I Me Myself

It is sometimes easy to escape the minds of young. This is manifested in people thinking of us as the Generation Q (Written for the Americans, yet I believe it is more true for Indians - just replace Facebook by Orkut!!) Such depressing thoughts were going on in my mind (it is depressing to be labeled such), when I again wasting time on Internet stumbled on the website of Crisil and the Young Thought Leader Competition. Excited to channel my boredom into some idea generation, I greedily browsed through the topic list. It turned out to be an absolutely fascinating list of topics. But my adrenaline rush was put on hold by two observations: the last date to enter the competition had passed by and the competition recognized as post graduates only MBA and CA students !!! Maybe others are not even qualified enough to express their thoughts. In any case (I should stop cribbing about the supremacy of the MBAs of the world), I believe it is an excellent venue provided by CRISIL to bring fresh...

Thirty years ahead of schedule, an ancient discovery resurfaces !!! As bizarre as the above sentence may sound, it is true. The ancient sea route connecting Asia and Europe directly across the Arctic could very soon be open for ship navigation. The ice has melted (predicted to happen thirty years later) which would allow the ships to transport goods faster and cheaper between the two continents. ( The article ). As I read through the article, first thought in my mind was: Oh shit !! It was probably a hangover of watching "An inconvenient truth" multiple times. In my brain, the whole chunk of ice at the arctic circle was the "lifeline" of the world. And after the shocking news, I thought the article would immediately cry about the impact on the environment and some analysis over how our current thinking on the pace of global warming could change due to this. The article subsequently mentions the above, but the first half (and interesting half) of the article tells...

Why bother? I am really finding it hard to present a convincing case here to do so (btw, I hope you understand the acronym MP - Member of Parliament, in case you forgot that too). Bombings in Hyderabad happened. Everyone seemed to respond. Police, CM, PM blah blah.. Did you hear of the name of the MP from the constituency? No, yes, maybe, whatever !!! Probably he/she would have "responded" too, but that name is hard to register/recognize. Now, that my brain has started to work after a few sips of coke, here are a few reasons: Impress your friends over coffee that you actually know the trivia about the person (It is hard to get to the topic of politics over coffee, you would have to make an effort). Impress YOURSELF the next time you hear/read the name and recognize it (You would have to go deep into the political section of the news to achieve this). Next time you are stuck in a traffic jam during a motorcade and you come to know that it is your local MP, you know exactly th...

Read my VisualDNA ™ Get your own VisualDNA™

"If you want to know what Indian are thinking or craving for, see the box office hits of Bollywood ". - Unknown (aka me) I have been for sometime looking for a "Guru" for myself. A person who can direct the energy I think have to whatever best use I can put it to. I need some beads of advice for me to "succeed" in life. My search for the perfect one still continues. For now however, Bollywood is the best substitute I have got in face of inexperience of those who I believe in and my distrust of those who think they can advise me. Rang de's belief in action, Guru's belief in thinking big and having the heart for it. They send out the message strong and clear. They have a profit motive but so do the consultants who apparently bring huge efficiency gains for businesses. They manipulate my thoughts and my feelings, but also give a hope that I might succeed despite all odds. They try to make a required rebel out of me as I have been too entrenched t...

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Context : This piece can be best understood, in my opinion, by understanding the context. Here, "I" is India and you is "Indian citizen". India is trying to explain herself to the citizen, in view of the accusation that it is not moving in the "right" direction. I may have done a bad job, but thought was worth an attempt. Thanks for bearing with me. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I was walking, crossing streets and avenues. Met known faces with greetings, as I entered my venue. I was running, perspiring to complete a round. As I gave up hope of finishing, I realized it was already my second. I was waiting, my heart pounding for the results. Fear and hope my only companions, in those anxious moments. Things changed for better or worse time will tell. But success or failure, realize that...

Height of weakness – With all the education, power and wealth, you cannot predict with certainty the next moment. Best way to overcome this weakness – Share and laugh this with someone!!! Hahaha … you simply like some moments. All tired up, I entered my room on a Friday night to concentrate on my submissions but my brain just didn’t work. It just failed. So, I took the best medicine I know for such situations – watch a good hindi movie. I searched for a good one and luckily found an unseen interesting movie “ Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi (2003) ” (How can I miss this one?). It just took me to different plane of thoughts. With them overloaded in my brain, I walked down to exhale some good air. Now I have a good friend who I normally meet downstairs. Our security guard. My little chit-chat partner during my frequent trips downstairs. The lady laughs a lot and it is sometimes weird. But I really like her jovial nature. She exhales too and many a times accompanies me. Usually we talk...

26.2 !!! This figure does not ring bells in most ears. Yet, for long distance runners this number in miles is pride. Whether it is amateurs aspiring to complete their first one or professionals fighting over the last minute, marathon events are occasions when dreams become reality. And one such event is The ING New York City Marathon. Here today, around 38 thousand people ran to meet their aspiration. In my opinion, it was good day to run - no rain, no wind and good temperature. I was lucky enough to volunteer at the Medal distribution counter. Although I and my friend, as usual late, were at the right time to perform our duties. As we got ready, we received the first of the disabled category marathoners. They were the ones who stole my heart away. I could not just stop my incessant cheering at their achievement despite whatever disability. Around 12 to 12:30 PM, there was a loud uproar in the crowd. Our winners were arriving. Jelena Prokopcuka (2:25:05) repeated her performance at NYC...

chakde chakde chakde chakde chakde phatte ... I am not kidding. And I should thank Tushar for encouraging me to watch " Khosla Ka Ghosla ". Movie was good but the song " Chakde Phatte " just cleared my head on how to approach life (at least for tonight). You might still be thinking that I am joking. Let me present you some lines from the song: "...yeh duniya oot patanga kite hath te kite tangaa te kukdi dindi baanga..." This just portrays the society in which we live. World is just chaos. With all the modeling in economics and politics, you can never explain whats going on. Next, everybody is trying to achieve something or other which may make no sense most of the time. But even in this incomprehensible mess, you see some pattern (kukdi dindi banga ... cock crows) "... taa ate utte bethha bandar samjhe apnoo sikandar..." These are the best lines. They show the kind of people in this world (obviously seen from your perspective). I would say that ...

A poor man has no food to eat. He has no choice but to eat what he can get hands at. And he is satisfied and happy and thanks god that he got what he got. A person with money walks through the doors of a superstore. If he is new to this place, he just gets bogged down with the amount of choices he has in front of him. Even the most decisive of persons gets tempted to deviate from his plan till the time he has habituated himself into walking through the same alleys which house his necessities. Habituation and contentment makes a person with resources and/or endowments, experienced and rational. “Having focus” is the euphemism for habituation and contentment. It is one of those sought after qualities which apparently makes people successful and have more and/or control more resources. Externalities may also change the resource levels. But this should disturb the equilibrium for which the person is trained for. Here comes the role of intelligence. A person who can mould himself with the ...

Somebody said "Learn to segregate ideas". This is my attempt to keep my thoughts and analysis of public policies different. Checkout my new blog . I am not sure how it would shape up but I want it to be a response to my belief that people should know and participate more in policy discourse. Whether you like it or hate it, it would affect you. So, participate in it.

“…What is democracy? What is democracy? It got something to do with young men killing each other …” One , Metallica Until recently, I believed that there was an absolute definition of this term – Democracy is where the government is chosen from the people, for the people and by the people. But people seem to apply the above suiting their specific needs. People of Uganda feel that they need democracy to form political organizations. Bahrainians believe that they do not have democracy as it would have allowed them to question the ministers (appointed by the king) on their actions. But a common thread runs across all the above – Democracy is a well-defined process which is at a different level of implementation in different countries. The above thoughts on democracy led me to another question – At what level of democratization process is India at? And I committed a mistake by linking it with Reservation. Consider the following hypothetical scenario. A country is divided into majority and...

Not long ago, I was asking everybody (as I usually do) a question - What is excellence? And if there exists anything like it, how do you measure it? And believe me, I never expected so much variance in the answer - ranging from that it’s a crap concept to fool people to its comparison with GOD (excellence personified). I guess I was not very keen at a concrete answer. It was a deeper fight which manifests itself in different forms time and again - What should I do in life? (I know it’s a rather heavy question to ask at this tender age ;), but can't help it). Should I compete for the material wealth (resources, as my friend puts it) or seek spirituality? Inspire people? Become a lonesome standing on a hill observing the valley of world? Or just be another "person"? (Btw, they are all very interesting things to do). If I assume free will and control, all the above would lie on the same indifference curve for me. But when I relax this constraint, things fall apart because I ...

I oppose reservation. But as always, I am not doing anything about it. Why? Simple reason - Apathy. I have got what I needed in terms of education from this country and the education of my 'children' is a long way to go. The dynamics might change (hopefully) and hence, I am not concerned right now. Another reason is Economics (I love Eco). Law of economics says that if there are economic profits in any area, more people would try to enter the area till the profits become zero. I am busy minting money (in the same country) and trying to enjoy the development (whatever) the politicians and diplomats are trying to achieve without any costs!!! There is ample scope of competitors and there are already a lot who have joined the bandwagon. What are you waiting for? Did I say costs? What can be possibly the cost of living in a country you were born in? I pay tax (man its cut at source, otherwise it would have been more profit) ... thats it!!! Rest the govt should take care ... if I am ...

It was past midnight when after finishing shit loads of paperwork, I went for a quick game of pool. As the balls started to roll, my colleague unwittingly asked a trite question "Do you always stay late in office?". I was in no mood to spare and pat came my reply "I never do anything always". He was taken aback by the reply and had no words to say. But I was quite amused by my reply. Do I really ever do anything always? I tried hard to find the answer, but no luck. No single emotion, ambition or work could hold my attention for long to qaulify as 'always'. I had no permanent habit, no everlasting faith. Either I am a loser or a wanderer (do I qualify as philosopher?). But what about you? Its a simple exercise. Try to find 'always' in any aspect of your life. And if you find one (you are lucky), answer another simple question - Does this 'always' in your life because you seriously want it, do not want it or just do it (like wearing nike)? And ...

Browsing through the newspaper, I found an interesting article stating that folks in Japan and Korea believe that there exists a high correlation between blood group and human qualities. For example, people of O type are leaders, A type are strict disciplinarians. First question which stuck me (it maybe due to my limited knowledge in biology) – If there are only four blood groups as I know, is it really possible? But this question was not the culprit. What irritated and frustrated me was the fact that even after reading the fine prints, I couldn’t find the qualities associated with AB type (btw, I hope now you know my blood group). But after this storm, the calm left a BIG question mark. Why was even I searching for it? And though I admit I am a confused person in the world of self-confessed know-alls, never did a single thought created 2 opposite trains of thought. First Train: Do you believe you are unique? I always take pride when people call me different. And yet, here I was searc...

Prologue Thanks to the allegations, promises and ditching on my “idea” trips, I resolved to make this one happen at any cost. The final companions met on December 28 at Delhi – Gult, re-christened Mota Gult, the walking encyclopedia about the people and events of RK Hall, the energetic bulla (yes, this is the true bulla) satvik and me (no adjectives attached, you know me). The mission of this trip was simple (yet so elusive) – to “chill” out. The only constraint we imposed (as always) – be on shoe string budget. The mistake we made was to make gult, the in charge, who had no idea about the string and the shoe became quiet loose. The asset we had – KODAK EASYSHARE DX 7590 – Digital SLR Cam.

Day1: Jim Corbett Park Ranikhet Exp (with pathetic sleeper class coaches) reached Ramnagar at around 6 in the morning. The expensive resort booked had exotic setting but was overpriced. As tariffs included meals, we were inspired to gobble up everything possible. By the end of the day, we ourselves were amazed on our capacity to consume. The 8 km drive to the Corbett Park was the coolest event of the day. The open Gypsy with the cool breeze was beating the merc scene of Goa trip in “Dil Chahta Hai”. I went a little far by imagining myself as a warlord who was visiting his territory. This park is known for tigers. But to spot one out of 140 counted dudes is real hard. The striking feature was the expanse and the undisturbed natural habitat. Spread across 1822 sq. km, it is a world away from bustling sounds of human settlement – it was quiet filled with sweet humming of n species of birds. Besides appreciating this serenity, we were trying to improve our “checking out” skills (please ref...

Day2: Reached Rishikesh Unfaz ed by the warnings, we started off to our next destination – Rishikesh. After 6 hours of bus journey (good govt bus), we were in the religious and yogic city. But for us, it was to serve as the base camp before we hit the mountains. The hotel rooms were surprisingly cheap and neat – so it was easy to pick one at the “quietest” area in town, Lakshman Jhula. The stroll at the hanging Lakshman Jhula (it really vibrated as we walked) in the evening culminated at the German Snacks Bar beside the Jhula. This small setup was filled w ith “only” foreigners mingling freely and discussing their classes of yoga. The deadly combination of interesting tea flavors (remembered “Finjaan”) with an impressive book (Ramayana by banker – there is something religious in the air here) held me there for over 2 hours. This gave good opportunity to bulla and gult to befriend our table neighbors from Holland. While gult got busy in getting his portrait made, satvik was engaged in a...

Day 3: White Water Rafting We all we re first timers to any water sports adventure and naturally were quite excited about what lay ahead of us that day. After a short trip in bare minimum clothes, we were at the starting beach. It was a sunny day and our spirits high. The adrenaline pumped in even higher as we saw some rafts leaving. As we embarked the raft, our guide, a local boy, briefed us on what were supposed to do. The closest analogy is a military commander giving instructions to his commandos on a secret mission. Another one, personally close to my heart, is the situation when Alexander surrendered himself to the knowledge of a local shepherd boy to guide him and his army through an unknown terrain. We were a few meters in the water when our “captain” said it was the time to go for a swim. I was the only one who knew ABC of swimming (though we were wearing live saving jackets and there was no need to know swimming). I touched the water and within a split second was in the water...