Recently, I have realized the power and effectiveness of the statement "Can you please write it and give me"..
Let me explain...
I have registered for the BSNL broad band connection nine months back and have not got it yet. So I went to customer care, and asked the lady behind the counter about the status, and she very casually asked me to go to some RTNagar exchange and find out.
"Why cant you do it?" I asked..
"Nopes we dont have any person here who is responsible for the internet connections" she said
"Can you please write it and give me?" I said , "Please write that a customer has come to enquire for net connection and I cant help but ask him to go to some other place"
"No I cant do that", She said
"Why not?" I asked
"Because I am not responsible for the net connections" she said.
"Ok in that case, please write and give me that Customer Care is not responsible for net connections, for this kind of things customers are required to go exchange and find out", I persisted, "See, I dont want to complain, but just I want to figure out where I have to go for what"
Thats it, she started calling some numbers, gave my details, retrieved the information and told me.
Never mind what the information was, but I got some answer, and I avoided running to someother place.
This is the third time that I have employed this technique, First at the railway reservation and second at ICICI, and this time here.
I guess it works because people are afraid to give in writing, because they know that it is their responsibility and they are just running away from it. So if you persist, they would solve the problem for you.
Please use this freely, you dont have to be rude and all. Be nice and very straight. Trust me it works....
Cheers..
Monday, March 26, 2007
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
My First Job...
"
The sanskrit exam had just ended, and it was the last exam of 10th class and I was feeling very happy. Finally had finished school, and probably would go in to college. From time I had started watching movies, and seeing all the heros having so much fun in college I always wanted tobe in college.
But at the same time somethings were troubling me. The community in which I grew up, there was a rule that everyone does business. Other career options were unheard of. All my friends were planning to go with their fathers/elder brothers to their own shop/business and learn to work. But sadly my father worked in the bank, and he did not have business. So I was kind of stranded. So I wanted to find out what I wanted to do in life. Vivek, one other friend of mine had same problem. So united in our problem with the anxiety of uncertain future, we thought that we should start finding a job for ourselves.
We looked up in papers and found this particular sales agency which wanted sales executives. Next day we ended up in this sales agency. I dont even remember the name of it right now, the only thing that I remember is that the owner of the sales agency (as was murmured to us by the other guys who had come there), was a young man of 25, and he had started it when he was our age, and he had reached a level where he was earning lakhs of rupess per month. WoW.
There was supposed to be interview as well, and first one for us in our lives. Both vivek and me were nervous, vivek had even tried reading up all the maths and all. But we just cleared the interview, he did not ask anything. He only explained that we were supposed to do door to door selling. He explained how we could sell more and more and keep multiplying our return. He was so casual and looked so cool. Instantly he became our hero, and we wanted to be like him. He was so smart and a great man. We were wondering why his name had never figured in papers. All of sudden felt that we had found our career option.
Next morning we were supposed to go there at 8 and start the work. We had decided that we were not going to tell our parents, because they may stop us from doing this. We would tell them later, we were sure that if we were able to earn enough money, then they would feel proud.
Morning, and we were handed 10 packets of dining table mats. Each packet was to be sold at 100 rupees, and 10 rupees was my earnings from the same. We were even made to wear the tie. And we were asked to memorize something to the effect.. "Maam, we are from DontRememberTheName company and we have this ....".
May, Gujju land and tie, but somehow these things did not seem to bother us, we were just thinking that this was the thing to get into. We were just looking at this as a great opportunity to become rich. We would sell lot of dining table mats, and make loads ofmoney. Even 10 sets sold would give us 100 rupess, which did seem lot of money. It just meant selling one set an hour, which did not look difficult. Further still everyday the item seemed to change, dining mats one day, dining set other day, books on third day and so on. It looked so exciting. We had even decided that after some days we would carry different items, so that we could sell one or the other.
So out we went, we figured out a locality that we had to go and we started. Went from house to house, we had a little tough time in figuring out most of the times weather the lady washing clothes outside was the kaamwali or the house owner. But we kept on. Sometimes lecturing only to realize that we were talking to kaamwali, but then we would start again.
I remember one particular house we went, were after the intial lecture of introduction, the lady asked us to wait. We were hoping that she had gone to take money, but instead she got in her hand a similar packet of dining mats, and they looked spoiled and badly damaged, "I had bought it last week from similar guys like you and now in one wash it has got spoilt, please take this and give the money back". Ooops...not knowing what to do, both vivek and me broke off in a run, and ran away from her house as fast as we could. Did not stop until we reached the next street. I still dont know why we did that, but I guess we were afraid. Afraid that she would snatch a good packet from us. We did not want to get in to 100 rupees loss. 100 rupees was loads of money at that time. We stood at the corner of the road discussing about how we are going to deal with this situation. Wondering if we were cheating people. Wondering if the lady would have send her son to follow us.
We started again after sometime, but somehow the rosiness of the whole business had disappeared. We were begining to feel tired. And started wondering why could we not go back home and watch DDLJ.
At the end of day we had sold three packets, made thirty rupees. The owner of that company, our Hero of the morning, (I say hero of the morning, because somehow in the evening things did not look same, we started doubting him, his success) told us that we had done great, and tomorrow we should sell more.
From next day onwards we never went there. I guess that I decided salesmanship was not the right career for me. I dont even remember what I did for rest of the vacation. I guess spend it with TV, cycling here and there, and so on. Wonder what I did with those fifteen rupees (that was my share).
But I still think about that day. That image of me and vivek with mats in hands and the face of that lady are still fresh. I guess I learnt the importance of money that day, learned to respect my parets for taking care of all my needs and pocket money.
"
The sanskrit exam had just ended, and it was the last exam of 10th class and I was feeling very happy. Finally had finished school, and probably would go in to college. From time I had started watching movies, and seeing all the heros having so much fun in college I always wanted tobe in college.
But at the same time somethings were troubling me. The community in which I grew up, there was a rule that everyone does business. Other career options were unheard of. All my friends were planning to go with their fathers/elder brothers to their own shop/business and learn to work. But sadly my father worked in the bank, and he did not have business. So I was kind of stranded. So I wanted to find out what I wanted to do in life. Vivek, one other friend of mine had same problem. So united in our problem with the anxiety of uncertain future, we thought that we should start finding a job for ourselves.
We looked up in papers and found this particular sales agency which wanted sales executives. Next day we ended up in this sales agency. I dont even remember the name of it right now, the only thing that I remember is that the owner of the sales agency (as was murmured to us by the other guys who had come there), was a young man of 25, and he had started it when he was our age, and he had reached a level where he was earning lakhs of rupess per month. WoW.
There was supposed to be interview as well, and first one for us in our lives. Both vivek and me were nervous, vivek had even tried reading up all the maths and all. But we just cleared the interview, he did not ask anything. He only explained that we were supposed to do door to door selling. He explained how we could sell more and more and keep multiplying our return. He was so casual and looked so cool. Instantly he became our hero, and we wanted to be like him. He was so smart and a great man. We were wondering why his name had never figured in papers. All of sudden felt that we had found our career option.
Next morning we were supposed to go there at 8 and start the work. We had decided that we were not going to tell our parents, because they may stop us from doing this. We would tell them later, we were sure that if we were able to earn enough money, then they would feel proud.
Morning, and we were handed 10 packets of dining table mats. Each packet was to be sold at 100 rupees, and 10 rupees was my earnings from the same. We were even made to wear the tie. And we were asked to memorize something to the effect.. "Maam, we are from DontRememberTheName
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Sales conference with Jeans-Tshirt ??
I never understood why is that blazer with leather shoes and a suit is formal, whereas a tshirt-jeans is not formal. I keep wondering who defined all those things. Why is it that when people are expected to go for seminars, they are supposed to wear these so called formal clothes. I think if I ever become a CEO, I would go in jeans and tshirt, or may be a kurta. As long as I am neatly dressed, I dont think it should be of concern to anyone.
Same goes with eating as well. Have never been able to realize the fun of eating with knife and fork. Have found it more cumbersome then useful. I mean nothing wrong with that, but eating with hand should also be equally good. I guess it should be left to individual choice.
I remember the first time I had gone to Montreal-Canada on account of office work, I got a nice yummy chicken leg piece for dinner with a pizza. I could manage pizza with knife and spoon, but simply could not figure out how was I supposed to eat the chicken piece with fork and a knife. I told my host that in most of India, we would rather eat it with hand, and then I ate it as I would nomally would by holding it in one hand and nibbling at it. Actually that did trigger off a nice conversation, about India, and how things are the way they are and so on, which in turn actually did help me a lot in later days. Now actually when I recall that day which is still so fresh in memory (because that was my first time abroad), I was wearing bright red Kurta that day. That facinated my host to no end. And the conversations kept becoming more and more interesting, as the days went by, starting from food, to clothing to marriage and to basically everything. The best part of all this was that, this fellow took me for one full day trip of Montreal just before I was about to leave, the trip started from harbour, to church, to shopping, to dinner and finally ending up at a disc. (would blog some other day about that). Wonder if I would have even been able to strike a conversation with host, and subsequent friendship, had I been busy trying to look like one of him, trying to be so-called formal and ceasing to be myself.
Coming back, why do we still follow the tradition of wearing ties and learning to eat with spoons and forks and knives? In some companies they even give the training for the same. Wonder how many people wear tie by choice rather than by compulsion. I dont know why cant we be ourselves. I also hate the gowns that they give us in convocation, we have pay something for renting that. I dont know why. I guess it would still be very nice if everyone could come neatly dressed. Ok..I guess uniformity is required, because it gives a very pretty picture, but then it could be kurta-pygama as well, which I guess everyone would have one at home, and which would be useful later as well.
Imagine May, 45 degrees, small dusty road, a bank on side, and poor employees forced to wear a tie. It is ridicolous! This is not orginated in my brain, this is what happened to one of my fathers friend, where the bank he worked for all of sudden imposed this dress code for ties.
I guess we should all be allowed to be ourselves.
By ourselves, I dont mean Indian, or Gujju, or Hindu, or corporate or anything. Just someone whom we call "Me" "myself"
Same goes with eating as well. Have never been able to realize the fun of eating with knife and fork. Have found it more cumbersome then useful. I mean nothing wrong with that, but eating with hand should also be equally good. I guess it should be left to individual choice.
I remember the first time I had gone to Montreal-Canada on account of office work, I got a nice yummy chicken leg piece for dinner with a pizza. I could manage pizza with knife and spoon, but simply could not figure out how was I supposed to eat the chicken piece with fork and a knife. I told my host that in most of India, we would rather eat it with hand, and then I ate it as I would nomally would by holding it in one hand and nibbling at it. Actually that did trigger off a nice conversation, about India, and how things are the way they are and so on, which in turn actually did help me a lot in later days. Now actually when I recall that day which is still so fresh in memory (because that was my first time abroad), I was wearing bright red Kurta that day. That facinated my host to no end. And the conversations kept becoming more and more interesting, as the days went by, starting from food, to clothing to marriage and to basically everything. The best part of all this was that, this fellow took me for one full day trip of Montreal just before I was about to leave, the trip started from harbour, to church, to shopping, to dinner and finally ending up at a disc. (would blog some other day about that). Wonder if I would have even been able to strike a conversation with host, and subsequent friendship, had I been busy trying to look like one of him, trying to be so-called formal and ceasing to be myself.
Coming back, why do we still follow the tradition of wearing ties and learning to eat with spoons and forks and knives? In some companies they even give the training for the same. Wonder how many people wear tie by choice rather than by compulsion. I dont know why cant we be ourselves. I also hate the gowns that they give us in convocation, we have pay something for renting that. I dont know why. I guess it would still be very nice if everyone could come neatly dressed. Ok..I guess uniformity is required, because it gives a very pretty picture, but then it could be kurta-pygama as well, which I guess everyone would have one at home, and which would be useful later as well.
Imagine May, 45 degrees, small dusty road, a bank on side, and poor employees forced to wear a tie. It is ridicolous! This is not orginated in my brain, this is what happened to one of my fathers friend, where the bank he worked for all of sudden imposed this dress code for ties.
I guess we should all be allowed to be ourselves.
By ourselves, I dont mean Indian, or Gujju, or Hindu, or corporate or anything. Just someone whom we call "Me" "myself"
Friday, March 09, 2007
Down Memory Lane.... Ek Anek Aur Ekta
This is a cliche kind of post, but I am sure that this is going to ring some bells inside you. I used to absolutely love this video as a kid, infact I still love it. In my old office I used to have this video on my PC, and people used to gather along my cubicle and we used to watch it, but I stupidly lost it, today remembered and found it on You Tube. Njoy
Wednesday, March 07, 2007
Crazy and Embarassing
"
That was the time when I was new to Bangalore. Just one year in to the IT job, and my life was mostly like everyone else, Brigade road roaming, KFC eating and Rex movie watching. But at the time of the story I had acquired something new, a girl friend. For the first time in life I was bitten by the love bug, you may say it is a little late, but I was a goody-goody boy in college, parachute oil in hair putting type, and the only pleasure known to me at that time were playing cricket and solving cryptography puzzles from "The code Book" (Simon Singh) and as such our college was never known for any fairer sex. So here I was in a totally different world. I found myself moving away from the late night discussions about "Brief History of time", and found myself sending lot of smses, and engaging myslef in late night calls which lasted for hours. I did not have a bike then, and further still I did not know how to drive one. But sensing the necessity of such a skill I borrowed a bike from one of my friends, not a Pulsar not even a splendour, but it was boxer, Bajaj Boxer. But I guess it did not matter at that time. I spend couple of days learning it.
On the day in question, I found myslef, on boxer with this newly acquired friend of mine. She did not know that I was a novice at biking, and I guess I drove brilliantly for a "two day experienced biker", and she could not guess it, until it was the time to drop her back after full day of doing somethings none of which I remember right now. But I do remember clearly as I was dropping her, around about 8 in the evening, it was already dark. She was off my bike, and after bye, and holding hands, and discussing when to meet next, to another bye and another shake hands, I was ready to go. There was this feeling of having accomplished something. But Ooops krrrr, krrrr, krrrr, krrrr,.....five kicks and the bike would not start. Some more kicks but the engine refused to start. I was getting little tensed. Such a situations had never been presented to me before. With racing mind I thought I would put the bike on stand, and try, but no... i had a better idea, (atleast at that time I though it was brilliant) I reasoned that the bike would have got cold and now given that it had already taken my 20 kicks it should start soon. So to save my man-li-ness pride, I just turned the petrol key, to off and on again. I did this because I wanted my friend to believe that petrol was off, am sure she would not paid much attentions to what I did with the key. So with renewed confidence and smile on my face, murmuring "Arey petrol was not on", I started, one... two...three... ten. It would simply not start. Now I was in soup.
I was feeling very embarassed and irritated. All the while this girl was standing there, looking little amused. I had never used bike for long, neither had I any knowledge about the failure points in a bike, not did I have any idea where to check the oil and all such things. Minutes later I found myslef walking with girl, dragging the bike, searching for some mechanic. Shops were already closing, and my house was not very near, I could not stay at this girls place also, because her aunty would have killed me, with all the thoughs racing we were walking down. I did not want to talk, I wished that the girl had left me alone, but according to her she was being a good friend, trying to sort out my problem, and I was getting irritated and wondering what kind of impression this girl would have formed of me, fear was lurking inside me that this might be the last time that girl would go with me.
But, then came the God send rescuer, a man who was walking away briskly, saw us two kiddos dragging the and came to our help. I handed him the bike feeling pretty sure that he would not be able to start it. But bang, first kick and the bike started. I was like you can understand very embarassed and very red. Then he pointed his hand to a small switch near the right handle of the bike, which was supposed to be the on-off button. The button was in off position and he simply put it on. You may ask how come it went in to off position, even I asked the same question to myself then, and I still dont know how that happened.
By the time the girl was laughing like mad, I was wondering what that man might be thinking about me, I wished that he was not from the same colony, I did not want to see him again. I wished he had never come and that I would have passed on the problem to some thing going bad in bike. But anyways, I took the bike and dropped my friend (girl) home, I did not switch off the bike, because I did not want to take any risk, and this time did not even go through the cylcle of bye...talking...... bye, just one small bye and I was off.
Today whenever I am with this friend of mine and we see a boxer, we both laugh like crazy, and remember that day, when the boxer would not start.
"
Excerpt from the dairy..
Now coming back to the present state, the most embarassing thing that I have done in recent past is to burn a white board marker with the soldering Iron. Being a very experienced hardware engineer, I guess that is something which I am not supposed to do. (I think it is ok to leak this information here, and that it would not affect my future career, since my resume does not mention Goli anywhere)
Another crazy thing that I did some days back was when I came to office very early and I did not have the keys. This happens quite often in our office, because we dont have a security guard. And no one was expected to come in another hour. Thankfully I had a my guitar, So I sat on my office steps facing the road and started playing, "knocking on heavens door", people came, saw and went. But I did not care. I wish I had a "katora" with me that day. I guess I would have made enough money for atleast a "set dosa" in the evening.
:D
That was the time when I was new to Bangalore. Just one year in to the IT job, and my life was mostly like everyone else, Brigade road roaming, KFC eating and Rex movie watching. But at the time of the story I had acquired something new, a girl friend. For the first time in life I was bitten by the love bug, you may say it is a little late, but I was a goody-goody boy in college, parachute oil in hair putting type, and the only pleasure known to me at that time were playing cricket and solving cryptography puzzles from "The code Book" (Simon Singh) and as such our college was never known for any fairer sex. So here I was in a totally different world. I found myself moving away from the late night discussions about "Brief History of time", and found myself sending lot of smses, and engaging myslef in late night calls which lasted for hours. I did not have a bike then, and further still I did not know how to drive one. But sensing the necessity of such a skill I borrowed a bike from one of my friends, not a Pulsar not even a splendour, but it was boxer, Bajaj Boxer. But I guess it did not matter at that time. I spend couple of days learning it.
On the day in question, I found myslef, on boxer with this newly acquired friend of mine. She did not know that I was a novice at biking, and I guess I drove brilliantly for a "two day experienced biker", and she could not guess it, until it was the time to drop her back after full day of doing somethings none of which I remember right now. But I do remember clearly as I was dropping her, around about 8 in the evening, it was already dark. She was off my bike, and after bye, and holding hands, and discussing when to meet next, to another bye and another shake hands, I was ready to go. There was this feeling of having accomplished something. But Ooops krrrr, krrrr, krrrr, krrrr,.....five kicks and the bike would not start. Some more kicks but the engine refused to start. I was getting little tensed. Such a situations had never been presented to me before. With racing mind I thought I would put the bike on stand, and try, but no... i had a better idea, (atleast at that time I though it was brilliant) I reasoned that the bike would have got cold and now given that it had already taken my 20 kicks it should start soon. So to save my man-li-ness pride, I just turned the petrol key, to off and on again. I did this because I wanted my friend to believe that petrol was off, am sure she would not paid much attentions to what I did with the key. So with renewed confidence and smile on my face, murmuring "Arey petrol was not on", I started, one... two...three... ten. It would simply not start. Now I was in soup.
I was feeling very embarassed and irritated. All the while this girl was standing there, looking little amused. I had never used bike for long, neither had I any knowledge about the failure points in a bike, not did I have any idea where to check the oil and all such things. Minutes later I found myslef walking with girl, dragging the bike, searching for some mechanic. Shops were already closing, and my house was not very near, I could not stay at this girls place also, because her aunty would have killed me, with all the thoughs racing we were walking down. I did not want to talk, I wished that the girl had left me alone, but according to her she was being a good friend, trying to sort out my problem, and I was getting irritated and wondering what kind of impression this girl would have formed of me, fear was lurking inside me that this might be the last time that girl would go with me.
But, then came the God send rescuer, a man who was walking away briskly, saw us two kiddos dragging the and came to our help. I handed him the bike feeling pretty sure that he would not be able to start it. But bang, first kick and the bike started. I was like you can understand very embarassed and very red. Then he pointed his hand to a small switch near the right handle of the bike, which was supposed to be the on-off button. The button was in off position and he simply put it on. You may ask how come it went in to off position, even I asked the same question to myself then, and I still dont know how that happened.
By the time the girl was laughing like mad, I was wondering what that man might be thinking about me, I wished that he was not from the same colony, I did not want to see him again. I wished he had never come and that I would have passed on the problem to some thing going bad in bike. But anyways, I took the bike and dropped my friend (girl) home, I did not switch off the bike, because I did not want to take any risk, and this time did not even go through the cylcle of bye...talking...... bye, just one small bye and I was off.
Today whenever I am with this friend of mine and we see a boxer, we both laugh like crazy, and remember that day, when the boxer would not start.
"
Excerpt from the dairy..
Now coming back to the present state, the most embarassing thing that I have done in recent past is to burn a white board marker with the soldering Iron. Being a very experienced hardware engineer, I guess that is something which I am not supposed to do. (I think it is ok to leak this information here, and that it would not affect my future career, since my resume does not mention Goli anywhere)
Another crazy thing that I did some days back was when I came to office very early and I did not have the keys. This happens quite often in our office, because we dont have a security guard. And no one was expected to come in another hour. Thankfully I had a my guitar, So I sat on my office steps facing the road and started playing, "knocking on heavens door", people came, saw and went. But I did not care. I wish I had a "katora" with me that day. I guess I would have made enough money for atleast a "set dosa" in the evening.
:D
Thursday, March 01, 2007
Company called Elina
I am on 55th post, and I never blogged about my company... so I thought that it is a good idea to blog about the place where I work...
My company
Elina(sounds very weird name, actually we picked it up from babynames.com and it means intelligence in some european langauge) ... started 18 months back, makes networking hardware. I am not going to bore you with all the technical jazz. In simple terms we make those boxes(solutions) with which you can interconnect all your offices(stores) ... for example if food world has 500 stores in india, and they want to have a centralized management, they can put our box at each of their location and thats it... I am not going to go more tech, any other tech you can get on website and ofcourse you can ping me.
I have been lucky enough to get job in startups. As soon as I graduated I worked in Tejas Networks.... that company rocks...I mean rocks in terms of company culture. Ofcourse everyone thinks that his company rocks, but I guess in small company you have that feeling of ownership which makes if very different.
You may ask, why did I leave tejas, yups after sometime your mind yearns to do something different. And that different thing happened to be Elina.
Elina is another extenstions of tejas, I mean another product company from India (but we dont compete tejas, we are totally in different domains)
Great things about startups... is that you can play music on speakers all day long, I love playing radio indigo, and torture everyone to listen to music which I want to listen... and food from the caterer is good because the number of people is less..... the fights... the temper running strong in board room over some important decisions..... designing and choosing your office.....frustration of coming to office on weekend to finish some work, only to realize that you dont have the keys because we could not as yet afford a security...thrill of first sales......seeing the first product installed at customer location... despair of fear that we might have to close down ...some days I have driven back home thinking that I have completely screwed up decision of joining this place..... and days like today i am totally escatatic and am thinking that we are going to conquer the world...I get so depressed sometimes that my first sales meet has not yet resulted in a order (still not happened :( )... and get so excited whenever I get a new lead to chase someone...Got galis from one customer because I did not call him when he wanted me too....Trying to design a Tshirt for my company...There was a time when there was no water in our new office, and everyone was trying to figure out the nearest sulab....crazy fights.....no AC.... in IIM office (our office was in IIM incubation) once we had water coming in through the ventillation windows, and all of us left work and were engaged in rescue effort of sticking papers, plastics, and whatever was available....
I have had a chance of putting hands in everything starting from hardware, software, manufacturing, customer installation, marketing and now desperately trying to do some sales. I absolutely love the faith that my team puts in me to do stuff, which I have never done before. Somethings I have done well, have screwed up some things. Sheer number of different things which I can do makes everyday very different.
Till now ELINA is doing quite well, and hope that we would fly someday soon...
By the way if you ever go for a haircut at Limelite (@brigade road, jaynagar, 100feet road, vithalmalaya road, koramangala in bangalore)... you can peek down at the reception desk, just below the world space radio, is our box, purple color small and cute.
Cheers... and Happy holi
My company
Elina(sounds very weird name, actually we picked it up from babynames.com and it means intelligence in some european langauge) ... started 18 months back, makes networking hardware. I am not going to bore you with all the technical jazz. In simple terms we make those boxes(solutions) with which you can interconnect all your offices(stores) ... for example if food world has 500 stores in india, and they want to have a centralized management, they can put our box at each of their location and thats it... I am not going to go more tech, any other tech you can get on website and ofcourse you can ping me.
I have been lucky enough to get job in startups. As soon as I graduated I worked in Tejas Networks.... that company rocks...I mean rocks in terms of company culture. Ofcourse everyone thinks that his company rocks, but I guess in small company you have that feeling of ownership which makes if very different.
You may ask, why did I leave tejas, yups after sometime your mind yearns to do something different. And that different thing happened to be Elina.
Elina is another extenstions of tejas, I mean another product company from India (but we dont compete tejas, we are totally in different domains)
Great things about startups... is that you can play music on speakers all day long, I love playing radio indigo, and torture everyone to listen to music which I want to listen... and food from the caterer is good because the number of people is less..... the fights... the temper running strong in board room over some important decisions..... designing and choosing your office.....frustration of coming to office on weekend to finish some work, only to realize that you dont have the keys because we could not as yet afford a security...thrill of first sales......seeing the first product installed at customer location... despair of fear that we might have to close down ...some days I have driven back home thinking that I have completely screwed up decision of joining this place..... and days like today i am totally escatatic and am thinking that we are going to conquer the world...I get so depressed sometimes that my first sales meet has not yet resulted in a order (still not happened :( )... and get so excited whenever I get a new lead to chase someone...Got galis from one customer because I did not call him when he wanted me too....Trying to design a Tshirt for my company...There was a time when there was no water in our new office, and everyone was trying to figure out the nearest sulab....crazy fights.....no AC.... in IIM office (our office was in IIM incubation) once we had water coming in through the ventillation windows, and all of us left work and were engaged in rescue effort of sticking papers, plastics, and whatever was available....
I have had a chance of putting hands in everything starting from hardware, software, manufacturing, customer installation, marketing and now desperately trying to do some sales. I absolutely love the faith that my team puts in me to do stuff, which I have never done before. Somethings I have done well, have screwed up some things. Sheer number of different things which I can do makes everyday very different.
Till now ELINA is doing quite well, and hope that we would fly someday soon...
By the way if you ever go for a haircut at Limelite (@brigade road, jaynagar, 100feet road, vithalmalaya road, koramangala in bangalore)... you can peek down at the reception desk, just below the world space radio, is our box, purple color small and cute.
Cheers... and Happy holi
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Saturday, February 24, 2007
To all the guys out there..
A "Damsel from Bombay " Mayuri's... response to "To all the girls out there.... A humble request"
Please Note: Published with due permissions from Mayuri and for the benefit of all the guys.
"
Please Note: Published with due permissions from Mayuri and for the benefit of all the guys.
"
First things first, I absolutely abhor this addressing guys as ‘Bhaiyya’ business.’ I swear, even my trusted subziwala packs in inferior vegetables when I address him as ‘Bhaiyya’, though my mother vehemently disagrees, citing my annual visits as the real reason.
So imagine the plight of those guys who are addressed as ‘Bhaiyya’ by every Priya, Pinky and Pooja whom they see in ‘that way.’
‘I can’t look at you in that way’, is a line I am guilty of using more times than I would like to admit.
When I was younger, foolish and pushed into a corner and asked to elaborate on why I couldn’t see them ‘that way’, to save my skin and the guys feelings, I’d blurt out ‘Because you are like my brother.’
Though those guys weren’t anything remotely like my brother who, while we're on the subject, is a strapping, tall, dark, handsome, though sometimes very exasperating, lad. Because, if they would be anything like him, minus the exasperating bit, I wouldn’t be using the line ‘I can’t look at you that way’ in the first place.
However, having grown older and wiser, besides realizing and accepting the fact that no Indians are my bothers, except one, I am now am honest enough to not use the ‘Because you are like my brother’ line.
Now, when pushed into a corner and asked to elaborate on the ‘Why’ after telling them ‘I can’t look at you that way’ I quell their bubbling curiosity by enlightening them with the precise reason.
Then as I walk away, I hear faint wisps of words like, ‘...thinks no end of her self...’ , ‘choke her or strangle her?’ and assorted other similar terminology floating my way ;))
The reasons a girl declines coffee could surprise you and the biggest surprise is that you hardly figure in any of the reasons.
Ranging from the fact that coffee is not the brew of her choice to maybe she doesn’t like the cutlery in the particular place you were asking her out to (warned ya you’d be surprised!)
What? You didn’t mention any place, yet?
Oh! Oh! What color shirt were you wearing when you asked, then? (Sorry, orange reminds her of the Shiv Sena) What cologne were you wearing? (Sporty colognes remind her of the *&%$#@ ex-boyfriend) Were your shoes right? (Badly scuffed shoes remind her of her horribly cruel PT teacher from school)
So, you see, It’s Not About You.
You think it about looks then? Wrong, again!
Ok, let me explain something more. It is never, ever about good looks and the perfect physique for girls, contrary to what guys think. You don’t believe me?
Ok.
Look around you and tell me who is the hottest hunk women drool over right now? Go, on.
It’s Abhishek Bachchan. Does he have the perfect abs? (Not. He even has a bit of a tummy for God’s sake!) Besides a tummy, he has the worst hair and hairstyle in the history of mankind and don’t even get me started about his ungainly gait and the extra weight!
But girls drool over him more than they drool over Hritik Roshan, who has the six-pack, the right hair and hairstyle and chiseled face and what not!
Why? Only God, and the girls, know.
So don’t ever try to fathom why a girl turns down coffee and trust me when I say It’s Not About You.
Just smile your smile, be yourself and try asking a girl out with a ‘Would you like to join me for a glass of Orange Juice’, instead.
Either she’ll be too stunned to react and just nod a submissive ‘Yes’, or her mind will start whirring faster than the cash register at her favorite boutique and she’ll connect things you can’t even dream of, for instance
‘heaskedmeoutforanorangejuice
-thatsmeansheisadifferentsortaguy-
whichmeansibettersnaghimbeforeanyofmyfriendsdo.’
And before you know it you’ll be sitting across her, nourishing your health with Vitamin C and nourishing your ego with the smiles she’s flashing your way and maybe, just maybe she’ll start thinking of you and seeing you in ‘that way.’
;)
"
So imagine the plight of those guys who are addressed as ‘Bhaiyya’ by every Priya, Pinky and Pooja whom they see in ‘that way.’
‘I can’t look at you in that way’, is a line I am guilty of using more times than I would like to admit.
When I was younger, foolish and pushed into a corner and asked to elaborate on why I couldn’t see them ‘that way’, to save my skin and the guys feelings, I’d blurt out ‘Because you are like my brother.’
Though those guys weren’t anything remotely like my brother who, while we're on the subject, is a strapping, tall, dark, handsome, though sometimes very exasperating, lad. Because, if they would be anything like him, minus the exasperating bit, I wouldn’t be using the line ‘I can’t look at you that way’ in the first place.
However, having grown older and wiser, besides realizing and accepting the fact that no Indians are my bothers, except one, I am now am honest enough to not use the ‘Because you are like my brother’ line.
Now, when pushed into a corner and asked to elaborate on the ‘Why’ after telling them ‘I can’t look at you that way’ I quell their bubbling curiosity by enlightening them with the precise reason.
Then as I walk away, I hear faint wisps of words like, ‘...thinks no end of her self...’ , ‘choke her or strangle her?’ and assorted other similar terminology floating my way ;))
The reasons a girl declines coffee could surprise you and the biggest surprise is that you hardly figure in any of the reasons.
Ranging from the fact that coffee is not the brew of her choice to maybe she doesn’t like the cutlery in the particular place you were asking her out to (warned ya you’d be surprised!)
What? You didn’t mention any place, yet?
Oh! Oh! What color shirt were you wearing when you asked, then? (Sorry, orange reminds her of the Shiv Sena) What cologne were you wearing? (Sporty colognes remind her of the *&%$#@ ex-boyfriend) Were your shoes right? (Badly scuffed shoes remind her of her horribly cruel PT teacher from school)
So, you see, It’s Not About You.
You think it about looks then? Wrong, again!
Ok, let me explain something more. It is never, ever about good looks and the perfect physique for girls, contrary to what guys think. You don’t believe me?
Ok.
Look around you and tell me who is the hottest hunk women drool over right now? Go, on.
It’s Abhishek Bachchan. Does he have the perfect abs? (Not. He even has a bit of a tummy for God’s sake!) Besides a tummy, he has the worst hair and hairstyle in the history of mankind and don’t even get me started about his ungainly gait and the extra weight!
But girls drool over him more than they drool over Hritik Roshan, who has the six-pack, the right hair and hairstyle and chiseled face and what not!
Why? Only God, and the girls, know.
So don’t ever try to fathom why a girl turns down coffee and trust me when I say It’s Not About You.
Just smile your smile, be yourself and try asking a girl out with a ‘Would you like to join me for a glass of Orange Juice’, instead.
Either she’ll be too stunned to react and just nod a submissive ‘Yes’, or her mind will start whirring faster than the cash register at her favorite boutique and she’ll connect things you can’t even dream of, for instance
‘heaskedmeoutforanorangejuice
-thatsmeansheisadifferentsortaguy-
whichmeansibettersnaghimbeforeanyofmyfriendsdo.’
And before you know it you’ll be sitting across her, nourishing your health with Vitamin C and nourishing your ego with the smiles she’s flashing your way and maybe, just maybe she’ll start thinking of you and seeing you in ‘that way.’
;)
Thursday, February 22, 2007
One more bit...Childline
Last time I wrote the bits and pieces post but forgot to add one thing for which I had started that post...
If you have a office/home party/marriage/function and you have lot of excess food left... which you want to give away.. you can call 1098, childline, they will come and take the food away. Childline is a child welfare organizations, and has links to most of the orphanages in all major cities.
You may say that it does not look right to give away the left food for kids, but I guess that would be much better than the bland food that they might otherwise get.
Cheers.
If you have a office/home party/marriage/function and you have lot of excess food left... which you want to give away.. you can call 1098, childline, they will come and take the food away. Childline is a child welfare organizations, and has links to most of the orphanages in all major cities.
You may say that it does not look right to give away the left food for kids, but I guess that would be much better than the bland food that they might otherwise get.
Cheers.
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Bits and pieces...
First bit... something which i really liked to read...
"You should not fret too much about writers's bloc or artist's bloc or whatever. If you are looking at a blank piece of paper and nothing comes to you, then you go do something else. Writer's bloc is just a symptom of feeling like you have nothing to say, combined with the weird idea that you SHOULD feel the need to say something.
If you have something to say, then say it. Else enjoy the silence for the while"
Ofcourse I did not write this... I read it from the creative writing link that I sent earlier. I wonder how many read it, but if you have not read it, read it for the fun of it.
Another bit
The difference between socialist and capitalist
(My friend was discussing this with me yesterday)
Socialist will GET a cake and distribute EQUALLY among everyone including himself.
A capitalist will make sure that he is able to CREATE a very big cake, and will keep HALF of it to HIMSELF, and distribute the remaining, but still everyone would end up getting more that what they would have otherwise got.
I am not making any judgement calls on socialist and capitalist..... but just it was a something to think about..
"You should not fret too much about writers's bloc or artist's bloc or whatever. If you are looking at a blank piece of paper and nothing comes to you, then you go do something else. Writer's bloc is just a symptom of feeling like you have nothing to say, combined with the weird idea that you SHOULD feel the need to say something.
If you have something to say, then say it. Else enjoy the silence for the while"
Ofcourse I did not write this... I read it from the creative writing link that I sent earlier. I wonder how many read it, but if you have not read it, read it for the fun of it.
Another bit
The difference between socialist and capitalist
(My friend was discussing this with me yesterday)
Socialist will GET a cake and distribute EQUALLY among everyone including himself.
A capitalist will make sure that he is able to CREATE a very big cake, and will keep HALF of it to HIMSELF, and distribute the remaining, but still everyone would end up getting more that what they would have otherwise got.
I am not making any judgement calls on socialist and capitalist..... but just it was a something to think about..
Thursday, February 08, 2007
To all the girls out there... A humble request
Excerpt from a Secret Dairy of a Secret Guy...
Discliamer: Any resembelence to any person living or dead is purely fictitious.
"
The one thing which I dread and am really afraid of is when a girl tells me that I am like a sweet brother to her.... God I hate it, fear it and have wild dreams about it... I wonder why girls are always interested in making brothers, even after they grow up, I wonder what faults that they see with their real brothers that makes them go out looking for more brothers, and even more brothers. I do hate more when most of my sisters' friends or friends' sisters start addressing me as "bhaiya", it becomes kind of default thing to use, and it irritates me. I wish they would ask me my name. And imagine if I turn back and start calling them bahenji, would they not take offence. Girls are funny and they are.
The other set of girls who are not going around forming brothers have one other deadly weapon "I cant look at you in that way", wonder what that is supposed to mean. And thats it, next day I keep looking at myself in mirror while shaving, and wondering if that has got to do with the way I look, the way I have my hair or it has got to do with her vision. And in general girls dont want to argue and discuss this subject, while it is so obvious to them, it seems latin-greek to me and leaves me totally perplexed. The only thing that I get out of them is that I dont appear to be that serious. But the problem is that if I start talking serious stuff then I dont even get this far, I mean then girls will never be interested in me. Because girls like fun-loving easy-going guys. So you see it is vicious circle. and I think the key is to identify the point of transition when I have to change myself from easy-going to hard-tuff, from talking about guitaing and the latest Johny Depp movie to talking about future career prospectus and the real estate pricing.
But the most funniest thing that I find is that the same girl (I mean the same girl who tells me that I am not serioius), when she goes out to meet the guy that parents have chosen for her, by default start seeing him as perspective husband, even though most of the times I find him as idiotic as myself.
I guess you girls have to understand that life is difficult for guys with the competition so high and you have to be little considerate. I guess on an average a girl might get proposed 5 times in her bachelorhood... (I have no data on how much on married girls), whereas a guy like me might die to get proposed even once. Now when I have got to think about it I dont think any of my boy-friends (somehow calling boy friends looks little shady, I mean my friends who are guys) have ever got proposed, atleast no one has ever told me about it. And trust me guys also have very little threshold of falling in love, and they pratically fall in love with any girl, I think if guy meets a girl for ten times he would surely fall in love. This is especially true if the guy comes from some testosterone intensive college like IIT.
So please all you girls dont take it very seriously if I ask you out for a cup of coffee, I am just looking for a harmless cup of coffee. Dont make any character based assumptions about me. And I have a very nice and cute sister and I love her. I dont think I can handle more than that. And please dont treat me as agony uncle and start talking about the antics of your new boyfriend, about how he does not pay any attention to you or whatsoever, because I hate your boyfriend, I genuinely hate him. I might listen with lot of enthusiasm but inside my heart breaks, and please dont do it especially when I cam sponsering you a cup of coffee. And if possible do let me know when is the transition point, rather when you would want to see me as hard and macho man.
Cheers.
Discliamer: Any resembelence to any person living or dead is purely fictitious.
"
The one thing which I dread and am really afraid of is when a girl tells me that I am like a sweet brother to her.... God I hate it, fear it and have wild dreams about it... I wonder why girls are always interested in making brothers, even after they grow up, I wonder what faults that they see with their real brothers that makes them go out looking for more brothers, and even more brothers. I do hate more when most of my sisters' friends or friends' sisters start addressing me as "bhaiya", it becomes kind of default thing to use, and it irritates me. I wish they would ask me my name. And imagine if I turn back and start calling them bahenji, would they not take offence. Girls are funny and they are.
The other set of girls who are not going around forming brothers have one other deadly weapon "I cant look at you in that way", wonder what that is supposed to mean. And thats it, next day I keep looking at myself in mirror while shaving, and wondering if that has got to do with the way I look, the way I have my hair or it has got to do with her vision. And in general girls dont want to argue and discuss this subject, while it is so obvious to them, it seems latin-greek to me and leaves me totally perplexed. The only thing that I get out of them is that I dont appear to be that serious. But the problem is that if I start talking serious stuff then I dont even get this far, I mean then girls will never be interested in me. Because girls like fun-loving easy-going guys. So you see it is vicious circle. and I think the key is to identify the point of transition when I have to change myself from easy-going to hard-tuff, from talking about guitaing and the latest Johny Depp movie to talking about future career prospectus and the real estate pricing.
But the most funniest thing that I find is that the same girl (I mean the same girl who tells me that I am not serioius), when she goes out to meet the guy that parents have chosen for her, by default start seeing him as perspective husband, even though most of the times I find him as idiotic as myself.
I guess you girls have to understand that life is difficult for guys with the competition so high and you have to be little considerate. I guess on an average a girl might get proposed 5 times in her bachelorhood... (I have no data on how much on married girls), whereas a guy like me might die to get proposed even once. Now when I have got to think about it I dont think any of my boy-friends (somehow calling boy friends looks little shady, I mean my friends who are guys) have ever got proposed, atleast no one has ever told me about it. And trust me guys also have very little threshold of falling in love, and they pratically fall in love with any girl, I think if guy meets a girl for ten times he would surely fall in love. This is especially true if the guy comes from some testosterone intensive college like IIT.
So please all you girls dont take it very seriously if I ask you out for a cup of coffee, I am just looking for a harmless cup of coffee. Dont make any character based assumptions about me. And I have a very nice and cute sister and I love her. I dont think I can handle more than that. And please dont treat me as agony uncle and start talking about the antics of your new boyfriend, about how he does not pay any attention to you or whatsoever, because I hate your boyfriend, I genuinely hate him. I might listen with lot of enthusiasm but inside my heart breaks, and please dont do it especially when I cam sponsering you a cup of coffee. And if possible do let me know when is the transition point, rather when you would want to see me as hard and macho man.
Cheers.
Monday, February 05, 2007
RaNDom ThOUgHT
"If I try I will risk failure, If I don't I will ensure it!"
I borrowed RaNDom ThOUgHT thing from Sucharita blog. The thought is different but the idea the same.. :D
I borrowed RaNDom ThOUgHT thing from Sucharita blog. The thought is different but the idea the same.. :D
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Sheer brilliance of NOT-Working
I was train`ing to pune last week, and was nicely sitting by the window berth wearing above tshirt
and was reading the following book..
And there was this gentle man sitting right in front of me and he all of sudden asked me "How are you going to change the world by Not-Working?"
For a moment I did not quite understand it but then it struck to me that he was referring to my tshirt.... It was funny... Then he went on to ask me if i had changed the world and how was I going to change the world, he was sort of rediculing me.. and I hated it...I wanted to ask him point blank what has he done to do anything in his life... but as it turned out he had done lot of work related to orphanages, he keeps visiting childrens homes and orphanges and does something about them... finally at the end of it.. it was a nice conversation.
I think I should travel more often by train, there is nothing better than a nice evening by the window with a book in hand and reading looking at all the sunflower fields and all the stations and all the people. And mostly always you always end of meeting someone very nice and interesting to talk to.
About the book: Actually the name may suggest that it is a self help book, but actually it is not so. It is a book is a collection of stories about simple and ordinary people who have done something great to bring about a social change with creativity and determinations.
Cheers and adios...
Monday, January 29, 2007
CreATiVItY
"Everyone is born creative, everyone is given a box of crayons in kindergarten, then when you hit puberty they take the crayons away and replace them with books on algebra.. etc. Being suddenly hit years later with the creative bug is just a wee voice telling you, “Iʼd like my crayons back, please.”
Quoted from "How to be creative" by Hugh MacLeod.
I loved this essay... It is a good reading..
Quoted from "How to be creative" by Hugh MacLeod.
I loved this essay... It is a good reading..
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Dancing...
I have been here in Pune (pimpri), in a marriage of my cousin..
I have been dancing my heart out for last three days and my feet are aching bad because of constant jumping.... It is not like a bangalore party dancing... it is like dancing with grannys, the long lost aunties whom you see only in marriages, dancing with all the chotu kids of cousins with whom we used to play in summer vacation way back. It is very different and fun. I dont know what happens in other communities, but at our place there is something called sangeet.... (which is not restricted to fairer sex), and it starts with traditional songs and then goes on to all the hindi dance numbers ... (English music is not popular at marriages). Actually I am not that good at dancing, quite bad in fact (find it very difficult to move gracefully), but if there are aerobic kind of dance steps... like "Lets' go party tonight", "Kya mujhe pyaar hai", types then I guess I can take over..
I shall write more about it with some pics when I am back to bangalore....
I have been dancing my heart out for last three days and my feet are aching bad because of constant jumping.... It is not like a bangalore party dancing... it is like dancing with grannys, the long lost aunties whom you see only in marriages, dancing with all the chotu kids of cousins with whom we used to play in summer vacation way back. It is very different and fun. I dont know what happens in other communities, but at our place there is something called sangeet.... (which is not restricted to fairer sex), and it starts with traditional songs and then goes on to all the hindi dance numbers ... (English music is not popular at marriages). Actually I am not that good at dancing, quite bad in fact (find it very difficult to move gracefully), but if there are aerobic kind of dance steps... like "Lets' go party tonight", "Kya mujhe pyaar hai", types then I guess I can take over..
I shall write more about it with some pics when I am back to bangalore....
Cheers
Friday, January 19, 2007
Blabbering on 50th post
This is my 50th post, and I feel happy that I have come so far, thanks to all the guys who read this....
Nothing specific to say today, but I will just put down the rumblings in my mind on the way to office.
One of my collegue has a 8 year old kid, and he communicates with his father on Google Talk. Amazing... I think he plays with Xbox (or whatever that is called). I wonder if this kids mature much faster in life?
That made me think about my days back then in baroda, I remember that the only appreciable toy that I had for a long time was a bus, a metal bus with wheels, not the "chaabi wala", but the one which you have to drag. And I used to go around our veranda, day in and day out with it. I used to envy my neighbours kid, because he used to have multiple busses and sometimes he used to let me run them as well.
Another thing I guess which was quite facinating was to play "Ghar Ghar", and I remember that I had a blue color plastic cooker, witha yellow color plastic gas stove. And we used to play that endlessley, never getting tired to repeating the same routine each and everyday.
Sand, that is another thing that was heaven, there was the excitement when some construction used to start nearby, and thats all was needed for me and my sister to run away from home and run and fall and make sand castles, in hot sun, rain, anything.
I wonder if today the kids play the same games, I think it is quite out of fashion these days to play "Ghar Ghar".
Sometimes I think that our generation was the best time to grow up, because most of us coming from small towns have seen a mammoth change in out life. From kerosene stoves to microwaves, from vivid bharti to radio indigo, from struggling to get a line to make std calls to cellphones, from postcards to emails, from gud (jaggery) bajara roti to pizzas, from the Bata canvas shoes to the Nikes, from the much awaited sunday movies on doordharshan to hundred channels. I guess because of the massive changes we are able to relate to the hi-fi glamour world and also slow paced life of our towns.
I think enough rumblings, for the morning....
Cheers and happy times ahead..
By the way out of my all 50 posts my favourite post has been this.
Nothing specific to say today, but I will just put down the rumblings in my mind on the way to office.
One of my collegue has a 8 year old kid, and he communicates with his father on Google Talk. Amazing... I think he plays with Xbox (or whatever that is called). I wonder if this kids mature much faster in life?
That made me think about my days back then in baroda, I remember that the only appreciable toy that I had for a long time was a bus, a metal bus with wheels, not the "chaabi wala", but the one which you have to drag. And I used to go around our veranda, day in and day out with it. I used to envy my neighbours kid, because he used to have multiple busses and sometimes he used to let me run them as well.
Another thing I guess which was quite facinating was to play "Ghar Ghar", and I remember that I had a blue color plastic cooker, witha yellow color plastic gas stove. And we used to play that endlessley, never getting tired to repeating the same routine each and everyday.
Sand, that is another thing that was heaven, there was the excitement when some construction used to start nearby, and thats all was needed for me and my sister to run away from home and run and fall and make sand castles, in hot sun, rain, anything.
I wonder if today the kids play the same games, I think it is quite out of fashion these days to play "Ghar Ghar".
Sometimes I think that our generation was the best time to grow up, because most of us coming from small towns have seen a mammoth change in out life. From kerosene stoves to microwaves, from vivid bharti to radio indigo, from struggling to get a line to make std calls to cellphones, from postcards to emails, from gud (jaggery) bajara roti to pizzas, from the Bata canvas shoes to the Nikes, from the much awaited sunday movies on doordharshan to hundred channels. I guess because of the massive changes we are able to relate to the hi-fi glamour world and also slow paced life of our towns.
I think enough rumblings, for the morning....
Cheers and happy times ahead..
By the way out of my all 50 posts my favourite post has been this.
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
Did you see RDB?
Not long time ago,
I went to cancel this ticket,
It was not a simple reservation,
but a tatkal train ticket,
TC said said go here,
Clerk asked me to go there,
Went almost everywhere,
but no sucess anywhere
finally had to go to railway inspector,
but he was not on seat for an hour,
finally he came, was arrogant, rude
and said it is not possible
All angry I was and frustrated,
When I met this gentleman down,
On relating everything to him
He asked, did you see RDB?
Either you shout and go home,
Or you go and put a complain,
Choice is yours,
For this country of Ours.
I went to cancel this ticket,
It was not a simple reservation,
but a tatkal train ticket,
TC said said go here,
Clerk asked me to go there,
Went almost everywhere,
but no sucess anywhere
finally had to go to railway inspector,
but he was not on seat for an hour,
finally he came, was arrogant, rude
and said it is not possible
All angry I was and frustrated,
When I met this gentleman down,
On relating everything to him
He asked, did you see RDB?
Either you shout and go home,
Or you go and put a complain,
Choice is yours,
For this country of Ours.
PS1: RDB is RangDeBasanti
PS2: Dont have patience to sit and rhyme it.
Hold on one more
Last PS: It was a tatlak, waitlist ticket so liable to be cancelled.
Monday, January 08, 2007
Surprise gift from faraway....
While travelling back from Hospet couple of months back, I had met this french gentleman, Antione in the bus, and I helped him in a lot in getting a auto, explaining him bus routes and other such stuff. Couple of days later I went around with him to do some shopping for his family because he was going home. That was november.
Out of the blue, couple of days back he called me again and said that he was back in india and that he wanted to meet him, and yesterday when i met him, he has got for me a Frech Wine and some amazing home made choclates (not the kisses kinds, but marmalde with choclate coating). It was such a lovely surprise and I have been feeling happy happy since then.
You can come home for some good wine, but as far as the choclates are concerned, it is anybody's guess where they have dissappeared... :D
Out of the blue, couple of days back he called me again and said that he was back in india and that he wanted to meet him, and yesterday when i met him, he has got for me a Frech Wine and some amazing home made choclates (not the kisses kinds, but marmalde with choclate coating). It was such a lovely surprise and I have been feeling happy happy since then.
You can come home for some good wine, but as far as the choclates are concerned, it is anybody's guess where they have dissappeared... :D
Monday, January 01, 2007
Notes of 2006...
--> The easiest way I ensure that the auto guy does not cheat me, is that I start talking with him as soon as I enter the auto, trust me it makes a huge difference.
--> Gyming everyday for about 20 minutes makes you feel good for next twenty hours and give sound sleep for rest of hours.
--> Lot of times, last year I kept wondering and fretting how could he/she do this to me and so on. But I realized that it is worthwhile putting myself in his/her shoes and analyzing . I think that everyone is resonable and good in their own way.
--> When quarelling most of the times I forgot all the good things that happened to relationship and only remembered the last bad thing that happened.
--> I think our mind has infinite capacity to do things, the moment I start thinking that I cannot do this or this is not your cup of tea I think I am getting older. And I dont want to. (Wanna be 18 till I die)
--> I hate when someone discourages me, and now I dont care to be polite also, I ask them to f*** off.
--> Munna bhai and Roberto Benigni (of Life is beautiful) are my heroes. and RDB is my inspiration.
--> Have realized that only during the times when I am down and broken that I have ventured forth to do some thing different.
--> I did some creative writing course, sounds funny. But to me it was the course which opened a whole new world of poems, haikus, screenplay, dramatics to me.
--> Gyming everyday for about 20 minutes makes you feel good for next twenty hours and give sound sleep for rest of hours.
--> Lot of times, last year I kept wondering and fretting how could he/she do this to me and so on. But I realized that it is worthwhile putting myself in his/her shoes and analyzing . I think that everyone is resonable and good in their own way.
--> When quarelling most of the times I forgot all the good things that happened to relationship and only remembered the last bad thing that happened.
--> I think our mind has infinite capacity to do things, the moment I start thinking that I cannot do this or this is not your cup of tea I think I am getting older. And I dont want to. (Wanna be 18 till I die)
--> I hate when someone discourages me, and now I dont care to be polite also, I ask them to f*** off.
--> Munna bhai and Roberto Benigni (of Life is beautiful) are my heroes. and RDB is my inspiration.
--> Have realized that only during the times when I am down and broken that I have ventured forth to do some thing different.
--> I did some creative writing course, sounds funny. But to me it was the course which opened a whole new world of poems, haikus, screenplay, dramatics to me.
Friday, December 22, 2006
Messe Thimmaiah......
Dont think that many of us would know the man in picture. Well he is Messe Thimmaiah. He was a traffic policeman, who used to stand at GPO signal (in Bangalore). While on duty he was run over by a overspeeding vehicle and he died on spot. This was somewhere during sept 97. Quite long time back actually.
But when I do ask some oldies of Bangalore, they tell me that they quite remember this guy. He was a commanding personality, smiling and helping poeple to cross the road and all that stuff.
I heard about him on some quiz on radio city and was really toched on hearing his story. I thought everyone should know about him. It took me quite an effort to get his picture. That is another story all together. Can write a full blog on it.
I was so touched by his story that I even went and interviewed couple of traffic policeman. It sounds little crazy, but I do believe that traffic police'ing is one of the worst jobs in Bangalore. And I just wanted to take a peek in to the life of traffic policeman. (I am putting the interview of the traffic policeman in the next blog).
This fellow whom I interviewed was estatic with the fact that someone wanted to talk to him. I guess it makes a huge difference if you just spend couple of minutes and talk to someone about them.
All thanks to Lohith for making this all possible. First to find me the picture, and then to act as a kannada translator.
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