Some of the sweet and funny moments of my life

I was in my ninth standard and had a major crush on this cute guy because I found out that he also had a crush on me. (At least I was led to believe that by my friends) So, one fine evening, after our algebra class was done (in tuitions, he was in my tuitions as well. How else do you think I got through those horrifying algebra lessons, which didn’t make sense even when I was paying an obscene amount to learn them), I walked out and stood at the entrance gate, putting my books away. He used to ride a cycle to classes everyday then. That day, without realizing I sort of bumped into his cycle while trying to put my books in the bag. He looked up, smiled and then did a 'dilwale dulhaniya le jayenge' on me. That is he circled on his cycle around me two times with this sweet plaintive smile on his face. And now the twist in the ishtory. Instead of blushing, I laughed out loud (literally) and shook my head disdainfully. Needless to say he never tried that with me again. But that moment is still one of those few precious ones that I hold within me.

Another one such moment was when I was in my 11^th grade. Three years later I again found myself fantasizing about this really cute guy, who was a friend’s friend (my friends have always been my savior. I never could become friends with good-looking guys on my own) One day, there was apparently a bomb blast somewhere in the city. We were all let off early by our college authorities. Quite unexpectedly, he had to catch the same bus that I had, to as he was visiting some relatives near my area. So, we decided to go together. However, when the bus arrived he got on it, and I wasn’t able to because of the crowd suddenly anxious to reach their places as soon as possible.

Imagine this, I am running behind the bus and he just realizing that I am not with him anymore, leans out of the bus to see what happened. He sees me and gives me his hand, again in a dilwale dulhaniya style, I take it and fall into his arms (quite literally) and he catches hold of me with both hands. As if this wasn’t dizzyingly embarrassing (in a good way though) enough, our common friends start singing, ‘Baho ke darmiyan…do pyaar mil rahe hain’. Times like these I wonder if it really would be a sin to kill friends. Anyhow, it was another one of those precious moments of my life. The fact that the guy turned out to be a complete bore now withstanding.

Harry Horror

This Sunday I had no plans to go and watch a movie. However, just when I was settling down with the idea of being completely alone with my novel, the wretched phone rang. I would here like to add that I have a very strong sixth sense, and this incessant ringing of my phone was screeching premonition in bold letters in my head. Still, I picked up the phone and had the pleasure to hear the voice of a very dear friend of mine. After the much rushed into pleasantries, my friend asked me in a pleading voice, “Will you accompany me to watch Harry Potter?” For those who are my mere acquaintances, please note that I am a BIG Harry Potter fan. The mere mention of the name can get me started for hours. And the sound of those words, by even Hitler would make him a personal favorite of mine. However, if any information of the above mentioned epic is tampered with, it makes me see red and little demons of fury start dancing behind my eyes, shooting little thorny spikes at the ignorant git. To say that earlier conversions of this novel into a movie had this effect on me, would be an understatement.
So, although I was quite sure that this again would be an assault on my memories of the magical world of J.K Rowling, I gave into my better side and agreed to accompany my friend. As we all know, misery only brings along more misery with it, I had another thing coming at me. The theatre in which we were supposed to watch the movie only had the Hindi-version of it. I personally love Hindi as a language not just because it is my mother tongue, but also because it is so beautiful. However, hearing Gryffindor being referred as ‘garud duar’ is taking it too far. So, anyway I went in, hoping against hope that the script would be in tandem with the novel and will at least try to give the main fraction of the novel a lead.
However, not only was I disappointed in that area, but I also had to endure kids who had no clue about the book or the previous versions of the movie and a couple in making as well.
Let me first present my views about the movie. David Yates (director) and Steve Kloves (writer) either tortured J.K Rowling into agreeing with this version of her book, or they bribed her. How else could she watch in silence the brutal killing of her imagination?
The director was apparently more interested in showing Daniel Radcliff as a wannabe Casanova and not a teenager on his way to adulthood, struggling with feelings like love, unknown to him till now. This is the part in the series where Harry realizes the burden of his responsibilities while desperately trying to hold on to the feelings, which an average teenage boy of his age has. In the novel he has to constantly choose between being the 17year old and the one who is suppose to kill the darkest wizard of all. The fact that he kills Voldemort in the next part is a clear indication of what he chooses for himself. The Harry in the movie, however lacks any such complexities and is more interested in dating a girl he meets in a restaurant, than going with Dumbledore to help kill Voldemort.
Why so much of importance was given to Ron and his love life was beyond me. Rupert is good at making comical faces. However, to see the same emotion on his face from different angles, for more than an hour, hasn’t made him anymore popular with me. Emma Watson has once again succeeded in reducing Hermione to a sad looking, no expression, and no depth girl whose only aim in the movie was to crib about Ron and his love interest Lavender Brown.
The role of the potions book, which is the inspiration for the name of the novel and the movie as well, has suffered the blink and miss syndrome, thanks to the director. Tom Felton a.k.a Draco Malfoy who should have been the protagonist of the movie, came across as nothing more than a guest appearance. The story of Voldemort, his childhood, his rise to power and his apparent flaws which formed the crux of the novel were shoved under the carpet. David Yates must be mercifully in nature, for he shot a few scenes which at least suggested that Voldemort was still a part of Harry’s life when he was in his sixth year, and did not actually consume the love potion (which seemed to be on everybody’s mind, on the sets at least), thus falling in love with Harry and sparing his life in his show of love.
All in all it is a movie which can give new meaning to the phrase ‘self-inflicted torture’. Even as I was going through this torment, there was more in stored for me. A few kids sitting behind me were translating the Hindi version into Marathi and somehow they got into a discussion of Dumbeldore’s broom (something even J.K Rowling hasn’t thought about). So once the discussion on his non-existent broomstick died down, a row over whether pop corn is better than samosa started. I was already having a hard time getting over these conversations, when the guy sitting next to me started nagging his friend (whom he hopped to make his girl friend), about her family and life in general. The girl was quite uninterested in the guy, which was apparent from her nonchalant behavior, but I guess was sitting with him because he paid for her tickets. Not that she was interested in the movie. The fact that she talked to some other guy discussing every problem of her life over the phone for the next 20 minutes, was a proof of the above mentioned fact. My loud comments on how people, who talk on phone while watching a movie in a theatre defined insensitivity, went unheard. Finally I had to butt in her monologue and show her my ticket, confirming to her that even I paid for the ticket and that I would like to at least see without any distractions how badly the movie has been made. That shut her up fine.
Finally the movie ended, and I had a chance to give my friend a cold stare in the light outside, which she was very cleverly ignoring in the dark of the movie hall. She looked at me and said that she will treat me to a sandwich from my favorite joint. Deciding that I needed to sit down and eat, I forgot about the three wasted hours of my life and went for it.

One night...

The night that fell around her was as dark as her thoughts. The occasional passing by of headlights sent a shiver down her spine with emotions ranging from panic to relief, jostling for space in her heart and brain. Finally she spotted a garage a little off the road.

There were eerie voices coming from the jungle on either side of the road. Or maybe she was imagining it. Resolutely ignoring the erratic thumping of her nerves she set towards that poor imitation of a garage. It was basically a rag pulled over three bamboo sticks and tires and tools all around. The light that fell on those truck tires all around somehow made her realize the smallness of her frame. The small yellow light glowing inside was laced with smoke of ‘bedi’ and cheap cigarettes. Her smelling senses were sent for a toss with sweat and liquor mixing with piss and grease. Her eyes stung remembering the ‘evening in Paris’, a gift from her father which was on the dressing table at the inn.

A sudden flash of arms and teeth brought her back. The panic which was jumping up and down in her body, quietly settled in her stomach making her feet and arms immobile. With wild eyes she looked at the mane of long dark hair on a high forehead and kohl rimmed eyes. “Are you ok Madame?” he asked, “Is your car broken”? Somehow she managed to mumble, “Down the road”. “Well there is a mechanic here, Raj will send him”. He said something to a relatively small person in the local language, which she took to be instructions towards her car. “Where do you want to go? You are not from here”.

“I am a tourist. I live in a nearby hotel,” she replied a little haltingly. “Come I am going that way. I will leave you in my truck” he said and gestured towards a giant black figure. The sheer mass and meanness of the vehicle seemed to make it much darker than the night surrounding it. The exhaust pipe seemed to be going directly into her heart and creating a holocaust of emotions inside it. Not sure if or not she should tell this stranger about where she lives, she stood rooted to the ground wondering how in the name of god she can politely but firmly reject him. “Don’t worry Madameji nothing will happen.

here are two kids in the back of the truck. You can sit with them” he said and smiled. The genuine smile wrapped with those words spoken seemed so true to her that her fears if not evaporate did subside a little. She went back and indeed there were two small boys there. She sat with them and the truck started with a roar. Those kids sat in a corner staring outside in the night with a comfortable but firm silence pushing everyone in their own worlds. She followed their gazes and stared at random things. Tress, small shops, headlights, stars, legs, moon, road. After a while the truck stopped and she realized that she has reached her hotel. While she was about to get down her eyes fell on s few markings on the legs of those kids. They were moving a little on the side and she realized with light falling on their right side from the lamplight outside, that there was frozen blood on their hind side. That blood was all she could think of while she stood on the curb of her inn and saw the truck dirver leave after passing a broad smile..

Life's about Eternal Optimism

He Speaks in a voice that suggests a rare mixture of politeness and authority, which also defines his personality. His face has lines of experience etched on it and a smile that promises its charm even in tough times. I was interviewing ajai Chowdhry, the cofounder of HCL and Chairman & CeO of HCL Infosystems.

I wondered what is it that makes this man tick? Who are the people who can in-fluence such a person? So,when I ask him, he takes a moment to ponder and replies, “I don’t think I can attribute it to any single person. However, the person who comes closest is my co-founder, Shiv nadar. It’s quite impossible not to get influenced by his charismatic personality.” So, what is it about nadar that influences him so much? “He always believes in looking ahead and has a positive attitude,” he says. Accept the challenges so that you may feel the exhilaration of victory, said George S Patton. So what are the challenges that Chowdhry faced? “There have beenmultiple challenges. For example, how do you set a growth trajectory in a particular time? Sometimes it is through organic growth, on other occasions through joint ventures and acquisitions. We have done it all,” he says.

So, what are the learnings in these phases? “In the 1990s, when we went for joint ventures, we learned from global leaders and scaled ourselves up. at that point in time, we felt we are a passionate company. We soon realized that passion alone was not enough and that processes and qualities are as important as passion and people,” he says. Every company or an individual plans for the future. But, Chowdhry has a different take. “you can make a five-year plan but it’s never going to be sufficient. From being a hardware company addressing B2B, we went on to address B2C segment, and then we decided to go for systems integration as well,” he explains.

It’s said that time tests everybody. For Chowdhry it was the year 1991, when there was limited foreign exchange in the country. “During this period, our products were dependent on the components that were imported. So that was quite a challenge for us,” he says. To grow a business, it takes time and effort. To grow faster, it takes more time and more effort. But, it’s imperative to strike a balance between personal and professional life. “I have a methodology by which I detach myself from work the moment I reach home. One needs to train oneself. Despite the fact that you have a mobile and a laptop, you need to keep away from these devices. I believe

I have done a fairly good job in mastering this skill,” he adds with a smile. His smile is contagious and I smile back. Before I could stop myself, I ask him the question that was burning in mind. What makes an entrepreneur successful? “an entrepreneur’s biggest skill and strength is to be optimistic at all times, particularly during crisis. He has to be an eternal optimist. even at difficult times, he should talk about growing and not give up hope,” he says.

A leader is a dealer in hope — something that napoleon Bonaparte said so many years ago. It’s fascinating to know that someone follows his advice even today.

Books, Business and Bhagwad Gita

When I walked through the door less cabin, with paintings adorning the walls and a glass pane overlooking a beautiful garden, the ambiance impressed me. The man who entered after me impressed me even more. Witty, calm and someone with a sense of humor is how I will describe P Rajendran, co-founder and COO of NIIT. An IIT graduate, he can talk about politics, movies and spirituality with as much clarity as about computers and engineering. Reminiscing about his IIT days, he says, “I always wanted to be an outstanding engineer. I wanted to invent something”.

His passion for engineering can be traced back to the influence his uncle, the first engineer in the family had on him. “I was very much influenced with his strong ethics His professional attitude impressed me much”, adds Rajendran. So, was his uncle the biggest influence in his life? He thinks for a moment and replies, “No, he inspired me in a way, but not completely. I don’t think I have ever been influenced completely by anyone or anything”. He takes a moment before he goes on, “However, there is this book by W.Somerset, Razor’s edge. It made a lasting impression on me and opened my horizons to bigger world outside my own”, he says, suggesting me to get a hand on that book myself. I promise him to do that as soon as I get a chance.

His love for books is apparent from the way his eyes twinkle at the mere mention of the word. An avid reader, Rajendran has read everything from Ayan Rand to Bhagwad Gita. “I have marked some paragraphs in Gita red and put some tags on them. I sometimes go back and read those verses”, he adds. Influenced by Howard Roark, Rajendran believes that everyone should have an idol like him and think differently and respect and understand the other side of the story, without leaving the faith in one’s own belief.

Ask him about the toughest time in his life and he replies with a resolve in his voice. The same resolve that got his company through some of the worst times in the history of IT in the country. “I think 2001; the last slowdown was the toughest time for us. India was just starting to understand IT. ‘After 20 years IT dies in India’ was the general story going around”, he says. Someone who believes in the concept of FOF, fight or flight, he fought all right. “We went into aggressive marketing. There were 14 centers and rest franchise of NIIT around the country at that time. Some partners got scared and pulled out. So we went ahead and invested our own money and from 14 we went on to have 50 centers in the country. This reinstated faith in other partners and gave the message that we are going to go on”, says Rajendran.

The calm confidence in his voice suggests that he is someone who knows well how to balance his personal and professional life well. Ask him about this and he asks back quizzically, “I didn’t know the term personal life existed”, breaking into a chuckle the next moment. “I do not believe in partitioning my life in different compartments. It’s all integrated. If my wife calls me in a middle of a meeting I will pick up her call and if someone was to call me on a Sunday afternoon, I will pick up his call as well”, he adds.

So how does he handles difficult situations?“Depth of knowledge about the problem is of utmost importance. Also there should be a sense of urgency in tackling the problem and a laid-back attitude is a complete no-go,” he replies. His body language is a testimony that he believes in what he preaches. A straight back, alert eyes and a quite voice gives an impression of toughness and agility.

War movies, music and theater are things that relax him. “When my daughter was born, she was my stress buster till the time she was growing”, he adds.

Once I am done with the interview, he saw me take out the batteries of my Dictaphone and said, “You doing that to save energy right? I will give you a better idea, take a cloth and put it between the connection and the batteries, it will save both time and energy” and winks at me. I smile back; take my bag and leave, a little wiser and extremely satisfied with the meeting.

A day's deaparting gift...

I was coming back by 492 as usual this evening. However, there were no ‘Ladies’ seat, as where it is generally written that it is allotted for our sex, was painted in white. I personally think that the conductor of the bus believed very strongly in non –discrimination on the basis of sex funda. Or maybe he was just done with resolving the many man-woman clashes over this particular issue. Whatever be the case, I ended up sitting next to a man on a seat, where usually a woman is seated.
Don’t get too excited we barely looked in each other’s direction, and completely forgot the existence of the other when the bus started to move. I was engrossed in my music and sometime while I was listening to some random song, I looked in his direction. He was crouched in his corner of the seat. He probably thought that if he dared to come on ‘my side of the seat’, I might just pounce on him and eat him raw (I strictly refuse to believe that my dead expression was the reason for his peculiar behavior, and strongly believe that either he has a very demanding lady boss or girlfriend, there isn't much difference either way, or else he must have been abused by a woman some time in his life). He also had his bag clutched close to his heart. It looked like his heartbeats were being pumped directly from this bag of his. I went back to my dead expressions and ‘Dard-de-Disco’ (One can only listen to this number if one is either drunk or drugged or has sat from 9-6 in his/her office with three meetings, with two different bosses who don’t see eye to eye. With me it was the latter one).
And then I smelled a very familiar smell for a fraction of five seconds. I must here inform anyone who is reading this that I have a strong olfactory sense. Perfumes, flowers are therefore my preferred options for any sort of gift giving or receiving occasion (those close enough to present me with my birthday gift please take note of this fact and for a change give me something that I really like. Also those who know my address are hereby given a chance to do some good in life by making someone else that is me, happy. :P) Coming back, this particular smell is actually from a perfume called ‘Charlie’. The last I smelled this smell was, when I was I guess 13 or 14 and my neighbor, Jigna, was learning how to make perfumes. She had made this particular one which she presented to me (my mum actually, but she never used it). I used to wear that perfume almost on a daily basis and was very fond of the smell. Anyways, this fragrance turned my attention to the person sitting next to me, as I thought he might be wearing that perfume. This man or rather a boy on his way to becoming a man was fair, wavy black hair with a touch of brown and an extremely peaceful face.
Night formed the background with light thrown from the yellow bulbs rushing past. This contrasted so well with the still image of a milky white face with barely smiling lips, white shirt, brown half sweater and blue jeans. That image gave me my first genuine smile of the day. I didn't like this guy in absolutely any way. I wasn't even thinking of him. But his presence somehow helped me relax. And that smell took me back in time when a whiff of perfumes on strangers used to make my heart flutter and flowers were known to me by their scent. I thought it was the day’s departing gift to me.

Another country hanged from the rope of 'Liberation'

It’s been a while since the Israel attack on Gaza strip, yet once again, flooded the international page of our dailies. Most of us, who can give only 10 minutes of our time to the world, will be familiar only with terms like Hamas- the victim, Israel- The big bad wolf and US- its ally. Maybe that is the reason people have been writing absurd mails about ‘saving’ Gaza. I am not of the opinion here that Israel was right and Gaza wrong. The question unfortunately does not arise of right or wrong. It’s all about power. It always has been.
For those of you who do not know, elections are supposed to be held very soon in Gaza. I would also like to mention here that not all are in favor of Hamas there. This war has however turned those not in favor of Hamas on their side. So, this can very well be a strategy to swing votes in their favor and come into power once more. A few deaths here and here is not a price big enough to deter them from getting the highest post in the country. Actually, it’s few people less to govern for them. Also even in Israel elections will be held very soon and the same thing can be said for them as well. After all, history is a witness to the fact that nothing works better in favor of political parties than war. The wonders that Kargil did for BJP is known by everyone.
In this case it was Hamas that broke the truce by attacking Israel first. The fact that the truce was suppose to get over in a few days after the attack, now withstanding. Israel was willing to extend the peace period with Hamas.
It may sound like I am in favor of Israel but that is truly not the case. U.S and Israel have more commonalities than the Jewish population in both the countries. They both believe that they are the sole guardians of terms like ‘liberation’ and ‘freedom’. I really had a good laugh, when I read that Mr. Ehud Olmert, PM of Israel, said that the attacks on Gaza was a way to ‘liberate all the Palestinians’, in a report by the agencies. Rings a bell? Let me help you, this was exactly what Bush said when he was going on a war with Iraq. U.S and Israel think that if once declared a terrorist organization by them, no group is liable to rule a country, the fact that the people of that country are the one’s who brought these ‘terrorist’ organization into power, is immaterial. After all how can these people who do not even understand the meaning of simple words like ‘freedom’ and ‘liberation’ be capable to decide for themselves and their country? It is their moral duty to make them and the rest of the world interpret these terminologies form their point of view.
Another similarity between Gaza and Iraq is, both are rich in natural resources. We are all aware of the madness that is created by the words ‘petrol’ and ‘natural gas’. These terms have been officially recognized by the world to offset the word ‘Humanity’. There is an untapped natural gas resource in the Gaza Marine gas field, an area about 36 kilometers off of the Gaza coast, estimated to be 4$ billion USD. In 1999, UK based British Gas (BG) discovered natural gas there. BG proposed to pump the gas into Israel, however Gaza and Israel couldn’t agree on the price.
Yet even before the talks broke off, the situation shifted dramatically in June 2007 when Hamas violently ousted Fatah from power in the Gaza Strip, claiming ownership of the gas fields off the coast and the proceeds from the sale of the gas. This posed a serious problem for both Israel, which obviously was not going to pay a portion of the money to Hamas, and to BG, which was banned by its government from negotiating with Hamas, declared as a terrorist outfit by the UN.
“Looking at the current situation, the main objective of the IDF is to break down Hamas to the point where it is no longer capable of attacking Israel, or to negotiate a binding cease-fire agreement with an assurance from Hamas that it will stop its daily rocket attacks and cease smuggling weapons into Gaza through tunnels connected to Egypt.
Removing Hamas from power in Gaza and reinstating Fatah will be almost impossible. However, according to newspaper reports, cabinet ministers have been told that some Hamas leaders in Gaza are desperate for a cease-fire and would be willing to settle on almost any terms stipulated by Israel”, reported Jerusalem Post.
Israel till now has been getting natural gas from the neighboring country Egypt. The realization that Egypt’s resources will get over sometime in future has dawned upon our friends now. So, why not bleed Gaza whose airspace, territorial waters and land borders are under Israeli military anyway.
Right from food to electricity, everything is brought into Gaza from Israel. The biggest exporter for Gaza is Israel. Israel is the only connection of Gaza with the outside world (the opening from the Egypt side closed after Egypt lost Gaza in 1967 to Israel). Basically Gaza is actually only a strip, which can be called an extended territory of a full-fledged countryIsrael, known by another name.
So, practically speaking, what sense did it make for Hamas to attack Israel when they know they are in such a delicate situation? The whole natural gas bit was on hold anyway. By attacking Israel, Hamas has only given Israel a way to make sure that it can now take over those resources by including them in the cease-fire agreement. Hamas had the chance to actually extract money from this whole deal. Alas! Their hunger for power is going to make sure that the country never comes out from the depths of poverty whose bottom it is hitting already. Maybe it will give birth to another extremist group which will bomb either U.S or Israel and then Israel can formally take over Gaza. Then we shall have ‘freedom’ in the Gaza strip. And then we will also have another war and another country to talk and abuse and blame.