Kabaddi kabaddi...

The whole idea behind starting this blog was to capture some of my notable experiences, precisely like in a dairy. That is why if you see, you see that I tend to leave atleast one memory in every post out here. This time I would like to write only my experiences of my trip to home, back and of stay.


I got leave granted for only a couple of days and got permission to 'Work From Home' for what ever the number of days I wanted to and started to attend my Nephew's Naming Ceremony. Well, its called naming ceremony but its actually my parents doing some thing big to my sister's family to show that they care, its actually my father taking pride in doing something big to show to the town, to the relatives. Well, I have all these weird thoughts but I might be over reactive and wrong. No matter what it is, I really enjoyed it as I got a chance to play with my little cousins and meet some of my relatives after a long time only because of this.


I invited Sudhir to the event and asked him if he can accompany me till Warangal. He said yes and he did. Nothing very special about the journey but after watching a movie ATHIDI in bus on my way to Warangal, I realised Alfred Hitchcock is right when he said a subject with too many and too complex twists would only leave the audience in confusion. Well this opinion may get changed with time. Lets see.


After a lot of waiting, lot of phone calls I got boradband connection setup at my home to start 'Working From Home' (I never know what is the difference between dialup and broadband :P . I think its the speed but I'm sure its wrong). My company laptop stopped working which was very much expected and in addition to that, I screwed something up in my personal laptop in the process of finding a work around to make my VPN client work. It was my friend Srikanth's brother Santosh who fixed the issue just a few hours before the time I thought I would start to Bangalore to avoid scoldings from my Manager. Some thing interesting here is that this Santosh who fixed the issue with my laptop in minutes is a collage drop out, met with a major accident an yr back doing some feats on road, and is considered as a Pokiri guy in the town. A sound idea to do a networking course, a three months of hard work made him this. No one is born, but is made !!


I was attending a 1 hr. status meeting on phone with a bunch of people from Trustmark. My manager Rajan was already hot as the issues list was long. The phone line wasn't clear at all. It gets dropped in every 10 minutes and I had no hint why. The front desk person takes his own sweet 5 minutes to connect back every time. Power goes and comes in between. People come in, go out, talk something. Lots of disturbance due to the noise of lorries going and coming on the road nearby. Someone celebrates his marriage on road with huge bands. Halts right in front my house for 10 minutes for a dance break !! Well, what else can you expect in a country like India ?


Meeting my childhood friends is always fun. Srinu, Naveen, Rambabu, Murali, Surendhar, Naresh, Hari, Srikanth, Ramesh, Madhu.... Srinu isn't happy at all for missing the party. Even a fat guy like Naveen could be emotional at times and say this happiness is only for few days until you guys are in town. Hari broke his neck which was half broaken erlier while playing kabaddi. We had a party, we played cricket, practiced long jump, did chit chat on politics (will YS Jagan Mohan Reddy ever become CM or not ?? ) and last but the best, played Kabaddi :)


Babies are awesome !! Their smile, their moves, the sounds they make, the way the respond to things... everything, everything about babies is so beautiful. It was really hard for me to see my nephew cry.


Reached Bheemavaram crossing all those famous towns Mudinepalli, Gudiwada, and Kikaluru, (Observe. For each of these names, there is a famous telugu song having the name as its first word). Again, I had to attend another 1 hr. status client meeting on phone. Rajan wasn't that hot. Issues list wasn't that long. The phone line was very clear and never got dropped. There was no power cut (there was, once but there was backup too). No noise of lorries on road, no one comes in and goes out. No disturbance at all. Well, we blame India so easily !!


I have to be back in Bangalore by Monday morning and there were huge floods in Krishna and Karnool districts, two districts I need to cross one to reach Hyderbad, one to reach Bangalore. Lots of people killed, lots of roads broken, and lots of loss. I couldn't find a single train or bus and had no hint what to do. Meanwhile, I see a mail in my inbox with subject 'Flood relief fund, urgent'. Well, I'm not bringing up a weird theory to escape from donating few bucks but why should one donate ? Why should one donate for a disaster which wasn't purely because of nature but because of the neighbourhood states mistake for opening gates without foreseeing and estimating the danger ? Why should one donate to those people who repeatedly vote and support those selfish and brainless leaders though they have better options ?


Sabari's wedding reception, Harnath's company, his parents, his coconut farm, the paddy field behind it, Eenadu movie, flight from Vijayawada to Bangalore, beautiful aunt and her xerox copy son in the bus, stunning 150 Rs. bus ticket... Overall, it was a wonderful experience.



Sabari wedding pic

BIG SHOTS...

No matter how far away they live, how much busy the are, these brother-in-law's always have some work to be done by their little mates. As assigned by one of his brother in law's, Harsha wanted to visit Manipal hospital in his second attempt to install a piece of software in some BIG SHOT doctor's laptop, the doctor who helped his brother in law recover from a health problem by doing a world class surgery. I was along with him. He told me that the doctor that we were going to meet is some one with very unique qualifications, some one who is very busy, who works for 6 months in India and 6 months abroad, etc. etc., to put in a single word 'BIG SHOT'. We were told to wait for half an hour as the doctor was busy with some work. We were sitting in the waiting room looking at the aquarium, observing the people roaming around and having left with no option, enjoying the hospital smell. After an hour, the doctor came in. I was expecting him to be a bit fat, old and to wear a steth and a white coat but he looked like a middle age man with rich clothes and spects, shirt toughed into the pants. For my satisfaction, there were two junior doctors following him meeting all my imaginations. We installed the software and there were some modifications that were suggested by the doctor. Harsha, only to avoid visiting the hospital again wasting a Saturday, suggested the doctor to follow certain steps to import the modifications after he sends an email with all the updated files. The steps were very simple like clicking a short cut, browsing for a folder, and clicking a button. We thought that the job is over. But the doctor replied saying that all this computer/software stuff is is Greek to him, that he cannot do any of those steps suggested, and that all he is good at is doing surgeries !!

To me (or most of us) surgeries, operations and all other health related stuff is something the most difficult and those big shot doctors are like some immortal beings. But to me one such an immortal being looked so silly when he said that he is scared to do some simple copy/paste, clicking some buttons etc. which is easier than eating peanuts to me. After thinking for a while, to me it looked like the concept of 'big shots' is a very relevant. One can be excellent at one thing or few things, but it looks very funny, silly when they are so dumb at other things. That is why we see the best cricketers in the world sweating to act in ad films, the silver screen superstars, the best political leaders sweating to play in charity and opening cricket matches etc.

Let me share a couple of experiences before putting a full stop. I read an article about the Hotmail guy Sameer Bhatia who was telling how the acquisition of Hotmail by Microsoft took place and as part of that, explaining the way he met Bill Gates on invitation to talk about the deal. He said that he got to meet Gates after going thought several security checks and that it took not more than ten minutes for him to understand that BIGSHOT is as 'ordinary' as we all are. Similarly, I met the walking encyclopedia Mr. Jayaprakash Narayana in Hyderabad once along with my friends Shiva, and Naveen. I witnessed his knowledge, control on emotions, clarity on things, iron desire etc. several times in TVs and news papers. I was thinking that his presence would be magical and wonderful but soon after meeting him, I understood that he is just a normal human being with two legs and two hands.

I feel it is the individual's commitment, iron desire, work, efforts, creativity, luck and stuff like that that makes the individual special, that makes the individual a BIGSHOT. A big shot filmmaker who gives 100 classics looks like a fool after giving a piece of crap. A big shot politician who commands politics with single hand for years looks like a fool when he gets to sit in opposition. Big shots are never born, but are made. It is an every day effort, every minute effort that builds big shots, it might be you or even me.

Loksatta experiences - 1

From here on, I would try to put in the blog all my experiences with, related to Loksatta Party. To start with, let me share those experiences with Loksatta that I had so far, that I remember.

* There is a website akhilandra.com which publishes news and different articles majorly related to Andhra politics and movies. Once in a while its conventional for the website to put some thing against Loksatta, makes sense or not with evidence or not. There was a news link 'Loksattta bhootakama - 2' and clicking that would show us an article written by some one against loksatta in his own perception and terms. I was fed up with work in an evening and opened the site and that news heading grabbed my interest towards it. I was expecting a low class article inside but surprisingly clicking that news link took me to http://loksattaanswers.blogspot.com :) Surprising !! Some techi loksatta supporter spent some time on it, used his skills and made this happen. I guess that it is done using a hacking technique 'Script injection'. I think he/she wrote some javascripting and html code in the comments section some where which made this happen :) Kudos to that personality. Using technology at right time, for right thing !!

* Got a chance to meet JP second time, on his visit to Bangalore. I took my colleague Guru Chetan along with me. I asked him to list out the work that he is gonna do for Kukatpally. He took time, interest and explained me in detail. As per him, most of the work will be visible in an year or so. Thanks to Anand for informing about this JP's visit.

* I had a conf. call with the folks in USA regarding 'Call MLA' programm for gathering support for, bringing awareness on Anti Corruption Bill to be submitted by JP in assembly soon. Call went disorganized. And not to mention, I got a bunch of phone numbers but never called any one so far no matter what the reason is. Let me see if I can do today :)

In the name of GOD

After half a dozen of phone calls between different pairs among the taxi guy, office security, Ajit, Vinayak and me, I booked a cab and was waiting at the National Travels, KR Market. My colleague Vinayak was arriving to Bangalore with a whole bunch of luggage and his wife and asked my help to ship the same (just the luggage :P) to his newly rented house. It was a pleasant early morning with a wonderful breeze hitting my drowsy face which was right out of the office doing night shift, with every one just getting settled to get into work, with buses arriving, auto rickshaws dropping and picking up passengers. Every thing was so pleasant except a heavy noise/sound coming out of a set of cheap quality electrical speakers tied to a tree near by. I felt it as noise but generally its called devotional songs, Suprabatham or what ever. The intensity was so high that it literally was disturbing every passenger around there. I don't know how many school students with exams, old people with health problems were getting distributed by it behind. I strongly guess that the temple management responsible for the noice didn't took any kind of permission from the relevant authority for the same. Also guess if any police around or any one getting distributed by it even thought of asking the temple management to stop it. I guess they all were habituated to it years down the line just like the people at the shores of dirty Moosi river in Hyderabad.

I came back to home and read in the front page of my favorite news paper Eenadu that an MP from Karnataka named Gali Janardhan Reddy donated a diamond stuffed crown to the god Tirupathi Venkateshwara Swami which is of worth rupees 40 crores. In the same news paper in 7th or 8th page, I read a news article where Loksatta Party president JayaPrakash Narayan saying that if their party had 40 crores of funds, they could have made a significant difference in the passed by Assembly/Loksabha elections. While one was taking pride in donating a crown to a statue of god, other was feeling bad in failing to 'serve the human which in turn is serving the god'. Not sure if thats how it is or if thats how the G O D wants it to be.

There was a scene in a Tamil/Telugu movie Kakka kaka (Gharshana) where a road side fella tries to escape from a policeman (while caught teasing a collage girl) by showing the (Ayyappa) Mala !! There are some organizations which catch the couple found in parks, roads etc. on every Feb. 14th and try to make them brother and sisters !! There are cricketers of exceptional records, there are politicians in the best positions who bow at a man in Andhra Pradesh who is considered to be a god !! Every thing... In the name of god !!!

One makes money in the name of god, one dumps money in rivers in the same name. One finds mind piece in the name of god, one makes the surroundings dirty in the same name. One creates races in the name of god, one divides races in the same name. One stops touching meat in the name of god, one takes lives of sheep in the same name. One feeds a hungry stomach in the name of god, one wastes milk, honey and ghee by dirtying statues in the same name. Good or bad, it keeps on happening in the name of god, an unknown, unseen, abstract G O D.

A man who could stand on his words and spend more than a decade of life in forest is a god. A man who could bare the pain of cross for the sake of good is a god. Its not necessarily be a Rama or Jesus, it could even be you or me. Who knows, Bagat Singh, a man who fought for freedom and gave his life at the age of 23 and Vivekananda a man who inspired millions of young people with his speeches and sayings may turn out to be gods in the temple for future generations.

Smell of a beautiful flower, skin of a beautiful fish, smile of a young baby, human brain, sex, emotions... I don't think are the out comes of chemical and physical reactions over millions of years. There certainly is a super power behind it and is Almighty to me but not the god. God is in you, god is in me, in every pure and every selfless action.

MJJ

The one who inspired me big time, the one who touched me with his music, dance, and above all with the wonderful messages in his songs may it be about love or about racism or some thing else, the one who is larger than life, the one who proved that beauty is nothing in front of confidence, the king of pop, the one who invented Break Dance....

First time I watched 'They don't really care about us' Prison version, I just had no words for a while. It might be Andhra Pradesh, any other part of India or any where in the world.... Its the same. The problems are same, the ultimate purpose of the art is the same.

He is shy in interviews, but he speaks wide open with his work. He is ugly in looks, but is the most handsome, most beautiful, most attractive in his work. He is the true global STAR.

He may be was address for certain controversy, but always inspired me with what ever I took from his life, work. Tributes !!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvWMLAWrEjU

The good and the bad...

Success is considered as good, failure is considered bad. Winning as good, losing as bad, making money as good, losing money as bad, making a relation as good, breaking a relation as bad... This is how the general consideration is. But in a bit lower level isn't there more to it ?

A CEO who offers special bonus every DASARA is good or even great. A CEO who cares a lot about your health and offers you one of the best yoga trainers in the city is awesome. The same good, great and awesome CEO may turn out to be bad, ugly when he sacks you from the job ? or just when he denies an increment? The CEO is good until he has money, until he can afford it. Its the same CEO with same height, same weight and same look !! Who is really bad ? The CEO or you or the money or the affordability ? We help friends. We help poor. We help those in need. But only what we can afford. Then why we feel ourselves as great ? When it can afford, Australia is a heaven. When it cannot, its a racist country !!

A film star who could gather 8 lakh people for his party inaugural meeting is a hero. The same film star who loses against a woman is a zero. A music composer is nothing for an international magazine until a so called great entity recognizes his talent. He is top 100 this, top 10 that over night for his decades of efforts just because he was recognized. A cricket team captain deserves a temple when his team is winning. The same captain deserves abusive criticism when his team is losing.

A great entrepreneur with excellent achievements over decades may turn out to be a cheat for some thing that was a result of happenings of few months. A best friend may turn out to be bad when his/her priorities are changed. A winner may turn out to be a loser suddenly, an interesting thing may turn out to be boring suddenly.

When the behaviour, result of some thing (or some one) is directly dependent on external factors which are partly or completely not under its control like money, affordability, recognition by an external entity, a team effort etc. , how can it be good or bad ? great or waste ?

Then why hate individuals than incidents ?

The Jack Theory

On a very boring Monday morning at office, we were talking about the movie that we watched on Friday. As we went on, the topic went into the 'length of movies' and eventually to the movie the 'Titanic'. I shared an interesting observation related to Titanic that was lying in my mind for a long time as that looked like the right time.

In the movie, when the poor young boy Jack was playing gambling, if he wins he is gonna make it into the Cruise and if he loses, gonna lose all his money. Finally, he wins and feels very very happy for being able to make it to the Titanic. Losing would have made his days tough as he would be left with no money, made his foreign dreams ruin. But at the end he dies and winning makes him lose the ultimate asset of life, the 'life'.

We consider Winning as good and losing as bad. We consider getting a seat in the best Business School in the city as good, not getting as bad. We feel losing in an interview for a job in an MNC as bad, missing the train with a few minutes gap, meeting accident in seconds gap, losing in exams, not getting the first crush as life partner, getting sacked from the well paying job, not getting the expected promotion at office, not finding the fav. dish in the restaurant, and the list goes on. But it isn't the case always, might be with Mr. Jack in Titanic, or with you or with me or with any one, any thing else in the world. For instance, three years ago I lost in the final round of interview with 'Accenture' for the job of 'Pre trained Junior Software Engineer' and the one and only chap who made to it out of around 120 of us looked like a Super hero to us. But to me after three yrs it looks like it did a lot good for me for different reasons. I believe that stopping to worry about the result of some thing thats not fully under our control, and keeping to go on no matter what it is would surely pay at some point of the journey.

Something that looks good mayn't be good as it looks like, something that looks bad mayn't be bad as it looks like.... There you go and thats the 'Jack Theory' :)

Just to add, one more thing that I observed from the universally accepted love story is that the so called 'LOVE' isn't only with one in life and is not some thing unforgotten in life time as fantasised by many.

A still from titanic, that shows the tension in the eyes of Jack while playing cards to win money :)