An Odyssey called 'Enthiran'

When you do Internet Booking for a movie scheduled early Sunday morning, you are sure not many would be interested in spoiling their post-saturday extra sleephours. I was disappointed with the show timing, as I was not just going to watch the movie, but to live the experience. But I was wrong. Rajnikanth has once again proved that he doesnt go by the law of nature. For a moment, I partially started believing all the Rajni Jokes floating around the net and sms. This man has made a mob throng the posh multiplex along with their kids, grandparents and even extended families. The ladies made the air fragrant with the garlands of jasmine as their hair ornaments. I felt close to being a proud southie now. It was this experience I wanted to witness and the buzz around hinted me about whats in store ahead.

The doors opened as people rushed in to grab their seats. Within few minutes, the entire audi was full to brim and you would easily mistake it for a theater in chennai. The show began and the men did give AR's background score tough competition with their whistles and hoots. And this was just for the credits at the beginning mentioning the name "SuperStar Rajnikanth". I always used to think that the film is being made on a robot just because you can make Rajni do anything as a robot which was otherwise not possible. But as the movie progressed I realised this was probably the most realistic Rajni movie I have seen in recent times. Shankar had a clear picture in mind when he planned for the movie. Some visually exhilarating songs at exotic locales like machu-pichu and futuristic sets does affect the pace of the excellent screenplay. But then you cannot dissapoint the typical thalaivan follower. He has come there to see this and some more. He whistles when the robo-rajni speaks to a mosquito convincing it to not to bite the dumb-bimbo Aishwarya Rai (the only turn-off in the entire movie). Even the tin-box mini-robot in the movie acts better than her. This woman is the reason in the movie why we got to see all those rajni-robo clones formations. Brilliantly shot sequences towards the climax and breath taking special effects is the movie's forte that even a non-rajni fan should enjoy. I expected less from the movie, but I have to say Shankar has taken Indian Cinema to the next level with all the special effects and a very novel concept. 

Along with this, there was a parallel experience which I was witnessing. My Dad, who has taken me and my bro around when we were kids, was visibly happy to see the reverse of that happening. We ate at the same udupi resto where we had been during our childhood. There I recalled a particular scene in enthiran, when my dad hooted! That moment, I truly felt thankful to rajni and the makers of the movie. If you call Enthiran a movie, it would be an insult. Its an experience. DOT!

Once upon a time in Shanti Nagar

"Weekend Ganpati" - this is the term that I have coined for the Ganesh Utsav in my building. This is the sixth year for the celebration since I shifted here and I still fail to understand, after shelling out 500 bucks per family, you get the divine darshan for not more than 2 days. The teenagers are busy with their playstations, girlfirends etc so they dont have the time to organise. A weekend utsav of one and half days is a symbol of changing times in urban india. The point to be noted here is not the inefficiencies of my housing society members, but the way things change from a colony of lower middle class families to a step above and with time.

I still remember the days I spent at Mount Galaxy CHS, my childhood, my schooling days. I used to rush from school as soon as the final bell was heard to attend the afternoon arti at Ganesh Utsav organised by us. We were a bunch of 12-14 yr olds who used to go door-to-door collecting Rs. 20 wonly from families, some reluctant, some bargaining, some generous. The day when the Idol is brought, the entire Building Residents gather around the gallery to catch the glimpse of Lord Ganesha and hailing "Ganpati Bappa Morya!!" as we dance to the dhols of highly negotiated Dhol Teams. We then take the lord to his home, a shoddy room under the water tank on the terrace, modified to seat the Lord. Every year we had different themes of decoration, ranging from snow capped himalayas to Forts to seven wonders, all handcrafted by the baccha party with help from the elders to save money.

The artis and poojas will run for atleast  7 to 10 days. On the last day, we would again Hire a Dhol Team sometimes shared with the neighbour hood Building. Our sardar uncle staying in ground floor would give his tempo for the noble cause of Visarjan. We would all dance till our second last breath, moving at a snails pace to the nearest talao. After an hour of dance-marathon, we would sing the final arati with our throats struggling to gather voice. Then we say the final goodbye to the lord and ask him to come soon next year. While going back riding on the carrier of the empty tempo, we would all discuss sadly, how much fun we had for all the days. We would reach our building, seal prasads in a small zip pack pocket and distribute it to the 84 rooms we had in the building. And finally at night, we would all have a small party, with all the money saved (legally :) ) Those were truly the best days of my life.

Gentleman's Game?

There was a time when British families would come formally dressed to Lord's to enjoy some quality time together and appreciate the stylish cover drives by batsmen in whites from top to toe. They were not boys but Men. The cricketers did had the charm and so did the game.

Circa 2010: The young boys play 20-20 cricket (even retire from the test format for it), earns million of dollars in endorsements of products ranging from colas to innerwears, parties late nights with booze and babes before matches, hires PR agencies to handle media relations, occasionally makes presence at TV shows, Movies, participates in Reality shows during off-season (read:after being dropped).

Cricket has evolved to be an Multi-Billion Dollar Industry from an International Sport. Money, has been the sole driver for cricket for quite some years now. No wonder the highly profitable ICC is not so keen to promote the game to non-playing yet high potential regions like America, China, South East Asia and in Europe. The recent controversies in IPL, spot fixing allegations against Pakistani Players are only evidences supporting the popular belief that Cricket is now more a business of money than a sport. There was a time when I used to get score updates from my school peon who had no better job than listening to running commentary in All India Radio. Now score updates are available on Internet, FM Radio, SMS, even GPRS. Yet my interest towards the game never compels me to check scores as frequently as before. The love is dying with every test/ one day series with Sri Lanka withing few months, with yet another T20 series, with every scandals, with the over-occupied cricket calendar. I still hope, that the good old days will be back, that  I will look forward to the next cricket match and that I will be back asking the stranger sitting besides me in the bus, struggling in the crowd to catch a glimpse of matches standing outside TV showrooms and ask the most FAQ in India, "Arre, score kya hua hai?"

The Thrill of Slog Overs

5 balls and 10 runs to win...India likes to be in that position a lot of times. Truly the Indian cricket team can make a boring, easy winning game exciting by adding few thrills in the slog overs, gasping to cross the crease of victory. I cannot help but to find uncanny resemblance of it to my life. Time and again, I feel as if I am that Batsman trying to take the 5th run to move closer to win. Right from my 11th std admissions, Engg Admissions and Even MBA admissions, I have made it on the nth hour. July 30, 2010 was one such day. I was definite that the slog overs would come back to haunt me.

After rejecting my Loan proposal for the first year, for a really stupid reason worth mentioning here, the Indian PSU Bank Giant tried considering it the second time around for my second year. After months of being ping ponged, I finally managed to get the date when the most wanted DD was going to disbursed. I was not at all surprised when I found that the Date had to coincide with my Summer Internship Presentations in the college and the last date to pay the fees. Over No. 11.30, I was in the bank, trying to convince an aunty-ish officer to clear my DD as soon as possible. Finally, after lot of cajoling, I got the DD! Trust me I was not as much happy when I got my MBA Results. This was really a feat achieved, despite all odds. I had almost lost hope. But I always chose to trust my experience of Slog Overs. My Time for presentation was 1.30, but God chose to add more entertainment in my life. The Faculty,as I came to know from one of my classmates, chose to come early by around 1pm. The DD had to be submitted to another bank before its closing time, which was around 2.30. Now as my grey cells where slowly doing all the calculations, I decided to do my presentations first and then go to bank. I literally ran in the rains with my laptop to catch the 12.26 train. I got it, as I did a bollywood ishtyle stunt by catching a running train. Still more excitement? Here you go, The train was going at a snails pace due to heavy rains. After lots of patience testing, I finally reached my college and managed to sneak through the class room where the presentations were being held. I presented just after the presentation that was going on, and left immediately after it looking at Jealous faces of my classmates who were supposedly bored to death by their friends. I just managed to reach the bank, and I felt like the batsman who pounces to the crease to score that winning run! Wish some one could record the day on a handycam, It would have made a perfect climax for a thriller.

Never say bye, say TATA

Another Corporate Stint comes to an end. It was truly a dream come true for me to work as a Summer Intern with India's Biggest Automobile Compay - Tata Motors. Let me introduce you to the main characters, Mr.Mishra ,my project mentor, he is a Product Manger at Tata Motors, hardly available when needed, has made me wait endlessly, yet has made is presence felt in a Big way!. The guys at the dealers, who made my life hell for 2 months, had to run behind them to get something to fill my report. The Territory managers, who are as busy as stock brocker, whom I thought to bypass completely to access the Dealerships. Mr. Amol, the most accessible Territory Manager, who tried giving me a sneak preview at dealerships and also the organisation. The CRM guys, who got tired giving me reports and finally chose to teach me how to pull the reports as and when I required and finally the bunch of confused, helpless, ready-to-roar, ignored, neglected, creative....(this limits my knowledge of adjectives to be used for MBA students)...interns including me who wondered 24-7 what the hell are we supposed to do, will some one please tell us!?

The first week, I had some sort of corporate vacation inside that plush office at Bandra Kurla Complex. Aaah finally some piece of work, after gulping gallons of free juices, munching sandwiches, dozing off after a heavy lunch, trying to use facebook in that snail-paced Aircel Mobile internet, I was told to do field visits at all dealerships. I still wonder whether this was a tactic to keep me out of office so that other employees donot get demotivated and lethargic looking at me. The Excitement of field work got fried under the hot sun! Travelling from one dealership to other, with my cellphone and ipod. They were there with me through my testing times, when I used to wait for hours to get lazy asses at dealerships moving to give me some crap to analyse and also during the never ending bus-train-rick-train-taxi-bus-rick tales.

After 2 months of slogging, finally managed to collect some amount of information which I could analyse (oh, come on, an MBA must show his importance after all!). But looking back, I can tell that this was easily my best working experience that too in a sector which is so close to my heart. Each time when I was one step away from doing something in automobiles, right from a diploma in auto engg after 10th, BE in Auto Engg after 12th, Auto Design after Engg, Nissan Student Brand Manager during MBA, this compensated for all of them. And I know, this is what I am made for!

King Long trip in Mumbai Rains

     Its 7.20 pm as I leave my office at Bandra Kurla Complex, cursing my manager to keep me waiting the entire day for that 10 minutes of briefing for the future course of my summer project. The rhythm of Rains: You love it when you are enjoying watching them from your window, sipping on a hot cuppa tea and munching on some hot pakodas. But when you are hearing it when you get out of your office building, theres only one thing that comes to your mind,"I am screwed!". I waited a good 10 minutes, but the rain had made up his mind to make me wet, although I am sure no one would like that sight. Today I was concerned about my laptop, which my mother had apparently warned about for being carried to office everyday. Damn! I will never understand, how can be moms be so right! I tried to gather courage as I took my first steps over the immersed Roads. Suddenly, I started imagining flooded roads, traffic jams, super late and cancelled local trains, wet and filthy people in trains, stench..ok thats it. I decided to try out the AC bus my friends told me about the other day which connected Thane and BKC.

I finally reached the Bus-Stop, which sheltered atleast a 50 people. I almost did a nano-market research to find whether the bus actually halted in the bus stop. The bunch showed the true colours of Indian Democracy, with every one being entitled to their opinion. Some even gave their expert consultancy to reach thane avoiding the train alternatively. Went with the majority, waited till 8.15. Finally the bus arrived and people raced towards the bus to catch available seats,I lost it by one. Its interesting to see how reasonably well off executives spend time in the supposedly 1 hr journey. Could see some speaking to their loved ones, yes their smiles conveyed that, some busy cracking jokes on the boss, corporate politics, some catching up 40 winks, some made me miss my ipod shuffle. At Sion, I got a seat, and started writing this blog on a piece of paper. Finally reached thane after good 2 hours. This was truly a very unique first-monsoon-day experience.

Love the smell of grease

"Arre mera maal atak raha hai, fatafat becho!"...aaahh when I heard this in my latest organisation, I smiled a breath of relief and told myself, "I guess I am home.". After a day in a PSU Bank learning how to market hi-end financial products (read: selling demat accounts), filling a 3-in-1 KYC or know your customer form which has to be signed at nothing less than 46 places, Tata Motors certainly felt like my home-ground. I realised I was more comfortable with all those gears and shafts running in my head than investment, finance, money, markets etc. All the buzz, loud calls, pushing the dealers, following up with vendors, bosses yelling at the top of their voices, everything reminded me of my previous employer, Godrej. A fantastic project was an icing on the cake!

1/2 x MBA

My eyes opened with a stream of sweat flowing from my forehead, as I realised I was fast asleep in the Bus carrying me from the station towards my home. The exams did have its side-effects! There I was looking around and wondering why the Bus had taken a halt that too just a km away from my place, and no it was not at a bus-stop. I thought the Bus had taken its toll, when I saw the conductor and the driver leisurely drinking water and taking a nano-shower under a running tap near a mithaiwala. Every one waited patiently without complaining, with some airs of sympathies flowing around for the non-availability of water at the Depots. For once, the driver-conductor duo weren't being bashed up by janata for the bus being stopped, thanks to the searing heat!

My memories started taking a rewind as the driver plugged the 1st gear, one year went in a jiffy, from the resignation at godrej, the melodrama of admissions, the first sem, the competitions, the case-studies, presentations, counter-strike (optimum usage of college wi-fi), sem-2, virtualities our fest, and the last minute rush towards the end of exams, first year of my management course was pretty fast I must say and now I am waiting for my internship to begin. The memories took a stop with the brakes, and the bus reached my bus-stop. I got down from the bus and it was hard-convincing myself that I was a half-MBA now!

Indian Political League

Although I am not an expert on this topic or politics, I, as a common man, have got another glimpse of how politics,underworld and our official national madness i.e. Cricket are all entangled so firmly that it is difficult to separate one from the other. Tharoor, as it seems, wanted to payback something to his homeland, by bringing the IPL Kochi team to the state. Poor Chap might not have guessed even in his wildest imagination that his personal life will too be dragged in this controversy. Who owns what and how much, I feel should not be an issue for the politicos, more still, who is whos' freind. The Ahmedabad lobby still feel they havent yet lost the battle, hence have got into such antics and this has become such a hot issue that ministers have nothing else to discuss in the parliament. Shame!

Adventures of the Govt: 2

             When you say the government, you suddenly visualise a lazy bunch of pot-bellied people who have never seen office on a Sunday ever in their life, well there are evident striking resemblance to my gang which I had introduced long ago. After I guess two years,  I am writing about us again. We have a new member to our gang, the first lady(Yeah one of us got married ..happily!), and she has quite got used to our antics while we struggle to keep our mouth shut tight when we are enticed to use @#$&*% words and praising the eternal beauties on earth! This Government had rather a busy Sunday this week. We have an official car on duty, the Black Alto, which is abused every weekend. She has seen all the beautiful places in and around Mumbai. This sunday we thought of taking somewhere out.

            We set out to go to Alibaug for Lunch...yeah thats it...and maybe faloodas after that. We hit off early morning and I must tell you the drive was full of laughter with some old songs of our school days playing in the background. Kumar Sanu went Heehee laalaa....and we were Hahahauauhooohahaha! We reached the destination, hotel Phulora, and man we love this place. Real Cheap good food! do we need any more reason to drive all the way from mumbai?? Our oversized potbellies soon converted into an aquarium with all the Mandeli, Pomfret, Surmai, etc etc we had. Yet we still managed to infuse few faloodas and mastanis, it is quite a task mind you!

          We were not convinced to go back just like that, one of our member was there for the first time and he wanted to see places. So we got back to our black beauty and showed her one of the most beautiful roads I have seen. It runs parallel to the sea with mountains on the other side till it reaches the once beautiful Kashid beach. Popularity does kills the beauty. I was quite amused to see duplicate versions of goa's water sports there. We had a cutting chai and started our journey back home. It reminded me of those one day trips from school wherein we are full of energy while going and sad while returning! Amazing day!

Its you and no one else...

The body aint moving,

Down you are, biting the dust

The life has stoped loving,

Your mind is going rust

Whos gonna make the difference?

Its you and no one else..

The whole world seems wrong,

Enemy is your fate,

Have been cribbing for so long,

It is never too late.

Whos gonna make the difference?

Its you and no one else..

Pick up the buck,

Tighten your laces,

Ditch your luck,

You will go places.

Whos gonna make the difference?

Its you and no one else..

The Badshah versus The Tiger

Never in his wildest imagination, SRK would have thought that watching his film would be a reason for lots to show their anger against some groups who believe containing freedom in this democratic nation. Well he was proved wrong and people flocked to the nearest theatres to express their dissent and stand by their favourite superstar. It is unfortunate that such controversy emerged against a hero who showed people how to love! Such hatred, such nonsensical so-called protest against a what they believe,traitor, was utterly childish on behalf of a party who feel they deserve to be in a ruling post in the state. It had a political reason for sure, but this time they have got it totally wrong. What are they trying to gain? Marathi Manoos doesnt care whether a Pakistani player is playing in IPL. They are more concerned to issues which are close to them. They should keep this in mind before resorting to such antics. Now at the end of the day, who has gained, the film, SRK and ofcourse the media.

Sweet 70 after 6 years

49,54,55,56....there I was some years back, trying to figure out why the results of engg so unpredictable. Those were my percentages, somehow managed a 1st class in my final year, god knows how! Naturally you end up expecting less when your history is so glorious. I was trying to finish of my rotis in my tiffin, when I heard one of my classmates screaming at top of her voice "hey guys sach me results laga hai". When I looked up, entire class vanished in thin air, except for few bhukkads like me who chose to relish their lunch before the big bang. Then after a big burp, I went down and made my way through the crowd to check my result. As they say, old habit die late, I was searching for 'P' and 'F', but to my surprise they had given percentages and to my shock I Scored 70.60%. It was a magic figure that I touched after 6 years..last being in my 12th. I know it might have been a pretty boring read for you, but I am too happy to snatch that opportunity from you. Finally, being an idiot paid off...so bhaiyya aal izz well :)