Hyderabad Blues....

This one is called . . THE BIG BANG...

Yes that was his ambition. To become an astronomer. In his early days, the sky fascinated him. So, in moral science class as his teacher asked, what do you want to become when you grow up? He said, "I want to be an astronomer." Sounds boring. Sounded interesting to him then.....


Well as fate would have it, he turned out to be a short, fat, mechanical engineer, who converted to software industry. Sounds even boring?? Well it really was.... :(

It is 6 'o' Clock at hyderabad now. And the hero of our story is waiting for completion of the mandatory 9.15 hrs in office. He minimises the window, stares at the desktop for sometime. Nope, hopeless even the scecnic beauty of the himalayas fails to motivate our hero to work some more. He gives a cursory glance towards the bottom rght corner of the screen and does the calcualation that he has been doing every 2 min now, frm 5:30 pm.

Another 1 hr has to be spent..then he can go back home. Lie down embrace the only lover he has, close his eyes and relax for some time. He would mumble all his days woes. But for his chivalrous character he would have even shed some tears embracing his lover. He simply loved his pillow, the only lover in the world our hero has at present. :'( ..

The article he was reading mentioned that every now and then, you should try to focus your eyes at the farthest object that you can see from your cubicle.....Just to reduce strain in your eyes...strain that is generated when you stare at you monitor for a long time...

The farthest thing??!! Can he see the sky from his cubicle?? he never noticed or tried...he suddenly wanted to see those varied constellations that he once searched in the night sky....ursa major, minor, andromeda, hydra.......when was the last time he looked at the night sky for those???He could'nt remember...He suddenly smiled, laughed at himself.....the farthest he could see was the HR's cubicle, yup his PM's cubicle was also visible......The Sky.....nowhere in sight..........

ATHOS, PATHOS AND CHAOS
eWork - no works. That’s how my project is known among onsite folks. What is eWorks? Well it is a cluster of 7 applications which are used for tracking various marketing needs in . (This is how I introduced my project in front of the client during their recent visit to Hyderabad).


- What is work that u do from here?

- We maintain and support these 7 applications. Add new functionalities to the already existing applications in the form of change requests, handle several data issues, and take care of tickets that the actual users raise when they face any problems while working with the applicarions.

What followed was a twist of the lips and nod of the head.

- Great said todd. Keep up the good work. We depend on you people. A forced smile and then they move on to the next cubicle.

Big deal!! They go back home with remembrance of several brown girls in salwar kameez and even more blurry brown faces of over enthusiastic, smartly dressed guys who talk in a funny English accent about God knows what….But they love India, Poor hungry India. Incredible India!

That was my fifteenth, in a row. A big wide one, bringing tears to my eyes. The yawns are going beyond my control. Tears are now flowing down in a steady stream from my eyes. Suneela notices that.

- Why are u crying? What is wrong? She is epitome of concern and care.

Rajeshwar, rajesjwari every pounces on me with interest.

- i am sad, says i.

- Do not joke, since u have come back from home, u have become quite, u do not speak so much, and now u are crying. What is wrong?

- i bbbbroke up with my gg ggg girlfriend...i cannot control myself anymore..i break down..sob sob...

Show is over. People go back to staring at their respective monitors while the restless hands plays on the hapless keyboard.

The startling green of the Khajjier valley stare at me from my desktop. There was a light drizzle. Annie stayed back in the car. The great boss(a frnd) lingered through the pine his lower back imitating a pendulum in action. The umbrella looking teenie compared to his humungous physique. Borda, sourav,

me ventured into the wet meadow. A little appehensive of the tricky mood of the many roaming horses.

Sourav unleased is always a treat to watch. He was dancing and jumping in the rain, borda always edging him on, reminding me of mera naam joker. I the quintessential photographer, was ever alert of the crazy antics of sourav and borda, to capture them in my camera.

It was fun, dancing around in the rain, barely using our umbrellas. Mountains have their own serene, mystic beauty in the monsoons. The huge moutains playing hide and seek with the clouds, creates an eerie atmosphere.

A cup falls and breaks somewhere in the floor. Some people clap and rejoice at the destruction. The species who can rejoice at destruction. We all rejoice at destruction. Not only Taliban or Al Quaeda. Some rejoice when their worst enemy gets destroyed in that football match against that some XYZ team, some are more sadistic and rejoice when they could successfully decimate some foriegn captives. Animals are much simpler. They only know love or hate. They do not know to disguise love with hate or hate with love.

My desktop again stares back at me. Almost with a sarcastic laugh. It's the laugh which the girl gives to her endless list of lovers, who know she'll never be their's. Khajjier mocks me. Tells me. O u pseudo adventurer..that is all u will ever have of me. An hour of ur life u have spend in admiration on my meadows. u have admired my grass, my mountains and how those clouds flirt with me. Then u capture me in a camera. Sit in that sophisticated cage of ur s. And u think of me. If u like me so much, then come to me...profess u r love for me..and stay close to me..and i'lll show u that i can also love u back. I may not be the brainy, self rightous species u r. But i have my ways..I can make u happy...come to me..if happiness is all u want.....

'Something is really wrong with this guy...now he is blankly staring at his desktop'

To Do or Not tO do That iS thE prObLeM...

"All the talk about balancing work and  personal life is bullshit. If you like what you are doing then it is all your
personal life."
The thought is about doing what you really like to do in life. It's about following your passion. Trying to build value around your strengths. It is said that it is better to build on your strenths than to try to better your weaknesses.
To turn your strength your weakness is the worst thing you can do to yourself. The thought makes you think. There are many people who love what they are doing and most often than not they are the successful ones(or the successful ones are the ones with rich dads). The very fact that we are stuck doing something we do not like is testimony to the fact that we are mediocre.
Difficult to digest? Some people may say that maybe you are stuck with something that you do not like now, but later you started doing something that you really liked and you became very successful. Does it mean I am still mediocre? Of course not. If you have attained success in a field that you are passionate about then you have potential to be the best. And you are no longer mediocre. But if you get success in some field that you are not passionate about then it is more likely that that success is momentary. And it is for sure that you will never be the best in that field.
There are people who say that you need to go through the grind to be able to do what you like. I may like to farm, I may like to teach. But to farm I need a farmhouse and land which requires money to buy. To teach I have to pass exams and get degrees and build credibility.
Yes that is how it is for us, the mediocre. We have to go through the grind to follow our passion at a later point of life. But that was not the case with "Will Hunting" of Good Will Hunting:The movie. He is a genius who works as a janitor and solves assignments of MIT students for timepass. When asked how he manages to do it like that, he says that when Mozart played the piano he did not have to think of the notes and
decide which note to play after the other. He just played. It came naturally to him. Will said all this mathematics came naturally to him. He did not have to think of steps.
I guess we all should strive to find out what is that we are a natural at. What is that field that we can do without thinking and stressing our grey cells. That is only way out of mediocrity. And one of the ways to Happiness.

Fanning to glory.....

Lately, I was finding myself wihout any topic to write about. And when I had a good topic to write about, I had nothing to write about, about that topic. Sounds psycho?? Well, can't help it.
I decided to look around me, pick up the 1st thing that catches my attention and start writing about it. Let's see.
Hmmm..there is one very interesting subject. The brown Fan. No can't see the brand from here. But there she stands still and proud and looking down upon us. There are two of them in my room. Yes, both are similar. Identical twins.
This is a species which is always sitting above our heads. I bet they think that they have higher status than the other types of fans like the pedestal fans, the hand held fans, or the small portable pocket fans. Cieling fans are like sitting on that high pedestal above all other types of fans.
What do they do? They rotate. And by that they manipulate Pavan Dev to human benefit. These faithful Pavan manipulators are quite man's best friends during the summers. They had a 100% share of mind and share of heart till those silent killers called ACs started taking over the human mind. But whatever substitute you build, they all has some variety of the fan in some form or the other, embedded in them.
They rotate in all their glory and gives heavenly pleasure to the protagonist who comes to its patronage drenched in his sweat and misery. The humans get ecstatic with pleasure as that soft/hard burst of wind(depending on the speed set in the regulator) carresses them with thier careful touch. Where else can you actually regulate the amount of pleasure you would want to have? Regulator zindabad.
The sun rotates, the earth rotates, the fan also rotates. The earth rotated and the humans survived. Then came global warming. Then the fan rotated and humans kept on surviving. They wait inside the closed boundary of walls, wait patiently like like an ideal housewife for the tired human to come home and take some moments to solace under your patronage. They only operate to give humans some pleasure. Otherwise they are a silent spectator of the great play called life going on all around them.
They see so much drama, chaos, all taking place right below their eyes, and yet they keep silent. They only move when the same human asks for some breath of solace and pleasure. And them it rotates, rotates with all its force, trying her level best to comfort the human below.
Keep rotating in all your glory, you enigmatic rotating, Pavan manipulator. Ms Fan we are all your fans.

The sermon on the Mars

The sermon on the Mars

Behold here comes the TRUTH. Reading conditions apply: Girls do not read. You people are omniscient so why strain your eyes. Guys above 23 and still single, by all means read.Guys who are not single, you know you have better things to do. It's not worth the read.

Ok here it comes……..

How does it all start? It starts on that sunny day, when you see her, with her pretty hair and face, oblivious of your existence, chatting with some of her friends. That pretty smile just bowls you over. The world around you starts to move in slow motion. You tell yourself that this is the girl who was made for you. "kae jaisae tujhko banaya gaya hain mere liyae….."

You find excuses to get near her. You laugh stupidly whenever she is around. You try to come up with something witty and end up cracking some sick jokes. You silently wish to God that you find one common link. Same project, same club, same assignment, same specialization, anything. You stare at her and wait for her to look at you for an opportunity to wave and smile at her. One day you find her taking the stairs and you grab the opportunity to spend some time (proportional to the number of floors she intends to climb) with her. You silently thank God and see this as a sure sign that even God is on your side in this.

You tell yourself and your friends," No, I am not desperate or anything. If it is meant to happen then it'll happen. I just want to be her friend for now".

Let ask you people some simple questions.

1)      Do you look back to see her face as you pass any girl on the road?

2)      Do you become very conscious about what you are talking, when you are around with girls?

3)      Do you think that staying moody or overreacting would actually make a girl interested in you, when in a group?

4)      You ask a girl for lunch or coffee and she agrees do you think that shows that she is interested?

5)      A girl sits besides you for lunch or while you are having coffee. Do you infer that she is interested in you?

6)      When a girl passes you then do you secretly wish that she'll look towards you and smile?

If answer to any of the above question is YES, then you are desperate for female company. You may as well admit it.

The girl understands everything all the time. Not because she actually is omniscient, but simply because she has been going through this "ordeal" since before she even realized that she was a girl.  She blissfully ignores every foolhardy behavior of the desperate genre.

"I never thought about us in that way. I thought we were just friends." This happens to be the ultimate shield that girls happen to possess. Guys are still at a loss to find out a suitable antidote for these words. This we'll call "THE SENTENCE".

 4-5 months down the line she ends up being the password of the hapless creature. 1year down the line, he starts looking for a new prospect to act funny again.

Weak hearted people stop right here. Girls I told you never to read it. You may as well quit now.

The sermon follows…..

A girl always has it too easy. They always have umpteen numbers of options in front of them. I sincerely hope that one day this scenario would change and guys will be in demand. That would be the day when the girl has to woo a guy to fall in love with her.

Well fantasies are fantasies. People will be left aghast if we quantify the amount of time an average person spends on wooing the opposite sex; the number of exams that have gone bad thinking about her or because you had to spend some time with her; the amount of money you have spend just to impress her. There are a very small percentage of guys who get the requisite return on investment. Others spend time, money, energy and then THE SENTENCE is thrown at him. He is left without any recourse.

Let me suggest you people a different course of action. Spend the same time, not even the same time, a small percentage of that time on some peers. Buy them a coffee, or a couple "vada pao", play some cards and you can create some friends who'll last your lifetime. Life will be much simpler. You would not have to explain every one of your actions in minutest detail. You would not have to try different methods to impress her every other day.  Guys enjoy independence. Enjoy the one thing for which Shahid Bhagat Singh, Lala Lajpat Rai, Netaji Subhash and many many others gave their lives.

Yes it is very important to follow your instincts, but for heavens sake after hearing THE SENTENCE one time, grow wiser, and do a very good cost benefit analysis, before putting your capital into any venture.

Just Kidding yaar…. ;-)

Kumar Krishanu Mukherjee.

Still in pursuit of happiness...

It was dusk, the sky was clear, our solitary protagonist was brooding...the master brooder as he always is...

All I wanted to be was happpy...and all i wanted from people around me was that they also remain happy...i wanted them to like me, i wanted everyone of us to be happy, so that we can all enjoy whatever time we spent together with lot of joy and merrymaking…
What do I want from life?? I want to be happy …and how I plan to do that I have no idea..some people say you must have a knack for something, find that something out and do that. You will be happy..…but what if I never find out what I am good at…….when I was a kid, primary section, I wanted to be an astronaut. In secondary school, I wanted to be a professional musician. At the same time I also wanted to be a professional footballer.
I guess that was the last time, in high school, that I nurtured some serious ambition.
However I became something pretty different.
I turned out to be an engineer. Then I went on to work for an entirely different sector. And now I am studying business management. Marketing.
Where will I stop? What will I end up being? I have no idea.
There are people, friends, acquaintances, who are so focused about where to go and what to do with their life. Sometimes I envy them for the certainty they associate with themselves. For the focus they have towards any particular goal. However, sometimes I pity them. It’s no fun reading a novel if you know what is going to happen in the last chapter.
I have lived and accepted my life as it comes. Every day has been a new, exiting game for me. There are challenges all over the way. Sometimes you solve them right, sometimes you are dead wrong, and it is then that you analyze and find out for yourself what the ideal answer should have been and apply it on the next occasion you get.
I guess it is okay if you are not sure about what you can do. That can have two explanations. Either you are good at nothing or you are good at everything. May be I am an allrouder who can do anything that is given to him(there are 2 things which I know I cannot do:1 – dancing, 2 – playing carom). Only time can tell. Till then let’s enjoy life as it comes….majja nu life..