treatment without making it worse. I enter into the clinic and the lady cuts a bill even before asking me what was the issue. Anway, i pay. She puts me through a high heel fashionable doc and i am like wow, docs used to be smart but now they are glamorous too. The lady turned out to be hollow up above in her head. She checked my eye and told me that i had some severe issue and i might loose vision etc. I am usually cool headed, things did stike me once in head, but i just took it heads on. I said ok, so whats it? She said i will refer you to the biggest hospital in our chain, they will hospitalize you for a couple of days and if things work fine, you will be good. Now, she was getting over my nerves. "BOSS, i asked you a question, what is the problem??". She said i am refering to senior doc. Things will be fine. "Hang on, its just one eye, i get that as per your observation i am gettin blind by one eye,BIG DEAL, chill. I need answer to my question what is it?" She gives me some explanation and asks me to take it as urgent and meet senior doc immediately. I go out and ask the receptionist and she says the earliest you can get is next day afternoon. THAT WAS IT!! I was like Boss, why the hell did i pay to this idiot doc, she dsnt even know what is wrong, she refers me to a hospital in your chain, where again i need to pay a huge amount for a disease which none of you knows about AND above all, you have put anaesthesia in my eyes inplace of antibiotic, my eyes have been tossing between the tables for last 4 HOURS. GET LOST!! In meanwhile they tried very hard to freak me out. You should call your family, get your clothes packed, hospitalization is must. AND all this while, i am like, give me a break, i am not creating an issue out of it till i am sure that its going.
I called up my colleagues who is from bangalore and asked him, so who is the best eye doctor running private practice. I take his number and go to this doc. He looks into my eyes and says, eyes are good, dont worry, nothing major. Its just an infection. Stay here for 30 mins, will monitor which medicine works for you and you can go. I was like, "no hospital? And i thought i was getting blind?" He said NO, no hospitalization required and you are not getting blind. You need to take good care of your eye till it says i am fine and come and show me again tomorrow or may be just call me. We will see again in 5 days. I was stunned, i narrated the whole story of previous doctor and hospital to him, he just smiled and said, some people have equated life to money. There is no harm, but doctors job is to tell people they are not dying because he is there and not that they are dying even when he is not. The doc said that what hurts me is the fact that incase she thought your eyes had serious infection, she should have atleast put a doze of antibiotic in it, she dint, which means your eyes did not get treatment for 6 hours despite things being so serious as per that hospital's staff. Then he told me, why do you go there? Because its big brand, because you think they charge good money so they have good doctors?? I said i just know that i have visited that place thrice, and i see a pattern now. Last time i went was when i caught cold during swine flu scare days, the doc was again an idiot, she told me to take her experimental medicines for 2 days and incase i develop any kind of breathing trouble i should not see her, instead go to the main hospital of the chain and see some doctor. That time i questioned, why dont you do the tests now?? why wait for 48 hours to die?? And why should i go to someone else who has not treated me for 48 hours when my trouble is increased.

All i know is that Manipal chain is becoming ridiculous. They have converted medical business into money business. They should call their spokes blood test clinics, throw out all idiot doctors who are good for nothing and even worse is that their spokes use their brand and refer you to main Manipal for every treatment you take because i think they get some commission on referals, but when things go wrong, they say we are separate from Manipal. Good facilities and services without qualified doctors does not make brand, its a medical business. If your spokes mess up with my life, your main hospital does not get business even if your idiot spoke refers me a 100 times to you.

Here i am, with perfect eyes, its been 48 hours of proper care and medication at home, no hospitalization, and i can just tell all, that dont look at "cure and care" clinics, they should be renamed as beauty clinics. Go for doctors and not brands. When it comes to life, you give to a person who is responsible and not a brand which nourishes 100 idiots under it.

There is something about people who fly.. :)

2009-11-14T08:48:00.000-08:00

The week that went by was awesome in some sense. I met almost all the people who fly. I met a friend of mine who is a pilot in kingfisher, then my best pal and a another pilot friend.
I love my friend who is pilot with kighfisher for some very intended reasons - a) She is always smiling, come what may b) she is always positive come what may c) There is too much life all around her.. We just decided to stroll on the MG road and try some kerela delicacy.. She was in Bangalore for some flight simulation trainigs and as always she did not want to leave the city without meeting me.. As usual, she sorted a lot of questions which keep lingering on my mind..
Next day was my best pal, he is not exactly a pilot, but owing to his fancy job, he keeps flying almost every 4 days.. There was this huge stock on talks i had, that i dont like to work beyond 8 hours, that sometimes i feel i dont know what am i doing and what i want, that there are a 100 things i have no clue about.. And as always he just puts it all on rest by saying that nothing is worth the lovely smile on your face, so if 8 hours of work is what you want, 9th hour is not you.. if you dont know what you are doing, just dont bother doing it.. :) as always i feel pampered with my pal around, because all things have just one solution, nothing is worth your happiness.. Not that good words solve anything in life, but sometimes thats all you want..
Third was this dude i met while coming back from delhi last time on airport. He is a pilot and we ended up talking and hence becoming friends. He flew to bangalore and like being a good frend he called me and said we should meet. We had a long discussion on how he flies and whats it that he njoys most in his profession and why did he want to be a pilot. And then he asked me, "So, why MBA? Why sales? What's you?".. For a change i had nothing to speak.. i was smiling.. i just said, "You know there is something about people who fly.. I fly like you do, in my own world..I am free... I am an MBA and sales because i like to fly, but then there are multiple things that i see from height, which look upapproachable to me, i feel good that i am above all that, but someday i will just fly down to touch them all.. thats what i am.."
We both laughed at my confusing explanation, but then i insisted that it made a lot of sense and in the end he agreed that there is something about people who fly, and that the thrill to move up in life gets distracted when you look down in life, but then you just know you have taken off and someday you will go back.. :)

An amusing evening..

2009-11-14T07:20:00.000-08:00

So, yesterday was Mr B's party. For those of you who dont know who he is, he is one of the 15 of us who joined sales in my org, a financial maestro and in general someone who gets what he wants, dont ask how and why because thats just him and no one asks him such lame questions.. His answer is tujhe mil gaya na, shanti rakh, dont get into the details.. :D
It was his house warming party, he has gifted a house to his parents. So, S, Kunal, Kajal, N, S, dada, and yours truly went for it. Basically, we go for all the parties and sometimes force people to give parties. The house was damn cool and its beautiful. But the point was the collection of all of us on friday evening. So, Kunal, Kajal and me, non drunkards get to view rest all jokers. I am shit scared of people who drink, may be because no one in my family drinks and i havent seen many ppl who are drunk. Yesterday was some fun, people were trying to tell me that they are harmless and that they dont get high, so i can be fine. So, i have no idea what is the calculation of drinks etc, but all of them were out. They say people's true self comes out then they are drunk and i can say for sure that all 15 of us are damn cute. Mr N had an issue that despite being intelligent, IIM, handsome, he has no queue of women who follow him(he always thought he will pick one of millions who will die for him once he is out of IIMs :D), apparently all others joined him and said its the same, it seems they all thought women will die for them, but the kinds tht die they dont want and the kinds they want dont look at them. This discussion went into analytical details with mr N taking the lead. It was indeed amusing on how N would say my woman and Sid will correct him everytime by saying "men- women". :D
And then Mr S was no where to be found for an hour or so, eone thought he was either talking to his girl frend or wishing his to be mum in law bday, but B found that he was fast asleep on bathroom floor, which much convincing people told him tht sleeping on bed is as comfortable as bathroom. He agreed in the end and slept off. I have no idea what will be his life, as he has garcefully missed the to be mum in laws bday. Anyway, he is usually sincere, but yesterday despite all best intents he missed it. :D
D with his eyes closed was extremely unhappy with women who have been giving him all lame reasons for not marrying him, the best was, "even a gal working in BPO says, she cant leave her career for me, someone please tell is this a career?.. :D" Sid brought the focus on dada, he has been exploited by women in general, listen to what he is going through. The fancy job, good money and foreign land, nothing seems to be exciting enough for women anymore. He has given up. He will now concentrate on selling and not think much. And D closed his eyes to go through the past cycles of exploitation.
Mr Sid who had a gal frend, now does not have one anymore, he is out in market, no wonder he keeps on correcting N, wo"men" not wo"man". :D He has no clue what life has in store for him, but currently because his gal frend can not adjust and is not willing to go to europe with him without a job, he can only look ahead, but then there is nothing in vicinity which he will realize soon. :D
Then starts the discussion on horror scope, the women N likes does not have enough numbers in horror scope and the ones with numbers whom his family likes, he dsnt like. :D Mr N is not happy about the pool of gals thats available in his community, suddenly eone is jealous of Mr B, apparently his community has more educated and smart women. Mr B takes the whole issue in his stride and smiles, probably trying to say, the pool is big, but the women in my pool marry outside pool, i am single and always ready to mingle but... :D
Suddenly Mr N turns towards me and K and goes, you are successful and blah bla blah, your pool is even smaller. You dont want to marry average guys, you want handsome, educated, successful, basically someone like me.. I give high 5 to Mr N for his self praise and without entering into discussion, ask him to continue...
Discussion moves through multiple rounds. Me, kunal and Kajal smiled through it and enjoyed it all.. Issue is no one knows what they want, they want it all - Intelligent, smart, educated, homely, working and non working at the same time, want to go abroad on H1 - still working, family pleasing, good dressing sense but should not ask for money.. everything.. What they fail to understand is that if a woman is all the above, she has to be a superwomen and she would not bother about their education, money and looks because she will herself have all and multiple options to pick from.. GUYS!! High time, correct your goals, or just keep your aspirations high and keep pursuing.. may be some day your sales pitch will fly and u will cut the deal... :D

The Liar's Poker

2009-10-30T20:59:00.000-07:00

I picked this book as it is supposed to be a must read for all b school grads. Not many years ago for all the finance grads Ibanking was a job to watch for. I was always a strategy student, even when i did not know what it meant :P. I understand finance well because it is a part of day to day life and somehow the complex products never made sense to me because by the end of the day the monay making in financal markets is a case of arbitrage opportunities and i dont think any structured book can teach it.

Anyway, getting back to book, YES, this is one of the most interesting and hilarious read. I love the mind of the writer, the way he has seen all the characters around him and brought out the vanity of the whole game. He has talked about the fall of mighty Solomom Brothers, the arrogance of its employees and what led them to failure. I somehow miss the failure bit and i get attractd to the risk taking ability of Solomon guys. The writer has the most fun filled explanation on every decision and every character in the bank. He has projected himself as a young victim to the tyranny of his arrogant fat money making bosses and how he was fooled day in and day out till he learned the money making game and adjusted to the non existent culture of the firm. He has in most simple langauge explained the fianancial innovation which led to loss of billion dollars in the market. I like the character sketch, the innocent eyes of a young guy who enters trading floor and how he watches the ruthless trading floor aspiring to be one of them, but not knowing how and also doubting if he will be able to survive the game.

A very interesting read, you will remember humour for lifetime. Its intelligent, subtle and you can just relate to writer and laugh at it. I loved it. This is a good writing by Michael Lewis and i totally give him star 5 for his sense of humour.

So, what do you think??

2009-10-26T12:33:00.000-07:00

Hmm.. So, i havent talked about my childhood gang for long now. One of the ganster has this very very sweetly irritating habit of turning towards me and asking, "So, what do you think." (Ok, if you are wondering whats so special about it, he knows that while the whole explanation was on, i was in my own world, i wasnt listening to it.).. Ahmm.. Umm.. Yep, its gud yaar. Hee hee , "Whats gud?" Errr.. "The stuff you just talked about." "Hee hee, which stuff?" ( OK, i am not deaf, you were talking about some long term plans and all and life and stuff, i will be creative , dont worry, here's the "stuff").. "The stuff about thinking and being serious and about what one wants and not want, you see it all makes so much sense. The serious thing." :D "Hmm.. so whats your opinion on it." ... :P "Yep, you make sense dude and now spare me, you know i wasnt listening, dont get after my life, nothing new about it".. "Hee hee, how do you manage to watch a dog so diligently while such a serious thing is being discussed." ... :P "Errr... umm.. dog is also serious.. it deserves attention, just because its a dog, you cant ignore it. And you think your talk is serious and not the poor dog, just because its an animal. "(OK, i had no clue what was i speaking, but i can be really convincing when i get down to it, you see... :D).................................................Long Pause till 3 of them burst into laughter....................................

Here was the killer, the what do you think guy, "I know dog has every right to attract and probably dog and his attention seeking character is a really serious matter which i will sort with it. I understand. However, i fail to understand why dont human get importance in life, what is it that dogs bark have and human talks dont have. Why does barking dog get more attention than talking human?? WHY? Just because he/she is a human?? WHY?? "
............................................ :P
"Errr... i dont know.. may be.. but trust me being human is not all that bad.. dont start aspiring for a dog's life.. i lost the discussion mid way, so kind of started ignoring it and admiring dog.. but i do think, what you think is right about the stuff that you talked about.... " :D

Talkathon!!

2009-10-26T10:30:00.000-07:00

Ok, now i am going to boast about the extra large friend circle that i have. Did i tell you my dear blog that i love to just talk and talk and talk, so i am basically branded talkative, but there is nothing much i can do about it. Thats the basic need for me. I survive on talks and people say i can talk to stone if nothing works out.
So, when your problem is talking, you come across some interesting discussions and you kind of wonder whats the point. I go for these walks at night for 30 min which is very dear to me. If i manage to catch hold of someone to walk with me, i happily do away with the ear phones and music. And i usually get some new people. As and when you walk with people for lets say 4-5 times, eone has a story to tell, sometimes about work, sometimes about relations and sometimes about aspirations. Aspirations have no end, i think eone should have it, but at the same time they should not take away your sleep. Just live life. Work: there is always a lousy, idiot, who makes life hell for all, so just chill, he/she is not worth being given so much importance in life. Relations: OK, this is one discussion which has various flavors, some are interesting. First is : his money, my money .. in my home all money is eone's money, its been like that for years and its difficult to tag whose is it and youngest at home is pampered in kind.. i like this.. ( OK, i know i am the youngest.. :P)
Location.. we all are earning.. hmmm.. But why?? anyway, who ever thought about it.. After all Geeta said,"Karm karo, fal ki iccha na karo, so keep earning, dsnt matter if 10 people work in 10 different locations, spend double the amount and fight everyday.. by the end of the day eone is earning.. I am amused.. :D i am also earning, but then issue is everyone else is also earning, so its not something unique to spend an evening thinking about..
And then there are loads of things which come out and i keep listening to them and thinking whats life all about by the end of the day? Is it about the million dollar deal we ran after in morning? Or about the lunch that i had with my colleagues? or the friends i made who just happened to be mine? or the family that waits for the time i see them? Do i have complains? YES, i am human i have reasons and complains in everythng that exists in the way it exists and thats what makes me do better in life. Issue is not that people have complains, issue is that there is no mindset to resolve. And there is bigger ego to protect from any kind of resolution to creep into life. In all my walkathons, i hear the same complaints, there are same characters, there probably is a solution, but then that will kill the stories of my walkathon, so i am not interested. :D

The Pursuit of Happyness!!

2009-10-19T10:06:00.000-07:00

This is one movie i find awe inspiring. The story resembles some stages in my life and i can just see that hurdles make victory so worth living and there is always a reason which makes you stick on. Life is just the way we look at it. There are people who will have everything and they will still crib about life and then there are people who have nothing but they still keep the smile on. Someone told me once, Happiness is my state of mind and but for me no one can challenge me. :)
I have these various mood swings when i watch the movie, the story of rags to riches, of hopes, of efforts, and of times when fate takes away every scope of hope. I particularly love the dollar note tht someone borrows when every penny matters and how when time turns every penny comes back. Life does test us many a times, but yes the part is, there is always a part of life called "happyness" which waits for us right there. The strong and the persevering ones reach the destination. It is indeed a pursuit. This is one movie which makes me emotional and i love the fact that babies love you without conditions and sometimes all it takes to reach the sky is someone's unconditional faith. :)

Bhai Dooj - A day of experiments

2009-10-19T10:01:00.000-07:00

This was a Bhai dooj i celebrated after long. Bro had this long list of food that he could eat "if" i cooked. I thought i must oblige him and this was day for Italian dinner. It took me some 4 long hours to bake pizza, cake and Calzones, but it was good. Hmm.. i am a decent cook and cooking is awesome fun provided you get paid for it either in cash or in kind. So, as usual my CTO brother have me fair deal. Thank You bro, i totally love cooking for you and somehow i experiment on you, but you are lucky that things just turn out good.
So, cheers to our Italian dinner and yes Noni gets a gift no matter what, so according to him it was baby dooj, so he should get a book or gift too and being the darling of the house (he is well mannered and decent baby), he is granted all his wishes. :)

My Performance Appraisal

2009-10-09T05:59:00.000-07:00

Why am i becoming so fearless with every passing day? I love what i do and i do what i do. I have just stopped thinking on what not? There is just one target i see in this time and i am on it, nothing seems to be detering me. I have got this bad i dont know i want it and i will get it kind of spirit in me. I am not willing to look at anything which stops. I just know i have learned this from my nephew, he is focused about what he wants in life. But then i was wondering, what is giving me all this- i have never bothered about my CRRs all my life, i dont care about money (i make sure that i get paid my worth) and i dont care about job. I work for something else now, i have found my motivation and love.
I work for the 400 people in my account who smile every morning and feel good about themselves because they can earn. I work for those 200 people called customers who use the work that my lovely 400 people do for them. I work for my mind which loves to think positive and progressive and i work for my self worth, which should increase with every good that happens to poeple i love. I just love what i do because all these 600 people think i can think for them, talk for them and they trust me that i will take right decisions, do right things and make their work better with every passing day. At this point in life, i cant see anything but change and change and a change which should make all 600 people who are mine free to think and fly. I know change is never easy, i might fall flat, but then i am fearless and i can just see the focus. I just know that if one day these 600 people can feel any better, i would have been the star performer, i have found my appraiser and goals. :)

Long ago papa told me once that i dont know what dsnt work, i dont care, i just know what must work and also at any time many people work at same thing, some to make it better, some to stop it, whoever takes it farthest wins it. Have the hunger to do and rest everything will be taken care of.

The One Sided Talks.. :)

2009-10-06T11:54:00.000-07:00

Hey
Hello.. how r u?
I am gud.. did u know?
w..
The thing that i was telling u the other day?
w..
Forget it.. here are some things i think we should do..
l..( i wanted to say "like")
Trr trr trr.. what do u say?
A..( I think we should rethink - i wanted to say this)
Ok.. so, let me do one thing.. since we are fine with it.. let me call you in 2 days and see whats you take on it..
u.. (um.. i am not sure if i am fine.. i wanted to say this.. :D)
It was nice talking to you.. now let me call u in 2 days..
aa.. ( two days for what?? )

This is an excerpt from a telephone conversation with a person i interact for work. So, person thinks he talks, but he just speaks without listening. So, while the person thought i was perfectly in line with what he said, i wasnt. The call came again after 2 days to take update on work and today i had decided to speak..

Hey
Hello
So, how about the work?
Which work?
The work we discussed the other day?
Discussed? I wanted to discuss but that never happened..
We did talk..
What did i talk about?? I dont remember speaking anything.
You did..
What??
Ummm.. Something..
What is that something? did you let me speak?
Umm.. hmmm... yeah.. so whats your opinion?
Let me know yours first and then we will talk..
Ok.. and i will make sure that i listen..
Thanks!! :)

Whats your Rashi

2009-10-06T11:18:00.000-07:00

So, i wanted to watch a movie tonight and somehow got hold of "Whats your Rashi". Needless to say its a baseless, storyless movie. The storyline is pretty funny and makes no sense to me. There is this dude, who kind of knows everything and is flown back to India for marriage as his family has to pay back some money, so he should get married. :D And then there are 12 characters which showcase the sun signs and their attributes. The story just moves around money and a guy and this trail of women who agree to buy the person on sale. As ridiculous as it sounds, its out there for public to view.

ANY GOOD MOVIES PLEASE?? Ok, i will watch great debators next.

The Change Agents..

2009-10-06T11:17:00.000-07:00

What are some of the factors which contribute to what you want to do in life. We all tend to be always in confusion about what we want to do. When we have good job, company and no structure kills, when we have good companies, too much structure kills. Sometimes we have both, but personal life goes for a toss. Loads of things always create an arbitrage opportunity based on which firms have people moving in and out. HR gives it a fancy term – Churn rate. Employees call is – A smart move to save the career. The idea finally behind all this is that it’s the opportunity created by imperfections and gaps at both end and in the game organizations usually don’t lose the base performers, they lost the smart ones. Of late I have started believing that after a stage in your career, from top its all about keeping the think tank of organization alive at all levels. Reinvent, question, challenge, think and change what is not working. Don’t become comfortable. Most of the large companies in India have controls and structures in which they normalize all performers as work force. The think tank becomes old, at some point stops challenging and institutionalizes everything thinking when they are gone structures will take care of everything. They miss one important point in life – CHANGE. When nothing is constant how can processes be constant. They have to change. Everything has to change, more than processes, these firms need “think tanks”- the people who are capable of changing with time and transform the processes to succeed. The Challengers. The Performers. The Creators. The Destroyers. The Innovators. The Leaders. The Managers. Have you identified them for your companies? If you are concerned about the next gen leadership for you companies, invest in people, know them, grow them, else your companies will die with you. Time and change will outsmart your processes and you will be a old juggernaut carrying loads of past. At the top of the pyramid - INVEST in people because they will make systems to suit time and need.
Is knowing people all that complicated? We are all humans and all levels and stages in life, we have some basic questions answered for us, by us or by the situations we fall in. Just know the people you want to keep and try to invest time in answering some of these questions for them. See if they fit the “Think Tank” needed for surviving in the industry. If yes, fit into their needs and retain them for that long lasting organization that outlives you:
· The basic DNA – You like process? You like challenges? You like structure? You like innovation?
· The way you like to be treated – Self worth – I believe I have mind and I want to use it, I like to be paid for it or I like to earn the same for myself.
· The Personal factor – There are people who make me happy, do you care about that part of my life? Is there a human element, do you accommodate me? I don’t care about anything as long as you pay me and give me growth which I feel compensates for everything else.
· The field that interests me – Domain – I don’t like to think about medical industry, I am supply chain, I like to think big, long term and I am pro at execution, give me free hand in kind of people I want. Do you care about what I want?
· Am I successful? I might be doing what I feel I like to do, but am I better than my peers and are my results showing that my skills match my interest? If not, I am doing someone else’s job.
· Can I make an impact? Can I speak up my mind? Am I heard by people at all levels when I think I can make a difference?
· Does my level of integrity and moral values match with my org?
· Do I get the recognition and name for what I do or am I being missed in the political or beaurocratic system? Am I one among millions?
· Does the person I m reporting to, deserve my services or it has to be other way round.
· Will I grow with age or performance?
Have some questions answered for those top 10 people in your org and work towards giving them a professional fit, put them through challenges that they will love to handle and been recognized for. The organization will have the feet of its own to stand on. I think despite all the people, process, and technology talk that I have heard in my education, I would put people at top. If they are right, process and technology will fall in place. So, next time when someone talks of churn rate – know at what level, if it’s the think tank, the org is probably dying.

New Clothes!! :)

2009-10-04T07:49:00.000-07:00

Not that this is new, but sometimes you just love all the clothes that you buy. So, mummy is in town and i am at the heights of being pampered. Good food and good clothes + lots of stories, i am back to my childhood days. Today was amazing that way. We dint really go to buy clothes as i thought i had loads of them (though i thought i had got bored of many of them). But then i saw a peacock blue colored dress and i thought i should have something nice for my diwali wear. Ok, so thats comes in and then i try more and more clothes and Neha and mummy go on approving all. This is good, this is smart, this is cool. So, if not everything atleast some is mine. After trying all my clothes for nth time, its time for me to say gud night and dream about them. And yes, now i need to plan outings where i can wear them.
So, when Noni( He is 4 years) wears a new dress, i pick his dress and say wow, you have Mickey on it, this is lovely red in color, so one fine day when i was getting ready to go somewhere, he said wow, you dont have Mickey on your dress, but i like the pink color. :)

Interview with CEO's - Harvard Business Review

2009-10-04T00:34:00.001-07:00

Wait for this review too.. :)

Lance Armstrong- Not about my Bike..

2009-10-04T00:33:00.000-07:00

If you have any bending for autobiographies, this is a must read. The story talks of character, strength, willingness to live and if you love sports, you just hang in there, Lance has an amazing way of getting into the details of cycling without making i too complicated for your comprehension.
The books is about the cycling champion, who is detected with cancer in third stage, as science would call it, there is lesser hope, but there is willingness to live. Lance has given a heart touching narration of his life and fight with the dreaded disease.
BTW, this hero dint just come out of disease but rose to be the champion again. They say "Its all in mind", Lance just did it.
This is one of my favourite autobiographies. I like the spirit of survival and revival. The way life of a cyclist is described. Also, if you thought he had planned his aim in life, nope, you are wrong, he just had one option, he took it and focused on it, thats how he was a champ. There is just one thing special about the heroes - Never say Die! :) A must read life story.

Questions..

2009-10-03T23:47:00.000-07:00

"So, what do you love the most in life?" - My frenz and her endless questions..
Ahmm.. Umm.. Everything thats mine. My mum, my bro, my bhabhi, Infy, my pillow, my bed, my books, all my frenz.. Everything.. So, ok, i missed Noni, i love him the most. :)
"Why?"
You have to know him to love him. He is crazy piece of creation. Our love started when he was born, he was this lil thing, pink and small eyes and he looked into my eyes and smiled, i was like Boss, till date i was the youngest at home, now you are born, so you have to be loved a lot. And then we all found him very exciting. He was dirty, always awake at odd times, all 4 of us at home were always tired of him, but he was happy to see us all in this condition. I remember how much i loved his smile that at times i would run from office early to play with him and he also waited for bua to come. He only becomes better, he is innocent and he loves you for everything that you are. I learn a lot from him. So, one day Mr Noni was struck in an elevator with everyone, the door was half opened and the opening was enough so that he could be given out. He was told that you go out with watchman uncle and as the elevator will be lifted up, all others will come out. He dug his head into Bhaiya's shoulder and said i will not go Papa, i will go with you. He dsnt know the desperation for life and death. He loves to talk and talk about everything that he sees and imagines. He has a long list of things that i can get for him when i visit home during vacations. He knows that corner of bed on which i sleep and knows that it belongs to bua. Basically, he loves and he loves me so much, that i just know that i have no way out. He things i am his age, so he can shout at me, teach me things and its cute when he teaches me good habits from his books. So, you can see, i dont have a choice. He ensures his space, rest all fit in theirs.. :)

Coorg - The Scotland of India

2009-10-03T21:52:00.000-07:00

To pursure my love for travelling, it was time to see the so much talked about Coorg in Karnataka. As usual the gang of Kunal, krishnan( The usual ones) , Peeyush, Kapil, Shaiku and Kapil's mum headed towards the journey. We started at 4 AM in morning and reached the near abouts of Madikeri (Capital of Coorg) around 10 AM. We had no bookings done and we just went into the wilds with no plan. :) So, then started the hunt for the right plan to spend two days. We had two cars and hence the liberty to drive to all impossible places. We started with the Abbey falls.
These were lovely and water split all over in air as if it was raining. We moved from Abbey falls to the most wonderful place i have ever seen - the Tal Cauvery - Origin of the river. The drive to Tal Cauvery is absolutely wow. Given we has three boys to drive, i had the liberty to watch the greenery and lovely sky. The way up was like walk on the clouds. We reached to the top of the hill and it started raining very heavily. The clouds touched us and we were taking shelter under the doors of the temple. After some time the rain stopped, we took the stairs to the holy place and then we all saw some 200 odd steps into the sky. All of us got excited at the site and went for the ascent. The view from top of the hill was lovely. There were lush green moutains all around and there was too much beauty that i will fail to capture in words.

Our car was the last one to come down from the mountains. It was dark, raining, scary and we all were wet, but we loved every bit of it. We reached back to Madikeri, had food (Food wasnt the best part of the journey though) and slept to wake up at 7 AM in morning and search for Mukkodlu (Rope bridge) falls and then many kilometers into beuatiful wild in search of an arbit waterfall. Peeyush traced a snake and krishnan was a feast for many leeches. All in all nothing scary and life threatening, but there was sound of river water and nature at its best in all directions.

From there we moved to Dubare - the rafting and elephant site. This was kind of ok, i had done rafting before so level 2 was not an attraction for me given that it deamanded 4 hours of our total 6 hours in hand before we headed for Bangalore. So, while Kapil and his cousin statyed back for rafting, we moved for Chicklihole Dam and Harangi Reservoir to watch the dams while we drove to the Monastry. I was seeing a monastry(Golden temple) for the first time. It was grand and btiful. I kind of liked it, thought it was not something spectacular as i had heard of the one in Dharamshala.
This was the end of our one and half day trip to Coorg, we were driving back to Bangalore. Peeyush drove us back real fast, he is always the level headed one, concerned about the safe and timely arrival of us back to our destinations. Peeyush will head for canada in sometime, Kunal and Krish will head for US and i will head for UK. Work is splitting us apart. We have spent some of the best times in Bangalore, searching for food and travelling. We intend to continue this bit of life ever later. So, since Europe is pretty, everyone has to come to europe trip before i go and visit them in US. Its always been fun to be with frenz and new locations always leave these uncertainity in mind on will i get the same people again?? :)

Sangam Gacchami

2009-10-03T21:21:00.001-07:00

Some of the best words i learned in last four months... These are the words i was taught in a course i did in art of living. It was a course on meditation, there was a lot that i learned in the 3 days. There was a lot of peace and positivity and then there were teachings to trust all and be kind to them. Most wonderful words which i needed to say to all strangers were -

"Sangam Gacchami - I will walk with you and i belong to you..."

These words are magical. When i feel that someone does not trust me, i just say these words silently in my heart and smile at the person, they work.. :) Its a soul to soul connect that all humans share, but we tend to grow out of these as we move in life. Smile and leave all apprehensions, understand that everyone around is yours and you will walk with them till one of you lay horizontal under ground. Often we make things complicated in life. If only we learned to forgive people and live in present, life will be less complicated. There is nothing called future and past is what we create from our present. We should learn to be humble and thank the nature for everything that is given to us. The moment you start questioning yourself on what did you do to deserve so much food, beauty and love that nature gives you, you will know that you have been blessed to be born and you must live this life fully, every moment of it, without cribbing and working towards making it better.

Thank You God, i think i have been fortunate to see the best in life in everything that comes across me and i know i will always be given the best because i will work towards it. Life is what we make out of it. So, next time when someone shouts at you or looks at you with distrust, just smile and say "Sangam Gacchami, I am human, i am a part of your soul and i will walk with you. Do you recognize me?? " :)

Whats life all about?

2009-09-17T09:15:00.000-07:00

This is the time of my life when allocations have to happen. I will get my geo and like all i am also excited about whats going to be mine. In the process of geos, suddenly i was told of an opportunity and i was interviewed for the same, things went fine and to an extent i was ok given that reporting and work was structured, and there was a lot to learn. But then this was opportunity created by time, i was keen to introspect why was i replacing an MBA who has worked hard for two years and has been phenomenol in earning a 100 Million dollar deal. I wanted to know and i wanted to talk, so i just went ahead. As life will have it, there was this world which was falling apart, and somewhere the job, central London and 2 years of work just did not make sense. After listening to her story, i was speechless for sometime. I just knew that hats off to the lady and i also knew that sometimes everything in life just looks small. One of the days in my life when i just knew that i am human and any opportunity which time creates might not make me happy unless it keeps all in that time space happy. Suddenly i dont want to replace her. Its her fort, she has built it, i want time and life to give her the due. I was left thinking, why does life test us and test us so badly at times. People say business runs, decisions happen, but then in the end everything else will go away, what will remain is the spirit of being there when you are needed the most. I dont know about the geo and i dont care, but I made a very good friend today and i am sure we will remain friends for rest of my life. As it is in all my work life, i have earned friends, everything else comes in CV which will stop making a difference some day in my life.
So Friend!! Cheers to life and i am sure you will just pass this test of life as you passed IIMs and many more. :)

My Dream is to fly, over the rainbow so high!! :)

2009-09-16T09:17:00.000-07:00

So, i cleared the much dreaded internal certi, SIGH!! I cant even tell how much i hate studying what i dont want to study, but i just manage things somehow. I was happy and as i walked out of the exam hall, i just got nostalgic. At ISB, it was common for us to slog for 20 hours, but every slogging was celebrated with a dance party, was it missing from my life? It was a week day, if i suggest the same, the idea will be dropped even before it takes off, but then i want to go dancing. Thats one thing i love in life, ok, this is bangalore and not ISB, so may be you dont have an option to dance till wee hours in morning , may be they dont even have the dance floor as big as that of ISB, the DJ and the lovely people. With a very sad mind, i thought i will probably manage with my aerobics class, but thats not enough, i love everything about my class, but its not dancing. I miss the loud music, large group, arbit steps and dancing till feet hurt.
There is one song which i will always think of when i will think of dance party at ISB, almost everyone enjoyed the emotions and ambitions involved in "My dream is to fly http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43zQ7A13DGQ&feature=related" and it was a part of every party. Till date the song just fills the energy and spirit to be ISBian and crack the world. Usually i move on in life, but some days in life just pull me back towards the last one year. I love you ISB and i miss you so much at times. You just taught me to live life to its fullest, that sometimes i just see the vanity in being out of you. :(

Fever or Favour!

2009-09-03T09:20:00.000-07:00

So, this week i was down with fever. For a change i just decided to give myself some rest and peace of mind and give my body the much needed rest. I realized how much rest deprived i was. The medicines induced me to sleep and no sun and dust just made things good for me. After three days when i saw myself in mirror, finally i felt that the color of my skin which had like gone 5 shades darker owing to my travel and no sleep was back. I felt happy as i watched andaz apna apna and all sort of comedy movies and i think it showed on me too. Best was when i met a friend of mine and she said, you always look better after you have cried or fallen ill, i think its just about doing what you want to do at times :D. Anyway, while everything else has improved, i feel very weak, weak enough to avoid walking long distance and i dont know how will this go. I guess i will have to eat domino's pizza to cover up for this. Yippeie!! God! Was it fever or Favor?? ;)

AOL Advance Course..

2009-08-10T07:08:00.000-07:00

I spent this weekend doing nothing. I was online for almost whole day and i dont know why. I wanted to spend this weekend without purpose and i decided not to go out. This was good eye opener to me. There are so many things i realized just because i had time to think about them. I realized that i have to visit home, that there was so much work pending in terms of cleaning my almirah which was left unattended for a week now and then i realized among everything else that i do, i am missing me. I need some peace and more time for me. I know i cant keep quite for even a minute, but then this was missing from my life. I have heard so much about the advanced course that i just took a decision to go ahead with it. It did not take me more than 5 minutes in morning to decide to take a leave and enrol for the course. I did the basic course while at ISB and i quite liked it, but what i really like is the ashram near Bangalore. I have been there as visitor many a times and always had the desire to stay there for sometime, away from city, away from work and just think good, eat good and be happy. One of the decisions i feel happy about. I know when i come back on monday, i will find the whole world new and peaceful. Somethings i must do because they just get a better me out of me. :)

Just a thought!!

2009-08-09T10:54:00.000-07:00

As simple as this might sound, the question just left me speechless. I happened to enter into online web discussion with 5 of my closest friends. I have a panja club which exists since i was a kid. We all are the best of friends and by God's grace, all of us have completed our education from best of places. Our circle consists of five of us from INSEAD, LBS, Harvard, ISB and Wharton and today when we look back at things, we just smile at our childhood stories. Lots of things have changed, but through all of these we have remained together. We just thought we should talk and see what is the final take on life now that we have the neccessary tools to take it heads on. Among all of us, i have always been the least ambitious and follow my heart kind of person. I never topped my class, never tried to do anything which my heart did not approve of. Rest everyone is pretty much focused, ambitious and i must say that they have done best in whatever they have done, so have i. It was time to take the account on life.
Everyone had lots to tell. As the discussion turned to me, i was speechless, i just knew that i was happy or may be i have always been happy and i never thought why. I said i am happy and everyone started laughing, tell us something new Gary. I was like this is all i know about life. I just do what i feel like doing, i went to ISB coz i wanted to, i studied marketing and strategy coz i wanted to, i just took the time heads on when it came to job and adjusted with somethings, but then still i am happy because there are so many other things which cover up. And what else can i think?? If i am being asked what will i do 2 years down the line, i dont know or rather i dont care. I just know whatever i do, i will do in style and live life to its fullest. So, the news is that i flunked in one of those internal certification in my company coz i dint feel like reading 210 pages at the cost of movie or may be a walk with friend. People laugh, they think i cleared ISB and failed in internal certi, but yaar thats me. I never did anything i did not like to do, whats new, i dont care. With a loud laugh, everyone said you are just you and sometimes we wonder what makes you do everything so well in life despite your attitude to take things light. I dont know if i will do well in life or not, frankly it dsnt matter, in the end i must sleep peacefully and must have time to enjoy life.
Incidentally, all of us feel the same way. A friend of mine has now taken up social venture after working in high profile Ibanking job, another is a free lance consultant, other one has left job to do some free lance writing and yes we do have a fighter who owns a venture. In the end, what did we all do? We followed our heart. I just happened to ask the venture guy, so how many times did you use excel? Almost always, but in the end i follow my heart and it works, rather every time i do that, i think of you and smile. :)..
Sometimes, we all just wonder, whats so complicated about life. If you think something is right and if your heart thinks it is, your mind will put everything in it to make it right. Most of the decisions in life are not as complicated as we make them. I always feel that a decision taken with open eyes is as good as decision taken with closed eyes, in the end its all about how you work towards making it right. So, the thumb rule is- there are no plans in life, no one knows tomorrow, do what you think is best today and be open to face what comes next. I used to think a lot, but now i just know that anything that comes around me has to be good else it cant come this far. I know here is an element of arrogance that i carry, but then i just know that everything even remotely related to me has to be good else it could not have managed to find me. :)

Innocence at its best!!

2009-08-08T23:33:00.000-07:00

So, this his how Noni looked every afternoon during the two months i spent at home before joining my new job. Needless to say, he is the best!! :)

The Hampi trip!! :)

2009-08-05T11:24:00.000-07:00

One of the weekend getaways of mine. This time with Shravan and gang and yes Shravan did not create a DDLJ scene on the station, he was before time for the train. :) So, we had this new set of people, DPS, Malik, Baily, Trupti, Shravan, GB and me. We became freinds in train and rest is a history. From playing Uno in the top berth of train to distilled water and crazy jokes, the whole journey was fun. I slept soon, only to wake up in mrng and reach the destination. We headed for tungabhadra dam with crazy heavy bags , but the whole ascent was some fun. Then we moved towards hampi and stayed near the famous temple. Afternoon was dedicated to Mango tree restaurant. This place is a beauty, you are made to sit on stair case facing the river and food is served. The calmness and serenity of the place just leaves you enamoured. Next, we headed for the remains near temple. These were some rocky mountains with small temple and water body up there. We came back and Shravan treated us to the local Mandekari. :). We had our dinner in an equally exotic place called Garden paradise. The cuisines availabe at this place is Israeli, English, South India and North Indian.
Next day we took a guide and took some 3-4 kinetics to travel around hampi with a guide. The remains are spread over 25 kms and as you wade through the roads, you get the feel of old city and you feel you are relving the era. Huge stony architecture, large markets and water bodies, everything is so ancient and speaks of old times. We were fortunate to see the shooting of some serial which was being shot in one of the temples. After whole long day of discovering the magnificience, we guys decided to move back. We were dead tired and we reached station just in time. Please dont forget to buy some handicraft from this place, they are really exclusive and cheap.
I will call hampi river side goa. Lots of foreigners, care free life, variety in food, its all there to stay. The color of life is all so visible and it does not come at huge cost. :)

ISB class of 2009 ... Moments Lived! :)

2009-08-03T07:53:00.000-07:00

Little Italy!!

2009-07-20T11:17:00.000-07:00

This time it was long due Bday treat for Kunal, Sachin, Krishnan and Kajal. We decided on nice Italian food and hence Little Italy near forum. Mr Sachenn was the menu decider and he is good at it. Kajal keeps a fast on monday, so she was hungry since morning and food just did justice to all our hungry souls. The best lasangne and Nachos in town for sure. Kunal got a nice bday cake with "gans" written on it and hotel staff got the cake on stand and also played the birthday song for me. I was happy and its always fun to celebrate some special moments in life with people who stand by you. Be it the silly jokes, the long walks or cribbing about all the hurdles in life, these people have rendered me their ear and sometimes all that matters is this. Thank You pals, i know i am lucky to have good people around me and hence i thank God that i was born. :D
Place - Little Italy
Cuisine- Vegetarian Italian
Rating - Absolutely amazing italian food
Ambience - Average
On your pocket - average 500 per person
MUST GO!!

Green Tech- This is Brand Garima .. :)

2009-07-18T11:54:00.000-07:00

So, i start with the Green Tech business ideas from Business week.. Awe!! I love business week..
http://images.businessweek.com/ss/09/07/0714_sustainable_planet/1.htm

Ebony- My fav dining place in Blore

2009-07-18T02:24:00.000-07:00

A perfect bday eve- just the close friends, roof top and watch the world go by. This year the party was at Ebony. Its nothing new. Those who know me, know that Ebony has been my favorite since ages and years. So, this year again, i wanted to celebrate my birthday in style. However, the weather was not very supportive, when we started from home, it was drizzling, we thought we will have to sit inside and hence miss on the spectacular view from 13th floor. However, we decided to sit outside and for the pouring to start. It drizzled for sometime and stopped. The weather was lovely, the ambience was perfect and drizzling just added to the fun. We went for Italian this time, while i can vouch for the pasta, i cant say the same for lasagne in Ebony. Stuffed mushroom was not bad, but all in all i wont say that one should go to Ebony for food, its the feel of being on the top of the world. :)
Place: Ebony, 13th Floor, Barton Center, MG Road
Prices: 500 per person atleast
Ambience: Amazing
Food: Multicuisine( Average)

All in all- I love this place.. its serene and on top of the world.. :)

My Bday!! :)

2009-07-15T12:45:00.000-07:00

Bday is the best day of year is what i have always felt. Its a special day. Since childhood i enjoyed the colorful dresses and importance that i have got on this day. I feel i am grown up, but still birthday excites me. When i look back, i have some very fond memories of this day in my life. Some faces i always wanted around me and then some which got added. 2 years back i had the most wonderful bday of my life, i got this huge red rose bouquet which a friend of mine delivered to office. I was embarassed as i had to carry the same from main gate of office to my desk, but i just knew that roses were lovely. I looked at them all day long and wondered how special could a day be. Some years in life just remain imprinted forever. Last year was ISB, study group was my partner. And this year i just know i added some lovely friends for the special day.
Thank You Smriti, Nandini, Neha, Kunal, Krishnan, Kajal and Puneet for making my day special and givng me some fond memories. Thanks Nimish for being the first one to wish my bady for two decades now. Thanks Sahil for all the lovely pranks and flowers that make me feel special, Vikrant for the smile and bear hug. Sachin for the most beautiful text message and hearty wishes. Teena for keeping the lazy self up till 12. Ajay for fast forwarding my day coz keeping awake was difficult. And to all who were with me tonight to make my day start with a smile. THANK YOU!! You all make my life worth living every moment.

Shit Happens!! :)

2009-07-11T14:26:00.001-07:00

This is about some very very strange moments in life.
So, i was walking past a crazy road and a bike rider stopped right next to my leg, that was the day i could have lost it. I was like, BOSS, toot jati to?? He was like toot ti kaise madam, maine bacha liya na.. I was like OK! Chill... Sometimes things just happen...
Then i went for this crazy trek and happily slipped from this cliff, in a very sad about to die condition, i looked at my friend who was holding me, i was like Buddy, i have always been proud of the fact that i am healthy and stuff, but gravity is pulling me down.. Bbyes.. he was like hold, S**t happens, you will be out, just try with me.. And i somehow came up, my frend has this huge cut on hand and i haven't got a single scratch.. So, somethings just happen..
I come to Blore, i get my email id 24 hours late, and my laptop 48 hours late and what not (Includes Unit and geo).. I was almost in tears and then i got a call from my frend, so Cheekoo, howz life?? I said ething is just complicated, i dont know what to do.. And then he goes.. Listen, somethings just happen, take a chill pill, go to the swing and watch the moon , you said your home a nice garden and walking area, good things in your life huh?? :D.. I went back home, went for a movie, had nice food and swinged watching the moon.. So, somethings just happen..
This was my famous run on Heathrow.. So, i had to throw some chocolates as my luggage was 5 kg extra.. There is a huge process to throw stuff and it was near London blast.. I was last one to security check in and i ran through the aisle like there is no tomorrow.. I dint know which door to take till a collegue walked out in DDLJ style and said come this side.. This wasnt it i had lost tickets for my connecting flight to India from Zurich.. So, i sit in Zurich and search endlessly in my bag for the tickets.. I get it in some lousy corner, but by then i have just lost it.. BOSS, why me?? So, my colleague smiled and said because if i were in your place, i would have given up at Heathrow, you fight it babes, you just fight it.. Things happen to special people.. :)
So, this was the time in my life when i had to give my high profile MBA admits right after grad.. With those tears in my eyes, i was like i have to give up what i always loved?? And my frend said coz there is better in store for you.. When i got my ISB degree, i just knew that life never takes away anything from you..
If i look at all the things, i feel why somethings happen? But then i know that S**T happens and thank God to them, you are just a different person, coz that gives you the confidence that even if you are out in fire, you will just be fine... I think i dont fear anything in life anymore.. Somethings just happened to make me everything that i am and everything that i will be.. :)

What i learned!! :)

2009-07-07T11:34:00.000-07:00

So, this is what i learned from one of my colleagues.. "Life is never 100%, wherever you are, live it, start thiking when it falls below 70%, till then chillax.. In the end dont forget, nothing is more important in life than happy faces.. " :) As simple as this may sound, these probably are the best words i have ever heard.
Thanks Accent Boy, you will be remembered always for this!!

Yercaud

2009-07-02T07:28:00.000-07:00

220 kms from Bangalore is this scenic place called Yercaud. Some of my friends and me decided to head for the same on weekend. We started at 6 AM from Bangalore to stop at A2B road side restaurant for breakfast. After some photo sessions, we started for salem, the ascent to Yercaud starts from Salem. Yercaud is around 30 kms from Salem which is known for its steel plant in India. The way up was amazingly scenic. The city was left behind while we trailed the multiple hair pin bends to way up. Finally, we reached to a lake and we knew we were there. We decided to trek to water fall which was on our way. This was an extremely steep and slippery trek. I stopped mid way despite all the hand holding by friends, while some of them went all the way down to see the waterfall. We then proceeded for lunch at a local place. Dont forget to eat the good sambhar in Tamil Nadu. :)
We then started the hunt for hotel, which was impossible given the crowd in city. We just managed to convince one hotel guy to give us two rooms after 9 PM. As soon as some arrangements were done, we proceeded to the lake for boating. K and K pedalled the boat while me and Kajal had a great time viewing the dear and other boats around. After a good 1.5 hour in the boat, we decided to step out and check into the hotels. We started way back with the cotton candy and rice puff road side delicacies. Back into hotel, we kept our luggage and walked our way to a south indian restaurant for dinner. The food was again simple south indian dosa. We walked back the long trail in dark night and slept like there was no tommorow. We had decided to get up at 5, but that never happened :), so the next day was long walk to Lady's point. This is a place from where one can see entire Salem. It was a beautiful point. The road goes up to another view point called Gent's point and then further up to Children's point. Its a wonder to see the world go by from those points. We then entered into Rose garden, a huge garden with varieties of flowers. By the time we came back to our car, we were dead tired. All we could think of was food and now was the time to try something North Indian in a nice place. We headed for the "Forest Lake" hotel. It had a large buffet spread and we all hogged on food. After hours of sitting on luch table and enjoying the ambience of this beautifulo place, we came back to hotel, packed our bags and started our journey back home.
Place- Yercaud
Distance - 220 kms from bangalore
Type - Hill Station
Feel - Average
Weather - Not very cold
Good change and nice to see Salem from top.

Noni and Bua :)

2009-05-14T11:18:00.000-07:00

So, this is about the love of my life Mr Noni. He is 3 years old and can sell the world for a toffee. He is the one i play with all the time since i am jobless for sometime and i just cant get over him. So, this baby knocks my door first thing in morning and touches my cheeks to ensure that i am alive and in his house, so that we can play. I open one eye and look at him and then he laughs out of excitement that he has a friend to play. Mr Noni starts with watering plants , sometimes with his papa, sometimes with his bua. He is too talkative and observant, so beware he will know each and every word of the discussions held infront of him. Now a days Noni has holidays, he starts with identifying some wild animals in his games and then more often than not, we are done with all the games in 2-3 hours. Then is the time for cartoons( Yes, i know all the cartoons in this world now:)), dont even ask the number of questions he will ask you while he is watching it and then he will sit in your lap and hug you and kiss you for answering all the questions so that you dont get irrirated with him. :)
Then you have to run after Noni to make him eat, you see food is not something he thinks is important for life, its all about playing. Not to mention he will copy his bua in everything, from the cream to gogs to the way she drinks water to the way she laughs. (Alright, i am someone's role model). After this is the time to take afternoon nap and time for Noni to swing between rooms and beds with his milk bottle in hand till the last person in home falls asleep and he has no choice but sleep. He has been told that all cartoons sleep in afternoon and poor baby does not know that thats not the case. (Are you not in love with his innocence? :) ) Then is the time for bua and Noni to take their water bottle and big ball and go to the big park infront of the house, he makes me run like there is no tomorrow and he ofcourse thinks that his bua is his age. :P
So, Noni has been my day and night for hols and i know that i love the time i spend with him. Kids are just too innocent and at times you just know you love them. After he scolds me , sometimes bites me at my nose, sometimes he gets angry with me, sometimes even i get angry with me, but then all this lasts for a moment, for somewhere both of us know that we love each other a lot. I used to wonder what is the craze for a toffee all about till i saw his insecurity towards the toffees he holds. I have learned that sometimes all it takes to be happy is an ice cream and then he tells me that when you want something you just go for it without any egos. So, when i tell him i will not talk with you, he just comes and sits in my lap, holds my face, looks into my eyes and says, lets play, you dont talk to me, i will talk to you, i am getting bored. Love you Noni, the time i spend with you is the best time of my life. :)

I have a dream...

2009-05-12T09:15:00.000-07:00

I had an amazing discussion with a guy from air force over a cup of coffee sometime back and i will never forget it for the rest of my life. We were walking back from somewhere and we got talking. I always knew that these people are stronger than the civilians in their mindset and approach and i have always learned a thing or two from them. So, it was my time to learn from him. He told me about adventure and thrill in air force job and how he overcame his fear. (I told him that i am scared of heights at times and i feel i will fall.. :P)..Suddenly the discussion turned to women in general. I will never forget the words in which he described women. He said that every women on the face of this earth is stronger than him and he has seen it well in Srinagar. He told me about an incident when a woman actually threw herself in burning house to save her child while the entire batallion waited for the fire to extinguish for them to act. He also told that women in general are sweet and kind yet strong when it comes to exploitation and then about how they are moving ahead in life in all aspects. There were many incidents he quoted which made me realize how right he was. If you observe the world around you, you probably are the most gifted one.
I told him about how my dad always dreamt that i should have an individuality and how i should participate in every debate and have an identity of my own. I remember him evaluating everything in life rationally. It was never a case that i am a girl so i must adjust, or give up on my dreams, instead he always promoted that it must be a game of equality, else it will never stay. It was fun to think through the life in general. About how people reacted at every step and decision but i just did it. And it is a fact of life that i am proud of being a woman and i would have never wanted to be on the other side of the road. I know myself as an adamant human when it comes to my self respect and certain decisions in life. All thanks to papa, for just letting me be and telling me that in the end what matters in life is happiness and suffocation never gives one happiness.
He gave me a dream years back. My feet were not strong on groud and i was scared of public speaking, he told me that his daughter can never lose a debate. I participated in 34 debates after that and never lost one. He told me one day that he would love to see me as an MBA coz he thought i had his kind of attitude in life- Fearless , i was his daughter, i should not die with average degrees in life. He said he wanted the best in life for his daughter, because he had a princess and i know that for the rest of my life i will be his princess and strive for the best whatever it takes. I have a dream and i shall live it. :)
My air force friend told me that i have probably inherited the shine in my eyes from my dad and i shall live every dream of his. Thats just what makes women the best in this world and i am one of them. Thank You Pal for the best compliment ever!! :)

Travelougue- Dalhousie, Khajiar, Chamba, Kala Top and Back... :)

2009-05-11T11:03:00.000-07:00

This time it was off to hills.

Gurgaon-> Pathankot -> Dalhousie -> Khajiar -> Chamba -> Kala Top -> Pani Har -> BACK One of the most scenic places i have ever been to. Since my nana was very fond of travelling to hills, he has always owned a home in one of the hill stations. We have homes in Mussorie and Shimla and i have some fond memories of my childhood spent there. I have been to many of the well known hill stations, but Dalhousie is absolutely the clear winner as of now. Its scenic, its peaceful and right there in mountains. However, the best part of my journey was trip to Khajiar. This is truly the Switzerland of India. I went for zorbing and trust me its was scary inside the huge ball, and i hurt my nose and got some scratches due to jumping into the ball wrong way. :) I went for the horse ride with Rajendra Kumar and his horse John. The 2.5 km ride was full of wonder ful trail of longish pretty trees and lots of grass. I was told about the movie 1942 a love story being shot there at some point in time. We walked down the lane to find out the apple orchards, the train was wonderful and can not be expressed in words, there was a view of snow clad mountains in back and greenery everywhere.

We headed forth to Chamba after this. Chamba is a commercial town of himachal. It was large and crowded. We settled in a dhaba for rajma chawal and saw the museum. There are many temples which one could visit. After this we headed back to Dalhousie and walked down the street to see the subhash chandra chowk and then subhash bowli which is known to have cured SC Bose of TB.
Next day was our trip to Kala top which is suposed to have wild life sanctury, but there is no animal. What is interesting is the 3km walking lane thorugh jungle with scenes i had never even dreamt of in my life so far. It was prettier than any imagination. We reached to a rest house which was stationed among the hills, i was told by our guide RC tandon that butterflies fall in bundles in this place , such is their population and liking for this place. It was one of the breaktaking views. One of the places i want to go and stay at sometime in life may be.
This was the end of adventurous exploration. Now was time to relax and explore Dalhousie, we went around in market searching for Pizza and shopping for family. The whole place was so serene and beautiful that i did not want to come back. Sometimes in life you just wonder what exactly is a place made of and how lucky are the people who get to stay there. Looking at the snow covered peaks in distance from the balcony of my room, i just wondered if beauty had any other definition. :)

Dance part 02 :D

2009-05-05T02:38:00.000-07:00

This time its is Ahista Ahista from Bachna aae Haseeno and its a totally lovable song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTeXREBzUng
So, we are a gang of 6 for our classes now. I am suprised at the mix of age and professions which i get to see in my dance classes. And particularly fun is the fact that we are turning out to be the best batch in the institute. Yo, way to go, we are quick and we have a very good synch. Unlike most batches we have practiced extra hours to bring the weak and slow ones to the speed and we rock, totally. Its lovely the way we get each one of us to work. And the grace with which all of us just come together as one. I am learning a lot of people's skill right there while having fun. And i think i am making some friends for life, as we really dont have anything to give and take but for fun and encouragement.
My new friend is a lady who was in HR for 16 years before she took off from work to finally look at life differently. We have a nice 5 minute chat everyday before we start jumping on the tracks. She is warm and friendly and she was the HR head of my dream company. We laughed at how crazy i used to be about retailing and finally came into IT. She thinks i can rock any industry i get into. (Ahmm... She is in love with me, so ignore her confidence in me) ;)
Then there is a girl who can not move and twist her hands due to some problem, but she probably is the best when it comes to feet. :) The boys in gang are some teenagers, who generally have fun and who probably are the quickest to pick the steps.
Our instructors are totally adorable. While one is slow and perfect, the other is like a jumping jack who can not slow down for anyone, but he is just too much fun to follow, he challenges your confort factor. Good gurus, as i am not just learning the formal dancing techniques, but if i follow it properly i can choreograph many more dances than what i learn.
So, everyone loves what they do, there is too much of fun and entertainment and smile. I think one must pursue hobbies in life, these are things which you dont do for any purpose, you just do it because you feel for it... I always enjoyed dancing on tunes and this is the first time i decided to give it some serious focus, i think i enjoy it more than any degree, any subject and any position and job i have ever had. So, to the second learning i loved.. :)
Aahista aahista
Mujhe yakeen ho gaya

India Unbound

2009-05-02T10:18:00.000-07:00

This is an interesting non fiction which gives a very realistic view on how Indian economy has progressed post independence. I had loads of aha moments while reading it since i did not know quite a few things about why India took a slow path to prosperity. While the country was freed from britishers , it was then put into the hands of Nehru clan whose ideology gave birth to useless PSUs, beaurocracy and no tolerance and acceptance for free prosperity. The transformation era started with Narsimha Rao government which let the wings to the aspirations of the budding entrepreneurs by abolishing license raj and opening doors for FDI. The writer has narrated the story as he has seen during his lifetime. Gurcharan Das, who is an accomplished executive, writer and a free lancing consultant writes about the economic transformation as experienced by him. The incidents in the book are realistic and one can relate to the hardships faced by the entrepreneurs in India during Nehru clan.
All in all the book is a very interesting read. I was hooked to it and i enjoyed it. The story is sequenced well and personal experience makes the work more lively. The writer is a big supporter of capitalism and free economy, the current economic crisis might put him under scanner, but he makes sense and i do endorse that capitalism is the way to life. Prosperity spreads prosperity, may be a little bit of control is needed, but not the one that Nehru envisioned for India. A wrong leader can ruin the nation and we just held one for 2 decades.

Listen!!

2009-04-30T09:45:00.000-07:00

This might sound like a simple word, but it is one of the most important words in our lives. Its difficult to not be prejudiced, its easy to form opinions and its very easy to speak your mind out. But this is what an average human can do. If one has to do something bigger and better in life, he/she needs to build the capability to listen. I usually talk a lot to people i am comfortable with and i have opinions about things as well. This time i decided to be a good listener. It is indeed impressive what listening can do. I found that in most discussions, i grew from defensive to inquisitive. I was learning with every word. By the end of listening, i had a clear understanding of what the person infront is talking to me about and whats forming his/her bias. My mind had processed my prejudice and had included the logics of the person in front, it gave me a new perspective. Listening can actually do wonders and i love people in all forms. They are all basically same, what changes them is their experiences in life and they will not come out of it easily to be convinced by you, just because you have repeated yourself 20 times. Convincing requires a strong understanding of what the person infront uses to convince you and for that you need to listen. Give that 10 minutes of silence, give the person in front the opportunity to talk. Speak when you know exactly what you are speaking and to whom. I had heard about Bihani from someone that the guy's silence can kill at times, but thats the way he runs an empire. He listens. One of my best frenz has the same art, he listens every bull shit till one stops. And now that i am convinced it works, i am at it, i am listening. :)

Rajat Gupta Speaks for ISB..Convo 2009..

2009-04-29T10:20:00.001-07:00

Let me first add my welcome to all of you and my congratulations to all the friends and family visiting here and of course to the graduating Class of 2009. On this occasion there are many acknowledgements, many thanks that are due. And of behalf of the Board, I would really like to acknowledge some of those. First, I would like to acknowledge the contributions of the faculty. There is a large group of visiting faculties who come here at the ISB year after year and really give their very best to all of you. We have also seen extraordinary growth and talent in our own resident faculty. Dean Rangnekar already talked about nine publications in world-class journals. For such a young faculty, that is really an outstanding achievement. I know that they have made extraordinary contributions to you. We all owe a great deal of thanks to their efforts to make this School extraordinary. This School also has an extraordinary group of dedicated leaders who have built this brick by brick, and effort by effort and we must also acknowledge them in making this system work. Particularly noteworthy this time, I would thank Savita Mahajan who has stepped up to take the challenge of building our Mohali campus. Ajit Rangnekar, our Dean, took over under fairly difficult and trying circumstances. I had to make a very simple call and he had no hesitation in saying ‘I will do everything I can’, and clearly what he has been doing with all of you, with the school, has been truly outstanding. Thank you Ajit. And then to M R Rao. His academic excellence, his follower-ship amongst his academic colleagues, the respect that the entire ISB community has for him, his contributions to build this School to where it is, is unparalleled and will be always remembered. Thank you very much M R. M R has agreed to stay on as distinguished professor, as Dean Emeritus, as the senior academic person on this campus, as a mentor of academic colleagues, as somebody who can give a lot of wisdom, do his research and teach future generations. So M R, we are thankful again to you for accepting that. Thank you very much.
I am very proud of the journey the School has been on and what it has accomplished. But as these ratings come out and we get lots of accolades, I would remind you that I in my heart believe that perhaps our brand is a little bit ahead of reality. All this means is that we need to continue to strive to do the right things, continue to improve and not rest on our laurels, in fact be a little insecure and say we probably don’t deserve this ranking fully and then maybe what we need to do is to work harder and build on a number of things and make sure we deserve this ranking. So I urge all of you while we should feel great pride, we should at the same time think that there is enormous amount of work ahead and we are all in this together.
I too, like Arun would like to share with you some of my learning from a long journey and they are actually very similar to what Arun said and I will say them a little bit in my own words. I was in your shoes roughly thirty-five years ago, Arun I have you by a few years! And if I reflect on that time and I reflect on the early years, the thing that I remember the most, and the lessons that I learnt, the first one was, you can learn from every experience and everything that you do. I remember when I came out of business school I said I must have the right job and the right experience and is this the right thing for me to do and so on and so forth. I soon realised that if you have a truly learning mindset you will learn from everything and in fact you learn from unexpected things. And things that you thought would teach you a lot sometimes don’t and vice versa. And what I discovered is the mindset you go with. If you go with a learning mindset you will learn from pretty much everything that you do. The second very important lesson that I learnt was that whatever you are doing, you should think a little bit outside the boundaries of it. Don’t contain yourself to doing your job well or even excellently. That is in fact not fully sufficient. You have got to look outside the boundaries, you have got to look at what is good for the institution, beyond your immediate job and that is how you will learn a lot and develop your leadership capabilities. The third interesting observation is to try to work with people but even more than that to try to make them successful. If you try to make others successful, they in turn will try to make you successful. No matter how brilliant you are, no matter how good you are, no matter how hard you work if you rely only on yourself and if you believe that only your capabilities will carry you to great heights and you don’t need the help of others you are sadly mistaken. If you engage everybody around you by helping them they will help you in turn and you will be more successful than you ever dreamed of. Another thing that is very important in a sense to me, has always been, go outside your comfort zone. As soon as you are getting a little comfortable about something and the way your state is, change something deliberately to make sure you put yourself outside the comfort zone. That will truly make you think more out-of-the-box, think more creatively, learn new things and again be more successful. It is very important that you be true to your own self, that you be true to these values. It is sometimes very expedient and very short-term to do things to please others, to do things to be successful in the short-run; in the long-run they don’t help you. Because fundamentally you have to live with your own self longer than you have to live with anybody else, you have to be true to your own values. Last, and I wish I had done it even earlier, working hard in your career, being successful of course gives you lots of things, lots of material things, own personal power and fame ,but in the end that does not fully satisfy. A great deal of satisfaction comes when you give of yourself without any expectations. So start giving back to society. If you are transforming yourself from working only for yourself or your immediate family into working for some greater good and giving back to society you will feel an extraordinary level of satisfaction. Sometimes people will say I will do that when I have been successful in my career. My advice is do it early, do it in whatever way you can and you will get a great deal of personal satisfaction out of that. Let me close by telling you my story. When I was graduating, it was in 1973, the United States was going through a recession and it was a very tough job market. On top of that I was on a student visa in the US and most employers would not even talk to me. I was reasonably worried about whether I would end up with a job or not. And I went for a set of interviews to McKinsey. After two interviews they turned me down, they said you don’t have enough experience. I had no experience. I went from IIT into Business School into being there. I said I can’t get any experience because nobody else will give me a job, in fact no body else wants to interview me. They said well that is not our problem. That is when a little bit of luck came in. I was sitting in a class pretty depressed. My professor in Retailing called me after the class and said you look very upset what is the matter. I told him that McKinsey had turned me down. He said ‘I will go there, they are making a mistake. Let me write to them and say they should interview you.’ And he wrote to them and said you should interview him and invite him to a full day of interviews. I got interviewed and I got the job. I am sure that many of you sitting in this room are thinking what am I going to do. I am also delighted that most of you have jobs that you wish; some of you are still in that process. Certainly don’t get disheartened; things will happen that will fulfill your dreams of what you want to go forward with. But most importantly it is interesting to me, I look at it and say ok are you doing everything you can. Is everybody around, and I asked the question to our Board, are we doing everything we can to make sure that the Placement experience is outstanding for this batch in this very difficult circumstance? I asked the same question of the School, of our Placement Office, are we doing our very best and I ask the very same question of you. Are you applying your mind and doing the very best? If you are then you should be very happy. The outcomes will be whatever they should be and I am sure that they will turn out to be alright. In a strange way, and I have done this now for all eight graduating classes, I will close with my favourite shloka from The Gita which talks about simply this philosophy which translates into - You have a right to work. Not only do you have a right to work but you have to do that work with the right intentions. Not only do you have the right to work but you have to do the work and do it with the right intentions, but you have to do the very best you can and if you do all those three things then it does not matter what the outcome is. In fact the less attached you are to the outcomes, the better at peace you will be with yourself. This is no excuse not to do your very best, not to strive for excellence, in fact quite the opposite that is what it says. I know that you have studied hard, you have done the best you can in the last twelve months, and you are doing your very best in finding the right opportunities for you. Don’t worry about whether you have the right job at this time or not. It will come. I wish you the very best for your life, for your journey, for your career and thank you again for this day and thank all of your family and friends who have come here to support you. Thank you very much.

Address by Arun Sarin.. Convo 2009

2009-04-29T10:19:00.001-07:00

Dean Rangnekar, Dean Rao, Rajat Gupta, Chairman of the Board, members of the Board, distinguished faculty, parents and families, ladies and gentlemen and the proud members of the graduating Class of 2009, I am delighted to be here amongst you. First heartiest congratulations to all of you on being judged the 15th best Business School in the world. This is a high honour given that you have only been in existence for eight years. Dean, no pressure but I guess the next stop is going to be a single-digit ranking. Second, I would like to congratulate all the graduates today. You have just finished a very important milestone in the journey of your life. This experience at ISB will hold you in good stead and frankly I have travelled all the way from California just to be here with you to celebrate your success. You are graduating at a very interesting and exciting time in the history of the world, where many changes are occurring and you can shape the world. There are three things in particular that I want to talk to you about today. One is the state of the world and the state of the business world. Second, my experiences in leadership because that is what you are aspiring to be, and third, if you allow me, a little personal advice. Let me start with the state of the world. At a macro level the world is changing in a very fundamental way at the core and the changes are here to stay. Economic wealth and political influence are moving east. 80 percent of the world’s incremental GDP is being created in emerging markets today. China and India will emerge into big economies in a short period of time. And the current slowdown is unlikely this trajectory. While the current GDP in India is slower than a couple of years ago it is still better than the rest of the world. And this slowdown will abate soon as well.
The world today is a much more interconnected place than even ten years ago and will become even more interconnected in the future. The current financial crisis is felt around the world today and if you recall the Asian crisis of ten years ago, frankly it did not have a global complexity to it. You will see more meetings of the G-20 rather than the G-7 because new international co-operations and bodies will emerge in the future because we are a more integrated world today and will become even more integrated in the years ahead. The political, social and economic systems of the G-20 countries are very different from the systems in the G-7 countries. Think for a moment about China or Russia or India or countries in Africa and how they compare with the United States or parts of Europe. Every country has a different system and the challenge here is to find the best things in each of the systems so that we can march smartly into the future. These macro changes will be frightening to some and will be exciting for others. My advice to you is 'be front-foot and make most of the changes by leading the change that is coming upon us'. Understand the differences in the various economies, learn about what makes them tick and then share the innovative and best practices around the world.At a micro level or a business level, business models are changing and innovation is going to be the key to establishing leadership in the future. Every industry that I can think of is undergoing change and restructuring and will emerge from the current slowdown a different company, a different industry. Customer needs are changing; customers want more value, more choices. If you just think about just the telecommunication industry that I am familiar with, we have gone from fixed voice to mobile voice to text to Facebook to Twitter all in a matter of a few short years. Technology is changing very rapidly and it is going to be an important ingredient in innovation. Think about the energy industry. What is happening in Photo Voltaics or Wind or Nuclear or Clean coal, these are all an important part of what is going to work to be the supply side in the future. And if you think about hybrids and electrics and Nanos they will all be an important part of the demand side. Competition will intensify because of globalisation and because of the internet enabling competitors from all parts of the globe. Think about companies like Huawei in China that are challenging established players like Ericsson or Indian BPO houses that are challenging and taking on the IBMs and the Hewlett Packards of the world. Regulation will change and also play an increasing role in business. Think about the cries that we can hear today about global regulators in the financial services business. It simply suffices to say that these forces will change all businesses and will change all business models. Be front-foot. Lead the change and shape the world. In the future. Innovation will be key to business leadership. First the application of technology is different in developing countries rather than developed countries. Traditional innovation in developed economies is slower because of legacy issues. Green field innovation in emerging markets is faster because of the possibilities of leap-frogging. India and you have a competitive advantage here. As India builds its infrastructure whether it is in communications or in buildings or in real estate, deploying new technologies to make significant improvements are possible and then exporting these best practices is an important thing that we must do. Second, necessity is the mother of invention. Because scarcity has been the order of the day here in India for decades, India has developed ingenious ways to get more for less whether it is in spectrum availability or in railways or in steel making or in petrochemicals. All these learnings are exportable. Become an expert in one of these areas and then export your ideas and your knowledge and your experience. In summary new business models and ideas will abound and India and you have an advantage in developing and executing on these new ideas, scaling them and then exporting them to the rest of the world. This too will shape the world.
Talking about India let me just say a few words about the state of India from my perspective. India has made good progress in the last fifteen years but needs to go on for the next fifty years because progress needs to be felt by the 1.2 billion citizens. We need to continue to develop economically, politically and socially simultaneously for consistent and equitable progress. And frankly much work needs to be done here today. We will require large amounts of capital, large amounts of skilled labour and large amounts of leadership. And frankly that is where you come in because you can provide the leadership that India needs to display in the coming decades.
Moving on to the second subject that I wanted to talk to you about is leadership itself. I have had the privilege of leading large organisations in my career. And in my experience good leaders do three things well simultaneously. One, they are good strategic leaders. Two, they are good operational leaders, and three, they are good people leaders. Let me just explain. Good strategic leadership is about the ability to be able to see your company, your industry and understand where the basic forces are taking this industry, having a vision for your company and being able to develop values and goals so that you can navigate where you need to go. That is a very important skill in a leader which is being strategic rather than being tactical. The second important thing that leaders do is operational leadership which is about taking the wash out daily and performance: day-after-day performance, and being able to make sure that you are organised in a way that you have got incentives, that you have got things that are going on in the company such that you are delivering the important things every single day, execution/performance on a daily basis. And the third thing that good leaders do is that they are very good with people. They can attract the right people, they can motivate people, they can inspire people, they can get people to do things collectively that they wouldn’t be able to do individually. Now I am sure you have heard and read about these things in your studies here or experience them in the past. The hard thing about leadership is the ability to do those three things well simultaneously. You meet lots of people who are good strategists but can’t perform. You get a lot of people who can perform but aren’t good human leaders. The challenge that you have and the thing that I have noticed is that if you start early in your careers like you are today and start practicing to be good strategic leaders, good operational leaders and people leaders that it will pay you handsome dividends in the years ahead. But let me also remind you that leadership is also hard work. It is not just about big compensation packages, flying around in private jets and hanging around with cool people. It is basic blocking, tackling, making things happen. So shape yourself so that you are able to shape the world.
Now moving to the third subject which is a little bit around personal advice or reflections on my part for you. First of all do, whatever you do, do what you love to do. And be really good at it. Follow your passion. Life is too short to kind of waste on things that you actually do not enjoy doing. Being excellent at whatever you choose to do is a very important thing. You have to have in your head that you want to be in the top deciles of whatever your chosen profession is. Be curious, learn constantly. I know many of you, especially at the Dean’s behest here have worked really hard over the last fifty-two weeks and you are graduating and you are saying my god! No more books for awhile. Believe me that it is going to last for about a week or a month or two. You are going to be on some learning journey very soon again. And my view is 'have a great time. Keep learning, keep enjoying because quite frankly life is about continuous life-long learning.' And let me say this again that leadership and doing well in life is about hard work. I don’t know very many leaders who haven’t worked very hard. I have had a thirty-year career and on average I worked between 60 and 70 hours every week for thirty years. So when people ask me Arun what are you doing next? I always say listen I am enjoying the sabbatical that I have earned after thirty years of work. For me, the first 23 years of my life, I did what others wanted me to do. I was a good student, didn’t particularly want to go to an IIT but if you are a good student, everybody went to an IIT, I applied, I got in. I did not want to continue engineering but I got into UC Berkley in the engineering programs so I went to Berkley. And I did a lot of things in my career that others wanted me to do so I did them. And right around when I was 23-24 I decided to go to business school because that was really what I wanted to do. And that changed my life, I was able to apply myself fully and I would humbly say to you, I have done alright. Second thing I would say to you is think big, have big aspirations, don’t think small. You are living in a world where anything is possible. Because of all the things I recited to you earlier in my remarks, but you have to believe in yourself and you have to prepare and improve yourself constantly. There is no rest here. You are going to be coming out, you are going to be going into important jobs, you will find what it is you want to do, you will work hard, you will prepare, you will learn, you will do well, you will get feedback, you will do even better and your responsibility will keep increasing. But the main thing here is don’t be afraid of failure, don’t not do a thing because you are afraid that you might fail and if you fail, what your friends will think of you or what your parents will think of you, don’t worry about failure. If you haven’t failed somewhere along the line, you haven’t tried hard enough, you have got to press the envelope. In my own career after I was President of AirTouch one of the largest companies back in 1999 and we sold the business to Vodafone I was very interested and attracted by the internet. And I had the chance to go become the Chief Executive of a relatively small internet company in Seattle called InfoSpace. And all my friends said ‘Arun what is wrong with you? You have been the Chief Executive of one of the largest companies in the world and you are going to go and become the Chief Executive of a much smaller internet company’, and I said 'yes!' And I did it. Actually it didn’t quite work out but I learnt a lot from it. I learnt about the internet, I learnt about people, I learnt about an industry that I was not completely familiar with. And then when I went back to Vodafone two of three years later and became the Chief Executive of Vodafone, my experiences at InfoSpace were critical in my ability to navigate where Vodafone needed to be. So don’t worry about temporary setbacks in life. Whether the temporary setback is that you haven’t landed your dream job today or you don’t have your dream job tomorrow work at it, it will come. The third thing I would like to say to you is leave the world a better place which is fundamentally about one, being a good human being, whether it is being a good son or a good daughter, or whether it is being a good father or a good mother or being a good family member or a good friend. And use the power, the power that I am sure that you will have in time as you live life. Use that power for a constructive and common good. Integrity and ethics is absolutely core for good leadership and frankly this is not just some idol saying that people have said again and again for a long time. Who you work for matters, what company you work for matters, the products and services that they provide matters.I have always been very excited about working in the mobile industry because it changes peoples’ lives, it connects people. I can tell you, I personally wouldn’t work for a tobacco company. So you have to make choices about ethics and integrity. And frankly when you make it big which I am sure you will, be generous, volunteer, give back, be philanthropic, be a well-rounded human being, be more than just book-smart. Get involved in sports, get involved in music, develop yourself in a completely well-rounded way and have a passion for the world around you. Frankly I am very passionate about this subject and one of the core values at Vodafone was that we would have passion for the world around us. And we would dedicate time and work in under-developed poor parts of the world to make sure that everybody had a chance to succeed in life. My final bit of personal advice to you is that be prepared for luck to play a role in your life. For me luck is not about fate but luck is about preparing to meet the opportunity head-on. You are graduating at a time when there is an economic slowdown around the world. Your opportunities are different from the opportunities that existed a year or two ago. Make the best of the circumstances, find the spirit within you, the entrepreneurial spirit within you, and be positive. Frankly I feel that luck has been very important in my life. I have been at the right place at the right time with the right people and frankly luck manifests itself in many different ways in terms of having mentors, friends, and supportive family. For me I was very lucky. I met my wife at Berkley and she has been a fantastic friend, a fantastic companion and a fantastic partner for me and I couldn’t have done what I did without her. So win or lose, stay grounded and be a good sport.
In closing you are graduating at an important juncture in history. The tectonic changes are happening all around you in every way. Embrace this change and shape the world through your leadership. And develop your leadership skills early in your career and enjoy the journey of life. I sat in your chair, thirty-one years ago at Berkley in California and frankly if I could do it you can too! So go for it, good luck, congratulations and cheers! Thank you very much.

Deepak Jain's address at ISB convo 2009.. I will remember it for life!!

2009-04-29T10:18:00.001-07:00

Address by Dean Dipak Jain, Kellogg School of Management
Let me start by sharing how creative one can be when introducing a speaker. Philip Kotler, a colleague of mine, was once invited to give a keynote address at a major conference but could not attend it. He requested me to go instead. I reminded him that he was getting very product-centric – “you need to be audience-centric; the audience is coming to listen to Philip Kotler, not to anyone else”, I told him. However, the conference could not be cancelled or postponed and so I attended the conference instead. The talk was at 9 am and at 8 am I was supposed to have breakfast with this person, for whom I was an unexpected shock. He asked me what I did. Obviously Professor Kotler had not given him any brief. I said that in some sense I was like the CEO of a company and he understood that language. He said, “Oh so you are the CEO of Kellogg. Now I know how to introduce you”. He later went to the podium, said a good morning and asked the audience – “how many of you have heard the name Philip Kotler”? All the hands went up. He then told the audience, "Today I present to you the boss of Philip Kotler!”In the year 1983, I went to the US to do a PhD in Applied Mathematics. While I was completing my PhD, I got a really useful insight. The insight was that Mathematics was going nowhere. I went to see my advisor .He said, “Dipak you should move to Marketing”. Now unlike him I had never been to Business School, nor had I worked for a business, so I asked him where should I go and learn this subject. He said something very meaningful. He said, “The best way to learn something is to teach because when you teach you have to anticipate what questions you will get and you build this culture of digging deeper.” It was he who suggested to me to get a job at the Kellogg School of Management. “Have some aspirations in life. It never hurts to apply. You miss 100 percent of the shots that you don’t take,” he had told me then. Another incident I recall is when in 1985 I came to give a talk in North Western. I was nervous because I didn’t know what I was going to speak, and in those days we did not have any Power Point presentation. I went to the classroom and wrote a bunch of equations on the black board, the only thing I knew. For the first half an hour there was pin drop silence. Nobody understood what I was saying and neither did they have any interest. I knew the seminar was going nowhere. Then suddenly Professor Kotler raised his hand and asked me, “Dipak is this marketing or am I in the wrong seminar?” I did not know what to tell Professor Kotler. I looked at the board and said, “This is the future of Marketing. And they gave me the job right there!”
You will remember that when we went to kindergarten or first grade, our parents used to tell us about three ‘R’s – reading, writing and arithmetic. Today you have three Rs before you. The first is Reflection. Graduation is the day of reflection. You have to reflect and think about what you want to do ahead of you. The second is Renewal. You have to renew your spirits. You have achieved something that very few people in the world would have. And the third is Responsibility. We all have a responsibility and the responsibility goes beyond personal success. After becoming Dean of Kellogg, the vision I have set for the school is a very simple word – ‘from success to significance’. That is the theme of the school. What we want to do is to produce leaders who are going to make an impact of lasting significance. Don’t stop your journey at your personal success. Mr Rajat Gupta articulated that if you just optimise your personal success, life would be incomplete. We need to have responsibilities for the communities we come from, the societies we represent, we have to do something beyond personal success.
One point that I want to make to all of you is the biggest strength we have is called our ‘Sanskar’. The word ‘Sanskar’ is basically nothing but core values. ISB or Kellogg is a place where you come with a passion and a purpose, and we help you with tools to combine your passion and purpose to renew your responsibility. And that is what you must think for moving forward and that is very precious. And the thing that differentiates all the Indians is the dedication of our parents towards our education. This is our unique differentiation and I want to congratulate all the parents here. Nowhere in the world have I seen parents taking so much care about the children’s education. They sacrifice their lives, and every opportunity that I get to speak, I always like to mention something about India. When I am in the company of people, any opportunity I get, I share with them some core values of our Indian culture. There is India, there is Indian and there is Indianness within us. I will tell you how these things play out. I was once invited to a very big seminar and there were three keynote speakers. Author Jim Collins who wrote the book ‘Built to Last’ was one of them. Then second speaker was from the treasury department of US, and he was to speak on finance. I was the keynote speaker from the marketing side. Just before the speech there was a dinner. To my side was the Chairman of Coca Cola. On the other side was the Chairman of Wal-Mart and ahead of me was the Chairman of P&G. Before I joined them they were talking about mergers and acquisitions – the common vocabulary of the CEOs. When I joined them the conversation shifted to my experience of Tsunami, while I was holidaying with my family in Phuket, to what makes arranged marriages work in India, etc.? I told them that an arranged marriage in India is like a merger and acquisition activity. And that rather than comparing the balance sheets, we compare family values and that a wedding in India is between two families rather than two individuals. I also recounted my own experience of an arranged marriage and how I had no doubt about the decision of my father. I met my wife for twenty minutes and got married. We have been happily married for twenty years!
The point I want to make is about the core values we have, the respect for our elders, and the sense of humility in us which will take us a long way. Today the times are very difficult. Even at Kellogg a large fraction of students are still looking for jobs. But difficulties come in our way to make us stronger and better, not bitter. I always tell my students uncertainty is inevitable, worrying is optional. My only advice to you is - things could get better, don’t worry. Both Arun Sarin and Rajat Gupta, in their addresses, mentioned about the word ‘luck’. I remembered a question that was asked to Pandit RadhaKrishnan – ‘How do you differentiate between luck and effort?’ He gave a beautiful analogy. He said when you play cards, what you get from the deck of cards is your luck, what you make of those cards is your effort. People with ordinary cards can win the game and people with good cards can lose the game. We often tend to blame it on the cards. And my advice to you is don’t take the current condition as an excuse, keep continuing to work. As the Dean of the school, whenever I market Kellogg and talk about the School, there is always somebody will would raise his hand and ask, ‘Dean Jain what are you going to do about the Chicago weather’. You know Chicago is a very cold place. Nine months of the year we have an extremely cold weather. One day I was making a presentation and a student asked me the same in a very negative way. I am the Dean of the school and I can control many things but I have no control over the weather. I had to say something so I said, ‘I have one piece of advice for you in life. You should believe in the principle of a refrigerator. Things kept in a cooler environment stay fresh for a long time’. I hope he will never ask me that question again. Times come and go, we remain, you all remain. You are the brand, not only of ISB, you are the brand of India, a lot depends on you. There is a saying that the challenge ahead of you is never greater than the force behind you. This evening I want to tell all of you that ISB is behind you, the Board is behind you, the faculty is behind you, Dipak Jain is behind you, go out and do something meaningful and we will all be proud of being a part of ISB. Congratulations and all the best to all of you.

The happiest countries in the world!

2009-04-29T10:12:00.000-07:00

Heard of richest, most competitive, most populous, growing, bla blah blah..
Here is a list of countries which are happiest :D
http://images.businessweek.com/ss/08/08/0819_happiest_countries/1.htm

Toyota Way is Toyota Way, Do i love this firm?? :)

2009-04-29T09:42:00.001-07:00

http://images.businessweek.com/ss/08/10/1020_toyota/index.htm
So,
Hybrid cars
Small smart cars
Cost cutting with suppliers
Raw material cost cutting
0% Finance in US
Reorganizing production
Hybird models for lexus
Lets not lay off employees
If not sports car then fun to drive will do

Innovation and survival drives Japanese, something tells me they dont die that easy. I read about their leaders, the guy heading the Japanese Airlines was the first one to take sal cut in times of crisis and he was surprised when he was told that people from GM and Chrysler flew in chartered planes to seek the bail out package from government.
I do love Toyota Way, but can this be implemented all around or is it just meant for Japanese. Any thoughts?