The Making of ABCD

Ance Sitco Presents.... (All three screens in black..text in white, a red underline is there of course)

A Girish-Harish Film

ABCD (America Bound Confused Desis)

Feels good to read these lines aint it....
Actually this was the motivation to make ABCD...to see that screen "A Girish-Harish Film"....

But these kinda crazy motivations are infact very important in life...its been an amazin experience making ABCD..donno how it will shape up as a watching experience..feedback from viewers so far have been thankfully good..
Ok..no more crappin...straight to the making of ABCD...

Makki has to be thanked eternally for providing the spark in bangalore to Girish when the last thing Giri was supp to do was thinkin of scripts for a film(He was there for an IIM intvw)....but strange situations have significant outcomes.....
Then, that spark was harnessed into something that vaguely resembled a script...Of course we preferred to call anything that had dialogues and scene descriptions running over 10 pages a script....
These, I must tell u happened in the last week of April...we have to thank GMail for providing us the mechanism to do reviews of scripts from our locations...me in hyd and Giri in Chn,...
Ofcourse half, infact most of the scenes were conceived over the phone...so god bless BSNL too....
Then....
As always we went idle for a fortnight....for no particular reason,,,thats why I said "as always"....
Giri's vacation, my release formalities, laziness, lack of equipment and other lame excuses.....
But ok...we somehow regained our senses and Giri with Prasanna,RR and Sriram (The average age of these three should be 17!!!).... we started shooting ABCD... (How valuable these 3 young fellas were, words cant describe....)
Oh yes the cast was decided sometime before that...

Till june 4 we dint have much to show as progress in the movie...but then suddenly after I finally reached chennai....Thanks to divine intervention,. we managed to muster enthu and to shrug off our laziness....Yes, June 5-Jun 18 were thirteen days of frenetic activity for the crew and cast of ABCD....
We shot at Fruit Shop on Greams Road with Swetha..
At Somasundaram Ground Road,T.Nagar (Barath,Anurag,Prasanna)
At Sapthagiri Roadside Restaurant,T.Nagar(Raama,Vasanth)
At K.V.Colony West Mambalam(Mrs Mohanaa )
At A temple in T.Nagar...(Vasanth)
And some more shots indoors....(suraj, His mom)
And shooting was wound up on 15th Jun...

the next three days were as much a learning experience as three days can manage to pack for u....
somehow these novices turned editors and sound engineers..God bless the viewers....

but all in all we were happy to learn by doing...and that in itself is for us..a victory...

6.18 am on June 18 ....ABCD.avi was ready.....

June 18 and June 19, ABCD was screened at friends' and relatives' houses....and we must say they liked what they saw....

June 19 evening ABCD Cds were burnt....to be circulated to our outside chennai well wishers...

June 20...Girish Boarded Nav Jeevan express...a contented co-director of ABCD......

To those who see ABCD after this..please pass on ur feedback to us.....we appreciate it lots....

God is great...as always....

Time flies....Memories are Permanent...

Its been an absolute super fast express ride....Life at hyderabad....and to actually end up learning so much at a place that was intended to be fate's punishment for Harish Cribbing Jayesh, is another epitome to that great law of nature "Every second presents a learning opportunity"... I totally totally enjoyed reliving the highs and lows in Hyd during the Journey back home in a not so comfortable APSRTC Bus...Man, hasn't hyderabad and TCS been the blessing in disguise God had in mind...His arrangements and moves are all perfectly orchestrated and have the larger picture in mind...To learn and practise Emotional independence and exercise financial independence and to enjoy living life doing work that you dont like and still learn... are MUST DOs for any 20 something pampered kid from the world that is in the other side of the US of A...
These last few weeks at home before commencing the next leg of my journey at IIMB, are so damn blissful...To chill heels in the cozy realms of parental affection...and to indulge in all the collegiate "chinna chinna aasais" one more time...I am blessed....
Chennai hasn't changed...So hasn't Hyd in my absence....Life goes on for those there...So does life for my parents...they still do the same things they used to do when I was at SVCE, or for that matter at PSBB.....Again...I have a lot to learn...how many times will this be reinforced....
Radio Mirchi, The mega serials, Noon shows at these theaters in chn, Our eat - out spots, dreams net, books,FRIENDS....My average day is so damn well composed out of these.....
BTW am reading To kill a mocking bird...have watched chandramuki now...and so too Ullam Ketkume....Waiting for Anniyan...
Kumari song from Anniyan is a key to attain BLISS..Shankar "genius" Mahadevan....man, is he a divine singer.....

So long then....

Bye bye Hyd....

TCS released me last week from duties officially...but am still sittin in my cabin n typin this a week after that....some duties need not have the official stamp on them...
i loved every moment of life this week here....and this like all good things is gonna end...
tcs won't prob have me ever;)...unless ofcourse some time after mba i return...which i wont rule out....
thanks for life at tcs for makin me learn lots....and all the ppl here....
Now am gettin to chn to spend some time with our(g and mine) pet project;)
and hopefully rest for the grind thts ahead..

No more unlimited comp access....that means Dreams net here i come every day....

Among other thins BOSE i wanna see...
Sachin I saw...not too impressed...time pass....
Kanaa Kanden...that Moolai thirugum song is splendid...decent movie...should hopefully run for 100 days...
Chandramuki and Mum Exp have not seen..will see soon...i think am one of the few tams not to have seen superstar's latest movie...dont curse me for that...

what else....am bugged of travellin but can't help it i guess....cus travellin is the only way of gettin from and to hyd and chennai......

A trip back in time....

April 29th 5.30 pm - A bunch of Nine guys and girls left TCS Hyderabad for a tour to places in and around the Mangalore area in Karnataka. The reason for the genesis of the trip is that Chaitra , my frnd , lives in that area and she nursed an idea like "Let's all explore the areas around my house....and were there a few places worth visiting....
April 29th 7 pm - Boarded the APSRTC bus to Mangalore.
After a good munch of Lays, Kurkure et al, Stopped at hoysula for a quick dinner. "Fiza" the movie was played and yours truly enjoyed "Piya haji ali " lots and was touched by Bose in the ear phones and Fiza in the screen....good BGM for riveting scenes in the movie.....
The next morning Jay the strong man atleast when it comes to travel became "Pukey"Man... The Shiraadi ghat in the Western ghats gave me a very stern welcome - Yours truly puked 4 times with sound effects as ppl here try to remind me...and apart from that "Nausea"stalgic event our landing at Surikumeri village in Dakshin Kannada District was peaceful...Chaitra's house is called "Kuvekodi" and is in Surikumeri....After what was a nice bath and an even better lunch for famished souls...we went aboard the Toyota qualis to "venture" into the woods towards Thala Cauvery....The route we chose to take was not the usual one and was in every sense "The Road Less Travelled". From Chaitra's grandpa's house "Gaalivana" in Thodikana which is as deserted and rocky as villages can get, we took a very sinuous and rocky road that joins miraculously at Thala cauvery - birth place of the bone of contention of TN and Karnataka....After what was a "rock and roll" ride in the open back of a "Jonga" (Jeep for the less knowledgeable) we reached Thala Cauvery at sunset time and was it a sight to relish.....
After what were 45 mins or so of absolute bliss at thala cauvery we came down the same road lesser travelled at night singing songs from movies ads and even mega serials....;)
A sumptuous dinner and intro sessions at thodikana grand pa's house later....Day one April 30 came to a halt....

Day 2 - May 1 2005...
Early rise at 6 am, then we all proceeded in another of those jonga's with our super parthasarathi - Gowreesh Maava - to Devaragundi - a waterfall that sadly had very little water but super sceneries around it....After lettin our feet dip in the water, we went to a fish pond "Meenagundi" where ravaging fishes ate all that we offered them, right out of our hands....Excellent feeling that being bitten by a toothless fish;) Then a visit to a temple later we proceeded to a hanging bridge "Aranthodu " on payaswini river...Yours truly rocked the hanging bridge and scared a few innocent tourists;)....After what was a long long ride....we went to St Mary's Island near Udupi in Malpe Beach.....The speciality of this place is that the beach has an island which is a 40 min boat ride from the coast....Brilliant swades like boat ride it was and ofcourse in that island's beach I took the plunge only to spoil my cell phone but still had a whale of a time....
Dinner that night was at "Diana" - famous for its ice cream variety "Gud bud" a Mangalore special...So that and a drive later, we reached "Patrame" another village where one more uncle of Chaitra "Prasad Maava" stays....it was a super place "Panchavati" their farm had a camp fire waiting for us...A nice camp fire later we all slept tired souls....

Day 3 May 2 2005 -
The water day....after a good breakfast ....the swimmer in me proceeded with all others towards "Shishila " River...where we all had a great time teaching, learning and performing various strokes in swimming...I was a hippo in water both in size and nature;)...That was essentially it that day ....we came back to surikumeri to catch a bus back to the bustling city life.....What a trip it was.....The villagers and chaitra's relatives were a revelation...they set me into deep thinking mode of how life should and can be....Keeping things simple, offering hearty help..I take my hat off for all of them..the entire family....All in all lots to learn from the trip...What ? that's a post in itself....

The cast - Sandeep,Chaitra,Manu,Bops,Chaitanya,Dharani,Anupama,Ice and urs truly.....

Life is good.....

p.s : the return bus journey was zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.....14 hrs of sleep...contented hearts, tired bodies, dreamy souls........

The Tied Rubber tube/Telephone wire made "ball" Incident and BOSE

Weird topic...I know...But when I was taking an evening 3.5 km walk alone to Hyderabad Central to buy BOSE, I saw nine guys engaging in a entertaining activity that held my attention for 10 mins....and anything that is worth my attention is worth a blog entry...Ofcourse there are other thins also that mite be discussed in this entry...

Back to the Small black ball incident...The location was a small mud shuttle court thats jus in the entry area of a road side park in SriNagar colony.....Nine small bags were hangin in trees that shelter that area from the sun durin daytime but ....the time was 6.15 in the evenin and the trees' primary role was to be a holder for all the bags of our protagonists....the nine guys were standin in a circle and a small black ball made of telephone wire/rubber tube was the object of their and a whole lot of "watchers from the sidelines'" attention....and man were they talented....
kickin the ball to each other and keepin the ball in "play", their ball skills were downright amazing.....One fella particularly was dexterous in the way he received the ball with his stomach area and nursed it like a baby before transfering it to the back of his leg and kicking it precisely to the person he intended...all of them were born entertainers and yours truly had a great time seeing the guys enjoy the game and the attention they were getting....But boy these guys deserve their place under the sun....

Bose was purchased finally...(Girish was particularly particular that I buy the album) and man it's one of the albums of the year....
Aazadi...is absolutely the patriotic song of the year...The orchestral style "Jaya Hinds" are brilliantly supplemented by our man ARR singing his lines....Especially brilliant is the way he says "Lok tere ek vatan" and "Azadi" and "Lakhon dilon ki"....excuse me if the lyrics aren't spot on....
And one more song that evoked a "play-tears on the eye, replay-goosepimples" routine some seven times was Zikr...Again by ARR..man is he the FEEL singer.....Absolutely the man to deliver songs that have feeling...And the Allaah Hu....chorus and the mantraic repetitions are mind blowing...ARR and the lyricist Javed saab are absolute geniuses in complementing music and tune with rhythmic lyric...

Sonu was at his lilting best in his two songs and "Des ki Mitti" was brilliant and reminded me of "En kaadhale"....
Guys if you haven't experienced Bose yet....please....It's a journey into our Indianness...Patriotism as girish said is an even better feeling to experience than Love;)

July 2003-May 2005 : A Journey

It's been a while since a very pleasant storm struck Girish's and my life....and We are sure that it's a life transforming bit of news..Girish and myself saw the gods granting us our long yearned for wishes - A seat in the IIMs and has it been a windfall...Girish has made it to the best of them all- IIMA, and yours truly will by his grace go to IIMB....I just wanted the "sinking in" to be completed before attempting a post..hence the delay...

It all seems like a blur- the years of effort, the disappointment of not making it last year, the pressures at work that almost made me stay in office the last 48 hours before the exam, a potentially dangerous accident that I survived with the least damage possible, the hours spent reading Business World and stuff I was totally unbothered or simply unaware of, the early morning 10 km drives in semi asleep state to the GD PI classes, the numerous chat sessions with Raama, the thousands spent in the phone discussing anything vaguely related to CAT and B-Schools with Girish, the hours spent analysing SIMCATs, the hits made to Pagalguy.com hunting down any bit of gyaan related to MBA, the pep talks of Hyd junta, the numerous times Self doubts almost got the better of me and threatened to consider calling it quits, All in all I must say God has been very very kind to me and that I am one of the most fortunate fellows on Earth...

It all started when on July 3 2003, My joining date at TCS got postponed from July 16 to October 6 and I was suddenly left with nothing to do for the next three months....That's when Raama and Kaushik Rajan asked me to consider preparing for CAT 03...Strange to note that this was how a passion was finally given the go- ahead....Something had always stopped me from writing or rather preparing for CAT....I needed that bit of "goof-up" from the TCS-HR to convince me to shrug off the laziness and put my head down....
For some strange reason, some one decided to cancel that CAT, which I had done very well ( infact that still remains my best ever CAT to date), and the re-test was a flop mainly because I just could not digest living away from my mother in Hyderabad when she was undergoing a surgery in Chennai....Well, No excuses but that's the truth.... and I still remember the LONG train journey from Chennai to Hyderabad after messing up that CAT on Feb 15 2004....BK and Vatsa were there at the station and I cried as much as I have ever...I still remember BK calling me from home that night and I spoke for 45 mins from the train toilet;)
Numerous mails, phone calls, and a needless depression later, I started to stop fooling around and face the truth and start all over again...That has to be the best decision I have made....God has carried me from then....May 04 - April 05...this entire year has been centered around the CAT...and I am delighted and thankful to god to be where I am....
Girish flying down after an MS to join my "dream chase" was a piece of magic that God decided to enforce....and our journey together has been as it always has been...
The moral of the story is something I have made a part of my Belief set...."GIVE 100% to whatever you do WITHOUT FEAR OF FAILURE"...It required this episode in life to reinforce that....

Sorry People if this was a bore to read, or too "me-centric" but I thought some readers might draw inspiration from an example of the fact that God's grace, a dream, honest effort and good guidance from family and friends can lead to that dream being realized.....

GOD IS GREAT...Hope he carries me in my future endeavours as he has so far.....

Animal Farm...Parable beyond compare

If there has to be a book that enlightens, entertains and keeps you riveted to the end that too in a matter of 100 mins and 120 pages...it has to be this book by George Orwell...
The best example to cite for "Short and sweet"...the same can be said of "Love Story" and "Alchemist" too...but this one has to rank number one jointly with The Alchemist...

People who know what it is to be in a work environ, this is one book that you can relate to, in every page and every little detail. Ofcourse, for the fresher too, it will go down as a very informative and will teach the keen reader some things to be wary of in the workplace...

What Power can do, and what egos do to an organization, and how the managers manipulate the workers, the power the voluble talker commands in any organization, and the naivette of the lower middle class....All these are brilliantly depicted in a fable par excellence...

"All animals are equal but some are more equal then others" - though this has been oft repeated...the truest truism of all....

How every noble cause is vulnerable to manipulation and how important regulation is and how dangerous over regulation is, the plus and minus of democracy, the leadership styles of managers, why a workhorse is called a WORK HORSE..Great for readers who like to go the inferential route after reading books..I would defly want to read it again and extract more gyaan...