Enough is enough!

Frustration. Anger. Helplessness. It had been a very emotional 3 days for me as I watched Mumbai attacked, yet again. And as the attack unfolded & counter attack started, I wondered what would be India’s view after all this gets over? Will the usual ‘famed Mumbai spirit’ & the usual clichés of the city’s resilience to get on with life start ringing again? But this time even Mumbaikars shouted back. Enough is enough. Damn the clichés. Life moves on but are our lives taken for granted by the guys whom we have elected? The home minister of Mumbai has the audacity to state that ‘such incidents happen in big cities’ and that too in a press conference. Felt like puking over the *****. Does the guy even know the magnitude of this attack? The guy then ranted about a committee being formed to investigate. Fucking Bullshit. I am sure a committee must’ve been formed even during 2006 train blasts. If that’s not all, I wonder what really drove Narendra Modi to even think of having a press conference on day 2 of the attack. How can someone even think of politicizing the whole issue!! Till the other day, BJP, MNS and the clan were pointing fingers on ATS chief Karkare and today they have put up boards across the city saluting him as martyrs and letting the commoner know that these boards have been put up by them – with the larger than life sized party logos of theirs. It came as a no surprise that Karkare’s family refused compensation from Narendra Modi. As the NSG mopped up the operation, in process losing out on 3 brave men – all from different parts of the country, I wonder what would Raj Thakrey say now? His ‘sons of the soil’ vaanar sena didn’t turn up to save Mumbai from the ‘outsiders’. The real men who lost their lives to save Mumbai were from North & South India. But when they entered in the hotel they were not fighting for Mumbai. They were fighting for India. The citizens who voiced their views yesterday on many channels echoed similar sentiments but sadly, vote politics is not driven by ‘elitist or English speaking rational people’ of the society.

I am a Maharashtrian born & brought up in Delhi. A core North Indian but still I am a Mumbaikar. It’s the city where I have spent the most wonderful 4 years of my professional life. It’s the city which is still close to my heart and will always remain so. And why only me; the city belongs to each and every Indian citizen. And as the city laid under siege, sitting in Pune I just cried in pain. Clearly the administration has not learnt the lessons and I am sure – they never will. But now the time has come for them to sit up listen to the growing voices of angry citizens who have lost hope with the system. Some day the scars on the Taj, Nariman house & the Oberoi would heal, the blood would be washed; all telltale signs of the burnt place would be erased but what about the voices of the innocent dead victims? Won’t they haunt us each time we pass from those iconic places? They say public memory is short. The people who man the system might live in that belief but this time it won’t be forgotten so soon. The country wants some hard answers. Mumbai wants some answers.

Ladakh Vacation

Wish you all a very warm & happy diwali. Off late, I had been very lazy in updating my blog. More than lazy, I'll say I had been too tied up with work & transition that had been happening at work, role and personal life. To escape from it all and bring focus back, I had cut myself off from work, emails, cell phones, laptop and escaped to Ladakh for 2 week break. It had been really refreshing and it has helped me in focusing on few things which i intend to plan & aim for in coming few months. Will share about my Leh experience and the transition that I am going thru in other posts.

9.11.2001

..Still remember that night. Me, Tanuj, his wife and few friends of ours were chilling out in Buzz at Saket, Delhi. Amidst the loud music and conversations over booze, we saw the silent images of aeroplanes crashing into World Trade Centre being showed on TV. The entire gathering their watched in amazement as the videos kept replaying. The flow of booze stopped. The music died out as someone switched on the volume of the TV. We forgot our conversations and got glued to the TV. The next 1 hr in Buzz was surreal - no music, no normal chitchat - as we witnessed the world being changed.

I still remember that night.

Been there…done that

Ok some cheap thrills. You will find me blabbering this for coming few weeks.

Friend: hey loks, were you on leave? Didn’t see you in office for past 3-4 days.
Loks: Oh no...actually I was in UK last week.
Friend: Oh…some new project.
Loks: Oh no no… had to meet a prospect…make a proposal presentation on how we can set up their offshore development centre and come back.

Friend: cool.
Loks: yeah.. just part of the job…nothing exciting about it.

Don’t they have a telephone in your part of the world?

Couple of weeks back the European delivery head calls me in his office.

Head: Lokesh, you have to go to UK in two weeks time. You have to make a proposal presentation.

Me: Ok… and then?

Head: ..and then…come back.

Me: Err… so I’ll just be going there to make a presentation..? Why, I can do that even from here. All I need to do is just pick up the phone! Why spend airfare, precious pounds on accommodation, daily expense etc just for sending someone from offshore to make a presentation!!!

Samosa – 60bucks!

The management of Mumbai international airport have come up with a new strategy of letting the flyer get the feel of the ‘conversion’ prices that they normally do when they land abroad – at airport itself. Otherwise how to do you make sense that a stupid samosa for which I won’t have paid more than 5 bucks gets sold at 60 bucks at the airport!!! A 10 bucks black forest goes for 80 bucks. Yes, it’s a good way to make flyers feel the pinch even before they fly!

I hate night flights.

I hate to take the international night flights. They are a real pain in the ass. For starter, you need to leave Pune early so as to avoid the maddening evening traffic in Sion or Andheri and in between, skip dinner as you are caught in transit. As mostly flights depart at 2.am types, more than food, its sleep that’s on your mind. But after a quick snooze and a shot of Jack Daniels you realize – hey this is the late night flight, which means no dinner served! Only snacks and breakfast! Grrrrrrrr.

The other reason I don’t like taking the night flight is because at nights the airport bears a resemblance of a mela than an airport. You bump into all this kachra public traveling in kacchas & baniyaans to Gulf. Ok the Unddies & vest was exaggerated but seriously, the entire environment resembles a bus adda. All the gulf flights leave at night, so you would see all these mallus, tambis – with their loongis tied up to their waist, flaunting their assets, yapping away in a group waiting to leaving India to start a new life in Gulf.

But I am quite impressed with the crowd management at the new international airport. The privatization has really worked. Inspite of such a maddening rush, I was able to check in within 5 mins and clear immigration & security in 10 mins. Not bad…not bad at all!!

Cash for Vote

In the past one week, a lot of dirty, murky water has passed under the bridge. Finally we all got to see the 'true' colors of our politicians. The most 'ironical' moment for me in this entire drama was the closing part when after a dirty day at office, the speaker closed the session on 'Vande Matram' geet. Personally for me it was disturbing to see all these 'representatives of the common people' standing attentively in respect (were they?) as the national song got played.

If that was not all, the shape of things to come in future rolled off this week when Sushma Swaraj came up with her version on the serial blasts. Her 'conspiracy' theory of blaming the blasts on the government to divert off attention from cash for vote scam - broke all points of records on how low can a thinking get in politics. People who follow her theatreatics would remember how in 2004 when Congress came in power she howled and howled and threatened that she would shave off her head, sleep on floor and follow the life of a 'sadhavi' is Sonia is made the PM. Disgusting.

Where is Lokesh?

Caught with tons of work - shitty, exciting, maddning. Loads happening at work, personal life...Need to sit down and really think - think about why it's happening this way - think about why am i not getting time to do what I love the most - write, blog, connect.

Will be back soon.

World Peace? What World Peace?

' Beautiful women walking down the ramp in their swimsuits...you think world peace would be on anyone's mind...' - top of the mind candid reply from a participant of this year's Femina Miss India on being asked what she thinks about world peace.

Yeah baby, if I was the judge, my award certainly would have gone to you.

Washing Machine Usability

The studio apt. where I live in, has this 'fully loaded' washing machine that can do anything and everything you can think of related with washing clothes. You might ask - what's the big deal in washing clothes? All you need is a soap, water and - clothes! But then this machine comes with all those modes of washing different types of clothes (silk, cotton, polyster,etc) at different settings, various wash modes (depending upon how soiled is your clothes), water modes (to conserve water & use it effectively), various RPMs for various wash types..blah blah. Ok, so I was impressed. But now comes the big question - how should I operate it.
Unlike the previous generation washing machines, which just had 2 knobs to select timer and drain water - here was a machine that had a 'mini instrument' panel full of small buttons & various flashing LEDs.

I took out the Instructional Manual and started reading it carefully. 15 mins of 'chatofying' the book and and I still couldn't figure from where do I have to operate the water tap! I checked the washing machine and couldn't figure the point from water pipe had to be plugged in or the draining pipe outlet. Finally I figured out that the water inlet & outlet pipes were already attached to the machine - though there was no 'knob' to turn it on/off. Ok, so this is Uk and perhaps here machines are already attached to the water outlets but shouldn't the manual have instructions for 1st timer users about these things or is it just assumed that people might be knowing about it. What if a person moves into a new house and wants to install the machine? How will he know about these things? The manual should have had instructions about plumbing or how the machine has to be installed -right to details of fixing it to water/drainage outlet. This way, I would have come to know that there is no need to seat about the water outlet. Anyway, this was just the begining. The next part, selecting which clothes type. There were pre-defined clothes type and I selected 'cottons'. The instructional manual was well documented in the remaining steps and after 5-6 steps, I selected the START button and voila - the machine started! But hey, hang on! What's this? For my 'cottons' selection & even wich 'quick wash' option selection, the machine calcuated that it will take 2hrs 45 mins to wash my 9 shirts!!! Quickly I checked the manual. I did not wanted to waste 3 hrs in washing some stupid 9 shirts. The process had started and I realised that if I cancel any pre-defined programme, I have to start the process all over again with the already 'pre-defined' wash modes.

Why couldn't the machine come with a 'customised' wash mode option too? An option where I even select wash time period instead of letting the machine doing it for me. What I felt really missing from the machine was the option of letting the user to customise his washing choice as per his preference. Comparatively, I felt the 1st generation (manual/semi automatic) washing machine was much easier to use (you don't need manual to use those 2 knobs of setting timer & draining water). Ofcourse once you get a hang of a fully automatic loaded gizmo like the one I used, you do start liking it but is it really helping me in any way to make my washing more effective than the 1st gen machines. Those in favor might say that you don't have to worry about anything - put the clothes in and do your other work and come back only to dry clothes but what about the electricity consumption? I spent 3 hrs of electricity (and water) to wash 9 shirts which I could have done in less than 40 mins in semi-automatic washing machine.

Its good that you have a product that promises to 'automate' or ease out the way you have been performing certain tasks but shouldn't we let the user take control of the product instead of the other way around?

My trip to Lords - The Home of Cricket

If there is one stadium that any true cricket lover would have grown up hearing about is Lords. Majestic as it sounds, arguably it has always stood as a mighty colossal in the cricketing empire. As an Indian, there are many cricketing moments that are linked with Lords. The 1st test match that India ever played was at Lords. The vivid memories of Kapil's Devils lifting up the Prudential Cup to the not so recent one of Sourav Ganguly doing a jig in the visitor's Pavilion after Nat West Final victory. It was one stadium that I always wanted to visit and finally got my opportunity on 5th January, 2008. I had heard about the Lords Cricketing Museum - which is one of the best cricketing museums in the world and that visitors can have a conducted tour of Lords on off cricketing days. With that info. I headed off to Lords.

God must be a cricket lover!
I think god must be a cricket lover - after all its not everyday that you see so much sunshine in London and not a drop of rain! The main entry to Lords is through the WG Grace Entrance. A feeling of excitement crept in me as I began my walk through the gate. The facade of the stadium is massive though if you compare it with Eden Gardens or Chinnaswamy stadium, it might not look so overpowering but then there is so much history attached with the stadium which makes it look larger than life. On the huge columns, there were quotes of different cricketers mentioned sharing their experience at Lords. Rahul Dravid's face & quote greeted me the moment I entered in. The Lords Cricket Museum is right inside the stadium. They charge £12.00 for the 2 hr tour which includes a visit to the Long Room, committee room, dressing rooms of the players, pavilion, stands, the new Investec media centre and of course the museum itself.

A walk down the history
The museum is a sheer paradise for any lover of the game. You will find vintage photographs of teams, cricketing moments, artefacts, old autographed bats, balls, gloves & other cricketing accessories. Bats used by famous cricketers like WG Grace & Sir Don Bradman to score some classic centuries are also on display here. Other cricketing gear used by players like Victor Trumper, Jack Hobss and some of the contemporaries like Shane warne, Lara, Glen McGrath, rahul Dravid, etc also find a place in the museum. A painting of Maharaja Ranjitsingh facing the bowler as he prepares a fresh guard adorns one corner of the wall. But the biggest exhibit is the Wisden Trophy and the original Ashes urn which is kept on the 1st floor of the museum.

The Long Room
Many times I had heard of this 'Long Room' in commentaries. Finally got to see this room. Long Room is the main room through which all players enter into the field. Its right behind the pavilion and that's the only accessible way for players. The room is more of an art gallery with portraits of may old players and cricketing events adorning the walls. There is a huge chandelier in the room. On normal cricketing days, there are benches in the room where drinks n food is kept. Right in the middle of the room, my eye caught a few old photographs of a cricketing team & some news clippings which had turned yellow. As I leaned to have a close look, my eyes just sparkled. The news clipping dated back to 1932. It had the scorecard & post match review of United India's (that's how the team was known in those time) 1st ever test match that they played against England. On 1st day of the match a sizable audience had gathered to see this team of 'unique’ cricketers. No one had given India a chance and yet within 1 hour into the match, England were reeling at 19/3. Surely, the 1st hour itself was the biggest upset for the English side and though as expected India lost the match, but this spirited performance from the Indians drew praises from the British public & media. I wish I could paraphrase the actual news clipping here (btw, photography is strictly prohibited in the museum, long room & dressing room). A diverse team which had 2-3 Mohammedans, Hindus, a Sikh too, people who had never experienced cold in India - forget the British weather and moreover captained by a maharaja famous for his royal tantrums, yet found a common cause to bond together in cricket - said the article. The vintage photograph was of the Indian team who played that day. A sense of pride enveloped in me. The long room is frequented by everyone who plays there and this news clippings & the photograph is the only prized artefact of any test playing country that has been displayed in the long room. Surely it means a lot which perhaps also shows the 'respect' the britishers showed for the 1932 visiting team.

The Pavilion & the dressing room
The door to the long room opens to the pavilion. The view from the pavilion is truly majestic. The players come down from dressing room, walk through the long room and exit out through the small pavilion gate onto the field. Just for information, if you want to become a member of MCC, there is a waiting period of only 18 years :-) Another shortcut is, start playing for Middlesex and after 10 appearances or so, you get a restricted membership.The dressing room is on the 1st floor. IN both the dressing rooms, there are 2-3 honour boards fixed on in the room that records the guys who have scored centuries or got 5 wickets or more at Lords. The guide who accompanied us shared lots of anecdotes related to the dressing room about how Freddie is possessive about a particular chair and always prefer sitting there, where do other guys sit and all. As I walked to the visitor's dressing room, I eyed upon the Hall of fame board on the top. You'll find many Indian names on the plaque but then like the guide said, having a name on the board doesn't mean they were the world's best. It was just their day or else how can you explain the name of an Indian guy who shares the world record with Glen McGrath for getting out on 5 consecutive ducks in matches highlighted there for his 109 no in 2000. That's Ajit Agarkar for you - the centurion who was not supposed to be even in the final 11 but got his lucky break on the eve of the match when a frontline bowler got injured. Everyone dreams of hitting a century at Lords and Mr. Agarkar celebrated all his birthdays that day in 2000. Interestingly, the world's top 3 batsmen, Lara, Ricky Ponting & sachin - none of them have ever scored a century at Lords. The feeling of standing in the balcony of dressing room is really awesome. As I stood there on that spot, somewhere in the back of my mind background score of Gladiator started playing - as I could imagine & feel the joy & excitement that Sourav would have gone through when he exactly stood at the same spot where I stood and flinged his shirt in air with excitement, or Kapil would have hoisted the prudential world cup trophy in air, or in the summer of 1979 when India were down and out and were trailing by over 300 runs, Vensarkar & Vishwanath scored fine centuries to bring the match to draw. Incidentally Vensarkar's name appear thrice on the board and his 3rd century in 1986 also led to India's only win at Lords. Standing there, I couldn't help but think about all this - after all like I said before, there is so much history attached with the stadium that you can't help but travel back in time.

The Nursery End
You might have heard about the nursery end in commentaries. On the opposite end of the pavilion is the nursery end. There is no nursery now but once upon a time there used to be a big nursery there. Now the ground is used by players for net practice.

The futuristic media centre
And finally the space craft shaped media centre. In 2001 it was acclaimed as one of the best 50 buildings in Britain. The view from the Investec media centre is really cool. The media centre itself is very well equipped and quite spacious unlike a few press stands I have seen in India. There are 2 floors in that giant 'cockpit'. On top floor the TV commentators sit. I stepped into the dingy little ESPN room from where Harsha Bhogle, Ravi Shastri, Gavaskar, Akram and company give their commentary & match analysis. On both corners of the media centre are 2 reserved hospitality boxes for the main sponsors - Investec.
Needless to say, the guided tour was really engaging. Our guide, one elderly gentleman (forgotten his name), was really well versed with the history of the game, the stadium, the anecdotes and made the entire duration really entertaining. His sense of humour was also flawless & so were his timings (sample this: "see that boolding there? That's where the ICC used to sit...and now they have shifted their based from the home of cricket to another wooonder-fool cricket playing nation called Duubaai").I had a lovely afternoon over there and as I walked back from the WG Grace gates and looked over at Rahul Dravid's face, I could now truly understand why Lords is known as the home of the cricket.
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Snaps that I took at Lords can be accessed at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lokeshsapre/

Sachin Rules!

Image source: Rediff.com
Commit all your crimes when Sachin is batting. They will go unnoticed because even the Lord is watching.

- Reads a banner at Sydney Cricket Ground

How many times have we crucified him and how many times he has risen up from the ashes. That's Sachin Tendulkar for you.

Fabio Capello & Kabir Khan

I have been following British football for a while and let me tell you, these guys take their football verrrry seriously. To see how Britishers are passionate about football, visit any pub during a league match- like I used to do when any important matches used to take place involving Chelsea, Liverpool, Man U, Arsneal. Life comes to a standstill if any of these teams are involved against each other. The pubs are packed and overflowing. Everyone there turns into a footballer and like us back home tuned into cricket, turn into a couch player. There are 2 men who have the most enviable jobs in UK. Jobs which are high risk, under constant pressure and media & public glare.

The first person to hold that job is Gordon Brown - The Prime Minister. The 2nd person who have that job is the England Football team National Coach which in this case is Fabio Capello. Skeptics have questioned the ned to hire a 'foreigner' for the post who can't even speak proper English! But the guy has balls. He is a no nonsense tuffie who know how to do his job. Reputations and egos don't matter to him. He has proved himself out in club level circuits and in many ways draw parellel to Kabir Khan - the role that Sharukh Khan played in Chakh De India. Like Sharukh he too has to deal with king sized egos of many star football players in the English team. It would be interesting to see how he manages to do that coz knowing his reputation he is a real hard task master. This could be the real antidote that English football team needed.

Old books like old soldiers don't die

I have been a diehard fan of Commando Comics since god knows when. So imagine my joy when I stumble into a book shop that had stocked commando comics and was selling the 'Best of Commando' series compilation for half price. Have ended up buying a whole set and gearing up for picking up few more collections. My only dilemma - each compilation weighs like a thick dictionary and my luggage is nearly touching the 28kilos mark. Don't want to end up paying penalty again at Heathrow.