Dinner at dharamsala

Just returned from the most memorable dinner and wanted to store it for eternity, what better than share?!!!

I fixed the place for dinner during the evening get-a-bike walk, turned out a brilliant choice. We go to the Italian-tibetian food place- green!!! As we walk in , the place is buzzing and filled with foreigners and we sit outside. As we just start browsing the menu, a tibetian family walks in. A smiling man who greeted every table also smiles broadly at us. He simply asks, are you locals? We said no we are from Bangalore!!!! Hes overjoyed, just shakes hands with each of us. He went back memory lane, 25 years back he used to stay in bangalore where he stayed while he studied as well as worked a while before moving to nepal. He introduces himselves as Dha-wa, and quickly translated as chandrashekar , dha means moon and hence he was named chandrashekar in college, our Chandra speaks fluent Kannada and first introduced us to his wife and his 20 odd year old son who was leaving to kushalnagar for his studies.

He suggested our dinner menu- special lasagna, tofu momos and thenthuk!! He then shared his life learnings of how money means so little, how Buddhism and ofcourse Hinduism is all about being happy mentally than being lodged in a spic n clean new York appartment with no peace of mind, He practically knew everyone among the foriegners in the room - who he said come to india for peace and took example of a 100 year old rich European who had let go of everything and was living here for a long time just cared for by friends at dharamsala, on observation I find that the man could hardly move and yet was cheered and entertained by the staff.

Dha-wa then suggested us places to see around here to go to the place of the government in exile, dalailamas abode and the karmapa's. He then said that he had just returned from a direct audience with the dAlailama and asked us to meet him as well. He said the Indians have been soo helpful of the tibetian cause by housing the lama and the karmapa as well as provide every possible assistance. He sAid that the lama is extremely friendly and one could easily sight him etc and would have granted audience if we had taken prior appointments.

Food then arrived and our chandrshekar took his leave after a few photos for us!! The food was brilliant and memorable just per se. Loved it!!

The smile is a wonderful thing and wonder why we don't retain the warmth and hospitality we were once famous for!! A
Thing to ponder. Walked back to a slew of PJ from whom I call Raksas ever since he scared the little kid in a manali shop- Rakesh Pai who divides his name into two halves- one who has glowing hair(Ra dium /kesh-hair) and whose day is celebrated world over on 22/7- (pi). More than a dinner can take!!!

Kashmir - Is it worth it

Kashmir is a wonderful place. I have seen it with my eyes and there is no doubt that if there is paradise on earth- it is Kashmir..

Whats wrong i wonder. Some 50 percent of the population of Kashmir- within LOC voted some 2 years back and elected a government under the Indian sovereign. And they have been doing that over and over for the last 20 years or so since the insurgency began. It just proves one thing that there are many "Kashmiris" who believe they are Indian. But i also know that there a lot of seperatists who identify themselves with Pakistan and either want to go to Pakistan or form a separate country. The third dimension are the people who were the erstwhile Hindu minority who lived there but forcibly moved out to make way for a Kashmiri movement. Now their claim is about the land- "Kashmir". But Do the people really have a voice in all of this?

Now whats the Kashmiri problem? During the partition, Kashmir was a unique case where the Hindu head of a muslim majority state apparently opted to remain with India. Now that Kashmir of the 1950s has been since bifurcated into 3 regions. One which is Pakistan Occupied, One which is Indian occupied and one which is China occupied(apparently gifted by Pakistan).

India is probably the only world country which runs to other countries to solve its problems. China has dealt with Tibet strongly in the past. So has Israel with innumerable attacks in the middle east. UK has dealt with a rogue Irish state. All three are examples of how a country has successfully dealt with rogue elements with an iron hand. India has done it as well when dealing with insurgency with Punjab. Agreed that all this has been without dealing with a foriegn hand . ie. Pakistan in our case. But considering that Pakistan is in a shoddy state of affairs by itself, doesnt it feel ripe that its time to act and deal with the situation NOW.

This is seriously a situation that demands an iron hand maneovering. License the indian army to cleaning up Kashmir rather than take off its priveleges (ASPA). The solution is apparent in my eyes. Make LOC the border. Ask the people to choose where they want to go, India or Pakistan and solve the issue once and for all. The people in indian kashmir who want to move should be allowed to relocate once and for all. Peace isnt a byproduct of inaction but definitely a product of stern action.

It burns me from within when more rampant issues affecting the rest 95% of the country like inflation and education are left to inaction while the majority of the time is spent on trying to talk to separatists and hear their grievances while they spread hatred and burn the indian flag in the streets of Srinagar. It certainly isnt worth my tax payers money to spend on infrastructure that anti nationals would just burn down. Ask them to go to Pakistan instead if they so desire.

Scared as a Lamb Part 1

What happens when a scared lamb goes to slaughter house?????????... Let us analyse his thinking.... First how does it identify that it is slaughter house? Well some calling from heaven.. Lights get dim, He hears screaming, he hears screeching, but all he can see is red faces of limber and leather.. He can feel happiness all round as his heart feels light while the body feels too heavy that even the thought of walking cramps muscles. With great courage he steps up in front, the road ahead is slippery, he thinks thats how lifes been, but never before has the road been as red and chimy almost like a red carpet rolled on welcoming a piece of meat that the hungry human is dying to eat. The Slaughter house he looks around is characterized by plain interiors but the saving grace is a smiling assasin in shining armour with a weapon so sharp that he cant wait to use its brilliant enamor.

It had been a tiring day at work for Veena who from her traditional tam bram household where tayir sadam is usually breakfast, lunch and dinner. It was extremely difficult to get used to the dulls and rigors of the IT job that she stepped into some years back. Her parents had been pressurising her to get married and get settled. Not that she didnt want to, but as much as she tried, she could never get a groom. Either he was too fat, didnt have a US job or plain too well educated and macho to agree to all her whims and fancies which she d planned after marriage. So most of the time she was all alone wherever she went.

Veena worked in a typical Indian IT company which made her work for 18 hours a day, typically paying as much as for 2 hours of her work. The desired qualification and profile of the company Job description slotted like "Wanted - Boring non-intellectual, no work life balance, should be prepared to work without credit and get paid the best in class peanuts exported from north africa". Veena getting excited by the Job description jumped at the oppurtunity and here she was 2 years later standing at the doorway of doom, or so she thought.

It was as usual a party of her umpteenth friend getting married , she often wondered when will my number come "Oh Perumale"............ It was another such evening when one of her best friends had been married. And Veena had liked her idea all over again. "US Groom, No Sisters- No Liabilities- Parents long gone, No compromise on these constraints". The dinner was brilliant, a 7 course buffet with the finest savories and it was followed by a paatu kutcheri by Unni Krishnan. She d forgotten her watch, so the first semblance, Veena got of time was when her mom called her. She almost fainted when she heard was the time was 8 30 PPPPMMMMMM.... It was sooo late in the night and the christined fat old lady had started singing..... How will i get home "perumalae"??????,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Interesting meetings at Unexpected locations

Hey i know this guy u think.. havent i seen him somewhere. You are clear, You know him.. How many times does this happen to us. Some old classmate, college-mate or even a person you have met in a bus sometime and struck an impressive chat.

It so happened that two things happened over the last week. I met two people whom i had all but forgotten in life. It happened so unexpectedly that the thrill of the moment lasts for a long clatter to add some excitement to otherwise boring silly lifes ( i wonder, my last two blogs have the title Bore to it, signifying how life has become).

Scene1: Location: KPN Bus stop. Hey i know that pretty lass in the corner of the room. But shes on the phone. Isnt she from school. yes she is. She was in my school though had hardly even seen her in school. but knew her from social networking site called Orkut... (It used to be my fad those days, they say these days , they are writing its obituary since everyone is farming in facebook). Bad news. i hear that my bus is cancelled and i would have to endure a non AC sitting journey to Chennai. But thats not whats ringing thru my mind.

Am i sure it is her, i decide to call up friends to check. Not sure. No one in touch. Doubt creeps. I turn to the girl, shes giving me a long hard stare. Now does that say, "Dumbo, cant you say Hi, i m from your school" or does that mean "Bitch why you staring, tere maa- behen nahi hai kya".. after a lot of oxygen through my viens, i decide to finally ask. Holding my breath, Are you from sankara????? ,, "My foot..... Last fifteen minutes have been trying to make conversation with you, i am here ... and u dont even recognize me" says the awoken tigresss... Well thats not fair. She could have talked to me either. After all post womens liberation movement and 33 percent reservation, its common knowledge that guys cant go up and speak to girls :P . That was one heck of a meet, My Bus came in 2 minutes and i had exactly a minute to exchange numbers. innumerable chats and phone calls followed and it feels like having found one long lost friend in this depressing city.

Scene2: Where else do u find solace on a weekend in Bangalore.. It has to be a mall and my credit card had just been transfixed to a Mastercard server somewhere in the US for the umpteenth time in exchange for some tshirts and again i find a long lost face. I know her. This time i am sure. She was the Chatter Aunty on the flight, i made conversation with her about a year and a half back on a flight between mumbai and chennai. I was going for my SP Jain interview and was reading through a ton of notes that i had made for myself.

Aunty was travelling alone and being the compulsive talker types immediately struck conversation with me. She is from chennai and is in Mumbai to spend time with her son and grandchildren. (Which she apparently was doing now as well in bangalore as her son had moved.) She gave me lots of tips for the interview. She was a school teacher and told me one golden rule because of which i remember her even now. She told me which roughly translates to, "before you go for the GD, go early to the campus, talk to people there, make yourself comfortable with the atmosphere and just rock it like theres no tomorrow". I did exactly that.

Now when i met her, she introduced me to her son and grandson. And had a noticeable flutter in her eyes when i told her that it was her advice that helped me. She blessed me and told to keep in touch.

Lifes a constant journey, people we see on the wayside arent just travellers but sometimes the arm holders and its just that we need to remember these small moments that make life all the more enriched. I am sooo excited to have had these experiences and i hope to bump into every of my lost friends... Life has to have such high points

La-Bore

I love Marketing.... But sometimes when that becomes a lot of bull shit, i mean the product isn't worth ten percent of the expected result, it really makes the perpetrators, the brand ambassadors look such Losers, and lose a lot of face and respect.. I felt let down by probably the smartest marketers around - Times of India who have been promoting this movie- Lahore , tactly to back their honorable intentions in the "Aman ki Aasha" campaign.

I always feel that movies are to entertain and they should never preach. All the screeching and "Yo"s were so out of character. Whats abt Pakistan thats soo stereotypical. You show Indian boxers train in world class facilities, and Paki athletes given training in what looks like a terror camp. Stereotyping has been the yore of the indian mindset, and what better example than have a paki coach who looks to win at all costs, and the indian coach saying "we indians dont undo evil to what was done to them". This statement has lost its catch value coz of its tenous use, reuse and misuse in indo- pak rivalry.

The acting was sooo fake. Just reading out dialogues straight out of a 4 year olds stage play script, which is written normally for causes like water conservation etc, here its for promoting cross border peace... A screening of the script should have found my kid sisters script much better. I pity actors like Mukesh Rishi who played a superb character in Sarfarosh to be playing such pitiable roles, particularly coz we have been seeing him on screen for well over two decades to believe that his son should have been doing that role of a paki launda

how untouching was the end........ "tum hindustaniyon ne match nahi jeeta , par dil jeet liye". This when they show the crowd baying for blood and the media speculating that an indian player has come to avenge the death of his brother. Hows that dil jeetna. A half crooned attempt at joining a small meagre crowd melanged by TOI for Aman ki aasha. I really kind of lost faith in the organisation if this is just another gimmick or a serious gesture aimed with intent at good relations against a neighbour , not even half of india is convinced is serious about peace and its just a half baked nation with no principles, no leadership and not worth trusting. Maybe thas why the movie was also half baked and such an utter bore that it almost spoiled 3 hours of my Saturday and also stuck in my mind that i had to waste much more of a Sunday to write on it.....

What to do to attack Boredom???

Please note that there is a question mark in the title...... This is not a reckoner to beat boredom..

Its quite a chore this. Work happens through the week and you wait for the weekends... And when weekends do happen, a lack of a water tight plan like a weekend getaway(tickets get booked) or parasailing ( i am glued to give it a miss) or some shopping with a female( they wont let u go, so its watertight) and you are hoping for it to pass because of the lack of Things to do and due to a principal factor : BOREDOM..

Many times, pick up the phone to beat it.. On closer inspection i am amazed at the depths of things boredom can propel a talk at.. "Whasup... Nothing.... You tell me whassup......." and the conversation goes on and on. All i can say is, I have long been telling me that i have to learn French, maybe that would help me atleast say "Ca va tres bien" and show off to the other and maybe teach it to her.

Or i was thinking that i should go for Squash or Swimming to add more skills to my repertoire, but i still wonder what i would do in time when i m not near a squash court or near a pool. I already enjoy playing billiards, TT or other such boredom killing stuff i learnt due to such introspections in the past but they dont help me when i am not near these tables.

OK, next up- tried and tested- Reading. Theres a lot to read says Dilberten Anyone but what.. i get bored deciding what to read, that i dont read. I browse a lot and play games online. Well thats part of what i do when i m not bored. I have also decided to get water colors and do something i havent done for almost 20 years - Paint and not for 19 years- Stitch a Poster..... Watching TV is a good suggestion my mind made.. but hey i dont want to watch Rahul Mahajan get married on TV.

Well things rolling up my head...... I was thinking what to do when my friend suggested, why dont you blog.. You love it... then i thought what would the topic be?????? Boredom and yooo here i go....

Memories of a Brilliant Project

I am in memoirs mood... what better to start than the best project i have done than my ALP in SP Jain with Jaejo, Matt and Soji...

Well to start of , the project didnt include half the team, i mean it was a very young team to begin with when Kanno walked out and me and Matt were left with just each other to do a project. We still are doing it, we decided. Then a random thought, why not ask Jaejo. The grand old man thought about it for a while, obviously weighed down by academic interests, he must have had a thought- The indian cricket selectors are opting for youth and i can try it out as well, but that would mean academic interests take a back seat.. he finally danced his way into the team with some pomp... Jaejo thought his academic interest burden must be let loose and to give it to Sojish is as dangerous, Finally history was made, heavens applauded, the UB GLOBAL team is formed.

First meet with the UB team at bangalore, the set up itself is 2 hour long. Our college is such a high fundoo campus that the Video conference doesnt allow for any conference. We just have a glimpse of our mentor and beloved Achu, but then it snapped and we decided to have just a voice call. It worked as well. We had a good plan of action lined up. Prof Seetha introduced us to team and almost told UB to give us a job with them right away. uff, that was close to being a dampner but hey the rest of the meet went fine.

What followed was a series of meeting with business federations, heads of industry, stealing info off data servers with mail accounts, even dates with car parking areas, off to remote corners of singapore usually in teams of two. Me and Jaejo ( experience with naiveness), sojish and Matt (acting and action).

The best days were balanced only with better days, calculating weird numbers, searching for any possible contacts, talking to professors, we couldnt have explored any other options. Work was always mitigated by sessions of cricket match scores and live reports by me, some singing sessions apart from the buffonery that Sojish subjects us to. lots of firefighting happened at a lot of times, Sojish got elected to the PLACOM and arun didnt like it too much, nor when any deadline was even half met. But work happened at slick notes and a rocking final presentation followed.

Well for hardwork theres always just reward. And for bearing the best of our work, the batch got a farewell reward too. 72 pints of Kingfisher beer gulped down by thirsty maverick throats. And to the rollign credits, the young part of the team didnt have any......... We guys rocked dudes.. not for nothing do i call this my best learning experience. The BEST OF My life

Social Media Marketing at its best

The recent campaign by Aircel "Save our tigers" is a marketers dream. Who said Social media marketing is a dying art. This is a perfect promotion vehicle.

Here we have a company who has a strong base down south. And looking to expand pan-india. What is the traditional way to expand. Hire a national icon- Shah rukh khan is everyones favorite. Promise the sun and capture the sand.

The marketing team at Aircel has done exactly that. Hired Dhoni as brand ambasaddor, but hey theres a hitch... theres too much competition and an urge to be different than just the same. Docomo is offering PPS, competing on that would be a Me too. But hey, i get the idea from one of Dhonis ads.. The last campaign that featured Dhoni encapsulated the VAS (Value added services) of Aircel. He says its mobile on the go to blog, check scores online and update facebook , share pics.

But hey they go smarter still. "Save our Tigers" is launched. The aircel campaign goes CSR, 1411 tigers says the campaign and counting down. Dudes, you touched the chords of an average indian. Then it says, blog, write and share on their packaged site and lo. Aircel is promoted.

A brilliant piece of Strategic marketing whereby they have tried to build Aircel as a brand with a conscience. I particularly like the telecom market at the moment, where they are identifying different niches. Vodafone said connectivity with its Pug campaign , Idea is somewhere on the CSR range as well with "what an idea" sirjee. Interesting times to be a telecom marketer.

My Name is Varun Sankar and i am Impressed

I get up today expecting a real gluttony over myself for booking tickets for a Karan Johar Movie that had SRK and Kajol. Last couple of times this had happened, i was utterly disappointed that i decided to give KANK a miss. Actually K3G had one of my relatives repeatedly asking in between long sleeps over the movie ... Why doesnt Kareena wear clothes!!!!... It was that mushy and boring.

Over the years, this guy Karan Johar who i now realize is an utterly intelligent director, sensed the reaction of the audience (Or atleast people like me) and decided just to produce movies with happy result, i was pleasently surprised by Dostana and Wake up Sid. I was happy at that status quo. I used to cringe at another mushy movie starring his favorite protagonists, Rahul and Anjali.... But hey the promos seemed different. Welcome to MNIK said the promos, Well i guess some people in Matoshree and Pitoshree may object.

To cut it short... A standing ovation for a film-maker. This is Karan Johars triumph. A movie with its Heart in the absolute right place. Was the movie 2 and half hours? the first two hours were to me rivetting narration. This is how life would be i felt if any other person was Rizwan Khan. The last half an hour was a big dud... I agree, but this was fabulous makeover for a man who i thought bought in mush to indian cinema (he was a partner in crime in DDLJ) too.

When i think of that, i realise when you look at yourself, at what you have done, and if you can revisit yourself, not repeat mistakes, and continously look to evolve as a person, you make not only a better person but a really terrific and intelligent human being who would not only get respect, he would have earned it.......