Have I met ME?

Sometimes it's just great to wonder about your existence. To just forget everyone and all those things that have been worrying you. But I felt the opposite at my sojourn to a beach in the southernmost tip of India. I thought I would find solace, relief and a sense of just being away from everything for a while.

My experiment at staying alone/detached for 3 days turned out to be not quite what i had expected. I did live like a king, I wouldn't deny that. Staying at a place right at the beach, getting up at 11, bathing at the beach, sitting at shacks for hours having fish and just wondering who made the sea so beautiful, walking in the sand and looking back to see your footprints being owned by the sea, reading and wondering about the characters in that book like they were alive at that very moment and watching the day go by from that lighthouse that overlooks the ocean and the wilderness.

But there was something that always remained the same, the ME inside of me. I always told myself "hey, this is supposed to be a vacation so stop thinking" but no ! I thought even more, at times i equated my life with the book i was reading. All the emotions that I had felt at some or the other time of the year just came back to me with a greater intensity. I thought more about the people in my life, about priorities, about what an asshole I can be and how I should continue to be one. WHY life has been what it has been so far and how NOTHING is going to change very soon.I thought of my self as an animal, as a glutton whose only motive in life was to live better and felt that being at this place is gonna change nothing. I will just be the same when I go back to the "real" world. But then there was this one thought that turned around everything. " Atleast I was thinking!!!"

We just walk through our everyday lives without smelling the roses but more than that I think its more important to feel the thorns once in a while ! Think about what you did to someone, about why you are such a terrible person, about that loser that stays inside you and comes out when you least expect him to, about that person who bullied you when you were a kid.Sometimes just sometimes its good to sit back with some beer and think about all those bad memories, stuff you are not really proud of. It's only then that you will accept completely what you really are and that acceptability and not the being itself shapes what you truly can be.

Somewhere in time and space:Europe

Europeans in general have a strange craving for silence.The metros,the hotels,the universities,the roads all of them say the same thing in different ways.There is no interference with the personal soul, everything is objective,looks at you from a distance and wants you to think.Think about the food,about the women,about the silence, about the masterpieces on every nook and corner of the street.Then you become a cripple, a slave of your thoughts which embrace the questions this objectivity asks them. You dont realize where you are going, there is noone to ask about you,noone who cares about your whereabouts. People are engrossed in thought, the mornings are silent, and the evenings are beautiful. people dance, love , eat, drink but I wonder if this is gods attempt to create an equilibrium in life in general here.Its like India, the mindnumbing activity during the day is followed by quiet nights, for the average indian that is.

Every women has a scent here, an inescapable odour,its like a second identity,its like an addiction,just doesnt let go of you. in a club u r suddenly in an ocean of sounds and odours, with the music acting as a catalyst. You look into the eyes of that beautiful stranger and have a conversation that you'll forget in a day but something you wont forget is that moment in time and space, that dot in the world where you were happy , where you could be whatever u wanted to be.

Random conversations about politics,media, movies,love, weather , music, business and what not run wild. You open your mind every night and let yourself be. you dont cling on to ideas , u neither accept them nor reject them because it doesnt matter, because nothing is true and nothing is false,you just fly . fly in the deep corners of your mind and speak whatever you want to and also, whatever you dont want to. the alcohol makes you wild, the music makes you calm and after sometime you close your eyes to talk to yourself, everything is spinning ,your thoughts collide with each other and suddenly you dont know what to do with them, you dont kno how to keep them still, your mind is at war with itself and the only way you can bring peace is by letting it fight in solitude.

and then you go home...

The "B SCHOOL" experience

On my first day in business school, I met GOD !! he was standing on the stage, behind the podium, giving us a "WELCOME" speech. He began by saying "welcome batch, you guys are good" and before i could even begin stoking my ego, he went berserk with the rules! Rule 1-blah blah blah ,Rule 2-blah blah blah blah followed by If you dare to blah blah i will blah blah blah. I asked myself 'seriously how old is this guy? and why the f&*^ is he scolding us!! Although i'm not a very good public speaker(not even half of what this guy was) i could earn 10 times more respect than he could when on stage. Being a little polite would do, and i'll be a star if i could crack a joke or two! seriously, how difficult is it to be nice to people? to understand what they want to hear? oh wait, i heard this guy was majoring in marketing !! god bless this country.

On the second day, i met GOD 2 !! He was out there on the stage giving us a presentation on the basics of marketing. He was alright, but wait, after 5 minutes he too like GOD starts shouting at us !! "You ignorant fools you don't know this", " seriously who sent you guys to a business school, this is just a waste of time" and then suddenly the trick worked. A bunch of juveniles decided to rescue the session and started asking questions which almost made me puke!!! The whole setting turned into a parliament session in the next 5 minutes. First years asking questions to become popular, seniors retorting back to save their egos. I was just a quite soul who preffered thinking about the universe than petty toilet soap ad campaigns.With my hands behind my neck and my seat in full recline i was gonna make a breakthrough in understanding the evolution of the being when GOD 2 interrupted my chain of thought.He was shouting at the top of his voice, he was shouting at me with all his energy.Then at that very moment i made a decision.I am never gonna buy a single product of the company he goes on to work for. They just lost a customer before they even hired him!!



On days 3,4,5,6,7,8,9...16 i met GOD 3,4,5,6,7,8,9,....16. Each one of them was pissed off for some reason or the other. They had insane fetishes. They loved formals. They wanted each and every first year to wear formals day and night,and by night i mean 2 am. They wont let them eat if they are not wearing formals, wont let them study if they are not in formals, wont let them attend "interactions" if not in formals( oh wait, thats what we want don't we !!) Dedicated, sincere EMPLOYEES who follow deadlines and submit themselves towards authority and hierarchy is what they wanted them to become. Uniformity is what they aspired to bring, individuality is what they forgot altogether. They stressed on interaction but forgot that they had to stop being angry for that to happen !!

You'll expect me to end it on a healthy positive note to appease certain people but that's not going to happen . I'm not pissed, i'm just bored.Where's the fun? Where's the excitement? Where's the passion? Where is THE LOVE?

Disclaimer: The above article is purely fictitious not resembling any person or place.
;) ;)

Too cool for school !

Another month and i'm gonna be back in college. It's been ages since i left manipal.

1.5 years to be exact, and i feel that its time to get in touch with the "student" in me. For starters, the Goatee is back !! it's symbolic for me more than anything else. It Remind's me of the times when i didn't give a rats ass about anything, the times when i used to walk in the classes without realizing what date,time or year it was, the times when i used to look into the mirror and say "i'm getting sexier day by day" and my room mate used to laugh his ass off.and what's more, my insane laugh is back!! the one i tried to hold back in office, the one that always got me in trouble in college, the one people could hear from miles away and say "i know who that is!". My ability to consume alcohol is improving thanks to my recent bangalore trip, and i really hope it will meet the required standards when i get started with college. The last year had left me longing for liquor(lack of company not liquor!) , i could get high on lime soda for all i knew. The old music is back, folders in my old computer named after my friends with nothing short of treasure in them,the songs we could levitate on. For some reason or the other college always wakes up the freak within,or maybe its the real me. Looking forward to two more years of pure and absolute bakar.

The cynical product

My grand father happens to be a researcher. As a person he's your typical science guy. Cynical, witty, absent minded at times and you'll always catch him talking to himself. At his bed side, you'll find spare transformer parts, batteries, wires and yeah a motor at times! didn't have much of an education. One of those lucky guys who always knew what they wanted to do. A natural with circuits and anything to do with electronics.

Last summer he designed an electronic stethoscope and gave me a prototype. It was special for me.The sound intensity was three times that of a normal stethoscope, Could be connected to headphones,earphones or even speakers for a whole class of medical students to listen and learn.It made great market sense too. The cost we agreed on was 70% less than that of american electronic stethoscopes which were being sold in India.He asked me to try and market it. Apart from writing that was the first thing ever that got me really excited.I jumped on it. Met doctors,medical students,Interns, made a few visits to purchase departments.But things didn't really work out.

I ask myself time and again if i gave it my best shot. The answer is a dismal no. apart from that there were a few other problems with the product. According to doctors it failed to measure some crucial heart beats .It was better for use as a respiratory stethoscope rather than a cardio device and It had to be charged every now and then which really was a pain.The biggest problem of them all, The small company where my grandfather worked as a researcher didn't have enough capital to manufacture the product even if we did manage to get an order!

I left it then and there. The stethoscope is locked in my grand fathers cupboard but it crosses my mind time and again.Can i still sell it? I occasionally ask him this question and he always gives me the same cynical reply " rehne de,yahan sab bekaar hain,is desh ka kuch nahi ho sakta" But i'm an optimist. always will be.

The customer’s Business!

On a merciless summer day in Delhi I rushed to catch a metro train to my place. With The sun beating down on me, I was sweating profusely. I entered the metro station and without a thought approached the nearest beverage shop. I asked him to give me something ice cold. Whatever was available, I didn’t care about the brand. Coke,Pepsi or cold water anything would do. He opened his freezer, took out a can of sprite and placed it on the counter. No questions asked, I grabbed it, paid him 20 bucks and ran to catch my train. While the train approached the station I opened the can and took a sip. Then at that very moment I remembered what Peter Drucker said about business.

“What is our business?” is the first question an organization needs to ask itself and it needs to ask it every day, every quarter and every year. Not answering it appropriately is the single most common cause of business failure. On a hot summer day Sprite is in the business of relieving thirst and on a cold winter night it’s a support business for the liquor industry. The answer to this question changes with climate, country, consumption trends, Age of the target customer and most importantly the thought process of the management.

The second most important question an organization needs to ask is “Who/what are we competing against?” . In my case Sprite was in competition with soft drink companies, juice companies as well as mineral water!! The competition you face depends on the whims and fancies of your customer. He/she wants cold mineral water instead of a soft drink, It’s your problem! He prefers an ice cream over your drink, Your problem again!! Reassessing your Marketing strategy in accordance with the changing competition is something that can’t be ignored and the competition might not be in the same business as you.

The final question “Who is our customer and what can we do to reach him?” On a hot summer day, in a metro station it was me. I didn’t know what to purchase. I was just running for my train. I wasn’t aware of their distribution network or style. I wanted something cold, inexpensive, not bad in taste, readily available and easy to carry. A Rs 20 can of cold sprite was right on the money. It might have been someone else on a rainy day in a completely different place and they’ll need to reach him in a completely different way. Restructuring distribution and promotion strategy with the changing business is mandatory.

So the next time you find yourself sipping a cold beverage drink try to answer these questions and compare the answers with those in my situation. You’ll find that you are dealing with a completely different business.

The Modern Dandi March

Wrote this one on Gandhi Jayanti.

I’ve started working for an Indian IT major. And there are certain things I couldn’t help but notice. My training group comprises of 36 individuals coming from not less then 15 states in the country. You name it and we have it (Punjab,haryana, tamil Nadu, kerela, ,Gujarat, Karnataka, uttar Pradesh , assam, rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, delhi, maharashtra) Its like attending a class with your country. All of them have different accents, different mother tongues, different tastes in food, different ways of living and interacting with people. But there is one thing we all share – a sense of acceptance of our differences and the ability to keep everything behind us when it comes to learning things together and of course making money. In a way our small class is a microcosm of the economic and social revolution that is slowly yet steadily changing the face of our nation as a whole. The pursuit of profit is the pillar on which our society rests now.

The Indian economy has often been compared with an elephant. Slow and wise but lethargic at times . The same goes with Indian psyche. We as a community have always cherished the wisdom of our memory as a nation which sometimes forestalls the advent of path breaking ideas or research. We trust the conventional approach to business, governance and politics but we forget to remember that conventions are always subject to change in our argumentative nation. The new “chai piyo aur kaam karo “ campaign epitomizes what’s happening in the Indian society today. There has been a profound shift in the perception from your social status(caste) determining your economic well being in ancient India to your economic well being determining your social status in modern times.

It’s Gandhi jayanti today and bapu more than anything else was a symbol of self sufficient Indian villages and the eventual transition of the rural population to the middle class. These days it’s not unusual (in fact very common) to find people from backward areas of our nation working in the knowledge industry and joining the middle class which in the long run is the economic sword of a country and without which an unjust society is inevitable. So when bapu proceeded with his dandi march he actually laid a path before us , the path of self sufficiency and progress, the path of inclusiveness and perseverance, the path where bharat and India meet to cover the arduous miles together.