"Back to back posts..not bad... in the past couple of years the frequency of posting was yearly.But creativity isn't timebound so why bother.Let the thoughts flow naturally.But its 3 am in the morning...need to reach office early tomorrow..."
While I was having this soliloquy I leaped back a couple of weeks.I picked up this book called "One Night @ Call Centre" by Chetan Bhagat.Well I have been hearing about this book for over a year now but didn't actually get a chance until recently.When I started reading the first few chapters and the thing that stuck me was the author's casual style.Its very non-literary and conversational.I instantly liked it and at no point in time did I feel the author was trying to drag a subject.Pretty fast paced.Honestly down the years I have somehow have lost a bit of patience.Thats reflects also in my reading habits.Probably becoz our falling attention span under the impact of gravity.What do you think having 100 channel in your TV does to you ? Shortens your attention span.
Coming back to the book lot of us (IT/BPO) connect to the context since it revolves around the BPO life.But the way he has potrayed the emotional sides of the characters and evolves the touchy moments without sacrificing the casual writing style was a refreshing change.I was so impressed I bought the other book by Chetan "Five point someone". Admittedly I wasn't disapointed at all.Infact I liked it more than the first one.Having been through a similar kinds of experience in Engg. was able to connect to the characters.
Nice one Chetan..Add one more to your fan list.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
A passion for a game.....lost and found
As a typical Bengali boy growing up in an unassuming neighbourhood the first game I inadvertently got introduced to was cricket.How predictable !! My formative years didn't have the luxury of TV so it was not by providence of watching the game and liking it but you are left with no choice but get "hooked" onto the game.Well I started playing cricket with a rubber ball in the "gully" of my 'para' (locality) and the only shot you learn to employ is the straight drive(not that you have too many shots to play on the sides).I used to wait for the usual Sunday morning like my other childhood buddies when we got a chance to rub our shoulders with the big guys of the para.
My first memory of watching a cricket game was the 1992 WC (in Down under).Never thought at that point in time I would get a chance to watch a live match exactly 11 years later in Melbourne.(Witnessed Sehwag's brilliant 195....we still lost the match )
Around the same time I was hearing stories of a young school boy creating a buzz in the cricketing world.The next decade would just belong to this legend by the name Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar.Well what can anyone say.If we are a cricket crazy nation blame it on this man.If we are passionate about the game its partly becoz of the heroics of Sachin.
While the rest of the world was still trying Bradmanise this mortal,India discovered two more talents which was to form the Holy Trinity of Indian cricket.Lords test ..1995 ...two Indian debutants against England created history.One got a century and the other nearly got one.
In years to come Sachin's flamboyance,Sourav's elegance and Dravid's grit enchanted the cricketing world across nations.They created records only to break themselves.We loved them,we cursed them,we just wanted more and they kept raising the bar;of their game and our expectations.Well in a country where we have so many Gods three more wouldn't harm.
While they carry the burden of expectations of a billion even today their legacy is going to last a lifetime.For our generation has been the luckiest one,atleast from a cricketing sense.
The Dhoni's and Yuvraj's are the future stars but can't imagine the day when the Indian middle order will be devoid of the Holy Trinity.
Well my passion for the game might be not as strong as it was a few years back but I still read the sports page first when I get the morning newspaper...First thing first.
My first memory of watching a cricket game was the 1992 WC (in Down under).Never thought at that point in time I would get a chance to watch a live match exactly 11 years later in Melbourne.(Witnessed Sehwag's brilliant 195....we still lost the match )
Around the same time I was hearing stories of a young school boy creating a buzz in the cricketing world.The next decade would just belong to this legend by the name Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar.Well what can anyone say.If we are a cricket crazy nation blame it on this man.If we are passionate about the game its partly becoz of the heroics of Sachin.
While the rest of the world was still trying Bradmanise this mortal,India discovered two more talents which was to form the Holy Trinity of Indian cricket.Lords test ..1995 ...two Indian debutants against England created history.One got a century and the other nearly got one.
In years to come Sachin's flamboyance,Sourav's elegance and Dravid's grit enchanted the cricketing world across nations.They created records only to break themselves.We loved them,we cursed them,we just wanted more and they kept raising the bar;of their game and our expectations.Well in a country where we have so many Gods three more wouldn't harm.
While they carry the burden of expectations of a billion even today their legacy is going to last a lifetime.For our generation has been the luckiest one,atleast from a cricketing sense.
The Dhoni's and Yuvraj's are the future stars but can't imagine the day when the Indian middle order will be devoid of the Holy Trinity.
Well my passion for the game might be not as strong as it was a few years back but I still read the sports page first when I get the morning newspaper...First thing first.
Monday, September 24, 2007
After the break....
Well I have always wanted to share anecdotal experiences from my stint in Sydney. As I assimilate those unforgettable moments and edit them into a few episodes (trashing the forgettable ones), let me share a few thoughts on the eve of the T20 final between Indian and Pakistan.
I have started to believe that two things that an Indian unwillingly inherits are 1) a passion for cricket & 2) the skill of "jugaad". While the former gives 50% of Indians a reason to survive their lifespan; the latter actually helps 100% of Indians to make their way through any challenge.
Today India Inc. is shining and we attribute a lot of reasons to it like investor friendly environment, available talent pool, improved infrastructure, strong education system, macroeconomic support etc. Rightly so but if we were to think deep, the key differentiating factors are derived from the above inheritance.
In corporate terms the first one is called the passion & zeal to excel and the second, art of innovation.
To be contd…
I have started to believe that two things that an Indian unwillingly inherits are 1) a passion for cricket & 2) the skill of "jugaad". While the former gives 50% of Indians a reason to survive their lifespan; the latter actually helps 100% of Indians to make their way through any challenge.
Today India Inc. is shining and we attribute a lot of reasons to it like investor friendly environment, available talent pool, improved infrastructure, strong education system, macroeconomic support etc. Rightly so but if we were to think deep, the key differentiating factors are derived from the above inheritance.
In corporate terms the first one is called the passion & zeal to excel and the second, art of innovation.
To be contd…
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Murphy's law - My tribute
Thought I should pay my tribute to eponymous Mr. Edward Murphy.Why ?
Have you ever tried defying gravity? You might still succeed.
Try defying Murphy's law.It defies even the law of gravity.
Murphy's law states -"Whatever can go wrong,will go wrong and at the most inopportune moment."
Believing in it doesn't make life any easier but it does give a fresh perspective.
Enough said....
Will India win the T20 world cup ? What say Mr Murphy.
Have you ever tried defying gravity? You might still succeed.
Try defying Murphy's law.It defies even the law of gravity.
Murphy's law states -"Whatever can go wrong,will go wrong and at the most inopportune moment."
Believing in it doesn't make life any easier but it does give a fresh perspective.
Enough said....
Will India win the T20 world cup ? What say Mr Murphy.
Monday, January 1, 2007
MKG:My Experiments with Truth...A missing chapter
A couple of days back I came across an article on Gandhi in Outlook India Bapu's Human Tryst
It made interesting reading for two reasons,one it's based on a revelation by his grandson Rajmohan Gandhi in his forthcoming book MOHANDAS: A TRUE STORY OF A MAN, HIS PEOPLE AND AN EMPIRE and two it had a Bengali connection !!!
It reveals a clandestine relationship that Gandhi had with this dazzling and feisty Bengali lady Saraladevi which rocked the boat his marriage to Kasturba.The first spontaneous thought that sprung into my mind was that even Bapu couldn't resist the temptation of a Bong beauty & intelligence.Being an ardent Bong,I felt a sense of pride....mind you very briefly though !!!
My first tryst with Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (MKG) was probably in my fourth or fifth standard. We had a Supplementary paper in English language wherein we had to go through a few chapters from MKG autobiography “My Experiments with truth”.One thing that I distinctly reminisce was the candid confessions that MKG made in his book.As much his entire autobiography gives insight into the vision that would change the history of an entire nation,it was also a public ‘mea culpa’ of an ordinary man’s struggle to overcome his inner demons.
We all know and venerate Gandhi as a visionary and an astute political leader.As a visionary he was almost flawless in what he envisaged in free India viz society devoid of Untouchability,nation liberated of its socio-economic prejudices and Hindu-Muslim peaceful co-existence.However as a political leader he did not entirely give us the best history and the brightest future (read 1947 Partition).Let me not digress here becoz my original intent was not to dissect his political career but to try and understand why MKG chose not to mention this event in his autobiography.
Well as they say every man has to go through a mid-life crisis at some point.So if we were to believe that theory this must have been MKG’s.However it had come at such a stage of his life that too much was at stake even to make an eventual disclosure albeit it meant “My Experiments with Truth” would have a missing chapter.
Does this present an opportunity to vilify the Mahatma? May be for some.But not me…
Rather I put him on a higher pedestal.Becoz it goes to show the man failed to tug away from the greatest temptation and defy the laws of fatal attraction….or simply he was just an ordinary man who went through his trials and tribulations on the journey to liberate a nation.If every saint has a past so does a sinner …a future which can lead to greatness.
Whilst I wait for my turn to grab a copy of the forthcoming book I wonder what Munnabhai has to say about all this....
It made interesting reading for two reasons,one it's based on a revelation by his grandson Rajmohan Gandhi in his forthcoming book MOHANDAS: A TRUE STORY OF A MAN, HIS PEOPLE AND AN EMPIRE and two it had a Bengali connection !!!
It reveals a clandestine relationship that Gandhi had with this dazzling and feisty Bengali lady Saraladevi which rocked the boat his marriage to Kasturba.The first spontaneous thought that sprung into my mind was that even Bapu couldn't resist the temptation of a Bong beauty & intelligence.Being an ardent Bong,I felt a sense of pride....mind you very briefly though !!!
My first tryst with Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (MKG) was probably in my fourth or fifth standard. We had a Supplementary paper in English language wherein we had to go through a few chapters from MKG autobiography “My Experiments with truth”.One thing that I distinctly reminisce was the candid confessions that MKG made in his book.As much his entire autobiography gives insight into the vision that would change the history of an entire nation,it was also a public ‘mea culpa’ of an ordinary man’s struggle to overcome his inner demons.
We all know and venerate Gandhi as a visionary and an astute political leader.As a visionary he was almost flawless in what he envisaged in free India viz society devoid of Untouchability,nation liberated of its socio-economic prejudices and Hindu-Muslim peaceful co-existence.However as a political leader he did not entirely give us the best history and the brightest future (read 1947 Partition).Let me not digress here becoz my original intent was not to dissect his political career but to try and understand why MKG chose not to mention this event in his autobiography.
Well as they say every man has to go through a mid-life crisis at some point.So if we were to believe that theory this must have been MKG’s.However it had come at such a stage of his life that too much was at stake even to make an eventual disclosure albeit it meant “My Experiments with Truth” would have a missing chapter.
Does this present an opportunity to vilify the Mahatma? May be for some.But not me…
Rather I put him on a higher pedestal.Becoz it goes to show the man failed to tug away from the greatest temptation and defy the laws of fatal attraction….or simply he was just an ordinary man who went through his trials and tribulations on the journey to liberate a nation.If every saint has a past so does a sinner …a future which can lead to greatness.
Whilst I wait for my turn to grab a copy of the forthcoming book I wonder what Munnabhai has to say about all this....
Sunday, December 31, 2006
My opening lines......
Howdy ppl...Welcome to my blog..Writing doesn't come to me very naturally but thinking does (No,I'm serious !!!)
In brevity Cogito,Ergo Sum which means I think,therefore I am.
Well as another year is about to unfold its mystery,happiness,moments of glorious uncertainties,share of nature's wrath,desire to conquer the unconquered; one thing that binds the human race is hope..hope for anything and everything..hope to survive the so-called mundane and trivial pursuits of the daily grind or to resolve the issues of greater concern like the war against terror or the planet's survival....So as the new year dawns tonight and we prepare ourselves to face the unforeseen challenges and plan carefully to light the next 12 months,lets all hope and wish the best year is just ahead of us.....
¡Felíz año nuevo! .....Happy New Year to all !!!
And for all those who don't believe in hope here a few lines from the famous 1994 Wet Wet Wet song....(my version) ...hope it inspires one and all..:)
I feel it in my fingers
I feel it in my toes
Hope is all around me
And so the feeling grows.........
¡Felíz año nuevo! .....Happy New Year to all !!!
And for all those who don't believe in hope here a few lines from the famous 1994 Wet Wet Wet song....(my version) ...hope it inspires one and all..:)
I feel it in my fingers
I feel it in my toes
Hope is all around me
And so the feeling grows.........
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