Dil dhadakne do...

I wish I could conquer and reach the snow-capped pinnacle…

…Wish I could dance with her tunes

…Wish I could fly with her to places extreme to us…

I wish I could break free this box and reach my hands out…

…Wish I could build myself well

…Wish I could fall over floor, excitedly

I wish I could capture the nature with my machine…

…Wish I could speed up, racing along the waves striking the shore

I wish I could lean over carrier of a bicycle…

…Wish I could move backwards and refurbish myself

 I wish I could sing with the chorus…

Wish I could reach out to each of my comrades…

I wish I would be a writer someday…

…Would paint my canvass red and blue, someday

Wish I would lead so many, sometime…

I wish I would make an artist listen to my narration…

…Wish I would roam around over the concrete street in desolated territory


...Wish my silence die before I breathe last

Wish I could forget myself one day… and leave out the thinking cap flying

Sometime I wonder what is holding us from chasing our wishes. Is it our own reservations or is it the culture we are living with or uncertainties surrounding us or the fear of falling down hard…???

They went crashing down...

It was sometime in the evening that we were strolling in our hostel’s lobby after a hectic day at college; we heard a loud expression from crowd of people, “oh shiiiiiiiiit..!!!”. I along with my friends were very near to our common room that was filled with couple of big tattered sofas, a table tennis  section, a 32 inches television safely placed on a podium and a large floor carpet that was occupied with almost 100 future engineers. As we entered the hall, we recognized that all eyes were glued to the television and the expressions went like, “America ki to lag gayi..!!!”.

The first plane had just crashed into North block of World Trade Centre. More than the impact on economy that we could understand, we were more amused at the vulnerability of American’s security system against the terror attack. We felt like if USA couldn’t escape such attacks than better not to expect anything from Indian government. Some seniors watching the accident felt terrible due to the fact that it might affect job opportunities while the ‘Engineer-in-making’ like us were hardly puzzled by such great thought. All that we were shocked and amused about was the way America was being shattered.

The news was still flashing at the bottom of television news channel about another plane wandering around WTC and was confirmed hijacked. In a short while another plane hit the south block of WTC and we gawked at it with full-blown eyes. The mood was tense as if the planes were hitting our own college building outside. Even the canteen person was interested more about what was happening in television rather than calculating canteen bills.

Post that event millions of MMS, SMS and videos followed in the network and it had left an indelible scare in our mind. The world still shivers after seeing those horrifying clips of destruction of two biggest establishments of America. We can’t even imagine the state of any of the passengers in two planes (infact four) or the officials who were trapped inside the two towers asking for help. What kind of cruelty is this? Taking a bullet in head would be simpler than watching own death approaching close. A group of dozen people took death close to 3000, what kind of terrorism is this? Only Spielberg can illustrate such action packed stunts in his movies.

Standing on 10^th anniversary of 9/11 attacks on WTC, I pay generous tribute to those who suffered the loss of their life in this tragedy and an honorable salute to American defense system that made the country invincible since then. 

FB ruined me..

I know it’s been long since I had scribbled over my blog. More than to commit that I was busy in my job, I would say that it took me a while to adjust in my new life at Mumbai, the City of Dreams..!!! Unexpectedly, settling down in this city wasn't really tough, I don’t know why. Maybe things are more accessible here and my office is not too far from my home. But there is another reason why I kept neglecting blogs for a while, and the reason is social networking site called ‘Facebook’. However I am thankful to Mr. Mark Zuckerberg for such an innovation that has become quite popular now-a-days, not only for the youth but for the kids as well as senior citizens. It helped me connect with my long lost friends and relatives but kept me away from my thoughts. I was getting attuned to shorten my thoughts to form a statement that I can post on my wall instead of expressing them through my blogs. My patience and creativity was often compromised when I am posting over my wall.

Surfing ‘FB’ (a short name of ‘facebook’) has been a regular feature in my daily chores and I feel so tempted if I neglect the same. However my FB page is filled with people making other as their friends (of which I have no idea or interest), catchy one-liners that are 99% copied from other’s wall, amazing videos from crazy websites, ‘senti’ dialogues, ‘farmville’ requests to be someone’s neighbor or help them harvest some crop, friend’s request who share their information only to their friends etc etc…

But all this while my creativity went for a toss. I haven’t written any good piece of thought since long. And the reason for this is that I haven’t thought about any topic in detail. All I was thinking about was ‘comment’. During the last four and a half months that I had spent in Mumbai, I came across many interesting subjects to think about and write.

Anyways, will try my best to keep up my motivation and patience for my interests.

Mera Neta Chor Hai..!!!

I would recommend reading the following article before I can say anything:-http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/what-is-the-jan-lokpal-bill-why-its-important-96600?cp

“He looks like Gandhi”, the first thought that came to my mind when I saw this man wearing a white khadi cap. I am not a good historian, but still, looking at Anna Hazare reminded me of the beliefs he shares with Mahatma. Apart from the looks that he shares with Gandhi ji, he has roped in the same philosophy that Mahatma had thought when he went through similar fast-unto-death agitation. Wearing a traditional white kurta and topi, smiling at the audience, he is the man who has stood up for a cause that we all had suffered for long… Corruption.

We all do suffer from corruption and wants to get rid of it. At the moment, we can’t even think of a state or any small government office that is free of corruption. If I spend a day in government office without bribing anyone, I would feel ecstatic. I always control myself against offering bribes, but certainly there is a limit and now-a-days the limit seems more fragile. But hey, I am not the only one..!!!

I might get criticized for not supporting this, but see the features about Jan-Lokpal bill that Anna is recommending. Is he contemplating another supreme court in India???? Some of the points look theoretical and idealistic. For example, “No minister or bureaucrat will be able to influence their investigations”, “Investigations in any case will have to be completed in one year”, “The entire functioning of Lokpal/ Lokayukta will be completely transparent”. I am sure any governing body in India had been established keeping these points in their declaration, like courts, police services etc. Unfortunately despite of all these declarations, we still face our common enemy.

The success of such theoretical Lokpal will depend upon the intentions and the profile of officials who will constitute the committee. Now, keeping this in mind, I felt virtuous when I saw Anna’s basic intention of going the Gandhian way. He feels that by introducing Lokpal bill in the parliament and going fast-unto-death would help unite the people for a common cause. Not only the politicians and bureaucrats are corrupt, the shades of corruption lie within us. If we wish to see a Corrupt-free-India, the major responsibility first belongs to us. Success of Lokpal bill will signify the realization of corruption within self by every citizen vouching for it. Now recall the intentions of Mahatma behind his fast-unto-death in 1948 (Quick reading on Mahatma:http://www.ceeby.com/people/mahatmagandhi.cfm). He wasn’t proposing any separate Telangana state or hike in his salary. He had just wished for peace and harmony among different communities. And I feel so glad to know that in this age of modern society, we do have a person like Anna who thinking is so pure.

This is the only reason I support Anna and his noble cause, and urge others too. .

Few interesting articles for reading:http://www.chetanbhagat.com/2011/04/mera-neta-chor-hai/ and http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hyderabad/Young-activists-keep-a-distance-from-Kavita/articleshow/7906916.cms

Meaning-less songs

Ok, so let me know your expressions when you hear this out, “oonche se ooncha banda, potty pe baithe nanga..”

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The first time I heard this song, I made a ‘thizz face’ and felt the video was totally filthy. Now-a-days, movies don’t need a good lyricist. Just sing what you want in your way, and you’ll get a hit pep song. Some people danced at the ‘badnaami’ of ‘Munni’, while others celebrated the ‘jawani’ of ‘Sheela’…!! Gone are the days when ‘Gabbar’ used to get excited hearing ‘Mehbooba O Mehbooba’ while Helen danced to the tunes of R.D. Burman. Just the facial expressions of Helen coupled with exotic moves were enough for the whistle blowers in the cinema halls. Often, people even appreciated the lyrics of the song, which was actually supposed to entertain differently.

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In the recent times, Indian cinema had provided a good dictionary of names that you can use frequently. You can choose among, ‘Munni’ or ‘Sheela’ or ‘Razia’ or the recent one ‘Tinku’..!!! I rolled over my floor laughing when I heard these lyrics. It goes like, “Pal pal na maane tinku jiya, haan tinku jiya…Ishak ka manjan ghisey hai piya”. The director must have spent lakhs to find a girl with extra shining teeth to give an extra edge to the lyrics. And at the top of it, Dharmendra and Bobby Deol were seen pranking with this un-sexy under-age girl. The situation went grim when my wife started humming this song...

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Try to compare these lyrics with the likes of Gulzar. We would often need a Hindi dictionary while listening to his songs, my personal favorite being “omkara” from movie ‘Omkara’. There is so much of depth and meaning to his songs. He often describes the nature and the situation’s background in simple, yet rhetoric words. .

Hey, tu phir dekh raha hai..

Aaj aankh sek raha hai, kal haath sekega....

Aaj deel chod raha hai, kal khudi rokega...

Aaj mere liye chair kheech raha hai, kal meri skirt kheechega....

kheechega ke nahin hun .

Actually this is the current success mantra in the industry to drag the audience to the multiplex if you feel the story of the film lack substance. You can try like this: Hire a celebrity dancer with a fantastic body.. Appoint a music director who can play the beats or maybe form a new remix.. Rent out an exotic location and start shooting for a song. You don’t actually a need a good dress designer, the waste ones can be picked and lady can get dressed automatically. And I forgot to mention, the lyrics can follow anytime. You must be a fool if you are thinking about the theme of the song. Let audience decide on their own..!!! Remember the song might get legendary and win awards inspite of the film being a complete crap (refer ‘Tees Maar Khan’).

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God save this industry..!!!

Halla bol

Seriously this sport is crazy. I could fathom the wild side of admiration for Cricket in India through idol worship, hair implants, face coloring etc etc. But speaking about India-Pakistan match in a world cup a day before is a absolute delight. Not being a good statistician, I don’t remember how many times these two countries have played against each other in world cup tournaments, but this one is getting pretty uglier than before. The honorable Prime Minister’s meet at the stadium adds to the exhilaration. The stadium at Mohali has turned out to be fortress rather than a playing ground. Thousands of police and army forces have been deployed, the stadium has been declared as no-fly zone, fighter planes have been geared up for any emergency… it all looks as if the two teams are going to play with an bomb. Consider this, if Afridi miss Sachin’s catch at square drive and Gul makes a strong gesture to the Sachin, then maybe fighter jets would be called upon to signal a warning..!! Or maybe Yuvraj pushing out a live ticking bomb towards the boundary and the fielder may not be lucky enough to receive his final catch..!!!

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Anyways this game was never too exciting and scary before. My association with Cricket was not strong enough as with other people. I used to call myself a good batsman, but couldn’t play the ball higher than my waist level. Then I started practicing bowling. Not being good in shape (not even now); I had resorted to spin rather than fast bowling. I still remember batsman used to stroke my 5 deliveries to boundary and finally get out casually in the last…!!! I felt happy but my captain used to thank his God. Like invention of fire brought revolution in the world, the same goes with ‘rubber ball’ for me. I could actually turn the ball in any direction over any kind of pitch.

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In those days, the ball that was meant to be used in cricket was often used by us for ‘maara-pitti’. The game is so un-recognized that there isn’t any English translation in the dictionary. In short, one guy has to hit the other in a team with a plastic ball to knock him out. The one who survive till last wins the game. The game was often not famous in front of girls, and it was natural (how difficult was to refrain ourselves from showing our pain, actually red bumps, in front of school girls). Apart from these I had also played many significant games like ‘kho-kho’, ‘kabbadi’ and badminton. Badminton is the only game that gave me fame (atleast in my resume and interviews), for which I stood runner’s up in district level championship in junior category, around 17 years back.

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When I was in college, table-tennis excited me a lot. Of course I couldn’t play cricket with my high-profile background. Table tennis involved just two players, so less of humiliation. But I must admit, it was difficult to track the ball when the game picks up. Being poor on eye-sight, I had learned to animate my hand’s movement when the game gets fast. But I was always good in TT.

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Anyways, with this background I must admit that everyone should be associated with sports right from the beginning till the end. It builds up your stamina and teaches team work. For now, let’s wait for the big war tomorrow; Indo-Pak cricket match was never less than a field battle..!!!

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(By the way, I forgot to mention, I was good at being goalkeeper in football matches too..!!! I thought not to exaggerate myself at the moment)

Salute to us..

The first one..

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And that bring me back to write a blog for a very old questions. Today I had various interesting discussion points with two different kinds of people while I was struggling preparing my persuasive speech for the client. One of them asked me how to get rid of production job and get into software industry..!!! The first thought that came into my mind was, boss..Infosys is not just Software Company that makes computer machines; second, I am not a software engineer..!! It’s crazy that, still, after 6 years, people perceive me as a software employee. Anyways, in return to his question, I just smiled back. Smile full of sarcasm, as if I have reached a stage that is way beyond answering such insignificant questions. Obviously I was able to hide my snuffles behind that smile. Only I in this damn world can understand where at all I had started and where am I now..!!!
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The second one..
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But apart from this, what made me scratch my skin to reveal the ruins was the second more interesting question; I would say ‘questions’. The discussion started with.. “Till what age you want to continue this work?” It was casual. I said the legal age to end your employment in India is 60, but she wasn’t expecting this explanation. “Do you have any other activity that you want to pursue”. Aah ..!! I got it. She is asking me about my hobbies. Oh…I have many, most of them I don’t really pursue anymore. With the heat of excitement I told her many reasons why it is difficult to pursue your passion in India. Later I returned to my hotel room, sat over the pot and murmured to myself various (actual) replies that I could have given to her. Remember “bhai..susu genious hai”..??
What if you want to follow your passion as your employment??? Be a writer, singer, actor, painter or anything else you want to become. Does it happen in a country like India? I would say, quite often than less. Forget about starting your business, even if you want to become a singer you would have 100 checkpoints to pass through before you start singing in your bathroom. How would I sing, what will people (specially relatives) think about my singing, how will I earn for my living, how will I support my wife, my parents, my future kids, my kid’s marriage.. and the list is endless. Your song becomes misery before even being composed, if any of the checkpoints is not cleared. That’s how we are cultured to live in this country. We own the responsibility of our creators and creations till we last our strength. Our sole motivation to earn big bucks is not for self, but for spouse and finally for our kids. As an illustration, after our marriage, how frequently do we shop for self? Or after having a kid, how often do we dine to celebrate Valentine’s Day? Wondered how many of us haven’t thought of owning a car and subsequently a house within 3 years of getting married? How many of us have invested in overseas vacation instead of life insurance policies to save tax? It’s quite rare to find ‘Yes’ for all these FAQs and I am not surprised as this is imbibed to us as our culture.
But I thank God for creating some people who gave ‘Yes’ as answer to the FAQs mentioned above because of which we are living in age of innovation. Thank God, Einstein was mad, pyscho unmarried guy and hence we got electric bulb. Thank God for bestowing us with Mahatma Gandhi, APJ Kalam and Kiran Bedi because of which we still feel privileged.
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The next one..

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What job I want to pursue? IBM, Accenture, Deloitte..or a hi-flier consulting or a core production job, or the most paying golden collared profile. Aagh..!! I have so many adjective to choose from, but I would stick to my original, RESPECTABLE job. So what, am I working in for a disgraced profile? No, certainly not. But is it quite memorable for long time? Can I expect my client to remember me after 10 years? And even if he remembers me, what would I be remembered for? ‘The guy who charged us a hefty sum for helping us understand the supply chain fundamentals. I don’t even care if he still exists’. Can I count upon any value I was able to add to my job? I don’t know.
Can we imagine the joy the doctor feels when he saves a life through crucial operation? Can we recognize the innovation of a scientist who made our life simpler and comfortable? Can we realize the pride the teacher feels when his feet are touched upon by his students asking for his blessings?
This is my idea of respectable job..!!!

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(NOM: I had to end this ever long topic for now, as I really want to concentrate on 'Sheela ki jawani' song/visual currently being aired on music channel)... We are like this. All salute to us..!!!

Corporate Ethics

As I was writing this blog I was wondering, I could sound a bit theoretical while sharing this experience. However every person I had reached to, is follower of ‘love your job, not the employer’, and I have seen some very true spirited guys religiously following this. Infact skill of defining your job periphery yourself is what I am amazed at.

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I must admit, we consultants have very tough life. No matters we are often made the topic of laughter by many. But seriously if you consider the circumstances we guys have to go through, it’s worth paying us monthly salary. We are supposed to know everything, almost everything, atleast the one for which we are paid and hired for. Even if you have slightest doubt in your mind regarding your competency or other, it can backfire you in future. If you are true in your doubt, you are saved, else you are screwed.

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As I am accompanied by a fellow consultant in this project, it reminded me of the days that I had spent in Holland. Those days were really struggling and gruesome for me. I was new, first international trip, first direct interaction with the client and moreover had only 50% idea of what I was expected to deliver there. Gosh.!!! Those were the days, when every day I felt embarrassed in front of the client. It was tough to consult about something that even you had lesser idea. On top of that, it’s worst to have client more educated than you..!!! But I was saved by my manager in Holland. He kept holding my hands and directed me to the safest shore. He stood like a wall and shielded me from all negatives.

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Anyways, reminding those days is really encouraging for me. Now I am accompanied by a fellow Infoscion who is as new as I was 2 years ago. He has the experience but may not have enough aptitude to stand in front of client’s expectations. My project is going well, touchwood. So what should I do now? Should I just leave him to client’s and Infosys manager’s mercy and let him drown? Or should I hold his hands and help him rise slowly and gradually?
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If I go by the saying that I had mentioned above, I should have chosen the first path. Infact this would have relieved me of any additional duties and moreover I could concentrate on my own project. Hmm..that sound very simple, logical and practical. But I cannot forget the days that I had spent in Holland. If my manager had thought of it like the one mentioned as first path, I would have been thrown out of consulting. So I followed the second path. It was tough to help others keeping your responsibilities on fire, but I had to do it. I call this as ‘corporate ethics’. While helping this guy, I faced some dents from client regarding his project and my project as well. But now we are a team. There is no ‘his project’ or ‘my project’, its customer project that is handled by Infosys as a whole. I took the brickbats from the client even though I was remotely associated with it. But I hold the responsibility of our future commitments rather than past mistakes. That’s how we work in consulting.

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Now put my case in industry other than consulting, be it manufacturing or marketing or any other, and see how people usually behave. These thoughts make my decision to join consulting stronger.

Relentless pursuit of 'Motivation'

Ok, now that is something we all need in our life.

‘Motivation’

..Motivation to do something you like the most or something that you know will help you in building your future in a dynamic way. This is something that can strengthen your potential to cross the propelling hostile winds and make you capable to smirk at its defeat. This is one driving force that enables you to think beyond your outer sphere and make you dream with eyes wide open. Energies automatically flow in, that invigorate your inner senses. There you get the opportunity to meet the positive attitude that helps by making you a visionary and more importantly a leader in your life.

There are different kinds of motivations. Motivation to excel in your business, motivation to make your career the most productive one, motivation to steal hell lot of money from a bank or motivation to kill someone for benefit. Sorry to mention the last two examples, but the truth is that, every action or reaction per se is impinged by a motivation. This is called motivation to succeed or achieve supremacy. There is no harm in that, just that conflicting motivation often create turbulences. Anyways, my point in raising this subject is that every individual is drifted towards achievements by one of the factors called ‘Motivation’.

What if you don’t have the motivation to get your paths set for success? What if your motivation drifts you towards a different objective? What if your motivations to dream takes a different turn altogether? And what if your motivation is all killed? This is the stage when you feel like being stabbed from behind. “Everyone is motivated to do something of their choice, than why not me? What I have done wrong? Isn’t that I have equal right to dream, a dream bigger than my capabilities?” Consequences are obvious and encouragements become futile. What happens to your ambitions? Are they still the same, same as solid? It feels like perception of life is all changed. “Now you are no longer motivated towards achievements in your life. Infact you are, but your subject is now changed. Now it’s your choice, chase the reality or escape from it, whatever you feel is less painful.” But do remember that motivation isn’t preceded with just hard work and a sheer dream. Luck plays an important character in these relentless efforts. With swarm of people enfolded with innumerable ambitions in their eyes, it becomes important that luck dances your way. But again, it’s not in your prospective.

So what should we do? How can we keep our eyes open and not let a drop tickle over them? How can we avoid seeing a river made into following a different path? How to please the utmost characters in our life that make you dance every time commotion hits you from behind?

In relentless pursuit of answers to these…

“Wake up you idiot, don’t be a Karthik”

As we came out of Cinemax theatre after watching movie ‘Wake up Sid’, I could feel the fresh blood flowing exceptionally through my slender veins. While I was driving my ‘old-edition’ bike over the mountainous roads of Banjara hills in Hyderabad, I could contemplate the thought of existing in this world without really waking up…

It was midnight, and as we came out of INOX theatre after watching movie, ‘3 Idiots’, I could re-collect the days I had spent in engineering college. We had hardly noticed a ‘Rancho’ like character in our hostel that can teach a lesson to our seniors or excel in exams with passion for electrical engineering. Sometimes I fumble when I think, what I was doing those days…

Recently we saw a movie in Cinemax, ‘Karthik calling Karthik’ in which Karthik played by Farhan Akhtar is portrayed as ‘super-common’ man and it shows the transition of his character from mere commoner to a dynamic one. Although for a very brief moment of the movie, had this concept worked…infact big portion of the movie belong to thrill and romance..anyways, I was impressed with this one too..!!!

However after going through all these thoughts, I could infer one common trend among these movies and that is, all these movies show the inspiration striking the youth only. Take ‘3 idiots’; it talks about young engineering students. ‘Wake up Sid’ talks about young college graduate and ‘Karthik calling Karthik’ mention briefly about an employed one (too brief to comment). So what could we infer about this trend. Is it only that the youth needs inspiration or maybe they are the most susceptible ones???? It’s been ages we haven’t seen a movie depicting a mid-aged frustrated professional struggling through various daily job issues. Most of the issues related to career, profession, organization, compromises, family and motivation appear at these ages.
I am still waiting for such movies…

"Aman ki asha"

“Mile sur mera tumhara..”, the song chants like a anthem in every patriotic souls.
India celebrated its 60th Republic day with awaited processions in Delhi that were mostly engulfed with sudden dense fog and mist. This is one of the events that raise ecstatic feeling of being part of this country…the country with mighty nuclear powers, rich culture etc etc. This country has stiff history of survival despite being adjacent to rivals.

Hyderabad Blues

..the traffic is still furious, the shops are open and stuffed with thin fumes of incense sticks, the offices are packed with insensitive employees, some of them cursing and some being passionate.

Hyderabad has been blessed with an opportunity to encounter more than three ‘bandhs’ (actually I have stopped counting them after three..!!). The issue is related to the demands of a separate state as Telangana by some activists. The issue boiled up when one fragile looking guy famously known as KCR went on to fast-unto-death. Now a day this is one very common term regarded as one point mantra for instigating agitations. All the shops, malls, offices were targeted and then it was repelled strongly by government senior officials. I don’t know what resolution was devised or what measures were suggested at that time, but the only things that matter to me were interruptions in my daily routine life.

"3 Cheers"...the third one..

Finally the New Year has come. 2010..!!! It’s a nice way for celebration in view of good things that happened last year and/or in hope of better things to happen next year. Its a nice way to discipline youself by making resolutions that may or may not get realized. Whatever reasons be there, celebrations are anyways nice.

"3 cheers"...the second one..

‘3 Idiots’. The name sounded like the story of three dumb looking actors playing their part over the strings of movie director.

I must admit, this movie is the most admirable movie of the year (after ‘Kaminey’ etc). After watching this movie I couldn’t fathom that how could it’s director Raj Kumar Hirani make every movie of his so different and special that it connects to the public right from the first show. Think over his few past movies: Munnabhai MBBS, Lagey Raho Munnabhai and now 3-Idiots. Every movie is conceptualized in a different sphere.

Floods...boon for atleast someone

"Situation is grim but we definitely need to travel to Bangalore..."

"...But how?? the roads are flooded and the tracks are all submerged"

"Let's see if we can get any flight today or tomorrow early morning..."

"Oh yeah..!! we have couple of them...and it start with 9800 to 14000 per seat..!!!"

Andhra was recovering fast from the CM chopper crash, and then sudden heavy splash of rain marred the 'very' spirit of people. Many villages got submerged in the flowing water and number of people got stranded. The roads and specially national highways got affected by the flowing water. The railway tracks got damaged leaving couple of trains standing still for days..!!!

The only means of transport left was airways. We have numerous airways carriers that can accommodate the plight of travelers. On a fine day you can get a ticket for Hyderabad to Bangalore route for Rs.3000 to 4000 maximum, but today was a special day. It was the day meant for healthy business for these carriers. The same ticket was now priced at Rs.9800 to 14000 i.e. more than 3-4 times than normal prices...!!! It seems to be perfect occasion for airline company to plug their losses. It reminded me of similar occasion 2 years back when I had to travel from Jaipur to Delhi to attend my convocation at IIT Kanpur. At that time, a mere Rs.1500 worth ticket was priced at Rs.11000 i.e. around 10 times..!!! I am sure, Indigo and Kingfisher had a good laugh at the end of day.

But think about the traveler, someone could have a urgent meeting or someone might be holding a breath in waiting. Lakhs of people travel between these two metropolitan cities and instead of providing them a pinch of relief, these companies are extracting the best from their pockets. Where goes the ethical governance during these tough times? I know it's the result of simple demand and supply equation, but aren't assumptions allowed here, haven't these contingencies been planned by airlines? Can't the government expose an upper limit cap on the surging fares to protect the right of traveling for common people?

Is there a way out? I would be consoled if a proportion of this extra money am shelling out for these travels is spend on flood relief projects, but can it happen???

Modern Reality..Rakhi vs Sita

We still hear stories about Sita being married to Lord Ram through auspicious ‘Swayamvar’ where numerous kings and delegations had arrived to grab the opportunity to marry the queen by proving their mettle through wisdom, power and fame.

This is new face of reality where everything seems so un-real. These days there are number of reality based television shows that can leave you struck with more expectations than before. Talking about the ‘Swayamvar’, this time we have Rakhi Sawant on NDTV Imagine (only they can imagine these ideas..!!!) where she is searching for her true soul mate. Rakhi vs. Sita…crazy..!!! Sita would have died twice before hearing this.

Anyways, coming back to the auspiciousness of this show, a nice palace somewhere in Udaipur had placed a perfect background for activities like these. Around 13 odd men had gathered in the palace to take a wild glimpse of their damsel. Their profession ranged from businessman, body-builder, actor, sales manager, police officer etc. These men are nowhere near to the handsome hunks normally you see in the reality shows.

Rakhi is as modest as she can be in front of the camera. No loud expressions, no frills in her dresses, but more of emotions, drama, cries and sobbing…”mera past bahut kharab raha hai”…”ab main apne liye jiungi”…”bahut saha hai maine”… these have become famous lines that can be heard repeatedly during the show. Seems Rakhi is the only person on this holy earth who has suffered the maximum in a life.

The boys are not far too. One of them already has a wife and 2 kids before coming to the show. And kudos to him, he still dares to love Rakhi and asking her to marry her and be second wife. Surprisingly his first wife and parents are absolutely ok with this. What a modern nation India is..!!! There is one Mathur guy (#@%#$^) who has abandoned his job to take part in this race toward a common goal.

Ram Kapoor and Gautami are hosting the show and he seems to be cursing on to why he said yes for this kind of show.

The guys seem to be flirting with Rakhi as soon as she appears in front of them as if she is going to distribute every part of her flesh to each one of them who impress her.

No matter how bad you image is in front of camera or the audience, you have to be sellable. Despite of being on the worse side of controversies, she had always made the point that she is heard and seen in every television news, but she has succeeded..!!!

So a message in disguise????

We are no better...

So we are retaliating against Aussies for the racial attacks made on Indian students in Australia. There have been number of cases in Australia where Indian students are stabbed and deeply injured for being Asians. It’s good to hear that communities in India have raised their voices in unison.

BUT.

Are we different from the Aussies in this respect? Isn’t India one of the serious examples of racism across nations? How the racism in Australia different than that in India?Students in Australia are assaulted for being Asian but in India you can have number of reasons for creating nation wide brouhaha. In this respect we are much ahead of any country in this World. You can feel apprehensive being of different religion, different state, schedule caste, different country etc etc…. People are attacked for following a religion of their choice. So the freedom as mentioned by constitution goes under wraps. Still parties like MNS explore a reason to deface non-Maharashtrians without having guts to prove themselves in front of terrorists during Mumbai attack. Still you are taunted as north Indians while driving a vehicle in southern part of India. You have reservations in schools, colleges, government jobs and now in private sector jobs too, for schedule caste people giving them the reason to be laid-backed. Why would a person struggle when he can easily get a job through reservation..??? On the other hand, how could a hard working schedule caste person prove that reservations had no impact on his credibility and experience..??? Even now, foreigners are looked upon with suspicion. Despite of knowing the fact that it is because of them that India has flourish in areas of tourism, outsourcing, infrastructure etc, we make fun of them, tease them, assault them and more.

Why do we need to address A.R.Rahman as “South Indian” after he received Oscar? Why every Muslim in India is looked as a Pakistani? What’s the problem in following the religion of your choice? Why the political parties have to be proved secular to get public empathy?

Phew..we have so many reasons to stab other people of our choice..!!! Is this the freedom governed by democracy that we had learned in our school? We are no better than others..!!!!

"Critical enough???"

It has been around 2 hour and 50 minutes since I have swiped in my office and staring at the white glowing computer screen in front of me. It shows Outlook mail inbox and a word document related to some heavy test scripts that I am assigned with for my next project that is going to start at new place. The cursor hasn’t moved much during this time except a bit of scrolling to avoid hibernation of desktop screen.

It has been two long years that I have spent my life in an IT industry and today somehow it just came to my mind how different was my life at Chambal, a typical manufacturing company. Yesterday my PM (Project Manager, your sole point of contact for promotions, demotions, queries, scams, slaps, regrets etc) explained me about the criticality of the document related to test scripts that I should read before starting a new beginning. “Criticality”…and that moment reminded me of my notion of criticality in real sense.

I was working with Chambal Fertilizers (CFCL) in Ammonia manufacturing plant and one fine day, during the plant start-up operation, we were instructed to fire a huge burner (it’s not as simple as igniting a household gas burner. This burner is as tall as 4 storeys building and is ignited with natural gas) that would heat the production gas to a temp of about 700 degree Celsius (if I remember correctly). One of my superior was standing on the ground floor (of the burner), clearing out the pipe inlet with the natural gas that will be ignited to form a flame. I was standing on the first floor and peeping into the peep holes that were meant to inspect the burner room from inside. My job was to watch out if any of those burners gets ignited with a flame so that our job was done peacefully. My manager and senior manager were standing at the ground floor carefully watching my actions (may be for next appraisal..!!!) and all of sudden called me to have a quick chat. I climbed down quickly and he told me one story about this burner. Last year 4 people had lost their lives during the same process of igniting a burner…!!! The peep hole through which I was watching the flame inside could have actually ripped me apart if flame would have started. My curvaceous smile turned into inverted smiley and my plain forehead turned into ripples…Critical enough???

One fine evening as I was strolling in Ammonia liquid storage area (in this area, the liquid-gas ammonia is stored in a gigantic cylindrical tanks. I would be over estimating myself if I could recall the capacity of each..!!), and had a little chat with the supervisor present over there. This area was isolated from the main operating plant and was guarded with a gun man and an operator. Casually I asked the operator that why do we need a person dedicated to look after this pair of tanks where hardly someone could think of passing by. He gave me suspicious smile and told me that a pin-hole leak in any of the tanks could release the ammonia gas in the atmosphere and can gradually suffocate the surrounding 3-4 villages to death..!!! The guard had to protect these tanks from being the target of sabotage… Critical enough???

It was late in the night sometime around 2-3 AM when all of us, the shift engineers, couldn’t resist a fast nap from the schedule. It was a fateful day when I was staring at the control panel when calamity struck us and caused the failure of big, important equipment. It was a gas heating chamber and the lid at the top was leaking. It took around 24 hours to shut the whole plant operations to avoid the lid to get dissembled from the chamber. If we hadn’t taken the set of actions at 2-3 AM in the late night, the lid would have detached from the chamber coupled with huge gas explosion that could take many precious lives with it… Critical enough???

I still remember many such incidents during my working days at CFCL that make me think about the real sense of criticality that we IT ‘professionals’ are normally worried about. We guys are tensed about knowledge criticality where we fear being laid back due to lack of required knowledge. But is it more dangerous or harmful than the criticality of loosing someone life? We consultants are normally worried about the client’s commitments and then the project becomes critical when the commitments are jeopardised. But think of the storage tank, if got burst could wipe out various villages in vicinity..!!!! Human criticality vs. Reputation criticality.

Which one is more critical and now what should be my reactions to these so-called criticalities???This issue/ realisation happen when a hard core Chemical Engineer is made to sit in front of desktops and required to consult the clients without even meeting them..!!

'Zoozoo' in the age of romance

Finally we’ll see the new government holding the cabinet on Tuesday morning after much fanfare spread across elections and politics. UPA came out as a clear winner despite various odds against its favour. ‘Elections’ was not the only topic of this month, for least interested citizens there was Indian Premier League (IPL), a series of cricket matches that took more than 45 evenings of your schedule (matches are still going on..). People are still shuffling between sports channel and news channel to get latest of the news from both spheres.

In the midst of these two occasions I came to see one interesting ad: -Vodafone’s new character called “Zoozoo”…!!! I wasn’t interested in its first ad in which a group of ‘Zoozoo’s were lined up for getting Xeroxed…!!! As the concept matured, the ad seems to be quite amusing and these characters were getting comical. Each and every ad represents a functionality being offered by Vodafone and it is described in a very simple and efficient manner. The customers could relate to these situations quite comfortably and can laugh at the characters as they behave.

‘Zoozoo’ is a character that is played by actors wearing a white, body hugging suit and having an enormous looking shaped head. These heads were painted with every possible expression that needs to be displayed. Every shot of the ad consists of a situation and ‘zoozoo’s acting in that and finally how the particular functionality of Vodafone can help you in these situations. The expressions are quite good and hilarious. On the contrary Airtel has also launched its ad featuring Madhavan and Vidya Balan representing a romantic couple and showing the add-on functionalities of Airtel. But since the IPL has started (around a month or so) Airtel has changed its theme hardly twice. On the other hand I have seen almost 10-15 different themes of ‘Zoozoo’ since they appeared first time on television. The popularity that Vodafone has gained over the month shows that viewers would still prefer humour over romance.

Despite of being age-old Airtel customer, Vodafone holds the edge for me this time on television..!!!!

Sabse bada rupaiyya

"BSP candidate Deepak Bhardwaj declares assets worth Rs 600cr"

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The recent news in Times of India hadn’t shocked me with awe. Seems it was so obvious that such amount is bound to be possessed by ‘public servants’ of this nation..!!

Phew..!!! They are not talking about thousands or lakhs, it whooping 600 CRORES..!! If I count the personals who could/should or are expected to possess such huge pile of money, than I can name: Industrialists of good running companies, film makers and actors having good number of hit movies under the belt, prime positions holders in government like prime minister or president, few rare lucky chaps having won the miraculous lottery tickets and finally the thieves.

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I don’t think these MLAs can be categorized in any of the personals mentioned above except the THIEVES. It amuses me that how a person can possess 600 crores in one lifetime. If a normal service man starts working at the age of 20 and gets 30% increment every 3 years (which is nearly impossible in any company and almost impossible in today’s recession hit economy..!!), even than he can not even come close to a crore in his entire lifetime. And this MLA being a ‘public servant’ possessed 600 crore in 75% of his lifetime. The best thing is that this is the amount he has declared to the election commissioner; the actual black money is still under wraps..!!!

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I along with my wife have been setting our house for quite some time and everyday we are seen loaded with abnormal shaped items over my bike. When we try to consolidate the expenses we incurred during our shopping, it gives me a head roll and I could see some birds chirping and stars shining over my head..!!! I just pray that the current month end fast so that our monthly expenses are within our prescribed ‘heart-attack limits’. We had to bargain for almost everything, keep credit cards as far as possible, overlook BMWs and AUDIs parked nearby, resist going to home décor showrooms…any many more. And these MLA guys slapped us with his declaration. Why shouldn’t we take an easy route through forgeries and get the max out of this profession. Who care about the simpletons? Why should I overlook BMW, rather shouldn’t I possess one of them? I would get all luxuries I can ever dream about..BUT..think about someone who is writing such a blog about you. You might have lost the respect that you always long for in your life. I would prefer those birds and shining stars than sitting over pile of currency that you aren’t capable to possess.

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Vote for someone who care about your pockets rather than spending time in filling their own…!!!