Wood Cutter's Story part 4..

Starting the skill school -

Some of the things that they decided teach were skills related to wood cutting, coping with challenges of the jungle, managing collection and distribution of wood, differentiating between good wood and bad wood, raising finances for wood cutting equipments and most importantly how to become better human beings apart from becoming better wood cutters So with a bunch of young kids they started their dream school with an ever lasting vision.

It was not like present times when there is hell lot of competition everywhere (even for wood cutting, think about paper mills). During those times there wasn’t any organized competition and there was lots of wood for every wood cutter. Presence of jungle mafia was a myth. So there was enough space for everyone to prosper but like modern times at that time also survival was an option. Anyone who was willing enough to work hard was making good living.

The wood cutter grew old and he was not very happy with the progress of his children as most of them will be fooling around for all the time. Some were so lazy that they couldn’t climb the tree and will just pick up whatever has been shed by the tree and they will come back home thinking about some excuse. Wood cutter never put any strong checks in place and was buying all those excuses. Perhaps a person of his age would want only happy faces around so he never pushed his children to work hard.

Wood Cutter's story part 3..

Wood Cutter’s worry -

The wood cutter was unhappy about situation but he couldn’t think about anything partly due to his old age and partly due to his own attitude, as for all these years he was buying the same old excuses. He never tried to separate the good ones from the okay ones and he was responsible for the casual upbringing. He treated all of them equal and imbibed a great sense of democracy among all of them. He never rewarded the bright ones; he never applied pressure on anybody to perform better. His initial belief was to bank upon the consciousness of the individuals. This was not all. He was worried about another reason also. Due to the success of his school there were many other schools cropping up at a blistering pace in the nearby villages and it was on him to make his kids perform. All these relatively new schools were growing at rapid pace and he was sure that some of those schools have brighter and sharper minds. So he decided to test his students and called all of them for what we call now a meeting.

The meeting started with a speech where they were informed that each one of them has to spend three months into the wild. They were asked to study the jungle and collect whatever they can during these 3 months. As I mentioned before, the jungle was vast and there were opportunities for each one of them to explore as much as they can. Now, wood cutter was happy that finally he gave some good task to his children and was so happy about the whole thing that he decided to take a vacation.

3 Months into the wild -
Months went by and the final day came close. People started coming back from the jungle. Each one deposited their heaps of wood in the center of the field where they all assembled. Some heaps were bigger, some were smaller and some were tiny. Some bigger heaps were rotten, some smaller ones were really bad wood and the tinier ones at the center of the field were different from others. The looked dull and muddy.

Wood Cutter's story part 2

Awards and honours -

It was evident that some of the rotten heaps were collected during the first few days only and was picked at random from whatever those people found lying in the jungle. They collected all sort of stuff in a hasty manner and made merry in groups roaming around the jungle for the rest of the days. It was not before the final day that they woke up and found that the woods actually got rot during these days but as usual they put the rest of the time in finding excuses and they made a point to convince the poor old man about that. The poor old man was convinced and the embraced all of them and gave them awards and honours.

Some heaps were small but it was evident that these people could have done better to get more. Well they made a point that they will tell the stories to old man about how it was too difficult to go deeper into the jungle due to the scary animals and fears about dangers lurking in the jungle. The old man sympathized with them and they also received award and accolades.

The Untold Story of The Wood Cutter.. part 1

The thing about tiny heaps -

Third group of people were those who own the tinier heaps. They were questioned like anything and were thrashed by the old man as he failed to see beyond the size of the heaps. He asked these people about the reasons and these people chose to remain quiet because they thought that at least this person whom they worship like father would probably understand that what is it like to wander in the wild aimless and purposeless? What is it like to fight your fear and trauma of seeing crazy things in the wild? They thought that out of everyone at least this old man will understand the worth of their sufferings and pains. They wanted to shout it loud that they wandered in the wild to define the purpose of these three months; they did all the hard work day in and day out to prepare themselves for the hard life ahead. They overcame their fear and inhibitions and hurt themselves several times in climbing the tall slippery trees to collect wood. They wanted to shout it loud that “What you can see is just the heap of the wood, can’t you see that the thing that I have brought is Sandal Wood?” Unable to distinguish sandal from the wood the old man punished them and penalized them.

Poor fellows, they never realized this fact that the old man never went deep into the jungle and never knew that something called sandalwood existed. For him everything was wood. I don’t know that whether the old school still exists or not but the old methods are still existing. I am sure about that.

So here is not one but Two Cs.

My prophecy came true within 2 days but not without a twist to it. Read on to get enlightened.

Great was the word that I whispered when I looked at my grade sheet. A C was shining bright and as expected, I really got a 'C' but wait - What does the course name reads next to C? My god! is it Human Resource Management? Wow! I scanned the grade sheet further and realized that I got a C in HRM and a C+ in finance. Well, not a bad (relative) performance in finance but the whole world came crashing down before my eyes after this realization that I have been awarded a C in HRM. Throughout the term I tried to perform my best (relatively) and a self assessment of the performance tells me that I did not do a blunder of sort to deserve a C.

Anyways, life has to move on. A, B or C what matters at the end is the actual take away from the course (typical answer from all of those who normally do not get good grades) and I feel that my take away from this course is that it's really hard to understand a HR Manager. Now can you relate why most of the employees are never happy about their HR division?

Long time .. No C..

Well, it's true that I am unable to keep the blogging going due to some problems of mine in personal as well as professional life but well I really feel guilty on the days when I fail to trash my blog space. Anyways, this post is not about crying for the lack of time but rather fear for the grades. I am definitely going to get a "C" in finance which is anyways bad because finance is not a rocket science but the delay in the declaration of grades is making my life miserable. People might say that "thou shouldn't be grade conscious" but my advice is that don't listen to them they all are trying to justify their failures in getting good grades. The fact is that they don't even know where they went wrong. Anyways, in the coming days I have planned to bombard this space with my life in a B school so brace yourself.
Hope I will be able to see a C on my grade card soon.

Classic example of selection dilemma..

Requires a classic solution...

5 Batsmen, One wicketkeeper Batsmen and 5 Bowlers. This is the ideal combination for the bouncy tracks of England. If India has to win the match they have to enter with four seamers and only one spinner which will be Kumble of-course. So who will be the five batsmen and four bowlers.

Wasim Jaffer will be an ideal opener and the task at hand is to decide between Karthick and Gambhir. Both are performing well but I guess Karthick well be prefered over Gambhir. So that leaves the team with Karthick, Jaffer, Sachin, Ganguly, Dravid and Dhoni. In bowling department we will be having Kumble, Zaheer, RP and Sreesanth as sure shot. Now we have four players to choose from Yuvraj, Laxman, Ranadeb. I guess Laxman will be prefered over Yuvraj and either Dhoni or Karthick have to make way for Yuvraj.

Anyways, I strongly think that India should go in with four seamers and five batsmen with Dhoni or Karthick as keeper. We dont need two keepers when we have to keep a batsmen like Yuvi or Laxman out. But needless to say that Indian selectors are great with making blunders.

Fedrer returned the favor on grass..

If clay is Nadal's territory then grass is absolutely Federer's and if you ignore some moments of anxiety and some extremely good tennis from Nadal, Fedrer showed why he is the best of the lot. There were speculations and criticism of Fedrer's game and everybody was of the opinion that if the game goes to five sets, Nadal has his chances. They forgot one thing that it takes great courage to win in straight sets and a person who has managed to stay at top for 185 straight weeks knows how to play a five setter.

It was evident that Fedrer was having difficulties playing Nadal. Nadal was finding unimaginary angles. Some of his cross court shots were simply unplayable but people were actually wondering that why Fedrer is not even trying to reach those shots. Anyways, he knew what is coming. There was the second serves of Nadal when Fedrer was moving sidewise before the serve knowing where the ball is going to land but he was missing all those simplest of cross court shots as if suddenly the court has become smaller than what he expected. Some shots where he expected that even the god can't reach to them Nadal was reaching them and hitting them back only to find Fedex dumbstrucked in his boots. Nadal was surprising him on grass. Man! this is not clay, you are not expect to do this was the feeling on the faces of everyone. Even Bjon Borg was looking tensed after fourth set that what is happening to this man who is expected to equal my record today.

But then there are humans and there are superhumans. I have not seen Superman, Spiderman or even for that sake Rajnikanth and I do not believe that anyone of them are capable to perform even 20% of what they promise on camera but this man is really a superhuman or how can you explain his supremacy over the compatriots. When there was Pete Sampras, there was Agassi, Sergei Bruguera, Richard Krajiceck and Ivanisevic. But for Fedrer there is no one around. He has been there since 185 weeks and would most probably be there for some more time. For a moment Nadal smelled his first grass court title after the fourth set when he went on as 4-0 to claim the set as 6-2. But Fedex defied all the expectations of Nadal, Critics and everyone at that point of time and there he goes in a changed Avtar who is reaching out everywhere in the court, hitting the ball clean and hard, unleashing powerful serve and his trademark backhand smash. Before Nadal could wake up to realize what is happening it was all over. And he has to wait atleast for 10 months to meet Fedex in another final. He will pray it to be on clay this time.

Well, Nadal's exploits on grass today was best summed up by Fedex's words that " I would like to take as much as I can before he (nadal) take them all".

Another weekend, Another Restaurant..

We went in a group of 17 for a party so we were shouting, screaming and clapping. So if anybody reviews Eden as a place with lots of noise then take my word - don't believe him/her, it was just us.

Moving on, the place is really good and popular as it was bustling with people of all colors (trust me I am not racist people of all colors like white Americans, Native Americans, Africans and Indians). It seems that the trio Eden, Destiny and Hudson(bar and lounge) gives you a perfect combination for any kind of celebration.

The place was full so we waited for about an hour. There are lots of places in Nungambakkam where we could have gone but we thought to give it a try and it was worth it. Place was a cozy little place with nice ambience and people all around. Food was great and service was quick. Its a veg restaurant so I had no problem in chosing what to order and what not to. We ordered randomly and within half an hour we were satsified with the restaurant. Pastas were not that good and some items what we thought will be gravy items were actually appetizers. You won't be getting variety of soups here but whatever was served was nice and creamy. Overall the place is good for a quiet evening.

I want to thank my friends Bharath for the small party and Mukta for convincing me to experiment with food.

Review - "Apne" - A movie with 4 -5 movies in it...

Let's talk about the screen play - The camera zooms on the buildings of New York and what you see is a slide show of the sky scrappers from New York. The editing team forgot that you need 30 frames per second to make it look like a motion picture like they forgot that you need a boxing license to fight the world heavyweight champion. The story is a concoction of Rocky 1 to Rocky 4 added with a bit of "Jigar" and strir fried with some bollywood masala.

This is the story of boxer Dharamendra who won a silver medal in olympics but I don't know throughout the movie people keep saying that nobody can beat him (perhaps the director also forgot about the difference between gold and silver medal) or it was a satirical comment on the Indian Olympics medal tally."You guys are not good enough to get anything so silver is the gold for you" or something. Anyways, we learn slowly (dead slow and dead boring) that he was banned from boxing as he was charged guilty for doping (he alleges that somebody mixed something in his drink) but nobody agreed. I guess some compound was found in his urine which is normally found in Dog's blood and why not what else you can find in his body "Kutte Main Tera Khoon Pee Jaonga". Well, he didn't drink any of that in this movie and I was surprised why no such scenes were there in this movie. Anyways later I found that Sunny has taken over that thing from his father as now he is the senior most actor in family (or perhaps the only male member who can act a bit).

So after getting banned, he turns to coaching and a boxer guy has joined his coaching who is making waves in the boxing circle. Dharm paji's aim is to make a world champion boxer in India and like most of the Indian entrepreneurs who don't want to upgrade their technology and still want to dream about killing Microsoft and Oracle he runs a gym which is old fashioned and have some of the accessories from Dharmendra's times. This guy ditch him for better prospects with an Australian coach who has produced three world champions (who the hell is he?).

Sunny is his elder son who quits boxing at a tender age to make a career in business (the director never tells that what business he is in, as he has no office and nothing). Father is very angry that he did not become the world champion and do not even talk to him. Bobby is a rock dancer who dances with one hand in pocket (some brain injury which heals after some time and he is termed miracle boy). Well, I think it would have been better if he would have continued his rock thing. Just imagine, father as a trainer, brother is beating world champions like dogs and Bobby doing rock and roll on the sides. A hit formula ofcourse.

Well, the director is out to prove something. So we see things moving. We saw the first boxer in the world who can shake his legs as well as his arms (kick boxer may be) with equal ease and he goes on to become the India champion. We saw a TV channer hosting World Boxing Challenge where boxers from India will ultimately reach the final to fight with the world champion (clear Indication of match fixing). We then watched on the screen the world champion boxer axing for match fixing (Well he might have watched fool and final where Sunny bhaiya has beaten up Mike Tyson badly so he thought that Bobby can do the same with latest champ) Anyways what happens in the ring was equally good. Some Ajay Devgan style fighting (remember Ajay Devgan, Karishma Kapoor flick Jigar) where the world champion has to put grease in a challenger eye and no camera catches the action (you remember I said that the sponsors were Indian news channel its expected from them) and chota bhai goes to hospital.

His part is over. Bada Bhai challenges the world champion and he finds himself in the ring. As if Undertaker can challenge Holyfield or any passer by can challenge anybody. But yeah this is a movie and Sunny can challenge anybody and better accept his challenge or you have seen him breaking walls with one blow. So what was expected he beats up the champion but when he was about to hit him his wife holding her kid close to her chest plead for mercy and some bollywood style emotions come out from people's eyes. All the Indian folks (mostly Punjabis) jump with joy.

Well, leave your brains at home. Himesh Reshamiya is pathetic with his nasal voice. Sometime I feel like breaking the screen but you can't help. The only song which is somewhat nice is the title song by Sonu Nigam. After remixing the music, Himesh is remixing the lyrics also.

Overall movie is an entertainer and at times you will feel emotions trickling down your spine (like why Sunny is taking too much time to beat this guy up? If they have to defy every law then why not he beat him up like a dog? Why so many rounds? Why round 7 is coming immediately after round 3? Why Anil Sharma has gone crazy? Why not Hema Malini in this movie? Anyways it's better atleast Kiran Kher can act.

Happy watching "Apne". Have no probems with starcast. The family looks like real boxers. Atleast better than the Luca Garcia.