Under promise over delivery - New York (the movie)

Its all about expectations....I guess. In more n more instances I have seen the impact of expectations on the likability of a movie. New York had a lot of pre-release hype around it, especially it being the first good starer to release after the long stand off between producers and multiplexes. I for one was eager to see the movie and had built in a lot of expectations. I have this habit of looking thru the review on www.rediff.com on the day of the release to know what to expect. To my surprise rediff tore the movie down. My expectations came crashing down as well. I went ahead to see the movie nevertheless on Sunday evening.

PVR was the venue. I have never quite liked this theatre in Hyderabad coz of many issues which we can discuss later. Anyway, the first few scenes of the movie went by nicely. I was waiting for the movie to take the wrong direction was become horrible. However, my wait continued and continued but this flick didn't give me a dull moment. The quick transformation from the carefree college life to the bad bad world of terrorism post 9-11 was wonderfully depicted. The storyline was well paced. John, Neil and Katrina bring loads of freshness and have acted well. Katrina was outstanding towards the end. Irrfan (thats how his name is spelt) was the usual and seemed to have a Slumdog hangover.

The movie did have its share of negatives though. The diction of Neil and Katrina was not fluent. The difficulty in their Hindi was evident. The music was average except for 'Junoon' which was good. The story was made to seem like a Hollywood thriller however lacked pace. It should have been more fast paced and edge of the seat.

As I said, I went in the theatre with low expectations and came out liking the movie. I would give a 6.5/10 for this above average movie.

A politician with a vision - Kapil Sibal

Now, that's my kind of a minister - who has a vision, who wants a change and who will implement change !

The new HRD minister (what a welcome change from Pranab da) is a man of action and pleasantly in a hurry. The series of sweeping education reforms being suggested by Mr.Kapil Sibal is filled with promise and excitement. The reforms like making 10th.boards optional, having a single national board, free elementary education for all,etc.are great steps for our country.

Unfortunately, there is opposition for this as well. Not surprisingly, the opposition is mainly from the Left parties - who else. Only thing this time round they can't hold the Govt.ransom :) I truly hope that Mr.Sibal is able to implement these reforms successfully. He surely has tread on the right path. Great going minister !

Article in Emirates' Business 24x7, Dubai

The above article had appeared in the business daily of one of the popular news papers in Dubai, UAE during the Big 5 show in Dubai last November.


I feel proud to have my pic on such a popular news paper, especially on the business pages. I always wanted to share it with all of you but somehow kept slipping my mind.

India out of the T20 World Cup :(

I am in a state of shock. I can't believe India, the Defending Champions are out of the world cup without even reaching the semis. I know there are people out there saying "its a sport", "it happens", "you can't expect them to win always", etc etc. However, I don't think its that simple. We Indians are passionate about cricket and do have expectations with our Demi-Gods. We give them the adulation when they deservedly win and have the right to give them the brickbats when they lose as well, especially in this manner.

For starters, I would rest the blame on Mahender Singh Dhoni. I do not agree with the camp that feel otherwise. MSD has committed blunders as a captain all thru the tourney. He himself wasn't a patch of what he was as a hard hitting, much feared batsmen. We saw him nudge and push the ball instead of belting it out of the stadiums like in his glorious past. The blame however, cannot be thrust only on MSD as cricket is a team game and the other team members have to share the blame equally. I would absolve Yuvraj and Rohit Sharma from the blame as they were probably the only players who stood out and showed some level of aggression. The team simply lacked the hunger and aggression which all players displayed during the highly paying IPL.


I would certainly like to see MSD lose his captaincy, not as a punishment but more in the interest of the team. I would like to see the free flowing strokes of MSD. I do think the burden of captaincy is playing on his batting. This has happened in the past with the great Sachin Tendulkar. Once he didn't have the burden of captaincy he revived his batting once again. This is what is needed for the men in (dark) blue too. The most effective replacement for MSD would have been Yuvraj. However, as the same would probably happen to the wonderful stroke play of Yuvraj in the future, I think we should opt for different captains for the different formats of the game - Rahul Dravid for tests, Sachin for one dayers and Bhajji for T20s. Radical thought...but worth a try.

Rain rain come again........

The monsoons are setting in and the weather is getting cooler. Its always a pleasure to receive the first monsoon rains. Its a huge relief from the sweltering summer heat that, in Hyderabad lasts for a good 4 months.

For the last several years I have seen the rains come and go and have always wanted to just go out and get drenched and enjoy nature in its purest form. For some reason I never quite ventured out in the rain once I started working. It was as if I had become too old to do so. However, this time it was not to be. The first rain that we had was a few days back and I was watering the few plants that we have when it started to pour. I looked and looked and then couldn't resist the temptation. I ran down the fleet of stairs; got on the roads and simply looked up to the skies and enjoyed every drop that came down on me. I got completed drenched and loved it thoroughly.

Looking at the way I was enjoying the rains my younger brother, Karan joined me. After a bit, we went under the water fall of sorts coming out of my neighbours' pipe, which was used to remove excess water from the terrace. It was a terrific experience. As if that was not enough, we went for a walk to a nearby ice cream shop and treated ourselves to the delicious Belgian Dark Chocolate ice cream.

I am surely going to repeat this experience a few more times in this season.

GO GET THEM CHAMPS !!

The T20 World Cup is here and expectations from the inaugural T20 world cup champions, Team India is sky high. India has a terrific team loaded with match winners. The batting order has fantastic depth, 7 of the possible playing 11 could bowl. A team that boasts of some of the tallest names in the business - For starters, there is Mr.Cool, MSD who is quickly getting the tag of India's finest captain. We have the finest opening batsmen pair of Gautam Gambhir and the dangerous Sehwag. Then there is Yuvraj Singh. Who can forget his heroics of 6 6's in an over in the last world cup. IPL's stunner, Rohit Sharma has already displayed a sample of what he has in store for us in the practice match vs.Pakistan. Then there is Pathan all-rounder brothers Yusuf and Irfan. Raina, Bhajji, RP & Ishant are likely to be among the playing 11. This makes for a killer combination.

Lets get going guys......T20 WORLD CUP 2009 belongs to INDIA !!

Lost at work.....

10 years back around this time I had to take a call on whether to pursue my MBA or take up a job. It was a very tough decision. On the one hand was an admission from a few very good universities and on the other was a ready job offer in what seemed an interesting line. After a lot of deliberations with all concerned I went ahead with the job. The thought behind that decision was that even if I didn't like the job I could always get the work experience and get back to college for an MBA later. I regret that decision of mine to this day and will continue to do so.

I kept working in that company in spite of not liking the job after a few months. The only other thing that could make one continue to work in a company if there is no job satisfaction was money. Sadly, in my case I couldn't have got a worse pay. I stayed on with the lure of bright future prospects. These 'prospects' were a great career in the US with a large organisation. It sure was a possibility, when I started. However, as time went by I knew that my employers(distant relatives) didn't have any intention to send me abroad. My family was very supportive and talked to my employers. Unfortunately, the wily employers tricked my parents into believing that they had big plans for me but need time.

Months went by and turned into a year and a half of 'training'. That's when I decided that I had had enough. I mustered courage and informed my parents that I will come back and immediately informed my employers and left. That brought about a new dimension to my life. Back to Hyderabad from Chennai, I started looking for jobs and finally landed one at Deloitte. A world apart from the company I worked for. I enjoyed working with Deloitte. Along the way I also did some trading in my field of experience which led me to a very good company which I work for today.

I keep pondering over that decision I took 10 years back and keep regretting not having done my MBA. I do believe I would have been far better off with an MBA under by belt. Far more satisfied at least. I do believe an MBA gives the right tools to hone one's skills and extracts the best from within. My work experience over the years has given me satisfaction and money in bouts but has engulfed my life in such a way that I have never been able to break free and go pursue my dream, my MBA.