Dreamzzz, Desires n Desperation...: April 2007

Apr 30, 2007

Spiderman Speaking Bhojpuri

Well, friends Spiderman is speaking Bhojpuri in spiderman 3 as its going to be the first movie to be dubbed in Bhojpuri. What I can see here is an example of marketing and extending the product offering to new customers. Continously breaking new market is one of the key towards sustainable growth and re-distributors of hollywood movies are moving in the right direction. Watch the video.

Though the industry is its in nascent stage and the movies are full of nonsense and vulgarity but still its growing in leaps and bounds (the growth rate is better than the growth rate of Hindi movie industry) because that is what people want to see. But I hope that when people like Amitabh, Ajay Devgan, Subhash Ghai and Govinda are running to this industry, no doubt that things will change and we will expect some sensible and good movies. Rajshri production had long association with this industry and they were among the few who identified the potential of the market. I can see a marketing job right here and perhaps, I can speak the language too (only with a borrowed or fake accent but comparable to the way Amitabh and Ajay are speaking).



The Vedanta Resources story..

Though he has done nothing for the states of Bihar and Jharkhand, Anil Agarwal the founder of Vedanta Resources (LSE Listed company which recently acquired SeSa Goa) claims himself to be a proud Bihari and expresses his subconscious desire to do something for his home state. Link to the rediff.com's story of Vedanta Resources.

Ambush Marketing..

Ambushing - Difficult to explain so see it for yourself..


The new


And the old one..

The Lost Mughal.. or (The Last Mughal)

I was about 8 years old, one fine evening my nephew (who is older than me and more like an elder brother) took me with him for a cricket match. I did got a chance to play as they were short by a couple of players. The ground was the backyard of some haweli and a proud Banyan tree standing in the center have almost its root touching the other corner of the ground. It looked like it's guarding the place since ages. The cricketing gear belongs to the guy named Sanjar Ali and all his friends were calling him Sanjeri. Well, he was tall (at that time it looked like) aged 17-18 I guess and was a close friend of my nephew. The ground was nothing but the backyard of his old haweli. I use to wonder that if the Haweli belongs to them then why didn't he live there. He was modest, use to speak very little and I don't think that I will recognize him in a crowd because it was long long back when I saw him. His sister was considered to be incredibly beautiful and guyz use to discuss her behind his back. Well, I was too young to understand all that.

My cousin brother is a lawyer and he has a decent practice in Gaya Bar Council (if the town sounds new to you then it's the old city and more popular as Bodh Gaya which is like 6 kilometers from the original city of Gaya) and I have spent a few days of my childhood at his house with his kids (2 of them are almost of my age). One uncle always use to come to him and they will sit and talk for like hours on many things. Most of them will be related to law but then my family members had deep respect for that person. It was only after his death (sometime in early 1990s, I guess) that I realized that his name was Mohd. Taz Ali (that's all I know about his name) and had something to do with the colony which was also named as Taz Colony. He was father of Sanjer Ali.

Four or five years after his death, I read a story about him in Hindustan Times and later confirmed it from my Brother that he claimed to be a descendant of the last Mughal Ruler Bahadur Shah Zafar. His fore fathers lent some money to East India Company and he had the documents to support that. That was before independence. Later his land holdings in Gaya (fruit orchards) and Nagpur were also seized by government. During the long period of litigation, he sold almost all his land holdings to cover the expenses and thats why Taz colony came up. The irony was that he sold all his land cheap and as he had better relations with the hindus he became unpopular with the local muslims. So almost nobody supported him through entire his life. Sanjay Gandhi instilled some hope in him by telling that he will get his land back but then he had no resources to fight the case in the supreme court and had almost lost the will to fight it out. Had two wives to support. After his death, one of his wives took up some teaching post and till the last time I heard about his family, she married her daughter and Sanjer was preparing for some clerical exams.

They have lost the hope from government, they have lost the hope of getting anything back and I still remember Sanjer's magical words - "Amiri Ki Kabra pe panpi Garibi badi Zaalim hoti hai". It really hurts to be poor after being rich for a while. Well, I don't know where they are or how they are or whether Sanjer has taken up the fight to himself or not. But the recent article in IBN about descendants of Mughals is making me think that how many of them are there in the open waiting for the justice to be done? Or was this the justice planned for that empire which was built on masaacre, brutalities, forced religious conversions and other inhuman practices? Well, I don't know much but I have seen Sanjer Ali, I have seen the pain and sufferings of his family. God bless them.

Apr 29, 2007

Segmentation -> Targeting -> Positioning.. Marketing lessons from movie screen

We need to identify the existing segments among the consumers so that we can concentrate on one segment and the idea is to meet the needs of this targeted segment profitably. Won't bore you with marketing jargons and keeping it pretty simple.

Segmentation ->
Identify that what people wants? Identify their needs and group them according to the common needs like all butterscotch lovers will be one segment and chocolate lovers will be one segment.


Targeting ->
This is inward looking measure as you have to ask the question to yourself that what should you do now? produce butterscotch or chocolate or both? Which segment is profitable? Can you produce all the butterscotch and garner more profits then selling chocolate or vice versa?


Positioning ->
Now, you know that what people wants (not a simple task and you have to keep refining your observations) you can position yourself like that. You have to show them whatever they want to see. That's it. S - T- P of marketing. Simple isnt it? But no, it's not. These three words almost consume a marketer's life. Well read on the next post to understand it better..

Ta- Ra- Rum - Pam , Marketing lessons from Movie Screen




Anyways in light of this knowledge about marketing let's do a post-postmortem on the movie Ta- Ra - Rum - Pum. All the years of experience in production reflects in this movie because the movie is for everyone. Happy family - targets the family audience, Car Racing - targets the young people that you can take your girl friend to this movie and impress her with your knowledge about the F1 (but before going just get a few things clear about F1). Nothing sort of that happens in movie (no racer drive all the race on the same track). Cute Kids and cartoon characters will be using the pester power of the kids and songs and dance makes it a complete audience masala.


There is a huge market for Hindi Movies in US and other countries so that is taken care of by shooting the movie in US backdrop. Gujrati community is targeted by using Javed Jaafri (his dialogue delivery in a poor accent). Bengalis are targeted too (Majority of US based NRIs are bongs).


So, we see here that the director-producer are trying to cater to almost all the segments at the same time and true to the marketing philosophy, when you try to do much in so little time, you end up with a confused positioning. And that is what the movie is. A two and half hour masala which has all the ingredients of the typical hindi movies. The wrapper is beautiful and the YashRaj banner is mastering the art of wrapping things up beautifully. The core is the same old story of Riches to rags and then rags to riches thing. Some of the scenes were not even needed but still they try to play with your tear ducts by making them do stupid things.

Anyways, have loved the way they have presented the movie. Rani is as good as always, Saif looks good in these kind of rules but the wrinkles on his face are clearly visible despite of all the makeover. (too old for being a car racer, Sahid Kapoor would have done better). Well, my guess is that it will be a hit because whatever segment of audience it may be, we all need a break from Cricket and let it be car racing this time.

Future of Bazaar..


Big Bazaar (Pantaloon's retail venture) has partnered with Future Bazaar to launch the initiative http://www.futurebazaar.com. I am watching the banner ads flashing on almost every news website so finally went on to check a few of the offers. Here are a couple of deals that I checked -

1) Transcend 2 GB pen drive (product id 60054064) for Rs. 1099 for the list price of Rs. 2490 and thus offering a discount of 1391 Rs. (a whooping 55%). Cool and eye catching but the actual product probably packed sometime in March 2007 is available in the market for Rs. 930 without a proper bill but with the same warranty. I am saying that because I bought one for my friend just a month back and computer peripherals being a decreasing cost industry, the prices go down after every couple of month. To add to it, even the actual marked price is not 2490 and its something like 1700. May be they are disposing up the old stock but still its highly overpriced (Rs 170, 18%) than what is available in local market (Richie street in Chennai for me).


All the computer goodies were over priced and which are available in the local market at much cheaper rate. But the argument in favour is that they are charging the cost of convenience but then, if this is the future of bazaar then perhpas future looks glim. Unorganized trade is much more efficient than this so called organized retail. God save the poors. I guess that its not long when people have to buy Himachal apples branded as American Apples from some fruit shoppe located in posh locality at a price 4 times higher than the price charged by fruit vendors. The cost difference is due to organized retail. Cool, so let's wait for the Wal Mart, K Mart, Sears and other big brothers.

86 Rules of BOOzing..

You will forget all these rules after 5th drink but still, till 5th drink they might help..

Apr 26, 2007

Ian Chappel - A notch above the rest commentators.

I was listening to extra innings at the lunch time when South Africa folded for 149. Africans were tamed and Smith was taught a lesson that if the opposition is strong you better keep your mouth shot. You are not at the top of your career and your team was just beaten by Bangladesh. Was listening to Ian Chapel and Boycot about Australian team. Ian is simply superb when he speaks. He sounds a great expert of the game as well as intelligent.

Responding to one question about does Australians have a batting plan in mind he replied that being an International batsmen you should be knowing what to do at this stage. If a coach needs to tell you that go play like this then perhpas that is too late for a coaching lesson.

Should Mcgrath retire at this point of time? Well, Chapel's reply was that one should retire when people ask that why he is retiring and not when people start saying that why not? Mcgrath and Warn did that and same about Brian Lara.


About Tendulkar he said that he is playing for the wrong reasons. He needs to look into the mirror and ask himself that when should he retire or what should be doing for the team. If he is putting his natural game aside and playing defensively just to carry on and not to win a game he should better be asking that question to himself that why not?

Well, Chapel's remark might spark another controversy but nobody can deny that millions of fans have already started asking this question that why not? And not even testimonials from Gavaskar, Richards or others will make them change their opinion. The only thing which can is Tendulkar's bat.

Apr 25, 2007

New Planet found. Search on for Humans.

IBN reports scientiest finding a new planet which is earth like in size and temperature. The difference is that it takes 13 days to make one rotation and people will weigh more there. Have got the news that some business groups like VLCC, Kaya Skin Care and some other beauty cleanics who gives weight gain/loss treatment are following the developments clearly because is the findings are true then this will lead to immense business opportunities. Like those who want to gain weight will be shipped on to this planet and those who want to loose will be brought on earth from there. Some event management companies are also keeping an eye on their TV sets because their popular clientele like of people like Malya and other celebrities who believes in never ending parties can have their wedding day/birthday/ Wedding parties on this new planet where every single day last for 13 days.
Well, Indian Lok Sabha MPs are also glued to their TV sets as they are eyeing an income opportunities and they are going to put forward a proposal which will presses for travelling only on diplomatic passport. So ultimately they can mint money by impersonation. Anyways, let's see how the mystery unfolds. Till then good bye.

Apr 22, 2007

Seeking Blessings - Ash Abhi couple's images from Tirupati

Taken in Tirupati these images are making rounds over the internet from morning. IBN also has published these picutres on their website. Well, as a couple they look damn cute. Aishwarya in a red bridal dress was looking like she was straight out from some Cinema's set on the contrary Abhishek personified elegance in a white Kurta. Also can be seen in the picture is Anil Ambani. Amitabh has grown old for sure and wrinkles are clearly visible. Well, my purpose is not to give them a bit more of coverage but just to celebrate the wedding of both of my favorite actors.



































Star of the week - Babu Bhai


We all know the nexus of the police and politician but still Indian police sometimes spring a surprise package and with the help of media they build up a story and then after the initial round up they do the actual goof-up behind the scenes. So star of the week is MP Babu Bhai Katara who was caught taking a woman out of country on the passport of his wife and police is exploring the links to human trafficking. I have got it confirmed from my sources that Katara has plans to challenge the police in the court where he is going to prove that the lady with him was his actual wife and he got married only two days back in some Arya Samaj Mandir. They were going to Canada for a diplomatic honeymoon. Anyways, the lady has already made his life difficult by accepting that she is some Paramjeet Kaur who had her Canada dreams like of many Punjabis and she is not married to Katara. Katara’s lawayers are going to challenge this argument by the fact that the lady is insane or who pays 30 lakhs to go to Canada. Instead you invest the money in some property and can legally take the immigration route.

Well, these politicians and their lawyers and the police (trio) can do anything. A pan waala who has been caught in the racket is saying that there are many more MPs involved in it as they take the safest route of using diplomatic passport and diplomatic cover to transport people to abroad. I have seen this classified in one of the leading dailies “Wanted MP preferably present Lok Sabha member to transport my One Year Healthy Dog to South Africa, anyone who is going to any other African country like Nigeria, Kenya or Zimbawe are also welcome but then you have to make arrangements for transportation through land, suitable remuneration in six figures (Indian rupees) assured and can further be negotiated”. Well, within 3 days of the publishing the Nigerian embassy received 20 different application for diplomatic visa from MPs. Pakistan is in talks with some of the MPs to transport Osama from there to somewhere here in India and they have offered suitable remuneration in the form of gold, oil wells apart from two way return airfares (compensated in Cash).

Well, have just one question to ask. Kya hoga desh ka mere bhai (mere Babu Bhai)? So here we present star of the week Mr. Babu Bhai Katara. Access his home page here.

Indian Politics - Let's enlighten the lesser mortals

Have decided to publish politics update and will try to keep it as biased and opinionated as possible. Well, I am not getting much time to write about anything but still politics is something which all Indians enjoy expressing their frustration on and I guess I am missing out on the fun side of it. Our newspaper are flooded with all kind of happening and poiliticians are giving them enough reasons to smile. So I have also decided to come up with a political monthly update so that atleast I will write something for me and my blogger friends. Le'ts enlighten each other.

Apr 21, 2007

Air Deccan - Still has long way to go

Lost mail-
I was looking for the ticket that I booked some one month ago and found that I didn't have any kind of confirmation receipt in my mail and not even the pnr number on my computer which I normally take a screen shot of and save the web page. No communication from Deccan in one month, surprising and with all the reports about overbooking flying high I still thought that this is something completely unprofessional. The ticket was booked for my friend and she was panicking as it has round trip tickets and new bookings to Delhi will surely cost a fortune. I did complete search of all my email account and did a google desktop to find any document containing airticket, deccan, or even Delhi on it. Even manually searched for all the image files on my computer (Some 20000 one). Then finally I realized that the only possibility is that I didn't get the PNR and they didn't send any mails confirming the booking.

The call which never went through-
I tried their call center number of Tamil Nadu, Chennai and even of Bangalore and Delhi. You hear the voice that your call is being monitored for quality audits but I wonder if they ever do that. I don't know what kind of policies they have in their call center but surely they are far behind from call centers who have the policy of answering the calls within 3-4 ring. May be deccan has that time frame of like 30-40 minutes. So anticipating that I even put my cell on loudspeaker mode for 30 minutes but it kept repeating after about 30 seconds that your call is being transferred which never got transferred. I tried Bangalore number but after spending like 15 minutes, it was of no use. I too was panicking that what will happen if they simply refuse to acknowledge the booking because all I had was just a credit card reference number that some payment has been made to Deccan, So finally we decided to check out at the airport.

It seems that everyone is flying Deccan only-
There were booking counters of almost every airline lined up in the corridor at Chennai airport and the only one which really was crowded was of AirDeccan (none others even had a single person lined up). This proves two things, either those people are highly efficient and have the policy of 0 waiting time, or Air Deccan is the only one on which actually people are flying. Anyways, that can't be given as an excuse for mismanagement. To make the matter worse, there was only one system working in the cubicle and the receptionist had troubled time answering the querries. She took my request after 15 minutes of squeezing ouurselves through the queue and then after another 30 minutes she refused to help. I asked her the number of the office which she wrote me on a card and it was the same number where you just keep hearing the music. Everybody standing there have tried calling Deccan atleast thrice and none of them ever got connected. Too good to be a co-incidence.

Well, maybe Air Deccan is feeling the volume pressure but still, when you are a professional organization you can't give petty excuses like this. You might be having the lowest fares and making people fly high cheaper but, still it's a long way before you can really aspire to fly high as an airline. All the best.

Apr 19, 2007

Read her testimonials..

and you will see why she didn't deserve to die like this. Meenal's scrapbook is filled with messages which she won't be able to read ever. America has freedom for people but what kind of society is that where there are no gun control laws? Anyways, aren't these people the most unsafe ones? the most afraid ones? I feel pity on those people who call India unsafe.

Weird Dreams..

Last thing I remember was that I was walking on the side steps and suddenly a car horn jolts me from my thoughts. I wonder, man! I have walked almost 500 meters and that too sleepily. Suddenly this thought occurs to me that what would have happened if this speeding car would have just passed over me, I realized that I am actually walking on the road and not on the footpath. I don't even remember when did I leave the sidesteps? And then my thoughts went over something like should I buy an insurance cover for me now? I am getting weird dreams now and most of them with open eyes.

Apr 13, 2007

6 months Jail for running over 7 people.. No respect for mathematics also.

Getting the mathematics right..

Have heard that Bombay high court has asked the police to put every piece of evidence together and present it in the court for the case to be re-addressed. Anyways let's see even if some marginal improvement is there.
-----------------
Well, it has been hypothesized since long that the Indian judicial as well as criminal investigation system has no respect for the 300 million + people who live below poverty line and sleep under open sky and cases like of Allister Pereira will go a long way in proving that hypothesis. This guy is escaping with just 6 months of imprisonment for running over 7 people and injuring other 8 who were sleeping on the pavements. Well, like every other case involving rich dad, rich son this also has seen lacklusture police investigation, hostile witnesses and a policemen who did not carry his spectacles to his duty.

Well, we know that you do not respect people sleeping on the pavements. (It's their mistake that they dont have any other place to sleep) but at-least show some respect for mathematics yaar. It's sheer insult 6 months for 7 people. Atleast have 7 months or something.. what do you say?

Apr 11, 2007

Indian Ocean.. One hell good of a music band.

I watched them performing live only once but then have instantly came to like them. Before that show I think I have ahrdly heard any of their songs other than Bandeh but can say that they are simply superb.They sound different and they sound arrogant. This arrogance in their music is what makes them contemporary and perhaps differentiates them from the rest of the pack. Was watching one of their videos "Jhini" on google video.

Life has its own ways.

Truly it has its own ways to reward and punish. It leaves you with happy and sad memories, gives you something better without expectations and sometimes takes away everything from you without even a whisper about it. I always hated myself for missing out on the final lap. Every single thing that I have lost in my life was not because I was not capable enough but rather because I was not doing enough. My slacky nature have always made me pull out of things at the last moment. Somehow I always managed to pull through but I knew in my heart that I have been an underachiever all these years.

Well, time has just punished me in its own way. I wanted to major in finance and take up some investment banking job or something but, tide of luck have brought this thankless sales job for me which was completely unexpected and unwanted. But then, after spending the first day in the field, I think that this is the first challenging assignment and this time I should not back off. I don't know what I have to achieve in my life as suddenly it seems that I am all alone in a sea of people where everybody is selling something and everybody wants to buy the best at the cheapest price. I look at my price tag, but then it seems that it's missing.

Apr 10, 2007

Honest Salesman.?

Honest salesman? Well, as most of you might be knowing that I have started working for Henkel India and will be assisting their sales team for the next 11 weeks as a part of my summer internship. So have started writing parallely on my other blog Honest Salesman. Well, I don't know much about the life of a salesman but will try to be honest with the treatment of that life on my blog. Hope to see you reading some first hand experience of sales.

Apr 8, 2007

Mistakes that we all make..

One moment you are happy and you feel that you have everything in the world, the next moment you are left shattered and as if you are the poorest soul on this planet. You have nothing to clutch on. Two extreme kind of emotions and being felt at the same time. I guess its truly unique experience. We all make mistakes consciously or unconsciously. Sometimes we hurt ourselves with our mistakes and sometimes we leave others with bad memories of our deviant behaviour. Well, if I have to give life a character to it, probably I will prefer calling it a comedy. It truly is a comedy. I don't know why I am turning philosphical but perhaps I guess I have gone mad over the past couple of weeks. I am out of my senses speaking crazy things, doing crazy things. Becoming overdemanding with my friends and even with my family members. Hope this mood swing of mine wont reflect at my workplace from tomorrow. Want to write a lot but then for the time being I prefer to keep the things inside me. Hope my frustration would help me find some meaning in my life. Well, what a beautiful week I had. Last week was really awesome in every sense.

Apr 4, 2007

In a bad need of a sound sleep..

Now feeling frustrated as I want to sleep and can not find sleep at my will. This is something problematic happening to me. Don't know what can I do but yeah have to do something, may be have to avoid sleeping during day time. But then, I think I know the reason. Have tried sleeping but can't keep my eyes closed for more than 5 minutes. Have tried surfing, reading, playing computer games, everything and blogging is my last resort. Ahh what the hell is happening to me? What I am thinking?

Compromises and Expectations.. Journey to self 1

Well we keep saying to ourselves and to others that one should not expect anything from others and thou shalt not make any compromise in life but then the fact of the matter is that after all that talking to our innerselves we still do it the wrong way. We build expectations and then we compromise also.

After a hard day at work, when your body aches for the sack and the only thing in your life which can put a smile on your face is perhaps an idea of a sound sleep. You wish your mind can go blank and you feel nothing. I remember I use to sleep like that even without a hard day. This is something new to me that I have to find reasons to sleep and just a small thing, a small thought can leave me with sleepless nights. Well, I don't know what I am thinking now but somewhere I feel that I am making a conscious mistake. There is something which I need to rethink and think again but then consciously I am procrastinating it.

When you have someone in your life to which you can relate everything, life seems to be pretty easy and problem free but then the fact is that in a way you increase your problems. In a bid to become solution for others you compound your own problems. In the process to provide others emotional security, you become more insecure in yourself. I don't know but lately I have started feeling insecure for all that is happening around me. Though it appears that I have everything I always wanted - a promising career, promises of future, a friend who really cares and it feels great to feel like that but then next moment I feel that I have become wreckless. I know that whatever the promises my future holds for me is not certain and what I have today is again intangible. You cannot quantify feelings right?

I seriously think that I need to plan certain things in my life, I still need to hit the track (and not only the sack) @ full throttle. The life which seems so rosy now may not have unveiled its full face to me and that leaves me to do a lot of preparation. Some questions are needed to be answered, some answers needed to be weighed on the scale of reality. I guess an introspection session is long overdue and when I am not sleeping for the next two hours that is the best thing I can do. Have to look for the answers within and then for some unanswered questions, I have to look beyond me. Let's see how far I can go with this stuff.

What Tendulkar Said?

After watching the CNN IBN video with Waqar and Srikanth, I am also wondering about the Indian media. Superb I should say, they quote too many people all the senior players and I am wondering that how many senior players were interviewed or for the same matter does India have that many senior players in ranks? I guess they were only 15 when they went to WI? Anyways, the half and hour debate was about discussing each and every line that Sachin said like "I have given my heart and soul for 17 years" well don't seem like because he played cricket for less than that and in the beginning he was just wreckless and was not giving his life and soul, slowly he matured as a player and understood the importance of being a team player. Anyways I don't understand even if it has been like 25 years or even 3 years how does it matter? I remember that one of the most committed player on the ground was Robin Singh and Ajay Jadeja. The former was given the assignment to coach Indian young side and for the later everyone knows what happened.

Nobody believed that Jadeja also gave his heart and soul to cricket, and we all trusted that he sold his heart and soul to match fixers. But yeah everybody believed that Kapil must have given his heart and soul as he was sobbing on television. The problem is we are hero worshippers. We keep the right to abuse and accuse our heroes to ourselves only. If somebody else does that, we will not forgive him. I guess that a lot many Hindus in India are not averse to the idea of eating beef but then we will make a fuss of a slaughterhouse in Bangladesh or Pakistan. We can have jokes about our gods but if an outsider does that, we become merciless. Anyways, I dont know why Tendulkar has to emotionally blackmail Indian audience, the fact is that you might have given everything to Indian cricket but you still didn't do enough. Anyways the debate is still open let's see where it goes from here.

I dont know whether it matters that what Chappel is saying or what Tendulkar is saying. One failed as a coach and one failed as a player. They both failed together, the board has to decide that whether both can be sacked twice or if anyone has to go, who they can do away with? The answer is simple isn't it? Then why the 30 minutes odd show and news headlines? Well the world is one big market, and you just have to sell the right stuff. Got the twist?

Rational? Emotional? Mood Swings? Growing up?

"Life is difficult" My favorite book The Road Less Traveled starts with this sentence but putting it in my words, life is simply hard to understand. And the hardest is the fact that inspite of knowing all this we just keep making attempts to solve the puzzle. The more we try the confusing it becomes. We make plans and they fail, and we think that planning is worse. We don't make plans and still fail and start thinking that why the hell we didn't plan things? So what is the option? simply fail without planning or better plan and fail?

Nobody can tell with certainty that what is better. Similarly we make choices and feel bad if they go wrong, we still feel bad when we have no choice and just one option. Everything goes in a vicious circle and things keep coming back to you. Your past revolves around you and at times and again keep reminding you about the person you are, your merits, demerits, strengths and weaknesses but still we chose to ignore them. We know what is right what is wrong but still make mistakes sometimes knowingly, sometimes unknowingly. But then isn't it human to make mistakes? Isn't this human to have mood swings or having a blank mind when you don't actually know what you are thinking about.

I often wonder that what is this which makes all of us insecure, fragile and vulnerable. Is it just emotion? Or something bigger, broader beyond the comprehension of our human minds? Don't know for certain but it looks like to me that there are many wires coiled together each signifying a different emotions a different response. If they come too close they get short circuited and then we feel that blankness inside us. What is important, what is less important what is more important, we often confuse things.

Well, we are not that innocent race and my feeling is that we know all the answers, while chosing something for us we know that where it would go but still we just keep thinking that things will become fine. Inspite of the knowledge of obvious we keep praying that something good will happen, as if like some fairy someday will swing her magic wand over our heads and set the things right. The problem is not with the results the problem lies in our thinking process. We all know that rational is good emotional is not so good but then we make all the emotional decisions look like rational ones by justifying ourselves in one way or another. I don't know, I don't think so, I am not sure, Whatever.. these words are simple clues that we know but still don't want to think or be sure about. We just want to go along with the tide and see where it chose to slow down.

Anyways does that mean we shouldn't be emotional or something? Ofcourse not, confusion is what makes you look like human. Your mood swings proves that you are exposed to different emotions and can respond differently.
So you see this is perfectly human to have mood swings, this is a part of the growing up. The more you are exposed to your environment the more mature you will become. Growing up not only means growing up physically, it is growing up emotionally also.

Being in a position where you can have the luxury of choices is really lucky and even if you mess up with it just be ready to face the consequences. We all have made unprofessional decisions in the past and not all of them have went wrong, we all have made rational and well thought out decisions in the past and not all of them have went right. So what essentially makes us all perfect is our ability to think and analyze. Anyways, I don't know why I am writing all this but still it feels human to bring out emotions. Hahaha

Apr 3, 2007

What is Indian cricket league?


Will be more like the county cricket format except that the money on stake will be more and the audience will be hero worshippers. Zee's Subhash Chandra sees it as an opportunity to fill the gap created by the lacklusture performance of Indian cricket team by creating a talent pool of players who can be chosen to represent the country. But then the question is that what is more important for Subhash, producing more cricket players or selling more cricket or selling the same brand of cricket more?

One of the rules allows the team to have 4 foreign players which they all will have but then Indians are what Indians are, you can't expect Sehwag and Sachin to score centuries against even players like Mohd Asif or Mohd. Rafique. Or may be if they does that will be either be due to the typical Indian pitches. Well, still the idea has some meat in it as if to spend the corporate advertisement dollar wisely on something which will atleast be fiercely competed. The challenege is to attract players like Murali, Kallis, Flemming, Gilchrist etc. Indians are no good.
Anyways, its clear that the old man is trying to do some good to corporate India and hoping that the process will have some positive spillover effect on Indian cricket. The way to a successful Indian team is tough conditioning regime and an able leadership at the top. The only way Indians could win matches is by actually trying. They lack the desire and passion to play cricket. If Chandra has to put his money to best use and if he wants something good for Indian cricket perhaps he has to focus on the playing conditions like pitches and ground conditions as well. Anyways let's hope that those who won't play good won't get any ad contracts will have some effect on Indian cricket..

Important things and very important things..

We all talk about prioritizing things in order to get the decisions right but then the most difficult task is to get your priorties right. Money or relationship? Relationship or better relationship? Money or more money? Peace of mind or sleep disorder? Overconcentration or diversify? These are some of the difficult questions that we need to answer in order to get our priorities right. Sometimes the answer seems to be pretty simple but sometimes a daunting task as life is not a random function rather a dependent variable on many many independent, unpredictable variables. Leaving aside mathematics of life, you have to make choices or trade offs at times and these choices are not always dependent. You run the risk of overconcentrating on one thing while loosing on the other things, you find happiness in one thing quitting other and later realizing that the choice you made was wrong or you simply predicted a wrong variable which doesn't went well.

I haven't started with my career yet and these things have started haunting me. Though I appear to be cool, calm and composed from exterior but beneath that rough exterior lies a confused soul as human as anybody. A person who is vulnerable to emotions and his weakness is reading people's mind. Well, I don't know whether the decisions that I have made in the past were right or not and I am not also sure about my future decisions but have decided to use a simple matrix.. There are just two kind of things existing in life. Some are important and some are very very important. Don't know about the important ones but I am sure about the very very important one. Hope, like always I will be able to defend my decision and can live with the consequences.

Apr 2, 2007

We are always right.. and can do anything for votes.

Perhaps the most controversial minister of Manmohan Singh's government, Arjun singh may be fighting his last battle with life as well as with judiciary (for his political life). Manmohan Singh started something which made India proud and he is largely accountable for the present economic position of India but then I guess that the weight of the PM's post and the gravity combined together has pulled his backbone down and he is now a man without a backbone. Govt. is run through proxies and an example was the reservation row where the educated prime minister acted like an illiterate and gave his nod to a proposal based on data of 1931. Well, no rational man can digest this fact that India has 60% literacy rate because if you collect a sample in parliament you see that almost every party is supporting the reservation that pegs back the literacy rate at about 1-2%.

Now, when some educated men are sitting in judiciary who do not have to worry about their votebanks and who sees the long term aspects of the mistake, these fools are planning to overrule the judiciary now. I again am not sure what is happening to Indian politics but then as rightly said by the court "Nowhere in the world people fight with each other to prove that who is more backward". These politicians have also united to prove that nobody can be bakward then them and they deserve a quota in parliamentary elections. Okay so how far the 9% growth rate target will go? Let's see..

The feeling after failing.. and the Indian Team..


What does normal people like you, me and other 500 million people do when they fail in something? Leaving aside some 5-10 people with sucidal instincts, most of us feel miserable for some time and then move on with the life. Doing the same things in a better manner, in a more professional manner. We assume that every failure has some learning value. But seeing Rahul Dravid going out for a sunbath with his son and wife makes me feel sick in the stomach. He is a cold blooded guy and that was one of the major reasons for the debacle. He has always been my favorite player even when he refuse to take strike when tailenders are batting, even when he refuse to put the pressure on the opposition after cornering them, even when he takes ages to score a single but the way he goes out for a tour just after the debacle leaves me shattered that how cold these guyz could be. Pride of a nation doesn't mean anything to them. All that matters to them is their own peace of mind and not the country.

Perhaps what South African coach said for the Irish team is one of the vital ingredient missing for the Indian team " players do not play for each other" When Zaheer pitch one down the leg side, he knows that he will undo the pressure put by Agarkar but still he does that invariably, when Agarkar throws a bouncer he knows that he will let the opposition cut loose and will be undoing everything done by fellow players but still he does that. When Sachin gets out on duck, he knows that team India will be nailed to one corner but he can't help it, when Sehwag shows off with flashy drives he also knows that what does it mean for an Indian team. Dhoni is more interested in growing his hairs instead of his run tally but still he will keep doing that. I dont know whats wrong with Indian team but one thing is certain that they don't play like a team. They don't know well the person who is standing next to them.

Wake up guyz or you will loose everything, what will you do with your money when people will hurl stones at your restaurants and break your boundary walls?

Team India - Where is the problem?


"I think what makes them a tough side," he said, "is that the play for each other. They have an incredible team ethic, and that again is credit to AB (Adrian Birrell)".

Well, if you can guess that whose words are these and for which team then I guess that you are a hard core cricket fan who is not yet over from the heart shattering world cup debacle.


This comment is not for Australia or any other regular teams, this is for the team which showed the doors to another complacent team Pakistan. These words are for Irish team which has been drawn from part timers and only a couple of them had represented first class county sides but rightly said that they play for each other and they play for the passion called cricket. They play for the pride of their country. I don't know what Indians play for? Chappel may say things like seniors did the damage and blah blah blah but as a coach he has failed and he just can't shy away from it. And as a matter of pride, you should put your papers in. But then we are witnessing one shameless Australian who can go to any extent to prove that he is right. Well, let's see how far he can get with it. At-least he is lucky that India is different from Pakistan.

A week which was never there..

The last whole week passed into a jiffy. And now on a monday afternoon when I am sitting here in my room, I am trying to recall some incidents from that week and finding it a daunting task. (No hangovers). Well, I only remember that monday started with an examination and then the whole week seems like a blur. Trying to recall things but then failing miserably and my memory can go as far as friday afternoon only when the examinations ended. Some vague memories are there but still don't want to recall. I am feeling like the last week was a week which was never there..