Tagged - Yet another time:)

Niveditha tagged me on her blog. It is just a 'small questionnaire'. Just spilling my mind out. Lemme see how I perform!

Disclaimer: I am not sure if I have gotten my choices in the right order. I'll leave that to you to figure out!

• Ten things you wish you could say to people right now (don’t take names):
  

1. Live and Let Live!
   
2. A smile costs nothing, let go your khanjoosi for a while :)
   
3. Never compromise with your dreams and goals in life!
   
4. I am music freak, so guys please bear with some loud music when I am around!
   
5. If you haven't understood me still, don't worry... you have an entire life time to figure out!
   
6. I am aware of my responsibilities. So stop sending those reminders!
   
7. Life always offers to you in abundance. May be it's the appropriacy of the 'merchandise' that you have issues with!
8. Receiving an appreciation in the right way is an art. You better cultivate it!
   
9. Load balancing in life is an essential evil.
   
10. A few people have really inspired me very subtly in life. Thanks a ton folks!
    

• Nine things about yourself:

1. I am a blogger. (Just a gentle reminder)
2. I don't like music, I just love it.
3. Of late staying fit seems to have taken me in its stride. I'm loving it!
   
4. I watch too many movies.
5. Strange but true. I don't follow cricket religiously.
6. A TV remote controller is the last thing you will find in my hand!
7. I like reading a lot. Time is a big constraint though.
8. I hate travelling. Smitten by inertia!!!
   
9. I am an optimist to the core.

• Eight ways to win your heart:
  

1. Comment on my blog! (I tried be more meaner than that. But failed as usual!)
2. I love people who are simple.
3. A never dying smiling face :)
4. Passion towards life.
5. Love yourself. Be what you are:)
6. Music somehow creeps in. It truly binds hearts.
7. They say, "The way to a man's heart is through his stomach". Thank god! Mine isn't a round about.
   
8. Willingness to share things in life with the much needed!

• Seven things that cross your mind a lot:
  

1. What's the purpose of my existence?
2. If people could interpret my comments in 10 different ways, why is it that they tend to embrace the one that misconceives my comments the best?
3. Why do some people come in to your life and stay, while others leave?
4. Why is our education system so hell bent on quantifying intelligence and calculatedly curbing creativity?
5. Why do some people do things just for the heck of it? Is it because of the unavailability of choices?
   
6. Why don't people use the words "Thank you" and "Sorry" more often than they swear?
   
7. Am I doing things that I always wanted to do in life?

• Six things you wish you never did or want to do:
  

1. Innumerable typos.
   
2. Get stuck in an elevator. I am a claustrophobic!
   
3. Put on some weight!
4. I wish I had judged a few people in my life better than I did.
5. Miss an exam for no fault of mine.
   
6. Stop blogging!
   

• Five Turn offs:
  

1. Hypocrisy.
2. Cynicism
   
3. Bad sense of humour.
   
4. Untidiness.
5. Lack of respect for others!

• Four turn ons:
  

1. Open mindedness.
2. Smiling face:)
3. Simplicity
4. Music!

• Three things you want to do before you die:
  (Some things -> infinity!)
  

1. Wanna visit some beautiful places (ek lambi list hai) in this world with my love!
   
2. Learn how to dance well and play a musical instrument, preferably guitar!
3. Wanna enjoy even the smallest of the joyous moments in my life:)
   

• Two smileys that describe you:

:) :)

• One confession:
  

I seriously felt that clearing the SCJP exam is more easier than completing this questionnaire!

I would like to tag Vidya and Karthik. Over to you guys...

~IT's My Life

Have you earned your quota of happiness?

Have you earned you quota of happiness?

I read this article posted by Vidya on her blog. I completely agreed with her views that one essentially needs to be happy from within in order to give happiness to the world outside.

Today we had a program called 'Learning from unusual sources' where we had the privilege to meet Dr. Neha Vakharia, a trustee of O.A.S.I.S. She has dedicated her life to serve the under privileged people in the slums of Bangalore. Oasis movement is involved in the propagation of various concepts and lifestyle for the development of better human beings and a society at large. It was an extremely touching session that we had today. I made a comment saying, "We need to be happy ourselves from within before we give happiness to the world outside." Dr. Neha too indorsed my thoughts.

After the session was over, I had a small talk (almost a debate) with my PAL over the comment I made during the session. But my PAL had a different view. She quoted me with the example of Charlie Chaplin, the greatest comedian of all times, whose personal life was an utter tragedy. She was suggesting that my comment wasn't a universal truth. There could be exceptions to it. That left me thinking for a while. It was already getting late and I had to leave the office. But she did manage to leave that 'worm' in my head to bug me for the rest of the evening.

But on the way back, I reflected deeply over it. The more I thought of it, my conviction only grew stronger and deeper. I figured out that I was probably right in a sense. I felt that whatever may be the case, you essentially need to earn your 'quota of happiness' in life, before you give it back to this world. I feel it is something similar to the Conservation of Energy kind of thing. You can neither create one nor destroy it, but only transfer it from one from to another. I feel that Chaplin found happiness in entertaining others. I believe that he wouldn't have given his best in acting, if it hadn't helped him earn his 'quota of happiness'. Though his personal life might appear to be a tragedy for the entire world, for Charlie, entertaining others was the only way to get his 'quota of happiness', which he seldom found in his personal life. It probably helped him subdue all the bitterness he got to taste in his personal life. I feel that Charlie Chaplin tried all his life relentlessly, to prove this very point!

If I could draw a parallel with this thought of mine, I would quote what our Vedas and Upanishads have talked about the 4 different phases (ashrams) of life.

1. Bramhacharya Ashram
2. Grihashta Ashram
   
3. Vanaprasta Ashram
4. Sannyasa

The above 4 ashrams need to be practiced in the same order, to achieve salvation or eternal happiness. In order to appreciate the essence 3rd and 4th phases of life, one need to experience the materialistic and family bound happiness, before even deciding to move to the others. It also explains why people who are forced to take up the role played in 4th phase of life soon after the 1st phase, find it extremely challenging to control their innate needs.

It is human nature in general that largely certifies my claims. I for one, surely believe that unless you are happy, you can't make others happy. Our mind sort of tries to do this balancing act. When it feels that the 'unhappines quotient' is on the rise, it tries hard to find unusual ways to release that negative energy out of our body and gain some positive energy in the form of happiness. If you observe, the most happiest of the faces in this world are the ones that hide the bitterest of the pains in life. It is just that their mind might have discovered an unusual way of earning its 'quota of happiness'!

I am not sure if I am right or wrong. I would love to hear from you readers on this topic. Kindly pour in your thoughts as well.

~IT's My Life

Happy Days...

Happy Days - I swear!

I happened to watch Happy Days a couple of days back. It reminded me of my engineering days a lot. The characters in this movie like chandu, madhu, tyson etc seem so close to reality.

Even though I don't understand the lyric of the song, I am spell bound by the melody of this track. Thanks to some off beat music by Mickey J Meyer. It is sooooo good! Truly... music has no barriers!




~IT's My Life

My new found stress buster!

IT industry is one such industry where the life styles of people are mostly sedentary. We spend a large chunk of our time in front of computers solving problems (and in due course creating a few for ourselves...) of our clients. This definitely causes a lot of mental and a bit of physical stress as well.

I decided to figure out a new stress buster which could not only rejuvinate me but also become a part and parcel of my lifestyle, for the rest of my life. I spoke with a couple of my friends who have a regular routine of jogging. In the begining I felt that jogging and stuff like that aren't my cup of tea. I was simply relcutant (read it as plain laziness) to get up early everyday!

But you never know where you pick up that piece of inspiration from. I fortunately picked it up one from a good friend of mine.That's when I decided to register myself at a gym close to my place. Trust me... Since then it has been an absolute fun working out 6 days a week, early in the morning! I just take one day off from my workout schedule for the simple reason that the gym is closed on sundays!! Working out gives me that much needed freshness and I remain active throughout the day. I discovered a great change in my energy levels as well.

I think it's high time we peep in to our life styles and do a bit of reality check to ensure that we give our body, the much needed physical activity. It could be anything ranging from yoga to a salsa class. It could even be an outdoor game like badminton or cricket. But do ensure that you find a way to de-stress yourself. Having said that I would surely recommend you to have variety in your workouts, just to break that unavoidable monotony!

My experience till now has been pretty good and I am enjoying it thoroughly. I hope I continue to remain hooked on to it.

Why don't you give it a try? Try breaking that inertia of yours. I am sure life definitely will start to look more beautiful!

~IT's My Life

It's all about the TEAM!

Ever since I joined MindTree, I have had innumerable opportunities to work with different teams on several of the initiatives. I consider myself extremely fortunate to have been a part of few exciting initiatives like MindTree Mini Marathon 2008. Every time I volunteered to be a part of any team, my sole motive was to understand the quintessence of working in teams and what it takes to play your role effectively and deliver your best. In my quest to discover that magical formula behind what defines a successful team, I happen to figure out quite a few threads that were common across several events, which I was a part of. I have made a sincere attempt to share all of them with you, in the context of MMM 2008.

MindTree Mini Marathon 2008

If the name is misleading, blame me not; for the event was definitely magnanimous in all aspects! It was after a gap of 3 years that MindTree decided to host another event of this sort. So we were all geared up to ensure that this event was a grand success. When I first received an invitation mail from Murthy R K (who himself is an avid marathon runner) to volunteer for this event, I was pretty much skeptical. My final assessments (I was in the yellow band) were due to kick start shortly and I doubted if my decision to volunteer was prudent. But nevertheless I told myself that I shall not hold myself back and let go any chance where I can contribute (in any small way) to make an event successful. The success story of MMM 2008 speaks for itself. I have made a small attempt to collate a few observations I made while working with an extremely vibrant team.

Role definition and leveraging experience:

I have always believed that the very first step towards ensuring you formulate a winning combination out of any team you work with, is to identify the strengths and weaknesses of each member and assign roles to him/her which would maximize their contributions to the team. I am not against experimenting with assigning people roles that they have never tried a hand at before. But when time is a constraint; go with the above mentioned thumb rule for role assignment. That’s exactly what happened with our team. Murthy had loads of experience about marathon and was undoubtedly the ideal person to guide our team. We realized what each one of us would do and chalked out plans as per the requirement. We as a team ensured that we leveraged his experience to the fullest.

Trust your TEAM:

Once you have formed a team, the first thing that a team as a whole needs to do, is to pledge that there shall be no ‘secrets’ as such. Say no to all shades of grey in your team. Everything should be in Black and White! I emphasize this fact for the simple reason that once you bring candor in to our team, you are invariably instilling tremendous faith in all your team members. Mutual trust is such an impetus to any team that it can work wonders. Once you bring it in, you shall notice that people will be all the more willing to contribute proactively and shall also volunteer to go that ‘extra mile’ to ensure that your venture is a grand success. As long as you have an environment where people feel very much a part of the team, things will never go wayward.

Appreciation is good. But please accommodate constructive criticism as well:

It is human nature to crave for appreciation when they deliver something commendable. Your team members are human beings and let’s not challenge the basic law of nature. I feel that a healthy team always has its team members back patting each other whenever they achieve something; no matter how trivial it is. As long as it doesn’t take away your focus and you don’t lose your ground, a few doses of applause and appreciation is good for your health!

Having said that only reminds me of the other extreme of the spectrum. The side effects of excessive appreciation and applause can deafen your ears and render you blind. A more long term effect of this unhealthy team culture is that your team, in the long run might in fact lose the ability to question things and be critical of other people’s work. I feel that another important trait of a healthy team is its openness to criticism. A good team always encourages its team members to criticize constructively; for it knows that the source if authentic! I feel that we as individuals should be open to criticism (don’t take them personal) and work sincerely towards setting them right. I would in fact go a step ahead and say that every team ought to have some people who blow whistles just at right moment and help circumvent any mishap.

Even the best of the plans fail. Always have a plan B:

They say, “Failing to plan is planning to fail”. It’s not axiom folks. It’s just a quote! Quotes aren’t infallible. You shouldn’t dare to question the veracity of my statement if you have seen the true colors of IT industry (or any industry for that matter). A few glimpses of how circumstances caught us off guard during MMM 2008 and how we managed to cope up with the sudden mutation.

• The walkie-talkie issue:

As you might be aware, this time we had three check points; each located 3 different corners of the marathon circuit. We had rolled out a plan initially that we could borrow walkie-talkies from the security and ensure that all check points are well connected. It was crucial for us to establish this connectivity for two important reasons:

• To keep other checkpoints updated about the positions of runners at regular intervals.

• To reach out for immediate help, just incase of any unforeseen emergency.
  

But when reached the venue on the day of the event, Murthy informed us that we couldn’t get the walkie-talkies for reasons best known to the security personnel. Thanks to our commonsense. Fortunately it never let us down. All check points had a sheet that contained the contact number of every member of the organizing committee. We somehow managed to update each other through our cell phones. But it was a lesson well learnt!

• Bib numbers ki dastaan:
  

If you had been around on the day of the event, you would have noticed a glaring design glitch with the bib numbers that we distributed to the participants. Boy! There were smaller than the volunteer badges we wore on the final day of Osmosis!! We were taken aback and caught off guard, when we discovered this fact. We started worrying about how we would note down the numbers when people crossed each check point. If that weren’t enough. It also had MindTree spelt incorrectly on it. That’s something that doesn’t go well with any MindTree mind! I quote what Murthy told all of us, “Look this is a classic example of what happens in the IT industry. Client asks for something, you deliver something else. He then comes back to you saying… Boss I didn’t ask for this!” But the only difference was that in our case, it was just too late to question the designers of bib numbers, about the erroneous design.

• Behaal @ registration counter:
  

At the registration counter we all had a print out of an excel sheet containing the list of all the participants who had enrolled themselves for the event. But you know what? The list wasn’t sorted at all. We had initially decided to either sort them alphabetically or as per the employee ids. But we hadn’t done it! Volunteers at the registration counter had a harrowing time figuring out the names/employee ids. So we quickly decided that we would just note down the name, employee Id and their bib number for the moment and then map them on the excel sheet, offline. When time is a constraint, people often tend to overlook the obvious and might land themselves in situations completely out of the blue. Not every time does a situation offer you an option for last minute tweaking, so watch out for the obvious pitfalls!

The bottom line is even the best laid plans fail!

Give due credit to every soul that worked for your team’s success:

If there is one thing that really turns off team members, it would undoubtedly be their efforts going unnoticed. When your team is in the spot light for any achievement, it becomes the duty of the team to ensure that people do get their due credits. A moment shared in spotlight might go a long way in motivating your team mates to deliver better results in future as well. Over and above, it gives everyone in the team a true sense of gratification and an unwritten acknowledgement saying, “Boys! You are on track!” A nice way to cherish the feeling of accomplishment would be to go out for a team lunch or a dinner. That’s exactly what we did. Murthy treated the entire team of MMM 2008, and trust me we had a ball.

I feel TEAM stands for the following:

T – Tenacity

E - Enthusiasm.

A – Attitude

M – Motivation

I firmly believe that if your team symbolizes these traits then it is undoubtedly a healthy and high performance team.

~IT's My Life

Main aisa kyu hoon?

I am confused!

It has been almost 4 months since I moved to Bangalore. I am gradually adapting to this kind of life style. But trust me I am yet to digest the fact that; gone are those days when we friends would plan for the first show of a movie and the strength of a cricket team could be expected at the ticket counters of a cinema hall in no time. But come to think of it now, the whole idea of meeting up at one point, in large numbers seems close to an impossibility. This new life at Bangalore has definitely taken a toll of my personal time, patience and not to mention complicated my agenda for weekends.

It wasn’t long ago when I could spill out my schedule for an entire month, without any difficulty. But now I find myself caught off guard when someone asks me to meet them over a weekend, because I just am unable to commit to anyone for any sort of engagements. I just can’t predict what’s going to be the agenda for the weekend, even a day before. Such has been the nature of my life on personal and professional front. A subtle feeling of guilt haunts me every time I commit to a friend of mine and am unable to make it.

Today is a weekend and I was supposed to be at V’s place to meet his mother and his brother. It’s been over 3 months since I have been to their house. One might ask me why I didn’t call them up at regular intervals, if I was so desperate to meet them and speak to them. Well that exactly is the problem with me. I get engrossed in to something I do that I completely forget everything. I mean everything! It almost becomes like I wouldn’t have spoken to the best of my friends for months together. I don’t know if it’s a terrible habit that I have cultivated over a period of time. But having said all that, I would clarify one thing that my concern or affection towards people who care for me wouldn’t have changed at all. I am absolutely comfortable if a close friend of mine wouldn’t call me up regularly or send me a good morning or good night sms if he is really busy. I am unable to understand this whole thought as to why people jump to conclusions and engage in to the act of shaking violently, the very roots of your friendship, which had been built over mutual trust, when you happen to stay out of touch for while from them? Does distance really matter to the strength of a friendship? Does calling your friend every now and then, even though you don’t have anything significant to share, reinforce the credibility of your friendship? I definitely don’t think so!

See that’s Suresh for you folks! He might not send you a sms nor give you a call over a weekend but would still be caring about you. I don’t know how to describe this behavior of mine. Ever since I have been here, I have struggled like hell to meet my friends who stay in various corners of Bangalore. Like others, I also get only 2 days in a week to do things other than the office work. Sometimes even those days are mercilessly gobbled up by some work at office. I know that you would hit me hard saying, “Dude you got to get used to this life style. You got to manage your time well. Otherwise your personal relations are going to go for sixes.” It’s not that I haven’t made an attempt to plan my weekends. But all my attempts have failed every time I have tried that. I have kind of given up planning my weekends!

I don’t know if this has happened to you as well. Sometimes situations are such that you feel staying silent is the best reaction to it. Your relationship with someone is resting on such a delicate thread that you are utterly confused about the way you need to handle it. I am currently facing that with a few of my friends. It’s like, if I speak, what should it be about? And if I don’t, will it convey to them that I no more care about them, and I have begun to kind of show attitude. The fact is folks, I simply don’t know. But I care about them. I feel I just don’t know how to express my concern and care!

My state on the personal front as of now, is one of utter confusion. If anyone of you have been through the similar situations kindly share your experiences with me. May be I can take cue out of your experience. I am badly in need of help! Life just seems to be so confusing and relationships, even more complex!!!

~IT's My Life

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