Movie review of Gaalipata

Rajesh Krishnan, Ganesh and Diganth - Gaalipata

This weekend has been really good and I had some real good fun with my college buddies. Today we 14 of us decided to checkout Yogaraj Bhat's eagerly awaited movie 'Gaalipata - Manada mugilalli Muhabbat'. I must confess here that my intention behind accepting the offer to join my buddies for the movie was just to hangout and have fun! I had read the reviews of gaalipata on TOI, which rated this movie with 4 stars. I knew that Yogaraj Bhat wouldn't let us down after the mesmerizing spell he casted in the form 'Mungaru Male'. So with the expectations of a typical sandal wood fan, we all entered Adarsh Theatre at Ulsoor, for the matinee show.

The introduction of the star cast is pretty unique in the sense that you get to hear Ganesh spilling out dialogues (typical Yogaraj Bhat lingos) at the background while the intro runs on the foreground. The story is about three guys viz. Ganesh (Gani - an MBA grad), Diganth (Diganth - A medical student) and Rajesh Krishnan (Kitty - an engineer + a love failure + also his debut as an actor), who are bugged up with the mundaneness of a city life and are desperately in need of a break. So the they decide to go over to Diganth's grandpa's place called Mugilu pete. At their grandpa's place, they meet the 3 daughter's of Ananth Nag (kodandarama - an avid hunter) and Padmaja Rao (Padma - kodandarama's wife). She has been paired up with Ananth Nag yet another time (after Mungaru Male) and does justice to her role. The 3 female lead actors viz. Daisy bopanna (Sowmya) who plays a widow, Neethu (Radha) who plays a rough and tough girl(?) and Bhavana Rao (pavani) who plays the role of a chul-bhuli cum she's-yet-to-mature-kinda girl, manage to woo the eligible bachelors. The rest of the story is all about how these 3 studs manage to get their 'dilrubaas'. The climax is worth your time!

But the real highlights of the movie are:

• Yogaraj Bhat's unconventionally scripted dialogues. I am full of praises for this man's great ability to discover beautiful places and share them on silver screen beautifully, so much so that you plan your next vacation to those places!
• Ratna Velu's magical spell behind the camera (Man you gotta see those waterfall scenes in this movie! You will be swept off your feet). All credits to the best cinematographer of the south India.
• Jayanth Kaykini, Hrudayashiva and Yogaraj Bhat's lyrical magic powered by Hari Krishna's 'pied piper-ish' music, really command a big round of applause as they collectively manage to give that much needed 'feel' to this love story.
  
• A couple of excellent audio tracks just make you life easier. I personally liked 'Minchaagi Neenu baralu' sung by Sonu Nigam and the title track 'Gaalipata' which is a very lively track.
  

My Rating: ***1/2

* Watch it at your own risk!
** No harm in checking it out once!
*** A decent movie on offer!
**** If you are an avid cinema-goer, you shouldn't miss it!
***** A master peice. Audience just couldn't have asked for any better. Paisa vasool!


~IT's My Life

Taare Zameen Par – A review

As I had promised earlier, I am finally posting my views on this movie. While posting my review, I have made a sincere attempt to share my personal experiences along with the ones rendered in this movie.

After a long time, I have finally come across a movie where the focus is not on who the male or female protagonist is? Or who has taken home a hefty cheque for an item number? But a social issue which badly needed a platform to voice itself and finally got heard. Thank god! It finally found a benefactor in the form of TZP.

Today I happened to watch TZP for the second time. As you might have already read about it from other sources, TZP deals with the story of a child (Ishaan Awashti portrayed by Darsheel Safary) afflicted with dyslexia and how he manages to fight against all odds to realize his true potentials with the help of his art teacher (Nikumb sir portrayed by Aamir Khan).

What struck me about this movie is the tag line, ‘Every child is special’. Nice tag isn’t it? But how many of us accept this so-called ‘special thing’ in every child? How many parents understand and appreciate the fact that their child could be special? Going by the norms of this world, if you aren’t among those kids who top the class every year + win trophies year after year in games + master singing / any instrument like piano, guitar, etc you are loser dear! You don’t deserve to be fondled at home nor do your choti choti desires like getting yourself an aquarium / a pair of skate boards, deserve to be even noticed by your parents! In short you are blatantly incompetent. Period!

Sounds a bit exaggerating isn’t it? Not really folks. Taare Zameen Par has portrayed all these issues with sheer finesse and thanks to some unbelievably convincing portrayal of a dyslexic child by Darsheel Safary and some strokes of mastery on and off the screen by Aamir-The-Perfectionist-Khan. The movie has tried to hit the very root cause of what I call a ‘strategic-inflection-point’ in parenting which is going wayward, mainly in the cities. With the inevitable bhaag-daud of a city life, true parenting has gone for sixes and a child finds itself lost in the immaterial comforts, only to be left starving for real care and the much needed attention from the parents.

Don’t you feel that the whole world seems to be so much lost in the rat race called ‘competition’ that kids are being ‘groomed’ to face the so-called challenges of the world outside? Parents are busy scripting the success stories, oops! ‘Block busters’ of tomorrow. Don’t you feel that kids aren’t being allowed to enjoy their childhood to the fullest? Aamir khan rightly quotes in the movie, “Janta hoon.Bahar ek berehem competitive duniya basi hai. Aur is duniya main sabhi ko apni apni gharo main toppers ugane hai! Har kisi ko awwal number chahiye. Doctor, engineer, management… Isse kum to bardash hi nahi hoti. 95.5% 95.6% 95.7% isse kam to gaali ke barabar hai. Kyu? Arey zara socho. Har Bacche ki apni khubhi hoti hain, apni ek khabiliyat hoti hain, apni ek chahat hota hain. Har ungli ko kheech ne main lage hue hain. Lage raho, chahe ungli hi kyu na toot jaye? Agar ghode dhaudana ka itna hi shauk hai to breed horses damn it. Bacche kyu paida karte ho?”

I don’t blame the parents for all of the above. Just have a glance at the kind of shows you find on television today. You will not be surprised to see umpteen numbers of shows where a 2 year old kid drives a car or another kid performs breath taking stunts with skate boards. If you feel that I am against nurturing unconventional budding talents, I am absolutely not. But what definitely becomes a matter of concern is when parents start to pressurize kids to pursue something against a child’s wish. Just to prove that your kid is no less ‘talented’ than your neighbor Mr. Sharma’s kid, you pester your kid day in and day out to join a dance class or learn basket ball. Add to it the peer pressure which a kid faces in the school and all you get is a kid literally living a nightmarish life! I feel we have spun a wheel called ‘ruthless competition’ jo thamne ka naam hi nahi le rahi hain. The soft targets of this game are undoubtedly the poor kids.

One more issue which TZP highlights very subtly but effectively is that if you allow your kid to pursue his/her dreams, in all probabilities you would find him/her successful in that field. Sharing my personal experience, I can guarantee you that 9/10 parents would go ga ga if they discover that their son wants to be a cricketer or wants to pursue a dream in entertainment industry. Ok. Let me go for more common examples.

What is the first question asked to a kid when relatives come to your house? Any guesses? They ask, “Beta tum bade hoke doctor banna chahte ho ya phir engineer?” 9/10 times the kids throw back a confused look at this ‘predator’. I think the confused look says it all. They would just prefer to grow up first! I still won’t blame parents for this because they just go with the wind. For them securing the future of their kids is of highest priority. But once if you get a hint that your kid has the potential to prove himself in that field, I feel that parents should support him/her to pursue his/her dream.

When you visit your relatives or a friend’s house who have kids, parents can’t control that burning desire to impress you by showcasing their child’s coveted talents like ‘My son knows all the capitals cities of countries across the world’, ‘My son knows all the currencies of different nations’ or ‘Beta just recite the song new you saw of OSO last week’. If parents stop craving for that one wah-wah from the guests, they would be doing a great deal of favor to their kids. It would at least ensure that the kid isn’t under the impression that too much is being expected out of him, too early.

A few things really special about TZP:

1. You finally have a movie where the so-called ‘hero’ arrives at the time of interval and not in the very first scene of the movie. It is completely okies to do that, without staking the box office collections!
2. TZP has demystified the general notion of ‘Aisi-movie-to-sirf-hollywood-main-bante-hain-yaar’, prevalent in aam janata.
3. The camera angles in the movie have improved by leaps and bounds. They contribute a lot in ensuring that the movie looks very realistic.
4. The characters in the movie resemble real life characters. The idiosyncrasies of a typical so-called ‘Bhigda-hua’ school kid are captured really well.
5. The music by Shankar, Eshaan and Loy leaves you spell bound. I had posted about a really inspiring song here. My personal favorites being kholo kholo, title track and Maa…
6. It also highlights life at a boarding school and how it can really leave your kid frustrated, if he/she doesn’t get the required attention.
7. Last but not the least, a few dialogues leave you grossly contemplating even after you leave the theatre. Viz. ‘Jo dihkta hain hum ko lagta hai hai hain. Jo nahin dikta hum to lagta hain nahin hain. Lekhin kabhi kabhi jo dikhta hain who nahi hota aur jo nahi dikta hain woh hota hain.’

I also appreciate the way the character of Ishaan’s elder brother (Yuhaan) has been handled in the movie. For the first time you find that the ‘always-right-always-winning-machine-like-flawless’ kid is portrayed as a humble and understanding brother.

PS: Aamir Khan is a father in real life too and it definitely shows on screen as well. Let’s all remember that kids are not some kind of investment that parents make today and hope to reap rich dividends tomorrow. Let’s understand that relationships are not to be looked at with ‘what’s-in-it-for-me?’ kinda attitude. Let’s also not forget that every child special. Last but not the least, whenever you ask a kid what he/she wants to become when he grows up, wait for his/her answer and don’t prompt him with options. May be your options are too small to contain his/her imagination!

~IT's My Life

Baazigars of Orchard

My sincere apologies for not posting the reviews of TZP which I had promised in my previous article. Something euphoric and sensational happened on 10th evening. I am sharing with you the same. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

After being to a great cultural extravaganza and the allegedly ‘joy-house-won-the-house champion’s-trophy-again-it-seems-dude’ episode and not to forget that close to a 30 minute bindaas Naach Gaana after the cultural events yesterday evening, I jot this article completely impromptu, spilling out all my emotions that are a homogeneous mixture of nostalgia and irrepressible euphoria.

As we finish with our 8 weeks of learning sessions at MindTree, I make an attempt to recollect those golden moments I spent here. I am sure all of you are going through the same sense of collective nostalgia as well. This article is an attempt to offer a small tribute to all those who, with their hardwork, sheer commitment and ever smiling faces made this whole journey of learning sessions, a jovial ride. Sirs and Madams this one’s coming just for you.

Joy in MindTree's truest colours!

I had written about the concept of houses in MindTree, which was started recently to ensure that the transition of a student from campus to corporate is smoothened. We have three houses at MindTree viz. House of Imagination, House of Action and House of Joy, each symbolizing the DNA of MindTree (Imagination, Action and Joy). Each house is assigned a PAL. After the house allocations were made, I got in to the House of Joy. I consider myself extremely fortunate to have got a wonderful PAL like Sudha Selvarajan, who took great care of all the 190 odd students (in fact it has now crossed a whooping 1000+, as she continues to mentor campus minds from other houses not only from the current batch but from the previous batches as well. To say it in her own words, she has been playing the role of ten times of Gandhari...) Don't even think of matching her sense of humour! The whole concept of PALs, in itself is really innovative and is MindTree’s way of ensuring that every campus mind who joins here feels special and nurtured, to face the challenges in the corporate world. The role of a PAL (Parent, Anchor and Leader. Also a true pal) is to ensure that they address the needs of all the campus minds and be there to resolve any of their problems, literally 24/7. They are one stop solution to all the queries which crop up in the ever inquisitive campus minds. I remember having read Sudha Madam quoting in ‘Circle of Life’, “I used to do this mentoring role informally earlier as well. But with the introduction of the concept of PALs, my role as a PAL has just gone a step ahead and is now official.”

Orchard - An entire floor dedicated to nurture campus minds!

As I had mentioned earlier, ours is the largest batch ever to have been assimilated by MindTree in one shot. I was skeptical about how we all would be handled by the company. Trust me when I say this, it’s no joke to keep all the campus minds enthused and engaged meaningfully for over 2 months. All credits to the visionaries who came up with this great concept of PALs and for dedicating an entire floor in phase II at MTW. Orchard, as it is called is the hub of all the action and fun. Come to Orchard and I shall promise you that you would be reminded of nothing short of your college days.

Activity room - A room for stress busting! (Right side)

It’s so very well planned and designed that you would always hanker to be here 24/7. We got our own lockers, an activity room where you can burst out all your stress (if any)!

Having spoken so much about PALs, I would like to share a few things about our PAL, Sudha Selvarajan. I start off with her for the simple reason that I got to interact with her more than anybody else. She is such an amazing lady with a great experience behind her. Not many people know that hers has been a life full of battles against all odds, where she has emerged victorious every time. I have never met a lady in my life of her stature and caliber. She definitely commands respect and not to mention undivided affection from all the MindTree minds. What’s so amazing about Sudha madam is, in spite of performing exceedingly well in her role as a technical director, she never allows you to get a feeling that you are actually interacting with some one so higher in the hierarchy of an organization. She ensures that she comes down to the level of campus minds and is always there for you and resolves all your queries almost instantly! (yes that also includes guiding the auto rickshaw guy figure out the exact destination over the phone when a campus mind, who is stuck in the traffic and is unable to convey where he/she intends to go.) She also shares with you her experience both in corporate life as well as social life and can guide you on any topic under the sun! I always call her a mobile encyclopedia. As I had mentioned before, each house activity organized by MindTree across the 3 houses, carried some points and at the end of the learning sessions, the house with the maximum number of points will be adjudged winner. Since we were the defending champions, Sudha madam had made it loud and clear on the very first day itself that she was not gonna let that rolling trophy out of her chamber, come what may! All the campus minds of joy house had promised Sudha madam to retain the champion’s trophy. Ghar ki izzat daav pe thi yaaro!!! We couldn’t afford to lose it at any cost.

But dunno why. Right from day one, inspite of being the defending champions, we were never looked at, as the hot favorites for repeating the dream run which the July batch had cherished. In fact we had given up all hopes of defending our house champion’s trophy after losing terribly in activities like house decoration. A slightly modified cliché from OSO, “Kehte hai ki agar kisi chees (read it as house champion’s trophy) ko dil se chaho to poori kayanat use tumse milane ne ki koshish main lag jaati hain.” Trust me. We all were hoping that the destiny conspires against all odds, yet another time to ensure that we defended this trophy. Until very recently, our house was trailing by miles. Thanks to some brilliant performances on the field and some majestic show put up by singers and terpsichoreans of our house, we finally managed to rise like a phoenix, after almost literally banished from the race for the champion’s trophy. Yesterday was the D day for all the 3 house to make it big as the activities organized by the MindTree for campus minds would officially come to an end. House of Joy was leading by a meager 400 points. A straight win by Action / Imagination house in signing, dancing and debate would have ensured the trophy in their basket. But when the results were finally out, our happiness had no bounds. Our house, which was the least sought after house for the winner’s slot, was declared victorious. A good bunch of campus minds (that included me as well) who were eagerly waiting for this official announcement to take place, literally jumped on to the stage and cheered for our house. I could see the excitement and a sense of accomplishment in the eyes of all the people of our house. What really made us happy was not just the fact that we won, but the way we won it. We had managed to bounce back so hard that other houses just couldn’t recover from the set backs they suffered in the later stages.

Madam, we have finally kept our words! I am really happy that we finally answered all the skepticism that lingered in the minds of all the campus minds of other houses, about our so called co-ordination, our ability to deliver under pressure and above all display great energy levels.

I think the entire campus batch of October 2007 has displayed great sportsmanship. We all have proved right once again, yet another bollywood cliché, ‘Kabhi kabhi jeetne ke liye harna bhi padta hai. Lekhin jo haar kar bhi jeete unhe baazigar kehte hain.’ Three cheers to the true baazigars of Orchard – Sudha Madam, Krishnan and Naveen! You all rock!!!

I would also take this opportunity to thank whole heartedly the PALs of other two house viz. Krishnan and Naveen, who have done an equally commendable job as PALs of Imagination house and Action house respectively. I also would like to extend special thanks to Nagan Gowda, and Chandru of PF team and the entire C2 Team, who ensured that everything went on really smooth during our learning sessions. If not for your sempiternal inspiration and dedication we wouldn’t have been where we are today! Hat’s off to you.

PS: I am sure now madam that you would have no problems in saying, what you love the most “Chalo guys go ahead. No issues!” We still remember what you used to say whenever we were planning to go ahead with things, “Arey! Thoda hatke socho yaar. Otherwise you will not stand out of the group.” Madam thank you so much for teaching us so many things so subtly!!! We shall cherish this relationship throughout our lives.

~IT's My Life

Piasa vasool?? Not really!!!

First things first... I would like to wish all the readers of this blog a very happy and a prosperous new year.

I am finally done with the 8 weeks learning program at MindTree. The last one and a half months have been the most hectic days of my life. It was after a long time that I pushed myself so hard in to something! That explains why my blog posts have dipped in frequency as well. I must say that I am gradually getting used to this corporate life. Hope to update this space more frequently here after.

If KBC were to hit prime time anytime in the future, I am sure the question worth several millions would definitely be, ‘What does it take to deliver a box office hit in bollywood?’ Let me give it a try. The following is an attempt to derive an empirical formula for delivering a successful movie in bollywood:

1. If you are an aspiring director, dreaming to make it big in Mumbai, the bare minimum requirement is to have a big collection of Hollywood flicks in your house. Warna ’How do you get your share of inspiration yaar?’

2. After knitting a story (acha chalo ‘ripping-off-from-Hollywood-flicks’ hi bol deta hoon), you need to get call sheets from who’s who in bollywood.

3. Bollywood movie bana rahe ho aur koi gana vana nahi. Aisa kaisa ho sakta hai? So you gotta have a dance (item) number pa. It’s a must!!!

4. After getting the call sheets of so-called super stars of bollywood, you need to convince your director that Maliaka Arora Khan is playing a very crucial role in this movie (allegedly in an item number) and it’s absolutely okies to pay her 1 crore!

5. If that doesn’t drive away your fear of a delivering a box office hit, you gotta request the male protagonist (preferably a 40+ six packer) to persuade the super stars of yester years (yes the list includes Chunkey pandey!) to make a guest appearance in a dance number where they shall share the silver screen for a split second. You know what? The audience should consider themselves fortunate to see them all in a single movie!!!

6. Not to forget. You must have some sophisticated twists and turns in the movie like, the re-incarnation of the male/female protagonist. The hero must spill out clichés like, “Picture abhi bhi baaki hai mere dost!’ (A gentle reminder for all those who were planning to sneak out of the theatres after intermission).

7. Once you are done with shooting those must have item numbers and scenes where the hero blabbers some heavy clichés, you should start off with the promotion of your movie. The leads of the movie should make regular appearances on reality shows, FM stations as guests. The whole concept behind such ruthless campaigning (read as fooling the audience) with a subtle message ‘Look we don’t have anything special to offer in terms of story. So don’t expect Oscar winning performances from our lead actors. Kyu ki hame khud apni product par shak hai. Is liye we are trying to market it really hard. Watch this movie at your own risk!’

8. Since you already know that the movie you have offered to public is absolute crap, you should be extremely thankful to aam janata if they turn up at theatres in decent numbers. Pehli week pe collection acchi rahi to bach gaye mere dost warna to bhagvan hi tumhari madad kar sakta hai!

It leaves a bad taste in your mouth when you discover that a movie that hit theatres with so much of hype, failed pathetically to live up to your expectations, irrespective of the fact that it was the director’s second movie or whether the protagonists were new comers.

Every trend has an anomaly and bollywood is no different. Amidst a plethora of excessively hyped (over-promise-under-deliver-category) movies you find real good ones like Taare Zameen Par, where the focus is on story and not on some item number where the self proclaimed lady divas suffer from BPK3S (Badan Pe Kapdon Ki Kami Syndrome). I shall share my experience on TZP in my next post.

~IT's My Life

Osmosis - Celebrating Innovation @ MindTree

Osmosis - MindTree's annual technology festival

The whole of MindTree looks forward to this mega event that is scheduled in the month of December every year, where MindTree celebrates innovation. Osmosis the celebration of the nerd within all of us as we like to call it. It is MindTree's way of celebrating technology through showcasing achievements, through collaboration in form of discussions and various events & contests. We have lots of knowledge sharing that happens through out like daily quiz, crosswords etc. I had heard a lot about Osmosis, but hadn’t had the opportunity to be a part of it. I was eager to be a part of this celebration. My wait finally ended this morning when I got to experience the ‘Heat’. Boy! It was truly a memorable experience.

The specialty about this year’s celebration was the ‘unconference’ sessions that MindTree had organized. For the uninitiated, ‘unconference’ is this really cool concept of sharing thoughts where the audiences get to choose what they wanna listen to. Since osmosis truly stands for celebrating innovation, MindTree ensured that it would break the norms, by dropping the concept of having traditional conferences, and give this ‘unconference’ idea, a try and see if it works out well. By doing that not only did MindTree ensure that the ‘unconference’ topics addressed the intended audience, but also ensured that people get a common platform to discuss issues that would often be considered ‘unconventional’ for a conference. Trust me when I say this… ‘It simply rocked!’ MindTree is the first company in the corporate space to have implemented this new concept of unconference on such a big scale.

What was really cool about it?

1. To facilitate an unconference session you don’t need to have a mastery over that topic. The only requirement is that you should be able to guide the session in the right direction.

2. Also the topics to be discussed weren’t restricted to hard core technical stuff. For eg: we had topics like ‘I and my project manager’, ‘Are we losing Indian tradition because of globalization?’, ‘Self Deception’ etc.

3. The sessions are scheduled over a period of 45 minutes (between every session, we had a break of 15 minutes to facilitate people move to the respective halls, just in case they wanted to attend a different session of their interest), where it’s driven just like a group discussion, where people get to exchange thoughts and share their knowledge.

4. You are ensuring that the audience in the hall is present because they truly are interested to know about the topic, and not just for the heck of it! So you wouldn’t find people drowsing in the hall anymore!

5. I appreciate that MindTree broke the rules and was vigilant enough to pick up the changing trend of sharing thoughts! I consider myself fortunate to have got a chance to attend 3 unconference sessions in one single day. I attended these really enlightening sessions on ‘ Twitter for real time Micro Blogging’ and ‘ Jump start Open Social -- use existing networks for your benefit’, facilitated by Ujjwal Grover.

If you have built an impression, by now that Osmosis was all of unconference sessions and technology stuff, you got me perfectly wrong! We also had some real good fun. We witnessed a short play from MAG (MindTree Artists Guild), loads of song dedications (a stall put by Talent Acquisition Team), some hard core rock music by the October ’07 batch of MindTree.

All in all it was a truly festive atmosphere at MindTree. It’s also the time in the year that all the co-founders of MindTree are here to celebrate innovation with the rest of the family. I had a great time being a part of this festival. I am eagerly waiting for the next year’s Osmosis festival. I will definitely try to facilitate an unconference session!

Update: A few others who attended Osmosis wrote...

1. Shahnawaz Khan

2. Ujjwal Grover

3. Codelicious

Wanna get a flavour of how Osmosis'07 looked like? Follow the link below...

Shahnawaz Khan's photo take on final day

~IT's My Life

Impressions!

This might sound as a cliche... But do bear with, one last time. "The first impression in the BEST impression." Not really! It can be a bit deceiving at times!!

Yesterday I happen to speak to a colleague of mine, who spoke about a facilitator of his, whom everyone considers 'shrewd' a.ka. the villain! He told me that the facilitator was open enough to accept that he would be termed the 'Villain' of this story, popularly called 'Learning Interventions' at MindTree. The facilitator was well aware of the fact that people would find it exponentially difficult to understand the intentions behind his way of doing things. The facilitator, on the very first day made it loud and clear that the trainees should adhere to a list of 'rules' to be followed, to ensure discipline and decorum in the classroom. The facilitator didn't give a damn about the minority of so-called 'Boy! I'm not impressed with this facilitator' group. Unlike many of us, the facilitator was ready to stake his image of 'He is a really friendly person to approach' kinda image, that most of crave to build up, when we introduce ourselves to new people! He firmly believed that as long as his intentions were right, and he was successful in achieving the objectives (in his case... it was to ensure that he imparted right concepts to the trainees with full vigour), it was absolutely okies with him, even if everyone considered him 'shrewd' / 'unapproachable'. The facilitator 'promised' to take them all on a 'jolly' ride in 'hell', during the training. That's scaring!

But what he said in justification made absolute sense. He said, "For you to appreciate the comfort of being in heaven, you need to know how difficult it is to be in hell."

That really put me in to some serious thinking. What really bothered me after I ended the conversation with my colleague was, "Is the first impression always the best impression?" "Could it not be the BEST wrong impression you build about a person?" Come to think of it, you would realize that many a times we crib about an acquaintance, at a later point in time, when we realize that the so-called first impression we gathered about him/her was actually a myth! How many of us have the guts to say to this world at times, "Look... this is the way I do things. Take it or leave it. I know that my intentions are right, so I don't give it a damn, if you differ with my ways of doing things!" Trust me, many a time we compromise with end results (which should be the center of focus) by doing things which are influenced by this fear, "Oh my god! What will people think if I carry my self this way? Will I be able to convince everyone around me?"

Why does it happen?

I feel that you should to give any relationship a real good time to settle, even before you think of building up an impression about it. If you fail to do it, I can guarantee you that you are surely gonna crib about that relationship, some time or the other. It is absolutely okies to carry a neutral impression about people when any relationship is in the stages of infancy.

So the next time you pass a judgement about a guy/gal, being 'nice'/'shrewd', please ensure that you know their intentions pretty well. Everyone has a right to do things, the way they like it! If you feel someone is shrewd for all the right reasons in this world, then try to appreciate the good intentions behind it. I'm sure that they too would appreciate, if you could respect the candidness in their approach to life!

Statutory Warning: If you happen to be a first time visitor to my blog, wait for a while (read it as 'walk through my archives') before you build an impression. If you have already built one, don't go by it. Your subsequent impressions may change!

~IT's My Life

I'm inspired

Aamir Khan's Taare Zammen par

I have finally found time to jot down something on my blog. The learning sessions at the office have certainly begun to take a toll of my time. I have tons to share with you all but it’s just that I’m unable to devote that much of time in to blogging.

I happened to listen to audio tracks of Aamir Khan’s new flick Taare Zameen Par. I must confess that I was completely bowled out by the melody of each track of this wonderful album. I liked the title track of this movie a lot. But the song that really inspired me to post this article is ‘Kholo kholo...’. I couldn’t stop myself from jotting down its lyric. Just like the dominance of guitar work in the song ‘Alvida…’ from ‘Life in metro’, here too, the listeners are left mesmerized at the thrumming of the guitars at the background. Here is the lyric of the song ‘Kholo kholo...’

Kholo kholo darwaaze par dekaro kinare khutney se bhandi hai hawa milake chudao saare… saare… saare… saare…
Aaajao patang leke apne hi rang leke aasaman ka shamiyan aaj hame hain sajana… sajana… sajana… sajana…

Kyu is kadar hairaan tu? Mausam ka hai meheman tu…
Ho duniya saji tere liye… khud ko zara pehcaan tu…
Tu dhoop hai… jham se bhikar… Tu hai nadi oh bekahabar…
Behe chal kahi… Ud chal kahi… Dil khush jahaa… Teri to manzil hai wahi…

Ho kyu is kadar hairan tu… Mausam ka hai meheman tu…

Baasi zindagi udasi taazi hasane ko raazi garam garam saari abhi hai utari…
Ho zindagi to hai patasha meethi meethi si hai asha chak le rakh le hatheli se dhak le ise…
Tujh main agar pyaas hai… Bharish ka ghar bhi paas hai…
Ho rokhe tujhe koi kyu bhala sang sang tere aakash hai…

Tu dhoop hai… jham se bhikar… Tu hai nadi oh bekahabar… Beh chal kahi… Ud chal kahi… Dil khush jahaa… Teri to manzil hai wahi…

Khul gaya… Aasman ka rasata dheko khul gaya…
Mil gaya… kho gayata jo sitara mil gaya… Mil gaya…
Roshan hui saari Zameen… jag mag hua saara jahan…
Ho udne ko tu aazad hai… bhandan koi abh hai kahan…

Tu dhoop hai jham se bhikar… Tu hai nadi oh bekahabar… Beh chal kahi… Ud chal kahi… Dil khush jahaa… Teri to manzil hai wahi…

Ho kyu is kadar hairan tu… Mausam ka hai meheman tu…

Every time I listen to it, it brings in me a new hope, an optimism that just never seems to have an end.

It’s just the beginning of a long journey. We are all bound to face difficulties at various stages of this journey. Whenever you face an ambiguity in taking a decision, just step back for a moment and give it a real good thought. Never lose optimism. I’m sure you would definitely be able to resolve any conflicts in life.

I wish Aamir khan and the entire team of TZP, all the very best in this venture of theirs. Thank you so much for giving us a really inspiring track!

~IT's My Life

Campus to Corporate – A smooth transition

Update: 600 Mindtree Minds in one snap!

I had been waiting quite eagerly for this transition to happen. The defining moment finally arrived on the 15th of October, when MindTree successfully assimilated 600 of the 1000+ MindTree minds (around 400+ had been assimilated during July); they had recruited this academic year. It was quite a memorable day, as were stepping out of the campus arena in to in to the so-called corporate arena. I was curious, anxious and above all thrilled to the core. The specialty of our batch is that; we are the largest batch ever to be assimilated by MindTree in one take!

Day 1: The Induction Day - 15th October 2007

The induction day was scheduled on 15th of October at Good Shepherd auditorium on the residency road at Bangalore. I reached the venue along with many other fellow MindTree minds at around 8:20 a.m. The special thing about this whole induction program was that even the parents were invited to attend this event. It was their way of building a rapport with the parents of their employee’s, right from day 1. After a quick tea/coffee session, all of us were guided in to the auditorium. I must confess that Good Shepherd auditorium is a pretty spacious and a neatly built auditorium in terms of acoustics.

I managed to find a place to sit in the last row of the auditorium with my friends from B.I.E.T., more for the reason that I moved in late, rather than by choice. The day kick started with the usual rituals like lighting the lamp, invocation etc. We were presented with a video that showed the activities that take place every year at MindTree. It also had some memorable snaps of the Technical Fest called ‘Osmosis’, where people showcase their technological brilliance. It was conceived and developed by the July 2007 batch. I think they had done quite a commendable job, as it succeeded radiating true colors of MindTree to a great extent. It was followed by a back to back addressing by the big shots of MindTree. They also played an enlightening video on ‘safety in Bangalore’. There was also this 20 odd minute video footage of ‘Making of MindTree’, which showed some of those defining moments in the history of its making. I really loved the way they had conceived the notion of telling their story (narrated by Subroto Bagchi and S. Janakiraman alternatively) to the rest of the world. At this point in time I would like to share a fact. Some of those people, who built this ‘institution’, hail from the most ordinary family back grounds. But they had extraordinary dreams to fulfill in life. After the video was played, we had 2 of the MindTree minds who joined in July 2007 sharing their experiences at MindTree. It was followed by a Q&A session with the parents. All the questions raised by parents were answered satisfactorily, irrespective of their triviality. After the Q&A session was completed, there was an arrangement made for the parents to visit the MindTree’s new West Campus. In the mean while the rest of us broke for lunch.

The post lunch session was the most eagerly anticipated one, simply for the reason that Mr. Subroto Bagchi was to address the campus minds on the topic, ‘Mission, Vision and Values’. I had read a lot about Subroto, but hadn’t had the opportunity to hear him before. The anchor introduced him saying that, “The next person we would have on stage prefers himself to be called as a thinker rather than an excellent orator”. Trust me, after listening to him; I was convinced of one thing, Subroto was a perfect combination of both these virtues. Subroto began the session with a crisp definition of Mission, Vision and Values and clearly differentiated what they meant in MindTree’s context. He crystallized beautifully, the real meaning of MindTree’s DNA, Imagination, Action and Joy. He also shared with us the interesting story of how MindTree got its ‘living’ logo. He also spoke on the CLASS values of MindTree and explained them in great detail. He managed to be extraordinarily charismatic in spite of the fact that the content he presented was extremely candid. They call this whole process assimilation because they ensure that each and every campus mind that joins MindTree assimilates all those values of MindTree and respects them.

After he was done with the presentation, I was convinced why I had some real good reason to take pride in calling myself a MindTree mind. In his close to a 30 minute presentation, Subroto had made it loud and clear that at any point in time at MindTree, a ‘breach of integrity’ is always gonna land you out of their family and nowhere else. In today’s corporate world where producing doctored resumes, medical bills, furnishing manipulated work experience details or even collaborating during the internal assessments at a work place during training period, have become a norm, MindTree has taken a bold step of never to entertain any such acts. If you are ever found to be involved in any such acts at MindTree, trust me; you would have your termination letters in your hand, latest by that evening. It’s as black and white as that, no matter who you are and what is at stake, we simply don’t care! There are no shades of grey at MindTree. We at MindTree believe that integrity comes first and then comes the rest. That’s exactly the reason why we prefer to call ourselves an institution, rather than an XYZ company.

His presentation was followed by a Q&A session with campus minds, where we shot a lot of questions at Subroto. (I also learnt the first lesson of my corporate life in that session. You don’t address anyone as ‘sir’ in the corporate world. Subroto made it pretty clear that he or in fact anyone in the company should be addressed by his/her first name. Trust me; it’s pretty difficult for someone coming out of that typical college mindset to get used to this. I’m gradually getting used to calling people at my work place, by their first names.) I consider it my privilege to get this golden opportunity to interact with Subroto, because it happens pretty rarely that you get to interact with these biggies, in person. Unfortunately we couldn’t get to hear from our Ashok Soota, as he wasn’t available for some reason. But what was really good about the whole session was that Subroto, in spite of his busy engagements, as usual, had managed to take his time off and arrived there in person to convey the whole idea on which MindTree stands, in the clearest possible words. I feel that this kind of one-to-one mapping of the employees at MindTree is what brings in them, a sense of belonging to a single family! I know that it’s all possible because of that fact we are still a growing company as compared to other oldies in the arena. But I’m sure that our management is really working out in building models to maintain this directivity, as we continue to grow every year.

The later part of the day was dedicated to some wonderful dance numbers, light humor (a.k.a pjs) and some vocal treat. It was real fun! We left the auditorium at about 6 p.m. with the kits that MindTree had provided.

Day2: Paper work! (Actually day 1 at MTW*) - 16th October 2007

The second day was probably the most tiring one as we spent it completely in furnishing all the necessary information on their database, creating employee IDs, opening bank accounts and so on and so forth. So I’m not gonna bore you more on this. Ha Ha… (Isn’t that really kind of me?)

Day 3 & 4 (At V’s place and at my room in the accommodation at BTM) – 17th & 18th October 2007

Two days were reserved exclusively for campus minds who hadn’t managed to find an accommodation for themselves in Bengaluru yet. MindTree had arranged for a meeting with brokers, who were to help the campus minds to find an accommodation for themselves in Bengaluru. I was quite fortunate, because I had already done with this house hunting stuff. So I had been to V’s place and we watched that nail biting match between India and Australia on Wednesday and shopped a bit at Marathalli on Thursday.

Day 5: (Actually day 2 at MTW*) - 19th October 2007

There were a lot of things pending and left unfulfilled. Some of the campus minds hadn’t received the kits on the day of induction that contained MindTree’s T-shirts and other necessary stuff. Since there was a photo session scheduled that evening, getting a T-shirt, along with the other stuffs like ID cards topped the chart. The other activities involved registering for the cab facility provided by them, getting house loan deposit cheque etc. Another important activity of the day was 'allocation of house' to each MindTree mind. They group MindTree minds in to 3 houses during the learning period. There are basically 3 houses at MindTree, Imagination, Action and Joy. I’m in to Joy. I think it suits my character very well! He He… (I will write more about this house allocation and all the fun stuff associated with it, regularly on my blog. Keep tracking this space closely.) We also had those 'inevitable evils', the people from Vodafone, who had come over with their ever confusing tariff plans, to woo some fresh corporate babus, while at the same time to ensure that they retained their existing customer base. Many of my friends applied for a corporate connection. I opted for a conversion from pre-paid tariff plan to a post paid plan, because I didn’t want to mess up with my current contact number. Bhool gaya, AirTel waale bhi aarahe hain Monday ko!

The real thing to watch out for was the photo session which was scheduled to be carried out, anytime between 5p.m. to 6p.m. at the Café Coffee day in the West Campus. Everyone was pretty curious to see how the photographer would be able to capture all the 600 MindTree minds in one snap!! The defining moment finally arrived at around 5:45 p.m., when we everyone gave one of those million-dollar happy dent smile!! It was surely a memorable moment and will go down in to the history books of MindTree as the largest batch of MindTree ever to be captured in one frame! After posing patiently for approximately half a dozen of retakes, we were asked to disperse. Adi had brought her camera with which we managed to click a few memorable pics. (I also managed to get a solo snap of mine. I shall post it shortly.)

If I was to put my experience till date at MindTree, I would prefer to say this; if you are looking for a career and not merely a job, then MindTree should really top your charts!

*MTW – MindTree West Campus.

PS: I’m planning to share with you, the life stories of a few exceptional people at MindTree, who inspire everyone around here, as we continue to grow as one large family. I will finalize the blue print of the format of the same and shall publish them in my subsequent posts. Hope they manage to inspire you as well. Till then it’s me wishing you all, a happy and a colorful dusshera. Enjoy madi!!

~IT's My Life

Peace of Mind!

Well this post isn’t an elucidation of that ‘memorable’ room hunting jaunt. As you might have discovered by now, Hutch is now Vodafone! OMG!! I didn’t know it. Saaalo, itni baar us cute si kutte ki ad ko TV pe dhikaoge to ‘Black’ film ke Amitabh ko yeh yaad rahega!! Trust me every FM station that I was tuning in to, in Bengaluru was bombarding its listener’s ears, mercilessly with this make-over-of-the-millennium act!

I really have no issues with their promotional campaign. But what really pissed me off the other night was an unsolicited sms from Vodafone, which said that a caller tune a.k.a CT would be activated on my cell phone. As any other naïve (all subscribers, other than those of, the then Hutch!) subscriber, I was pretty happy that Vodafone finally was on an offering, free of cost! My first reaction to it was “wow. That’s kewl!” I had all reasons to be happy because S had enjoyed this one month ‘free caller tune’ activation service provided by Hutch a.k.a Vodafone. As the message read, the caller-tune (a song from the movie saajan, ‘Baahut pyaar karte hain…’) was activated. The fact that the CT was activated was brought up to my notice by V. He had called up a day later and asked me, “En le suri… Caller Tune activate madis bittidya?” I was like… WTF!! I was taken by surprise. I never knew that Vodafone was serious about that message! (I’ll come back this ‘breach of integrity’ act of Vodafone shortly)

After terminating that call, I quickly checked my balance, only to find that a cute amount of 30 bucks was literally ripped off my credit. Here money was certainly not the issue. I was *&#$ing pissed off the way they deducted that amount without notifying me. I went fuming. I called up the customer care (read is as customer-don’t-care a.k.a CDC) and spoke to them about this annoying act of theirs. As usual, I heard that *&#$ing one liners from CDC, ‘We will look in it!’ I also asked them to credit back the amount to my account. The gal from CDC promised me that the CT would be deactivated within 24 hours and I would be getting back my 30 bucks. I hung up, with little hopes of getting this issue solved in one stride! You see, Hutch a.k.a Vodafone has a tremendous reputation to live up to!

After an anxious period of 24 hours, I found out that Hutch a.k.a Vodafone had truly lived up to its past reputation. The people from CDC seemed to have not bothered to deactivate my CT. And guess what? They had also ‘forgotten’ to credit back the amount to my account. My instincts were right. I felt that what Shakespeare had said long back was damn right, “What’s in a name?” Saalono ne apna naam to badal liya, lekhin apni purani adaat nahi chodi! When money is the issue, it always gets the worst out of Hutch a.k.a Vodafone.

The next day I called them up again and this time I spoke to them in quite a belligerent tone. This whole CT episode seemed to have taken toll of my patience. I was in no mood for those hi-hello-how-are-you kinda chat with CDC people. I wanted an explanation, straight and square! Here is the verbalization of the call I made on that day:

CDC: This is xyz. How may I assist you sir?

S: I have this annoying caller tune activated on my cell phone without my consent. If this weren’t enough, you have deducted 30 bucks from my account. I want this CT to be deactivated right now and my amount back.

CDC: (In an unperturbed tone) Sir may I know your full name please?

S: Suresh S.

CDC: And… you calling from 98860***** right? (Just avoiding sharing of TMI)

S: Yesss!

CDC: Sir. You mean to say that this caller tune has been activated without your knowledge and you didn’t choose it. Am I right?

S: (Ailaa. Tumhe angrezi samajh main aati hain? To pehle kyu nahi kaha yaaar! Main to khamo kha Hebrew main baat kar raha ta. Tum log bhi na... Had karte ho yaar... mazak karne ki bhi ek had hoti hain) hmmm… I suppose that’s what I meant.

CDC: Sir from when has this caller tune been active on you phone? (In the same istyle as a doctor asks his patients, “Aap ko kabh se pareshaani hain?”)

S: Since a couple of days or so…

CDC: Sir. How did it get activated? You say that it was done without your knowledge?

S: (WTF! That’s what I want to know from you boy!) Well. I got a sms from Vodafone saying that they would activate a CT in a few minutes. Ever since then, this annoying CT has been playing on my cell phone. I spoke to your people yesterday about this thing. They had promised me to deactivate it and credit 30 bucks back to my account within 24 hours. But they haven’t done it.

CDC: Sir… First you need to lodge a complaint about this. Then we will inform about this to our systems section and they will take care of it.

S: (Saale tumhe kya lagta hain main abh tak koi Akbar Birbal ki kahani suna raha ta kya?) That is exactly what I had done yesterday.

CDC: No sir. There is no complaint registered regarding this issue.

S: (*&#$) Okies. Then would you mind registering it now?

CDC: Yes sir. Sure… Now that you have lodged a complaint, we will definitely take care of it. As soon as we are done with it, you will be getting a call from our customer care sir.

S: Okies.

CDC: Is there anything you want to know sir?

S: No…

CDC: Thank you sir. Have a nice day!

After 4 days (In Bengaluru…)

After watching this movie, I was waiting outside a restaurant, near the cinema hall with my friends. We were all hungry and planning what to have in that restaurant. It was about 4:30 or so in the evening when I got a call. The number flashing on my cell phone seemed quite familiar to me. Yep! You guessed it right. It was a call I had been waiting for nearly 96 hours. For you kindest information, my cell phone still had that annoying CT playing. This time around, I was all set, sleeves up to take on those CDC people. The conversation with a CDC gal went on something like this…

CDC: Sir… this is ABC calling from Vodafone sir. As you know hutch has become Vodafone recently, we are updating all the information of our customers. You had lodged a complaint regarding the CT being activated on you phone without your permission. Is that right sir?

S: Yep! I want to know why it hasn’t been done.

CDC: Sir… Actually since this entire CT and other information are stored on our database located in US, you need to send a sms ‘DCT CT’ and send it across to 56789. Then only your CT will be deactivated.

S: What about my 30 bucks?

CDC: If this CT has been activated from our side without your permission, we will definitely credit that amount to your account within 24 hours.

S: Okies…

CDC: Is there anything you want to know sir?

S: Nooo!!

Since I hadn’t asked them to activate this CT, the deducted amount should have been credited to my account. Well… I have been waiting all the way along. They have duteously deactivated my CT within 24 hours of receiving that call, but have cleverly ‘forgotten’ to credit back that amount. Maan gaye tumhko Hutch a.k.a Vodafone, you definitely lived up to your reputation! It is yet another instance where you registered a breach of integrity!

Now to the real source of inspiration for this post. I received a sms from Vodafone recently that offered to provide me some real good peace of mind! It said:

“To stop unwanted calls, activate Call Filter Service for a monthly rental of just Rs 99 and enjoy peace of mind. Dial *514# or call 55144 today!”

PS: Hmmm... I never knew that peace of mind was just 99 bucks away from me. This is yet another chalo-din-dahade-hi-customer-logon-ko-lootenge kinda campaign from Vodafone! Kaash yeh Art of Living waale aur Baba Ram Dev bhi itne ‘intelligent’ hote! See it’s that simple. No yoga no khul khul ke hasna… Just pay these bloody SOBs 99 per month and enjoy full peace of mind! I seriously feel that Vodafone has gotta retain that punch line of hutch, but with a little change. It should be, ‘Wherever you go, our problems follow you!’

~IT's My Life

Ek nayi safar...

"oru messge ille, oru phone ille, oru missed call ille, oru scrap ille, oru e-mail kooda ille... Enaku rumba bayamarku... Nee thirumbe zoo ku podiya???"

I received the above sms from a friend of mine. I was wondering if he was eagerly waiting to hear from me. Well my friend, zoo waale itne kush nasib nahi yaar! Main aaj bhi khule aam aazad ghoom raha hoon... I probably gave TMI about my whereabouts...

Pata nahi yeh kaisi feeling hai. Lekhin jo bhi hai, badi hi confusing hai yaar. The wait has finally ended and I'm all set to start a new journey in the professional arena.

Kuch ajeeb sa lag raha hai mujhko. I have been staying here in harihar for the past 20 odd years and have zillions of memories attached to it. At this nick of time, I'm feeling very nostalgic. The time I spent at my school and those 4 golden years that B.I.E.T., has given me, will be something that I will treasure for an entire life time. Hailing from a close to sub-urban kinda place, I'm pretty much skeptical about of my life saving adaptability skills at a new place like bengaluru. But I have no choice but to get used to this life style sooner.

I know that I'm stepping in to a world where everyone is out there to prove a point and make a mark for himself on the professional front. I am optimistic about my chances as well. I hope that I would be able to meet the challenges posed by situations both on the personal and the professional front.

This is probably gonna be my last post from my harihar. The next post shall be definitely posted from somewhere in bengaluru. Till then have a great time and don't forget to wish me good luck:) Ha Ha.. (Abh yeh mat kehna ki saala kitna maangta hai... Wishes maang ne main koi burayi nahi hai yaar! Aur use dene main bhi!)

PS: This is not 'that' post which is supposed to have been resting peacefully in my fully packed computer's hard drive. It is yet to go public.

~IT's My Life