THE Year that was....

One more year passes by and one more decade comes to an end. By far this year personally experienced has been the fastest. 2010 holds special significance because one more new decade begins. The journey from 2000 to 2010 must be very significant in our lives due to the remarkable changes the last decade has brought in our way of living. Most of us matured from boyband worshipping teenagers to grown up adults if one may agree to call  himself one :). Ipods and music phones have replaced music cassettes and 20-20 becoming the latest craze.

The year began on a solemn note with the world still in the grip of economic turmoil. Stimulus packages, economic recovery, inflation, unemployment, bear bullying the bull and markets crashing thronged the headlines of the newspapers. The world suddenly no longer seemed to be the same place which the dawn of this decade had promised. All promises of economic growth and development were washed away and the worst economic crisis after the great depression became imminent. This came as a rude shock to many people like us for whom the last decade promised many things. But somewhere down the line the bubble had to burst which was building up with unprecedented growth. Nobody noticed the undercurrents and the biggest financial behemoths of the world came crashing down. 2009 was doomed to be a year of toil and market corrections, with the market and consumer sentiments on an all time low.

Rahul Gandhi,Congress,Swine Flu,Twitter,Copenhagen,small cars, Avataar, Hangover etc were some of the news thronging headlines this year. Very interestingly around 42 small cars were launched this year in India alone with the world still in the grip of recession.

On a personal front 2009 was a year of learning for me. It was year of travelling and contemplation. Pondering back there were many things which i could have done better and avoided some. The year will hold a special significance because it was the last year as a student. Come 2010, we will again embark on our journey to the neverland. We must shed all the negativities of the year gone by and carry on all the positives. Somewhere down the heart, there is a feeling that 2010 is going to be good.

P.S : A feeling of guilt always surrounds you, once the new year revelry is over. Man one more year, just zoomed away...we are growing old. Let us cherish our youth and not grow up so fast.

Hyderabadaan...

It is now two years in the city but every time you venture out it has something interesting in store for you. The city has some of the funniest dialects of hindi spoken in India. The incredulous habbit of adding "AAN" to any hindi word and speaking it in their unique way makes for some very interesting and funny hearing. Often you cant stop smiling after a conversation with the local auto driver because of the over dose of Hyderabadan hindi. "Dost" becomes "Dostaan" and "Charminar" becomes "Charminaraan" and the list goes on. On one very funny occasion during my visit to the city ,saw an old uncle scolding a kid for running behind the piegeons in Mecca Masjid. The dialogue delivered was " Tu kiski Aulaadan hain re...Kabotaraan ko Khana nahin khane dete". I could not control but burst into peals of laughter without making the old man embaressed. Other escapades have also brought many funny incidences especially the awesome songs played by the autodrivers. Your eardrums would need some repair once you step out of the auto.

The city inspite of the tremendous advances in IT and other sectors has kept its old world charm intact. From sky scrappers in Hi-Tech city to the bylanes of the old city, it has something to offer to everybody. No wonder people from all economic backgrounds can easily accomodate in the city very unlike Bangalore and Chennai. Hyderabad is quite unlike other towns in this part of India. Its lineage belonging to the days of Nizams as well as the flourishing trading community thriving here from all parts of India makes it different from other towns of A.P and south india. Jawaharlal Nehru once rightly commented that Hyderabad and not New Delhi should have been the capital of India because here you find the perfect confluence of many communities from India living in perfect harmony.

Other places worth visiting apart from the old city are the Birla Mandir and the Rabindra Bhavan. It has been an honour of late to see some of the finest performances by Indian artists in that place. Talking about the food you have to explore the city beyond the McD's and Pizza huts. Three things unique about the city are the irani chai, baked biscuits and the omnipresent hyderabadi biryani. However to be honest i still prefer the awadhi style of biryani. The best place to have biryani according to my view is Shadab which worth a visit.

Two years just flew by in the city. But everytime when you venture out in the city the essence of the city remains the same. For a small town kid like me, i still have fondness for the old hyderabad as compared to the urban and suave Banajara hills and the boring shopping malls.

P.S: Any thing about Hyderabad can not be complete without the shayari. Enjoy this amazing piece of work by some great shayar from the city :)

Hatha Main Hath Milake,
Hatha Main Hath Milake,
Anguthi Chura Ke Chali Gayi,
Abhi Gale Milne Ko aari,
Kya Karati Ki Kya ki.

Chai Pene Ko Aake,
Chai Pene Ko Aake,
Saucer Churake Chali Gayi,
Abhi Full Meals Ko aari,
Kya Karati Ki Kya Ki.

Pahalich Mulaqat Main,
Pahalich Mulaqat Main,
Five Star main chuna Lagai,
Abhi Date pe leke jao Bulari,
Kya Karati ki Kya ki.

Sagai Sagai Bolake,
Sagai Sagai Bolake,
Puri shopping karali,
Abhi Shadi Shadi Bolari,
Kya Karati ki Kya ki.

SEHWACK

I am not an expert on human psychology, politics, reality TV, free markets, terrorism blah blah. The only thing which i know is that all these things become insignificant when Sehwag bats.

This morning i woke to find to my pleasant surprise that Sehwag has just been named the "Batsmen of the Decade" by Britain's Daily Telegraph. Considering the greats playing along with him in his contemporary era it is a big achievement. If you compare him on parameters of audacity and chutzpah then i think none other than Sehwag deserves the accolades. The world has seen many destructive batsmen but to be a destructive opener and consistently slaughtering bowling attacks is not everyones cup of tea. Cricket was considered to be a gentleman's game and anything outside the coaching manual considered sacrilage. Then the world is introduced to a maverick from Najafgarh who does everthing on the cricketing pitch which a coach would never ask you to do. Purists and cricketing pundits all over the world were taken by surprise and criticism poured in from every corner. Now the same purists and critics can't stop showering encomniums on the same person. Consider some of the comments made "impudent but rarely imprudent", "Dashing openers have always been with us but none has managed to do it with the audacity of Sehwag", "He bats as if he has to catch the last plane out of Kabul".

The most funny comment which i read about Sehwag was made by Andy Zaltzman of Cricinfo when he commented that " Sehwag's bats as if he has just eaten a man-eating lion". If in 1950s people thronged to see Sehwag when even 3 runs per over was considered a very good run rate they would surely comment that, " I am not sure what sport he is playing but i am sure as hell that it is not cricket".

Some of the innings vividly etched in the memory are his first triple in Multan. Personally my favorite innings is the 195 which he scored at MCG during the boxing day test match. I still remember that after being hit by Brett Lee in the first over he faced on the helmet he went on to tear apart the bowling attack. To our horror he got out on a fulltoss trying to hit a partimer Katich  for a six. Sehwag without a slightest of grimace walked out to a standing ovation. Given a chance he said he would do it again. He is the only Batsmen after Bradmen to score 290 and above three times and got very close to become the first person to score three triple hundreds and got out on 293. Going through his record one can easily notice that not only does he score hundreds  but scores very big ones and that too at a very good strike rate.

One thing which works in his favour is his hand eye co-ordination. With his feet planted firmly and zero footwork he can wallop the bowler to any corner of the ground. In the interview after his innings in Mumbai against Sri Lanka when asked about how does he do it, he gave a very simple reply "I SEE THE BALL and I TRY and HIT THE BALL". Come again, what did u say, is it so simple . Well then the words are spoken by none other than the maverick himself, "Take a bow".

When Sehwag bats the earth starts rotating in other direction, even the angels and demons stop fighting to see his next blitz.  Join Sehwagology ,he can put even Steven Tyler to shame. Steven Tyler goes for rehab but Sehwag sends people for rehab.

All iz well.....Think Again????

The amount of euphoria and delight which Aamir's new film has brought to us is quite unprecedented. Making a  funny film is one thing but raising some important questions through humour is one art which i think Rajkumar Virani has perfected. The film strikes at the core of the problem which is our flawed education system. The film raises many pertinent questions which even the greatest of scholars and geeks would find difficult to answer. The amount of peer pressure and the expectations which the society thrusts upon us is alarming. Every Indian parent dreams his kid to be an engineer, doctor or an MBA ,but are these professional courses worth doing. A guy pursued the dream to get into an IIT which never materialised so finally ended up landing up in a decent engineering college and pursuing a course which promised him a secure career ahead. Ambition propelled him to do MBA from a very reputed B-School in India because now having an MBA after B.Tech is the latest fad. Cut to the present the guy is a confused soul who still craves for Nirvana. As you grow up with age one tends to realise how things would have been different only if you had done things you enjoyed. If you love your work then everyday is a holiday for you because you are enjoying what you are doing and nothing has been thrusted upon you.

The greatest gift  from internet are the social networking sites which give you  access to all your friends activities and keep a track of what they are doing. Surfing through the profiles you find people who are content with what they are doing without having any flashy degrees or professional courses. Their happiness is not derived from the degrees or the courses but from the satisfaction of doing what you love to do and enjoying life. Most of our career is driven by rote and following the rat race. The race to the top driven by endless desires and ambition somewhere tends to push you to doing things from where there is no return. We plan our career but soon the career path which we choose tends to design our way of living and after that there is no looking back.

There are many important lessons which the movie teaches us. On one side are lesser mortals like us who keep whinning about our present and pondering what will happen in the future and then you have people like Rancho who more believes in living for the moment and living each day as it comes. We need more Ranchos around us so that the world finally becomes worth living.

Soon after passing 12th most of the youth in India are geared up with passion to join some great engineering college and grab that dream job to rake in the moolah. Some are succesful in doing so while others slowly keep climbing the ladder. In between lies the boredom of slogging through 4 years of sheer drudggery. You end up doing assignments after assginments, earnestly doing them in the 1st year and then slowly copying from some geek in the classs and this slowly becomes your habbit. The most unsought place in the entire college is your lecture theatre where you only pay visit because you may fall short of the mandatory attendance. From 3rd year onwards everyone starts praying for the prison sentence to get over and getting that coveted job. Somehow you complete the final year project and clearing the final viva with the most audacious answer the faculties can ever accept. At the end of the day the teachers are also human beings and they pity you and clear your course viva. After numerous attempts of clearing the backlogs and numerous visits to the nearest temple you finally clear your B.Tech course with that coveted job awaiting you. Your world comes crashing down when you realize that the kind of work you are doing is no where related to what you where taught in your course. Hardly 10% of your studies is actually applicable to your job and rest are simply subjects which decorate your grade sheet. The guy sitting next to you in the workplace may not be as brilliant as you or coming through the same college but you are at par with him only because he performs the task exactly as the company demands by rote. Your mind soon starts wondering was my B.Tech worth this. Did i make a mistake. Knowingly or unknowingly you are lured by the greed of doing an MBA and drawing astronomical salaries which every national daily prints as its cover story. The quest for the MBA begins and lady luck lands you up in a decent B-School. Life in a B-school simply breezes past you in 2 years because of the cramped schedule and somehow you again get your coveted job and that coveted salary. What next now, again that same drudggery....some are lucky enough to live their dreams and rest keep on juggling between jobs and getting the next best salary.

Consider an entirely diffirent scenario where an average guy listens to his heart and does what he loves to do. After graduation he joins some creative field and slowly works his way up the career. Effectively he is saving 3 years of boredom by staying away from a professional degree or the MBA. Now you may argue that he wont be able to reach greater heights in his career of work and go up in the company because he lacks a professional degree. But my freind the world is replete with examples of people leading many firms and society with a very modest academic career. In todays fast pace world smartwork and not hardwork pays. If your basic necessities of life is being fullfilled by your profession then sooner or later you will reach a position where you can also enjoy the luxuries. For some the wait is long while others get it sooner but nothing is beyond reach in todays world. The most important thing for us to consider is to be alert about the opportunities and grab them when they come calling.

The movie is a must watch for parents who dont care what their kids want to do, for Professors who insist on getting that correct answer in the test and replicating those same derivations as shown in the text books, to students who more concerned about what grade they got in their last evaluation instead of thinking was the assigment worth doing and to all those people who think marks and grades are still a reflection of a persons merit. The HRD should as go for a major revamp in the education sector and i must congratulate the current HRD minister for taking some positive steps. India now is a land of opportunities and everyone can find his coveted job. Restructuring our education system should be the order of the day or else we will still keep on hearing about students commiting suicides and losing one more life which would have blossomed only if it was left to itself.