Growing up with Post It's

My kids are growing up with post it’s put up on the refrigerator – 12 rotis, cut pineapple, methi saag etc. They have a check list pasted on their cupboard – clean shoes, sharpen pencil, get your diary signed etc. They have processes on what instruction to be given to maid 1 and then to maid 2.

I take them out for movies, vacations, enroll them in hobby classes, buy them the best books, movies they want to see. Celebrate their birthdays the way they want. Spend as much time with them, cycling, talking to them, reading stories at night, having fun in trips etc etc. As far I am concerned they are top priority and rest everything else can wait. Both of us are at our wits end to manage life smoothly so much so that by the time

I am just not sure that a kid’s mind understands life as an equation. Wherein paragraph 1 is debit and paragraph 2 is credit. And both balance each other. So it’s a done deal. Often when I see them fight with me or my wife……these thoughts reverberate through my head like loose cannon balls, not for an hour / 2 hour but days….Are we are robbing them of their innocence? Are they growing up too fast? Do they despise this?

Because I know the answer to all the above questions is probably “yes”. I know I can’t control everything happening around me, so I try to control what I can and go in one of these guilt trips once in a while. I don’t hope / expect them to understand when they grow but I try and make them smile as much as I can….even if it makes me look like a fool in front of their friends.

Keep smiling girls! For me that’s the only thing matters and I will be there always…Good, Bad or Ugly.

Stop Asking Why?

2 yrs back my wife was detected with carpal tunnel syndrome and she was in terrible pain. Seeing her I was quite petrified and suddenly I became very very health conscious. In fact health became top priority and I got into the regime of morning exercise, yoga, sudarshan Kriya. In addition I started using a raised platform for keeping the laptop and using an external mouse etc.

On 4th Jan I got a test done and the doctor confirmed that I have “carpal tunnel syndrome” and tendinitis of thumb. I had gone to the doc because I had numbness in both my hand and my thumb was aching bad for some time now. The doc was quite clinical, “fix a date in the first week of Feb, we have to cut your wrist, and press a bit to loosen up few nerves, you will be off computer for 3 weeks after the operation. It is a small operation, will cost 50 grand approx and you will be out in a day or two.” Listening to the doc I almost felt like a robo speaking to me, I could have literally changed his face for a PC and the prescription would be the same.

In last 1 year 3 of my friends lost their father after trying their best to revive them for 4 to 5 months. They did their best (money was not an issue), the best doctors, best hospitals whatever money could buy but I am sure all through they were prepared for the eventuality. Then there is this famous case of SAP CEO, who was a marathon runner but tragically died of heart attack.

There are many instances like that when I realize the futility of all this future thinking. We can only try. Period. Nothing more nothing less.

For some time now, I have stopped asking why? Not out of a sense of futility, but more as an understanding that the present is what I have. Let me not cram it with a schedule which helps me prepare for the future.

Above: A beautiful picture from our room in Lovedale (sooo!!!! cute name) Ooty

Why blog ?

I opened my account with bloggers on 3^rd Aug 2006, which is almost 3 years ago. It was more for fun and grabbing the url. So I started off with some post of friends, happenings and since I read a lot and love movie some thoughts around a book / movie forms quite a large part of my blog. Then some incidents / visuals /philosophical thought which keeps nagging at me or provokes me....But in the end it’s the sheer joy of writing.

Also for me it was to inculcate the discipline of writing, it’s difficult with a job which requires to travel for 10 days in a month, and every day is layered with series of meetings, negotiations, con-calls so by the time you come back and the kids hug you good night, the only thing you want to do is to curl up on the sofa and watch a nice movie or read a book….It requires much less of an effort. Although, I always have a note pad handy with me to jot down few thoughts which at a later date gets transformed into a poem/story and surfaces in my blog ....

But then, as someone very rightly said “If you keep doing what you always do, you will end up getting what you always got” and I don’t want to end up just seeing movies and reading book. I want to make those movies and write those books and writing just helps me to clarify a few things and gives it a perspective.

For lot of people blog is an affirmation of what they are, because they can write things they are not comfortable talking about it with people who are around them. They would rather write and discuss it online with people whom they don’t know.

For me, blog is just an online assimilation. I just trust google more than my laptop…..

copenhagen & platic bags

I had recently visited Mumbai when I saw this installation near worli, Couldn’t make out the building on which it was put up. “1000’s of mineral water bottles are stringed together and draped from top to bottom of the building in such a way that from far it actually looks like a water fall. The location is so focused that you just can’t miss it.” In the bottom there is only 1 line which says “Is this the only waterfall which our grand children’s will see?”

I found it very thought provoking, although this was much before the shindig happening around the world on global warming. As a lay man and as an educated individual I feel for the cause but I guess the time has come to do something more than just be aware. So I thought I will just start by saying “no to plastic bags” and make a beginning…..

For more on the impact of these plastic bags, see this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6rOZjXi03c or you can just google and sift thru a million links.

The search page gave me a comfort that a million people in the world are at least thinking about it and hopefully most of them are implementing it.

100 years of Solitude….

It was a sheer coincidence or maybe it was a game of destiny that I was reading “100 years of solitude – by Gabriel Garcia Marquez” on the eve of my 40th birthday. I turned 41 on 4th Dec. But since I kept the book down yesterday night at 1 am, I was haunted by the word “solitude”. Some books are just meant to be read and forgotten like Dan Brown’s latest which gave me company during my recent travel to Delhi and Chandigarh….but some books jolt you up, cajole you to look back in your life and remember fleeting moments of the past, ponder over the present and helps you to tone down your expectations from the coming future.

Occasions like birthdays have an elevated sense of celebrations all around the entire day, starting from the midnight surprise, to the early morning hugs and the secret glances going around the house when you know something is being planned but you dare not ask albeit you spoil the fun. And, of course the sms’s which start pouring in from 6.30 am (yes that’ when I got first the message).

So reading a book where revolution, suffering, struggle to survive, death and of course solitude was the recurring theme was probably a jolt to reality. By the end of the book I fell in love with the word solitude because I figured since the day I took my first step outside my home in 1987 and landed in a small village to do my engineering to the time when I landed in Mumbai to start work to the time when I was waiting outside the maternity ward to hear my daughter cry to this moment when I am writing this blog I had only solitude to give me company.

As I finished the book and closed my eyes last 40 years passed by me like a train of images linked only by my moments of solitude. And I felt that everything in life is like an event when you are experiencing it because you are enjoying the moment you want to feel the ecstasy or the pain but very rarely can you reflect at that moment.

As the years go by, lot of things will happen with you, lot of things will happen around you, at times things will happen and at times things will fall apart but the only thread which gives meaning to this life are those moments of solitude when you try and figure out “what this life is all about”?

The HI NI Circus or is it really a scare?

If we were playing “Kaun Banega Crorepati” and I was in place of Amitabh and my kids were the players they would have won hand down.

Can I go for the painting competition in Leela?
The yoga class in Jayanagar?
Lunch in Mainland China ?
No, No, No
The answer for every single question was the same, yes you guessed it HINI.

Are we panicking? Or is it the right thing to do? I think all of us have been asking the same question including my boss. Who prefers me to stay back in Bangalore and plan for the Diwali Sale than walk the streets of Mumbai and get the germs back?

What is a terrorist? Aids? and of course H1 N1 were not common questions I asked my parents in the breakfast table. But they have become part of our daily life. And it will be wishful thinking that they don’t pick up these topics in their school bus, play grounds and school of course.
When the H1 N1 scare started my official mail box got flooded by at least 25 mails a day. So, much so that the web administrator had to give a stern warning not to send such mails. Press, TV, Internet – there seems to be an information overdose. I get 200 + channels watch only 3, 20 pages of newspaper read 10 articles when I browse the billions of websites I actually visit/enjoy only few.

We as a generation have become over cautious. These days we are much more informed, connected and hence more cautious in everything we do. It is difficult to know “Where to draw the line?”.Watch Out. Watch Out. These are the words which scream out before we do anything.

Are we missing out on our sense of adventure?

When we were growing up, we belonged to the “try it out” tribe. I still remember when I stepped out for the first time from my Engineering College I lit my first fag that was 19 87. The last time I stepped out of my MBA in 19 95, I gate crashed into a wedding and enjoyed a hearty Punjabi meal. Oh! What fun even the caterers new us. In between I did lot of other things……will write on that some time later.

It was un programmed life. There was no definition of “What I should do?” & “What I should not?”. There was a kind of freedom which made me felt alive. There was a sense of discovery….I still live by these rules, whether it’s a new author, director, new place I visit even if it’s because of work.

Pic on the right: Tucking into a huge pan (almost looked liked a roll)in Meerut, Begum Pull at night 12o’clock, Lassi in Aligarh, Somewhere between Haridwar and Doon.

I am not sure I will be able to transfer this spirit of adventure to my kids. But a day after the Independence Day I salute my parents for giving me this and I hope 15 years down the line my kids do the same…..

The death of conversation

These days we don’t talk,
We sms,
We mail,
We chat.
We don’t debate
We write blogs
I read between the lines.
Is it a sign of times to come?
I don’t know.

I wrote these lines maybe a month or two back. I have this habit scribbling down a few lines in a small pad in between flights. Sometimes these thoughts grow into a blog and sometimes they get washed down my washing machine. Today at 4 in the morning these thoughts came back to me once again and kept rebounding across my head and in the end forcing me to get up …….

It’s true, I haven’t learnt so much about someone so close thru blog as I could by talking, sharing living together in last 10 years. So what’s wrong, I asked myself? I didn’t have an answer I still don’t but this nagging feeling inside me kept coming back. It was like violation of trust…How come a person so close feels this way I don’t know and I have to go thru someone’s blog to understand her.

My diary was my closest friend till I burnt them few years back. At that time I couldn’t really fathom my action but the feeling was so strong that it propelled me to destroy them. Looking back maybe because it was because I didn’t want her to know / understand me by reading my diary. Why can’t we talk? What’s in my diary is also in my soul. “Let’s discover it on the way rather than you reading the past and coming to conclusions” was my refrain, whenever there was a read request for them.

If we can feel,touch and of course talk, Is there a need to blog? Or should it be there for posterity just to look back and see how we felt about few things on our journey called life...I am not sure reading Jabberwock which I adore is very different from reading someone's blog who is so close to you.

For the time being I would rather start a conversation.

Memoirs…

I started writing a diary probably at the age of 9/10. Don’t remember exactly and continued writing till 5 years back ....again I am not sure when was my last entry. But these were moments which recorded the deepest most personal thoughts sometimes desperate sometimes excited sometimes pure despair.

Reading Kirin Narayan’s “My family and other Saints” brought back those memories. It’s not one of the books which you start liking from the 1st page, (what we typically call the unputdownable) ….but it sort of grows on you. What does one do if – you are the youngest, your dad is an alcoholic, mom an American, whose brother is on his spiritual trip and above it all you stay in a house in Juhu where anybody especially the hippies can come in anytime, stay and go when they want …what she calls the most famous house in the hash trail.

There are kids who do and their kids who think. With thinking come millions of thoughts, constantly bombarding your mind….not all of them find an outlet. In fact most of them get repressed with bursts of anger / despair. All these thinking kids typically also are voracious reader as in the case of kirin and me. Reading gives you access to a world away from your world….and each of us find something to relate to. For some it’s a dream world, a perfect world…when ever I used to read Enid Blyton as a 5 yr old, it was like….Can this be true ?

Coming back to the book, what I liked is the detailing of Kirin and her thoughts as a kid. What was going on inside her mind at that point when a particular incident has happened and the mark it has left in her mind - forever. Her feeling towards her dad, mom, brothers and the entire situation she was in. It was almost like a ship tossing and turning in an ocean with absolutely no sense of direction and control. How this entire chaos has impacted her life and the choices she made in her life.

I believe, what I am today is because of what I went thru in the first 15 years of my life maybe 17/20….If Kirin is studying Anthropology in Winconsin USA writing thesis / paper on sadhus in himalayan foothill etc is because of the spiritual quest which the family was going through when she was growing up. Unfortunately, most of time we don’t have such a direct correlation. Most of the time the thoughts, feelings, are hidden in the recess of our mind / subconscious, especially in the early years of life…when you are making decisions, tossing all the choices thrown at you, growing up – physically and mentally. Most of the time and probably for most of us we don’t have the time to look back at these thoughts, growing up pangs, we prefer to move on.
But I do look back and at times I feel quite helpless. I know I want to provide a perfect environment for my kids so that they can make the best choices in her life…..But I also know I can’t control most of things around me at home or otherwise. The choices I have made in the past are like the seeds sown in the ground. These have now grown and created a garden (or a jungle I don’t know) in which these two saplings are growing. Once the tree starts taking shape I can only try and provide as much water, sunlight, nourishment as I can and leave the rest for them to figure out.

After another 10 – 15 years I don’t know if my kids will have time to look back. But I definitely will because then they would have left our garden and started their own. It will be nice to read / hear how they felt when they were growing up. Did they feel taken care of or did they feel like a ship tossing and turning in an ocean?

Well that’s after a decade as of now it Ahoy! Full stream ahead..

Ode to Pink Floyd

At 01.01 …..date unknown

Sleep alludes….
Why is there is no Signs of Life
Is there anybody out there?
Or Is it just a Wall all around.

Wish you were here? is just a phrase
I know
I am stuck in Terminal Frost.

The great gig in the sky
Was not for me,
At 18, I heard Shine on you crazy diamond?
At 24 - Money, was the post war dream
At 40 – I live life ……Comfortably Numb?

The dark side of the moon was not just
A momentary lapse of reason.
When the division bell rang……
It was the final cut.
I curl up in my bed
I know
When I get up morrow
The show must go on and on and on…..

Turning 40 – Growing Young.

Last year, was like any other year. It had its share of highs and lows, yukky moments which I would like to forget, uplifting moments which I would like to remember every time when I close my eyes in despair.

But every year there are a few things which has changed forever what the writer’s say defining moments or inflection point of a man-son-husband-father’s mind…….Few such things are mentioned below…

Foremost I believe is what I call the fear psychosis which is now a reality and is living within us. When 9/11 happened, it was an unbelievable reality show which didn’t touch me – distant country (arrogant country – they have created enough such moments in history) .It was just another live show. When 26/11 happened I didn’t want to switch on the TV. The fact is “I never did”. I never saw a single frame of the telecast. As people across the world were glued to their TV set I was busy enjoying “Finding Nemo” with my kids or reading "Dance Dance” by Murakami.

The recent terror scenario is not a distant scenario happening to somebody out there it’s happening to you and me. When the bomb blasts happened in Bangalore, I had confirmed tickets to Hyderabad but we could not catch the train as there was no cab which would take us to the station.

When I board the next flight, the thought “I hope I come back alive is not a joke it’s a reality”. Doesn’t mean I will shut myself up and vegetate but I guess I will be prepared for the same. For me it’s a defining moment I want to live up life every day, every moment. Do things, I have never done before…..Who knows what’s in store for me.
Health – Exactly 13 months before my 40th birthday someone close went through quite a lot of pain for no fault of hers. And I was also going through bouts of cold / cough doctor again sore throat doctor cycle. I still remember the date 1st Nov last year I decided “To hell with it I will not go to the doctor I will treat myself back to health and since then I have not taken any antibiotics. But I know at least 10 families in my proximity where in some one has expired because of wrong medicine treatment, detected with cancer or had a heart attack / stroke. Most of them were quite cautious in their approach to life not smoking, drinking, thinking types. But that is just one part of the story……I also know the amount of money which has gone in trying to avoid such incidents and the emotional trauma which these people have gone thru during those days.

Those who had the money went to the best doctors and probably had the satisfaction that could pay back the time, money, effort, heart and soul their parents had put in to bring them up, those who didn’t have the money didn’t have the time to blink and the moment was gone. They were back to their grind. But there are the famed middle class of India who inspired to go to best doctors and probably did, but by the time they got the bill they realized they were living in a fool’s paradise and a false security which the group insurance of various companies provide and which is grossly inadequate. So now they will be paying off these debts for next few years.

Unfortunately, none of them could stop the inevitable. None of them had the answer to the question “How much is enough ?” Neither do I, but I will never ask this question again. Over the years I have observed that what’s gonna happen will happen.
Just go with the flow.

Do your jogging, have your gulab jamun if you love it and see two movies back to back if Jason Bourne is starring in it. Going groggy eyed for the next day meeting is OK if you have satisfied your inner urge to see a movie.

Satisfy your soul today, who knows what tomorrow’s headline will bring in your doorstep.

Be More....

For me, it’s about what more can I do for people around me…..

My daughters who are growing up so fast that at times they make me feel I am extinct. Imagine an 8 yr asking u for an I POD, not a stereo player, not a TV….While we got our first TV when I was in class 10. Till then it was the air force mess, black & white TV and the evergreen Chitrahaar. While the IPOD will come I am sure….swimming on Saturday, movies on Sunday, a trek or a circus……and above all the 5 minutes I spend talking to them daily in the breakfast table, in the school bus stand and before they goes to sleep is how I try to be more to them

My lovely wife, for whom a chance dinner outside on a Sunday or a “No Entry” in kitchen on a Saturday & Sunday, is almost like a dinner in Taj, or a 2 day trip to Goa. These moments snatched from the daily grind of working couple life is how I try to be more.

My ageing parents, whom I also visit when I visit the South Ex store in Delhi, helps them go back to those days when I used to come back home once a year from my Engineering College. When before I rang the bell and touched their feet I could actually smell the fish fry …… When I visit them I am that lost growing up kid once again and those few hours spent before I board the flight means a lot more to them than any other luxury / gifts which I give them.

For people around, guiding a blind foreigner to a toilet in the BIAL airport, helping an old couple to a taxi when they can’t find one in Delhi airport at midnight or holding a kid’s hand in a mall where she is lost….I feel and experience life beyond my family and work.

As far as I am concerned, reading my Murakami, seeing a late night movie, adding to my blog or few pages to my long awaited novel defines ME and I.

Be More is a reason for all of us to live life beyond the routine existence and celebrate every moment we live.

As we move from a radio to a walkman to an ipod ....the moments are passing by…as John Lennon says….”Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.”

World Movie & Sultans of Cinema

Thanx to World Movies, and Zee Studio, I had the opportunity to get a taste of international movies. Francois Truffaut, Wong Kar Wai, Kurosawa, Ingmar Berman etc. Also some amazing martial arts film like Hero & House of Daggers, don’t know who the directors were of the same. I am not a martial arts buff probably the only movie which in this realm of crouching tigers….The martial art sequences were almost like “poetry in motion”.

Truffault is like a nice story teller, most of his movies I saw were almost like seeing short stories. Some are intense, some were mysterious and some are just funny. I loved watching all of them especially 400 Blows which partly is loosely based on his growing up years.

Wong Kar Wai, on the other hand is very-very intense. It’s a different kind of movie like Kurosawa. I mean haven’t something like that before, cinematography, music, even the environment. Today I saw “In the mood for Love”, in which the claustrophobic rooms were used to (apparently) depict the trapped feelings which the protagonists were going through.

As I see these movies, I also read up about these directors on the net which explains a lot about why’s of the movie like Wong started as a graphic designer which is why most of his movies are visually so arresting and how he uses color palette so much so that each scenes looks like painting…

Truffault had a tough time as he grew up, served time in army, was a critic in a film magazine before he started what is known as “French New Wave movement” which rejected the traditional cinema structure..

Both these artists (and I guess most of the so called gurus…) didn’t have too many hits, blockbusters but for most them movie was an outlet, a form of expression of what they think, what they went through in their life.

I feel most of the good creative work i.e. books or movies borrows strongly on their self ….or maybe I like it that way.

World Movie & Sultans of Cinema

Silence

Silence, a companion…

Silence is like a constant companion, when I am jogging, exercising or walking to and from office. A truncated thought which got lost in the craziness of the day would come out from nowhere and start knocking your head. With nothing to do your mind grabs it like a 2 year old will grasp a new toy and start licking it and looking at it from all directions. I might not reach conclusion but mind just tires looking at all possibilities and chuck the thought as I ring the bell….

Silence and Anger

For me anger is silence, but this is a different kind of silence, it’s like a dark thick liquid, and like your bile (I haven’t seen it). It is like a tight fist of a boxer or stretched muscles of an athlete before his 100 m dash. It’s a very intense and at times pushes for a physical action like u keep running till u drop.

Books, Movies & Silence

Reading a book or seeing a movie (which I like) is almost like meditation for me. That’s the only time I am one with what I am doing. These are the times when I want silence to envelope me so that nothing can come between me and my passion. Mostly (in my current state of affairs) these moments are post 10 pm. This silence continues even after I finish reading a book or seeing a movie, it’s like I am engulfed in a bubble with all characters surrounding me. It lingers on till sleep engulfs me. These are the most beautiful moments…..in my day.

Silence and Misunderstanding

Silence is also misunderstood a lot. In a relationship silence is not golden it’s the first step for a misunderstanding to start. Many times you plan something, visualize something and expect a certain course of action…..imagining in your mind, I will do all these and probably delight her. Not knowing the other person or thinks something but maybe totally different and at the moment of action, surprise, delight just the opposite happens….which shuts you up completely. Both people in their thought and expected action have gone so far that now they can’t pull back or explain to each other…..So each goes into their own deep silence till….

Master silence and you will master life….

The art of short story writing

In recent days, I have been under a short story attack. I read - Unaccustomed Earth – Jhumpa Lahiri, The Japanese Wife – Kunal Basu, The Elephant Vanishes & After the Quake – Haruki Murakami and also a collection of short stories by famous oldies like Graham Greene, Norman Mailer etc

No particular reason for picking them up, Jhumpa Lahiri and Murakami are my favorite authors, Kunal Basu – for the hype and the other one I saw it in our apartment library and thought I will give it a shot. Jhumpa Lahiri was the first and probably I got inspired by that, but after yesterday I felt I am not the short story type.

I am kind of a person who needs to get intimately involved with the characters, the plot, the situation and a short story if not well written is almost like an anti climax which is what happened with few stories in Japanese Wife & Elephant Vanishes. It’s like the author has so much to say but suddenly it just switches off.

On the other hand, Unaccustomed Earth as well as her first book – Maladies, you don’t get that feeling. Her writing is all about the finer details of existing emotions, trapped emotions, I almost get the feeling that she is lingering on every single thought / emotion which is running through a father or a daughter’s mind. And it’s beautifully articulated. There is a kind of style and elegance even in each every sentence. Importantly she can draw a canvas which to me it feels complete. Basu fails miserably in creating that grandeur of emotional upheavals

Murakami, on the other hand is a great story teller, different style but all his big stories / novels are written in a manner that many times I must have read a book till morning 6, made a cup of coffee to re align my senses then groggy eyed started waking up my kids. In a sense it is gripping….not because it is hurtling towards a specific end like a crime novel but more….in terms of the character his / her journey. Some stories in after the quake & elephant vanishes had a similar feel, but I still prefer the Murakami who wrote Norwegian Woods & Chronicles.

But, in the short story genre, I am great fan of Holmes and Felu da (Satyajit Ray) I guess the investigative / detective genre, has a start and an end but in both these case there is also a strong character who is residing in your mind, to whom you are giving shape when you are reading a new story (Part 2 of Unaccustomed Earth does that by creating characters who are linked by different situations).

Anyways, for the time being I am off this genre……but as they say book / music / movies….are like beaches and mountains. You keep going back to them because the sand, the sky and the mountains by nature are the same, but every time you go there you see a new picture.

Delhi da Culture

2 weeks back I was heading for Delhi to do an event from Bangalore.

At Bangalore:
I called the city taxi at 6am in the morning. The call was taken in 2 rings. The cab was there at 5.45 am, the driver called me from my flat’s security desk and waited patiently for 20 minutes, wished me when I was there. Through out the 20 mts drive, he was a smiling happy person – who in general makes a passenger or an unknown person comfortable. When we reached the airport he offered to carry my luggage, I refused. He insisted that I take the bill and gave me one. I pleasantly checked in and got cocooned in my music.

In Delhi:
I wanted to reach South Ex by 10 am, so I called the Taxi Stand and you are welcomed by the typical “Kahaan jaana hain….No Good Morning etc, he kept me on hold shouted at 2-3 drivers asking who wants to go. Then he said, the cab will reach. I asked how much – he said 250, I said OK (I had done a background check with my folks on the cost of cab and it was around 250 – 275…so I didn’t bargain otherwise I was all geared up with the information, and ready to argue). When I said give me a bill, I was told “We don’t waste money for small bills, we make bills only for 500/- and above” I decided, no point of arguing and let go.

The cab came half an hr late, once stopped – it didn’t start for 20 minutes, when we reached South Ex, he parked the car in a NO Parking Zone and refused to give 10 bucks change because the Police guy was ready to challan him 600 bucks. His argument was “For your 10 bucks I will loss 600 bucks.”

Same service but 2 experiences, which are poles apart. Questions is

Was I shocked? The answer is straight “No” without blinking. I have stayed in Delhi for 5 years and I know this is the fabric of Delhi. Argue, negotiate, bargain, look smart, party hard. When I step out in the morning I know I am stepping into a war zone.

In all my training sessions in Delhi
– the worse scenarios always came in Delhi. Even if I debug my software for few weeks, I know this is the place I have to watch out there because they will have some via media to achieve their objective. (Jugaad is the word)
– The team in delhi would be always more aggressive, more enthusiastic and which is extremely positive for the program owner because it spreads positive energy around

Although I have stayed in Delhi for 5 years I always hated the place and wanted to get out of there as fast as I could.

But having stepped out – I miss the energy, the aggression, that Punjabi dosti yaari, daaru shaaru wala culture. There was some kind of vitality, everyone was driven by a personal agenda and they showed it upfront giving a damn about anything else.

Although I used to hate the 2 hr drive from Gurgaon to Kalkaji, I will never forget the beer bottle(s) & egg bhuji, which my co-passenger will pick up from the Gurgaon check post.

Is the grass always green on the other side or am I just being nostalgic? Ki farak painda, blog hi to hain?

(Above pic of RDB – probably the best tribute to the delhi culture in recent times)

Gifted and Chowringhee

Few days back I finished 2 beautiful books – Gifted by Nikita Lalwani and Chowringhee by Shankar.

Gifted is a poignant story of a kid who is gifted (in terms of her Mathematical ability) and her relationship with her father who almost pushes / trains her like the Russians used to create Olympic champions….How she rebels, how her teenage insecurities come into being etc etc. The beauty of the book is in it’s poignancy…..

I liked it because I too have a kid who is 8 years and could relate to the rebellious streak portrayed in the book. Many times what seems very superficial to you as a father or mother actually has a very deep rooted belief in the daughter’s mind. When my daughter keeps saying she wants to see TZP day in and day out instead of a Barbie movie …..you can sense there’s something amiss. After a lot of cajoling I realize that TZP is the hot topic of discussion in school and my daughter can’t participate because she has not seen it. In our mind ……it’s just another movie but for her that 10 mnt discussion in canteen / bus is the highlight of the day…..

The beauty of the book is in it’s poignancy…..even if you are not a father or a mother read it and you will relate it to your growing up years…

Chowringhee on the other hand is a beautiful book. The obvious question is scenery / painting / drawing can be beautiful - how can a book be beautiful. I don’t know I felt it that way….being a Bong and reading about Calcutta, the description of the places where I have been (when I was staying in Cal) the Bengali characters, the tumultuous relationships. Its story telling at it’s best. If you are a Bong ….who wants to experience Calcutta….read it.

I loved the book so much that I am hunting for the movie version of the same, starring Uttam Kumar.

Blood in my hand

A month back or so my 4 year old daughter had an accident. By the time I reached the hospital…..I could hardly see her face. There was blood all over her face, hair and dress….I could just see her eyes which shone as soon as she saw me and I could read “Papa is here, it will be fine”.

For me, this was the first time any one of my kids was hit so badly and I almost felt my heart stop….It is difficult to explain. "God! Let her be fine!" That’s the first word which came to my throat.

For next 1 hr I held her tightly as 12 stitches were put in her fore head. I could literally see the needle go inside the skin and blood oozing out of the skin….The only time I remember something like that was in First Blood some 15 years back….

When we reached home, put Joyee on bed and were coming out of our shell shocked state I saw her tugging my shirt. When I bent down she asked “So tomorrow I am not going to school”. ‘Ya’ I said….She continued “Can Di stay back.....”…..I knew what was coming…..With in 15 minutes the whole house was back in the usual state of arguments / fight over some toy….etc etc.

At night, when the family was asleep and I was star gazing from my balcony, two thoughts struck me – One, the resilience of a 5 year old, I was sure by next day morning she will have no clue on what hit her and what happened. Two – the importance of being a Papa……That look on her face when the stitches were being put, I was holding her and she kept screaming Papa, Papa…..I will never forget that till I die. I know 10 – 15 year down the line she will grow up and go…..but whenever I see that mark on her fore head she will again become a 4 yr old in my eyes.

Typically, we (i.e. me and my wife) and kids slip in separate rooms. But that night we all huddled together under the quilt. Smell of dettol & antiseptic still lingering in the room I could feel that warmth called family physically in the air.

I desperately wanted to hold on to it and make believe that this will last for rest of my life…but then the alarm rang and the list of the day started ticking on my head……..

Tare Zameen Paar

There are a few movies, which keep ringing in your head even after you wake up almost from a dream like state, which you have been. As you linger back home and start getting into your daily routine, certain screens, dialogues, faces, music haunt you at times. Tare Zameen Par is one such movie. If not the best, it is one of the best movies I have seen in a long time.

Some movies (or for that matter any creative expression like a book / play / ad) just fall in place because it seems everything happened so effortlessly – the location, music, lyrics, cinematography, acting... In facts hats off to the music and lyrics, every time I hear them, screens from the movie flash in front of my eyes. What I liked about the movie is that there was no jingoism – no heavy dialogues / lectures but simple expressions. It is one movie, which exploits the medium in its true sense.

I think all parents who saw it saw a picture of their life in the movie; others saw some glimpse of their childhood. The movie used the child as a medium to convey the obsessive nature of most parents; most of us don’t know where to draw the line. It also portrayed the state of expectation between members of the family. The way I was brought up 35 years back and the way bring up kids now one of the key difference I feel is that the expectations are too rational, objective, methodical, too goal / money oriented right from kindergarten. Earlier the expectation / dependency was only emotional and nothing else. Our parents had the strength to let go at one moment and pull us back at one moment.

In my days – small joys were just a sense of heightened emotion and not linked to a physical thing - Going to a “bada khana” in the Air Force Mess or seeing Star Trek on a Sunday (in a common ante room) was the highlight. There was no Barbie, Kurkere, DVD, multiplex, hotels. Now most of the joys experienced by kids comes pre-packaged and has to be acquired before they experience it.

So most parents are faced by a typical question/dilemma - How much is enough? What more can I do? From morning 5 till night 9pm life looks like a marathon. Many of us literally crash with a sense of exhaustion / desperation and probably a sense of dejection. And still there is no end in sight.

It’s a practical situation which all middle class, educated parents with ambition that they should give their best for their child face daily. Are they wrong? I don’t think so. I personally also go through the same dilemmas.

Most of us typically compartmentalize our goals – kids are very small, so let me (mother) be with them – I have to feed, change nappies…. once she starts going to play school I will rejoin and work harder and get that promotion due to me. As they start growing, they will make friends, they can read magazines, join classes…so they don’t need me much. But the expenses are going to double so I have to start working…also the future of my child is at stake. Question, which we typically overlook, is – What about his present? Will there be a future, if you are not there in his present?

Most of us also make decisions for a child based on the environment and not what is good or bad from their point of view - I should send the kids to crèche – it’s ok – they will become independent, kids should also understand that we are doing so much for them, they should be reasonable – they should understand I have add a tough day and let me have my space…. But they are kids, how can they think like you?

So Am I a perfect DAD. Ask my kids? No way, I have stumbled through the same path, taken a few hits, gone up and down guilt trips, had my bouts of depressions & helplessness. I still do.

But there are three things I seriously believe in

One - there are things you can control and there are certain things you can’t. Most of time we focus too much on things, which we can’t control. Once the decision is made you are on the other side – now see what best can be done.

Two – Act – don’t discuss, There will be many times when your point of view, way of doing things, your principles may not match with lot of people (mostly in the family) but if you believe in it just do it, try it out and junk it if it doesn’t work. Don’t get into this analysis – paralysis bit. Otherwise you will keep having discussions and no actions.

Three – I know all of us keep the kids in the center, but mostly from the long-term perspective. No. For them it’s the small thing, which matters…picking them early if wife can’t make it, going cycling, good night story etc etc.

In one of the New Year calendar, which I got, there was a quote – “Goldfish have a memory span of 3 seconds. They can’t see the past, much less the future”. I wish all of us were like that……..no past no future – just the present!

On turning 38 & what they don’t teach you at the institute called life!

Ya, that’s me on the left. Cheers! Sometimes I wish there was a printer attached to my head so that all the thoughts which comes to my mind as I jog, walk, drive gets printed out by press of a button or click of a mouse.

The above statement in a way paraphrases the inertia, which we have got into because of our innate need as a human race to fulfill all our wishes. I am not saying it is negative, if we as a human being didn’t have the desire to fulfill that need, we would not have reached the moon, discovered the cure for malaria, build bridges and prevented earth quakes.

While the above-mentioned example have a life / society / world level changes we hardly get to listen / read / understand these things. Let me explain, in last 10 days I have been hearing of this innovation done by Nike – wherein a sensor is attached to the shoes which gets linked to the ipod and as you jog you can not only hear your “jog playlist” which pumps you up. After you finish jogging you will know how many calories you have burnt, sounds great. Even I got tempted.

But then as I was driving past the hoarding when a begging bowl was thrust at me by a 5 year old in tattered rags, in one of the traffic signal. Suddenly, I had a reality check. What about those children in India who are walking the street naked without shoes and for all you know some of these kids would be making these shoes.

At one level, It’s bizarre – why can’t Nike spend money in creating a shoe for 50/- there is enough people in the world who will lap it up. There is potential, as we all have read in bottom of the pyramid so why would Nike not touch this segment with a barge pole. I guess because the top of the pyramid is too lucrative too let go. And that is point I was trying to make when we started out.

I feel our life is revolving too much around the periphery, superficial needs created not because it’s life and death or core to our reason of existence but because it helps us to live life comfortably…but essentially it’s cottoning our brains with layers and layers of inertia and slowly we will be so comfortable in that cocoon that only a jolt will bring us out

Most of the inventions are a result of a focus group discussions of the expected needs of a person which is actually our superficial side and it lists down the expectations / desires and sometime fantasies. If somebody asks me “will you be happy if there is a button which if you press before u enter the house so that everything is exactly in order”. I would be tempted to say “YES” but I will say “NO”.

Because life is not about listening to music while jogging, it’s about running. Writing this blog is as much hard work as writing my marketing presentation because it requires disciplining my mind – soul and heart to bring the right words in right intensity, which makes me, feel satisfied when I upload the same.

But most of us will let go because it is too much of an effort. Why? Isn’t there a dichotomy – you have used your intelligence and hard work to earn money and thanks to the technology (and our marketing inventiveness) we have created everything possible to be available at your finger tips so why the emptiness or a lack of reason for leaving.

Because most of us lack the discipline and that has been my biggest learning as I roll up my sleeves and cut the cake.

Objectivity without discipline is like when we went swimming in Phuket. Huge waves which swept us off our feet. We waited for them to come. Some of us swam underneath the wave to escape the fury but some of us got hurled back into the beach.

That was sea - this is your life. But the choice is always yours to make.