13th Feb 10, What the hell ?

13th they say is a unlucky number I am not superstitious but it seems it actually is unlucky. I entered my home and my friend told me about the blast in Pune. It was a bolt out of the blue, I have lived in that city and not once did I imagine it will be on the hit list of the terrorists.

German bakery, one of the USP of Pune, is a place where people hangout without any inhibititions. One can easily find foreigneres, jews, muslims, hindus, marathi, bihari etc having a good time there. It is a place full of life and everyone who has been to that place would be feeling bad. Pune is a very safe place, and full of young professionals and students. This blast has delivered the message 'no place is safe'.

I switched of the TV because of the blame game which started after the blast, Shivsena says all the security was provided to MNIK, why does not some one tells them why was the security diverted to the cinema halls ?

We have accepted bomb - blasts as a fact of life, this blog started with making the date 13th the real culpret, 13th is a unlucky number huh...if it was an unlucky number how did the terrorists got so lucky today ?

12th Feb 10, Shubh Ratri Shiv Sena

Today is a great day, its the festival of Shiv Ratri, The night which belongs to lord shiva. It seems that the self proclaimed Shaniks of Shiva are not going to have a good nights sleep. Shiv - Sena has lost the plot miserably. With My Name is Khan going good everywhere, Mr. Thakre has announced that 'anyone who watches the movie is not a patriot and is an agent of Pakistan'. Now, that is the statement coming from a 80 year old man who was once the roaring tiger of maharashtra. This gentleman has never fought an election but says he is the only representative of the people. He rose to power with the slogan 'hatao lungi bajao pungi', aimed at south indian diaspora in mumbai. Decades later when his ship began to leak and his nephew took the centre stage hogging the limeligt meant for his photographer son, all of a sudden MARATHI MANUS came back to Thakres agenda.

This time the targets were the migrants from north India, but it was proving costly for the local business including his own to survive without North Indian labour. So, Old father and the adult son decided to try some marketing. They found a soft target, which in some ways represents North Indians, they started with Amitabh Bachchan but Bachchan turned out to be a pro. Then they hit SRK, SRK may or may not have had a vested interes, he stood by his words.

Unfortunatly for SENA this move has backfired, MNIK gained a lo from this goof up, congress party had its share and above all it united all of India and the idea of Marathi Manus (if one was there) got side lined. Sena got exposed for its vandalism and gundagardi.

I would not be surprised if SHIV - Sena changes its name to SHAV - Sena (the dead army) after the next assembly election.

10th Feb 10, slow n steady makes u late

It took me two hours and 45 minutes to reach my work place located around 40km from palam vihar. I almost dozed off in the traffic near CP. It was as if the whole traffic was a part of a slow moving machine. I reached late for my work, late by a big margin.

Being late means lots of things, it means you lost the time but the work remains undone, in order to finish the work on time you need to slog and when you slog you are bound to get tired and when your house is 2 hours away, tiredness turns into fatigue and fatigue causes stress and stress causes burn-out. I think its better to be on time rather then to be burned out.

Well, on my way back this not so piculiar incidence happened. Near the Taj hotel, the signal was green and still the traffic was not moving. The reason being some VIP was scheduled to come out of the hotel and his security had taken the traffic as their hostage.
Well the point is, yesterday when I accidently jumped a signal, they charged me 100 bucks and today I was not allowed to cross a green signal. Will the government pay me back for this offence ?

9th Feb 10, 1100 - 100

The winters are going out so is velapanti. Its been an eventful day, unconsciously I jumped a traffic signal and was fined rs 100. Its kind of comical, I mean I have jumped traffic signals intentionally on many occasions but was never caught, today when i was caught I was wondering Why, the officer very gently told me I had jumped a signal. I asked him the amount of fine, "1100" he said. The defense mechanism started instantly and words like 'sir', 'please', 'sorry' started to rain.

But this crapping of mine was stopped by the officer, he said I needed to pay 100 bucks. I instantly paid rs 100.
The point is, 100 seemed a small amount when compared with 1100, but I am sure I would have said the same things to him even if he had asked for rs 100 initially. Psychology I guess.

8th Feb 10, The hidden 'P' of marketing

Through out my MBA journey, I came across various kinds of 'P', product, place, pricing, promotions, people, physical evidence, perishibility and of course the most important Placements.

Today, I came face to face with a hidden P of marketing. A P which was never taught in class room, a P which can cover for all the P's. Its called POLICIES.

It so happened that we went to see the movie Rann, all the P's were in place, people, process and physical evidence but we were denied the ticket, not because the show was House full but because there was no one but us to watch the movie.

The person behind the counter mumbled something about Policies.

We had money in our pockets, it was screaming "spend us". So, we went to another service organization PIzza Hut. At the time of billing we produced a corporate discount card, and we were denied the discount. Why? because the company had a Policy, which said discounts can be availed only if the billing amount is more then rs. 500. This again was an invisible aspect, mentioned no where and presented to us as Policy.

7th Feb 10, Clarity

Early morning at six today, I got stuck in the elwvator, I pressed the alarm button but it did nt work. It was all dark and the scenes from the horror movie which I had seen few hours back were coming alive in my mind. It was comical, I was actually starting to freak out, fortunatly I realised i had a mobile phone with me. I called my bro-in-law, and after some time the doors slowly were ripped apart and sunlight sneaked in. The watchman appeared blocking the sunlight which made a kind of halo around him. He eneded my predicament.

When I was in that metalic box, it was all dark not a hint of light, I could not see my own hand there. When the sunilght came in, I could see the rays very cleaarly. I see sunrays everyday but, I realised its clearity and importance only when I was in complete darkness. Darkness has this potential to make us see things clearly.

Some how after that incidence I also found some clearity about the happenings around me, and from that clearity I decided something. From that darkness came out a clear thought, and I got placed by the evening.

6th Feb 10, Narayan-Narayan

I didnt write yesterday because there was nothing new to write. Today something new happened, today after a long period of time I am sitting in front of a TV set. I will come straight to the point, news channels have masterd the art of naradgiri, they keep pouring petrol in the fire. Most of the channels are saying SRK defeated Bal Thakre, fancy this "sher ki tarah dahade sharukh..thakre ki hui batti gul". Its hilarious, every one has forgotton the real issue that is freedom to speech. Now its war of words which should not stop for the sake of eyeballs.

The situation is such that all the parties involved cannot afford to calm down.

SRK - cannot back track because of his upcoming movie, which is about free speech...SRK may be right but the timing of being right could not have been better.

Rahul Gandhi - When the country is reeling with inflation, Mr Prince charming found an easy way to divert attention and become a hero. He took a rail ride, I just wonder how he got a place to sit in the mumbai local.

Bal Thakre - Shivsena lost the elections and with election they lost their minds, targeting Sachin Tendulkar and now SRK. It might be madness but they get free publicity and top of the mind recall.

So, its all happening and media makes sure that it keeps happening till the next gaffe by some person. The traingular series between these people saved some ones ass as well, the enviornment minister called someone insane in public view. I can't imagine what would have happend to him if There was no controversy about pakistani palyers in IPL.

4th Feb 10, Boredom.inc

I woke up very late deliberatly, I thought if I sleep long hours the day will shrink. It was of no use, the day keeps on stretching and boredom gets stronger by every passing second. What else can I try to defeat boredom ? I did experiments in the kitchen yeah used 'coconut hair oil' as a cooking medium..the results were disastros. Got involved in useless debates as in shuld we or should we not fire our cook, should we get more people to stay with us or throw out the new comers ..all bullshit. Every one is bull shitting like never before, everyone is united in this fight against boredome but it seems boredom is invincible. We started gaming, cricket, tennis, NFS, CS, poker, cafe world, farm ville. All these games are being played by us ..still when one looks at the clock, time seems to have moved very little.

My movie collection is exhausted, I did some revision of the movies seen before. Reading offers some limited reprive. Its terrorising, whien I think, "how many days more, like this ?" the answer is the mother of all terrorist activities ..the answer is "infinity".

3rd Feb 10, Acti-vity

Days are going longer and longer. Few days back, the day would be over in a jiffy, it seemed there was no time for work, procrastination need not need any excuses. Now things are changing, I have been kind of busy since the morning, still I find loads of time left, the day is not yet over. Its not as if the mornings are starting early, the day begins at the usual time 11am onwards. I took a trip of palam - Vihar in the morning, in the afternoon went to Saket for an job interview, which turned out to be an job interrogation. They were asking for a work - ex of 5-6 years. I did not understand why did they call us after seeing the CV.

I came back, found a heap of luggage in the hall of my flat, and got a reminder. My flat will have new members, all the residue of IBS is settling at some place or the other. Flats are becoming like refugee camps, with everyone hoping to get out of it ASAP. My flat will be home for 8+-1 people for the next few days.

Amidst all this activity of interviews, shifting, eating out, freaking in ...we had time for a movie as well. Ishqiya..a movie which we were all excited for due to the raunchy promos and cheeky dialogs...it turned out that the best part of the movie was all ready seen in the numerous promos and you tube videos, the movie turned out to be stale.

2nd Feb 10, Self destruction

What do you do when the only choice you have with you is survival and death ? If you chose survival be sure survival comes at the cost of self - destruction, destruction is painful more painful when you know its going to destruct everything which you ever stood for, everything you believed in. Survival means surrender, survival means escape, escape from something which you believed in, survival can make you feel sorry for your self, survival cam make you realize how important death is.

I chose survival, may be I am not good enough to endure, I am not strong enough.

1st Feb 10, Butter Coups

Its been a hectic day, I spend four hours in the service centre getting my bike the much needed service. Then from gurgaon I had to rush to IIT, from IIT back to sushantlok, all within a span of 2 hours. Not a big deal, people getting in sales will have similar stories to tell everyday.

In, Sushantlok I met a peculiar breed of humans - The Property dealers. If any one wants to know what smooth talking is, all you need to meet a property dealer. I was amazed how smoothly he told me that the flat he showed to me was the best in the society so what every corner of it looked like the house from the Adams family. The cobwebs, the broken windows, the damped walls, the blackened floors...I felt i was on the set of a horror movie and the broker claimed he was directing a fairy tale. Amazing, I must appreciate his chutzpah.

I came back home with a stiffed neck, and then realized I had missed the scribble day. I guess the college is really over now.