What are you upto???

Arjun - Are you in a meeting?
Me - No
Arjun - No, what are you doing then?
Me - I am working.
Arjun - I have to ask you a very important question.
Me - Ok???
Arjun - What do you do but?
Me - What do you mean?
Arjun - I mean, what do you do in office? Your work?
Me - I ...... am a project manager.
Arjun - Ok. What does that mean?
Me - I will come home and explain.
Arjun - Ok, so are you coming home in 10 mins?
Me - No Arjun, I will be home in the evening. Ok, bye now.
Arjun - ok, bye but Pyash wait, I have to ask you something...
Me - Ok, whats that?
Arjun - What are you upto Pyash?
Me - :(, will explain once am back mate. I will have to hang up now, have to rush to a meeting.
Arjun - Ok, I will see you in the evening, bye now.
HANGS THE PHONE
Me - Bye...

Work vs TV

Watching Man vs Wild on Discovery. Sounds like a name of a rec :-)

Troy

Am watching Troy for the nth time. It is an amazing movie. A movie made on Homer's Iliad (poem), this is the poem which gave the phrase "Trojan Horse".

Let them say, I walked with Giants.
Let them say, I lived in the time of Hector - tamer of horses.
Let them say, I lived in the time of Achilles.

Green, blue and red

A year has passed since Green died. Some of it froze and became blue. Some of it blushed and became red.

Anna and Vijay

Watching an idiotic movie of Julia Roberts. Her name in the movie is Anna. I remember her name was Anna even in Notting Hill.

Was reminded of Amitabh Bachchhan and his name Vijay in so many movies. The only difference is that I still like watching Julia Roberts'n movies, at least some of them.

Golf

A few of my friends play and like Golf. I have never played this game - but am sure it would be fun. I still dont see any special skill in the game.

Am watching amateur golf on ESPN. All the players are wearing bermudas. Its almost like saying that you wear shorts when you are amateur and then when you graduate and become professionals, you start wearing pants. :-)

Interesting huh?

On men wearing pink

May be it shows that you are happy and 'gay'.
My wife thinks the only man who looks good in pink is Hugh Grant.

I have two pink shirts.

First day at new job

Got this from an editor friend... not sure of authenticity of this.. but surely a very interesting read...
_____________________________________________________

Nandan Nilekani in his new avatar as a Cabinet Secretary. Here is what
he had penned after his first day in the Parliament. The last entry
stopped when the House was just about to begin. Let's see what happened
thereafter....

The House was in pin drop silence. I was brimming with anticipation and
excitement!!!! Manmohan had informed me that my introduction was one of
the important points of the agenda. I hoped that I will be able to make
my speech properly. After so many interviews and conferences, I was
nervous today!!!! After the Speaker indicated that the proceedings of
the House could begin, Manmohan formally introduced me to the entire
House. He mentioned that as the head of the Unique Identification
Authority of India, I was responsible to ensure that each and every
Indian had a digital smart card as a proof of his existence.
Manmohan spoke about why I was selected and also some references to the
various projects executed by me in Infosys were mentioned. The House
listened with rapt attention. I was asked to say a few words and I did
exactly the same!!! I thanked the Government of India for having given
me this opportunity and I assured the House that I would strive to
successfully deliver this project. The Speaker then formally inducted me
into the House and before the proceedings could move any forward, there
was a small commotion on the other side of the hall.

It was Minister of Textiles who had a comment to make before the next
point on the agenda. He made a request that I should be attired in a
more austere way instead of a flashy suit. It did not go well with the
image of a minister who should live to serve the common man and should
be less ostentatious in his habits. I stood up to reply. I offered my
apologies to the Honourable Minister and assured that I shall be in a
more acceptable dress next time. I felt that he was right. We also used
to have corporate dress code in Infosys. So it's here as well!!!!

I sat down and felt somebody nudging me. I turned around and to my
surprise; it was the former Indian skipper and one of my favourite
batsman Mohd. Azharuddin. I remembered that he had recently won the
elections. I smiled at him and mentioned to him that I used to like his
game very much, shaking his hand. No Rolex, I noticed. Azhar told me
that he would "fix" me an appointment with an Italian designer who had
designed his dapper Kurta suit. An Italian designer in Milan doing
Kurtas!!!!! I made a note of this and reminded myself to give this
example to Friedman for his next book," The World Markets are
flattened".

Since there was no doubt about the "Fixational" capacities of Azhar, I
told him to give me the details and I would consider. The proceedings of
the House went on with numerous bills being debated and passed as I sat
as a passive audience waiting for my project's turn to come up. After
the lunch break, it was the moment for me!!!!

MY PROJECT"S FIRST REVIEW CAME UP FOR PRESENTATION.
I was at sea. My laptop did not have any reserve power. I went to
Manmohan and apprised him of the situation. I was sweating. He calmly
replied that this would not be a cause of concern. I was flummoxed!!!!
The Speaker asked me to explain to the House on what were my plans for
the Unique Identity Project. I replied that I have a plan prepared for
30-60-90-120 days' milestones and I have presentation to make for which
I need a power socket, a projector and a screen. I had no idea what was
going to happen after this.

The next couple of minutes were a complete jolt for me. I was completely
in a tizzy. Let me just summarize what happened. A Joint Cabinet
Secretary Committee was set up to judge the feasibility of my request.
The Under Secretaries for the Ministries of Power, IT and Broadcasting
will prepare a Viability Report after scrutinizing National Security
threats to my request. This was because the power socket comes under
Power, laptop comes under IT and projector comes under Broadcasting. I
have also been told to reconsider my timelines of 30-60-90 days and
start thinking in terms of years. Probably, they are right. I did not
have the foresight in this matter.
The summary of the issue is that I need to come up with a more
inclusive, democratic, comprehensive long term plan for this project to
be executed over the next five years. I have also been given a
presentation slot 3 months from now (by which the issues related to the
power cord etc will also be resolved). I am filled with mixed reactions.
I was planning for a quick resolution; the management wants a strategic
solution. I come out of the House and text Murthy.
"You won't believe it but these guys work just like us. I am on a
NATIONAL BENCH for the next three months!!!!!!!!"

condolences

Four Hindi poets died in a car accident near bhopal while they were coming back from a kavi-sammelan.

The names of the poets are -
- Om Prakash 'Aditya' - here is one by him
- Neeraj Puri
- Lal Singh Gujjar
- Om Vyas 'Om'

I practically grew up listening to Om Vyas 'Om'. He was our neighbor in Ujjain and was there in almost every function where he had a new poem to recite.

May their souls rest in peace.

वरदान माँगूँगा नहीं।।

Dr Shivmangal Singh 'Suman'

यह हार एक विराम है
जीवन महासंग्राम है
तिल-तिल मिटूँगा पर दया की भीख मैं लूँगा नहीं।
वरदान माँगूँगा नहीं।।

स्‍मृति सुखद प्रहरों के लिए
अपने खंडहरों के लिए
यह जान लो मैं विश्‍व की संपत्ति चाहूँगा नहीं।
वरदान माँगूँगा नहीं।।

क्‍या हार में क्‍या जीत में
किंचित नहीं भयभीत मैं
संधर्ष पथ पर जो मिले यह भी सही वह भी सही।
वरदान माँगूँगा नहीं।।

लघुता न अब मेरी छुओ
तुम हो महान बने रहो
अपने हृदय की वेदना मैं व्‍यर्थ त्‍यागूँगा नहीं।
वरदान माँगूँगा नहीं।।

चाहे हृदय को ताप दो
चाहे मुझे अभिशप दो
कुछ भी करो कर्तव्‍य पथ से किंतु भागूँगा नहीं।
वरदान माँगूँगा नहीं।।

Notes - Another one I used to like.

बड़ी ई की गलती..

Om Prakash 'Aditya'

विधाता ने मुझको बनाया था जिस दिन,
धरती पे भूचाल आया था उस दिन
मुझे देख सूरज को गश आ गया था,
मेरे रूप से चाँद चकरा गया था

मैं तारीफ अपनी करून या खुदा की,
तकदीर का लेख लिख बे जबा की
लिखा उसने यह कोई लीडर बनेगा,
वकालत करेगा यह प्लीडर बनेगा,
यह बिगडेगा कम और यह अक्सर बनेगा,
मिलिटरी या नेवी का अफसर बनेगा

बनेगा कसीजिन घोडों का मालिक,
हजारों का लाखों करोड़ों का मालिक,
यह दुनिया में हलचल मचाता रहेगा,
सदा मुफ्त का माल खाता रहेगा
सभी वार हैं इसके हक में अक्सर,
ब्रहास्पद हो बुधवार शुक्कर सनीशचर

पढ़ा मैंने लेख विधाता का लिखा,
सनिशचर की "नि" को, ग़लत उसने लिख्खा
मैं बोला लिखा आपने "नि" गलत है,
सनिशचर में लिखना बड़ी "नी" ग़लत है,

वे बोले की तू क्यों तरक कर रहा है,
बड़ी चोटी ई में फरक कर रहा है
अरे अभी तो पैदा हुआ बी नहीं है,
तुझे क्या पता यह गलत या सही है।

करेगा तू अनजान क्या जनम पाकर। 

मेरी पोल खोलेगा दुनिया में जाकर। 

तेरे भाग्य को मैं तो चमका रहा था,

शनिस्शर से इतवार टेक आ रहा था।

जो तू चाह रहा है वही कर रहा हूँ,

बड़ी ई की गलती सही कर रहा हूँ। 

इसे ठीक लिखता हूँ मैं तेरे सर पर -

शनिस्शर, शनिस्शर, शनिस्शर, शनिस्शर।

दिया श्राप उसने गुस्से में आकर। 

नहीं चैन पायेगा धरती में जाकर। 

जनम लेके युहीं विचरता रहेगा,

सदा गलतियां ठीक करता रहेगा। 

फाटे हाल होगा, फटीचर रहेगा,

उम्र भर तू हिंदी का टीचर रहेगा. 

Updated on 17th Apr 2023, found full poem on another blog. 

Dont remember the rest, the problem with Hindi poetry is that you cant find it on google. There are more I used to remember and like..

- Sasoon ka Hisab by Dr. Shivmangal Singh 'Suman'
- Stithi tanavpoorna paruntu niyantran me hain (I dont remember the name of the poet)

And some more very good poetry but not sure how to find it, am trying to figure out books but really speaking do not get anything other than "Madhushala". And no, Madhushala is good, but its famous because of other reasons also and so can be found on net easily.

BTW, Om Prakash 'Aditya' died on 8th June 09 in a road accident near Bhopal. Two other renouned poets "Neeraj Puri" and "Lal Singh Gujjar" also died in the same accident. Another famous poet Om Vyas 'Om' is critical - has been shifted to Delhi and now is out of danger last i heard.

Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone

W. H. Auden

Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.

Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message He Is Dead,
Put crêpe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.

He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last for ever: I was wrong.

The stars are not wanted now: put out every one;
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood.
For nothing now can ever come to any good.

 

Notes – This is a very sad poem, a mourning, but is written very beautifully.

A Psalm of life

H. W. Longfellow

   TELL me not, in mournful numbers,
        Life is but an empty dream ! —
    For the soul is dead that slumbers,
        And things are not what they seem.

    Life is real !   Life is earnest!
        And the grave is not its goal ;
    Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
        Was not spoken of the soul.

    Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
        Is our destined end or way ;
    But to act, that each to-morrow
        Find us farther than to-day.

    Art is long, and Time is fleeting,
        And our hearts, though stout and brave,
    Still, like muffled drums, are beating
        Funeral marches to the grave.

    In the world's broad field of battle,
        In the bivouac of Life,
    Be not like dumb, driven cattle !
        Be a hero in the strife !

    Trust no Future, howe'er pleasant !
        Let the dead Past bury its dead !
    Act,— act in the living Present !
        Heart within, and God o'erhead !

    Lives of great men all remind us
        We can make our lives sublime,
    And, departing, leave behind us
        Footprints on the sands of time ;

    Footprints, that perhaps another,
        Sailing o'er life's solemn main,
    A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
        Seeing, shall take heart again.

    Let us, then, be up and doing,
        With a heart for any fate ;
    Still achieving, still pursuing,
        Learn to labor and to wait.

 

Notes – the seventh stanza is something i always remembered and liked

Windy nights

R. L. Stevenson

Whenever the moon and stars are set,
Whenever the wind is high,
All night long in the dark and wet, 
A man goes riding by. 
Late in the night when the fires are out, 
Why does he gallop and gallop about? 
Whenever the trees are crying aloud, 
And ships are tossed at sea,
By, on the highway, low and loud,
By at the gallop goes he.
By at the gallop he goes, and then
By he comes back at the gallop again.

 

Notes – a very mysterious poem indeed, has always attracted me for the sheer feeling of gallantry and mystery which it has somewhere

Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy evening

Robert Frost

Was discussing poetry with a friend a few days back… here are a few of them i liked ever since I remember..

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village, though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there's some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

Cos… listening is important…

Started reading Ayn Rand again, finished Fountainhead and moved on to Atlas Shrugged. While enjoying the day in Dukes’s Retreat Khandala – i was trying to read this book.

And as soon as I reached page 3-4, I realized how un-readable is Ayn Rand. I have read Fountainhead, Atlas Shrugged and We, the living while in college and it was more like a normal story book for me – so did not matter. Now i realize I do not agree with her much and so it was getting very difficult for me to read on. Nope, dont want to go into philosophical differences on why I think “objectivism” is wrong or what i feel should be the correct concept.

Its just that am thinking – am i getting so rigid? That I cant read a book if it says something I do not believe in. Thats not very good. That just means that i am probably getting older and so more and more rigid. And thats the reason I have decided – just to prove myself wrong in this case – I will finish reading Atlas Shrugged and hence, make sure that the habit of listening to people continues even if I do not agree with them. Cos.. listening is important….

The traveller of life…

There was a time in my life when the only pants i had in my wardrobe was jeans – all colours, the only thing I wanted to be was Indian Airforce fighter pilot (flying MIG 29. At least a Miraz 2000 or a Jaguar- india did not have Sukhoi then and MIG 29 was the best interceptor we had, the only bomber we had for a long time was MIG21 which is now called the flying coffin), didnt ever want to do engineering, didnt ever want to get married and live alone in a nice house on the 50th floor of a building overlooking a very busy road, drive a nice convertible or a Willis.

Then the time came when I knew I wont be able to join air force because I have spects, not even Navy, to fly sea-harriers because they are also supersonics, still the only pants i had in my wardrobe was jeans – of all colours, did not wanna do engineering, wanted to do CA. Or MBA from IIM and join Mckinsey or Lehman Brothers. Still did not want to get married ever, live alone in a nice house on the 50th floor of a building overlooking a very busy road and drive a convertible or a Ferrari.

Then there was a time in my life while i was doing my engineering, the only pants i had in my wardrobe was jeans – all colours, never wanted to go into IT, wanted to join IIM and join a Mckinsey or a Lehman Brothers. Did not want to get married, live alone in a nice house on the 50th floor of a building overlooking a very busy road and drive a Mercedes or a Ferrari.

Then the time came when I was working in a software company in Mumbai, I had a mix of jeans and other cotton pants, wanted to join IIM and post that, wanted to join a Mckinsey or a Lehman Brothers, wanted to get married only at 32, till then live alone on the 50th floor of a building overlooking a very busy road and drive a Mercedes.

Now, I am officially 32, happily married for more than 5 years with a kid, never did an MBA, working with one of the companies said above, again for more than 4 years, drive a santro, have just 1 jeans that too blue and my wardrobe is filled with formal clothes. Want to live on a 50th floor of a building with wifey and kid, overlooking a very busy road and want to drive Mercedes.

And strangely, do not seem to be missing any of the above which i didnt get. Thats life.

Mumbai to Indore and back

What do we want to achieve by writing text in front of t-shirts?

I like people, especially females, who wear t-shirts on which there are things written. I don’t know why people wear such stuff but there can be more than one way to interpret it. And I interpret it all of those ways.

Talking about , clothes.. cant forget sarees. The Indian Airlines airhostesses wear saree. Its a weird colour – red, black and white. Looks very bad for such elderly women. Am sure some intelligent looking person who would have thought of thesre colours must have put some interpretation as well. Like we put interpretation for our Tri-colour. So it might go like – Red is for energy, white for hospitality and black for security (blackcats wear black so might be). Thats what the India Airlines airhostess stand for - “secure hospitality with energy”. Not a bad punchline.

So 4 AM in morning when I rushed out of home to catch such an Indian Airlines flight – I was excited as I usually am when I am at an airport. I just love airports. They are air conditioned and so cool – which is very good. There are other good things about the airport – and one of them is the cafe coffee day which serves hot breakfast starting 3.30 AM in the morning.

Anyways coming back to the plane, when we boarded, this airhostess came to an elderly uncle and said – “app mujhe itne gusse se kyon deh rahe ho, zara pyaar se dekho” – listening to this, i tried all the available expressions from shock to sadness, but none matched. Actually never thought of such a scenario in a plane. The elderly uncle had asked for cotton, she gave it to him almost saying – “yeh lo beta”. Not sure if many people know, but airhostess is called “hawai-sundari” in hindi. Thats the translation, obviously not literal but a very old translation – probably someone thought of this when Air India was recruiting its first batch of airhostess. Now after so many year, those recruits have grown old and so the word does not fit well.

It however, almost fits very well for kingfisher. I came back by Kingfisher airlines. And I realized that there are three type of young airhostess in kingfisher. First are the ones which are fair – you dont have to look good when you are fair, thats a sufficient condition. Second are the ones who are not fair but have sharp features. Again you dont have to be good looking. And the third ones are obviously the ones who are good looking ones. So my flight have type 1 and type 2 airhostess. One of them was very fair and reminded me of Priyanka Chopra. Her lips like Priyanka’s covered 70% of her face. They looked very similar except for that the airhostess was very fair. Probably that explains why Priyanka could not become an airhostess. This another one was flashing a batch with her name of it. It looked like the name was LIMA – but that sounds like a name of software system, i stared more and more.. and it was getting awkward because the batch was almost playing the t-shirt with stuff written on it. But I persisted and got the name as “Pooja”. How does the name matter – in no way is it of any significance except for that it reminded me of t-shirts with text written on it. And so the question came to my mind…

What do we want to achieve by writing text in front of t-shirts?

The place I call my home - WIP

 

1. Abstract – thats living room wall with bumblebee paint
2. the bedroom wall wrongly painted
3. the dark and not-so-dark green – Half way split

 

Thats the safety door

 

Floor lamp in Arjun’s room – Arjun and Nitya looking – the floor lamp

 

Arjun’s room – one wall perky lime

 

Thats the master bedroom – with a sort of a book case and table lamps

  

Thats the kitchen – by day/nite

 

Thats one living room wall – bumblebee / Painting the living room wall
Painters with paints and tools (supporting infra)

This is the living room…some garbage and hanging lights…

Thats the passage – morning/nite

Polishing wood with this material

Thoughts...

Its 3 months today. He didn't deserve it. Like they say, until the day they put me in the ground I will wonder, what could I have done differently...