A leading newspaper wants to write on 'Career lessons from Chak De India'.
First of all, I haven't seen (Yeah yeah yeah. Did try to, twice, but could not get the tickets).Secondly, I am sure Chak de India contains all the usual lessons. Team work pays, underdog can win, every individual counts ... and so on and on ..... But nobody needs to tell you that, do you? we have seen that enought in all the movies earlier ...
However, there is a career lesson in Chak de India. It doesn't lie in the film, though. The lesson is: Look beyond MBA, Engineering, Journalism. Any career you choose today, you can make a difference.
Chak De India was inspired by a single column article in the sports page of a newspaper. But to actually get the flavours seen and enjoyed in the film, Jaideep the script writer hung out at national hockey training camps - pretending to be a student writing a PhD thesis.... now that is commitment right ?
Well the film is a big hit i heard .. off course not getting tickets to watch the movie is a proof ...
You know, 'pop' management fundas - they always sell and this time it did again ; )
Sunday, September 9, 2007
Flyover collapse - Panjagutta
At least 2 persons were killed and 10 others injured when a portion of an under-construction flyover collapsed near the busy commercial area of Punjagutta in Hyderabad on Sunday evening. This road is frequently used by many people and is jampacked all the time .
The flyover, which was being constructed with sophisticated construction technology of pre-stressed concrete moulds since September 2005, was due to be inaugurated in December this year and many people like me thought that the traffic woes on that road will be solved ... but i guess we got it wronged ... after watching TV yesterday i will probably fear to even get unto the flyover with the construction material and planning involved in it.
The blame game started yesterday evening .. what an irony ...
It is really a shame for any one to see the roads of Hyderabad. The concerned officials must be made to sit in an auto and force travel on some city roads like from Barkatpura to Hitech city between 10 a.m. and 12 noon and between 4 p.m. and 9 p.m.
The city was excellent during Naidu's regime... i dont deny that there were some problems as well but not like this.
I hope they take the construction of the airport and the implementation of the governing rules there more seriously. Hyderabad doesn't have any more bandwidth to take any small untoward incident now!
God, somebody save this city!! My lovely city!!
The flyover, which was being constructed with sophisticated construction technology of pre-stressed concrete moulds since September 2005, was due to be inaugurated in December this year and many people like me thought that the traffic woes on that road will be solved ... but i guess we got it wronged ... after watching TV yesterday i will probably fear to even get unto the flyover with the construction material and planning involved in it.
The blame game started yesterday evening .. what an irony ...
It is really a shame for any one to see the roads of Hyderabad. The concerned officials must be made to sit in an auto and force travel on some city roads like from Barkatpura to Hitech city between 10 a.m. and 12 noon and between 4 p.m. and 9 p.m.
The city was excellent during Naidu's regime... i dont deny that there were some problems as well but not like this.
I hope they take the construction of the airport and the implementation of the governing rules there more seriously. Hyderabad doesn't have any more bandwidth to take any small untoward incident now!
God, somebody save this city!! My lovely city!!
Monday, September 3, 2007
Happy to be unhappy !! yes indeed !!
I talked to a good friend today who is going through a lot of crises right now; not the normal crises .... And he was telling me these things sort of matter-of-factly.
And I said, "I'm sorry things are hard for you right now. It sounds very sad." And he said, "I'm not any more sad than I ever have been in my life.
"It just made me consider the roles of sadness and contentedness in the human condition. I think sometimes it's just easier to stay unhappy than to consider what life might be like if you made some changes. This took me a long time to figure out, but I think it's not the happiness that scares people. I think it's just the change -- any change.
I mean, that you have to suffer, it's just a part of life. I understand that. "There's no more inherent value to your suffering." And you know, that makes sense to me too.
I guess I suffer at work to help make the paper better in my eyes. And I'm willing to do that. I'm willing to battle for what I think is right, and that certainly takes a toll on me.
But I can't see a reason to suffer in my personal life if it's something that I can change. Maybe I'm lucky, or naive, or forgetting something.
But that's what it looks like right this minute....Probably......
And I said, "I'm sorry things are hard for you right now. It sounds very sad." And he said, "I'm not any more sad than I ever have been in my life.
"It just made me consider the roles of sadness and contentedness in the human condition. I think sometimes it's just easier to stay unhappy than to consider what life might be like if you made some changes. This took me a long time to figure out, but I think it's not the happiness that scares people. I think it's just the change -- any change.
I mean, that you have to suffer, it's just a part of life. I understand that. "There's no more inherent value to your suffering." And you know, that makes sense to me too.
I guess I suffer at work to help make the paper better in my eyes. And I'm willing to do that. I'm willing to battle for what I think is right, and that certainly takes a toll on me.
But I can't see a reason to suffer in my personal life if it's something that I can change. Maybe I'm lucky, or naive, or forgetting something.
But that's what it looks like right this minute....Probably......
I can bowl as well !
Here's how it usually goes: I do something infrequently, like, say, bowling. I used to do it regularly while i was in US .. but after my relocation to India i seldom get time to do it .
But still I enjoy it, but more importantly, I have very limited success with it. In bowling, that means that I kissed the sweet side of three digits. I go about looking at bags, and shoes, and balls that are there in the bowling alleys dreaming to own them sometime in the near future . Sometimes I think maybe I'll need a special glove as proffessionals have them .
It gets pretty hard-core before it's completely forgotten. And then, maybe a year and a half later, I hit the lanes again and start all over again.
This time when i went to bowling i got 158 and 128 in the two games that i played ..Crazy right ?
But still I enjoy it, but more importantly, I have very limited success with it. In bowling, that means that I kissed the sweet side of three digits. I go about looking at bags, and shoes, and balls that are there in the bowling alleys dreaming to own them sometime in the near future . Sometimes I think maybe I'll need a special glove as proffessionals have them .
It gets pretty hard-core before it's completely forgotten. And then, maybe a year and a half later, I hit the lanes again and start all over again.
This time when i went to bowling i got 158 and 128 in the two games that i played ..Crazy right ?
Saturday, September 1, 2007
One Night at the Call Center ----- My review
After buying the book and keeping it with me for over 8 months .. i finished reading the book on this rainy saturday ...
It keep raining the whole day and did not allow me to go out today .. and that was a nice way to catch up on the book. With Great difficulty i finished reading the book today .. the first in the 5 books that i purchased a couple of months back ...
The novel starts with the meeting of Chetan Bhagat and a young lady in a train and she tells him the story of a night at the call center in Delhi on the condition that it would be his next book. The story is viewed through Shyam, a call center agent and a tame team leader and it revolves on him, his colleagues Varun, Esha, Radhika, his girl friend Priyanka and an aged Military Uncle. Shyam suffers from the break up of his affair with Priyanka apart from the threat all of them face on the uncertainty of their future at the center.
The happenings of the night carry the romance and break up interludes of Shyam and Priyanka as flash back. Each character has a (sob) story to tell. But, the narration runs interestingly because it has the natural flow and the high sense of humor .
With all these the novel ends rather cinematically; a last minute heroism, change of mind, chase in the car and bike etc. Does Chetan expect the novel to inspire some Bollywood filmmaker to make it into a movie?
The novel makes me wonder on certain things. I was in America for many years and think now if the Americans are so dumb even to seek help over the phone on how to operate an oven, dishwasher or defrost a refrigerator? Even in India we now have fridges that do not need defrosting. Further, Americans have been using these gadgets even before Indians know about it. Do they still get doubts on these? Isn’t it odd and funny?
No job is an easy job; Chetan tries to tell the Call Center jobs are no better notwithstanding the attractive pay pack and cozy ambience. By the way, in which job, the youngsters can just keep gossiping, bitching, going out to an uppity night club for relaxation just because their computers are down? Everything in this world comes with a price tag.
If you want to really have a peep into the new generation, their jobs, life, attitude, values and their dreams please do not miss ‘One Night @ The Call Center.’.... i enjoyed reading it and sure you would as well !!!
It keep raining the whole day and did not allow me to go out today .. and that was a nice way to catch up on the book. With Great difficulty i finished reading the book today .. the first in the 5 books that i purchased a couple of months back ...
The novel starts with the meeting of Chetan Bhagat and a young lady in a train and she tells him the story of a night at the call center in Delhi on the condition that it would be his next book. The story is viewed through Shyam, a call center agent and a tame team leader and it revolves on him, his colleagues Varun, Esha, Radhika, his girl friend Priyanka and an aged Military Uncle. Shyam suffers from the break up of his affair with Priyanka apart from the threat all of them face on the uncertainty of their future at the center.
The happenings of the night carry the romance and break up interludes of Shyam and Priyanka as flash back. Each character has a (sob) story to tell. But, the narration runs interestingly because it has the natural flow and the high sense of humor .
With all these the novel ends rather cinematically; a last minute heroism, change of mind, chase in the car and bike etc. Does Chetan expect the novel to inspire some Bollywood filmmaker to make it into a movie?
The novel makes me wonder on certain things. I was in America for many years and think now if the Americans are so dumb even to seek help over the phone on how to operate an oven, dishwasher or defrost a refrigerator? Even in India we now have fridges that do not need defrosting. Further, Americans have been using these gadgets even before Indians know about it. Do they still get doubts on these? Isn’t it odd and funny?
No job is an easy job; Chetan tries to tell the Call Center jobs are no better notwithstanding the attractive pay pack and cozy ambience. By the way, in which job, the youngsters can just keep gossiping, bitching, going out to an uppity night club for relaxation just because their computers are down? Everything in this world comes with a price tag.
If you want to really have a peep into the new generation, their jobs, life, attitude, values and their dreams please do not miss ‘One Night @ The Call Center.’.... i enjoyed reading it and sure you would as well !!!
Letter in the age of e-mail
I wrote a letter this weekend, the old-fashioned way. Pen to paper. I even dragged out an old box of Air Mail papers that had been gathering dust for over more than 10 years . The act was not spontaneous: the letter was requested by a friend who's at US right now . It felt good. I wrote three pages, and my handwriting was not as bad as I feared it might be. Letter writing in the age of e-mail, some say, is a lost art; they bemoan the loss of feeling as pen scratches away at paper or the dreamy stare into space as you compose your feelings into words. I'm not so sure. The greater pleasure may be felt by the one who receives. To open your mailbox and see -- in the thicket of bills, junk mail, and magazines -- an envelope addressed by hand bearing a familiar name, then tearing it open as you retreat into your home, the thrill is all there. It is that which I miss.
I enjoyed the feel of the envelope in my hand as I trudged down to the GPO mailbox in the afternoon.
I have boxes of old letters too. Sometimes I start going through them, planning to throw some away since they are not from my near and dear but I get side tracked reading them and usually end up stuffing them back in the old mail box. I used to write a lot of long letters during the 90's and then lots of long emails in the early 2000's but over the years it’s become a line or two instead of the pages it used to be. I write to fewer people, and those I write also write very short emails. One problem is that I will start getting phone calls in return instead of letters ......and maybe I’ll have to quit talking on the phone in order to make my friends write ....
I enjoyed the feel of the envelope in my hand as I trudged down to the GPO mailbox in the afternoon.
I have boxes of old letters too. Sometimes I start going through them, planning to throw some away since they are not from my near and dear but I get side tracked reading them and usually end up stuffing them back in the old mail box. I used to write a lot of long letters during the 90's and then lots of long emails in the early 2000's but over the years it’s become a line or two instead of the pages it used to be. I write to fewer people, and those I write also write very short emails. One problem is that I will start getting phone calls in return instead of letters ......and maybe I’ll have to quit talking on the phone in order to make my friends write ....
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