all fun zone - sports, pets and books

Sometimes I wonder how my blogs have lost a bit of their ‘zing’. Work pressure is so much at times. I had promised that I would start some activity. Well I started. I bought squash court shoes. Hope to start playing today evening. I kinda look forward to the game. This was something I wanted to do since childhood. Good exciting stuff. Hope my knee holds on and does not give way. I will be soo devastated not to play. I have spoken to the coach and he has asked to me to come in the evening, when there is some free time on the court. I have always believed that one has to play some game or the other. One can always learn from multiple games. Learning a game is important and learning it well is even more so. I hope the coach is a decent good guy who might be able to correct techniques before they get bad, unlike my cricket, which I think is impossible to really correct. This also reminds me that I must try and see if there are cricket nets in the morning on Saturday / Sundays. That should be good fun as well. What can a coach do to a 32 year old trying to learn to play better? Lets see. I am on a fitness spree… atleats thought wise. The actions should follow through boss.


My brother and his wife adopted a pup – Angel. She is dam sweet. I spent all evening playing with her yesterday. She is so amazing, so full of play. She is like a new kid in the family. My brother is acting like a dad. It’s fun to look at him. I am waiting for Angel to grow up and take her running in the park. As for yesterday, I think she played so much with me that she fell asleep while we were there it self. Thak gayi bechari khel khel ke. Pets are fun, especially if they are someone else’s. Just like kids!

For the record the book ‘understanding comics’ is easily amongst the top 10 books in my collection. Scott – you are good. Thank you. I am supremely enriched.
Now onto more such ‘serious’ comics. I am reading The Persepolis 1 and 2 by Marjane Satrapi. This kinda completes the triology. The first was the eight part series Buddha by Osamu Tezuka, the second was the two part Maus by Art Spiegleman. Understanding Comics then becomes a prequel kind of book to this trilogy consisting of 12 books.

book woe

Sometimes one gets stuck with boring books and sometimes one has unputdownabes. Normally I don’t buy books if I have a backlog to finish. Last few weeks I was not buying any. As I came to the end of the backlog, all forces converged. The books I had ordered were suddenly in stock, I saw a couple of fantastic books at Hong Kong airport, I ordered one from somewhere and voila, what have you – a backlog. Two books I am reading currently are quite interesting. Together they are causing me enough stress. I want to read and finish them both. One is “the design of everyday things” and the other is “Understanding Comics”. Both require concentrated reading to fully appreciate and understand. To top it up there is osme real shortage of time and mental energy. I have been sleeping 5-6 hour nights since last Wednesday. Today I just completely collapsed in the train and did not know when the station came. I am soo sleepy. Hopefully I should catch up on sleep today. So I have lots of books and no sleep. A few more books that I am looking forward to are coming in the post today. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa… bachao!

priorities

Sometimes I cant write because there are so many things to write about. I am just back in from Hong Kong. Nice place. Will take Jispa and jasmine there. Hopefully next year…

But one thing is for sure, I am really done with traveling. I have just made up my mind that I will avoid all travel tats on Saturday or Sunday. Sunday specially. I think I deserve a better deal; my family deserves a better deal. My next Hong Kong trip is cut short so that I come back on a Saturday. Then another temptation came up. This time it was Saturday, Sunday and Monday in Seoul. Now Seoul is a place that I am most likely not to see on my own and it would have been lovely to go there. I almost gave in and thought about it. But then it’s a no. I think I value the time that I spend with Jispa and Jasmine much more. I think I will just go swimming with Jispa instead.

Yup… that’s right. Also I now plan to join some classes. I have to learn tennis or squash. Clear priority for me this year! Also adjacent priority – start cardio exercises in the gym. I have to get much better at fitness. HAVE TO.

the jungle calling

I have returned from an interesting vacation. We went to Ranthambore and Bharatpur. The verdict – Ratham Bore, but Bharatpur is amazing. The stupid Tiger safari is one of the most boringthings that you could do in Rathambore. They load you on canters and take you on an bumpy dusty dirt track in an effort to see the tiger. The tiger is obviously in no mood to oblige every tourist that visits the park. The idiots at the park have all wrong. When the odds of the tiger are so clearly stacked against you its obviouslya better option to build the story ofteh jungle by itself. There a billions things you can say about the spotted deer, the sambars, the birds, the crocs and even the bloody monkeys. The guide has to educate, talk, weave a story, explain the jungle, but I don’t think anyone is listening. Just drive like a maniac and show the tiger. Ya sure, but where is he? She? Whatever?
There we stayed at this place called the Tiger Moon Resort. The idiots at the Mumbai booking office somehow just screwed up and gave us canter safaris instead of the jeep safaris. In spite of booking the stay with them weeks before the safari bookings opened. But the resort was redeemed by the amazingly polite and caring staff, their interested naturalist and their clean functional rooms with lovely hot water. The naturalist took some time aside to give Jispa lessons on wildlife, which we recorded on tape. His assistant took us to the fort and a nature walk and we really enjoyed the bird life. Jasmine as it turns out is quite a bird enthusiast. A book on birds in India (I bought years ago for Jispa) and a pair of binocs and she was having a world warp of her own. Most of my trip I think I enjoyed thanks to her enthusiasm. Jispa is as enthused about a earthworm as she is enthused about a tiger, or even the Taj. She merely reflects your enthusiasm. She is game for almost anything. This set up the next halt of the Bharatpur bird park quite nicely. Here we really enjoyed the place. I would recommend it as a must visit for any one. The rains have not been good and the bird life it seems is severly reduced but it was still way beyond what one could imagine. A guide is a must take. Without him you can notice 90% of the birds and he help you identify them. The rickshawwala claims to bw enough but don’t let that fool you. We tried both, the guide wins hands up. We took cycles and drove Jispa double seat for the whole day. A full seven hours. By the end of the trip we were naming the birds ourselves. Jispa could name a few herself. I am going there again. For sure! There we stayed at the Birder’s Inn. Nice clean place. Value for money. But only annoying tendency is to lay out a compulsory buffet (outrageously priced at 250 a head) when he has multiple groups. Really irritating especially if you are a vegetarian. But hell. Still a nice clean place. After a few years of five star corporate travel my wife chides me for being too soft for the rigors of backpacking. Well, I redeemed myself! My point all along has been clear. I want clean rooms, clean toilets, clean sheets and a responsive staff. That’s all! As for the Taj Mahal that we went visting. All I can say that somehow its beauty has grown on me a bit. I am seeing it for the third time. It’s a tad overrated. I think the Abu Delwara na deras might be much better. But hell it more amazing to see the tons and tons of tourists at the Taj! Wow, I have seen so many tourists anywhere.
All in all. Full time pass and paisa vasool vacation. Jispa has been a cute fun loving and an obedient kid. She is amazing in her ability to mimic your enthusiasm or lack of it as well. I think she just likes to stay together. The touring, the seeing is just incidental.

we the holocaust

Reading two distinctly separate mediums , talking about two separate incidents but having a common line can be quite disconcerting. Whatever. basically I was reading the fantastically crafted book (in a comic format) ‘Maus’ about the Jewish holocaust and at the same time was reading the expose by the magazine Tehelka on the Gujarat Riots. I am not here making judgments. I am sure whatever the consequence the cause is always strong in the persons mind, but some how it is unnerving that man can foster so much hatred. Tejpal is right in comparing both of them. Reading both is so weird. We have not learnt, we will continue to kill, we will continue to live selfishly, we will continue to believe in powers of above, we will continue to forget love. We will hate in the name of love. Wow.

But Jispa, read them together. Read them.

tehelka link - http://www.tehelka.com/story_main35.asp?filename=Ne031107Tarunspiece.asp

Maus - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maus

random frustrations :)

The biggest curse in corporate world is to do well. The First KRAISE and then the quarterlies did well. I wrote some edgy stuff. Got reactions, Both sides. This time too many got involved into the act. I have been briefed by too many people. Result highly sanitized stuff. I told my Exec Director, that I just got a bottle of Dettol poured over my bloody head. Result is that I am so damn frustrated with that little thing that I want to give it up. As it is I was doing it out of pure charity. I don’t get salary or promotion for it. Fuck it man. Just fuck it. I just get some free joy by putting in some sublimals that no one except me understands! They range from double meanings to kicking someone’s butt. But then life is nothing but small bits of get backs!!!



One of the main reasons I like my job is that I don’t get too much supervision. People let me be as I am. They don’t get too much in my lives. I deliver. Period. its an amazing arrangement. Simple. I hope to someday lead like that. But I believe the team needs ot grow up for that. You have to earn freedom. Once you deliver without issues and make a habit out of it then you get eth freedom, till then you have to be used to supervision.

My advice to all wannabe media career people. The place is full of shit. I have met only pathological liars, bastards, turncoats and the rest. Hardly a good man /woman exists. Corporate fuckese at its best.

cricket weekend

That’s not supposed to happen. It’s a 5 step run up. I am supposed to whack the shit out of your short of good length balls by going through the line. But instead the balls comes close to my chest and I almost glove it to the wicket keeper. Whew! Welcome to where the bug boys play. Yesterday was an 8 a side tournament which I was leading one of the two Kotak teams. We got through to the semis with a decent show. Normally the banks send their sales guys for the matches but some banks decide to only send their professional team. Sure even I could send my A team, but then the whole idea was to play and have fun with the amateurs. The team in the semis was the pro team. All the guys have played some district level or some probables for some state / zone.
The guy bowling of 5 paces generated pace and bounce that screwed the shit out of me. Luckily I have always kept my eyes on the ball and I don’t try playing shots I can’t, to a really fast bowler, for example the hook / pull. Partly because I am not stupid to attempt it and partly I can’t get into position fast enough. You have to be really quick on your feet to do it. I have limited ability and I learnt the game only after I was 25, that too as an amateur with no formal coaching. These guys have been getting coached since they were babies. I have survived through sheer determination, willingness to learn, keeping ears and eyes open and of course keeping the eye on the ball.
I was doing pretty good till the semis, smashing other part time bowlers all around the park and getting some phenomenal averages. This game I was happy to just stay there getting off the strike. My opening partner, subbu, was a pro player and he was doing all the batting. There, one run, its your strike now. Later on, I thought of accelerating and hitting a few more. I quickly conferred with Subbu and figured that lets not. The other guys to follow will get hit and hurt. Its better that we stick in there. I got one ball pitched outside off. I slashed at it opening the face of my bat. Whack in the middle of the bat, with the sweet smell of leather and I watched in amazement the ball traveling high and far, going going going….. into the light towers and a little above and falling out of the ground into the train tracks adjoining. Wow, that’s the biggest six I have hit square of the wicket. Massive by any standards, any ground. While I like to take credit for that shot, I can only take credit for connecting, the pace at which it was bowled was the reason it went that far. My power shots aren’t that powerful. Now I know how the players at world level might be playing. It is extremely fast and powerful. How they get into position early, how can they judge the length so early, how do they do that.

I got a chance to watch these masters play at the Braborne Stadium watching an India Australia T20 match. I had tickets for Jispa and Jasmine. But Jispa didn’t want to come. The five year old decided that the match would be too loud and also the fact that her friend had invited her to her house. The last match I saw was in the 10k rupee stand and it was bloody boring, so this time I was in the 500 buck stand. That was fun! No seats only standing and fairly engaging three hours fast paced action. Really fast. Death to one day cricket. No more full day waste of time. But it was good that Jispa did not come. You don’t get water inside the stadium. You will get coke and the rest, but no water. Yup, no tap, no bottle no glass. Of course you aren’t supposed to get anything inside the stadium as well from outside. Really irritating thing. We need to take our spectators more seriously. You have give much more value or people will vote with their feet.

So that was that. A fairly engaging weekend. Overworked and under slept, but hell, you are 32 only once in your life

Fortune favors the Brave

well well well, I am on the cover of the Fortune magazine. What more can I say - a picture speaks a thousand words.

But 90% of those seeing this feel that it is a computer job. There is no sanctity to digital images these days. People only belive what they can touch and feel. Interesting insight for the future.

office space

I can get really weird. My office kids get the brunt of it at times.
The seat behind mine has been empty for sometime. My boys use this seat to dump and store stuff. I hate it. If you can’t have clean offices spaces then there are issues. If you are unable to order in advance and figure out where to store stuff then there are issues. If you are ordering entire India figures then you must courier the stuff from the printer office itself to all India. What’s the bloody point of storing the stuff in office? The space behind mine just got allotted a few days back to a new joinee. Today morning I come in to see 15 – 20 boxes of folders completely jamming his desk space. He has been on training last few days and therefore the desk has been a empty. But that still does not give the guys any right to jam anybody’s space. A new guy is more sensitive to all these cues as compared to anyone else. So I did the next best thing. I took these boxes and jammed their desks. Have fun. It helps to some in early in the morning. How does it feel to get a dose of their own medicine? Take that!

Here is the picture of their desks jammed. The two desks jammed are the culprits of the crime.

Hey I never did tell you how my first fast went off. One full day of not eating. It was fun to start with. Difficult to keep away from popping random things into your mouth. I had tons of water whenever I was hungry but it was fun. The night dinner was surely the toughest to avoid. It is soo easy for the mind to tell you that – eat, it does not matter, it’s not religious, it does not matter. And it was fun fighting it off and saying I don’t care. I am not eating. Sleep came nice and fast so it was helpful. But it was fun. Who knows, next time I will attempt two days perhaps? Worth a shot! You could write tomes on hunger but it has to be felt the hard way to really feel it! I loved it. I am richer for the experience.

I had booked online with rajasthan tourism. It was a please to book online. I cancelled the reservation. It was even faster. Now to see if the monies get deposited in the bank account as fast. Will keep you posted.

one large leap

“Ritu and I both will be 15 min late. My chappal fell off d train n she is coming to station with a spare pair 4 me :(” – this is the SMS I received from one of my reportees. Fact is sometimes stranger than fiction.

Life comes a full circle. Sonal used to stay at Bandra all her life. Her dad retired and moved to Kandivili from where she jostles and fights her way to office. I had another girl once who stayed at Marine drive and came to work at Nariman point. Just 5 minutes by road. She got married and moved to Jogeshwari. That’s one and a half hour to work everyday. I had asked to look for the tabelas (hindi for cow sheds). She just nodded thinking this was us pulling her leg. She called up soon after in all excitement saying that she saw the tabelas. Well I told you they were there!

This is but a small example of how women get displaced by marriage and is such a big radical step for them. I am not so sure it’s that big a step for the guy. Best of luck to all the girls!

philosophy has its uses

Five years back when Jispa was born, a friend of mine (Ashutosh) remarked that “the birth of the child is the death of the father” apparently quoted by the great poet Kabir. The statement has great significance. As he explained to me, that once the child is born, the father will do anything to save the child from harm. If it means putting his life for the child he will do so without hesitation. So in a matter of speaking the father’s life is not his own, he has already given it to / up for the child, so in other words he is already dead. Now that’s an interesting thought.
We were holidaying in matheran the other day. I got some hot soup for Jispa. I then got a two litre mineral water bottle and placed it on the table and turned. As I turned I heard a commotion and I turned back to see the bottle toppling over and hitting the soup bowl. Normally one sees this in slow motion. Not this time though. I saw this in super warp speed. The bottle hit the soup bowl and the soup tippled over and was falling on Jispa. My only reaction was to extend my palms as wide as possible in between Jispa and the soup bowl so that the impact of the hot soup was maximum on my hand and minimum on Jispa. Successful - Jispa only got a drop on her pants and I bore the brunt. I jumped around a bit and luckily it did not burn me much. But I realized what I did and what Kabir meant.


The other day the stupid IT guy in the office (they all are) decided to break a hole in my table and put the printer plug point inside my cupboard. This incensed me to a great extent. I tried reasoning with him but he just would not understand. The next day I realized the business at risk issue and wrote a mail. Result – the plug was dutifully removed within 24 hours. Here’s the mail. You decide.
The cast though – Nagraj – the IT guy, Shama – the admin, Vareena – the HR.
My next fight – get that bloody hole repaired.


SUB: Business At Risk

In my cupboard where I keep my books and papers we suddenly have an electric point!

Where there is an electric point, there you will have sparks (invariably). Even Jispa knows that. (if you don’t know who Jispa is, I don’t know you). When spark touches paper, it burns. Remember your 6th standard science class. When paper burns, more paper next to it burns. This leads to a chain reaction where the entire desk catches fire. Desks are predominately wood and what have you here? A catastrophe waiting to happen. Nero fiddled while Bakhtawar burned. Who is Nero? I dunno, ask him. Who him? Ask Nero for all I care. So it might be the boy who cried wolf, but who knows; if it looks like a wolf, feels like a wolf, behaves like a wolf, it is not likely to be a kangaroo. Jispa knows that as well. (what? you still don’t know who is Jispa? get outta here)

So kindly remove the point from there (the electric point, got the point?) and please can I have my desk back. Its missing me and the feeling is mutual.

How did this get about:-

I ask Nagraj, Nagraj tells me that he tell Shama, Shama obviously does it because Nagraj told her. Who gave Nagraj authority, well he spoke to Vareena. Why did Vareena say yes, well because Nagraj told her. Why did Nagraj get it done, beacuase Vareena and Shama said so. In excel parlance this is called circular reference. So where does the buck stop. You silly goose, the buck cannot stop – it’s a circle and it’s twisted, so that makes it’s a mobius strip. A mobius strip has no start no end, its just keeps going around. So much so that some scientists have hypothesized that if it does not start or end it does not exist. It is not even there.

A mathematician confided
That a Möbius band is one-sided,
And you'll get quite a laugh,
If you cut one in half,
For it stays in one piece when divided

So who has the hole in the end:- my desk. I am not sure about anyone’s mind yet. Hope this burned a hole in your mind as well.

While at the topic – does putting a hole in my desk require my permission? Oh ya – the circle has decided on its own I guess (the circular reference circle). It’s like a snow ball and it’s got sufficient momentum on its side. So, GET OUT OF THE WAY! But while putting the hole in, musn’t you remove my stuff so that it does not get dirty? GET OUT OF THE WAAAY, SNOW BALL IS SNOWBALLING. But….AVALANCE..tttttt.

I have just been exterminated. Exterminated employees need not feel anything. Especially motivation, desire to call the place your own, belonging, clean perhaps. Anything. Just work. But I have just been exterminated – so what? Those exterminated are transported to the netherworld – where you just work. Well at least you don’t burn here. Well the place night burn down, but you might as well might be saved. Should I feel grateful. I should.

Thank you

Yours truly

Do I need to add my name? is the email id enough? Sombody answer, someone pull me out, someone show me a sign that I am alive. Someoneeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee…………………………….aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

service and smile

I like, no no lets rephrase that, I love… that’s better… I love low points in life. That is what defines my high points. Whenever I have felt low is when I fight back to get my high. Till about a minute back I was low. Shit in office, shit everywhere. That has helped me define my high. I am suddenly on an adrenaline rush. I am giving shit back. And how! I could not have felt better. In the words of the Mask – Somebody….stop me.

I am just back from a trip to Geneva, Brussels, Antwerp and London. All official. Yaya… I am the lucky guy. One thing I figures. British Airways (BA) is a piece of shit. The brits have not learnt anything about service. They cant service to save their asses. I have always believed that good advertising will come to naught if you don’t follow through on the service. This is a classic case study. BA will have all the classic ads that have service written all over it. They believe in service they say. They will have a chick air hostess in a namaste. The stupid agency wont even get the bow right. The namaste in India is not like a western ‘hi, how are you doing?’ it’s a more submissive gesture (full of reverence) for Indian. Complete dickhead of a job and some amazing dickhead of follow through. For breakfast as we were reaching London, they served us milk and muesli. And I liked it and dared to ask for more. MORE?? Now I know what Oliver Twist felt like. They said they don’t have more. What the hell? They don’t have more food for someone traveling in Business Class. God knows what happens in Economy. Do they just stand up and start laughing. “hey somebody look at this guy. He wants MORE. Hahahahah.” On the way back I wanted to go to the pee pee. The seat belt sign just came on as I stood up. The steward told me to get back to my seat. Not do politely of course, but hell he is a BA staff. He is obviously near God. Then in about 10 seconds he tells me that if I want to go to the bath room I got one minute. That’s about the time he is going to take. So I better hurry up and get it done with. OK sir! Thanks a lot. Wow….that sure saved from pissing in their Business class water bottle. What a bloody piss off. I am not traveling BA again ever. I would not advise anyone either. The option – the best service I have seen is Jet Airways. Good old humble service Jet. They are way above every one. Not that BA is too difficult to top. I have asked for more in domestic flights in economy and have always got more in return. Ask for one small after mint and you always get two. Aks for a bottle of water, you will get two. That’s the way dude. Service is king! Someday the rest of us mortals will get it as well. I also have been in many hotels, no one even comes close to the Taj hotels. We do a lot of stay and banqueting. The Taj is head over heels compared to anyone else. Well its interesting that home grown Indian brands will teach eth world what service is like. Mr. Goyal, I don’t care what anyone says. I believe in you.

Coming to something else. People in office around the world are generally short on humor. I put an out of office mail that I thought was very average and not really funny. But I got a lot of kudos for it. I got people forwarding the out of office mail to others, I got people just mailing to check the response, and of course a few conversations begin with the topic. Here it is. You judge you decide. But one thing it has given me for sure, and that’s some more confidence to get whackier! Somebody Stop me.

(I have masked the phone numbers. This is the internet after all)

Hi,

Since you have got an out of office reply – well, I AM actually out of office. Cool nah?
I will be back on the 27th of September 07.

Since this is a tour on official duty you may contact me on my official cell. But before you do so, kindly keep in mind the following pointers:-

Think of the obscene roaming rates before you try my cell.
If you still want try and contact me please buy some telecommunication stocks before you call. Somebody must benefit in the bargain I guess.
Before calling minus four to five hours from Indian time and think a bit if you really want to wake me up for I can return the favor five hours past your bed time.
Try calling Ritu (XXXXXXXXX) for international work, Venkat (981XXXXXXX) for Wealth Management work and Manish (981XXXXXXX) for all the other group work.
And if everything else fails, have faith… for this too shall pass.

Have fun while I am hard at work

Jaimit

thats a fast one

We are jains but I am a little bit of a radical. Yah sure I believ in god and some super human power but going to temples for prayer is not my scene. The mega jain festival – paryushan is on. The seven days of fasting and I assume austerity is on. But there is nothing austere about it. It’s as in your face richness and silkiness (paradoxically for Jainism) as any other hindu festival. The temple is decorated with lights and pandals. Women and men roam around in their finest marriage finery with goady jewelry. People moving form one temple to another, form one golden idol to another. The orgy of flowers decorating is so sickening. The power of context is at its bets here. I would loved ot see flower décor but to see it in all splendor at a Jain temple is somewhat a bad idea. We gloss over the very principles we are celebrating. I even remember having a fight with my mom for letting me and Jasmine watch a movie during this stupid carnage festival. She said that its not right and you must not go, and for the hell of me I could not figure out why? I love Jainism but I hate the Jains!

I normally won’t even know when the festival is approaching. Tomorrow is the last day and if somebody would have told me that I would be fasting, I would laughed my head off. But wonders never cease. I for some whacked off reason have decided to fast today. I don’t know why the thought popped into my head but no food today only water. There is definitely no religious belief – DEFINITELY NOT, but I wanted to know what it is to fast for a day. How does the body react, how does one feel, what is the meaning of craving. One can read tomes on hunger but one has to feel it to understand it. I remember I used to try and do some fasting as a kid. I remember giving it up at night and having food. How would I feel today? It’s a normal day as ever. I accidentally popped a small ginger chip in today, so I have definitely missed the religious angle. I have always believed on learning something new regularly, doing something new, something else. This defines us and shapes us as we go along. One more learning, one more step. Right now it’s fun to feel the stomach grumbling, making weird noises, asking for food. Good cleansing for the system. A bit of detoxification never hurt too many.

hush my boy, the puppies are shrinking

Does your foot actually shrink after a certain age... after lets say 32 years! Well that’s what happened to me, if hush puppies are to be believed. I have been wearing large sizes. Sport shoes typically are at ten and half, even 11. Most formal shoes are at 10. My last hush puppies were 10. So this time I walk into the store and ask for 10 in a particular type. I want the simplest one with no extravagant designs. He gives me a size 10. hmmm feels very roomy. My toe ends way before the shoe ends. Haan sir, is mein ek size chota hi chalta hai. Ok. Give me a size 9. whoops.. a little roomy again. Errrr… size 8, I ask sheepishly, a little hesitant. He checks for my foot size on his measuring scale – it shows a ten. He gets a size eight nevertheless. Size eight I keep thinking. The last time I wore 8 was probably when I was 13 – 14 years old. Size eight is just a little narrow, but marginally so. Funny. This is ridiculous. I wear 10 in hush puppies! I can’t believe it. I try all the other types, I ask for all the different sizes in the others. I cant just wear these new Italian styled narrow pointed ones. My feet are way too broad for that. I probably need to wear size 15 in those and end up looking like Ian Thorpe (the Australian swimmer, duh). While I am trying out all the others, I look at the poor size 8 hush puppies and decide to try them again. My wife is not a bit fazed. She had budgeted a good one hour as she knew I have to buy shoes. She has been through many of my show buying sojourns. I could buy a shirt and a tie and a suit fast but shoes take forever. Sport shoes, formal shoes, simple sandals, they all take a looong time to buy. I guess it’s my foot contours that make the entire thing difficult. They are definitely not the average Joe ratios for sure. So I pick up the size 8 and they seem definitely more comfortable than the others. Oh what the hell, let buy them. I have been wearing them now for three days. They sure fit well. So much for standard sizes!

morning musings

There are many benefits of coming in early to office, but there is one clear big one. NO SWEAT. Yes, no grimy dirty stinky sweaty people. It’s nice and cooler in the mornings so the people are also cleaner, still fresh from their daily lirils and pantene’s. The women with their hair freshly washed and brushed still smelling of fragrant shampoo. They keep the hair open probably because its cooler (heat means tied hair) and they need to dry out form the washing. Its so much a better smell than the silly pungent perfume that use after they reach office. Ya. I could stare at a women’s freshly washed, dry and clean hair for the entire bus journey. Well it does not last more than 7 minutes in the morning though. It’s nice to see the various cuts and styles. Men hairstyles by that yardstick are extremely boring and ugly. I always wanted to learn to cut style hair. It’s so much fun. There is always a style that changes the way people look and feel about themselves. But surprisingly I am quite irritated with my own hair. If I have to comb it too much I just go and cut it. Short – really short! What good for the goose is not for the gander.

Jo bhi hai… on another note I sometimes wonder on the pressure that I am putting on myself. It surprises me how my life has changed, my thinking has changed over the last ten odd years that I have been working. I still get worked about important presentations. I still don’t sleep well before them. Not that I get nervous. I don’t think that’s the issue, I am pretty secure, but the fact that my brain refuses to let it die out. It keeps that top in the mind, constantly thinking, constantly ticking, pushing the bar, improving…. Constantly. Move, shove, push, move, forward… every time. Constantly… PUSH…one day I will tire and rest. I hope I rest content. I cannot imagine resting but someday I hope to. There is also another side that says that I will push on and never rest. I hope never to rest to constantly push, push harder and harder. I like that T shirt sign with Gandhi on the design – ‘my life is my message’. Bang on! Like something profound that I learnt in Jainism (a nice book – a journey through Jainism). In Jainism we go to the temples not to pray and ask but to see the idols of great souls who have given it all up and get inspired by them. By their actions they teach. They do not preach they only do – it is up to us to follow. What a lovely thought. Tough on the others but brilliant. I have always learnt by watching and not by following what people teach. Watching and imbibing is the bets way. Many times, in cricket, in life, at work, i could visualize what the bets in that field would do and try to emulate. It’s like the story of eklavy and dronacharya. By having a statue of the guru is enough to learn. Its not important for any of my guru’s to be physically in front of me. Their images in my mind is more than enough. After all what’s the bloody brain for?

Yesterday was a high point for me in my life at this company. The company did something I cannot disclose but proved to me that I was valuable to them. In fact amongst the top guys in my division (strength 250 heads). That felt good. Emotional. That’s the bond which I have with my organization. That’s what makes us tick. Strong emotional connect? I dunno. Will tell you and let you know when I find out. I think it will be years before I understand, and I would have lost the question as well. So if you are reading this 20 years on and want to know the answer, let me know! I will tell you what I know at that point of time. The fun thing with perspective is that it keeps on changing. Just keeps on changing. PUSH PUSH PUSH…..

lots to talk about

Wowie.. Finally some time to write something here. Been some time now. Work pressure starts from the moment I step in. lots of things happened from the last time I wrote in the blog.

I had been to Turkey for an offsite.i hardly took any snaps of the place. I find it quite boring to do so. I prefer clicking peole I know. So that’s what I did. In the process I clicked some nice snaps of people inoffice. Ofocurse th women make prettier subjects than men but, hell I am gender neutral. I prefer anyone who is expressive. In lesser light conditiond I prefer the women as they are ones who are quite ready to pose. Some reason is vanity and some reason is charm. But who’s complaining. I am clicking and loving it. The best thing about clicking is to click and then pass on the snaps to the relevant guys and if they love themselves then that’s more than enough. Most people are so critical of themselves when they see their photos. Give yourselves a break guys! We love you when you are expressing something, that’s all. You are pretty the camera is just capturing it. I got the idea for my desk board. I am going to only put up photos of people that I click. I would like to call it the wall of vanity. We might have more women than men there but, who cares. I have clicked an large number of nice photos of guys. Sab daalte hain.

The photos I really hate to click are the silly ass photos of people outside monuments. I have been there type of photos. If you see orkut profiles of people that the first thing that you see in Indian profiles. Pictures of people next to monuments / sights etc in phoren land. I guess it’s a huge mindset issue. Phoren travel is still aspirational and the fact that you have traveled might be a point of pride and differentiation. You are not going to see pictures of me in front of monuments for sure, atleast not in orkut profiles. Pagal gaya hai kya? I rather have pictures of the monuments in interesting angles. That’s my type.

Taxi’s seem to be an issue when I leave early to drop Jispa to the bus stop. So jasmine’s been ferrying us. I ask jasmine to drop us before so that Jispa and me cross the road and have fun walking and spending some quality time. Today I taught her to jump from a height that she was not used to. Street jumping. Good. She was walking up the steps on her own. They were a little high and she wante dot do it without my support and without touching anything with her hands. Slowly she managed. Then we learnt jumping by slowly giving less and less support till she jumped on her own. Time will come for her to jump on her own, to fall down, cry a bit, wipe her own tear and dust herself off. And I will have to let go. Another step in growing up. Different times of our lives as parents we will let go of different things. This is one small step. One small step.

Check the pics. The first one she is climbing, the second one she is about to jump. Its no small step. In five minutes she went from being terrified to bold jumping. I could actually see her conquering her fear. Go Jispa GO.

baby talk

I loved the application on face book which allows you to input all the books that you have read / want to read. Finally a digital catalogue of my books. Good.

While I was having a look at the excel sheet that has all the books, I noticed a typo in one of the books names – it read – ten basic principles for goon parenting. Haha sure.

Jispa was telling me, “My school has one thousand students. But now there are only a thousand. One person from my class left the school that’s why only thousand, earlier there were one thousand.” That was easily the funniest one I have heard in a long long time.

birthdays...I am in love with you

Finally… oh my lovely blog, I finally have time to write in you. Kya timepass hai yeh. But there was so much to write and so little time. Office has been crazy with all hell breaking loose.

In between I even had my birthday. On my birthday while having bath (no not a birthday bath, just one of the regular everyday bath) I was thinking of when I was little and how we could get to wear colored clothing in school and give out sweets. Earlier till the third standard I studied in Dubai and our vacations were in July and August. That meant no colored clothes for me and no being hero for the day. So when we shifted to Mumbai, one of the look forwards (there weren’t too many) was that in August schools were on. So I could wear my safari to school. I distinctly remember wearing my light bluish grey safari and distributing sweets in school. Before you distribute and the entire class singing.. happy birthday to you. Clap clap. Man it felt so good when that happened for the time in IV B. I remember counting the days left to my birthday and what I would wear. The sweets we used to give out were parle orange flavored hard boiled confectionaery. They used to cost around 10 paise each in retail and lower if you bought them by the bulk. Every guy in class (60 of us) would get two. And I think the best friend secretly got more. One would get more number of best friends on a birthday than other normal days. 10 paise I guess went a long way those days. Or should I say friendship was cheap. Whatever it was it sure was fun.
Oh I wish I had the same excitement of remembering my birthday two months in advance and counting down from there. This year my bachas at office gifted me a bat and a pair of jeans. The low waist, tight fit jeans. How the hell do these kids wear these low waisters, especially the women? Don’t they feel naked from the back? There is considerable amount of air that you feel your ass is getting and that the crack is showing. But I am sure the guys are not complaining. Every time you go to a store there will be one stupid lady bending down wearing a short t shirt and how could they not know? Well... I am sure the guys are not complaining.

teddy bears

Oh man, my blog is really suffering from the work load. There are tons to do and tons to follow up on. But then that’s the fun of it all I guess.
Yesterday Jispa must have been awake by 4 in the morning. For whatever reason. Now if she is awake and bored what to do. Get up, walk into the bedroom and snuggle up to daddy. And its always daddy, because mommy will send her packing off to her bed but daddy loves to get a teddy bear to sleep with. But there are small differences between a teddy bear and Jispa.
Teddy bear don’t hug you back
Teddy bear don’t shift positions again and again.
Teddy bear is asleep when you want him to
Teddy bears weigh much less
Teddy bears don’t suddenly feel thirsty in the middle ofthe night
Teddy bears let you sleep
Teddy bears are comfortable any how you hug them
Teddy bears can take your weight
Teddy bears don’t smile back
Teddy bear’s fingers don’t play with your face while you are sleeping
Teddy bears don’t kick their legs about when they are not sleepy
You don’t like kissing teddy bears too much

So bottom line – she gets up at 4 am and then ensures that even I don’t get sleep after that. But, who’s complaining. Not me. I love it. Anytime.

gaali mut de

I have been panning to write for some time now. The days have been so busy that it is almost impossible to get some tie out for writing. The whole day is one big incessant blur. From the time I come in early to the time I leave. Yesterday I thought I will finally write something and I was insired as well in the morning but my laptop password refused to connect me in. What the hell man? Nevertheless here I finally am. I have stopped swearing. My dear student Khyati was in office for a month doing her summers with some other department. She told me to stop and there I said why not. It’s been quite some time since I have stopped with only an occasional one coming in. not bad. After ten years of expletives I could not say a few sentences in office with using colorful words. Chalo theek hai. Dekhte hain how long it lasts.

I am so goddam sleepy. I have some obscene backlog of sleep which I wan to catch up on. And tomorrow I am going to Goa with the cricket team for a picnic. There goes some more sleep. Raat ko baith ke daru sessions mein bore hona. Oh dear me really really pathetic.