on the mumbai-shanghai connection!

i don't exactly know why the erstwhile CM of Maharashtra picked Shanghai as the aspiration for Mumbai, but all i can say is - fat chance!

I was in Shanghai a month ago and in Mumbai a week ago, and i got a first hand, stark, reality-bites moment in Mumbai....it seems to be actually sliding back into an ugly, dark, impersonal metropolis.

and i hate that!

The citizens of Mumbai have let the city down...the 'chalta hai' attitude has reduced mumbai to a 'kuch nahi chalta' situation. No point blaming the BMC or the politicians - we elect them, and so we deserve 'em.

Unless we citizens take it upon themselves to fix the city, things will only get worse - there will be perennial digging, pollution, flooding and crazy housing prices for badly built, sad looking apartments.

Long time coming

Had a lot to say, but never did get around to typing it up!

so many things happened since the last time i wrote...26/11, the year changed, changed my role at work, probably will change my location...

But what really is causing me to lose sleep is the horrible spectre of Mayawati as PM....

will this be the straw that breaks India's back..?

I cannot imagine her having one single intelligent conversation with a finance minister, leave alone foreign minister.....truly, what is India coming to?

The other nightmare brewing is the gradual submission of Pak to the Taliban...it reminds me of the years just before WW II, when most countries were trying to appease Hitler, and look what that policy did to the world...history does repeat itself!

on the lighter side, I'm amazed at the way a section of the people/press is projecting Slumdog millionaire as some sort of triumph for India/Bollywood!! 

First of all,i didnt think it was an exceptional movie at all - I felt i was watching an episode of KBC, while switching to a movie channel during commercial breaks!

The songs are nowhere close to AR Rehman's best - i think they pale in comparison to what he has done in Dil Se or Jodha Akbar...

Secondly, i do not the think the extent of squalor in the movie was in any way related to the story -  i think it was merely for shock value (it did work though).

lastly, they even got an answer wrong in the quiz..

Sure there were some indian actors and other indian contributors to the movie, but to take pride in its oscar victory is taking things a little too far.....

switching to books, am reading Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers....very well researched book on why some people are more successful than others...not your typical success story...has a very very different take on what goes in to making someone successful!

Mental Roadblocks....

I'm currently without a driver, so driving myself to office everyday...
To say that the experience is harrowing is insulting every self-respecting Indian -its something much worse than that.
The roads are either dug up or are potholed. There are stretches of oasis - but they're over so quickly, they're more like mirages..
clutch-brake-clutch - we're going to invent a new "Ankle Braked on Clutch Syndrome" - a carpel-syndrome brother for the legs...
Add to that idiotic traffic lights/cops which give more time to tertiary feeds than the highway, illegal parking, double parking and some creative road building, and you have me travelling at an average speed of 20Kms/hr.
Of course, I cannot leave aside the stupid overbridge/flyover constructions. They're extremely fast at digging up the road, or cordoning off some part, but after that you rarely seen anyone working! There's one juntion on my route which is cordoned off and I lose 20mins just at that one junction. First of all, i'm not sure why a flyover was required there. So i think they're trying to create a need for the flyover by creating a bottleneck there, so when the flyover is ready, all us motorists will heave a sigh of relief and praise the administration..(conspiracy theory no.1)
I think they're really looking for gold all across the city - which explains the frenetic digging but no repair (maybe they want to come back and do a follow-up dig? ) .(conspiracy theory no.2).
Of course, it does give me a lot of time to think and reflect on life, physics, polynomial equations, the expanding Universe, and my credit card bill, but hey - i'd trade a fast ride any day!!

Back to 160 B.C!

I've been off work for the last week...taking a much needed break.

Had the amazing experience of visiting the Karla Caves.

Now, these are rock-cut caves over 2000 years old, and would you believe it, some of the woodwork (thats at the top) there is still intact! Looking at some of the ancient inscriptions gave me goose bumps!

The picture is of the main prayer-hall (these are Buddhist caves)

i'm a history freak - and it was super to be touching rock that was shaped so long ago.....

Most of the carvings are of couples in standing poses, and absolutely beautiful.

The entrance is grand, horse-shoe shaped...

there is also a temple right outside the main entrance, which has a steady stream of pilgrims. The caves seem to be an incidental attraction for them :-(

i dont know how the ASI allowed a temple to be built smack in front of the main cave's entrance.

The experience encouraged me to climb up to the Bhaja Caves right across Karla caves the next day. the climb is steeper but shorter here, and the caves are also on a smaller scale.

But boy, what took my breath away was not the climb! near the caves, , I just looked up, and in the distance I saw the walls of a fort high up on a mountain, looking very majestic, strong, and invincible...!

Looked a little to the right, and saw another fort..! this one just as lovely.

turned out these were the Visapur and Lohagad forts.

Lohagad is a 11km climb, and Visapur is even higher - have kept those for next time!!

the holiday was great because of these sights, but it also depressed me to see the neglect at such historical sights, and the general decay in Lonavala..the unbridled construction, the complete lack of concern shown by the visitors as well as local authorities towards atleast keeping things clean...it was shameful!

oh well..i dont know when we will learn to respect our ancient treasures...

next stop is ajanta/ellora..

Ever been to a cricket stadium?

Mumbai Indians vs Kolkatta Knight Riders! The IPL marketing machine successfully sucked me into its cricket maelstorm and this was a match-up that finally brought me into a cricket stadium for the first time in my life!
Maelstorm it was definitely..with Wankhede Stadium as the vortex this time, and just my luck - its probably the last stadium you want to be a spectator in.
The in/out queues were crazy....the stadium was definitely overcrowded...and me and wifey promised ourselves that we'd never ever come to Wankhede again.Here's some of the things you should know if you're planning to be brave:
-If the match starts at 8, plan to reach the stadium by 6:30 because you should expect a queue and no one follows seat numbering, so you wont get the best seats if you reach late.
-You can probably sneak in a couple of sandwiches and a pint of mineral water in your shirt/jeans, but dont carry any bags
-Once you're seated, forget going to the restroom or going out for snacks - unless you dont mind negotiating local train kind of crowds.
-Wankhede has this stupid system of selling water in small plastic bags with a straw! each bag is 40 bucks (yes-40) and god knows where they fill the water from. I think its an organised ripoff, since they dont allow you to carry your own water inside.
-You can get an icecream bar for 40 bucks too...
-carry a radio if possible, since you probably wont be able to make out who got out and who came in to bat!
-There are NO FANS in Wankhede. Who the heck was the designer of this place? There is zero ventilation, and Wankhede probably owns the record for most calories burned by a crowd in fanning themselves.
All said and done, Wankhede is a sorry place to be in, and I hope they demolish it and rebuild it.
Obviously there are advantages to watching a match at home or at a sports bar, but there are some things only a stadium can give you...
- All the warm-up stuff before the match and in the breaks isnt shown on TV, so if watching some hunks in half pants is your thing, you'll love it
- The Mexican wave thingy is cool...ifyou start one..you'll love watching it ripple around the stands and coming back - we must have done some 5-6 continuous ones!
- The music and chanting in the stadiums is relentless and really funny!

I hope to watch a match in a good stadium one day..maybe in Australia.
But No Wankhede for me!

Dominos Pizza Again!

surprise surprise!
Someone at Dominos Pizza is actually generating reports on who usually orders what!
Today I got a mailer from them giving me discounts for the particular pizza that I usually order!
Now thats what I'd call using technology to drive sales!
Taking it further, wouldnt it be nice if they studied my ordering patterns and called me just when I was contemplating calling them.....?
Or would it be scary having someone predict your gastronomical urges?

Of Managers and Wives..

Its been a tough fortnight at work!! A few resignations, a few nasty customer issues, some idiotic internal processes and soon you begin to wonder about that annual holiday! Being a manager has its advantages (i'm still looking for them), but i'm pretty sure that the transition from individual contributor to manager is actually a jump across a wide bottomless pit...a pit that throws up all those twists and turns which suck you into the bottomless hole....
Well I guess I was more dramatic that I intended to be....but what the heck...it IS the toughest thing.....this move..
In other developments, I am close to being married for 5 years now...and I took a moment to pause and reflect on those years.Some things that came to mind....which I think I can generalize..
a) A wife always has multiple points-of-views , never a single point-of-view. Thats the secret of their versatility. We men are too engrossed in trying to be 'consistent'.
b) All storms are weathered successfully only if respect for each other is maintained.
c) There really is a genetic link between a TV remote and us men...and the rivalry between the remote and your wife is a pre-historic ingrained behaviour that you should not attempt to change/challenge.
d) oh well..i could only think of these in the pause i took...
Come to think of it....managing your team and your wife has some similarities...
you got to make sure there are enough goodies flowing in...they need an upgrade every year...couple of serious arguments and they might leave you...and if you get a new member in the team , you lose sleep worrying about whether they will all get along!!