@2 in the night

Its at 2 in the night, when you have smoked that last cigg, emptied the beer cans and have actually nothing much to do. The darkness of the night and the sound of your fan is what you can feel around you. Hopelessly trying to find friends you really want to talk to, refresh your FB page or the gmail and then just because you have nothing to do ping any aquaintance of yours and ask "hey wass up , long time " But how long can you keep that sort of conversation going and you are back to square one !! Thats when you feel empty .. and this feeling has its own repurcussions

With nothing to think about future you reminisce over your past, skim through your ex`s profile ,think about what you did, how you did and why you did and at last the most difficult of all what are you doing differently now. And obviously because I dont have a satisfactory answer for the last one, i start questioning myself isnt it time to sleep ? There is another question that comes to the mind , is it the time to start thinking about getting married ? Cos I am losing friends daily to the institution of marriage and no longer their status reads available. And humans cant live alone, least of all me !! But a minute later thinking about marriage seems scarier than 'paranormal activity' and the best way I can help myself is to grab my cushions ,increase my fan speed (and hence the sound) ,put my tortured laptop to some well deserved rest and go to sleep...

Guzarish !!

Its SLB, and I could not have miss it. For someone who even liked Sawariya, to watch Guzarish was rather a compulsion.

The first 5 mins of the movie and I thought I am in for yet another treat from Mr SLB. A different set blended with beautiful colours reminds you of Sawariya , the round curtains in Athen`s room ..Splendid. But as it progresses, somehow it loses its grip on the audience. The side characters (Lawyer, magician, doctor) do not really excel and I thought there could have been better actors for these roles. May be it was done to prevent any threat to the characters of Hrithik and Aish.

Talking about the characters, Hrithik while acted superbly but to me his baritone was not matching to the situation, A bit more deeper baritone would have done magic for me. Aishwarya Rai on the other hand was just perfect, I just loved seeing her performing this role. SLB really brings out the best in her.

Being an SLB film , it did have its moments. Some really good ones, like the scene where Athen`s helplessness is compared with a crowman or where he fights with the falling raindrops. And then there was this song Udi in the pub which Aish really carries off all alone to such a great level. The song suddenly comes out of nowhere and brings in so much energy with it. But then there were disappointing scenes too, like the stupid news channel reporting scenes (so cliched) or the court session scenes which have been made either idiotically funny or too sentimental or the last scene when everyone jumps over Athen. The magic acts apart from one did not really leave the impact they should have.

Overall, it was a disappointment to me but it still remains the only Hindi movie I did like to watch in the recent past and still goes as a movie which is sensible in its approach and deserves to be watched.

Hope !!

A look at my Past,
and I Wonder
If it was a Surrender
Or just a Teen-age Blunder

A look at my present
and I Realise
There is so much to life

A look at my Past
and I Wish
I get back all the fun
Minus The ONE

A look at my present
and I Hope
may I always hope ......

........

A sleepless night and a melody
lump in the throat and a shivering body

A tear and an unforgettable past
and a hope that never last

A heart and an empty space
and a future without a face

A room and the darkness
music, memories and the emptiness

A laptop and a deleted past
did I do it too fast

A feeling as sharp as knife
A moment as big as life

Pamper yourself

Its a rat race and we all are competing .. Talk to people slogging out late nights in the office , rarely finding time for themselves and others ,life for them sucks , actually !!
A late night conversation with a friend transpired the abysmal indifference we develop towards life. Isnt death better than putting yourself through this tyranny everyday. For whom are we doing it ? he asked .. and my answer to him - Do it for yourself . Selfish .... , he said
Selfish, yeah we all should be , we all are , some concede , some hide .
It is important that you feel happy about your life , to feel that its not life who is fucking you, but you who is fucking life , the green,yellow, pink paper in your wallets is only worth paper unless you do what money is meant to do, "BUY" , buy happiness....
Happiness, can it be bought ? Without sounding too materialistic , I would like to say YES, it can be bought ..... Its stupid to think of happiness as something eternal and too big, start finding it in smaller things ... How often you felt I should have this gadget or this shoe on display or this suit ,but decided against buying it, well BUY it and you will feel the power of money for which you slog 5 days a week. Pamper yourself, that is the key to stay alive , find a motive to earn ....

A lost soul

In a world of my own
I live all alone
I have no passion
and no competition

I have no friends
cos no one matches my ways
I love my solitude
cos no one matches my attitude

In my own arrogance
I refrain from any acceptance
With my bloated ego
I just can`t let it go

I look for reasons
why my life is bereft of any seasons
why others are on a roll
while I am still a lost soul

2 Minds !!

No, the title is not inspired from the latest Chetan Bhagat book, but from a movie "Antaheen" meaning endless. A bengali movie made with such subtlety and emotion that even though I watched it with english subtitles, I didnt find missing anything.
"Are`nt we all in two minds ?" is one of the lots of good lines in the movie, which make you think. And yes, when I think about this one, I find it credible because we are always in two minds. Unsure, unknown of our needs we always tend to weigh our options , try to strike a balance between emotion and practicality , decide upon the present by thinking about the future. We end up putting every decision of ours in a weighing balance and though some would say its a good thing to do, the trouble is we continue to weigh it even after the decision has been made. Its probably to do with our nature of being dis-satisfied with our present and weave dreams about future and what our present could have been had we not chosen the current one.
And , as the movie shows, its sometimes to do with ego. Ego , is like a double edged sword, on one hand it gives you the individuality, the confidence and imparts objectivity to your life on the other hand it makes you do stuff you didnt want to, makes you not do stuff which you want to. To make things tough, ego can`t be controlled.

TOP OF MIND : Difficult to be at the Top

We see it and forget it. Top of mind (TOM) recall is an issue that all marketers grapple with and strive to achieve. A plethora of brands in all the segments have established themselves in the market and its becoming increasingly difficult for even the top brand to sustain itself as the customers preferred brand.
With the technology becoming cheaper and ubiquitous and availability of free information, there is little differentiation left between brands which makes the job of a marketer tough because he can no longer sell and promote based on the product attributes. He has to look beyond the product and find innovative ways of communication and create a positive perception in the minds of the consumer. A pertinent example would be the strategy followed by various telecom operators. The top three Airtel, Vodafone and Idea have shifted their focus away from the basic product. While Airtel focuses more on non-verbal communication and plays on the emotions of the people, Vodafone is laying stress on the value added services and Idea concentrates on messages which have a greater social benefit attached to them. With near similar levels of network connectivity, choice for telecom operator is based on the image they have created in the minds of the customer. This also puts additional responsibility and pressure on advertising agencies for they have to come up with innovative concepts which can capture the fancy of customers. An ideal brand image is one which is strong, positive and unique.
To ensure a top of mind recall, it`s necessary to have high level of brand awareness. Ideal brand awareness is one which is deep and broad. With the advent of multiple channels of retailing and marketing, it is nearly impossible for a brand to maintain a high awareness level across all the channels. Thus one has to rationalise and carefully select a channel based upon the product and target segment and then aim towards maximising awareness in that channel through advertisements and appropriate promotion schemes. But, at the same time, one cannot completely neglect a channel, because these days most of the customers have access to all the channels directly or indirectly. Taking internet as an example, though internet penetration in India is just 2-5%, a lot of people have indirect access to internet through the people who have direct access. Parents ask their children to look for products on internet and find out about their performance by reading reviews and information available on the web. This need for multi channel marketing calls for a meticulously designed marketing strategy, because marketing budgets are limited (as we have seen especially during times of recession).
Customer is the king and he has a lot of alternatives at his disposal. Retaining customers is becoming a huge problem and retention ratio is now a key metric in performance evaluation of sales and marketing team. A consistent brand image helps increase this ratio. It is imperative that an organisation maintains strong brand equity in these changing times and adapts itself to the environment lest it fall prey to growing competition.

Love vs Truth

Is it possible to speak truth 100% of the time ,No, especially when you are in love. Love makes you do things you hate !! Ironical it is as it sounds ....

When you love someone you tend to start lying and this frequency of lying is actually directly propotional to the intensity of love. Is it ? Or if it is, its not love ? what is it ?

More you love someone more you care about not hurting him/her and more frequently you praise ,appreciate stuff that might not exactly be of your liking ,But who said that being in love means you like everything about the other person and if this is the case ,is there a need for lying ?

Love that is expressed through lies is no love at all ,because its not sustainable , you cant force yourself to like what you dislike
Some would say , No they dont lie , they say what they feel , but if its just about feeling , then feelings are ephemeral ,they change and hence its nothing but an expression that holds true only for a split second when its said.

A truth remains a truth ,no matter what , today and tomorrow and thus if you dont stick or lose belief in what you said before then it wasnt an expression of love ,but a momentary feeling or a lie said to express your love.

The irony is more you are crafted in such lies, more is your love (on paper) !! But I guess that is not what is meant when one says "I love you" ......

A thought - a song ..........

Its Hard to Believeee
That..You will never talk to meee
Becos you always said ...
Yes, we are destined ....

Was it that much fussssss
Oh!, that we are no longer us
A part of my brain.....
still remember thee rain
and a part of my heart
is still beating for thee pasttt

I know we aree goood
good enough for togetherhoood
I know its historieeee
yet another love storieeee
But I know you are still there for meee
if not this birth ,in the births to beee

yeah yeah yeah ........
its hard to believeeeee

Can someone change your fortunes ?

Can someone change your fortunes ?? This is a question with which I have often grappled a lot without reaching a definite answer.
The scientific part of my brain tells me that its the individual himself who is responsible for what happens to him/her ,good or bad. No one else can be blamed or applauded for any results. Those who oppose this idea would quote "one is known by the company he keeps" and hence the people around you influence your ideas and actions and hence the results.
My argument to the above will be , go and think how many people have you met in your life , and how many do you think had an influence on your attitude or actions. I am sure each one of us would arrive at a number less than 10. The point to be considered is if you were affected by such a small percentage of people and not by such a large percentage of people ,does`nt that mean its you, yourself who allowed some to influence and others not to influence. This change that you bring in yourself under the influence of others might lead to good or bad results, but its you who is responsible for that.

Often, with a few favourable and few not so favourable results we start considering someone close to us as lucky or unlucky. If its the latter case , its a problem , because you hold someone else responsible for your incompetencies and more than that tag him unlucky as well. if its the former case,its still a problem because you will feel dependent on the other person for your success.

Life, As it is .........

It was yet another day,
when optimism tried to hide the truth,
unaware its difficult to sustain the froth,
especially when its no more your heyday.


I looked up, in the mirror, there was no tear,
as if it did not matter,
I moved a little closer, dig in a bit deeper
and all I could see was fear.


Life continues ,as they say ,to move on,
because of the several frills and many riders,
I continue to fight and remain a fighter,
but have lost the passion to say Rock ON !!

Finance Vs Marketing

There are a variety of Business schools today in the country offering MBA programmes to thousands of students.The course structure,the industry interaction ,the faculty is different for different schools but one thing that remains common is the dilemma that nearly 90% of MBA students face ,whether to take marketing or finance as a major.
Most of the students are engineers having worked in IT and ITES companies with little knowledge of the work culture ,job profile in marketing and finance. To me while marketing is a subject which is extremely boring to study (because its just common sense) ,finance is something where you will have to burn the night lamp and dig deep into concepts to catch hold of some of them and is thus interesting and something new which is worth the effort. But as you leave the college and join the corporate world the two subjects change hands and marketing becomes interesting to practise because it lets you to think differently every day whereas finance becomes a rather mundane job with little scope to think out of the box. This is the dilemma !!
If you are an MBA graduate or graduating ,think of the people in your class who opted for marketing and finance. I am sure a significant percentage of the people who opted for marketing would be those who dont like studying too much, who are more insouciant and a bit careless as well whereas the finance guys would possess opposite traits and will be much more sincere towards studies etc. (ofcourse these are not neccasary or sufficient conditions to categorise students).
Perhaps its not just the inherent nature of these two subjects but also the way course is structured and the teaching pedagogy is defined.If FIN could be taught with a bit more of FUN and Marketing with a bit more of seriousness probably there would be a difference in the outlook and a better mix of people could be achieved.

Just one of those days when I feel FU***D up ....

The tendency and habbit of playing safe actually freaks me out sometimes, its like something that makes me feel helpless,weak and tied up. I see myself pulled towards something strongly but I cant move cos I cant take risk or rather I dont wanna take risk because I wanna bloody play safe. There are times when I feel goosebumps while discussing an idea , when I wanna jump out and do it forgetting everything but what I do is I go to sleep, to go to the same shitty,monotonous,unexciting job place next morning.
These are times you know when I forget how to spell a simple word like exciting (I actually spent 2 mins thinking on it now) because I can see nothing now, remember nothing now ,what I can feel is the heart beat ,the rush in the viens ,a ...... what do I say , okie a feeling where my legs are kinda not stationary but moving asking me to come along,move along
I feel am at the wrong place doing wrong thing for the wrong people at a wrong time for a wrong reason and now whats happening is I am doubting whether I have wrongly spelt the word wrong.I dont know if all this makes any sense to anybody who reads this blog ,but you feel it only when you feel it.
I guess the problem is bloody money , you need to have it to survive ,imagine a world where free food , free accomodation is there, no expenses on living , God you could have just done things at your will. Do this ,move on to next, I dont need to make it a sustainable business , I can just do it and move to the next or stick to it if I like. Everything free for everyone ,wow what would it result into one person doing work for other person , a farmer harvesting wheat for food , not for money, he eats the same food as I do, I develop a mobile phone for communication not for money, he uses the same mobile phone as I do .... so on and so on. Perfect symbiosis ......

P.S. - There might be wrong spellings or there might not be, its just one of those days .....

The practise of marriage

I have often questioned the policies and the culture of the West and to be true have been rather critical about them. Lately though my standpoint seems to be changing about atleast one practise prevalent there that is the freedom to have sex.
India being a traditional society, sex before marriage is still considered to be taboo and people are not really open about it in front of their parents or prospective bride or groom. One essential reason of people marrying in India is probably sex, cos they can have sex only after marriage and as it is one of the primary needs ,marriage becomes a necessity. What I mean to say is it becomes a sort of compulsion and not choice. Look at the west ,where hardly there are virgins before marriage. This means when they marry ,they don`t do it for that physiological need of their`s but because they want to be with that person more than they can do now and possibly because they love each other`s company. The marriage in this case is by choice.
Now choice is always better than compulsion, this is the essence of being free and having the right to freedom. A marriage should happen when you need somebody else to move with you in your life, when you feel there is a need of somebody else taking care of you and you taking care of him/her, when you feel you need somebody else`s advice in decision making and when you feel you need to have children. The people in west probably marry when they feel such a need , and Indians probably feel or generate such need after they have married.

SARHAD, Kya hai ?

SARHAD, kya hai ?
Ek mamuli se Lakeer,
Ek rekha jo likhti hai laakhon ki Takdeer,
Ya ek Deewar ,jiski ek taraf Raja aur dusri taraf Fakeer.

SARHAD, Kya hai?
Ek Jagah jahan bin deewar gunje Aawaj,
Ek manch jahan goliyan aur barood har roz kare Saaz,
Ya dharti ka ek Tukda,jiske neeche dafn hai lakhon ke Humraaz,

SARHAD,kya hai?
Do mulkon ke rishton ke beech ki Darar,
Ek dehleez jisne baanta hai insaanon ka Pyaar.
Ya fir sirf netaon ke khel ka ek Darbar,

Real or Unreal .....

Its a long time I have written something and the reason is I was not really finding any topic of my taste to write upon.
The other day I was watching Matrix(yet again) and everytime I watch it there are some dialogues that really catch my attention, one of them being the conversation between Neo and Morpheus in Neo`s first visit to the World of Matrix. Neo asks " Is it real" and Morpheus asks " what is real?"
What is real,actually what is it? whatever our sensory organs recieve and what our brain interprets ,is that real ? The implication is reality can be different for different people ,what I find real might be unreal to you .Reality then is just an illusion created by each one of us in front of our eyes,its a screen through which each one of us view this world and the humans living here.
To be completed ...........

A Journey Without The One

Dressed and Packed we were raring to go,
In a group of eighteen,to see the snow.
The spirits were high,so were the expectation,
But I knew this was a journey without the one.

Up and down,left and right,we swayed in motion,
I looked for the person who would have made it fun.
Through the mountains,as we scaled the heights,
I did never lose her in sight.

The place was beautiful,could have been beatific,
Serenity and calm was making me sick.
Snow clad mountains and the frozen lake,
Pleasant and Picturesque,all but for a moments sake.
In peace a soul could rest,but I wanted to run,
Because this journey was without the One.

be the CHANGE

Of all the "Mahatma Gandhi" quotes that I am aware, the one that seems most appealing to me is the much relevant " Be the change you want to see in the world"

The quote probably assumes much more relevance and significance in the situation prevalent in the society today. With more than 50% of our population below 25, there are opinions galore,mostly critical of the state of functioning of the indian government and bureaucracy and corruption and terrorism and lackadaisical attitude and education and what not !!!!. The youth today realises that there is a need for change ,believes in the change ,But as Gandhiji captured about 5 decades back nobody wants to be the change .......
I still find educated people like us indulging in petty acts of corruption like not taking the bus tickets, not being honest with the food bills etc and these are the guys which shall ,on every act of unaccountability by the government or society will snub and vociferously raise questions about the perpetual problems in India. Is it so hard to understand that the society is made up of you and me ?? The small act might seem innocuous and be just a part of fun for you ,but it has a multiplier effect in the long run ,the same effect which you are seeing now.
The same students who raise their voices about the merit of the politicians ,enter into the merit list of the colleges by relentless and open cheating in the examinations ,all for those 5 extra marks. The problem is not the extra 5 marks that they get,the problem is their attitude because there are the people who in the next 10 years will give shape to the "Government and Society" that I talked about in the beginning and they will continue to cheat because thats the way they have come so far ........
I am not infallible or someone who has never done the things mentioned above but ya now I have realised the need to be the change . I wish this now could have come a lot earlier for me and I hope the now comes a lot earlier for a lot of people .....
I get snubbed, stamped as idealistic ,impractical and fussy but I dont stick by the ideals ,I stick by the logic and the logic says "Be the change you want to see in the world"

The title might surprise you, but what I mean is the nature of the humans to see what they can see and not see what they cannot see. Confused ?? precisely that is what I am ..
The winters are almost there(in Kolkata they have just started a few days back) and whats the first sign of the winter season? the freezing of the CO2 that we exhale and do you stop once you have seen it ,No its like the lays "you cant have just one" ,We do it twice, thrice and see our breath freezing in the air and blowing away . Ever wondered why dont we do it in summers ? because we cant see it though we are aware of its existence.
We all, by nature are used to see the obvious,the tangible and the things in front of our eyes as they appear. why not breathe out on a summer day and see the breath moving disappearing in the air along the flow of the wind. We take actions which give an immediate and clearly observable results. Can not be there actions whose result, though there, cant be observed in the way we are used to observe them.