Humane Touch

Aranyaprathet or Poipet?

noreply@blogger.com (Shanky) — Tue, 11 Mar 2014 12:07:00 +0000

The whole point of the trip two years back was to have one helluva time. So we had a massive hangover when we started for the Angkor Wat. It was 7 in the morning and the cab had arrived. We were not going to leave the best western without having their breakfast though! So after breakfast the gloomy 5 started onwards to Cambodia, the place where the great Cholas had gone long ago. But none of these thoughts were on our mind, and the only thing ringing inside was when to stop for coffee!??

We all passed out in the cab and in a Hollywood movie we would have been kidnapped by the driver and would be spending our time in a pig pen whilst our kidnappers were busy asking ransom from the US government/consulate. However, this is not ordinary movie and we were no ordinary guys ;) So when the cabbie stopped at a pit stop almost an hour away from the border we weren't mildly surprised. The rest had got the fluids back into our body and that meant few of us were rushing to the rest rooms clutching our stomach and ready to ninja kick anyone who would have stopped us! While the rest of us were busy ogling at some of the Thai beauties at the pit stop and ordered coffee. There was something amiss at this place, not just the pit stop, but the whole of Thailand! Or even the SE Asia. There was a teenage couple at the coffee shop. That’s not weird, but what was indeed weird was that the guy was chilling in the chair outside whilst the chic came inside, ordered, paid and carried both the coffee out. This would have been "dating suicide" in our country as mentioned in 101 things to avoid with your girlfriend. Then they had coffee, kissed, hugged and separated ways! I guess they must be from the local village who would have thanked heavens when this coffee shop and pit stop first opened.

Anyway, so after smoke, coffee and more smoke, we were Angkor bound once again. The cabbie was grinning at our relieved faces and that just made us feel that he’s a brother from different mother. He knew when to stop, where to stop and he understood the travails of drunken young men! God bless his soul! At the border, we encountered the usual list of squatters, hawkers, visa touts. We ignored everyone and went to the emigration queue at the Thai side. There were separate queues for Thai nationals and others. Though the Thai queue was thin, the officials refused to allow foreigners in that queue. So it is confirmed that these guys are Asians who follow stupid procedures to the tee and we felt comfortable. That’s because we felt like home while the foreigners were cribbing with their huge backpacks swinging off their shoulders.

Finally when our turn came, we got stamped at Aranyaprathet (the Thai side of the border) and were permitted to move to Poipet (The Cambodian side of the border). It always amuses me that the name of a place can change depending on which side of the check post. Apart from administrative clarity I don’t see any cultural reason as to why they have different names for the same place! Anyway, I am not here to change the world, I am here more because I am tired of the world that I get to see every day! So on we go to the Angkor side of the immigration check, give our thumbprints, photos taken, e-visas verified and then there is the surprise. We were herded into a bus claiming to be free tourist bus to the bus stand from where we can board the bus for Siem Reap. The familiar too much helping = too much trouble takes over but we were comforted by the fact that there were two more buses, full of tourists that are making their way. So we go along, to be surprised and to be proved wrong again that it’s not a fraudster but a genuine tourism board volunteer helping the guys who are helping their economy! These SE guys really kill it when it comes to amenities for tourists. At the bus stand as this is an international border we got to exchange some money and then boarded the $10 per head mini vans to Siem Reap.

Indochina Adventures II

noreply@blogger.com (Shanky) — Sun, 27 Jan 2013 16:42:00 +0000

This a continuation from Indochina Adventures I

We slept at 5.30ish that morning and had kept our alarms for 9.30 am. The plan was to do a quick visit of the palace and then head to the ocean world around 3ish and be out at the bars for a fun night out! But what we forgot was about the time difference! Yes, they announced the time difference on the flight as well. No, we did not pay attention! *the air hostesses were way too cute to pay attention to anything else ;)

So when one of my more organized friend woke us up at 9.30 we scowled at him and snored away to glory. When we finally woke up it was lunch time and we could not even imagine roaming around the palace with such a heavy head! After a mini debate and democratic voting, KFC won over McD and we headed straight to one that was next to our hotel. To my surprise this was manned/womanned/ladyboyed by Speech- and hearing-impaired staff! This was fantastic! Not only were they giving opportunity for the disadvantaged (in general sense) but also to those who are harassed by the society (in general). I was also amazed that the ladyboys were not begging like in some parts of India nor were they involved in satisfying some sexual pervert's fantasies in Bangkok. This gave a new kind of respect for the lady boys. Its not that I had held them in low esteem but usually the feeling that I show towards them is of pity! Just imagine that they had to change sex just to satisfy their hunger! Anywho... We ordered in the best language of the world that puts everyone on the same platform - Sign language!

After the 'finger lickin good' meal we headed to the Ocean world and got ourselves a combo ticket for the aquarium, behind the scenes tour and a 5D movie. We chose to skip the Madame Tussaud wax museum which was also in the same complex. The aquarium had some of the coolest, weirdest, craziest, scariest creatures on display. Some of them were straight out of Avatar and some from Harry Potter. Oh! And did I tell you they also had a complimentary fish spa included in the combo? and a portion of popcorn and cool drinks that you can enjoy while watching the penguins play!? It was super awesome I must say. Felt like I was in some school excursion "ooh-aah"ing at most of the display. The "behind the scenes" tour was an eyewash and a drab. Next up was the 5D movie which again made all of us into a bunch of 7 year old kids. Apart from the 3 Ds that we all know the other two were smell and touch. So when the character in the movie falls on his bum the chair you are sitting will give a thud to yours! When there is a gush of wind then there are tubes in your seat that blows out air on to your ears and cheeks. Cool isn't it?

courtesy: www.enterthaiment.com

In one of the bars the bartender, a porky young woman wanted to marry me. She demanded that we go to a pastor now and get married because she is in love with me. I do have that effect on many, but her? No way man! But she was just a jolly girl and we all joked about it, suggested other passersby to her for a potential match. In the end we had to bid adieu to her as even one other friend broke her heart and I also turned down her offer to come with us to our room. We then returned to our hotel after all the fun. I was so dehydrated and zonked after all the beer and LIITs that I had had at different bars around Sukhumvit! I decided to skip dinner and headed straight for the bed. Tomorrow, we are leaving for the great temples of Angkor Wat!

Indochina Adventures I

noreply@blogger.com (Shanky) — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 17:45:00 +0000

"10 days, 5 friends, 4 modes of transport, 3 countries and zero worries!" I had even set my FB status message for the vacation. Packed backpack - check; Passport - check; Forex in USD - check. All that remains is to have fun! We had chosen Bangkok as the central hub for our trip as the flights were cheaper and we had easy options of overland travel within Thailand-Cambodia and Vietnam.

The five of us congregated at the nondescript and my second least favorite airport in India - Chennai. Quick round of drinks at the airport bar and we had started on the right note for the trip. Ignoring the smirking lady at the immigration (on seeing our Thailand tickets) and past the pan chewing security forces and subjected to the tormenting frisking we were aboard Air Asia flight to Bangkok. The sweet Thai from the cute air hostess put a smile to the inebriated mind. Air Asia had moved their operations to the older Don Muang airport from October 2012 and this was a spot of bother for us. None of us had prior experience with this airport.

Anyway it was all unfounded and we finished the process and took the prepaid taxi to donw town area and headed to our hotel. Best Comfort Inn, was the hotel used by my friends during their earlier trip to Thailand. Anyways we arrived early morning and the guy at the reception tried to extort money for early arrival. I, being the expert in Thai among the 5, was put in front of him. I made sure that I frustrated him enough, with my half Thai half sign language, to let us get in without extra charge. It is very important that you don't overdo this bit with your fractured language else you might find yourself on the street with no room!

We were 5 bachelors set out to enjoy for the next 10 days. One of my mates wanted to see Angkor Wat and I wanted to SCUBA dive, other than that it was intended to be no plans hold fun trip. So it was only fair that we started the sojourn with drinks brought from the street bars of Sukhumvit, Bangkok. The next day we decided to visit the Grand Palace and the Siam Ocean World. As it turns out with any of our plans it was only on paper. It was an eventful and also a dehydrating day. Will update that soon!

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Read about what happens next! - Indochina Adventures II

3 (Tamil) - Movie Review

noreply@blogger.com (Shanky) — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 09:13:00 +0000

"Suicide is not a solution to any problem" is the noble thought behind the Dhanush, Shruti Hassan starrer - 3. I would have been grateful to the director, Aishwarya R Dhanush, had it remained a thought and did not materialize as a real world movie! I would recommend this movie only if you have lost everything in life; then again, I might say "Get a life dude!"

The movie starts in the present time where Dhanush is no more and Shruti is a grieving widow. But who is Dhanush? Who is Shruti? Who are everyone crying for the loss of this guy? All these questions are answered through an interlude flashback. The flashback does start with a huge promise and the stars breeze their way through the first half. Shiva Karthikeyan has done a great cameo that will make Santhanam a little jittery! A worthy competitor for Santhanam is on the anvil. We will have to wait and watch how Shiva carries his career forward. Dhanush and Aishwarya have done very well in their innocent teen roles in the flashback and the irrational puppy love that they share has been very well made. The sequence where Aishwarya goes to Tirupathi and the separation makes the couple go mad might strike a chord with the youngsters. No one can ask Aishwarya what was different in her movie. She has special aces up her sleeve just for this question. One of the aces is the marriage happening in a pub! I mean, why? This is when the director decides to give a break. A hope blooms that things will continue and I won't feel so bad for spending 250 bucks on the ticket. The director has other plans for minions like me. I went out and come back with loads of popcorn, eagerly waiting for the second half to begin.

I am now eager to see the super excellent romantic sequences. Again, here is the second ace, the mother of all aces. The second half is not about their life at all! It is about how Dhanush died. Now, you will think Dhansuh's death must be somehow connected to their life, the way they lived it or something. Minions!! You are all wrong! In the second half they took me through a meaningless roller coaster ride of Dhanush and Shruti crying at various pitches and locations. Then just like how a mokkai speaker hogs all the air time and then says, "Without much further ado..." the director also finishes the movie abruptly. Maybe she thought that was her way of causing a lump in our throats. Caused a lump she did, but not because of her movie but because I realized I have been tricked!

Debut Musician Anirudh shows a lot of promise in songs like Kannazhaga and throughout the first half with his BGM. However, in the second half he is overshadowed by Shruti with her crying BGM and he takes a back seat. At least after seeing the "Why This Kolaveri Di" song, I hope people will allow it to RIP and I strongly recommend they do the same with any thought that arises to watch this movie. This movie is best described by any 1990s Indian cricket team chasing a target. They start well but then lost not just steam but also their sanity mid-way through and then laugh derisively at the audiences who have wasted their time and money. End of it all I have only two questions for the director – “Why the name 3?” and “Why (this kolaveri di)?”

In the end, when the message of the movie is flashed across the screen I wondered if it is the director asking me not to commit suicide after watching the movie. As a good friend, I advise you to not even think about watching this movie. But if get a free ticket because you bought two juices at the karumbu juice kadai and happen to go for the movie then get out after interval. Save yourself!

Deranged Marriage

noreply@blogger.com (Shanky) — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 09:26:00 +0000

Image Courtesy: www.dhivager.com

This season is the happiest for everyone and I like happy times. Businesses are happy about the boom in sales, Parents are happy about getting their kids "settled" and kids are happy for having found the right match. Coming to think about it, everyone is actually optimistic about the future and I like optimistic thinking as well. However, in all the euphoria about the rosy future we still drag along a demon from the past which has no relevance, according to me, in the modern world. The demon is haunting me right now and what actually got me thinking about it was an interaction with one of my batch mates. This guy recently tied the knot with his girl friend and I met him for lunch as his office was near mine. We had worked together in the same committee while at Lucknow and knew quite a bit about each other. As usual the conversation started with a pointless, useless question when my friend asked me, "So when are you getting married?" I took a casual sip from my glass of carbonated poison and shrugged my shoulders. He persisted, "Arey! Tell me, saale. By now your parents must have started the hunt" He referred to the bridal hunt, which every Indian youth is aware of, as if it were the latest Roadies audition. I nodded in agreement accompanied with a wry smile. He continued, "Look, even if you go one chain lower in your FB friend list you will be able to find a suitable girl. I am sure!" I coughed up the poison that I was drinking and started laughing. Just because he has had a fairy tale wedding it cannot be that he has no clue about the system. The system of arranged marriage, which I call, deranged marriage. Initially followed by the western royal families who have now moved away from it to change according to changing times. While this practice is now prevalent in their colonial states. Intelligent buggers these colonialists!

As a dutiful friend and a co-societal being I explained the process to him. When I finished the entire process, especially the one that pertains to a traditional south Tamilnadu family, he was wide eyed in disbelief and gulped his poison, thanked his stars that he was not subjected to this torture.

Of all the steps involved in a deranged marriage, what I find the most amusing is that you should only get married to a girl from your own caste and some parents even go into sub-castes, sub-sub castes etc. I have no clue how many levels they have. I have earlier in my old blog (which is defunct now) talked about why we should question the relevance of some practices in today's life. While we evaluate technology and adopt as per changing needs and time but refuse to do that with customs and rituals is a blinker. Let me tell you why I think the caste based marriage made sense for my ancestors but no more appeals to me.

Why it made sense to my ancestors -

Caste system in its inception, as narrated to me by history books and wiki, was a classification based on the work you do; in essence the skill you possessed. So a Brahman's son could end up being a Kshatriya while a Kshatriya's son could end up being a baniya etc. Also, even town planning was done in a way that all the people with related skills stayed together. This is further corroborated by several street names that exist even today. This not only made societal sense in terms of easy planning of town and facilities required in an area but also business sense in terms of clustering.

Now, what does this tell me? Guys and girls from the same caste were in close proximity and had enough chance to interact with each other, observe each others' response to situations and other people. It gave them time and opportunity to evaluate each other. Also, the girls in the same caste understood the work life of her partner because she sees it day in and day out. She understands the difficulties, the opportunities, the up side and downside. So, it made sense for the same caste guy and girl to come together and say I understand you and I think we can make our lives easier, more pleasant and make it a journey worthwhile to be made together.

Why it makes absolutely no sense to me -

Slowly the caste system got corrupted in India. No surprises there! Any system in India is susceptible to corruption just like how any iron is susceptible to rusting. It is only a matter of time in both the cases. So it just took some time for the greedy Kings and ministers who wanted their sons and daughters to be with them. So they made caste system birth based rather than merit based. Then again, time wreaked havoc and we are in a state where it is a kichdi of the previous eras. While caste is based on birth, the work I do is not. The logical relationship between caste and work is abolished while the illogical relationship between caste and birth is still withheld. So, to find a partner in this kichdi world is to get married to a stranger who by birth is in the same caste which makes no sense to me.

I find it logical for a guy to marry a girl from the same profession. Though this is not necessary, I find it at least appealing. But the idea of marrying a girl about who you have no idea is appalling. If you guys find any relationship between the castes of the guy/girl to get married to one another, please let me know! I will at least change the title of this post if you convince me.

Paan Singh Tomar - Movie Review

noreply@blogger.com (Shanky) — Sun, 18 Mar 2012 18:52:00 +0000

There are no beautiful foreign locations, no cleavage shown, no dancing around the bush or even beating around the bush. Will this movie appeal to you - the common man? Surprisingly, it does! That’s the surprise element in this movie. Three cheers to the director and his team for having had the confidence in the fans of Indian cinema to have attempted this movie. Irrfan just did what he does the best in any movie - act with panache and elegance. Only this man can add elegance to a completely pedestrian role. The ease with which he has slipped himself into the hood of Paan Singh Tomar is amazing to say the least. He brings out the ignorance in a simple village man who takes words on the face value and not the conceited meaning that it was delivered with.

Paan Singh is the underdog athlete who joins Indian Army, where his talent is spotted and nurtured in a very Indian way. Like the humble Bihari friends who clear JEE and Civil Services exams without much fuss, Paan Singh smashes records at the athletic events he participates. A simple, humble man who is running to win medals, one day decides to run against the system for his life and his prestige. A not so uncommon family brawl turns ugly and Paan Singh is left with nowhere to go and is humiliated by the government support system. A citizen who thought his life is protected by the government is left to fend for himself and that is when Paan Singh turns to his strength and plays the system as per his strengths rather than by the rules.

When you are going to base a movie on one man and his life, it becomes apparent that he needs to carry the movie through his acting. Also, the hidden gem in delivering such a performance lies with the cinematographer and he has done a supremely awesome job in this movie. True, that there was no necessity to try anything 'out of the box' for such a straight forward plot. But don't forget that even restraint is a skill that is far from easy to acquire. Virender Sehwag is the living example of this. Kept it simple, easy on the eyes and close ups when required and you feel you are one of the Bhaagis in Paan Singh's gang.

This movie brings out the fact that fame without money is powerless in India. The neglect that the sports figures of this country face is quite evident when everyone in the theater left when the prologue is being played after the climax. Nobody gives a damn what happened with the real Paan Singh. Nobody cares what happens to our athletes while we shamelessly crib about the lack of medals in Olympics and other world events. Our athletes are people like you and me who are as patriotic as you and me, if not more. This movie is just a small example of the ill treatment that is meted to our heroes. A must watch!

Mother Pious Lady - Book Review

noreply@blogger.com (Shanky) — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 07:03:00 +0000

There are big books of small things, small books of big things and big book of big things and small books of small things. If I were to classify this book into one of these four then I would probably say it is a big book of small things. But these small things are those that make up the social fabric of India and in turn what India is all about. As I had earlier indicated in my review of A Rainbow in the Night, I like authors who drive their point by first showing out the entire landscape and then focusing on their object/element of choice. Mr. Desai also uses such a technique when he goes back to the dark old days to the good old days and then explains how our current thinking is either markedly different from or heavily influenzed by those days. However, because it is a big book of small things, the focus is kind of blurred and the sharpness is quite not what you get out of a research paper. This is good as well as bad depending on what you expected out of the book. For me, it was good as I got a wholesome picture and I could mould each chapter or experience to the management scenarios I encounter, to explain why customers/co-workers behave/work in a certain way.

The book follows a time-linear path as it starts from past, then moves on to the present and finishes off with future. The good thing is that the author has provided majority of pages for the past, then to present and a few pages for the future. This shows the sound research and subject knowledge of the author. He analyzes how the past experiences have affected the present. He also had the maturity to not to blabber some nonsensical prediction for our future. Rather he explains how we can shape our future and urges us to use the right lens so that we are not misled by all the brouhaha around brand India. Another good news is that the book is divided into very small chapters, each is (kind of) an experience that an average Indian citizen would have undergone. So these chapters can be read in any order or some of them can even be skipped if you are not interested. The effect it has on the overall reading experience depends on how many chapters you skipped rather than which chapters you skipped as these are experiences which tie to each other anyway. But I would recommend not to skip the initial chapters as this evoked strong sense of nostalgia in me. It made me grin from ear to ear and sometimes even crack up laughing thinking about what I had done in my childhood. Any guy/gal born in 1980s should try not to skip the early chapters.

The chapters about the Bajaj scooters and stainless steel utensils made me grin from ear to ear. While the chapters about the hill stations and vacations made me frown up on him for trivializing such an important experience in my life. But then again he shifted gears and had me in splits and nodding in smug appreciation when he trashes the concept of ‘arranged marriages’. I shall give you just one experience which he had explained with which I quite couldn’t agree. In one of the chapters he explained the emergence of small town girls and he argues that the mask or whatever it is that they make out of their duppattas as a sign of progress or sign of increasing self confidence. This explanation looked contrived in my opinion. The book in essence took me on a roller coaster in terms of my reactions to the chapters.

An interesting observation I made while reading this book is that how close is our thinking to China's when it comes to patriotism and portraying our country to outside (read: Western) world. In smoke and mirrors, Pallavi Iyer mentions that Chinese citizens hated bad news and avoided it at all cost. In fact, they had built a false Utopia around them and chose to ignore some of the pressing problems they have in their country. The media regulation is only part of that plan as media houses play an important role in upkeeping the utopian image. It is strikingly similar to our behavior wherein we ignore the presence of slums and feel indignant when a westerner points it out! Two things emerge -

The author further strengthens my belief in Ubuntu, philosophy that All Towns are one. We, like the Chinese, want only the good India and good part to be known to us and the world.
More importantly, he opens our eyes and hence urges us to shut up, accept it, acknowledge it and change it. Rather than ignoring it or whining about it and searching for the emergent India at the top while the emerging India is at the middle

Tackling a big problem, on which everyone has an opinion about and most have an emotional attachment to, even in a big book is tricky. There will be chapters which you have exactly the opposite view than the one that the author has taken. You might opine that the author has made a mountain out of a mole hill in certain other chapters. But the author has presented his view and smartly put into a form where you have the choice to skip the chapter if you want. So I don't really see this as a disadvantage but only a minor hiccup. From my personal experience, I found the boring chapters were in the middle and I could not help but yawn and switch off my reading lights. This was one of the most time consuming books for me. It took me almost three months to finish this book. Mumbai's traffic and commute did not help much either. Another important factor is that you run out of nostalgic moments somewhere in the middle of the book and the boring present starts to take over. These were the pages I found the most difficult to coast through because I am confused where this country is presently headed to while the author definitively tries to pave a path. At least he is clear about what he is talking.

All in all, it’s a great book especially if you are a sociology student or if you are a traveler in India who wants to understand why we are like this only or even if you are a resident Indian who cannot understand your neighbor who is a filter coffee sipping, Hindu newspaper reading, cricket fanatic who can argue about any topic under the sun. It’s a great read, go get it!

Lessons From Doing Nothing

noreply@blogger.com (Shanky) — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 05:57:00 +0000

NangYuan Terrace and Doing Nothing

As I had told you guys before reaching Mumbai, I had been to the islands of Thailand and met people from other countries. During these encounters I realized that though every human being is unique, there are lessons we can take from everybody we meet and apply it in our lives. So here are some of my interesting observations:

Everybody has problems - If you know me personally, then you know how much I desist the Indian way of "settling down". While your parents will want you to be unique early in your school days and the trophies you bring home for poetry and elocution is much appreciated, it is never seriously viewed. It is to be written in the "hobbies" section of your resume. The main part of your resume is supposed to follow the routine route of Professional Education --> Work --> MBA --> Work --> Marry --> Home and Car --> Kids -- Die! I thought or was led to believe by the books and Hollywood movies that my counterparts in the western hemisphere have a better life! But I was proved wrong by Danielle, a 20 something English girl who was an accountant in a firm and quit her job because it became "too much". She narrated her woes in life and the pressures the society in UK puts on an individual. Her next career move, according to the society and her family should be to get an MBA, then get married and settle down in life. But she wants to be a writer and volunteer in the education space. I was totally flabbergasted! It was a story like any other Indian's only that she was super cute and had an English accent!

Get real. Get experience - I had to walk over 5 Km to get to the highest viewing point on Koh Tao - my most favorite spot in Thailand. The viewpoint was called Nangyuan Terrace and was actually a part of a resort. As a PR move the resort had allowed free access to the public and right at the ledge of the viewpoint is a restaurant overlooking the beautiful atoll Nang Yuan which is a popular day trip among visitors. It is here that I met David - A guy from England who lost his job with Barclays Capital. He is travelling and trying to find a job in SE Asia as the economy here is touted to be better. While talking to him topics about India and its culture came up. He was very curious to know how the marriage system works and the role that gold plays in the marriage and hence the economy. He even tutored me about the economic impact at which point I yawned more than I nodded. And then he revealed that he does not even have a degree which made me almost jump off the cliff! Looking at my expression and my open mouth he explained further - "Unlike India, in the western hemisphere you need experience. Your certificate does not hold any value for a job application unless you have worked in the industry. If you want to change your sector and find a new career or even an alternate career, then get real, get some experience and work your way up. I started 7 years ago as a back office analyst and now I have been fired as a consultant"

Exposure is reality - We often come across westerners in weird, unique, different careers and wonder how they had even thought about becoming what they were. I kind of figured out the answer to this question while exploring the beautiful reefs of Koh Tao. My dive instructor was a guy named Toby and he was all of 20 years. While it amused me to no end that he was an instructor at such a young age, it irritated him that I was amused by his age. Shamelessly, I kept prodding about how he knew that this was what he wanted to do for the rest of his life. He said he was exposed to diving at 15, the minimum age for you to be certified, and got hooked to it. He has been diving ever since and took up the instructor course at 18, again the minimum age to start, and became an instructor at 18! In India rarely do we get such exposure to a variety of professions. Rarely do we travel to other nations to give a different experience to our children. If there needs to be change in the way we look at life and career it is not enough if we swap marks for grades and give prizes for everyone. Rather, I would say make competition mandatory but the basis of competition must be different depending on the student. For that you need to expose him and bring to his cognition that there are alternate avenues available.

Do nothing - We Indians have a compulsive need to be doing something. While we plan our holidays we plan for "activities" to be done and sights to be seen. If there were not enough things to do then we label the place as "Not so good". "It was fun but there is nothing to do beyond a day in Kodaikanal and it gets boring." Such statements are testimonial that we have lost the power to extract happiness in doing nothing and just enjoying each others' company! We need a boat ride or a monkey falls or at least a children's park to enjoy the holiday. But travelling and doing nothing during a holiday is awesome. Its fun! All through this entire sojourn I had so little to do and I enjoyed it! I did not have a "must see" place that I was anxious not to miss out or a "must try" activity that I desperately wanted to try. I did nothing but laze around the beach, read a book and eat at the local coffee shop. I simply loved it!

Confusion - After all this, I was confused! What am I doing? Am I doing the right thing? But confusion is good. Confusion leads to good conclusions.

This post has been entered for the expedia travel competition in indiblogger.

Bangkok To Bombay

noreply@blogger.com (Shanky) — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 10:32:00 +0000

Beautiful Sunset at Koh Tao

Heylos!

I would really like to apologize for the unexplained hiatus. However, that would mean an arrogant me thinking that a lot of you are actually waiting with bated breath for the next masterpiece from this huge master of words. I know, I know - you are not! So, I just thought I will leave it at that and continue to blog as usual, as much as Mumbai would allow me to blog. Yes, I have shifted base to Mumbai from Ang Thong now. My work requires me to travel every 3 months and so, Mumbai it is for next 3 months. What happened between the last post and the time & energy sucking Mumbai is what this post is all about

After I watched Eat Pray Love and one other divorcee women-goes-travelling movie it was getting too much for me. so I packed my bags and headed to the lovely islands on the gulf of Thailand. There are three of them and each has its own charm and purpose. If I have to describe the three in one word here it is - Koh Samui - Touristy; Koh Phangan - Party; Koh Tao - Relaxation.

I decided to spend time in all three of them. I wanted the last few days on this beautiful country to be the best and wanted it to stay in my memory forever. I took a train from Bangkok to Surat Thani, one of the inland ports from where ferry services to the islands were available. The second class train ride was surprisingly convenient and comfortable except that the rest room was as smelly as the trains in India, if not more. But the berth provided was superb. A attendant made my berth with an extra layer of cushion, a bed spread, pillow and a fresh blanket to protect from the cold. All the berths were also provided with a curtain. My compartment was filled with students from US, UK and the Nordic countries. Noisy, boisterous and of course - sexy ;) At Surat Thani I took a bus + ferry combo that will take me to the port in Surat Thani which was quite a distance from the railway station and then ferry across the gulf of Thailand to Koh Samui - The touristy yet beautiful place.

Koh Samui, the southern most of the islands, was the first place where I am travelling alone in my 25 years of existence on this blue planet. So I was feeling a little insecure, bored, cautious - all those anxious kind of emotions. I wanted to show-off like a seasoned traveler while inside I was full of doubts. What to do? Where to eat? Will I be bored to death or will I find interesting people to talk to? Samui was spent in quelling these doubts by reaching out to new people and some alone time at the wonderful beaches. I met quite a few characters here - gap year students, people who got bored of their job and a few who were fired. Most of all Samui helped me overcome my lonely traveler fears and doubts - For that alone, I am thankful to this island.

Though Koh Phangan was the next island while moving north I decided to keep it last and went to Koh Tao next, for some chilling. Two reasons - I wanted to complete a SCUBA diving course and I wanted the party to be the befitting end to this trip. Koh Tao is a small, likeable diving village island. The entire business ecology is based on the dive shops that dot the shoreline of this island. I had done my research and booked my course with Roctopus dive. It was small, friendly and personal dive shop. But after arriving here, I realized that booking a dive course is as simple as picking up a t shirt from Renganathan Street or vada pav in Mumbai. If you just want to chill out, soak in the sun, the best place - of the three islands, ought to be Tao. And here is where I witnessed one of the most beautiful sunsets in my life. Partly because I was so relaxed and happy and partly because rarely do I consciously wait and enjoy the sunset. In all probability sun set in Mahabalipuram is as beautiful as this one. After few dives and training I got my license to dive anywhere in the world up to 18 feet! I am a certified open water diver - woohoo!!

After the diving accomplishment, it was time to celebrate it with my diving buddies - two Argentinean students and their friend from NZ. So all of us headed to Phangan for the most (in)famous beach party. My UG friend also joined us from India for the full moon party. Thousands of revelers, hundreds of nationalities, numerous liquor shops, miles of white sand beach and one awesome insane party! This is like the most insane party I have ever been to; not that I had attended a lot of them. Still, this was too good! But that awesomeness might be, and in my case was, overshadowed by the hangover that rips through your upper abdomen to head. My friend and I were to travel to Bangkok the very morning when the party got over. So we had exactly 45 minutes between when we stopped drinking and when our ferry was scheduled. Luckily we had prebooked the ferry tickets and the combo bus tickets to Bangkok as well and slept through most of the journey. When the bus stopped for food we ate some spicy Khao Pad Thai and fresh fruits to ease our stomachs.

After a bit of shopping and pubbing in Bangkok that night, we retired to the room for a power nap of exactly 3 hours. Then I had to leave for my factory in Ang Thong and he had a morning flight to catch. Luckily we were able to get our drunken, party weary asses out of the bed to get to our respective destinations safely and on time. One hell of a trip; one hell of a country. There is still much more to see in Thailand and I vowed to return soon as a tourist who need not worry about the presentation and report that I had to submit. The following week I slogged a little to complete the report and the presentation. So after all those awesome things I did, here I am in Mumbai , my home for the next three months.

Circular Love

noreply@blogger.com (Shanky) — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 12:00:00 +0000

Courtesy - Google Images

"So you can add this to the list of things only you and I know" said Satish and Anu looked up from his shoulder with her wide beautiful eyes. Those were like restless blacktip reef sharks; scanning his eyes in horizontal motion. Without saying a word She slid down a little, kissed his bare chest, rested her head on it. He knew what it meant; it meant - "I love you", that "I am closer to you than anyone else in this world", that "she will shed a lone tear of joy" wetting his barren chest and then kiss it again to make it wetter. Yet he tilted his head to direct his gaze on her saffron tinted hair partition and asked with a puzzled tone, "What?" He knew this will make her happier and it made him feel like the creator of happiness. Had he just reflected his understanding of her emotion then it would mean he had deciphered her, She is a simple being whose emotions are deciphered easily and then her mysterious nature is lost. The relationship from then on becomes stale and no more interesting. So Satish played along and asked her again, this time more a cajole than a puzzled bewilderment, "What?" She shook her head which made the single tear she had concealed and controlled till now to fall off her eyelids like the single dew drop in the morning grass that bends the blade of the grass with its weight and perseverance to be dropped off into the earth, its rightful place. He did not press any further but just smiled and kissed her head again, squeezed her closer to him. He knew, that is all that she wanted and acted like he had preserved the mystery about her lone tear while the fact is he knew it.

Their game was flagged off, without any balloons, crackers, flashy dancers or gymnasts, a simple beginning to a complex life together. Satish and Anu had a simple wedding so that they can save money for this luxury called home. Satish had refused the home that Anu's father offered and instead bought this humble home in the suburbs. It was normal days over the week for Satish who was a professional photographer. His work load was jagged and he defines his work as he usually freelances a lot. Photography also helped him in his Personal life as he seldom spoke and Anu loved him for that. She knew he understood everything and still didnot have to use words to describe it in real life as in his profession.

However Anu felt something weird about the house. She could not call it a home yet as something was disturbing her. She felt like she is being constantly watched over and she even searched the entire house for any hidden cameras. Not that she did not trust Satish but she was wary of his practical jokes of clicking what she considered to be ugly photos of her. One day she felt like a pair of gleaming eyes were fixated on her, from a far off land someone was watching her. Aliens are an alien concept to her, "but anything is possible these days" she thought to herself. Satish dismissed this by joking about how she is now missing her family and that girls are never satisfied with her husband alone. Anu would smack him with a roti stick or a spatula whichever is nearer and Satish again had to act like he is hurt. But this insecure feeling was growing despite the best efforts by Satish to rubbish it. It was too much to bear when she refused to open the windows, shades or worst of it all she wanted to keep the light going in nights. To Satish this was ridiculous and he tried reasoning it with her. Anu was thinking Satish has grown insensitive to her feelings and Satish was getting too frustrated to play the loving and caring husband.

Anu could no longer take this growing feeling of insecurity and called her dad. Within no time her dad had collected all the particulars about the building and the neighbors, the construction contractor, the land ownership the previous owners etc. To his horror he found that the house has been constructed after demolishing a ladies hostel. The hostel was notorious for the suspicious deaths more than two decades ago. Unclaimed and unregistered skeletons were found in the compound when the construction had began. When the facts came out it was horrible and unbelievable. One of the reasons why the land and home came cheap was the negative publicity that it had garnered over a decade ago. However, like many things in India, this too was then forgotten and gone with the wind. Anu's dad was furious, more with him than with Satish, for letting them take this house. He was offering them a duplex in a very posh area in the city and thought he should have tried more to convince Satish. After all, his only daughter is now bearing the brunt for the mistake he and Satish had committed. It killed him to see his daughter this way - haggard and worn out. He ordered Satish to vacate this house and move into the one he has got for them.

For Satish though, this is a matter of self-respect than it is of ego and he places his self respect beyond anyone living in this world. Had it been ego it would have been easier to forego ,than self-respect, for the love of his life. No one could understand this simply because they were not Satish. They had different ideals, different way of life, different view of the world. Anu was torn between the two most important people of her life. It was not so much black and white as it is for her father or Satish. It was all grey, she thinks with her heart and it would beat once for Satish while the other time for her dad. Anu's dad realised that this fight is only deteriorating Anu, apparently for whose welfare he was fighting it for. So he proposed a compromise, he would bring in a priest to do some ceremony to get rid of the bad spirits that is following his daughter. Though the rational part of Satish was hurt, he was ready to let go of his rationality for Anu. This was a fair and far better deal than leaving this house which would have destroyed his self-respect.

An auspicious date was fixed and the priest arrived with his cronies to perform the ceremony which costed them more than their wedding. But he did not mind as long as he was not bothered to recite any mantras. It was a business, this spiritual ceremony, and anything can be arranged as per customer's specifications. Satish was indeed not involved in this irrational activity. He had to take the day off though, which was no big deal for him. In fact it gave him the chance to witness this funny custom and make fun of it later, when everything was over. He was in his bedroom reading snow leopard by Peter Matthiessen, for the tenth time, when something caught his eye. A small glint, a shine of reflection of the sun, a twinkle. It was there just for a second and then it disappeared. Without any sudden movement he casually flipped his book to the side flung himself out of bed and went to the other room. He asked Anu to go to the bedroom to get his book and he watched from the window of the other room. He caught it again and this time he was sure from where it came. The reflection of the sun from a telephoto lens, for a trained photographer's eyes, was not difficult to catch in broad daylight. He should have taken a day off earlier, he now felt. Anu returned with the book. He made an excuse of the smoke inside the house and that he is going out for fresh air.

When he returned, he had a broken lens and a camera in his hands; a drop of tear and blood on his knuckles. The puja had done its work! No more stalking eyes, no more worry about Anu's fear. The priest was indeed powerful! That night Satish was happy and Anu was relaxed. Anu was resting her face on his shoulder and listening to Satish who narrated the entire episode and then he said "So you can add this to the list of things only you and I know"

Before The Rain - Movie Review

noreply@blogger.com (Shanky) — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 14:42:00 +0000

When we think about time scientifically it is the unit used to specify rates like the rate of change of velocity is acceleration . Philosophically, I think it is circular. Circularity of time has many takers and nature is one of them. The repeating of seasons, day & night are all examples for cyclicity of time. We also observe cyclicity of time in the stages of man's life as depicted by Shakespeare in his seven stages of life which is also incidentally described in Sanskrit vedas (Remember the Rajnikanth song about stages in life?). But when I look at an hour glass, the past is so vast (the bottom of the glass) and future is so vast (the top, of course) while the present is a tiny narrow opening with constant change. It is like everything that happens in life is compressed to a single point in time that our human brains cannot comprehend and hence is expanded by us to experience and enunciate the happenings at that point of time. I know you are wondering why am I blabbering this in a movie review. I am not blabbering! This is what happened inside me, the argument that my mind was having with itself, pulling its hair, searching for more philosophies about time and existence. This is what you will be doing after watching this great movie - Before the Rain.

The film is in three parts - Words, Faces & Pictures. Each word perfectly describes each part with both subtle and in your "face" cues. Each part portrays a love story that is affected, either directly or indirectly, by the conflict happening in the Balkan region. Except for the second part, in which the story is based in London, the other two are shot in Macedonia. The Macedonian born director & writer, Milčo Mančevski, has done a master piece that is quite possibly one of the best movies that you never heard about! After watching the movie you might either dismiss it as a noob's directorial venture where he did not even pay heeds to editing or you might appreciate his delving deeper into the philosophy of time. One sentence "Time doesn't wait and the circle is not round", that is repeated in the movie either pictorially or verbally, is the corner stone of the movie which eliminates the doubt about the editing skills deployed in this one.

This is one of those movies which ought to be seen with friends and later to be discussed over drinks. Many sites or so called movie buffs have discussed the genius of Nolan and his idea in Inception while a similar euphoria might be absent for this movie it has done well in international circuits. Everytime I have tried to watch this movie, which is thrice in the past week alone, I have discovered something that I had missed earlier that is obvious. When I tried to decipher the movie, with my brain that has been trained in linear thinking and sequential philiospohy of time in which one thing leads to the other, I laughed like a mad person. I won't analyse more about this movie or the cinematography or music. It will not do justice to this very well made movie to say the least. All I can say is that this movie will drive you nuts in a good positive way, make you want to travel to the shores of Adriatic and make you wonder why are such movies not screened let alone made in India!?

The Long Road Home

noreply@blogger.com (Shanky) — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 12:34:00 +0000

This is a continuation from my travelogue about Kanchanaburi .

After a great trip to Kanchanaburi, the paradise that is almost forgotten by tourists, it was time to pack the bags and hit the road home. Have you noticed that the start of the trip is always full of energy and it gets to zero towards the end. What took like 2 seconds to reach the destination from home seems like 2 years while returning!? Well, I guess we all feel that way. But this journey back from Kanchanaburi was as eventful and adrenaline pumping as my onward journey was and hence this day turned out to be an awesome one with good lot of experiences in itself. whoever said that the journey is as important as the destination was a genius!

A pleasant surprise awaited me when I boarded the bus at Kanchanaburi which will take me to Suphanburi. The bus was loaded with Dutch, Deutsche and Brit backpacking students (Of course all girls). I could not believe this! This is the perfect platform to complete Operation Good Indian. I am just disgusted or frustrated by the foreigners who think they know all about India and Indians and pass 'smart ass' judgements. I am seriously pissed! I have been browsing the Lonely planet's thorntree forum for sometime now and the kind of image that foreigners have of India(ns) is pathetic. I just kept to myself and my book till the conductor was asking them 5THB extra than the usual 45THB. Now is the time to be the good samaritan and make my country proud! I jumped in (albeit in a less than heroic way) and asked the conductor in my master class Thai about the extra he was demanding. He explained that these ladies are going to Singburi and not Suphanburi. I got confused and asked him if this bus goes till Singburi and he said yes (or so I thought). I then explained the 5THB difference to them and they were happy. After that two of the girls were chatting with me for a few minutes and everything was silent again. Mission Good Indian accomplished!

But this does not end here for us. As it happens, the bus did not go till Singburi and the conductor pocketed the extra 5THB per passenger in his pocket. His beer for the night has been sponsored by naive farangs. I was sure by now that the girls looked at me as an accomplice to the sham. Shame on such people, be it Thais or Indians who make others look bad! But fate did not let me ponder too much on this, he had better plans. Once we alighted the bus, we saw a deserted bus station and the tuk tuk guys were literally all over us offering a ride to the best hotel. Yes, the last bus has left for the day and we were stranded in Suphanburi for the night! Though I knew that cheap taxi exists only in an utopian world, being the optimist I am I led the group (of me and the girls) inside the bus station to fend for taxi or any such alternative. Of course, it was exorbhitantly priced and we had to reject it. But the trouble was I was talking in broken Thai and the girls did not understand a bit. They only understood the outcome, which was that they cannot afford the taxi at that price. Here is a stranger who looks like he is helping but there is nothing coming out of his acts. Obviously anyone would be suspicious now and they started giving me the looks (Of course the nasty ones).

I ignored those vile looks anyway, I had a bigger problem to worry about than their looks. I am a guy and they are girls. Obviously the whole world will be ready to help them while people will be laughing at my problem. India Vs Rest of World is over and Boys Vs Girls has started in my mind! I come out of the bus station dejected, trying to flag down a car or something! Just then I saw a familiar face. But that guy was trying to hide or at least get out of my view. My heart was jumping with joy and did a reverse somersault. I blurted out pointing my finger at him - "Hey you! you are Taxi driver from Ang thong?! I know you". He just replied with a wide eyed shake of his head. This was my lucky break and I cannot let it go, so I persisted "I know you. You take to Karaoke". Now he identifies me, "Yeah! But no taxi. Taxi in Bangkok flood!" I muttered a few expletives at the flood this time and asked him "How you go Ang Thong?" Now, to communicate to a Thai who "knows" English, you need to talk like them. It might be perceived as mocking but what the hell, it gets the job done better! So screw the grammar. Make it a lean sentence with only essential information so that his brain can process it quickly. It really helps!

Now, after this he agreed to call his friend who has a pickup truck and drop me at my colony doorstep. He is the guy who my friends and I used to hire when we felt like going to the Karaoke bars in Ang Thong for a weekend drink. So we have given him a lot of business and he better not mess with me :P We are to split the pickup truck cost, to which I happily agreed. Now, the girls were there when the negotiations were happening and have by now confirmed I am a total jerk who in the mask of helping them was trying to rip off money from them. Now that I cannot, I am just fleeing. So, after securing myself it was Mission Good Indian again. I asked my taxi driver "friend" if he has any more friends with pickup trucks to help these lovely ladies. He gave them some numbers and asked them to call. By that time our pick up truck had come. I guess the numbers had worked cause the two who chatted me in the bus were now smiling and waving. Dear Farangs/Phirangs, Indians are not bad. We stare at you because you are different just the same reason why you travel to India (and stare at her) because she is different.

Falcon calling Mother - Operation Good Indian complete. Returning to base!

Kanchanaburi - Forgotten Paradise!

noreply@blogger.com (Shanky) — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 15:36:00 +0000

5th Tier of Erawan Water Fall

It has been three weekends and no travel! I was beginning to get antsy and was bitching about the floods that has got every frickin road out of Ang Thong closed down. But enough is enough, I am going this weekend and noone can stop me - not the floods, not the manager who refused to give the vehicle to the next town, not even the guest house manager who was paranoid about me drowning and dying in a foreign country! My friends and I had chosen Kanchanaburi for the weekend. With so many national parks, the river Kwae and cheap accommodation it is a great place to unwind after a hard working week or even a partying week. Getting to Kanchanaburi from Bangkok is a no-brainer, as is getting to most places in Thailand from Bangkok. But getting to Kanchanaburi from Ang Thong requires extensive research and mastery over google technology. By google technology, I mean your ability to vary your search string based on the output and finally hitting jackpot based on trial and error. Being an MBA and having done this for most of my projects - data research and otherwise, I can safely say I know a little something about Google tech.

After extensive research I found that the route is Ang Thong - Suphanburi - Kanchanaburi. The good thing about Thailand, though rarely documented, is the connectivity between provincial HQs. There are myriads of options at regular intervals. Only downside being they close quite early! Last transport can be as early as 5pm and after that you are stranded at the place searching for cheap shelter or cheaper taxi. Chances of getting a cheaper taxi is as much as sighting moon on a new moon day. I started very early on Saturday morning so that I can have maximum time at Kanchanaburi for the day. Cheap bus option from Ang thong took me to Suphanburi and cost me 27 THB and 60 minutes. Suphanburi has a decent bus station with eating options and a clean restroom. From suphanburi it took me 45 THB and 1.5 hours to reach Kanchanaburi.

Bridge Over River Kwae

After a futile search, for Sam's guesthouse, on the bike taxi all along the Thamakarm road I gave up and asked the bike guy to drop me at the deathrailway. This is the site of famous bridge over the river kwae; shot into popularity by the hollywood movie of the same name. The place does have a vibe to it, especially after having read so much about it. Clicked some pics, had Thai style grilled chicken, Thai coffe and then off to War cemetry. In true backpacker style, my walk to war cemetry was broken by Sams. I had found it!! I went in, booked a room and the AC was more convincing than the noon sun. So I decided to catch a nap which also meant I will not be able to see the cemetry in this trip. Meanwhile my friends from Bangkok had arrived. After lunch we hired a taxi to take to hell fire pass, Sai Yok National park and a cave. The route to Sai Yok was scenic and had lots and lots of landscape photo op!

River Kwae

We finished the night with some great drinks at the cracker's aussie bar. I am always fascinated by these expats who leave their country and settle down in another country for retirement. The owner of this bar was a jolly fellow from Aussie land and we had some Brits for company as well. Man Utd was playing that night and we witnessed heated discussion about Aussie rules football vs real soccer. I tasted Malibu for the first time and fell in love with it! It was good night time and we had to start early as those guys wanted to sneak a peek at the bridge and then go to Erawan National Park.

Next day was awesome for more than one reason (reasons in the next post). We took the 8 am bus from Kanchanaburi to Erawan and reached after an hour's ride. The journey was scenic and a little tiring. We had a 3 km trek ahead of us (both ways) to cover the entire park and see all the seven tiers of the Erawan water falls. The falls, the water, the jungle - the setting is just mesmerising and you will not repent the 200THB park entry fee. It has been well maintained as well with clear directions to each level. The hike gets a bit tricky after tier 4 and is not for casual/relaxed sauntering. While coming back I was tired and rejuvenated myself by taking a dip in the second level water fall infested by hungryfishes that will nibble at your dead skin. We were descending from the seventh level around 12pm and could see why it is a good idea to reach this place early. Tourists, Ze Germans in particular, swarm this place in huge numbers from noon. It is like the mongol hordes raiding the wealthy nations. You see hot german blondes to grandmas in their swim suits and bikinis complete with Spanish style flower on the side of their head begin to crowd the pools of the waterfall.

Painting on the wall of restaurant

After the tiring hike we headed to one of the restaurants near the bus station in Erawan. This place served the best Khao Phad Khai (chicken fried rice) that I have had till date. Maybe it is the fatigue and hunger! I also loved the paintings in the walls of this restaurant. It was time to leave and we went separate ways after reaching Kanchanaburi; my friends to Bangkok and I to Ang Thong. So time to head back home and another run of the mill week at work. But the travel bug is back with a vengence!

A Rainbow in the Night - Book Review

noreply@blogger.com (Shanky) — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 15:39:00 +0000

Even as a kid, my fascination towards the big cats was unexplainable. I have no clue why, but I think it might be due to the character of Bhagira in Jungle book. As I grew up, I was fascinated by the countries which had these big cats in large numbers. That and reading about Gandhiji's ashram in SA and colonization of African countries increased my fascination and a sense of brotherhood towards African nations. I think they will be able to understand the Indian way of life better because they have suffered the same difficulties that we Indians have suffered. This fascination and the sense of brotherhood drove me towards buying "A Rainbow in the Night: Mandela and the tumultuous birth of South Africa" at the Mumbai airport when I was waiting for my Kolkata flight almost 5 months back!

Some books/authors try to analyze a situation from what they see now and try to behave like they are the messengers of god - giving out solutions and how the problems can be resolved. Most of the self help books fall into this category and I try to avoid them. Some books look deeper into the situation try to analyze what was the starting point, take a macro view and then drill deep into the current state of affairs. I love such books and in fact that is how even I think sometimes. Asking why is a disease that I have developed over the years and I am truly happy to have contracted it. Dominique Lapierre hits the bulls eye in this book with his approach to recording the notorious events that marked some of the dark times in South African history. The narrative is a mixture of story telling and reality TV styles. In story telling he transports you to an era where the Voortrekkers first embarked on a historic trek across Africa to find the promised land for their race. The reality TV comes into play when he describes the real life stories of some of the unsung heroes of the apartheid period.

Success of any major movement has three very essential ingredients - A designated leader, non-designated leaders and supporters. By supporters I mean sympathisers from the other side of the table who see the rationale behind the movement. Take independence movement in India - M.K. Gandhi was the designated leader, Subramaniam Bharathiyar, The trio of Lal, Bal, Pal and many others were the non-designated leaders and there were many sympathisers from the British side who helped as well. Identifying all of these group gives you a clearer picture and is the least that humanity can do to pay respect to the movement as whole! M.K. Gandhi might be the father of the nation but without the other two ingredients he might have just been another brick in the wall! This book (don't let the title, Mandela and the tumultuous birth of South Africa, deceive you) does exactly the same. It tells you why Mandela is a celebrated leader of SA, who were the unsung heroes and who are the sympathizers who made it possible for the nation to reemerge from its ashes. By identifying the sympathizers there is one other important duty that this book or any such book performs. It eradicates the backlash of hatred and reduces stereotyping!

I always thought these designated leaders are just overhyped! I mean, they could not have achieved what they achieved without the help of others, is it not? I had a similar notion about Mandela and I held the notion for most part of the book. But during the later parts, when SA just gets rid of apartheid and grapples with the myriad problems that comes with sudden freedom, this book highlights why Mandela is a leader! Instead of writing a whole lot about it, let me just say Mandela is an awesome leader! Invictus gave me a peep into his leadership qualities and this book just seals it! When you hear an idea and think "That's so simple! I assumed that might have been tried already!", it means that is the most simplest yet most powerful idea to solve the problem. One such is the idea of doing away with courts and implementing something even more basic - a reconciliation center for the crimes committed during apartheid. Imagine, someone having the conviction and courage to think of such a bold idea! Such was the audacity of the non-designated leaders that Mandela could turn to in times of crisis. Man in point - Desmond Tutu, Nobel prize winner. How strong must a Caucasian woman (Speech therapist) be to adopt an entire black township which lacks anything that will be labelled as basic amenity in today's world. She not only adopts it but also transforms the women there to unleash the potential leaders in them. 'Mama' Helen gives us all a lesson or two about transformational leadership. Many such personalities, ideas and leaders adorn this book.

This book will emote you, inspire you and make you think about how you treat everyone around you. It orders you to be humble, requests you to show compassion and respect to others. Any day I will recommend this book. A definite must read for any human being who can read! Regarding the downsides, I could not find any. Next time you go to a book store just grab a copy of this book and read it! It is better than the average bestseller novels and is definitely not boring like the documentary type history books. Dominique Lapierre just stormed into my list of favorite authors and I am definitely going to read all his books starting with Freedom at midnight next :)

Eat Pray Love - Movie Review

noreply@blogger.com (Shanky) — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 23:21:00 +0000

If you want to wager with me and win, here is the secret: Show me a Julia Roberts movie and challenge me not to fall in love with her acting/character. You can even extort my entire salary at times! She is so good at what she does. Be it the struggling mother and activist in Erin Brockovich or the high flying actress in Notting Hill or the distressed lady in Eat Pray Love, Julia does it supremely well. The movie based on a book by the same name revovles around her and is another Julia Roberts treat for her fans. But is it enough for others?

Elizabeth (Liz), played by Julia Roberts, is a professionally successful PR who is struggling with her personal life. When shit happens and hits the fan, she decides to travel and travel in style. She decides a theme for her travel, Lonely Planet/Globe Trotter style - Eat. Pray. Love. The movie follows Liz in her glorious journey to rediscover herself through new experiences and learns to fall in love again. Of course she did not know what will happen during her journey and she ends her journey with a new born belief in "connecting the dots in your life" theory.

Peeping into her past gives us a few hints to how she chooses her travel destinations. Even without the flashback or the hints the choice of her destinations is not surprising. Liz chooses to eat in Italy, pray in India and love in Bali. The choices were quite apt/obvious considering the reputation for the these places in the US where the protagonist lives. She starts in Italy where she befriends a few locals and a swedish girl. The Italy that the movie portrays is the place of dream for anyone! Beautiful Roman buildings, street side bistros and mouth watering pizzas! The concept of crossing over explained through a single beautiful sounding word "attraversiamo" is excellent! But my favourite part about Italy is the one where they explain how to learn Italian! The series of visuals that describes the so called "Body language" of Italian language and the music that accompanies will definitely put a smile on your face.

The movie then follows Liz into one of the most vibrant countries, India, to pray and seek some serious inner peace. You would naturally expect a riot of colors, festivities to be interlaced with the whole inner peace thing. You are in for some disappointing portrayal of India!This part of the movie is the most dullest. They never really show any part of India. Almost the entire part is shot indoors in some god forsaken Ashram. Nothing much to write about except for the realization of balance that Julia attains through her recitation of Gita and meditation. There is also this old man who joins Julia in a quest to get a new life at the Ashram. I could not see any chemistry or friendship between the two and he overacts in his last scene as far as I can say. Perhaps, this is what the real Elizabeth experienced and hence is best for the movie. Perhaps, this is the best part for a few troubled souls. But I did not watch this movie to get any gyaan and I was not happy with this part. I usually do reruns of my favourite movies or parts of movies and whenever I do a rerun of this movie, I am sure I will skip this part. By now I was a little bored and paused the movie a few times to refresh facebook and Gmail (hint).

Then comes magical Bali! As Liz's friend in Bali says, "Everyone has a love affair in Bali :-)" It is here that she meets an emotional, good looking, Spanish jewellery exporter by accident (quite literally). Of course, with the Spanish accent, his charm and an exotic, excellent bossa nova version of "S' wonderful" playing in the background Felipe,played by Javier, wins over Liz. Bali, like Italy, is shown in all its glory! The lighting is just great, the colors are vibrant,music is soothing. Perfecto! Bali gets such attention from the director maybe because the whole story starts from Bali. It is here a year ago, when on work, Liz meets a fortune teller (called Ketut) and he predicts that she will return in one year to Bali to teach him English. Also, it is here in Bali that Liz truly rediscovers herself and meets some interesting and wonderful characters - like the divorced traditional Balinese physician. Julia collects & donates a hefty sum to this divorced mother so that she could start a new life.

Cinematography and music highlights the importance of the events in any movie; more so in a travel based one. Both these aspects are good and this is one of the movies whose background score also sticks in your mind. Not in an Inception kind of way but in a very softer mode. Julia, I will say it again, has done superbly well (Yes I am prejudiced). She beautifully portrays the plight of the protagonist in the scene where she abruptly wakes up from her bed and prays to god with desperation, "Dear God, I know we have not spoken that much. But I need you now. Just tell me what to do and I will do". I am sure all of us have had such moments of desperation when having to make difficult choices and we want someone else to make the decision and make it easier for us. Who better than God to confide to, who lest assured wont divulge your plight to others and make fun of you later! Casting of the supporting actors, whose interactions and interventions can elevate or destroy (as in the case of "No one killed Jessica")the movie experience, has been good in this movie. With the exception of the Old man in Indian Ashram and the divorced physician in Bali I liked everyone else.

Bottomline - Is it a great movie? No. But its a decent enough movie which can be watched at least once. Will I watch it again - Yes, but without the Indian part :)

Yaadhum Oorae (All Towns are One!)

noreply@blogger.com (Shanky) — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 16:25:00 +0000

During my short tour to Bangkok over the past weeks and relentless wikitravel browsing I found striking similarities that Thailand shows vis-a-vis my mother land, India. I am definitely not comparing, merely contemplating about what brought about these similarities. Some of these similarities can be explained while others can be viewed as logical extensions and few others may be just stretching the fact (Globe or Gas, as we call it in B-school lingo). Here are a few observations from my side:

Ramayana

One of two great epics in India which enunciates how to rule a country through the portrayal of its protagonist - Lord Ram. The same exists here in Thailand in the name of Ramakian (Glory of Rama) and paintings of scenes from Ramakian adore the temple walls of Wat Phra Kew. Wiki says the following about Ramakien, "While the main story is identical to that of the Ramayana, many other aspects were transposed into a Thai context, such as the clothes, weapons, topography, and elements of nature, which are described as being Thai in style."

Karthigai

Wikipedia says, "Karthikai Deepam is a festival of lights celebrated by Tamil Hindus on the full moon day of Karthikai month (November/December), which is observed in every home and in every temple. This occurs on the day when the moon is in conjunction with the constellation Karthigai (Pleiades) and purnima." The Thais also have a similar custom during the same time of the year called Loy Krathong -"Loi Krathong takes place on the evening of the full moon of the 12th month in the traditional Thai lunar calendar. In the western calendar this usually falls in November." It also says this about the origin of the Loi Krathong - "...the originally Brahmanical festival was adapted by Buddhists in Thailand as a ceremony to honour the original Buddha, Siddhartha Guatama."

Mythology

There are some awesome mythological creatures in Hindu religion. Candidates worth being depicted in badassoftheweek.com. One such noteworthy creature is Garuda - The eagle/Kite incarnation of devas with intelligence that equals humans. As you might have guessed by now, Garuda is present in the Buddhist mythology as well and like in Indian mythology they have an eternal conflict with the Nagas! Thailand has gone one up on India on this one and have made Garuda their national symbol!

Garuda might be an awesome creature, but the most loved and revered mythological god in Hindu scene is Lord Ganesh - the elephant god! Elephant is the national animal of Thailand. Keeping aside the commercial exploitation of elephants, Thai people love elephants. In fact a lot of temples have Ganesha at their entrance (just as they are depicted in India). However, as some of the atheists in India claim, Ganesha was not part of the mythological scene in many of our ancient scriptures and they renounced Ganesha as an Indian god. This claim makes me think that may be Ganesha was an import from Thailand to India :)

The Connection

So these are some of the dots that I found in the first one month in Thailand. How do they connect? I did some more digging and found that Indian religion and culture has had far reaching influence than what we think today it has. A line from wikipedia about Thailand's history reads thus:

"Similar to other regions in Southeast Asia, it was heavily influenced by the culture and religions of India, starting with the kingdom of Funan around the 1st century CE."

There is more to it. The direct references of Ramayana (not just in Thailand but also in Indonesia and Cambodia) is a great trail to follow and I found that the ancient kingdom of Cholas from Tamilnadu spread across the modern day SE Asia.Though the heart of the Cholas were the immensely fertile basin of river Kaveri, they had reached as far as Cambodia while they were in their peak of influence. Wikipedia claims "The Chola dynasty was at the peak of its influence and power during the medieval period... Rajaraja Chola I and Rajendra Chola I extended the Chola kingdom beyond the traditional limits of a Tamil kingdom. At its peak, the Chola Empire stretched from the island of Sri Lanka in the south to the Godavari-Krishna basin in the north, up to the Konkan coast in Bhatkal, the entire Malabar Coast in addition to Lakshadweep, Maldives and vast areas of Chera country. In addition Rajendra's territories included the area falling on the Ganges-Hooghly-Damodar basin, large parts of Burma, Thailand, Indo-China Laos, Kambodia, the Malay peninsula and Indonesia."

Hence my dear friends, the relationship between us and the SE Asia nations extends beyond the noodles, rice and cooking! Apart from the dots mentioned here there are many similarities in the day-today practices as well. For example, Like in India, Thai people also consider their feet to be dirtier than other parts and hence it is disrespectful to point your feet at someone or even point it at a thing. If only we can understand the golden words of Kaniyan Poongunranar better - "Yaadhum oorae yaavarum kelir" (To us all towns are one, all men our kin), we wont be calling them Chinkis and they wont be calling as Farangs.

Interesting Journey

noreply@blogger.com (Shanky) — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 12:31:00 +0000

The real driver

On my first visit to Bangkok, I met with a 50 year old taxi driver who claimed to be an ex-Muay Thai boxer. I have my own reservations about how much I should believe him. But this is not about his integrity or even ethics. He was a friendly taxi driver I hailed to take me to Mo Chit BTS station (commonly known as Mo Chit 2) from Mo Chit bus terminal. He was chatting away from the beginning in his broken English like many other taxi drivers. I usually feel sad for old men to go work in jobs like these, I don’t know why. I want them to sit back in a rocking chair and while their time away adoring their grand children. Working as a taxi driver or a table cleaner in a restaurant where grumpy jackass customers scold you or scowl at you is not how I like the elders to spend their old age. Especially the nice ones must be endowed with a beach bungalow where they can sip on some lemon ice tea, listen to Bob Marley or some music like that and just stare at the horizon. Whatever I may wish for them, the reality is that this gentleman is still working in one of the ugliest professions where every driver is abused by the commuters for cheating them. This thought of compassion (I don’t know how else to put this feeling) made me listen to him rather than just ask him to shut up!

He started with his work profile and started asking about what I do etc. Apparently he was a chauffeur for wealthy financial services managers in Bangkok. His previous employers were working in Standard Chartered and Deutsch bank and both were farangs (read: Expats/foreigners). He has also travelled the world as a boxer including a trip to Pakistan, he claimed. Then he said he does not smoke or drink but admitted he has a sweet tooth and even showed me the assortment of sweet buns and cookies he had stashed away in the glove compartment. I was smiling all the while, nodding at the right places and even acted surprised when he showed me the cookies. That was the least I could do for this jolly old man; give some time and attention during the travel. But all the travel guides that I had read and all the advise that I had listened to, from colleagues, pointed to one rule - always be wary of people who are friendlier than required. But that day I was to learn that there are exceptions to every rule!

He was fascinated that I work in Ang Thong province and told me his native is in that province as well. Apparently he is fed up with Bangkok and wanted to move closer home. The fast life and the traffic is not what he can take at this stage in life. I can completely understand what he meant though the language he spoke was not spot-on. This is when he asked me if I had a car in Ang Thong. I told him that I was new (and immediately regretted it . I had made a mistake; now he will take me via a longer route and ask more money!) and that I cannot afford one now. He then said something that really moved me, "Sir whenever you buy car please call me. I am a good driver! I no drink. I no smoke. Give little money. I want to go country side. Bangkok - too much traffic, not good." His voice radiated sincerity and earnestness which made me feel sad. I told him I will be buying a car sometime in my life. This somehow brightened him up. He then gave me his number and took mine as well and said, "Please call me sir. I good driver" Pangs of guilt immediately started pricking me. I know I am going to be here for 3 months only and I have kindled a ray of hope in this poor fellow. A hope that I know will be put off sooner than later. I felt really bad for doing this to the guy.

While we were crawling through the Bangkok traffic he was repeating his plea to employ him as my driver. He did not have a resume or talk about his achievements but just the way he was persistent about his ability to drive well and the sincerity with which he said those words will make anyone give him a job. And I knew I won’t be able to live with the guilt that I gave him hope and then crushed it. I have done that enough number of times in my life to many people who I know, I loved and have regretted later for giving them the hope. So, I gathered some courage and told him that I am not here for long and that I will be leaving. I guess he wanted the job very badly, even this admittance did not deter him. He then asked me "When you come back?" I replied that I might not come back at all but still he persisted "OK. U come back and buy car. Then call me sir. I good driver" I said "Ok, I will" He then said "Thank you sir, Mr. San" (I had shortened my name for him so that he can say it easily)

Finally the taxi reached the station gates and it was time to pay up. Panic struck again inside me and I was thinking he will demand more money now. According to the rule he was too earnest and more than friendly, so he must fleece me. Half expecting him to raise the fare, I gave him the fare that the meter showed. He took the money and said "Thank you sir. Thank you Mr. San. You call me, OK." Another pang and I feel a heavy stomach, dry throat and awe at the optimism this old man was showing. Like they say, the journey is more important than the destination. A petty commute from bus station to BTS station and this will definitely be in my memory forever. I sincerely pray that the guy get a better job than this and live his life in peace. Amen!

Sawatdee Khrap!

noreply@blogger.com (Shanky) — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 12:28:00 +0000

Courtesy: Google Images

Courtesy: wikitravel

This is the first time my Indian issued passport is going to get a foreign stamp or should I say "Farang" stamp as they say here in Thailand ;)? Thanks to the company I am working for, I will be in Angthong province in Thailand for a 3 month training stint. Angthong is around 110 kms from Bangkok and so weekends are not going to be sober ;) But only after coming here I discover that even weekdays need not be sober :) So on 18 Sept, 2011 early hours I started my epic journey to Thailand. Thanks to Air India, we were delayed and practically held hostage at the Mumbai International airport for over 3 hours after scheduled departure time (I was so pissed off that I could have slapped any employee who had the guts to justify with some stupid reason).

After the delay, tiring flight and some 4.5 hours of time later we arrived at the Suvarnabhumi airport, Bangkok. I was too tired by now to be even psyched about being there! Damn you - Air India! After the usual airport checks me and my friend (he is to be stationed 15 min from the nearest skytrain station in Bangkok!! Lucky Bugger!) were searching for our company placard holding driver! And to our horror neither of our drivers spoke English!! After dancing around in the name of sign language we got into our cabs and drove towards our respective destinations.

So with no Thai from my side and no English from their side most of my conversations with factory workers, drivers or shop owners were like Sunday 2:00 pm DD news! But I love to learn new languages and so, I started off with internet (www.learningthai.com) and it was pretty useful. Unlike Indian languages, Thai is a tonal language and pretty difficult to master without you actually hearing them speak the words. That is where learningthai.com was better than other sites and they usually have an Romanised version of the Thai word phrase or sentence and on clicking the Thai version of it, you can also hear a native guy speak the word out to you.

So, equipped with some basic Thai and loaded with some Baht, my friend and I decided we should go around Bangkok the following weekend-day (I have a 6 day workweek :x and hence the new word). I took a commuter van from Angthong to Bangkok on Saturday evening. These vans are very comfortable with Aircon, LCD TV and plush cushion seats. However, there was only one problem, they don’t speak English and my "basic"/"Fair" Thai was not making any sense to them. As fate would have it, I ended up at a farther off skytrain station that lengthened my journey as well! But what the heck, I was in Bangkok!! I took a sky train to my friend's place in SamutPrakarn and the skytrain system is exactly like our Delhi Metro system minus the bag checking and extensive security. Luckily the automated voice announced the stations both in Thai and English which made it easier. We then passed our time off at a mall in Samutprakarn. We roamed around the mall marveling at the variety of stores, size of the mall and the hotness quotient of Thai sales girls. The night was well spent!

The next day morning we decided to visit the three most important tourist attractions of Bangkok - The grand palace, Wat Pho and Wat Arun. After landing at few wrong stations and then shifting trains (Luckily I had a 30 day pass for the skytrain), we reached SuphanTaksin station on the Silom line. From there we had to take an express boat on the Chao Phraya river to reach the Maharaja pier where all the three attractions are located. Grand Palace has a hefty entry fee for foreigners (THB 400) and I think it is worth the money. It also houses the Wat Phra Theow, the temple of Emerald Buddha. Emerald Buddha is the most revered and loved Buddha in all of Thailand. The other two attractions will cost you THB 50 each. Wat Arun is across the river and ferry service for THB 6 per person (up & down) is available. You will definitely be approached by scamsters claiming the palace is closed or is under renovation, just ignore them and go see for yourself. (We were approached by a guy with a "Tourist Police" tag with the same story)

After tiring roundup of the famous attractions in Bangkok it was time for me to leave for Angthong and this time I was better off in finding the right commuter van and was back safe at my company guest house.

Practical Information:

Never ever trust someone who is willing to help you unsolicited and more than required. Insist on meter when in taxis and tuktuks are best avoided.
You get better exchange rates in the city than at the bank counters in the airport (1THB = 1.6 INR in the city while it was 2.5 INR at the airport. 1USD = 30.1 in the city while it was 29.1 at the airport)
Buy a lonelyplanet guide or at least go through wiki travel pages and take printouts if need be
Bring along the two pin US to India travel adapter/converter

The Departed Mafia

noreply@blogger.com (Shanky) — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 09:45:00 +0000

One of the important value-add through my MBA at IIM Lucknow was the introduction to a game called Mafia and redemption from the stupid Mafia wars on FB. The new mafia is a game involving real smart, enthusiastic people. That’s it! No boards, no dice, no cards, no timekeeper or any other equipment/prop. Its a simple yet powerful game and you will be so engrossed that you will forget time passing by you, tapping your shoulder and saying a quick "hi". This was one of the biggest tactics used by us to have breakfast which is ever so elusive otherwise. "Let’s play Mafia all night, then have anda maggi from GnB at 7" someone would suggest and then after furious messaging you have a gang of 6-9 students playing mafia with mild music in the background, alcohol is optional. "Enough of the teaser!" you say. Ok. Let me introduce to you, the best strategy/psychology based game ever - Mafia!

This game involves an imaginary village with lush green fields, prosperous and dutiful citizens and one banyan tree. Yes. Banyan tree is a must; where else will you gather for the night meetings? Now, their peace is being disturbed by the presence of 2 Mafias (This can vary depending on total no. of players) camouflaged as villagers among them. Every night the village headman, also known as coordinator of the game, brings the entire village together to identify the mafia members through logic and reason. During night, everyone sleeps (just close your eyes but be attentive!) while the Mafia is awake. The Mafia takes advantage of sleeping villagers and scheme to kill a person. They identify the target to the headman and go to sleep. The headman asks only the doctor/witch/angel of the village (A villager with special power) to wake up and gives him/her the choice to redeem/purify one of the villager. Now, if this person identified by the doctor/angel is same as the mafia target, then he/she is spared. On the other hand, if that person is not the same as mafia target, then the target dies and the one chosen by the angel gets nothing. When dawn breaks, the headman asks everyone to wake up and announces the actions from previous night without revealing the identity of the perpetrators. Usually this is followed by pandemonium - Villagers desperately trying to find the mafia and the mafia trying to defend them. Then there is voting to find the accused (like Jury style justice in US) and the headman eliminates the person with maximum votes to the cheers of others "Let’s kill the mafia bitch!" and declares the dead person's identity. Yes. Mafia also votes. Dude, democracy man... Come on da! Ok, now this is one day in the village. The days passby until all the villagers are killed or all the mafia are killed and depending on that we have the group winner.

You may ask why the headman is not revealing the identity of the mafia. One, this is a game, stupid! Two, he is elected by the people but paid by the mafia. Got the flow? *wink wink nudge nudge*, huh... huh? The roles are assigned by a fair means (which is random chit picking). Also you can get imaginative and improvise on the roles, add some new characters and give them powers. But worry not, whichever role you play, you will enjoy this game. The amazing thing about the game is the worry/excitement that villagers display to choose the accused in the morning. Also, every action you take during the day has repercussions in the night, just like in real life. Finally, the discussion, alliance formation, argument and final decision of choosing the accused is awesome. The reason behind the choice can be as lame as "On the basis of Maslow's hierarchy law and the porters five force model he is the mafia, I think" or as logical as "I heard him move when the headman asked mafia to wake up, he is the mafia!". What? You are going to play now? Wait. Wait. I want to tell more.

When a game is so close to real life, can't a movie be so close to a game? There might be many movies that have taken this game as the base. But The Departed is one movie which really kicked some serious ass and which I loved a lot. Martin Scorsese is a wizard in Hollywood churning out magical movies. He has some great movies to his credit and The Departed would have been just another day in office for him. My humble opinion is that this movie loosely adapts the game. Maybe I am wrong and it is just two scenes that inspired me to write this post. The movie is about a mole (Matt Damon) in Massachusetts state police dept and a counter-mole (Leonardo DiCaprio) in one of the city’s gangs planted by the police dept. The gang is headed by Jack Nicholson who had planted Matt in the police ranks. In essence, in the movie, there are two villages - Policeville and Gangstaville. They have their own set of villagers, mafia and coordinators. Information flows on both sides and both sides get to know they have a rat in their ranks. This is when things get interesting.

Now, everyone is under scrutiny and everyone is tensed about his fate after inquiry. The game actually reveals itself so clearly in one of the scenes where DiCaprio, one of the latest recruits of the gang, is questioned by Jack. The answers, logic and the body language that DiCaprio brings in that scene is tremendous! Partly because of his skills, partly because of the director and partly because of the nostalgia (about the mafia game) that the scene brings out, it easily scores a perfect ten for me. There is another scene in a deserted theatre where Matt Damon tries to convince Jack that he can find the rat in the gang's ranks. This scene is another gem which again replicates the scheming sequence of the game. One big difference between the movie and the game is the absence of a doctor/angel. Though one can argue, the two officers who trained Di Caprio could be considered as one. These two mini mafia games collide to form one big mafia game like how the 3*3 squares form the su-do-ku puzzle. Before you even realise, truth reveals itself and there is a mega explosion - of blood and awesomeness!

PS: For a 7 member group - Have one headman, one doctor/angel villager, 3 normal villagers and 2 Mafia men. You are free to improvise on the schema, no copyrights involved!

For complete rules, tips & tricks - check the wiki page - Mafia (party game)

Blind!

noreply@blogger.com (Shanky) — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 09:44:00 +0000

Pic Courtesy: www.danlew.com

Rainbows used to be the magical color palette of the nature until you found out the science behind it. The stars were mystical beauties until we realised its just a mega giant torch burning far far away from us. Many things that were wonderful and beautiful becomes mundane and uninteresting once you find out the science behind them. So is it that being ignorant is bliss? Nope! Poets, writers and painters see the same moon, same stars, rainbows, lovers everyday and still are inspired by them every day. They see the beauty in what they have and what they don’t. They are not seeking perfection from these elements; after all they are not some ill-grown manager. They are inspiring leaders who see the beauty in the positive as well as the negative. That is why, I have a simple rule "never be in awe of anyone/anything". Respect everything/anyone that will make you humble and realise how little you have achieved. However, if you are in awe you will only end up as a blind follower. Being a blind follower you are paving way to two kinds of blindness - Learning the right lesson and missing the beauty.

The frenzy around Steve Jobs is a prime example for blind following. He resigned and the whole world had to write eulogy, and rightly so, as if he died in war! This man has shaped how more than half the world does its work today, converses with others and in some cases even how it thinks. All the praises that we have showered on him is worth every word of it. But then there are two side effects to this frenzy. One, we fail to grasp the real reason why Steve was so successful. Second we fail to look into the failures of Jobs and hence lose the lessons in the loss. I am sure most of us think he is some kind of wizard who dreamed about ipad and unleashed his creativity one fine morning to capture our imagination. But truth cannot be far from it. Here are two articles that somewhat captures the enigma behind Steve's success - Article 1 and Article 2. These are way better than the "Steve is god" posts on most other sites which would sound like a pre-teen raving about Justin Beiber. Also, here is one article that points to one of Jobs', probably biggest, mistake.

If you have to appreciate the real beauty of a person then you have to understand his/her positives as well as negatives, if not appreciate them. This is the second disaster that blind following leads you into. One small mistake and you tend to trash the person who you revered moments ago. Had you not been in awe and just followed your reason, respected him as a human being then you will be able to appreciate his real beauty as well. Our fathers are prime example for this! He was our hero during our child hood and whatever he did was the best. But wicked life adds its twist and we are revealed that dad is conservative. He cannot even surf the net. In short, he is not "cool". And then like sudden brakes in an otherwise smooth travelling Volvo cruiser you feel a push and then a pull. You stop seeing him as hero and the gap widens. This is when he stops being the handsome, strong dad to a vile, destroyer of freedom, dad. Beauty lies in the eye of the beholder, only because the brain said so! Garner some respect for everyone and everything; understand the good and bad of everyone and everything. Beauty will reveal itself from within you!

P.S: I have committed my share of blind following as well. I am a human being and I am a huge fan of Kamal Hassan, APJ Abdul Kalam, Sachin Tendulkar, AR Rahman and Illayaraja. In my blinded state I wrote a piece in this very blog on how Sachin is a god's avatar to show how a sportsman should be. Just like how Lord Ram came into this world to show how a ruler must be. Even Lord Ram had his share of shortcomings. He was not the best of Husbands, some might argue. Sachin too slipped from being a good citizen. Not once, but twice. At least the first time can be termed as a casual mistake - When he got a Ferrari without paying customs. The second time he has committed (almost) the same mistake pertaining to taxes. Well, he has twisted the laws to suit his pocket. Read from here.

Mankaatha - Movie Review

noreply@blogger.com (Shanky) — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 12:55:00 +0000

Just before the interval, Ajit plays chess and rehearses his moves to eliminate his partners. He would declare with finesse and arrogance "I am the King... maker!" That is when u sit up, smile and tell yourself "Bring it on baby!". The movie is about four rogue friends trying to complete a heist. Now money is evil, the only thing more evil is the desire that it creates. With 4 rogues, one planner and so much money the film heads into a topsy-turvy roller coaster ride that you shall enjoy. This is the first true multi-starrer for Venkat Prabhu, the director of the movie. With 2 Established heroes, 1 upcoming fellow, few sidekicks, 4 heroines... phew that is a plateful to handle. Venkat Prabhu has done a decent job in helping the male stars to shine as much as they can while the female stars have little to no role to play. The movie line is such.

Getting "Inspired" is not new to Tamil cinema or even for Venkat Prabhu. So is the case with this movie. Many scenes, especially in the first half remind you about many movies like Italian Job. Even the characterisation in the movie follows the typical Hollywood heist movies. A Tech expert who is scared to death, a black sheep police, a guy who can get vehicles and money etc... Then comes the "god father" who is a veteran at heists and points out the gaping holes in the plan, offers help and voila you have successfully completed the heist. This movie is no different from such movies but don’t you get your hopes high, cause this is not Hollywood and we in Tamil industry seldom give any importance to the finer details or the task at hand. We live by a simple rule of distraction. Distract the unassuming poor Tamil film-goer with songs, lotsa glamour and rich party scenes. There you go... that completes a Hollywood style heist movie by a Kollywood director.

Venkat Prabhu has visibly struggled in the first half to establish the details about gambling and how the industry works. Clearly shows lack of confidence and also lack of research on his part. Might have thought that Ajith will carry the movie and people won’t mind seeing some stupid drunk scenes and Trisha's sexy tattoo. Oh! did I forget to tell you that the movie has four heroines and none of them seem to be lending weight to the story or the script? They are just instruments in the movie and are used and then thrown away. The worst of the lot is Andrea who features for exactly 3 scenes in the movie. Whatay waste of talent! But then, when there are other models and Lakshmi Rai ready to bare for the songs why waste money on the other heroines? Action King has helped in pulling some good dialogues but fails to impress in his role as the special officer.

Music was good but not the best of Yuvan. But the BGM was well reproduced and very catchy. BGM lends half the weight to the scenes where Ajith's character is the main stay. The songs are not something you will remember for long, except for "velayadidu Mankaatha". One particular song has good graphics with the room interiors and dresses of Ajith and Trisha changing as the song goes on. But I thought it was an advertisement for some interior designing company or paint or may be furniture. Even the choreography was akin to ad film. Cinematography is stylish and complements the mood of the scenes in every frame. A great job I would say, as a cinema viewer.

Till interval you are left with an uneasy feeling that you have wasted money on this one and that Ajith is never going to return to his previous glory. That is when Ajith decides to turn this movie and your opinion on its head with the Chess scene. That scene is like a teaser for what is awaiting you along with the hot cheese pop corn and diet coke (yeah, the irony of life!). After the interval, the movie does what we Indians are best at doing - reverse engineering. Now on, no one will care about how the money came or how the owner was robbed off it, all we will concentrate is how it is going to travel and end up in the hands of the person who it was supposed to go from the beginning! Venkat has cleverly worked backwards and has done a great job in the second half.

A good movie like this will keep you guessing about who it is or what is going to happen. You, even for a moment think you are right and give that see-I-told-you-smile at your friend in the next seat. Then the cheeky director gives a twist leaving you open mouthed and thinking - "Anga kondu poya vachanunga twisht eh?" This movie has plenty of such moments in the second half and you are sure to enjoy them with a sheepish grin. This is the time when Ajith takes his previous glory, amalgamates it, shines it with brasso and then showcases for the whole world to see. Ajith has delivered his magic in this film, finally!

If Mankaatha was a 4 course meal then the soup was pathetic, starters was below average and the main course was just about average or may be a little above. However, it packs a knock-out punch in dessert and an out of the world after-meal mint. What that means is while you come out of the theatre you are talking about the dessert and the mint and only the next day your stomach tells you (in this case brain) that most of the meal was average, to say the least. Mankaatha is worth a watch even two if you are an Ajith fan!

The Secret of The Nagas - Book Review

noreply@blogger.com (Shanky) — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 07:12:00 +0000

There are very few books that will make you feel one with the characters and emote you along with them. This is one of them. I really credit the author for doing this, especially considering that the characters in the book are considered gods in today's world. Hence to be able to connect to them in any way other than spiritual, fear or apathy is fascinating. To read about their anger, weaknesses, love and care for their family makes you feel like a god as well! This series by Amish, takes on the popular notion that gods might have once been brave and just kings whose legends might have given later generations an impression that they were immortal and invincible. They were gods.

In his first book of the trilogy, Shiva migrates from his birth place of Tibet into India where he is hailed as the Neelkanth - The destroyer of evil who will help India from its evident downfall. India at that time, according to the author, had three different and powerful sects. The suryavanshis - who live by the rules created by Lord Ram and consider that deviating from the rules were to commit a terrible sin. The Chandravanshis - who worship Lord Ram and take his rules as guidelines and hence give enough freedom for individuals to choose their way of life. The Nagas - The supposedly cursed humans who live a secluded and secret life from other humans in order to clean themselves of the sin from their earlier birth. Although everyone believed in the legend of the Neelkanth (Blue throat), the Suryavanshis were the ones who exert themselves in finding him and seeking his help. So, like many other historical leaders Shiva was led in to believing that the orderly Suryavanshis are the good people and leading them to victory against Chandravanshis was his destiny. The book ended with the Suryavanshis winning over the seemingly evil Chandravanshis. However Shiva realises that Chandravanshis are not evil, only different. Shiva is broken that he has led a war against these nice people and destroyed thier peace. Just then, the Nagas attack Shiva's wife, Sati and the book ended.

I agonisingly waited for the second book because of the sheer brilliance of the first book and the nerve wrecking ending. In fact, I had mailed the author on his personal website asking when will the second book be out. I have never ever done this in my life, not only for a book, but for anything else. So when this book was out, I ordered it on Flipkart and devoured it in 5 days (I have a day job, miss my student days :( ).In this book, Shiva continues his journey towards fulfilling his duty as the Neelkanth - the destroyer of evil. Only this time, his real enemy are the Nagas. These cursed disfigured humans are commiting sins in this life as well. With accusations from both Suryavanshis and Chandravanshis and also due to the unfortunate turn of events lead Shiva into believing that Nagas are the evil ones. During this dangerous conquest, the secret of the Nagas is revealed to us in a manner befitting the gods! The emotions, change of heart, relationships portrayed in this book makes it a definite page turner.

Along the way the book also gives you glimpses of courage, bravery, wisdom, trust, faith and commitment. Some of the events portrayed make up for leadership cases that will be interesting to say the least. But what is interesting about this book is that, I also realised what the leader is allowed to do. Sometimes, I think, we expect too much out of our leaders. Just because we trust them to be better than us does not mean they are not human beings. Even leaders have favorites, prejudices and flaws. But how well they manage to keep these distractions from clouding their judgement and hence their actions determine how great or fit a leader is. Shiva, the leader being portrayed in this book is also a human leader (not a god). So he has his favorite people, prejudice about men and practices and flaws in his skills. But he seldom allows these to cloud his judgement and hence more often than not he takes the right decisions and can clearly see where he wants to go. This makes it easier for his people to trust him and follow him because he is clear about what he is thinking.

Some of the emotions are easy to extract from your reader. Probably sadness and romance are examples for easy emotions.But to make someone feel inspired and courageous is something not every character or author can do. Amish has done that so well with his portrayal of characters. The sudden surge of excitement and jolt you get when some of our present day gods are introduced through some historic or perfectly logical assumptions made by the author is absolutely delightful. These are flashes of brilliance that increases the confidence you have in the author and the thought process that has gone into making this book. However, like Shiva, Amish also has a few shortcomings. With some gap between the two books and so many characters, a glossary of characters could have helped a new reader or even few older ones. Again the ending in this book is also nerve wrecking, to an extent even abrupt. The ending could have been a little smoother given that the surprise of such an ending has been experienced in the older book already.

To sum it up, whether you are a theist or an atheist, Shivaite or Vaishnavite, this book is a must read for the sheer joy and excitement that it packs in it. Finally, a worthy rival to all the western bestsellers that are US propaganda of how to save the world. Only this one is different than the others in a very Indian way, serving the Indian twist with a knock out punch. Go for it!

PS: The Shiva Trilogy is available as set of two books (released so far) in Flipkart

B+ - How Vs Why

noreply@blogger.com (Shanky) — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 11:25:00 +0000

Pic Courtesy: redbubble.com

When we were kids, we did not know anything about B+. Then slowly it was introduced to us as a blood group. Then a little later it was one of the dreaded grades. But this post is not about any of them. This is about being positive. Almost every feel good book, motivational speaker, teacher, coach, strategist, doctor, lawyer and many others preach this slogan of "B+ always; more so in the face of adversity" But most of them fail to say how! At least in India, my motherland, the answer for that question is "Have faith" or "Believe in the almighty!" Though I am a theist, I simply cannot make my mind wait for the events to turn positive when I am already distressed and am thinking am knee deep in sh!t.

The next question that pops up in our mind is what is that we need to be positive? Is it only when we are down? Or do we need to develop a positive outlook to everything around us? Be it a small incident or a slip up or even criticism. With a positive bend of mind, your life turns out to be better for you. Faced with adversity or victory does not matter when you can think through an optimistic lens. Before you close your browser tab, labeling this as a gyan post, let me move on. But only before warning you, this still could turn out to be a gyan post. But what the hell! Be positive buddy :)

I am not a management guru or any such thing. I am just a recent graduate and I think about everything that happens to me during the day before I go to sleep. This helps me organise my thoughts, schedule and most importantly analyse my behavior. One such outcome of that is about "How to be positive?" This is not a panacea and might fail in most places. But it is something and this something will help you in at least a few places. I strongly believe so and hence spending a few minutes to pen my thoughts.

When I am irritated or frustrated or feeling low or angry, I concentrate on asking the right question rather than finding the right answer. Seeking the answer before asking the right question can be a disaster in the making. So what is the right kind of question? Well, if it was just that simple and standard then I think life will be boring. So, even I don't know what is that question. But what I do know is that there is no one right question (sounds like globe or gas. Well it is :) ). In what I have discovered so far, I think it is better to avoid "How" questions and encourage more "why" questions to help being positive. Let me explain this with an example.

All of us have friends or relatives. Most of us would have fought with them time and again. When we fight, it usually is mended by other firends or by ourselves. However, in the interim period we undergo turmoil that is mood-killing to say the least. And during this period, most of us will be pondering over the "how" questions. "How can he say that to me?" "How can she do this to me?" or various other questions might pop up. The downside of such questions is that it leads us to recount the favors that we did for the other person while completely forgetting about what help they have rendered for us ["I helped him when he was financially down and this is how he repays?"]. Instead, try asking the "why" questions. "Why did he say that to me?" "Why did she do this to me?" Maybe, just maybe, you will get a few responses that might elevate the other person in your eyes. At least it will give you more than one option and a quicker healing time. "May be what I said irritated him" or "May be she did not know this will hurt me."

There might be a better example or a better way to handle such situations. If you know them or use them in your life, please let me know or spread the word for everyone to know.

Jugaad and the Anna Follower

noreply@blogger.com (Shanky) — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 13:05:00 +0000

Jugaad is a very Indian term for Indian way of doing things. We Indians in fact propragate and recognise or even accept the existence of only the positive side of it. However, like any good coin Jugaad has the second side as well. The negative side. The dark side.

Sometimes its funny how even the negatives are taken as positives in our society. Some sales guy could sabotage the competitor's inventory and hence achieves his target, then it is awesome Jugaad and not unethical. If someone can talk his/her way out of a traffic ticket after violating a traffic rule then he/she is a great jugaadu. I appreciate that they did not bribe the traffic constable but at the same time they will never learn the right lesson but bask in the attention that others pay for their stupid stunt.

Right, lets make it a little simpler. Auto-rickshaw or tuk-tuk is hailed as an example of jugaad innovation. I mean, it is custom made for Indian conditions, it is cheap and gives livelihood for so many people. Right? Wrong! Absolutely! Let me explain. consider a wide, straight and long road. Put an auto and a Volvo cruiser bus on that road. No traffic lights. Take it to be a kind of drag race. Which of the two will win? Correct answer. Now, let us change the scenario. Same auto and same Volvo cruiser and same road. But, we have traffic congestion. Now, which of the two will win? *Smirk* Now, we all agree auto is one of the jugaad innovations. But, don't you think we forgot the real problem lying beneath this? The real problem to be treated might be bad city/traffic planning or awareness about traffic rules or even lack of compassion among fellow riders. Are we even concerned about any of this? We are comfortable as long as someone is able to solve the problem. But is it the right problem he has solved? No one really cares, as long as they have immediate relief. Just pop a pill and forget about the headache and later you realise you have disrupted your digestive system.

Somewhat similar is the current situation in our country. The tussle between Lokpal and Jan Lokpal. Before you categorize me into one of the groups, let me quickly remind you that I am as much patriotic as you are. I want to end corruption as much as you want to do. But are we addressing the right question? Just because we have Anna Hazare and Arvind Kejriwal (I hold utmost respect for both of them) doing some jugaad on our behalf, are we sacrificing on the real solution? In the interest of the nation, I am sure both Anna Hazare and Arvind Kejriwal would have researched, debated and pondered over the bill they are proposing. But have you considered the bill? Have you pondered over what the real problem is? Have you, before shouting slogans and posting on FB, researched and more importantly debated about the bill? If so, good. If not, I sincerely urge everyone to do it in the name of everything that is holy!

Setting Anna and his courage apart, think once with your brain and decide. Are we really going to achieve anything with this Messianism? However noble the cause, the end never justifies means. That is one lesson that ruthless history has taught us. Again, Just to reiterate. My opinion is not about Anna or his bill. My fight is with you, the follower, who I perceive to be following Anna blindly. Out of rage. But do you even know why chose this path?

PS: This post is the outcome after reading the article by Prabhat Patnaik in The Hindu. The question that looms is - Are we "jugaadofying" Jan Lokpal bill without even knowing what the root cause of corruption is? Will this even work once all the brouhaha about the bill dies down?

Smoke and Mirrors - Book Review

noreply@blogger.com (Shanky) — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 11:14:00 +0000

There are certain books that claim to have all the answers for all the questions. There are books that gives you only questions and asks you for the answers. Then there are books that just narrates a stroy and provokes questions in your mind. The third variety of books are powerful as the provoked questions wont leave your head until you give them the due time and analyse them. Smoke & Mirrors by Pallavi Aiyar is one such book.

This book details about the five year love-hate relationship the author shared with China while living there. This is the first non-fiction and non-management book for me, I think, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Mostly because it had what I enjoy while watching a travel channel. It was not at all about the tourist places and how to get there and how much it will cost. It was more about what do people do there on a day today basis? What is it like inside their homes, office and schools/colleges? Are girls as much fussy as they are in India? Ok, I made that one up. But you got my point. This book is about exactly what the author saw in China and what she liked and what she did not like so much. She also breaks a number of wrong believes that we Indians hold against the Chinese. Also having been educated in India she could not resist herself from analysing the situation - political, social and economical. But the good thing is, most of the time she does not paralyse you with her analysis, rather makes you think over it more. Further, being an Indian herself she cannot but compare what she saw in China with what she has seen in India. As an Indian she is amazed at the dragon paced growth of China, the efficiency of the government and the healthy senior citizens of China. Yet as an Indian she also slyly rejoices about the democracy we have. The democracy that allows us to protest against the government, dirty the streets in the name of protest and then protest again against the government inaction in clearing the mess we had created.

India and China have many things in common. But the author does not dwell too much into such common ground as it is too mundane. She instead gets into the controversial and more thought provoking world of differences and the never ending thirst of each country to size the other one up. The world sees the two countries as the Asian giants with huge potential and capabilities that might disturb the current world order. But closer home it is a different story. It is constant comparison between the two. Almost like a middle class mother comparing her son with the neighbor's son or daughter. Being in India, we simply cannot stop comparing. Out of this comparison rises many questions all of which can be put as sub-question to a larger debate: which is better - communist regime in China or the democratic Indian way? The answer lies in the grey cells of the reader.

The most interesting part for me were the ones that described the author's life in Hutongs (name for traditional neighborhoods in Beijing) and her interactions with her landlord Mr. Wu. Partly my interest is derived from the fact that my childhood was spent in a very similar neighborhood in India. In my neighborhood everyone knows everyone, condiments and vegetables arrive at your door step with the sharp cry of the hawker, evenings are to be spent socializing with your neighbors. This part of the book is also free from the annoying intelligent questions that pop up in every other chapter of the book. This is the emotional part of the book and I would even go to say that it was the soul of the book that discussed about the common man in Beijing. Another important and inspirational part of the book is the one about the entrepreneurial spirit in some of the states and districts of China.

This is a book to be read one chapter at a time with tea/coffee and is best avoided if you are a fast reader who devour one bestseller after another.This is one of the biggest drawbacks of the book. The reason why I say this is that it sometimes confuses you with the structure. Author goes into the travelogue, takes a break by inserting a little analysis of what she saw, then a conversation with a cab driver and then the travelogue will resume. Another reason is also that the author simply could not give up on her journalistic choice of words. I found some of the words to be, what I call, GRE words. As far as the aesthetics are concerned, the book does good. Typography and cover are attractive. Pictures of the place being discussed in the chapter at the beginning of each chapter would have taken this book to another level and could have made it easier for the reader to imagine the entire scene that is being described.

So, will India overtake China? Will democracy be a boon or bane to India? Will China be the next super power? I have no answer to these questions, only further questions that can be augmented. However for the curious cats, Prof. Michael Witt from Insead claims to have the answer here.