Telugu flicks rock !!!

If you are a southie and ever visit Kolkata...GO TO KOMALA VILAS (KV). period.

KV is this pleasure retreat for the (good illad) food deprived junta of IIMC.It has become this weekly tradition of ours to visit KV and drown our management learning pressures in hot sambhar, mini idlis, appam, adai aviyal, thali with unlimited applam(papad) and last but not the least a steaming hot cup of Kaapi. Boy! I'm already hungry.

In one of these sessions to KV the discussion drifted towards movies and as usual my Tam friend applauded the brilliant performance of Ranji in his latest flick SIVAJI. I forgot to mention we all went for the first day first show of sivaji here in kolkata. On a personal front,I thought that the heroine was under utilized and the glimpses of talent that she showed in every dance number (unfortunately her only contribution) were breath-taking.

Neways, the discussion then moved on to Telugu films papularly known as GULT movies. I had recently seen the movie "Bommerellu" and thoroughly enjoyed every moment of it, considering the fact that I don't understand telugu. My first encounter with GULT came when I was in Hyderabad and my circle of friends were all ardent GULT movie lovers. During my 8 month stay in Hyd. I went for 2 gult movies in the theatre nad one of them was a "Cheeru"starrer. Both of them were raw action packed films and true entertainers going by the crowd hysteria that could be seen in the theatre.

My early impression about gult movies, I must say, wasn’t that great. There is this 20 mins cycle of events that repeat themselves 9 times to complete the 3 hour duration. The split-up of those 20 mins are as follows: Comedy scene (if with heroine part romantic), a song sequence, villain pitching in with his antics, an emotional angle where the hero swears to take revenge and as would be expected the action sequence. All this with a background score that too on dolby surround sound, the crowd has to go bonkers and which it does.

Bommerellu was a deviation and I recommend it for any movie buff. But hardly did I know that there was a different angle to gult movies. A friend of mine over the dinner conversation (we still haven’t left KV) enlightened me about the attitude that has to be developed to appreciate them. One has to have an open mind and should be receptive to the ideology behind such movies, the audience that they cater to etc. With this new outlook I saw “Athadu”,a Mahesh babu starrer, I in my sanest self saw that I really enjoyed it J

The Living dead...

Yesterday while surfing through channels on the idiot box I came across this weird Piece of news. There is this government servant in Delhi who has been declared dead and has a death certificate but is very much alive. This realization came to this person concerned when he saw a 3 storey bunglow built on his land by someone else!!! (Khosla ka ghosla in real life). While digging deep into the papers he came to know that someone pretending to be his son had proclaimed him to be dead and got a death certificate issued :O

The idea about telling you this is not that this incident was funny or to highlight the kind of lawlessness that is rampant in India. The thing that caught my interest was what can a man do when he is alive but has been officially declared dead?

I guess he can do a lot. I feel I'm correct when I say that the law governs/is meant only for the living. If this premise is true that makes this person concerned the most powerful man as he is above the law !!! So what can he do now? get away with a murder telling that a dead man can't kill someone, u can't arrest a dead man, evade tax laws and not pay income tax (what a relief!)and just go around breaking whatever law that has been made for the living :)

What a cool situation to be in? I guess this is an area that has lots of exploration to be done. What if what I said was true and no law exists? I guess we will have a new thriving business in the most law abiding state of Bihar and see all Netas and Bhais fooling around with their death certificates in hand. Now its easy to get away with crime in Bihar even without this but look at the possibilities that this opens up for emerging young guns of the state !!!

God save India.

Between the Line...

Ever felt this drive in you to accomplish something? I guess most of us have.

Ever felt this drive to accomplish something that you dearly wanted to do? I guess most of us haven't.

The are reasons for the thought process behind the second statement. You might completely disagree with this but I feel most of us are driven by the goals that others set for us. Top the class, get a slot 0 job, have a girl friend ;) etc. While we are at it we tend to loose focus on what exactly is it that we want for ourselves. It should be the question that we need to ask ourselves often but we seldom do. You might be thinking why is this guy giving us gyaan that too arbit ? The reason behind it is that this was precisely the kind of discussion I had with my friends Varun and Anila before we embarked on the journey of shooting our first music video.

As a member of IIMC's music band, JBS BaroC, we composed our own original - Early days@IIMC. The song, right from the moment it was open for public, has caught on like a wild fire among the junta on campus. Thanks to everyone involved with its genesis. I didn't want the journey or the reach to just end there, that was the drive behind the video.

Though I always wanted to shoot a short film (I'm sure I will someday) and never really thought I would be shooting a music video, the pleasure of seeing one's imagination take form was too compelling a reason to go ahead with the plan.What happened next you can read it @ http://btlp.blogspot.com/

The entire video was shot in a weeks time and by far it was the best week of my duration in IIMC so far.

Hoping that the year ahead gives us more ideas that we can capture on camera and you all can enjoy with us.

Glad that the first year of my post graduation is done with, I started my summer vacation by picking up this awesome piece of work by Gregory David Roberts – “Shantaram”. The beauty of this book lies not only in its adventures but in the fine thread with which all those adventures have been woven into this lovely blanket of a novel. Being a pseudo mumbaikar myself who never really liked this city,I was made to feel that I really missed something that this place offers to so many. Hmmm!!! Never-the-less it was sort of a Mumbai darshan for me with an expert guide in Roberts.

Before picking it up all I knew was this was a story about this guy who was part of the Mumbai under world, fought alongside the Taliban etc. , in short a dark storyline . The novel surely does have its share of darkness but what’s remarkable is the tint of brightness that each chapter ends with. Having read “City of Joy”, I felt it would be the same description of helplessness of the slum dwellers that would be portrayed in the part where the hero lands up in a slum. I was in for a surprise. Never once in the entire novel will u feel a sense of pity, all you feel is the exhilaration of a bystander on the victory of a fictitious friend slogging it out.

The factor the strikes the chord with the Indian reader is the lingo used. Very Indian ,very mumbaiya and very apt. The language used really makes u connect with the character and see with him the picture that he wants you to see. Though the width of this 1000 page epic might scare the reader, esp. if he/she is as thin as I…here’s my advice…give in to your crazy side and you will be part of this amazing journey that Roberts has charted for you.

Bon Voyage!!!

Kolkata...the Malgudi of India

Have you ever imagined of spending ur entire life in a museum? If yes, firstly I believe you should go kill yourself :). Secondly, If the first suggestion sounded harsh come live in Kolkata.
The first thought that comes to your mind when u land in Kolkata is that of nostalgia. Remember the series "Maldugi Days" of the good old doordarshan fame? This place is an enlarged version of it with poorer buses. The comparison is startling:

• Cows idling in the middle of the road
• Theatres with ticket prices Rs 12
• The trams which gives the bicycles a run for their money(Maldugi was better in this respect it let the bicycles rule the road)
  

The list is endless...

The busy campus life cuts you off from exploring this fantasy land ,which is a great relief if you have ever ventured out in a cab. Its a risk that I have taken by criticizing the city while living there but I guess I will be spared now that Ganguly is back in the team and the people have vented their last ounces of vengeance in the two bandhs that were staged in the past week.
I will stop here as the spirit of end term exams has started to roam the corridors of my hostel...Time to exorcize it.

The Nail Tale

The nail…one of the most insignificant parts of our body. If you ponder about it intently then you will notice that it’s not that insignificant either. It’s a constant reminder of how our life is going to be. Puzzled? Let me unravel this mystery.

When the nail starts to grow it’s like an infant. It’s not big enough to be utilized for anything. It doesn’t get damaged, in other words taken care by the fingers carefully.
Then it grows a bit more when you can use it for making a crease while folding a paper and other such basic activities. This is the phase of adolescence when a kid inculcates different values in life or makes a crease in his life’s paper.

Time passes by the nail grows a bit more and the kid grows into a teenager. In this stage of the nail’s life we can use it for pinching people or use it as a bottle opener, the mischievous part of life. The teenage phase of life is where a person is at his mischievous best.

Some more time passes the nail grows a bit more. Now we are really worried, when we eat we are concerned about things stuck in the nail and something keeps lingering at the back of our minds that we should clean it. This is the phase of adulthood in a person’s life. He is knowledgeable enough to understand what’s good or bad for him. He takes in different ideas and views but tries to filter them and use only the most suitable one for himself. He is constantly worried about what he is getting into and makes sure that he fixes things before it gets out of hand.

Time waits for none and so doesn’t the growth of a nail. It grows a bit more and we are more concerned about the nail breaking on impact with something or the layers of filth that have accumulated over time. As we grow in life and reach somewhere between 40-50 years this is what one is constantly pondering about. We are worried about the layers of cholesterol accumulated in our arteries. We start looking back on our respective lives and try to find out whether it made any sense or not. Have we managed to keep our lives out of filth and maintained it as clean as possible?

You wouldn’t have noticed this but while you were reading the last paragraph …time still was moving. We all make mistakes in life but by the time we realize it, it’s too late because time is still moving and the small sore grows into a cancer. Cancers are to be cut out of the system or else they leave you with lot of pain. So what do we do to the mail here? We cut it off because we know if don’t do it now later its going to trouble us.

I don’t remember where I read it but it went something like this… A person in his later days is like a kid. One has to be taken care of, attended to and is dependent on others even for basic necessities. So where does this leave us? Back to the entire cycle of a nail’s life.

I guess the cleaner we keep our nails the better it’s for our lives.

The Minesweeper Magic

My association with minesweeper started during the training phase in my firm when we were given a task of coding the game using java. My friends used to play minesweeper in college but I never liked it that much. So here I was working on the algo of the game, along with three more java trainees, when my love for this game evolved. Minesweeper is one of the most logical and underrated game. Some people might say that to score a great time in it one needs to have luck, but I disagree.


There are ways to get a cool time in minesweeper and the first step towards it is to stop marking the mines. What I mean by marking is right clicking on the block u feel might have a mine in it. Once you get rid of this habit half the job is done as it saves considerable time of yours. Initially you might find it uncomfortable as you have to keep a mental note of where the mines are but down the line it comes very handy.

The remaining part of the job is to practice. Minesweeper is like any other sport, once you get the technique right then its all about practice. The other aspect of the game, which you will get to know when u start playing it, is that it’s highly addictive. The continuous drive to beat your own time keeps you glued to the system. There is another vital ingredient to get a good time in minesweeper, it’s the Mouse.

If there was a minesweeper contest the best players wouldn’t necessarily win as getting the feel of the mouse is very important to get a decent time on the clock. My experience with minesweeper has shown that when the mouse starts to feel as an organ of your body your chances of cracking the best time increases. With practice you will start to see the pattern in the mine arrangement which helps a lot in unraveling the grid.

As minesweeper is available in all pc’s and there is no volume ingredient associated with it, it’s a great game to pursue during office hours and which I’m sure many people do. I hope my tips come in handy…happy minesweeping…

Ad-ache

Do Ads on TV irritate you? They do irritate me a lot, esp. the sick ads like the pepsi tv one. I personally feel there should be a half hour programme, like we have for movie trailers, for commercials too.What really pisses me off is the fact that in the first place they are so idiotic secondly they get repeated every other minute.

I guess the TV channels are to be blamed too. They air these irritating ads without understanding the sensitivity of the program being aired. Take for instance the recently concluded India-W.Indies One day series. India was getting belted left and right on the pitch every over and the only respite that we viewers had from the gory sight was the break between each over. Now why would I want to see three jokers jumping around and a babe advising them to have “Pepsi” when my team is being massacred on field?

Actually the Ad is misleading, when the telecast retuned to the on-field action I saw Kaif gulping ‘Aquafina’ and not any soda. Why can’t Pepsi advertise ‘Aquafina’, isn’t it their product too? I guess one should sue the likes of Pepsi for misleading the mass that players drink Pepsi, because they don’t. If they did they would be couch potatoes like the ones sitting and watching them play.

Pepsi Tv isn’t the only useless Ad around, there are many. The one that is eating up all the Ad time on Tv nowadays is of the AMITY school. In it, this guy has this ambition of making the leaning tower of Pisa straight. What nonsense is it? Why aren’t the teachers at AMITY telling their students that it’s that inclination that makes it a wonder and secondly it’s taking the government of Italy millions of dollars each year and lots of researchers to keep it from falling, let alone keeping it straight?

These things depress me a lot. What happened to the good old Ads that doordarshan used to air? Ek chidiya anek chidiya, the Nirma ad of deepika ji and their likes. Is creative talent in India dying or do Ad agencies think the viewer is a complete moron? I guess as a retaliation to their torture we should boycott all the products of Pepsi and let these firms know that the viewer can no longer take their nonsense. We can intensify the effect by buying the products of their rival, Coca-Cola.

Now that will surely burst the bubbles of Pepsi…kya behuda channel hain?

Reservation hoopla

It was a normal friday evening,having filled the weekly timesheet I was busy gathering my friends to go for karting at Runway9.The plan was set that we would meet outside the office permises at 7 and leave together.So there I was in front of my office and none of the junta turned up.I gave them a buzz and found out that they were standing in some human chain in front of our software park.

I don't have any strong stand when it comes to politics as I feel its void of common sense.Anyways I saw my friends,each carrying a candle,standing soulder to shoulder in the human chain.There was lot of enthusiasm in the air,partly because of the slogans being chanted by the people gathered and partly because of the TV cameras covering the event.As all my friends were busy here, I too thought of spending some time there.

As the time passed I started to wonder,do such demonstrations have any effect? Does our show of solidarity with the students mean anything when the people molesting the law aren't showing any and won't? I was searching for answers to these questions when this idea struck me.

The main issue that this reservation hoopla has brought to the forefront is the lack of sensible people in the government.We call ourselves intelligent but are we really?
I feel the castes that have the maximum say in the government are the most intelligent of the lot.If you see the political parties the majority of the party members will be from the so-called backward classes.So when they have spent so much time to get into the system and use it to their benefit,I feel they have every right to do so.

We,the forward class as they say,should not crib about reservations when we haven't given a thought all these years on running the government and guiding the nation towards the future.The people in the government have done that in whatever shitty way they felt was right.So if you feel reservation is bullshit then so be it because...SHIT happens.

Relief at last...

After around a month of scroching summer,Hyderabad got rains yesterday.I was back at my place by 4 pm and it started to pour at 5,my joblessness came to the rescue again. Its not that I don't like getting wet in the rain but I would rather prefer a mild drizzle than a down pour.This precisely is the reason why I love to go to Pune during the monsoons.Its a mild rainfall there always,the drops of rain caress you rather than hitting you.

Anyways here I was in my room watching the tube when the power failed.I was thankful that the power failed otherwise I would have wasted the lovely evening surfing channels.I picked up a novel,which is my instinctive reaction when power fails,and went to the porch to njoi the view. Just when I thought wow!!! what a great evening,it became better.My landlady got me a steaming cup of tea.

What else can a man ask for,barring females :),a great rainy evening with books and a hot cup of tea .I wouldn't have minded a plate of hot pakoras but then it was too much to ask from my landlady.I hope this great weather continues and the power fails in the evenings so that I can have this dream again and again.

The kite runner...

What can I say about The kite runner? READ IT!!!

A beautifully written novel that encomapasses a wide range of emotions right from a child's desperate quest for his dad's approval to the anguish of a grown up.The novel keeps you captivated right from the start and there is never a dull moment.The transition of Afghanistan from the 70's to its present state can be picturised as you take this journey with the kite runner.

Kudos to Khalid Hosseini for putting emotions into words so well.Its been a long time since someone has done that.The author,unlike most Indian ones,has used simple language to depict something so complex.




If you have read Vikas Swarup's 'Q&A' and enjoyed it then you surely will love 'The kite runner'.Both have almost the same pace and the crispness that forbids you to drop the book before you have finished it.

Back from Hibernation...

Dear blog reader (I doubt if anyone wastes his time on mine),I'm back from my hibernation.A lot has happened during this sleepy phase, my making it to IIM C was just one of them.

Things change when u make it to renouned institutes.Life changes a bit and its all attributed to the fact how people's view change about you when they hear you have made it to an IIM.Though I'm still as jobless as I was before cracking CAT,my peers feel I might upto something big by playing pool the entire day :D.

The day finally arrived (9th of may) when I put in my papers in my firm.Its a great feeling when u have put in ur papers,you can enjoy your life to the max. and if ur managers asks you to work you can brush him aside saying you have quit and won't work.I didn't get the luxury of trying it out as I didn't have any work in the first place :).

Now that I'm back,I hope to be a bit more active when it comes to updating my blog :)>

patience pays...

I felt that my selective amnesia for important matters had struck again when I realized that I had forgotten to send my entry for the T.T and pool matches being held in my firm. On enquiring with the organizing committee members I found out that the slots have been made and there was no scope for any further additions. So for the past few days I have been giving the recreation room a perfunctory visit without any drive to spend the maximum of my office hours there. Never the less I continued my daily jaunts to the rec room.
So today when my friend asked me to join him for a T.T match at the REC room, I never expected that I would get a chance to play in the tourney. By a strike of fortune one slot was empty and the organizer asked if I was free to play in it.Oh boy!!!was I happy to hear that. I said “yes” and there I was against a colleague relatively elder to me. I was happy,in a shallow way,that I had an edge of youth against my opponent. I guess he had other plans.
The first game went in my favor with relative ease and as happens with me always, complacency crept in. I had my chances to finish off the game in the second set but didn’t capitalize on them eventually losing out in the third set. I felt my opponent’s patience of continuing with T.T for such a long time overshadowed my relatively lesser patience of going to the REC room. I have no regrets though, at least I got to play and the crowd was treated to a great game of T.T. It might sound like a loser’s approach, but given the fact that I lost gels with it :).

uDon'tCuDon'tCu...(The ICICI Way)

There are lots of good things about parents and one of the best is that they are nature's "Alarm clocks" for everything.From waking you up early morning to reminding you that the last date for filling up the application forms for the management schools is near, they raise an alarm for everything.So here I was all worked up,after a call back home, about the application forms that I still need to fill up and the demand draft that each institues demands for.So I started with the important thing first...the demand drafts.Now that I'm wiser I figured out that even if your form is not filled properly but you have the demand draft attached to it, you have a very good chance that your form will not be discarded :).So with this in mind I went about with the task of getting the demand drafts done.

The bank closest to my house is the Punjab National Bank.I was a bit skeptical to go there as the image of these banks is that they take a lot of time even for simple tasks like getting a demand draft done.I went to the counter where the drafts are made and the lady there gave me form. I took a minute to fill it up,another minute to give the money and 3 more for the drafts to get done (along with a smile from the lady at the counter) and zoom I was out of there.How wrong was I about these banks.God forgive me !!!

On the way back I figured that I forgot to get one more draft done.So I thought of getting it done at the ICICI branch close to my office.Now these banks are private banks and unlike the public sector banks have a reputation of swift service.So I figured that it should take me max. 5 mins there too.So with full faith in the service of ICICI I entered it.

The first obstacle in my path was to figure out where exactly is the counter for getting the drafts done.The counter names were hanging from the ceiling rather than being mentioned on the counter itself.Voila! there it was the blue rectangular strip hanging in the corner which read "Demand Drafts"...first hurdle cleared...2 minutes.

I went up to the counter and the lady was busy catering to another customer.Even though I have put on weight it seemed to me that the lady did not notice me at all.Once she was through with the customer she threw a glance at me which said "Whats with you moron?"...2 minutes.Instantly my knees went week and I felt as though I was back in school and my teacher was scolding me."What can I do for you?"...flash..I returned to the present."I need a draft to be done for Rs 1000/= & I'm paying by cash",I said."For cash the service charge is 150 bucks and if you have an account with us then its free".

Fortunately I had an account with them and now that I'm wise I decided to save those 150 bucks."You have to fill a D.D form which is kept there" she directed me to a counter which was across the hall.Why can't they have it at the same counter? It still beats me. So I went there,filled up the form and gave it to the lady.I thought it was all done but how was I to know that the most annoying experience was still to come.

The lady said that I had to get a customer dd receipt from another machine which was in another corner of the hall.This machine prints out slips with a serial number on it, I pressed few buttons and there it came 'CHJIX51'.I was all happy that my dd has got an identity now.I took the slip to the lady and what she did with it I will never forget in my entire life.She rolled up the slip and threw it in the dustbin.If this was what she had in mind then why the hell did she make me walk so much?...by the way it was already 10 minutes.What sadistic pleasure would she have drawn by such an action,I need to try it on someone too.

So after another 5 minutes ...total of 15 minutes I was out of there,without a smile and a profound pity for me and the slip'CHJIX51'.I never knew that a simple thing like getting a demand draft done can leave a person with an all time low morale.

Hail Dilbert !!!

Though I might not be as blown up as a polar bear but the advent of winter surely brings out the hibernating best in me. By hibernation I mean indoor recreation.You would have guessed that I would be dead by now considering my dreadful work profile but it wasn't to be.The firm makes sure that people like me don't die,thats why they created the "Recreation Room".So thats where I was for the past so many days.Days and nights passed by playing TT and pool and I'm still as poor in both as I was in the beginning :).
All play and no work makes jack a loafer,so I thought of doing something worthwhile during the time I spend in office.Its said that wisdom comes with experiance,so I started out on a mission to become more wise. I guess I have found the right role model...u guessed it right its "Dilbert".His clarity of thought and immense knowledge of the way in which the corporate world operates will have almost everyone awestruck.So here I was with my mentor and asked him how would have appraised me had he been my manager and here is his response :

"His work may greatly impact the company and such an employee demonstrates the importance of proper recruiting. He has a wide variety of interests and pursuits. His core values show through in his work. Mr. sreenivasan frequently thinks "outside the box". His usefulness to the division is self evident and as an employee, he is a management textbook example. He fully understands the extent of his responsibilities and his full capabilities have only been recently discovered. Mr. sreenivasan handles assignments with unlooked-for creativity."

Isn't that great to hear and this is not that far from reality :D. I was once a productive "Engineer" but the alien creature called the "Manager",who felt such a productive creature will cause him to work more,saw to it that I was slayed by the sword of "Appraisal".So here I'm loitering around and getting paid handsomely for doing so :).

You can have your appraisal done by dilbert at : http://www.dilbert.com/comics/dilbert/games/career/html/questions.html

Enjoy :D...

IT starts to leak

The day progress as monotonously as the progress bar on a pc the processor of which is pretty sad.The same work, the same time sheet,the same cubicle and the same firm for the past 2 years.
Most of them will say "2 years in the same firm...thats long",I ask what about the long hours of the day that we spend in the office? is it going to change by changing the firm? I doubt it.
Well, here I was ,so used to the monotony of my office life,passing the entrance of my office expecting the same flow of events this day too. There's a surprise in store for me.What do I see? A carpet greeting me to the reception,flowers and balloons decorating each wall of my office. I got curious to find out the reason for this fanfare."The firm has crossed the 4000+ employee mark", said my friend."What an achievement",I said and what an irony. Why do firms recruit people when they find it difficult to keep their existing employees busy? Does IT really need so many people? If not, the tap is surely gonna LEAK.