Life lessons learnt - GP,JP and Border

Ash sizzles in the forthcoming JP release :Umrao Jaan. Pic : IndiaFM

As J.P Dutta prepares to release his latest venture 'Umrao Jaan' with a sizzling starcast that includes Ash & Abhishek , I remember one of his earlier films 'Border' that had impressed me a lot. If I am not wrong, it was released when I used to be in High school. There was this physics tuition classes by Mr. George Philip that I used to attend then in Cochin.
One of the finest teachers that I have come across in my life,'GP' as we fondly used to call him believes that it is as much his duty to prepare his students for the Journey called 'Life' as it is for the Physics Board exams.

One of his profound teachings included : "Try to see as many movies as you can, cos all of them have one/more hidden lessons. As soon as you get home, throw away all the trash that you saw, but assimilate all the good lessons into your life”. Even today, if there’s any one amongst you who is taking tuition classes for Physics in Cochin, I would blindly recommend GP to you .Trust me, you won't regret it. In fact, you might just end up cherishing his words for coming several years like me.

The first film in which I applied GP's principle was incidentally 'Border’. Border for the uninitiated, is a film that shows how a small team of about 120 jawans of the Indian army defended a post called 'Longewala' in Rajasthan during the 1971 Indo-pak war. A real life incident, etched in golden letters in the annals of Military History.

Wikipedia describes it thus :
Against considerable odds, the Indian 'A' company of 120 odd soldiers of the 23rd Bn, Punjab Regiment, managed to hold a 2000-3000 strong assault force of the 51st Infantry Brigade of the Pakistani Army- backed by the 22nd Armoured Regiment- before the Indian Air Force flew in two decisive days against the invading force to dent and ultimately thwart the Pakistani assault.
Longewala was a strategic point en route to capturing vast tracts of land and also a pivotal theatre of war in engaging India on the western front. The Indian victory in this battle ensured that Pakistan had no way of countering the Indian Army in the west and eventually succumbed to a swift defeat in the war.

Now for the take-homes I got by applying GP's principle to JP's film.

1. There is this beautiful scene towards the start of the film when Jackie Shroff who trains his boys on routine sorties gives them a piece of advise ' The more you sweat in peace, the less you bleed in war'. The credit for this quote goes to George S. Patton, a US general who fought in Europe in World War II. The reason why I liked it so much then was because I was preparing for my board exams. I could relate to it nicely. I said to myself 'The more I sweat in my Study Hours, the less I bleed in my exams' :)

2.The next scene is when Sunny Deol, who plays an officer talks to a jawan who wanted leave to see his wife dying of cancer for the last time. Remember that war had been declared by then. Sunny bashes him up by saying 'Arey, Life mein kisse Problem nahin hain,Zindagi ka doosra naam hi problem hain...' Being a son of a paramilitary officer, I have seen this happen almost everyday at my home. Jawans pleading to the sentry at gate to allow them to see my father. Almost everyone would have a telegram in hand from their native place. And then a heated exchange between the jawan and my father would ensue and believe me, almost all the time , the jawan would walk out of my house with a smiling face. Invariably, his leave would be granted.

I once asked Papa why he scolded them so much if his ultimate intention was to grant the leave. My father taught me a great leadership lesson that I would never forget in my life - “The bashing session is essential because the individual has to realise that he is involved in an important and critical task like national security and the job demands that he stay put. But then, only if the leave is granted would the lesson keep on ringing in his head and eventually get assimilated in his character'. Interestingly enough, Sunny Deol also did the same in the film.

3. The last lesson learnt was a scene in which the Indian Army faced with a tank attack from Pakistan army requests for urgent Air Support from IAF. It was night time and Jackie Shroff who plays the officer heading the IAF squadron near Longewala was having only Hunter aircrafts. They couldn't fly at night. Jackie was getting frustrated like anything but then cooled down, applied his logic and decided the only possible way out.
He declared - ' With the first light of the morning sun, every Pakistani tank would have our name written on it.'

This is a very important lesson cos not every time even in real life would we have sufficient resources at our disposal for the allotted task. Cost cutting is rampant across the corporate world today. The trick might be to decide on the best option with a cool head and then go head on for it. So guys, next time you set upon watching a film, Keep GP's principle in mind. Increase your ROI (Return on Investment).Good Luck !

Is young India emotionally insecure ?

One quick look at the number of committed profiles in Orkut or for that matter any personals site gives out interesting results. Almost a third of young India is 'committed’. Though 'committed' doesn’t necessarily translate into being 'insecure' , it definitely tells a lot about changing patterns in the way young India looks at relationships.

I am reading freakonomics by Steven Lewitt these days and its quite possible that I am being influenced by his method of looking at numbers with an unusual eye. Another surprising fact is the rising number of 'committed' school kids. A worrying trend?

India is going to be a nation of youngsters. Demographic data suggests that more than fifty percent of our population is going to be under thirty by 2020.No doubt that Young Indians are making it big in almost all fields and the average working Indian is a lot more confident than the one say a decade earlier. But still, there definitely seems to be something amiss. At least that's what data suggests.

I have always maintained that there exists two sections of young India now. One born pre-1985 and the other post that date. This demarcation makes sense cos the former has seen pre-liberalisation India .The latter has made sense only of the Manmohan era. Liberalisation was not just an economic phenomenon. It bought along with it important socio-political changes. The impact of which is being felt today when the latter generation is stepping into its twenties.

For the average student these days, there is just too much to learn and come to terms with. As a five year old, my brief was little more than to learn 'Good habits vs bad habits' from my class 1 teacher. The class 1 kid today has to put up with computers,start making out what mobiles are ,keep track of latest releases of play stations ..Etc.Etc.

Grow up a little bigger and peer pressure rules. Cut throat competition amidst pressures of a booming economy creates more hunger pangs. All this can very easily lead to insecurity and bring about a need to explore newer avenues for emotional security.

Think it’s high time we relaxed mounting pressures on young India and worked towards a holistic growth path for them. Lets first secure their philosophical underpinnings. They can take on the world later.

Passport + Visa Shaadi = America

My friend: Hey, she got engaged last weekend man.
Me: whatttttttt ?

My friend: Yeah ,her fiance is in America, just finished his MBA.
Me: OOOh No, not again :(

This is not the first time this is happening nor will it be the last taking into account my past experiences. Three of my most cute friends have fallen prey to this phenomenon.

The HCF : They all got married to Indian Americans.

With the number of Indian Americans increasing exponentially after the IT boom, there is a new phenomenon in the Indian Marriage market. Parents prefer to marry off their girls to any guy with the tag 'America' attached to him. I agree that this is not new but recently it has taken astronomical proportions with even a guy going to US on a B-1 visa for 3 months giving himself the tag ‘Indian-American’ .In most cases ,this also means that the girls would have met their would be 'Husbands' only through Yahoo Chat or Skype video !

There are two sections of the society who end up as losers to this strange phenomenon. One of course comprises those poor Indian lads of marriageable age who miss out on the 'best of the lot' in the market. Strangely enough ,there is also another suffering party to this titled 'American Indian girls' . I remember seeing a film in which the heroine who plays an Indian American girl declares towards the end... 'All you boys would love to date us here in America, but when it comes to marrying, you would happily go to India and marry a totally Desi girl'

There is another angle to this too. I really don’t know much about the American part of the story, but for sure, at least one amongst these three cuties that I am referring to, happily bade farewell to her 'long-standing' boyfriend here in India while heading for those so-called greener pastures.

I have no doubt in mind that America is indeed the land of opportunities, my only problem is with these girls who become opportunistic.I do know that the sudden upward shift in lifestyle and sometimes career is too appealing for a rethink, but then sometimes the journey too is as important as the destination. Your hubbie sponsored 'Lufthansa first class' might be comfortable but then a self earned 'Air India Economy' might be lot more satisfying.

And then again, marriage is a sacred institution .I sincerely believe using it for career/lifestyle growth would seriously dent it's sanctity. Capitalising on the hard work of someone for our own personal growth would be akin to plagiarism. It definitely would be more satisfying for anyone when we realise that we have contributed in equal measure to the heights attained by our better halves.

Blogcamp Chennai - Proceedings of Day 2

The second day at the Blogcamp beat all my expectations in superb style.

The highlight of the event was of course the man you see here on top.For the really really dumb ones,ya it is indeed Sunny Gavaskar. Sunny discussed about how blogs can actually be used to improve the game & how he was learning to be comfortable with the new media .He is regular podcaster on cricket too.

Other sessions that I really liked was the one by Sharad Haksar on Digital Photography and another one on Corporate Blogging by Nidhi.

We also had Robert Scoble live from US via Skype Video.Scoble ,for the uninitiated,is considered to be worlds top corporate blogger and was earlier working with Microsoft.Though the audio quality was not all that great but it was a good learning in all. Thanks to scoble for being up at that unearthly hour over there.

I did hear that sujatha from podbazaar was also doing a session through skype but missed it cos of some other sessions.Hope I can catch on it once the DVD of the proceedings come about (Do we have one ?)

I also was fortunate enough to have a long discussion with Rajesh Setty,an US based entrepreneur and author.We did talk a lot on techie life in India and offshoring patterns.
All in all a really good experience and lots of learning. Thanks Rajesh.

I have posted some more pics and will try to come up with some more on my flickr page soon.Keep Watchin !

Random Shot from Day 2














Sharad Haksar on digital photography














A blogger who works with microsoft having
a tough time defending his company !

BlogCamp Chennai - Proceedings of Day 1

Blogcamp Chennai : India's first truly international bloggers 'unconference' blogcamp.in took off to a dazzling start today at Tidel Park here.The full day event that includes a beach party at night was splendidly organised and had a unique 'open world' charm to it.Knowledge was being shared,pooled and the power of collective enterprise & technology was being beautifully demonstrated.A conference where everybody is supposed to pitch in with some contribution,it was live streamed at an IRC channel too.

There were in all about 200 participants from across India and some from even places like US and London.

There were 2 parallel tracks running and sessions kicked off with an open house titled 'How Blogging has changed your world' . 'Blogging in the '90s: A Dinosaur's Tale' , 'Why Blogging May be a Different Sort of Revolution Than We Think it is' followed .There was also one tech intensive session on how to go about doing an effective Podcast and another one on Mobile Blogging . An impressive talk on collaborative,Disaster relief blogging was also done.The day ended with sessions on Proffesional Blogging and SEO techniques (Search Engine Optimization). I am not mentioning individual presenters here as you can catch them on the blogcamp wiki














The pics you are seeing are the ones taken by me with my cam

Above:
1.The BlogCamp Arena
2.Question Time

Below:
3.Let's use blogs against social evils -Scott Carney,Freelancer with Wired.com
4.One of my all time favorites - The 'undisclosing' Amit Agarwal.

You can catch lots more pics here.

Mani Chettan ! ( & his pazham bolis )

The pic that you see is that of a small tea shop at Chekuthanmukku,near Chitirapuram in Munnar.This place is on the way from Cochin to Munnar.You'll have to take a small deviation from the usual route and go through the 'Anachal Route' though.

This non-descript tea shop wouldn't have found a mention here on this blog if not for its very much 'describable' owner....Mani Chettan. Mani is his name and 'Chettan' is malayalam for brother. If there was something I was looking forward to everyday during my engineering days ,then it would be the half an hour stop that we used to have at Mani Chettan's shop.We used to have our evening tea and snacks over there.The kerala snack of roasted bananas (Pazham boli) used to be my personal favorite although some idiot with a bad eye for details spread the rumour around that 'Bondas' were more dear to me which ultimately earned me a nickname of 'Bonda Bhai' at our room.'Bhai' being my orginal nickname.

Mani Chettan is a really simple guy although not very much decent when it comes to 'cultured' use of mallu language.But then he was one of our all time favorites when it came to the evening tea.Evening Tea is a much needed thing in Munnar cos of its unpredicatable and funtoosh climate.His wife used to make delicious pazham bolis to top up with the tea.And 3 of that thing down your stomach,be assured that no calls will come from your belly till the dinner that was to be served around 8.30 at 'Thangus'. What and where 'Thangus' is ,will be a future post.relax.

One incident that I would always remember at 'Mani Chettans' goes like this.Once I really came in a awry mood from college after some disastrous lab exam and settled down with my bag and stuff at the shop with the evening tea.Drank about half a cup then saw the roasts in the small glass almirah that were used to store them.As I went to pick some ,Mani Chettan almost rushed from behind and pushed my hand away 'Addu venda monne,addu naalu manikku ittatha'. Translation: Don't take that son,that was made at 4 'o clock.I didnt remember the time then,but then it shouldn't have been more than 5.30 .

In todays world when people all over are out and out competing with each other to make money and sell their goods/services to us by hook and crook,Mani Chettan would be a welcome change.I do agree that many of my roomies would vehemently disagree with me on this,but still.

He wanted us to always have them hot and fresh,if I can put it that way. May be it was due to the unique bond that we had built with him over the years or may be his own way to earn customer loyalty.Whichever way it is,that one incident did go a long away in exponentially increasing my respect for Mani chettan and his wife.2 years after munnar,I am still to find a similiar tea shop or for that matter similiar pazham bolis served with the same topping of love and affection.

Thanks Mani Chetta,your pazham bolis did make my evenings in Munnar a lot more pleasurable.