Confessions of a reluctant dieter (part 1)

I had been wanting to write this post since last week but had been too preoccupied with some office work which had mentally kind of drained me out, so was finding it difficult to pen it out. Finally got some time to sketch it out. This would be a pretty long post so I would break it into couple of parts. Here is the 1st part of the installment.

Suvi had been after me for quite some time to go on a diet. It's not that I had put on or something but more coz she wanted to go on a diet and needed company. "But why me?” I protested. "loks...while getting married you had taken vows around the sacred fire that you will nibhao my saath in all ups and downs of life", she reminded me emotionally. "But that didn't include dieting!!!". But I had no choice. All my pleas were falling to deaf ears. This 'marriage vows' thing or the 'shaadi se pehley you used to be' stinger is the Bramha astra that I guess every married woman resorts to when cornered to the wall. Faced with no choice, I threw in my towel. Ok, we would diet from today.

"No, not today", said Suvi. On being asked why not, she said "look now we would be going on a diet for some time, so let' start it from monday and let's enjoy the next 2-3 days that we have. I want to eat home cooked chicken and then tomorrow we have to go for my colleague's bday party also - she has planned amazing spread for dinner". Amused, I knew where this diet was heading to. I could already sense that in next coming days, this diet plane would lose its flight plan and turn topsy turvy before someone (read Suvi) presses the emergency chute button and bails us out. So like convicts on death sentence, with last few days to go, we feasted on chicken. Butter Chicken at Suvi’s colleague’s party on Friday, Chicken Thai Green Curry cooked as surprise dinner on Saturday by me and again some chicken at home on Sunday. If Malinga’s hat trick stole the thunder at the world cup, this chicken feast hat trick simply bowled us over. With Suvi’s wish being granted, I thought we could go on diet from Monday peacefully now. Or so I thought.

We had decided that for the 1^st week we will follow the General Motor diet plan. I had previously tried this diet plan in Delhi and had seen good results. You can stand to lose anywhere from 3-6 kgs in 1 week itself. Of course, it’s a fad diet but when you are desperate, you don’t think about fad-shad. You are more interested in the end result figure and in GM Diet Plan’s case, it looked really very tempting. So when Suvi heard about the plan, she looked excited. Though she had never ever dieted before but thought of giving it a shot. The 1^st day we had to eat just fruits and nothing else. On Sunday evening I stepped in reliance fresh to buy some fruits. Lost all my appetite after checking out price of apples. 100 Rs KG!!! Inspected it closely and saw ‘Washington’ tag on it. Among the apples kept there, these ones looked the best so reluctantly picked up a kilo which turned out to be mere 4-5 apples only. So apples, water melon, musk melon and what have you, a cool bill of Rs. 160.

Drawing from my past experience, I knew this diet would turn out to be an expensive one But hey; it’s for a good cause after all. If we both lose few kgs., naturally we will go out and binge again. This will lead to an increase in the revenues of the shopkeeper who till now had been derived of our share of revenue coz we had gone in self exile. An increase in revenues for him means he can save a little more for his kids & family. Similarly, the waiter who would serve us would also be tipped extra and they can send that extra money back home. So our act would contribute in a small way to fulfill our social responsibilities. :) :)

Iranians v/s Iranians

Pune is full of Iranis. You will find them in every nook and corner, every mall, every eatery. Modern Iranis. Liberal (or liberated?) Iranis. Irani men sans the clothing that they normally wear in Iran. Irani babes in tanktops, halter necks, denims, minis & tight fittings. Irani couples publicly holding each other or a odd peck or two. A far contrast from the conservative society that they live in back home.

And then there are Iranians like these.

No wonder more and more Iranians seek to fly away from their country to liberal pastures like India.

Finally Appy Fizz Cricket Commercial link!

Ok guys...Finally I found the link to the Appy Fizz song that I was searching. Ok..err..it was not me but Shazia who fwded the link to me. Thanks Shazia!!

Enjoy!

http://www.thecricketsong.com/

Malinga Rocks!

It's not just his rock star freakish hair style but his unique sling action bowling also rocks. The 4 wickets that he took against SA in a WC league match recently were awesome and yesterday again he made the NZ opening batsmen jump all around the pitch. The best pace driven, swing bowling that I have seen lately.

Another Siddhu Bouncer!

Was catching up with Turning Point on NDTV today morning. Siddhu as usual hijacked all the air space and started bombarding on Simon Taufel's poor umpiring in the NZ - SL semi final. And then he dropped his bomb - another one of those bouncers - and here it goes:

"Simon Taufel's decision had been so poor yesterday that in the morning he would need 2 hands to hold on to his bumps"

Wow! What was that?

On being reminded by the presenter that this is a family channel so pls mind your words, he roared back "Well I am a family man"!! (?)

I always feel sorry for poor Ajay Jadeja who most of the time is reduced to a mere spectator when both of these guys come for the show.

Hey, leave the kids alone!

As if school kids of today are not burdened by over expectations of their parents, the changing syllabus, the increasing size of their school bags, peer pressure, the future of quotas; we have very conveniently set another 'expectations' from them. This time - winning the cricket world cup in next 4-8 yrs!

1st the Pepsi ad.

And now, seeing another set of ads. by Surf Exel showing 11 small kids holding to their cricket kit, in soiled clothes, posing in 'Lagaan' style. The headline, in the same 'lagaan' typo screams:

Practice Karengey
Daag lagayengey
2015 mein to world cup le hi aayengey

Pluusssee...give the kids a break man!

Am I getting old?

The players I grew up watching, admiring and adoring are all gone.
Steffi Graf
Monic Seles
Gabrelia Sabatini
Pete Sampras
Jim Courier
Michel Jordan
Carl Lewis
Steve Waugh
Andre Aggasi


and now... Brian Lara.

Sigh. I miss them.

Bingo Ads remixed :)

(Video): Show different types of primitive traps used in jungle to catch animals. In different shots show human beings catching animals using different types of traps.

(Audio): प्राचीन युग से मनुष्यों ने शिकार करना सीख लिया था. शिकार करने के लिए वोह trap का प्रयोग करते थे. वोह जंगल में trap को ऐसे जगह रकते जहाँ शिकार पानी पीने आता और उनको पकड लेते. बार बार ऐसा करने से जानवर भी सतर्क हो जाते तो फिर मनुष्यों को अपना दिमाग लगाना पड़ता जानवरो को चतुराई से पकड़ने के लिए.

पर अगर आपको बिना दिमाग लगाए, मसालेदार, तद्कीले crap का आनंद उठाना हो, तो वोह आपको trap से नही मिलेगा. वोह मिलेगा Mid Day ke web edition से.


Mid Day
No Sense, Nonsense.

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What made me write this post?

sample some of the headlines:

Aaj hamari bhi Shaadi hai: Story of a couple who is sharing the big day with Abhi & Ash

Rs. 1.29 lakh suitcase: Story about the Suitcases that Ash is getting from her cousin as wedding gift.

Tag Board on my blog

I have installed a new tag board on my blog. You will find it on the right hand side of my blog ( just below the previous post topics). The suggestion for installing the same came from a hotshot Radio Mirchi RJ (hehehehe...now even I can boast of having celebrity connections) who wanted to leave a message on my blog but there was no 'neutral' message board. Wonder why I never thought about it myself. Perhaps coz till now most of my blog readers were my close friends who used to visit my blog just for my posts.

And as requested, he also took time out from his busy schedule to 'inaugurate' the tag board by posting the 1st message on it :D Thanks Shrikant!

So any messages hat you want to post to me, besides the comments one, you can post it out here. Feedback, any topics that are in your mind, suggestions, any point of debates & opinions...

But make it under 200 characters or else break the message into multiple parts and then post.

Hope to hear from you soon.

Aaj Tak's Intellectual level...

sample the question posed by a journalist at Abhi's so called lover's press conference.

"आपका और अभिषेक का प्यार कैसा था? क्या आप दोनो बाघो में गाना गाया करते थे? या फिर डेक पे प्यार भरे गाने लगा के सुंना करते थे.... आप प्यार कैसे करते थे...प्यार का इजहार कैसे करते थे?


They actually asked a question like that.

Uaaaaaa...papaaa..she hijacked my air space!!!

Uaaaaaaaaaa........

Big B: What happend abhi beta?

Abhi: pappaaaaa...I paid crores for this wedding...got scores of media lined up for exclusive titbits...and some stupid gal called Janhvi has stolen my show...the entire media is covering her and not my wedding papaaaa...waaaaaaaaaaaaa.uaaaaaaaa...:( :(

Big B: Calm down beta..lemme find out.. Koi Hai!! Darbaaan!!!

Amar: Ji bulaya?

Big B: Just find out..what's the matter... who is this gal who made this wedding into a bollywood script.

What I expect all news channels to beam on 20th :)

What I expect to hear on Aaj Tak, Start News, Zee news and other clone channels the whole the day long on 20th april:
(excuse the mistakes made in hindi...it's not that Idon't know the grammar but figuring it out in blogger is very difficult:- )

- दर्शको को अब हम सीधा जुहू में स्तिथ अमिताभ बचन के घर के पास ले चलते है जहाँ हमारे पत्रकार मोहित सुबह से रिपोर्टिंग कर रहे है। बोलिए मोहित...क्या नज़ारा है वहां का?

-मोहित..क्या आप हमारी आवाज़ सुन सकते है? मोहित...?

- लगता है इस शोर और गुल में मोहित के साथ लिंक स्तापित नही हो पा रहा.. जैसे ही होगा हम वापिस वहा चलेंगे। और आज हमारे स्टूडियो में expert पैनल भी है जो इस सदी कि सबसे यादगार शादी पे अपने विचार देंगे..तो शुरू करते है विनोद आप से...क्या ये शादी इस सदी की सबसे बेहतरीन शादी मानी जा सकती है?

-जी हाँ इसमें कोई शक नही कि येः शादी इस सदी कि क्या पर अगले सौ साल तक ऐसी शादी नही देखने को मिलेगी। Ashwarya कि कुंडली स्वयं ब्रहमा ने ऐसे लगता है बनायीं हो..नक्षत्र और चन्द्रमा का जो योग है वोह धातु के अनुसार मूल योग के हर ताल मेल पे है। और...

-एक मिनट विनोदजी हम दर्शको को सीधा अपने सवादाता शिशिर के पास ले चलते है जो विवेक ओबरॉय के घर के नीचे खडे है...बोलिए शिशिर..क्या समाचार है वहाँ?

- जी अभिज्ञान..आज सुबह से ओबरॉय घर का एक भी दरवाज़ा नही खुला, सारे पर्दे बंध है ..वातावरण ऐसा है जैसे किसी शमशान घाट में खडे हो और अगर देखा जाये तो विवेक ओबरॉय के टूटे हएय प्यार कि आज आहुति चदने वाली है प्रतीक्षा में। जलसा वहां हो रहा है और यहाँ पुरा सन्नाटा है... कहने में ये भी आया है कि आज विवेक सलमान खान के घर पे जायेंगे रात को और दोनो दारू के जाम से अपने गम को भुलाएँगे...मेरे साथ याहा कुछ लोग है ..आयेए उन से उनकी राय पूछते है॥ कैसा लग रहा है आपको?

-जी ये जो भी हो रह है अछा नही हो रहा..विवेक के लिए बुरा लग रहा है..भगवान उनकी आत्मा को ठंडक दे...
- जी धन्यवाद...तो अभिज्ञान आप देख सकते है याहां तो ऐसे लग रहा है कि शोक सभा हो रही है...अभिज्ञान

-जी..धन्यवाद..ये थे हमारे सम्वादाता विवेक के घर के पास से..हम अब लेंगे एक छोटा से ब्रेक और ब्रेक के बाद सीधा ले चलेंगे आपको सलमान के घर के पास...

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Thank god for Discovery Travel & Living. or else, Iwould have been dead.

Welcome aboard the Kamasutra Express

Don't get shocked if next time you reach railway station to catch a train and see a reservation chart that looks like this:

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TRAIN: KAMASUTRA EXPRESS (6969 UP)

COACH: S1 POSITION FROM ENGINE: WHICHEVER YOU LIKE HONEY

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NAME I AGE I SEX I STATUS

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Lokesh I 31 I ANYTIME! I WAITING (4 MORE)

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Shocked, you board the train. More shock, all attendants are babes dressed in tight reds & black. In dinner plate, instead of sauf packet, you get a single condom sachet. As you roll up the blanket on yourself, it emits a fruity flavor fragrance which reminds you of something....

As the journey ends, the attendants give you a return gift - original Kamasutra manuscript & DVD of the same named movie.

Sounds like fantasy? Mark my words, this would happen soon.

My sadastic dream...

...to install those HUGE search light kind of boxes which you find in prisons on top of my car and switch it on in incoming traffic when confronted with stupid morons who drive in city roads with high beams on, blinding them out, if not permanently, at least for a few days.

hehehe..the very thought of executing it brings a gleam in my eyes.

मा..मैं मराठी में लिख सकता हुं माँ

कोण मनाला कि माला मराठी लिह्ता नयी येत. हे पहा। मी मराठी मधे आपला पहिला वाकया लिहला।

Kiss Kiss ka Muh band karuin!

Heard rakhi sawant on radio Mirchi today talking all crap about how Shilpa Shetty should have reacted - how she had taken up the bton on behalf of entire woman hood ( meri bhartiya behney) when Mikka had kissed her...and whole lot of other shit.

Interestingly, none of these moral cruisaders raised an eyebrow when images of Mika kissing rakhi hogged all electronic airspace. Areey bhai...woh Rakhi sawant hai.... chalta hai.

Feel like puking each time I hear all this bullshit of culture getting polluted, playing with dignity of womenhood by acts like these and all. these are the very men who throng theatres, 1st day 1st show to watch Malika Sherawat dole out 17 kisses or whistle out when celina or any other hot bodied babe let loose their steam on the screen.

Gawwad.

How bad can a day get...

I leave at 9 am. get stuck in Aundh..thanks to the diversion that Police has made for the speedy completion of Pune University flyover, take a u-turn drive down 15 kks again back and take another road to reach camp, on the way get into argument with a rickshaw driver coz I splashed water on him (to be honest...I did that intentionally coz I was honking and he didn't give me side), feel bad about what I did, bump into some call center cab jokers who whiz past me from a wrong side almost scrapping my car, angered I waltz down narrow Koregaon road and overtake them and give them a taste of their own medicine (Hritik Roshan style - the way he performs in that karizma bike ad), feel good about it and then - meet with a minor accident with a biker who comes from opp end driving straight down but looking at left and talking to someone, bumps into my right hand side mirror & back tyre fender, breaks both of them, instead of accepting his fault tries to get chauda (thanks to the public sympathy that nearby jhuggi walla gave him) and later settles for 100 bucks for marham patti. Whew...and the day has just started.

You know you are in Pune when....

You wake up early morning, find the weather really pleasant and breezy thanks to unseasonal rains & hail storm that has brought the temp down, pad up and go for a walk and bump into people with their jackets & scarfs on! :D

Rahul Gandhi: Stamp of arrogance or calculated moves?

So, Mr Prime Minister has kind of officially announced which I guess everyone knew would happen some day. Rahul Gandhi is the future (read: in some point of time in future, he would become the PM), so support him. Sigh! Politics. It can make sane men like Dr. Manmohan Singh make insane statements like these in PM's role.

Having said that, I have been tracking some of the moves made by Rahul in UP elections. I think the young man is courting controversies. Nothing wrong with that, after all to be a successful politician or even be a 'noticed' one, you need to be involved in some controversies! But it's his whole outlook that makes you wonder whether this young man reinforces the 'Gandhi Nehru Dynasty' beliefs. Notice all his statements - Had a Gandhi been in rule, Babri wouldn't have happened, India won freedom bcoz of Gandhi and the latest one - Pakistan got divided bcoz of Gandhi. Worse, the party also supports all the statements (well, they have no choice). Desperate moves by a man who really wants to prove himself and that too in a battleground like UP.

If he is so keen on giving the credits to the Gandhis, he should also remember, that it was a Gandhi who is also remembered with the darkest period in post independence - the Emergency. It was a Gandhi who held back reigns of economic reforms (thanks to which other Asian countries who were no where in picture at that time in terms of growth, are today miles ahead of us), it was a Gandhi again who was the reason of Operation Bluestar, it was a Gandhi again who could have prevented the worse riots that India had seen post independence (after Indira Gandhi's assasination) but dedided to let India burn & innocent people be killed and displaced - scars of which the present generation is still carrying.

All said and done, the powers associated with the Gandhi legacy means that someday he would surely become a PM. Hopefully a matured one.

Duh! Now what do we do with this stock of Pepsi Gold?

(Somewhere deep inside the pepsi corporate office a high level meeting is taking place)

- the Indian team is out. Now we are left with this huge inventory of stupid drink that we launched. What the f**** should we do with it?

- Wish we could stick these bottles deep inside the rear end of the team.

-That won't solve our problems, we need to show sales. Think of something else.

- Oh maaan...I had thought had the team reached last 4, I would have created temp. scarcity of our stock and then sold this Gold in Black. Blah!

- Can't even create any face saving ad. like we did last time when the team crashed out of Champions trophy.

-Which ad?

-The one where we said 'Fir Aaayega India'.

-Hey, that gives me an idea! Let's create an ad again - same wine..errr..i mean on same lines but treated differently. We can always find suckers who would still buy our stock.

-What's the idea?

-We will show 4-5 attitude driven young kids entering a tailor shop ordering indian cricket team's dress. When the tailor starts taking measurements, they ask the tailor for bigger sizes. After taking down the measurements when the tailor asks when would they like the dresses to be deliverd, they will say, after 4 years...as the next world cup, they will win it for India! Then we will show them drinking Pepsi Gold.

-So what's the BIG idea in this commercial?

-Hmmm... for the media & agency release, the big idea is to keep associaton of pepsi alive with the never say die attitude & optimism and the great spirit of keep walking and shit like that..... but between us here....Boss..the BIG idea is to DISPOSE off our existing stock...

- Yeah, this idea works.

- This way, we can still manage to dispose off the stock till the next world cup and then we will launch something new - how about pepsi titanium?

-Forget next year's branding. Concentrate on disposing this year's stock. Tell JWT we are ready with the ad - get it executed quickly. I need to sell that damn Gold stock fast!

Narayan Murthy & the love for gori chamadi

Last week when I heard about the Narayan Murthy National Anthem controversy, I thought it's again one of those media misquotes. I mean, the kind of things that were talked about the controversy, how could a guy like NM say or do things like that. Then I caught NM's quote in a press briefing on TV - that triggered the events. He indeed had said all those things.

Well for all that the man has done for the society & IT industry, I for once don't agree with his current views about the whole thing. His rationale was that there are lots of foreigners on Infy's Mysore Global Campus and playing the anthem would have embarrassed them as they couldn't participate while singing or feel being left out.

Funny isn't it? Somehow our fascination for the 'gora' chamadi still persists in today's world. Blame it on the Raj era. Over the years it has got infused into our system and even if we don't agree to it, but somewhere in the back of the mind, the thought still breeds. US ambassador to India walks past the airport security directly from the airport tarmac and is not cross checked by any security guys. Can you imagine our ambassador doing the same thing in US? Do Universities or schools in US stop singing their national anthem in public if there are any ethnic students in their fold?

NM says his firang staff would have felt embarrassed. I don’t understand what’s there to feel embarrassed about. It’s a national anthem that’s getting played and the firings know it – so what’s the big deal. It’s the excuse of NM that’s not convincing enough. Had he said, oh well we just thought let’s keep it to tunes as and never thought about singing it, chances are, no one would have said anything.

I don't know about Karnataka, but out here in Maharashtra, they start the movie by playing the national anthem - not any instrumental version but full song. As the anthem starts I have occasionally seen many firangs (pune is full of them), get up and stand attentively as it gets played. I don't think they would be understanding a word of it and I doubt if they would like to know also, but they know the importance of a national anthem.

NM as a future president – sounds good. But if this is the kind of thought process that he has, then he is not getting my thumbs up.

Shooter - same ol crap in a new bottle

We have seen it before.

A die hard patriot soldier, engaged in mission, on duty in line of fire, system drops him like hot potato to take care of himself, he retires, few yrs later system needs his help to prevent a presidential assassination, he relents, but system presses his patriotism button, he jumps into play, finds he is on receiving end by the system, goes on revenge path, blows whatever comes in his way, FBI, NSA, ABOL, all kinda acronyms get thrown in the picture and on your face, system comes under scanner but system is too powerful to be punished, in between the same ol shit of weapons of mass destruction, oil pipeline, mass graves in ethopia, fundings et al, in the end wipe system off - the sunny deol way.

The plot is very predictable. If you are a veteran action flick movie fan like me, you would sense out who is the main villan in 1st 30 mins of the movie. Watch Shooter, if you just need to shoot some time, otherwise nothing interesting.

Bheja Fry - simply 'delicious'

There are movies with a subject, the usual ones. And then there are movies that defies the subject. Bheja fry is one of them. A simple storyline (loosely based on French flick Le Diner De Cons) and yet it makes you feel how well a simple story like this can be executed into a full fledged movie. Of course, the credit for it goes to Vinay pathak & Rajata kapoor- the main leads of the movie and Vinay's brother in arms - Ranvir Shorey. A movie that boasts of Rajat kapoor, Vinay & Ranvir - it has to be of a different gerne and Bheja Fry is another feather in their caps.

In a nutshell, the story revolves around Rajat & his friends who every weekend invite some idiot character to entertain them in the pretext of branding it as a talent hunt and laufh their ass off on their expense. Bharat Bhushan (Vinay) is Rajat's finding and next thing you know is how this 'idiot' character through his unintentional behavior makes fool of Rajat.

The movie belongs to Vinay Pathak. He has that perfect timing and panache to add life into any scene & dialogues.

Do go for it. You'll really relish the offering.

Kyoki Wiki Bhi Ek Gyaan Ka Source Hai...

All that you wanted to know about Kyoki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi and didn't know whom to ask.

Try this HOT chicken recipe

The starters that I had our maid's house (more on it in a seperate post below), here's the recipe for it.

Take a tawa. Pour some cooking oil on it and let it heat. Now add some laal grounded mirchi in it. In the oil, put some pre boiled (cooker cooked or otherwise) small chicken pieces (make sure they are small pieces - kabab sized ones). Sprinkle a little salt and some good portion of Chicken masala powder on it. Saute the chicken in that oil till the pieces start turning brownish red. For having that kurkura, crispy effect, saute it for little longer. Ensure that you use a tawa and NOT a pan coz the idea is not to fry the chicken but kind of 'grill' it.

Serve it without any chatni (as that can dilute the crispy flavor) and let the masala of the chicken tingle your toungue.

Enjoy!

Appy Fizz Cricket Jingle rocks!

have you heard the latest Appy Fizz radio jingle? It simply rocks! It's a sarcastic dig on our cricket team. Each time it comes on radio, I ask Suvi to keep her trap shut and lemme listen to it.. :D

I have been trying to search net to find the lyrics or download any audio file but have still not found it.

It goes something like this....

Appy Fizz welcomes back Boys in blue...
u went to the world cup with lots hope...but came back with heads low & gloom..
...
...u got bundled out..but you never let your optimism die...
...u came back in the field with sunsceeen on ur face.....

...dont worry there is always next to next to next next year to look after to....

...appy fizz wishes its cricket boys. .. all the best for their next...errrr..commercial.

Its simply awesum. Will post the link if i find it on thet net :)

socializing of a different kind

Lata, our maid, had been insisting Suvi & me to come and visit her home sometime. Her father-in-law who happens to be the watchman of our building and who we fondly call as kaka treats Suvi more like her daughter - at times greeting us at his night shifts with some chow that he brings along with him. Lata tells us that Suvi resembles his daughter who is married and living in Mumbai - so the extra affection. But more than that, we also have socially never distinguished them as 'watchman' or 'bai' types. On Lata's son's 3rd b'day, we sent across a gift for him and she again extended the invitation to visit her home. We had always been avoiding visiting her not because of any 'class' or 'status' difference but mainly bcoz we knew if we go, she would go out of her way to extend hospitality to us - which financially or time committed wise might look trifle to us, but for her and her family it might make a difference. So this time when she again said come over and we said 'some other time', she felt bad and wondered if we were not coming over coz her house was small. So to set her thoughts to rest, we told her we would come over in evening but don't make any arrangements - we would just spend some time and come back. That made her really happy but she scrapped our point of staying for a while and didn't let us go without having dinner - which again was something I really relished.

Her house was 10 mins walking distance from our apartment in bavdhan. A 2 roomed small house (nearly half the size of my massive Delhi house drawing room ) - shared by 2 families. The inside room had a small 'mori' (open bath area), kitchen & fridge. It housed lata's bro-in-law and his family. The other room was half covered by a desktop system, TV set and 2 almirahs. Tin covered, but kept very neat & clean by Lata & her family.

For dinner we had a spread of chicken - kolapuri style, jeera rice and bhakari. And yes, a few starters also (spicy chicken chops, onion, tomato, cucumber & kaccha mango).

Had a nice time playing with lata's kid and I tried my hands at being a good tutor and teach him some basic English. His parents are stretching hard so that they can enroll him in a decent English medium school.

While walking back home I thought how often we create this web and also get entangled in it of so called 'problems & tensions' around us which takes toll on if nothing else - but mental health. 2 hrs at lata's house and I realized we are far more lucky to be where we are. Seeing her & environment that she lives in, the challenges that life throws at them daily, and yet greeting us with a smile and a scrumptious dinner, I realized our problems are nothing but figment of our imagination. I know the argument would be that every strata has different Lifestyle and its own share of problem types but I think what I learnt was of being thankful to god of where I am today. Compared to the problems & challanges faced by them, some of the 'so called' problems now don't look problem to me at all.

Sach is Life

With sachin too jumping into the cricketing akhada to have 'do-do haath' with Greg, it can't get worse than this. It's not if Greg is right & Sachin is wrong or vicea versa. When sachin speaks - everyone listens and even he knows that. But the problem with Sachin, in this context is, the demi god status that he has acquired and his own 'belief' in it make him difficult to accept the fact that his game has lost the sheen that it had once upon a time. It's like those old maharajas of India - who still believe that they are the maharajas. the world has moved on but they still live in that fancy world. I think the time has come for sachin to sit and smell coffee.

I know what's on your mind...

"Wow...check out that babe's long legs"

(tring...tring..)

Me: "Hi Honey..what's up?"

Suvi: "What were you doing?"

Me: "Nothing...just thinking about you."

Suvi: "Shut up...you liar! You were ogling at some babe's legs"

Me: (spitting the tea I was sipping) "err..no sweetheart..that's not ture. I was reallly thinkn about u..err.."

(click)

Me: "hellooo...helllooo...u there". Wow How the hell she got to know that?

That's how.

Why do processes fail?

In a recent Coke & Pizza session with our MD, I asked Ganesh - why do processes fail? The session is held once a month with randomly selected 10-15 employees where MD and other bigges spend time with employees and have team sessions. The question was triggered by the fact that the entire conversation revolved around processes and usual cliche revolving around it. I asked, we have a process for almost everything under the sun, even there is a process defined for creating a new process - and yet, processes don't get implemented, followed or are not successful. Why do processes fail?

Ganesh said that processes fail beacuse of three reasons. 1) Technology 2) People 3) Leadership

As technology keeps getting complex, processes have also started becoming complex. He gave an example of his old days at NIIT when there was no online timesheet format. There used to be a black diary on each employee's desk. the employee was supposed to fill in his daily time sheet in a sheet from the diary, tear it off and keep it in the 'out' section of his desk. A lady used to come and collect the sheets every evening and manually used to keep a tab of timesheets. Simple process. But as technology started growing & becoming complex, processes also started becoming complex. It's ironical if you ask me, coz the very reason for having a process is to make life simpler for the person.

Why people? Coz They simply don't follow it.

Leadeship - To implement processes you need strong leadeship. otherwsie people below you won't follow it. he gave the Indian Army example. Why no one questions an officer who gives some order to the solider - coz they have to follow the order. So strong leadership is needed to implement the process. I slightly disagree on thsi point coz its the same disgrunted solider who later picks up his gun and either shoots himself or shoots his commanding officer!

I also feel that processes can be implemented if their is an inclination on the part of the person to follow it. There should be a self belief and a conviction. The employee should himself believe in that process for it to be implemented or be successful. If the conviction is not there - nothing can work.

Greg Chapell can vouch for that!

How about barring mini skirts, noodle tops too?

Smoking poses serious health risks. So does driving in New Delhi. And combining the two is deadly, according to two New Delhi judges who have barred smoking at the wheel, apparently the first such ban in the world.

Declaring “New Delhi roads dangerous to human life,” the city’s High Court this week imposed a slew of new measures aimed at deterring habitually bad drivers, including the smoking ban and a prohibition on using a mobile phone while at the wheel.

“Anything that distracts the attention of driver is dangerous. The human mind cannot do two things simultaneously,” said New Delhi’s traffic commissioner Qamar Ahmed, welcoming the ruling, which goes into effect 9 April and only covers New Delhi, a city of 14 million people.

Source: The Mint

Indian Cricketers Seek Irish Citizenship in Desperate Bid to Play Super 8s.

A good piece...picked up from Son of Bosey. Read on....


In a cunning and daring move, several members of the Indian cricket team have hastily applied for Irish citizenship in the hope that they will be able to represent Ireland in the latter stages of the Cricket World Cup, from which India was eliminated in the first round.

Anil Kumble, all decked up in green, appeals to the Irish Government to grant him citizenship.
“I think it's a great idea. This way, we can finally achieve our dream of getting tonked by all the top cricketing nations in the Super 8 stage, where we truly belong.”, said Irishman-to-be Sachin Tendulkar, grinning evilly at press persons gathered to hear the announcement.
Apparently, the applications of the Indian players are being fast-tracked to enable them to qualify for the team before the Super 8 matches begin. “Thanks to our newly introduced Tatkal scheme, we can process the applications and have the necessary papers ready by lunchtime”, said Pavan Kachibatla, chief executive of the Board for Creating Citizenship for Indians (BCCI), and strangely, also of cricketology.com.
A spokesman for the Irish Government said, in between gulps of beer, that his Government was delighted to offer citizenship to the Indian players, and did not consider it unfair to the present Irish cricketers. “Look, mate, we're going to get our butts kicked by the big boys of cricket anyway. So how does it matter if there are some Indian players in this sorry, losing side? Doesn't change a thing for either team.”, he said, quite reasonably.
Sources have revealed that several of the Indian players are also changing their names for the occasion, resulting in names such as O'Ganguly, O'Tendulkar, and O'Dhoni. “This shouldn't be a problem. They've been regularly adding Os against their names for years”, quipped Wildlife Photographer S.U.Saravanakumar, adding a touch of his trademark tongue-in-cheek humour before leaving for Bristol once again.
“Brilliant! Whoever said that the Indians lacked strategic and tactical thinking?”, said Sunil Gavaskar, before adding “Australia sucks! England sucks! Oops – sorry!”
“Well, at least now we can say that we beat Pakistan again at the World Cup. Heh, Heh.”, pointed out coach Greg Chappell, clutching at straws as usual.
“We're focussing on the processes. Once the processes are taken care of, the results will take care of themselves.”, said Indian captain Rahul Dravid, pointing frenziedly at some Power Point slides. When questioned on why this thinking had failed to deliver results, he retorted “What do you mean? Of course we've produced results. They may be bad results, but they're results all the same.”
“Yay! I'm so happy, I feel like showing my . . . “, squealed a delighted Mandira Bedi, before abruptly deciding that perhaps it wasn't such a good idea to imitate Dilip Vengsarkar after all. She also reiterated that she was happy that there would be more matches featuring her favourite players, so she could continue to do what she does best - wear bizarre clothes, annoy viewers and cut off Charu Sharma in mid-sentence - for a few more weeks.
Harbhajan Singh was not available for comment, as he had rushed off in the direction of the Sheraton Towers the moment he learned that he was to report in Dublin.

The 'Axe' Effect...

Sachin out of Sunfeast ad

We have had meetings whether to continue with the Sachin ad. We may now promote our product through the Shah Rukh Khan ad, as he also endorses the brand. The decision will be taken today- Manager, Sunfeast

Team gets the boot from Reebok

We had a campaign with cricketers like Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh and others. But now, we will drop them and launch a new campaign with basketball and soccer stars in a couple of days - Sajid Shamim from Reebok India

After Friday’s defeat against Sri Lanka, Team India not only lost its popularity among the masses but also suffered a blow in the ad world. Corporates, who had based their ad campaigns on cricket and cricketers, are now on back foot.Sunfeast biscuits’ ad featuring Sachin Tendulkar could soon be off air. The company will instead use the alternative ad featuring Shah Rukh Khan. Pepsi has now pulled out its commercial ‘Ladega to Jeetega’, which featured Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh and Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Instead, the company has started running an ad shot, yet again, with Shah Rukh Khan, said Pepsi’s publicist.

Sourav Ganguly, who had made a singular comeback, is the brand ambassador for Puma Sports. The company, which was planning a huge campaign with Ganguly has now shelved the plan. “We had done a photo shoot with Ganguly with our products before the World Cup. We were going to follow it up with a huge campaign, but now we have decided to cut costs on the campaign and restrict it to a short one,” said Rajiv Mehta, managing director, Puma Sports. According to advertising agencies, the change of plans follows negative sentiments among Indians about cricketers. Said ad maker Prahlad Kakar, “Sony Entertainment Television and other companies will incur losses to the tune of Rs 150 crore because of the fall in the rate of advertisements as viewership will fall.” The matches were screened on Set Max and Sony Pix.

However, Kunal Das Gupta, CEO of Sony Entertainment Television isn’t worried, “The companies cannot remove any advertisements, as they have already entered into a contract with Sony. They can, however, change their ads.” Rahul Dravid is the brand ambassador of Hutch. According to Genesis, the PR agency for Hutch, the company will not face any problems as their ‘Chalo World Cup’ contest with Dravid was a pre-World Cup one. “Since it ended before the Cup started, we aren’t worried,” said a source.

Source: Mid Day

Nothing would change...

A few heads would be chopped...
The coach would be replaced....
The debate would go on till it loses steam...
In between, we will play against some minnows, win some matches and everyone would get hooked on to matches again.....
A few wins against any of the top teams (be it in the dust bowls of India), and everything would be forgotten & forgiven....
The cricketers would be again elevated on high pedestals, shrines would be made again, companies would flock again for endorsements...

...and life would go on.

Change is needed but not of heads but of attitude.

SALE!! SALE!! SALE!!

Something that I would expect soon outside all shops promoting Indian cricket merchandise.

The best ad of world cup

If you ask me, the best ad of world cup is of Tata Sky. Why?

Coz while evry other ad promoted its product thru cricket stars, mind n body..heart n soul kinda stuff, Tata Sky ad. promoted what many corporate customers are doing now - cancelling their bookings to West Indies. Like Hritik says " Where are you going Pappe? Cricket dekhney ka mazza wahan nahi (West Indies)..yahan hai". I agree dude.

I don't know if tata Sky would increase their "world cup" specific sales, but out of the entire lot, I guess their's is the only product that can get played again & again on TV without making you shut off the TV :D

Reader's contribution (on world cup)

Got this piece in today's mail from a friend of mine. Posting it on the blog. She added random Musings in front of it, so I am assuming she wanted me to post it on my blog ;-)
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The World Cup & I

For some reason, my love for cricket emerges only at the time of the World Cup.

Been really busy with work since January but every time I saw a Sony Max hoarding reminding me that World Cup was gonna begin in mid-March, my spirits would soar. Besides, my client Pidilite was planning a huge spurt of advertising during India's matches, so I had to keep up anyway.

A couple of weeks or so before the World Cup started, Anil and I were lazing around at my-in-laws place one Sunday afternoon (that's what Sunday afternoons are for, isn't it?). Anil's brother and he were having some conversation about cricket, and Bhaiya asked, "When's India's first match?" Without looking up from the book I was reading, I offered, "17th march, against Bangladesh."

The room went silent suddenly. I looked up to find Anil, his mom and his brother all looking at me, jaws dropped. "How do YOU know a thing like that???" Anil asked when he found his voice at last.

"Well I'm looking forward to it. I like World Cup Cricket." I said quite matter of factly, wondering if my family was going nuts.

"You DOOOO?" asked Bhaiya. "Holy shit. Even I didn't know that."

"Well my first Fevicol ad is also going to play during the first match, so I have to know, cos I gotta deliver the tapes to the channel by the 10th."

"Ohhhhhhhhh okay. No wonder you know then." said Bhaiya, almost with a sigh of relief. Anil and his mom also smiled and gave me a look like 'Ah! That explains it' and went back to doing what they were doing. I was puzzled. C'mon! It can't be that hard to believe I like cricket.

So anyway, on the evening of 17th March, a bunch of us friends got together at one friend's place to watch the match. India lost that one finally, as you know. I joked that on the following Monday, the Bermuda eleven would be standing against the boys in blue 'seena taan ke' a la Bhuvan and his team from Lagaan, after India's miserable innings today.

Monday evening, India won against Bermuda by a margin of over 200 runs. Not surprisingly of course! You don't deserve to be playing World Cup cricket if you can beat a bunch of kacha nimboos, do you!

The big match was gonna be at the end of the week. India vs. Sri Lanka. Big not only cos it was two well-matched teams (or so we thought), but cos it was going to be the decider match for India. Win or go back home. As simple as that.

On Friday, there was a buzz in the office. No one wanted to work! And everyone was scheming as to how to go home early today. For the poor guys who had to work, the company actually hooked up the 2 televisions that had been promised to us this year. I was outta the office by 6pm, and home by the time India had won the toss and chosen to chase Sri Lanka's score.

Anil and I were watching this by ourselves at home, albeit with all the equipment one needs to watch a cricket match in style. Beer, popcorn and some awesome tandoori food from Kareem's down the road. Sri Lanka's innings was an entertaining one, ending at 254 runs. And India's innings promised to be an interesting and nail biting one.

The excitement was building in my head cos I was 100% SURE India was gonna win this one. Not cos we have a team that showed promise. Not cos of some mindless intuition. But simply cos of the mindnumbing numbers involved. 150 crores of advertising revenue hinged on India's ability to win today's match, and therefore remain in the World Cup. I dunno if anyone noticed, but Pepsi released a new ad with SRK and the blue wristband that day, which urged people to 'wear the band and show your support to India.' Knowing Pepsi's distribution network, they'd probably spent millions on just making sure the damn wristbands reached every kirana shop that sold Pepsi.

There was no way India could lose. And there was no way today's match wasn't rigged in India's favour.

Like someone who agreed with me said earlier that evening, 'Cricket these days is better scripted that blockbuster Hindi films. All you gotta learn is how to read the script.'

My interest was not in the end result, but in the way it would be executed.

But by the time India lost Sachin at 0, I was getting drowsy. Don't know when my eyes shut and when I woke up, India was already 7 wickets down, with Dhoni out for a duck too, and the score at just about 150 I think. I think I was too sleepy. I drifted off again, and found myself being woken up by Anil a little later. I got up with a start, "Shit the match...whats happening? How long have I been asleep?"

"They butchered us. We lost." Anil said sleepily.

LOST. India lost. We're out of the World Cup. WHAT?????

I couldn't believe it. I still can't believe it. All logic (and economics!) goes against it. All that advertiser revenue, all that hope, all that electric excitement in this mad cricket crazy nation. All gone.

But as another friend remarked, "Atleast now the Indian cricket team has gone back to its old ways. Oh well..."

Oh well....*sigh* another 4 years. My interest in cricket awakens only during the World Cup you know.
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Contributor: Sheetal Goel

The height of optimism at Reliance Communications

I get a call from Reliance's call center -

"Saaar...very gud morning to u". I Yum caaling from reliance communications. Aapka naam selected customers mein shaartlist hua hai and hum aapko ek aafer dena chatey hai"

Me: Offer? Hmmm... knowing reliance's mastery in these tricky offers, I wanted to cut him short there itself, but before I could speak, the guy went on with his sales speech, and what he said, made me play on with him further.

" Saar hamarey paas World Cup ke liye ek special live score plan hai jiska naam hai - SACHIN NAZARA Plan" (now at this moment, I just didn't know what to do - laugh my ass off on this poor guy who obviously must be sticking to his sales pitch coz he has a job to do or simply snap him off)

Me: Are you Ok dude? Are you really selling this plan to me? You said I am the lucky customer...kis baat mein lucky mere bhai? India world cup se bahaar ho gaya hai and you STILL selling this pack!!!! :D Or is it that you offering heavy discount on it :D

"Saar...ab India bahaar ho gaya to kya..haar jeet to chalti rehti hai...par doosri countries to hai na...unka score sunney ke liye you will need this pack... " (@ this point really felt sorry for this guy..but still managed to restrain myself from snapping)

Me: Ok..I will subscribe to your pack..but on 1 condition. "Kyaa saar"?

Me: I don't want to hear it in sachin's voice. I want to hear it in...hmmm...Adam Gilchrist's voice.

"saar...yeah Nazaara pack hai..(he tries to bring the pich pack to the script..while I deviate it again)

Me: nazaara to dekh liya...ab bataao... adam ki voice me de paoge? nahi..to good bye. And i shut the phone.

I wonder if reliance is seriously thinking that people would still go for pack like these...even now! :D

EYES TO REPLACE MOUSE! What next….?

Fed up of clicking on the computer mouse? Relief could soon be on its way thanks to the efforts of Stanford University researchers Manu Kumar, a doctoral student and Terry Winograd, a computer science professor. They have created an alternative to the mouse that allows computer users to click links, highlight text or simply scroll by just looking at the screen instead of tapping a key on the keyboard. The technology is called Gaze-enhanced User Interface Design, or GUIDe. Kumar, 31, is part professor Winograd’s team, who interestingly was one of the early advisors to the Google founders and actually worked at Google for a time. Besides letting people browse, GUIDe will help switch between applications. It will take pressure off hands and fingers. The technology works with standard eyetracking hardware.

The software requires that a person look at a document, for instance, and hold a hot key on the keyboard (usually found on the number pad on the right). The area of the screen that’s being looked at becomes magnified. Then, the person pinpoints his focus within the magnified region and releases the hot key, effectively clicking through to the link. As the eye is not very stable Kumar wrote an algorithm that allows the computer to smooth out the eye pupil jitters in real time. The rest of the research involved studying how people look at a screen and figuring out a way to build an interface that does not overload the visual channel. Hopefully GUIDe will soon hit the market and help do away with mouse clicks.

-Economic Times

Good Product Design Idea but Bad Usability

A real good example of a wonderful product design idea but I doubt it some thought had gone into product usability. The idea is really wonderful. Instead of stooping down each time and shuffling the CPU to insert the pendrive, build in the usb port in the keyboard itself. But as we see in scenarios like the one shown above, a slight nudge to the keyboard, and there is a great risk of the pendrive getting damaged. And it has actually happend with a team mate of mine. The keyboard concept with built in usb port works really well when the keyboard is kept on the table. I really can't say how many people would really remove keyboard from the tray and keep it on table whenever they want to use the pendrive port (as I saw from my team mate's case recently, not many would take that pain). But again, a really wonderful idea....wish I could really probe on how people find it to use in their day to day work and in all kind of scenarios (keyboard stand and without that).

Mindless Saturday

After couple of weeks got time to spend saturday at home. But with suvi at office I spend saturdays catching up with mindless movies or blogging like this. As I am writing this, I am catching up on rerun of my 5th movie of the day.

Gangajal
MIB 2
Jurassic Park 3
Ladder 49
Kindergarten Cop

Nostalgia time...

Each time I watch the promos of Delhi Heights, I go back in time. Flashback of all the good and bad time that I had. Can't say if I will ever go back to the city again but I can never get the city out of me. The college hangouts, the cool spots, momos at Chanakyapuri, parathas at hauz khas, shwarmas, pebble street...the time of my life with some of my closest friends at Netacross and a few college friends. My family might be settled in Nasik now but I would always be Delhiite - for ever.

My next big drive

After my 720 kms of up & down drive till ganpatipule, I am planning to hit the roads again. This time - driving down to Ahamedabad next weekend. It's roughly 650 kms from Pune. Going on saturday and coming back to pune on sunday night itself. Would cover around 1400 kms in span of 48 hrs.

Next time, who knows it would be a drive till Delhi! :-)

Speaking of delhi, I am planning to visit delhi in march 2nd week. Would be a very tight schedule as I have to shift most of my household stuff to Pune (beds/sofas/study table, etc.)

So looking fwd to be in Delhi again :-)

What happens when...

...you are about to stand up for making a big presentation...some big bosses are watching you...firangs are sitting in front of you....and as you get up....your mind goes blank. kaput.

It happened with me last weekend. Right after GPW, the next day we had to make few presentations. I had it all prepared. I had made similar kind of presentations earlier too. Yet, I prepared a lot for it and when i stood up to talk....swooooosh....the mind went blank. Shit man, it was the most wierdest moment of my life. Didn't know what i was uttering out. Felt like I was all sloshed and repeating myself. Just wanted to dig a hole and bury myself in. Somehow managed to finish it off but was so upset that day that even lost my appetite (in the bargain...missed out on a amazing buffet that was laid out that day). Ended the day with a few Johnie Walker on the rocks with Suvi. Had a soul session with Zia and few friends who all said it happens to everyone - nothing new - so chill and move on.

Btw, got chance to make ammends in another big presentation we had 2-3 days back. This time, thankfully, I was in control of things and delivered it the way i wanted it. The proof - the consulting head was also part of the show and even he appreciated it. Came to know yesterday that even the customer appreciated our HCI presentation (before visiting us they had visited TCS & Wipro and were not happy with HCI presentations made by them). So the week had been rather good.

GPW Snaps

A few snaps from the Global Partnership Weekend that we had few days back.

Where was I holed up?

I got queries from few of my blog readers inquiring of my sudden disappearance. The past one month had been crazily busy. Besides presales kinda work, we had this Global Partnership Week (GPW) event lined up. Clients from all cross globe fly down to Zensar campus for a week or so and we have a business carnival here. They are given full Indian royal treatment - golf sessions, city trip, weekend trip to Jaipur, 5 star stay and the works. One evening all the SBUs (strategic business units) had pavalions lined up in campus. The customers visit these pavalions. Our Consulting Practice also had a pavalion and I was involved in creating theme based content for all our consulting services. Reminded me of my advertising days. There were a few client presentations also lined up in last 1 week. More about it in next post.

Back...

Blogging nearly after a month. Work has picked up pace and had been so very busy that didn't get time to blog. Had so much to write...so many thoughts...so many topics that germinated in mind but could never bloom. The work is still hectic but hopefully should manage to squeeze time to blog in between.

Mind boggling....

RIL Q3 net zooms to Rs 2,799 cr

Which means...

In a month they earned around : 933 cr

In a single day they earned around: 31 cr

In a single hour they earned around: 3.8 cr

Which means, as I am writing this (it took me about a minute to post this), RIL would have already made over 6.4 lakhs

Mind boggling, isn't it?

Good Eg. of Structuring Information with Mental Models

Notice how the 'Guru' link is placed right next to Mukesh Ambani's views on how RIL was built. A nice example of information structuring based on mental models. Guru as we all know is a movie based on Dhirubai Ambani's life and placing that link at a strategic level right next to Mukesh's story would induce readers to click on it too since as per users' mental model, the term 'Guru' can be visualized with Dhirubai and his saga of building reliance empire.

Aastha Channel gets Maximum TRPS!!!

...will happen for real if the self styled Moral Police of our country - the I&B keeps blocking channels left right and centre.

Latest to be blocked: AXN.

Ganguly, Beckham, The will to fight.

Sourav Ganguly. David Beckham.

Two different locations. Two different sporting arena. Two different kind of fan following but still something common that joins the two dots together.

Sourav got kicked out from national team.
David Beckham got booted out from national & Real Madrid team.

The similarlity ends here.

Sourav fought his way through the grind, showed the will power and determination to fight back and prove all his critics including your's truly wrong by returning to the team.

David simply threw his hands in the air after being dropped from Real and gave all hope of a great comeback by joining LA Galaxy - the final nail in his coffin. Ok, so he will die rich.

Audience for Mobile IM

I had a very healthy debate with a friend of mine over a subject which is the next rage in mobile communications. The use of IM (Internet Messenger) over mobile, not the SMS way, but in exact replica of the way it currently functions over PC. So instead of PC, the same interface and near about the same pattern of interaction a user can do through mobile. Recently read in TOI that in US more people prefer using IM over mobile than PC based IM. Ok, that's interesting. Now back to the debate point. My point was that the audience for such kind of applications would be the young, college going folks or probably people who are addicted to chatting and spend endless hours chatting on the net (bachelors of different kind - something which even I was couple of years back!) and not people like me (though that doesn't mean I am old!) who are always hard pressed for time be it at home or at work and the last thing I would do is log in to my mobile and chat with friends!!!!

My friend's point was that if you get used to the chat application, you get hooked to it. You can check out your mails, chat with friends while you are on the move. My point: As you keep moving up the ladder, work & responsibilities also increase. Probably 6 years back I would have used such kind of application when I was a self confessed hard core, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo, AOL chatter. I used to chat endlessly for hours coz I found pleasure in that(Ekta can vouch for that - how I once spent the entire night in office chatting with her in US and left for home early morning!) . Cut to today. Life is moving in fast lane. Leave for office at 9.00 Already running late. Drop wifey at her office. Wriggle through traffic to reach your destination. And now that I am at office, I am online - why will I feel the need to check mails or chat with someone thru mobile? And if I am driving, how can I do that in the 1st place?

FP (friend's point): Well if you have a chauffeur driven car, or if you are using a public transport then you do get time to log on and check your mails or chat with someone or download your mails to mobile etc.

MP (my point): People who have chauffeur - well the last thing they would like to do is chat with someone on yahoo or msn!! They are a totally different audience segment. yes, they would like to access their emails but they would prefer using BlackBerry for that. In the free time that they get in car, they would rather catch up on the Economic Times.

People like me who spend around 10 hrs online at office and again around 1-2 hrs online at home won't feel the need to check their Gmail or rediffmail on their mobile. I can very well check it whenI reach office or go back home. That whatever little free time that I have while I am driving or moving in public transport is the only time that I will have for myself and to be honest, chatting with someone or checking mails won't be the 1st thing on my mind then :)

Tell me will you yourself feel the need of activating your GPRS service and paying though the nose for it to view your yahoo/rediff/gmail mails on your mobile??? Unless of course if you are waiting for some coveted job opening reply. Yes, probably as a curiosity they would check it out, which I will confess, even I do, but not as a long term thing. And as far as chatting is concerned, again as you move up the ladder and work increases, how often do you get time to really chat with someone? And in most of corporates with all IM blocked, slowly you get over it and you get time for chatting only when you actually have time for it and that is mostly at home when you are catching up with personal mails, orkutting or sending that personal mail which you couldn't do from office. Activating my GPRS and paying 12 rs everyday for it besides monthly fee just to chat thru my mobile and that too only when I am not accessing net on my system (which is if I am on vacation or in public transport)...is not my cup of tea.

So to sum up my take is that the primary audience for applications like these are the college kind of gang, love birds, Lukha vella log who are optimistic that through chatting they can find their dream partners, young bachelors (MTs, graduate software engineer trainees) who have ample of time besides work and don't know how to spend or the Lokesh that he was from 1998 to 2004 - the baap of chatting arena which many of the current readers would vouch for. :)

What's your take on this thing? Would love to know.

UP..Bihar...and now the House of Commons!

After lutofying UP and Bihar it seems Shilpa Shetty has created a storm even in the House of Commons in UK. Last heard the House Of Commons have condemned the racist attacks and have asked Channel 4 to tender an apology over the matter and investigate it further.

The Bitch is Back

Kashmera Shah. Who else?

Previous post on Kashmera can be found here and here.

Choti Muh Badi Baat...

Was watching Choti Si Baat on Zee. Movies of this particular gerne, irrespective of how many times you view it, they always feel refreshing. One thing I always felt was that life was so peaceful and simple then. No internets, no mobiles, no traffic jams, no pollution, no satellite TV, no Osama, no George Bush.

On the 'peaceful' and 'simple' part, I wonder what our parents have to think about it? :)

What all will you block, Mr. Minister?

The I&B is furious over The Gandhi slapstick video posted on You Tube. It's planning to block You Tube - just like the way they blocked Orkut and Blogger for a while. Fearing that You Tube would be blocked for sure, I quickly logged on to check out the fuss about the video.

The video shows an NRI comedian (Gautam Prasad), imitating as gandhi doing pole dance and strip teasing to the tunes of Bhangada. The pole (more like Gandhi's staff) is used for all the jigs and gyration.

Ok, the video is not amusing, I mean you don't feel like laughing but I don't understand what's the big fuss about I&B finding it as insulting and all. Get over it Mr. Minister. Blocking the sites won't do. A small percentage of Indians might be knowing about the video but now by making this as issue - you are just propogating the video. And anyways, in this India Poised kinda era, who has the time to even think about all this stuff.

Gladiator

With Suvi in office and nothing much to do on a saturday afternoon, was watching Gladiator on Star Movies. I must have lost count of how many times I would have watched the movie but each time I see it, I get hooked on. What I really also like about the movie is its background score. It gives me goose pimples. The music is so very haunting. I need to find out if there are any music Cds available which has compilation of memorable background scores. If someone has any idea about it, lemme know.

Rakhi Sawant User Experience

Ok let me confess with you. I have become a big fan of Rakhi Sawant. Not because of her jhatkas and matkaas but beacause of the entertainment angle that she adds to the daily soap - Big Boss. Love her or hate her - but you can't avoid her. So the other day I thought, what if Rakhi Sawant was a product - a software application, a fully customised, bespoke application. Would she have succeeded on user experience? Would she have fulfilled all desired usability goals? Let's take some of the factors that we use for measuring uability of a product and find out.

For a novice user or someone who haven't heard rakhi sawant's name, her eye popping glam posters are a perfect demo of what the product is all about. A first look at her performing, and your eyes track out that the 'product' is loaded with features you always wanted. Her straight talk ( the one we saw in her cameo interview in seedhi baat & now on Big Boss) demonstrates her shallow navigation - no beating around the bush - she comes bang on! Her more than inviting clevages are the perfect breadcrumb path for you to ensure that you don't get lost. Heavily loaded, yet she doesn't take time to load herself on to your system - which in this case is your mind. Her theatertics keep users aware of the system status while she fetches data from her backend for her next jig. Are user's in control of the application? Is exiting from the application an easy job? Unfortunately not, but then the product was not designed for users to exit. Content wise, the product is again fully loaded and users don't even need any labeling on it. They can find what hey are looking for - pretty easily.

i think Rakhi Sawant as a product rocks. What's your opinion? Would love to hear.

Chikki - my new love in life!

My friend's one month old labrador. She just goes beserk when in playful mood. :)

By George! It's for real!

Just read the other day about the story of a 2 year calf who during Eid time, sensing that he would be slaughtered created a hell of a ruckus in the slaughter house, running from one corner to another, pushing back anyone who cam in his way and finally managed to hide himself in some corner of the place from where it became difficult for the butchers to pull him back. Interesting, isn't it? After hours of persuation the calf still stuck to its guns and finally Cruelty Against Animal Society came in the picture to save the animal. And guess what? They adopted the calk and christened him - hold your breath - George!

Why George? Coz just like George Bush who fought against all adversities both in US and across the world to stay put in his place- this calf too fought against everyone who came in his way to save his life. Nice, really nice. But why only George??? Couldn't they think of anyone else?

Btw, I wonder why aren't the so called saviours of hindutva fanatics not making any noise about it? I mean a country like India where cows (ok, it's a calf) and hindutva and whatever goes with it goes hand in hand, naming a calf 'george' - well, hmmm, isn't it a case of forceful 'conversion'? :-)

Last heard the calf had gone into a shell and was sulking after finding out the name that have been given to him.

The 'baap' of all partnerships

As I write this post, India stands for 94 for no loss in the 3rd test. First time after spending countless hours in South Africa, India have finally managed to create a 'mamoth' partnership. :)

New year eve edition - a reading feast

I always love to read 31st Dec newspaper - especially the TOI edition. If you have missed out on any major stuff in the year - you can always catch up with it in this editon. Thankfully 31st being a Sunday, I could lap up the paper with leisure. I can read paper for hours. In Crayons I used to read atleast 6-7 papers before getting on with work. The same thing continued in BSIL. I think after books, a newspaper can be your next best friend (I hope Suvi is not reading this!). A day without newspaper is so unimaginable. Throughout the day you get the feeling of being constipated, not that reading helps with your bowel movements but I guess who relate to my feelings can understand where I am coming from. Somehow Suvi finds it very difficult to understand how I can spend so much time reading a newspaper. For her, reading the headline and perhaps a para or so of the news to get a gist of the story is more than enough. Most of the time she tolarates me with my reading habit but whenever she blows her top, the poor newspaper gets trashed in a corner and I am back to the business of cajoling her, cooling her down. And for the remaining newspaper part? Well, I can always catch that up on the digital edition! :-)

Nostradamus or a deserting rat?

As 2002 came to an end, I could feel that the time for me to move on for sure had now come. I could sense that there was nothing for me to stick on with Intiqua. So in Jan, 2003 moved to Mumbai with BSIL. Six months later, Intiqua ceased to exist in India. Right move at right time.

Feb 2006. The only person besides me who believed in usability practice and helped it nurture in BSIL quits. Someone else take hold of the mantle and the team but I could sense that the usability practice as such won't last for long - atleast the 'seriousness' and the 'commitment' to making usability as part and parcel of evey project that gets shipped out from our desk would go missing. So in August I moved on.

Jan 2007. In a hot, humid city, the winds of change are blowing again or rather have been blowing for the past 2 months but have taken force now. I wonder who would be the last man standing.

So am I a modern day Nostardamus who could sense what might happen in future and took preventive steps or a rat who when sensing danger jumped the ship in advance.

I guess the viewpoint depends on which side of the fence you are standing on.

Kabul Express - A cinematography delight

After ages I saw a real bollywood movie which I can truly say is visually breathtaking. The trecherous, barren lands of Afganistan, which reminded me so much of Ladakh landscape have been captured beautifully in this movie. Laced with dark humor, the film traces the story of two indian journalists who land in post taliban period to get hold of any remaining taliban guy whom they could interview. Shot & narrated in a travelogue mode, the movie belongs to Arshad Warsi. His comic timing is awesome and so are his one liners - at times ironic but suits the situation and mood of the scene. Btw, there are no songs in the film (and the film doesn't need it also) and the duration of the movie is 2 hrs only. It's a must watch movie, infact I am planning to go for it again.

consulting group weekend get together

Merry Christmas!

Justice for Jesica. What about others?

The entire media went berserk when Manu Sharma was convicted. No doubt it was a victory for those who had lost faith in justice but the fundamental question that I want to ask is - had Jesica Lall been a Dalit or from backward class, she could have got justice? This brings me to another topic - is justice, no matter whether it is delayed, is reserved for people from upper class or influential people? To a certain extent, I feel the media also has to be blamed for this. Justice For Jesica and similar forums were created after media highlighted the cause. But what about the Khairlanji gang rape & murder of Dalit mother and her child? I don't get to hear any word about it on any channel now. Shouldn't the media take the responsibility of keeping the issue alive so that the society pressurizes the govt to take action against the guilty quickly?

Condoms, Sizes, measurements

Read a recent article in TOI that a survey was conducted on Indian male penises and it was found that the condoms that are available in market are over sized as the average Indian male penis size is a centimeter or two smaller than their counterparts in the West. The survey concluded that the condoms made in India are according to international sizes and should be customised. But more than the survey, what I found really amusing and hillarious was the way through which the survey was carried out. Dicks of all shapes and sizes across all segment (metro, rural) of the selected participants were photographed and measured. Initially digital photos were taken and through a software the size of penis was arrived upon but it was felt that this mechanism was inaccurate and the best way to measure the size of the dick is the old fashion way - with a tape/scale! If at all this method was used, I could imagine the poor guy who had this 'huge' task of measuring dicks of all toms, dicks and harrys around him!!! (pun intended). The poor guy with a tape in his hand yelling "next"..."abey seedha pakad"... measures it..marks noting... "next"...:-)))

or Imagine his kundli & marriage bio data goes to a prospective father in law. ladka kaam kya karta hai? Jee...woh........dicks measure karta hai..." :-)))))

or..what could be the worst gaali that you could give him? ma ki/behen ki? Naaah..those are passe. DICKHEAD!!!! :D :D :D


Last but not the least the trauma that he would be getting when he finally he gets to see his own dick while making love with his wife and starts thinking about how short or long his dick is ;-)

Ok..back to work now.

Cold November Rain

'Cause nothin' lasts forever...
Even cold November rain
-Guns n Roses

A surprise factor in Pune's onset of winters - the rains! It never rains in November but for the past couple of days, it's been raining quite a bit. Not that anyone is complaining. The weather mostly remains dull throughout the day, but at times very windy & breezy. The kind of weather that makes you go out on long drives in the evening -which is what me and Suvi do these days at night - take a long spin in our car on express ways, windows rolled down, wind blowing and sending cold yet pleasant shiver down your body, with old melodies playing in our juke box, stopping at a tapri for a cuppa steaming coffee....aaah, the kind of refreshing factor you need after a long day at work. :)


That's my Ferrari in the picture :-)

Dating Example for Information Architecture

A very witty way of explaining what Information Architecture is all about. Those who need a copy of this, email me and I will send the source file back.

These are few of my 'essential' things...

Some of the things that I wanna have and someday would have for sure....

1) Tintin Set - Rs. 5000 approx
2) Astrix set - Rs. 10000 approx
3) James Bond entire collection DVD set (had this set in my rack for quite some time - it was borrowed from a friend)
4) Friends entire season DVD set
5) Everybody Loves Raymond entire season DVD set
6) Dilbert CNBC animated series DVD set
7) Dilbert books entire set (have managed to collect around 13-15 titles out of apprx 30 published so far)
8) The main one - Nikon DSLR ( had frozen on D50/D80 but last week Nikon launched their D40 and my determination came tumbling down - now another option to evaluate!) approx Rs. 45000 -50000


Now some of these 'essential' things, I can only acquire if I manage to go onsite and that too US and again, for a longer period say 3 weeks or so coz things are cheaper there. Till something like that happens, would keep on just browsing related product sites and sighing. :P

New Bond rocks!

Caught up with Casino Royale this weekend. There were too many opinions floating around the new Bond and the deviations in this new Bond movie. Too be honest, after seeing the posters of the film, even I didn't like the Bond but Daniel Craig rocks as the new Bond avataar. This Bond is definately different from his predecessors. If Pierce Brosman had flair, smooth talking, charming personality and that misty looks in his eyes to woo ladies around him, this Bond carries that rugged attitiude with him that gives him more mean, no-nonsense looks to him. He would struggle with being witty like his old mates but he perhaps represents a gerne that has risen up the ranks through hard work & struggle to be where they are and that reflects in their overall personality. For this Bond, the current task on which he is focussed on is more important - the rest is all frills - like when the bartender asks him how would he like his Vodka martini, shaken or stirred - he replies he doesn't care a damn..all he wants is his martini!

If those of you who haven't seen the latest edition of this Bond movie, it's a must watch. For a change, even Suvi loved it (she is not much of a Bond/action movie fan)so you can guess it must be good!!! :) :) :)

Why don't you use a phone BCCI?

Found it really amusing that Sharad Pawar telling media after India's 1st loss that BCCI has asked Dilip Venserkar to go to South Africa immediately and convey nation's feelings to the team members. Sir, why don't you just lift the phone and call up the players? Why go all the way to SA to convey the message?

Uuhh..Aaahh (India)..Ouch!

Remember the Oohh..aaah...India campaign by Pepsi? Yeah..the Join the Blue Billion campaign launched a week 10 days before the Champions Trophy. each time the ad came on TV, I used to laugh, not because the ad. execution was a failure but more because of the fact that the illusion that the ad tried to weave in ( with reference to the players being charged up and all), opposite results were happening in the field. India got mauled up in their own backyard, and yet, the ads. kept coming on the air (can understand that factor coz the media manager would have bought bulk spots for the series). That's one of the disadvantages of celebrity advertising - when they fail to perform and I am sure in someway it rubs off on the brand too. In this case, Pepsi wisened up and after India's loss in Champions Cup, launched another TV spot - Fir Ayega India (shows an India Tshirt falling from air but a young kid holds it before it falls down to ground and looks optimistically but with a sad smile to his grandfather)... a face saving act no doubt but I am sure they would have burnt their fingers with their ooh Aaah India campaign. And as we can see, there is no Ooh..Aah India spots on air in the current India-SA series.

Why I love to hate Pune 'traffikars'

I fail to understand why Punekars have this fascination for breaking traffic rules especially jumping signals. In my 3 months stay now, I feel Mumbai traffic was much better disiplined than Pune traffic. Mumbai is known as the city on move - no one has time to stop and talk and yet, people did stop on signals even if there was no cop around. Here in Pune, traffic signals are cconsidered as decorative showpieces or better still, hinderences in road. Mostly people stop only if a cop is around otherwise maximum people prefer to jump the light. I can still discount out jumping light when there is no sense of danger, as in your jumping light is not causing danger to any other vehicle coming in your way but people don't even care for that and that's what blows my fuse - especially when someone comes in my way and I have to slam my brakes.

These days I try something new. When I am turning right and I see that someone is casually passing my way, I slightly slow down, and delibrately turn my car towards that vehicle (mostly 2 wheelers) to give the impression that I am about to knock that vehicle down, often unnerving the driver. Suvi always scolds me for doing that but I get cheap thrills out of it when I watch the other person shaking on his vehicle.

And yes, if you happen to be in Pune and hear the choicest North Indian abuses (Ma-behen types) being hurled around, chances are I might be around. That's my favorite pastime to vent off my frustration on people who break rules like that. Roll down my window and dish out authentic Punjabi/North Indian abuses in full blast - somehting which perhaps typical Punekars might have not come across in their marathi coated dialect.

I think I need to cool myself down while driving or would burn myself out with anger. Time to join Shri Shri Ravishankar's Art of Living I think :)

show off :D

It has turned quite cold at night n early mornings ...nothing like delhi thand of course...but after nealry 4 yrs in sweaty Mumbai...even standing in front of fridge is chilling enuff :-)))) ..officially ysday the temp dipped to 12.0 c at night.

Rakhi Sawant...

...wins the Chamelion (Read: Politician) of the year award.

Sample this: She gangs up with Kashmira on Bigg Boss to bitch about everyone and then walks inside the Confession Room and utters Kashmira's name for eviction coz according to her Kashmira bitches a lot!!!!

This daily soap is too much. If are tired of the usual masaledaar news channels, sugary soaps and the usual birds and the bees stuff on Discovery, then tune into Sony's Big Boss. You will love to see how these Page 3 glam poster boys n gals feel insecure, always wear a facade and come out with their actual self. If madhur Bhandarkar would be watching this soap, he won't be feeling amused. After all, he did reveal it all couple of moons back.

and the bitch(ing) of the year award goes to....

Kashmira Shah. (clap clap clap clap)

Man..you should see how she bitches about her colleagues in Big Boss. She just continuously goes on bitching, forming groups and bitching..bitching and more bitching. I have never seen anyone bitch so much, why, she makes the bitch roaming in my streets look like a goat. One F&%$#ng bitch she is ...too much!

A trip to Sinhgad Fort

Last weekend went to explore Sinhgad Fort which is situated around 40 kms away from my place. The drive to the placed was awesome. Felt as if I was driving in garwal hills - the road zig zaaged in the hills. On top of it, the weather was sexy- it was drizzling all along and as we reached on the top, it was turning to be bit cold also. There is not much of fort left now but the view is awesome from the top. You get to see Panshet, Khadakwasla and Varasgaon dams and Torana fort also. The view of entire Pune city looks beautiful. After a small trek, we had a scrumptious lunch of pithala-bhakri, kanda bhaji & salted buttermilk.

The best time to visit the place is right after rains or during winters. Have bookmarked few more interesting places which I intend to visit in coming few weeks.

Big Baaas

When I was in UK, at times I used to watch the Big Brother show that used to come in a late night slot. The Indian version of the show is known as Big Boss. I used to feel amused on how a pathetic & sick show like that could become such a hit in UK. The participants, most of the time I felt didn't have any focus in life, were confused and felt more like losers. The show used to be uncensored and many a times you could even get glimpses of people walking around naked in the house, making love or swearing like anyhting. My only thought was...what glues viewers to their telly? What do they find interesting in knowing the 'actual' shades of character of other people (in UK they used to take normal people for the show & not celebrities) whom in all probabilities they would never bump into also. I concluded with the thought that these people (viewers) who have made the show such a success probably had nothing more to do in life than stick in front of TV and watch a stupid show like that.


One week now, even I am on that stupid list of people who have been glued to TV to watch Big Boss. :(

More about it in later posts.

Finally the famed Pune winter

Winters has started setting in this part of the world. After more than 3 years in dry & sweating Mumbai weather, any form of 'thand' is a welcome change for me. It's early winters now and you can get to see the typical Punekars (I won't use 'iites') out in mornings/evenings in their sweaters/jackets mumbling.."brrrr it's cold"..! me & Suvi find it amusing and are loving the weather to the hilt. The place where i live - bavdhan - is a mini hillstation in itself. It's situated in bavdhan Valley and I am told that the temperature dips to around 5-6 at nights in December in that area. Already we are experiencing it. Haven't switched on the fan for ages. Blankets resurfaced couple of weeks back.

On the -ve side of the winters, I start getting the pangs of munching many times in the day. Blame it on the winters!

But over all... I am lovin' it! ....parapppppaaappaaaaaa.

Back in changed avataar

The political scenario in US has changed...
The weather in Pune has changed...
Web 1.0 has changed....
Puneet - my friend - has changed geographies...
I have changed my job...
And again changed it...

Random Musings has changed.

Back in a new avtaaar...and a new chaddi... Presenting the all new Random Musings V 2.0

Ok..got access to blogging...

Will be back with regular blogging soon...