Mom I miss you !

While I was looking for some motivation to get back to blogging I never thought that your absence will become a reason for me. I miss my companion and my guide. Every day I desire for that phone call which used to come at no fixed time. Surprisingly, that call never asked anything for itself, instead, it was only to inquire whether I had eaten or not. Mother is God's greatest creation. Through her, He, stays in our life and gives us enormous love and strength. 

Mom, the way you left us has created a void in our life which can never be filled. All of us remember each and everything that you have gone through to help me in my life. Because of you, buying a Pilot pen is still special for me. You were the reason for our happiness, personally I don't think I would experience that kind of affection ever in my life. Material things might bring comfort in life but in those things we shall always miss you. Somedays, I have tears in eyes and today is just another day when I am missing you . I can feel your presence all around me. We feel like you are watching me and will always be there for us whenever we need you. You have removed fear from my heart. The manner in which you gave up in my car is not letting me forget anything. It was scary. I wonder from where did you get strength to fight with a disease which never allowed you to breathe easily. I wish I could borrow some comfort for you from the almighty. Sadly you never had a comfortable life. When I look back I see only sacrifice. You are very popular among your siblings. Everyone loves you and you had special place in everyone's heart.

I wish during my busy days I could take an off to go out with you. To listen you and understand your feelings.

Few best moments of my life will remain those in which you smiled and felt good.  I wish to get one last chance to express my feelings to you and say that how much I love you.  Mom I miss you  !

Isnt it better to be materialistic?

Recently read an interesting conversation between two intellectuals. One of them was positive about being cynical. It invigorated my beliefs and along with my recent happenings have given me a wake up call. Generally prejudices pursue when mind experiences an unacceptable situation but they say wisdom lies in pursuit of high or noble principles. Mind has a compelled me to summarize experiences with certain rules and it has come to a conclusion that love is sacrifice until unless it is materialistic.A living being is vulnerable. From medical, physical to mental there are multiple reasons due to which one may disappear from your life and then a test comes. Pain is harder when there is a guilt factor and mind strives hardest to conquer.

Have heard spiritual gurus speaking of love but hardly they tell what is the cure in absence of it ? I say it is all about money. You may term it cynical, but its good to speak truth. And it does not have to be entirely materialistic as it can be a love towards your work, music and art.

Like they say that story of a man is a story of the mankind. Similarly my experiences and prejudices could match with a few of you. Let us have a big fight here !

What a Man !!!

Despairingly religions in India work in a rather disjunctive way.Transposition of power here takes place when our religious sentiments are fomented. Although Indian movies are built upon common theme but because of abundant languages still they fail in assembling the mass together .If we go by numbers then it is futile to add any more names into the never ending list of supreme powers we worship.Say thanks to FDI coming that now we have something in common.IPL is what we can boast upon, keeping the negatives behind. A religion can not be worshipped without a supremo and thus we have Tendulkar.Trust me this God has the potential to plunge the popularity of all the other mystical Gods we adore.He is outstanding and yet humble. He is merciless on the opponents and yet friendly off the field. Adaptability is His key for success, critics have never spared taking a dig on His approaches towards the game but He justified His tactics through persistent performances and by keeping cool. Accumulation of 327 runs in the IPL-3, with an impractical average of over 109 compels me to bow my head infront of this great person. His style has gained Him more followers not just admirers. Former British Prime minister was mesmerised by Him and proposed that he should be venerated as " Sir Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar". What a man .....

Come dress yourself in love, let the journey begin !

Journey has been too less for me to preach, all I do is share my views and I am bound to be erroneous, but as you may also feel after reading that it is the experience that invigorates us and not the end result. Creativity halted for many days, outside the campus life is full of lousy people, mum and dad are away as always.Tough people have become an elemental part of life...manager ka attyachar!! has become periodic. I keep wondering sometimes that was it really necessary for me to go through all the theories in the college or else I should have tread a different path for myself?...many of us might be having similar questions I believe. But in the end....who cares when two ear plugs are playing the favorite song. Nature is smart enough to maintain relativity a problem for all of us, no matter how much we try, we end up beneath some one. Ambanis losing to Ambanis , Google though being a gaint player in the world of internet facing intense competion by Bing.com, are few examples to support the view. Some where I heard that there should be a healthy competion ..blah! blah ! that is all crap , But if we remain cynical over the competition how would we reach to salvation? new mantra is enjoy the journey and if you are enjoying it no matter what you do whether it is an intensified rugby match or an altercation in your office over a business strategy, you will relish every moment of the experience. The soul of a journey is liberty, perfect liberty, to think, feel, do just as one pleases. Focus on the journey, not the destination.Joy is found not in finishing an activity but in doing it. Given our confined bodily functions we can not foretell what is bound to happen but all we can do is to enjoy our work with friends and hard work, result is just a by product.

I do not want to be a student of lickonomics

Its been long since I wrote anything, credit goes to my job in NCR. I have been a traveler ever since I came out of my home town and hence got many opportunities to meet different people across states. Travel brings vigor to mind and made me realize that we are the most diverse culture. However there are some platforms on which we all Indians are same. It is not only cricket when we show these common traits but also in the corporate world, Soft-Soaping is one of them.It may take you to places cos it still works in winning Indian hearts, inside we all like unduly appreciation.Those who know the art to please others are some time given more preference over the others even if their performance is mediocre.I am not saying that flattery is bad and should be banned but people should not end up becoming a victim of it, sadly it does happen.We all posses special qualities to sustain in this competitive world but I do not think adulation helps after a level and it is only your hard work and talent which helps you in sprouting. As a manager I have opted for other two options rather than choosing the easiest one.

Ajab Bollywood ki Gajab Movies...

Nobody in 60s or even in 80s ever thought that one day our movies will promote voyeurism, we are good at copying, right from stories to tunes, we copy almost everything except substance.Watching meaningful movies gives direction to life and for that that one has to give away jingoism for Hindi movies, they just do not make any sense.Biggest commercial star of Bollywood believes only in dancing and making movies with heroines less than half of his age, given the number of movies we make every year, our directors have failed in bagging international awards.We are in a fudging business of entertainment where story writers say that they are catering to the demand of mass but I do not buy this argument. Teenagers,college mass and even a person with average intellect now a days can name you tonnes of meaningful Hollywood movies, some of them have done even better business in India than their contemporary Hindi movies, we surely do possess a strong appetite for movies. But all we boneheaded people get to see mostly main stream movies in bulk with same old story, filled with item songs ,violence and non-sense comedy.Unlike Hollywood we have failed to integrate the offbeat cinema with commercialism, in here good looks are so important that it may let you escape from the basics, actresses are even worse, very few of them stood for a decade in the industry.And those who tried, industry dint let them last long since it needs fresh skin to sell its filthy pan-cakes.Actors of Hollywood like Leonardo dicaprio, Heath ledger and many others have paved their path by not just casting upon their looks but also by being selective of the scripts and that is why their movies are watched across the globe.Talent and resources are plenty here but so is lack of will, among the top notch stakeholders of this industry only few really know the power of cinema.As long as commercialism hounds over art and creativity we shall not be able to craft up stories like Slumdog Millionaire, which even though was a domestic story but fell in the bag of a foreign Director who with the help of locals went on to win the Oscars.Skeptics will give number of reasons that we are better in culture and blah..blah blah ! ..but one thing is sure, movie makers must aspire big to create a place for Indian movies in the world because ironically speaking we do not stand anywhere.

Education is the only plausible way ...

In India raising voice on social issues is not an individual's right because it is bread and butter of chauvinists.We are a huge country so it is difficult for us to earn through common means therefore some of us have resorted to chauvinism and made it a business here, segments and lines are drawn where intellect has no place and emotions are God.Chauvinists need no management degree to know the importance of branding and therefore celebrities are constraint not to speak their minds. Intellectuals are in shackles or perhaps are too busy in taking orders from illiterates, such ambience makes it quite obvious that inclusive growth will remain a dream for our beloved Prime Minister.Any proper mix of monetary and fiscal policy will remain ineffective until we learn to resolve domestic issues through concerted efforts,where regionalism must not be given any hope. Naxalist and Maoist have become the greatest threat to sovereignty of our country, these are unhappy people, morning they work as farmers and late night get busy in expressing their anger by derailing trains.Such actions get relentless political thrust but now It is time to take lessons from the past.During 1930s, in Texas, Negroes were lynched and denied basic human rights, some wise men took inspiration from Gandhi to alleviate the deep-rooted hatredness for colored people through civil disobedience. In Wiley college,Texas, preachers taught their students to respond through words in various inter college debates.A belief got instilled in them that education is the only plausible way out and their weapons should be words.Negroes have received their greatest reward, Mr. Barack Obama.Irrespective of recession we shall never be able to catch up with west, as long as education is not our first preference we will continue chasing them with a tail between our legs.

It is entirely within my discretion !!

Corporate life is full of challenges, adaptation is the key.Constant learning helps, and criticism is the best feedback.My elders advised me that there are three kinda people for you in this world.One who are helpful and interested in seeing you on a progressive path, they will not give you rosy feedback but a one which will keep you on toes, never ever loose them.Second category people will be indifferent to you but third one will be most important and your attitude towards them will decide a lot about you. These type of people are critics, everybody hates them, from artists to writers,director to actor and from individuals to big organizations,they are abhorred universally but I think they play a big role.Sometimes when we are not aware of loopholes they instigate our feelings with their words and actions and definitely pull our attention toward blunders.Our response projects our wisdom, in such scenarios I believe one should behave like a Judge. Similar to a judge one has all the powers to decide whether criticism is constructive or destructive, though its not as easy as it looks, sometimes we get to hear words which could be detrimental for us and may hamper our cognitive ability.Hence we need to develop a shield of protection from such assessments. The most recent one came from "Mike Atherton" who said that-"Claiming that Sachin is the greatest ever is demeaning to others,who stood at the crease with great courage during the times of body line bowling,knowing that next ball could be their last".I urge Mr Atherton to ask those "brave souls" to come to India and play in front of deafening crowd, its mystery to find how much a man can do to become the greatest ever.We get learnings from such incidents that its impossible to keep everyone happy but yes, to win most of the hearts you need hard work and humility.If Sachin Tendulkar had started worrying about such people then he would not have made tonnes of records and probably would not have come this far.Judgement lies within our brain, it is our choices that makes us different from others and not just the ability.

How to save the spark?

I am a fan of Chetan Bhagat's simplicity.But I also believe that it can not be achieved overnight, there has to be an incremental development.It is possible that his formidable vocabulary had got him 9 rejections from publishers, which he always mentions and may be thereafter he realised the power of simplicity. As a blog-writer I too believe that being simple is being intelligent but then I am not targeting the mass yet.Still I like people jotting down their suggestions on my blog and I welcome you all. Today what shimmered me is the excerpts of a speech given by Chetan Bhagat at Symbiosis, Pune.He spoke about the inner spark which we all have and he compared it with flame which sustains with the help of fuel.He was right when he said that with growing age the biggest challenge comes in front of us is, how to keep that spark alive ?We see a small baby and say that he/she is such a bright child and the same baby looses his/her spark with age.Shahid kapoor of Jab we Met had everything but was not able to keep that inner spark alive and when he met someone who was full of energy,he realized that life is not to be taken seriously but work should be. Isolation ,frustration,disappointments,unfairness are the four thunderstorms which he mentioned in his speech and according to him the spark needs to be saved from them.I agree with him. I also believe that to forget something bad you need a change in your mind rest all is going to be same, earth will still take 24 hours to spin on its axis and day will still be followed by night.All we have to do is to create a pseudo world wherein you can keep nurturing the spark.Music helps a lot.Music instigates feelings faster than anything else and thats why we get to listen good music in restaurants and hotels, special events are always supported by good music, without it one can imagine how inanimate a marriage may look like.You take example of Punjabi people they are the most cheerful people in this country without any doubt ! and the reason is that they enjoy life with music and dance to the fullest.One can say that it may act as a counter drug for their impulsive short-tempered behavior but none can deny from the fact that next to God is music and hence we must all love it. Cherish it because it is the only friend which will stay till the end, nothing else is everlasting.Two ear plugs into your ears and you wont even get affected by a twin tower crashing over your head, so preserve your youthfulness by nurturing the spark.

Relentless pursuit of Innovation @ GooGle

It is jabbering if you attempt to be verbose without substance. A jargon is waste of time, I agree,but my pursuit has been to make my articles interesting, I am not jaded due to criticisms but instead I like being under scanner which brings best out of me.I believe in innovation and hence I am inspired by Google ever since I started using its services, perhaps it was never done before which we did successfully in XLRI. Larry Page and Sergey Brin set up a concept of relationships between the websites to produce better results of searches on internet.Google is an amazing place to work, almost every professional on this planet would aspire to be a part of such talented company.The extent of their innovation can be judged with the way they have revolutionized the entire online industry. Never before in the history end user was given free products and services, most of the Google products are free for us and they generate revenue through online advertisements.Now It must be puzzling to most of us that whether they are a marketing company or a technology company? Google's funda is simple they promote innovation and for that they do not hesitate to acquire good companies. Jot-spot, Double-Click,You-tube and Grand-central are some of the acquisitions which helped Google to increase its market share, they work on incremental innovation as well as on radical innovation. Incremental is meant for sustainability of business and radical treads new paths.Denying back-rub technology and coming up with new concept was a radical move from GooGle and later to sustain in the business complimentary products became imperative which helped Google in creating brand awareness.Recently their attempt is to bid for 3G auction which is scheduled in January in India. They are smart to understand that mobile users are far greater than internet users in India and now with 3G it is expected to rise even more hence it makes sense to give it a try.Google's philosophy is to collect information related to user, about his searches on internet and then based upon his likes Google presents relevant advertisements.Later based on number of clicks and number of views client pays to Google, this business model is named as "Bait and Hook".Brainstorming and university like culture adds up to its strength, mannier products of Google have come from the 10 % time alloted for the unrelated projects when as an employee you are free to extend your limits and stretch beyond any possible imagination.They say that there is only one path to heaven and on earth we call it love, who knows it could be Google later.Keep Googling :)

Humor is the ultimate medicine- A panacea

I am privileged and honored to be one among the jokers of my college.I still remember the night when we disturbed our warden in his deep-slumber, that guy was in so much of relief when we left college.Humor is panacea and I am raising this issue to stress upon its importance.Sedentary corporate lifestyle takes a toll on our health, under such ambiance cracking up jokes is a stress -buster exercise.Humor also helps in forming teams. Laughter is the most effective short-cut between the souls. We have been taught that services can not be given until we get customer participation hence we need an audience and a prey.Sometimes it may attract people's outrage so you have to be careful to choose those who can let go and do not hold blind grudges to whoop your ass in future.In college it becomes easier to catch a prey and I suggest that instead of getting into Saas-Bahu kinda discussion take some one on a laughter trip.It does not mean that you have to humiliate that person, instead the symposium should be seductive enough for him also to join the party. I have been fortunate to have many friends with good sense of humor here at XLRI and I owe my creativity to him/her. To me laughing has been strength it helps in recovering from setbacks.I always believed that laughing upon oneself is the most difficult job because it reveals that one has grit and determination to offset the effects of blunders.

Shortcut to sharper brain....

Obviously it requires tremendous amount of absorption to perform this nimble activity. You have to be fast in your response to be a juggler. Recently I found in one of the articles of The Hindu and it was about a research done on human brain. Their purpose was to challenge a common notion according to which once reached adulthood our brain starts degenerating. Result showed that it is possible to develop a sharper and well coordinated brain by juggling. Scientists at Oxford university were trying to find out if changes in white matter of brain could be seen on learning new skills and task.Non jugglers were taught to juggle for a duration of six weeks and change was noticed in their white matter of brain. White matter of brain is a bundle of nerve fibers that connect different parts of the brain- as a result of learning an entirely new skill. No wonder why they stress upon doing yoga since it is also full of different poses and doing continuously is sure to help our brain. Albert einstein said - This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosphy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness. Human brain is enigmatic.

Batting at will, into the zone.....

Cricket lovers and some green-eyed critics from west have often tried to put Lara before Tendulkar. They say that Lara has been more sublime.Somewhat I am also agree with them. But If one believes in greatness then I dont think that there can be a better person than Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar.He can be used as a podium to judge greatness, before him, only Sir Garfield Sobers has played cricket for twenty years. Harsha Bhogle was right when he said that the one factor which justifies his greatness is his longevity in game.People can talk of numbers and can propose numerous lame excuses to downsize his stature but his persistence in the game over shadows all of them.We often crib about the absence of solitude for our low performances. Tendulkar plays in a deafening environment. With bulging aspiration of more than one-billion people, he enters in the colosseum like "Maximus Decimus Meridius" to win the battle with his concentration.His opponents often say that he quarantines himself into a zone where he could think only of the ball.Recently in Mumbai when India played against England in a test match, he confessed that he was so lost in the game that its only when opponents came to shake his hand he realised that India has won. Little wear and tear but his body is still holding up. And since I am insatiable ...Yeh Dil Mange more !!..Bravo !!

Yes Smoking !!

Some are bound to disagree. I pity on those days of soberity when I abhorred smokers but now I confess that I was living within a bounded rationality. Till some time I was untouched by seduction and I always believed upon my inner restraint to stay away from a hedonistic life style. But then somethings are bound to happen. Suddenly I have started respecting the sentiments of the composers of B.C Sutta. Its all in mind. There are so many things in life which thrills but kills, e.g Bunjee Jumping , Sky diving and other adventurous sports.They all have some element of risk involved. Protesters say one year of smoking reduces 10 years of life but why dont we see the other side of the coin? It helps us in cutting down on the amount of pain we go through in those 10 years. World is changing fast, we must not have any expectations from our children that they will keep us safe in our end days so why dont we cut down on the days of agony and forget everything and smoke. Look at the film stars like SRK, they do their work and smoke, forgetting all the ill effects .I think I am absolved from the sins of condemning smoking. Hopefully I will have some more points in support after a while. I dont think smoking kills. It just trims the number of days from our life and we die anyway. :)

Take your hand off the hot stove !!

Holding on to grudges is very enticing for us. If you do not beleive me then look at the amount of business Balaji-Telefilms has done over the past decade. They were very smart in knowing the caliber of grudges in our indian society. I may not be a right person to be vocal on this topic but that definetely doesn takes away my right to utter some words. Sincerely speaking I am against the idea of holding on to grudges.If we look into the genetics then it is quite obvious that we will have differences. They incite us to react out of turn.Hence altercation on resolution is natural but holding onto grudges is not wise.Its like some one has burnt you by putting your hand onto some hot stove and you keep holding it foolishly and hurting yourself in self-agony.It is time to take your hand off the hot stove.Life is beautiful for those who escape from past and look for future.How can we let slip from the memory that on average we have only 2500 weekends left, so would you like to spend them in grievances ? or you want to plan a visit to las vegas..coz I have decided not to die without that trip for sure ;)

Spice up your life !!!

Infatuation towards my blog has made me a voracious reader.Steadfast response to views also adds up to my desire of putting better topics.In that noble pursuit I found a new subject for brainstorming. It always intrigues me when I see some people living a monotonous life,doing wateva system asks them to do.They live an uni-dimensional life even when they possess the same power as others who often deny and challenge the rules.Living a monotonous life and ending up being perfect in one aspect while neglecting all others completely, does not makes sense to me.It might be a debatable topic, being multi-dimensional Vs Uni-dimensional.But I beleive in spicing up the life, an idea which is substantiated by my firm faith in processing power of our brain.It is time to go over the board, an attempt to come out of our coziness is no harm.Plenty of things are available for inception.They can be clubbed together as re-creational activities.Reading can tang up your brain, trekking may help u in slicing out some weight, swimming may shape up your body.Adding spices and masalas to life is like managing your portfolio of stocks, here too, more is the diversity more is the promise of returns.

Importance of contemplation ...

Life is a cacophony for those who indulge into it too much.Night we go to sleep to get away from the noises but morning prepares us for the same tumultous life. Materialism has taken over our mind, every day we strive hard for the money, neglecting the importance of peace.Mostest part of life we spend in ameliorating the effect of those small mistakes. What if we can take off from our roster and spend some time in contemplation? I believe through cogitation we can avoid blunders.Our mind, has 200 billion neurons and lion's share of them remain idle.Adoption of meditation and contemplation can be a booster and may help us in keeping the inner spark alive for a longer period of time. Well, I have taken that much needed break to think about lot of things and I feel sorry for those who are still battling out there on the campus ;)

Teacher's Day

Due to grace of media, now a days we keep hearing only about the atrocious ways teachers have adopted in stuffing our brain.We cannot avoid thinking that they go violent in their punitive measures. May be it is the hangover of the movie " Taare Zameen Pe".But how can we forget that in the same movie it was one teacher who helped a dyslexic child in making a boarding school, a home away from home.Some how we here at XL remembered that thought.5 th September is a day when we get an opportunity to respect those who respect us everyday.As we know, there is no venture which has a smooth sailing, so we had hiccups. Sigorta team had taken up the responsibility to make this event a success. We really dint know the severity of recession in this country until we faced the credit crunch. I wonder if we think twice before spending the same hard earned money on talking hours, on phone with gal frnd, vich may not thrill as much as smoking but definitely kills faster.Secretary of Sigorta did not unbuckle under the pressure and so did the entire team.We showed up that in a team when everybody pulls up we can expect a miracle. Professor Narasimhan of Marketing enjoyed like a baby,we got to see his different face and learnt one thing that your soft corners are admired only if you are excellent in your profession.Other faculties also showed up and we had a blast in the end.Joe pass, the famous guitarist said it very appropriately that "if you hit a wrong note, then make it right by playing what you play afterwards" . We played the right music and every body freaked out on the podium.I am signing off for a short holiday. Godspeed :)

Forest Gump

Cricket is what I love most. Not only it keeps me dynamic but also teaches us a few lessons about life. We dont need to seek inspiration from anywhere else if we follow a sport. It bemuses me most that what is that one thing which keeps these players moving so strong even after earning tonnes of Dollars? what is that pursuit for ? I was mesmerized by the comments of punter after they lost ashes he said "With loss I am more determined than ever to be a better player and a leader than I am now".Decimated and annihilated ponting who is under fire from all corners, british and australian media is going psychotic against the performance, yet he possess the courage to come back.Even after achieveing so much in his professional life lad's childish hunger is not dead yet.Is n't shameful to say that it is a pursuit of wealth? It is doubtlessly the courage to take the ownership of failures and determination to overpass the hassles which makes a leader.These two aspects are differentiating attributes because handful of us can actually do that and may be that is the reason we have so less leaders but hundreds of followers.Moving ahead in life is very important , its like running on the treadmill, you can slow down and adjust the speed but you dare not stand still and if you do that , you will fall. Try being a forest gump it makes you both healthy and wealthy.

T20 match@ XLRI

It was a day in common. In London at Oval, England was crushing Australia comprehensively to win ashes but we were at some other song.It was an intense fight on XLRI cricket ground and continued to be heart throbbing until the first ball of the last over.We played a cricket match with the Defence Batch. The exuberance and post match-celebration was sky touching.It all started with our mediocre start at the beginning.Wickets were falling like the stock prices and it was painstaking to watch them joining us in the pavillion one by one.But as we know that the incarnation is true,not of christ exclusively, but of man universally, and God everlastingly, there came a pair which stood under the thunderstorm and stabilised our innings. They provided us the much needed total to fight.Our bowling was better than batting which involved team effort.We were little skeptical since it was not difficult to reach a modest total of 79 in 15 overs. Hence we did lot of brainstorming on the field before taking any decision and heartening was to notice the synergy among the players.Everybody chipped in.When you sit down and focus on the series of events that took place during the match it strikes you just how broad the talent pool exists in this team. However it needs nurturing there are still some key areas in which we need to work. The excitement brought us to the final over which needed 5 runs and luckily it ended on our side. It reminds me of a famous dialogue from Om shanti Om.. "end tak sab kuch achha ho hi jata hai"-HAPPYYYYS ENDINGGGGS ;)