When Sergei Met Larry

No it’s not a movie name, however captivating the title may look. It’s a story of two folks who had conviction of attaining the sky and they did it. Saga of unwavering young men who achieved what they wanted against all those heavily stacked odds.

I have fallen in love over and over, again and again with Sergei Brin and Larry Page. Don’t doubt my orientations chap, but who won’t love two fellas who have changed the way internet has been used world wide. We mere mortals invoked God to show his powers to let Internet be a better place to be browsed. Let sanity prevail , we wailed inconsolably and Lo God sent two angels and said “Heal thy programs son, with these two around information is so much fun” Could I ever agree more with God.

They started from scratch, they were no fortunate son, had no silver spoon in mouth. Well all they had mathematical brilliance and yeah that was very much in their chromosomes. They were two cocky young men who believed they could take on the world by its proverbial horns and do what few had dared dreaming. Demotivators were aplenty, but kudos to young men they knew all novel plans look ludicrous and all dooms day prophecy means nothing , they ought to be there a good luck charm for all those brilliant things which may change the attitude of mankind.

So the baby was born and was named “Google” aptly (Googol was the word but legends say misspelling ensured it was popularized as google). Google and his siblings (gmail,blogspot, orkut,youtube,picasa etc) have taken the cyber world by storm. At this very moment I am googling and perhaps the painstaking search is the most relished one for me. Day in day out google is the single most hit site it has to be with curious ones making a bee line to get their queries answered.


For me google has been manna from heaven and so it has been for rest of my ilk. A project in college needs some help? Ah Google is there to rescue. Those much hated codes and some strange exceptions thrown in my face, now what to do? Never worry go to Google’s asylum . and much loved hobbies were fuelled by Google as well. I loved quizzing, reading novels and all that useless things and Google abetted in all these crimes.

And now Google has an extended family so many siblings are there and like big brother they all are much in demand. Blogspot, orkut, gmail, youtube umm all have their devoted fans and like million of them I am one.

The moment we thought Google can’t expand any more , they spring up new surprises, yeah few have faded like google earth and desktop but saga continues, what’s next in store two gentlemen need to be asked, till enjoy googling, orkutting or blogging as I relish another great day with google and its family.

Ps: needed to write this one as I am indebted to google like few others would be. My last three successful interviews all posed questions on Google and I passionately came for Google and well they helped my cause. Ah how I wish one day I may end up at Googleplex , if not who cares will keep googling till I die…..

Not all friendship mere feigning

Well all men are born equal, but some men (women included) are more equal than others if not somewhere else certainly in eyes of me. Those who claim to treat everyone the entire same, well must be getting very nice and politically correct, I am not the one nor do I want to be one. I can never treat every one in same way, huh learnt it hard way.

Last two seasons have seasoned me more than any two. Ran into some pleasant surprises this winter. Met couple of old mates pretty surprising to meet such fellas when you don’t know will you ever meet them? True friends are almost impossible to get and with people entangled in rigmaroles life, it becomes even more difficult. With daal roti in question we all have few options I guess. But then who said good friends required to be talked to every alternate day, that is the beauty of having great friends you meet them after many winters and yet it all seems so perfect in place. Nah very few can lay claim to that rite? But those few who do make life special, are the ones for all life I strongly believe after a certain age it’s very difficult to make true friends, friends whom you can say every thing. Whom you skin and take it in stride when they return the favors. It’s very difficult to maintain same level of informality and attachment after a certain age I guess. We all learn art of pretensions day in day out and that fades any relationship, friendship included. Yeah there are few sweet exceptions, who may shine up the park after dullness sets in and pretension rules adult minds after certain time.But they are as rare as Dodos.

I am very impetus in dealing with friends or sometimes too lazy but I have never learnt to strike it right. Friendship is not about weathering the testing time alone, that’s one of them. It’s about knowing things without even a need to put them in words. Gauging you without even asking you. I ‘ll be termed a crazy I know , sounds so unrealistic seems to be wandering around in a chimerical world. Let it be who cares as longs as you have some true blue chaps. Formality is the biggest contempt a true friendship can ever face. “No hard feelings” or “Sorry” for true friends , I was almost killed for asking something personal and following it up with a something stupid like sorry. Don’t need to be sorry chap that’s your right to know isn’t it? True chap!!! Every formality is like a nail in friendship coffin.



It’s all about VVS (very very special) friends, which one is fortunate to make. Let the world grow more of such breed, for rest “I am sorry”. (My stock word for New Year, a word of restrain and to be politically correct to rest of humans, some love it, some lap it and if not who cares?? ) would still do.

Bidding you adieu dear piracy!

The monster of piracy seemed to be invincible, humble plea by cine artists, putting more prints of new movies trying their luck at box office and so called stringent laws trying to rein in the monster couldn’t bear any fruit. Like those fairy tale stories where the life of the invincible monster lay somewhere else here too this monster prospered as no one was able to hit it where it hurts the most, the price. Yeah Indians may be moral but they are price sensitive as well, so they won’t mind dabbling into much scorned world of pirated CDs and DVDs, economic reasons score more than any latent morality that we may be nurturing yet..

Enter Moser Baer, last week an announcement from their stable has meant that days of our seemingly invincible and immortal monster are numbered. Eventually Moser Baer has decided to dabble in much sought after domestic entertainment market and death bells have started to ring for the mean giant of piracy.

Domestic home entertainment market (VCDs and DVDs ) is estimated at Rs 500 crore.
There are 26 million VCD/DVD players in India, but most of them are owned by extremely price sensitive middle class Indians. Remember your economics classes; price elasticity is more for these Indians. The domestic entertainment market is growing at about 25 percent annually. But as expected the chunk of profit is guzzled by undeserving messiahs of piracy and the one , the creator of the art have to be satisfied with what ever pittance they can lay their hands on.

As mentioned again and again the biggest hindrance to growth has been the consumers and the price sensitivity displayed by them. Yeah everything comes with a price tag and it goes like
VCD- sold in market for anything between Rs 35 – Rs 200.come to the shady place and you get it for Rs 15-50. Which one you take home??
DVD—Market asks you to shell out Rs 400 before you pocket one home, want a Naqli one well let your wallet part with a turquoise 100 note. Your take on that??

So when they talk of you are killing someone’s baby by nurturing piracy falls on deaf years. Moser Baer turns it all in their favor. How? By selling VCDs for Rs 28 and DVDs for Rs 34. So where lies the price advantage now ??

They (Moser Baer) are Investing 500 crore in this business over next few years
They are planning to acquire rights to over 7000 movies.. Surely a large number of them will be from catalogue (not the recent ones but older movies). So what?? There is still a sizeable demand for such movies by consumers.

How on earth Moser Baer would be able to roll out CDs and DVDs at throwaway price. At their own expense?? Are they doing any charity? Nah. It’s all feasible because of propriety technology. Physical infrastructure to copy content on large scale is already in place , so once they have their hands on a legally acquired CD, they would happily make enough copies to get prices cut down to ridiculously low levels , making you and me happy and ah helping some one with the slow death it very much needed.

How about distribution, always a disturbing proposition. You may be scoring high on production scales but how would you ensure benefits are reaped by you dear customers. Well Moser Baer already reaches audio .and video software store which sells its blank CDs/DVDs, so distribution won’t be a problem for our hero on a mission.
For film makers too it makes sense to sell rights to Moser Baer as market will expand rapidly. And this is not all however hunky dory it may appear to be. It also plans to set up 300 stores nationwide...Now that’s sure an unbeatable plan to script the denouement for the villain whose life was caged in a needle only our hero could break.

New year resoutions and me??

They say resolutions are meant to be broken, a fickle minded me never keeps resolutions anyway. Earlier I used to take resolutions and however steadfast I may try to be, it used to crumble by second week of New Year. Now I don’t take any or you may say I take a resolution of not taking any, and somehow manage to keep it unblemished every year.


Well why does one await arrival of New Year to impose some harsh decisions on himself/herself. This is the truth a resolution sounds very solemn and I don’t foresee any resolution being taken with a jolly good face. Well an economist would say leave short term gain aside and think of long term gains ahem then may be yeah may be a New resolution may be salvaging all pain and mourning it takes to sustain one through out the year.

But to take a resolution first of all hair splitter in you should take charge, nah nah don’t want to leave with few on crown. It’s all about dissatisfaction with yourself that would lead to a new year resolution. If I am ok with myself and don’t see any modification in me bringing any good to me, why on earth there should be grave sounding vow. Do I need to change?? Really? Anything that stifles me, any habit which leaves me stymied or suppresses my upward growth. Anything which puts others in unnecessary bother, hmm harder I think more I start falling in love with me. Jokes apart, if ever a resolution is needed to be taken I’ll take but at this stage of my life, I guess zilch is the answer.


So that’s for me 1st January won’t ring any alarming bells for me, but let me think of some names and kind of new year resolutions they may take (ah preachers good at preaching pathetic at practisizing them, well very true )



Few names have to be coded, if they are good at clutching to subtle hints let them know.



Mr Manmohan Singh: a good man at wrong place. Sir either vacate that much sought after seat or let take your conscience take charge of you rather than you know who.

Mr George Bush: We all can live with or without certain Laden but stop your policing act. Let world be a beautiful place, we all are smart enough to look after sir, stop worrying for the world and think more of Yankees, yeah with 2 terms already in pocket you may beg to differ…


Mr Salman Rushdie: Let there be more content in king sized packet of yours. One of few names which have over lived their shelf lives. Stop deriding others and write more rather than to be seen at some P3 functions with much prized wife in arms.

Mr Anu Malik: Let the world know that you can perspire and without any inspiration too you can be laughing all the way to music charts.

Mr SRK: Need one for you?? Even if there is a suggestion from humble quarters , you would scorn at them and would disdainfully keep them aside with wave of hand. How about taking sheen off your boasting of being the best…

Mr SRT: take a vow, you ‘ll ve final hurrah what if you misfired at Jo’berg let Bridgetown be cherished one for us, nothing less than a world cup for you. And 1.2 billion Indians …


Time for few, living in closer quarters or who ever were close by.


AKJ: a good fella, leave cigarettes aside and how about reducing frequency of lame excuses? Enjoy France more.

KS: hmm some people would never listen to me and they are better off that way.


Sunshine boys (roomies/loomies); huh imperfection can’t be perfected be the way you are…who likes perfection , you all are imperfect just like rest of the ilk and are loved the way you are.. Perfection brings yawn to me

Few names I chose to ignore, I wish I could have something to say about them but then I cant impose suggestions on them, some are too tender (with a tag”Fragile/handle with care”) , I wish they are more assertive, live life , start worrying less about others and how would they react to blah blah and you people would be just fine. Start showing displeasure if you are miffed how world would know?? A genuine frown face appeals to me more than a fake laughter…

New year beckons and there is hardly anything new to be offered or accepted.
Life moves in circles and I wish I would keep living life as if it has to be my last day …
I pray to god that near and dear ones keep killing me with the forthrightness they have shown and don’t be like candy sweet ones who like my back more than my chest…Dig your sharp teeth deep into my chest friends, (eh my back is too frail for your kindness in form of canine offerings), I love you that way…..

PS: still if I am forced to take a resolution at a gun point it will be “ I wont’ let people walk all over me and yeah would start caring less for others, some start taking it as your having enough time to dispose , and it reduces you to shambles for certain people.”

A genial italian

I hate Italians from the core of my heart. And when I do start falling in love with them, they end up doing some Materazzish things to my idols and this developing Italian honeymoon is nipped in the bud.

But to every prevailing rule there has to be an exception, and few exceptions come as royally as Fabio Cannavaro . A genial defender for Azury. did I say genial??, a genial Italian and that too a defender, aren’t Italians defenders supposed to be mean, baying for your blood if you happen to be rival forward venturing into the much prohibited goal arena waltzing your way through, weaning away to look for that much denied goal and ah suddenly brought down by one of those mean somber sinister eyed men in blue. I know a genial Italian defender is a double oxymoron (ah I just invented a word courtesy Italians), but then if someone could grab that flattering tag it has to Fabio, the skipper of Italian hopes who proved rule of 12 –24 continues for Italians(Italian made it to the finals of 1970 and 1994 world cup where they find samba dancers in yellow-greens too hot to handle and in 1982 and 2006 they were crowned winners at the expense of Germans and French – so we all superstitious people know Italians are very much in chance after 2 WC fiascos, don’t expect much of them at south africa-2010 and 2014.They ll be back in hunt in 2018 if this numerology has to be believed )

Fabio failed to win golden ball in Germany, blame it on that French sorcerer who decided world has to know that even fast paced and seemingly rough game of soccer can mesmerize you as long as maestro was in mood for ballerina. For every equally brilliant but rogue Deco/Ruyben (remember Portugal pitted against Holland and referee’s suddenly realizing red is the best known color to him), there has to be a maestro to bring sanity to game. Maestro took some sheen off neat work Fabio displayed throughout a world cup known for bellicose defenders who managed to escape red card happy hawk eyed referees. But Fabio was an exception, I don’t remember a single tackle of his which could have been deemed illegal, what he did was neat, very much acceptable in football parlance and yet bravo few (if any) could head their way past him. Klose who laid Argentina low other day, learnt it hard way, mate Fabio aint no Ayala , unbreachable wall he is, be content to play it for while but never even think of shooting it past keeper of our fortunes Buffoon he must have been told in no uncertain terms. “Ah sending it past Buffoon, mate let him at least collect the ball for a while, I m finding it difficult to send it to him” must have been Klose’ retort if he was witty enough.

It was good to see therefore Fabio collecting Europe’s best footballer award and aha icing on that creamy cake was “FIFA footballer of the year” award last week. Fabio deserves his place under the sun; let him soak it up, he warrants all accolades showered on him. After all not all Italians are sinister eyed mean men and some of them can be genial though blocking ways of many of your favorites (Klose, Crespo, Rooney, Polski ,Henry whoever they are..) and ah rare breed of theirs which gets rarer every day may has some titans among them who may pose with that beautiful award in hand chortling for all those hungry camera clicking photographers .

We are getting funnier.. so say our ads

There was always this complaint against an average Indian, he doesn’t laugh at himself, he takes himself too seriously and in process lets go so many opportunities to laugh/giggle. No more if the movies and ads of year whizzing past us have any thing to say.
Traditional cola war in advertising was muted this year. Blame it on pesticide issue. Rather than locking horns over which cola is best to be guzzled down your not so thirsty throat, Pepsi and Coke were ‘Brothers in arms”.
If Pepsi showed its concerned CEO India Rajiv Bakshi taking rounds of Pepsi factories then coke used Aamir Khan assuring people coke is worth them and fully healthy drink to gulp.”Hey I do keep guzzling down joshila drink , why not you” Aamir was persuading us ,
Traditinally MNCs tried to make their ads look as local as possible but tables were turned this time around with Indian company ads adopted the “think global, look local” philosophy.
Be it Tata in cars , Bajaj with their bikes or Raymond with their classy suits (“feels like heaven, feels like Raymond”, thankfully saved us from so arrogant “Raymond-the complete man”) , they all looked more global this year.

Ah how can we forget seemingly boring financial sector. Ever thought an ad for financial services to tickle the funny bone in you??, nah?? think twice before you leap to any preposterous conclusion, here we are --

Ogilvy and Mather’s (O&M) innovative and funny ads for SBI
So be it insurance or credit cards humor ruled the roost. Remember a poor husband peparing papads because he did not buy his wife’s statement “SBI has maximum no. of ATMs nationwide” and as usual loses to her.

Bank of Baroda banking on Mr. dependable did quite a good business. And so did Max life insurance because it’s always good to have “cover” in life, you don’t where the next bouncer is coming from.

Year also saw return of few old ad icons. Javed Jaffery -- Maggi “it’s different”. I was broght up on those humorous “it’s different ad” which saw Pankaj Kapoor and Javed Jaffery winning our hearts over and over again. And Hutch may be hot cake right now with Vodafone and Anil Ambani eyeing for lion’s share in the company , but it was so nice to see our lovely pug back.

And how can one forget ad of the year “Happydent chewing gum”. “Tera man roshan, tera dil roshan” struck the right chords, wowed laymen and ad gurus alike, and won acclamation. Prasoon Joshi’s conviction “Think in Hindi”, kept the tally going for McCann Erickson and we were the last one to complain.

Outdoor and Radio are supposed to be revolutionary ones in coming year. Hopefully 2007 fetches some more glory to Indian ad world, we are looking forward to 2007 with much sanguinity.

All speed and no thrill, a sleepfest in all senses

Well before letting the world know what I think of this movie; let the clock be turned back umm for few months. It was month of June (year 2006), world cup soccer was very much in air, I had already put in my papers and was going to Delhi to pursue higher studies. And what a fun it was to be relaxed and catch every single minute of soccer. I inflicted this soccer fever on couple of girls in my office as well (well that was a real credit to let em glued to a manly game). Yeah did I mention the only thing that Idiot box had to offer (accepted by me) was a spoof on a speed rage called ‘Dhoom’. That was pure fun, looked idiotic at times but it was fun alright when you awaited your heroes in sky blue and white stripes to announce the beginning of real show.


Must have confused everyone eh!! What the few lines meant was that funny spoof was much more interesting, the sequel was a sleepfest, where an Adonis tried to revitalize things again and again and failed miserably at that.

We started in an African desert with our Adonis stealing the thunder (and a crown) under the nose of watertight security and exhibits a pompous walk and all of sudden breaks into a jig.

If that was not enough we had an Ice maiden who suddenly realizes she is still young, svelte, and umm may be sizzling. All her antics fall flat on the audience. A Mallika may have fitted in a bahu’s role in Ekta’s run of mills, but I couldn’t gobble the fact of an Aish trying to raise temperatures by few notches and explicably she failed at that.

Rest of cast was wasted on expected lines. A man whose only claim is to be famous director’s son and may be a Kapil Devish toothy grin ,did what he does best, boring audience to death and let them believe movie cant go any worse. Famous superstar’s(AB) baby looked lifeless and love interest of current sizzling macho (Bipasha)failed to crackle.


Our Adonis tried the very bandana sported by Johnny Depp in avatar of Pirate in a desperate effort to get some of charm rubbed off on him, desolately we expected the charm but it was conspicuous by its absence. Nor our so called svelte Ice maiden in new hot avatar looked anywhere close to Keira.

Actors were going through motion ahem with a slight spring in their steps (it was a movie about speed you see) and I started waltzing in dreamland (yeah I dozed off) by the time Brazil beckoned.

Finally the sentence was over and we were back roaming in the real world. Ouch I almost rubbished a movie, cant help when you are made to cough up a premium expecting champagne and what you get is cheap spirit sans fizz, anger and irritation is very much palpable

Ps: A Liplock generated a lot of controversy, may be a PR stunt by movie producers. The whole world was interested in intertwining of lips between Adonis and Ice maiden except the family of young angry man of yesteryears. His baby (AB’s baby) cried foul, take it in stride mate! As if you would have whined had you been in Adonis’s shoes. And did I mention Adonis’s real life wife gave pats to hubby dearest for a wonderful effort, she described it as the best his hubby could have ever performed. Ouch Rehaan(youngest one in Adonis’s family) are we suspecting your genes boy!!! Never mind it was tongue in cheek comment, I just wanted to take a sweet and below the belt revenge……

Fleeting creativity or dour details –what’s your approach??

You have a brain storming session coming up --- so what’s the agenda of the meeting?
Have to come up with some creative ideas or willing to delve into details? What’s the need of the hour?? Choose the much needed music accordingly.

It’s not musing of devil’s workshop whose fingers are certainly much more nimble these days, oh home does weird things to crazy people!!. It’s a new study by a Canadian research firm. Firm has dug deep into human minds to know how mood affects our mental processes. Good mood breeds lateral thinking, those out of box thinking we prefer to call comes naturally to people who shun foul moods and prefer to be in good humor. So anticipate next bright idea leaping up from the jocular one sitting right next to you .. oh and did I say something about detailed approach . This is what the firm has to offer –“Tunnel vision associated with fear and anxiety leads a person to look for details.” So what I was taught in primary class has been reinforced yeah “once bitten twice shy”, “a burnt child dreads fire”. All are seemingly very correct, as somber faced ones are the ones searching for hidden meaning , may be increased apprehension makes them look at each facet, each aspect which may escape gaze of those jolly good souls.


If attention is like spotlight, good mood widens it while negative mood will focus it narrowly.
So if you want creative juices to follow put on some uplifting music and if you want sharp focus, well you are better off scared.

Justice meted out to delhi girls

I have been away from Delhi, but Delhi seldom away from me. Bleary eyed me, rubbing my eyes to get used to morning splendor and first thing I used to get was the taste of the capital. Whether it was sheepish glance at Day’s paper irreverently hurled by the vendor to my living room or a slight wink at the idiot box churning out news through its irrepressible newscasters, everyone has something new to offer, a new flavor of the old Capital. Delhi sneezed and pneumonia was palpable here in my drawing room.

It was political centre with all big shots yearning for a sound byte, it was fashion centre with Bals and Beris all flaunting their Delhi origins, it was livewire for journalism with stylish, suave and bearded Pranov leading the pack of fourth estate.

So proverb “Delhi is far away “(Abhi dilli door hai) was a sweet contradiction for me with me pocketing enough information on Delhi as part of my daily rituals.

But all was not hunk dory about Delhi. Far from that city sent shivers down my young spine at a very impressionable age. Bihar was bad, painted with a tarry brush but Delhi scored no better with spiraling crimes it boasted of. My god how do they manage in city which they show off as dilwalon ki dilli. I had my reservations , Old couple hacked to death, young girl molested, bomb explosion 34 died, not a safe place to venture once sun sets, do I need to put some more. Wow Delhi you never had a magnetic touch on me, a trailor in Lalu’s land is enough who wants to see a full fledged movie, was my usual retort when asked about Delhi.

But this one is not about all gloom that may surround a city. Bleak too should come with a shelf life, one cant continue to dread the hidden monsters for all the life and what a right time to bring some sunshine back in the Capital. Justice delayed is justice denied but in the case of two Delhi girls, delayed it may be yet it was very heart warming.

Delhi courts finally showed the courage to punish mighty ones for their wrong doings. I always associated Delhi with some of blots it had chose to adopt and these two were very much there, very disturbing something which would have perturbed any citizen.

What made Mattoo and Jessica wait so much for Justice can’t be justified, yet it is a pleasure to see for a change few people aren’t more than equals in the law of the land.
May be a certain Sanjeev Nanda is spending few sleepless nights, may be law breakers and assassins of many more budding lives have started suffering from insomnia. May be its Delhi’s turn to change its image, awaiting more wonderful news to pour in dear Dilli.

Project-2007 Doomed 2 be a failure??

I am a sports freak. Like any average Indian, Cricket was my first love. Started following it at the tender age of six, remembered all names, their hours of glory, all those sunshine and subsequent inconsolable rainy seasons when Indian team went into hiding. For me, a partisan Indian of course what warmed cockles of heart was that swagger in walk of whom else but sir Isaac Vivian Richards. A match against West Indies always was close to heart because casual looking gum munching Richards was there. Yeah cricket involved twenty two players but for me it was one man’s show, who else but Richards. “God let Richards score a ton and yet ensure Indians romp home” was my typical prayer.
Those days have gone and no degree of nostalgia can turn laden footed Windies of today back to those nimble footed Richard’s halcyon days.


So finally Windies are slated to stage the great cricket carnival in their backyard. So Barbados which produces more cricketers per square kilometer than any other nation may see best of em slugging it out together. A Ponting pull. A Laxman flick off hip , Lara kamikaze all packed together , wow what a recipe , windies would be having a whale of time.

Hmm now discuss our paper tigers. You blink they win you blink they lose “Indian Cricket team”. Indian cricket team reminds me of over hyped English soccer team, full of all those charismatic stars who just cant deliver. To me a Sachin is no better than Lampard who fizzles out when asked to take a penalty.

So do men in blue stand a chance? You never know they say cricket is a “game of glorious uncertainties”. Ah a hanky panky game to put in a straight forward manner.
Did they stand a chance after being shot out for nothing in last world cup against aussies but they made a comeback only to surrender to their tormentors in the finale.
And why not ??who expected Debonair Pathan Imran Khan to annex it for pakis in 1992 or portly Ranatunga to lift it in 1996, so why not our very own Dravid can do it this time around But however fickle the color of cricket may be it too follows certain laws, specially one day cricket is more of science today with every detail being taken into account . Every single move of a batsman dissected as never before you can get that chink in the armor n rhythm and line length of a bowler being frozen and unfrozen before you time and time again. Certainly cricket has been robbed of romanticism associated with it not long ago and more so it means imperial masters (we Indians) are at certain disadvantage in this mad game of payjama cricket. Indians are in doldrums with their best bet misfiring and bowlers being carted all around the park. SRT isn’t getting any younger, Sehwag is yet to know what has hit him, Yuvi is out with an injury, Kaif is good in field but still awakward when it comes to wielding a willow. Bowling department looks toothless, ready to be walloped by any hungry gladiator on that 22 yard of strip.

So where does it leave us , Chappell has not shown much to repose faith in him but then there are few options. I don’t expect much from my cricket team this time around. Call me cynic , yeah a cynic I am , I ll prefer to be called a level headed sensible guy who knows what the conditions will be and Indians will be facing the music . Chances are slim , it may be Sri Lankans, may be even Proteas , but ‘Men in Blue’ having a blast at Kingston/Bridgetown , well that looks a far fetched idea to me. I won’t mind 24 year old ear to ear toothy grin of Kapil being replaced by a serene smile of Mr Dravid, but would God be Indian , hmm wait and watch.

In Sunsign we trust?

The big question mark aptly describes the flavor of this topic. Well not long ago Times of India to mark 10 years if Delhi Times came up with this idea of describing twelve zodiac signs in great detail. Their traits, their forte, hmm heel for all 12 kind of Achilles n their chemistry/non-chemistry with each of other zodiac signs. A good time pass one must say.
Let me confess I am not a great believer in sun signs, yet I followed those outlandish descriptions and traits associated with every zodiac sign. Well it was kind of fun to map these traits to your known ones and say it can’t get any funnier. But I must compliment TOI for something they knew, they knew the laziest of em very well, yeah Pisces was the last one to adorn those pages, the so called 12th sign of zodiac. Hmm let me recount what they have to say about Pisceans. “12 th sign of zodiac, eternal dreamers, intelligent (hey my ears listen to them for a change), creative (have 2 be, dreamers have to be creative), emotional, sensible, optimist and sympathetic towards others. And something more , I cant agree more to this, laziest of all 12 signs, someone whom you have to motivate to take them out of the deep slumber” .
Oh I won’t put my money on those astrologers and their stupid sun signs, how on earth traits of billion of people can be explained by something as innocuous as sun signs . So Mikhail Gorabchov can’t be a good natural leader, a poor Piscean but a Sagittarian Churchill or Arian Mukesh Ambani can be good leaders in their chosen fields. Give me a break.
Nah it’s not a case of addressing personal grievances , not that I hate to be docile, dreamer and wow with much deafening bustle I announce I have no qualms in accepting any tag of” intelligent person” being attached to my name just coz a fish blesses my birthday. Huh who minds being called intelligent or sensible, whatever be the pretext may be to grab it.Nothing fishy about that. But isn’t it generalizing too much, say with a population of around 6 -7 billion and every sun sign expecting a fair deal ,500-600 million people come under umbrella of each , be it ram,scorpio,fish or lifeless scales.
But tell me could they all be ones with much enviable(look at his public life) or unviable (his much pooh poohed personal life) churchillish traits coz just like the man with bulldoggish feature they chose to born on serene cold November night? Sachin does he ever exhibit any combative taurean spirit?? All scorpions are as talented as John Keats, all Virgos as expressive as Vikram Seth.?? Names are aplenty to prove what I want to prove .yeah sun signs are useless and it is futile for bleary eyed you and me to get up early in the morning , giving a wink at those Bezaan Daruwala pages claiming a day full of pleasures in store for you . But then would we ever avoid giving a cursory glance to those pages cursing em all along. Huh that’s life.

Give me the answers I am searching for.. Aha I am looking forward to being next Kurt Cobain/Aamir Khan/Albert Einstein /Gabriel Garcia Marquez(few gentlemen I appreciate), I share my traits with you gentlemen, we all are born on right side of February/ March (Pisceans we are...not offending Aquarians and Arians though you might have your own idols )

Let an engineer be heard for a change

Much scorned engineer I am. According to the recent survey conducted by Readers’ Digest in uncle Sam’s land, my breed is the most boring one when it comes to recounting occupational cases , what it means is audience will be glued to a doctor when he narrates how he cured that beautiful damsel, they will be willing to lend an ear to a lawyer who saved his client’s life by his wonderful castle of lies, even a politician would be entertained if he has some scandal brewing up but poor engineers mention them and the party wears a forlorn look. Well that is the way it was slated to be, engineers are meant to bring order to chaotic world, and orderliness is looked upon with much contempt these days.

This is just the beginning my friends, the cup of woes is not yet full. Ok let me take you to the class of 2000, a bunch of young boys and girls are inducted in a college based on their prowess in PCM(physics, chemistry and mathematics). These gawky teenagers have bright minds and dreamy eyes. Umm time to face the reality, face the director kidos!!. What the grand old man has to offer. “Young friends, India is in desperate need of its engineers, not to engineer some defections or split(followed by muted laughers) but real engineers who can build dams, generate power and design new chips “ . Then he reeled off some data to show India is facing talent crunch, we are a blessed lot to be at right place at right time. Citizens of India are paying through their noses, mighty money being invested in raw talent of ours, so that these talents can be shaped up and work wonders for the country. Ouch, what a long and draining speech!! , I wondered. But facts were pretty true I had to pay some 8000 per annum as token fee (really pittance if you consider the quality education we were provided with). We all became one night kings and managed to see through all papers unblemished (without losing our virginity to much dreaded supplementary while showing good report cards). Finally we jumped software bandwagon. Why?? Money was there and there were few companies which visited campus with building dams and generating power in mind.

So I landed up in one of much esteemed companies and churned few lines of code like rest of my breed. Now here comes twist in tale, when I decided to throw my hat in the ring for MBAs well my non engineer friends didn’t take kindly to the news.
Want to hear some reactions, feel blessed here they are – ‘engineers should be prohibited from writing any entrance exams, taxes have gone down the drain to prepare them “. Ah want few more – “Greedy engineers, money is never enough for them, agreed they are sharp, they have acumen to crack all they want but when unemployed youth are cajoling Government and firms alike for a job , is it moral for these engineers to grab someone’s opportunity in garb of an MBA seat.” Ah what to say even my sibling taunted me for that, “et tu Mr Engineer, well sharp minded you find everything boring , enough tinkering with software/hardware you need to mangle Indian economy now eh “


Well face the destiny, we are 60 % of what IIMs are, may be 70-80 % of what rest of wonderful MBA colleges are. Engineers are here to stay, love them loathe them you cant’t uproot them . We dare you (not an egoist uttering in his trance). Speaking the very essence of the truth, let merit be the sole criteria and let boring breed of engineers choose what they want to do. We take Readers’ Digest in stride.

What’s in a name???

Bard of Avon might have believed a rose is a rose with same thorny exteriors, same pinkish petals and above all same sweet smell, people may call it by any name, no one is affected. After all what’s in a name, it is all a package to wrap the content, what matters lies beneath.

Welcome to twenty first century Mr. Shakespeare, it would be an eye opener for you, yeah finally name does matter. A Brett Lee wants to name his child “Sachin” and a Lara names his love child “Sydney “. A certain Tom Cruise names his young princess “Suri”. Slowly but surely names have started to matter. Every name has its own story to reveal.

Well the truth is name gives a lot about the person it is tagged to. Before liking a person I end up liking his/her name. If you have never met him/her, sometimes you end up making mental images of that person. It’s so much fun. To me a name describes a person more of his/her parents’ tastes than his/her own. Names are ridiculous, they are exciting, they are repetitive, they are fresh but they are fun after all they are something pretty much your own yet used by others much more often.

Every name is beautiful but some are more beautiful than others. I have special fascination for names beginning with letters R, A or S. anyway most of Indian names start with these letters, so probability dictates terms in my case I guess. But think of any Indian name sans letter R,A ,S ok add an I to it ,I flounder while thinking of any name .

Tongue firmly in cheek, I would suggest parents to be not to name their born to be starting with an A or with a R,S or M. I learnt it hard way, while scouring mail box for my mails in office (where mails were neatly kept in separate boxes as per each letter of English alphabet), I had big trouble in finding my mails. My plight was shared by say some Shweta, Maneesh and Abhishek .


Ps: hmm so why such a weird topic crept up in my mind. Thanks to Arvacheen and Tulika two youngsters aged 11 and 13 respectively whom I met during journey back home. Name Arvacheen got me stumped and its meaning took some time to sink in. Young boy’s name was great to know though. Tulika was a bubbly girl, charm personified and I didn’t miscue meaning of her name.

Another Trimster on a winged plane...

So I sit here in my room suffering from insomnia. I want to sleep but today Morpheus is in mood to play pranks with me. As I sit finishing another gamut of stories I feel exhausted, hmm at odd hours I end up remembering my college in general and second trimester in particular. What a fleeting trimester it was meant to be and what a messy one it turned out to be. Short, crisp yet won’t be termed sweet.

Let me reminisce how this one started. Ok it wasn’t great yet it is not discredited enough to sink in evanescence so quickly. I feel if I hark back to month of October, this was how it all started -----------

Heat is on

Well before I was back to capital after celebrating navratri(dussera), heat was on. Well heat was all about summers . Kya hoga?? Will I get a decent enough internship?? Seniors had warned “freshers smile at summers , you duffers(work ex) may have a baggage of 2years with you, cool.. keep sweating away. Take a chill pill and please don’t get too edgy”. Point taken yet I was a wee bit worried. First 2 days were kind of those restricted field overs of cricket and a slower one like me had to patiently wait for his turn. Any one could have clouted me you see. Ha. Fortune smiled upon some blessed ones . well round of those pretty formal congratulations and those muted muttering of “Thank You” went on. Fine I felt few are through and I would be any day. I am happy for them, so I said

Next few days were no better, but jinx lay tattered there and an animated hug awaited dearest pal. Wow someone from my room is through, a feeling which was not equaled when I found myself limping through as well. But the fact is this is not about summers, that are immaterial, well I may not be the best one to nurture any such argument. any such can be taken up by people who clamored and received ad lib. But if they say so it may sound so patronizing

Not that my agony was stretched but I always felt guilty not to show up a somber face when so many faded faces came and pestered to see that hint of agony on my face. Yeah I was agony aunt for few of them, I hated that anyway though.” How he/she got through, they never deserved to be there” grumbled few ashen faces. I am not kind of to say good things in front of you and backbite once you vanish the scene, yet I played along as if I knew nothing. The fun is finally they too (ashen faced grumblers) got through and most funny rather interesting part is they are very friendly with people (those so called non deserving ones who got through the very first/second day). Whoa backbiting and friendly banters/unions make a lethal mix, God save me from such fair weathered ones….

Name dropping aint no fun though….

Increasing Entropy

So eventually we enter the class after heat and grumblers chose to evade me finally.

I enter the class bit late with couple of usual suspects in tow (they are the real friends I have to admit who skin me around all the while and I too do not leave any chance to return the favors go abegging). Our seats have already been taken. Hmm I smile and look at Sid “See champ, entropy is on rise”(term depicting randomness for those not prospered in physics classes). “No way. See it is all about team coordination and chemistry’ he retorts. “Umm yeah “ I concur “so three stooges will be sitting together” I let out a laugh.

A class of negatives, zilches and few positives

One of the most unforgettable classes. A class which made me humble and let me believe I know nothing about softwares/hardwares. All my 6 years’ effort( 4 as a student and 2 as a professional) comes to naught as my team is awarded yet another negative. We consist of four. Two non ITs(Devika and Sid) and two supposedly ITs(Me And Vinit). Vinit keeps misfiring , I refuse to budge (I hardly know these stuff never ran into them seriously I tell you) and perfumed lady awards another negative. Two non ITs try to motivate us and when they see efforts going down the gutter they flash their pearly whites at us. This trend continues throughout the trimester, if we are consistent it’s all about maintaining a negative score on slate. Beauty is we start savoring it , it ‘s all so fun . Thanks mates I was not so bad , and if I ever felt bad you people just laughed it away. Making it cozier and make me look forward to another bout of negatives and zilches.

Newly discovered Sleep

This was also the trim when I finally enjoyed taking siesta. Drooping eyes told their story. I joined the party and unabashed I continued my sleeping venture. Teachers always had soporific effect, now I humbly accepted it and started to fall in line with those who had invented/reinvented this famous art. One who is brilliant and quite a seasoned one at this art with leaning tower of Pisa like postures acknowledges me and we exchange meaningful smiles.

Nostalgia dawns on me

First FM class, and I am surrounded by feeling of nostalgia; this person reminds me of my teachers back at Warangal, I must have told it to people who ever mattered.

People find him boring, they don’t listen to him. Strangely I try to listen to him and find his class quite useful. Man may be diffident, may be he doesn’t articulate too well, yet man is worthy , Fin is an interesting subject I can vouch for it and am looking forward to know more of capital structures and different policies.

Old man with twinkle in his mischievous eyes

Class we all looked forward to. Started half an hour late, a sweet break of twenty minutes and when in mood left us 15 minutes before scheduled time. Ah manna from heaven, surprising !!!attend an IMM class mate. Hmm did I tell Amazon.com has some weakness for his book, scour Amazon for a book on International marketing and what it did? Voila it threw up the book you had in your hand very moment the story was reeled in front of you. “Smoking is injurious to health and no man should ever smoke “ he uttered with mischievous grin and a playful glint in his eyes which made everything clear. He is a man of great contacts and can be easily convinced for a noble cause. Some girls who were made to give presentation learnt it hard way ….

Man with a meaty voice

Another class I seldom missed. When he talked, he did like man possessed. He was always in control and floored many a girl in first class. I loathe the word but let me use it for him ,his way of delivery as well his pragmatic knowledge was awesome. I secured 2.5 in first quiz , martyrdom doesn’t come any better . I nurse no grudge against him because it was fun to fail for a change ,

Zombie mends her ways eventually

Psychology classes were pathetically boring, so boring that I reinvented limericks I had long forgotten . It was sleep inducing class and I had to look for other ways to keep myself engaged. We named her ‘Zombie’ coz she hardly oozed any human expression during her classes. Lady mends her ways in this trimester. She takes her feedbacks seriously becoz we had mentioned the very thing there in feedback form. Mincing word aint our manner and lady responds in great style. Ma’am OB was fun and certainly one of the classes few dozed off, leave those seasoned ones aside, they would make anyone look pathetic..

Three ball theory busted

Poor fellow had a bad time. Kolkota guy caught in Delhi ambush. He wasn’t bad , but his utterings always brought smile on our faces. Remember the three ball theory??. How an imbalance could wreak havoc in an entrepreneur’s life .

Hmm can also recall a washed out Quo-Vadis where we had less participants and more volunteers. Can recollect my getting flushed at slight mention of my nick name, can summon up to mind those boring classes when I had nothing to do and smsing to near and dear ones was the last resort(in utter defiance to college authorities’ ban on use of mobile in classes)

Second trimester was this and much much more. It was short and crisp. But at the end of day take Macroeconomics and FM and what I learnt was cipher, zilch some one is tantalizingly close to award another negative I guess…

Hardly royal ---we would still lap you up Mr. Bond

“Name is Bond, James Bond”, we sat stupefied and forgot that this much prized line (umm yeah gadgets, babes and those seat edging fights were pretty much there) hadn’t been uttered even once. Ah finally he did , Bond kills the villain and line is uttered at fag end of movie and is muted by deafening roars of applause that follow it.

So we all felt Bond is wooden with Brosnan not around . Daniel who? Excuse me what did you say Pierce aint around any more. He was awesome, hmm he was..Rather he is.
But let’s not demean new Bond. Craig is no mean actor anyway. I had my own apprehensions before I entered the theatre. For my generation PB (Brosnan) was the only Bond , rest were also rans, kind of patches we keep if original masterpiece lies shattered and we still want our bare walls to be draped.

But then misconceptions are needed 2 be cleansed and so here it was me bidding goodbye to another bias, another misconception. What was that , well I believed if someone could take baton from PB it has to be CF(Collin Farrel, one who was impudent enough to be Angelina Jolie’s son in much celebrated but a damp squib of a movie going by name of ‘Alexander’ ). So when it was announced with much fanfare that DC (CRAIG) is the next reporting to ‘M’, I was hardly enthused. Ah now we’ll find even Judy Dench hot (see Bond has hardly anything which may cause to let temperature soaring, so may be M would step in to provide some warmth). Well jokes apart ‘Casino Royale’ was last thing on my mind.

But did I ever say magazines were all singing paeans of new bond and that raised the curiosity , so I finished the class and with bunch of usual suspects I was off to catch glimpse of latest 007 .

Hmm I liked the novelty the director brought in. How about a Bond replacing “License to Kill “ tag with another tag a capital ‘L’(still learning the ropes mate!!!). Hmm yeah this Bond is not one well versed in art of “Bondgiri”(feel ashamed to coin such a desi word for her majesty’s secret agent). He flounders along, learns the art hard way, gets swindled, gets humiliated but mark it looks very very human. So Bond tries his luck at two girls , one is dead while other cons him with street smart methods ., so what he doesn’t get a girl at the end. He is the bond of poor people, he is the bond you or me can don the mantle of . He is the bond who gets beaten and comes back with vengeance.
He is the bond who looks heartless, still has emotion oozing out of him. Haven’t you witnessed him showing age old chivalry to that con of a lady called Vesper. How martini is served doesn’t matter to him any more, but he is Bond, James Bond who gives you paisa wasool and utters the famous line at fag end of the movie when you least expect it, leaving you craving for more. Looking forward to some more exploits Mr Bond, this fan is willing to shell out some more for you!!!!

A small corner of glory in foreign land

I desist telling that but I have to say that I do have sense of déjà vu.
Poetic justice has been meted out to the ‘Men in Blue’. Jo’berg has been the place of redemption for them. I would evade words such as “I saw it coming”, but truth is it was long over due. And what a better place than Jo’berg.to drape yourself in glory.

But why Jo’berg you may tempt to ask . Well Jo’berg has been place for many crucial battles for India and unfortunately in the heat of moment at famous “Wanderers” they have always been found wandering, drifting away from that sweet perfume of victory.

Circa 1992, South Africa is back into cricketing world with big bang leaving those much scorned apartheids behind. well I have fleeting memories of this match , don’t expect much from a 10-11 year old who is still learning ropes of balancing his life between unjust demands of school and late hours of cricket watching. All I remember a young 19 year old scoring a breath taking Ton , kinda daja vu for young cricket fan like me who has seen his exploits earlier at WACA, Perth , said 2 be the perfect place for a batman who relishes chin music with red cherry shootin past his ears . Do I need to mention teenager’s name , most definitely he is SRT(Sachin to us ). South Africa saves the match as Jonty Rhodes feels padwork can effectively substitute willow craft and umpires feel ‘LBW’ is not a part of any legal cricketing dictionary. Hmm on that sunny day at Jo’berg we were 11 against 13, despair writs large over all Indian faces and match ends in a tame draw.

1997- I have already seen couple of tests in this series. In first match we are molested (a kind of assault you take, grin and put your hand forward to congratulate the assaulter), second we again ate humble pie, a pie I never relish (Fatso Indians need to shed weight and pull up their socks to make it worth while --I wince, grimace and end up uttering),
So we are back to lovely Jo’berg and a new star is born. Indian wickets keep falling like nine pins, huh what’s new? History repeats itself you may tempt to utter, hold a while and behold the sight of young titan standing tall among debris of mere mortals, Name is RD, Dravid ,, Rahul Dravid. The man who brings fresh breeze from garden city and rock solid technique even lightening fast Donald fails to breach. We are here , we are here to overcome proteas , but oh dear fat lady you forget to sing , yeah it rains heavily and Proteas scrap through courtesy some rock solid show by Cullinan and Klusner and sudden amnesia of googly,leg breaks and top spin by Kumble does the rest. “A great ton , a victory would have been icing on cake” is all young titan can mutter. Jo’ you again leave us empty handed all this truly ardent fan of cricket (me who else) can hiss.



2003- Stage can’t get bigger than this. The coliseum is ready and so are young gladiators to wrench all guts and blood they have on this cricketing field. Yeah sir and ma’am too (if they have developed sudden interest in a game played by gentlemen in silk flannels) this is the culmination of cricket carnival 2003 (WC). But God suddenly discovers his ancestral roots lie somewhere down under,” what a time to know your DNA God!” I end up cursing Him. Ponting and Martyn make hay in brilliant sunshine with our cannon fodder(if you call them bowlers) , rest is history and a frustrated soul hits the sack earlier than usual. SRT gets man of the tournament award from none other than great sir Garfield Sobers, but personal glory is lost in sea of yellow shirts and odd baggy green cap, world cup is taking next flight to Brisbane mate.


2006- Enough pasting already received, Indians are looking a harried lot. Few heads start to roll, few oldies have suddenly found warmth in hearts of team management.
All signs of despair, desperation when you try all the tricks up your sleeve to avoid constant hammering that has been well your destiny. From no where appear three demi gods of Indian cricket. players who were left in cold not long ago and pension(if BCCI gives one) was pretty much on cards for them. One , an elegant southpaw so called God of all beautiful things on off side, other a smiling assassin who mesmerized all willow wielders world over and made them question basic laws of physics. Third, a very stylish bat , cherry always ordered him when he chose to caress it , ask kangaroos who learnt it hard way when paradise was lost for them in a garden of Eden.

But timely arrival of three gentlemen (old wine tastes better) and a pumped up lad from down south ensure Jo’berg is no longer a cursed place. From what could have been Jo’berg has been transformed into a place of we have tasted it here. India is no longer left wandering at “Wanderers” .

Way to go boys, you never know they may get a pasting in next test. A leather hunt is very much in offing and I am not denying it, but taste of first (be it love, honor or victory is always special). Soak up the sun boys; relish the richly deserved first hurrah in South Africa. ‘Wanderers’ was destined to be your place.

Ps: someone tell certain John Terry, Jo’berg is the place for paper tigers and WC-Soccer Finale is slated to be very much here. Deja vu ….eh Poms!!!!