picture perfect

When you nothing much to write then show a few pictures. A picture is worth a thousand words. So here are a few thousand words:
This is independence day flag hoisting at Manoribel– a beach resort on the outskirts of Mumbai. I love this place. Chilling and lazing on the hammock all day. The next photo is the view from my favorite seat at this place. Hehehehe

Life moves at a snail’s pace in Manori, actual plus metaphorically.
The three lovely puppies that are in our building. One recently died under a car. Sad. Jispa is getting used to the concept of death.
Aurora theatre. An old theater in Mumbai that is yet to be refurbished. The good part is that till then the seat prices are so low that you don’t mind a bad movie at the place. I mean for 100 bucks for a seat in an A/c hall, the picture is a bonus. Look at the ticket counter, look closely and you realize how thick the wall really is. It’s at least a foot deep. It feels funny talking to the guy. Its like talking to Alice in wonderland after she fell inside the burrow.
Two kids sat next to me in the train to work today. I made as many faces as I could possibly muster up. Try as I might, he just refused to smile. He just kept ignoring me, glancing once a while but no smile. How cheap yaar. The next one is his brother (I guess). He was Mr. perpetual frown, but at least he gave me a short quick smile before moving to his forwny self.

open your mind

Subscribing to the Tehelka magazine was one of the smart things that I might have done. They seem to be the only magazine of some substance and class left in India. It’s the only magazine I read. They seem to be the only ones willing to write what they believe in. I might not agree with some guys but I will always give credit to people with opinion that is researched and well thought. Tehelka is such a magazine. Many time I feel that they are irritatingly biased and wanting to raise huge movements against everyone. Its almost like the leftist student party that believes that everyone who is on the average richer or smarter has a skeleton in their cupboard which they desperately want to unearth. Possibly at all costs. Also they seem to be slowly selling their soul – I thought the cover on Aamir Khan was highly biased. They also started accepting advertorials in the name of Tehlka avenues. This is so irritating and crap. They must have ads for sure, but to cloak them in a way that looks like journalism is something that’s best reserved for the Bombay times, not Tehelka. And ya- I wish they change their name!

This time they had an issue dedicated to the government crackdown on SIMI. Good piece of reporting in the sense that they got their perspective right. Simply laying down the facts and case studies and letting the reader decide what is actually going on. It does help clarify through the mess of reporting that the mainstream is carrying mindlessly. Its almost in the genre of – confessions of an economic hit man. At the end you don’t know the real truth but know for sure that you must not trust everything thrown at you. It does help you see the opposite side as well. Balance…

Some outstanding stuff / quotes from a recent issue:-
Hermann Wilhelm Göring –Nazi party Leader -In an interview with Gilbert in Göring's jail cell during the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials (18 April 1946)
Göring: Why, of course, the people don't want war. Why would some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best that he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece. Naturally, the common people don't want war; neither in Russia nor in England nor in America, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a Parliament or a Communist dictatorship.Gilbert: There is one difference. In a democracy, the people have some say in the matter through their elected representatives, and in the United States only Congress can declare wars.Göring: Oh, that is all well and good, but, voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country.
My take - this is so similar in corporate life as well. The new guys will some and tell you that if this does not happen the consequences are bad / will be detrimental. X is the only way to do it. It’s an old scare the guy into believing approach. I have liked my company because of their practical approach. The new guy comes in and then wants to scare the old order. I hope I resist this movement. It’s difficult when the pacifist is called unpatriotic and accused of exposing the company to danger, but I hope to still call the spade a spade as I see it. Also I will hope to continue to build trust and happiness as opposed to building scare and danger.

In the times of Universal deceit telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act – George Orwell
My take – Reminds me of boardrooms and large meetings where everyone is either lying or hiding the truth. I hope to say what I think is the truth. I really hope.

William Faulkner – prejudice is shown to be most destructive when it’s internalized
My take – life’s big lesson. It’s correct. I fight every day every moment not to internalize prejudice. It is truly most destructive when internalized.

selfish selfless, who cares a damn?

Everyone is selfish and interested in their well being at the end.

This has been on my mind for sometime and when a friend raised it I felt compelled to write about it.
My thinking on this goes back a long way. Once my dad and I had this conversation on Jainism (my religion) and he was explaining that in Jainism monks are expected to give up everything. At a level one he is expected to preach to the people about the religion and at the next level the monk is expected to only bother about himself and not even teach to others, the final level is one where he refuses food and drink till he achieves one with the universe or something like that. I remember asking that isn’t that selfish. Dad told me that in many way, yes it was.
When parents scolded me and when they told me that they worked hard to ensure we got a decent upbringing, in our naivety or anger we thought – it’s only their duty; only to regret thinking so later.
When I do the best for my daughter, put her in good school give her access to the best facilities, I have her interest at heart. But is the source of this? is it my selfish desire to provide for her more powerful than a selfless desire to provide for her.
Aren’t all selfless desires really a manifestation of a supremely selfish desire? If we do donate out of our desire to help ‘selflessly’ aren’t we driven by our desire and in that, isn’t that desire ours, in other words driven from inside us, making the desire itself selfish?
Can one ever have a thought so pure that it is purely out of doing for doing sake? For this to happen it must pure of intention. If there is intention then there is root of selfishness. For this an act that is a reflex reaction may alone be selfless. Putting your hand out to save someone you don’t really need to and fast enough not to think about consequences, is that selfless or that a selfish action honed into your head over the years. The point is that everything you do is processed by your brain. Your brain is not designed to self destruct but to live long enough.
So are we all truly selfish. My answer is yes – but hold on – it’s not that bad. In fact it’s not bad at all. The question is that, is your mind balanced. Does it have desires that say happiness is only obtained by self, or does it say that others happiness makes for your happiness as well. The root is simple, can I be happy and content by seeing others happy. Am I able to let others happiness be my source. Also when some one does something, do we really need to check if his selfish motive is at heart or do we let it be. Can we live and create an environment that says, I don’t care too much about your reasons for helping me but I appreciate the fact that you are.
I have realized that by compartmentalizing my brain – by letting go of guessing other people’s ulterior motives, by attempting to see positives, by attempting to understand that other people’s motives are ok, life has been has been happier and better. I keep telling people that you can’t control your brain to think and be on guard, but you can compartmentalize the action. You can be happy that someone is helping you and also you can be a little wary of the real motive behind it. Both seemingly opposite and emotions can coexist. (my favorite yin yang).
On helping others – its simple, open you pre school book. There are enough lessons there for you.

its the brain, stupid

Sighhhh… its early morning. I am in office and its time for my blog. Normally my routine is reach early catch the newspaper and then figure if I have time to write or it normally just disintegrates into routine of answering mail and figuring shit. It does take some self discipline to blog.

The last Saturday we had the inter division football matches. Good fun. 5 a side football with no offside. I have always maintained that all sports are won and lost not on the ground but in the mind. And when the odds are shortened even more by these innovations that make the game shorter and faster, its not necessarily the skill that takes you there but your brains. The ground thanks to the rain is full of muck and this makes dribbling impossible and passes a waste of time. Good player struggle and idiots like me make hay while the rain clouds block light. At first they put me to attack. Big mistake. I missed three chances at the goal, though I sure think that my common sense helped me create them. In the knockout stage I played defender. Simple strategy – hit long balls direct into the opposite D. As my attacker Anil said – finally we got enough balls to convert. Result – 5 – nil. It is a simple game. The attackers hang around the goal and the defender whack the ball there. It is a smaller ground, no offside and almost no rules. I never played good football. That was my brothers’ job, but I deteriorated much slower with age than others. In corporate sports, it just takes simple fitness to do better than others.

Sunday was movies day. I saw Batman – the dark knight. I thought that movie was scripted by a very intelligent man. My favorite line was when joker tells batman – that the joker completes batman. In other words you need an opposite to define you. The movie is full of such nuggets. Its one of the best philosophical movies made. Comic characters allow the script to take a turn of fantasy and thereby allow the script writer to weave in a sub text that is of a higher order which might be difficult to combine in main stream films. This is a brilliant movie in that respect. Will definitely do more research on the movie and understand it further.

Next time someone really irritating comes into your life / office and bugs you. Remember to see the movie. You will realize that you require a villain, for the city to appreciate it’s hero. Everyone has roles to play. People are defined not only by what they do but what others do or not do. You are never in a vacuum. You are but a part of the ecosystem. Bird poo on your car is a piece of shit but tones of it make for guano and become an import source of minerals for mining. (Search for Atacama Desert/ guano / war of the pacific) (its always nice to show off some little wisdom you gleamed from your recently read book. Hehehehehehhehe.

'copy' writing

V-inu says that I write well. If only I checked what I wrote and just rewrote a bit better it would be dam neat. Ya. I know that but what to do, I did not ever like checking the writing. My mom couldn’t make me do it while I was in school. In office I take pains to check and re write and stuff like that and that’s enough. That takes a toll on me in any case. In office I think I have become the chief copywriter, chief visualizer and chief creative all rolled into one. Not many people can write half decent copy. And I have realized in the years gone by. A very few select guys have the intellect to write sense. I believe that I am half decent. There are many better than me, many many; but I get eth benefit of having billions worse off. What shit. I think I started writing better after reading. It’s not just the reading level but the exposure level that counts. The ability to exposue yourself to newer ideas, newer styles and the willingness to learn. I have said this before – the willingness to learn – from anything – from a rock perhaps.

In my job, good writing is not equal to original writing. Thanks to Google, I have the opportunity to pick lines, research the subject and immediately figure out some stuff to put out. We have a internal emailer that we put out. I am the defacto editor there and the privileges are that I write the ed’s note every time. Below is the ed’s note. I kinda like the way I wrote it. It’s just a piece of lifted lines from around but decently strung together. There is a reason they call it copy writing I mean how difficult can that be? How difficult? This quarter we focused on the Monsoon.


Legend has it that on one his trips back from Kerala, Vasco da Gama asked the king whether he could take a pepper stalk with him for replanting. The king, well known for sarcasm, responded calmly, “You may take our pepper but I don’t think you will be able to take our rains',' referring to Kerala’s twin monsoons, almost a prerequisite for the growth of pepper plants.
No Indian in his right sense would need to be explained the importance of monsoon. And that by that logic it is indispensable for someone selling India. The progress of the monsoon is keenly watched, for it holds (mythically, some argue) the key to everything - from crop output to inflation, consumer spending and economic growth. The first Indian monsoon forecast was issued in 1886. In the last 135 years, the monsoon has been "normal" 94 times -- when rainfall was either 10 per cent above or below average. Whatever that means to you.
For most of Indians Monsoon means much more. The Monsoon has been the subject of many creative. They may be of hope, romance, tragedy, an excuse to clasp your love or the usage of the rain as a metaphor. Thoda sa Roomani ho gaye for the right brained, a movie that is a poetic blend of dreams and reality, a story of ordinary people and that what is extra-ordinary in them.
At the end, the question is simple. It is the one that we ask of yourselves, ourselves this Monsoon – can you make it rain?

Goooooooaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaalllllllllllllllllllllllllll

At the station I overheard a bunch of going boys discussing football. Kya shot tha! The guy slid so well. He was 2 nil up. In extra time I whacked it in. what an idiot you are. I can beat you any time.
Its monsoon season in Mumbai. Monsson in Mumbai invariably means football. Tons of it. Playing in the school, on the road, playing billa football. Billa football is actually playing football with a cola crown (cap). Usally played over smooth tiles ground and usauuly played when you have too much rains outside and get into class completely wet. The crown by its very nature and boys by their nature define the game. You can’t do too much dribbling but you sure can put your foot right on the crown and drag it till as far as you can. All the other guys can kick your leg like crazy trying to get it off the god dam billa. You can use your arms to fend of attackers and maintain your bvalance but you can’t wrestle with the players – that is rugby while we were playing football (soccer). But hell we played a lot and came home stinking and mucky. That was the entire point ofcourse.
Coming back to the bunch at the station. They animatedly discussing the game. ‘He was 2 nil up and then as soon as he scored I hit the ball directly and it went as a goal’. “arre, I was pressing A continuously. Man I was giving him a thrashing. I can take you anyt…” Wait a minute, wait a minute, ‘pressing A continuously’. Oh shit, they were playing football on play station or a computer. What whimps. What a bunch of losers. Complete wasters.

Water water everywhere, not a single drop to drink

There is this great drinking water place at flora fountain sponsored by the Rotary or the lions club. I would not know the exact details. It is horrendously designed and ugly to look at. It has no character and is designed to alienate people and is highly uninviting. I don’t remember ever wanting to drink water or anyone actually dinking water from the place. I wish it was a better designed structure that was inviting and open for the people to drink water. But due crdit to the organizers for keeping the place clean. In fact every morning the keeper washes the places thoroughly and scrubs it clean. The cynic in me one day was wondering… how much water does this guy use to wash the place? He uses a pipe and washes the dam thing for 30 minutes I assume, wasting tones of water. While I applaud the effort to keep it clean I really see it as a waste of time. Also not to mention that the water being washed down makes the place around it dirty. I am not a big fan of the drainage system.
See the below photo. I cant think of anyone putting his head through the white things trying to drink water. The guy using lots of water scrubbing it clean. The barricade actually stopping people to freely access the place. Public stuctures like public art must not have barricades.

the attack of the republicans

We got this email yesterday from IT ...

"Dear Users,
Internet access is available to many of the employees in ba nk. This exposes various risks like confidential information theft, virus outbreak etc. A new trend that is emerging is that hackers are downloading malware (malicious software) onto the user desktops through infected websites on the Internet. Some of these malware are designed amongst other things to capture userid/passwords and automatically send them to attackers.
So Information Security Committee has decided to Grant Internet access to employees on a strictly "need basis". Some of business heads have already provided the list of users who will have access to Internet.
From 31st July onwards Internet access will be available only to the employees for whom approvals have been obtained. However many ba nk related website will be open to all users. List of such website is attached in the mail"

------ wow, pretty cool. i just cant undersatnd this stuff. Are we all getting too right winged? sometimes I think that as organisations get larger they get more and more right winged. there rae tons of stuff that completely drive the employess up the wall. the employees cant figure whats happening, they get teh feeling of being controlled by a larger force, typically the HO. the HO mostly does not have a clue on whats happening on the ground and their policies are wierd and mostly scare inducing. i am sure they have thier reasons but for the man on the ground working hard. I inclination is to let it be! freedom is always good. As a book on parenting once said - Permit where you can and protect where you must!

AAKRAMAN

Sometimes too much work gets piled on. My standard response – I take my time and think and write it down. Then once written I aggressively go for it, finishing, delegating and butchering it till it gets over. No respite. The work will slowly disappear and you win!
This applies to personal and professional work.

PS: sometimes I wonder if I might just rapidly spontaneously combust. Poof... I am just no more.

book & fight

I am reading this amazing book on behavioral economics – ‘predictably irrational’ by Dan Ariely. It’s quite a fascinating book on how people behave, and quite irrationally. Probably turning the classical economist theory on its head. It’s a sure mind opener. One book cannot truly influence the mind in a positive manner. One needs to read a lot to form opinions one synapse at a time. Some books have more to give and some less.

Sometimes you don’t know what the book gives but its so beautiful. ‘Blankets’ by Craig Thomson is one such book. It’s an absolute beauty. It’s an autobiographical graphic novel. He so captures the feeling of growing up, of love and of the complex process of learning / coming to term with one’s belief’s values etc. It is as valuable a tome on parenting as any other. Really a top class read. Is it something that a teenager can learn, enjoy as much as a parent – maybe not, but I would guess as much.

I have always wondered if I should interfere in a street fight. But I hesitate. Who is right and who is wrong. Who started it? I am always paralyzed by analysis. My first reaction is to just take a blow at the superior guy and favor the underdog but that’s not the best justice dispensing mechanism. I still don’t know what’s the right thing to do?

Cell Cameras Capture Crazy

I have taken doodling to anew art form. 3 D doodling. This was a meeting where we had saunf/variari or I think its called fennel seeds in english.

ain't i holy?
A ha - my angel, flanked by her two cars
Easily among my favourite pics. We were walking arounf regal/colaba and we entered National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA). A photo echibition of Raghu rai was on. Quite pretty pics all over. This one was Jispa looking at a picture. She liked the NGMA. I think because of the grand layout more than anything else.
But I really love this pic. And if anyone cares to ask, "which camera?" - hahahaha. Its my humble cell phone camera. Anyone's camera.

Gandhi, my father, my daughter

My interest and my understanding in Gandhiji’s philosophy and way of life had largely been triggered by Freedom at Midnight and then through his own ‘Satyagraha in South Africa’ finally culminating (for the present) in ‘the life of Mahatma Gandhi’ by Louis Fisher. All three have made great profound impact in my life. Layer that with the movie Gandhi that we must have seen umpteen times in childhood, and what I have is a vivid image in my mind about his life, mission, ideals and what not. I am trying to understand his ideals I am truly impressed with what he stood for.

I got my hands on the movie recently again. Yesterday I watched Gandhi with Jispa. Jispa (5 and a half) is normally quite sensitive and can’t even watch a Disney classic without being moved. She does not like sad animations. Violence in movies is just not her. Nevertheless when she came by my side, I let watch after warning her that this has a lot of fighting. She has learnt about Independence struggle in school so I guess she was curious.
I kept explaining to her what was happening. She followed a lot on her own. She kept encapsulating what she understood from the movie. The speech in South Africa declaring non violence as the chosen path. She kept counting the number of times he went to jail. Around four times I think (in the movie).I then tried to explain to her the defiance of the Salt act. I was explaining to her the importance of Salt. Funnily this was the first time she realized that mummy puts salt in all the food. She did not believe it at first. Mummy had to confirm the same to her. She realized the power of styagraha when the Indians bravely took the blows while trying to get to the salt pans. She saw jallianwalla baug as well. For a sensitive kid she did a lot of growing up. She was then completely freaked out when she realized that after Independence Indians were fighting amongst themselves. She knew Gandhiji taught not to fight and that is being more stranger than hitting back, but she did not know how to react when we Indians were fighting amongst ourselves.
In the end when Ghandhiji was shot she asked ‘who shot him? Was he a foreigner’, no I replied. “he was an Indian?” “ya” I replied again. “why did an Indian kill Gandhi?” she always thought it was the British who beat him, jailed him and more or less hated him. “because he did not like him” I answered. “but I thought all Indians liked Gandhi”. “no sweetie, some didn’t. So he shot him”. “Gandhiji died?” she asked emotionally choked. “Ya” I was choking my self. We looked at each other, half choking half holding back tears. We both tried a brave smile, looking at each other for support. We were actually supporting each other. Jispa grew up a bit, I grew up a bit. It was a truly special moment for me.
Trivia - I first understood the power of Gandhi from my dad. I remember having a long conversation with him on non violence before I was converted.

Look ma... Double Decker

Yesterday after a long time, I got an opportunity to sit right ahead on the top floor of the famous Bombay double-decker bus. Actually not that the opportunity is too hard to come by but generally sitting right up there in front is perfect for making your face an oily pollution trapper. Its monsoon time, the air is highly ionized and therefore the pollution is generally much lower. The air feels cleaner (yes – FEELS). So I got in and sat in front. It reminded me of the time when we were kids and we used to sit right up there with our head almost out and our mouths wide open with tongue sticking out. Luckily Bombay is not a largely bug flying zone. Pollution was not that big an issue as well 25 years ago. Sitting there brought back some interesting memories. Here is a faltu photo essay of the lovely journey

Waiting at the traffic signal. Amazing to get a top view!

Top deck perpective of the road ahead
The beautiful flora fountain contrating against the ugly top side of the bus
A ha - the bus number - the opposite perspective.
Such a small space and a double decker wanting to squeeze through. Will it succeed, will it knock over the bikes like dominoes.

Just... I like the Oval maidan that you can see

the greens that you miss from the ground floor but which you notice from the top

the actual view if you are seated with your back resting against the... well... backrest

the women coming out of the women's only bus that was ahead of us.

Men about to get off the magical journey and start their drudgery.

Random Photos

when you want to update your blog adn you dont have time to write ( i always have ideas though!) you just update the photos.

The book on parenting under the Adventure section. Hmmmmm.... crosswords trying to prove POINT.
A to Z on one shelf. Pretty Useful I assume. Crosswords again.
Jispa arranging her food and saying - look a butterfly. I loved doing that as well. I still love it.
Monsoon outside my home window from my humble cell phone 2 megapixel camera. SO next time someone sees a pretty photo and asks 'which camera'- answer them - 'does it matter?'
Jispa at play. I think she was playing teacher teacher.

BORED

I am normally sooo bored at pub parties. I must be really really bored to take these pictures from a colleague’s cell phone. SEE THE DEPTH OF FIELD :) (depth, ya sure, hahahhahahahah)

cheapo papa

I have been using air travel for the last four odd years now. I see a few parents wanting to buy something for their young ones from their travels. No it’s not a souvenir, its more like a bribe, or rather a guilt elevation program. I have no such guilt. Of course I rather stay at home but I have no guilt traveling. On time I did feel bad was when I received a message from Jasmine – “you broke the record this year. You were out of town for all three b’days and anniversary … Jasmine.” Ok Smarty pants that was nice and straight.

But I am not that bad a guy. When Jispa was around three, I used to get something for her from my travels. That was typically the 250 ml water bottle served on the flight! Wowwwww. Then I used to get her the Free tiny plastic spoon. Or sometimes the wet wipes. Boy am I cheap or am I cheap. But I guess it was good fun. I did not want her to get the “what did you get me” habit. So even if I did pick up some book or the other, I would be quiet about it. Then as she grew older I stopped getting her stuff. Recently I got her a bottle again. She looked at me and laughing said, “daddy, this is so useless. We have so many bottles.” Yeah yeah… I am sure. Then I got her the spoon. She laughed again. Then I reminded her about the fun she used to have as a kid with it. Jispa is now 5 and a half and now she goes all nostalgic and loves the spoon, when I get it.
This time while travelling, I thought I might click this stuff and showcase what a complete cheapo I am.



Life comes a full circle. Doesn’t it?

mobile blog

Just got myself a mobile phone with internet access device. Let me see how good I am. No excuses any more. Anywhere bloggoing! A little tedious for sure

me brutus?

Yesterday I had the great fortune of listening to a panel discussion on cricket. Amongst them was the coach of the team Tom Moody. It was a revelation. That guy was amazing. it is the insight that you get from his cricketing brain that is amazing. the entire panel on one side and Tom on the other. The others I came out impressed with are the Sri Lankans. They have imboibed with their interactions with the aussies the sense of discipline and clean thinking. Sangakkara and Jayawardena are clearly very very sharp guys. No doubt about it. Wow.

Another thing I came across while researching the phrase “et tu, brute” in the wikipedia:-
While the words are very emotionally moving as an expression of shock and betrayal towards Brutus, it has recently been argued that the phrase was instead uttered as a threat. Caesar is thought to have adapted the words of a Greek sentence which to the Romans had long since become proverbial. The complete phrase is said to have been "You too my son, will have a taste of power," of which Caesar only needed to invoke the opening words to foreshadow Brutus' own violent death, in response to his assassination.

The other day Jispa was having a nice long conversation with me on why she should be staying at her cousin’s place as opposed to coming with us for a play. Hmmm… she is like me. I can engage in conversation till eternity if I know I am correct at a fundamental level. Well she was correct but then I was not wrong on my stand so we had an infinite deadlock. Mommy really helps in these situations.

On Saturday evening we saw “khuda ke liye”. Nice movie. One of the story lines involves a dad doing something for her daughter that was obviously very wrong. But from the dad’s perspective it was very correct. (of course in the movie its an absurd unbelievable exaggeration) . The point is that as a dad I would take a decision that I believe is in the kids interest. But from the other perspective it could be so horribly wrong. There is no guarantee against this. Dads will always take decisions. I think the trick is to do a few things right – listen to your daughter’s point of view, think if you can live with it, see how bad it could get, know when to let go (and when not to). There.

It's all about the energy dude

Of all my jobs the one at Momentum Consulting was the most intense for me. It gave me soo much but also took a piece of my soul. I was there for only 9 months but it gave me a treasure tove of wisdom to last a lifetime. Today one can easily say that it shaped me and my thinking and will remain one of the bedrocks of whatever I manage to achieve. There I worked on the strategy for one of the most irritating large companies. It was a cement company by the name of FCC. (Actually if you substitute the F with the A you will get the real name. This is all done to avoid the idiots in the company who put google alerts). So FCC is the biggest dickhead of a company with a management that is allows politics and decision making steeped in bullshit. No wonder there are consultants hovering over the company at all points of time including M/s McK etc. There was so much thought in the strategy that we had presented. The whole place had negative energy and way to weigh down any person trying to do a good job. You get a fair idea on the guys by simply looking at them talk in office. If you notice in places there is no trust, the guys talk in hused voices, there will be closed doors and no coffee conversations on each others desks. You will see the shifty eyes. Yes don’t miss those shifty eyes constantly looking around to see if any body is listening. The guys turning back again and again to make sure. Man it sure is a piss off. I had a chance to go back to this place again yesterday. It took all my resolve and my patience to talk and understand. I can’t do consulting. I can’t do this shit for sure. I like to see consultants as evil vultures seen in Disney movies that hover around near dying animals waiting to feast of them. Of course there are genuine guys in the business as well and momentum was as genuine as it gets, but then that’s the issue. With a genuine intent and work ethic Momentum took more out of you and you really lost it when the company would not be able to uplift themselves over petty issues and run the strategy.
Going back there was to relive some of those awfull memories, those awful feelings. I would never want to step inside that office building ever …ever. I wonder how people work there day in and day out. The archaic furniture, the closed wooden cabins, the silently working staff, the reluctance to smile/laugh, I would just die out slowly but surely. Laughter – its so important in anything that you do. LAUGH, take yourself a little less serious and enjoy whatever you do. No matter what! I want to die laughing! heheheheh

random photos

summer time... Jispa's cousin coming over. burger is for dinner and i am the designer chef... i only do the designing
Chakram on the plate as well...
how rickety can a stool get... i wonder who gets to sit on this one...
just like that. thats the under constuction bandra worli sea link. I WAS THERE!!!!! putting this up on social networking sites might be a better idea than the ones in front of eiffel tower or the big ben. those photos are soooo wanna be. I dont think we have gotton over the 'i was there' syndrome.

silence

The most overrated skill in the world is oratory skill. I have no clue why people go gaga and reinforce this skill from childhood. We clap when the child speaks up, we clap when she goes on stage and speaks and we keep pushing them to speak. But the bigger skill is actually keeping quiet. So many people have so much opinion so little information. The more the opinionated the person clearly the lesser the knowledge he/she has. I was thinking today, that after reading quite a bit in the last few years, I have actually spoken less than I would have. In the face of knowledge, I keep quite, greedy to assimilate more and more. In the face of ignorance I keep quite, the quite confidence of knowing and of understanding the futility. There are more reasons to hold your tongue than to let it exercise. Yet we glorify speech. We must glorify silence. If you are smart, be quiet. If you are dumb even more reason to be quiet. But if you think you are smart and you open your mouth, then you are truly ……

Body language is also words. While we use body language some of us are conscious about it while the others are not so. Of course conscious is better than ignorance but here to the winner is the poker face. The ability to not use body language at all is a skill few posses. The silent assassin is the most effective one. Not showing your response in the short run can be the most power inducing strategy of all times.

aye wai

Running… I so love it. I love to run. And its even more fun in cities with tons of obstacles in your way. Who needs big time parkour training? Running to catch your bus is enough. The other day coming out of a movie hall, it was fun to run out between taxis, carts, people etc and dart towards McDonalds for Jispa’s burger. Today I ran fast enough to catch the bus. The best part is feeling nice while running because after a point you realize that you can easily catch the bus at 80% efficiency. I remember the last year when i twisted my knee. I was afraid that I might never be able to run that fast and crazy again.

Today morning was Jispa’s blood test. Man it sure hurts. She gets so pissed. She thinks we have no idea how hard it hurts her. She wanted a pin to poke us and show us how hard it hurts. But I had to keep talking to her after the syringe to get mind off the thing. I can really out talk her. Heheheheheheh. She finally forgot about the poke and there…good mood once again.

Five star food – some body decode this for me – is this veg/ non veg, what the hell is this?

100% attendance

Jispa got an award I never did get. An award for 100% attendance in school. Pretty cool I think. This award is dedicated to her and her mommy. I don’t think I played any part in it. If it were up to me I surely would have made her miss a few days of school for a silly thing like a vacation! But then Jispa loves going to school and her mommy also loves sending her so I am out voted 2 is to 1 and there, she wins the god dam award. Now next time it’s going to be impossible for any bunking!
I studied in Dubai till the 3rd standard post which we shifted to India. In Mumbai from the fourth standard the monsoon never did suit me. Every monsson I would down with tonsils or something or the other. I was quite a skinny kid in school. I remember never being short of power, I ran fast, I even qualified for the shot put finals once but just a kid that kept falling ill. I had chicken pox, jaundice, malaria and the works! Well that was life. That shit kept going right till the college ended. I was finally happy when a few monsoons went by without me on the sick parade. Wonder how I manage dot get through the NCC.

lessons from the Mahatma

Gandhi did two things. He made the British people aware that they were cruelly subjugating India, and he gave Indians the conviction that they could, by lifting their heads and straightening their spines, lift the yoke from their shoulders. After that, it was inevitable that Britain should someday refuse to rule India and that India should some day refuse to be ruled.
The British beat the Indians with batons and rifles butts. The Indians neither cringed nor complained nor retreated. That made England powerless and India invincible.

I have lifted the lines from the book “the life of Mahatma Gandhi’ by Louis fisher. The autobiography is a n amazing account of an even more amazing life. What a book. The book ranks high amongst the books that could change your life! Better than the screwball/ cornball philosophy that Paoulo or his ilk dish out. This book must be read as a part of a four part series, I think. The four being ‘freedom at midnight’, this one, ‘Satyagraha in South Africa’ and ‘My experiments with truth’. The last two being Gandhiji’s own.
Its amazing how we learnt the history of independence and about Gandhi’s life without really understanding it. No history teacher could teach us his life, history, passion and ideals. We learnt little, understood nothing. Another line I read somewhere - Those who don’t learn from history are condemmed to repeat it.
While reading the books I think of two movies. One of course is Gandhi by Richard Attenbourogh, and the other funnily enough is lage raho Munnabhai. The first brilliantly portrays his life and second one is exactly what one goes through after reading a lot of his works and understanding his life. It cannot but move, it cannot but plant a seed of change in you and it cannot but force you to think.
I have always believed that every book gives you one key message. That’s all. One key message. One cannot hope to understand more than that. The key message from this book is- ‘supreme clarity of thought’. It is amazing how one man with supreme clarity of thought can accomplish so much. Wow.
I remember in school days I had a big debate on non violence v/s violence with dad. He got me convinced on non violence. This was in 9th standard. I used the argument to write a much appreciated debate speech on the same topic. There is a big reason why I never got to make the speech in public, but then that’s another blog. If Jispa ever has the debate topic, she definitely knows the books to refer to!

Doodler's delight

I have been doodling rather than writing these days. I suddenly realized that my doodling is pretty decent. Now I remember that I was always pretty decent at this stuff but was really bad at the realistic kind of drawing.
So here you are – the adventures of chakram – http://funnychakram.blogspot.com . The product of my doodling. I love these a lot, and I want to do 30 of them, print a book and give to Jispa. As of now, I have done 18. Will have to manage many more.

Bingo was her name - o

While going to the bus stop every morning we have befriended a dog that Jispa has christened ‘cute cute bingo’. This is the one that she plays with everyday and we get glucose biscuits for.
She likes cute cute bingo as she lets Jispa play with her, hug he, massage her ears etc. also she is very stable and does not lick around. She merely comes close and smells. Jispa likes that a lot.
Here they are – two peas in a pod

Here she is playing in the morning at the public bus stop next her bus stop.

logical conversations

Today morning Jispa and me were off to her bus stop in a taxi. Suddenly Jispa tells me that the taxi’s ears are near the steering wheel. ‘taxi ears?’ I ask. ‘Ya, they are near the steering wheel, see’. ‘Huh? Where are the ears?’ ‘not ears, GEARS’. ‘oh those, yup. They are near the steering wheel.’ Me continuing with bewildered expression. ‘Who told you that’? ‘I was seeing that the taxi has no gears down. But how can a car be without gears, it must have gears. But I cannot see them. Then I saw him moving that up and down so those are the gears’. Ok now I am impressed. She figured out the hand gears. Hmmm. She is quite the analytical types. I think I have said this before, I like her train of thought. She has a clear logical thought processing centre. Most of the times I like ot ask her how she knows and from where she learnt. It’s quite funny. She knows from where she picked what up. It’s either a show of her memory or a show of her logical skills. It is my most favorite time pass. She is a delight to talk to. Every morning it’s absolutely amazing to have conversations with her.

bumbai ki taxi

Taxi's in Mumbai are quite wierd. Here is one taxi. I have photograhed the interiors.
The switch on his steering is the horn!
Taxi's used to hang CD's as a fad; this guy - well take a close look - has a cut out of a - aaaa... a motherboard?!!??
the ceiling of his taxi has an interesting saying - wife is knife, will cut your life
this is the image right above the passenger seat. hmmm.. kinda goes well with the earlier saying.
this is not the same taxi but another one. he has obviously kept a photo of his 'wife' in his wallet.

Happy Sad, Sad Happy

There are happy people and there are sad people. happy people remain happy and sad people remain sad. Happy people find happiness in all that they do, sad people find sadness in their work. Happy people can’t be sad and sad people can’t be happy. You cannot make happy people come out of happiness for long and you can’t make a sad person come out of sadness for long. They go back to their destined status of happiness or sadness. You cannot change their nature. Try to make happy people sad and sad people happy is guaranteed to make you sad. So if you are a sad person go ahead do it. If you are a happy person – avoid it. But if you are a happy person you can’t see a person sad so you will try to do it and if you are a sad person then you will automatically spread sadness but then happy people will soon avoid you. Everyone reaches true nature fast. Of course true nature is not always extremes but yes you care broadly on the right or on the left and typically the polarities exist pretty predominantly. So there, the secret to happiness or sadness (whatever you are is no relation to what you desire) is there within you. So do not seek happiness. If you are happy, you will be happy; if you are the sad types then you will be sad. Recognizing your true self will give you less conflict. The problem is when you try to be something else or when you try to make someone something else. People will feel uncomfortable with their fake self and reach their equilibrium fast. Understand that, understand yours. Live your life!

like father like daughter - speed

This blog is going to become more about me than my daughter. Heheheh.. (evil snigger).
On Saturday was Jispa’s school sports day. She was quite excited about it. Everybody expected her to win; she kept winning in all the trials leading to the day. I am firm that I do not want any burden of expectation on her while sets off for her race. The last thing she wants is for us to say – win win win… so I did not even give her a ‘best of luck’ wish. Go perform and leave the rest to… well…. to rest. To cut short – she won, by a mile. What I liked that when I saw her run, is her technique. Lots of kids were running but she ran well balanced and in control. She is fast. You realize only when you see her next to her age group. Post that race was the parent’s race. I so wanted to win this one. The burden of expectations I wittingly put on myself. But I wanted to test my speed against the others there are. The race started and I started running. It was a 70 meter race and soon I realized that it does require too much effort. I was winning by a mile as well. I slowed up and completed without so much as breathing hard. I guess it’s not so much my fitness but the others lack of. I saw the other fathers with all well toned gym bodies but it seems no speed. I guess the burst of speed required for a short run is different from the muscle mass built. But I sure loved the win. The buzz (in my head of course) did not subside till Sunday.

I liked it when the other parents were saying – now we know where Jispa gets her speed from.

I am more excited about winning my self than about Jispa winning. That’s because of the quiet confidence that I had in Jispa winning. I was pretty sure she would win. It was like an expected result. But me winning was not expected by me. So I guess it’s not megalomania but more of faith in Jispa. It seems that I have nicely put it and deflected the accusation. But I am quite convinced about it! :)

We saw Taare Zammen par a second time. Jispa continues to amaze us with her razor sharp memory. She remembered a few scenes and quickly predicted what next. Very very quickly.

here is jispa sleeping with chocolate brownie and pooh bear

PTM's a breeze with a star

Friday was parents teachers meeting at Jippy’s school. Jispa is quite a good girl and obedient. She is also fairly ahead of the class in most activities. We listen to stories of her being the star of the class etc. well I guess it’s a good thing. Let’s see how she grows up. Kids have a habit of short circuiting by the time they graduate.
They have a board on which the parents have to write some notes for their kid and last time around we wrote something funny. this time around I decided to get even more funnier. I wrote some rhyming stuff about silly billy rumpa killy. Jispa told me that the teacher read out all the notes in class and then at the last she read her note again. I have this knack of writing utter nonsense and getting away with it in the name of irreverence. But I like the fact that Jispa is getting exposed to different sorts of humour. Her entire class enjoyed it, it seems. Way to go. Now I feel proud. I am a self conceited arrogant ass. All that star kid thing is nothing compared to this!

Jispa has been eating carrots everyday – reason – her teacher told her that eating carrots gives you sparkling eyes. She didn’t like them before. Now also she cant finish them all but that does not stop her from attacking a carrot every morning and then feeding the last half to us.

Check it out…


We told her teachers about chakram. Now I draw her, a chakram on her hand before she goes to school. She loves it! This is the same chakram whose adventures are drawn on our walls.

random random

This shit is becoming a routine. Every day I come in to office early and the take an interview. I need people and since I come in early I get them in early as well. This leaves me little time for my blog. This blog is something that I cherish so much. Hopefully it becomes a body of work over a large period of time. I guess the trick is to dedicatedly write something or the other. Jispa is of course the most important part of the blog. I doubt if I could have written if not for Jispa.
One other interview was happening and the dame casually mentioned that she blogged. Now we wanted her to show some of the work that she wrote. I just googled her and got to her blog site and submitted that to the boss to evaluate. She passed! Great. But then she got engaged to be married in Delhi so she could not get the job. But goes to show how far a blog can go. There are tons of privacy issues as well. God knows how all read my blog. Who knows who will read and psychoanalyze my blog to figure out what an ass I am? Well as of now I don’t care. I can always turn it off from the Google crawlers and there you are - privacy resumed.
This piece is also written over a couple of sittings. Obviously between interviews. The balance of power has shifted from the interviewer to the interviewee. They don’t even get their CV’s printed these days. But I don’t blame them. I don’t remember the last time I printed my CV. I hardly made my CV since a long time. That’s what you get for being happy and content. Shit will hit you and you won’t expect it!

I redecorated the desk. Jispa was my interior decorator.

47 at 32

47 runs off 37 balls including 1 six and five fours. Not bad after being sent one down since no body else wanted to go up. I reached the crease in the first over itself with the ball swinging around off. I was struggling to even connect the ball leave alone get off the mark. It took me a tedious 6 balls. This is almost an eon in a twenty over match. But I hung in. I realized that I as I play more, I think more and that has actually helped improve my game. Now days my mantra is simple if it comes in play straight and if any ball is wide, hit hard. That works well in the start when you are not sighting the ball too much and the ball is swinging around a bit. I hung in there, a couple of fours and a few singles and twos and I was well on course. After I played my self in the runs began to come in much better. Keep the head down and concentrate on the ball. Then I realized another thing that guruji Arun spoke about – bat speed. I concentrated bit on that as we need to accelerate the scoring and well the shots began flowing. Every season I learn something new. The must be learning good as the scores as definitely improving!

How the hell did humans invent this game with such a hard ball? One shot took an inside edge and whacked into my inner thigh. Wow. That hurt. Right now it’s a red blue, purple patch that is so bloody scary to look at. I have also learnt not to show too much pain on the field. Take that in your stride and face the next ball. I was also lucky to get a run off that ball so that I could relax a bit before I took strike again. I remember Arun telling me not to show pain. I also remember Sachin getting hit by Brett Lee and not even flinching. So that’s that. I can only tell you that the ball is really hard and it hurts like hell.

I am filing this from Indian School of Business campus, where I am here for a training program. Leading teams for high performance. I am generally a cynic of this but I guess like any good book, if I can learn one good thing, just one, then it’s well worth the effort. This is the first three day training that I am attending. The one day ones have been quite boring so far, quite useless as well. Will let you guys know if it was worth it!

Wilderness in the city

My daughter is going to be demented and I am sure it’s my fault. We have a lot of fun everyday in the morning while dropping her off to work. We have made friends with two dogs already. One is called two biscuits but does not eat any biscuits; the other one is called bingo. Bingo is the name of any dog that we see. We keep saying ‘hi bingo’ to every dog we see and ‘hi jojo’ for every bovine creature. This started in Jaisalmer where there were tons of them around, lots and lots of all kinds of cows. Now also on the way to the bus stop we take a short cut through a not so happening area. On one corner there is a garbage dump. So we can see tons of jojos, bingos and absolutely fantastic kites. In fact just yesterday I saw a kite swoop down and pick up what looked like a rat in its claws and fly away. Really brilliant. Garbage in the city is the only way we can see wild life I guess. We also enjoyed seeing these kite fly around in Jaisalmer from the roof tops. Such magnificent birds.

Well in any case here is she imitating me in the morning. I first put it on my head since she was reluctant to wear it, then she decided to do it herself. I tell you Jispa, if you someday wonder where you get your irreverence from – the answer is definitely not your mom.

It was nice playing the intra dividision tournament on Sunday at Matunga Gym. Man I feel like a demi-god in fitness. I run faster than any one else and I definitely play better than most others. And thanks to the boss Arun Solanki, I understand the game better than any one else. One idiot tried to sledge me and said stuff after I got out. I mean what’s the point of sledging after someone is out. You sledge to get me out and after mission is accomplished its end of the story. You shut up. So this idiot was fielding after wards and he misfielded and let a few go. I let him hear a few comments. It made him look such an idiot. Sledge smart you idiot. Never lose sight of your brains. NEVER.

Its the love of the game

It’s getting a little difficult to get inspiration to update the blog. I really don’t want to write crap though arguably my entire blog could one big pile of junk. I just picked up ‘the motorcycle diaries’ written by Che Guevara before he was CHE Guevara. His achievements in his life post the motorcycle diaries make the motorcycle diaries what it is today. I have no such delusions about my blog but I still like to think of it a little like that. A little romanticism never hurt anybody.
I try and play Squash regularly and realize what age does to instincts. It’s quite tough to play that hard and fast. Playing the coach is sure fun. He does play a power game and tries to ensure that the game is good fun for both. I am sure he can finish the game in 20 seconds. But three games with him last half an hour at the minimum. The third game is sheer murder for me. He does play a single power shot but just keeps the ball in play and places it across the court. Woa! Its complete murder running cross court.
Yesterday he was not in and I tried playing and practicing on my own for some time till two gentlemen came in. One fat guy and the other an old man. I find it extremely annoying to see in that matunga gym has very few patrons who actually smile. I mean the guys there are playing sports for god sake. Smile, acknowledge the people, the competitor, have fun. I think they see any one as one more guy trying to use up the limited resources. It’s such a fucking pain. But hell, I think that’s the psychographic profile of the guys who go to gymkhanas. I have become big, I am a rich and I have a club membership. This Sunday there is the inter department cricket tournament and I am playing cricket for the squash team. Lets see how people compete and how they make friends.
But coming back to the point, the fat man and the other man wait outside. I call them in for the game. They obviously want to play only with each other, but since I am in they have to play two matches with me before they shoo me off. They cant move for shit, but hit the ball very hard and very fast. Only fore hand no back hand. The serves are so fast I can’t see them. I now realize that I have a long way to go. A really looooong way to go before I see the ball. The coach has been feeding me soft balls. Hehehehehhehe. He is just giving me a workout I guess. But I am much better than I was before and I am definitely going to get there. God and knee willing! Amen.

vacations

Just back from a fantastical vacation of Jodhpur and Jaislamer. A lovely magical place and truly the best part of Rajasthan. The lonely planet has been a valuable guide for us wherever we go. It has helped me in every country and city that I have been as a tourist. Even here it told of the bets place to visit and eat. I fell that the lonely planet must be given the Nobel peace prize for ensuring peace and sanity for tourists while traveling. I wonder why Indians don’t read so much and carry enough material while traveling. I think we just bloody want to leave the trip to the holiday tour organizers whose headache it is to figure the entire thing. And of course ensure that you get good gujju fried food everywhere.
Jaisalmer is one place where I got to eat the most amazing authentic pizzas and some delicious soup. I will remember Jaisalmer and Leh as the two places to go and eat pizzas!

Vacationing with Jispa is quite fun. She is quite a decent traveler and is a generally happy kid. She plays on her own a lot is quite content to be fooling around with her activity books, colors and a white piece of paper. But she also gets to you when she wants you to play. We put her to sleep in the middle bunker and I sleep on the top one. Early morning she woke up and climbed onto my bunker and whacked me on my bum. ‘Wake Up Papa’. Huh!. ‘I got up and I saw its morning so I got up’ ya, its morning alright. Go to sleep. ‘nooooo’. Bloody hell. No one wakes up at 7 in the morning in a train, man. But all said and done train journeys are brilliant with family. Though I sometimes miss the travel in normal sleeper that we did as kids. Now it’s a minimum of three tier A/C. it’s easier to travel without carrying all the bedding. Also the normal sleepers have become really really dirty dusty and ugly. I guess in a trade up mode economy, the people have to seemed to have all moved up but the sanitation seems to have remained bad. I don’t mind traveling with friends in a rag tag sleeper but with family it’s a nice stress free environment that one prefers. Also as one travels northward the trains get dirtier and the crowd quite sad. Lets see how the train journeys to down south might be?

When one goes visiting historical places one realizes the value of reading the Amar Chitra Katha’s when pone was young. Thanks to those I still remember and recollect a lot of the stories that I read. It’s an invaluable learning experience. I have to go and get all the possible ACK’s that were ever printed. Let me try and see how I get my hinds on the entire collection. I have already bought the entire ACK’s Mahabharata. Forget Jispa, I will enjoy reading them all over again.

your momma always told you to cover your books with brown paper - now you know why

Reading a book is not so easy anymore. I just finished reading ‘The Islamist’ by Ed Hussein. While going to play squash I get off at Matunga station. The only way to get off that train is to stand by the doorway from the first itself. I read till Parel and then it’s impossible to read thanks to the crowd. I just stuff the book into my waist and wait two stops till Matunga.
One day a guy saw the cover and asked me about Ed Hussein. I told him it’s the author of the book. He then asked me my name. Now any one in Mumbai knows that some one asking you your name in a conversation is mostly trying to get your religion. He then asked if I was Hindu. How do I tell him that I am a Pantheist, but whatever, ok. so, carry on… I ask him his name. ‘Mohammad’. He then asks what the book is about – he reads the words ‘The Islamist’. He can read English but I am not sure if he can understand the spoken word. So I try to explain the premise of the book. I explain in Hindi that author is a religious person in England who was an Islamist but then went back to practicing Islam without being an Islamist. Or whatever. It was difficult to explain in Hindi. He then asked me if the name of the prophet is in the book. I am like ‘ya, I think so’. This getting potentially dangerous. He then tells me that, if so, I must not carry the book like that. Oops. I take it out. Hold it respectfully. I tell him thank you. It’s good that you tell me. We do not understand. We are only trying to understand. He gives me advice like – nothing will come off by standing in front of a stone and praying. I say yup, thank you thank you. We learn by listening to others. Reading is not enough. Thank you. Station arrives, I get off. Bye. Whew. That was close.
Ed if you are reading this – what on earth was that?
On the book. I loved it. It began ok, I lost it in the middle, but it ended powerful. Left an impact in my mind. I understood much more, I know much more now. Good, recommended read. Read it, but be careful in the local trains.

pain and the great escape

I never imagined that I would be typing so much in my life. I thought I would be doomed to live my life with my ugly handwriting and would have difficulty progressing in life. Well life sure has changed. I write a lot but I hardly life a pen! Qwerty is so much a part of my life! My thumb is injured. I have no clue how or when but the nail seems to be affected and its quite painful. I can barely hold the pen and write well but it has not affected my work majorly. Just an odd angle in which the thumb presses the space bar.

Yesterday I missed getting caught by the skin of my teeth. These days I have been going to play squash. For that I have to get to Matunga station. That’s not on my normal line and therefore I require tickets. I have bought the tickets before hand and I have to punch in the valid fares before getting on. For some reason I though the amount was 4 bucks and I have been punching the same for a few days. Yesterday the TC caught me and pointed out that the fare is 6 bucks. It 4 bucks to Dadar and Matunga is one station further. Ok. “You have to pay the fine”; oh come on “an honest mistake by and honest citizen” its not as if I am trying to dodge fare. Nothing doing, he marches me to the office to get me to pay the differential. Then suddenly lightning strikes, “what’s the fare from Masjid” Four, he says. Great. Then here is my pass that goes from VT to Vadala. This includes the common journey from VT to Masjid. So the ticket I punched becomes a journey extension ticket from Masjid to Matunga, which is 4 bucks so I am home and dry. Wah wah.. I was impressed by myself. He took a little while to digest it. He didn’t like but, the law is on my side. “be careful next time’ he says. ‘Thank you Bye Bye’, you dickhead I think in my mind.

Adventures of Chakram

While Jispa was getting to draw on the wall I was feeling left out I think. So I started painting the adventures of Chakram. Have a look:-

Jispa really found this one funny:-


The wordings go something like this:-

Chakram:-
I am never afraid
I run fast
I jump high
I am strong
I fight hard

Big bully:- FIGHT

Chakram:- Good that I run fast

The second one has the wordings quite legible in the photograph. This one was insipred by Jispa talking about her school students.

enriched by talking

How does a multi billionaire get to his hotel after exiting Heathrow airport? Well, like all of us he stands in a line and takes a black cab.

I have been intending to write this piece for quite some time now. I have been a big fan of our vice chairman and promoter. I think he is a very level headed sweet guy. The reason I don’t write his name is thanks to the billion guys in office who must be putting blog alerts on his name. But it’s a simple one – he owns the place I work. So here’s the piece.

I am getting off at Heathrow and am standing in the immigration line. He walks up behind. A couple of guys between us. I say hi and walk up to him. We know each other well. We generally start off talking. We both are having a relaxed conversation. Its obviously not a formal ‘in office’ conversation but a relaxed, waiting in the queue conversation. Always better this way. We generally chat up about work. My thing is that I can’t just give out blatant lies. He asks me how am I doing and am I enjoying and so on. I told him, that our company sucks at marketing and its quite a pain to be in marketing while we fight for our understanding and respectability all the time. But the reason I am working with him is that I love the company. I love the way we work. No stress, zero politics, cool happy working environment and a lot of freedom to do what you want to. He asked about my back ground. I told him about the zillion jobs that I have changed. We were talking about how my kids fight out with sales all the time and the frustration that they encounter. That time he said “Jaimit, tane khabhar che. Te ghat ghat nu pani pidhu che ekle”. That felt nice. All that job hopping viewed in a positive light. But it truly is a positive thingie. Not that I advise it too much for others though.
While we were talking I generally asked him where he was staying and how far was it from my hotel. He said “should be around 5 minutes, why?” Now this thing had been on my mind for some time now. I was told that a cab would cost 60 pounds from the airport that 4800 rupees. That’s way too much to pay even if it was company expense. So I told him as much and told him I was hoping for a ride with him and it could save us some money. In hindsight I some times think that I actually spoke about saving 60 pounds to a guy worth 5 billion dollars at last count. Well… he kinda liked the idea and gave me a lift. We wondered if it made sense to get dropped off at his hotel and take a cab, when I figured that it was best (economically) for me to drop him off and take the cab further to my hotel. We hailed a cab accordingly.

It’s around less than an hour to the city centre. It was one of the best conversations I have ever had, we spoke about work, vision, marketing (we both abhor mass media). When he realized that I was in London for the first time, he took on the role of a guide talking me about the various places on the way and the fun that I should have on the weekend that I was there. He asked me if I had enough money, I kind of vaguely said ‘just enough’. I normally carry less exchange but use the debit / credit cards often enough. He removed his wallet and handed me all the pounds he had in there. There were only about 20. Rest he was carrying euros. “rakh, kaam aavse” I did not know what to tell him. what do you do when your uncle gives you cash? Meekly take it. Mid way into another conversation in the cab he suddenly remembers something and opens his briefcase. He removes a cover and there sure enough – more pounds. He gives me 40 more and says “well, that takes care of you cab at least”. I was like ya, but I have some….. “rakh rakh, kaam aavse”. He insisted that I take something from London for my wife since it’s my first time there. There were so many things we spoke about (kids, parents, growing up, politics etc) but the undercurrent was clear – I was having a conversation with my uncle not my boss. An uncle who is not your dad’s age but more like the uncles that are the youngest in the family and therefore much more clued onto your lives. Dam cool. This will stay with me for a long long time.

I always admired the guy, but now I love him. I hope it remains that way. Amen.

Here is a photo I once took of him. I like it. It’s not your standard boring portrait.

Give me logic, take away the rest

You normally don’t pangas with Jispa. She has a memory of an elephant. She remembers stuff from two years back. Well she is growing, and with my patience to keep arguing till logic prevails and memory to back it, she is quite the potent combination that can drive the non logic fighters away.
While I was in Igatpuri with my sister, my sis was talking about my legendary ability to argue with parents. Actually I remember it very clearly. I would only argue if I did not see logic for doing something or being told about something. If I knew I was wrong, my arguments would not be long (nor not even argue), but you can’t give me bullshit explanations and get away with it. Give me logic and I will listen. Also be consistent with logic. The logic can’t keep changing with the tasks and at your whims and fancies. So it was not like I was arguing, it was simply your logic which went awry.
Jispa is like that. Give her proper logical answers. Keep logic consistent and for heaven sake don’t patronize. She has a mind, respect it. That’s what I try to do most of the time. She absorbs much better than we expect her to.
Today morning, she generally asked what the date was. My watch said 3rd, and jasmine also thought it was the 3rd. Jispa disagreed and said 4th. I said ‘no it’s the 3rd’ she stuck to her 4th. Jasmine said “we believe it’s the 3rd, if you want you belive it’s the 4th”. I have over the last 5 years learnt not to take a conversation with Jispa lightly, especially when she sticks to her point of view. So I said “hang on. Let me check my cell phone.” Sure enough. It was the 4th. “Yup Jispa, you are right. It is the 4th”
The other day we got a letter from her school inviting us for school annual function. I was teasing her that the letter said ‘don’t come, Jispa has been a naughty girl’. She came back from school and told me that she asked her teacher about the letter and her teacher said that “ the letter said that Jispa is a star kid so come to see the concert”. Hmmm. She remembers, clarifies and then confronts. Hehehehehe. It was quite funny.
I lose and this is not the going to be the last time.

zen in squash and conversation

Well the first day of squash was fun. I love the way different games have wildly different techniques. I kept slicing the racket on top of the ball and ball kept hitting low. It was fun. I think after my first bits of knocking the ball around, I got a sense of how the ball moves. It was also a little funny trying not to be too wristy which is a fantastic thing in cricket and I love using it there. Backhand was even tougher. I can’t believe I missed the ball completely at times. Just an air swing. Oh god that was bad. Was someone watching? Well there was a pro sitting behind me. I just looked and smiled at him and he smiled back. Then I realized that one has to time the ball. I remembered my cricket and also the one time I learnt golf. Its timing the ball. So I just waited as the ball bounced and that split second where I could see it stationery and thapack…. Now that’s nice. Good shot. At least it went forward. Now as I write I remember the amazing book (May all time favorite), Zen in the art of Archery. I remember portions of it and it has helped me in cricket. I was applying similar principals yesterday as well without realizing. Hmm interesting how it has become a part of my consciousness. Now to reread the same after a bit of practice. But I just love that book. It is absolutely amazing.

Another thing I realized yesterday. I was meeting an old friend of mine. She used to work for me long time back but now she is working elsewhere. She has a very high EQ and is a sharp chick (now lady). We talk les often but when we do, it rarely small talk. Its about life, about other stuff. I realized one thing is that I am supremely bored by small talk. Ya, I seem to be having fun at parties cracking really stupid PJ’s but I hate getting into small, random talk which leads nowhere. I hate getting drawn into those conversations. Man now I know why I hate parties, marriages and the types. They are soo bloody boring. I hate it. If we must talk it should either be complete fun or oscillate to the other side. These in betweens are so fucking boring.

Eeeps. I have to control abuse in office. I don’t like it. Will try to get it off my vocab. Am trying!

Random:- picture of breakfast at my hotel in Geneva. Full style! Muesli, berries and bread with 'designer butter'