Having grown up with a lot of Hindu friends, this festival is as close to my heart as Christmas.
The pre-adolescent days saw me shooting away the ‘capes’ in a gun a la Sean Connery, during Deepavali or bravely lighting a ‘Busvanom’(Flower Pot). Then came the teens, when I started toying with explosives from the real world ‘oossi vedi’ a firecracker in the 20 dB range... And since the teens extend a full 6 years, these were the years when I graduated from an Explosive to an Aerospace Expert… The Explosives increased in their dB’s and their cylindrical diameters, moving from ‘Kuruvi vedis’ to ‘Lakshmi vedis’ and finally ended in the 'A'– Bomb. The Buddha would have smiled but definitely not my mom who often woke up startled from her afternoon nap. Then came the mother of all experiments with firecrackers. These are days when we are sending rockets to the moon but we in those days tried something different like firing a ‘Rocket’ horizontally and getting the projectile all wrong and ended up in the drawing room of the newly moved in neighbour uncle who had a lovely looking daughter.
What’s Deepavalli without the mention of the 1000 walla, 5000 walla or the 10000 or more walla depending on one’s economic standing in the society? This was the Crème de la Crème of all fireworks. Thousands of high powered ‘oossi vedis’ in series were these wallas or more colloquially called the ‘saram’. The longer they lasted the richer you were.
It was a time when the economic might of a neighbourhood was measured by the decibels generated or the quantum of fireworks left over’s post Deepavalli.
Happy Deepavalli to all my friends who have Iyer, Iyengar, Krishnaswamy, Rao or Bhaskaran as their surnames and a Happy Diwali to all my friends who have a Sharma, Gupta or a Kulkarni as theirs surnames.
Friday, October 24, 2008
The Aura of Aurum….
Recession….. Where? What?
These pictures tell the story……of the Great Indian Gold rush when gold prices fell by almost 5US$ on a gram on Thursday…23rd October 2008.
These pictures tell the story……of the Great Indian Gold rush when gold prices fell by almost 5US$ on a gram on Thursday…23rd October 2008.
4 Slips, A Gully, Silly point & a Forward shortleg….Oh what a field to bowl to!!!
This week saw the resurrection of Test cricket. The 5 day version which is on the verge of being taken over by their wham bam rivals and be pushed into obscurity, had something to cheer about this week.
I was fortunate to watch a few minutes of good cricket on the morn of the 5th Day of the second test….thanks to the time zone I’m in. I was running late for office…but I hung on and told myself that these are moments that are best watched live and ones that do not come often for an Indian cricket fan. Zaheer Khan had bowled 2 wonderful deliveries and one of them to a fellow fast bowler, Bret Lee, and the furniture was rearanged first ball.
What fascinated me the most and inspired this blog was what followed…
In walks Mitchell Johnson the Number 9 Ausy batsman…and the field was set for Zaheer who was on a hat trick. The field placement took me to the early 80’s when as a 10 year old I watched Clive Lyod setting a similar field for Dilip Doshi, the then India No 10 bat with the likes of Garner, Marshall or a Holding running into bowl.
The field was 4 Slips, a gully, a forward shortleg, a short fine leg, short mid on and a short mid off. A field placement that spells absolute dominance…well if you were rooting for the bowling team, it gave u a sadistic pleasure watching the batsmen taking guard to such a field. But unfortunately India never found itself in this situation often and on the day I was watching, India set this field, and mind u it wasn’t against Bangladesh.
Its ages since I have seen India in a position to set such a field to an opposition. The heart swelled with pride and was about to take off when my mind brought me back to ground zero and let me know that the only thing consistent about Indian Cricket was their inconsistency!!!
I was fortunate to watch a few minutes of good cricket on the morn of the 5th Day of the second test….thanks to the time zone I’m in. I was running late for office…but I hung on and told myself that these are moments that are best watched live and ones that do not come often for an Indian cricket fan. Zaheer Khan had bowled 2 wonderful deliveries and one of them to a fellow fast bowler, Bret Lee, and the furniture was rearanged first ball.
What fascinated me the most and inspired this blog was what followed…
In walks Mitchell Johnson the Number 9 Ausy batsman…and the field was set for Zaheer who was on a hat trick. The field placement took me to the early 80’s when as a 10 year old I watched Clive Lyod setting a similar field for Dilip Doshi, the then India No 10 bat with the likes of Garner, Marshall or a Holding running into bowl.
The field was 4 Slips, a gully, a forward shortleg, a short fine leg, short mid on and a short mid off. A field placement that spells absolute dominance…well if you were rooting for the bowling team, it gave u a sadistic pleasure watching the batsmen taking guard to such a field. But unfortunately India never found itself in this situation often and on the day I was watching, India set this field, and mind u it wasn’t against Bangladesh.
Its ages since I have seen India in a position to set such a field to an opposition. The heart swelled with pride and was about to take off when my mind brought me back to ground zero and let me know that the only thing consistent about Indian Cricket was their inconsistency!!!
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Celestial conflicts caused credit crisis
The title might sound like a Karan Johar film (Replace all possible C’s with K’s) or a Balaji Telefilms soap… but what follows is about, the now good old global meltdown we are in. One Raj Kumar Sharma, a Mumbai based Astro Finance Specialist was kinda tracking the shit we are in today and never bothered to warn us, atleast me ahead of time. Wasn’t Astrology all about foretelling…. …and by the way I never knew a profession called Astro Finance existed???
He goes about explaining that the whole crisis could be zeroed in on unfavourable planetary alignements of Saturn and Leo and their Indian mythological contemporaries M/s Rahu, Ketu & Co.
Saturn happens to be the son of Leo the Sun, who is the father…makes sense???.
He further goes on to tell us that the father and son don’t get along in the same house and would you believe it, they happened to be in the same house, since around July and this bloke didn’t bother to inform any one of us.… but for the world of me I just fail to understand how the poor brothers (the Lehman) got involved and closed shop lock, stock and barrel in this celestial, but father-son conflict.
One Christopher Kevill a financial astrological columnist (an extension of the profession I never knew existed) quotes ‘When Saturn is 150 Degrees away from another planet and in this case Rahu, the North Lunar node’ (whatever or wherever that is) ‘tends to reflect a state of uncertainty, of fear. Its more complicated than that but its just one layer of the explanation’
But the interesting fact here is that Mr. Sharma our Astro Finance Specialist is bullish while Mr. Christopher Kevill is bearish, but we the people will only be seeing stars on any stock market index for some time to come. So folks check out if an Astro Finance Specialist is sitting on the board of your Portfolio Managing Company.
No wonder in those days The Hindu used to print the Night sky during a month a couple of pages before the Business pages….
He goes about explaining that the whole crisis could be zeroed in on unfavourable planetary alignements of Saturn and Leo and their Indian mythological contemporaries M/s Rahu, Ketu & Co.
Saturn happens to be the son of Leo the Sun, who is the father…makes sense???.
He further goes on to tell us that the father and son don’t get along in the same house and would you believe it, they happened to be in the same house, since around July and this bloke didn’t bother to inform any one of us.… but for the world of me I just fail to understand how the poor brothers (the Lehman) got involved and closed shop lock, stock and barrel in this celestial, but father-son conflict.
One Christopher Kevill a financial astrological columnist (an extension of the profession I never knew existed) quotes ‘When Saturn is 150 Degrees away from another planet and in this case Rahu, the North Lunar node’ (whatever or wherever that is) ‘tends to reflect a state of uncertainty, of fear. Its more complicated than that but its just one layer of the explanation’
But the interesting fact here is that Mr. Sharma our Astro Finance Specialist is bullish while Mr. Christopher Kevill is bearish, but we the people will only be seeing stars on any stock market index for some time to come. So folks check out if an Astro Finance Specialist is sitting on the board of your Portfolio Managing Company.
No wonder in those days The Hindu used to print the Night sky during a month a couple of pages before the Business pages….
Sachin Tendulkar…. A tribute to a legend.
I’m sure most of you must have seen, heard and read enough on Sachin’s milestone today. Just wanted to write a few words as a tribute to a legend.
I just want to recall a small article in The Hindu around 23 years back about a 12 year old playing the Nutrine under-14 tournament at the Chepauk Stadium in Chennai, the article mentioned that a 12 year old had cleared the MAC Stadium’s main boundary line and was definitely a cricket prodigy in the making. Since I was a 13 year old then and the only page I read in The Hindu those days was the sports page, I remember this vividly.
Just happy that 23 Years later I had the privilege of watching him live on TV, become the highest run getter in the world. Congrats Sachin…
I just want to recall a small article in The Hindu around 23 years back about a 12 year old playing the Nutrine under-14 tournament at the Chepauk Stadium in Chennai, the article mentioned that a 12 year old had cleared the MAC Stadium’s main boundary line and was definitely a cricket prodigy in the making. Since I was a 13 year old then and the only page I read in The Hindu those days was the sports page, I remember this vividly.
Just happy that 23 Years later I had the privilege of watching him live on TV, become the highest run getter in the world. Congrats Sachin…
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Cash 'N' Carry...
US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson on Monday named Neel Kashkari, a 35-year old Indian-American whiz whose parents migrated from Jammu and Kashmir, who is currently the Assistant Secretary for International Affairs in the Department of Treasury, as the interim head for its new Office of Financial Stability, including the Troubled Asset Relief Program, to oversee the $700 billion bailout program
A wiseacre on Market Ticker forum wrote
"Seriously? The guy overseeing the $700 billion is named 'CashCarry'? You really can't make this stuff up..."
A wiseacre on Market Ticker forum wrote
"Seriously? The guy overseeing the $700 billion is named 'CashCarry'? You really can't make this stuff up..."
Call it a day at 36…is in
This has been a rather demoralising week for me…Firstly for the me who is an ardent cricket fan and secondly for the me who is on the wrong side of the 30’s. The axe over the Fab 5 in Indian cricket is looming large ever more than before, of which 4 of them are contemporaries and 3 of them made their debuts the year my professional life was launched too, 1 hit a century (Saurav) on debut and the other a 95 (Dravid) and both went on to do very well. The axe finally fell on the one who hit a 100 on debut, Dada… We are a nation that celebrates the 25th anniversary of winning the cricket world cup with much pomp and splendour, when countries like Australia have made winning a habit that they don’t even remember the dates they won a ‘x’ or ‘y’ tournament. However when it comes to treating legendary players we tend to forget the past glory one has brought the country and go by one series where a new kid on the block bowled a funny ball with a couple of fingers and mesmerised the fab 4.
In a sport where the likes of CK Nayudu played at 62 his last Ranji Trophy, its hard to believe that 35 is already a time when people are expecting you to hang your boots / bat. Saurav was one of the best captains India has ever had, one will never forget the grit the determination and the arrogance. The first arrogant captain India has ever had, the first non middle class cricketer in modern India after the likes of Ranjitsingjis, Duleepsinghjis and Pataudis…Dada took on everyone, from the board to the rival captains and even the grounds men. One person who will breath easy will be Nasser Husain the former Chennai born English skipper who was made to eat his words after he remarked that the Indians have to come out of their skin to win a game, dada’s team did just that and the memories of dada waving his shirt and mouthing unprintables is something that will treasured in the heart and minds of the Indian cricket fan for generations to come.
In a sport where the likes of CK Nayudu played at 62 his last Ranji Trophy, its hard to believe that 35 is already a time when people are expecting you to hang your boots / bat. Saurav was one of the best captains India has ever had, one will never forget the grit the determination and the arrogance. The first arrogant captain India has ever had, the first non middle class cricketer in modern India after the likes of Ranjitsingjis, Duleepsinghjis and Pataudis…Dada took on everyone, from the board to the rival captains and even the grounds men. One person who will breath easy will be Nasser Husain the former Chennai born English skipper who was made to eat his words after he remarked that the Indians have to come out of their skin to win a game, dada’s team did just that and the memories of dada waving his shirt and mouthing unprintables is something that will treasured in the heart and minds of the Indian cricket fan for generations to come.
Friday, October 3, 2008
Elimination Communication
Came across this term recently in an article under parenting tips… Being a father of a 6 Month old toddler daughter I have started to read these sections after a gap of 6 long years after my first daughter was born. My first thought was, what’s a management article doing in the parenting section of a newspaper. I then told myself that it must be one of those articles on Effective Communication or Corporate communication or the likes and I even interpreted it as a softer way of communicating an inevitable retrenchment during these times of recession.
Surprise!!! Surprise!!! As I read along I realised Elimination Communication or EC was nothing but the strange noises and faces you and your forefathers or in this case foremothers made just to empty your bowels and bladders when you were a toddler. The ‘ssssssssh’ and the ‘pisssssss’ are actually what today is called Elimination Communication …ELIMINATION COMMUNICATION actually sounds better than ssssssh. Well Im not getting into the nuances of EC, briefly they use Parental instincts, facial and bowel contortions to figure out when your toddler needs to let it go sans a diaper …
These are days when even an act as normal as a cuddle or a hug is termed ‘Parental Bonding’ so why shouldn’t potty training or toilet training assume such euphemistic terminologies.
This article came at a time when the inflation was directly proportional to the number of diapers used, and I wouldn’t mind to spend a couple of hundreds of dollars to do a crash course on Elimination Communication to eliminate the dreaded diapers out of my weekly ( or is it hourly) shopping list. God save P & G once I have mastered the art of EC.
So folks you would find an additional qualification listed on my CV and my Linkdin pages soon… Post Graduate Diploma in Elimination Communication…Guess Stephen Covey would soon include this as the 8th habit of highly effective people.
Surprise!!! Surprise!!! As I read along I realised Elimination Communication or EC was nothing but the strange noises and faces you and your forefathers or in this case foremothers made just to empty your bowels and bladders when you were a toddler. The ‘ssssssssh’ and the ‘pisssssss’ are actually what today is called Elimination Communication …ELIMINATION COMMUNICATION actually sounds better than ssssssh. Well Im not getting into the nuances of EC, briefly they use Parental instincts, facial and bowel contortions to figure out when your toddler needs to let it go sans a diaper …
These are days when even an act as normal as a cuddle or a hug is termed ‘Parental Bonding’ so why shouldn’t potty training or toilet training assume such euphemistic terminologies.
This article came at a time when the inflation was directly proportional to the number of diapers used, and I wouldn’t mind to spend a couple of hundreds of dollars to do a crash course on Elimination Communication to eliminate the dreaded diapers out of my weekly ( or is it hourly) shopping list. God save P & G once I have mastered the art of EC.
So folks you would find an additional qualification listed on my CV and my Linkdin pages soon… Post Graduate Diploma in Elimination Communication…Guess Stephen Covey would soon include this as the 8th habit of highly effective people.
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