Done Done London - So Over Done

Before I start venting out my frustration on this Done Done movie,  I must say that I am really relieved about Yash Chopra's heavenly abode. I also pray that SRK stops acting in romantic movies.... Let me get to the great story line and wonder how this movie got 3.5 by Times of India and 4 by Filmfare.

Firstly, story is OK till the time and again plot of "rich gal falling in love with waiter". But I can't understand the following stuff:
1. Rich girl having an affair with waiter behind her fiance's back and no one getting a hint of this.
2. Rich girl forgiving her mother for abandoning her and her "loving and caring" dad just because she understood that her mom fell in love. The logic is unsettling.
3.Also I did not know this deal of lending 500 pounds to a Lahori roommate and in return he builds a 5 star restaurant from it AND also keeps your share safe until you return to London. Looks like a really good deal to me!
4. And of course the Retrograde Amnesia. I did not care to google this but I am appalled by the creativity of Bolly writers in making up diseases. They have come a long way from Cancer!
5. And the baap of all, when SRK is asked his age, in the movie, he tells 28!!!!! MFing 28!!!! Have some decency man! You are nearing 48!!
6. And the lets not forget the great Lahori friend abandoning his own bungalow so that SRK can romance Katrina in it. I mean who gets such friends!!
6. And the UK police allowing SRK to diffuse a bomb, without even telling out his name or showing his ID. Again very surprising...
7. And Anushka sacrificing SRK for Katrina. So unwomanly now yaar! Really no cat-fight???

 I thought I should have watched Twilight-Breaking Dawn instead. But again that is also very much Bollywood, where a mother lets her old lover romance her 3 year old daughter. Yuck... I wonder if such plots are inspired by blue films.

After watching all this unbelievable stuff in one movie, I thought I can give some suitable titles to this movie:
Of course there is 1. Done Done London- So Poorly Done
2. 500 pounds se 5 star hotel tak
3. Ek side Meera aur doosre me Akira
4. The man who cannot die  will not age
5. 10 saal baad mujhe aayi Meera yaad
6. Kab tak hai Rukna?
7. Line cross karnewali Meera
8. Lahori ka Jaadu
9. Meera ki kurbani aur Akira ki jawani
10. Samar hua Amar

.... and many many more....
I am done with third grade romantic movies.

Single in Saudi - Book Review

Before I start the review, I want to take this space to talk about my new love! Yes, there is an app called Kindle, where you can buy books and read them in your cell phone. The collection is awesome and many of the books are also free too!!!

So I am this kind of person who believes that books are treasure and they need to be treasured! Hence, there is a big shelf back in Coimbatore where all my books are lying around. Whenever, I notice a book exhibition, a shop where the guy is selling damaged books at a cheaper rate, book carts, my mom/husband sighs that they have to spend at least half hour with me there, until I decide which book I wanna buy.

I wanted to read Single in Saudi since the time I read a free chapter in Scribd. I tried to search it in Landmark and Crossword but couldn’t get it. So when I started purchasing books in Kindle, I knew what I wanted to buy. And the good thing is that I have shared my account with my hubby, so he also can download the books available in my account. And we also found out that one can’t buy books in iPhone through Kindle. They have to log in to Amazon.com to buy books. Phew what a waste of time. Lucky to be with Android here!!! :D And ya iBooks is a stupid app with only the page-turning graphic as a face-saver :P

Finally, let me get on with the review. Single in Saudi is about the adventures and misadventures of an American nurse who comes to Saudi Arabia in the late 70s to make some quick buck. I like the way she narrated her stories and the humor sprinkled in. In fact, while reading the book, I almost regretted for not considering a medical career. But I immediately bounced back, when I read about the blood and muck that nurses have to see every day. But the truth is that nurses are in high demand all over the world. My husband decreed it as a cheap sleaze and that there was too much of mindless sex sprinkled in. Guys! They still prefer watching porn over reading porn…J

Anyways, the author Jane Smith justified that she was told to put some sleaze in it so that it will sell more. And on my part, it worked because I bought it!!!

So the reasons to read Single in Saudi:

·         Get an idea of the Middle East society in the 70s (BTW it is still the same today…)

·         Get a glimpse of a nurse’s life (a naughty nurse though)

·         Get to know on how much money the Saudis had to throw around from the 70s itself (I mean, Americans, who shudder at the thought of living in Mexico, coming to work in Saudi will give an idea of how rich the Saudi is)

 

Indian managers and caste system

This analogy came to my mind three weeks ago when our manager from US came to visit us. We were having a knowledge sharing session with our manager, when suddenly he was posed with this question, "We see that Indian managers are more of 'people managers' whereas managers in US manage a team and still contribute to the team output and are also experts in their field. Any particular reason for this difference?" Hmm ... our US guy gave a politically correct answer that he was supposed to give :)

The fact that Indian managers are pretty much slackers can't be denied. But why are they like the way they are? Not all are slackers, well if you are really lucky, then you may work under an manager who epitomizes the "guru" that our Upanishads talk about. But our culture is influenced by the mirage that "Life without hard work is what one should aim for". Is it an artifact of our age caste system is the real question?

If we try to understand the caste system in the modern organization then, the CEO and the top management would be Kshatriyas,  the HRs and the so called middle managers would be Brahmins, the Marketing/sales team would be Vaishyas and the oppressed operations team which is the only productive unit of the organization would be the Shudras. The Shudras have dreams about changing their caste, but in the long run very few of them are successful in doing that.

Nowadays there are MBA shops that promise to change one's caste to a better one so many people try that too. So in the end, everyone wants to be a HR Professional, a middle manager or even better, a CEO.

Well let us look at the western culture. According to Max Weber, the success of capitalism or English imperialism is related to a highly specific series of ethical norms grounded in the Calvinistic traditions of honesty, hard work, and integrity. I am not agreeing to this but if we look at what they did in India was just taking advantage of the greed and laziness of Indian rulers.

Hence, managers in the west are programmed to work even after they achieved what they set out for, whereas Indian managers are programmed to escape work even after reaching the highest form of achievement that they set out for.

Go Kiss the World - Review

As an avid reader I am sometimes scared that I might get stuck to a particular genre, so recently I picked up this book, guessing that the author might have shared some business cases or just his professional experience. As I reached the second page I realized that this is an autobiography. And after the first few pages, I just couldnt wait to finish this amazing book. Its so great that I am picking the right books recently, because I am such a moody reader. Sometimes I am in a political novel mood, sometimes just world war 2  reading mood and sometimes just a chick lit mood!

Before picking this book, I didn't know that Subrato Bagchi is the founder of Mindtree. As I begun reading, I couldnt help but appreaciate his fluid narrative and the fact that he had such an open mind about things. And interestingly one of his wisdom nugget was "Open your mind before you open your mouth". The last book I read, which was as amazing as this was "India Unbound" by Gurucharan Das. The best part about both these authors is how they recount their stories modestly and Bagchi took another step of even sharing learnings out of his experiences.

I have read many philosophical books by western authors, who go back to recite their favorite verses from Bible. Finally, I got an Indian author who recited a couple of verses from Upanishads! I am not really a religious person as such, but felt proud about this!

Finally my favorite lines from the book "Most people covet good jobs, great postings, higher salaries than their friends and a rather elusive elixir called job satisfaction. Conceding that all these are legitimate desires for every professional, I would, however, trade all of that for the opportunity to work for a great boss"

Hunger Games - Review

Its been a while since I read the first book "Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins. My only dilemma was to watch the movie too and then write the review or critique the movie seperately. Between that time, I was so curious as to what would happen in the second book "Catching Fire". So I just completed the second part today and I must say that though there are some moments where the author let me down on her page turner trilogy, but on the whole, these are a set of amazing novels. I am yet to catch hold of the third one.

To begin with, this maybe the third or fouth young adult novel that I read but this definitely falls under the chick lit section that I am so fond of!!! :) . Well let me get on with the plot now. So the novel is set at a time, after the natural disasters, where only a part of North America is inhabitated (How obvious...). There are only thirteen districts remaining, where life is difficult for all except the one called "Capitol", which colonizes the rest of the districts. Every year Capitol conducts hunger games where participants from each districts are pitted against each other and the last man standing wins. The story is narrated by the protagonist -Katniss Everdeen. So its obvious that she participates in the games and wins it. How? is what the novel is about.
One of the things that amazes me is "How does a seventeen year old girl hunt and kill rabbits, squirrels, eat raw eggs?" To survive yes ... but still its hard to imagine. The lane where I live is an unfortunate one, having halal shops at both the ends. So I can hear an occasional cry of a hen, when I am eating pani puri and on the other side when I am buying fruits... And my heart does go out for their pain, each time. Ya, well I have a weak heart, but  if I am put in the same condition where I need to hunt to survive, can I do it?

The author has characterized Katniss brilliantly, and far far better than what you see in those stupid teen vampire crap (Yes I am talking about Twilight. Thank God I did not read it because I saw the movie first :P.) And again she left the end of the first novel hanging with a climax, which makes you get hold of the second book immediately. But I must say that the second book is very slow in the beginning, and takes some time till Katniss get back to the arena. Yup she participtes again. This is where I think the author could have done better . Catching fire too ends without an ending where the author tries to tempt you towards the third book immediately. But I guess I will take a break here. Enough of eating oysters from their shells and roasting rodents for supper. I will watch the Hunger Games movie now and maybe even wait for "Catching Fire" to release in 2013.

Theories around our Independence

Disclaimer: This post was written after celebrating a gloomy Independence day and living through an year full of scams and a not so great economy

 Ok let me start about clearing the first myth that we got our Independence because of that man called Gandhi. Seriously I have lost respect for him. We have seen live anti-corruption movements recently going phut because our Government ignored the fast taken by Anna Hazare and jailed Baba Ramdev. When our own Government does not give a tuppence about our country men, why would a Brit care less about someone like Gandhi fasting for independence.

So given the fact that those Independence movements were a sham, I have always been intrigued about how was our country doing under the British. So I would ask about this to my grandparents and even all the grand parents around. The answer that I would get is most of them admired the British way of governance. And the infrastructure built by the Brits helped our country a lot. Ok next I would ask, if they took part in any of the movements that I read in our History books. They would say that these movements were clustered in different parts of the country and never a countrywide movement. So Aam aadmi was still busy making a livelihood. Ok great!!

So let us look at the different theories on why exactly did we get Independence??

1. World War 2. We know that UK was completely devastated during the bombings carried out by Hitler's army. After the world war 2, roughly 30000 British soldiers were killed. They needed more manpower for rebuilding the nation, hence many Brits were called back from India and gradually an Indian Independence was planned. So, instead of Gandhi, we need to thank Hitler for our "so called independence"... Right!

2. Labour Party gets elected in UK: After the war, the Labour Party was elected in UK and they carried out sweeping welfare reforms in UK. It also aimed at improving UK's public relations worldwide out of which granting the "so called independence to India" was also one of the events....

3. India's economy at its worst: India's economy was doing so bad that, Britain had to rethink its investment in India. Hence they thought that this was the best time to pull out. On the lighter side, we had become so sad and poor and pessimistic and grumpy and complacent and frustrated that the Brits were scared if we were rubbing off all these on them. Wait a minute, these adjectives apply to us even today! gr8....

Well, so why do we think that our forefathers fought for our Independence???
1. The Brits, well the gentlemen they are, did not want to abruptly pull out of India and hence got together with the congressmen and staged an independence granting drama that was enacted so well and publicised worldwide.

2. On the Indian side, Congress/Gandhi was so eager to take the credit that it worked out so well. And all our history books were written by some Congress chamchas in NCERT like Romila Thapar and Irfan Habib.

One another fact that intrigued me till now, is how so many Indians and Pakistanis got into UK so easily post-Independence. Here is the answer... Damn, if one of my grandpas had taken this opportunity....... Well wishful thinking :)))

Oh dear God please let me witness one.....

I have been really happy for the past few days. Major reasons are first, that my husband has finally started to notice my cooking skills albeit with a lot of (irritating) constructive feedback. But that's OK, because that is what you get, when your husband knows to cook..... better than you. tsk tsk But here's the advantage: one fine day, you can tell hubby that you are in no mood to cook and let him make a yummy Dal and rice!

Well the other good thing is that my new boss is a guy!!! Now don't get me wrong, he is sitting miles away somewhere in Iowa, but it still makes me happy! My husband explains that I haven't been promoted, its just that my boss has changed. My enthusiasm caught my colleague's eye and he finally asked me, "OK you say that having a male boss is so better than having a female one. Then will you be a good manager when you become one?"

Ummmm little tongue-tied there..... But I shoot back instantly and say that I won't be all that jealous and insecure and pushy and ultimately b**chy...He just gave a smirk, which made me think more on this.

I have worked under more than three women, and lets just say that they were not the best people to work with... So whats the problem here, I think. Are there no good "female' managers or I haven't met them yet?

OK let me think again on this: overall, there are mostly bad managers out there. But there are a few good managers. There are few good male managers that I have heard about and some I even worked with! There are few good women managers out there and I really believe this from the bottom of my heart! I have read about them, but I haven't witnessed any yet!

Saga of the driving test...

Here I was, had not touched the steering wheel for almost a month, hence I was a bit nervous. There were around 10 to 15 people for the test, from which there were two ladies. So, I started some small talk with one of them. She told me she was pretty nevous. I told her "Me too, hope I don't make any silly mistakes". And then Shazia said its her third time, so she wants to somehow pass this attempt. I was shocked not really because its her third attempt but because she had the patience to come the third time!!! She said that in the first attempt, she didn't horn before taking a turn. The second time, she didn't change to second gear or something like that. Phew and here she was. There was another old man, nearby who joined the conversation. Old man was an NRI, who finally settled here. He came for a two wheeler license for his address proof. Then he started his travails about driving tests. He said that he had to undergo his driving test around 25 times... when in Dubai. Some kind of racism against Indians, he said. Hmmm ok. Then the conversation on Dubai was continued for a while. Then old man added that he had given his driving tests in Canada too, for around 12 times. What!! Why am I hearing things that I shouldn't, before giving a driving test. This was too much to digest and I was annoyed that that the inspector hadn't showed up yet. I signalled to Shazia for a break. We went to have coconut water nearby.

Another half hour passed, after which the inspector finally came. Inspector was rather young and ok looking. And thankfully driving school guy was also there. Seemed that this was the inspector's last day here. And there was some lunch party (final khilana pilana party). Our school guy gestured to us "Kaafi khilaya isliye sab pass ho jayega". Then the two wheeler tests began. Old man had taken Shazia's Activa and was trying to get it started but in vain. Then we whispered "Abhi pata chala Dubai me 25 times kyu and Canada me 12 times kyu". Shazia went over and helped him start. By this time even our driving school guy had lost his temper and shouted "Dai, enna velai panre nee". Old man somehow finished his test and the four wheeler test was about to begin. A couple of ladies moved towards the car, when the inspector said "ladies last". Hmm wily guy. So all the guys finished first. The test was to drive ahead for a distance and take reverse to the same spot. I thought, if this was it I can manage easily.

There were four girls and none of wanted to go first. Finally, one lady sat first and the other three behind. The lady started the car while the inspector started a light conversation. From the Q and A round it was deciphered that she was Hema Hemavati and worked in a government setup (CDAC or something similar). Hema finished pretty smoothly and it was Shazia's turn. Shazia turned the keys and tried to start, when we heard some vroom sounds and the car was not listening to her. Then the inspector looked at her file and asked her, "Shazia, tumko gaadi chalana aata hai kya?" By this time she was drenched in fear and anxiety. He repeated the question again. She said ya. He replied, "to fir hand brake nikala kyu nai?". Then he demonstrated her the usage of hand brake. Finally Shazia finished her turn and I found out that she was a hair dresser and Inspector wanted some info for his cousin with similar interest! Now I understood why Ladies last.....

Then it was me and I started the car and went till the road end and was about to take a reverse, when Inspector told that it was pretty sunny and we can take a round. I was flabbergasted and then after a couple of seconds, I put the right turn indicator and tried my best to take a decent turn. As I was about to turn the steering wheel, Inspector sensed my stress levels and gave me an option to take reverse and finish off. I said its fine I will manage. Inspector in his filmy mood said "Darne ka nai, kyuki jo darta hai wo marta hai". I finally took a right and kept going. Then he told me to stop and take a reverse. When I was taking the reverse, I didn't notice that the car was going a bit left instead of keeping straight. And a stupid bike guy just parked on the left and was talking to his GF. I put the brake that scared the guy, but thankfully nothing happened. And filmy Inspector said "Kya Ramya, lover logo ko dara diya". I was praying "Sirji test finish karo na". Finally he let me go and take the backseat. Then came the last girl, (some babe working in Yahoo and giving a second attempt). Inspector was delighted to see her, and asked " Mene hi tumko fail kiya kya?" She said yes. Then Inspector told her to go for a full round. She started the car and filmy inspector turned flirty. He asked her "Sudheera tum kaha se ho". Hyderabad replied Sudheera."Arey mujhe Hyderabadi Biryani bohot pasand hai, next time mujhe Hyderabad leke jaana" Then some more flirting came on the way, and I must say, all this while she was actually driving good and handled the inspector also pretty efficiently. The inspector also praised her driving skills. I wondered why she failed the last time.... Then Sudheera finished and we got down. Our school guy talked and Inspector talked for a minute. Then Inspector wanted some more of Sudheera and said " Kya Sudheera , side me parking kar do na" Poor girl went again. Finally, the eventful day came to an end. next day I called in to find out if I had passed and they said YESSSS.

Extortion and Corruption, whats the difference!

I have been thinking on this for quite some time. Since long, I have heard people talk that Bangalore is a costly city to live in. I thought that its mere exaggeration because in a city where tender coconut is just 15 bucks (ya just 15 bucks!!!) how can it be costly. But I had the first hand experience when I moved in here.

One of first few days when I started to travel by bus, I found the conductor's hesitance in giving back the change for my ticket. But what startled me in the next few days was the conductor's hesitance in giving tickets! Here began my journey in understanding the corruption levels of Bangalore.

I became a bit clever in this aspect and started to give money only when I get the ticket. Then came the baap of all experiences, when I traveled from Marathahalli to Bellandur. The conductor as usual, gave me the ticket after which I paid him the money. All was going well and Bellandur was the next stop when suddenly conductor aiya remembered something and came up to me. He told me that the ticket was actually 11 bucks instead of 9, while simultaneously trying to snatch the ticket from me. Well, my mind was calculating instantly, if he takes the ticket away he definitely won't give me one in return, so what do I do? Then I thought its just 2 rupees, whats the big deal and I gave him the coin, while my stop arrived. And the next moment, I saw the conductor running away to the back of the bus. So I called him for the ticket. He glanced at me and gestured that, that wont be necessary. That's when my bheja got hot and I shouted for the whole bus to hear, "Arey bhaiya mene paisa diya uska ticket to de do". Then our conductor aiya, also became angry, as if I had gifted him a gold coin and now charging him for it. He took a ticket out of the box and threw at me. I was like ticket gaya bahad me par tere jeb me nai jana chahiye. So there ended my saga from which, ticketing in bus for me is like going on a war!

But I prefer to fight with the conductor rather than give away all my savings to the auto guys, who are almost same as their dear cousins in Chennai. But Chennai still has got better alternatives to autos, namely the metro, call taxis and the buses too where I did not encounter such incidents.

Though it is true that some or the other form of corruption is prevalent in all parts of India, but when people stoop down to such shocking levels, it makes you question. In some way, I think that the conductor is a poor guy and I may as well think that I have given alms to him, but at the same time it is also my hard earned money that he is taking away without my permission. And we think that instead of giving to the government we can at least give to the known devil in front of us.

In the concept of corruption, we have no one to blame but our greed. A typical example of bribing is a disciple promising god that he will break 100 coconuts if he gets so and so that he needs. Or someone putting money in the donation box and telling god to give him/her something. When we bribe our gods, what such a big deal about bribing each other.

So corruption is what makes the giver and taker both desperate enough to commit this act. Hence, if we switch off need/greed from our mind, there will be no corruption at all. So Simple :)

And this is life...after all

Wow, I can't belieive, my blog has been in limbo for four months. What have I been doing? Well apart from being married, I have been trying to impress my hubby with my culinery skills, and my boss has made me master excel skills, and in between I haven't had much time in my hands. And those driving classes...How can I forget them... Whenever I see a lady driving through the traffic, I get so jealous.....

Ok apart from all this clutter in my happy life, there is one experience that I can't seem to forget. Weeks ago, I volunteered for a event though my office to visit a disabled home for girls. It was a three hour event, so I registered my name. We were told that we would be organizing a tea party for the kids and it sounded fun! 
Out bus from the office reached there in the afternoon and I was numb for the first half hour. There were around 20-25 girls there.The little ones were in the middle of the room. There was a 5 year old girl whose legs were twisted backwards, so she couldn't move much. One kid had a problem with her backbone because of which she couldn't stand. Then on the wheelchair there were kids who looked like there were around the age of 7-8 but they were not able to communicate properly, so they tried to gesture repeatedly. There was a girl, who could manage to say hi-hello and what's your name-drill. There was another girl, who justed wanted someone to hold her hand. Then she would gesture at her bangle and try to tell something.

Somehow, I couldn't mingle as easily with the kids as my colleagues did. I saw couple of my friends taking the kids in their lap and talking to them. I couldn't come out of my dumbstruck mode at all. I tried my best to communicate and play with some of the children but I couldn't help feeling sorry for them. There was a another girl kid, who was pretty active. She mingled with the others easily. It was just that her face was small and monkey like. We were told that her parents had abandoned her because they thought she was actually a monkey. Then there was another kid who seemed pretty normal but had a bent backbone. Again that is the reason her parents abandoned her. One of my colleagues, who had visited previously told me that last time the kid cried to him and pleaded with him to take her home with him. After hearing all this, I couldn't fight back tears. And one of my friend saw this and tried to cheer me up. I also noticed that I was the only one who couldn't battle with my emotions. The others were seeing the same things as me and were still able to digest this fact of life. My friend just told me, "Dont think too much. Its of no use" And it was true, a lot was going through my mind. Why had these parents abandoned this children? Is it just because they were poor or they could not love these special children? Why were these children born like this? Can I love my child if it gets afflicted with a similar problem?

There was some information that I did get though. That most of these kids don't cross the age of 15. If at all they do, then they are transferred to a special care centre. Finally, came the tea party. The nuns got muffins and milk for the kids. Some of my colleagues fed the children. some children did not want to eat. The attendants said its no use force-feeding them. So the kids were put in their beds and we bade them farewell and got into our buses back to office.

A big bye to 2011

Hah, Let me tell you that this is the best new year that I had so far! Thats because I was not at home watching TV as I do every year end. This time I wen't to UB city in Bangalore for the DJ Party! The party was on the open area in 2nd floor. Started from 7.30 pm. I started dancing from 9 pm. No there were no earthquakes reported and the cyclone was in Chennai, so I am not responsible! Took a break at 11 for dinner. Came back to the dance floor at 11.45 and danced till 12.30. The only regret that I had was that I didn't wear a party gown. And my gosh, the gals over there were mind blowing. The only minus point was most of the gals were dressed in black as if there are no other colors at all! Cmon now. Guys, the only guys worth drooling was the the DJs ;) ;) Till 10.30 It was DJ Chetan, then it was Norman.

So coming to my new year resolutions:
1. Plan is to join a gym and hopefully keep gymming all year long. Hopefully.......
2. Learn to drive a four wheeler. Please pray for me because the last time I drove a car, I hit a lady zooming away in a two wheeler and had to pay Rs. 30000 for her medical expenses. And the worst thing was she lived in the other wing of our complex.... Ya I was learning to drive in the road outside my building. Very bad mistake.... So I am gathering my courage after 4 years! Please please pray for me.
3. Finish my education loan! I have 5 lakhs to go to close my education loan and I am hoping to close it this year. I am even thinking of getting into a side business to close it sooner! If you have any ideas please let me know!!