Insomni@c's Observatory

Devil's Workshop

2011-03-18T10:12:00.004+05:30

IDEAS:
#1 Quit Smoking !

(click to enlarge)

#2 Oral Hygeine

(Click to enlarge)

TCS Maitree Kolkata Toastmasters Club Logo

2011-02-23T01:30:00.001+05:30

Before i get raised eyebrows, let me caption the logo “Raising a toast” :P

CAN’TACLYSM – Toastmasters’ Prepared speech# 5

2010-12-15T09:04:00.001+05:30

When I was young, my father used to show me a trick. He would raise the bike on its stand while sitting on it. I wanted to raise the bike on its stand too. But the bike was too heavy for me. I would try harder. After a while, my father would say, “Son! Don’t try. You Can’t. It is too heavy for you”. Nevertheless I would try the next day as well.

I wish I could be that kid again. I wish i would try harder when people around me tell me ‘I CAN’T’. But if I really did want to, i would have used a better word than ‘I wish’. I believe I can try harder. But... Do i? This my dear friends is what i call ‘CAN’TACLYSM’.

(image courtesy: http://kapongola.wordpress.com/ )

“When you doubt your power, you empower your doubts”, I remember reading these words somewhere. If only I can remember them when needed. Many of us have heard stories of extraordinary people surpassing extraordinary circumstances, becoming what nobody could ever conceive of them.

Let me tell you one such story. He could not talk until the age of four. He did not learn to read until he was nine. His teachers considered him slow, unsociable and a dreamer. He failed the entrance examinations to college but finally passed after an additional year of preparation. He lost three teaching positions and then became a patent clerk. Who are we talking about here? We know him as ‘Albert Einstein’. It is said that he suffered from dyslexia. So did Woodrow Wilson, Winston Churchill, Agatha Christie and Walt Disney.

Now some of you might believe what i just said and some of you would go back home and look it up on google to confirm. Now however small that earlier group of people who i was able to convince be, it would most likely be more than one. And that, my dear friends, is more than the number of people that matter. In less ambiguous words, all that matters is to convince one person.. Yourself. Most people find it difficult to convince that one person. I certainly did.

Let me share a story with you. It is the story of a cancer survivor who fought the odds and proved his doctors wrong. Lance Armstrong was at the peak of his career in early 1996. At that time, he had just won the World Cycling Championships and signed a 2 year contract to ride with a famous French racing team for $2.5 million. But his dream of riding for the French crashed in the same year when he was diagnosed with advanced stage testicular cancer. The cancerous cells had spread to his lungs and brain and an urgent operation was imminent. Doctors told him that he had a 50% chance of survival. But Lance Armstrong, the sportsman he is, never gave up on himself even when all the doctors did. He went through the operation and the long process of chemotherapy. But he found that he was not even able to ride his bike around his neighbourhood. Rigorous training and the unexpectedly fruitful weight-loss post cancer, helped him race better than before. For the next consecutive 4 years, lance Armstrong won the tour de france championship and raised his tally to a total of 7.

But seriously, how much do these inspirational stories help? The story of lance armstrong may help a woman believe in the power of i can and fight a terminal illness, but does it help a child who gives up in between solving a tough mathematics problem. Does it help you or me make the morning walk we promise ourselves a night before. Do we think of lance armstrong before we say ‘Sorry, I can’t give that speech tomorrow. I have so much work pending”. It doesn’t...right??

So what motivates people like Lance armstrong. It’s not adulation of the fans or support of the family. It is actually an inner drive. It follows the story of the sculptor who strives for the better, even when he knows that the layman won’t know the difference. What matters to him is that he knows the difference.

But all said, these are just regular thought-processes. How can we apply it to our lives? The answer is quite simple. Acquaint yourself with inspiring people and inspiring circumstances. Live outside your comfort zone. Anticipate and accept the new. Last weekend, I attended an event called ‘Startup Saturday’. I met entrepreneurs who were younger than me. Sometimes we need to interact with other people who believe in themselves in order to instil the same in you. I am not saying that they inspired me to become an entrepreneur, but somehow it made me think about my cantaclysms. But events like these happen once in a month or so. So what about the other days? I will tell you what i do. I watch Ted talks. These are 18 minute videos that give me a wow moment every day. Find a wow moment in the otherwise mundane routine. It can come from reading a book to watching a youtube video. Trust me, you would feel better. After all, it’s all about feeling better about yourselves.

The Social Network has been ‘liked’!

2010-11-21T22:40:00.001+05:30

Whoever has read ‘The Google story’ by David A. Vise or ‘Iwoz’ by Apple co-founder Steve Woznaik would understand how a movie or a book about a start-up talks about the hard work and the sleepless nights that the founders put in and how the months of perseverance finally pays off. Well, with all due respect to the aforementioned books, the movie ‘The Social Network’ does not do that.

What makes ‘The Social Network’ special is its fresh approach in directing a film which involves a lot of technical and legal jargons. If it was not for the way it was written and directed, I guess the whole thing could get a little boring.

There is definitely something enticing about the idea of a rags-to-riches story. But surprisingly, the movie does not make a show out of it. Instead, it focuses on the characters, their behaviours and the astuteness coupled with the snobbishness of the Harvard and Stanford students. Mark Zuckerberg’s character played by Jess Eisenberg portrays a person who is both insecure as well as haughty. He does not care about the money as much as he cares about the fame the idea of doing something big, brings to him. He is arrogant, He is brutal and he is obsessive. The director starts off with a sequence where Mark, who is on a date with his girlfriend, indulges in a patronizing conversation resulting in an obvious break-up. It is very clear that the movie started this way so that the viewers immediately connect with Mark’s obnoxious character. The movie is about how a harvard under-grad (Mark) shoots to notoriety when he first develops a website that compares hotness of girls on campus and then later comes up with an idea which is worth 25 billion dollars as of date. The story then revolves around the birth of facebook and the 2 lawsuits that followed its popularity - One filed by facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin accusing Mark and others of appropriating his share in the company and the other filed by his college mates Cameron Winklevoss, Tyler Winklevoss and Divya Narender who claimed that facebook was actually their idea.

The movie has some exceptionally humorous sequences too. In a sequence, one of the lawyers defending Mark accuses partner Eduardo of animal torture in order to tarnish his image and thus his credibility. The story is that Eduardo had to, on one occasion, feed his chicken which he was carrying around as part of an initiation of joining a Harvard club. Since he was having chicken on the day, he fed little pieces of ‘chicken‘ to the ‘chicken’. And he finds himself accused of “Forced Animal Cannibalism”. :)

To me, the movie is more than just the story of facebook. It’s about all the competition, jealousy, fickleness in the world and above all how simple things are made complex when the stakes are high. All in all , i would say the movie is a great entertainer and deserves a 4.5 on a 5.

Inception: Movie-Review

2010-07-17T13:38:00.000+05:30

Technically a movie review is not supposed to have spoilers or other hints that give away the story, but some of the reviews do. A ‘Chistopher Nolan’ movie review can’t give away the story.. at least not by lesser mortals like me… cos’ it takes days to comprehend the whole story, and 9 out of 10 times.. you simply don’t. ;)

I watched this movie today.. and i watched it alone. That gives you an idea about how big a nolan fan i am. People who have watched this amazing writer-director’s movies will know what i am talking about. Memento got me talking for days. The prestige left me in awe. And The dark knight was 3 hours of silver screen extravaganza. The only other director who comes close is Quentin Tarantino.

Coming back to Inception, IMDB gives it a 9.3 out of 10.. something that i have not seen lately. As always, Nolan comes out with a plot that only he can envision. Cobb (leonardo’s character) is an illegitimate extractor of information and he does that by visiting people’s dreams. He and his team design a dream. There is a dreamer who dreams the dream. An architect who constructs the dream world inside the dreamer and a subject (person from whom they need to extract information). The subject’s subconcious is invited to the dreamer’s dream by making him sleep (using chemicals and sedatives). This is obviously done without his consent. After a failed attempt at such an extraction process, cobb (leonardo) is enticed by an offer.. an offer that can change his present life. The challenge that comes along with this offer is to build an idea into a person’s mind. The idea or notion must come under free will as if it is his own. This is INCEPTION. The movie explores the possibility of such an inception and the risks involved with it. Nolan takes you through his dream world with his ingenious theories of different levels inside a dream (i.e. Dreaming inside a dream) and how Cobb works out a way to plant an idea into somebody else’s subconcious, which will later reflect in his(subject’s) concious once the subject is out of his sleep (and dreamer’s dream).

The movie leaves you with several unanswered questions/ confusions which Nolan does intentionally to keep the audience occupied with the plot long after the movie gets over. For me, the movie justifies the IMDB rating of 9.3/10. I am now waiting for the Director’s cut of the movie, which will probably solve most of my queries. On the parameter of novelty the movie ranks above Memento, the prestige and Dark knight, while on the scale of finesse i would rate the Prestige higher than this one.

SPOLIER ALERT: Those who have already watched this movie and are as baffled as i am, this link might answer some of your questions:

http://www.cinemablend.com/new/Inception-Explained-Unraveling-The-Dream-Within-The-Dream-19615.html

Work on your workstations, Play on your playstations

2010-06-20T01:44:00.001+05:30

Middle age – An age when most of yourself starts showing in the middle. I was not going to let me be what i should be 10 years from now. But what was i going to do about it?

Everyday as i sit on my ergonomic chair in the cubicle, i feel the desk has inched a couple of inches closer to me. I have been trying to unravel this mystery for quite sometime now. And my friends think they have an answer. It is my belly inching closer to the desk rather than the vice-versa. Bull-Sh**. I have been working out. I do a lot of typing. Don’t you see? My fingers are in shape.

Which of these figures excite you the most- 8 Pack abs OR 6-figure salary? I would settle for the later on any given day. In order to reach that mark, i have to compromise on some things. Sleep, Rest, exercise, food.. well… not food.. As i said, i compromised on just some of the things. Somebody wise and hungry said and i quote “there is no love greater than the love of food”. Very well supported by the rush of the people in KFC’s, McDonald’s and pizza-eateries. We have a generation who eats more and eats fast so that they can work fast and party harder. Who wants to spend a sunny evening playing cricket or taking a walk with your best friend? So outdated. They are all “available” on gtalk. I can do some farming on farmville. That can keep me fit. Still better.. I can run twice as fast as i would like to on playstation.

I am young. I want to enjoy these days. Later on i will have to worry about cholesterol and diabetes. I know i am getting it one or the other day. But i need to keep myself fit. Aha.. I know what i am going to do.

I am buying the ultra-slimmer i saw on Tvbrands - the machine that does all the exercise for me in half the time i would take. Maximum leverage as we put it in our IT industry.

RAJNEETI – A SCRIPT GONE AWRY

2010-06-06T16:34:00.001+05:30

Rajneeti was one of those movies, which had raised my expectations given the excellent reviews the film has received off late. But seeing was believing ..the contrary. Let me start off with a disclaimer though: I am an apolitical person and i normally don’t take any sides in a political debate. Nevertheless, i like to keep myself informed about the situation and often remark with cynicism as a patriotic indian should :) An honest confession.

Anyways .. not digressing away from the topic, i felt rajneeti touched the subject of politics without an extensive research. To start with, the movie is damn long.. 3 hours.. but lack the grip for that time. The movie does not show an ideology or philosophy to base the political parties shown in the movie. Maybe this was a tactic by the director to steer away from controversies. The movie emphasizes on dirty politicians, melodramatic oration and everything-is-fair-in-politics school of thought. People are murdered every half an hour and right after somebody in the family dies, the family/party announces a new candidate from within the family. The political business carries on as usual with the leaders changing as frequently as my handkerchiefs in this sweltering summer.

I advise people to take an hindi-english dictionary along with them. This will definitely come handy. There is a nerve-wrecking dialogue between Ajay devgan and his mother who had abandoned him, where she refers to him as his ‘jyeshta putra’ meaning elder brother. Reminisces of the epic saga ‘Mahabharat’. The audience blew into laughter. Most of the dialogues are not only stupid but unnecessarily wordy. Poor katrina.. she would definitely have had a tough time with her lines. It makes some sense when they use such language on stage addressing public, but what if its between the members of the family. When was the last time your mother referred to you as jyeshtha putra.. lol

The performances though were good especially by nana patekar, ranbir kapoor and arjun rampal. Overall i dont think the movie deserves anything more than a 3.

Oh Kolkata! - Cultural learning from the east

2010-05-15T21:30:00.001+05:30

‘Khujro hobe na dada’ , a phrase i have heard for the umpteenth time now since i have been in this part of the country. For those of you who could’nt guess the meaning.. it means ‘I don’t have change bro’. To give you an idea of whom you are dealing with, i will first tell you something about myself. I am a software engineer or whatever passes off as one in the IT industry these days. A typical IT guy in kolkata starts his day at about 10 in the morning. He/She starts off to the office at around 11 or 11:30, making it to the office not before 12.00 pm. People are pretty laid back and evidently that shows at work too.

Ok. Cut back to 11:30, i sit in an auto-rickshaw which has still not made up its mind for its destination. Everything depends on the number of people to that destination. But don’t worry.. you won’t be abandoned in between.. the auto-rickshaw driver delegates his job to a fellow auto driver and makes sure you reach where you set off to (but not in time).

If you have a 500 rupee note in kolkata, you can frame it and hang it on the wall. Nobody accepts them unless you spend somewhere near the half mark. You even need to ask auto wallahs in advance if they have change for a 100 and be prepared to be refused by a dozen of them until one of them finds pity on you and allows you the privilege of sitting in the vehicle.

Now i don’t have any intentions of associating any political connotations with this post, but i would like to share what i think on why the auto-drivers of kolkata are rude with passengers..(If not rude then the other option is indifference). The reason according to me is because of a general sense of inherent communism. They have a union for almost every job in this state. And they don’t shy away from their rights. Now I don’t discriminate people by any measure, but i would still take that risk by citing an observation. Unlike in the northern part of the country, where auto drivers or bus conductors call u bhai sahab or mem sahab or simply add a suffix ‘ji’ to show respect, the people here wont show you such courtesy. The equation is simple. They are businessmen. You are taking a service they are offering at a cost. Bargaining seldom helps in this part of the country. They wont even negotiate,instead they would just drive off.For them the next person is just as good as you. They would never black mail you emotionally as sometimes auto drivers in dilli do asking you what difference does an additional 10 rupee make.

Here,people have a feeling of pride towards their jobs ..something that you won’t find anywhere and something that i like about them. To borrow a cliche ‘ They don’t walk as they own the world, but they walk as if they don’t care who owns it’. Commendable though, they tread over a faint line between self-esteem and arrogance, often crossing it. A good service provider should never patronize their customers, but here it happens. Where Demand exceeds supply, such things can happen and in salt lake (kolkata) this can be true for auto rickshaws. But the situation is same where this demand supply graph is skewed in favour of the customer, like for instance kiryana stores or vegetable vendors. You are not even entertained, if you reach these stores in the afternoon when most of these store owners are taking a nap. This is bad business. But then,’who cares about it, as long as we make enough to survive ‘ seems to be their mantra.

After half an hour of the above thought process, i finally reach office.. late as usual even by kolkata’s standards. I take out my Bengali-English dictionary, since i can’t afford a translator. And start interacting with my colleagues. Now I work for a respectable company where people by all standards can match the communication skills of the british, but people from west bengal are tuned to just one station (unless they are dealing with the clients). Everybody is a ‘DA’ or ‘DI’ here and the suffix goes in the mail as well. I was amused at first, but then i blended in. Even in meetings where you can find people from all regions .. (some of whom barely understand hindi ) , the meeting starts in english but as the discussion progresses and a one-on-one starts, people turn to a much comfortable bengali. You either need to be alone with that person or with people who share the same predicament to have him/her talk in english/Hindi. Even on a one-on-one conversation for a longer period of time, these people who i think are suffering from Short-term-memory-loss, forget that you don’t speak or understand bengali. Some days i even fancy myself walking with a T-shirt on that says I-DONT-SPEAK-BANGLA or opening the Bangla-english dictionary in front of them. On second thoughts, with some practice, i can add one more niche skill to my resume.

To buy or not to buy

2010-04-18T14:31:00.002+05:30

'To buy or not to buy' that is the question...well.. that was the question when i decided to buy a t-shirt for myself. With the increase in mysterious dissappearances of my clothes from the place i live, i am sure that the universe is conspiring against me, forcing me to use the debit card which is otherwise tucked into a not-so-easily-retreivable place.

Here is the thing, i am not good at shopping. A galore of options is confusing and often frustrating. How many things do we need to take into account. Pick some color and style that goes with my personality. then the most difficult part, making rounds of the changing room to try them, only to realize that i have made my body into what the retailers term as an odd-sized one. Last night while shopping (Note that the definition of shopping for me is going into a mall and getting out of there with a wry smile, thinking why i bought what i bought).. i tried on sizes 40 and 42. 40 was a little too small and 42 was a little too big. Fortunately before putting forth my question if they have a size 41, the shopkeeper smiled and said 'That is the problem with people having an odd size'. I wonder how do people spend a great amount of time in these malls looking and trying and sometimes even buying these stuff. I feel like i have been to trade fair whenever i go for shopping. I take a lot of time deciding what i want.. then convincing myself of what i dont.. and finally having an after-thought returning back. This is a phenomenon that i cant escape. Thats the reason i believe online shopping is the next big thing for people like me. Atleast my only repentence would be that i could have saved a few clicks.

GREEN ZONE - movie review

2010-04-17T16:33:00.004+05:30

I saw this movie last night. For me the only draw in the movie was Matt damon- paul greengrass combo who are credited with the success of movies like the bourne supremacy and the bourne ultimatum. A review on IMDB puts it like this: Bourne goes political.

Green zone is an on-your-face movie about the deception of the bush government during the iraq war. Miller- the central character played by matt damon is in-charge of an operation that involves search for WMD (weapons of mass destruction). As miller finds out later in the movie that WMD was just a pretext for convincing the american as well as iraqi citizens, that the decision to overthrow saddam hussein and taking control of the situation is justified. The movie steers clear of the popular notion that the oil wells were the real reason for the war, but a subtle hint at the end of the movie where some work is being carried out near some of the oil wells proves the director's intention. The performances from matt damon and greg kinnear is nothing extraordinary, but the background score is commendable and so is the screenplay. The background score is intense where it is supposed to be and keeps you on your toes. And unlike the bourne trilogy, this movie takes a more practical approach, showing us that not everything can be achieved single-handedly.

The movie deserves at least a 7 on a scale of 10. and maybe a little extra for the background score...

Eagle Eye- Movie Review

2010-04-17T15:47:00.004+05:30

A 6.7 on IMDB.. this movie is about how intertwined we are with the technology. A secret artificial intelligence op of the US government (code named EAGLE EYE) goes berserk when the govt officials go against its recommendations. The AI which is named ARIIA decides for itself that there needs to be a change in regime and plans the extermination of the top brass of the government officials including the president of the united states.

It controls every conceivable piece of technology which is networked to it (which is almost everything in bits and bytes). The ARIIA calls up people, threatens them with something or the other and involves them in its operation it calls as 'Operation Guillotine'. The director script-writer duo have put a great lot of imagination at work considering the way the story moves. But they seem to have decided to sit their brains out for this one and i advice you to do the same while watching. I am not talking about the practicality of the whole scenario... since a whole lot of movies that pass themselves today as science-fiction indeed justify their name. What i don't understand are the following things:

1) Why does the ariaa (or the AI) go at great lengths to plan and coordinate a great deal of things, involving possibly a dozen people, when all it needed to do is a malfunction here or there with something the president directly involves in. Probably this has been justified by the director by the fact, that it needed a voice-command go ahead from the central character of the movie 'Jerry shaw' whose twin brother 'ethan shaw' (who was involved in the EAGLE EYE project) had placed a no-go command over the system.
2) Ethan shaw gets killed by a truck due to a malfunction in the traffic signalling system which ariaa caused. Cant the president be killed likewise.. or consider the fact that ariaa controls an automated fighter plane to kill jerry shaw after it feels there in no use for him.. If it can control a fighter plane with armed missiles.. it can blow the white house just as easily.
3) The best part is how they destroy the ariaa in the movie. A lady just grabs a rod or something of that sort and hits it in its eye.. and boom.. Now why did'nt they think of that earlier.

Overall this movie was an entertaining dig at the possibility of a cyber insurgency caused by artificial intelligence systems. Fortunately in india, we do not have cctv cameras to track each and every movement of ours.. or an integrated network of computers controlling our day to day life.

Communication gap

2010-04-04T00:28:00.004+05:30

With gloabalization, often we find brands confusing this as an oppurtunity to keep their brands and advertising strategey homogenous. Here are some of the biggest branding goof-ups due to the cultural differences.

pepsi in taiwan:

pepsi's slogan 'Come alive with the pepsi generation' when translated meant 'Pepsi will bring your ancestors back from the dead'. Clearly it didnt...

Schwepps tonic water in italy:

Schweppes tonic water in italy translated into scwepps toilet water

Chevy nova in Latin america:

when GM introduced chevy nova in latin america, it was perplexed why it didnt do well. Later did they realize that nova meant "it does'nt go" in spanish

Mitsubishi Pajero:

Pajero meant masturbator in spain :)

Toyoto fierra:

Fierra in puerto rico was percieved as ugly old woman.. contrary to the young appealing women;s image with the car.

Rolls royce's silver mist in germany:

Mist means animal droppings in germany. So what u have got is simply shit!

Ford's pinto in spain

Worst of all names. ford's pinto had raised a lot of eyebrows as it meant 'small penis'

Electrolux:

Scandinavian electroluxes slogan. Nothing sucks like electrolux. Scandinavians dont knw how the word is used in america. They really suck at advertising

Gerber in africa:

Gerber didnt knw that africa being a low in literacy had different packaging strategy. They used images to convey the contents. gerber's was baby products with the name of the product and picture of a baby.

Coors beer in spain:

Coors beers slogan 'turn it loose' meant 'you will suffer from diarrhoea' to spanish population.

Frank perdue's chicken in spain:

Again in spain, Us food brand frank perdue's chicken was marketted with the strap line 'It takes a strong man to make tender chicken'. It becomes 'It takes an aroused man to make a chicken affectionate'. Spanish has a lot of innuendos in their language.

Parker pens in mexico:

Parker alarmed the mexican market with its ads intended to read "it wont leak in your pocket and embarass you' while it stated 'it wont leak in your pocket and impregnate you'. The company managed to confuse 'embarass' with the spanish verb 'embrazar' which meant 'to impregnate'.

American airlines in mexico:

When ammiracan airlines wanted to advertise their luxurious aspect of business class travelling , they thought of making their seats leather. There slogan was 'Fly in leather' or Vuelo en cuero' in spanish ... What the spanish dictionary failed to inform them was 'en cuero' or 'in leather' was a slang for 'in nude'.. something similar to flesh and bones. It soon emerged that there was little demand for mile-high naturism among mexican business flyers.

Vicks in germany:

Vapor rub manufacturer failed to attract german market, since germany pronounce V as F and so Vicks sounded more like the F word.

KFC in hongkong:

KFC's finger licking good slogan in honkong translated into 'eat your fingers off'. Apparently the chinese eat everything that moves except their own fingers. So the marketing failed attract the chinese and they preferred fries instad of their fingers.

Toastmasters Prepared speech 1

2010-03-16T00:57:00.001+05:30

A wise man said: A man is what he conceives of himself and who he associates himself with. Now what i think of myself will go against humility and as for my association, I can just say that i am proud to be a tcser and a toastmaster.
When it comes to talking about yourself (one of the most clichéd topics of all), one is in the dilemma of where to start. Let me start with my name. Rakesh, in english, means the moon. I was born in 1984. My father was in awe for two of the most famous men of that time and decided to name me after one of them. One was Rajeev Gandhi and the other Rakesh Sharma. I would have preferred Rajeev if i was him, but he picked rakesh. He might have thought that one day his son would be among stars like rakesh Sharma. But destiny had a different plan for me.
Talking about my roots, they are deep. In fact they end up all the way down to the southernmost part.. God’s own country. Yes.. I hail from kerala . I was raised in Faridabad. I did my schooling from dayanand anglo vedic public school and my engineering in mechanical from ymca institute of engineering, Faridabad. By now , I am sure most of you would be thinking.. What a weird concoction! A guy from south, living in the north and working in the east. The only direction left is the west. A guy who did mechanical engineering only to end up in IT. Strange...Well.. to add to the weirdness let me confess that i never wanted to be in IT in the first place. Tcs was just the result of ‘What-IF-I-am-left-out’ syndrome.
That brings us to the question. Where did i want to be then? If i was asked the same question some years back, i would doubt my answers. But now I know it, and it is the brand management industry. If i get lucky this year, i might as well get to cover the west by getting myself into Mudra institute of communications arts popularly known as MICA, ahmedabad. Imagine convincing them about my erratic career choices. But little do they know that it is not my choices, but my personality that is erratic. Take for instance the history of my passions: i was passionate about Hollywood for a very long time. After a while it became cricket. I even remember collecting center fresh cards. I hopped on to computer games from there (age of empires in particular) and then to Chess. As i grew mature, i turned to books and language and then to blogging. I even tried my hand at poetry or rather free verses. Just random thoughts forced into rhyming. Nowadays I am addicted to scrabble. I was obsessed by each one of them while i was at them, but never really pursued any to be the master of it.
Though it might sound ironic, but patience is another virtue of mine. My father calls it procrastination. He claims that I delay things to such an extent that there is a good possibility that I start fearing Saturday the 14th, instead of Friday the 13th. There are several such things that you might want to know about me, but fortunately toastmaster’s doesn’t have a query session. So i would save myself from all the embarrassing questions and hand over the podium to the toastmaster. But before i do that, I will leave you with few of my lines. These lines often remind me of my career choice and sometimes make me repent of not taking a risk when i had the chance. The poem is called “the day i trust my feet”.

I buried that dream inside me
Something I had done before
Still somewhere inside me wanting to explode

I keep digging up all my past
Anxious of what I will seek
Locked myself in those doors longing for that creak

Anticipation eternal
When will I meet me?
The day I will ask myself to start trusting my feet

Ignite the passion inside
Cross the boundaries
Walking away from slavery eluding vanities

Despair in me has compromised
Met hope just across the street
The day I asked myself to start trusting my feet

THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS

2010-01-09T17:22:00.012+05:30

THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS

Mirror , mirror on the wall
which sin is greatest of them all

GLUTTONY:

PHI 3:19 Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and
their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things.
Source: Bible Bulletin Board, Internet: www.biblebb.com

The word is archaic.. The sin isn't. We eat..and We consume. Consumerism is our devil inside. Heard of a civilization which would have a feast and vomit what they just ate just so they can eat more? Sounds gross isn't it. But believe me .. most of us have more similarity to them than we think. We see forwards about the plight of children in various countries who walk barefoot cos they cant afford shoes. And then we keep a pile of sneakers ready for us to match different occasions. Why? We find pride associating ourselves with luxury brands. We talk about gandhigiri for a few days but fail to implement his principles in our real life.

SLOTH:

Proverbs 15:19 ESV
The way of a sluggard is like a hedge of thorns, but the path of the upright is a level highway.
source: http://www.openbible.info/topics/sloth

Laziness.. Now that is an everyday sin.. and an every body's sin too. Who among us can claim that he/she has not indulged in this sin. :) Monday mornings all the same for everyone. Isn't it? So this one is not as grave as the other sins. Besides, Why do you think god took 3long days for resurrection? :) Justified.

VANITY:

(Psa 75:5 NNAS) Do not lift up your horn on high, Do not speak with insolent pride.

(Prov 11:2 NNAS) When pride comes, then comes dishonor, But with the humble is wisdom.

(Prov 14:3 NKJV) In the mouth of a fool is a rod of pride, But the lips of the wise will preserve them.
source : http://www.e-devotionals.org/Verses/vePride2.htm

"Vanity is definitely my favorite sin". Al pacino sure made it sound cool in "the devils advocate". But if you ask me it is the most uncool thing ever. pride can tear us all apart. Excessive love for yourself, also known as Narcissism can make us blind. Fame is a catalyst.

ENVY

Song of Solomon 8:6 ESV
Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm, for love is strong as death, jealousy is fierce as the grave. Its flashes are flashes of fire, the very flame of the Lord.
source: http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?passage=Song+of+Solomon+8%3A6

Sympathy is earned easily. envy seeks the deserving. How true. It is said that the measure of a man is the number of people who envy him. Because they want to be exactly like him. I feel envy should not always be treated as a sin. Sample this. you can harbor a feeling of jealosy in a positive way to make yourself work hard. Often the biggest motivation of a successful person is his enemies. Reason: Envy.

GREED:

HAB 2:5 indeed, wine betrays him; he is arrogant and never at
rest. Because he is as greedy as the grave and like death is
never satisfied, he gathers to himself all the nations and takes
captive all the peoples.
Source: Bible Bulletin Board, Internet: www.biblebb.com

Money, power , position, love ... we are greedy by nature for everything. Nothing satiates us. So is this sin the gravest of all? There is just a thin line between greed and need and the line differs for different people.

WRATH:

Vengeance : Most justifiable Sin. Makes everything worth the trouble. An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind. But who cares for the world if its not worth seeing. Wrath turns the nicest of men into devils. the brad pitt-morgan freeman starrer SE7EN makes my point clear

Lust: Love thy neighbour. not thy wife :)

The source of all troubles and at times the reason for going with all the troubles.

Born and raised by those who praise
Control of population everybody's been there
and
I don't mean on vacation - Californication-RHCP

Let the 'BLANK NOISE' be heard !

2009-08-10T02:09:00.006+05:30

Recently i chanced upon a blog in the blogosphere which is about one of the most important issues prevalent in our society..'Eve-teasing'. The blog is called 'Blank Noise' .

Let me introduce myself first.. I am presently living in kolkata..i have my residence in faridabad..and have my roots in kerala.. (now that is what i call diversity).. The reason behind mentioning it is to let you know that i have been to some places in north, east and south and witnessed some eve-teasing incidents.. And i am not ashamed to admit that the worst kind of eve-teasing incidents occur in kerala.. and the frequency of such incidents are also comparitively high there. Well.. I am not a statistician to claim anything.. neither do i have numbers to prove it. But my experiences.. a few witnessed by myself( when i was too young to react) and many heard-of incidents instilled this belief in me.. Whether its true or not is not the point of discussion here. What i am concerned about is what breeds this social menace.. Is it the culture? or as some believe the unintentional provocation by the victims .. I will cast my vote for the former.
To make things clear, i am not talking about molestation or crimes of higher degree. In those cases, there are a lot of factors governing them. But in the case of eve-teasing, culture is to be held responsible to an extent. Its ironical that a culture that is supposed to uphold moral values and ethics in all contexts is the prime cause. Going by the cases that come in the media, one might feel these cases are more in metros. I seriously doubt that. It is just that it gets exposed in the media easily when it happens in a metro city.

I have been to kerala many a times.I noticed that women in kerala generally don't share seats witn men in a public transport unless they know each other. Infact I have had a few stares too when i sat on a vacant seat next to a lady whom i did'nt know. The culture there divides men from women. When it comes to socialising.. women tend to make their own groups and men mix among themselves. It seems as if it is socially awkward to form a heterogenous mix. But the fact of the matter is, the farther you try to seperate the sexes, the more they tend to crave for each other.. Women somehow bind themselves to an over-hyped morality, while men give in to their libido :) and often act stupid by indulging in eve-teasing.This is not the case in a metro city ...say Delhi, where people are more broad-minded and their psyche differs a lot from the former. Now whether the example i cited, that of women not sharing a seat with men in a public transport, is a cause or an effect of eve-teasing remains as perplexing as the chicken-egg problem.

The problem is, in some families the females tend to ignore it or rather try not to create a scene when faced with similar kind of situations. As men what we can do is REACT. Imagine it can well be your sister, mother or wife.. and infact at some point of their life they might have even experienced it. Talk to them and make them realize never to ignore such a menace.

The second arguement, that of provocative attire is not invalid. It certainly plays its part, especially in the metro cities. But then you can't expect them to wear burkhas just because of this reason. There is only a thin line between vulgarity and decency, and the line is not the same for everyone. Moreover, who says that the burkha-clad women are spared? If you thought so, you were so wrong. Blank Noise is a project against this evil.Even you can support the cause in your own way.

Btw, sometimes even women are at fault in judging eve-teasing. I have been a partial victim of their impaired judgement. Imagine yourself in a government office where you are a part of a long queue and you somehow want to get your work done. Impatience tends to set in and you unknowingly push the person in front of you, not realizing that the person is a 'she'.. Inevitably you end up getting a stare and few murmurs as well. The 'you' i mentioned was me on more than one occassions. Thankfully to this date i have not been branded as an eve-teaser.

Fact & fiction

2009-06-28T19:51:00.006+05:30

Aaah..Its been a long time.. Feels like a decade or so since i have posted something..Caught in between a monotonous work schedule and career dilemmas, i had subdued the writer inside me.. If i can call myself that.. Most of the time, I am just blabbering about something or the other that does'nt concern most of you.. Well.. the other day i got a mail from one of my friends.. and as usual i decided to do something out of it..( my boss was'nt around).. I enjoy toying with somebody's work...

Some interesting facts (and my interpretations)

1. Chewing gum while peeling onions will keep you from crying.

Only if the real reason is the onion and not the work of peeling :)

2. Your tongue is germ free only if it is pink. If it is white there is a thin film of bacteria on it.

Oh my god.. my teeth are white. Is it bacteria doc?

3. The Mercedes-Benz motto is “Das Beste oder Nichts” meaning “the best or nothing”.

Reminds me of the jockey tagline 'the next best thing to naked'

4. The Titanic was the first ship to use the SOS signal.

Alas! It did'nt help...

5. The pupil of the eye expands as much as 45 percent when a person looks at something pleasing.

The reason you should be in the company of beautiful girls.

6. The average person who stops smoking requires one hour less sleep a night.

Don't lose sleep.. Better start smoking again.

7. Laughing lowers levels of stress hormones and strengthens the immune system. Six-year-olds laugh an average of 300 times a day. Adults only laugh 15 to 100 times a day.

You try laughing 300 times a day. I gaurantee you being branded as a jerk.. and you may even end up getting fired.

8. The roar that we hear when we place a seashell next to our ear is not the ocean, but rather the sound of blood surging through the veins in the ear.

The ones who believed it was the ocean inside the seashell had all their blood surging in their ears.. NONE IN THEIR BRAINS.

9. Dalmatians are born without spots.

So are we...

10. Bats always turn left when exiting a cave.

That really was an interesting one :)

11. The owl is the only bird to drop its upper eyelid to wink. All other birds raise their lower eyelids.

PJ:ALERT Owl raat ko jaagta hai.. jab aankhein bhaari ho jae jaagte jaagte to neeche hi aati hain (Effect of Gravity)..

12. The reason honey is so easy to digest is that it’s already been digested by a bee.

The reason i dont like honey is the same

13. The color blue has a calming effect. It causes the brain to release calming hormones.

Then why do we get monday morninig blues?. Mondays are never clam.

14. Every time you sneeze some of your brain cells die.

I have sneezed enough to post these kind of stuff.

15. When you blush, the lining of your stomach also turns red.

I wonder who proved this theory! You can't see it on ur own cos u never know when u r about to blush. And wont it be rude to look under his/her shirt whenever somebody blushes :-!

16. When hippos are upset, their sweat turns red.

And what when they blush..? :)

17. Switching letters is called spoonerism. For example, saying jag of Flapan, instead of flag of Japan.

Ever played the game of 'fuzzy duck' and 'ducky fuzz'.. the words being repeated amongst a group (alternatively when somebody says 'does he'). Scope of getting a lot many spoonerisms.. try it?

18. It cost 7 million dollars to build the Titanic and 200 million to make a film about it.

Only... 7 million dollars went down the drain and the 200 doubled up.

19. There are 1,792 steps to the top of the Eiffel Tower.

Gosh! Could'nt they afford an elevator?

20. Human hair and fingernails continue to grow after death.

Guess the egyptians knew this very early. They kept nail-cutter and a pair of scissors inside the mummy case.

21. The plastic things on the end of shoelaces are called aglets.

Nobody ever bothered to know what that was called.. Finally we know it...

22. Every day 200 million couples make love, 400,000 babies are born, and 140,000 people die.

Thank god 199.6 million do know about protection.

23. In most watch advertisements the time displayed on the watch is 10:10 because then the arms frame the brand of the watch (and make it look like it is smiling).

When i was a child what i deduced from all the watch ads i saw (at different times) was that watch companies dont provide batteries along with it. That is why they stay at 10:10 all the time

24. Intelligent people have more zinc and copper in their hair.

So remember 'Dyeing your hair will make u dumb'.

25. The average person laughs 13 times a day.

Switch back to fact# 9.. Which one should i believe? Adults laugh 15- 100 and children 300 times a day... so still the average comes out to be more than 15 anyways..

26. Do you know the names of the three wise monkeys? They are:Mizaru(See no evil), Mikazaru(Hear no evil), and Mazaru(Speak no evil)

I thought they must be having indian names... All the time i was under the impression that they were gandhiji's 3 bandar... Or Are these south african names

Regards,
Rakesh

Conscience on sale

2008-09-09T16:49:00.003+05:30

This night was different from the rest for the otherwise busy streets of Mumbai..Tranquil as never before..The chattering of leaves..crisp and wrinkled..broke the silence -- But not too often.

A gush of wind would have had those leaves torn..if not for their resilience. Something which reflected the true spirit of the city- the city of countless dreams -- Young and Restless --Trampled by sore realities..

The inmates of the brothel down the streets of Andheri had learned their lessons a hard way. Crying out in unison to an apathetic mass of onlookers..they discovered cynicism was what they got in return. It was’nt helping them. So they learned to laugh..
Not for themselves.. but for others..
Not on others... but on themselves..

Weary eyes concealed in the glitter of mascara were in search of prospective customers. Everybody was welcome there. Caste, religion, age or language..nothing mattered -- Nothing except money. The smell of currency.

Middlemen were so common in Mumbai. This business was no different. Like leeches sucking on others blood the pimps made their living. They knew how to bargain and how to make sure they never run out of fresh skin to dig their teeth into. After all.. the women must have felt better not doing it themselves.

Tonight..it had been hectic for her. Men were pouring in one after the other as if she was the last of the eves. For one last time -- for the day but obvious -- she draped the saree around her body -- only to pick it up from the ground later. Tied those loose hair -- Only to find them tangled in a while..“Just my life”, she sighed.

She heard someone entering the room, closing the door behind him partially..As if he was unsure. A few tentative steps towards her..She could tell that he was a first timer. She felt somewhat relieved. "They were not demanding", she thought.

The man was now moving away from the darkness that surrounded the corridors -- into the light. His face was now clearly visible to her..“As if that mattered”, she would often say to herself.
She could see him breathing heavily..Sweating like a pig even in this frigging cold.

But wait........................
That was not the only reason she looked perplexed. That face..It looked familiar.

She remembered faces..unusual for a person like her . But it was as if she was compelled to..For someone who was still in search for the one who was responsible for her pathetic present..it was not unusual.
A scornful smile was haunting her since that day..the day which was in repetition now.. She just had a glimpse of that bastard..a glimpse that she did not know would last her lifetime.

No..it was not him..she reiterated. She had seen this man somewhere else -- a place too ordinary to recollect -- under circumstances too bizarre to forget

********************A few years back ***************************

I had not seen sharada bhabhi cry like that till now..She was a very strong woman. She did not shed a tear even when she lost her husband..My brother..In a road accident.
A kind of numbness had plagued her since then...Devoid of any expression for most of the time.On rare occasions when her eyes met mine, all I saw in them was a 'determination to fight back'..not the agony of defeat. Hope over despair.

But today that hope seemed to have taken a diversion..

My brother was a lower class government employee and after his death, my sister -in-law has been running around for the vidhwa-pension ( meant for the wife of a deceased goverment employee). Bureaucracy kicked her from one door to another..Doors which never sympathised..Only loathed her empty hands.

She was not going to give up. She could not do that so easily. What she managed to save working as a laborer ..sure was'nt enough for her daughter's education. A constant source of income from any channel...however small it maybe..would have been a great deal. Quitting was never an option.

I was always mad at her for she never let me share her responsibilities. "Stay back and look after the things at home", She insisted . I was forced to agree upon.

But today ..I asked her to let me accompany her ..just this one time. She said nothing..Just smiled..a smile which meant "You would not make any difference to the ones behind the doors". and she knew what would.

So this time our hands were not empty..but then neither were they full. She had fisted in her palms her entire life..Palms which were too small to buy our way in and to say ..we were too late to drop out.

Cornered, Exhausted ..but still hopeful ..bhabhi went into the office of the person everybody referred to as 'bade sahib'.

A broad chested figure ..fair in complexion..with a crisp white colored shirt and black pants sat on the only chair in the office. He was leaning over the table with a look of concern on his face. If people called him 'bade sahib', there must be a pretty good reason for that.

After a very long conversation, I finally saw what i expected..my bhabhi kneeling down..searching for his feet. The man withdrew his legs immediately..and seemed deeply embarassed by this action.

"If only were they audible", i thought. Though I had tried hard to read their faces ..my attempts.. to get anything more that can confirm her gesture ..failed miserably. Was she thanking him?...or was she begging for mercy?

I sat there in anticipation...which ended where i had started.

********************Back to that night **********************

"I will never forget what she said to me on that day after you shunned her out of your office.Life comes a full circle. Then....we were at your doorstep..Now.. you have come to mine. The only difference is that you will not go away from here discontended..the way we had to.

That is the only difference between you and me. I sell my body for a living..you sell your soul "

Blogging on bloglit

2007-12-19T13:05:00.000+05:30

hi friends (who just happen to show up here)

i had started blogging 5 or 6 monts ago...i had this notion that it was great to have a space where u can share ur experiences emotions ..observations...Basically as one of my blogging pal said...blog was a trashcan for my thoughts.

i figured that out late...nobody (barring some people who must have searched for something else on google and happen to land here) used to visit my insomniac's blog...Can u imagine a person writing his heart out at night...losing his sleep..(it never came anyways) and then finding the world was too big, busy amd selfish...to spare time for ur trash.

that is when i found this blogliterati site... http://www.blogliterati.com
I made friends with people who share my passion and slowly i started enjoyin my experience...so if anybody is reading this...take my advice join a community ..and start with a budding one lke blogliterati..cos u will get noticed...I now blog at blogliterati..and u can c my posts on the right hand side of this space..

so Cya there...

adieu blogger.com

Brande!icious

2007-11-30T12:59:00.000+05:30

India...In retrospect..Land of the great mahatma who led our country into one of the most unique ways of protests (Sathyagraha) against the atrocities of the firangs who ruled us for over two centuries. ( We are very much at the leash though..it's their language that is ruling us now..with only the difference of not eating up half of our words as good ol british do..)

Sathyagraha etymologically disected into Sathya (or truth) and agraha (meaning desire or want)..sathya sits pretty in the dustbin and we are left just with the agraha ...

My history was never too good..but i do remember something like boycotting foreign goods by the same old dude..Nowadays we use 'the mahatma as in various denominations' to buy what we boycotted back then..For example- I have two Peter England shirts myself..But then i make sure i buy only Peter England..and due to patriotic reasons -I enjoy less wearing them and more washing them .." Take that you motherfucking englishmen "...

Question: Who am I..minus my kewl rayban glasses matching my apple ipod..peter england trousers n shirts..Jockey underwear..Nokia N72..& Rolex watch..?

Answer: NOTHING...If you ain't branded dude..you better call yourself neanderthal...Worship the brand.

Ghar ka khaana (Homemade food) ..happens to be a theoretical concept existing only in the favorite cuisines column on orkut profiles..Fetch me something from McDonald's....Hail McDonald's.

I quote a recent television advertisement..'Brand nahi to style nahi'..

*******************Brand plus Shopping = I'm BROKE********************

Shopping for me as for most of other men- A way of making up to your girlfriend/sister/mother/wife..

OR

Waking up to the harsh reality that women shop till thet drop..and Credit card companies make sure you have no other choice..But to sulk..

************* Indian Shopping = Shopping plus Bargaining**************

Bargaining is an art we indians have mastered..count me out....We even bargain on chinese stuff which to our surprise is already very low in cost..Still we try..Hope floats..

Our purchasing decisions and bargaining prowess adapt according to our surroundings. We hate to pay a rupee more to rickshaw-walahs but pay an extra 100 bucks at airconditioned supermarkets..

Our economics: 1 rs on 5 implies 20% more while 100 on 2000 comes around 5% more..For christ's sake..have some consideration for the hardwork that rickshaw-walah puts every single day..

************* Window shopping = Shopping minus Buying **************

Window shopping is a four step process of :

1) Looking at the things on dispay with extreme curiosity

2)Pretending you are not interested in them

3)Asking for stuff they are least likely to have

4)Leave quietly without making eye contact

You losers have made the lives of ppl like me ..miserable..

I meant the sales guys at the shops ... :)

*****Shopping plus Unsolicited help = Uncomfortable Experience*****

I go inside the shop..looking at things along with their price tags..recalculating my budget..and i notice these salesmen/women surrounding me..

i feel a little uncomfortable now..

They ask me politely if they can help..

i want to say.."Fuck off..i would ask for it if i need to"..but i conceal my true emotion with an awkward smile..

Sometimes i feel.. they are thinking that i am a shoplifter...

I ask myself.."hey do i look like a shoplifter ?.."...

I answer back.. "Nor did michael jackson or other celebrities who were caught on tape."

We don't have a hundred million CCTV's as in US..where even taking a leak can come in World's Most Amazing Videos..Well..technically..In my case ..It can..

***************************Almost The End*********************************

By the way i wonder if somebody's goin to read this far..If you have ..you can see..It was just RANDOM WRITING..i started with mahatma gandhi and ended up on CCTV's...

Anyways..You guys chill..while i enjoy my last sip of Coca-Cola...surrppp....

*******************************The End************************************

India:Upclose and public-part-1

2007-11-15T14:21:00.000+05:30

India:Upclose and public-part-1

Population explosion

Superstitious devotion

Villages without the lights

Political firefights

Still persisting polio

Drop in girl-boy ratio

Teachers short in attendance

Boundaries without a fence

IT parks and BPO's

Late night parties hard to chose

Reckless driving on the booze

Paedophiles on the loose

Life on battery backup

Mobile phones never shut up

Pollution cause us to choke

Indian driving ..Just a joke

Lost in versace gucci

Branded & shopping frenzy

Adults begging on the streets

Children working in dreadful heat

Pieces of road on potholes

Ten years for five year goals

Government in a total mess

Work as always 'IN PROGRESS'.....

Healing my numb conscience

2007-10-29T18:31:00.000+05:30

Healing my numb conscience

You ask me
What do I see with my eyes closed
What do I feel when I have been forced
To feel
I repeated until

I find that
There’s nothing so real to reality
A bone shared with a dog makes no charity
Share it
When you’re as hungry

All we need
is one good deed
To lift the conscience that we have so far managed to cheat
A dream to chase
Some cause to relate
Don’t matter if we do some right things in their wrong ways

Wish a miracle
That is just what everybody needs
Never come up with any means
To be
One each

Seek forgiveness
For all little things that I criticized
Mediocrity, which I once despised
In me
Failed to see

That what I seek
Was one good deed
Healing my numb conscience listening to a heart speak
A dream to chase
Some cause to relate
I’m happy now I don’t keep it for another day

The day i trust my feet

2007-10-26T13:41:00.000+05:30

The day i trust my feet

I buried that dream inside me
Something I had done before
Still somewhere inside me wanting to explode

I keep digging up all my past
Anxious of what I will seek
Locked myself in those doors longing for that creak

Anticipation eternal
When will I meet me?
The day I will ask myself to start trusting my feet

Ignite the passion inside
Cross the boundaries
Walking away from slavery eluding vanities

Despair in me has compromised
Met hope just across the street
The day I asked myself to start trusting my feet

Read this post..Send it to 500 people..and see what happens..BlOG TRAFFIC..voila

2007-10-23T12:52:00.000+05:30

Now don't you ppl hate when every now and then you recieve some mail asking you to fwd it to so many more ppl or else..blah blah blah...i never forward such messages to anyone..Now i have decided to play with them...This is what i did with a mail i received today..

CONTENT OF THE MAIL:EDITED VERSION

Look at the picture; make a wish, then read the prayer. It does not matter (as the wish can come true only if you work hard to make it true and not by forwarding stupid mails ...)

Hi - I am picking 17 (and more) people who have touched my life and who I think would want to receive this (but not sure if they will appreciate). Please (DO NOT) send it back to me (Or else the chain will continue and you will die deleting the same forwards from your inbox over and over again).

In case you are not aware, Saint Theresa is known as the Saint of the Little Ways, meaning she believed in doing the little things in life well and with great love. She is represented by roses. May everyone who receives this message be blessed.

Theresa's Prayer cannot be deleted (but can be edited as per your wish :) ). REMEMBER to make a wish before you read the prayer . That's all you have to do (except sending this to a hundred million more irritated souls like me).
There is nothing attached. Just share this with people and see what happens on the fourth day.( You will have a bulk of stupid forwards to delete or forward depending solely on you)
Sorry you have to forward the message, but try not to break this, please ( so that we can spread this message along with our religion in the name of a soul who never knew the difference and served humanity as it was)
Prayer is one of the best free gifts we receive. Read the prayer below.

Saint Theresa's Prayer

May today there be peace within.
May you trust God that you are exactly where you are meant to be.
May you not forget the infinite possibilitie s that are born of faith.
May you use those gifts that you have received, and pass on the love that has been given to you.
May you be content knowing you are a child of God. Let this presence settle into your bones, and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise and love.
It is there for each and every one of us.

Now obseve what influence this picture has on your minds.. Mother teresa with the Pope = Christianity being the most compassionate religion in the world

Now, send this to 17 people within the next 15 minutes.( I was not able to..since the editing took about the same time .. :) ) And remember NOT to send this back. I count as 0....

Regards
rakesh sukumar

Kudos to Radiocity91.1 "what-e-fun"

2007-10-18T14:46:00.000+05:30

Radiocity 91.1 whatefun..you are listening to me rakesh on your favorite radio station (50 wpm) ..and we are playing you some cool tracks (40wpm) which will make you tap your feet (30wpm) and let your hair down (20wpm)..hoo.. :)
Its a very tough job..that of an RJ..But hats-off to them..If I would not have been listening Radiocity 91.1 evryday during the time i spend in those nerve-wrecking local buses enduring what i would call as the calamity of proximity :) I would have commited suicide..

ok i was kidding..I would have opted for other expensive alternatives..like autorickshaws..which can be an amusing experience in itself..Remember an advertisement featuring pierce brosnan (james bond)in an autorickshaw in some south-east asian country..Exactly! They believe they have what Vin diesel did in the movie 'the fast and furious'..Some nitro-booster powered car is all what i could recollect

Not straying away from the topic..Radio is such a stress-buster..more so now when television is filled with meaningless saas-bahu soaps and reality shows that nobody cares about..Television has now regained its tag..that of the idiot box..
With a hundred million channels with almost every free to air channel on the channel-lock mode on my television..and other channels too meant for a new OCD called 'random-surfing'..Finally ending up on the power button :)

Radio on the other hand is more specific..it caters to a certain class of listeners. Mornings with Craig in the breakfast show and evenings with solomon and sharmilee on the joyride takes me away from the stress that builds up at work and not to mention from work to home in my case..besides i have discovered a great variety of interesting songs in different genres which i never listened to..Helps me choose songs that i want to download from the internet.(illegally though)..My advice to you would be .. Switch your television sets off and tune into radio at times..Nostalgia is not a bad thing after all

Note to people who have managed to read this far..normally they don't-
In case you were wondering all this time what WPM means..Its an acronym for 'Words Per Minute'

Note to those who do not appreciate or understand my humor or both..-
:) in the above paragraphs are intentional and can be compared to those irritating laughter tracks in between your favorite comedy series..

Women and IQ- Allianz ad

2007-10-17T17:44:00.000+05:30

This is one of the advertisements which proves why women just don't think ..they just act in their own little funny but cute ways... :)

Limited (Ad/E)dition

2007-10-15T14:53:00.000+05:30

the whole term 'limited edition' is nothing short of a marketing gimmick. It just serves the purpose of attracting a niche segment of the consumers..those who can afford and are willing to spend extra bucks cherishing their hastiness for something that was after all not very different from the normal..They make fools out of people changing the packaging and maybe associating some celebrity with the product..(I simply hate 'celebrity-worship'. Liking someone for something they do is different from adulation..)
Limited edition works on the same principle of hyping things out of proportions..Not to mention other terms like collector's edition,Deluxe edition and special edition etc..doing the rounds nowadays..Just like an antique..which is desirable because of its rarity and its age..with utility not owing much to its demand. In the same way limited edition and other such editions (without any additions) are still in demand as they are elusive to majority of the consumer segment.

The only Blues I love: Bluetooth

2007-10-15T10:20:00.000+05:30

If there is one recent technology which i will vote for as the best inventions of the last century...It would be the..

For those who do not know what bluetooth is..

ummm...sorry..here try again

Ya ya..by the time you finish this..you would have been linked to several webpages ending up thinking what were you reading anyways :)..This is exactly what i go through when i am searching blogs for some relevant information..

Bluetooth has simply changed our lives..No more tangling up with wires..All that is needed with the bluetooth is the obvious 'Source' and 'Target'..with a condition of minimum proximity..Hopefully someday that would also be taken care of.

Since i am not a very techie guy..I can just help you link some useful information about bluetooth which amused me..without taking any of the credits from their sources, I present to you....

MORE LINKS..

Sony erricson's Bluetooth watch

Bluetooth billboards..Jaw dropping !

Bluetooth enabled i-pods..Kewl

Bluetooth against Wireless USB -- the winner is?

Bluetooth flipsides

Read about Bluetooth encouraging piracy

Virus:"Look out here i come"

Acknowledgments

I will do it later..

Bourne to be Wild

2007-10-08T15:17:00.000+05:30

I was never fond of james bond..For some strange reasons which i have tried and failed to answer.. the suave gentleman who seduces almost every chick with his charisma never made it into my good book..Quite contrary Jason Bourne did..
Matt damon with a kind of Stone-faced expression on his face and a mysterious past haunting every second of his life after amnesia..A past which he wish he could recollect..portrays an entirely different breed of spy in the bourne triology..With all the CIA blah blah blah like 'subject is on the move'..'we have a situation'..'negative on that' and 'copy that' ..I find the backdrop of Bourne legacy more intriguing than Bond's..
The latest of the bourne triology "the bourne ultimatum" was not as good as its prequels though..Action was very ordinary..and the climax of the movie in my opinion could have been better..a little bit of twist at the end does scores for a movie..

Just few things in the movie which inspired the observer inside me..
1) Even the best spy in the world ..Jason bourne.. can't move on without the help of google..Hail google :)
2)Why do they mention a classified document as 'TOP SECRET' or "HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL" with the very same words printed on top of them? Is'nt it stupid? and this is CIA we are talking about here..
3)When jason bourne is running around a corner somewhere on the streets of someplace, a person can be seen taking snaps of Matt Damon with his cell phone camera.Now i suppose that was an error gone unnoticed.

James Bond Vs Jason bourne

007-Chases women ,Ends in trouble..Btw Are'nt those synonyms?
Amnesic agent-Just chasing his past

007-"Name is Bond..James bond"
Amnesic agent"My name is ahhh...ummmmm..That is what i am lookin' for"

007-007 is always slow..believes in think before you leap idealogy
Amnesic agent-Thinking is a waste of time for our Jason..He was Bourne to be wild..and Instinctive !

And finally..
007-Bond changes from time to time..with the last one almost testing my patience
Amnesic agent-Bourne stays the same..The way i love

WCS season-2: Wrestle Free from an Alligator

2007-10-03T15:59:00.000+05:30

How to Wrestle Free from an Alligator (easier said than done !)

1. If you are on land, try to get on the alligator’s back and put downward pressure on its neck. This will force its head and jaws down...

2. Cover the alligator’s eyes. This will usually make it more sedate.

3. If you are attacked, go for the eyes and nose. Use any weapon you have, or your fist.

4. If its jaws are closed on something you want to remove (for example, a limb), tap or punch it on the snout. Alligators often open their mouths when tapped lightly. They may drop whatever it is they have taken hold of, and back off.

5. If the alligator gets you in its jaws, you must prevent it from shaking you or rolling over—these instinctual actions cause severe tissue damage. Try to keep the mouth clamped shut so the alligator does not begin shaking.

6. Seek medical attention immediately, even for a small cut or bruise, to treat infection. Alligators have a huge number of pathogens in their mouths.

How to Avoid an Attack

While deaths in the United States from alligator attacks are rare, there are thousands of attacks and hundreds of fatalities from Nile crocodiles in Africa and Indopacific crocodiles in Asia and Australia. A few tips to keep in mind:

1. Do not swim or wade in areas alligators are known to inhabit (in Florida, this can be anywhere).

2. Do not swim or wade alone, and always check out the area before venturing in.

3. Never feed alligators.

4. Do not dangle arms and legs from boats, and avoid throwing unused bait or fish from a boat or dock.

5. Do not harass, try to touch, or capture any alligator.

6. Leave babies and eggs alone. Any adult alligator will respond to a distress call from any youngster. Mother alligators guarding nests and babies will defend them.

7. In most cases the attacking alligators had been fed by humans prior to the attack. This is an important link—feeding alligators seems to cause them to lose their fear and make them more aggressive.

My first lessons from the corporate world

2007-09-25T10:44:00.000+05:30

I simply love the idea of blogging my brains out on a monday morning..since i took a day off yesterday..technically today is my monday..and IT REALLY SUCKS as most of the 'all-day-cribbing' indians like me would agree upon..

The later half of the last week was hectic...whoooo..boy it truly was! I had an overdose of what i can call as 'marketing lessons for a novice'..

Making a product is easy...Selling it is'nt..especially to the very same cribbing indians who just happen to be rational when it comes to buying something..Bargaining is an art you've gotta learn from us indians..

In the corporate world marketing professionals make a statement which now has become sort of a cliche.. "The idea is only to provide information about the product, selling would be taken care of on its own"

Ya..that is exactly why i was present at the 'Green Building Congress 2007' for 3 days..To make the people aware of our commitment towards the issue of global warming and our efforts towards the green building concept..
ye ye..cut the crap..Lets get to the question..where's the money,honey? :)

Though I was with another person who has had a bit of an experience in the airconditioning sales business..But the golden rule that i learned is that you have to learn from your surroundings..Don't count on others to help you.

Lesson-1
"It's not my nature to be mysterious"-brad pitt to matt damon,Oceans Twelve
Now correct me if i am wrong..but have you observed how the marketing professionals react when they are asked about things they really don't know..
Their reply-" THAT IS A TRADE SECRET..WE ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO LET THOSE DETAILS OUT"
btw u must be wondering what has brad pitt's character in Oceans twelve to do with sales & Marketing..well..NOTHING...which will help me explain my second lesson.

Lesson-2
Talk around it...not about it
How about comparing your product with the 'blah blah blah' of the world..A prospective customer can be spotted if he is too particular about knowing the product..But the key to selling your product is 'Information assymetry'..you know the ins and outs of the product...he/she does'nt..Make him feel interested and curious..Don't let everything out.

Lesson-3
You are blind..but not deaf and dumb
Don't ever judge a person by his looks..a person who looks like an ignorant villager can turn out an excellent customer..Prejudices are stumbling blocks for sales personnel..

Lesson-4
Don't go by my lessons
There is no right way of doing different things in this field..just different way of doing the things right. Learn from your experiences.
Quoting one of my colleagues..'You can make mistakes at the company's cost in this profession'.
So just make your own mistakes and learn from them.

Have a very nice day!

CROON-0-LOGY

2007-09-19T17:52:00.000+05:30

Music that i am crooning to lately

From Mahabalipuram rocks to an Evening with crocs

2007-09-17T17:08:00.000+05:30

The last weekend could'nt have been better..Sometimes some of the best decisions in life are so impromptu you start feeling the power of unpredictability..

Last to last weekend

The story was very different a week back...Me and my friend had planned to catch up with each other..and take a break from 'his' hectic schedule..the word ceases to exist in my dictionary for the time-being :)..but to our surprise instead of going to the movie which we had planned the day before ..we ended up window-shopping just another mall and then paying up a fine on our way back for breaking traffic rules ..or better call it bribe..which apparently differs by a considerable magnitude..A legal fine of 400 bucks can be compromised to an effective bribe of 100..
Disclaimer: This is not supposed to be a confession...I was'nt driving and since
i have been suffering from a rare selective amnesia..i am not capable of disclosing the name of the person who was

Btw we found out later that the reason we were caught(..though they usually don't need one)was that we were driving on the wrong lane..boy if everybody were in chennai :)

The last weekend

Coming back to the day before yesterday which started as a normal holiday..getting up late due to the saturday late nights..i was not expecting it to be what it eventually turned out as.. One of my cousin brother with whom i am staying here in chennai suggested visiting 'mahabalipuram' also known as 'mamallapuram'..I never liked going places of historical relevence..History gave me goosebumps during my school-time.. :) But then i was not over my experiences of the week before..so i wanted to go out and have a blast.. And i did !!

We started at about 10:30 in the morning after the morning hustle and bustle...Approx one and a half hour drive on the East coast road (which is the widest of all the roads that i have seen in chennai) we reached 'mahabalipuram'..A calm and quiet place compared to other similar tourist destinations... even on such a sunny sunday..The weather gods it seemed were showering their blessings upon us..An otherwise hot-n-humid chennai afternoon would have ruined everything :)

We started our sight-seeing with 'The shore temple' and so on and so forth to several places of historical and cultural relevence.. You can get the details of various places in and around mahabalipuram here::http://www.mahabalipuram.co.in/

By this time we were feeling really hungry..so we headed straight to a nearby restaurant called 'Surf'..

Our next pitstop was the crocodile bankwhich is better known as 'the center for herpetology'..Different species of crocodiles,king cobra,freshwater Turtles and tortoises are being conserved here.

From there we went to kovalam beach (near chennai..not the one in thiruvananthapuram )which is just 2 kms away from the crocodile bank..much Cleaner than marina beach..it has a large number of resorts around it targetting tourists..predominantly foreigners who are willing to shell out moolah more often than us indians..

Half an hour and a few gallons of pure unadulterated air later..we decided to move back to our place..though we discovered from our driver that we had covered only 20% of the places to see in and around mahabalipuram. A 20 minute motorboat ride on our return at muttukadu boathouse was just what was needed to complete the amazing experience..an icing on the cake..
By the end of the day we were totally exhausted but the images still lingers on....

Check out some snaps of the places i have been talking about

Virtual Reality

2007-09-13T16:38:00.000+05:30

This is the first and the only presentation i have made till now..then i turned to blogging as u can see for yourself... :)
I have got a decent response from the people who have viewed it on slideshare.net ...but only in terms of downloads.. 35 to be precise as of this writing...Some comments would have helped really..and maybe i would have went for more of this stuff..

Please guys..If u like it...voice it out plz...Heard of the word 'Mo-ti-va-ti-on'
ADD IT TO YOUR DICTIONARY TODAY !

If u are having problems viewing this..Try clicking here
If u still have problems..maybe u need to repair your system..lolz..

Think while u sink !!!

2007-09-11T16:57:00.000+05:30

A few months back I was a Die-hard fan of this show on axn called 'Worst Case Scenario'...Oblivious to the reason why they stopped airing this show as of now..
I simply love all shows on AXN..Be it ripleys believe it or not or the amazing race..AXN truly rocks when it comes to content... 3 Cheers :)

the show worst case scenario which is based on the WCS series of books tells us how to survive in different life threatening situations...

I have decided to blog a series of posts related to this ...without much of my input... Though i hate these kinda posts where all u need to do is CTRL+C and CTRL+P..Does'nt work in blogger though..The post gets published if u press CTRL+P :)

So i decided to do it my way...

Extreme Survival

How to Escape from a Sinking Car

1. As soon as you hit the water, open your window. This is your best chance of escape, because opening the door will be very difficult given the outside water pressure...(To be safe, you should drive with the windows and doors slightly open whenever you are near water or driving on ice..) Opening the window allows water to come in and equalize the pressure. Once the water pressure inside and outside the car is equal, you’ll be able to open the door. ..
This is when you wish u were not wearing your seatbelts...
Disclaimer : You might take the last line seriously if u have a terrible humor sense...

2. If your power windows won’t work or you cannot roll your windows down all the way, attempt to break the glass with your foot, shoulder, or a heavy object such as an antitheft steering wheel lock.
Irony strikes again...the window that was supposed to safegaurd u against unprecedented risks is the one between ur life and death..

3. Get out. Do not worry about leaving anything behind unless it is another person. Girls ..Don't leave your make-up boxes behind.If ur make-up is'nt Water-resistant nobody's gonna recognize u .. Vehicles with engines in front will sink at a steep angle. If the water is fifteen feet or deeper, the vehicle may end up on its roof, upside down. For this reason, you must get out as soon as possible, while the car is still afloat. Depending on the vehicle, floating time will range from a few seconds to a few minutes. The more airtight the car, the longer it floats. Air in the car will be quickly forced out through the trunk and cab. An air bubble is unlikely to remain once the car hits bottom. Get out as early as possible...unless U really love ur car

4. If you are unable to open the window or break it, you have one final option. Remain calm and do not panic. Wait until the car begins filling with water. When the water reaches your head, take a deep breath and hold it. Now the pressure should be equalized inside and outside, and you should be able to open the door and swim to the surface...If u do not know swimming..just like me...Rest In peace...

Sharp Advertising : Motorola RAZR 2

2007-09-10T11:04:00.000+05:30

Motorola has launched a sequel to motorola razr with a name which most ppl in the business of advertising be debating on... Motorola razr 2

The commercial adds a bit of zing to the motorola brand as a whole. If you look at the commercial carefully it feels that motorola is targetting female audience this time..the whole idea of a male getting stripped by a female with his clothing coming off one by one...and the song playing in the background.. Hello little boys little boys gives me this feeling...I wonder whether this has become a general market practice nowadays to attract more and more female buyers..Particularily here in the gadgets segment which still enjoys a marginal male dominance..

I was just wondering....at the end of the ad which phone does he throw back to her...hers or his ?? A new way of exchanging numbers eh...

Consumerism..when will we be complete ?

2007-09-06T11:02:00.000+05:30

In one of my earlier posts titled 'In-so-many-ah!'.. i was trying to draw your attention to one of the serious problems our world is suffering from..The name of the disease is CONSUMERISM...which constantly motivates us to complete ourselves in all respects..regardless of what is a 'neccesity' and what is just paraphernilia..

note to myself:
I Don't understand myself sometimes..Am i preaching hypocrisy here??..I talk about Consumerism on one hand and advertising on the other ..Infact i have a froogle shopping list on my orkut profile.. :) Need to contradict myself at times...

Two dialogues in particular in two movies i really loved to watch will just make you think about this:

one:

"There's the television. It's all right there - all right there. Look, listen, kneel, pray. Commercials! We're not productive anymore. We don't make things anymore. It's all automated. What are we *for* then? We're consumers, Jim. Yeah. Okay, okay. Buy a lot of stuff, you're a good citizen. But if you don't buy a lot of stuff, if you don't, what are you then, I ask you? What? Mentally *ill*. Fact, Jim, fact - if you don't buy things - toilet paper, new cars, computerized yo-yos, electrically-operated sexual devices, stereo systems with brain-implanted headphones, screwdrivers with miniature built-in radar devices, voice-activated computers..."

/ the character of Jeffrey Goines played by Brad Pitt in the movie 'Twelve monkeys' /

two:

"Man, I see in fight club the strongest and smartest men who've ever lived. I see all this potential, and I see squandering. God damn it, an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables; slaves with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need. We're the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War's a spiritual war... our Great Depression is our lives. We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won't. And we're slowly learning that fact. And we're very, very pissed"

"You're not your job. You're not how much money you have in the bank. You're not the car you drive. You're not the contents of your wallet. You're not your fucking khakis. You're the all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world."

/ the character of tyler durden played again by Brad pitt in the movie 'Fight Club'/

Note to myself:

Boy now i know why Angelina jolie is on an adoption spree...Brad pitt must have seen the photos i am about to blog here...

This is a collection of pictures i got as an e-mail attachment..I would have loved to mention the source cause the work requires a lot more than merely mentioning the name...Hats off to him/her..or them...

Alexander the man who conquered the world said 'bury me with one of my hands outside so that the world realizes when I died i had nothing in my hand'

Its time for us to do a bit of pondering...and then forget about it when we head out to the nearest branded outlet.. :)

If it's on your mind,it must be on 'The Billboard'

2007-08-30T18:21:00.000+05:30

Chennai-The city where whatever is on your mind will surely be somewhere on a billboard. The number of billboards/hoardings/cut-outs/...is huge here. It is famous for billboard advertising..to such an extent that sometimes they can help you remember places.. :)

Life-Sized cutouts of superstars..Movie-advertisements on hoardings are also quite common here.

A litlle bit of googling and then a bit of ogling which i could'nt help gave me this:

This was a billboard advertisement of Deccan chronicle- A paper which is as cheap in its content as its advertising strategy. The advertisement surely grabs a lot of attention but the reason i call it cheap is because they have repeated the same advertisement with only minor changes including the girl..her tees and the caption on it..(Minor or major depends on your priorities lol :)

Other captions- FDI retail : Boom or Bust, Rose exports blooming etc etc.

Some other Billboards that came to my notice as a result of a google seach

Mobile Magic

2007-08-30T15:10:00.000+05:30

/*the article is from the editorial section of TOI. Click the title of the post to reach the original article */

BRIEF CASE: Mobile Magic
30 Aug 2007, 0051 hrs IST,Manju Vaish

A brief search on the web reassured me that my Nokia battery was fine; for once ‘Made in China' had scored a point over big Daddy Matsushita of Japan. Later in the day one saw on the telly milling crowds choking Nokia showrooms all over the city, desperate to find out if their battery was fine. Obviously they had no access to the Internet, many may have barely qualified as literate; yet they were all proud owners of that little magical gizmo, the cellphone, that had changed their lives so dramatically.

My mind traipsed back a couple of months when our trusty tailor had been evicted from his humble workplace, a little scooter garage in the colony. His work was excellent, charges reasonable, and he gave door-to-door service to residents of the neighbourhood. Compelled to move into the shanty across the road, he begged us to continue using his services. Despite being kindly disposed towards his predicament, nobody deigned to enter the filthy slum cluster across the road. We paid fancy prices at snazzy boutiques, whinging at the thievery all the while. One fine day the doorbell rang and surprise, who should it be, but our earnest little seamster grinning from ear to ear. Triumphantly, he waved a little grey and chrome cellphone in my face. ‘‘Now madam, i am back in business. Whenever you have a job for me, just give a ‘missed call', i will come immediately to collect your stuff''. As all incoming calls were free for him, his new phone would hardly pinch his pocket. True to his word, he has given excellent service. He dreams of owning a little tailoring establishment one day, educating his children in good private schools so that they can be spared the ignominy and tribulations their father had to encounter.

The same story has been repeated, from the doorstep beautician, who chucked her job with a rapacious mistress at a saloon, to innumerable plumbers, electricians, masons, you name it... all having turned entrepreneurs overnight. For once a couple of bureaucrats boldly stuck to their guns despite opposition from various vested interests to give this country the gift of the century. It may not quite be the invention of the wheel, but if millions in this country were to vote for the one thing that made a palpable difference to the quality of their lives, the cellphone would win hands down!

Requiem for a dream rocks !!

2007-08-30T12:26:00.001+05:30

Requiem for a dream is one of those unpleasant movies which will jolt your senses.. a movie about 4 ppl and their drug addiction..the consequences etc etc..the background score of this movie is simply awesome..particularily the music 'overture' by clint mansell..

the movie shows how drug-addiction has plagued our planet ..how the youth of today inspite of having dreams and aspirations like others turn themselves into slaves ..often enduring physical and sexual abuse..and inflicting the same on others. The film portrays the pathetic end of four such individuals..

This is one of the inspiring songs..but alas without any video..Just the lead 'jared leto' puffing out his dreams sitting helplessly in a corner..Absolutely great performances by the whole cast..

Watch this movie
...and "SAY NO TO DRUGS"
support such a cause at www.youthnoise.org

it's a Madworld out there

2007-08-30T11:40:00.000+05:30

*And I find I kind of funny
I find it kind of sad
The dreams in which I’m dying are the best I’ve ever had
I find it hard to tell you
I find it hard to take
When people run in circles its a very very
Mad world
Mad world *

The lines are from a song by gary jules titled Madworld..the song is mostly associated with the movie 'Donnie darko' which in my opinion is a must-see for all those who like Brilliant but confusing movies..The ones which need a couple of rewinds and some googling to get the near-perfect comprehension.

Maybe it was the movie that made me a fan of this song or the song itself....Better figure out yourself.Here is its Youtube video..with some scenes of the movie

SOTTO VOCE: Loud, Louder, Loudest

2007-08-29T17:59:00.001+05:30

/* This article was in the editorial of TOI on 28th aug. The writer Anubha Yadav rightly points out the indian obsession with noise */

(the original article given below can also be read here
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Opinion/Editorial/SOTTO_VOCE_Loud_Louder_Loudest/rssarticleshow/2315961.cms)
SOTTO VOCE: Loud, Louder, Loudest
28 Aug 2007, 1200 hrs IST,Anubha Yadav

In India, the right to be loud and noisy and freedom of expression seem to have a direct relationship. Meaning, if one can shout, one is free. Be it a marriage, jagran, birthday bash or a funeral, loud is the way to be. My family often recounts how when my sister was born, a nurse in the maternity ward got so startled by my father’s loud greeting that she landed on the hospital corridor. Whether it is while watching television or sitting across each other and chatting, we like it when decibel levels reach dizzy heights. Even the inanimates of our house have proclaimed their right to be noisy — my hairdryer, the washing machine, the vacuum cleaner, all bellow freely. A friend recently attended the last journey of a Parsi friend and noted how a Parsi funeral was so peaceful, had a sense of calm, but in the same breath she wondered whether this kind of 'quiet' could actually lead to catharsis. Her worry made me wonder, has the occasional 'awkward silence' graduated to acquire a perpetual awkward status? Does noise comfort us? Most of us are honk-happy drivers. We have a constant need to honk, regardless of where we are — an empty road or a full highway, near a hospital or residential complex. It is as absurd as the bumper sticker that came out in the US immediately after the 9/11 attacks. The sticker exhorted, 'Honk if you are a patriot'. As we become gadget friendly and technology savvy, we are also becoming socially uncivil. Our mobile phones ring in concerts, theatre performances and movie shows with shrieking caller tunes, and we actually manage conversations as we sit there with a choiceless neighbour trying to get value for that ticket. Auditory invasions in private spaces are commonplace. Yours truly has been subjected to many, the worst when a 'music lover' sitting next to me in a Sufi music concert decided to settle her marital tiff there. We have smoking zones, no-cellphone zones and no-horn zones. But what we actually need is a zone to access silence. What would the signage at such a zone read like? 'Silence is golden: Experience it here for Rs 100/hr' perhaps.

Advertising: The theory of sensation transference

2007-08-29T11:06:00.000+05:30

Advertising-An area of immense potential for creative people who not only think out of the box but around it too.I was always curious about this industry and when most people switch channels in between the advertisements..I prefer to watch them realizing that sometimes a few minutes of what others percieve as 'time for a leak' can turn out to be a visual extravaganza..only if you wish not just to see but to think as well..Though when it was the time to decide what i want to make a career out of..i guess my thinking went numb!! I compromised with my affinity towards ads and opted for a conventional engineering career...But then there is always time to learn more..

Recently i came across this book called Blink-the power of thinking without thinking by Malcom gladwell..Its an exceptional book with a diverse range of topics having one thing in common..the power of snap judgement

The book brings into light a phenomenon called 'theory of sensation transference'
which deals with the logic that the aesthetic details of a design can affect our perception towards a product and purchase behaviour. To explain it further the book takes the case of the role of louis cheskin.. the man behind the theory of sensation transference..in the improvement of sales of margarine.

Louis cheskin was approached by Jelke's Good luck margarine as margarine was not as popular as butter. It was a simple color change solution of cheskin that proved to improve the product sales. He suggested to change the color of maragarine from traditional white to yellow. he also suggested packing it in a 'silver foil' and renaming it as 'imperial' margarine to give it a richer look and feel. The concept was that people associated silver foil with luxury and freshness and the tag 'imperial' further strengthened that..But what with the color..the reason was simple margarine was not accepted in the same way as butter. Changing the color of margarine to yellow made it similar to butter in looks though the taste was different. So many a times a small change in how something looks changes your perception of how good it tastes..Not to mention the 'garnishing' done by the chefs to give the food that extra edge or the stress given on the packaging of almost all the brands we know..even the most subtle changes can do wonders for a brand :)

Ins!deOut:poetry section

2007-08-24T16:13:00.000+05:30

I was thinking for so long about adding a single post to the blog which can link my 'Ins!deOut' Blog ..I don't want to lose any oppurtunities to showcase my work see!! :)

Click the title to reach the poetry blog.

here are the individual links:

Stop complaining
you're feelin' all the blues
wakin' up on monday morning
Tired of makin' it to work
with nothin' but a lazy yawning
It is your discretion you see
that is not theirs as it seems
To give yourself some time brother
which i think is all you need

And when you look back now
All that's left is a lifeless painting..
say i give you one last chance
would you take it..stop complaining...

Do you have the time for this
this one last introspection
or has meeting deadlines been
your only one obsession
lemme ask u why u do this
is it Power or position
just wanted you to know that life
is more than one direction

and when you look forward
dont u see your life worth halting
say i give you one more chance
would you take it...stop complaining..

Love Don't cost a thing
We look through our windows
and share the sympathy
Children at the traffic lights
we forget..as red turns to green

But atleast they have.. what your kids don't
the love.. the feeling of not being alone
Now lets confess..it's true for some
they'll feel this pinch when the time will come

the way we dress.. the way we live
why can't match upto.. the love we give
but who cares it seems .. the world has grown
leave love apart..we don't even care our own

Workin all day and workin all night
Earn enough money so we can spend it right
No conscience that hurts..No guilt at all
We'll make upto them by giving them a call

Explode
I’m feelin' li’l high
Am feeling little low
I’ve all that money can buy
But still I m all alone

I feel deep down inside
I have no place to go
The heart can’t wait to cry
My mind won’t let it though..

EXPLODE EXPLODE
My life’s gonna explode
EXPLODE EXPLODE
I’ve crossed the line of control

My dream keeps me inspired
Whether luck is a friend or foe
And I wanna reach the sky
Touch the sun that shines above

But before I bid goodbye
Just wanna let u know
That life’s a coaster ride
Hop on...n here we go

EXPLODE EXPLODE
Don’t u wanna explode?
EXPLODE EXPLODE
It’s time to break-n-open the mould…..

The 'kumarakom' Dining Experience

2007-08-24T14:40:00.000+05:30

It has been 2 months now since i have been here in Chennai and i have had few experiences at various multiplexes and restaurants but nothing even compares to what i am about to write here.
'Chennai' it seems is a city with hotels and theaters more than anything.You can find almost 5-6 hotels ..however small ones..in a 1 km radius..Boy they sure have a large appetite..

So a few days back i went to one of the most famous restaurants near my place with my cousins.The name of the restaurant was 'Kumarakom'..God knows what that means but i was about to discover that within a couple of hours.

A few days back, Some 21:00 Hrs
The restaurant had a great ambience both from outside and inside..But then the ambience wasn't helping me.. when you are as hungry as I was you will swear by my words.I saw a queue standing outside the dining area and I started wondering why we were given special preference..Maybe it was my uncle who is a little aged and definitely not capable of enduring the procedure.But even more surprizing was the idea of standing in a queue for the dinner..i assumed the restaurant was way too good.

A few days back, 21:05 Hrs
So i made myself comfortable on the exquisite furniture..Ready to gobble up whatever came my way..and then we happen to observe a person singing on one side of the restaurant with a superb Bose stereo sound music synthesizer backing him up and i thought this was going to be one of those near-perfect experiences which have been so rare after reaching Chennai.

21:06Hrs
A lean waiter comes to our table and hands over a menu which was like a gourmet's treat and my appetite grew into gigantic proportions.After a round of discussions we finally made the order.

21:20Hrs
Fifteen minutes was like eternity for me now..Somehow i tried crooning to the music but it was'nt my taste either. Suddenly the singer hurried himself to one of the tables attending the customers. I was confused.

21:30Hrs
I said to myself this was not happening..we could see the restaurant was already packed with some standing outside in a queue as if there were no other restaurants or maybe today was the day everyone decided to dine out. But that was not an excuse to make us wait.I wished i had opted for a domino's pizza over the phone..30 mins or free !!

21:40Hrs
The singing which was now irritating us..(How hunger changes your perception?) continued..Moreover now we were into the 'karaoke' section..with self-proclaimed singers trying their voices on our ears. So people who were not walking out the door due to the waiters turning a deaf ear to them were encouraged even more. I decided to talk to the manager.

21:50Hrs
Now the food was on our table..but it was coming in installments.We had to decide amongst ourselves who should start with the first installments :) I was happy we were not having a four coarse meal. Maybe we would have had our dessert in the morning.

22:15Hrs
We were finished with our great dining experiences. With more 'Rest' during the experience and the additional 'Rent' for the airconditioning which was mentioned seperately in the bill..The name restaurant was justified..I left the place with a whole lot of things to write down in the complaints and suggestions section but i was not in any mood to stay there one more minute..They definitely needed to increase the staff personnel there..Try guessing the meaning of 'Kumarakom' now.

Visit to the Marina beach

2007-08-24T09:54:00.000+05:30

If there is one place in chennai you want to definitely go atleast once if not more ..it would be 'marina beach'. For those who claim it to be the world's longest or second longest beach..It is not the case..According to wikepedia the marina beach is just 12kms long while Praia do cassino is the world's longest with the shoreline being 240kms..and several others in contention for being longer than marina..

The Marina Beach is a beach situated along a 12 km shoreline in the city of Chennai, India along the Bay of Bengal, part of the Indian Ocean.The beach begins near Fort St. George in the north to Besant Nagar in the south.Its famous attractions include Statues of Legends like Mahatma gandhi,Sivaji ganesan,Kannagi,Thiruvaloor & Memorials for M.G. Ramachandran,C.N. Annadurai (former Chief ministers).

Unlike other beaches of Miami or California, Marina is for those who are searching for a different experience.You won't see people in their bathing suites or ladies in bikinis here but the awesome sunrise and sunset will take your breath away. I went there some days before with my cousins and found the experience really exciting to say the least..Its no exaggeration..the proof is right above this post !!

The only downside of the visit was rediscovering our plastic culture plaguing some parts of the beach along with other wastes and pollutants. It has come to my knowledge that some talks of handing the authority regarding the cleanliness of the beach is to be given to a private firm. My thoughts on that are "Bravo!!"..There are'nt any charges on the visit to the beach for the time being..I would suggest introduction of a very nominal entry fee and seperating the food stalls and other such small time business from the main beach as that is the reason of waste disposal near the shore.

Panormic View of the beach (source:wikepedia.org)

Crowd in the evening (source:wikipedia.org)

My visit to the beach

Why there exists a positive bias towards women without much of an ado?: My 'freakonomics' post - Part-1

2007-08-17T13:39:00.001+05:30

Racial discrimination..Discrimination against caste,creed,language,ethnicity,sex, background..there are hundreds of possible discrimination plaguing our society..and so as to counter that the society again showers certain special privileges over them..The question is Who are them..?

When the 'Government of India' decided to cash on this oppurtunity of a possible vote-bank politics..thousands of students came out to protest.This was in the wake of an addition of a 27% quota for the Scheduled Castes(SC), Scheduled Tribes(ST) and Other backward classes(OBC) in higher education.Similarily reservations against minorities in several instances have led to widespread furor.
The study shows that the total number of SC,ST and OBC categorized students is very close to the General category students which makes the reservation productive for a considerably larger mass...Then why be against it?? Here comes the 'incentive theory' and how it helps overlook the positive bias towards the approximately same scenario ..with maybe a larger mass involving ..Women.
I don't know the total number or percentage of women in the whole world..but it should be close to that of men... the truth is ..It is'nt?? Reasons being female foetcide which is still prevalent in many parts of the world not barring
India..

Coming back to the theory..how can such a huge number of women get away with those special privileges which exist not only in the government sector but in private sector too..Many companies now preferring to hire women to counter-balance the skewed sex ratio..Women get reserved seats on a public transport..have seperate queues..though all this apply to countries like India,Pakistan etc where women still are not as liberated as in say U.S..But then legal laws in U.S. are also biased towards women..For instance ..the Father needs to pay for the DNA tests to claim or reject his fatherhood..Domestic abuse is another gray area..now theories are being put forth to suggest the misuse of the 'Domestic abuse' acts by the women.Still most of the times we overlook this positive bias of our society towards women..

I believe there are two reasons for that :

The first one is that it is an inherent bias and so exist in almost everyone depending on the culture he belongs to.Most of us think women are weak in all respects which is true only to the extent of man being physically strong than women in general.
The second and the most important fact which governs our behavior ..the moral incentive ..in levitt's words..All of us men have women in our lives..In a role of a mother,sister,daughter,wife etc etc..So the bias benefits us in some way..As all of us are concerned about the well-being of our nears and dears..
So this incentive of being associated in someway with the bias makes us feel indifferent towards the whole thing..

Exploring the Hidden side of some more things !!

2007-08-17T11:37:00.000+05:30

Recently I found a very interesting piece of work by two very brilliant minds - Steven.D.lewitt and Stephen.J.Dubner and as the name of their book (which is a NewyorkTimes Bestseller) 'Freakonomics'..It did really freak me out !!
The book takes you through some of the questions you would not even imagine being asked and their explanations to those in a very intriguing way..like for instance..
'The Author points out how certain distant events effect two generations after..Take the case of a sudden decrease in the crime rate in 1990's when it was supposed to scale upwards as predicted by the experts after their rigorous co-relations between different factors affecting the crime rate. The anomaly makes for a wonderful observation by this 'rogue' economist which was 'legalizing of abortions'.
In the 70's a lady whose name as per the record was Roe v. Wade won her case for legal abortions that set a brake to illegitimate births in the country. So those illegitimate children who may in all probability engage in criminal activities no longer existed in the 90's when they would have reached their peak.

I have still not completed the book but i will surely complete it as soon as possible. The reason for writing this post however is not promoting this book and it does not need any from an amateur guy like me..
What follows this post is a set of observations which i feel lie close to Levitt's theory of 'Governing of human behavior by Incentives'

PART-1: why-there-exists-a-positive-bias-towards-women..?

Chennai Traffic Woes !!

2007-08-02T11:41:00.000+05:30

One thing that most people would complain about in the morning after checking into their offices..one thing that you would not like to see while going back home..No i am not talkin about 'wives' here..for christ sake..!! TRAFFIC...

Who's not pissed about that?? come on.. I can see only a few hands and incidentally all of them work for 'road and transportation' authorities..

Of all the cities i have been..which would be what ..one two..three ..well not many :) ..i find the most chaotic place to be CHENNAI..Blame it on 'geography'...the place is.. what i can explain in other words as 'cornered'.. but the worst part is bus services..

A Typical day for u in Chennai starts like this-:

You start towards ur office..put on some deodorant..put on some more..emptied the bottle..bliv me i m not exagerrating..and start walking towards the bus stop..You see the bus approaching towards u ...which would remind you of the young and the restless hindi movie-star Dev Anand..as it will be leaning towards one side..enduring what we call as test of the time..still looking as if it can continue like this to eternity..

You feel it would stop there as it is supposed to..and you r not the only one sharing that feeling......BUT.. it seems the driver has got 'diarrhea' and is rushing towards someplace..( the reality is not as simple as it seems to be..actually the driver sees the crowd rushing towards the bus stop..does some basic arithemetics in his mind and comes to the conclusion..that there is a limit to what the poor bus can tolerate..)

ok..so u r still not on the bus..now u see another one..it depends on ur luck whether u have to walk towards it or run..somehow inspired by michael johnson..or the dope that u took with the breakfast works..u run like hell after the bus..DIE HARD 5.0 in the making..u get hold of someone's belt or bag or whatever it maybe..make it to the footboard..defined here in chennai as: " the part of the bus responsible for its inclination towards one side and catering to 20-25% of the whole population of the bus"

you get inside after a lot of struggle..and feel it was better outside..atleast u had oxygen hanging back there..Besides u are in a compromising position now..you need to ask the person standing right to you to scratch your right hand..as your left hand is busy covering the pocket of your trousers where you have kept your mobile phone , wallet etc..besides u need some space to move ur left arm towards your right..which is very unlikely..

the bus is moving at 2 Kmph..and you are looking at your watch more often than the cute gal standing in front. within half an hour or so..the bus picks up a steady speed of 20-25kmph..and u shift ur attention back towards the gal..

The bus comes to a halt ..but not where it is supposed to..(again due to the mental arithemetic of the bus driver )..and u thank god for bringing you out of the bus alive..
You get into your workplace..and u try to deviate your attention from ..not the gal u saw in the bus..But from the thought of repeating all that u've gone through...IN THE EVENING... :) meanwhile you have 7-8hrs in between to catch your breath..

In-so-many-ah!

2007-07-16T12:03:00.000+05:30

here i am again..working out my 'new and improved' ways to annoy you and along with that try to get you scratch those gray cells giving you an itch everytime you try to use those brains instead of 'browsing' your way to heaven!!

Don't we feel weird sometimes amidst a cluster of homosapiens inadvertently embracing their cellphones..

*oh yeah ..wish i had a bluetooth device (^_^)*

If u have'nt ...try listening to the chaos at your workplace with your eyes closed. Technology might have improved our efficiency but it reflects only in our earthly possessions which we so meticulously try to satisfy..and then when we have the slightest of 'the empty space' feeling...we rush to some so called spiritual guru in search of solace..even if it costs you what u have been saving so long to add to those earthly possessions i was referring to..

*So what are you trying to suggest ??..should we live our lives as an ascetic..using only primitive methods..nah!! (^_^) *

Definitely not. What i want to say is that we have been affected with the disease "consumerism"...i live not for myself but to make enough money to listen to ipods giving my children a deaf ear..to sport my SUV bought at the cost of the time i could have spent with my spouse.. searching for sleeker and smarter gadgets that can make my life easy and thus adding a few extra pounds giving me a bulge of different kind ;-) ...high definition viewing experience and a thousand other reasons to lose your sleep over!! we have made for ourselves different identities in the virtual world and find a sense of excitement coupled with a feeling that comes with power of anonymity..like draculas we change into someone else typing our way out from the built-up frustration at our workplace..where are we heading to?? I guess ..we have even isolated our real self from what we aspire to be and in no time INSOMNIA will take its toll on you too..that is because the 'conditioning of the body' will keep you awake even if you have enough time to kiss the night goodbye!

Love Hurts..especially if you are making it for the first time ;-)

2007-07-12T13:00:00.000+05:30

*/ The following work is just a work of imagination and the people or the events mentioned has nothing to do with my real life..to cut the story short..I AM PERFECTLY SANE !! /*

Ever heard someone say anything nice about their bosses..chances are that if something of that sort happens..they are either scared to an extent of wetting their pants (or skirts..or whatever people wear in the name of fashion nowadays !!..forgive me calvin klein..lolz) or the second more interesting reason is that they have a crush on their boss..(read all possible combinations). Now 'screwed by the boss' can have a totally different meaning.

One of my friends whom i would love to introduce you to but can't cause people say its nothing but a figment of my imagination :-? (ya whatever..you see things when u work with an exceeding level of caffeine in your blood and deadlines to meet up)..coming back to my figment of imagination ..he is in a similar sort of situation. has his boss 'a pretty faced yet intimidatingly intelligent chick' swooning over him (now how rare do we see such a combination? :-!) .

Naturally you are thinking as any other person of average IQ will.. that if the person i am talkin about does'nt necessarily exist ..maybe this girl is also the result of some neuro-pychotic disorder playing in my almost numb brain..well the choice is yours..i prefer the lady over my diseased brain.. i remember reading somewhere..
" Men don't think while having sex 'cause there is not enough blood to reach both the brain and the eh..you know where !! "
I am turning out to be a perfect example for that..infact in my case it goes one step ahead..i stop thinking at the sight of them (oh god i am virtually ruining all my chances with the women reading this!).

Anyways let me come back to the awesome BOSSom story..she is one of those few women I would love to spend the night with and not sleep through the day afterwards..but then she fell for my friend :-(
I could have resorted to those idiotic relationship columns claiming to improve your love life while all they do is tell what we already know and get the accolades. As you would have pretty well understood that this blog has no particular intentions of doing that either. this is my first blog and you can take this as an ice-breaker between us..what say??..