Thoughts of the past ...

This post is inspired by a blog I read on Ekta's blog site ( http://ektam.blogspot.com/2006/08/those-left-behind_23.html )
on how people come and go in our life and how the memories linger on...
There is a hindi song "Zindagi ke Safar me gujar jyate hai jo makam..." I used to love that song..

Thought I should write a couple of line on the same note...

My heart is down and there are tears in my eye
When I think of the days gone by
Nostalgic memories numb my brain
as I pass through the gone-by lane
People who were so close to me..
I wish they could with me be..
Oh Time... If you rob me off my past
Please tell me.. How long will my sorrows last !!

What do you bring to the desk ?

Do the things that you collect on your work desk describe your personality ? I wonder....?

Why is it that we all have "small toys" on our desk ?

On my desk in office, apart from the office computers and stuff, I have the following

~4 idols of lord Ganesh
~1 photgraph of Lord Ganesh
~1 Statue of mother Mary
~1 Statue of the laughing Buddha
~ 3 miniature Diwali lanterns hanging from the corners of my computer screen
~1 horse shoe !!
~1 7 inch miniature black and white TV
~My blackberry craddle
~My Palm Pilot craddle (which I do not use any more)
~A few family photographs on the pin-up board behind the computer

..phew !!.. quite a crowded desk !!

.. Does this signify that I am superstitious (horse shoe), Religious (all the idols / pictures),
Sentmental (lanterns - given to me by friends from my operations team) or a family man (photographs)... ?

What do you have on your desk ? and what does it signify ?

Why ?

Why is it that we have life insurance.. When after we are dead we are no longer related to our family !! So why leave money for them ?
Why do we have fixed time for meals.. and do not eat when we are hungry ?
Why do we sleep at night ..and not when we are sleepy ?
Why do we train our kids (in school) like animals.. rather than giving them freedom to be creative?
Why do girls grow their hair longer then boys (usually) ? When in nature the males always have more hair !! (see the Lion.. or even Humans – Men have more body hair)

There are so many such questions that have no answers.. What say ?
I am not saying that these are wrong things to do.. But over conditioning onself tends to make one lose creativity !!

Madhur Bhandarkar Rocks..

Saw the movie “Corporate” on the weekend,, I liked it.. Bipasha Basu has done a pretty good job.. The movie is quite realistic though slightly exaggerated. The men are all shown as rogues in Madhur Bhandarkar movies.. In Corporate ..all men seem to be having extra-maritial affairs or seem to be letching at every girl around!!

The Story

In his latest film ‘Corporate’, Bhandarkar takes a dig at the corporate world and exposes the depravity that has become an intrinsic part of the business culture in the times of cutthroat competition.

Through a simplistically told story of rivalry between two business houses, Bhandarkar brings to light the covert business tactics and the underhand ploys that are played in the game of one-upmanship between two industrialists. In the thick of this corporate tussle, Bhandarkar places the central character of his story – a smart and ambitious executive, played by Bipasha Basu.

The first half of ‘Corporate’ is a bit of a drag, with all the business parlance and corporate lingo. But it is in this half Bhandarkar lays the foundation for the drama that unfolds in the second half. The movie picks tempo after the interval and the story sort of reaches a crescendo with a moral lesson that perhaps one shouldn’t get involved in one’s job too seriously.
The strange thing about Madhur Bhandarkar films is that what he shows in the film tends to happens in real life!!
First it was Satta – many political Scandals came out after the movie
Then Chandni Bar – all the dance bars in Mumbai were closedThen it was Page 3 – lot of page 3 scandals came in the open, And page 3 as a concept took off (for those who are unaware – page 3 is the gossip page for celebrities in the news papers)Now its Corporate – and the “pesticide in cold drinks” issue has been raked up again. A couple of states have banned the Colas.He some how seems to know the key issues that are going to be in the news soon..His next movie is going to be “at the signal” on street children working at the signals..I guess this would hit the market around the time when the ban on child labour would be enforced in India (around early October 2006)



Well done Madhur..

Independence day Thoughts

Someone just sent me a text message that read
H_ndu
Musl_m
S_kh
Chr_st_an
S_ndh_
Pars_

..If we lose out Un_ty.. we will stop being "I"ND"I"AN

The only thing I would add here is "Is an Indian a minority in India"

What do you think ? Are we really independent ??

How well do you know your city ?

How well do you know your city… No cheating.. Just 5 questions..

1. What’s the population of the city you live in ?

2. How did the city get it’s name ?

3. Who is the current Mayor/Sheriff of your city ?

4. Which is the tallest building in your city ?

5. How many cabs are there in your city ?

What do your colleagues think of you

What type of a colleague are you ?
Do people respect you ? Are you considered to be the "painful guy/girl" behind your back ?
Do people like you ? Are you the "nice guy" in office..
Have you ever wondered what your colleagues think of you ?
Do you care ?
I often wonder....
I wonder if I am a good colleague ..
I wonder if I am a good subordinate
I wonder if I am a good boss

I think I am average in all 3 categories.. Only people who have worked with me can comment !!

3 cheers to Richard Branson !

I fly to London often on business. Mostly to meet my clients. I usually take the night flight from Mumbai to London the British Airways BA139 (leaves Mumbai at 2.20 am and arrives at Heathrow at 7.30 am) and the day flight back the BA138 (leaving London in the mornings arriving at Mumbai at midnight).
I was extremely trilled when BA started the second flight through and fro from Mumbai to London.. Leaving Mumbai in the mornings and leaving London in the evenings..
I could now do day trips to London.
This May I went to London on a holiday with my family on a holiday. And just because the business class was cheaper on Virgin Atlantic by around Rs. 30,000 per ticket, I flew Virgin.. and was I surprised.. What a pleasant change..!!1. The Virgin flat bed in the business class is huge.. It’s as big as the BA first class
2. The food is much-much better.. With so many options in vegetarian and non-vegetarian
3. There is a masseur on board who gives you a neck or a hand massage
4. You can eat when you want !! No fixed time for serving food
5. The attitude of the airhostesses is much better and they are much younger than the usual 45+ BA ladies.
6. The lounge at Heathrow is unbelievable.. It has a full massage section, a beauty parlor, a Japanese sushi bar, a dessert section (at least 20 different desserts), they serve hot meals ala-carte (I loved the shepherd-pie that I had) and they also have a shoe polisher !!

The biggest difference are the seats..
Virgin Seats -



The Virgin business class seat (see above left) is 22 inches wide (wider than the BA first class seat). The ottoman doubles as a seat for your companion if you want to have dinner together (unlike BA, where the ottoman/foot rest cannot take the weight of a person)
The Virgin business class seat converts into a flat bed (see above right) which is the biggest fully flat bed of any airline in business class and bigger than even the BA first class bed.

BA Seats

The BA Business class seat is sort of clumsy (see above).. it comes in pairs.. There is someone sleeping right next to you !! Secondly, they are much narrower.. extremely difficult to turn in your sleep !!

Competition is intense ..

Historically, there has been huge competition between the two airlines. The competition was so hot that when BA tried to build the London Eye (which is a huge giant wheel – picture above) in London, they could not succeed at first because it was too heavy for the supports to hold.


Virgin had then come up with an ad saying “BA can’t get it up”

Post that holiday in May, I have decided that I will fly Virgin whenever possible. Unfortunately, they do not have a night flight out of India and the onward connections to New York are bad.. So I guess will have to wait till they sort that out.

Till then 3 cheers to Richard Branson and his airline !!

"Feel Good" Expenses

Sometimes we buy things just because they make you “feel good”
For me .. I buy gadgets without actually needing them.. And then, tend to get so dependent on them that I rationalize my decision to have been correct when I bought them.
A good example is my new cell phone. The Nokia N80. It’s a ccol gadget. Its 3G, has a 3 megapixle camera, supports MS office etc. But frankly, who needs all that. I have never used any (read as most) of that.
Just yesterday I ordered a 19 inch LCD for my computer at home and upgraded my speaker systems to a 5.1 surround system (with a sub woofer) for my home PC.. Just to make me feel good while playing games (I love playing PC games).. Not really required.. but had a “feel good” feeling to it.
The list goes on..My cars, my PS2, my black berry.. etcI have always been a gadget freak.. And spend a good amount of “unnecessary” green stuff just to “feel good”.
Every one has a different soft corner.. I think with girls it could be jewellery, dresses and shoes !!
With boys could be clothes, cars, gadgets..
What’s your “feel good” expense…??

PS – the picture is not my computer – That is one of the most expensive laptops in the world.. Its called the Tulip – worth US$ 355,000

Michael Douglas grows old

Though I had decided to sleep on the flight from Mumbai to London, and I was really sleepy before I boarded the flight.. I was suddenly wide awake as soon as I sat down in my seat ! This happend to me often.. So with a diet coke in hand, I started to surf the movies on the British Airways' entertainment system..
What caught my eye was the new Michael Doughlas movie- The Sentinel.
To summarise the movie in one word... "SAD".
Michael Doughlas looks very old (sorry Catherine Zeta Jones) and so does Kim Basinger .
Even the love scenes are cut short (very unlike Mike Douglas movie)
His performance (in the film in general and also in the love scenes) is nowhere close to Basic Instinct and Wallstreet (one of my all time favourite films)

On the movie in general.. Very sad storyline..Based on the lines of Miami-blues. Good cop, bad cop story with a plot to assasinate the US president.
Despite the solid cast, a lack of storyline kills the film.

Absolute avoid.. especially on long flights.. Its better to grab some sleep!! Plan to see MI3 on the way back.. That was a quick review from London

Inventing versus Re-designing

If you look through the past 100 years, Man has had no major breakthrough in medicine, the last big discovery was Penicillin in the early 1900s. We have only devised better antibiotics but no major breakthrough drug.
In transportation, we have not had any major vehicle designed since the airplane in early 1900s. We have designed better planes but no new mode of transport
This analogy can be extended across various fields.
The question to ask is..Have we become better re-designers than inventors.. ?