Spiel-Bound

After 6 days at work on what was "officially" a 4 day week, I decided to treat myself with "The Terminal" after a goooood sunday lunch. What was expected to be a movie watching experience I would appreciate turned out to be an un-forgettable cupla hours...Absolutely brilliant characterization. 20 Minutes into the movie I started to wonder if the movie was a bit too laid back and slow paced...But That's where Spielberg scores...What he sketches with care in the first half hour is the back bone of the next hour and a half of absolute bliss... Most of the great directors use repetition and patterns to haunt and sink in the impact on the viewer... That is one of the high-lights of the movie...The "Napoleon-Josephine" dialogues and the Daily visits to the immigration counter of Viktor are classic examples...
Though I don't go to movies with a note pad in hand to take down the messages the director conveys to the viewer, I appreciate subtle hints at Values and an underlying message, of course, I hate it if the hero utters a 20 min dialog just to deliver the cliched "Message".... Subtlety is yet another hallmark of the great directors..
The importance of the Human Touch to business and the hidden pointers on how in-human today's workforce have become are totally of relevance to working professionals. The power of "Service with a Smile" and how you can win people to your way by just being a true honest helpful guy.....these were stuff I felt I should try and emulate if not in one month atleast over a period of time....

I have added Terminal to my list of all time faves....Strangely enough was reminded of Anbe Sivam Lots while I watched terminal....

ok....on to other stuff/..cant thank god enuf for saving my frnds from death...Oh man....20 mins....what a diff it made.....
Desply wanna see Marina and good ol' bessy in such a mess....How I miss seeing my beloved chennai go through all it has.....
I hope the new year dawns a non calamitous one for India....and the world...


p.s
Tsu-Nami - Hindu tells me is Japanese for Harbour-Wave.....

p.s

Mahesh Murthy visited this place....And a bit of CAT news

Well, Blogging certainly is "strongly connecting" this already shrunk world....Well a bit of graph theory there...
But point is....my fortnightly source of inspiration, Mahesh posted a comment in my post that showcased his article..Well, need I say more...Thanks...

Also, let me also break my CAT results here officially.
99 percentile...
2 IIM calls. From B and K...dunno what I and L need...
To B or Not To B is the question.....

Smart vs Street Smart....

The human mind never ceases to think....Well, one of the things that this non descript has been mulling over in the last few days is, smartness as in acuity or sharp thinking and good problem solving skills, a la the IIT topper or even the Class XII "Bright Student" might infact be a gift that borders on being a luxury than being a "must have"... What really matters in this time and age as the flood gates are opened for a cross cultural collage is Street Smartness....The more I think on this...the more I feel there is to learn from the Battle scarred hawkers and auto rickshaw drivers in the street...
Application and Presence of mind are more at value outside the cozy confines of the examination hall or the cramped class room. Haggling with a cantankerous vegetable seller is something that you will do more often than solving a definite integral that only ten others solved in the history of mankind. But sadly, though the two facets of one's personality are not defined anywhere as being mutually exclusive, finding a student who finishes his graduation who is a street smart smartie is something that's as difficult as it's been for India to find a Kapil Dev.
My little tryst with the corporate war room has made me all the more convinced that tackling real life situations where the complexity is introduced by human interaction , human emotions and egos are much more the key to one's climb up the ladder than being the next Ramanujan....But when one considers the kind of training and conditioning that the grey cells of the human mind undergo, their cousins- the 'presence of mind' cells are hardly given any attention in schools...Well, there is definitely an area of concern to the HRD of India because, India relies so much on its B Schools and empiricism as the sources of its managers. Indian Managers are moulded either in the two year high speed b school factory, or in the 'n-year super slow grinding mill' that the industries are... What I am looking at is the process of becoming a manager starting when the kid reaches middle school. The two Manager churning factories need pre processed inputs rather than 'raw' talents. The Mob psychology that drives Indian graduate and Post graduate education today needs a drastic shake-up. That can happen only if the students are in a position to know what they need to become to optimise their strengths by the time they leave school. This is what is to me 'Street Smartness'. Basically, 'What I need to do so that I do what I can do, well" rather than "I do what I need to do to be well to do" should be the mantra.
Also, we should deter the rat race phenomenon that competitive entrance exams have become in India. Atleast 85% of Entrance exam takers are victims of peer or parental pressure. Again, these exams test how smart you are. If we groom street smart youngsters, firstly the number of aspirants of entrance exams/ job interviews will come down, secondly we will see the job satisfaction index in the industry soar. There are a few other plus points to this...Each of that will merit an article. But that I shall reserve for later.
Kids should be encouraged to score grades in attitude, mental toughness and discretion rather than Maths,Physics and Chemistry. Not saying that these subjects are not to be there...But these other subjects need to be also there.... There has to be a curriculum upheaval. How, Its for the HRD to decide..I am not a qualified authority on this....

Well, A final confession, this article arose out of a realization of how woefully "street dumb" ,yours truly is....

Unwind...

This one is dedicated to Sab who has been nagging me to write somethin down to earth and not some so called "abstract?" stuff...
Hey...the intent here is never to write abstract for the sake of it...but just to write what I feel..but still...here is something....

Life here has been full of night outs in office and going home if at all at nights in the biting cold...arnd 2 am and food habits have gone for a toss...once in twelve hours is no justice for this hogger...I miss bonda bakodas and fries and sundals...these pizzas and burgers dont quite match up...
and yet, there has been a few good things happening in life...a few good frnds are shaping up here..and there are quite a few moments i savor...not least of all the brilliant time I had wen sab was here last time..
Chennai beckons me now..and no trip has been more hyped than ranga's impending visit..suffices to say..that is on my mind every day...
Well, There is a bit of catching up to do with music here...no tuch at all with music and cricket...leave alone the B mags...have to start that soon..GD PI here i come;)
my mates Ranga and Sab have been discussing the concept of intersect and intercaste marriages...a lot of thinkin is going on in their blogs...Well ppl..visit girish.squarespace.com, whoever has a view on that....
One more thing...the drives to besant nagar beach and the sand
are things that are too inviting now....
well....december is that time of the year when my father catches ayyappa fever...I want to attend one of those poojas...and sing a few bhajans...;)

That much from my side...Gharsana has one song from Srinivas which is mindblowing...My first telugu delightful song...but there are a few other telugu songs i mutter occasionally...

Bye then..post more later...

Lost Soul, Busy Body, Restless Mind,Brave Heart....Yeah That's me...

The World is not enough...In fact I don't care if some angel or Superhuman from above and beyond gives me the world in compressed format and asks me to guard it from other foolish human beings...
A few calls are enough....Give me the last spot in the dossier of India's tomorrows and Day after tomorrows..Ofcourse..There are others outside these hallowed lawns who are twice as potent...So no one get offended by my apparently free wheeling statement...

Let me learn how to unlearn people of their myths....Give me the freedom of choice...Let me and not a few guys 10 years elder to me decide what I should do in life and when i should look at the ceiling and when to lift my head from a stupid box of bits and pixels....
Let me live life doing what I want instead of writing code for some first cousin of satan who wants his computer software to perform a Double somersault and Three twists before it falls crashing into the swimming pool...
What the hell...If you stay up in the night and watch movies atleast there's half a reason to lose sleep but not attending phone calls from hell's gateway...
Well...The reason why I am still afloat in this dirty soup is cus I Hope and I dream...of a resurgence from monotony..Hey...I am not saying MBA Land is paradise or it's a gateway to permanent getaway from work...Far from it...I wanna work the way I want to...Not that the MNC or the plum job after an MBA will be any different from my current one..Not at all...
But I will have the freedom of free will to quit and start my own sweet piece of bull crap...To do something thats beyond the confines of the strangling red tape...and that does not have anything to do with grappling with a stupid device made of plastic and asking it to do what you want cus u can't get other men to obey you...
Well, Life beyond the three letter degree will not be drastically different...But the three letter degree will make a difference to me and help me make a difference to the world in my own small way....It will cease making me feel middle classy, constrained, short sighted, risk averse...
It wont take me to these adjectives' antonyms in weeks...but over a period of time...my evolution will lead to a revolution in the way I look at life and lead life...

Day Dream....Yes...most certainly...But now its up to god and a few guys from other parts of India to stand up and answer my prayers...

Prayers solicited....

The ears have started to feel hot again...
There are a few butterflies in the stomach...
God I need ur Blessings...
Any human being visiting this place...ur wishes and blessings are welcome...

God is great...
Fingers crossed.....

Life on the Crowded Lane

I am walking in the middle of a BAAAAD Mount Road Traffic Jam and don't know whether i will cross the road safely...This is a fast moving traffic jam, oddly enough...lots of vehicles hurtling down the road at a frenetic pace...but still the road is blocked as hell....
Whether I will get hit a la Alaipayuthey Shalini or whether i have to go under a national permit lorry to cross the road i do not know...But One thing for sure...I have to cross the road while the traffic is moving...and can't afford to wait for it to stop...

Well...that much as far as a wordy description of my present state is concerned..To KISS (Keep it short and simple)
for once i am having to work in life...;) and could not update this space due to lack of time...a classic case of one dimension affecting another...(wonder how physicists deal with four dimensions and more;))
Looking forward to enter a well shielded gate at the other end of this traffic jam, and hope I won't have to encounter my server's favourite error "403 Access denied"....

Mahesh Murthy Column...Fabulous...

This one is courtesy My fave writer of all time,..the one and only Mahesh Murthy...
This appeared in the BWorld Column of his "On the Contrary" recently..
Wanted to showcase this piece of inspiration...Thanks Mahesh if you ever get to see this...

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Be peer-pressured or be peerless

All our lives, we’re made to feel insecure when compared with peers. It is important
not to give in

Second in class! So X came first again? What's wrong with you - aren't you good enough?" Perhaps you've grown up hearing lines like this through childhood. I did.

Comparisons like this can be the most noxious things to happen. It took me a long while to dig myself out from the mess of others' expectations. But emerge I did - with a clear belief that not just will I steer clear of such benchmarking in my adult life, I will never submit my kid to such psychological warfare.

The horrible habit doesn't end at school. I've seen college students wrenching their guts over some classmate who got the best-paying job at placement time, someone else who got the university gold, some other applicant who got the full overseas tuition waiver. And in all my talks at colleges, I spend more time on this than on any other fundamental of business.

It's hard to tell people that comparisons are a waste of time - so deeply-ingrained in our psyche is this peer-pressure nonsense. But two things clear up the clouds. One is a statement (and I have no hard statistics, only overwhelming anecdotal evidence) that most of these toppers, gold medal winners, - the envied ones - typically end up nowhere, compared to where you are or where you can be.

And even if they've, it's not where you want to be. Sure, your roommate at Powai ended up earning $150K at Goldman Sachs writing research reports on stocks he knows nothing about, living on a lifestyle conveyor belt he can't get off. But is that why you went to IIT to do your B. Tech? Careful what you envy. You might actually get it, and regret it for the rest of your life.

The second is a more basic belief: that all human beings are unique. Nothing too earth-shattering, except when you apply it to your career. Think about it. You're different from every one of your batchmates, aren't you? Your combination of talent, personality, likes and dislikes is what sets you apart from everybody else. You haven't met anybody like you - and you're as individual as your fingerprint, to sound like bad advertising copy. You'll agree that your perfect career is one that will 'fit' your talent and personality to a T. And by the same logic, your perfect career won't suit anyone else - just as anyone else's perfect career won't suit you.

But if all this were true, as you're nodding in agreement, why the heck did you apply and fight for the same jobs and write the same exams? Why are you benchmarking yourself against that colleague from MBA class who is a VP while you're still an assistant vice-president? Why should you bother that X has a better car, that Y was given a bigger company flat, and that Z married into a richer family than you did? Would being in X, Y or Z's place really make your life suddenly more meaningful?

It's a hard one to get your head around. But that doesn't make it any less true: envy is a pointless emotion when it comes to your career. Or even life. At the root of envy is your insecurity about yourself - and your true worth. And insecurity is a great mirage that the system (including us marketing types) have a vested interest in seeing continue.

If you really believed (like many of us do) that people should judge you for your brains and not your looks, you'd put Lakme and L'Oreal out of business. Advertisers, parents, the establishment - all know their job is to make you feel insecure - so you're conned into thinking that only if you use the right shampoo will you find the right guy, or use the right cologne to find the right girl, or top your class to find the right career. Balderdash.

What sets successes apart from also-rans is not the right fairness cream or education or marksheet - but the strength to reject the notion that there's anything wrong with you, or that you need to be like anyone else.

Read up about biographies of people you admire. You won't find wardrobes or accents or family pressure in common, but a common belief that they didn't give a damn about wanting to be like their peers.

One Dimensional Motion- A travelogue

I am a passenger train chuggin along pointlessly in the middle of a desert towards apparently a place called paradise which people tell me is not too far away. But what is that paradise? Dont know...Well actually I know, It's doing what I wanna do and bein what I wanna be..
But why am I doing things I dont normally do and being all but myself leave alone what I wanna be..to apparently get to where I wanna go? Good question..and cannot have an answer as its a good question...Well, Mirages there are many in any desert journey, and oases there are too, which a few noble souls will descry without much ado...
But the point is I need to get multi dimensional..that is jump,skid and race along like a mountain bike in the same desert....How? Don't know...Hey its very easy for the philosophers and the "Mind Relax Please" authors to rattle off adage after anecdote on enjoying the process and not focusing on the end result...
How do I transform the desert into a playground? Really am as clueless as a baby in a strip club...But one thing to draw solace is though the dimension of space is boundless...the journey is time bound and eventually I will run out of time...Which will signal the end of my quest...Mebbe we should Ask time whether my quest will bear fruit...I dont plan to ask...One thing i like about this journey of mine is its suspense...
But a travel diary can't digress more than this...So while the journey continues...the travelogue stops...

MentalDisintegration from within...

Courtesy : Wisden Cricinfo and one of its better columnists, Dileep Premchandran. I really endorse his views on why the indian media needs to show more maturity.
***********************************************
Indians have always been generous hosts, but Sourav Ganguly's team could be forgiven for thinking that the red carpet has stretched a few yards too far in the early phase of this series. From the moment they landed on Indian soil, the Australians launched a charm offensive that has had sections of the Indian media drooling. And India's cricketers, except for the continuing obsession with Sachin Tendulkar's tennis elbow, have quickly become supplementary news.

This morning, a national newspaper carried a huge photograph and news item on Adam Gilchrist's visit to one of Chennai's poorer slums, and how he almost ate – given the dietary rules most of these players follow, there was never the slightest chance – dosas made by a woman on the street. There were echoes of Steve Waugh's work with underprivileged children at Udayan, and while cricketers championing such causes is laudable, one only has to see the other side of the media-coverage coin to realise that something isn't right.

After India lost at Bangalore, columnists went to town – most, it must be said, far from the madding crowds and heat of battle – debating whether this team earns its keep. Each Indian defeat is an excuse for these [fifth] columnists to come out and spew facts and figures about X's endorsement deals, or question the rationale behind awarding Y a central contract.

This is a scarcely ingenious tactic borrowed from English tabloids, for whom Wayne Rooney is the next best thing when fit and scoring goals, and a foolish skirt-chaser with no intelligence when out of the spotlight. Contrast that with Australia, where not a soul regurgitated the fine print in Gilchrist's Puma contract or the retainer that Cricket Australia paid Steve Waugh after the team had batted like schoolboys en route to surrendering the Adelaide Test to India last December.

Criticism of Ganguly, usually from disgruntled former greats who missed the endorsement gravy-train, is just as laughable. Geniuses who couldn't buy a win even on home soil are suddenly questioning the attitude and commitment of a man who has won 15 Tests as captain of India, and lost only two – both to Australia – on home turf. India were outplayed at Bangalore, especially over the first two days when Michael Clarke and a rejuvenated Glenn McGrath took centre stage, but competed well thereafter - and even Gilchrist admitted that they had been on the receiving end of the many umpiring gaffes.

There is no disgrace in defeat, or in being outplayed by a superior side, especially if you toil as hard as Harbhajan Singh, Irfan Pathan and Rahul Dravid did in the latter stages of the match. Darren Lehmann had a dreadful game with the bat for Australia, but how many hatchet jobs did you see in the Australian newspapers?

Instead, what we see are stories trumpeting Lehmann's selfless remarks about Clarke. While there's no doubt that Lehmann's attitude to the game has changed drastically in the aftermath of David Hookes's tragic death, there's no need to play up what was probably an off-the-cuff remark in the first place. It becomes worse when some take the quote and run with it, implying that Indian players are selfish and deliver only when their place in the side is at stake.

It doesn't help that media coverage is hopelessly skewed. Two Australian journalists attended Ganguly's press conference this afternoon, while there will be over a hundred Indians documenting ever little word that Gilchrist utters later this afternoon. Each mainstream Indian newspaper devotes a column, or two, to an Australian view, and some of it is nothing but thinly veiled putting-down of Ganguly and his team. Ian Healy suggested that India's batsmen had let down their slow bowlers in Bangalore, as if it was a deliberate act.

With the exception of publications like Inside Cricket and Inside Sport, the Australian media can't even be bothered with an Indian perspective. You don't see Sunil Gavaskar expounding on an Australian batsman's dodgy technique against Harbhajan, or on the absurdly defensive fields that Shane Warne bowled to for much of India's second innings. Instead, you will read tomorrow how Australia's finest will step on to the Chepauk turf to honour Keith Miller's memory, just as they had made homage to Sir Donald Bradman three years ago by thumping India at the Wankhede Stadium.

Australia will come hard at India in this game, black armbands and all. And they won't resort to much mental disintegration – Steve Waugh's watchword has been largely ignored by the current outfit – either, at least not overtly. Not that they need to, when sections of the Indian media are sledging their own team far more than a McGrath or Warne ever did.

Crazy Bugger

Well...That is me...

When a man knows that India is gonna lose a test match fair and square....a soul still nurtures hope of the miraculous...That india will pull off another great escape...Pipe dream for most..But I happen to be a mad cricket fan...not a rare species in this country...And am going ahead with my plan to visit the Chinnasamy stadium in Blore from my current place of livelihood (Hate to use this term though) Hyderabad...
Foolish to many but my alter ego just wont allow me to miss an India Aus series that happens in the country of my existence...A bit of braggin here....I watched 3 days of the 1998 test and all five days of the 2001 test agnst the aussies in my beloved MAC ...

Of course there are a few ppl in blore with whom i need to spend time with...Not least of all my mom....
so its ok..so here i am on my way to bangalore...So Makki and all u ppl who see this blog from Blore...make some time for this fool...
I will be there tomorrow...

Browne , Bravo, Bradshaw, Bliss !!!

Obscurity was denied its place under the sun...No longer....
Epics are being scripted at the speed of Hardy Boys Novels...
First the Greek Giant killers at Euro 04...Now the "Win" or "Die" guys from the Windies....well the spirit of Sport is living its Glory years...
The calypso kings from those pretty beaches....who all these years shed reputation...while the cricket fans and connoisseurs alike shed tears....have finally, to state the cliche, risen from the ashes...
Hey but this Windies team is a shadow of their illustrious predecessors...They didn't intimidate and sizzle...They dont send shivers through the opponents' spine...
They were pitied more than anything else...They won by grit and not genius..by application not artistry...
They have shown that Spirit moves mountains and reaffirmed my faith in my favourite adage "Nothing is more powerful than the human mind"...
Picture this..Bravo,Bradshaw,Browne....these were the unlikeliest heroes ever thrown in cricket history...
What does this show? Well...Cricket and infact all activities in this planet are team effort...and synergy provides the most obvious defiance to the law of conservation of energy....
The triumph of the calypso kings was a message to all the lesser gifted, hardworking middle class Madhavans to continue the fight against odds...
It was a much deserved high for its thus far hapless captain Lara whose individual heroics were the only source of joy for the carribean cricket fans...Now the Legends of the past can walk with their heads held high...The world heaves a sigh of relief for them....

World around...no team has endeared themselves to the fans more than these gentle giants..That is the most heartening part of this victory....
Poetic Justice ? Most definitely...

Defy Deification...Generate Synergy... Thats the Mantra...

Are you Afraid of the Dark?

Hey u sidney sheldon fans...Our wait is over...the new book "Are you afraid of the dark" is out...And yours truly holds one of the copies...Yeah...wen i went to buy five point someone..i cudnt resist buyin sidney's latest suspense thriller...Yet to read it..But lookin fwd to read it and complete the sidney collection which jus requires me to, yes, finish this book....
Happy readin ;)

Five Point Someone...

To me this is THE book for ppl like me to read...No other book ahs got me so involved and obsessed...

Ok...the Headline grabbin done..let me get on to why i am goin gaga over this one...
First...The IIT IIM Combo has a certain magic to it...Any product delivered by these Creme de la creme souls has a certain appeal that has to go down well with the educated...If not for anything else atleast for the inherent almost "first natured" sattire...
This was the reason urs truly got the book in the first place...

Second...After DCH no other work of fiction either on paper or on celluloid has captured the essence of the urban youth as much as this one...and the book sets about dispelling quite a few myths abt IITians....
Third..The three friends in the book are THE "museum" specimens as far as an example to show the Implications of peer pressure....THE GOOD, THE BAD, THE GORY, THE FUNNY AND THE MEMORABLE...
the flow and the delivery style are so typical IITian and i especially liked the IIT bashing in the book...So very true and stuff which only the IITians can comment about...

More than anything the three friends Alok, Ryan and Hari are so much like any other indian guy...What the IIT can do to an average indian guy and what it must not do...Well..i really had a whale of a time readin the book...yeah in one sitting.....

Well the book certainly is on my list of Must reads....

When a Song can arouse a realization....

After a long day at work...i was feeling really dizzy and disturbed....Suddenly the work was beginning to get the better of my senses...That is when i reverted to my elixir...MUSIC...never mind if only one ear phone works...i decided to play songs from my office PC...
When...The guitars struck a chord with my heart.What divine strums.....An unconventional voice served the role of a 30 minute medidation session...When all the peace of mind a nights sleep could have given were capsuled in 3 minutes of magical music...When the bigger picture regarding the purpose of LIFE and the motto behind my existence and my immediate and future plans seemed to get clear...Well...Atleast the haze evaporated in a matter of minutes...
Hey but thats what music can do...and thats why its such an integral part of Indian Culture....And thats why as this mortal found out...Musical genius is an INVALUABLE commodity..Worth all the world...
One of the readers of this blog has a divine streak to his music...
The world requires a lot of stress relief and bliss from that guy....

Finally..For the sake of completeness..and only for that purpose..I will include the song and its composer...Vellai Pookkal from the incomparable ARRahman

WordsWorth or shud it be WordsWorst???

Unoriginal stuff...
But hey some people in this world are really patient and jobless...
And they need their moment under the sun....for the invention of words like these...

Floccinaucinihilipilification

It means "the estimation of something as worthless."

Examples:

I loved him for nothing so much as his floccinaucinihilipilification of money.
--William Shenstone, Letters

They must be taken with an air of contempt, a floccinaucinihilipilification of all that can gratify the outward man.
--Sir Walter Scott, Journal



Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis which has 45 letters. It's a disease that miners in Africa came down with from getting silicon slivers in their lungs.



Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, a village in Wales. This name is given in full on the railway station. The local people do not bother to say the name in full. They refer to it as Lannfair PG.

However, there is a place with an even longer name in New Zealand. It is the name of a hill. Here it is: This is not in English though but in Maori
Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiw en uaitnatahu.

But if you just want long words, the usual response is antidisestablishmentarianism, and this can be found in most dictionaries.

The longest word in the dictionary containing no letter more than once is "smiley." (There is a mile between the first and last letter.)

Chemical name for the "Tryptophan Synthetase" protein is however, the longest official word ever (1,913 letters) with the formula C1289H2051N343O375S8
And it is spelled:


methionylglutaminylarginyltyrosylglutamylserylleucylphenylalany
lalanylglutaminylleucyllysylglutamylarginyllysylglutamylglycylalany
lphenylalanylvalylprolylphenylalanylvalylthreonylleucylglycylaspa
rtylprolylglycylisoleucylglutamylglutaminylserylleucyllysylisoleu
cylaspartylthreonylleucylisoleucylglutamylalanylglycylalanylaspar
tylalanylleucylglutamylleucylglycylisoleucylprolylphenylalanylser
ylaspartylprolylleucylalanylaspartylglycylprolylthreonyliso
leucylglutaminylaspfraginylalanylthreonylleucylarginylalanylpheny
lalanylalanylalanylglycylvalylthreonylprolylalanylglutaminylcyste
inylphenylalanylglutamylmethionylleucylalanylleucylisoleucylargin
ylglutaminyllysylhistidylprolylthreonylisoleucylprolylisoleucylgl
ycylleucylleucylmethionyltyrosylalanylasparaginylleucylvalylpheny
lalanylasparaginyllysylglycylisoleucylaspartylglutamylphenylalany
ltyrosylalanylglutaminylcysteinylglutamyllysylvalylglycylva
lylaspartylserylvalylleucylvalylalanylaspartylvalylprolylvalylglu
taminylglutamylserylalanylprolylphenylalanylarginylglutaminylalan
ylalanylleucylarginylhistidylasparaginylvalylalanylprolylisoleucy
lphenylalanylisoleucylcysteinylprolylprolylaspartylalanylaspartyl
aspartylaspartylleucylleucylarginylglutaminylisoleucylalanylseryl
tyrosylglycylarginylglycyltyrosylthreonyltyrosylleucylleucylseryl
arginylalanylglycylvalylthreonylglycylalanylglutamylasparag
inylarginylalanylalanylleucylprolylleucylasparaginylhistidylleucy
lvalylalanyllysylleucyllysylglutamyltyrosylasparaginylalanylalany
lprolylprolylleucylglutaminylglycylphenylalanylglycylisoleucylser
ylalanylprolylaspartylglutaminylvalyllysylalanylalanylisoleucylas
partylalanylglycylalanylalanylglycylalanylisoleucylserylglycylser
ylalanylisoleucylvalyllysylisoleucylisoleucylglutamylglutaminylhi
stidylasparaginylisoleucylglutamylprolylglutamyllysylmethio
nylleucylalanylalanylleucyllysylvalylphenylalanylvalylglutaminylp
rolylmethionyllysylalanylalanylthreonylarginylserine.

________________________________________________

Phew......That was some blog entry....Duniya hai waste...Trust only copy paste...

Socrates...A Sleeping Philosopher Problem...

This particular article finds a place here for two reasons....

1. Yours truly had nothing original to ramble on...
2. actually the natural consequence of point no 1... This will make interesting reading.....


In ancient Greece(469 - 399 BC), Socrates was widely lauded for his
wisdom.
One day the great philosopher came upon an acquaintance that ran up to him
excitedly and said, "Socrates, do you know what I just heard about one of
your students called Plato?"
"Wait a moment," Socrates replied. "Before you tell me I'd like you to
pass a little test. It's called the "Triple Filter Test".
"Triple filter?"
"That's right," Socrates continued. "Before you talk to me about my
student let's take a moment to filter what you're going to say. The first
Filter is Truth. Have you made absolutely sure that what you are about to
tell me is true?"
"No," the man said, "actually I just heard about it and..."
"All right," said Socrates. "So you don't really know if it's true or not.
Now let's try the second filter, the Filter of Goodness. Is what you are
about to tell me about my student something good?"
"No, on the contrary..."
"So," Socrates continued, "you want to tell me something bad about him,
even though you're not certain it's true?"
The man shrugged, a little embarrassed.
Socrates continued. "You may still pass the test though, because there is
a third filter - the Filter of Usefulness. Is what you want to tell me
about my student going to be useful to me?"
"No, not really..."
"Well," concluded Socrates, "if what you want to tell me is neither True,
nor Good, nor even Useful, why tell it to me at all?"
The man was defeated and ashamed.
This is the reason Socrates was a great philosopher and held in such high
esteem.
.
.
.
.
It also explains why he never found out that Plato was sleeping with his wife. :-) :-) :-)


Enjoy....

The annual rank prank has started...

This year too BWorld has unfurled its B school survey...The others will promptly follow and before the confusion mounts like it usually does...Let me attempt a blog entry on this...

The B School Ranking Game never ceases to amaze me...
I for one find it next to ridiculous that all these reputed magazines year after year agree to disagree in their quest to order the top b schools in the country...
Is it infact the monetary undercurrent that finally decides the rankings...or am i being too cynical..
This brings me to the vital question, Are these rankings worthy of being yardsticks by which the mal-informed can decide their schools of pursuit?
After some mulling over on this issue...I have come up with my take on this entire process...Ofcourse this comes with the standard disclaimers and the conditions apply tag...
The rankings game needs to be viewed as a good source of information of the structure, approach, opportunities, unique features etc, of the top b schools in the country...They are more like bulletins of the b schools encapstulated into one...
Here again, one needs to take into account the fact that the various mags dont necessarily focus on the same schools, and even if the spotlight falls on the same school the aspects that they highlight are not the same...So in that way there is a lot of information from these sources. It is pretty much like how the opinion polls end up being sources of knowledge regarding the candidates in the fray rather than clear indicators of the favourites in the elections.
The other point of consolation is that, the survey also atleast gives us parameters to base our judgement, Even if we dont necessarily have to give any credence to the ratings ON those parameters.. And again some of the parameters are unique to each of the mags...So...we might be better off concentrating on the parameters and their relevance to our career.
My take on the whole exercise is that it would be prudent to take the rankings per se with a pinch of salt..and to focus on the details that the ranking methodology has brought to light.What might connect to one person will seem to be of perfunctory interest to the other ...And the familiarity that one gains about the institute and its way of functioning through these surveys might help prospective b schoolers throughout their 2 years there...One point though..The generally conflicting surveys though seem to agree on a group of schools being better than another group and so on..Those points can be taken..
I still am an avid reader of these rankings only cus they provide without fail..Information..and to quote a tamil movie...Information is wealth...
Alteast when intrepreted properly and in a way that suits the individual...

The verbal equivalent of Background Music...

I read somewhere that attention to detail is what sets apart the great from the good. Well i dont have to let the world know that Mani Sir as he is called with implicit respect...IS in fact the king of subtle attention to detail. Nothing in his movies is EXAGGERATED like Shankar's or maybe even BharathiRaja. But this is not a statement against their movies. The biggest pluspoint of Mani Movies that make them ideal for repeat viewing is indeed the attention to detail which manifests as those deep meaning passing comments that more often than not,purposely, are shunted to the background by either the music or the start of the next scene...So much is conveyed by these seemingly innocuous one liners...The alert can really relish the tasteful humor/ profound emotion that these background dialogues add to the already poetic scenes.
One fine Example is the word "Paranoia" that is so feebly heard in the pre marriage scene of Alaipayuthey....
Dont wanna go into more details or give examples since that is for the reader to spot,savor and cherish...
The next time one watches a Mani Movie or indeed any good movie, one might look out for the Background OneLiners...Indeed the Extra layer of dialog is like an extra layer of cream in a delicious sundae..Why not lap it up....

Kar(t)-nage...

Well...It was one helluva high speed crash...acutallly 3 helluva high speed crashes...
For a guy who is so used to driving a mobike...some one shud hav said thrice that the right leg presses the accelerator and the left leg the brake...To the lesser knowledged its the reverse in the bikes i hav driven...
Being one of the Speed mad..i dint bother pressin the brakes once durin the 4 laps due to which i had 2 bumps ,one with a frnd of mine Manu which sent me reeling into the tyrewall, and one more with the racer's best frnd itself..The tyrewall....
These 2 incidents shud hav incited my left leg into action (To press the brake) wen the laps were over and the others were parkin the karts after the finish line...But being a fool of the highest order...i pressed the accelerator HARD to try and stop the slowing Kart....wat happened...one of my colleagues...was reclining in his stationary kart, removing his helmet.....my kart hit the kart bang at its back...well...hard enuf for the helmet to just fly off into the tarmac...and needless to say..he has quite a stiff back now...
Well...Folly, Madness...I am all that impersonified...am lucky to not be a murderer now;)

p.s
But the accidents were FUN...it gave me 'kick'...though the last incident was more a kick in my well formed rear....hey am being decent and not using nasty language..

Indians were being Indian yesterday...

This post is not an immediate REACTION...this is not a reactive and irritated and frustrated outburst...The tears and the disbelief has been shed in the wee hours of today...
25 seconds could well have seperated the Indians from the medal...
When it comes to matters of the brain and mental Sharpness..Few can beat the indians...The US junta should vouch for this and this is no discovery...INDIANS are the "brainy bunch" of the world...
But when it comes to Matters of the MIND and mental strength...
am sorry to say Indians including this mortal are NOT strong and are not in control of their thoughts...
Is it due to their society and the way parents PAMPER and carry children in their shoulders till they grow up? This mite directly affect the mental strength...
Is it due to the passionate and emotional nature that can be attributed to the middle class and the sense of NOW or NEVER that generally is associated with them?
Intellectually Class, Mentally Mass.,that is the middle class...
When it comes to pressure and hanging to the edge of the cliff...the fall scares the Indians...
Is it because the consequences overwhelm us and we tend to thus focus on the result when the focus ought to be on the process?
Yes to all of these...
Fear of failure is India's greatest Nemesis...
Trust me a LOT OF IT holds with me also...I am victim to a lot of feelings that i have documented...Trust me it hurts to know our short coming and not be in a position to do anything about it...
Maybe we should just deliver and not think...
Maybe Indians should start being driven by Reason and not emotion...
But isnt that asking for too much?
Is a revolution in the operational process of the indian mind and psyche possible overnight?
I for one am trying to believe that we will have wake up one fine day mentally strong...But that is the pessimist in me talking..I am hoping against hope a process of achieving mental strength will be in place soon..both at the personal and the national level...The process will be different for different people but the basis cant be too disparate...
Till then its a case of conscious incompetence with regards to mental strength...
One sure conclusion...
Well...the focus has to be in the matters of the mind...That is the only path towards that elusive medal in sport and SUCCESS matching potential in all walks of LIFE...

Awareness is the zeroth step...We are at ground zero now...
Lets build the great STRONG Indian Mind...

Doubles jeopardy...

Why? India is again biting its nails in hope and losing sleep over its dear and notorious double(s) dynamites...
If there is an example of self destruction and being the architect of one's or should it be two's own doom..it is these two...they had the world at their feet...they chose to bicker...and life was never the same after that...Now age brings with it wisdom and an inclination to compromise...Sense seems to have prevailed over its sick alterego..ironically EGO...they are back and more importantly BACK TOGETHER...in all senses...the chest banging is back..lets hope only their chests and nothin else clashes between the two;)
An olympic gold is within reach..It never has been this reachable for indians...But...The mind should not play monkey again...For the sake of not being ridiculed...they better be sensible...
and PLAY to potential...Well...the only rivals they have is themselves...If that realization dawns on them...India can expect a new dawn...History is there to be created...But sadly, history also records BLACK events...lets hope they dont repeat history but create it...
My gut says india smells gold...Lee and hesh already are biting the egdes of the medal...
The world is watching...India anticipates...They better do it...

This dark Indian Cloud too has a Silver Lining...

Yo..One achiever...Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore
One billion proud indians ,This time too a brave heart has shouldered a nation's hopes and salvaged Indian Pride which was well an truly on its way to oblivion..To use a phrase from the land of the olympics...This was a herculean task and hats off to him...
Glory and Glee is often immediately followed with a sense of introspection and evaluation...
Can't India manage more than one medal....Popular and Woefully cliched statements like "1 billion ppl can manage one medal" start to filter their way in.....
Well We jus are gettin greedy.. With the sort of infrastructure that the indians are provided with...It needs a miracle to win even these medals....I read somewhere Suma Shirur had to fund her training in Europe...Sick state of affairs...
Well, until india starts to pool in and use money better, Rathores and Malleswaris will be few and far between...
Their achievement is even more creditable if you consider the odds they have to counter and the cynicism they have to endure... Orphans studying a post graduation...Thats the analogy i can draw for this achievement...
Well...India has 3 orphans who have finished their PG without much support from the system...
Isn't it time some one volunteered to parent them?
Rich people and MNC's need to come out of their obsession with cricket and need to invest some money atleast in the other more expensive and infrastructure demanding sports.
Rathore should merit endorsements for life from all the so called giants...So too should the top sportsmen from the other "promising" sports...
Its about time all the meritorious and hardworking sportsmen got more than a ok paying job with a government organization. Its about time india grows out of its money hungry tryst with cricket... Its time the press covers the other sports and throws the spotlight into the lesser popular sports and sportspersons...
There has been an improvement over the last decade and the results reflect that...But the flow of funds should be more like a flood rather than a trickle...
Well, an awareness in this respect needs to be created and the other sports must be covered at times other than the olympics and asian games....

Well, India's supposedly best ever contingent has to deliver more...But the heartening thing with this silver medal is....HARDWORK AND PERSEVERANCE STILL WORK....
that is the thing to take home for all of us...

It's a new start

Well....Blogically speaking i shud hav blogged long time back... But well...Thats me...
Ok..now that i hav started..let me try to make it readable...To cut all the crap and put it straight..i will post whatever i feel on whatever it maybe.. Surely it wont make too much sense to the erudite...or for that matter the rocket scientists or the chief economists of the IMF..
It mite be total crap or at best opinionated,biassed stuff...But one thing i will promise...it will be mine ORIGINAL UNADULTERATED crap...so..that in itself is a brand...

Ok..put ur hands together in prayer....A blog is born...

J