Movie Review: Deception

4:30 PM: OMG! There's work pending to be finished. No probs, we'll finish it quickly and rush to the theater. We'll still be able to catch the 3D movie.

5:00 PM: Oh, still more work to finish. Now we've to really scramble to complete this stuff and leave.

5:15 PM: Ah, you mail the reports while I call him to say we've completed it.

5:30 PM: Let's leave quickly. I'll go with A first and book the tickets and you come. We'll still make the show!

6:45 PM: Shucks man! 3 movie sold out. Now what to do. Oh, the counter waala is saying tickets are available for "Deception". And it released today only. Let's go see it. Atleast we'll be satisfied to watch a movie on its first day!

7:00 PM: Yeah! We made it on time. Now, sit back and enjoy...

8:00 PM: (interval) hmm.. Looks like it is A's story :D. Somehow I think this is like "Fight Club". Let's see.

8:45 PM: (movie over) #(*$%!@*&%. Absolute waste. We could have as well stayed back at office and worked for some more time... :P

All about nothing

"Blog! What's that? I don't have anything to do with this!"
I have been in this state of denial about my own blog for such a long time that I've almost forgot its existence. 8 productive hours going in front of computer, another 4 hours going for personal satisfaction (what with wi-fi installed) and on mails, feeds and messengers I still didn't want to go anywhere near the place known as Blogger.
Sheer laziness!

TVM and After

After a drab two months the day finally came when I had to leave for Trivandrum. June 11 - yet another time I had to pack my bags, yet another time I was leaving home. But this time around I was very indifferent to the things that lay ahead of me. I had a few plans in mind, a vague idea of where I want to be in a few years from now. Apart from this, it was all very blank.

The training acted as an excellent platform to touch base with peers who were joining with me and the top level management who gave many insightful views on how Information Technology and the Services domain is shaping up. The batch as a whole had lots of fun. Out bound learning with National Adventure Foundation (NAF) gave the official flavour to it. We made good use of the free time to visit Kovalam, Kanyakumari, Alleppy and Trivandrum City. We also caught up with Dasavatharam movie in Trivandrum just a few days after its release - this proved to be quite an experience especially for people who were not used to seeing such huge crowds thronging the theatres to catch a glimpse of their favourite actor.

The whole time had its big share of happiness and a short but significant share of sadness. End of the day, I personally feel that whatever we end up doing in our profession is all a part of the bigger plan that is beyond our control, beyond our realm of logical thought process. This means "give your best so that you'll be able to get an idea of the bigger plan some day in the future".

Personal thoughts apart, I find myself in an excellent position to enjoy the responsibilities, get an entirely different perspective about an entity for which I have infinite respect and admiration and be a part of the march towards success.

I haven't yet thought fully about the future of this blog. My vision is to make this blog as an enabler for my work. But this doesn't mean personal stuff will be shown the door. It's just that its share will come down. My next post will be on Consulting - My Initial Opinion.

Finally, some pics...

Train driver with a heart

Image via Wikipedia

People who have been in the streets of Chennai know very well how MTC (the erstwhile Pallavan) bus drivers just skip a bus stop and rush by even when scores of people are standing, ultimately leaving the stranded passengers to curse him. At the same time bus drivers who stop wait for people to get in. However, this is not something which you'll expect in a train. After all, time and trains wait for none. Why am I saying all these well-known facts. Read on...

Yesterday night, I got into an MRTS train at TIDEL Park and the train started. As it was leaving the station and picking up speed I saw a couple of men rushing up the stairs to the platform only to realise the train has started. And surprise, surprise! The train brakes all of a sudden and the driver blares the horn indicating the men to get on the train quickly. Though it didn't come to a complete stop, the train was moving at such a slow speed that anybody can get in quite easily. I came back home and narrated this incident to my mom, and she recounted how the guard at the back normally slows down the train at stations on seeing ladies rushing up the stairs to board the train.

There are some things even bus drivers can learn from train drivers!

End of Vacation

As my nearly two-and-a-half months vacation draw to an end, I just want to pause for a moment and look back on how it went by. Most of the time I was spent at home, extremely bored and getting used to the abnormal life of sleeping and waking up early. However, there were some interesting things too.

Two high points of this vacation:

Indian Premier League The 45 days of cricket extravaganza had me glued to the TV set and saw me turn from a non-believer of IPL to an ardent fan of Chennai Super Kings (CSK). Now, IPL is over but my vacation isn't. The withdrawal symptoms are too much to bear!

Family Holiday

A week long vacation to Bangkok & Hong Kong to cool off from the hectic schedule (of doing nothing, of course!) was the highlight of this vacation.The best moments - the scuba dive in Pattaya to view the amazing corals and sea life in crystal clear waters, and Hong Kong Disneyland.

Bangkok & Pattaya

Hong Kong

Apart from these, it's been visiting relatives and friends, meeting up with long-lost cousins and the routine outings to the beach. Now, it's time to pack yet again and leave home. As work beckons me, I'll be off to the God's Own Country for a couple of weeks. Beyond that, it's still a suspense about which part of this vast country I'll be headed to. Before I end this post, I can't but stop for a moment and think about what I missed the most in the past 2 1/2 months. Anyone who's been just out of college would have guessed it right! It's college life and friends. One part in me says, "Don't go very soft, there are lots of things to see in this big world". But the other part wins over saying, "Those moments which blew you away, they are worth remembering and holding on to!"

IPL - The way things are shaping up

Indian Premier League (IPL) - the much hyped up T20 league has got off to a huge start. Going by what happened on the opening day of this series, the amount of publicity and positive response garnered from the general public was very high. TheTRP ratings for SET Max hit the roof and broke all previous records for cricket.( Link) Though the crowds in the stadium thinned down for the Kings XI Punjab vs Chennai Super Kings, the subsequent matches witnessed pretty good crowds.

Some thoughts...

Match Winners

As of now it's been batsmen all the way. Before this series started, my friend Robin was saying that a "team would be as strong as the weakest link" and I agreed with him. Little did I realise the irony of this statement then. For, it was the bowling department which was as strong as the weakest link. Batsmen can easily go after one or two bowlers and get high scores. On the other hand, the batting department shone as brightly as the brightest star batsman of the day. A look at the man of the match (MoM) awards will glaringly reveal this fact. One out of the past seven matches featured a bowler getting the MoM award - Mahroof in Delhi Daredevils vs Rajasthan Royals. A batsman's contribution gets more highlight than a bowler's contribution. Case in point: Shane Watson's 76 n.o. was judged to be better than Shane Warne's 3-19 in Rajasthan Royals vs Kings XI Punjab. Though it might seem too early to reach these conclusions based on just seven matches, these results are an indicator for the way things will shape up.

Team Loyalty

It's way too early to expect die hard supporters for each team. The stadium still has people sporting the Indian tricolours during the matches. It will definitely take some time to witness fan loyalty for the teams on the lines of English Premier League. There will be a spark which will light up the flames of passion and create rivalries. But it's still early days for that.

Scheduling and Competition

If IPL becomes a success, other cricket boards would want to start their respective domestic leagues.

There will come a time when these league matches will become more popular and better money spinners than international matches. One day matches will become passé but test matches will stay. Soon cricket will become a global game, as envisaged by ICC.

Enough of dreams, wake up to the reality! The only thing I expect to happen in the medium term is the huge scramble for the best talented players from each country. As long as this format doesn't seep to the lowest leagues with every level being professionally managed the above words would only be words.

Enough of thoughts. It's now time to cheer Chennai Super Kings (CSK). Welcome to the lion's den my dear Mumbai Indians (MI). Well, MI would better describe what Team Mumbai is trying to achieve - Mission Impossible!!

Check out the Chennai Super Kings' fan site.

Kalahasti Trip

Finally, a break from the boring routine of doing nothing came in the form of a trip to Kalahasti. 120 km from Chennai and just 45 km away from Tirupati, this town is centred around its famous Lord Shiva temple. The trip in itself itself was interesting with good roads and beautiful sceneries. Here are some snaps from the trip:

Once you get away from the rush of Chennai traffic, the NH5 is pretty good. Except for a small stretch of the state highway near Tada the entire drive was very enjoyable.

Google Docs - Please be more user friendly!

I've been using Google Docs for quite some time. In fact, I type all my posts in Google Docs before posting in my blogs. It's good to see Google introducing the offline editing capability through Google Gears. However there's one basic feature which has been missed out. Every time I create a new document it's by default created in the root folder, and not in the folder I am currently browsing.

There's a feature in Microsoft Excel where in when I have to enter a table, I just have to keep pressing tab after typing the data. Once I reach the end of the column I just need to press "Enter" key to go to the beginning of the next row. Sadly, this feature is not there in Google Spreadsheet.

These are only minor features, but will go a long way in making Google Docs more user-friendly and easier to use!

Tasting Thunder difficult in Chennai

Among all the cola brands, Thums Up was the only drink which I liked. My days at Planet-I were not complete without taking a sip of Thums Up. A desi brand like Thums Up was liked by people in the young teenage group - more than rivals like Pepsi and Coke. In fact this brand has its own cult following.

When I moved back home to Chennai, I so badly wanted to get a 1.5L bottle and drink it during the hot afternoons. Sadly, Thums Up's distribution in Chennai is very poor. It's so difficult even to get the one that comes in glass bottles. Why such a situation here in a metro, when it is so widely available in even the remotest of places in Central India?

Signing Off

After the long extended stay which was filled with lots and lots of fun like Pachmarhi trip, Holi, playing cards etc, I'm leaving IIM Indore for the final time. No sentiments or nostalgic feelings right now. Have to complete the final minute packing and rush to Indore.

Bye bye Planet-I!

My Room @ IIMI

As I prepare to leave IIM Indore for the last time, I can't but pause for a moment and think about the three rooms where I have lived.

D-302 was my abode for the first few days of college. Overlooking a breathtaking scenery and gentle breeze blowing all the time, I had one of the rooms with the best view. But this happiness was short-lived when we had to shift to new rooms within a couple of weeks.

The view from D-302

I moved to E-212 in the newly constructed block. The view from here was not as breathtaking as in D-302, but this was compensated by the view of the staircase leading to Acad block. Soon the concept of watch became irrelevant to me. A peep out of the window to see people rushing was enough to show that it was time for class. Being a newly constructed block, the it was more energy-efficient with CFL lamps and solar water heater. But above all these things, I would remember E-212 for the beautiful friendships that blossomed over the 2nd and 3rd terms, the badminton games and the late night tea parties that used to be the time when all of us used to get together and chit chat endlessly into the night.

The view from E-212

2nd year came and it was time to shift again. I moved to F-212, the newly constructed block to accommodate our juniors. If D block had the breathtaking view of natural scenery and E block had the highly useful view of the stairs leading to Acad block, F block had a view of another block. My looking-out-of-window past-time was severely curtailed now. But there were other things which happened in F-212 and 2nd year in general. Some pleasant changes, some changes in perspectives and in general a different outlook towards everything happened here. I could see myself change from taking a conceding stance to being more aggressive on everything. As Shruti puts it, "Every now and then, he goes on a spree of rejecting ideas." Of course, this had its own share of shortcomings. But in the end, both extremes are not good enough and I got to realise it. This was also the year for TT, although I didn't play as much as I played baddy in the first year. This was the place where I got to know my friends more and forged friendships which will last a lifetime. I got closer to some and moved a little away from others.

F-Block

Looking back now, I cherish all the good times and want to change some of the hard times. But the past is more a tool for experience than anything else. These three rooms in two years have showed me a lot and form a definite turning point in my life.

A fitting end to this post would be this nice song "In My Room" by Beach Boys.

There's a world where I can go and tell my secrets to
In my room, in my room
In this world I lock out all my worries and my fears
In my room, in my room

Do my dreaming and my scheming
Lie awake and pray
Do my crying and my sighing
Laugh at yesterday

Now its dark and I'm alone
But I wont be afraid
In my room, in my room
In my room, in my room
In my room, in my room

Holi @ Planet-I

Holi - the festival of colours, was very colourful this year. The day began very quietly, like any other normal day. As usual, me, Shruti and Easwaran went for breakfast. It was 8.30 and still nothing to indicate it's Holi. Then came the first signs when the junior culcom went about dragging the bags of colour powders outside the mess. As Easwaran and Shruti were having tea I sneaked out, took handful of colours and waited for them to come out. And then, it all began. We were continuously jumping and running around like kids, throwing powder on each other. Slowly juniors started coming for breakfast. No one was spared. It didn't matter whether we knew them or not, but no one was let without colour. It's viral marketing - in Shruti's words. Once a person was smeared with colours, he didn't want to leave others out. Soon, the entire front of mess was full of colours.

This is one of the few festivals which helps in bringing out the child inside a person. The sheer joy in running after someone, throwing colours and getting drenched in colours and water is amazing. Too bad this festival doesn't have much relevance to South India that I didn't get to enjoy this festival in all the years I was in Chennai. But here at IIM Indore it's entirely different. One of the main reasons for me staying back on campus after convocation has been fulfilled today!

Laziness and Boredom

A lethal combination which has brought me down for the past few days. Right from the time after my Pachmarhi trip I've been trying to post an article about it, but all in vain. I've finally given up on it and am trying to move on to other things in life. The game of cards and Risk, which kept me going for sometime, doesn't seem to be happening much these days. So I finally switched to movies. It's now the season of animations and children movies. Now, let me list down the movies I watched recently - Superman Doomsday, Justice League: The New Frontier, Ice Age Series, Ratatouille, Open Season, Flushed Away. Add to the the entire Top Cat series I watched in the past 3 days. But nothing can beat the February when I watched almost two dozen movies in the span of a week.

Things did look up a little this week. Went to the city by train one day and loitered in Treasure Island the whole day. Did nothing much, but it was fun sitting in Barista and playing Scrabble (although I missed capturing the best moments in my camera, which itself is worthy of a separate post).

Now I forgot why I started writing this post. Oh yeah, to while away some time doing nothing. And I guess I've been quite successful in doing that. It's time to get back to watching Heroes. Afterall, if not movies it's time for sitcoms! :P

The last official day at IIM Indore

One last defining moment in the official part of the life at IIM Indore - Convocation. The time when me and all my classmates will be walking down the aisle to receive our diploma, robes and all. I missed my convocation at CEG due to random reasons. But this time around it's going to be great occasion when mom and dad will be here. It surely is a great moment for all, when the dreams come true. Enough sentiments for a day!

Post Graduate Diploma in Management - that's what I'm getting!

Pachmarhi Trip

After all the deliberations over the past few days, the Pachmarhi trip is finally happening. I'll be cut off from the internet world for the next 3 days. Add to this the joy of visiting a relatively unexplored hill station in summer, I'm expecting so much from this trip. It'll be 3 of us - me, Shruti and Easwaran making the entire trip in a cab.

The Plan

• Start at around 1AM on March 7 from IIM Indore and reach Pachmarhi at 9-9.30 AM.
  
• March 7 & 8 dedicated to sightseeing in Pachmarhi.
• Start from Pachmarhi on the morning of March 9 and back to campus by afternoon

More details about this trip once we come back.

1466

Finally I started posting blogs at my new opinion site. Check out today's article on Indian Railways Budget at http://vadapoda.blogspot.com/2008/02/indian-railways-budget-2008.html

It was 1 A.M., and I had to draw money from the ATM to book hotel rooms for my parents when they come down here to IIM Indore for my convocation. I thought I'll take a walk to the ATM. It was a pleasant night, a perfect time to walk. But what struck me most was the quietness of the entire hillock which was only broken by the rustle of the dried leaves and the occasional vehicle that passed by on the Pithampur Road. The road from hostel to the main gate (where the ATM is located) was fully lit by sodium vapour lamps, giving everything an eerie glow. It was a very different feeling to walk alone in such a setting at that time of the night. The whole walk was as such uneventful. While coming back, I had an idea. Why not count the number of steps I need to take to walk from the main gate to my room? I got so engrossed in doing this count that I don't even remember how exactly I made it to my block. But finally, I had a concrete number in mind - 1466.

Now, if somebody asks me for a walk to the main gate or ATM I can respond in one of these ways:

• "Oh sure, now I'll have 1466 steps of walk to enjoy with you."
  
• "Look buddy, it's gonna take me 1466 steps. And I'm not ready to waste so much time and energy right now."

Anyway, all these wishful thinking of alternate ways of responding are numbered. With just about a week or so left here, I am more than willing to go for a walk any time. It will end up being "A Walk to Remember".

Below are some night time pictures that I took along with Robin during a photo walk we made a few days back.

It's finally here!

My long standing wish of splitting my current blog into a personal and an opinion blog has come true today with the successful launch of Vada Poda site. Hereafter, this blog is fully dedicated to be my personal journal while Vada Poda will be the medium for voicing my thoughts.

Check out http://vadapoda.co.cc

Vista in XP

I spent the whole of yesterday tweaking my computer. Thanks to the Vista Transformation Pack and other third party applications, my laptop now has the body of XP but the face of Vista. This is how my screen looks now.

Here's the list of applications to be installed for achieving the transformation:

• Vista Transformation Pack
• People using Intel's Graphics Driver may get an error message while installing this. They will need to download this patch and follow the steps given in that.
  
• LClock for getting Vista-like clock
• True Transparency for transparent windows and borders.
• ViStart for Vista-like Start Menu
• Visual Tooltip
• WinFlip for 3D Win+Tab switching
• Google Desktop sidebar

Update:
Here's the one-click link to all the relevant files.

Cultural Differences

It's quite interesting to see the way interpersonal interaction changes from one culture to another.

During my trip to New Delhi recently, I happened to go to Saravana Bhavan for lunch. Since I was dining alone, I got to share the table with another person. When I went to the table, there was a person already sitting. A quick 'hi' to him just got a nod. He was waiting for his lunch to come he was free. Any sort of attempt to strike a conversation was futile. And then he got busy on his mobile phones. I gave up and started giving my order. He finished his lunch and left. A few minutes later a Chinese girl came and took the same seat. And boy, she was really talkative. From trying to find out the type of food that will taste good to the purpose each one of us were there in Delhi, the conversation was pretty interesting. I had to leave in a few minutes of meeting her, but we seemed to know atleast something about each other and the type of culture we are from.

Two persons with so much contrasts, within a span of few minutes. Maybe the guy was thinking just about the work he had in mind and so he didn't talk. Maybe being a girl from around my age and from a different culture, I just happened to talk a lot to her. But considering the fact that I am not someone who easily starts talking to strangers and especially girls, I can only see how differences in culture make people act differently.

For you, a thousand times over

"Kite Runner" - I simply loved this book. Just brought back emotions from the tough times I face when I feel helpless, the feelings not very much different from what Amir agha faced. I still find it hard to believe that I took so long to find this book. A page turner, and one that was really great. Proof of it, is the time right now - 04:50 am, and i need to get up for classes in the morning.

Vodafone all over the MRTS

During my recent visit to Chennai, there were two changes that I noticed in the Mass Rapid Transit System (MRTS).

One, they have increased the frequency of services after extending it till Velachery. Being a stone's throw away from the Greenways Road station made this especially useful because now I had a service in any direction at least once in 15 minutes. Now, I don't have to worry even if I miss the train. Compare this to the time when if I miss the train, I either had to wait for 50 minutes to catch the next train or scurry along the Greenways Road looking for an exorbitantly priced auto rickshaw service.

Besides, the Railways has also installed a display saying when the next train is due for arrival. Though this wasn't working in most of the stations when I visited Chennai, the station authorities promised that they will be up and running very soon.

The other thing was the advertisements on the trains. While I am used to seeing companies advertising on the top strip of the outside of the train (local company ads like Ramraj, Dixcy etc used to come there), this time I saw an entire train painted in bright red with Vodafone ads all along. It's better to see the pictures than explain it in words.

This just tells me that the Railways are improving in getting revenues and Vodafone is creative enough to find new and better ways of advertising and reaching out to people.

eRail.in - A cute way of Searching for Trains in India

I had been wanting to post on this site for quite some time, but some sort of inertia had crept into me that I stopped blogging altogether in the past few days. But now that I've broken this inertia by posting one article, I feel like posting more! :)

This post is for all those people who are exasperated with the way we have to search for trains in India. The Indian Railways run website, is not the great way to search for trains. The site design is absolutely bad, and it takes one quite a lot of navigation to search for a train and it's availability. This is where eRail comes - a simple and very nicely designed site. The entire process of searching for trains, checking availability, getting the fares and looking at the train journey route are all packaged in a single page without any need to even scroll the page. The site also includes a map showing the route from the source to the destination station, courtesy Google Maps. The only functionality waiting to be integrated is e-booking.

Some screenshots from the site:

A Car for the Masses

The launch of Tata's 1 lakh car (Tata Nano) was something that I couldn't wait to see happening. After the scores of rumours over the past couple of years on how the car would be looking like and what strategiesTata Motors would be following to cut costs, the end product seemed pretty good. My opinion about having such a low-priced car was pretty much in the middle. On the one hand there is the pollution concerns and the infrastructure getting clogged due to hundreds of thousands of cars getting added, while on the other hand is the fact that this increases the reach of cars.

A couple of days back, I happened to overhear this conversation while travelling by the local train from Rau to Indore (now, this itself needs a separate post).

Person X: Did you happen to see the 1-lakh car?
Person Y: Yeah, Tata's car.
X: Seems like a good option to go for it.
Y: Oh why so, it's only as big as an auto.
X: But, it's a car. Small, but looks very comfortable. We just need to pay some money upfront and the balance can be paid in instalments of Rs.2300-2500 over 4 years. And already there seems to be a lot of queue for booking. It's very useful for a family.
Y: The engine is in the back.
X: Yeah, and the bonnet is in the front. So your items will be under your eyes only...

This conversation happened in a train which is used mostly by the people from lower middle class and local farmers. It opened my eyes to the fact that here was a product which is enabling a whole new set of people to converse on a topic which they wouldn't have even cared to talk about a few months ago.

The competition from the likes of Bajaj, Ford and others will add fuel to the competitive fire and help improve the reach of cars to the general Indian public. I only hope that theTatas cash in on their first-mover advantage in a big way before others come in.

Read this article by Robin expressing his views against the environmentalists' opposing of Tata Nano.