suprise yourself !!

I have been through a routine life for past six odd months. Everytime I sit down and think what needs to be changed, the list becomes long. Eventually, it ends up in the trash and I continue with my life. When I discussed this with my mom, she said - shaadi karle, the time to think for change will vanish !!.  My friends and colleagues gave varied opinion from sky diving to world tour. Confused with options, I continued for few more days. Finally I did something which I seldom do. I cleaned my cupboard !!! I was happy to dig out old journals and Dairies. I started reading them and found out my answer. sometime, you don't need to change things drastically but fine tune them. There are few things which you love doing always but in course of life your priority changes but the love for old wine remains. It always feels good to shuffle few things in life ( well, gf and wife is your personal call, don't blame it on me !! ) which suprises you. I believe this element of suprise is what makes life exciting !!

Negotiating hard !!

Corporate works in its own mysterious way.  Number crunching, strategy, networking(official and social) , numerous illogical jargon and many more aspects which culminates to the objective of profits. However, one moment which always is interesting is the target discussion. Well, when it comes to target, you will find all bosses are of same religion,creed and caste. The question is should you perform exceptionally ? well the irony is,if you do, you are setting the expectation for your next target and if you don't,you will be pushed to achieve the higher target.

Last week, I sat for one such discussion. Well you need to agree, even if presumptuously, that your boss knows the business. Although he might ask you details making you graciously feel knowledgeable and apparently smart, however in his deepest thoughts he mockingly smiles at your endeavour to differentiate yourself among the rest. Its like the the jockey knows how long the horse can run !!

 

I corroborated all data to justify my understanding as to why my numbers are right. The presentation went on for good twenty minutes. My confidence was soaring high with every passing minutes and at the end of presentation when I saw my reporting manager and BU head nodding to my logic. I prematurely celebrated in my mind. Ah! at last I could convince that this set of numbers are good. Aakhir variable bonus ka sawal hai !!  What I missed is that its their turn to speak and when my BU head spoke, I could hear the lights getting fused in my head. He broke each brick on which I built my case and eventually threw the set of numbers which was pre-determined. I protested  meekly that  "market condition is not right" (I have heard that sentence in TV). He did lower his expectation after sharing information about market and economy which made no sense to me (I thank the Indian government million time for their policy paralysis). Eventually, the trauma ended. I came out and met my colleague who was waiting for his meeting to start. He asked "How did it go buddy ?"

" I negotiated Hard" was my gyan to him !!

Moment of truth !!

Today morning I read this article by Vir Sanghvi and I was overwhelmed by it.
http://rivr.sulekha.com/what-pujo-means-to-a-bengali_368667_blog
Personally, Durga pujo has always been an exciting , happy and moment of truth for me. Not because its a celebration time but for the sheer magic of the concept of it. My sweet memories of Durga pujo goes back to my childhood when my friends and I were charged up to celebrate the home coming of Ma Durga. The celebration which started with mahalaya went on for Ten days. The loud noise of crackers, The new designs of kurtas and saris , the mind blowing smell of shiuli flowers , the loud noise of the dhaak brings out the message that mother has arrived. Its not only a festival of joy but signifies the epitome of faith. When the last day arrives, everyone with tear filled eyes immerse the godess with the hope of seeing her again next year.

As I grew older, The true meaning of the puja dawns on me. Its makes the celebration more relevant to today's world. Durga puja signifies the eradication of evil and the victory of good. It shows the presence of the energy which we call god and the it strengthens the faith of mankind. In the world today, where trust, honesty and good intent are vitues becoming scarce, the idea of Durga puja,Navaratri helps in perpetuating the goodness in mankind. The responsibility is on us to carry the message hiding behind the joyous celebration so that the roots of the mankind be preserved.

Happy Durga puja to all of you !!

Back from long hiatus !!!

This lazy afternoon, I was busily thinking how to keep myself busy. Normally a delicious sunday lunch calls for a nap (yes, i am a bengali afterall). however, today I was feeling restless and while browsing I visited my blog. Boy, its being 6 long yrs since my last post. I suddenly felt immense urge to get back to blogging. I missed pouring out my thoughts which might be or might not be  useful but nevertheless those are thoughts !!!

There has been huge changes in this past 6 yrs. I completed B-school(don't ask me how) , got a job and got promoted. yes promoted, apparently my boss thinks I am smart unfortunately her daughter thinks otherwise. The world too changed a lot and so is society, which makes me wonder have i changed too. Yes there are changes in me .Beside the change in sizes of my wardrobe to plus, my understanding of the world changed immensely.

I hope I am able to continue this  journey of blogging for a long time before the world and I change anymore.

wow! what a show...

I was 4 years old when i first went to see a circus. although i have vague memory of that but i still remember that it was a Russian circus which used to visit my native annually. It was always fascinating to watch the jokers juggling the balls, entertaining every person with their funny act and beautiful ladies showing events of great flexibility and courage(no, i never craved for them). when i grew up to go to junior school, my heart always used to cry for those animals who suffered at the circus. gradually, the circus ceased to exist and its very rare to spot one. however, off late, a new circus has started entertaining the masses and especially i'm amused by its performance. you get to see them very often in t.v and also sometime have a live show. now, before you start wondering, i'm talking about "the great political circus". well, i find distinct similarities between everything that happened in circus and indian political formation and my heart today cry the same way for the masses as it used to cry for those animals tied at the circus(well, my heart also cry for priyanka chopra).

If we observe well, we can easily find that the political leaders and their activity is a tremendous source of amusement. With film industry producing very few quality movie in a year, our so called netas has taken the hot seat to entertain junta. otherwise how do you think in this modern world of stress and official deadlines we keep ourselves amused? The parallels to the circus can be easily pointed out with the events which happened in the political arena in the past few years.

event 1: few years back, i opened my television set to find that i was a better student in kindergarden classes. well, i found almost every MP's, baring few, throwing whatever they could find towards other mebmers inside the parliament. The event was so amusing and fascinating that it can make any UKG boy proud of or give a serious competetion to any circus in the world.
you could find the mp's running, hiding behind tables and then throwing whatever object they could find! it reminds me of paper fights we used to have in our school(man, it was lots of fun). well, now the fault really don't lie on these netas, i mean how could you blame them when many of them have never went to school and those who did, never had such fun in school. I believe they were compensating for what they missed.

event 2: "SCAMS". This is the favourite act by our political members and believe me they are the best in the world !! you can find them playing this game with anything and everything. from cow fodder to oil and submarines to stamp papers, they just rule the game by their sheer quality of mental wit, which is sometime called as fraud. i wonder few years later if gandhiji take a rebirth , then he would be disqualified from indian polity because he don't abide by few of their rules like bribes, scams, kidnapping etc... I mean we, the present generation, have dimnished memory of how a politician would look without these qualities. Its like a model walking on a ramp without any accessories,make-up and then there is a wardrobe malfunction!!

event 3: The latest act by our heroes is that of "quotas". 49% reservation in central universities, including iim's and iit's, is a master stroke by the Hrd ministry. now, you can't really blame these guys for this. first of all, they never know what merit is!! they somehow got into school at early 60's when it was relatively easy or they had influence of some heavy weights with them. when it came to election, they used muscle power ,beer and vodka(respect it!!) to win. so, how could you really expect them to have the notion of merit!! how can they know, that one's intellectual quality is independent of caste,creed,nationality and bank balance. well, i do agree, that quotas are important but then there must be limit and is the benefit reaching the students who really need it.
consequently, the best students would move abroad for better opportunities and then there will be a national debate on "brain drain" for which the opposition may or may not suppot but bajrang dal may do and then there will be rath yatra, lathi charge, petition in supreme court and finally the verdict will come out when my grandson would write his "cat". That's the essence of the circus.

well, many of you may not agree to this worst condition of the political scenario in the country but the nagatives had made me a cynic. i know that there are people who has the mettle to move the country forward but unfortunately their abilities and contribution is overshadowed by the shameless work of their colleagues. so, someone may ask what's the solution? well, the latest movies like yuva and Rdb do show ways but those are not practical at some point or the other. Of course, Lok Paritran is a fantastic effort but not many can achieve it. I would strongly favour for an amendment in the constitution which would give the power to the citizens to recall their Mp's and Mla's if their performance is not satisfactory. its the best way to exploit the weakness(their position) of these corrupt politicians for the betterment of the country. vote is an powerful tool we can have along with the above amendment which would actually justify democracy. however, untill then, the show will go on.......

MOM!why did you pull my T-shirt?

I was sitting at the corner seat, next to the window. The train was scheduled to leave at 11:15 pm. I looked around to check other passengers besides me. there were two couples, almost double my age and size too. Movies can sometime provides you with great illusions. One among them being showing romance during train journey where the hero somehow always managed to find the heroine alone to make his moves. I being an average movie goer who can sometime withstand govinda dancing while eating "paani puri",often fall pray to such attractive prospects.

however, my story seemed pathetic for this journey. suddenly, i found a girl boarding the train and she sat opposite to my seat. now, you can understand the euphoria of a bachelor when he finds a pretty lass among the co-passengers who are almost his father's age. Its like finding an oasis in a desert. I somehow managed to start a conversation(boy, i'm good at it although failure rate is high). I asked her about bangalore and how to go to my institute. she works there in a software company. when we reach our destination, we took the same auto as her home was in the same route as mine. before she went home she wrote her phone number on my white t-shirt. now this is the most satisfying experience one could have given my state of affairs but hey, i suddenly find someone pulling the t-shirt away from me.... i tried holding it tightly but a strong hit on my hand and i gave up. I realized that mom was pulling the t-shirt over which i slept last night. my dream came to an abrupt end. oh! shit, i got to catch a train tonight.

scene 2:

I was sitting in the train which was to leave in another ten minutes. My co-passengers included two couples who always flashed that happy smiles to show that they have survived 25 yrs of marriage inspite of them cheating on each other. who care ! but hey why on earth are your daughter's not accompanying you. wait, isn't in my dream too there were two couples travelling with me!! now my heart missed a beat. Then something magical happened. I found a girl in early twenties boarding the train. man, is this my moment? she sat opposite to me. soon, we started talking as the uncles next to me gave that"hmmmm,what's happenning dude" stare. I don't understand there damn problems. they got married some two decades back and have their share of pie. so, why envy me oldie?

anyways, she lives in bangalore and works for a software consultancy. Boy, is this happening. I felt like i've read the whole script earlier. I knew what's goin to happen in the next step. As we reached Bangalore, she suggested that we travel in the same auto as her house falls on the way to my place. The auto ride was good. she informed me about the places to visit also invited me to her house. I started imaging..... she introducing me to her dad. Like all girls father, he is staring at me with suspicious eyes which says "leave my daughter or i burn your ass". I guess he is stressed...... A sudden halt brought me back to reality. Finally, her house has arrived . she borrowed a pen from the driver to write her mobile number. I was more than happy to offer my t-shirt sleeve like a three months baby jumps up with smile while seeing the cerelac bottle. she wrote her number and got down off the auto. I saw a man taking the luggage from her hand. while i was wondering who could be this new character, she introduced him as her husband. I felt like someone has hit me with an ultrasound device and some sort of short-circuit has heated my whole audio-video system. however, after a quick exchange of smiles and handshakes I left the place.

so, where did the dream went wrong!! MOM, why did you pull the t-shirt at the wrong time. A half script is more dangerous than any nuclear bomb ever produced. it can put you on such a depressing state that you even find mallika sherawat as your grandma and salma hayek as your aunt. however, now i have learnt to keep my expectations to bare minimum and decided to travel by bus to Bangalore. probably all these are consequence of the curses by nancy whom i've driven away because i couldn't take her kisses anymore and i found it extremely traumatised to see her making love with her boyfriend, above my head whereas i lie on my bed with a packet of chips and look at priyanka chopra poster.
i'm sorry nancy!!

NANCY AND me

I woke up very early today. although i'm not an early riser but off late i'm being forced to rise early by NANCY. For past one week since she made her way into my room, she has been sucessful in altering my sleeping habits. one kiss of her on my cheek every morning and i jump out of my bed. Before you guys start making your own conclusions, let me introduce her. Nancy belongs to the royal mosquito family who used to rule my area(historical ref: mosquito and fly museum, corporation garbage bin). she invaded this private space of mine called " bedroom" a week back when my "goodnight" refiller got over. I also discovered that she has also brought in her boyfriend who used to work "night shifts" at the garbage bin in the vicinity of my apartment.

I'm not sleeping alone for past three days. Although,unlike many, i'm being accompanied by two sweaty shirts, a jeans pant, hindu newspapers and a cd pack but accomodating nancy and her boyfriend, streched the limit. so, i decided to do something i seldom do.... "clean my room" and drive the couples away. moreover, i remembered that mom would come back today from her tour. Cleaning room is again a matter of choice. i could find old magazines, priyanka chopra pictures which i've cut two months back from the newspaper and many such things which excited me some point of time or other. unfortunately, i am running out of space in my room. Then i found an address of a gym which i decided to join 2 months back. Suddenly realization crept in and i remembered that i've spent that money on pizzas.

atlast! my room was clean and i realised its actually a bigger room than i thought. however, when mom came back she gave me that "is- this- my -son" look. she was happy her son has finally found something to do, probably a potential bright career opportunity. she is preparing sweets to celebrate the occasion. however she is unaware of the hefty broadband bill which has arrived today and i'm not revealing it to her untill i finish the sweets. By the way i've not driven away nancy and her boyfriend yet. I found that she has identified my bedroom as an ideal mating ground. so, for the moment i'm encouraging them to do stuff which i've only been dreaming and probably get some inspiration. however, the scary part emerges when progenies would learn to kiss me and i heard her parents who work as an hygenic manager in iit canteen's dustbin is planning to visit her. well, i'll keep everybody updated about that. goodbye.