A tribute to tabloid warriors: our big brothers

Dear followers, sycophantic-suck-ups, and good-for-nothing-insects: I'm back. Worry not. Your god is here to rescue you from your daily drudgery.

You can stop worrying about your money, your career, your education, your kids, your partner, your mortgage, your lack of mortgage, your parents, your health, your fitness, your sex life or the lack of it, your mind, your holidays, or your lack of worries!

I will take care of your worries. I'll show a happier life and the secret to a truly worryless life. I'm your Big Brother: the one to rescue you from yourself. And I'll use my magical potion to save your lives. I made this magic after years of watching you, learning from your mistakes, and experimenting with other less potent medicines.

The magical potion will not take away your porblems. Instead it will take you away from your problems. And take you away to my land. And my worries. You can now watch me wake up, watch me sleep, see how I fuck, see who I fuck, see what's eating me, what I am eating.

Not enough? You can watch me cry, watch me laugh, and watch me puff, watch me bitch, watch me eat.

Still not away from your worries? Here's a suggestion- why don't you cry with me, laugh with me, pass judgements on my behaviour, and ogle at my legs. Perhaps I'll have to give up some things. For a little money, a bit of fame. And to make you happy.
Love,

Scorpions in India, British Rock Bands and Writer's Block

Interesting-- I just saw a photograph of the Scorpions in New Delhi for a musical tour. I bet the Scorpions must be really thrilled: Rudolf Schenker used a Sitar, an indian musical instrument, in one of their song "Live Under the Same Sun", pretty neatly. I guess they can now visit the roots of the instrument.

Separately, Led Zepplin just got together for pulling a major reunion gig sans the late drummer (his son, Jason Bonham Jr. taking his place). That reminds of the glory days of British music, when the small island produced true musical geniuses like Led Zep, Pink Floyd, Dire Straits, U2 (okay--they're Irish), Ozzy, Beatles, Cliff Richards and many others. We did get Amy Winehouse--but what else? Spice Girls? I mean really--why isn't their any more music being created here?

This brings me to my third issue---a larger one. What can I write about on blogs. I mean, obviously the above two snippets don't make the cut. On the other hand, I have a huge repository of though provoking articles that are in various work in progress stages, or in my mind, and I've never gotten around to writing them. So we have a clear choice--should I take the publish or perish approach :), or should I focus on the article that will never see the light of the day :). What do I write about, and how can I write more often. Some tips from the more prolific bloggers are very welcome.

G

Top Music List While Doing Second Year Project

There is something about these moments---its nearly 5 in the morning and I have been working on my second year project. Don't ask why I had to be up at 5 in the morning for work I could have finished earlier---that's a story never told in public :))

While doing this work and listening to Simon and Garfunkel, I had one of those moments. I suddenly wanted to read their biography, found a wikipedia link which led me to a link of the Rolling Stones Top 100 musicians of all times, published in 2004. (http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/5939214/the_immortals_the_first_fifty/). The list left me with three distinct tastes on my caffeine overdosed tongue:

Relief that many of my fav bands were in the top-50, including Beatles, Nirvana, Elvis, The Doors, U2, Janis Joplin, Simon and Garfunkel. Independent judgment and all that is all good and proper but getting approval from Rolling Stones is always a bonus :)

Excitement that many top singers that I never explored before are now open---Chuck Berry, The Who, Muddy Waters, and a few other names. Its only some time before I locate some pirate music and rob Steve Jobs a few hundred songs short of his 2nd Billion download.

Dissapointment that my favouritestestest band of all times was not there in the list of top-100. Pink Floyd. The band that evolved and honed over decades with three very good musicians at the helm at different times, and created some euphoric moments with there songs. Someone should investigate the journalistic integrity of the Rolling Stones Magazine.

A film, a book, an advertisement and a way to live

My journey towards a bad-habit-sans life is one of the classical chronicles of will fighting weakness. Millions of similar struggles have existed since life came to exist on earth, in myriad contexts, all tied together with a binding thread- will to survive. Three of these struggles stand on stark contrast as having a very appealing message for the modern days.

The most recent I witnessed was Rocky VI Rocky by now had become 60 years old and came back out of retirement to fight the world heavy weight champion. He fought against all odds, for gaining his own self-respect. The essence of the film lay in this one scene with Rocky speaking to his son –You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't how hard you hit; it's about how hard you can get hit, and keep moving forward. How much you can take, and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done.

This film is one of those rare mirrors that provide a simple message- Will. The will to survive, the will to fight, the will to win. It’s a mirror which makes you see what might have been, and what is missing. What is missing? Many things- for many of us. For those intellectual types who think they are smart because they have brains; are fun because they are witty; and know life because they know the world.

Millions of the white-collared bureaucrats, including yours truly, end up looking at situations ass-backwards! The word “will” was long back deleted from the word-list and replaced with words like with strategies, tactics, paths, and tricks. We are blinded to the simple messages with simple expressions like Rocky Balboa.

Or Ernest Hemingway.

Yet another story of the ten round fight of will vs. weakness. Round 10- the old man looses the battle against the sharks, but his will wins the battle over his weakness. Do the sharks of the sea really win? Maybe—but so does the old man- it’s about how hard you can get hit.

The old man Santiago, though, is a different animal from Rocky. While Rocky was out to hunt his prey, the old man was out to play a game. Both men saw duty in the game, but the old man also saw humour in it- He enjoyed it. After loosing his battle, the story ends with this line: And the old man dreamed about the lions. Another slightly different way learning is the Nike ad line- Just do it. No fights, no humour, no rounds- just go and do it!

Three ways to get inspired, three ways of traversing the journey to life in what is, according to many ancient (Indian) beliefs, the only path to redemption. Millions of people today draw comfort from the fact that happiness lies in job security, eating, and fucking. Don’t get into that fight because you might get hurt. Don’t quit smoking because it is too hard. Don’t do something on your own because it might end your career. Don’t stand up for yourself for the fear of being pulled down!

A bundle of contradictions---someone please explain to recruiters

The kind of things expected of any management job these days is simply astounding and impossible to achieve. Firms ask for a superman for the price of a regular job. Managers should ideally be assertive and yet empathetic; should make tough decisions and yet be able to make compromises when necessary; are process driven and yet entrepreneurial, collaborative and yet individual, patriotic and yet global, and both managerial and leadership oriented. Oh by the way-- you cannot lie in the interview! And, to top it all, after having all of these skills, one should be happy with the job that one has got!

The roller coaster...backwards

MBA Life. mba LIFE. MBA life. No matter how you look at it, this is not normal. Starting with a bang, a bit of lull in between, suddenly picking up, and then passing away as another faded pedagogue, up there with other pleasant memories like high school, first kiss, undergraduate (slighly different order if you ended up doing engineering...but thats a different story..another post another day)

First term first day...I meet my batchmates from all over the world...the smooth south americans, the pretty east europeans, polite english, blunth americans, apologetic japanese, smoking Italians, and desis, desis, and yet more desis. We get scared by the thought of the internship milk rounds in the coming term, busy with the core courses, drunk at the local pub, make friends, socialize and network. And study just a wee bit (Am sure my study group can vouch for that)

And then milk round starts..and we get even more scared, stop studying, and do some serious drinking. And then the hangover job searches of the next term. And then internship..finally get to do real jobs and dont really like them or pretend to like them and then back to skewl (same as So Cool School..or so kewl school or just skewl).

And now we back to school, milk round, job hunt, networking, applications, class readings, lectures, examinations, tattoo, and other stuff

C minor on the suspended fourth

My love for guitar coincided with my love for the opposite sex. Boys love girls, girls love guitars, and therefore boys love guitars. Anyone with the brain of a mouse can now figure out why boys play guitars. I mean lets face it we'd rather be playing Unreal Tournament (for the uninitiated it's a first person shooter game with lots of guns, anti gravity boots, nano powers, and a futuristic version of Enter the Dragon setup), loppping heads off, rather than struggling to switch between D minor and C major, and singing at the same time.

I didn't quite start acting on my musical inspiration until I came across an ancient drunken master, whom I made my Guru when I met him for the first time. Yes none other than His Unsober Highness, Shamik Dutta. Unfortunately for me, the Guru would not start playing the guitar without consuming a significantly amount of the holy spirits. Having done so, the Guru would want a bit of the peace pipe. Pretty soon the master would get busy negotiating a complex musical piece on the guitar, singing, smoking , drinking, and flirting with one of the other house guests at the same time. Reminds of the Old Monk from the drunken master.

So learning a bit from the Drunken Master, I came to England, bought a spanking new guitar and finally am on my way now with just a wee a bit of music that I can hummmmm....Beatles (Lady Madonna, Let it Be, Can't buy me love), Pink Floyd (Time, Comfortably Numb, Wish you were here), Kishoreda (Baat bidag jaaye,Neele Neele Ambar) , John Denver, Aerosmith, Metallica, Mr. Big.
The opportunity cost of not spending value added time playing Unreal Tournament is pretty high- Lets see how the women respond ;)