Give Me A...

The following are not my words. I take no credit for the modifications to the lyrics. And if the anonymous lyricist wishes, I'll be glad to mention your name here.

So here goes, the office-goer's take on the song "Give Me Some Sunshine" (from 3 idiots)

Saari umr hum

Targets chase kar liye

Ek pal to ab humein

Jeene do Jeene do !!!

Na na na….Na na na….Na na na….Na na nana na….

Give me a Holiday

Give me a break

Give me another chance

I wanna go home once again

Kandhon ko Targets Ke bojh ne jhukaya

Jhoot bolna tho khud

BOSS ne sikhaya

Target complete to chhuti, varna kismat futi

Likh likh kar pada hatheli par

Commitments, Escalation Mails, MIs ka chaala
Risk, Product & Credit Team ne poora..

Poora bheja pakka daala
Career to gaya

Biwi bhi gayi

Ek pal to ab humein

Jeene do Jeene do
Saari umr hum

Targets chase kar liye

Ek pal to ab humein Jeene do Jeene do

Give me a promotion

Give me an increment

Give me some bonus

I wanna see some money again
Na na na….Na na na….Na na na

Indians & the Aussie Open

The year's first tennis grand slam, the Australian Open has begun. 3 days into the competition and we have seen some good tennis action and a couple of upsets. This time both the Men's & Women's sections are relatively wider open.

Federer & Nadal have lost just that bit of their top form to ensure that others now have a little chance against them. Davydenko & Del Potro would also count amongst the favorites. Likes of Djokovic, Murray, Roddick & the local guy Hewitt cannot be ignored. The Australian Open does have a habit of bringing in surprise finalists over the last few years (Johannson, Tsonga, Baghdatis). Lets see if there are some surprises in store this time around.

The return of the Belgian duo of Clijsters & Henin has added to the unpredictability in the women's section. Add the Williams sisters, the Russian brigade (Kuznetsova, Dementieva etc), Ivanovic, Jankovic and it becomes even tougher to predict. And you never know what the likes of Wozniacki, Wickmayer could do.

This time around India is also pretty well represented (relatively speaking). We have Sania Mirza in the women's side (she lost in singles first round though). In the Men's doubles we have 5 players representing India (must be some sort of a record for the country). The two big guns Bhupathi (with Mirnyi) & Paes (with Dlouhy) are there. Neither of them has the won the Men's Doubles in Australia, the only slam missing from their CV. But unlike earlier they have more company in Prakash Amritraj/Somdev Devvarman and Rohan Bopanna (with Aisam-al-Qureishi).

At least in doubles we have the numbers. Its the singles where India is still struggling. Though there are some hopes on that front also with the upcoming Yuki Bhambri coming through the ranks & Somdev in the top 150 currently. Hopefully the singles representation would also increase. With Sania saying she'll quit after marriage, the women's side would again become empty.

here is hoping for a couple of Indian winners at the Australian Open.

The Status of "Colours"

Last week, an interesting phenomenon took place. A variety of colours had made an appearance as the status message on Facebook. White, Black, Red, Pink…in fact the entire spectrum was represented in the status. And the key point - only the females had this status. The male “Facebookers” were left wondering what this was all about. The truth came out soon. The ladies had kept their bra colour as their status message. This was done to promote awareness of breast cancer throughout the world. Someone had thought of this interesting way to promote this good cause. Chain mails ensured that this message went out far and fast. And soon there were colourful statuses everywhere.
But did it have any actual impact? Creating awareness about health issues is a great cause and needs support by everyone. No doubts about that. But how does posting the colour of your bra help in raising breast cancer awareness. In fact, it appeared more like an attention seeking exercise than anything else. Actually knowing the truth only gave a weird feeling. Imagine seeing the status, knowing the truth behind it and then seeing the person… Really weird.
I am not sure how much the cause has been helped by this subtle message but at least breast cancer has been mentioned in the public domain quite a few times because of this. A much better awareness movement is the Jane McGrath Day celebrated at the SCG. The entire ground turns pink in the annual New Year test. The teams also sport pink caps which are later auctioned off for the cause. In my opinion, a far better way to raise awareness. Talking directly always helps.

P.S. No one has been able to trace the source of this idea. Could have been a guy who found an innovative way to make women reveal these details. Or could have been a genuinely concerned person who wanted to raise breast cancer awareness.

The Noughties

Another decade has come to an end (or not if you go purely by mathematics, but I prefer Mr. Zaltzman’s logic that no right thinking person would consider 1990 as a part of the eighties). It is a decade (2000 A.D. to 2009 A.D.) which has also defied proper naming. Many names were suggested, some referred to it as “the zeroes”, others called it “the oh ohs”. I personally prefer “the noughties”. So here is a tiny glimpse of what I went through in the noughties.
It can be summarized pretty quickly. Decade started with exams. Lots of them. Class 12 boards & various engineering entrance exams. And dropping a year made this period last 18 months instead of six. They were tough times, but a certain goal was there, which was realized though not fully. Following this was a four year golden period of college at ISM. End of it some new thoughts arrived. Further studies or a job? I chose the latter. However climbing X-Mas Trees, Well Killing, attending to nitrogen pumping didn’t exactly suit me. Couple of months later, a bit disillusioned decided that the first course would have been better. Cleared CAT, got into IIM-I. (It was as simple as that). So after a year in the oil fields was back in college. Two more years spent in college, quite a few myths broken, it was time to be back in real world. Now it’s about filling excel sheets, making ppts & word docs. And that’s what I have been upto in the last 18 months of the decade.
Ten years is a pretty long time. I entered the noughties stepping out of teens and end it going through a full blown quarter life crisis. Quite a few other things have changed. My home town for one. First half was spent calling Jamshedpur as home and second with Patna as home, without actually spending much time in either of them. Friends made, friends lost, new friends made, old ones regained. It’s been a decade of change. To be honest, the noughties were pretty exciting times.So that was the noughties for me. Would love to do a review of the tens here (that would have meant 13 years of blogging). I know it wont be as exciting as the last one but lets see. After all tomorrow is another day.

Growing Bihar - A New Hope

The first good news from Twenty Ten is here.

Bihar's economy has grown at an annual rate of 11% over the last 5 years, quite a bit higher than the national average of 8.5 %. These are the first official stats to prove whats been already felt in the state. The state is changing and hopefully for the better. The post Lalu-Rabri era has been showing positive signs. The roads in and around the capital are in a far better shape. Flyovers have been built all across. The railway station is in a far better shape than most would want to believe it. Shops & hotels are open for longer hours. Roads dont get deserted by 8 in the evening. More flights are going to Patna. Institutions for higher education are also coming up in a big way. Schooling had always been good because the people of the state have always valued education as the means of earning a good livelihood. Cinema Halls are again attracting families. Shopping malls & multiplexes are coming up. All this I have seen changing in the past 3-4 years. As I am more of an occasional visitor to the place now, the changes are far more visible (in and around the capital at least). However quite a bit needs to be done. And firstly some other urban centres need to be developed fast in Bihar. Patna will not be able to sustain this growth alone. The city does not have too much scope for expansion left. Rajgir & Gaya would be the most suited in this regard. But a start has been made. We can only hope for the better.

P.S. There does seem to be lot of goodwill for Bihar specially in some parts of the media.

The Lone Idiot

A big, useless, needless, media hyped up controversy is going on over 3 Idiots credit issue. I have read Chetan Bhagat’s “Five Point Someone” and have seen Rajkumar Hirani’s “3 Idiots”. The two have similar stories. I can’t measure what percentage the similarity was, but it’s substantial. Good book, good film, film evolved from book. End of story for me.
However this post isn’t about the controversy, after all it’s their business not mine. 3 Idiots is amongst the better movies of 2009 (haven’t seen all, so shouldn’t tag it as the best). The characters I could easily connect with. I have seen them all (maybe not as one person but as bits & pieces amongst my engineering friends) with the exception of Rancho. He is different. After all no one I knew studied for the sake of learning, it was mostly for passing exams, getting a job. Our education system does create machines. I am not sure how many people are really doing what they wanted to do but are just trying to fall within the society’s norms. Rancho says “Engineering karke MBA kar liya, phir bank me naukri kar raha hai, to engineering karne ka kya fayda?” Quite true (I have done almost the same, so I know). However the problem is we don’t even know what we want to do. I did an engineering course which I had not even heard of prior to the entrance exams (After all, you don’t give IITJEE with the intent of doing B.Tech, Petroleum Engineering from ISM).
The movie did make me think about what I have been doing so far. Maybe it’s a time to change? Not anything drastic; just try to live life better. After all I have just been through the lousiest year of my existence. So things can’t really go much worse. And it’s never too late. I don’t know where I will be or whether I will succeed; but have to give it a try. Twenty Ten is going to be better year for this “Lone Idiot”.

P.S. This was drafted 30,000 ft in the air on the back of the printout of the ticket. Anything to pass time :)