So, we'll go no more a-roving
So late into the night,
Though the heart be still as loving,
And the moon be still as bright.
For the sword outwears its sheath,
And the soul wears out the breast,
And the heart must pause to breathe,
And love itself have a rest.
Though the night was made for loving,
And the day returns too soon,
Yet we'll go no more a-roving
By the light of the moon.
Pliagrism done with due diligence from Lord Byron.
Friday, December 30, 2005
Wednesday, December 14, 2005
Auto Rickshaw Diaries
(All characters in this dramatised event are fictional. Any resemblance to someone living, sleeping or dead is purely intentional)
11th December, 9:30 AM, KR Puram, Bengalooru
Decent Boy, also D.B (Materialistic,Capitalistic, Arrogant, Jerko) : Auto, ITPL chalega?!!
Auto Rickshaw's Suave Enterprising Hero, Owner and Laziness Exemplified (Mass hero, Idealist, Communist, Hard worker, #15532 certified Rajnikanth Clone): Oh, yes saar! Come and sit, fast vahicle, ride enjoy maadi, guaranteed!!
D.B (Dumb B******): Oh, gr8 yaar! (sits in the auto) chalo yaar chalo...meter lagaoo
A.R.S.E.H.O.L.E: Saar! Where you want go?? Traffic to ITPL baad....
D.B (Dingbat): I know yaar, I know...pls go a little fast
ARSEHOLE (With a pleading expression): Saar, it costing double...no return saar....gas rates gone up, traffic gone up, me getting screwed....life bad....three kids....no profit...where to go, Saar?!! You tell me.. Police loot me daily....
(At this point, Dumb Bell (D.B) ponders over the auto drivers predicament. "Shame!! misery everywhere" he thinks to himself.I can make life better for everyone on earth, he thinks. But he finds the price a bit steep....hmmmmmmmm)
D.B (Dumb Bargainer): Yaar, it's too much, tell me another figure...i cant pay double
yaar..pls be reasonable
ARSEHOLE: SAAR!!! WHAT SAAR!! SAAR! ........wokay, give me 150 rupees. It cover gas. I have to live too SAAR!! SAAR!!
DB (Daily Buggered): Wokay yaar! Ill pay you 150. This place looks very far by the way. Snore!!! Snore!! (DB sleeps off)
(Two minutes later...................)
ARSEHOLE: Saar!!! We there SAAR!!
D.B (Dozing Bumbler): Huh?!! What?!! Where? Already?!!!!
ARSEHOLE (Impatient): Saar! Pay up fast....go back soon
D.B (Dazed 'n' Befuddled): Huh?! Wait a minute!! You told me that this place was far..
ARSEHOLE (2 pitches higher): SAAR! PAY UP FAST!!
D.B (Doleful Bugger): NO WAY! This wont be more than 20 bucks. Ill give you 30 at max
ARSEHOLE (In a low dangerous voice): SAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRR .....(the longest drawl ever heard)
D.B (Dirty Business): Listen boss, no way im going to cough up. You didnt use the meter..Its a criminal offense. Im not gonna pay that much. It's extortion. This is too much...
(At this point the local auto gang starts gathering around the two...)
D.B: (Dirtier business): .......................Ill call the police. You wont get away with
this.....You! You!
(At this point ARSEHOLE starts rolling up his sleeves. His hairy biceps bulging, fold his
hands resting them on his paunch, The circle tightening over DB)
ARSEHOLE: 150 rupees....
D.B (Dumb Bell) (Gulping): Heh! Heh! Sure, why not yaar ?!! Let's not be hasty....he
he....what yaar...these things happen between friends, hey na!! (giving ARSEHOLE a
nudge)...HEH HEH....(coughs up the moolah)
Saying so....walks away....ARSEHOLE, with a satisfied smile drives away....
D.B (Delirious Banshee): HE HE HE HE HE HE HE ........BOO HOO...!!BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
THE END….FOR NOW
11th December, 9:30 AM, KR Puram, Bengalooru
Decent Boy, also D.B (Materialistic,Capitalistic, Arrogant, Jerko) : Auto, ITPL chalega?!!
Auto Rickshaw's Suave Enterprising Hero, Owner and Laziness Exemplified (Mass hero, Idealist, Communist, Hard worker, #15532 certified Rajnikanth Clone): Oh, yes saar! Come and sit, fast vahicle, ride enjoy maadi, guaranteed!!
D.B (Dumb B******): Oh, gr8 yaar! (sits in the auto) chalo yaar chalo...meter lagaoo
A.R.S.E.H.O.L.E: Saar! Where you want go?? Traffic to ITPL baad....
D.B (Dingbat): I know yaar, I know...pls go a little fast
ARSEHOLE (With a pleading expression): Saar, it costing double...no return saar....gas rates gone up, traffic gone up, me getting screwed....life bad....three kids....no profit...where to go, Saar?!! You tell me.. Police loot me daily....
(At this point, Dumb Bell (D.B) ponders over the auto drivers predicament. "Shame!! misery everywhere" he thinks to himself.I can make life better for everyone on earth, he thinks. But he finds the price a bit steep....hmmmmmmmm)
D.B (Dumb Bargainer): Yaar, it's too much, tell me another figure...i cant pay double
yaar..pls be reasonable
ARSEHOLE: SAAR!!! WHAT SAAR!! SAAR! ........wokay, give me 150 rupees. It cover gas. I have to live too SAAR!! SAAR!!
DB (Daily Buggered): Wokay yaar! Ill pay you 150. This place looks very far by the way. Snore!!! Snore!! (DB sleeps off)
(Two minutes later...................)
ARSEHOLE: Saar!!! We there SAAR!!
D.B (Dozing Bumbler): Huh?!! What?!! Where? Already?!!!!
ARSEHOLE (Impatient): Saar! Pay up fast....go back soon
D.B (Dazed 'n' Befuddled): Huh?! Wait a minute!! You told me that this place was far..
ARSEHOLE (2 pitches higher): SAAR! PAY UP FAST!!
D.B (Doleful Bugger): NO WAY! This wont be more than 20 bucks. Ill give you 30 at max
ARSEHOLE (In a low dangerous voice): SAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRR .....(the longest drawl ever heard)
D.B (Dirty Business): Listen boss, no way im going to cough up. You didnt use the meter..Its a criminal offense. Im not gonna pay that much. It's extortion. This is too much...
(At this point the local auto gang starts gathering around the two...)
D.B: (Dirtier business): .......................Ill call the police. You wont get away with
this.....You! You!
(At this point ARSEHOLE starts rolling up his sleeves. His hairy biceps bulging, fold his
hands resting them on his paunch, The circle tightening over DB)
ARSEHOLE: 150 rupees....
D.B (Dumb Bell) (Gulping): Heh! Heh! Sure, why not yaar ?!! Let's not be hasty....he
he....what yaar...these things happen between friends, hey na!! (giving ARSEHOLE a
nudge)...HEH HEH....(coughs up the moolah)
Saying so....walks away....ARSEHOLE, with a satisfied smile drives away....
D.B (Delirious Banshee): HE HE HE HE HE HE HE ........BOO HOO...!!BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
THE END….FOR NOW
Monday, December 05, 2005
Glycerine Peddlers
Neophyte Braniacs, Amateur Strategists, Clandestine Traders, Flamboyant Bombay Pundits (desi version of the "Boston Brahmins" :)), and Stuck-in-the-middle muddled, brain-addled dilettantes like yours truly. Part of this elite, "( )"-ist (Is there a word for those who discriminate against the academically challenged like yours truly?!) menagerie but never fully at ease, my great Indian b-school dream elicits nothing but a yawn every time I put my thought at it. Two more lunar cycles, and im off to my hallowed institution to collect my degree with a couple of luminaries for speakers and some snooty professors for company, yippeeee....im burning with anticipation!!!
On a more sober tone, in retrospect I can’t help but wonder about my MBA. The "Mind.Blowing.Attitudes", the 1347 and still counting abbreviations to only accentuate the snobbery, Has this degree really equipped me with the realities I have to face out there? Apart from the rollicking whale of a time I had, and the reference number of parties attended (Well, that should tilt the scales a wee bit! :D), mine turned out to be more of a pedantic experience. Attribute as many reasons, as I may to offset the negative connotations I really think being a fresher wasn't the only cause for the experience.
Let me start, studying Kotler is all good. Making up gobbledygook out of the testing ain't. Studying business strategy was fine, the discussions weren’t. Learnin about "Challenges to HR" was good, being taught by a Dinanath-Chauhan-Headmaster look-alike was not. Getting exciting projects to work on was cool, copying from google was, well (not that bad).
Well, you are as good as you are think, and a bad workman blames his tools (Man, that’s about the maximum clichés I can handle in a day!).Not my bad grades withstanding, my current field of specialization is testimony to the fact that there was a lot left unread! Having taken up a field which hardly matched the subjects I read.
Not to sound ungrateful, I managed to squeeze out a pretty decent job that the brand affords, and my peers are doing great in their chosen fields. One goes to Egypt to decide which companies to be acquired, Other decides supply chain strategies for a product line at a top FMCG, Somebody else is slogging it out designing exotic products (in a bank, relax), Somebody else is touring out Singapore, Yet another decides the production for one half of India. We all got good jobs-Bottom line (??) ; no complaints....I mean isn’t that what we were there for??......were'nt we???
The fact is, Is customer satisfaction really that relevant, when you are working in a regulated environment and internal issues gain more precedence? Is selling bandwidth as a value-add product that important, when the fact is no-one looks at it as beyond a commodity. Is there a measure of brand awareness on direct sales? How do we justify discounted cash flow when the product life cycle doesn’t fulfill even a year for some products? Dealing with these concepts on a real-time basis is scary.
It was hard to imagine the profundity of these issues while listening to a grubby marketing "professor" teach us this stuff out of MS PowerPoint, with all the slides made out straight from the book. It was atrocious enough when my insight on the revolutionary promise of e-CRM ran into five lines, but when you have to appreciate the splendor of Supply Chain over the droning voice of a gentleman (luminary in his own right) you scarcely think that all this jargon can be anything more than just that - Jargon. Looking back, there are a lot of gaps in the style of teaching and the faculty could(should) have been better. Still it was an investment which paid off.
Am I thinking about another chance at this course someday? Maybe, when I have the urge to learn more about augmenting my experience with other functional areas of management. Naah, when I want to augment my pay packet is more likely!!!!!
Talk about pseudo-intellect.
On a more sober tone, in retrospect I can’t help but wonder about my MBA. The "Mind.Blowing.Attitudes", the 1347 and still counting abbreviations to only accentuate the snobbery, Has this degree really equipped me with the realities I have to face out there? Apart from the rollicking whale of a time I had, and the reference number of parties attended (Well, that should tilt the scales a wee bit! :D), mine turned out to be more of a pedantic experience. Attribute as many reasons, as I may to offset the negative connotations I really think being a fresher wasn't the only cause for the experience.
Let me start, studying Kotler is all good. Making up gobbledygook out of the testing ain't. Studying business strategy was fine, the discussions weren’t. Learnin about "Challenges to HR" was good, being taught by a Dinanath-Chauhan-Headmaster look-alike was not. Getting exciting projects to work on was cool, copying from google was, well (not that bad).
Well, you are as good as you are think, and a bad workman blames his tools (Man, that’s about the maximum clichés I can handle in a day!).Not my bad grades withstanding, my current field of specialization is testimony to the fact that there was a lot left unread! Having taken up a field which hardly matched the subjects I read.
Not to sound ungrateful, I managed to squeeze out a pretty decent job that the brand affords, and my peers are doing great in their chosen fields. One goes to Egypt to decide which companies to be acquired, Other decides supply chain strategies for a product line at a top FMCG, Somebody else is slogging it out designing exotic products (in a bank, relax), Somebody else is touring out Singapore, Yet another decides the production for one half of India. We all got good jobs-Bottom line (??) ; no complaints....I mean isn’t that what we were there for??......were'nt we???
The fact is, Is customer satisfaction really that relevant, when you are working in a regulated environment and internal issues gain more precedence? Is selling bandwidth as a value-add product that important, when the fact is no-one looks at it as beyond a commodity. Is there a measure of brand awareness on direct sales? How do we justify discounted cash flow when the product life cycle doesn’t fulfill even a year for some products? Dealing with these concepts on a real-time basis is scary.
It was hard to imagine the profundity of these issues while listening to a grubby marketing "professor" teach us this stuff out of MS PowerPoint, with all the slides made out straight from the book. It was atrocious enough when my insight on the revolutionary promise of e-CRM ran into five lines, but when you have to appreciate the splendor of Supply Chain over the droning voice of a gentleman (luminary in his own right) you scarcely think that all this jargon can be anything more than just that - Jargon. Looking back, there are a lot of gaps in the style of teaching and the faculty could(should) have been better. Still it was an investment which paid off.
Am I thinking about another chance at this course someday? Maybe, when I have the urge to learn more about augmenting my experience with other functional areas of management. Naah, when I want to augment my pay packet is more likely!!!!!
Talk about pseudo-intellect.
Great Expectations
Man, this hurts.....Collecting my thoughts while i get ready to pen this,while images of the past and convesations from yesterday keep flitting on and off . Thinking about the past and our dreams for the future, the little things said undone and the smaller memories unspoken.My facade of the non-chalant, independent dude broke when i talked to someone who used to be special today. Apparently both of us had "moved on" from a small relation and a very bitter ending; and i was thinking the changes that followed were for the best. I stopped dreaming about romance and concluded this stuff just aint for me. I was probaby built for other stuff and "NO GAL WAS GONNA SUCKER ME AGAIN!!". Five minutes into the conversation,and something was unnerving. I couldnt be the same independent dude i thought i was, and behaving more like a dodo. Not for the fact that she is an interesting conversationalist (she is not!); Just that, the old familiar rush of pleasure at hearing her voice swept over me and the residual sadness that nothing could be done still lingers. Five hours later, i still think about it.I wonder what prompted me to come outside my familiar cocoon of security and put myself open to hurt? Damn, a tactical error and im already reeling with the repurcussions. I suddenly realise, i havent forgotten about her and i think i should stop clinging to her. But how the heck do i do that?
They say that everyone rush in once and only fools dare rush in a second time. What is it about the wrong kind of relationships that attracts our attention? Why are unrequited love stories, the greatest ones of all times? Why do we adore tragic heroes, and why did'nt that shmuck Rhett Butler dump that conniving bimbo Scarlett'O'Hara much before the ending? Reams of newsprint and a billion dollars in literary advances just seem to be fuelling this frenzy. I am one of those exalted few that have brought this concept and paid through the nose for it. After a lifetime of Gone With the Winds and being brought up on a staple diet of Sooraj Bartajya, its hard not to romanticise this stuff.
Am i being cynical? Or have i made an opinion that is too inflexible? Whatever it is, im subjecting myself to a dichotomy that serves the purpose of befuddling me further. On one hand, i hate admitting to myself that people cant change..."We are what we are" (Estella, Great Expectations) and thus resigning to the idea of an incorrigible romantic always doomed to misery. On the other part, there is the cynical me, "enriched" by life's experiences and what i have chosen to learn from them, who refuses to buy anymore of this stuff.
Childhood is bliss, innocence is sanctimonious....What i wouldnt do to return back to that state, where we still lived in a perfect world and everything was simple.
Epilogue: But as Morpheus poses this dilemna to Neo, 'If you had the choice to return to the matrix, would you really want to? Knowing what you possess- the TRUTH!
Adios Amigos,
Tarun
They say that everyone rush in once and only fools dare rush in a second time. What is it about the wrong kind of relationships that attracts our attention? Why are unrequited love stories, the greatest ones of all times? Why do we adore tragic heroes, and why did'nt that shmuck Rhett Butler dump that conniving bimbo Scarlett'O'Hara much before the ending? Reams of newsprint and a billion dollars in literary advances just seem to be fuelling this frenzy. I am one of those exalted few that have brought this concept and paid through the nose for it. After a lifetime of Gone With the Winds and being brought up on a staple diet of Sooraj Bartajya, its hard not to romanticise this stuff.
Am i being cynical? Or have i made an opinion that is too inflexible? Whatever it is, im subjecting myself to a dichotomy that serves the purpose of befuddling me further. On one hand, i hate admitting to myself that people cant change..."We are what we are" (Estella, Great Expectations) and thus resigning to the idea of an incorrigible romantic always doomed to misery. On the other part, there is the cynical me, "enriched" by life's experiences and what i have chosen to learn from them, who refuses to buy anymore of this stuff.
Childhood is bliss, innocence is sanctimonious....What i wouldnt do to return back to that state, where we still lived in a perfect world and everything was simple.
Epilogue: But as Morpheus poses this dilemna to Neo, 'If you had the choice to return to the matrix, would you really want to? Knowing what you possess- the TRUTH!
Adios Amigos,
Tarun
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