Filed under: Jharkhand and Bihar, Personal BS, Rural Services startup | Tags: Emu, Ormanjhi Zoo, Sambhar, Zoo
To celebrate the coming of new year, our team visited the local zoo. We found many strange animals there. Here are some snaps.
I don't fucking belong here.
I know what you did last summer
I am weeping coz someone called me a genetic cocktail(cow, goat, donkey, deer). "F you" Himesh Bhai for using this term in "Radio"
Paternal hormones still not kicking, and the reason why women don't trust men with babies
"Happy New Year 2010" from the UM Rural Services team
Happy New Year
Puppy speak: Have a great new year. I have been loosing weight and my mom has been ignoring me. If I survive this chilly winter of Ranchi, I will turn into a great dog.
Filed under: Jharkhand and Bihar, Mumbai, Personal BS | Tags: 100th post, happy new year, last post
This happens to be my last post for the year 2009. This also happens to be the 100th post. Time is flying and it is flying fast.
End 2008: I work in a small UK based investment bank as an equity research analyst. Only few days back I had a one-on-one discussion with my super-boss. My performance has been slipping in the last few months. I have been making stupid mistakes in the excel sheets. My boss asks me, “Is this the work you want to do for the rest of your life? Is this something which ignites your passion?” He told me to take a break, go home and think about it. My father came to receive me at the Lucknow airport. He looked happy. I asked him, “Papa, would you have come to receive me had I been fired from my job?” “Shut up!” he replied.
End 2009:
I have been in Ranchi for the last six months. During this time, I have been working for an NGO trying to setup a rural BPO near Ranchi. But, we are not limiting ourselves to the conventional BPO model. We are looking at any model which can employ youth from villages and small towns and which might also require them to work on the computer. Our first batch is ready. Their performance and learning ability has surprised me completely. We have got a few projects and it remains to be seen if we can deliver. Last six months were like a breeze, which helped me slow down and take stock of what I was doing and what I wanted to do in the future. Now that we have projects, I have to get out of my comfort zone. It is going to be tough because this time I am not working alone on the computer. I am working with lot of people and the variables are many. I am nervous.
2010 is going to be crucial, both on the personal and the professional front.
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Best wishes to all of you. May this New Year bring you closer to your heart. HAPPY NEW YEAR!
This is not a post about 3 Idiots, even though I managed to get a ticket for Friday first show. Nor is there any double meaning in the title of the post. This post is literally about “engineers who are coming”.
Ever since I came to Ranchi and bought a new cell phone, I have been troubled by bad or no signals at my house. The Reliance phone gets discharged in one hour and allows no external signal to stimulate it in any way. While my other Tata Indicom phone works only when I open my door and sit just at the entrance – half outside and half inside. The signal problems have gotten worse in the last six months.
There have been several explanations floating around amongst the folks.
- The geography of Ranchi is unique which somehow does not allow signals to reach at all places.
- A cell phone jammer has been put up at the Ranchi jail after it was found that most of the inmates were using cell phones quite frequently. The jammer is working so well that it is blocking the signals not only in the jail premise but the whole of Ranchi.
- And yes, any blame can be put on the election. The security forces and policemen are using all the bandwidth and hence signal problems.
But over the last one week things have suddenly changed. There is hope floating in the air. After all, the engineers are coming to Ranchi. That is what I have been hearing from all and sundry. Nobody has any idea as to who these engineers are or which company is bringing them to Ranchi. But everyone knows that they are coming to save the day.
I never regretted my decision to quit engineering until today. I so badly want to become a part of this elite group of engineers. It is just like the old mythical times, when some famine would torture the hapless peasants and they would pray to the almighty. Well, someone above has heard the pleas of the hapless Ranchi-ites. Rejoice my brethren, for the saviours, the engineers are coming!
Filed under: Movies, Personal BS | Tags: Christopher McCandless, Grizzly Man, Into the Wild, Sean Penn, Timothy Treadwell, Werner Herzog
There are two extremes to the human nature. One, where the mind wants to discard all the societal norms and craves to return to its primal existence where one has to physically fight for food, sex and survival. The other extreme is where the mind wants to excel in the society created by human beings and being accepted and respected by fellow human beings.
There are two movies I have seen in the last one year which talk about real people who ditched society and went to live in the wild and to be one with the nature. But the treatment of these movies is very different.
Into the Wild
Into the Wild
This Sean Penn directed movie tells the story of Christopher McCandless who gives up all his possessions to move into Alaska. This movie is a highly romanticised take on the life of the real character. Christopher is shown to be running from the memories of his tormented childhood and looking for the real meaning of life in all the places. During his journey he meets many people, who touch his life in some way. In turn, Christopher also touches their lives. When he finally decides to return, he gets caught in the landscape of Alaska and dies. The movie showed absolutely nothing negative in Christopher’s character.
This movie affected my life in a major way. I saw this movie just after quitting my previous job. This movie somehow reaffirmed my decision.
Grizzly Man
Grizzly Man
Grizzly Man is a movie directed by the master, Werner Herzog. This tells the story of Timothy Treadwell, who lives with grizzly bears for thirteen summers before being eaten by one. Herzog has put together the video footage of the bears shot by Treadwell along with interviews of friends and other related people to create a documentary-ish movie about Treadwell.
Herzog’s treatment of Treadwell’s character is much more mature. In the words of the director himself, the movie is a study of the human nature. Herzog never allows you to either love or hate the real-life character. He shows positives along with the negatives. What you get is not an idealized but a real human being.
On the one hand, Timothy Treadwell hates the human society and wants to escape from it. He finds a way to do this – to live among the grizzly bears as one of them. And on the other hand, he also wants to get a rockstar kind of persona where he can get the respect of the society he so much abhors. Herzog captures this inherent struggle beautifully.
Few days back I lost a very close friend. These movies somehow remind me of him. He liked to live on the edge. But as one of my other friends put it, “Let’s not remember him by the way he died; let’s remember him by the way he lived.”
I read about deaths in the newspaper and then I forget about them in the next few minutes. I see obituaries in the newspaper and think that only rich family can afford to do this. I have read about death probably every day of my literate life. It has never affected my sane existence in any way. After all, death happens to everyone, why take it so seriously?
But when someone close to you, someone you have grown up with and shared your dreams with dies an unnatural death, you are pulled out of your sane existence with a jolt. All small and big achievements and failures, all relationships, happiness, sadness—your whole life flashes before you.
We take life way too seriously. Sometimes we get so involved in life that we forget a simple fact – life is short. The chapter is closed when you die. And death does not wait for you to sort out your things. It happens with a snap. Time up!
I have drifted apart from so many close school and college friends. It takes only a little effort to stay connected. But, I get lost in life’s maze. And when someone close leaves, I realise how much I miss the person. But, then it is already too late.
People leave so many memories behind. Orkut still has the profiles of my deceased friends. Their profiles still look intact, only that they have decided to take a break from social networking for some time.
Just last year, we had this small party at a friend’s house. I have videos of him dancing as if with no care in the world. I look at his photos where he is posing from different angles because he wanted a good profile pic for Orkut. But now, I am not going to see him ever. I only have his fond and lively memories.
The more I think of him, the more I miss him. We could have had many more moments together.
Anyone who ever met you, will miss you.
“So, how was your day?”
“Hmmm. Usual. Nothing special. Went to office, did things I was supposed to do and now I am back home watching TV.”
When this conversation happens over and over again, I know I am in my comfort zone.
I remember the first few days of my job. They were exciting. I wondered at the plush office, the coffee-vending machine, MS Outlook, my cubicle and the conference room. I had so many things to tell my mother on phone those days. I was also scared of the job I was supposed to do and the quality metrics which would measure my efficiency. It took me few months to master the office routine and then everything became mundane. Usual and boring stuff. I could pass the whole day in the office without exercising a single brain cell. I did exactly what I was supposed to do, nothing more nothing less. I was in my comfort zone!
Initially, people enjoy their comfort zone because usually it is preceded by a period of extra effort and change. Some people get so used to it that they simply refuse to come out of it. I know one guy in my office who denied promotion because he did not want his routine to get changed nor did he want extra responsibility to interrupt his state of calmness.
But, even being in the comfort zone for long starts hurting. Being human, we start getting guilt pangs from time to time. We start comparing ourselves to our peer and feel bad when we find that we are not living up to our potential.
Although, it takes immense effort to get out of the inertia of our life, change is generally rewarding. Learning new things always requires extra efforts. We can keep trying new things by changing our way of life or we can keep leading a monotonous existence for the rest of our lives. The choice is ours. After all, we have only one life and we have to choose what we do with it.
So, after writing this blog, should I watch another episode of “The Entourage” or should I watch “Scrubs”? The choice is mine and mine alone to make 
.
Filed under: Jharkhand and Bihar, Movies | Tags: 3 Idiots, Abhijat Joshi, Dil Chahta Hai, Khosla ka Ghosla, Munnabhai, Paa, Rajkumar Hirani, Ranchi
Last Sunday after a very long time, I saw a movie at a theatre in Ranchi. The movie was Paa and it left me with a bad headache. I had to pop in a nimesulide tablet before going to sleep.
It is easy to come up with ideas. “Let’s make a movie about a Progeria patient. We can get AB Sr. to play the patient’s role. And you know what, I have another brilliant idea. AB Jr. can play AB Sr.’s dad. Wow! Imagine how new a concept this will be. Now think of a story. Ummmm. Hmmmm. Come on, hurry up, we don’t have time. Ummmm. Hmmmm. Okay let’s start the shooting.” Well, that is Paa for you. A bunch of “cool” ideas with a very weak story and screenplay. These ideas end up being gimmicks due to lack of support from the story department. And that is why I got a headache.
Take Dil Chahta Hai. Most of the scenes which established the three protagonists were original and well-thought of. That is why they connected with the audience. The film’s running time is usually more than two hours. How you fill each and every minute of this hour is the key to connecting with your audience. The idea can be the soul of the movie, but if you don’t fill the complete movie run time with well-thought out scenes, the movie ends up going nowhere. The scenes can help the story progress or help establish a character or maybe just setup the mood.
Take Khosla ka Ghosla. It had the most predictable story. But just because of the original Delhi setting, well-thought out interactions between the characters and superb character development made the movie enjoyable. A good script can pull off the most clichéd ideas. But I fear the same is not true vice-versa.
Think DevD. There is a scene where Dev takes lift from a mountain biker. He drinks the whole way and starts to puke and then the biker drops him back. Even if you delete the scene from the movie, it does not affect the plot. But that is one scene I remember, because it somehow added more colour to DevD’s edgy character.
Sometime back I had read a Rajkumar Hirani (Munnabhai director) interview. He was talking about the script-writing process of Lage Raho Munnabhai. He and his script-writer Abhijat Joshi would go out for long walks discussing a scene. They would finalize the scene only when it made them either laugh or cry. Only when the scene was finalised would they return back. And that is why we love Munnabhai. Each and every scene is carefully thought of. You can feel the writer’s efforts.
I am sure that 3 Idiots will be full of clichés. What with Aamir Khan and Madhavan playing grad students! But, I have complete faith in the team of Hirani and Abhijat Joshi to carry it off because of the strong script. Eagerly waiting for the 25th December.
Filed under: Jharkhand and Bihar, Movies | Tags: Fish Curry, Hindustani, Maggi, Namitha, South Cinema
When I was a kid I hated fish curry. Coaxing by parents went useless on me. I simply hated eating fish. Then I was sent to a boarding school where half the students and ninety percent of the teachers were Bengali. During lunch time, I saw the Bengali junta fighting over the best pieces of fish every day over and over again. I started wondering what the fuss was all about. So, I decided to give fish a try. It took me some time to start appreciating fish curry. But once I developed the taste I became one of them (the Bengalis) fighting over the best piece (which by the way was the head of the fish or mudo). The same story goes for Biryani, Maggi, Chowmein and girls 
and movies from the South. It took me sometime learning to appreciate them.
Even during the nineties, some South movies were dubbed and released in Bihar. I recall watching movies like Rangeela Raja, State Rowdy, Captain Prabhakar and Hindustani. Most of these movies were crass films meant for the masses. The dubbing was so bad that it made you laugh and cringe at the same time. Sample this song from Hindustani (Kamal Hassan’s Indian)
“ Telephone dhun mein hansane vaali
Melbourne machhali machalane vaali
digital mein sur hai taraasha
Madonna hai ya Natasha
Zaakir Hussain tabala tu hai kya
sona sona tera chamake ruup salona
sona sona cellular phone tum to ho na
Computer ko le kar Bramha ne rachaaya kya”
And most of these films would be similar to the KC Bokadia movies like “Aaj ka Arjun” and “Lal Badshah”. There would be a patriarch. The hero would generally be adopted by him. The hero would have tremendous respect for the patriarch. The patriarch’s haughty and modern daughter would fall for the hero. But the hero would have fallen for some other poor and shy girl. Then there would be a major misunderstanding and the hero would be thrown out of the patriarch’s house. Finally the hero would redeem himself and win the love and respect of the patriarch.
“Parivarik film with loads of action and masala”
There are also many progressive and really good modern cinema made in the South (especially Kerela) but only the escapist fares get dubbed in Hindi. And these are the movies I get to watch. Now, the Hindi movie channels like Set Max, Star Gold and Filmy have also taken a liking to the dubbed Chiranjeevi and Nagarjuna movies.
After hearing and reading a lot about the craze for these movies in the South, I slowly and steadily developed a taste for these films. Now I find them extremely colourful and full of life. The heroes don’t have six-packs and they don’t look like Greek Gods but that is fine with me. The villains are long-nosed out-of-work erstwhile Bollywood baddies like Mukesh Rishi, Raza Muraad, Rahul Dev and I feel nostalgic watching them. The heroines are generally plump North Indian imports. And sometimes these heroines do have six-packs. Check out this Namitha. She is a Gujrati import and one of the most googled people in India.
Moral of the blog: If you really really try, you can appreciate anything (even Himesh bhai’s movies).
“Son, what do you want to do in life?”
“I want to become an engineer from IIT and then I want to become an IAS officer.”
Even in Class IV, I was very clear about the goals in my life. It is only later that I floundered.
I got all my dreams and goals from Papa.
I remember Papa coming from office and finding me watching TV serials on DD1 and completely freaking out.
“When does this guy study? Whenever I am home, I find him glued to the TV. How will he clear any competitive exam is out of my understanding. ”
And then,
“Today a student had come for student loan at my bank. He had just cleared IIT JEE. You could tell from his face that he was an IITian. Such glow on his face. And he told me that he studied eight hours daily. And look at you.”
After I cleared JEE (luckily), my father never told me about meeting another IITian. Now, he only recalled meeting people from IIMs and people who had cleared civil services exam. It was not that he did not feel proud of me, but the charm in being an IITian had simply vanished.
The year I took admission at IITD, it got a ranking of 10 in an India Today survey. I remember my father dismissing the survey as completely bogus and with no reasonable basis whatsoever. The next year the same survey ranked IITD at number one. That India Today copy was there on the table of our guest room for more than a year. My father would hand the copy to all the relatives and uncles once they entered our house.
“Have you checked the survey this year? IITD is ranked one. Do you know even the IAS topper of this year is from IITD?”
My father immensely enjoyed the counselling he was asked to provide to sons and daughters of his colleagues who were aspiring to get into IITs.
One day he brought this guy who had a pretty decent rank in JEE to our house during my summer vacations of 2nd year. The guy and his father wanted to know which IIT was the best.
I of course, rooted for IITD. But his father had heard stories that IITD students doped, smoked and consumed alcohol in copious amounts. So, he was afraid that his seedha-saada beta might get spoilt. He was in favour of IITK. Finally, I gave up convincing them. What the heck, both IITK and his son deserved one another!
Anyway I finally graduated as an electrical engineer. But at the end of it I was not sure how much of an engineer was I. I could not still fully comprehend why the motor rotated when current flowed through its wires. And I was also mortally afraid of the electric current. The memory of an electric shock which burst open the veins of my hand still haunted me.
So, even though I was very sure about becoming an engineer when in Class IV, I had to abandon my plans of becoming one when I completed my engineering.
