Diary of an MBA aspirant - Tryst with ET!

The Tryst with ET

Part-1

arre boss !!!..yeh speilburg ka ET nehi hai..yeh apanka ET hai..boleto "Economic Times" !!..

yessssss!!!!..economic times!!!!..a must read for finance "freelancer", MBA grads...budding MBA grads (those who r practising "CAT"walk under the esteemed guidance of models from Indian Institute of Money (management?)) and businessmen and all the Demat a/c holders. All the businessmen show their "busy-ness" with ET in one hand and lappy (read laptop) in the other !..I thot why shud I lag behind??..when I ask any successful candidate in "money race" what should be on my regular "reading diet" for building reading muscle, he says with a smug, pouring 5 sugar sachet into CCD coffee mug, "ET !!..I have read ET regularly for the past two years!!....hhehee..only then will JP Morgan Chase chase you buddy !!..".....ET !!...hmm...I hav seen it..in yellow color..So I decided I must hav a copy as soon as possible !!..the whole country is reading ET to understand the economics, business, finance, recession, inflation, merger & acquision, GDP, SENSEX, NSE, BSE, best stocks to buy etc...etc...I cant remember if I had read any of these terms till my 10+2. or even in my engg. days. suddenly what happend?..Did I come to a different world?...did I swim ashore an island from a sinking ship ? and that island is replete with never-seen-before people who talk and think in differnt subject that I hardly knew it exists !! I kept wondering..Did I skip any subject in my school?...I didnt attend a partcular class everyday to watch some slum-kids playing football in a muddy ground in mansoon?? then why suddenly a subject (or group of subjects) rears its head ( or its ten heads like Ravana) only to give a red signal on my way forward unless I knock it down to win it over??..ET will equip me with the required armors and nerve-tonic !! At least that is in th air !..So I must hav a tryst with ET....I wish It was "Entertaiment Times" instead of "Economic Times"...but "Kat" has to take a back seat for "CAT"...its all abt "RACE" for money, honey !!!

Part-2

The next phase to my ET adventure !!...like "Koi mil gaya" to "Krisshh"...The town boy goes to metro and bought "Santro" type!!....not xactly like that but quite an interesting story..

remember what happend in "Koi Mil gaya"?..hrithik was a dumb-numb.. everything possible to create a species whose absolute IQ tends to zero!!..now this is the state of mine.. I mean to say i'm like what Hrithik was in koi mil gaya.....I thot ET will come and make me superman and I'll get MBA tag..the way hrithik got preity and the chance to do lot of things with preity...same way lot of things (read money) after IIM...huh !!..I kept my fingers crossed thinking that "koi mil gaya"!!..ultimately it ended up in Gaya!!..the much awaited "Jaadu" seems to hav lost its magical "saaya" ,.. in between I "burnt my fingers" and went to Gaya!!.."bohut ho gaya bhaiya!!..I hav had enough!!..........Friends, here, I share with you the tragic tryst between me and ET, "boleto" Economic Times" !!

One day whiile coming from office I took a copy from the Andheri station. just like picking up the hottest gal from ur campus and imagine..u r walking down the corridor..ur hands are around her 25 waist..ur chest is swelling up..abt to burst tear ur "color Plus" shirt..like when Poppey chews a tin of spinach with a pipe in his mouth..everyone else is watching you...everyone who used to laugh at you, label you as the most stupid guy in the campus!!..they are all stunned now!!..they all are rolling their eyes..cant believe..u'r going on a date with the hottest/smartest babe in the campus !!...ur cool bike is standing at the gate...U hav practised a lot how to start the bike, how to get on to it and how to take "her" hands around ur waist.."she" would lovingly bite ur ears and u'd press the accelerator and.. roar by!!!!.. flabbrgasted..would be the onlookers !!

I was deeply engrossed in this evening dream (as usual) unconsciously walking down the road holding ET such a way that everybody can notice it...an "Ahaaa" came out!!....i'm dreaming as if I'm approaching the bike with the hot gal..here ET..I dint know its so sensual!!..I stood in a queue to catch a bus to my place..yess...some college going galz are standing thr...my pulses started running...I jus stand in the queue lest any one comes and takes the position..I dreamt a bit..as if I'm going to strt my bike..I held out the ET from its A-4 size folded state..placed the front page before me..before I start th stage show I cast a furtive glance all around..the galz are gossipping among them (as usual)...I should look like an intelligent business guy..as if I hav cleared CAT, GMAT everything ..they r jus child's play to me!!..I know everything of the market..and even when to buy th stocks, drivative and the mutual funds........enough dreaming!!..now I cast my eyes on the front page...suddenly I feel like I landed in a desert...i can see only yellow sands all over..nd some black ants -like creatures crawling on the yellow desert!!..It must be a Mangolian desert and the black ant-like creatures??...Yess I hav seen them in "The Mummy"!!..though I can remember only the heroine..still the front page of ET reminded me of the film's ant-like black creatures crawling on the yellow sand !!....CLEAN BOWLED!! I jus felt like having a glass of water...I tried to see the galz from behind the pages whethr they r looking at me...I had the feeling all were laughing at me..the galz understood my fish-out-of-water state!!...jus picture this..u with ur date..u both sat at a table in Barista..she starts speaking in highly US-accent angrezi...and u picked up nothing!!..all the words seem to whizz past ur ears..u cant caatch them at all..u jus say.."yaah..."...."cooool"...and nodding ur head at her every word untill she screams " so u believe in sleeping with ur 1st date on the very 1st "date"?..ehhh??..u all guys are sick !!!"...u jus woke up and stopped ur head-nodding which was jus like head-banging..and the next few minutes u wud spend to move ur head horizontally like a door hinged at ur spine saying "no nooo...bilkul nehi!!"...hindi would come out..."slip" of the tongue!!..then the waiter wud come and place the bill..U would take the bill in your hand and look at her blankly.... she is busy with her make up kit...moistning her lips to make them more luscious...hmmmm..u jus chuckled and then a relaxed into a big grin...those are the lips tht hav sucked up all the money that ur father has earned thru so much struggle..and she's is covering that with luscious color !!..huh..u wud go back home and call up ur chhutki!! and say "baach gaya !!!"...

I was jus thinking all this and took the auto-way to my flat..auto is the best..no one woud see me..i can reach home very fast..i dont wnt to show others my tryst with ET...I surreptitiously walked up to the flat and sneaked into my room with ET again back to its A-4 size folding state. Now u can find my tonight's "date" ET on my bed !!!!...huh!!...Just to put my dinner plate on it!!..and I'll turn the TV on....tune it to my fav music channel...I'll watch KAT dancing and singing "kiss me kiss me..."...ET is undr my dinner plate..some dal makhani has spilled over on to it..nothing doing boss !!...ultimately 1st date goes to dustbin ..always!!....now if someone askes me "what is SENSEX?"...I wud be able to answer it complacently..hehhe...reply woud be "female!!...smile....sex of sen is always female...Sushmita Sen, Rima Sen, Raima Sen, Riya Sen...all are femalezzzz !!!!!!!!"...........I learnt a lot from my 1st tryst (or date?) with ET !!!.....

The end !! [;)]

Mad Angles - Episode 1 - Jadavpur & Lancaster University

A tale of two Universities - Jadavpur & Lancaster

theres a striking contrast or similarity(choose whatever uwant) between two universities that i have once been a part of. one is Jadavpur University(JU) in Kolkata, india for 3 months and Lancaster University(LU), UK for 2 months.I was registered as a undergraduate engineering student in the former which I left after 3 months and i had done my summer internship in the latter during my 3rd year at IIT.And the similarity is, in JU campus you would always find some boys in their "undies" whereas in LU you would always find some gals in their "undies".ofcourse its in UK..where yeh sab to chalta hai..but as the "rituals" of

sunbathing on a lush green ground away from academic complex.But yaar, in JU, the boys in their shorts and most of the time in "10,000 BC" way play football on a ground, inscribed in the academic complex and after their "gladiatoring" they gather at the famous "jhil-paar" ( a pond like area) to wash themselves and take bath.this place hapens to be the best hang-out zone for the university students and mainly for couples for their cozy tryst. But these boys with the football dont want to miss the chances to catch the attention of the gals. It really happened many times, though I dont know whether coincidentally or not, groups of gals are seen to roam about in paricular that place, where our boys are taking bath in their undies and cotton towels. Its needless to say the boys do everything they could to give the airs of smart, handsome, well-built guys..passing by are some gals giggling, whispering into each other's ears and giving furtive glances at the "gladiator" boys!!..once I saw 2 girls walk up to the ground to talk to some guys. the guys were in shorts only!!..and the the gals and the boys were chatting in the same way just on the campus road, circling the ground facing the academic complex..where all the ppl (other students, professors, may be ppl from industry ) use the road !!..inside the campus !!....It really signals a great "bindaas" campus life...it may act as a good treat to the gals' eyes when they are tired of 3 hrs "compassing" or "lathe-ing" ..but what about us??..the guys??...some of us are out there on the ground to play "Jack and Jill" and entertain the gals (may not be true, with "dew" respect to the gals; coz I dont " do the dew") with their soccer and swimming skills, but now its the gals' turn..kuchh kar dikhaneka!!..but they are studying in india..they cant forget that mann!!.though they forget the exact number of times they have had break-ups!!!...but for that they have UPS...uninterrupted power supply!!...The JU bridge!!..jus in front of the arts faculty.If you enter the campus the scene is pretty conspicuous !!....In LU..1 thing is open !!...u might see couples kissing each other..though not in front of the academic complex...but its india again!!..our students have kept it behind the bushes only..(though not absolutely true...its another topic, but " beyond the purview of this blog")...our gals keep the UPS!!...they cant join the boys in roaming about the campus in shorts and taking bath in "undies"!!...but they have to resort to the UPS!!...and here the power supply is from fag and "ganja" in a secret place on a bridge over a pond. Obviously few in number!!...but the point is the openness of indulging in this thing!!..it may be rampant in all the colleges and even the leading ones!!..but its so close to the classroom..so conspicuous like giving a damn to our sense of sobreity, humbleness and the respect an academic area deserves. Now, rupee is fast catching up the dollar,euro..its value is appreciating, but what is our campus-culture catching up??....

Diary of an Aam Aadmi Fresher - Episode 1

Some time in 2008..

suddenly i didnt feel like doing anything. i sat on my bed with a blank look. i didnt even take off my forml trousers..which i have been using for the last one week..they're not stinking.. not looking shabby either! the lower part of my body is pretty comfortable under them!!!.... I thought i wud cook sumthing for dinner...and then relax with my latest collection "the Black Swan"...I was just about to enter the 2nd page...but didnt know what happnd..i went completely blank!!..i kept the book aside unconsciously...i stared at the wall for some time...i dont know exactly how long i was in that state.......... an idea dawned upon..i shud drop the idea of cooking.and i did the same...its for the 3rd time i droppd the idea of cooking my dinner for consecutively 3 dayz...i took pity on the eggs i bought 3 days ago..i thought wisely its high time i kept them in my mini freeze!! i opened the freeze only to see packaged food stuffed in it..some were ordered one week back...they're still crowding my mini freeze...and it was stinking like hell as if i opened a doorway to a mummy's secret place in a pyramid!!!..i just slammed the door..again sat blankly for some time...the eggs remained in my hand!!!!..i dont remember now what i did after tht...memory-loss for the next few minutes!!!... i remember taking the door key and going out at 10 in the night. though mumbai never sleeps still i had a feeling i was cruising on a dark sea and i'was alone in my cruise !! ...i'm the captain of my ship and i'm the only passenger in the cruise enjoying the sea-breeze.......i bought one "bhajji-pao" (totally different frm "pao-bhaji") and took the road back to my flat while taking tiny bites of my dinner..i took utmost care so that i didnt eat it up before i reach my flat...the bhajji-pao was the only companion then!!!........no...not only!!... lot of "human like creatures" were there on the road...some beautiful species (they are called galz) were returning home...dont know from where...and some were leaving home..again dont know for where!!....but i was pretty much comfortable with my bhajji-pao..it was much much beautiful than those "galz"!!!...anyways i sped up towards my flat..the "galz" must be wondering "where did this creature come from?" ....before they got a suitable guess i reached my flat and a birp came out as i unlocked the door...I didnt feel like logging into internet...coz didnt expect any mail nor a scrap...looking blankly at the wall is bettr than turning on the TV....radio sounds like siren in war-torn Hiroshima!!!...and music stored in PC is no better than the freezed food packets bought one week back!!.....

I remembeer the whole day at office...i hardly have any friend there..one or two.. they sit at different floors!!..only short meet up at canteen during lunch and snacks time...they go back as soon as they finish, they have to coz they hav lot of work to do....its not that i dont hav any work to do..but my trainee designation doesnt burden me with loads but bit by bit.. catiously...what i'm supposed to do is take initiative on my part and learn..here lies the problem as i am used to cruising on a dark sea and this dark sea has made me blind..i cant find any island with my pair of eyes...i can see only dark sea all around..and i'm with my pc at two places: office and home....and dark sea all around....

Travelogue - Mysore-Goa Drive

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I planned this trip in the last minute. When the idea of spending the 4 days long weekend in Goa occured to me, I had barely 4 days to plan out everything. But as its said, the trip without a plan comes out the best memorable ones, it proved to be so true! I had an excellent weekend getaway this time with 4 days vacation in hand. Driving all the way to Goa from Mysore hopping on different tourist spots on the way, was what the final plan after days long exploratory research. Many friends were invited, many routes were contemplated but we zeroed in on an interesting itinerary after only one friend confirmed his participation. The route was Mysore-Mangalore-Murudeshwar-Gokarna-Goa and coming back to Mysore via Jog falls and Shimoga totalling 1200+ km and stopping over in Mangalore & Gokarna for overnight rest. My wife Madhurima, playing the role of a DJ, my friend Chiranjib from my IIT days playing the role of a navigator with laptop, smartphone gadgets, we were all set to embark upon a challenging, daredevil road trip in my 1.6 months old Hyundai i10.

Day 1, 31st Oct: Mysore to Mangalore (via Madikeri) ( 280 km)

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Madikeri

Mangalore city

Ginger hotel, Mangalore

I & my wife Madhurima started from Mysore on 31st Oct'13 evening, at around 6.30 pm towards Mangalore via Madikeri road. We had kept almost everything packed during the lunch hour coming out of office. So when we came back after office hour it didnt take us long to turn on the 1.2 litre Kuppa engine of my i10. We were familiar with the road till Madikeri as we had had a number of weekend trips to Madikeri before, but the road after till Mangalore would be new to us. Our target was to reach Madikeri by 8.30 pm so that we could take the unknown road to Mangalore by 9 pm after a quick bite for dinner. The evening traffic rush, which I guess was mainly due to the beginning of a long weekend, got us delayed by half an hour. After we reached Madikeri, we grabbed some chicken burger at PFC (Paradise Fried Chicken) with less than 20% quality of KFC. Our journey began again (with a stomach warning though), but, on an unknown, unexplored road after a 45 min dinner break. Though the same State Highway 88 continues till Mangalore, the darkness right at the entry when we took a left turn, signified what would lie ahead. I didnt have any idea whether it would turn out to be a Wrong Turn! The road goes to Mangalore. We were sure of that after cross checking with google map and highway hoarding and arrow signs. But how it goes to Mangalore was pretty unexpected. The 1st 40-50 km was in good condition! Really nice roads, punctuated with irregular streams of traffic from the opposite direction and with the only light source from our car headlights in 5 km radius distance in a hilly tarrain at around 10 in the night , inaugurated our trip on a promising note. The romantic feeling of a long night drive on a hilly tarrain with my wife on the verge of completing 1 year of marriage was punctured soon after it had just begun to blossom by a long stretch of muddy, rough patch with innumerable pot holes. With the romantic feeling vanished quickly, a feeling of irritation, frustration set in with one peg of tension, anxiety and apprehension mixed with it when the patch seemed to be really long and un-ending. The hangover from that weird coctail had its full effect when our friend Google Map stopped working in the middle of the jungle terrain. We didnt know whether it would be prudent enough in that dark night to stop the car to ask someone in a local town, which we were crossing at 20-30 kmph speed. We thanked Karnataka Govt atleast for putting up the road direction properly, even though they have left the state highway in a state of village road which barely can keep the bullock cart going. It continued till Puttur, a town close to Mangalore skrewing up our speed, but what it couldnt dampen was our spirit! The thrill and excitement of exploring something new, how ever challenging it was, kept us going with the spirit alive. Finally we reached Mangalore at around 1 o' clock. Karnataka's 2nd biggest city was almost calling it a day when we entered its territory and kept asking every person we found on the road for the direction towards our hotel Ginger where we had booked a room for a overnight stay and rest. Finally we found a group of party people, a bunch of young people coming out of a disc in the dead of a night and asked for the direction. I didnt know what effect the party had had on one of them, may be his girl finally had said "yes" to him, a guy took extra effort in explaining the direction towards the hotel and it really helped us. We found our hotel finally and I felt a sense of joy in crossing the 1st milestone in our trip quite successfully! The 5-6 hours journey on the bumpy road was tiring and we crashed out in no time. I closed my eyes looking forward to the next day's driving to explore another destination: Murudeshwar & Gokarna! Yaah life is good! :)

Day 2, 1st Nov'13: Mangalore to Gokarna

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We woke up to our friend Chiranjib's call, who was supposed to reach Mangalore from Bangalore in the early morning by Volvo bus service. After a quick bath and treating ourselves to a good buffe of standard Indian breakfast at Ginger hotel we started off again. The Ginger hotel was on the NH17 so we hit the road right away checking out of the hotel. Mangalore weather was humid and hot even in the early morning at around 9 am. We turn the AC and ingnition on and in half an hour time we were out of the city traffic. As we were warned about the road condition, we didnt get surprised when we were confronted with a long stretch of the road, full of deadly potholes, one way blockades and likes, enough to strip it off its "National Highway" status! "Once upon a time it used to be a driving pleasure" that's what we got to know. Heavy rainfall had left the road in its present condition. Though we saw patch work was under progress, we had mentally prepared ourselves for a disappointing and fruastrating journey till our destination point.

123 ft tall statue of Lord Shiva,
3rd tallest in the world

It took us 3 and half hours to reach Murudeswara, a sea beach with a pilgrimage attraction.

240 ft tall Shiva temple

Till this point the journey was not worth mentioning. To our disappointment, the sea view to our left hadn't appeared so far. The overall look of the Murudeshwar area looked promising with a 123 ft tall statue of Lord Shiva and an adjoining 20 storied (approx 240 ft tall) Shiva temple overlooking the arabian sea on its 3 sides. The look and feel of the pilgrimage was grand, accentuated by the presence of the deep blue arabian sea. Surprisingly a lot of tourists had come other than the usual pilgrims mainly for the various water sports on offer by local clubs and bodies. Deep sea diving, snorkeling, speed boat and likes drew quite a number of tourists. After a "photo session" we looked for a restaurant for our lunch in the scorching mid day sun. There was only one desent hotel for stay and a restaurant for food and snacks overlooking the beach side. As our luck would have it, we were late for lunch and nothing was available in that restaurant which was only a decent place to grab some bites. So we decided to pack off from Murudeshwar and head off to Gokarna with the hope of getting some food after checking in to a hotel.

The journey from Murudeshwara to Gokarna didnt disappoint us. The road was good, if not excellent and the scenic beauty on either side of the road was refreshing. After a while we suddenly hit a stretch which was right along the sea beach and the view got us so overwhelmed that we ended up spending half an hour over there in posing and clicking. Thanks to that surprise view for I could get some of the bests of shots in my DSLR ever! The rest of the journey till Gokarna wasnt dull and continued in the same spirit after the sudden spurt in scenic views. It was only after few more breaks and photo sessions we could reach Gokarna in the late afternoon. A few packs of potato chips and biscuits had somehow managed our rebeling hunger till then.

Gokarna seemed overhyped from the outside. As we entered the Gokarna taking a left turn from the highway, things didn't look that promising. The disappointment loomed over when we reached the Gokarna beach painstakingly maneuvering our car through a crowded temple town road. It was full of local tourists thronging the beach side shacks for some cheap snacks. The beach was a small one without the sheen and glomaour of famous beaches. But the demographics of the tourists included some foreigners who started coming in in groups as the sun was all set to call it a day.

Om beach, Gokarna

The place looked weird compared to other beaches in India. The stark contrast between the local and the foreign tourists was so prominent that we forgot to notice when the sun had bid good bye and darkness had set in. We tried to find out a good hotel nearby to stay overnight but it was clear to us it'd be stupid of us to expect a nice and budget hotels in that damn place. The hotels were either very expensive or too cheap to be decent enough. We headed towards another beach in Gokarna for finding some good hotels. The beach was famously known as Om beach as its shape was like the "Om" sign. After 1 hour of search and hopping a couple of  hotels, we decided on a not-so-bad "hotel Sea bird" which seemed to had been built in a resort style but had lost the momentum in the mid way. We got enough confidence in the hotel when we saw other tourists also thronging the hotel and the care takers running pillar to post to satisfy their guests! We ordered snacks and dinner right away after check in. After a quick shower in cold water helped wash away all the physical fatigue day long drive. We three hogged onto whatever snacks and foods were served as we enjoyed rounds of card games in our air conditioned hotel room. But it was not too late when all of us were engulfed by the waves of deep sleep slowly lapping up on our eyes and we retired to the bed keeping the excitement for next day's journey alive!

Film Review - Ghanchakkar

Review of the film: Ghanchakkar
(see the details)

Overall rating: 3/5
summary: comedy-thriller with stellar performance but doesnt impress in the end

type: small-budget independent, smartly-made films with talented team
similar to: Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron
strength: acting, good dose of comedy & light suspense
weakness: lack of focus on the legitimate ending and loosely-knit script

The trailer of the movie had created quite a buzz among all kinds of movie-goers: movie buffs, movie fanatics, good movie seekers, interesting movie seekers, movie connoissuers, friday time-passers, after-office-romancers, weekend-celebrators, theatre-corner-heat treating couples, hot dog munchers and many other un-identified categories of hindi movie goers; needless to mention the Vidya Balan's fans (for whatever reasons! as I always doubt the stated reason for being a fan!) and both the segments of Emraan Hashmi's fans ('fans' looking for some steamy scenes to flag off the weekend on 'warm note' and 'newbie fans' who have taken interest in Hashmi after watching his meatier performance in films like Shanghai). Finally, the film might satisfy all segments to some extent. the credit goes to the popular genre of comedy-thriller which goes down well with Indian movie going segments. And for the fact that, with commendable ensemble of cast and technicians, the film's genre and the underlying story have been treated well with a smart take on new-age indian film making or story telling.

The film revolves around a recently married couple: Sanju (Emraan Hashmi) & Neetu (Vidya Balan) and a bank robbery which Sanju helped two petty underworld novices Pundit (Rajesh Sharma, a veteran actor from Kolkata) and Idris (Namit Das, a known face from ad world) with his skill of decoding and breaking bank lockers. The problem ( and all the fun) starts when Sanju refuses to recognize them for his alleged amnesia when they are supposed to distribute the money! Balan's challenging role as a loud punjabi house-wife with weird sense of fashion has been pulled off to a large extent with Balan's acting prowess. The hangover of dirty picture prevaled all over in a light way thanks to the role's requirement, but forced punjabi accent couldnt do the full justice to the character Balan has been cast for! Hashmi, in a brooding-lost, couch potato, serious looking new married husband character has proved that he has the potential for a great actor; may be he was too busy in kissing before to discover himself. Other two major characters of pundit and idris have been given equall importance and undoubtedly Rajesh Sharma & Namit Das have done the justice with a stellar performance adding to the comedy quotient of the film script! The detailing of the every day life of the weird couple Sanju & Neetu, stupid antics of the novice goons, quirky introduction of small characters with powerful impact due to the performance and well-thought of characterization will keep you entertained, whatever your taste of movie is. The script goes here and there, gets diverted, stalled and lost somewhere from the main stream for all these not-so-connected characters and the not-so-necessary sequences but all these finally make the film what it turns out to be!

The basic storyline is refreshing and is capable of keeping the audience engaged throughout. Its reported that the new comer Script Writer Pervez Sheikh has given birth to the story. The "Aamir" & "No one killed Jessica"-fame director Rajkumar Gupta's touch has made the final script. Cinematography has been handled by Setu of Kahani-fame and editing has been done by award-winning Aarti Bajaj of Black Friday, Dev D fame! Music has been composed by Amit Trivedi who doesnt need any introduction, I guess! The film has been produced by the duo Ronnie Screwala & Siddharth Roy kapoor of UTV Motion pictures. When all the talented technicians with recent success come together there has to be some impact on the film's presentation. this film can be classified as a director or technicians' film as well as the actors' film. The back-end team has been well-formed and promises us to churn out really good films from a film making perspective. The treatment, style of presentation, dialogues all have been smartly designed with a flavour of new independent film making which might remind us the products like "Jaane bhi do Yaroon" from talented FTII grads.

The only flaw, and what finally turns out to be the main flaw, which may have clipped the wings for probably a successful flight of a great endeavour by a group of telents, is its inability to reach a impressive climax, unearthing a surprisingly big void in its otherwise very interesting script and story! It finally couldnt deliver what it had started off with. As if, the service of a promising restaurant fell flat after the appeatizers and the main course! Though it was true to a thriller genre keeping the audience clueless about the truth till the end, the audience is simply disinterested in accepting the final end. The director and script writer may have lost interest in the middle and the urge to complete the film in stipulated 2 hours may have influenced them at the last moment. The film makers were mainly interested in taking the audience through a journey without being bothered about the destination. They catered to all minute details of the journey but just droped us in the space and ran away with their own space shuttle leaving us orbiting the planet!

Ghanchakkar is definitely watchable for all kinds of movie lovers but you may not come out of the theatre fully satisfied; the same way in a bedroom scene in the film where Sanju forgets what he was searching in the middle of the make out with his wife Neetu wanting to complete it with a "pre-cautioned climax" and they couldnt reach the 'climax' !

Overall rating: 3/5
Acting: 3.5/5
Direction: 3.5/5
Script: 2.5/5
Story: 3/5
Editing: 3/5
Cinematography: 3/5
Music: 3.5/5

Other reviews:

Zee news
HT
Indian Express
TimesOfIndia

Film Review - Bhag Milkha Bhag

I got the opportunity of watching the premiere show of the film in Mysore the day before its scheduled release. I felt happy for Mysore becoming a modern city with all the cultures of a big city and felt excited as well to watch this much promising film, based on the National sprinter Milkha Singh, who made his name in the 50's.

When particularly the package comes with the promise of some of the talented film makers, actors and technicians, you end up expecting quite high from it. The director Rakesh Omprakash Mehra is still milking his success of "Rang De Basanti" and we tend to forgive him for confusing us in "Delhi 6" by expecting again from this 3rd attempt at film making. Prasoon Joshi, the ace lyricist and script writer, has claimed to write the screen play for 2 years!! I dont have any clue as to what the hell was he writing? No doubt, a lot of research on the life of the "Flying Sikh" has gone into it but given the fact that Milkha Singh is alive in his good health, why would a film makers team take 2 years to come up with a script on the biopic of a living character, I keep wondering! This claim sounds more worthless when the biggest drawback of the film is its screen play stretching a not-so-complicated storyline unnecessarily for 3 hours! unnecessary song sequences, romance, irrelevant shots only prove that the diro-screenply writer combo didn't have any clear idea what they want to show: pretty much like Delhi 6!! He might have made the film for Milkha Singh or Milkha Singh must have been a part of the script writing team, influencing a good deal to keep every damn thing happend in his life, including second-by-second depiction of his life!!

The attempt and intention behind the film is commendable. It depicted the struggle of once-hero-now-forgotten athlete champion Milkha Singh; how he made it to the zenith of his success and did his country proud in international arena. His life is full of stories, events which truly call for a bollywood rendering: losing parents in violent riot, growing up in slums, witnessing all the dark patches of down-trodden life, then joining Indian army ( though the film didnt show how he got into army!), army life and sports, neighborhood love and losing it, then with his ambition, determination and painstaking struggle making it to the Indian team, then foreign trip, sleeping with the "foren girl" on the very 1st night and then followed by a series of success and failure, self-control and going back to the root: all are there to make it a complete bollywood film. And thats how it has been made, though with a dash of excellent cinematography by Vinod Pradhan, amazing art work and of course stellar performance by the lead actor Farhan Akhtar.

The primary take away etched in your memory would be Farhan Akhtar's determination and preparedness for doing justice to the role. That hardship, which he claims to have had for the last 2 years for this film, is very prominent throughout the film, particularly in the slow motion running sequences, where his well-developed muscular body and suitable expressions on his face is sure to make you feel attached to the film. Though it might have resemblance to Salman Khan in Dabang type films, the essence of a true story on a living legend will make it go beyond the mediocrity of a mere masala flick! In the end, after 3 hours of yawning dramatic sequences, some forcefully added humours and carefully punctuated romance, you would probably utter one phrase: " Farhan Akhtar worked very hard for this film!" And you know, its not a very positive sign of a good film!

I'm sure if anyone is asked to see the film once again, s/he would reject the offer straight away, if not for watching Farhan Akhtar in six packs! Those who are blessed with LAN connections in hostel rooms, can watch it with forward button active. Plz dont ever try to watch the full 3 hours version! I cant guarantee the availability of a mug of beer or a dispirin!

Overall rating: 3/5
Direction: 3/5
Screenplay: 2/5
Acting: 3.5/5
Music: 3.5/5
Cinematography: 4/5

Learning new languages

I'm hijacked these days with a motivation which rarely fits a lazy guy of my age! It's quite interesting though, but daunting apparently! Its nothing other than the idea of learning new languages. I already know three languages with advanced proficiency level: Bengali (native), English & Hindi. Though I will falter considerably when it comes to writing Hindi, but I'm confident it will not take more than 1 month to master the writing script of Hindi, which is based completely in Sanskrit. Ohh yaah! I forgot! I had learnt Sanskrit painstakingly during my school days as Sanskrit was in our VII-VIII grade syllabus. Just imagine! how valueless it was when I find no one speaking or writing or listening in this language for the argument that language can not be learnt if its not put into its best action: speaking! Not only this flaw of the education system I have undergone, but another one also made the language learning completely ineffective: Its the way of learning English! 10 years of school education had English in the syllabus without mandating the students speaking in English! The global language was to be learnt through learning grammar and reading some literature in the later part of the school days. What faulty system it was! When I grew up and went to high school, college and institutes for higher studies where English is the only medium for everything, only then did I come close to the actual and effective mastery of this language! But amidst all the negative feedback, I would like to offer my gratitude to my school education for its few positive contribution which it did make: implanting very strong base in English grammar. I can realize the merit of that while preparing for CAT (for Indian B schools) GMAT (for global B schools)! :)

Well, that's the history of my learning non-native or foreign languages! At this stage of life ( late twenties) I'm quite an advocate for the speaking-based method for new language learning. Its the best way to learn a language particularly if its your target is primarily to able to speak in that language. The trigger to this sudden motivation or urge is working and living in a different state where the native language is not any of the languages I know. Hindi or English has enabled me to hold conversation with educated class but I found it very difficult to communicate with non-educated class like house-maid, cook, cab driver, auto driver, grocery vendor, small shop owners or the workmen in the factory of my office. Even in some situations where all the colleagues with the same native start speaking in their own language: Kannada! I find myself outlandish! I can very well demand them to speak only in English as its the official language but I think to myself: What if I accommodate? what's my loss? nothing but there will be a gain: I will be enriched more with a new language and its definitely going to be a skill! This skill not only will put me at ease in many situation within Karnataka state but will enhance my social boundary, enrich my knowledge, improve my people skill, improve my general ability to push myself for more! So here I go! It kind of dawned upon me! I started questioning myself: why did I stop learning new languages after English? when being born in India gives me so much of opportunities to learn new cultures and language without carrying my passport or visa or exchanging currency I should take full advantage of this opportunity and I am ready!

This way I first got motivated to learn Kannada. But I got flooded with motivations for more! Why only Indian languages, why not more foreign languages other than English? Aravind, my friend and colleague, has a good role to play here to intrigue me with these self-challenges. He's native Indian but went to do his MBA from IE Business School, Spain. He not only earned his degree and much saught-after international exposure there but picked up a foreign language: Spanish, which is spoken all over the world like English! My earlier notion that its enough to know English to survive this world has been challenged while having after-office chatting sessions with Aravind over a mug of beer. When I dream to see myself as a globe-trotting professional with an unquenchable hunger for knowing and interacting with different people and their culture, its imperative that I know as many languages as possible in order to enhance the knowledge! This eye-opening thought occurred to me and I set my goals of learning foreign languages one by one. Knowing different languages will also come handy while I will be in a foreign country reflecting my attitude of a global citizenship. Boosting up my goal of making myself a global citizen, my dream for travelling to different parts of the world and experiencing new culture, way of work & living fueled my interest of investing time, energy and passion into learning new languages. I will not stop learning the language of the state where I'm currently working and living but will expand my knowledge and skill by knowing different languages even if I have not been to that language-speaking country or currently living where it's spoken.
Being a management enthusiast and practicing manager I should have a structure, ground work done well before I embark upon a new project. Yaah, its a project with life time value and life long duration. Let me do the research, analysis and framework for adopting result-oriented approach to sustainable language learning! All the best to myself ! :)


Learning new languages - part II (shortlisting languages)

In order to shortlist the foreign language I must have a goal fixed. What I want to gain out of learning languages though its not bad to learn as many languages as possible. But as I dont aim to become a linguistic expert or study only languages in my life time, I need to focus on some languages which would be enough for fulfilling my aspiration of globetrotting with understanding and knowing people, their culture.
As I browsed few websites like BBC for taking tips in how to go about, I came up with my own framework for going about shortlisting the languages I would pick up as I go on.
The objective goal:
To know (conversation level) the optimized number of languages which would cover the maximum geographical areas with high business & professional relevance putting me in much comfort level when it comes to conversing with the local people, even from professional circle.
Criteria to shortlist and to achieve the goal in short-medium time duration: ( % points in brackets indicates the weight-age given to the criteria)

• Economies of scope & Ease of learning: Targeting those languages which are rooted in the same source as the languages i'm already proficient in (20%)
• Probable future foreign geographical areas for living and working ( short & long term) and the mapping of language with target countries (25%)
• No. of countries the language is an official language of (10%)
• Whether the language is United Nations official language (10%)
• Popularity of the language (15%)
• Languages with strong cultural legacy and trading influence in the global area (10%)
• Number of native speakers (10%)

Methodology:
With these criteria, the languages will be ranked for importance and prioritization in learning.
Criteria 1: Need to categorize and group languages in languages family. languages of the same family would be easier to learn and pick up. Here is the blog on world language family to refer. Languages with same family of my known language would be given highest weight-age (1, 0.75, 0.5, 0.25, 0)
Criteria 2: Need to come up with the list of countries for future travel ( business & professional tour, leisure, working & living on short and long term) with the language requirement details of the countries. Here is the analysis on this parameter. Countries will be classified into three categories: High, Medium & Low. The mapped languages would be given weight-age as 1, 0.75 & 0.5
Criteria 3: To come up with the list of languages with number countries its the official language. The listed languages would be classified into three categories: high, medium & low with weight-age 1, 0.75 & 0.5
Criteria 4: To refer to the UN official language list. Here is the reference. All the listed language will be given weight-age of 1.0. Non UN language would be given 0% weight-age.
Criteria 5: Languages would be ranked on the basis of popularity among students, language learners for demand as secondary language to learn in colleges, universities. Languages would be grouped in three categories: high, medium & low with weight-age 1, 0.5 & 0.0
Criteria 6: To come up with a rank of languages on the basis of cultural, historical legacy and modern influence on international trade. Here is the analysis
Criteria 7: To refer to the list of languages with number of native speakers in the world. Languages with over 100 million native speakers to be given weight-age 1.0, with 50-100 million native speakers to be given 0.75 and with below 50 million to be given 0.5 weight-age. Here is the analysis.

Using this methodology a list of foreign languages should be prepared. This list should be referred to as the top languages of high importance to learn.
Priority should be set on the basis of ranking, score on the "easy to learn" criteria 1 and criteria 2.