Musings..

7 Khoon Maaf : Review & Analysis

2011-02-26T03:28:00.001+08:00

I had been waiting to watch 7 Khoon Maaf for months. Ever since I came to know that Vishal Bharadwaj was making a movie on Ruskin Bond's story "Susanna's Seven Husbands", I was greatly interested in knowing what the movie would turn out like. I even anticipated that sales of the book might increase due to the buzz of the movie. However I did not come across any copies of the book and hence went to watch the movie with an open mind. When I started watching the movie, I realized what was spoiling the effect of watching an otherwise good movie - an overkill of marketing. Of course people might say that without marketing, probably lesser people would have gone to see the movie. Look at what happened to Dhobi Ghat. Honestly, I don't think such statements can be answered with a singular "Yes" or "No". Both these movies belong to their own respective genres which swing between art and commercial cinema. I am not even sure if Dhobi Ghat and 7 Khoon Maaf belong to the same genre. Hence there will always remain a loyal crowd ( including me) for watching such movies. Marketing might increase a very small percentage of the audience who will end up watching the movie in the first 2 weeks.

Anyways, I don't think I liked the first scene of Priyanka Chopra supposedly murdering herself with a deadly revolver. Possibly put in there to indicate the level of violence in the movie. Few scenes rolling and then I'm comfortable because we're back in Bhardwaj's favourite dark environs. The bungalow in which the deadly Susanna Anna -Mahorie Johannes lives is huge and has plenty of cosy dark nooks which you keep discovering with every new scene . The other good thing is the new discovery - Vivaan Shah. Ratna Pathak Shah and Naseeruddin Shah's little boy has finally come to age and is an absolute natural. He is the narrator of the story, explaining to his wife, what makes him pore over Susanna's old pictures in wonder. Named "Sugar" by his mistress, he seems to have lost his heart in infatuation with his goddess. Naturally he hates all her husbands, though he has the sense to realize he can never replace any one of them. Through narration, the movie plods at a predictable pace with the six husbands appearing and disappearing in perfect order. Of course it was predictable from the start, when they show doctors asking for a DNA test to prove that Susanna is finally dead. You can make out then that she is very much alive and the test will be a sham.

All of Susanna's husbands seem to have had serious deficiencies ranging from sado-masochism, extreme anger to loyalty and greed for wealth. And as soon as they display such attributes, Susanna and her loyal servants connive to get rid of them as innovatively as possible.Were the murders necessary ? As the butler Ghalib points out, Susanna always had her way, no matter what. Barring Usha Uthup, the servants score brownie points over the husbands in acting , despite the presence of some acting powerhouses as her partners. Among the husbands, Irfan Khan probably has the best presence while the others put in decent efforts. Naseeruddin Shah , for some reason lets us down ..possibly it is due to that very bad Bengali accent. And pray which Bengali wife calls her husband " dada" ( Elder brother)?

While the film was likeable, there were certain things which could have been better. There was really no twist which is usually expected in such a film. The marketing buzz aggragavated the problem of predictability and some how despite Priyanka's best acting efforts, you never feel very sorry for her. Of course I would also attribute that effect to her feisty character onscreen that makes one think that she would automatically get out of this mess. Finally, I never went to see the movie expecting another Maqbool or a Blue Umbrella. Hence my disappointment with it is also probably lesser than others. Creative science unfortunately does not agree to factory production methods and we should be happy with the high quality control naturally associated with it.

White Mughals by William Darymple

2010-04-16T00:01:00.004+08:00

Staying at Kolkata has lot of advantages as I am discovering recently. The city is quite serious about reading books and hence I do not have to venture out to Oxford Bookstore or Crossword to buy a book. Within the 6 months at office, our office has arranged 2 book fairs. However, I was a bit disappointed to see the categories of books being bought by junta. Maximum number of copies were reserved for Harry Potter, Paul Coelho, Sidney Sheldon and the recent favourites.

However there were copies of other books that I was more interested in and considered a serious buy. I have been eyeing William Darymple's books for quite a while and was impressed by the descriptive account of Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India. However, my love for ancient life and customs overtook my interest for Nine Lives. I could just see 2 books in front of my eyes - The Last Mughal: The Fall of A Dynasty in Delhi, 1857 and White Mughals: Love and Betrayal in Eighteenth Century India.

However a love story between an Englishman and a Mughal princess is way more intriguing than the story of Bahadur Shah Zafar. So I promptly made up my mind to buy one book instead of no books and now I am the proud owner of "White Mughals."

I haven't read any of Darymple's previous books like The City of Djinns, The Age of Kali either. Hence his writing style is entirely new to me. However I love the way he tells his stories. In a way it reminds me of the story of 1001 Arabian Nights. You hear some but the rest is left for later. And you're intrigued enough to come back and hear more.

Darymple begins slowly by explaining the existing scenario in India in the 18th century. It is a unique time because the English have still not stabilized their position in India. The French are also trying to cause problems and influence the local courts. Along with it we have all the power play of the Marathas , Deccan Sultanate and other local rulers.However I came to know for the first time that there were some Englishmen who had imbibed the existing Indian culture completely. Some had taken up Hinduism while some were practising Mussalmans. Some of them even fell in love with Indian women and started extending their families in India. One of the best comments made in the story is about the way India as a country manages to seduce her attackers. She gets defeated but she still manages to attract them slowly and strongly; which probably explains why the Mughals entered India as ruddy warriors and left in pale petticoats.

Darymple's story is a beautiful tale which weaves in the little historical situations slowly to start describing the main story - the love story between the Englishman Kilpatrick and Khairunnisa , a high ranking noble princess. Love between two individuals always makes a great story .However this story is between two people who are totally different in terms of culture, upbringing and race and hence it makes an interesting read. The part which endears me most is that Darymple has taken much pain in researching and unfolding the story. An interesting book but you have to have the requisitie interest and patience as well.

My experience with Social CRM

2010-04-15T22:51:00.001+08:00

I've usually been a bit pessimistic about the practical use of social CRM in actual business. Of course its an old buzz word; it is marketed very extensively by any and every body. Some social networking sites like Twitter even offer you to become an instant celebrity or talk to your favourite celebrity; provided of course the favourite celebrity is actually tweeting him/herself.

The sole use for my involvement of social networks is to stay in touch with the innumerable people whom I cannot email , call or meet me every day. Thankfully few days back I finally got to see the power of social CRM albeit social media in this case.

I had recently joined a "premium" ;) website called FashionAndYou.com which has online sales and auctions for a very short period of time. Needless to say a lot of the stuff sold online is really premium and hence you can buy your favourite Escada perfume at a better price than the local mall.

Well no qualms about the website. It comes up with wonderful sales for perfumes, watches, shoes, clothes, paintings, knick knacks, etc. The design is pretty simple and colorful. When I bought my stuff the payment procedure went off smoothly. However, the delivery never happened! Thinking that premium retail in India is a bit slower than usual I gave it a bit more time. However, when things crossed limits, I decided to email their support team. The initial response was not prompt. However, thankfully there was a response asking me to wait.

Unfortunately one cannot wait for time infinity. So I tried communicating with the lady who had responded. She just managed to inform me that the vendor Forever New was having problem with thier stock. Wow!! I was asked to wait further. When I finally contacted them a week later, Mademoiselle was incommunicado. No response over email and her phone was perpetually busy.

Bugged and irritated.. I vented my ire on the Facebook account of FashionandYou of which I am a fan! I described the problem explicitly and asked them to buck up ala Childamabaram style. And then things started happening. I got a phone call in half an hour and a response on Facebook immediately.

Supposedly the vendor has refused or is unable to send the delivery. So my credit card account is to be credited with the amount. I also get a store credit of 500 bucks. Wonderful..if I hadn't taken the Facebook intiative, I guess this entire thing would have taken another month.

By the way my credit card account is still not credited. I sincerely hope I do not have whine on Facebook again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Post-mortem: You should take up social CRM very seriously and only when you know that as an organization you can support it totally. Flimsy back-end and colourful front-end won't be saved by a 60,000 fan strong Facebook or Twitter account. So think before you tweet!

Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi - Review

2010-03-07T23:02:00.002+08:00

I changed my original plan of going to watch a movie since the desired Hollywood movie hadn't yet come to town. Yes , it does make me feel like my city is a town. One of the top urban metros and it has to wait weeks before a current Hollywood movie can run in the cinema halls. Of course the "aatel" screening of French, Iranian and all other exotic movies continues parallely.So I decided to laze at home and relish whatever was left of the weekend. When I was finally bored of being lazy, I turned on the TV and decided watching Rab Ne Bana De Jodi and Bhool Bhulaiyaa parallely. A bad habit I admit, and even worse considering the fact that I had decided to watch the entire movie of RNBDJ and do some of my famous movie analysis.

Well RNBDJ scored low on the fact that even after watching it, I preferred switching channels to catch a glimpse of the Bhool Bhulaiyaa movie, despite having viewed the latter a couple of times. Obviously it was boring. And Akshay's wisecracks and comedy antics were beckoning me more than SRK and debutante Anushka Sharma's "Hello ji, suno ji". A clear case of overboard sweetness. OK, the story is meant to be endearing; but why make it so stupid. Our make-up artistes have helped produce Chachi 420 where another husband tried winning his wife back and also managed to win the audience's applause. Surely they could have worked on differentiating the characters of Surinder Sahni and Raj a bit more. Can't be that they were paid less as Yash Chopra's productions are usually rather lavish. Thankfully the lavish effect is absent in the film and the sarson ka khet is seen very briefly. What supreme effort it must have taken the Chopras not to go overboard with the locales, studio sets, etc. Thank God for that.

I think the main issue with the film is the loose script. It could have been made taut by reducing unnecessary scenes on the supposedly complicated range of emotions. Besides trying to complicate an over-simplified plot doesn't get you kudos. Anushka Sharma is a pretty face and quite good for a debutante. In fact I felt that she was better than Deepika in Om Shanti Om and even in the subsequent Bachna Ae Haseeno. Too bad because Deepika's career graph is still very strong unlike Anushka's current kitty of few films. King Khan also betters himself and has obviously worked very hard to get out of his boisterous image and get into the shoes of simple Surinder Sahni. However he should have spent equal amount of effort in choosing a good script. At the end of the day, RNBDJ didn't even feel good as a time-pass movie. Too bad about that , because SRK's acting was really good and deserves a mention.

My Afty Out@Nari Seva Sangha

2010-02-07T20:53:00.003+08:00

I haven't been spending much time with my mother outside the house, because I have been spending most of my time with her inside the house!!! Unfortunately, I become extremely lazy when I reach home after office and find all sorts of excuses not to go out. The cinema halls are too crowded, the shops are boring, the food isn't great... you name it, and I have got a ready excuse for it. Even if I do not, I could cook up one really fast.So if you want an excuse for some reason, you could contact me ( and I would charge you appropriately ;) ).

Yesterday of course, I decided to be a bit more amiable and accompany my mother to the annual exhibition held at Nari Seva Sangha in Jodhpur Park. Previously she used to visit this exhibition with her BFF. BFF is unavailable currently and I am the best substitute of course :D. While going to the exhibition, Mummy filled me on some of the social aspects of the exhibition. Some women visit the exhibition for genuine interest in looking at the umpteen variety of saris, costume jewellery, knick knacks; some are from the sophisticated gentry and the remaining lot are from the wannabes.

When I visited the exhibition site in the afternoon, it was teeming with people. The ground was quite small in size -thank God for that; it meant lesser number of shops. Unfortunately none of the apparel and saris caught my fancy. I did pick up some small trinkets of course. No sooner had I finished off with one shop, I felt I had accomplished all requirements except for the primary one. I announced loudly that I was very hungry despite having a full lunch an hour back. I sauntered off to the food corner and bugged every one in view till my requested food item was handed to me - patishapta. One of the many glorious sweetmeats of Bengal - full of sweet shredded coconuts. With the small piece of heaven in my hand, I finally found some bliss in munching happily and wandering in the sunny afternoon on a chilly February afternoon.
(Please note pic of sumptuous patishapta belongs to Bong Mom's Cookbook.)

Of course, I soon spotted my Mum who had given up on me. I realized that I was falling short of her BFF standards and soon trudged to ALL the stalls with her! I tried coaxing her to buy anything she wanted but even the older generation is sold on brand names! Sigh!I decided to have fun observing the women around. There were hardly any men and most of them seem to be helping the women in the stalls..one or two old harried husbands were around of course. But the best part was observing all the oldies coming out in their Sunday best and shopping around. The second best part was how Mummy addressed every middle-aged or elder woman as "Didi" and their silent reactions. And yes an important observation, many of these designers and boutique owners were attractive women. So probably makes sense to go for a make-over if you want to go for some small-time business!

So at the end of the visit, I tired myself and Mum out; had my patishapta and also got invited to another round of patishapta eating by an aunt whom I met at the fair. Maybe I should visit these places a bit more often:). But next time I visit, I would definitely remember to spend more at the Nari Seva stall too and so should you.

Myth about Success of Social Media?

2010-01-16T20:30:00.000+08:00

It has become next to impossible to divorce one's life from the clutter of social media that surrounds us. There are very few people I meet, who tell me that they love Facebook, Orkut, MySpace,etc. So many complain about this incessant need to stay updated about everybody . Funnily, I don't see any of these people leaving these networking websites either. Neither do I.

I was introduced to Orkut when I was in the last year of college. Of course, initially I was quite addicted to it as well. However, in those days, Orkut was quite primitive and there wasn't much to die about it . Hence when people insisted that I start using Facebook, I resisted for as long as I could. Unfortunately I had to give in. I joined it and now I am connected to another diverse mix of people. Of course it's great to send people e-cakes, e-flowers, e-pokes and what not. Then you play games, try some software to decipher your personality because you have been incapable to determine it yourself. Finally you post the game results and compare them with your friends. I never was greatly interested in the different games though I have to admit I did indulge in some of these..some in response to friend requests and some out of pure curiosity.How long can this really go on?

Of course every honeymoon gets over in some time and I am sure sooner or later people will tire of all these websites and applications. I have seen people deleting their Orkut account totally. People who don't want to be left out from anything however are smarter. They just update their status as " Moving over to Facebook" or something similar. Of course it probably makes sense to use an application which is in news, looks sassy and has become an introductory statement for all..." Do keep in touch...Just look me up on Facebook!"

What prevents us from deleting our accounts totally? Possibly the fear that we wont remain connected to the 200+ people who need to be updated about our life every moment. Out of the enitre 200+ connections, probably only 10 of them are really network-worthy , another 20 are family, 30 from school, 50 from college and remaining are from office or just met over the Internet. So why can't we just announce that we are tired of this ?? Are you crazy! Who is going to efficiently store 200 email addresses, contact numbers, birthdays, anniversaries and so on...? Unless you are an organizing maniac you would not. And the most important point, do you really intend to contact 150 of these people as regularly as you scrap or wall them!Or would you bother to even remember and wish 100 of these people on their birthdays? I doubt.. Frankly speaking, I wouldn't.

How did I get thinking about all this? One unpleasant contact whom I had added, kept in contact and done all the network worthy things that one does because I felt that I would be losing part of my network contacted me recently . So when I got bugged by this unpleasant personality, I just sat back and wondered. Why do I take pains to torture myself in this way. Neither is this person network-worthy, nor have I ever felt comfortable with this person. Then why do I bother to retain such contacts? After all, a sad truth is that many of these contacts are maintained only because we do not want to take the pain in doing real-time communication and proper networking. The people whom we are fond of are in regular touch with us by every possible means. And such people do not need to be connected by social media.

Does this mean, social media will fade out one day? This is tough to predict and we should all remember that technology has always been utilized for reducing time, effort and costs. And with that trend in mind, it would hardly be surprising to consider that our personal life would not be affected likewise.

The Lives Of Others

2010-01-14T00:56:00.001+08:00

Good movies always delight me and some good movies amaze me by their quality to retain the attraction throughout the entire duration of the film. The Lives of Others is one such film. I have seen different parts of it on totally different days. Some of the days, I probably was not even aware that I was watching parts of the same movie. Funnily I watched the movie on a day when I did not even have the temperament to watch an entire television serial episode, lest a full movie. This particular movie proved to be a total exception. It not only redefined exceptional films for me but I also realized that there are some films that can be watched on any day and in any mental state. I stopped fiddling, swapping through channels and just discovered another of filmdom’s wonderful creation.

The Lives of Others is a German film (Das Leben der Anderen) by Henckel von Donnersmarck and is based on the socialistic regime which existed in Eastern Germany, prior to the fall of the Berlin Wall. Authors, poets, actors and artistes alike were persecuted for speaking out against the rule. Some were boycotted from public appearances. Many of these artistes preferred ending their own lives than dying a slow death of isolation and ignominy. The GDR invariably refrained from publishing the increasing suicide rates of the East German artistes.

In this particular film, the story focuses on a famous actress Christa-Maria Sieland and her boyfriend author Georg Dreyman. Sieland is unfortunately in the unwanted clasps of a minister whom she is forced to befriend and entertain for her career’s sake. The minister is aware about the artists’ dissatisfaction with the Stasi regime and finds an excuse to bug Dreyman and Sieland’s flat to find if the author is involved in any illegal activities. The captain in charge, Wiesler is an ideal socialist. He slowly gets disgusted by the corruption around and the affinity to charge the authors unnecessarily. As he taps Dreyman and Sieland’s conversations and activities, he slowly starts sympathizing with them till the point where he gets personally involved to save the couple from personal doom and disaster.

The climax is the unfortunate death of Sieland but Donnersmarck’s script is so tight that before you could stop and mourn for the unfortunate couple, the script takes a totally different turn. In fact the story is full of suspense and certain predictable situations are rendered unpredictable to the added excitement of the viewer. One is never sure of the direction to which the script veers. While there is nothing to mourn about the film, it does slow its pace in some places. Also Wiesler’s character needn’t really have been made that sympathetic towards the artistes. However Sieland’s death really made me feel that the film had lost some of its glamour and volume; or maybe it was the diva-esque presence of Martina Gedeck who plays her character.

And if your heart hasn’t melted yet, the last scene definitely will do the needful. Watch Wiesler telling the cashier “It’s for me” while buying “Sonata for a Good Man”. Of course you have to watch the film to realize how richly he deserves the book and all the credit.http://www.livesofothersmovie.co.uk/

To Gawk or Not to Gawk

2009-12-26T01:48:00.000+08:00

Yet another tale arising from my travails at office..hardly travails actually. My workstation is on the fourth floor and so I usually alternate between taking the lift and the stairs to reach it. Since I carry two bulky bags (don't ever ask me why) I find it easier to take the lift "early" in the morning .

One such day I was waiting for the lift and observing an even more patient guy waiting for the lift. I usually feel the lift is slower in the morning but it could be psychological. Probably is:). Finally when the lift did come down and we entered. I obviously entered after the guys. Kolkata is bereft of any "Ladies First" chivalry. Only my dear uncle and few other people of his generation still cling on to this tradition very dear to womenfolk. (Actually one of my Malaysian girl friends had told me these are few the subtle points that non-Asian men score over the local people in forming amorous and marital ties.Tsk Tsk)

Back to my journey in the lift..we punched buttons. The numbers on these buttons glow with red light. So naturally when I saw that this young gentleman was waiting for so long to take a lift to the first floor, my first reaction was of disbelief and then disgust. There have been so many times when I have used the staircase to the fourth floor , because I would have to wait quite a bit to take it; and here is a young man waiting for fraction of an hour to take the lift to the first floor.

Since the man in question wasn't looking like a hunk, I decided to gawk at the floor #1 button on the other side of the lift (not that I remember gawking at hunks in the past either). Obviously I didn't get much time. It's just one floor away after all.On hindsight, I must have been really bugged to react like that, but at times I get these internal do-good-for-the-depraved-society-in-your-innovative-way flashes. Before I could get a split second of feel-good flash after my do-good flash, I got the next shock.

The guy was heading for the gym in the first floor!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Shawshank Redemption - My View

2009-12-13T20:06:00.000+08:00

Yes of course, what did you expect ? Another review? There are too many available anyway. A Google search with the IMDB #1 movie title generates 2,420,000 hits and obviously a good number of those would be reviews. If you're looking for a different review, I would recommend the Projection Booth, Jo Blo's Movie Reviews, and eFilmCritic. All of these reviews have not been very kind to the movie, which is renowned for its ever-living theme of hope and inspiration. However, I always prefer looking at things in a different way than most people ( my dad feels I do it on purpose whereas I tell him that I am a true blue Aquarian;) ) and tend to appreciate the undiscovered aspects of a likeable movie. Additionally my pessimistic cum pragmatic soul believes that nothing is perfect and hence nothing is short of criticism.Having said that, I would also love to comment on the ever-lasting debate on whether The Shawshank Redemption deserved an Oscar or not. In my view, in any year, there is more than one movie which would deserve the Oscar and The Shawshank Redemption is no exception. The fact that it didn't doesn't make the film any better or worse.

My post on this movie actually is due to a conversation with my friend. I had seen the movie few weeks back and had recommended it to her. I usually make a mental note of recommending the films I love to my friends during watching the films. Funnily, while watching this film I never felt that I would recommend it all. Of course it was a good movie but would they like it? Because by the time, cute faced Tommy Williams comes and goes, I was getting a bit tired with the pace and accepted it that this was one of those soft but painful prison movies. In any case you just have to look at Morgan Freeman's eyes to feel everybody's pain and hopelessness out there.

The other factor that had biased me against The Shawshank Redemption was the fact that everybody seemed to have it on their Best Film's list . The funnier thing was most of these people were guys. And till before the end of the movie I thought that how come I never thought all these guys were such sentimental fellows getting all emotional over Tim Robbins' and Morgan Freeman's travails. But I finally got it...it was the plot. I can picture all those guys swooning over the plot! A few of them will also privately appreciate the good triumphs over evil; but very privately.

I loved the plot too but I have seen similarly good plots elsewhere too...only I don't remember where :D. However, I do admit that it is a sexy plot. Sorry didn't find any other appropriate adjective. But that was not what wowed me. Among the very few movies which influence me, The Shawshank Redemption was one movie which had an overbearing influence on me. While watching the movie, I went through a range of emotions from hope, despair to surprise and faith. Being in India, I get to see a lot of feel-good movies overdone with the hope factor. So this should not have been different. But it was and I felt the movie was wonderful because I genuinely felt such swinging emotions while watching it. So I have to credit the movie along with Robbins and Freeman, which gives the movie-viewers the strength in believing in Hope itself.Some other things that I loved were the dialogues, Freeman's narration and the mention of the freedom of spirit. As Robbins explains to his fellow inmates, the beauty of the music can always be in one's heart . Similarly one can always be free in his mind and heart..an underlying theme of another later film (Bengali-English) Anuranan .

Chair Care

2009-11-27T00:41:00.006+08:00

I don’t ever recall being very particular of my seating arrangements and am usually satisfied with moderately comfortable sitting places. Today however, I discovered that my chair at office probably is one of the few seating arrangements that I am innately fond of. The other one is my toy dog (soft) whom I use regularly as my cushion at home.

Ignoring the digressive statement, I should describe the unique situation in my office, with respect to usage of chairs. Unlike most offices which have the same chairs for all employees, our office has different kinds of chairs in different floors. They are all variants of the modern ergonomic chairs but differ a bit in height and comfort (as I recently discovered).

So when I shifted to my new seat on the new floor, I was extremely delighted to see a chair with a broken handle. Without waiting for the admin to take their own sweet time in taking care of the issue, I immediately proceeded to transfer my chair from my previous floor. The security did protest a bit but I gave him a very relevant excuse of how my new chair was broken and that I could not keep waiting to get a new chair. I guess he was amused at my zeal to transport my old chair and just let me off. Some people did stare a bit but I didn’t care much. Moreover I hardly new anyone on this new floor... hence an obvious decrease in embarrassment.

I am surrounded by hard-working developers who work quite industriously among themselves. They frequently sit with each other and work on their development and support issues. As a result, there are a lot of extra chairs lying around most cubicles. The first few days I got the strange fear that all the hard work in getting my chair from the previous floor would go waste, because I would lose my chair in this fashion. Thankfully, till date all of the developers near my cubicle have been very civil to avoid taking my chair. On one rare occasion, when a meeting of 30 people was taking place in the meeting room which is usually earmarked for 6 member meeting, then a lot of people’s chairs did go missing. Unluckily, this meeting room was just next to our cubicle. Again I saved my “rare” chair by sitting on it during the entire meeting and refusing to budge anywhere for even refilling my water bottle.

But finally my chair got displaced from its position. While I don’t know the reason and timing of displacement, I discovered that my neighbour was sitting on it. I felt that he had committed the worst crime possible as I felt the discomfort while sitting on my chair. Mentally I decided to change the chairs when he was out of sight. But I had kept my shawl and jacket on the chair. How could I do such subtle inter-changing in the few seconds that he would disappear. Damn!
Since I had lot of work and calls to follow up on, I was comforted to think that I would soon be distracted by work. However that was just not to be. The entire time that I spent in sitting on that chair to leaving the office was spent in simultaneously thinking about the myriad work problems and of course more importantly on how to get back my old chair.

I once thought of telling my neighbour “You know you’re sitting on my chair.” Then I mused that no matter how sweetly I informed him, the commonest retorts would range from an incredulous look to “How do you know it’s Your’s? Do you have your name inscribed on it?” I could actually counter the second question with detailed description of my chair and its comforts, but then I just realized that I would appear as having a unique combination of weirdo, psycho and fanatic traits. Was I really willing to give up a normal image for the chair? While I kept debating about this and on whether the other methods of whisking away the chair would work, it was time to return home.

I thought at least I would be at peace at home. Now I find myself devising ways on how to act if I reach office later than my neighbour. Oh God! This is why, learning of the day is asking your office/company to cut down on the cost-cutting and buy comfortable chairs for all.
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Next Day ...I entered office a bit later than other days ..thanks to the traffic. While dumpng my bags in style, I suddenly remembered about the chair. There it was ..beside mine and unoccupied. I wasted no time in interchanging them . Just as I was about to plonk onto mine, I saw my neighbour coming to his seat. Apparently he had reached office earlier than me. Needless to say, he didn't have a happy look on his face. I just hoped he got the message loud and clear and that I don't have to suffer again!

Tryst with TIME

2009-11-15T20:46:00.000+08:00

Post MBA I have turned into one of the many gyan gurus that people turn to while looking for advice or suggestions on how to prepare for CAT, GMAT or apply to the different B-schools. For B-school admission queries to NUS, I already have written an extensive post , which is found at http://anaroiter.blogspot.com/2009/08/applying-to-nus-mba-programme.html. However, I consider myself to be in a position to give basic gyan on CAT as well, mostly because of my own tryst with the exam and because I spent some time as a part-time faculty at TIME.

TIME or Triumphant Institute of Management Education Pvt. Ltd is one of the famous coaching institutes in India. While they offer courses for CAT, MCA, IIT/JEE, Medical Entrance, Law Entrance, CA , GRE and GMAT, they are primarily renowned for their skills and faculty for CAT courses.

During the time gap of my passing out and joining work, I had decided to give teaching a try. The usual motive is to earn some pocket money. However the pay is such a pittance I doubt that money is the motive for everybody. For me , I had an additional motive to try and inspire interested students similarly as I had been inspired by the TIME faculty and director at Bangalore. While I was in the process of selecting the coaching institute, I chose TIME Kolkata over the others because of my past familiarity and also because they were willing to take me in without much formalities.

Today of course I do realize that it is probably not a good way of initiating new faculty into work. Overlooking the fact that I was underpaid, the institute was a classic example of unprofessionalism. Classes were assigned to a new recruit like me , few hours before the class actually was supposed to begin. If I had problems, the scheduling guy would put in his own two-liners about co-operation and professionalism! The best part was that my pay never arrived. Every time, I had to contact someone, escalate it to another person and then be told that this was a "solitary incident" which just happened to me . How convenient, especially the fact that I had to repeat this escalation process every month.Additionally, if I wasn't available to take the emergency classes, I probably would be taking classes with a frequency of one in a month. At the end of the whole exercise, I used to wonder whether all the efforts I took in teaching the students were worth at all, because I didn't have a consistent allocation of classes.

Some of the reasons that I can assume from observation is that like all institutes, IMS, Career Launcher, etc; TIME is also soley interested in the money making game. However, somewhere their strategy has gone very wrong. To draw in more cheques, they require more students. Since each centre has classes almost every two hours from 7 am to 9 pm, the only other alternative is to increase the number of centres. While it is required to maintain quality control and of course have an efficient person at the helm, TIME fails in this very regard. They have a sufficient number of full-time faculty who have a hectic schedule. The part-timers are mostly kept for emergency purposes except for few old-timers who have a definite schedule. Inefficient scheduling people and loose control from the top thus helps in making a total mess and I was unlucky enough to fall into this mess.

Hence, after having a trying time at TIME, I decided to issue few words of advice to both interested faculty and students. In case you are a student, and want to join an institute of repute, do take some effort in getting genuine first-person feedback about the institute. There might be 1000 people in IIMs but what is the percentage of successful admissions - 1000 out of 3000 (33.33%) or 1000 out of 6000 (16.67%). For a singular case like TIME which has umpteen number of centres mushrooming all over the city ( Kolkata at least), check the centres where good faculty are teaching and enroll there.

Part-time faculty need to be a bit more pro-active than interested students. They would really have to get feedback from past and existing faculty, know about the set-up, ratio of full-time vs part-time faculty. And oh yes! Do push for a reasonable salary. This industry is very unstructured and has very unfair paying rates.

The Wish Maker - By Ali Sethi

2009-10-19T00:36:00.002+08:00

I have a penchant for picking up famous titles. Of course, when I actually pick them up, I vaguely remember that the books are famous for some reason. The only reason is perhaps that publishing houses are rather active nowadays in splashing the name and author of a new book before it’s out in the market. So that’s how I ended up picking up this book. I was also in for a pleasant surprise when I discovered that the author was a Pakistani and not an Indian Muslim as I had assumed. I have always been eager to try and discover cultural nuances and similarities among our geographical neighbours and I feel that books are one small way towards achieving this goal.

Ali Sethi is a young writer albeit an experienced one. Of course in my opinion, some writers have inborn talent and the remaining few manage to reach desired levels after years of cultivation of the habit. It’s difficult to compartmentalize Sethi in such specific divisions but he has the sparks of talent.

The protagonist Zaki Shirazi is perhaps the only male character in spotlight and in the entire duration of story telling, he even appears dwarfed by the female characters around him; his mother Zakia, Daadi (paternal grandmother), cousin Samar Api and servant Naseem.

People usually have this wrong notion that working women are the only ones who exert their personality and housewives are an example of docility. None of Zaki’s women, who are housewives (except for his mother) really rebel against tradition but they are firm in asserting their own rights wherever required. Whether it is Daadi refusing to stay with her wily mother-in-law, Samar exerting herself in her relationship or the servant Naseem who manages to buy a wagon for her son or wangle a trip to Mecca, these women refuses to be bullied by life. However, Zaki’s mother is the real heroine. And as according to the author’s extracted quotation of the Prophet, Paradise lies at the feet of the mother.

Taking difficult decisions on her own, bringing up Zaki as a single parent, and running a progressive women’s magazine, she might also be expected to impart a similar liveliness to her son as well. And this is probably where Sethi disappoints. Zaki doesn’t seem to have a definite personality as expected from a protagonist. Instead he absorbs life’s nuances as they come upon him, unlike his female relatives who fight their way out. This might also be an extension of Sethi’s view of preferred male behaviour where according to Zaki’s Urdu poetry spouting teacher, the men should know their place and observe modesty just as the women should. And this tone runs throughout the entire story.

Another peculiarity of The Wish Maker is that Sethi mentions a lot of big events – the India-Pakistan partition, different elections and regimes in Pakistan but he just touches upon them. One can know little of the impact of these life-changing events on the story’s characters because even they comment very little on them. The best part of the book is the way different time-periods are interspersed and almost glide towards completing the whole story ; and of course the climactic last line ” ..your Amitabh has arrived”.

Overall it is a nice read but somehow I still feel I didn’t learn much about the Pakistani culture, or is it my biased mindset which expects a whale of differences between the two countries that probably are still as similar as they were before the night of 15 August 1947.

Durga Puja and the Bengali

2009-09-28T14:58:00.002+08:00

I doubt I would have ever titled any writing on Durga Puja as I have done this time. However, cognizance of the fact that Durga Puja is celebrated in states other than West Bengal in India, made me take such a decision. Of course the fervour and extent of festivities is incomparable to Bengal and its capital city, Kolkata ( or Calcutta as it was previously known). I have spent most of the Pujas in my life traveling or avoiding pandal hopping while in home city, but having stayed and witnessed Durga Puja in three different places other than Bengal, I reluctantly have realized that this festival is just not the same like in Kolkata. While excluding rest of Bengal is probably not politically correct, the frenzy of celebration is at its highest in Kolkata and hence the honourable mention.

This post is dedicated to my dear friend Ruki. While explaining to her the story of Durga Puja and hoping there was some similar story in Lankan mythology, I got entangled in the different threads of the story of origin. Hence this is an attempt to avoid future embarrassment. While recounting the different details, I realized Hindu mythology is quite contradictory in places but converses at different points as well. So the flow might be hampered by such mythical gaps:).

Goddess Durga is an incarnation of Shakti, the female power. She is also known by other names such as Parvati, Uma, Kali – a total of 108 names to be exact. Durga is also the consort of Shiva, god of destruction, who completes the Hindu Trinity in the universe along with Brahma (creation) and Vishnu( preserver).

Durga is also known as Sati, the first incarnation of Shakti. Sati was daughter of Daksha Prajapati, a descendant of Brahma. He disliked Shiva immensely and was against his daughter’s marriage to him. Daksha organized a yagna ( religious ceremony ) and invited all the gods except for Shiva. Sati attended the yagna herself, against the wishes of Shiva. but was unable to hear her husband’s insults. Aggrieved, she immolated herself. When Shiva heard this news, he lost all composure. Beside himself in grief, he lifted Sati’s lifeless body and started dancing his terrible dance of destruction. While the gods tried to pacify him, Vishnu realized that as long as Sati’s body remained intact, Shiva would see no reason. Vishnu used his SudarshanChakra ( discus) to cut her corpse into multiple pieces. Shiva also ceased dancing and peace was restored to the world. These different pieces fell in different parts of India and have formed the sites of Shakti Peethas. Some of them are Kolkata (in state of West Bengal) where her mouth fell, Kamakhya (in state of Assam) where her reproductive organ fell, etc.

Long time later, a demon named Mahishasura attained Shiva’s favourable boon of not being every defeated by any man, by dint of his hard work and penance.( If one reads a lot of mythological stories, one finds that Shiva is easily pleased by penance and gives boons that he needs to rectify in future:) ). Shiva also added that only a woman could ever defeat the demon. Blind in his belief of being invincible and thinking that it would be impossible for any woman to defeat him, Mahishasura started his own reign of terror. None of the gods were able to destroy him either. When he reached the heavens and created havoc, Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva had to decide on a course of action. The Trinity’s combined energy was utilized to create a woman who could defeat the demon and this woman took the form of Goddess Durga. Different parts of her body were created by different gods. Her face reflected energy of Lord Shiva, ten arms were from Vishnu and feet from Brahma. Her tresses, waist, etc were created from the other deities.

While it appears from one story that Durga was created for the purpose of war against Mahishasura, there is another story where details of her birth and youth are given. Durga or Uma had taken birth as the mountain lord’s daughter and hence was also known as Parvati. Her beautiful mother Menaka made sure that her daughter grew to be an accomplished young woman. When Parvati learnt of her actual cause of birth and how she was the reincarnation of Sati, she immediately left for a course of penance to attain her consort, Shiva as well as to prepare for the future war.

When preparations were being made for the fight against Mahishasura, the gods equipped Durga with different arms and armaments which she held in each of her ten hands. She received a trident from Shiva, discus from Vishnu, spear from Agni, thunderbolt from Indra , clothes, magical gifts and a garland of immortal lotuses as armour. Along with her troop of warriors, she rode out on her lion to engage the demon in a battle. In a fierce battle and despite changing physical forms continuously, Mahishasura finally died at the hands of the Goddess.

Durga Puja is celebrated in different parts of India in different forms like Navaratri, Dussehra, Bommai Kullu and in different states like Punjab, Kerala ( Goddess Saraswati, although in Bengal, Saraswati is regarded as daughter of Durga and sister of Lakshmi), Gujarat ( Amba Mataji) and Kashmir ( Sherawali Ma Durga). In West Bengal, Goddess Durga visits her parents’ house along with her two sons Ganesha (god of good wealth and prosperity), Kartika ( known as Murugan in South India and Sri Lanka) and her two daughters Saraswati ( goddess of learning) and Lakshmi (goddess of wealth and prosperity). Mythology is often contradicting. In various places Saraswati and Lakshmi are quoted as separate goddesses with no relation to Durga whatsoever. In Sri Lanka they are probably regarded as the same goddess but in different forms.

In Bengal, the daughter and her four children are pampered for four days Shashti (sixth), Shaptami(seventh), Ashtami(eighth), Navami(ninth) and Vijaya Dashami(tenth day of destroying the demon). In practice while the idol of the Goddess is brought in on Panchami(fifth day) she is welcomed and life is infused in her by painting the third eye, on Shashti only. She is worshipped on each of the following days with a special puja called Sandhi Puja, on Ashtami consisting of 108 lamps and huge number of lotuses, which celebrates the defeat of the demon.On Dashami, the goddess finally takes leave of her husband’s abode again . Apparently Shiva comes to accompany her on her visit back and most pujas have a picture or idol of Shiva near that of the goddess and her children. (An unconfirmed myth says Shiva hasn’t forgotten the Daksha yagna incident and keeps a close watch on his beloved wife).

Durga Puja is celebrated during the month of Autumn. Long time ago, she used to be worshipped during Spring. When Lord Rama (epic Ramayana) set out to finally conquer Ravana, he was told that only the goddess could reveal the secret of defeating Ravana. Thus Rama decided to invoke the goddess’s blessings by worshipping her in the untimely (Akal) season of Autumn. Hence when the goddess is welcomed (Bodhan) on day of Shashti, it is known as Akal Bodhan. Since Durga used to be worshipped with 100 blue lotuses, Rama endeavoured to do the same but fell short of one lotus. Not to be defeated in his purpose, he offered one of his own blue eyes and worshipped the deity. Durga was very pleased at his devotion and revealed to him the secret behind Ravana’s apparent invincibility. Ravana was defeated during the time between Ashtami and Navami, giving rise to the offering of Sandhi Puja. While the four days celebrate the triumph of the goddess over the demon and good over evil, peace-loving Bengal focuses more on the daughter’s arrival to her parent’s abode. Post Vijaya Dashami, Bengalis exchange sweets, greetings and blessings.

For newly wed non-Bengali Bong bahus, this is the best time to please your in-laws by pranaam(blessings) with a beautiful smile and a box of delectable Bengali sweets.(PS: This advice will also figure in my new series Bong 101.;D)

In Custody by Anita Desai

2009-09-21T23:30:00.000+08:00

I have been extremely lucky to be reading books by two wonderful Indian authoresses one after the other. One was Shashi Deshpande and the other is Anita Desai. I remember coming across Anita Desai’s name a couple of time but had been unable to read any of her books till date. Thankfully the opportunity came my way and the fact that the story had been made into an award winning film piqued my curiosity even further. Of course the mere acting cast of Om Puri, Shabana Azmi, Shashi Kapoor would entice me to watch the movie even if it had not won any award.

I had been musing about the title of the book since I picked it up for reading. Somehow the name had set me thinking though I had to read the entire story to realize its significance.

“In Custody” is primarily the story of Deven, a Hindi professor and his inspiration, the erstwhile famous Urdu poet Nur. Despite his first love for Urdu, Deven had to resort to teaching Hindi in the college. One day his old friend Murad comes and manages to wheedle a confirmation to interview Nur for Murad’s magazine. Murad wants Deven to get a full interview and some of Nur’s best poems from the ever reclusive poet. Deven, who has encountered plenty of uncomfortable situations with the irresponsible Murad, agrees to take on this difficult project only because of his love and devotion to the poet and his works.

The next part of the story and almost all the book is about accomplishing this daunting task. Meeting Nur seems only the start as Deven cannot even imagine the present dilapidated state in which Nur is living. If Deven manages to get rid of the crowding sycophants, he still gets interrupted by Nur’s dramatic and second wife. Else he manages to plonk himself unwittingly into the domestic wars of Nur’s harem.

It is quite easy to identify with Deven’s frustration rising from the current situation and his inability to deal with the different characters who are almost thrust upon him. However at times, the entire situation appears outright comical. Personally I have no idea about the original emotions that were present in Desai’s mind when she described the different scenes of encounter between Nur and Deven. In reality, the rare spouts of poetry and knowledge drowned by the never-ending sessions of food and drink, as well as Deven’s utter dismay at the poet’s state of life and affairs, incorporated more laughter than sympathy, within myself.

Somehow this story and the protagonist’s fate reminds me of “The Rainmaker” by John Grisham. Of course Deven’s character is a far cry from the newbie lawyer, Rudy Baylor. The lazy tone of the book almost mirrors the life at Nur’s abode but every moment one tends to tire of the pace, the interest again arises as Deven comes across some new but fallible method of achieving success. This book takes you back to the ancient life of peace and calm in northern India which also helps us in slow realization of the dilemma of the custodian. A good book but not for the impatient ones.

Come Up and Be Dead by Shashi Deshpande

2009-09-19T23:42:00.003+08:00

When I picked up this book by Shashi Deshpande, I felt she would be like the usual Indian authors. Strong emotions, usage of local slang, vivid descriptions would probably be abounding in the book. Thankfully her book was a pleasant and surprising change from all that I had expected. Her writing reminded me so much of DM, my favourite Bengali teacher. I have been very fond of all my Bengali teachers but DM was different. DM had the wonderful knack of expressing things simply and beautifully. It used to be very helpful for a student like me who was already rather flustered by the grandiose writing style of her previous Bengali teachers. And that is also where Shashi Deshpande scores over other authors by proving the oft forgotten fact that simplicity is attractive as well.

"Come Up and Be Dead" is a mystery thriller though the simplistic narrative makes you wonder many times whether it is one at all. One is almost influenced into thinking that the protagonist of the story would be Kshama, the new headmistress of the girls’ school. She is young, competent and also incorporates the usual conceived traits of successful women which include being reserved, aloof to the point of cruelty. One realizes the extent of her insensitiveness when she doesn’t flinch from asking her psychologically ill brother to leave the school and thus save her career as the headmistress. However, the main story teller is Devi, her cousin sister who is invited to come and look after Kshama’s house and brother, which she does rather successfully. She also manages to befriend Kshama’s brother Pratap and realize that he probably is not as mentally weak as portrayed.

An interesting part of the story is how part of the mysterious events have begun even before the reader has settled through the first chapters. It almost feels like when we are late in entering the cinema theatre for a movie screening and miss the first few scenes but have no trouble in catching the flow of the story.

A young schoolgirl’s suicide shakes the school out of its usual reverie and the rumours abuzz seem to be rather cruel. Some precocious schoolgirls seem to know all about it but then it’s natural to ignore their knowledge. While Kshama tries to ignore the ongoing scandals as inconsequential, Devi realizes that Pratap is probably directly or indirectly involved in the girl’s death. Before she can even get to know the truth, Pratap is dead and Devi alone feels that he has been killed. While Devi never attempts to take an active stance in investigation, she comes to know different facts naturally from the different characters who flit around- school teacher Sapna, the dead girl’s friend Sona and of course the doctor Girish. In course she also unwittingly offers herself to come up and be dead.

Shashi Deshpande is an extremely competent author. Most thriller stories are extremely difficult to attract one, with unnecessary complicated plots, a love story on the sidelines and of course unwanted characters to add to the mystery. She manages to hold the author’s attention very deftly. The characters in the story are all needed in some part or the other. The small stories about the characters help to describe them and their emotions better but they never meander into a story within another story. Of course the characters and their stories sound very familiar but probably they can be excused for remaining settled in a simple story. Finally, the mystery and the climax still manages to keep one’s nerves quite taut even though the entire storyline is simple and the characters seem to flow from every day life. Not an Agatha Christie, but when did she pretend to be one?

A pleasing read and highly recommended.

Hall of Fame

2009-09-15T14:26:00.002+08:00

I guess this has been one of my subdued desires. Creating my own Hall of Fame. No I am not inspired by the new "na-real" awards by Shahrukh Khan and Saif Ali Khan on Filmfare Awards 2008. It is my way of identifying people who have distinguished themselves by their unique behaviour, traits, comments or statements. So this post will continuously be edited (smiles) as and when I come across a unique personality, distinguished enough to find a mention in my Hall of Fame. I obviously would not take names, would not use the correct pictures. Its upto people to find out who is who. I have also found out the greatest reason why this HOF should exist.It's a wonderful way to stress out and no ..this is not bitching ( big smile ).

(1). Wide Range
I am not sure if this is a racist comment but I don't intend to make one. It's a pure observation. I think Bongs ( Bengalis if one is offended ) are very prone to using approximate ranges for describing objects which would well be described by discrete numbers. So if I want a number of apples from the shop, I could ask the shopkeeper to give me 4-5 apples, etc. My usual experience during such situations is that the shopkeeper stays silent and somehow bails out of the situation due to a more alert relative or friend. Well the wide ranger who has newly entered my hall of range uses wider ranges. The numbers could be "3-6" or may be "2-5". For privacy's sake, we do not discuss the reference against which the range was quoted.

(2). Desperate to arrange a marriage
I guess this one should have been written long before. Being proposed to by your buddies is probably something many single girls face, but facing people who are desperate to get their marriage arranged to you is a sure item for entry into my Hall of Fame.

I guess girls are born to think that their knight in shining armour will come to them and make life sweet and happy but guys, they don't dream of princesses do they? Unfortunately I was born a pessimist. Although I wouldn't discuss my views on marriage here, in short I am in doubt that the knight whisks you away to your castle of dreams. Even if he does, the castle would not have been cleaned for days, sink full of unwashed dining silver, curtains of cobwebs and a recipe for fairytale nightmares. That's how my "happily lived together" stories end.
Anyways, back to my old point, among the different famous people, one particular category consists of males who wish to fix their marriage vows as quickly they have completed all their degrees.They have been so besotted with their amazing career and passion for mindblowing achievements that when they have achieved everything, they realize that a wholesome marriage is also required to spruce up the resume. Hence heckle the first few available single women, because in your amazing race of life and standard wholesome experiences, this should be a mindblowing conquest too. So the faster the better. And if the race might prove a bit too strenuous, just hang in there buddy... "Even this will pass"!!!!

(3)Contact only in need

A new addition to my Hall of Fame! This variety of species has been endured for a long time till I decided that it was high time I could add it to my Hall of Fame. Somehow my experiences tell me that these kind of people are unique to our generation. There are of course few exceptions and you might find one or two in our parent's generations as well. However, it is a bit scary to see so many people abounding in our own generation. They are usually invisible to you most of the time and they come and contact you only when they need advice, a shoulder to cry upon or plain simple filthy lucre. Why does it occur so much in our generation? Does the frequent use of mobile phones and email reduce the little bit of shame that would have been felt by someone of a previous generation, or perhaps we all are a shameless bunch. I am inclined to think the latter theory holds true especially as I see more and more of such people falling into this type.

"It is a good thing to happen to you, to have that taste of fame because then you don't hanker for it. "-Jane Badler

"What is fame? The advantage of being known by people of whom you yourself know nothing, and for whom you care as little. "-Lord Byron

"If you come to fame not understanding who you are, it will define who you are. "-Oprah Winfrey

Palace of Illusions by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

2009-08-22T00:37:00.004+08:00

Who is your sister? I am she.

Who is your mother? I am she.

Day dawns the same for you and me.

This quotation is from Innana’s Journey to Hell (3^rd millennium BC, Sumerian language) and is quoted in the beginning of the book The Palace of Illusions. The quotation also sets the tone of the novel. Most ancient Indian epics have always focused on the famous warriors and kings who have created and destroyed empires. While some of the famous beauties had a subtle hand in politics, history has never given women their due. The womenfolk were treated akin to property. Draupadi, queen of the five Pandavas however was different. She changed the course of history as foretold.

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni has also felt that women in Mahabharata were noted only when their actions had affected their men folk but no one really thought about the various emotions and circumstances affecting such behaviour. This has always been a mystery and that’s why the author wants to relook at the epic Mahabharata in a different light from a woman’s standpoint and she finds no better muse than Panchaali, who was an inherent part of the entire epic.

The Mahabharata was a long epic with different stories entwined with each other. Ms Divakaruni however recounts a rather simple tale and retaining most of the authenticity of the original epic. The word “most” is used here because at certain points I am not sure whether the story telling has really overtaken the actual facts. However I would prefer to overlook such details because they help explain the story and its ensconced characters so well.

Panchaali, queen of the Pandavas, was renowned for her dark dazzling beauty as well as her pride and arrogance. The latter quality had allegedly led to the Great War of Mahabharata. However, in this story one gets to realize why Draupadi acted the way she did. Accepted hesitantly by her powerful father, the King Dhrupad, Draupadi clings to her brother Dhristhyadumna who refused to let go of her, while emerging from the sacred fire at birth. She has spent her entire life in loving and sacrificing her children, her pleasure, for her five husbands but ironically, despite such marital devotion, she is also attracted throughout her life to one man – not Arjuna, but Karna.

If Ms Divakaruni’s almost lyrical story establishes anything, it is probably that man cannot overlook his destiny; and that is how , Draupadi cannot escape any of the mistakes she has already been forewarned of, by Sage Ved Vyas. Thus even when in her heart she prefers Karna to Arjuna as a suitor, she ends up humiliating him only to save her brother Dhristhyadumna. She cannot but help insulting Duryodhana or cursing the entire clan who attempted to shame her in court. She realizes how Bhima loves her more than any of the brothers and how Arjuna can never be fit to be the lover or husband that she thought him to be.

It is life that makes Draupadi choose her husbands over her palatial life, her children and her personal mental peace every time. Although she learns of Karna’s love for her, she is never able to confess to him. An admirer of Kunti since childhood, but she fails to become the beloved daughter she would have loved to be. While she is also able to realize how she cannot exist without her friend Krishna, she has never been able to tell him how much she loved him. Despite knowing Bhima’s love for her, she never is able to reciprocate; and finally even her endearing love and prior knowledge of the future is futile in trying to save her loved ones.

Despite this, Divakaruni’s Draupadi doesn’t come upon as a tragic character. She tries her best to endure life’s gifts and torments as they are flung upon her . Among the other women in Mahabharata, Kunti, Gandhari, Subhadra, Uttara and few others are acknowledged as spokes in the giant wheel of fate but Draupadi is obviously the central character. While one might be tempted to think that the author is trying to create a heroine out of the Pandava queen, it would be fair to acknowledge that the whole flow of the story makes one empathize heavily with Panchaali . In the end we accept her as she was, rather than grudging her few characteristic traits and blaming her for the Pandava Kaurava war. As Krishna explains later, the war was always waiting to happen but needed some events to push it to initiation. And that is the real story of the dark princess who changed history.

Brouhaha over SRK's Ordeal: Why Not?

2009-08-19T13:59:00.006+08:00

So SRK had the last laugh. Well that's what probably what happens when people try to make their suspicions of publicity too apparent or try to appear overtly diplomatic. I wouldn't really go into the debate of right or wrong or whether the event really deserved the amount of news bytes it did get, as I think there are both sides to the issue. Anybody on earth hates being harassed even if they deserve it, and everybody worth his/her salt would raise an issue if they can. King Khan used some of his contacts to get out of a really unpleasant situation. Don't all of us try to pull strings in similar situations. Not only Indians, I have seen similar traits in people across castes, religion and skin colour. I think a lot of people who had been alarmed if they were similarly detained , though I also know of many peace loving people who would have just sat quietly and gone through the indignity of the incident.

If SRK does claim publicity for the incident while also acknowledging publicly that he went through an incident that many people go through and this definitely would not be the last one endured by an Indian or a Muslim, I would at least give him kudos for attempting to make the incident sound as normal as it unfortunately is. Even before 9/11, American and few other "white" countries have harassed simple travellers due to their inherent racial bias and profiling. While 9/11 has provided good reasons for making security measures more stringent, it also has provided bad excuses for rampant racial and religion bias. Hence if we make a big hue and cry over SRK's detention, President Kalam's frisking, then it probably is the one of the few ways we can make a start in trying to reduce such irrelevant indignities.

We cannot stoop to lower levels and take tit-for -tat procedures for frisking and security measures. However, we can raise legitimate issues and also try to make our government reactions stricter towards such incidents. As Shahrukh Khan has already pointed out, we cannot avoid the US as we do need them for our business and economic growth as much as they need us. However we can use government intervention to point out such incidents which are being faced by Indians most of the time. I also think that on the diplomatic level, we should probably also avoid PMO access to each and every American diplomat and shower them with the Indian welcome only when they truly deserve it as a friendly and responsible nation.

Snippet

2009-08-08T23:41:00.005+08:00

While talking to my dad today morning about one of his seniors at med college, who incidentally was our family pediatrician , I blurted out innocently that I was not at all fond of Uncle M when I was young. The sole reason was because we had to take regular trips for vaccinations and hence the childhood indignation. While my father was highly amused by the revelation, it dawned on me that Uncle M wasn't the only doctor I used to dread. Slowly it was the dentist , the ENT and I am still counting.. Right now I just hate visiting the hospital,
because it is the amalgamation of all the feared medical tests, endoscopy and other medical related pokings.

Applying to the NUS MBA Programme

2009-08-07T19:42:00.008+08:00

The reason why I have decided to describe my opinions on applying to the MBA course at NUS is primarily because I have been asked for my opinion on this topic umpteen number of times. Each time, I end up writing a really long email, trying to structure it according to the desired person’s profile and requirements. However, bulk of the information imparted is common and hence I have decided to ask people to have a look at this blogpost for pointers. I belong to the 2007-2009 batch and hence if you wish to make estimates, the time reference might help in calculation.While my post may have one or two references to Indian B-schools, it addresses the general queries of any prospective student, irrespective of regionality. In case you have specific queries (other than the application process which is best described on the NUS MBA website), you can leave a comment and I will get back to you.

Deciding upon a list of schools to apply is as important as the decision and commitment to pursue a MBA degree. Applying to an Indian B school (except for Indian School of Business) is very different from applying to international schools. In the former case, the application to the school consists of the qualifying examination marks, one’s previous record of education and employment. On the other hand, one has to prepare a detailed application for each international B school that one is applying to, which includes GMAT scores, application essays, answers for questions particular to a school, recommendations and a detailed resume.

Why MBA

A lot of times we forget why we ourselves are pursuing a MBA degree other than the usual need for bettering our present job and salary. You might be asked to answer this question in your application essays as well as interviews. It is highly advisable that you construct the answer to this question yourself. The decision to pursue a MBA is an expensive one, in terms of commitment, career gap and money. Hence if you are still not sure on why you would be benefited by the degree, you would fail yourself in a lot of places. I would also say that copying a brilliant essay or Googling is not an intelligent solution. While professors and recruitment committees are highly experienced to detect such ingenuity, you yourself would sound rather unconvinced during an interview which is disastrous. The worst would probably be during the end of the MBA when a lot of us evaluate our course and try to figure out whether it met most of the expectations that we had in mind while opting for it.

Why NUS

Prior to asking people on why they chose NUS, I believe it helps if you first think whether you want to choose NUS as your B school .It would help you make a selection on your personal criteria and you would also not be under any influence while selecting the school.

The primary reason that I chose NUS was because I wanted an international degree from a school which is known for quality education, had good ranking, good faculty, experienced batch mates (instead of fresh college grads) and modest fees. Let me elaborate and differentiate between facts and reality.

Global degree

The MBA degree at NUS is truly an international one with an emphasis on Asia-Pacific business. However, the definition of international may differ from one to another. In the consecutive 4 batches (past 2, mine and junior) that I have observed, majority of the students comprise of Indians and Chinese. The next large group would comprise of students from almost all the South East Asian countries (Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam,

Japan

and more). There are usually very few Europeans and Americans. Sometimes we also have one or two Asian students from these 2 continents. As a result, the batch looks predominantly Asian than global. In my opinion, unless you intend to work in US/Europe you should not really have an issue with this. (This was of course an opinion on hindsight :) ).

Batch

The average work experience of a batch at NUS is about 3 to 6 years with greater part of the batch having 4-5 years of experience. There are a few students with 2 years of experience but I am not sure if 2 years is actually the cut-off in terms of applying or was an exception in our batch. There are also few students with greater work experience ranging from 8-10 years and they form a small percentage of the batch. While people with higher experience tend to have a smaller pool of jobs to apply to, they also manage to secure very good roles. However, a strong network base would be advisable for such candidates.

Ranking

Ranking is something which rankles all students while making a choice. Some schools don’t live upto their rankings and vice versa. I would advise looking at ranks over a range of 4-5 years to determine the average ranking of a school. In the real world, ranking is more dependent on unknown factors like how many alumni fill up a survey and hence a not so active cum busy bunch of alumni can bring hell on the school in terms of rankings. Before I had applied, NUS was ranked 3^rd among Asian MBA schools and some where in top 100 among world MBA schools (above the IIMs in India). However, during our batch we witnessed really low FT rankings for a very flimsy reason of not having enough alumni to complete required surveys! While we were rather indignant at the proceedings; with time, we realized that rankings weren’t that important. Over the years, a school attains an average rank, depending on its brand, students, faculty and final jobs. The sliding effect on the rankings (both upward and downward) made no effect on the employers. In fact during my application when NUS was 3^rd among Asian MBAs, AIM Manila was ranked 1^st but post MBA employment and few other factors did not suggest that.

My opinion is that while you should definitely be aware of average rankings don’t split hairs over them as there are far more important criteria to consider.

Expenses

The cost of MBA at NUS is increasing by an average of S$6000 every year. I assume that other schools are also probably doing the same. Inspite of this, the tuition cost at NUS is lower than an equivalent institution in Europe or US. Since the quality of MBA education is really good, in terms of an international MBA experience, NUS provides value for money. The cost of living in the city is unfortunately quite high ( Singapore is among the 20 expensive cities in the world in terms of basic living expenses) but the entire cost is still lower than that in other places.NUS offers a couple of scholarships which helps to reduce the burden. After the first semester, you can also work part-time and be able to pay off living expenses partly or fully, depending on your lifestyle.

Faculty

Faculty at NUS is extremely good and is from all over the world, unlike the students:D. They have considerable teaching experience (and in some cases good work experience as well). The Finance professors are supposed to be the best in the school but a lot of us, in other specializations would vouch the same for our professors as well. Most professors are also easy to interact with and end up being mentors to few. It would be good if you research some of the faculty profiles, especially the ones in your desired line of specialization to have a clearer idea.

MBA Office

This isn’t exactly a criteria but I think I should mention this. My whole MBA journey would not have been wonderful without the MBA office. Starting from the first day in school to the end, most of the students and I have been touched by the warmth and personal touch in their interactions. Every thing was thought of in advance and every problem was taken care of. When you are in a foreign country studying a time-paced and exhaustive course, the fact that you have a friendly MBA office to help you around does wonders in terms of mental support and guidance.

Job Scenario

I believe this is one of the important criteria for selecting a school and is considered by many as the most important one. I would not be surprised at that. The basic research that one does in this case is to find out how many jobs the previous batch(s) have secured, salaries, recruiting companies and usual mode of recruiting. Unfortunately, when we arrived at NUS we found that our post MBA job research was really lacking. The worst part is most current MBA graduates kind of mask the recruiting scenario while describing it to the prospective students. I do not think that after hearing a frank opinion about the state of affairs, I would have changed my decision of applying to NUS or had a bad impression on the advising graduate; but I would have definitely made adequate preparations for facing the real scenario.

Campus recruitments, conversion of internships, independent online applications and contacts (own or via networking) are the different ways in which one secures a job during the MBA course. Currently there are few campus recruitments for MBAs. There are different reasons for it. The BBAs on the same campus have a very good brand value and get absorbed by most companies who would prefer paying lower rates for almost similar work. Salaries at the career office aren’t directly linked to the number of students who are placed by the office. NUS alumni doesn’t come to campus to recruit very frequently also resulting in less effective networking. Most of the students are not from Singapore. As a result, their network is usually limited or nil. Finally brand NUS MBA is stronger outside Singapore than in

Singapore

. I am yet to discover the cause of the last reason, but I feel it is due to an amalgamation of the above factors. As a result, if you are a prospective student, it would help if you can ask the Office to reveal approximate figures regarding the recruitment and especially its division according to the categories of campus recruitment, internship conversions, etc. You should also try and enquire into how many students are placed in

Singapore

, how many returned to their home countries and finally how many are placed elsewhere.

Most of the students in the beginning prefer a career switch. Till my batch the hottest job was that of an investment banker. After experiencing the recession, I am not sure if it will still remain so. However, after progressing through the course, very few people are left who want a career switch. In such cases, if you are interested in Finance, it helps to be in

Singapore

, one of the financial capitals in the world. However be ready for certification courses, commitment and competitive internships. For the other common specializations of Marketing and Strategy, the job market usually prefers experienced candidates. Hence if you want a job in such roles, the best option would to apply for a management trainee role and work in the desired functions during your different assignments. The other alternative is to get a good internship (preferably a good brand) and convert it to a full-time offer.

While the job scenario does look gloomy, most NUS MBA students get good roles post MBA, but the time to procure a job might vary. On an average, in a normal market, one usually gets placed in 3-4 months post MBA, at the latest. Remaining and most part of the jobs are due to converting internships and networking. Since none of us are perfect astrologers, every prospective NUS MBA applicant should research the Singapore (or desired country/region) job market regarding the demand of jobs in his/her industry or other industry/domain in case of a switch. You should utilize your previous jobs to create a very strong network which you can tap into for expanding (your network) in

Singapore

and other regions, as well as to fall back upon in case of trouble. Internships are competitive and once you have a good internship, you should do your best to convert it with good work and professional behaviour. Thankfully there are a few jobs still left which have an unbiased online application criterion. If your application is strong, then there is no reason why you can’t apply and secure such a job. If you ask my personal opinion about the job scenario, I would say it is quite tough compared to other schools which have excellent campus recruitment and strong alumni support. However, it’s not impossible to secure a good job. Even in a recession I managed to secure two offers and would have secured one more at least, if recruitment wasn’t freezed in reaction to the market.

Having said all this, I have had a lot of bitter-sweet experiences during my course at NUS. However there were more sweet experiences :) and I have not regretted my choice.I have also taken the opportunity to present a frank and heartfelt opinion of the pros and cons in applying to my school, because during the entire course, a lot of my friends and I did feel that we didn’t have people to give us the real picture. All the best!

Q and A - Vikas Swarup

2009-07-23T21:23:00.004+08:00

The brouhaha on Slumdog Millionaire hasn’t fully subsided yet and I have already forgotten the name of the book which inspired the Academy award winning film. I was looking at the cover of the book Q and A – by Vikas Swarup and I felt there was something familiar about it. Had I heard about this book? I still could not remember. I finally looked at the cover and decided to take it.I know you are not supposed to judge a book by its cover but I decided it doesn’t harm to make a try.

I also liked the fact that it didn’t have an intriguing cover. Some covers have enticing pictures, some have the author’s name swamped all over , almost enveloping the almost invisible book title and some have intriguing covers; the word we would have used in college would have been fundoo. You didn’t even know what was striking about it, but there was a weird attraction. At times I felt the mere attraction in the cover was the fact that its author was famous or the book had won some prestigious award. Hence when I saw a white book with a big Q and A in pink-magenta combinations across it, I was rather pleased. After I finished the book, I was quite happy with the story. It was a feel-good and they lived happily ever kind of story.

I haven’t seen Slumdog Millionaire yet. I have a tendency to delay watching such blockbuster hits. God only knows why. However this time it helped me to read the book without any bias of watching the story on screen earlier.

Ram Mohammed Thomas is a waiter who is punished for being lucky and his luck helps him in winning the reality quiz show “ Who Will Win a Billion “ or W3B. While reading the entire story, it feels that Thomas as he is known, is way too lucky. An orphan by abandonment, Thomas views all kind of child and human abuse but he never faces it himself. In some situations it is explained that his knowledge of English saves him from a lot of troubles. Despite Hindi being the national language, India has a die-hard attraction towards English. The knowledge of the language does make a difference all over the country but saving oneself from street gangs, child abusers with help of English is probably pushing the envelope a bit too far.

The format of the story is interesting. Once Thomas proceeds to tell his tale, it proceeds according to the different levels of the W3B game. While the story is interesting, the twists in each incident become rather predictable. Some how the whole story has a Bollywood feel to it where Thomas escapes street gangs, police rather easily and manages to kill villains as well. In the end, it just feels that Thomas is made to live different lives in the course of one story which does not even cover his entire life. Some of the stories do tug at your heart, but somehow there is this feeling of déjà vu while reading about Thomas’ travails and it is probably all due to the predictability factor emanating through out the story.

I guess I will have to applaud Danny Boyle for making this into an Oscar winner as I would have never dared to think beyond Bollywood for such a story.

Yearbook 2009

2009-07-18T12:55:00.004+08:00

Beautiful reminiscences of 17 months and all for posterity – that was our NUS Yearbook of 2007-09. The compilation is a pretty no-nonsense one, consisting of profiles with testimonials coupled with loads of pictures, and few words by faculty. Somehow the pictures were more than enough to remind me of the times spent during these entire 17 months in Singapore.

While now the 17 months seem to have just flown by, during the time-period it really did not feel so. At times there were weeks, months which seemed to stretch forever. Assignments never seemed to end and one got tired of smiling diplomatically and trying to pacify one’s exasperating groupies; not to mention trying to satisfy their vastly differing expectations as regards content, timing and quality. Of course after the final submission, presentations you tend to forget all that. While these experiences are the unwritten unspoken stuff that everyone faces during their MBA, one thing that one does not fail to perform is the bitching. It’s done in all forms, and by almost all. It’s almost performs a compulsive desire to compensate all that you would have loved to tell certain people but desisted from doing so.

However, all’s well that ends well. So finally at the end of the MBA I am also assuming that most people like me have forgotten and forgiven most of the unhappy experiences and chosen to remember only the pleasurable moments of 2007-09. And that’s what our yearbook is all about!

Dost Ho To Aisa

2009-07-16T19:31:00.002+08:00

I am afraid my Hindi might be incorrect, but the point is probably made. During our life, we meet people and become friends with some. Some friendships happen naturally, some are formed by association or purpose and some just happen. My personal take is that maintaining relations as well as the entire process of friendship with my “happening” friends is very free and natural. Today I was touched by a very sweet gesture from one such friend.During a special occasion she remembered me, in a very innovative manner and it was really sweet of her. Today’s gesture really meant a lot and acted as a balm on my unhappiness. Thank you!

"A true friend is someone who thinks that you are a good egg even though he knows that you are slightly cracked" -Bernard Meltzer

Sacred Games by Vikram Chandra

2009-07-15T23:52:00.003+08:00

When I pulled out the book from the library shelf I decided upon taking this book home for a couple of reasons. The title of the book did ring a bell in my mind but I also registered the fact that this author was not the same one who wrote an equally thick book “A Suitable Boy”. Somehow, I am not in love with most Indian authors. I do not why I just cannot get to like their stories, their way of writing or their take on Indian way of living. Perhaps it is our education which has kind of ensconced the British English and their literature well in our minds. So when we read books we still expect similar kind of writing. At least I do (sigh). However, I did like few authors and Vikram Seth and Jhumpa Lahiri were among them. Hence the primary assumptions while selecting the book were that I would be keeping myself busy thanks to the thick volume and it would hopefully be a nice read like the author’s namesake (by first name:D ).

Both assumptions weren’t fully correct. I realized that I really am a voracious reader and my abundant free time helps me in finishing the books earlier than either me or my family would like. My mother’s frequent complaint is that I almost gobble the books when they come from the library. I behave as they would be taken away from me very soon and hence the only action left to me is to finish reading them as soon as I can. Thankfully this volume kept me busy during the days of no phone and Internet connection. I am one of the present generation who somehow cannot live without at least 5 mins of Internet surfing a day, at home. While traveling I am usually sane without any such connection but one never knows.

Regarding the author, I hardly remember Seth’s style of writing, but I wasn’t very pleased with Chandra’s. Perhaps it was the indulgent use of Bombay Hindi, more known as “tapori” language. With just one book I feel I am quite familiar with the street talk. Unfortunately most of the terms are used by the police and gangsters. While the writing didn’t exactly enthrall me, I really liked the story and the plot, especially the way he kept two different loops of story telling on the same events run parallely. One was happening in the present and one was telling the story from past.

Chandra claimed to have undergone a lot of research in the beginning of the book. Hence I assume a lot of the story is based on few real-life incidents. With the intersecting lives of mafia dons, Bollywood, one would feel at many places that some characters are probably based on people we know. I haven’t figured out any till now though I am still ruminating. There are numerous characters all throughout the story. Some have lives of just few pages but their stories are very interesting and touching like Navneet behenji, Dipika. I am yet to find a male character whose life touched me! Most part of the book is about a don and a policeman investigating his death. There are countless characters and most are interconnected. The book also seems to have an invisible moral of Karma in many of the mini stories as well as the main one. Funnily or happily, the don dies a sad death while the supposedly good police man leads a happy life. However, on second thought I have read about these people ending their lives rather violently. Prabhakaran who was quite a don in his own way is probably a recent example. Overall, the book is quite an interesting read though the language really pained me. The best part of the book as mentioned already is the story and thanks to it I have been seriously wondering where the divide ends between research and fiction.

Crippled by Technology

2009-07-15T23:46:00.002+08:00

We have lived almost 5 days without a telephone and internet connection! It would have been preposterous if our mobile phones were also not working and also if the 2 of us at home (Mum has successfully avoided the Net quite a bit) didn’t have extremely important work with the Internet. The cause of the isolation was a fire at the BSNL Telephone Exchange. Some one even surreptitiously informed me that the fire was not accidental! Well Well.. with the ongoing strife in the heart of West Bengal and clashes with the local and central government, it wasn’t a very difficult thought to entertain. And to think of it, around 1.5 million telephone connections and I assume lesser Internet connections have been affected. When the telephone lines were disrupted, along with usual lack of telecommunication, important services like hospitals, banks, schools were affected too. Our bank downstairs was still crippled two days after the fire stopped. The bank is not a private one and hence still has the old world charm and pace of working associated with it. Fortunately or unfortunately, the ancient system of manually recording basic financial activities was not part of this. The bank officials obviously crippled by the technological innovations at their bank refused to co-operate with customers by accepting to do few activities manually. I doubt the denial was related to any top management order and was more to do with inflexibility of our working class. Considering how technology is deeply interconnected with basic activities and institutions in our life, it is alarming that we do not maintain an alternative way of functioning in case a disaster happens.