Alongside dreaded corridors..

2013 edition of IPL has been so far fantastic. 9 Teams played their best games over the last 45 days and now on Sunday we have the Final at Eden Gardens, where CSK will lock horns with MI...

I am back...

Amidst the plethora of entertainment, a disgraceful malady is now emerging out..again!!...its like the demon in the epic Ramayana, by the name of Kumbhkaran...it sleeps for some months and things becomes as usual, till the time everyone gets back to the groove, then it resurfaces and becomes the malice again..It castes a shadow on the popularity and the credibility of the IPL Franchise...and not to forget, the game of Cricket as a whole.






I am talking about the betting game behind the game of Cricket. The suspected involvement of BCCI supremo N Srinivasan is making it another shameful episode. It also establishes the fact that this illegal trade is spreading like fire, to such levels as one could never imagine..

Players from Indian subcontinent like Shreesanth, who performs an abysmal show on the ground, but his links with bookies is deep routed..Problem is our generation is hungry for quicker bucks and success..this kind of behaviour is an easy prey for the bookies and they pull in players like him on their side. Rather than concentrating on the skills which improves his chances of getting back to the Indian side, he chooses astray..
Sadly, Indian youngsters do not understand this and do not take lessons from the past disgrace of Mohd. Azharuddin, Manoj Prabhakar, Nayan Mongia etc whose career were cut short due to alleged involvement in match fixing..

This then, also brings the question of selection of a player for squads at various levels of cricket. Should talent or fitness be the only criteria? How about test of integrity, character and general behavior? Its a proven  fact that a Great player is distinguished from the good players not only because of sheer talent, but also due to great level of Integrity, professionalism and superb conduct.

Its time, to ponder again...

Boss Ball Game

I hate my boss. Well, everybody does!

I do not like my boss to try and visualize the battle from the coffers of his cabin we fight on the ground and comment “absolutely ridiculous”.

Regardless of my liking, however, a boss will always be boss. Because a sword is hanging over his head too, to be slain at any time if things turn otherwise. Now, these word “things” can have so many meanings. Among others, it is vision. An organizational vision, translated into various Business Units; then into various Divisions and then finally into various Departments.

I work on the support department of a Business Division, where my job is to fulfill a specific requirement. It is one of the links of the entire chain, stands at say position 2 or 3 of the chain. Any bottleneck in my chain will jeopardize the activities of the whole chain & most importantly the end of the chain. At the end of it, standing tall is the King, i.e the Customer.

My department has certain guidelines; the business divisions have their “quarter-end” goals. Between the clash of the guidelines and goals, we strive to achieve equilibrium. The guidelines should not be so rigid that, the goals are adversely affected; or the goals should not be impractical that the guidelines go for a toss.

On a recent assignment, me and my team was to support the business for one of the Projects. The deadline was X number of weeks. If we cannot finish our process within those X number of weeks, the process at the end of the chain suffers resulting in customer dissatisfaction.

To complete our process, we had to undergo some activities at the granular level, which would take Y number of weeks. That would mean we will miss our internal deadline of X weeks for our complete process.

At this juncture, I tried to reach our Boss/team of Managers, for help. In what way we complete our internal activities in less than Y number of weeks so that we can achieve our target of X weeks for the entire process? Our team of Managers had no time. “Don’t involve us in day to day activities, if need be use us for escalations!” that was a reply I received. For me and my team it was need for help/ an escalation, which met with ill-attention from people sitting at the helm.

I decided to tweak in the guidelines; we launched parallel activities, so that we could finish our job on time. We thought we were looking at the bigger picture and hence some flexibility could be excused.

We completed our job on time and the stakeholders and the customer’s satisfaction was intact.

However, at the end of our quarter-end review, with our boss/team of managers, my decision to fully not comply with the guidelines was brought to book. I had my justifications which were termed as ridiculous. I objected saying, I cried for help and no one ever bothered.

My boss grins, “ Mr Z, you were given complete freedom to manage your activities, if we do not participate, that does not mean we were not interested, it means you are expected to do some jobs, without our help. Our intervention does not mean, you are relieved off your duties. You need to be cognizant of that. And not following   the guidelines make you even more dangerous. Guidelines taking Y number of weeks is a standard which must not be avoided. If need be, you should have pushed back to the Project Team and justify.”

I just told my boss, that I was expecting this golden speech, when I was crying for help and not when it is over and I left.

I hate my boss. Does this incident make everyone hate their boss, or make them hate me?

Thumbs up!! The Return of Eklavya...

I am looking above now...I am looking down the very next moment...I see that I rule..But I am made to realise, that my place is in the ashes..If I try to be a Phoenix, my wings will be cut...

I am Eklavya! And I am just about to make fame for myself. I am invincible with my bow and arrow..yet I failed to pierce some apathy from the heart of my Guru Dronacharya..My never-ending devotion to the Art of Archery is now facing a humiliated vindication in the hands of my beloved Guru.

I am asked to pay Gurudakhshina for nothing; I was refused by Guru Dronacharya when I pleaded him to train me in the Art of DHANURVIDYA...a reason which will remain elusive to me..but my devotion for his Great Art still remained within me...I sculptured his statue in the ground I practiced...I looked at his statue and got inspiration...I am a self-made Dhanurdhar...but I pay my all homage to Guru Dronacharya..that if I had not known him, I would not have even think of learning this art of Archery...

I know I am incomplete...I could not learn the sophistication with which Dronacharya's favorite disciple Arjun would hold the bow and shoot an arrow; I did not learn the secret of BRAHMASHTRA....I failed to understand CHAKRABYIUHU and I would never be able to break it....I could not afford a GANDIVA....

But....my beloved Guru has an unspoken fear of me...that I will defeat his most ardent Pupil Arjun in battle...that if I stand up, Arjun would never be crowned with the title of undisputed Lord of Archery...

I failed to comprehend, why can't I be his best disciple? I don't have any aspiration to become a prince of the Kingdom; I don't crave for Wealth and Power; I don't want to demonstrate any supremacy over anyone; All I wanted is to learn the Art of Archery and use it as a self defense...I can vow for NOT to use these weapons of Mass Destruction if required....

My beloved Guru Dronacharya is asking me for Gurudakhshina...that I never use my talents against anyone...no!! he is not contended with this...He wants me to slain my thumb!! Oh my Guru...why do you want me to this? so that it is warranted that I could never shoot an arrow...so that I remain a HERO paralyzed to watch the game being played which I ruled once!!

Now I have to tell him, that do I agree to pay the Guru Dakhshina....I went upto him...Put my eye on his eye..and said, " I am not ready to pay for something I did not learn..." Dronacharya was stunned to a deadly shaking and I continued, " But, as my devotion to you is still intact..I will try to pacify something"...I paused and again looked into his eyes as I continued, " If Arjun can defeat me in a battle of Archery, I will part with my Thumb"...Dronacharya grimaced..Unnerved and humiliated...Agony must be ripping his heart apart; but I wanted to give a complete jolt to his pride and I added, " But if I defeat Arjun, Arjun will have to part with his Thumb"...

Dronacharya fell on the ground..as I have shattered his ego with my arrows...I waited for him to come to his senses.........I shoot an arrow to denounce my guru..(To be continued...)

Will Bodyguard Recover 90 Crores? Thats the Question!!

It is a universal phenomenon that Tsunami wreck havoc in our lives. Well,if you watch Bodyguard you will realise Tsunami Singh did it!!

My question, is when the director already knew that we were going to watch the Bodyguard in the movie, i.e. Salman Khan, why we need a Tsunami...I mean a Tsunami which looked stupid also was a complete disaster.

So if you remove the Tsunami from Bodyguard, it would have been a good movie to enjoy.

Lets first talk about the Bodyguard; as always Salman was impeccable in his charming aura; stunning in his stunts and funny and witty at times. Though he played the tough guy; but his eyes exuberated serene innocence in the entire film. So for die hard fans of Salman, its clear paisa Usool.I loved the scene in the park when Salman put eye to eye to Kareena and expressed his love. Salman proves, he does well in romantic scenes as well.

Theres nothing much to speak about Kareena, except that she excelled in her role. In other words she sleepwalked the role. Shes is the best thing in Body Guard.

The second best thing in Bodyguard is action sequences. It will suddenly bring live to the lifeless script made barren by a lethargic Screenplay.

Third will be the story, which is novel, but the screenplay plays the spoilsport. The climax is though well crafted.

The reason behind the lacklustre screenplay of the movie is the Vision of Director, it came out clearly that Siddique was not sure what mix he wanted in the movie! Does want a Romantic comedy or a Action packed Romance or a Romance-Drama. Lack of clear vision makes his otherwise brevity a spoiled attempt.

I will give Bodyguard a 3-0.2=2.8( 0.2 is deducted because of inclusion of Tsunami Singh in the movie).

Despite this backdrop, the movie has already made 52 crores in 3 days.

Will it recover 90 crore? Unlikely as after Dabaggang and Ready's Success, the expectation of Bodyguard is sky high. Such expectations was clearly not executed in totality by the movie!!

Do we spread butter like Joy!!

Lifestyle is a blessing as well as a bane!!

It is the result of lifestyle that we have the pleasure of living in comforts; or due to less time to live life we take refuge of a Lifestyle...that involves working till late, often dinning out, enormous stress, so on and so forth.

Thats where we fail to spread butter on bread properly; the fear of gaining some pounds keep us grounded; like giant corporations falling prey to paradox of thrift due to a probable slowdown in the economy..Or an agile deer in the jungle stopping its mind for a free Willey in the neighborhood of a tiger.

Spreading butter like joy is becoming extinct. Or perhaps living life has become a myth and leading life in the mechanistic way has taken over.

It is pity we fail to go on a vacation due to hardened project deadlines and hence no leaves from our work; or miss a family wedding or a long awaited ceremony. "Sacrifices needs to be made", as one friend observes, "If you want to give away to the demands of today's life". Typical is the case of a working woman-turned mother, who has to make a choice between "climbing the ladder" and " Giving more time" to the 1 year old boy. Life can be tough; it demands much more than one can imagine.

So we resort to innovative ways of balancing life-work; but in that fashion, we neither remain loyal to work nor we justify our ways of living life. Because by doing so, we just accomplish everything like a job or a project, but do we derive pleasure out of it? Or in other words, do we enjoy eating a brown bread, without butter? Do we spread butter like Joy?

I have some friends though, who have charted for them a path that gives them the satisfaction of living life. One of them quit a high paying MNC job and started blogging. "The huge pressures of job did not allow me to travel", says the friend who started a taking up a course in wild life photography. After the course, he goes travelling to places he has never seen before, does photography and runs his blog. "And the best part is", he remarks " I live my life!".

One of this friend i know was into Film-Editing and Media. He quit and launched a music album. The album did average, but what he wanted to achieve in life was achieved; "Working on the album helped me meeting many new people, studying, travelling and much more, which would not have been possible with a regular job".

It is one's utmost desire to live life that can only translate the wish to do it. People need to undergo the risk of success; choosing an alternative career option does not guarantee success. It is upto those taking the plunge, needs to decide what they want out of life.

And deciding to spread butter like joy is not easy at all.

I am still trying to decide and yet to reach a decision;-)

Not All Great Ideas Come from IIM-A!!

So Harsha Bhogle carved a niche for him in the Sporting Commentary arena, despite being a successful alumnus of IIM-A. Or a Chetan Bhagat becoming a successful Author in recent times of the masses( Of course, whether he belong to the classes, is doubtful). Thats uber cool by design and of course a stroke of destiny. Albeit such facts though, they deserve an applaud(or you may consider giving an apple applause) for taking the unconventional route where people less travel by!!

But how many great creations or ideas comes out IIM-A or an IIT Delhi(Without challenging the sanctity and credibility of the Glorious Institutions of Indian Academia); despite paying high homage and giving creme-De-la-creme stature to these institutions that creates High profile bright minds in the country, we however do not see great ideas created by the beneficiaries of such excellent education. And thats, in my view is abysmally sad!!

When we see, innovation in recent times by an Indian entrepreneur, we generally talk about Tata Nano or how Future Group changing the retail space in India!! I am sorry but we have examples, few and far between (though Bollywood may consider prying for Including Aamir Khan, who emerges as an intellect, atleast trying to make some experiments on the way the films are made and promoted).

Now consider the education of these people; Ratan Tata who had a degree in Architecture from Cornell University and finally, and I believe for the heck of it he got a Management Degree from Harvard Business School. His entire life revolved around changing the Indian Automobile arena and in fact under his leadership, Tatas rejuvenated Jaguar and Land Rover.

Look at Kishore Biyani, the brain behind the super brand "Big Bazar" and the one that revolutionized Indian retail space has just got a Bachelor degree from HR College of Commerce, Bombay. No IIT no IIM.

Even the illustrious MR NarayanMurthy, who pioneered Infosys did his engineering from National Institute of Eng, University of Mysore(though later on he did his masters from IIT Kanpur).

Or, the man who reengineered BPO in India, Mr Pramod Bhasin, had a Bachelor Degree in Commerce from Delhi University and a CA qualification.

There will be many examples (yes Bombay Dubbawallas; where did they get education from? IIM..Na!! IIT...NAH..:p) of people coming up with great Ideas, and not having a high-flying education from the creams.

Reasons can be many; I believe an IIM or an IIT can teach technicals/or systems and procedures..but very less emphasis is being laid upon thinking beyond those systems or thinking out of box as one popularly says. Or in other words, the capacity to think can never be trained; it remains in the minds of the person. I wonder when IIM/IIT will stimulate an alumnus to dream!!

Globally(well I dont want to speak here more, we have enough examples), if we take the case of just retired CEO Steve Jobs; we will be surprised how much he had created and how little formal education he had. He dropped out of Reed College and for a living he used to return coke bottles for money and got weekly free meals from Local Hare Krishna Temple!!

Surely, creation of an IPAD does not require magnificent education, but requires boundless thinking and dreams channelized into workable solutions.

I remember one of my friend commenting about the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008 as" Arrey, saare employees IIM or Harvard se Uthaoge toh company dubegaahi! If everyone makes strategy, kaam kaun kadega?"

Jokes apart..we will eagerly wait a great idea that comes out of the brain of an IITian/IIMian!!

R&D.....Will Bollywood ever Bother?

This came to my mind, when I had heard a story about a thief; that how carefully did his necessary fact finding about a neighborhood; about its populace; their behavior, their activities and most importantly how many families keep more cash and ornaments at home and goes dining out in the night, keeping thy home deserted with minimal protection, forget about insurance against Burglary; and after all his facts on board, the thief will circle up the house nos that comes up as the potential targets..Well, he ventures out a successful ambush and runs Scot-free, at-least till the time he enjoys his new found possession!!

I wonder, if ever Bollywood learn from this incident; today, the biggest Film Industry in the world with one of the most talented ensemble of great Stars, Directors,Composers, Writers, Choreographers, and whole host of technology available; all you will here: "Karan Johar remaking Agnipath"...xyz remaking "Khel Khel Main"..Farhan Akhtar not content with the remake of Don, making "Don 2"......Phew..

Come on...When will Bollywood MAKE movies...

Bollywood is running out of ideas...Not only movie-makers, but composers as well; Pritam in Once upon a time in Mumbai with " Duniya main" and worse still, turning the golden "Dum Maro Dum" in a piece of garbage is what the result of dying out of ideas. Or the Latest "Oye Oye" in Dhamaal 2..Even 'Jalebi Bi' looked superior to it!!

This is heartening; because Bollywood has great muscle and prowess to invest in Research, either for a Great script or a great Song; but they won't do it. They would like to race ahead of time. Or Perhaps, everyone wants to play safe; the fear of failure or to potential loss in the box office collections!!

For example, excel entertainment which made "Luck by Chance", "Lakshya or a "Kartik Calling Kartik", which were closely original scirpts(though could have distant semblance to oldies) could not set the box office on fire. Though these were great scripts with superb direction and memorable music, since they failed to create any magic in the minds of viewers, they decided to turn the easy way out..ZINDEGI NA MILEGI DOBARA..its a clear and unambiguous charter of the continuation of earlier Box office Hero DIL CHAHTA HAIN..and the result, the movie is a Blockbuster now.

Karan Johar for example, made a bold attempt "Kabhie alvida Na Kehna" and it was a box office dud. Then he decided to ride on the wave of the 9*11 rampage and made "My Name is Khan"..and became somewhat successful.

Some laudable attempts went bizarre in box-office. One of them is "Patiala House", which was supposed to be based on ace English spin wizard Monty Panesar. It had everything, great star-cast, great music and a good biography inspired story. But it was blamed due to loose screenplay and Akshay's eroding fortunes in recent times.

"Udaan" walked away with many awards; but the biggest award, that of the box office haunted it. Some of the movie-goers did not even know when it came and went.

Now, let's talk about someone who "thinks' that he really does R&D for stories and screenplays. Mr Aamir Khan, the self-proclaimed perfectionist. For starters, "Ghulam" was a commendable effort; followed by ultra-fast "Sarfarosh"..then "Lagaan" as they say, rest is history. Aamir Khan's attempts at history is not all high all the time. For example, "Mangal Pandey", the actor took close to 3 years to come up with the epic saga, but it bombed in box office like a balloon. But this was a great effort that viewers gave least attention too.

But shocking for a man who can recreate a Mangal Pandey, how can he create a D.K.Bose? No matter how much Aamir presses about his diversity and versality, but I would deeply condone it as an attempt at cheap publicity and way of attracting the youth.

When a doyen of the industry takes the short cut to success, what can one expect from others?

Well, not entirely correct that statement is!! SJB....one director/producer who can be still seen an act Original..Guzarish was a fantastic attempt or a bold attempt in recent times..but people did not care much.

The why does Bollywood, not care for what viewers like; as in the case of a FMCG or a consumer durable or a Pharmaceutical company invests half of their wealth in R&D and consumer research.

Bollywood has the muscle..All its need the will.

Then only we hope, we will see more of "A wednesday" or a "Raincoat" or "No one killed Jessica"or a "TZP"

Till then we are waiting to see some changes. Or someone needs to become an Anna Hazare and come to a fast to make Bollywood think seriously about making "Original" Movies.