3 Idiots

I am not a movie buff. And with awesome movie halls in the city I live, the interest in watching movies goes down even more. Watched 3 Idiots recently, found it to be decent. I had read Chetan Bhagat’s novel Five Point Someone, and possibly it was one of the first books I had read in record time. I really loved the way he writes imagines and delivers and being an engineer, could relate a lot to it.

The movie 3 Idiots was liked by almost all the people I interacted with and the numbers substantiate it, Rs 175 crores in the first week. BUT the movie raises questions:

Is it an adaptation from Five Point Someone?
There’s been a lot of buzz in the media post the movie about Chetan Bhagat not getting the credit and the producers claiming the movie not based on his novel. What I feel is, the story has been changed a lot, but the basic idea or the backbone of the storyline has been from the book itself. And the worst part the actor, who is supposed to fight for righteous causes, doesn’t seem to be impressed by the author stance. Anyways, it is business and possibly a b-school grad isn’t as smart as the street smart people there.
 

The Blog Discussion
I read Sagarika’s blog, a critical analysis of the movie which questions whether the message given by the movie. The question is important, but what if it is not the right message. Do we always worry about the message a movie delivers. At the end of the day it is a movie for entertaining people and doing business. 3 Idiots is doing well on both fronts.

About the message that the movie delivers, do we always question that?
Did we question the movie Fanaa or Gangster which ended up people sympathizing the unsocial elements of the society (a terrorist in the first case and a underworld gangster in the latter)? Yeah at the time of Fanaa, media was busy covering ban imposed on Aamir Khan’s movies in Gujarat and not about the story. After all media also looks for more masala content and chose public sentiments in Gujarat over the storyline.
In case of Gangster it wasn’t probably not as high profile (starcast) movie as 3 Idiots.

OR

Did we question Rang De Basanti for what the guys did was actually taking the law in their hand?

The answer is neither we DIDN'T.

• Yes I agree to the fact that the movie had a few instances that were stretched and could have been done away with, for instance the delivery scene wasn’t probably required.
• As discussed in forum about the role of the professor, there can be a person inflexible when it comes to students but while making a humorous movie you need to add some stuff to make it attractive (referring to him taking power nap break of 7.5 minutes).
• Mockery of education system - the message is not far from correct; it gets reflected in the R&D happening in India. We are ultimately a backend office of the world. We know how to use JAVA but I believe any no Indian company has developed a programming language.

In today’s times thanks to the social media, GTalk Status messages, Facebook and Twitter a public opinion is created not through thinking and arguing on the subject matter but by virtue of majority thinking. A hundred status messages saying ‘3 Idiots – Awesome Movie’ or ‘3 Idiots – Must Watch’ curbs my ability of thinking against it. And if this is so, I think it is a major disadvantage of social media. Same happens when a journalists’ try to use the same channel to spread their views. I certainly believe that a collective opinion is not always the right opinion, it should always be questioned.

The Message
The movie gives a message that understanding is more important than scoring marks, and as a student, I agree to it that those who have the really good understanding of the subject are not always the toppers and the toppers don’t have the best understanding. Most of the time, toppers’ efforts go in scoring marks only. This is very typical in the Indian education system. And if we as a country need to improve our education system, we need to work on it.

Finally, the movie 3 Idiots will not even have a slight effect on the existing system, but will certainly provoke people to think about if changes are required.

The Maximum City

Mumbai: The city that never sleeps. While I am writing this, parts of the city are still visible when I look down the aircraft. It is a place totally different from any other city in India. Be it the metros, or the other tier I cities, there is no match.

The city is like this because of the people. There is a decently high level of discipline in every individual. It is evident all the time, the traffic move in a much disciplined way than Delhi or Bangalore, while waiting for a shared cab, People get into queues on their own. Same goes at the bus stops and the ticket windows at the stations. Had it been Delhi it would have been a mad rush. The auto rickshaw-walas always returned a rupee back every time I had the minimum fare. Again a contrast, you get cheated very often in other parts of the country.

Travelling in Mumbai, many call it a pain, yet the entire city moves in the suburban trains or locals. Be it the top level executives or the lower middle class or the fisherman and the dabbawalas, the only difference is the first class and the ordinary. When most of the india hasn’t yet had the morning tea, Mumbai is on the move from Virar to Churchgate. When the entire country is sleeping, there are people strolling on the marine drive.

I bet, if anyone takes a cam on the marine drive, walks long enough, the video will represent a perfect snapshot of entire demographics of the country, all religions and social classes, rich and poor, young and old at one single place.

South Bombay, where I fortunately got to spend the two months, has a different charm of its own. The Victorian architecture in itself is worth looking at and admiring in the poetic language. Strolling down the lines, with building having huge arches in the Fort area in the backdrop, tall old buildings which have a different glam factor, the street market at Causeway, the Taj, the Gateway of India, the Fountain, the Oberoi, the marine drive, the black Premier Padmini Taxis with yellow top, the BEST busses, the Victoria Terminus the road side market all make South Bombay so special.

The city could be “Maximum” in dimensions, population but, above all, there are “Minimum” resources. Nobody has time, everyone is running. In the first few days, I never rushed to catch a local, never bothered whether it is a slow or a fast local, for it didn’t make more than 5-7 minutes difference. Within a week or ten days, I was actually running on the road to catch a bus, got a train pass made to save “time” in queues and was desperately looking for the fast trains only.

100 rupees in Mumbai seem to be worth nothing. And money is something that probably people care for a lot in Mumbai. People, don’t mind sweating and the AC buses run empty. Most of the executives in major companies, most of them highly paid, travel by local trains, which is undoubtedly the fastest way to travel in Mumbai. Again in contrast with Delhi where everyone travels by a personal car.

It is definitely a place where you learn to adjust, you learn to sacrifice your comfort for the sake of time, you skip the snacks and grab a Vada Pav while on the move, it’s a place where you should have an empty stomach and full pocket, it teaches you how to literally “run” your life, it’s a place that teaches you how to survive.

Even with all the hardships and so less comfort, it is said that anyone who comes to Mumbai doesn’t want to leave and it is possibly the reason why the city is growing beyond limits. It accepts everyone who comes in and has opportunities for all too. May be that’s why it is the Maximum City.

Quarterly Round Up!!

I haven’t been close to my own blog for long. The last time I accesses it was when IPL related Google search redirected me to one of my old posts. Couldn’t find time is a lame excuse, I didn’t make an effort. While I am keying my thoughts about how the year has been so far, today’s date is somewhat special. It is the last date of third term of MBA, it is the financial year ending and I am writing a quarterly report for the first quarter of 2009.

Last year ended with a blast, a Chilka and Puri trip after endterms, celebrating Christmas at the institute, and the 31st December JLT. 2009 so far has been eventful and with all forecasting and projection techniques that I have learnt, the present value of all the future “Happening Events” is pretty high. The FM effect isn’t getting out of my mind, although I couldn’t do much in the 3 and half hours paper, but at least have learnt jargons and how to use them appropriately.

January 30th was when DA-IICT, my alma mater, conferred the B.Tech Degree. I was always sceptical about my being able to attend the Convocation given the harsh attendance rules in XIMB, but somehow it happened. Went to Kolkata and took a flight to Ahmedabad. It was a moment in itself being at the gates of the place where I have spent some four good years of my life. Nostalgia....

Engineering college is more about getting to know yourself, realising your strengths, making good friends and I guess I did all that very well. I would consider myself fortunate for having a bunch of real good friends who still remain one of the closest. I think an MBA institute provides an environment where there is a much greater level of interaction but the level of bonding is not that much.

Back in DA-IICT, it was a moment that everyone present there would always cherish for the life... Meeting all the friends that you had always liked to spend time and hangout with, being at the same room where you have stayed for 3 years, being recognised by the food court staff, walking down the tracks where you had rushed to the classes, being an alumnus, every moment is altogether a different feeling. I believe that it wasn’t just for me, but everyone had come to be there and getting the degree was just a part of it. When not in college, the place is a heaven for foodies. Having dinner on the open air roof top restaurant, trying out exquisite chocolate cuisine at The Chocolate Room in a wonderful ambience, sharing a drink at night and loads of bakar... This was what convocation was indirectly meant for.


Adieus to Ahmedabad, took a flight back to Kolkata and had to catch a train to Bhubaneswar from Howrah at night. Being at Kolkata was a surprise package, had around 6 hours time to spend there and I called up a good friend of mine and it turned out to be an amazing jaunt. I had only seen Kolkata in movies, documentaries and books. I had an image of it being a rugged city, full of poverty, not so properly managed city. Some things turned out to be true. It is probably the only city in India where you can still use 25p coins and there is an economy running out of these. It was hard to see hand pulled carts...signs of extreme poverty. The city buses seemed to be of pre-independence era, wooden bodied rickety buses probably fully loaded with human freight. Trams, I had imagined as an old yet classic way of travel, baah...Nope... Missed the shot by miles.

All is not that bad... Being a diehard fan of Sourav Ganguly, I got to dine at Sourav’s...Not value for money, but a valuable moment. This was the best part of the short halt at Kolkata...Kept strolling on the roads, till it was time to pack up... Back to Howrah station, two of us kept on chatting as long as possible, unearthing all the possible facts and events we had been party to...Yo!!

Next morning, Monday, back to academic schedule, half of our batch came back from the OBL (Out Bound Learning from Tata Steel Adventure Foundation, Jamshedpur). The second batch including me was to leave for a 4 day programme the coming weekend. OBL is theoretically a team building and training package, but to me it was more of an adventure trip. The kind of lives we live, I think breaks like these should be frequent. Away from the wireless world, no laptop or internet or even a mobile connection, living in tents for 2 days and a makeshift shelter of plastic and wooden sticks is a different experience in itself. Early morning jog, followed by warm up exercise, fixed eating timings and the most simple, yet healthy, food being served, and I bet nobody complained. For the people who have lived a lavished and pampered life also, it was a learning experience in appositive sense. Washing your utensils, shitting in the makeshift arrangement, crawling on the ground to cross the hurdles, getting tanned in sun, trying to test the limits of your stamina, crawling in the caves, dust all over, at times felt like miners, making your own food in open on firewood using water directly from a not-so-clean lake; these are some things that take you to the grass root level. Who would imagine, supposed managers to find comfortable sleep on the rocks (literally) even without a floor mat, but it is very true.
Four days, disconnected with the world, in peace and a totally new experience filled with fun and energy.

After the OBL, it was back to normal academic schedule, midterms followed by regular, somewhat hectic schedule because of rescheduling of many classes.
MAXINATIONS was the next big thing and probably the best I have experienced in XIMB. It is an inter-hostel block series of competitions, from rock, dance and music, to acting, quizzing, and most importantly strategizing. I feel proud for being one of the significant contributors from our block and we led ourselves to be the Champions. Non XIMBians might not get the heck out of what is so-damn-important in a series of competitions, but trust me, not even an iota of exaggeration; it is a real BIG event... And winning it makes it all the more important...


The time ticks away, can’t really feel the depth of time, 3 terms of MBA are over... Looking ahead is the Summer Internship at Axis Bank, Mumbai. Challenges are welcome!!!

The World Food Crisis

For nation shall rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom and there shall be earthquakes in divers places and there shall be famines and troubles these are the beginnings of sorrows .¹

Since eternity, food security has been of utmost importance for human beings. Be it struggling against the mammoths in pre-historic age or agriculture in the Neolithic age, man has always struggled for food and survived. And even today in the 21^st century the mankind is facing a food crisis which is affecting everyone, the developed countries like the USA and Japan, the developing countries like India and the underdeveloped African countries. It is taking inflation to unbearable levels and making life miserable for a large number of people in the third world countries.

Who is responsible for all this? World leaders have been blaming each other, claiming different issues as the reason, but in this blame game is anyone looking for a sustainable solution to the grave problem?

The very basic reason for the food crisis is not the shortage of food but the dramatic increase in the food prices and the causes for the same can be attributed to numerous factors which are collectively responsible. A phased analysis of the food crisis can be carried out by studying the roles and policy decisions taken by India, USA, the EU and their effect on common man.

Indians were outraged when the US commented on the increase in consumption by Indian middle class. Being traditionally vegetarian Indians have low per capita consumption than the US. But India is indeed to blame, but for different reasons. It is among the 40 countries that have curbed food exports to control domestic prices. Hence the food supply in world market has shrunk, fuelling the prices. Actually there is no food shortage, according to FAO² statistics the world cereal production was record high at 2108 million tonnes in 2007.

The European Union has aggressively pushed its bio-fuel programme despite warnings from scientists and researchers. Britain went through implementation of the legislation which said that 2.5% of all gasoline and diesel sold must be derived from crops.

USA increased its production of bio-fuel from corn manifolds in recent times. With India curbing exports, South Asian rice exporting countries forming an alliance OREC (Organisation of Rice Exporting Countries) and collectively negotiating at their terms and given the consumers’ preference for aromatic varieties of rice, Basmati (India) and Jasmine (Thailand) the rice prices in the US have increased.

The above cited factors just make the tip of an iceberg. Actually there are multiple factors that have contributed to rising food prices. The increasing crude prices have led to diversion from production of food crops (particularly maize) to produce bio-fuel. Increasing population and demand particularly from India and China contribute to making the problem severe in the long run. Apart from these there are flawed government policies which have adversely affected the market dynamics.

Realising the graveness of the crisis, what we need to do is to look for a sustainable solution for the entire world. A person suffering in Africa is no different from an Indian. The governments ought to act collectively and responsibly for the betterment of mankind. It is indeed high time to act or the world might just see another World War for food security.

________________________________________________________________________________________________

1: Mark 13:8, http://bible.cc/mark/13-8.htm
2: http://www.fao.org/

Sourav Ganguly: An epoch brought to end

Nature follows dawn-sunlight-dusk-midnight. What can be dawn-sunlight-eclipse-sunlight-forced into darkness forever? Confusing enough... but that is what Sourav Ganguly's career has been.

Sourav Ganguly is certainly the most controversial cricketer India has ever produced. For me he has used cricket and more mind games to succeed. His inclusion in the Indian test team was termed as quota system. He carried his not-doing-dirty-work image from his ODI debut series when he refused to take drinks on the ground. The man in the making was a leader who would reshape the fate of Indian cricket. He silenced his critics with an awesome debut following the same in the next test match only to be nicknamed "Prince of Kolkata" by the British media.

Captaincy of the Indian cricket team is the next most commented job after the prime minister of India. Ganguly's career took a linearly increasing curve from 1996 to 2000. He formed a successful opening pair with Sachin, was the one man army at Toronto Sahara cup, and smashed a splendid 183 against Sri Lanka in the world cup. I guess no Indian batsman has matched such a batting performance outside India against a good team as his 183.

When Sachin resigned from captaincy, Ganguly was the most deserving player in the team to lead. Captaincy did take a toll on Sachin's individual performance, and history says it happens with very Indian captain. Indian team got a new image with its new leader. Azharuddin brought a real bad name for the country by selling himself to bookies, Sachin couldn’t take India’s performance anywhere, and this new guy coming in had a lot of responsibilities. He took the most unorthodox decisions, realised the importance of Rahul Dravid, the then laggard in ODIs, and ensured his place by giving him a dual responsibility of a wicket-keeper. And it worked.

He pushed for inclusion of Harbhajan Singh in the team, who would have otherwise been forgotten due to the chucking allegation, groomed players like Yuvraj, Zaheer Khan and Irfan Pathan and brought in Srinath back from an almost retirement. His leadership was undoubtedly the best Indian team ever had. Harbhajan ripped apart the Aussies, Pathan gave Pakistan the dose of their own medicine (doctored by Wasim Akram :-P) and Zaheer Khan remains the mainstay of Indian pace attack. He steered the Indian team to finals of ICC Champions Trophy in 2000 and 2002. It was his sheer perseverance and never-give-up attitude by which India defeated strongly placed South Africa in the pre final game. In this period Indian team reached the finals of almost every tournament they played.

Ganguly was the first Indian captain to take the Aussie challenge in the right spirit and beat them at their soil. The entire 2003-04 test series was dominated by India. It was he who reinstated the confidence in the Indian team that they could take on the Aussie might. It was when the Indian team lacked the experience of Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan, any other captain would have accepted a thrashing defeat before the first match. He led the team by setting an example, a splendid 144 at Brisbane in the first test, used the resources he had to gain the maximum. He found talent in Pathan and the player delivered by taking Steve Waugh’s wicket in the last test match he played.

Even Australian media praised the Indian team and Wisden published an article that other teams should learn from India. He was the architect of the changing face of Indian dominance in world cricket. He questioned the decisions of Steve Bucknor, challenged the bans on him at ICC, and used aggression to treat other teams their way, particularly the Aussies. And the list remains incomplete without mentioning Ganguly waving his shirt at the Lord's.

All was going right, when Indian board realised that they need another foreigh coach. Newly appointed coach, Greg Chappel, wanted to run the game of cricket in India like a football coach. He dreamt of 2007 world cup but couldn’t take the team anywhere close to it. A team can’t have two Gunda’s, that’s what SRK said in Chak de India. India had one (Ganguly) and just got another as Chappel. Differences must have crept in; Chappel had the edge to prove himself because of Ganguly’s bad run with form. An Indian fighter, fighting with an Aussie egoist. Cricket imperialism isn’t it? And the Aussie succeeded in dividing the team and ruling over it. The team seemed to have performed well on records but many of the victories were against weaker teams. The docile Dravid was just a remote controlled captain. Greg Chappel might have succeeded in ruling over the team but actually ruined the team chemistry. The result: 2007 world cup debacle.

When Ganguly staged a comeback in the Indian side, performed well, I thought I could draw a parallel with his comeback and Steve Jobs second coming. Both being ditched by the individuals they backed and made a remarkable comeback. Jobs went ahead and still continues but Ganguly found more John Sculleys. His second stint with Indian team started off remarkably with fighting performance against South Africa, and good ODI performances against West Indies and Sri Lanka. But the road ahead was never as smooth as it used to be.

The new league of young, hit-the-dance-floor, hair-style-changing, chips-selling and bollywood savvy players cleared the seniors from their way and own the control of the team. I doubt how long will Sachin hold the fort. Ganguly could not even get to think of retirement from the ODIs and probably for this reason the board decided to give him the opportunity to think about his test career.

With politics in the Indian cricket prevailing, the most successful Indian captain is being made to take retirement. The person who transformed the outlook of the Indian team isn’t given the respect he deserves. His elegant sixes won't be there anymore, his on field aggression won't be in the game but his ideology will remain, his aggression to take the team forward will be leant by others; and his leadership will continue to inspire people.

It’s an era coming rather being brought to an end.