Got some responses from people telling about the SHER I posted.
Hence, I am posting an old SHER I wrote few years back when I was in college.
Hope people like it.
chehroN pe kai chehre, nahiN koi kisi se judaa
laakh dekhooN fir bhi,chehroN mein nahiN koi farak dikhta hai
paak insaaf ki ummeed kahan tak javaN rakhoon munsif
tere darbaar mein har jins ghalat dikhtaa hai
[paak insaaf=clear justice,munsif=judge,darbaar=court,jins=things,articles]
himmat-e-naakhuda ya patwaar ka bharosa karooN
jasaamat-e-beher jab door talak dikhtaa hai
[himmat-e-naakhuda=guts of oarsman,patwaar=oar,jasaamat-e-beher=largeness of ocean]
javooN to javoon kahaN,simt jo gum huaa hai
farsh to CHHat,CHHat deewar ki tarah dikhtaa hai
[simt=direction,gum=lost,farsh=floor,CHHat=roof]
fugaan sunta hoon uski per paar kaise paar jaaoon
jo dekhoon qaamat-e-deewar to falak dikhta hai
[fugaan = cry of pain,qaamat = height,stature,qaamat-e-deewar = wall's height,falak = sky]
Monday, September 8, 2008
Thursday, September 4, 2008
A well used afternoon
I had a class till 1:30 this Wednesday. Had my lunch as usual and then was about to go off to my room when Pankaj asked me if I can provide him some help for the Flood relief camp in Bihar. And I thought to myself, what could be a better use of a lazy afternoon. I went into my room dropped my notebooks and went to join him. Earlier he had circulated a mail asking for volunteers who wanted to help for the same cause. Seems everyone was busy with their own commitments.
Prof. Haritha Saranga had took the initiative to collect old clothes for donation to the relief camp. We went to the destined location where all the collected clothes from the campus were accumulated. From the students' community we were three people from PGP1, me, Pankaj and Amit. We also had an EGMP IX A student along with a couple of his acquintances. While on the way we had a short introduction with Saranga mam wherein mam mentioned that most of the times people tend to donate quite a few things for the people afflicted by natural calamities, its the volunteers and their time which they fall off to do the rest of the work. We reached the place where we had Rajshekhar, the van driver who had to drive the clothes to the railway station, whom we immediately gave the moniker of Raju. Some clothes where already segregated as 'women', 'men', 'children' and 'others'. We segregated rest of the clothes accordingly. Then we started packing the clothes in cardboard cartons with the help of sellotapes. The whole process took almost 2 hours at the end of which I took leave and came back to my room. I was quite contented with whatever small bit I was able to contribute. May be it was not much which I did from my side, but it did leave me with feel good feeling. But mam's words did echoed in my mind after I went back. People don't want to expend their time doing these stuff. They might be willing however to help otherwise though. And why is that, may be they value the work which they can do in that time more valuable. Or may be they feel that such petty a job is not for them. In that case I remember Gandhi's word sayin "No work is a small work". And I would contribute more to it by saying, it is not the kind of work or kind of actions which always matter, sometimes it is the intention behind it which matters the most. I feel sorry to say that people lack this intention. Students would join Vikasna, the social service initiative from IIMB but they could not extract out time for this. So much of intent is clear when Vikasna provides them the 'bullet points' in a one pager. Well whatever the intent for joining Vikasna be, at least some good is occuring because of it. Don't we use the 'carrot theory' to get the job done so I suppose even this is valid.
After I came back Pankaj and Amit helped in the transporting of clothes till the railway station. And only after transfering the responsibility to the concerned person did they come back late in the evening. And this was done when both of them had a quiz the next day. Kudos to both the guys for their 'petty' contribution. I hope they keep the momentum going; it makes me feel that at least some things necessary are still alive in some hearts. The total clothes collected weighed 325 kgs in 14 cartons we packed and was sent to Sarvangin Vikas Sanstha, Kankarbag, Patna. I hope they reach the needy in right time, for there is nothing more than receiving the commodities for basic need for survival in the whole world. It could not possibly be more satsifying than reading a management book for 2 hours.
In case someone wishes to contribute financially the details are as follows:
Prof. Haritha Saranga had took the initiative to collect old clothes for donation to the relief camp. We went to the destined location where all the collected clothes from the campus were accumulated. From the students' community we were three people from PGP1, me, Pankaj and Amit. We also had an EGMP IX A student along with a couple of his acquintances. While on the way we had a short introduction with Saranga mam wherein mam mentioned that most of the times people tend to donate quite a few things for the people afflicted by natural calamities, its the volunteers and their time which they fall off to do the rest of the work. We reached the place where we had Rajshekhar, the van driver who had to drive the clothes to the railway station, whom we immediately gave the moniker of Raju. Some clothes where already segregated as 'women', 'men', 'children' and 'others'. We segregated rest of the clothes accordingly. Then we started packing the clothes in cardboard cartons with the help of sellotapes. The whole process took almost 2 hours at the end of which I took leave and came back to my room. I was quite contented with whatever small bit I was able to contribute. May be it was not much which I did from my side, but it did leave me with feel good feeling. But mam's words did echoed in my mind after I went back. People don't want to expend their time doing these stuff. They might be willing however to help otherwise though. And why is that, may be they value the work which they can do in that time more valuable. Or may be they feel that such petty a job is not for them. In that case I remember Gandhi's word sayin "No work is a small work". And I would contribute more to it by saying, it is not the kind of work or kind of actions which always matter, sometimes it is the intention behind it which matters the most. I feel sorry to say that people lack this intention. Students would join Vikasna, the social service initiative from IIMB but they could not extract out time for this. So much of intent is clear when Vikasna provides them the 'bullet points' in a one pager. Well whatever the intent for joining Vikasna be, at least some good is occuring because of it. Don't we use the 'carrot theory' to get the job done so I suppose even this is valid.
After I came back Pankaj and Amit helped in the transporting of clothes till the railway station. And only after transfering the responsibility to the concerned person did they come back late in the evening. And this was done when both of them had a quiz the next day. Kudos to both the guys for their 'petty' contribution. I hope they keep the momentum going; it makes me feel that at least some things necessary are still alive in some hearts. The total clothes collected weighed 325 kgs in 14 cartons we packed and was sent to Sarvangin Vikas Sanstha, Kankarbag, Patna. I hope they reach the needy in right time, for there is nothing more than receiving the commodities for basic need for survival in the whole world. It could not possibly be more satsifying than reading a management book for 2 hours.
In case someone wishes to contribute financially the details are as follows:
Account Details:
Sarvangin Vikas Samiti
a/c No. 030701000973
RTGZ nubmer: ICIC0000307
ICICI Bank LImited Kankarbag Branch,
H-39, Doctors Colony, Patna 800 020
The internet portal for the NGO - http://svs.org.in/index.html
Sarvangin Vikas Samiti
a/c No. 030701000973
RTGZ nubmer: ICIC0000307
ICICI Bank LImited Kankarbag Branch,
H-39, Doctors Colony, Patna 800 020
The internet portal for the NGO - http://svs.org.in/index.html
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Movie Review - The Boondock Saints
The Boondock SaintsAre the ‘Saints’ doing the correct thing?? Well, no comments.
What is the story about? Well, disintegrate some murders which look like gang wars but actually are committed by fraternal twins who are just following ‘God’s verdict’, line it up with a super intelligent FBI detective who cracks the complex looking cases like a second grade puzzle, mix them with some good direction and put good action and comic sequences as icing, you have got ‘The Boondock Saints’. The director cum writer Troy Duffy is brilliant in his first attempt at movie making. The movie has the touch of Tarantino and Christopher Nolan when it comes to disordered storytelling and comes close to Tarantino and Guy Ritchie when mixing that ‘comedy during crime’ type of comic sequences in his movie. Consequence, you get the masterpiece Boondock Saints. Be it the action sequences or the comedy scenes or the dialogues, Duffy manages to excel in all in his first and only movie till date. And what does he do with fraternal brothers played by Sean Flanery and Norman Reedus, Willem Dafoe and David Rocco? He pulls out the best of the acting out of them. Dafoe is absolutely brilliant in his portrayal of a brilliant investigator with a rather unique sexuality. He fires in all cylinders in playing this role. Rocco looks natural in his role of an immature imbecilic criminal. And the brothers Flanery and Reedus pull out a great chemistry between them as fraternity brothers, without which the movie would have lost its charm.
Flanery and Reedus are forced to murder two ‘soldiers’ from the Russian mafia in self defense. The neighborhood and media depicts them as ‘Saints’ for murdering the bad guys and eventually they are set free without any charge. They get the verdict of God in their dreams to go ahead with the ‘cleaning’ job. Their friend Rocco joins in and they start planning and executing the jobs. The plot is thick with new ideas to keep you involved in the movie. The murder sequences at times are funny and the way in which detective Dafoe solves them are gratifying. The way the brothers pray before executing the ‘evil’ and then placing the coins on their eyelids make them antiheroes; audience like them. They show a good mix and match of young lads trying to make world a safer place. Many sequences in the movie are genuine and good dialogues make each of them even more pleasurable. The movie has been picturised in gloriously and each frame looks good on the screen. The movie might not have been a big success at the box office but has become a cult movie with its take on ‘cleaning’ the society to make it a better place for living. The ending of the movie could not have been better. A short documentary showing people’s response when asked what they think about the ‘Saints’ is just a brilliant way to end the movie. A highly recommended movie.
My Rating: 8.75/10.00
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Movie Review - The French Connection
The French Connection:The French Connection has been called so often times the movie which laid the rules for the upcoming cop flicks. And this is the biggest problem for this movie. This is the kind of movie on the guidelines of which other movies are made and hence the concept becomes so obsolete that when you watch the original stuff there is actually no originality left. However, it has got the drawback of not being able to be movie which keeps you itact with you seat. Even 'Godfather' is the movie one of its kind, based on which innumerous mafia movies were made later on, but Godfather still keeps its originality intact; It has got the charm which makes you want to see it again and again forgetting about all the mafia movies you might have seen within the years. This lacks in The French Connection. After having seen so many cop flick with different chase sequences what this movie offers is mere flow of various events. Action is present in the form of chase sequences which an average audience sees a dozen of times a year. That freshness of 'new concept' is gone and when it comes to story there is nothing much to speak about. The director has not made any effort to make the movie look different; as i said its just the flow of some seequences which comprise the movie. This is because of these reasons that this movie is not for the audience of today. It fails to charm you and you might get bored in just the beginning half an hour of the movie. There are no gripping dialogues, no face to face combats. Its all about the chase. Not recommended if you can't sit through a movie just for the name of it being a classic movie; there is not much of an entertainment left in it.
My Rating: 7.00/10.00
Movie Review - Following
FollowingFollowing is the first movie by Memento fame Chris Nolan and the movie gives you an idea where from does the direction style of Memento comes. In direction sense, Following could be said as a milder form of Memento. In the latter one always needed to remember what happened in the previous scene and how it started, this movie also has been cut into pieces but the jig saw puzzle leaves you with some link to correlate to other scenes. These links are often the artifacts used in the movie or the state of the actors which speak about the sequence of the movie. The pieces of movies are not exactly in a chronological order but the links help in getting the flow of the story. As in Nolan’s own words “In a compelling story of this genre we are continually being asked to rethink our assessment of the relationship between the various characters, and I decided to structure my story in such a way as to emphasize the audience's incomplete understanding of each new scene as it is first presented”. And as I mentioned the audience is left with some clue (physical artifacts or the state of actors) which help them link the whole story in their minds with the scenes shown without any order. Director takes out good work from all the actors. Jeremy Theobald and Alex Haw play their roles aptly and so does Lucy Russell. The way Lucy Russell has been dressed pushes you back in time and you don’t really understand which year the movie is from.
Following is a story of an obsessed writer who follows strangers in the street to get the subject for his novels. He gets addicted and start following the same people. He is manipulated by a criminal and used for his own means while the writer gets trapped in criminal charges which he did not commit. If you have already seen Memento you might wonder it some sort of liberation occurs to the writer but the story ends with plain truth of he getting acquitted for the crime. The background score is good and different. It keeps the interest intact with a little of annoyance in the mind. Annoyance is not as big as leaving the theatre but it does catch your attention.
The movie begins with the writer rather rhetorically saying “Following is my explanation”. The criminal mind ‘Cobb’ has been portrayed as a thief who doesn’t really steal for the gains by the artifacts, rather he enjoys breaking into the houses and assessing what the house and the artifacts in it tell about its owner. His assessment is rather enchanting and Alex Law does it so naturally that it truly shows how good an actor he is. The assessment about “Everybody has a box” and his philosophy of “You take it away…to show them what they had” all seems so correct and doesn’t questions ones moral about stealing. Nolan weaves a crisp story with well defined characters and beautifies it with his bona fide fashion of film making. Considering the budget of the movie the outputs which has come out is just brilliant. It indeed is a great start up for a good director.
Following is a story of an obsessed writer who follows strangers in the street to get the subject for his novels. He gets addicted and start following the same people. He is manipulated by a criminal and used for his own means while the writer gets trapped in criminal charges which he did not commit. If you have already seen Memento you might wonder it some sort of liberation occurs to the writer but the story ends with plain truth of he getting acquitted for the crime. The background score is good and different. It keeps the interest intact with a little of annoyance in the mind. Annoyance is not as big as leaving the theatre but it does catch your attention.
The movie begins with the writer rather rhetorically saying “Following is my explanation”. The criminal mind ‘Cobb’ has been portrayed as a thief who doesn’t really steal for the gains by the artifacts, rather he enjoys breaking into the houses and assessing what the house and the artifacts in it tell about its owner. His assessment is rather enchanting and Alex Law does it so naturally that it truly shows how good an actor he is. The assessment about “Everybody has a box” and his philosophy of “You take it away…to show them what they had” all seems so correct and doesn’t questions ones moral about stealing. Nolan weaves a crisp story with well defined characters and beautifies it with his bona fide fashion of film making. Considering the budget of the movie the outputs which has come out is just brilliant. It indeed is a great start up for a good director.
My Rating: 8.25/10.00
On Entrepreneurship - Mr. Naren Dubey
Till now I have attended quite a few talks by some very renowned and em
inent speakers of leading firms in India. Most of the times it was an opportunity offered because of me having a privilege of being in IIMB. Some of them had set up these speakers had setup their own firms. Unfortunately most of them spoke about the current market scenario in their sector, problems faced by them etc. No one gave a generic view on how an aspiring entrepreneur should go about with his dream of setting up a firm by his/her own. At least some discussion on the problems faced by such start ups in a more generic format would have been of some use to the student community (at least that is what I feel).
It came to me as a pleasant surprise when in the ‘Managing Organizations’ class today the professor had invited one of the co founders of a firm to talk about his entrepreneurship experience. Fortunately this time the speaker spoke about some of the generic problems a start up firm faces in its early years. A brief profile of the speaker would constitute that Mr. Naren Dubey is a chemical engineering pass out from BITS Pilani to pursue his MBA in Wharton Business School and a Ph.D. from University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. He has worked into domains like Tissue Engineering, image processing of biopolymers. He has also been the VP for Moserbaer and prior to his entrepreneurship debut was the Director of Applied Material India. He along with his friends from Wharton founded Scancafe, a firm which provides the scanning and restoring facility for the old hardback photographs into digital form, making it possible to share the photographs among family and friends.
inent speakers of leading firms in India. Most of the times it was an opportunity offered because of me having a privilege of being in IIMB. Some of them had set up these speakers had setup their own firms. Unfortunately most of them spoke about the current market scenario in their sector, problems faced by them etc. No one gave a generic view on how an aspiring entrepreneur should go about with his dream of setting up a firm by his/her own. At least some discussion on the problems faced by such start ups in a more generic format would have been of some use to the student community (at least that is what I feel).
It came to me as a pleasant surprise when in the ‘Managing Organizations’ class today the professor had invited one of the co founders of a firm to talk about his entrepreneurship experience. Fortunately this time the speaker spoke about some of the generic problems a start up firm faces in its early years. A brief profile of the speaker would constitute that Mr. Naren Dubey is a chemical engineering pass out from BITS Pilani to pursue his MBA in Wharton Business School and a Ph.D. from University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. He has worked into domains like Tissue Engineering, image processing of biopolymers. He has also been the VP for Moserbaer and prior to his entrepreneurship debut was the Director of Applied Material India. He along with his friends from Wharton founded Scancafe, a firm which provides the scanning and restoring facility for the old hardback photographs into digital form, making it possible to share the photographs among family and friends.
Here are some of the points he spoke of and which I can scribble in my notebook.
He said setting a firm of your own is like “Building the perfect Beast, It is demanding and rewarding”. What I could make out of it is a firm of your own needs lots of attention for it is your passion and also the bread and butter for you. The firm is referred to as a beast because of its size, the people involved in the activities to make the firm running efficiently. For me, a firm is a mixture of Frankenstein’s monster and Alladin’s genie. It needs loads of resources to feed the monster but it also rewards you back like a fairy tale genie does.
He spoke about the importance of people in a start up. In fact he said that a start up is all about people and how to work harmonically with them. He said that being one of the cofounders of a start up one needs to have an open mind. He said that a person who has the ability to pull up a firm from $0 to $4 million might not necessarily be the right person to make it a $40 million company from a $4 million one. And at times even if she is a very dear buddy of yours you might have to do away with her for the firm’s good. The same is applicable to each and every cofounder. While speaking about differences in decision making he said that one should honor that a person with same IQ level as yours and similar passion like you have for your firm can not make a blunder and hence you should believe her. He said that in a startup it is of extreme importance that people who take decisions believe in each other.
About the vision one should have while starting a firm he said:
· “Always have a vision at any point of time”
· “Everyone should believe in the vision”
· “Vision is not static”
The first point to me means that without a vision it is very difficult to judge which way to go since you don’t even know where you want to go. Until there is a specific vision as to what the company wants to achieve decisions like how to achieve it, at what pace should it be achieved and using what processes/skills/systems makes no sense. The seconds point again is very important. If the vision is not clear it might again lead you to a trap of uncertainties and confusion. The third point states that for a big well established company it is important to have a well defined vision which sticks to the company but for a small start up a vision might keep changing as the growth occurs. And it is of utmost importance that a start up keeps pace with the changes otherwise it might perish.
· “Always have a vision at any point of time”
· “Everyone should believe in the vision”
· “Vision is not static”
The first point to me means that without a vision it is very difficult to judge which way to go since you don’t even know where you want to go. Until there is a specific vision as to what the company wants to achieve decisions like how to achieve it, at what pace should it be achieved and using what processes/skills/systems makes no sense. The seconds point again is very important. If the vision is not clear it might again lead you to a trap of uncertainties and confusion. The third point states that for a big well established company it is important to have a well defined vision which sticks to the company but for a small start up a vision might keep changing as the growth occurs. And it is of utmost importance that a start up keeps pace with the changes otherwise it might perish.
Regarding the growth of a firm he said that people pursue their dream to transform into reality but nobody want to live that dream 24X7. One cannot always think and work about the firm she has created. The basic idea is to set up such an efficient firm that you can sip coffee in the morning without worrying if everything is working fine. He said the mantra is to “Learn to make yourself obsolete” One needs to realize that however passionate someone might be about anything, she won’t like it doing all the time. At some point or the other she needs to handle over some responsibilities to the other person. Skepticism still prevails even if the person is highly experienced and qualified in managing a firm. And hence the best way is to learn to steadily be obsolete or indifferent towards the functioning of the firm.
A quote from Shiv Khera’s book ‘You can win’ says “Winners don’t do different things, they do things differently”. Naren quoted it a little differently by saying you can achieve differentiation of your products by nurturing the ability to do different things differently. And this is very true for a multiunit multi product providing companies. Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) provides Close Up tooth paste, Axe deodorant and Lux soap at the same time to different customers. They do great by differentiating their products from dozens of other tooth pastes or deodorants or soaps present in the market to pick from.
While speaking about venturing into the market he said that you should always know what value proposition you are offering and to which market. What is true in US market might not be true for an Indian market. He also spoke about the barriers to entry and said that you should always ask the questions “Why aren’t others doing it?” The answers to this question will give you insight on what strategy to follow, what are the risks involved, which market segment to focus and a whole lot of other important things.
I enjoyed the small talk during which he provided us with loads of enriching and enlightening knowledge. I hope some of which I mentioned above be enjoyable, if not useful to the readers.
Photo Courtesy: http://www.scancafe.com/aboutus.php
Photo Courtesy: http://www.scancafe.com/aboutus.php
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)