Happy Birthday, God.

Ever since I started playing cricket with my dismal abilities; you have been my Hero, my Inspiration. You have made me happy with those amazing knocks you played over last 20 years. I have felt moment of sadness everytime you weren't able to make impact on the game. I still cherish your poster which my dear Bro gave me on my Birthday. The kind of form you have shown in recent times makes me believe that you are going to achieve something this year which you have not been able to do till now despite being so close, Winning world cup.

I wish you a wonderful, Injuree free year ahead. May you continue to score more centuries this year too!

Rajani - En vazhi? Thani vazhi. (My way is a unique way)

You won't realize what phenomenon Rajani is until you watch his movie in theatre or visit Chennai when his new movie is getting released. I had always heard stories of extent to which Rajani's fans go to show their love and affection towards this Superstar. Yes, he is a superstar. Whenever his name is referred in any of the speeches, it's always preceded by Superstar. One of the best things I have done in while in US was to go with my mallu friends and watch "Shivaji" in theater. We had a camping trip planned next day, still I joined guys to watch 10 pm show. The movie started quietly and I started closing my eyes for sleep. But after 10 minutes,
Rajani made a grand entry on screen and the theatre erupted. I turned back and saw nothing but white paper pieces flying all around the hall. The sound of whistles, shouting was so deafening that we could hardly listen to what was going on screen. Every word said by Rajani was inviting huge cheer from crowd. The best part came when a song started. A group of 10-15 people went in front and started dancing. I have watched so many movies in India, but what I could not even imagine here; I saw it happening about 1000 miles away from India. Otherwise quiet, law abiding desi community was violating all sorts of rules, manners on that day. Such a charisma this Superstar has created!
Thanks to my job, I got to enjoy most of the beautiful south Indian cities. I happened to be in Chennai when "Kuselan" was about to be released. Whole city was waiting for that day so eagerly. Allover Chennai, there were huge banners of Rajani in various moods. I missed watching that movie. But one day, I want to watch premiere of a Rajani movie in Chennai. I pray to God that Rajani lives that long to make my wish true.

Kashasathi? Potasathi...

Whenever P and I get together over a glass of RC, we always fret upon how bad our careers are and what all worst things we have to face in order to earn paycheck. I think it's natural for anyone to face frustrating situations in job and it is very important to find a way to overcome it. Its must to have a stressbuster. Otherwise the frustration boils to a point where people either quit the jobs or start taking the frustration on others.

I use some techniques like googling to find wierdest jobs and then try to get a feeling that people have to do worst things than me. Something like this - http://www.jobprofiles.org/library/guidance/weird-jobs.htm

Or while walking on streets I keep on observing the risks people have to take in order to earn. That definitely works as stessbuster for me. I got to see two examples recently which makes me feel my job atleast has comfort of sitting in chair whole day with cool breeze of AC (not so cool these days because of cost-cutting).
(A man painting mobile tower on top of 5 storey building w/o any protection)

(About 15 year old boy walking on 20 feet high rope w/o any protection)

World is Flat? Yes sir, it is.

Thomas Friedman may have given various examples to prove world is flat and all competitors have an equal opportunity.
I am experiencing my flat world while working on Diwali days. I would have to now eat Faral on Thanksgiving and burst crackers in Xmas.

Super 30 coaching - IIT coaching

Today got to see a program on Discovery channel about an IIT coaching class "Super 30" in Patna, Bihar. This coaching class coaches 30 students every year and for last two years it is giving 100% results. The students in this class come from lower income group of society and they are not charged any fees. These 30 students are selected through a screening test and then given admission to the actual IIT coaching.
The institute takes care of their stay and food for the duration of coaching.
The founder of the class is Anand Kumar who is a genius in mathematics. He could not pursue a coarse in Cambridge due to financial constraints. So he decided to start the coaching for poor students to overcome their financial barriers. One more person associated with it is Abhyanand, an IPS officer in Bihar.
Thanks to this coaching class, many students from lower income group, lower caste are pursuing dream to study in best Technology institute in India. Watching that show made me think about why these poor students dream of IIT and even though I had all the facilities, I never thought of giving try at IIT . I had even started tostudy but backed out after some time.
In Bihar, the status in society, profession is still decided by caste. So most of these students, their parents feel that, education and that too from IIT is the only chance to improve their condition. They have nothing to loose when they attempt for IIT and come out with flying colors.
For more - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_30

Aamir khan's new look

On his birthday, I got to see another new look of Aamir. The amout of experimentation he has done over the years makes him undoubtedly the best ever. Eagerly awaiting for his new movie.

Good Movie - Invincible (Dreams are not lived on the sidelines)

Last month Star movies showcased this wonderful movie featuring Mark Wahlberg and Elizabeth Banks. The details of movie can be found http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0445990. I liked the simplicity with which they have shot it and a typical US small town culture shown in it. Mark Wahlberg has given great performance and well supported by remaining cast. It also has a beautiful song "These days" in it by Jackson Browne.
A good movie to watch and get motivated.

Stages of learning

Last week I got to know a good funda regarding learning any skill. According to this, the learning of any skill happens in four phases -

1. Unconscious Incompetence - In this stage, you are not aware of the fact that you are lacking in a skill.
2. Conscious Incompetence - You progress to this stage when you realize that you lacking in the skill and you need to do something about it. In my opinion, this is the most difficult stage to overcome. Mainly because of inherent laziness to take effort for learning new skills.
3. Conscious Competence - You reach this stage by learning the skill in which you were lacking. This stage is good to be in because you are now aware that the skill is with you.
4. Unconscious Competence - I call this stage "Nirvana". This is the stage in which you are not even aware about a skill, but you are executing the skill with extreme perfection.

Coke Vs Pepsi Spoof Ad war

They are at it again. The spoof ad war between coke and Pepsi has resulted in new set of ads. I don't understand why they do this when their original ads are so brilliant. These companies use their sister brands to fight out their rivalry.

First Pepsi started their campaign with Yougistan Ads featuring SRK, Ranbeer and Deepika.


Coke used their brand Sprite to make spoof of the pepsi ad.


Pepsi decided to retaliate by making spoof of the Thums Up ad featuring AK.

Here is the original ad. (On completely unrelated note, I suspect the car he is driving is Ford Mustang, my favourite.)


And the spoof.

Hutch rocks! Great Ad campaign again!

After coming back to Des, the inevitable thing is to get a cellphone connection. In Mangalore, it is a choice between Airtel or Hutch (oops Vodafone). Both have almost same rates, plans, connectivity and bad customer service. Very little to choose between them.
Bu I have stuck to Hutch (really difficult to call it Vodafone) since the day I came to Mangalore. The attractive thing about it is their logo, ads and overall marketing. The Hutch logo which was orange and black earlier was changed to pink and blue. The Vodafone logo in red and silver looks just as good.
The ads are just amazing. The hutch ads with tag line "Wherever you go, our network follows" were brilliantly portrayed by a kid and a cute dog. The dog follows the kid wherever he goes with background jingle of "You and I in this beautiful world. Raindrops, Sunshine, in this beautiful world!"
This summer they have come up with another theme to advertise their customer service. This time it features a girl and the dog. The dog helps girl in catching fish, finding her socks and running behind her school-bus with her necktie. Beautiful way of showing that they care about their customers. The jingle is composed by someone for vodafone and has great lyrics -
"Everyday I want to fly, stay by my side,
Everyday I want to dream, stay by my side,
Every morning I wish I could just play,
Wish the mornings would just stay!"
Watch the video below and more ads on Vodafone