Sweet tears of Joy !

 We all had given up on India’s chances to win the Finals of the 2024 T20 cricket world cup when the best batsmen of SA, Henry Klassen hit 22 runs in one over of Axar Patel in the 15th over. SA needed just 30 runs from 30 balls. And anyone who knows and watches T20 cricket would have thought the same as almost all of Indians were thinking. Yet another Finals. Yet another loss and the agony and pain it would bring for days and months together, at least till we play another world cup and raise our expectations again.

 But destiny and prayers of 1.4 billion Indians did the magic. Jaspreet Bumrah bowled the 15th over so well that he gave away only 4 runs. 26 needed from 24. Drinks break. Rohit Sharma had just one over left from Bumrah and Arshdeep his two trump card bowlers. He had no choice but to give Hardik Pandya the 16th over. First over after drinks break. First bowl Pandya bowled a slower leg cutter outside the off stump. Klassen thought it to be a juicy half volley and went for it without moving his feet. Faintest of edges and the gloveman Rishabh Pant did the rest. Whole of India erupted in joy and triumph. The key wicket of Klassen was gone. SA still had David Miller on the crease, and we all know how dangerous David Miller can bat in the slog overs. It was a cat and mouse game now. Pendulum was shifting ever so slightly in India's favor with Klassen gone. Marco Jansen on the crease. He was clearly under a lot of pressure. Hardik gave away only 4 runs in that over. SA needed 22 from 18 balls. Again, a very crucial over. But no one except Jasprit had to bowl if India had to make of any chance to get Miller out. Jaspreet gave all his heart out. What an over bowled by him. 4 dot balls and an unplayable ball to Marco Jansen who could not see the ball before it hit the top of his leg stumps. Amazing over Bumrah, you beauty. 20 needed from last two. India’s chances were getting more and more higher in comparison to SA. Last over for Arshdeep Singh. Keshav Maharaj the new man on strike. He took three balls to lay bat on ball and took a single. All Miller was thinking was couple of boundaries and the game is ours. But Arshdeep bowled too well. He did not give any loose ball in the over. Only 4 runs in 19th over. So final over and 16 needed. India had only option of Hardik Pandya. First ball to Miller. Wide full toss. Miller threw the kitchen sink at it, and it had six written all over it. The camera panned and suddenly from nowhere, it was Surya Kumar Yadav who jumped with the ball caught it and was losing the balance to go out of the boundary, so he threw the ball into the ground, came back from outside the boundary and caught it. Relief to 1.4 billion Indians. Tears of joy all around the ground and everywhere where people were watching the game. It was an unbelievable catch. Not just it saved, six runs, but it got the wicket of dangerous Miller, and it was a dot ball. That catch literally made Surya Kumar the Hero for all the Indians. Absolutely Marvelous catch. If it was Kapil Dev who caught Viv Richards to win 1983 world cup, if it was Shreesanth who caught Misbah to win 2007 world cup, it was definitely Surya's catch which was one of main reasons behind India's World Cup victory on June 29th 2024. Never in my dreams I could believe what I saw yesterday. After the wicket of Miller, it was only formality left as they did not have any player who could hit boundaries now. One boundary was hit as it was a thick edge by Kagiso Rabada, but after that he got out and India won in the end by 7 runs. Amazing match. When everything was lost, hope was lost, Cricket like destiny again proved that if we have grit and determination and we are brave enough to face the situation and fight hard, we can achieve anything. Way to go Indian team and players. You all made us so proud yesterday, that we all forgot the agony of the 2023 one world cup final loss against Australia. Whole of India was crying tears of Joy, I was also among them. I kept crying for a long time after seeing each of my heroes crying on television.

 There were lot of noteworthy performances in the match, Virat Kohli's 76 on a sluggish pitch. Our Bapu (Axar Patel's) batting of quick fire 47. Shivam Dubey played out of his skin. Henry Klassen is such a classic batsman and he proved once again, why he is rated so highly as a spin bowl player. He made mockery of our spin bowling. It was only due to prayers of 1.4 billion Indians that he made a mistake on first ball of 16th over. What else can explain him trying to hit a slow leg cutter ball just with hands and outside his reach. Bumrah bowled so well as he always does. India is so lucky to have such a fantastic bowler. He can single handedly turn any match. What an amazing talent he is for India. Feel so honored to be able to watch a bowler who can make the ball talk. Almost literally. Arshdeep bowled beautifully when needed the most. Hardik kept his nerves in the final overs, and he became the key bowler to dismiss two of the most dangerous batsmen. Klassen and Miller.

 What a wonderful world cup overall. Rohit batted brilliantly and led from the front as an opener. Surya played so well in the middle overs. Axar Patel had a wonderful, wonderful world cup with both bat and ball (except for final when Klassen took him apart). Rishabh Pant played couple of good knocks and kept well in all matches. Hardik Pandya batted so well and also bowled well whenever it was required of him, barring a few overs where he went for plenty. All and all a wonderful team effort and it was a clean sweep for the entire tournament as India did not lose a single match in the tournament. What an achievement? Marvelous, Fantastic, Stupendous. I am at loss of words and a very emotional Indian cricket fan. The sweet tears of joy that this team has given to the entire country is really something to be very grateful for. Thank you, team India. We are so so very proud of you. 

 

Work Life Balance Hypocrisy

Recently I read a top high management professional talk about how he has realized the real meaning of PTO is total switch off and enjoy the time off in a very true sense. He was talking about being completely away from the work laptop, not even checking emails on phone or not taking work related calls at all during the break. He said all we need to do is delegate it to the right person who is responsible during your break time. How wonderful is that and I could see a lot of people commenting and saying positively about it. Well, I am of the same opinion and agree hundred percent with what he said. But it would be hypocrisy if all those who agree to the opinion of enjoying their time off fully and completely, would be happy when others, especially their subordinates or the junior most member of that hierarchy does that. I personally feel that it is a crime to ask someone to work on a weekend. An IT professional works hard 5 days a week so that he can enjoy the two days of the weekend fully with his/her family, doing whatever he likes to rejuvenate and relax. And if their boss is asking them to give time from that weekend again to work, it is no less than a crime.

 

I would like to ask the people in the topmost positions to think seriously about this matter. Just imagine that you are enjoying a game of cricket during your weekend, and you receive a call to work on something urgent and important. Would anyone not get pissed off with that. Every human being is equally important when it comes to relaxing and rejuvenating themselves and having their own personal time. There should not be any exceptions to that. I have seen people in the US and Europe are true to their weekend culture and they won’t work on a weekend or a holiday and there is nothing wrong with that. They have all the right to happily enjoy their time. Only thing that is not right is discrimination with India. Why do Indians have to work on weekends and sometimes even on Holidays when the bosses in US never would do that.

 

On the Labor Day weekend top US bosses talk about how to enjoy me time and digital detox etc. and their own subordinates in India must work over the weekend for a so-called patient safety issue. And mind you, even though the issue is patient safety and even though everything is done and ready over the weekend, it would not be deployed to the hospital since no one in the US will work on the Labor Day holiday. How ironic is that? So, something that would be delivered on a Tuesday morning in US is being worked upon during Saturday and Sunday in India even though there are two full weekdays (Monday and Tuesday) available to India team. I feel this to be gross injustice to those people who had to give away their weekend for something that could have been easily done during the weekdays. Time once gone is completely gone. You can't compensate it by giving a compensatory off on a weekday. Well, who are you going to play a game of cricket with on a weekday? Everyone would be working, and you would be all alone as even your family members would have their own weekday engagements.

 

So that's why it is no less than a crime to take away anyone's weekend. And those in the position of authority should always take into consideration whether something they are asking their subordinates to do over the weekend can be done during the weekday. Because this culture can change only from the top. People in the position of authority should make it a moral obligation that they never bother any of their team members during weekends. Mind you there is nothing so urgent as people make it to be. Somehow today’s people’s managers have completely forgotten the fact that they are responsible for their team, and they can become good managers only by earning respect from their subordinates. Just following orders from the top does not make them good managers. I personally do everything I can to never bother my team members unless I have no other choice. I have always been told by my bosses that you could ask your juniors to do the weekend work, but to me that is a crime. And if I am preaching something, I need to first follow it.

 

So next time when you think about digital detox and completely switching off to get your own personal time, please think of their subordinates and try to make their life better at least on weekends. Everyone is human and everyone deserves to live life to the fullest possible extent. Every one has an equal right to Work-life balance.

Whatever Happens, Happens for the good

There is this saying in Hindi which was made famous by the one and only Amitabh Bachchan. He says these are the lines said by his father Late Shri Harivanshrai Bachchan.

 Mann ka ho to achcha, aur man ka na ho to aur bhi achcha.

 It means that if something happens according to your wish then its good, but if something happens against your wish then it’s even better. The reason is that, if something does not happen as per our wish then it’s God's wish. And God will never do anything wrong for their children. This is a wisdom of life, and one should always be positive about things happening to him/her and this kind of ancient wisdom always helps us to stay positive under all circumstances. And these sayings are not just sayings they became wisdom only after many people experienced such things in their own life. I remember one incident in my life which reminded me of this same saying. I am sure everyone must have had at least one such experience in their life which can relate to this title.

 This is an incident of the time when I had completed my graduation and I had the long summer vacation before I could make any decision for the next phase of my life. I never felt that I was worth getting any admission to professional colleges, so I just wanted to spend my time playing cricket. Cricket matches was the only thing that was important for me back then. I had an important match coming up in the weekend and I was very excited about it. When I returned home after playing in the evening that day, my father told me that we must go Ahmedabad to visit my cousin brother's place for a few days. I casually told him; I am not going you all can go as I have a very important match in the weekend. My father told me that we are going in our car for the first time and so we might need you also just in case there is anything going wrong during the journey. It would be better if they have me with them as my elder brother would be driving. In those days once my father demanded something then it was final, we just could not go against it. I was furious. No one cared for my important match, and I threw all possible tantrums for not going with them. But finally, I had to oblige as I had to obey Dad's wish even if that meant that I had to miss the important cricket match.

 With heavy heart I went with my family to Ahmedabad. The next day morning I read an advertisement in the Newspaper. Gujarat University MCA admission forms are available at the university office. As I mentioned earlier, I never thought that I am worth getting an admission to MCA, so I just ignored. But suddenly my dad said that why don't you go and get the admission form. You can think later whether you want to appear for the admission entrance exam or not later. Well, when my father asked me, I had to oblige. So, I went to the Gujarat University and brought the form for me. I casually filled and submitted it as I thought what the harm is in trying. Then after 3 months I appeared for the exam just as casually as I submitted the form. There were no thorough preparations or any detailed studies. I was always knowing that I am not going to clear the entrance exam. But one thing led to other, and I submitted the form, appeared for the exam and then to my utter surprise, I GOT SELECTED! I could not believe that I could get an admission to the MCA course of the prestigious Gujarat University. I was so casual about it, and here I was with a chance to live a completely different life. Getting admission in a course like MCA was a dream of many, and I just got it through pure luck.

 My mom teased me look you were not even ready to go to Ahmedabad because of your Cricket match but see now what has happened. I was awestruck and had a realization that OMG! this was God's wish and that's why somehow my dad forced me to go along with him. I would have had a completely different life, had I been adamant and stayed back for the match. Life has a way to surprise you always. And this was my destiny. After that incident, whenever in my life I face a situation where I feel that something is not happening as per my wish, I try to think positive and believe that it is God's wish and when God wishes something for us, it is always good in the long run.

It is indeed true that, whatever happens, Happens for the good!

And here comes another Last day email

Its like a farewell season going on these days. In about 2 weeks’ time I will be attending a third farewell party. Sometimes similar things happen back to back that it makes you believe that well is this some plan of the Almighty that he has planned all the farewells one after the other. There are close friends and colleagues who are planning to change their jobs, one of them planning to move abroad for long term. Then there is our veteran talented bond of Config Management who has taken a decision to retire from professional career, even though he spending half the day was able to run the business on its own.

So, I have seen so many last day emails recently and literally all of them having same or similar content. I had been through the same cycle of reading last day emails earlier as well. That was the time in 2007-2008 when Financial Banks were making a huge loss and every other day, they were being bought by one or the other bigger banks. I was working for Countrywide financials and we were sailing in the same boat. People were looking for jobs outside and every other day one person or the other was sending this last day emails. I was getting bored of reading the same stuff almost on a daily basis. I know people are emotional and most, if not all of them mean what they write in their emails. They all want to put their best picture in front of others, by talking all good things and thanking one and all. I did make a promise to myself that, when my time will come to write the last day email for countrywide, I won’t bore anyone with routine stuff. I will try to make that email memorable or at least make people laugh or smile while reading it.

Things happened fast and I did not get enough time to prepare when I actually had to write the last day email. But I just wrote it in a single sitting and sent it to all my buddies in Countrywide financials. I made it a point off course to exclude senior management, so as to not offend them with such a straight forward, sarcastic and funny email. I still read that email at times and have a big laugh at it myself. So, without wasting too much time let me copy paste the email here, so I don’t have to search it time and again into my Gmail account when I have to read it. The email is in my most favorite language, Hindi so those who don't know or understand this language, please pardon me. This one is more for me than for anyone else. I would love to come back to it and read it when I grow old.

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Subject: इस email id से आखिरी ईमेल

मेरे प्यारे भाइयो और उनकी बहनो ,

वैसे मौका आ गया है की मैं भी एक आखिरी दिन वाला email  लिख डालू .....

इतने दिनों तक तैयारी की, लेकिन जब लिखने का समय आया तो समझ में नहीं आ रहा की क्या लिखू | वैसे ख़ुशी तो बहुत हो रही है की तुम सब पकाऊ लोगो को और नहीं झेलना पड़ेगा, लेकिन ऐसे मौको पे सच सच बोलना शोभा नहीं देता ; इमोशनल होने का दिखावा करना पड़ता है, और झूठ झूठ ऐसा बोलना पड़ता है की तुम लोग बहुत अच्छे थे और तुम लोगो की बहुत याद आएगी, तो ऐसा ही कुछ समझ लो| और लोग तो थैंक्स वगैरह भी बोलते है ... तो भाई क्या करे, परंपरा है तो में भी बोल देता हूँ की तुम लोगो ने मुझे जो पिछले दो साल पांच महीने और आठ दिन तक पकाया उसके लिए तुम्हे बहुत बहुत ... कीड़े पड़े .. @!#$@#%!@#!%@

अरे माफ़ करना मुझे यहाँ धन्यवाद बोलना था, तो भाई वैसा ही कुछ समझ लो|

बहुत बत्ती लगायी हमने CFCI और उसके projects की, और उनकी बहुत धन संपत्ति ख़राब की, लेकिन enough is enough! और लोगो को भी तो मौका मिलना चाहिए | और अब और लोगो ने हमें उनके projects और धन संपत्ति ख़राब करने के लिए चुन लिया है | क्या कहे उनके फूटे नसीब|

अंत में अपना personal email id और phone no. दे रहा हूँ | मुझे मालूम है की बहुत काम लोग उसका उपयोग करेंगे, लेकिन .. अब वोह कहते है न की परंपरा है तो करना पड़ता है |

तो भाई यह है मेरा email id: r***.***@gmail.com

और यह रहा फ़ोन नंबर - 89800*********

जानता हूँ की बहुत मुश्किल है फिर भी कहूंगा की  keep in touch.

Seriously मत ले लेना. अरे भाई परंपरा है तो ऐसा कहना पड़ता है.

अलविदा दोस्तों

Rushikesh

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All my colleagues and friends had a really good laugh reading this email. And the smiles and laugh at their faces when I met them in the Countrywide office for last time made my day.

Locals Vs Outsiders

The other day we were having some conversation over drinks. And Yes, you guessed it right, when there is conversation on some topic over drinks, it is bound to become passionate. The topic was about that if you are an outsider, you ought to give more chances to the locales irrespective of their service. I was kind of taken aback by it. I am proud product of Kendriya Vidyalaya and we in K.V. are always taught that we are Indian first and we have to treat all fellow Indians equally, irrespective of their cast creed or locality. Me being one the so-called outsider was dissapointed at the thought that how can any educated man have a biased thinking. If people from outside come to Pune, off course Pune gave them opportunity, but the people from outside also give something back. It is not one-sided it is always mutual.

My friend's argument was when you made the decision to come to Pune, was it for yourself or was it for giving something to back to Pune. I agreed that it was solely for me that I made the decision irrespective of thinking about how the people in Pune will treat me. He said when Pune gives you some opportunity to earn a living, you ought to pay back to Pune, by providing them the opportunity to earn from you. And you should always be biased to give more opportunities to people who are local and belong to Pune. I could not understand that. For me being an Indian always comes first rather than being a local or Marathi. I told him that when I have to choose the vendor for any of my requirements, I could never choose based on cast, creed, locality or language. All humans for me are same, and selection will be purely based on the quality of the service and money I would be spending for the service. It has to be value for money for me to make a choice of any vendor. For a person like me, I could never say I belong to a particular locality. I was born in Madhya Pradesh, brought up in Gujarat and spent my professional life first in Gujarat and then in Maharashtra. So, when someone asks me where do I belong from, I always reply, I am from India. And I am proud to be an Indian.

My point is how can we be biased and not give someone who is deserving an opportunity just because he is an outsider. The argument was about the Marwari community and other business vendors who would eat up all earning opportunities for the locals. To a certain extent I agree that it is a case, those people who come from outside may be giving opportunity to only their people and then even though they are earning from Pune, they are not hiring people from Pune for their shops and jobs they create. It could be true, but I bet that if someone is capable enough it won’t take long, before someone would give them an opportunity purely based on their talent and hard work. After all we the so-called outsiders were chosen for working in our company only because the interviewer found the right kind of skills that he was looking for. Being an educated person how can I be biased. That just does not sound right.

To me it is just like reservation. Reservation in education and govt jobs gives opportunities based on caste to those who quite often do not deserve it. If we all feel that reservation is unfair to the people deserving it, then how can we be the one who follows the same principle. Professionals who come from outside of Pune do pay taxes which goes to the central govt. But, ultimately the state budget is allocated from the central govt to the state and tax paying people do play a part in helping build the nation overall. I concluded with the argument that we all are Indians and being an Indian we can't discriminate between fellow Indians. If everywhere in India we will have people thinking that only locals should get the opportunity, we can't become a country of unity in diversity. The local people will have to show the required skills for a job and should get a job for their skills, quality and hard work and not because they belong to the locality. If this closed-minded attitude will not change, it would be very difficult for India to make a progress on the global scene. We all are Indians, and everyone should always realize that all Indians are equal come what may, and there should not be a biased attitude towards a specific locality or community.

Effectiveness of Voting

Effectiveness of Voting

Voting-A fundamental right of every citizen. All the fundamentals of democracy rests on the unique keyword, Voting. Every citizen of a country understands that as soon as he becomes an adult (Legal age 18 in India, may vary in other countries), he/she will get the right to vote and they are so excited about voting. How many people are really excited about voting in terms of choosing the right candidate? Not sure of the number, and even most people do not understand the seriousness of voting. The point I am trying to make here that even though it's a democratic and fundamental right of every citizen, it is not really effective in terms of choosing the right candidate. The fact there is no difference between a totally uneducated person and a highly intellectual individual when it comes to voting makes it totally ineffective specially in a country where percentage of literacy is 74, and mind you by literacy they mean only read and write. Literacy by no means, means education. Literacy is actually the very beginning of education.

So, this such a strong opinion that Voting is not a very effective instrument in terms of choosing the right candidate. We all know how much it takes to get a simple Job in a private company. The candidate has to go through various aptitude tests, then a series of interviews and post that HR rounds and what not. It takes so much for someone to crack a govt Job interview (unless he has the caste certificate of a reserved category off course). In every profession be it Medicine, Engineering, Civil services, etc., it takes a hell lot out of you to get the desired education and get the Job. When a person clears the IAS interviews, he//she has to serve under a Minister who was elected just by the voting of individuals, and that too, those, who are unaware of what voting really means or whether they are choosing the right candidate. People hardly know and those who even know they hardly care about it.

I am not saying that it’s a piece of cake to get elected in an election, No, that is not true. But, to me getting elected is all about doing the right marketing. It's about how to brainwash the voters. It's about how much money per vote, or how much liquor per vote. The person who can do all the above would finally get elected and then when in power, they will make all the attempts to recover the money they spent to reach there, and would try to accumulate as much as they can. I would like to compare voting with an analogy of the various competitions that are held in colleges and offices for fun. The result of all such competitions are based on the number of likes or comments that person got. Do you know what those participants do? They start the marketing and networking and ask people, friends and friends of friends to give them a like so that they can win the competition. How ridiculous is that? People who don't know or understand the meaning of the competition will be liking your entry just because you asked them to do so. Will this ever be able to find the deserving winner? I am sure you all would agree that it won't. Elections are exactly like that, albeit on a much larger and grander scale. The candidate who is elected, is not because he is deserving, he is only elected because he could afford to market himself better than others.

So, voting is really not effective to choose the right candidate. This is not just in India, even in America where everyone is educated, not all people feel that the deserving candidate always wins the presidential election. I would say voting should be there, but, decision of electing or selecting a candidate should not depend entirely on voting. And to me for getting the fundamental right to vote there should be some eligibility and even some basic examination needs to be taken to decide whether the individual is capable enough to make the right decision when he is voting. It still needs a lot of research to understand and implement a better strategy to elect someone, but mere voting by pressing of a button is not going to get you the right person for the position.

Having said that, I am not concluding that voting should be avoided. In fact, voting for an educated and intellectual person is that much more necessary because when they choose someone they at least think about the reasons before choosing the right candidate. If even an educated and intellectual person decides not to vote or votes blindly without thinking, then he is doing more harm than good to the society. So, every individual should definitely vote, but, please think before you vote. If everyone thinks before giving the precious vote, I am hoping that I will live to see a world when I would change my opinion that Voting is not so effective in choosing the right candidate.

Can you afford fear?

What is fear? A quick search of the word fear leads to the following result.

Fear is a feeling induced by perceived danger or threat that occurs in certain types of organisms, which causes a change in metabolic and organ functions and ultimately a change in behavior, such as fleeing, hiding, or freezing from perceived traumatic events. The keyword here is p-e-r-c-e-i-v-e-d. Most often than not, its just a perception which is only psychological. By affording fear, I mean to say that the perception of fear is only with those who can afford it. If you can't afford the condition that fear of something or someone brings with it, you will not be afraid of that something or someone. Sounds confusing is it?

Let me try to explain it with a simple real life example. We all have female member in our family who would scream their lungs out when they see a cockroach. Same was the case in our family. When I was a school going kid, I used to believe that all females are afraid of cockroach. I believed it because I was told so. One fine day another such incident happened in front of me. My mom was screaming at the sight of a cockroach, and generally she was calmed by my father who used to throw the cockroach out of the house. But, this time since dad was not at home, the drama continued for longer than it generally does. Fortunately, there was our maid who had come to work at our place, she saw my mom screaming, calmly picked up the cockroach and threw it out of the house. I was watching in utter disbelief. I could not believe that a lady can do such a thing. I had to ask her how and why she is not afraid the same way like every female does. She simply said, we can't afford to be afraid. If we are afraid of cockroaches, we wouldn't be able to live. There were hundreds of those tiny creatures at the places she stayed and since she was a widow she had to deal with those herself. Her answer really taught me a big lesson at that young age.  Yes, she was right that she can't afford to be afraid of those creatures. Same logic applies all kinds of fears. Fear is anyways a fake psychological perception. Only those people who can afford to be afraid are afraid.

There are tons of examples in this world to prove this point. Most of us are afraid to go near the dead or be around a dead body even when it's the body of our own family member. Have you ever imagined what a person whose job is to assist in doing post-mortem of dead bodies go through? Can they afford to be afraid of dead bodies? The answer is a big NO. They have to do their job without any fear and only then they can provide food for themselves and family. Can a watchman of the cremation ground afford fear of dead bodies? Absolutely not. So, it is only because we can afford it, we are afraid of fear. We can actually apply this to any kind of fear that we have.

So often the fear of failure keeps us away from trying. But, again we will only fear till the time we can afford it. Once you understand that your fear is more harmful to you than the consequences that you are actually afraid off, you give up your fear. There is so much material available on the internet on how to overcome your fear and there are people available for help. All you have to do, is make up your mind and ask yourself, can you really afford to be afraid? Once you figure out that the answer is NO, you will be the first person to help yourself give up the fear and then go ahead to win over it. And believe me there is no bigger win than winning over your fear. As someone has very rightly said in Hindi "Dar ke aage jeet hai!" meaning there is victory ahead of fear. So, lets overcome all our fears for now and for always.

Every picture tells you a story !

I am sure that someday when I grow old, I will come back at this blog and smile when I look at this pic. This picture was taken at the very beginning of of our Raireshwar trek on August 18th 2018. A trek organized by our company Allscripts's sports committee. When we got down from our bus, as soon as I saw this smiling person, I asked him to get one pic with us. He did not understand much, but was smiling even more when we all surrounded him. To me this is the pic of the day. And when I was looking into the camera to get that perfect pic, the old man was talking to me. He was saying, it has been raining for so many days now and he had been stuck indoors because of rains. He wants to be outside in the midst of nature, but rains kept him inside. The rains had stopped for only about 15 mins and he was out. I loved the energy and the youthful smile that he possessed. Our group was interested in listening to his story, which you can notice from the pic. Nikhil and Rohan are looking at him while he is explaining his wisdom about nature. Lovely snap taken by Nitin. This was an awesome moment. Loved it. The pic set the mood for the trekking trip.

From left to right Prajit Save, Rohan Basankar, Nikhil Deopujari, The model of this pic,Yours truly and Varun (Mr. 45 kg) . Pic Credits, Nitin Lohar

Authority Vs Responsibility

A quick search on google for the keywords "Authority Vs Responsibility" results into the following statement
Authority refers to the legal right of the Manager to give orders and expect the obedience from subordinates. On the other hand, responsibility is the corollary i.e. result of the authority. While authority is delegated, by the superior to subordinates, responsibility is assumed i.e. it is inherent in the task assigned. That’s a very politically correct definition of the terms.
In the above statement Manager refers to anyone who Manages a team of people. In the literal sense Management is the art of getting work done from others, and on the same lines Manager is someone who is responsible for getting work done from his subordinates. Did you notice the word responsible in the last sentence? So, a Manager has Authority, but he is r-e-s-p-o-n-s-i-b-l-e for getting the work done. The point I am trying to make here is same as the famous saying, "With great power comes greater responsibility". Power and Authority are two sides of the same coin, so it can be said that with Authority comes responsibility.

I would like to take this one step ahead and say that only those who can understand the responsibility part correctly, would be able to succeed in their Authority. To me if someone has an authority, he has double the responsibility and if the authority is not used correctly it turns out into a liability.
Let's understand this with an example from Cricket. There was this time when Greg Chappell the great Australian cricketer was asked to assume the responsibility of being a coach for team India. He got the authority and without understanding the consequences he started ordering to execute his commands on the Indian cricket team. Indian team that time was star studded with the likes of Sachin, Dravid, Sehwag, Laxman, Kumble, Srinath, Harbhajan, Yuvraj and all those great players. He kept experimenting with the batting order and did really micro manage on things that otherwise could have been left alone. Now, do we really need to coach a team with the likes of such great players? The answer is a big NO. All they needed was some guidance and follow a strategy by choosing right man for every task they wanted to execute. But, Greg Chappell with his attitude spoiled it all. The result was for everyone to see. In World cup 2007, we lost to Bangladesh and Srilanka and was an early exit for a team that was considered as having the potential to lift the cup. Fortunately, the BCCI did not have to continue with Greg Chappell and he put in his resignation with India's exit from the World cup. Next, Gary Kirsten the South African great was asked to assume the seat vacated by Greg Chappell. Gary on the contrary to Greg had a method of his own. He gelled with the team so well and he was able to motivate the same team to again perform to their full potential once more. The result of that was evident on April 2, 2011, i.e. the final of the World cup. India won the world cup after 28 years. So, the example shows, how the difference of attitude to take the authority given as a responsibility can change the whole picture. Same team, two different people with different attitudes and the result was completely different.

Attitude is of real importance when dealing with any living thing. Even a dog can understand whether you are talking to him politely or with arrogance in your voice. The key thing to understand here is, authority is wrapped in a different clothing, but deep within it is actually nothing but responsibility. One may think that he is getting the work done with his Authority, but, unless there is a politeness in your voice and attitude, people may do the work for the sake of it, but, eventually, we may not get the quality that we are seeking. Again, there is very thin line in finding the difference between being polite and being authoritative. There must be a correct balance always so that one side do not get heavy on the other. Putting long story short, Authority can only succeed when used with the right attitude and when there is a realization of the responsibility attached to the Authority.

The Dilema between C hash (#) and C Sharp

This is not about making fun of the so called Job Consultants. Though consultant is a very sophisticated word for them. It can't be generalized, there are some real Job consultants who can really help you,but,  then there are also these random callers who find your resume from odd job sites and call you. I was in Mumbai at that time and was in the experience bracket of 5-6 years when we all are overwhelmed with such callers because that is the experience range which is too much in demand. Even today that seems to be the case, however, the range might have been extended a bit from 5-6 years to about 3-5 years because this was about 13-14 years ago. We all are in a mad race at that time to test ourselves every other day to find how big an offer or package as they say in India, can we get. Every other person takes the call of any such random caller for the sake of getting to know whats on offer. Whether the job would really suit the skill set if none of our business. That's the business of the random caller who would find out whether you really have the skill set the company is really looking for.

One such random caller called me one day and started the basic discussion. She asked me about my experience and I told her that I have this many years of experience in .Net and C Sharp. After hearing, she was kind of disappointed and told me that, but, I was looking for someone having experience in C Hash (#). It seems all my experience was in C sharp and that was not something that she was looking for. I was taken aback by her response. To all those who are new to C Sharp or C hash(#), it is actually the same thing.  I told her that C sharp and C# are same thing and they are actually two names of the same Microsoft Language. She said I don't know all that; your resume posted on the site is mentioning that you have experience in C# and all you are saying is about C Sharp. I realized that she has been asked to find a matching skill set and all she was looking for was the keyword C hash(#). I rephrased my introduction again by replacing C sharp with the keyword she was looking for, the magic word hash(#). She said are you sure that you really have the experience in C hash. I confirmed the same in affirmative. Somehow, she was not very much convinced and even though she promised to get back, I never heard from her again.

I later realized that she belonged to a category of Job consultants, who were pretty new to their work and was sincere on her task to find a matching skill set of keywords that she was asked to. When I narrated this incident to my other friends, we all had a great laugh about it. From then on, I made sure I would talk about my experience mentioning the exact keyword that the Job consultant calling me was looking for.

Thanks Giving

This email was written by me in the year 2012 to my very close friends to thank them for being there for me then and always.

Being an Indian and grown up following the Indian culture, I have not been pretty much accustomed to the American culture. As I grew up, slowly I learned something or the other every new day, month and year about it. In the busy schedules throughout the year, they have seen to it that there are special days for Mother(Mother's Day), Father (Father's Day), Women (Women's Day), for people in love Valentine's Day, Friends (Friendship Day) et al. Not that I am big fan of American Culture, but, if there are good things in any culture, we can always adopt it.

But, the most special day or days came to my knowledge much much later in my life. I was working in Countrywide Financials Mumbai when the HR over there asked us to celebrate the Thanksgiving day (week) in a very unique way. They asked us to get small cards from the company store and give it to anyone within the company for thanking them, if we liked to thank them for something or the other during that year. I just loved it. There are so many things and so many times in our life when we feel like thanking our friends, relatives and people around us for being there, for helping us out, and for all that made us happy and our day a better day. And to get a chance to thank all those who made a difference is an opportunity that we miss most often. So, this thanksgiving celebration every year has given me a wonderful opportunity to look back and feel grateful about all those who made a difference in my life. I try to thank the Almighty in whatever way possible for giving me such a wonderful life and on top of it wonderful people around me. To me the best way to thank the Almighty is to help any creation of the almighty be it human being, animals or the nature. I try to do that in every which way possible to me, though I know that I could still do more.

This year has been a little tough on me on a personal front. You all know that I have gone through an irreversible loss recently. I lost my father. It could have been a total break down for me had you not been there with me. You can't imagine how big a contribution that you have made in my life during that period. I cant really explain in words what your being there and helping me out at such a crucial time meant for me. Thanks is such a small word. But, there is a word in Marathi called Janiv, in plain english it means one should not forget. So, I pray to GOD that come what may, I should never forget that at the time when I needed most, at the time when hell broke loose, you were there with me. Thank you so much for being there. There are very few wonderful people in this world who make life worth living. To me, you are one of those.

Thank you very much for being there and I hope you will always be there for me.

Remembering GOO GOO

What I remember most about my Goo goo is, come what may, when I come home from outside, he always used to greet me with a wagging tail and he never used to calm down and relax till I used to pat and talk to him for at least a few minutes. That was the time when he made me feel special always, even when I came back home from the worst situation, he always used to try his best to make me feel special and help me cope up with my stress in life. I am always going to miss that. I can still feel his sounds of panting and snoring besides me. A big vacuum created by his loss is never going to fill. It was unbearable to see him in pain and we always tried our best to comfort him. But, those unwanted and unfortunate circumstances in which we had to send him to kennel, I am never going to forgive myself for that. Though I did not see his end, I can imagine how painful it would have been for him as I have seen that kind of panting and breathless sounds earlier.

A year ago he had health issues when we got to know that his kidneys were not functioning, Shubhangi made immediate arrangements and took him to Mumbai's Parel hospital. There, within day or two he was showing signs of improvement. He got cured completely in a span of 10 days and got discharged from the hospital. Life was full of joy and happiness again. Soon we brought him back to Pune and things were back to normal. 

But, off late since last 3 months or so, he had these problems where he used to get breathless while walking and sometimes used to give up walking mid-way. It would require a lot of persuasion to get him back on his feet and get him home.

He was so cute, he never bit anyone in his entire life. He was so friendly with humans, he used to get excited to meet anyone. I remember how excited he got when the man from kennel came to take him. In his overexcitement, he was panting a lot and a thought did come to my mind that it might not be very good for him to stay at the kennel. The summer heat would become unbearable for him. But, I just ignored and thought that he is a fighter and would be ok for 2 weeks and later anyways we would take him to the Parel hospital which would fix him all right. Though there was always some fear at the back of my mind. 

Everyone in our society used to know me because of Glory. People used to get surprised whenever I used to tell them that he is 12 years old. He looked much younger, but for his panting they could realize that he is an old man. He used to bark whenever the doorbell rang, which he had given up in the last six months or so. Pune's climate suited him specially as he got rid of his long-term problem of the ticks. There were some times when he had faced the problem of ticks, but it used to get fixed with the fipronil spray or the fipronil powder. Last year when he got hematoma in his right year, I was very concerned that he must be in a lot of pain. We got the accumulated blood from his ear removed at least three times from one of the vet. He said goo goo would require and operation to be fixed. We took him to another vet for a second opinion. The new vet told us that this will get cured on itself, but you can use homeopathic medicine to help him and give him some massage on the affected ear using Beledona Q liquid. I did that for about 3 weeks and goo goo got cured of hematoma. I felt happy that it did not require a surgery. He used to love food and baring a few incidents he did not give up on food. He used to get three meals a day and he was still always asking for more. He used to shake hands and liked to interact with everyone. He was very fond of the stray dogs and he liked to meet and play with them, though we never allowed for the fear of infections and ticks. One of different trait of goo goo was once he grew up he never allowed anyone to lift him. Even in the worst circumstances of his health he always walked on his feet. He was the most lovable and always won hearts wherever he went.
 
My mom always feared what would happen if he would collapse when she is alone. I used to say to her that it will be managed and please do not fear about all that. And when the hell broke loose, none of his family members or the closed and loved ones were with him. It breaks my heart. Probably, when he needed a comforting pat from us, he might have just waited in pain. We could not give him a comforting death is what will remain as a guilt always in my heart. He chose to give up his life away from everyone probably, because he did not want to give us the pain of seeing him leave us for good.

Goo goo was cremated on the same day, i.e. 16th April 2016.

Watching the Dhoni Epic

Well what else but Cricket could inspire me to write something which I had not done in ages. Picked up my laptop today to write a review of the film M.S. Dhoni - the untold story. We all know M.S. Dhoni, but, few of us know what all struggle that he had to go through to become successful at the highest level. Sushant Singh Rajput has done full justice to the character he played. Throughout the journey that was shown to us we start believing that the guy playing Dhoni is the real Dhoni. So full marks here for Sushant Singh Rajput.

For the fans of Dhoni like me this movie was not for entertainment, so I would rather be biased writing a review. But, this review is only for all the fans of Dhoni like me and thus not a movie review. I would say, more than a movie review, this is more a tribute to the BIG MAN. For cricket fans like me it is hardly of interest about the love life of our GOD, but, the film shows that after all he was also a human and he could also fall in love with something other than cricket. The simplicity, dedication and focus of the man who we all know takes country's pride above personal relations is depicted very well. The scene where the first love of his life asks for what is the plan for the future and he says he is playing for India and currently that is what his primary focus is. This scene reminded me of the recent 2015 world cup when in the middle of the world cup he became father, but, he did not return to see his baby back till the world cup was over. Such is the dedication of the Man. RESPECT.

The supporting cast of the film has done a great Job. The close friends of Dhoni that always helped him during his struggling days have given awesome performance. The only dull moment in the film have been the love songs which could have been done without.

The best scenes of the film

1) Dhoni explaining that the match they lost to Punjab was lost a day earlier when every member of the team was in awe of the star player Yuvraj Singh.

2) Towards the interval when Dhoni decides to follow his dreams and he catches the train back to Ranchi from Kharagpur. He left his job of a railway TT just to focus on his real dream i.e. getting into the Indian Cricket team

3) The last scene of the world cup final when he decides to go in early, which is also the scene from where the film actually starts.

4) Near the end credit when a glimpse of real Dhoni is shown, then entire hall start blowing whistles and you really feel goosebumps. I really felt great about the idea of showing real Dhoni at the end. That one smile and wave from the real Dhoni takes all the credit from reel Dhoni (Sushant Singh Rajput). I loved that scene.. 

Dhoni has given so much to the Indian cricket fans to cheer about that he could easily be the most lovable cricket personality in India. Probably, only next to Tendulkar. But, as very aptly said by his close friends in the movie, Tendulkar is Tendulkar, but Dhoni is Dhoni. Respect for Dhoni has only increased after watching the struggle that he had went through. Loved the film.

Discrimination against Housing societies using piped gas LPG should be stopped

I fail to understand why people from middle class are targeted time and again because of the government policies. The latest being the case of 6 subsidised LPG cylinder in a calendar year. I clearly understand that there should be a cap on consumption of cooking gas by individuals, and this policy will bring a control to the overall consumption of LPG. But, why people who are using piped gas supplies in the societies are made a soft target because of this policy? How can the government and the oil companies consider society piped gas supply as one single connection which is shared by several flat owners? While piped gas supply has actually put a control on the usage of LPG to a certain extent, it is also considered a safer option for residents as the cylinders are not kept inside their flats. Considering these reasons, people opting for piped gas connection are already helping the government from the misuse of gas cylinders. If government and oil companies do not bring an amendment to the clause of piped gas supply, I am sure it is going to create havoc. People will be left with no option, but, to choose individual cylinder gas connection. This could hit the demand supply ratio to a great extent as there would at least 20% more demand for cylinders. It is our constitutional right that every individual needs to be treated equally on any such policies. Even a school going child can calculate that if there are 200 people using a piped gas connection, there should be 200X6 = 1200 cylinders available on subsidised rate. Once the consumption of individual member reaches beyond 6 cylinders he could be charged on a non-subsidised rate. Where are all the politicians who visit these societies during their election campaigns asking for votes? What if out of the 200 owners’ only one member chooses to vote as a representative of the entire society? 

A curtailed/edited version of this letter was published in Pune Mirror 8th Oct 2012. Following is the scanned image of the same letter.

Ganpati Bappa Morya!!!

"Ganpati Bappa Morya! Pudhchya warshi lavkar ya!!" they all were shouting their lungs out. A small boy hearing the loud sounds of loudspeakers and watching the people dancing and singing with the procession of a huge Ganesha idol asked an innocent question to his mother. "Mamma, why do they immerse lord Ganesha in the river, and, how can someone be so happy parting with their own God?" The mother of the child was taken aback by the innocent question. She did not have a convincing answer to the question. All she could tell her boy was "Ganesha comes, stays with us for 11 days, and then with HIM takes back all the worries and problems of His devotees." The small child was not totally convinced, but, at his age he was more bothered about his school, his friends and his childhood games. Year after year as the festival returned, this question kept haunting him.

Many years passed; the small child is a grown up man now and he has found some convincing answers to his question. Hindus worship the Supreme soul in everything around them. But, for majority of people it is not possible to worship this formlessness. They need some form to worship, pray and to seek blessings. Thus they made the form of Ganesha using clay and water. As it is a cycle of life, the cosmic law that the form gives way to the formlessness again. Thus, the clay through which the idol is made has to be given back to where it belongs. That’s the reason why the Ganesha idol made of clay is submerged into water to symbolize the concept of Moksha, or liberation, in Hinduism. That explains the immersion, but, one still needs to seek answers for the association of celebratory enthusiasm that is associated with it. Not much can be explained about it apart from condoning it as a trend started by some enthusiast, which stayed with us as a religious fervor.

Now, when this significance of Ganesha festival and immersion is compared with the way most of us celebrate the festival today, there is a lot that has changed. The creators of the idol are using easy to mold POP (Plaster of Paris), so that they can give eye catching shapes and colors to the idol and making a hefty profit in the process. People also like to see Ganesha in variety of forms, shapes and colors, and human inclination for such idols has grown many folds over the years. The idols which ideally should have been smaller in size and made of clay have become humongous in size and shape and normal water soluble clay became obsolete for idol creation. The transition from clay idols to POP idols was the beginning of an era when we started affecting the nature with it. We are polluting the rivers by immersing water insoluble POP made idols. The toxic colors that are used for decorating the idols are again making the life of creatures in the river, hell. The water in those rivers is slowly becoming useless for human or animal consumption.

Every year we all see the ill effects of Ganesha Immersion and still things are getting worse rather than showing any signs of improvement. In the name of Religious sentiments we all are actually polluting mother earth. Why don't people realize that we are spoiling the creation of the same Almighty in this whole process? Will any mother give blessings to the people who are killing her children? Then how can we expect the blessings of God when we are actually spoiling the nature.

Here are a few simple suggestions for improving things in the years to come. The government should totally ban the creation of Ganesha Idols that are made of POP and there should be a size limit for idols that we actually immerse in the rivers. Ganesh Mandals should re-use permanent idols for the procession and symbolic immersion of small Eco friendly, clay-made, Ganesha idols should be done. If we look at the significance of the immersion as explained above, we are not at all deviating from it. There should also be a complete ban on loud speakers. Traditional dhol-tashas make the festivals worth watching and an enjoyable affair. Now, how difficult is to follow these simple suggestions?

Note: This blog was published in the September 2012 edition of our company Newsletter.

Double Standards

It irks me so much when I hear about the double standards of the people of our country every now and then. When I was small, making fun of people from the Assam and North east by calling them with the name "Chinki" or "Chinese" was cool. But, that was then, when I was a child. I did not know or understand how bad the people might feel whose fun we make. In school, we used to pledge that all Indians are my brothers and sisters. But, then I really did not know or for that matter did not care to understand that North East or Assam is as much a part of India as any other state.  As a child I was so patriotic for my country that I can imagine how bad it would have felt to me if someone would have told me that I am not an Indian. For that matter even after I have grown up if someone calls me a non-Indian, I would get so much irritated and feel hurt.

As I grew up, slowly I realized that its not funny to make fun of our own brothers and sisters from another part of our own country India. I understood its called racism, and racisim is a crime. If we cant understand such simple things then why feel irked when someone calls us a brown or a paki in the US  or Australia? Can you imagine how much it will hurt you if someone calls you a Paki? If you can understand it my dear friend then its the same calling an Indian a chinki or a chinese. What is their fault if they are born in another geographical region (mind you that is very much a part of India) based on what they have derived their facial features?

To me they are the most hardworking people you will ever come accross. They have the physique and stamina that helps them achieve the toughest of physical tasks. No wonder you can find them performing way better than others in any sport they decide to play. The lastest and shiniest example is Mary Kom who has won the boxing bronze medal for India in the 2012 London Olympics. And when we thought that she would really be proud of her achievement, the first statement she made in the media was, she was sorry for not winning a gold medal for India. One can imagine what dedication she had for her game and her pride for her country makes you salute her. You have really made us proud Mary. I am sure every Indian would be very proud of your no mean achievement.

It shattered me to hear and read the news that people from North East are targetted in Pune and other parts of the country for belonging to Assam. Can you believe that the reason behind hating them is just that they belong to the state of Assam where there are some communal riots going on. How ridiculous? How can innocent students studying way away from their home be held responsible and punished for something they have nothing to do with. It is a well known fact that people committing a henious crime of hurting another human do not belong to any religion. They do not belong to any community or any particular state. They are just brain washed, illiterate bunch of people who have been just taught to kill.

Why does people hating the North Easterns only see one side of the coin? Why cant they see that there are people from North east only who are winning medals for India and making India proud? Why only hatred? Why not share love? We are on the brink of another Independence day. why cant we make our own people feel independent and comfortable in their own country? Why these double standards? Let us really mean what we all have pledged in our school during our childhood. Every Indian is my brother and sister.

A gist of this blog was published in the Pune Mirror on 14th of August 2012. Here is a scanned image for it. My contribution is highlighted in green.

Must Watch Movies 2012

What makes a movie work? I have been a movie buff since long and I like to watch movies that are different from the routine movies. I watch a lot of movies, but, I am always glued to some specific ones. After so many movies that I have watched in 2012 so far, I found something common in the following movies that released in 2012. Dirty Picture, Kahani, Paan Singh Tomar,Vicky Donor and the latest Gangs of Wasseypur. I still have to watch the movie Shanghai(I have heard about Shanghai also to be a movie that is different). In Marathi Cinema I would like to name Shala and Kaksparsh so far this year. So whats common in all these films. Even in your wildest of dreams you wont be able to find anything similar in each of these movies. Correct ! the common thing in these movies is that they are different. They all have a content which is far far away from normal film making. None of these films have the big starcast or the big budget. So there is lots of things that are found common in these movies high on content.

Dirty Picture: Excellent performance by Vidya Balan depicting the biography of the legendary south actress Silk Smitha. The makers and off course Vidya Balan have left no stone unturned in showing us the real Silk Smitha. The real Hero in this movie was the heroine i.e Vidhya Balan. Vidhya Balan had earlier given stellar performances in nearly all her previous movies barring a couple of them. Talk about Munnabhai, No one killed Jessica, Ishqiya, Parineeta  or Kahani Vidhya Balan's performance was always appreciated and she does not at all dissappoint us with this movie. Dirty Picture was out and out a Vidhya Balan film. No wonder she got various awards for the movie.

Kahani: And when you thought you have had enough of Vidhya Balan she surprises us again with totally over the top performance in yet another different movie called Kahani. Once again the hero of the movie was Vidhya Balan. Two back to back thunderstorm performances by Vidhya. True to its name, Kahani, indeed had a brilliant kahani that would keep you glued to it from start to end. With this film Vidhya Balan has started giving tough competetions to the male heros. She seems to be the female Aamir Khan nicknamed as the perfectionist. I wonder now whether any established male actor would even agree to take the challenge of working with Vidhya Balan. Kahani was just awesome and the way it unfolds in the end, it really shocks you. Hats of to the makers of Kahani and Vidya Balan. It is easily the best film by Vidhya Balan so far.

Paan Singh Tomar: The story of an army athelte turning into a rebel was played extremely well by Irfaan Khan. Unarguably the best work by Irfaan Khan in his entire career. Another must watch movie of 2012.


Vicky Donor: Now this one is so so differnt that its unique and new concept has even shocked the hollywood filmmakers. There has been no film made ever so far on this taboo concept. A very unique and humourous way to present the life of a sperm donor in India. Stupendous performances by Ayushyaman the hero of the film and also Anu Kapoor in the role of a Gynac. This is one movie that should not missed.

Shala: I saw the promos of this Marathi movie Shala when someone uploaded it on Facebook. Just the promos take you to the childhood so there was so much more to look forward to in the movie. This movie is another feather in the cap to the Marathi film industry. I have heard the great movie maker Anuraag Kashyap say once, that there are great things happening in the marathi film industry. Indeed after watching movies like Natrang, Mee ShivajiRaaje Bhosle Boltoy, Balgandharva and now Shala the Marathi film makers have completely erased the memories of the Ashok Sharaf and Laxmikant Berde genre of movies. Shala takes you to back to school and takes you the journey where each one of us might have had their first crush. Brilliant performances by the child artists.

Kaksparsha: Another gem by Mahesh Manjrekar of the Me Shivaji Raje bhosle boltoy fame. The story takes you back to the times of the Marathi era that was when the India was ruled by the British. It really makes you realize how much things have changed over the years. Terrific performance by Sachin Khedekar and Priya Bapat. Sachin Khedekar has a very strong screen presence in this movie. To me this was his career best performance.

Gangs of Wasseypur: This was the Indian entry to the Cannes Film festival this year (2012). After watching the movie one thing that I am wondering is that how people who dont understand the language have watched this film just by the english subtitles. Because the primary reason that I liked the film was its language (read abusive language). This movie is a path breaker in Indian Cinema. There is no doubt awesome performance by the star cast but to me the people who have worked behind the scenes have done a far greater job. Be it the writer, dialog writer, editor, screenplay, music,director. The whole team has put together a masterpiece. There might be people having different opinions about the film, but for me this movie has broken the jinx and for years to come this movie is going to be a turning point in the Indian Film Industry. Movie is very long but it still keeps you glued. One cant imagine that a revenge story can be presented in such an awesome manner. Hats off to Anuraag Kashyap and his team. I can write a complete blog about the finer points of this movie but I am waiting for the second part. Oh Yes, even after being such a long film there is a part 2 of Gangs of Wasseypur. The only low point of the film was the end when we realize that the story will continue in the next part. Cant wait to see the second part. In fact Gangs of Wasseypur actually inspired me to write this blog.

So overall so far I would say that this year has been tremendous for a movie buff like me who had a gala time watching such fantastic movies. Movies with content. Movies that do not have a big star cast but they still keep you totally glued for the entire duration.

Musical Madness

Awesome talent. Never seen or heard that something like this exists. When you think that you have already seen enough in life and there is nothing more left to be seen, something surprises you so much that you are literally blown away by it. I have been always criticized by friends that I go a little over the top when it comes to appreciate someone or something. But, to me this is something I have never seen, heard or experienced and when the end result is so pleasing to the ears, one has to appreciate it.

Enough of the mystery, I know that if I will take more time to reveal it,  readers of this blog would simply click the close button. To me Sneha Khanwalkar is one of the most underrated music composer in India. She has her own unique way to look at each of the unique sound that is produced around us in normal day to day life. When I first heard the title song of Oye Lucky , Lucky Oye I was glued to it for a long time. I liked the way the various sounds were played in the song. Little did I know then that, tremendous effort is being put in to first record those sounds and finally make a songs out of all those wierd sounds. I am really kicking myself, now for why I never tried to go into more detail about the music and the music composer of the Oye lucky lucky oye. I am generally so particular in finding out everything about the music director whenever I love the music of a particular song or movie.

A few days ago I read in the Times of India about the music review of the film Gangs of Wasseypur. The writer went a little overboard in appreciating the songs of the movie. Now, I am not someone who would generally listen to the songs of a movie before its release and now a days I dont even listen to radio so there was hardly any chance for me to listen to those songs. Another day I read the interview of Manoj Bajpayee in the Pune times about the same movie and that created some interest inside me about this movie. It just happened that I was a bit free in the afternoon and I came across the first look of Gangs of Wasseypur movie on youtube. The promo was awesome and I was really looking forward to see the movie. After all it was a movie by Anurag Kashyap (Director of the movie Dev D). Suddenly, I realized that, off all the things this movie has different music as well. Immediately I found out the website gaana.com and started listening to the songs of the movie Gangs of Wasseypur. And boy, It would be an understatement to say that I loved the songs. The hunter song which is in the voice of a singer named Vedesh Sookoo from Trinidad and Tobbago (West indies) just bowled me over. I listened to all the songs and every song was different. Found out the name of the music director. I could not believe my eyes when I saw Sneha Khanwalkar written as the name of music director. Well my surprise has obvious reasons as she is only the 4th music composer in the male dominated Indian Film industry.

I wanted to hear more about Sneha Khanwalkar. Wanted to know whether she sings as well. Found out that she is a singer herself, but her voice is not her USP :). When I heard a few people like Dibakar Banerjee and Anurag Kashyap talk about Sneha on youtube, I realized that there is something unique about this girl. Then I came across these MTV Sound Trippin videos. Sound trippin is actually a program on MTV in which Sneha Khanwelkar is the host and a music composer. She travels to some place in India and records various sounds specific to that place, composes some lyrics, gets some locals to sing and records those songs with all the various sounds that she had recorded earlier. If anyone has seen the efforts that had been taken to compose and produce those songs, one will realize the stuff that Sneha Khanwelkar is made of. You are hit by the first blow when you expect a femine, shy, introvert girl and, what you see is an extrovert, macho girl. Its absolutely clear after seeing her that she loves what she is doing. So even after putting in such great efforts she seems to be happy always. Someone has very rightly said that exellence comes when you love what you do  and life is really fun when you love your job. (No, I am not talking about Aamir Khan :))

Here is the link to the first episode of Sound Trippin in which Sneha went to Punjab and recorded the song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X21kvYl0Mds
Awesome song indeed.Watch the video and you will realize the talent this girl has got and she makes no bones about it. I have discovered some new kinda music and a music composer to follow. I would really be looking forward to more from Sneha. Normal is boring and we keep searching for something new always. The musical madness of Sneha Khanwalkar is one such step in that direction.