The Reins of Life

"The fault dear Brutus is not in our Stars but in ourselves....." Something like this was coined by Shakespeare in his Julius Ceaser. Was it ignorance, stupidity or a sheer inflated opinion of a person's ability to control himself and the events around him that made him say so??. I definitely dont mean to say a man should leave everything to lady luck and attribute/blame everything to her but assuming the opposite to be correct is equally wrong. The turn of events of late have made me sit back and think..why is my life writhing in shit and what can i do to ameliorate the situation. The answers did come back to me but none of them comforting...There is no conceivable logical reason why i m going thru what i am and also there is little i can do but wait and watch. So Mr. Shakespeare whats ur take on this??? I guess, there are phases in everyone's life when instances or rather a series of instances happen; that make him believe in something supreme, something more cosmic and divine that controls atleast a significant part of our lives. Desperate as it may appear, there is a little we can do in that, except maybe wait and watch and hope that things turn for the better. At this juncture i consider it important to consider the other side of the spectrum as well. Why dont we ever get so melancholy or thoughtful when something good happens or when the going is unexpectedly good. So selfish...aint we? But ya, the way things have been of late, i seriously feel that people are nothing more than one of the members of a harem of a Sheikh who when he feels treats her royally and when he feels does ..well... what he feel likes, irrespective of how painful/replusive it might be for her. She feels the joy, she feels the pain..but there is little of it that can be attributed to her action and even worse there is little that she can do about it. However, there is solace when i look at two basic facts of life...... 1. there are no foreign events...there are only foreign players: hence what i am going thru, many have gone thru as well. and since they have come out of it and where mortals like i am, i dont see a reason, why i cant come off it. 2. every night, good or bad, has a morning waiting for it...hence there will be light...the lenght of darkness may vary but light is inevitable... So dear soul, relax...soon the law of averages will catch up and the trough will be over....till then, well, wait and watch and dont bother about what Mr. Shakespeare said

Mumbai....Spanning the spectrum

Let me start with a caveat...I have no particular interest in Mumbai. Its just that i was studying it as part of one project and now it seems to be one of the most diverse and heterogenous thing on Planet Earth. I was simply amazed. Take for example...South Mumbai or Town as people would like to call it as. Out of the 3.3 million odd people residing here, barely 0.25 have decent housing facilities and mind you, the parameters of decent housing do not include things like Antique furniture, a jacuzzi or stuff like that. Decent housing just means-anything which is not slums and neither dilapidated. Imagine just 0.25 million which is just approx 55000 housholds. Damn it, u say..but hold on...i aint finished yet... Mumbai is strange.....take a look around...a more probing, inquisitive look and beyond a beautiful facade or two you will find stretches and stretches of slums. What...did you say you dont spot them....could be possible...oh yes! i forgot to tell you that there are also thousands of buildings which are in dilapidated states (housing close to 2 Mn people), build ages ago, whose owners have given up the right to ownership and possession and a significant portion of them are actually hazardous... Aint we talking of the same Mumbai, where riches abound...where irrespective of how high we go, there are always dozens and dozens of rungs above us with innumerable people thereon....Just imagine...Next...one thing to ask for is whats in store for the City in future. My personal opinion is that though the potential to grow is immense, the pace of development will be at snail speed; why??? let me explain.. Lets begin with the basic question...Why is the city in the state, in which it is?There are 2 very basic reasons: 1. The inability of the city to expand either westwards or southwards and also pretty limited growth eastwards. 2. Mill and Slum lands Since the first part is something about which practically little can be done, lets focus on the second one..Looking deeper at the second issue, I now enumerate the basic stakeholders in the mills and slum lands and understand why they aint really gung-ho abt the whole thing. 1. Residents of those mills/slums: They wont give in easily to moving out....Its very simple...moving out is certain...but as far as moving back in is concerned, when and where and whether you will relocated at all is always something in future and hence intrinsically uncertain. 2. Government: Given that the % of ppl in these places is very large, do you think that any government (esp when they are so populist of late), will ever tinker with them, let alone force them to move out and ensure at the same time proper rehabilitation package. 3. Builders: The obscene property prices in Mumbai is nothing but a demand supply mismatch. Why on earth will any builder ever bridge the gap significantly and that at a fast pace. Gradually yes...at long as it does make the prices south bound... So, thats my take on the whole issue. I am sure there are man people who will differ with me, but as they say, its just my opinion. Take it or leave it... Cheers (Views expressed are personal in nature)

Of Insanity and Geniuses

Lemme start with a very basic question: what unites Jim Morrison, Richard Branson, Socrates and Syd Barrett....they r all grt people yeah...but more than that they are all damn ecentric ones...eccentric to the level that if we try to emulate them, we might over and above been labeled nerds/weirdos might be shun off our social circles... So, didnt they face this porblem...this fear of falling on the other side of the thin boundary between insanity and geniuses....i guess they didnt...they were just what they were without fearing the repercussions of failing or thinking too much about what others have to say/think abt them...n thats what makes them great...the believe in themselves...n the absence of a stupid risk reward matrix in their lives.. We, people like you and me...maybe good but we are too constrained in our minds and actions by what society thinks of us..what society wants us to do and worse, what as per society are the parameters of success and accepted behaviour....n mind you society also includes people whom we love, who are close to us and whom we value...n i personally think this kills some latent competency/greatness in us. I personally believe that every person in this earth can do one thing better than anyone else...the trick only lies in unearthing that one thing...but then what if that one thing is not in the ambit of acceptibility...forget it and join the herd.... i have seen many kids being brilliant in one thing or the other...be it sports, theatres, music, etc etc...but many parents, put this activities in the realms of extra-curriculars and hence being thought of as intrinsically instrumental in digressing a child's thought from what he is supposed to do...STUDY....crazy man..how come every child on earth is supposed to excel in one single thing...study this brings me to my first point...insanity...there have been men...lots of them who have shunned this societal boundaries and have done great..true many have failed as well...but as a ratio, the fraction of thought insane but later genius in the universe of insane people is much more than the fraction of all geniueses in the large universe comprising all we apparently normal people.. So... u r disheartened....well, I am for sure!!!!

Yo Man..cool music!!!!

Its not as if I am an expert in music or human behaviour....as a matter of fact i dont think i am an expert at any thing but being a consultant by profession, i can take the liberty to voice my opinion I have organized a couple of parties, wether it be a full fledged party like the one i did in Iris-2004 or a more apparently suede focussed event like the Rock Nite at IIM Indore or the more recurring and less demanding parties at my room in the hostel and now at my apartment...and the behaviour of ppl is really hilarious and interesting...to say the least.. I have seen so many ppl who speak something like this.. Hey Dude, did u check out the way Morrison fell on the floor while performing Break on to the other side.....Damn!! it was so neat.....or stuff like... Yuck!!! How can u listen to Kajra re...its so lewd.... And u can check out.....Break on to the other side would be the only number from Doors they wld have listened and when they are alone, they are the first one to ogle at Aishwarya doing what she does to send mankind's libido soaring!!!! And its even stranger when ppl are with strangers, collegues, women or bosses...Courtesy their half backed knowledge or their pretence of expertise which steams from 10 mins of googling or one session with someone really knowledgeable, they will blurt out lines after lines..especially on issues like...lyrics of a particular song...how someone died or lived...the background in which a particular song was composed or even better..some different version of the song which they would have heard and assume they are the only one....God!!!! things ppl do to impress others.I know a particular guy who once told me.. Yaar its simple...if the other guy is knowledgable and if i dont sound like this, he will think...This guy got no taste...and if the guy is actually tasteless and if i speak a line or two about Music..he'll think...Wow, what a taste.........Talk of Justification... I really love Toto's in Bandra and sitting there, its so amazing there to see people start jumping (trust me...a look at them and u r convinced that we indeed are descendents of apes) the moment a new song starts and blurting typical lines like...Wow!!! i luv this song....Nice DJ ... and quoting one of the few remotely resembling songs they would have ever heard only to find out the song is indeed a different one...and then comes the defence...Damn!! How could i not recognise this....Shit...this is blashphemy...This alcohol na, its bad... Its really hillarious..... Anyway...i m going now to listen to one of my fav...Bappi Lahiri!!!..

Unforgettable moments...

Just felt like pinning down some of the most memorable moments in my life. I will come straight to the point without too much hue and cry. Here i am just including some moments... Moments that have made me feel damn good

They are not listed in any particular order...

Amit, Atul & Bhartiya in Lilavati Hospital...(no..he was not admitted..it was me)

Gopi (Seagram VP HR) doing what he did to get my refund.

Ankur's Dad throwing a party for me on clearing my CA exams and there when quizzed by one of his relatives about it...saying," Nahin bhaisaab...chintu ko to pass hue kafi din ho gaye, yeh to sandeep ki party hai"

Amit's Mom reaction on hearing my CA results and when i reach there, Uncle rushing to fetch lots of sweets and restaurant food, "aaj ghar ka khana thode hi na khta hai"

I screaming on Richa on phone and then she telling,"Good that u shouted so much...atleast now, u must be feeling better"

Gopi again...when i send him a mail stating that i have put his name as reference for HLL summers, replying.."will speak good words abt u..promise"

Moments that have made me belief in myself, professionally

Unfortunately, most..rather all of them are from Seagram...surprising na, that 13 months of your life has done so much good ...

Discussion with Raj at Hot Breads, one autumn aftenoon, where he disclosed the news of moving to HO and when i was jittery..being replied,"If i can put all my credibility at risk by sending you to a bloody demanding job, why dont u have the balls to just accept it." (for this profile, they were looking at someone much senior to me)

Mohit to Guilluame on a teleconference..."Guillaume...if i aint at office and you require any information..just ask for Sandeep"...and there were many seniors sitting there as well..(Guilluame was btw one of the very senior guys at the global finance team.)

Mohit again..." How the hell did u manage to fix that"...on being able to reconcile a Brand Statement by gazing at it for 2 mins.

Param at the South Asia Conference saying something which meant that people like me and one more guy (forgetting his name) shouldnt leave...they are real investments for the company.

So, thats abt it....

Of sex and fuck....

If you are wondering, why of all damn things on Earth, am I writing on the difference between Sex and Fuck, well the answer is simple....this topic sprung up in one of our typical discussions when we had nothing to do and were quite bored...and it quite interested me... So, thats how it started..now let me attempt to differentiate between the two. Grammatical: Sex is a verb or a noun depending on the usage: Verb: Lets have sex Noun: What's ur sex? On the other hand, fuck can be a noun, verb, adjective and adverb as well...Check this out.. Noun: This was the fuck of the century --remember Basic InstinctJ Verb: Fuck it Adjective: She is fucking good Adverb: Damn it. What a fucking fuck? (this actually has an adverb along with a verb) Activity Chain Analysis Imagine a venn diagram of sex and fuck (both in the strict sense). So, as you will visualise in the above diagram, mathematically, fuck is a subset of sex in the strict sense. Hence if we draw an activity chain for sex, we will realise that fuck denotes only one activity during the broader act of sex. Exceptions to above However, even that is not entirely true. In some cases, examples of which you are very much aware of, there is no fuck involved at all. Moreover, if u talk of technical innovations in this area, there is again no fuck involved. While there are technological versions of sex…cyber sex, phone sex……ever heard of cyber fuck..phone fuck?? But over and above this, one of the biggest exceptions happens if we make our analysis gender specific. This venn diagram is applicable only for males…for females, fuck doesn't come into the picture at all. I mean, they don't fuck ..right? Hey..one caveat to this...this is only for the strict dictionary meaning...in metaphorical sense...who can doubt a female's ability to fuck u!!!! Involvement Levels Carrying forward from above, we can also draw a parallel from management styles and say safely that sex is analogous to "participative management" while fuck is about "top down approach or bottom up approach (depends)" So guys, I'll end here…knowing very well theres much much more to this topic.. Awaiting your addendums!!!!!