Monday, September 03, 2007

If..

Feeling a little low today, somehow fate plays the wrong cards when you lest expect them.. anyways, here I am just trying to browse through all my favourite poems.

Here is a poem "If.." from Rudyard Kippling-

If you can keep your head when all about you

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you

But make allowance for their doubting too,

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,

Or being hated, don't give way to hating,

And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,

If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

And treat those two impostors just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken

Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,

And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

To serve your turn long after they are gone,

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,

Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch,

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;

If all men count with you, but none too much,

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,

Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,

And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!


Ciao till next time...Harsha

Saturday, August 25, 2007

Chak de India!!

Back after a long hibernation. Writing again fighting all inertia, because after watching this awesome film....somehow the patiotic jingoism has caught up with me too!


One of the better made films of our times, gives a patriotic fervour to anyone watching it- especially if you happen to see the film in a run down theater... in first row... with ppl whistling at every dialogue... well, actually quite a experience to me after the pvr's and inox'es of Bangalore!

Aficionados would vouch for Shah Rukh's performance. He carries off the role of a hockey coach aplomb bringing reminiscences of Swades. Most others are nameless actors carrying off the roles of nameless hockey players... a pity goes out for sports in India (I do not call cricket a sport in India any longer- It is more akin to religion).

Making a mockery of cricket (particularly a poor punjab lad who happens to be one of our better cricketers- Yuvraj), a jig at Jharkhand, Andhra, North East... somehow the film manages to carry off that message it intends to ingrain in us: we are a nation of over-emotional people.

Be it cricket, caste system, religious animosity, blazen-headed babudom; we are emotional about everything... we fight one another with passion- bomb blasts, territorial fights, naxalism, what not... love with such a passion tht you can't let go- every newspaper has a acid attack/rape case in the first page, dry hoarse about security issues- be it nuclear agreement, indo-pak, indo-china border issue... ad infinitum...

There is also a subtle message which comes out beautifully in the film- We are a bunch of individuals, never a team. We can excel individually, never brilliant on team spirit. Finally- most of us have EGOs which can dwarf a hockey field.

Well gentlemen, if you have not seen the film yet- go see it now. Chak de India!

Here are some interesting reviews on this film-
Wiki
Imdb
IE


PS- Well, I have been reading some interesting books in past few weeks- will come up with some reviews if time permits. Here are the ones which I have read in past month & think is worth reading- Seabiscuit, Harry Potter- Deathly Hollows, Reminiscences of a stock operator, Every business is growth business from the one and the only Ram Charan, The Leadership pipeline- from him again, Copycat marketing 101..

Ciao till next time...Harsha

Sunday, July 01, 2007

The best podcasts I've listened to - These are seriously good.

For quite sometime I have not been thinking of anything worthy to write. I have come to the conclusion that from now on - I am going to write only things which truly make a little difference to 'me'.

Till now I have been using this as some sorta scratch pad to unwind and make arbit statements as and when they come to my mind. So, here is the first in a series that makes a difference to me!


Robin Sharma- The magician with words

Here is a quote from one of the films I saw sometime back- 'Micheal Johnson plays ball, Charles Manson kills people and I speak. Everyone has talent..'. Yes, one person exceptionally gifted with words is this man- Robin Sharma.

I tried reading some of his books- and found them complete bullshit. I could barely read through 20-30 pages of his much acclaimed book: Monk who sold his Ferrari. But, listening to him is altogether a different experience. This chap has class.... giving gyan is one thing and making the person fall for your gyan is something sublime...

Best 3 podcasts-
  1. Eight things successful people do - Easily the best of his talks. Listen maadi..
  2. Life is short, get up early - Yes, get up early! You'll have plenty of sleep once ur dead..
  3. Run your own race - Set your own goals, set your own standards, make your own decisions; be successful on your own terms.. only competition is with your OWN self..
I am going to follow these from now on... what about u? Do let me know through ur comments if this makes an iota of difference to your lives...

Ciao till next time...Harsha

Saturday, June 09, 2007

Cheeni Kum?

Watched this film again for a second time. Not becasue it is so good, but because the movie ticket came free... this was an exclusive screening for Cypress employees- so along with the movie came: free pop corn, coke and burger @ Garuda mall, Bangi -:)


I personally felt the movie to be an eminently watchable one (certainly a one time watch.. it gets a little too boring if you are seeing it for second time as I did- since you already know the jokes and gags). Heartening to see people like Balkrishnan (the ad guru) entering the Bollywood waters- the concept and caricaturing in the movie was reflective of the creative prowess of the man.

Story itself is light revolving around the budding romance between the 64 yr old top chef in a Indian restaurant in London and a 34 year old unmarried woman (who is on a first time London visit). Two extremes in age, character and attitude, meet and against all odds fall in love- the twists and turns in the tale are both intriguing and absorbing. The web woven around the lives of 8, 34, 58, 64 and 85 year olds is quite strong. The common bond that breaks age barriers is humourous and mostly tactfully handled. Music by the master- Ilayaraja does not do justice to his talents, but the title song is imminently hummable.

Apart from the storyline, I liked the role of Amitabh as the 64 yr old chef. One cannot but appreciate the zest and drive of the character. Left me wondering how I would be when I grow old!! Yeah... need to start gyming -;)

Ciao till next time...Harsha

Sunday, May 27, 2007

Enter..... Exit

Is this a entry or an exit?? .... the confusion will always be there. An interesting pic which really made me think.

Where is this leading to? I could'nt help thinking... what do you think?

Ciao till next time...Harsha

Saturday, May 19, 2007

Of personality tests and communication lessons....

Had a day long classroom session at my workplace (Cypress Semiconductors) today. Was fashionably named as 'Working across organizational borders'- wonder who kept that name... sounded so MBAish.. I always wonder if at some point I could take such classes myself- give them fancy names and tell people how to speak on stage, how to make quick presentations, etc etc..

I personally feel that instead of classes, giving someone a book from say Dale Carnegie would do wonders! But, reading a book is not the most fashionable thing to do- one rarely hears anyone say that he spent his weekend reading something. It should always sound exotic, like- 'Yeah, went to this cool new pub that came up', 'Dinner at that chic restaurant with the hot female in our office', 'Oh... weekends went so fast- I had a lot of catching up to do with friends'.. ad infinitum.

Well, never mind- I did learn something new from the class- One of the things was classifying people into different personality types (well, I vaguely remember our MBTI, Johari window personality types.... but who listened at all that crap during MBA!). The classification given here was somewhat more crisp-

  1. Director (D)- Person who attacks problems, expects simple solutions, looks at big picture more, does not like stories, etc....
  2. Administrator (A)- Hard worker, the workhorse, drives things down to last minute detail, process oriented, etc..
  3. Harmonizer (H)- The complete people's person, one who values relations more than anything else, this individual overcommits when it comes to satisfying his friends...
  4. Catalyst (C)- One who comes up with ideas, looks at creative stuff, difficult for people to understand sometimes....
We had some simple questions to answer to discover our major and minor traits. Donno how effective these things are (I personally feel that this psychology study is more voodoo stuff than science!)... but was finally told I am sorta D/C (major trait D and minor trait C). Actually, I feel that one has traits from all four groups- it is very rare you find a person fitting exactly into one.

Well, anyways... this session took the whole day, had to stay back and work for sometime in office. Being in this personality classification mood- I started classifying everyone I met in office as - hey! this guy is A/H, she is H/A the other chap seems like a D/D, etc etc.... now, believe me this is unnerving. You are speaking to someone and suddenly you start asking those questions you answered in the class to come up with this personality classification thingy (people start wondering why Harsha has gone nuts- how do they know I am classifying them!).

Apart from all this, I had to run around the IT group to get my outlook fixed- my mistake actually. In midst of double tasking (classifying and working), I tried setting a 'Out of office' message on Outlook- as I am going back to NITIE for my presentations. But, somehow I ended up replying to a mail that had my name twice on 'cc' and 'to' fields- so, this triggered a vicious loop of 'Out of office' messages coming back to me... Yes, believe me 'strange things happen when you lest expect them'. Here I was in office at 8 PM on a Friday night trying to set my Outlook right... tut.

Coming back to Personality tests- here is one I just searched. Simple test which gives you complex answers. I tried one for kicks, why don't you try and tell me how you felt?! Do let me know from your comments!

Your Personality is Somewhat Rare (ESTJ)

Your personality type is serious, fair, independent, and competent.

Only about 9% of all people have your personality, including 7% of all women and 11% of all men
You are Extroverted, Sensing, Thinking, and Judging.


Ciao till next time...Harsha

Saturday, May 12, 2007

Spiderman- Make way for the desi Makkadman

Watched Spiderman 3 today. After spending nearly 720 bucks on the movie (180*4) at PVR Cinemas; expected a lot more from it! Except for the initial half and some parts in second half where Peter Parker interacts with his Aunt.. the whole movie seemed like a dubbing straight from our Karan Johar flicks..

I was left wondering if it was Shah Rukh Khan wearing a mask and playing Spiderman?! Especially in scenes where he romances 2 women, it became increasingly clear that the movie had strong undercurrents from our desi flicks...

After the movie, I had to console myself by watching this yet again amazing mimic from Webchutney (I am becoming increasingly enamoured by this amazingly creative group). Here comes the amazing spoof- MAKKADMAN!! Enjoi maadi...




Ciao till next time...Harsha

Saturday, May 05, 2007

Random thoughts..

Some good quotes... I was aimlessly browsing, thought lemme share quotes from 2 enigmatic personalities- Oscar Wilde and Vince Lombardi..

Oscar Wilde-

I know that you believe you understand what you think I said, but I'm not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.

The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about.

In all matters of opinion, our adversaries are insane.

This suspense is terrible. I hope it will last.

Young men want to be faithful, and are not; old men want to be faithless, and cannot.

Vince Lombardi-

Once you learn to quit, it becomes a habit.

Winning is not a sometime thing, it's an all time thing. You don't win once in a while, you don't do things right once in a while, you do them right all the time. Winning is habit. Unfortunately, so is losing.

The measure of who we are is what we do with what we have.

We didn't lose the game; we just ran out of time

It's not whether you get knocked down, it's whether you get up.


Ciao till next time...Harsha

Monday, April 16, 2007

Around california...

Check pics around California on my fotu blog. I have selected the 3 best places I have been to-

1. Santa Cruz
2. San Fransisco
3. Monterey Bay and 17 Mile drive

Ciao till next time...Harsha

Thursday, April 05, 2007

Bah... discipline- I hate it !

There are some things I can do, there are a few others I can try to do. But there are those last few which I simply can't. And one of them is- to be disciplined.

Somerset Maugham would have commented- 'Strange ol' things happen when you least expect them'. Yeah, quite true.

Well, I have fairly quickly come to know that I can't- wake up early, drive in a straight lane, make proper coffee, iron my clothes properly and catch breakfast on-time every day!

Now these small things add up over the day and make you feel a little bad about yourself. But hey, so what- I usually sleep late (seldom before 1 AM), drive crazy back in bangalore- but till date have never got into an accident (mind you- the roads and craters of moon have a standard deviation of zero), I prefer jeans that require minimal pressing and I love to drink milk...

Yeah, I can live with these defects, can't I? One of the things which Uncle Sam has thought me after coming to US is- follow the routine, make the right decisions, dont be uncommon and everything will be fine.

But, hey if everything is so systematic, mundane and regular- where is the chance for new ideas, new thoughts to come up? One would see people here in US thinking only on linear scale- 'X' + 'X' = '2X', burger for breakfast everyday, follow the same schedule week on week... year on year... take those quaterly paid time offs- go on the pre scheduled vacation, live to be sixty and one day retire.

There is always someone behind you making every decision for you. Someone always guides you- if you are unemployed you have social security, if you want to cross the road- press the pedestrian walkway button... which will tell you when to cross the road, if you get lost on road- check your GPS, ad infinitum..

Now, I am not saying this is bad; its very good- excellent to have things defined, made easy and quantified. But with these comforts come some difficulties- people are happy to live on social security and wait for the perfect job to come by, if there is a power-cut the whole life comes to a standstill- traffic goes haywire... automated systems go crazy, you don't know how to go back home from places near your neighbourhood because you did'nt have the map, ad infinitum..

These things never happen back there in India- because one has to make these decisions all the time- 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. One is very adaptable- flexible as they say here in terms of work, living conditions, dressing sense, social setup, etc etc. Our thinking process is more complex- we make calculations based on number of factors, recalculate decisions, challenge thought process every single time. We look at different ways to solve the same thing- 'X' + 'X' can also be XX, its not just the straight line that connects 2 points, even a circle can pass through it.

Uh ha... now I've written enough! Do write back for any arguments. I love being in US- It makes me think so much.... Well, may be that is the reason they say that US is the most free country in the world! It's liberated my thoughts, isn't it?

Ciao till next time...Harsha