Some stunners !! that i have clicked :)

THE BEACH !

long time since i posted some pics ! here they are ....

confused - is the state of mind

thats the state of mind again.... have had such weird experiences lately that you never know....
someone seems to be someone but it is someone else.... someone says something but it is doing something else.. god.. WHY ME ????.... who to trust who not to trust.... and how the F do you really know that someone is genuine.... PHEW !!!!... and i said sometime back that confusion is good...
Help !!!!
Does anyone have the all mighty's phone no .. i need to talk to him now :)

Its time !!!!

getting myself to write again requires such amount of effort is unbelievable.. i have to literally push myself with all the force i have and make an effort .. yet when i start writing i have a laundry list of what i should write about .... as Sid says "bloody picture quality" :)... thanks to someone for reminding me that I had a blog :)

Its time ! yes it is and for an eternity i have thought that things are so bloody stagnant... everything is on hold in life... that its time now for a lotta things....

Maybe a change in routine .. maybe get into a fitness regime .. maybe get a new job .. maybe go somewhere to meet someone ... maybe i should get back to my old thing ... maybe i should just quit everything and get back home .... In the past few months i have seriously lost it and i am working like a dog (who isnt ??).... but yeah thats not me ... i need to be me .. its time !

The other day was talking to bhai and he said he was missing Chennai .. so do i :(... fearless we were caring about no one doing what we liked .. driving out at 11 in the night to have a coconut pudding in fruit shop ... watching movie at 12 in the night when i used to doze off 10 min into the movie everytime and bhai used to kick me into my bedroom... Driving our bikes in the first rain to Mahabs... go to office at 8 in the morning and play loud music and turn it off suddenly when the MD entered the office... wanna be fearless ... its time !

that one call from a friend is priceless nowadays... you know you wanna speak to all the junta but you dont have time .... even if you meet them once a month its not enough .... that point in life when you need friends around you .. should get back in touch ... its time !

In my own way i am trying to change the world (that i live in) and sometimes i fail most times i win .... why should someone dictate the way i work .. why should i work for somebody who is not even worth it ! ... Either i work for myself or work for someone smarter than me ... its time !

Its actually time for a lot of new things in life .. and now i feel that i am actually ready for it .. its that feeling, when nothing is actually happening but you still feel something is gonna happen ... due for long .. its time !

The economy of loyalties !

This is a glimpse from a wholesale market in Guntur. If some of you who have lived ever in small towns will know what this is. The bull here is called "Nandi Bull" in Maharashtra. I dont know what it is called elsewhere. This is a tradition where a guy accompanying the bull asks him questions (obviously those whose answers delight people ex: will the shopkeeper become a lakhpati) and then the bull who is trained to nod, keeps on nodding. And his master gets the moolah. Nice way to earn a living !

Two reasons why i started this post with this story. One, this brought back my childhood memories where i have spent about 14 years of my childhood in small town where this was a regular feature and the second is to tell you another interesting story.

I interact with a lot of distributors who are handling varied businesses and its interesting to know how exactly each business operates. A month back i was terminating a distributors services for my company (we parted amicably though) due to conflict in business objectives. There i learnt he had been recrutied for distribution of a dog food brand. Now listen to this interesting part.

This is an area near to where i live and it is one of the upmarket areas in the city. He (the distributor) was also handling a baby food brand. Now this area has around 6-7 big hospitals where maternity wards are present. So the sales of baby food has been very good (say x lac). Interestingly the dog food sales in the same area is 4 x lac. Look at the contrast, i am sure if you get down to more details the number of babies will be double than the number of dogs in the area. So people are spending more per dog than per baby (agreed that the consumers will be different, but still). I also agree that the rate of dog food per kg is much higher than baby food per kg and even the consumption will be high. But still the spending is more on dog food. i was astonished to hear this.

So next time you buy food for your baby (if you have one) and you buy food for your dog (if you have one) just look at how much you spend monthly, would be interesting. No disrespect to dogs as i myself love them and i think they deserve this and more for being a loyal friend to the humans.

Thats why the economy of loyalties :-)

till next time adios !

As always the contrarion view ! some numbers ...

Well i was compelled to express my anger so many times during the terrorist attacks that rocked MY city last week but i held my horses and was just observing the proceedings during and after the event ... Just to take a helicopter view .. my batch mates will understand this...:-)
I am still following the happenings and have decided to take a contrarion view, as always .. i know this annoys a lot of people but it throws out a lot of interesting perspectives for me ....
Well to start with the very issue of Mumbai and what its worth ... the city which contributes to 40% of taxes gets back nothing .. if you just put numbers on paper (this is my new hobby since i have moved to sales) you can see that it gets very little for what it is worth... with almost 23 million residents Mumbai is second largest city in the world... beat that !!! did you know this ???.. only Tokyo, Japan is larger than Mumbai... does the government know this .. i dont think so .... so does the city get the financial and infrastructural support that it needs .. its very easy to blame the BMC and the state government but the central government who is one big sucker of Mumbai's money gives little back to the city .. glaring examples are the city trains which are running at around 250% of their capacity utlilisation... So this is MY city for you ....
Coming back to the attacks and the aftermath well its been over a week now and life is as usual .. yes you can say that there is a movement which has started and all but its all bull shit !!!!
I just want to know that out of the 1 lakh people who were present at the rally at the Gateway of India last week how many voted in the last election .. how many of them know that who is the industries minister of maharashtra .. i bet, and anybody can challenge me on that, not 1000 or more will qualify.. so all the revolt is ok if you choose your own leader.. if you have not voted there is no freakin way in this whole god damn world you can even say anything about the leaders... The other day there was this debate on the TV on one of the over enthusiastic news channel where 4 people called "citizens of India" were screwing spokeperson of the incumbent party for VIP security .. one of the gentlemen was a guy who has started a new party called the Professional party of India.. he had his own agenda of spreading awareness about his new party's manifesto ... i bet he doesnt even have the clue what is happening in the government .. he was talking about road being blocked and stuff when politicians go around the city.. well, i have lived in 5 cities now and have been fortunate or unfortunate to have high profile politicians as my next door neighbours and believe me not once has my road been blocked .. i think that guy must be staying just outside Mantralaya then :P.... I am angry .. frustrated because these guys are just opportunistic , ask them which city was attacked before Mumbai and they will be like a deer standing in front of head lights of a car.... the problem is no one wants to get their hands dirty and this attitude is seen across, even in the corporate.... its an attitude problem.. everyone wants to be a part of India story but there are very few who are contributing to it, really !
My only point is show patriotism in the right way ... dont blame politicians, either get into politics and be the change or vote your own politicians...
The other side of this is India's so called succesfull democracy is actually digging its own grave .. with almost 730 registered pollitical parties it is nothing less than a mess... any Indian voter who wants to choose his leader cannot expect him to do anything because he is so confident that his electorate cannot make any difference because he carries no decision power in the parliament where alliances matter.... There is a dying need for the system to immediately move to a 3 -4 party system where at least there is a sure chance of your vote getting counted and making a difference... other than this, the money that is laundered due to this barrage of parties is phenomenal ... 90% of the donations that are made to political parties are tax free and about 95% of this money in not accounted ... as Kareena says in jab we met .. Just Imagine !!!!
How many people in this country would like to join the army or the intelligence department, forget that the Chandrayan mission recently did not have a single IITian working on it (the fact that i am an engineer and a MBA from IIT doesnt make me a less sinner) ... so what are we crying for ?? why are we so angry that the government doesnt do anything .. I think politics is a very good career option today for anybody, because you just have to represent a particular caste or religion or an ignored state and you will have minimum 10000 votes in your pocket .. the rest you can buy out and there you are you have earned yourself a seat in the premier legislative assembly.... for those whose caste / religion / state does not have so many people .. tough luck, try your hand at something else ...
So lets vote in the next election and then see who we choose to run our country and protect our city.. till then shut up and move on .. you dont have a choice ...

She was holding a mans hand

standing on the road side.....

Her big, beautiful black eyes

searching something familiar......

She had a smile on her face greeting everybody in the race....

But yet there was something missing...

The man was a stranger but she was brave

Not an expression of worry on her face ...

Unperturbed she searched for the familiar

looking at everybody and asking questions silently...

finally she saw that face and then she went away in her own grace....

Take a Bow - Dada !!!!

" Breaking News !!!! " Sourav Ganguly announces his retirement, well well well the day has finally come when one of the fab four has decided to step down or shall we say has been forced to step down .... i will leave that to you ...
"The god of off side" as he was called by "the wall" has been an inspiration for many and the bad boy of Indian cricket ... But i will always remember him as the man who made the world sit back and notice that Indian cricket had arrived and how .. remember all the bad incidences he was infamous from .. from arriving late for tosses and wasting time on field by slow over rate and the famous shirt waving at the mecca of cricket The lords.... He gave TASHAN to the biggies...
His ability to support young lads like lakhsmi ratan shukla, ritendar sodhi, yuvi, irfan, viru and many more out of which some clicked some not but atleast there was always fresh blood flowing through the Indian Cricket team.. He dared to back young talent while beautifully handling big ol guns like Srinath. Kumble, Sachin, Dravid and Laxman.. there was never an issue of juniors overshadowing seniors or any ego clashes... his leadership and team skills have been a learning for many....
His career has been anything but a steady cruising ship, no one else has made famous come backs and seen lows and highs like him in this game.. from getting dropped after first australia tour coming back in team to score century on debut at lords.. reaching the world cup final .. almost winning a test series in OZ... Spat with greg chappell whereas working like a TEAM with John Wright... the list just goes on ....
There can be a long debate over wether he was really a good player or not , but i think he was the best captain the Indian Cricket team ever had ... With his agression, PR skills and team management techniques i dont think no one else has reached anywhere near what he has done for Indian cricket... SO i will not present a debate on that cause i just want to say for whatever he has done and for his utterly butterly off drives .....

Dada - Take a Bow !!!!