The Honest PM

When Dr Manmohan Singh took oath as the PM for the second time many people in the country heaved a sigh of relief. A Congress government meant that it will be stable and will last its full term and a highly educated PM with an impressive resume meant that the country will be governed well. Of course the cabinet was full of Congress old timers with an infamous past but with Singh at the helm most people expected all to be well because he was a good man and above all a honest person - a rarity in politics.

Things seem to have gone really downhill in this term of his. The rising prices, the maoist menace, scams galore, train accidents etc. Not a single person has blamed Dr Singh for it, it was all due to the incompetent ministers in his cabinet, what could the poor man do. Yes, he did make statements from time to time condemning all that was wrong with the country, making the customary promise of punishing the guilty and hoping that all would be well again. As a country we seem to have absolved him of all blame for the shit we are in currently. The only reason is the same old screwed up thinking we have that an honest man can do no wrong.

Is honesty the only requirement of a good leader? Yes, he is highly educated and knows the intricacies of administration but does this guy have the guts in him to lead the nation. In my opinion - an emphatic no. The entire country knew he was a nominee PM to be controlled by Sonia Gandhi when he took oath for the first time and rightly so. Most of the shots in major policy decisions were called by Ms Gandhi. However the PM surprised the nation by showing a lot of courage and threatening to step down when the Nuclear Bill was in danger of being scuttled. This made a lot of skeptics eat their words and infused a new found sense of belief in the PM. A lot of expected in his second term and the guy has failed on all parts. He has betrayed the millions of people who out faith in him and believed in him (okay that might sound harsh and melodramatic but I think you get the point).

Firstly the government is still clearly ruled by Ms Gandhi and her cronies. We have old congress sycophants taunting and mocking cabinet ministers and misusing the machinery. Digvijay Singh took on the Home Minister and said a lot of uncharitable things, maybe the PM thought that Chidambaram will take care of it. Obviously the Congress High Command never made a statement. We have two bit shady operators like Suresh Kalmadi openly telling the press that they will step down only if Ms Gandhi asks them to. The last I heard was that the PM is the most powerful man in the country and most government bodies and associations ultimately report in to him. Still time and again unscrupulous individuals have openly mocked the PM and claimed that Ms Gandhi is their boss and they take orders only from her. Sonia on her part has not made any attempt to correct it.

That the cabinet is tainted by corrupt minister is an understatement. However I dont recollect the PM openly making any statement or rebuking any minister for his conduct. A Raja continues to mint crores for himself and his boss in TN and the PM along with the Congress High Command choose to turn a blind eye to it. If its a matter of threatening or silencing political rivals like Narendra Modi, Mulayam Singh Yadav and Mayawati, the CBI can easily be convinced to speed up its investigation and prepare a charge sheet in record time, but if its for investigating various scams conducted by cabinet ministers either the CBI is not given any explicit orders or the investigation is allowed to take its own sweet time and the die a natural death. We have civil aviation ministers who openly favour private airlines, we have petroleum ministers who openly favour a private company against PSUs and an agriculture minister who is mostly absent or busy manipulating cricket in the country but yet the PM does not have the time to step in and sort the mess which these idiots have created.

Trains continue colliding and derailing in the country and the stupid railway minister continues making flimsy excuses and blaming her enemies for every mishap, still the PM refuses to step in and ensure the safety of the millions of passengers who travel by trains in this country. Maoists continue killing policemen but the home minister is left to fight against them, the PM continue making statements that they are a threat and will be countered but cannot announce any firm steps or an effective strategy. He cannot even stop his illustrious colleague from singing their praises and calling the government murderers. Ladies and gentlemen we are talking about a man here who cannot stand up for himself and his principles forget the country. Routinely he is humiliated and sidelined by colleagues in his own party who run to Rahul baba for every small thing or continue reminding him that Madam is their boss. His cabinet colleagues indulge in blatant corruption and careless acts that endanger the lives of millions and yet he cannot do a thing about it due to political compulsions or concern for self survival. Yet he is the second longest serving PM of the country.

His stature and statesmanlike conduct was one of the reasons why he was considered ideal for the top job. Yet no one in his own cabinet listens to him. Ministers continue fighting against each other but our man cannot moderate a fight let along find a solution. I think the Jairam Ramesh vs everyone else and the telecom vs defense ministry wars will continue. When things get ugly and out of hand Pranab Babu steps in and saves the day once again reminding Madam of his loyalty and trying to show her that he should have been PM in fact. Even when Kashmir was burning Dr Singhs feeble appeal for peace and an all party meet was rejected by trouble mongers like Mehbooba Mufti. In fact all his recent attempts to reach out to his colleagues or countrymen have been met with skepticism and guarded contempt.

So basically we are happy having a PM who:
 - Cannot stop his corrupt cabinet ministers from looting the taxpayers money
 - Is regularly sidelined and humiliated by his party colleagues who remind him that Ms Sonia Gandhi is their boss and not him.
 - Cannot control the infighting amongst his cabinet members
 - Cannot pull up errant and useless ministers like Pawar and Mamta who spend more time pursuing their own interests than look at the ministries they control.
 - Cannot control the unabated violence unleashed by the Maoists across the nation, does not have any strategy to tackle them.
 - Is not even heard by leaders of two bit parties like PDP when he calls for peace and an all party meet.
 - Will not or cannot authorise to expedite CBI investigations against his cabinet colleagues.

Sorry about that bullet point things, I seem to be obsessed with it lately to make my point come across clearly.

The facts are clear, so we need to decide now, are we willing to ignore the above follies just because the man is educated and honest?

Why Athletes deserve all the money they earn.

Note: This article is mainly against criticizing athletes who earn high amounts of money through playing fees or endorsements. The greater need of the hour is to make efforts towards making sports a viable profession in developing countries and I shall touch upon that in a later post.

People who watch a sport casually or follow it passionately often have a lot of comments on the money earned by sporting personalities, mainly cricketers (in India). Most criticism is centered on the fact that the high endorsement amounts paid to them will affect their on field performance. The underlying assumption here is that the athlete will have to allocate some days to his / her sponsors for shooting commercials and other promotional activities which in turn will reduce time available for training. Another school of thought opines that some sports personalities are paid mainly for their looks and not their sporting abilities, hence creating a wrong impression in the minds of young sportsmen. Many experts have made cases that the salaries paid to players in cricketers / footballers / basketball / baseball / Ice Hockey players in IPL / European Football leagues / NBA / MLB / NHL are outrageous. I beg to differ on all these points and would like to present my argument below.

Why the best deserve a higher pay

Any sport is a highly specialized field and only the best people in that field play professionally and / or get to represent their country. Now in our day to day life the top people in various fields are paid significantly more than other people in that field. We don't mind paying extra money to the best doctors or the best lawyers to render their services. Even in the private sector the top performing talent is paid significantly more than the rest of the crop. Agreed that these professionals / salaried employees are paid to do a particular work in which they excel and NOT for other activities. The case of an athlete is slightly different (somewhat like an actor).

Any athlete gets paid mainly for 2 things: 1. To play the sport 2. For promoting / endorsing any product or service. Most critics have a problem with them getting paid for point 2, pay them extra money for playing the game, reward them for any accolades they win for their team / country. However there is a slight difference between a sportsman and a doctor / lawyer or a private sector employee for that matter, a sportsman plays the game in the view of millions of fans, helps shape the view of many youngsters and is an opinion leader in many spheres of influence. Like an actor, model or a writer, the work or skill of a sportsman is viewed by many people. So like actors or models (or a writer in some instances) a sportsman should also have the opportunity to promote products or services. It goes without saying that no company will consider offering any money for endorsements to someone who is not popular. Like any other sphere of life the top performing sportsman should be paid significantly more than others in that sport. (which justifies the salaries in major sporting leagues around the world).

And if the performance of the athlete is not commensurate with his pay, I think the market will take care of it automatically. His employer (the team owner) will definitely not want to pay such a huge amount to an under performer and due to lack of good performances the popularity of the athlete will be affected which will have some effect on his endorsements.

Essentially am trying to make two main points:

1. Like the professional world or the private sector, the best athletes in their chosen sport should get paid significantly more than the other average and mediocre performers.
2. Since a sportsman (or woman) is a popular person whose skill is viewed by many people who like the game, he or she can shape opinion or influence decisions to a certain extent, hence it makes sense for companies to offer high endorsements to them.

Looks are a big plus.

Another area where people tend to complain is the fact that a good looking athlete makes much more money than what he or she deserves, from David Beckhem to Anna Kournikova to Maria Sharapova, globally critics have an issue with the fact that the endorsements which they get have little to do with their sporting prowess and more with their looks.

Lets take an example closer to home. Many friends of mine have an issue with the fact that Sania Mirza gets a lot of money from endorsements than someone like Saina Nehalwal, who is considered more talented and is much closer to the top in her sport (World No. 2 at the time of writing). I agree partly. Yes, I believe that Saina Nehalwal deserves much more endorsements and rewards than what she currently gets but I do not agree with the fact that Sania Mirza does not deserve what she gets. Agreed that she is nowhere close to the top in Tennis and that her form has been slipping. Tennis as a sport is much more popular than Badminton, its played actively in over 80 countries compared to a handful of countries which play badminton. Tennis as a sport has a much larger television audience than badminton. Of course this is not poor Saina's fault and she still remains the country's best bet to win an individual Olympic medal after our shooters. Like in real life, a manager in a large multinational company gets paid much more than his counterpart in a small local company. This is simply because he handles much more work and responsibilities because of the size of his company.

Similarly Sania caters to a much larger audience who like tennis and being one of the top Asian players in the sport has her bunch of followers. The fact that she is good looking helps her cause, but then again how many of us disagree that good looks + talent is a lethal combination. Most of us have some kind of subconscious bias for someone who is better looking (assuming talent and capability is at the same level). Yes we all would love to deny it and claim that beauty is only skin deep but seriously, if you had to sell a million soap bars would you want the plain jane to endorse it when you could get the beauty to do it? The point that I am trying to make here is that Sania should not be discriminated against because she is good looking. She is still India's top tennis player and is one of the top 5 Asian women in the game. And Asia houses one third of the worlds population, which is reason enough for her to get all those endorsements. The fact that marketing managers need to wake up and consider champions like Saina is another matter which I will discuss in another post.

Yes, good looking athletes tend to get paid more money (especially by sponsors for endorsements), but its a fact of life as explained above, the media / critics / sporting fans should channelise their energies to promote deserving performers who can get much more sponsorships rather than harping on the fact that some get lots due to their looks.

Career and Job Security

Apart from the US and a few European countries playing a sport is not considered a viable profession anywhere else in the world (unless of course you have rich parents). This is simply because an average athlete can rarely earn enough money to support him / herself forget supporting an entire family. Even the top athletes in some sports / countries earn money which can hardly to compared to their professionally employed counterparts.

Once again, lets take an Asian example. A management graduate from a top business school is a much sought after commodity in the job markets worldwide. Let consider a cliched example of an engineer-MBA. This is a person who has sacrificed many things in the 18 years of education which he or she had to endure. When I say sacrifice, I mean that engineering and management being tough streams of study where a lot of time has to be invested in studying and mastering concepts. I am only talking about the average student here, obviously there will be the super-talented people who breezed through their studies and also had the time to cultivate many hobbies on the side. Anyways, coming back to the main point, after studying rigorously for 18 years this individual is rewarded with a promising career in the corporate world. This career on an average spans 25 years (lesser if you are the type who would want to retire after earning enough to lead a comfortable life). The money earned by the person increases every year (or maybe stays the same in case there is a recession, am ignoring the possibility of a pay cut). Under normal circumstances the income of any salaried employee or professional will increase at a slightly higher pace than inflation in his country.

Now the management graduate has to spend this money on basic necessities of life and his or her family with the option of investing the savings which remain. Now consider a sportsman, typically a world class player in any sport must have started young, meaning that education must have been incomplete or affected in some manner (many US universities have sports scholarships, a phenomenon which is yet to be popular across the world). The average career of a sportsman is 10-12 years and unless you retire while you are at the top the earnings pattern follows a bell curve, starting with low income, increasing as the sportsman reaches his peak and then tapers towards the end. So essentially we take away a bunch of facts summarized below from this comparison.

1. The average career span of a sportsperson is almost half of that of a typical salaried employee or a professional like a lawyer or doctor.
2. While the expected income and savings of a typical salaried employee or professional can be predicted to a certain extent under standard assumptions (a growing economy, no recession etc), that of a sportsperson cannot be predicted due to the presence of a variety of external factors which affect his performance like form, physical fitness etc.
3. A salaried employee (or a professional for that matter) has to provide for basic necessities for self and the family from his income, a sportsman also has to provide for fitness and skill development in addition to basic necessities (mainly applicable for individual sports), so the ability to save money is slightly less.
4. Once the career of a salaried person is over, he or she can use the skills developed over the career span to start a business or providing consultancy services, in case of a sportsperson, it is safe to assume that only the top 10 percentile of the popular athletes are lucky enough to get into coaching or commentating. The rest of the people at 90th percentile or below have minimal or no use of the skills developed during the sporting career.
5. With less education that a salaried employee and no significant work skill developed during a sporting career, the probability of an ex-athlete getting a job once retired is much lower that that of a salaried person.

Now with the above assumptions (which can be proved within reasonable limits), don't you think it is fair that a person who has a career which is only half as long as that of an average individual should get the chance to at least earn at least 60-70 pct of what a normal person would earn in his lifetime withing those 10-12 years. Considering the fact that an athlete has to use both the mind and the body in unison to achieve his desired goals, it can be safely concluded that his work has a degree of difficulty which is atleast a notch higher that what is required in normal office work (where we use 80pct mind and 20pct body on a regular day). Why should the athlete not get paid extra money for this work?

If someone offered a job to you where there was no job security, a danger of getting physically injured, no additional benefits like medical reimbursements, paid leave and insurance, would you be interested in doing the job? Even if you agree to do the job wont you expect to a paid an amount of money which is significantly higher that what you earn today? Few of us would take this risk, especially when we are aware of the fact that a serious injury (for which we might not even be compensated) could mean an end to our professional career. An athlete is someone who has the guts to take such a big risk so obviously the returns for him / her must also be high (isn't this what those finance profs taught us?).

On writing and my fascination for Metropolis

As I admitted in a previous blog post, I started this blog because blogging was cool at that time. Lots of people I knew were doing it so I jumped on to the bandwagon. However as time passed by I figured that writing can help me vent better. Of courses grievances against the family and friends will never make it to the blog, they are too personal, but against everything else (read the system) definitely will. But the busy and important banker that I think I am, the time to do this was also not found and blog posts were just one or two line life updates or movie recommendations. As time passed I also figured that I like telling stories, (someday I will blog about that day when a spellbound audience sat and listened as I explained the origins of the Mumbai Underworld and regaled them with stories about Vardarajan Mudaliar, Haji Mastan, Karim Lala and Dawood Ibrahin) and wanted to make lots of them (actually many are floating in my head but I need either a good beginning or an ending to complete them).

A simple aim which I set for myself was that I need to have at least 20 good stories ready by the time my kid is of an age when he or she can listen and enjoy them. Maybe this was my subcoscious way of giving myself lots of time so that all the lethargy and bouts of blank mindedness be taken care of. But now I have a realistic aim in front of me, so the stories shall be written. Not all shall be posted on the blog, but some definitely will make it here, so please keep checking from time to time (this is specially for the two and a half readers who read my blog regularly).

My first attempt at writing short stories was when I tried to create Metropolis. Being a huge science fiction and fantasy fan, I wanted to write something in that genre. However I soon realised that most books in this genre sound similar and most draw inspiration from Tolkein and C S Lewis (many don't but most of the ones I have read do). The worst part is that they all claim to be original, no doubt the stories were interesting but that was mainly because in my mind is programmed to love magic, heroes and adventures, just add some characters and you have a good story. But I wanted to write something original and different which was next to impossible given the reading influences I grew up with. So the idea for Metropolis was born.

The world which I am trying to create is where all the characters I love live together and fight together. Instead of lying and claiming that I have created a new race or a new land, I have shamelessly used all the concepts and ideas which I liked ad have created a crossover universe. Of course credit has been given wherever its due (Tolkien is a god in my universe and so is George Lucas). Since this is not a book or something which I intend to publish I dont see any legal issues here. Its just some fun and entertainment using speculative fiction. Which Sci-Fi / Fantasy fan would not like to see a Jedi Knight face off with a wizard or for that matter see Godzilla fighting fire breathing dragons. Well Metropolis has many such instances along with a original story.

So if any of you people out there like Fantasy mixed with Science, Marital arts and some mythology thrown in, please come back and read Tales from the Metropolis.

Thoughts on Recent Movies

This year has not been so active for me on the movie watching front. I am nowhere close to my 'a movie a week' days. One of the reasons is that I have become slightly more selective in the movies I watch these days, so no more watching movies because everyone else is watching it, it does not mean that I read a review before I watch every movie, I still watch many movies (and regret sometimes) because they sound or look interesting, but wherever I have a doubt, I wait for a review. This is because movie watching ain't cheap anymore. Despite having a multiplex which is minimum rickshaw fare away from home, the tickets, the crappy samosas, popcorn and pepsi prices still hurt.

Udaan is the best Hindi movie I have watched this year. A different story which strikes a chord and touches the heart and great performances make it a must watch. Second on my list of good movies this year is Love Sex aur Dhokha. First let me admit that I am a huge Dibakar Bannerjee fan. I absolutely loved Khosla ka Ghosla and Oye Lucky.., so my expectation from this one were sky high. And he did deliver, he took a risky proposition, unknown actors and made it into fascinating cinema. I see him right up there with Vishal Bharadwaj amongst the great directors in Bollywood today. Apart from this I enjoyed watching Ishqiya a lot, mainly for its performances. Raat Gayi Baat Gayi was also worth a watch. Rajneeti deserves a mention, I liked it, although I felt that the end was slightly long drawn, it would have been in the top two had the Mahabharat and Godfather tributes not been taken so seriously.

Raavan was the most horrible movie I have seen this year. I used to be a big Mani Rathanam fan, I enjoyed both Yuva and Guru immensely and expected a masterpiece from his. Besides I am a sucker for historical tales being retold differently. Simply put Raavan was a bad movie. The story moved extremely slowly and the performances were bad. Apart from the music and the great locations there was nothing in the movie, script, direction and performance was almost non existent. Housefull was another irritating movie from the Nadiadwala - Sajid Khan partnership. I thought that Sajid Khan must have reformed after Hey Baby and will give us an intelligent comedy, what we got instead was a silly gag. Can someone please tell them that slapstick is no longer fun. I used to laugh at people fumbling and falling and getting hit on their sensitive spots when I was five years old, I am 28 now and I will hugely appreciate it if some effort went into writing a script which could make me laugh. Akshay Kumar has natural comic timing and I absolutely loved him in Hera Pheri and Garam Masala. I seriously think that he should stick to working with good directors like Priyadarshan (yes he also makes silly movies sometimes) and stay away from retards like Sajid Khan and Shirish Kunder. Maybe my criticism is very harsh, but its from the heart, I blew up more than a grand and got the family to watch this movie in a fancy mall and there was a nice expensive lunch also thrown in after the movie.

On the english movie front Up in the Air looked was great and so was Inception. I was skeptical before watching Inception, I didn't understand Memento properly when I first saw it and I was expecting another confusing ride. But surprisingly I understood the movie and enjoyed it thoroughly. Nolan is a genius at identifying ideas and creating cinematic masterpieces from them. My love for superheroes and fantasy ensured that I liked Percy Jackson, Ironman 2 and Clash of the Titans. Shrek 4 was also a lot of fun, but the 3D glasses gave me a headache at the end of the movie. I was slightly disappointed by Alice in Wonderland, cant exactly pinpoint the reason why, but its was definitely not a bad movie. Maybe my expectations from the Burton-Depp partnership were too high.

On the hindi movie front am looking forward to watching Once Upon a Time in Mumbai, once again my love for gangster flicks will ensure that I watch this on the first day. I missed Tere Bin Laden and hope to watch it soon. On the english movie front, am eagerly awaiting the biggest of them all - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 in November. The trailer look great and I think this is one film which will rival 'The Return of the King' and Avatar in terms of gross.

My tryst with Cycling

I have been a sports enthusiast for as long as I can remember, I grew up watching Kapil Dev and Sachin doing their thing on the cricketing field, watching the football world cup and Becker-Edberg matches in Wimbeldon. Cricket, Tennis and Football were always the sports which I liked to follow and watch. FI got added to that list when I watched Ayrton Senna win the Monaco Grand Prix once on Doordarshan (yes they used to show such stuff sometimes). Since F1 was not very popular in India at that time (early 90s), Sportstar (a sports magazine from the Hindu Group) used to be a treasured possession for me because it used to have a 2 page feature on F1 results. Week after week I obsessed over the Senna-Prost rivalry.

With the advent of Start Sports and ESPN in India, Basketball got added to the list of sports I followed. Of course being the patriotic Indian that I am, following Chess and the results of Anand was mandatory. Following so many sports, studying stats and remembering records somewhat assuaged the guilt which I felt for not playing any sport seriously (Tennis happened much later in life). Cycling never figured on my radar, like most people around I knew who Lance Armstrong was, but nothing more than that about the sport. The Tour De France was a small 2 column article in the Times of India sports pages for 21 days in July, and year after year it reaffirmed that Lance Armstrong was the best cyclist in the Tour.

Lance retired after winning an impressive 7 Tour De France titles (the most by any rider) and cycling was promptly forgotten. However last year my curiosity about the sport was revived with the news that Armstrong was coming out of retirement to contest in the Tour De France again. Like me thousands of people who knew little about cycling but knew Armstrong started following cycling. And trust me, it was the most confusing sport ever. A person could win many many stages in a Tour but still wont be the champion, someone could be the champion without winning a single stage in a tour. Every stage or race was different and we could not have a single favourite for each stage. Yes tennis has its different surfaces and cricket its different pitches which support fast bowlers or spinners, but this was completely different. Tennis had Federer and Nadal who could dominate on every surface because they were good players, Cricket had its batsmen who could attack both spinners and fast bowlers, but I just didn't get cycling.

Cycling had its sprinters, time triallists and climbers. It also had its classics specialists and stage race specialists. A rider could be a good climber and a good time triallist (Contador, Armstrong etc) but could not excel at sprinting (maybe the great Eddy Mercxx was). Some riders could easily win races on short climbs but would fare miserably on longer ones. Slowly I started grasping the basics of the sport, learned what terms like peleton and domestique meant and surprisingly I found it to be quite an interesting sport. It is a rare combination of an individual and a team sport. Yes winners are individuals, but they cannot win without the help of their team. In my humble opinion its the ultimate team sport.

Sounds like a random statement from someone who has been following cycling for just two years? Let me explain. What is a team sport all about? A bunch of talented individuals performing together for a common cause. Great players who put individual glory and egos aside for the team.  Cycling is all that and much more. Great cycling performances (am sure greats like Armstrong and Contador would acknowledge) are due to a strong team backing you. Domestiques protecting their team leader during tough climbs, reining in the attackers to defend the leaders position, lead out men producing bursts of speed to guide sprinters to victory in a group sprint are all examples of great team play. And its not even a sport where pure strength and stamina can win the day for you. Yes, its an endurance sport, but to excel you need to understand your body, train it and ensure that your performance peaks at the right moment. To add to the excitement there are lots of unknown factors which can alter the outcome of a race like crashes, punctures and bike malfunction. Weather also plays an important role, a rainy or an extremely hot day can wreck havoc in the peleton.

Cycling races tend to be long (around 150-200 kms average), so they usually last for 4-5 hrs so its slightly boring to watch, but the last half hour of any cycling race can be as exciting as the best football and tennis matches. The attacks and counter attacks, the build up to a bunch sprint and the sprint itself are as much fun to watch as the finale of a mountain stage where an attack in the final few kms can make or break a grand tour conquest. What we have is an overall package of entertainment - an individual sport where team support plays an important role. Many different types of races to cater to individual interests (sprints, climbs, time trials). Many different factors which affect the outcome of a race (cobbles, team support, weather, form etc) and many different events (Classics, short stage races, grand tours) to keep the average cycling enthusiast occupied. As an added bonus, its a sport which promotes a healthy and green lifestyle.

Thanks to Mr Armstrong, I am a passionate follower of cycling as a sport and will soon be buying a good bike when I move to an area where cycling daily is possible. Every sport has its heroes, great personalities who by their sheer charisma transform the sport into something popular and magical. Tiger Woods did it for golf and Federer (to a certain extent) for tennis. Thanks to Lance Armstrong and his high profile friends cycling is now noticed across the globe, a little more push outside Europe and we shall soon have a global sport followed by millions.

Hmmm...

Four years ago I started this blogs with lots of ideas and dreams in my eyes (sounds like a nice speech beginning). It was cool to be blogging at that time (it still is), lots of people I knew were doing it so I jumped into the bandwagon. After a few heartfelt posts about B School and childhood where a lot of friends commented I kind of ran out of ideas to blog about. So I thought of blogging about social issues and be some sort of an activist. I always (secretly) wanted to be one, however apart from 2-3 social issues where I had a balanced view I had some sort of an extremist view about most and my posts would have been confined to abusing the idiots who caused the screw ups. Then I thought about blogging about movies and writing reviews, but once again I got bored of writing about and analysing movies. Finally I thought about writing stories, once again inspired by many bloggers who later turned writers, I thought maybe one day I could also...but I think that dream also needs to remain in cold storage for some time, mainly because hardly anyone reads my stories and also because I hardly have the time to update frequently.

So once again we are back to being random on the blog, an occasional life update and a story once in a while it will be for the time being. Once again thanks to the three and a half readers who faithfully checked week after week for an update and kept on asking me to write more.

On the life update side a lot has changed after the marriage, social responsibilities (read family) have increased (and so has socializing). Work is fun (as of now), I finally got the promotion so we have some much needed extra cash. Friends getting married real fast, one of the sons (in the fictional family) got married a few days ago, the other one is getting hitched in July, the Chosen One jumps in in Dec along with the first lady to join the family.

On the general interest front, June-July is the best possible time for a sports enthusiast. The Football world cup, Wimbledon and the Tour De France (ok..I know a lot of people don't follow cycling beyond Lance Armstrong, but I love the sport), yeah there is a cricket thing (Asia Cup me thinks) in between but without God I don't think I will be watching much of it.

Till then folks...

PS: A couple of people told me (yes 2 is a very small number, but I respect their opinion a lot) that metropolis is a good idea and if it is refined properly the stories could be fun...so am seriously thinking about it. And No, this is not with dreams of being the next big thing in Indian writing, its just for fun.

Thoughts on the Year and random predictions

The idea of updating the blog more frequently is definitely due to the lack of exciting things to do in office right now, but it does not mean that the blog will be orphaned when the rat race starts once again from next Monday. It is one of my resolutions (yes, I make them and stick to them seriously) to blog at least once a week in the coming year.

Am sure every year which passes by leaves us with a lot of emotions, most people I know term their year as a mixed one, for every happy occasion they have had two not-so-happy / sad ones. The current year has been eventful for me. It would be absolutely unfair to term it as good or bad. Starting with the wedding in the beginning of the year to the big deals cracked in office to the usual marriage related financial tension to the realization that the stress in office is here to stay; there has hardly a day which has been boring. When not faced with usual office / home / marriage / money related moments many books and movies made life fun and interesting.

I would love to do a 'My Top 5 of Everything' kind of a list for various things in the year (in fact started by doing the movie post last week), but then I would be intensely personal and would not be appreciated by all. So I will instead focus on some interesting trends / incidents in public domain which I witnessed this year and my thoughts on the same.

The Ambani War: Though both the brothers have enough shady deals / skeletons in the closets, my sympathies in this one lie with the younger one. Simply for the fact that the Government has put the weight of its entire machinery behind the elder one, and whenever the government does something like that there is something fishy. Picture this, older and younger brother sign a deal and get it approved by High Court, Government is aware of this. Now 5 years later government comes out with a policy which supposedly favours the elder one and says that his deal with the younger one is invalid. And then they make some weird noises about how a PSU should be treated differently than a private entity, pls tell me why? Elder one is of course happy and repeats the lame line in SC 'We cannot do anything without government consent'. If he was aware of this why the hell did he sign the freakin deal 5 years ago, unless of course the intent was mala fide and he knew the government would back him when we wanted to dishonor the deal. SC will reprimand the elder one and the government, but the younger won’t get any gas.

The Mumbai Traffic: I started my career working in Nariman Point 4 and a half years ago, after some drunken moments at Ruby Tuesday I would sometimes take a cab home, I would usually reach home in 45 mins - 1 hr (in the normal post 8.30-9.00 pm traffic), worst case scenario it would take one hour fifteen mins max. Now it takes me 1 and a half hours minimum and the maximum till now has been 2 hrs 45 mins. Having made this point, I simply have 3 observations to make.

• Number of cars are increasing and road length is not.
• Number of potholes / constructions for metro / monorail / telephone cables / flyovers / any other random thing have exponentially increased, none of the proposed flyovers or rail projects look close to completion in the next 2 years
• No one in the BMC / State Government cares about the traffic.

The Merus and Megacabs have made travelling slightly more comfortable, but as usual the political rascals had to screw things up, so antiquated black and yellow cabs continue to fleece us, ricks still make the deafening sound. But who cares...the cab and rick drivers are an important vote bank, let them fleece the middle class who anyways never turns out in full strength to support us.

The Great Indian Political Drama: With the retarded leftists silenced, we will have a stable government for the next 5 years but,

• Sycophantic congressmen will still bypass ministers / relevant authorities and try to get in the good books of Soniaji and Rahulji
• Mayawati will still treat UP like her fiefdom and do what she wants, law and Supreme Court be damned
• BJP will continue fighting and gift the next few state elections (save Gujarat) to the Congress so that the whole cycle of extreme corruption can begin again (yes the BJP guys are also bad, but not even half as experienced as their congress counterparts)
• MNS will continue bashing up random people from time to time to get mileage; Sena will retaliate by bashing up more random and innocent people in a game of one upmanship.
• Karunanidhi and his family / cronies will try to make up for the loss of income in Delhi (due to a strict PM) by plundering TN and ensuring that the coffers are completely empty by the time the fat lady gets her chance to steal.
• Expect many more morchas / dharnas / marches / fasts for statehoods

Global Relationships: US will continue saying nice things to us and continue giving money to Pakistan. China will continue its aggressive stance and our fattu ministers and officials will continue saying its nothing to be concerned about. Aussies will continue bashing Indians both on and off the cricket field.

Sports: As usual the administrators lived up to their reputation and screwed everything possible. In cricket we had bad pitches to shady state board elections to random sackings of professional event managers. In Hockey the mystery about who controls the game in India still continues, on the field we managed to draw a few games against also rans like Belgium and China, I don’t think the big boys like Germany, Holland and Australia even wanna play with us. In Chess, the AICF duffer continued harassing Humpy, thank god Anand shifted to Spain so that he could concentrate on his chess and not internal squabbles. As usual Mr Kalmadi emptied the funds made available for the CWG and ensured that preparations are way behind schedule.

Ok..Now this is developing into a full on rant session, so I better go and get myself some food.For people mentioned in the blog (I know you don’t read it but anyways...) pls not to take offense uncle, I was only joking.

In which we write about our favorite movies of the year..

I have always been fascinated by lists, on the back of my notebooks through schools i have many rankings of superheroes, actors, actresses, films, sportstars and many other things which have held my interest. Below lists are basis my evaluation, as usual the things i look for in a movie are: Entertainment Value, Story, Direction and Performances. I don't really care about sad, depressing films having a lot of artistic value.

Being the sucker that i am i am only going to rate the hindi movies which i have seen through the year. Have seen some decent Hollywood stuff too..but too little..and anyways Avatar and Inglourious Basterds easily overwhelm everything else (i don't really care for depressing films like The Hurt Locker and Precious). So here goes:

Best Film:

1. Kaminey
2. Gulaal
3. Luck by Chance
4. Dev D
5. Paa

Honourable Mention: Rocket Singh

Dark Horse: 3 Idiots (i might have to change my list on Monday)

What the retards at Filmfare will do: Ignore Dev D, Gulaal and LBC completely, they will nominate shit like Ajab Prem Ki..and Wanted (nothing against the movie, i thought it was entertaining, but not exactly top 5 stuff), and yes..they will also nominate Love Aaj Kal.

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role:

1. Amitabh (Paa)
2. Shahid (Kaminey)
3. Abhay Deol (Dev D)
4. Ranbir Kapoor (Rocket Singh)
5. Will leave this vacant in anticipation of Aamir Khan occupying it for 3I but in the unlikely case that he screws up, this should be a toss up between Ranbir for Wake up Sid and Farhan for LBC

What the retards at Filmfare will do: Ranbir will get nominated but for Ajab Prem Ki.., Sallu has to be humoured by nominating him for Wanted, Saif of course for Love Aaj Kal (maybe Kurbaan also), Abhay will be ignored. I don't think anyone can ignore Amitabh or Shahid for their performances.

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading role:

1. Priyanka (Kaminey)
2. Konkona (LBC)
3. Vidya Balan (Paa)
4. Kareena (Kurbaan)
5. Will leave this vacant in case Kareena does a good job in 3I else i will put Konkona here for Wake up Sid

What the retards at Filmfare will do: Katrina Kaif is the flavour of the season, so she will definately get nominated for Ajab Prem Ki or New York (or horror of all horrors-BOTH), Deepika has to be appreciated for looking wooden in LAK, Konkona can be ignored-she is anyways supporting actress material. The award should be a toss between Priyanka or Katrina (whoever charges less for her performance will win).

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role:

1. Aditya Srivastava (Gulaal)
2. Amol Gupte (Kaminey)
3. Chandan Sanyal (Kaminey)
4. Rishi Kapoor (LBC)
5. Will levae this vacant for Sharman / Madhavan in 3I if not then a toss up between Kay Kay Menon (Gulaal) and Abhimanyu Singh (Gulaal), if Sharman and Madhavan both do well then maybe Rishi goes out of the list.

What the retards at Filmfare will do: Rishi will get nominated but for LAK, how can Neil Mukesh be ignored for looking spastic in New York

Best Actress in a Supporting Role:

1. Ayesha Mohan (Gulaal)
2. Arundhati Nag (Paa)
3. Kalki Koechlin (Dev D)
4. Gauhar Khan (Rocket Singh)
5. Cant think of any other notable performances..maybe Dimple in LBC, but i dont feel it was top 5 level

What the retards at Filmfare will do: Kiron Kher has to be nominated for Kurbaan, Gulaal has to be ignored, maybe some sidey performance from LAK, Delhi 6, Ajab Prem Ki might be nominated, i think they will do eenie meeney miney mo to decide the winner.

Best Music of the Year:

1. Kaminey
2. Gulaal
3. Dev D
4. Delhi 6
5. Love Aaj Kal

What the retards at Filmfare will do: Ignore Dev D and Gulaal, enter New York, Ajab Prem Ki

Coming up: More lists about sports, music :-)

Life Update

Firstly, Thank you to the 6 faithful friends who regularly keep checking this space for updates. Lots of things have happened since i last blogged and have been wanting to update people about them since the past 4-5 weeks but laziness and lethargy took over.

Anyways, its been more than 10 months since i have been married, its has been an eventful ride. The wife has finally made the shift to Mumbai (she still hates the city though) and has joined a MNC Bank (yeah yeah...the firangiis are going to suck our blood). What to do...the money looked good. However her office is now in Bandra, which means we get to spend very little time with each other (her office used to be in fort earlier).

Tennis is coming along just fine, the wife also plays (occasionally). Its the only thing currently which is refreshing and cheers me. Apart from this quality of life is steadily deteriorating. The travel time between home and office is increasing by the day, at last count i was spending close to 3 hours in the car everyday. Trains are still not an option, mainly because Mom is still skeptical about them and secondly after a hard day of work at office, i definitely do not appreciate getting crushed under the mass of humanity at Kurla station every evening.

On the professional front, i had a great year, earned decent revenues, targets were met, new heights were achieved, but all this counted up to almost nothing, coz the bank as a whole had a lousy year (screw you fraud clients who made us lose millions). However the year ended on a very bad note when i lost a million dollar client who conveniently moved business to another MNC who was slightly less greedy. So next year is going to a very tough (i can already visualise the arguments / heated discussions at home due to my late comings).

Looking forward to:
- The promotion i have been waiting for ages
- The anniversary celebrations in Goa in Feb-10
- Many close friends getting married in 2010

Coming soon:
- A new layout for the blog (yes..i am technically literate)
- Lots of posts about movies and books

Note: This time i plan to treat the 'Coming Soon' thing real seriously. I swear.

Back...

The marriage is finally over...and so is the audit...although the sceptre of another scary 'credit quality' audit stares us in the face, i guess we shall survive the rest of the year without any mishap.

Lot of changes happening in life, most good :-)

Lot of new things to remember / take care of, but the experience is quite fun. Watching 52 movies this year looks tough. Recession / lack of quality movies and hectic schedules to blame. Count now stands at -5, but hopefully things should improve once the wife moves here with bag and baggage, being a weekend husband is not so much fun for weeks at a stretch.

To the friends who feel persona has changed and so have priorities since marriage, pls to be patient... getting used to big changes takes time.

Other plans for the year include working on the tennis game, putting those running shoes on and finally be in shape to run 21 kms next jan.

More on the wife, movies and other interesting stuff next week.

Important Anouncement

But till we are built like angels,
With hammer and chisel and pen,
We will work for our self
And a woman, for ever and ever, Amen.
- Rudyard Kipling

After endless deliberations with various stakeholders in my life, numerous attempts to run away from fate and hold on to the cozy and comfortable past, i admit that i have spectacularly failed and have submitted myself to the rules and customs of the civilised society. Fate has finally dealt the fatal blow to my innocence and freedom.

Now that i have played around with words to keep up with the pretense of being learned, let me put it across simply.

I am going to get married. Engagement is in December and marriage is in Feb-March. Dates have not been finalised yet.

Engagement will be in Mumbai, Marriage in Aurangabad and Reception once again in Mumbai. (for people who are wondering about travelling to aurangabad, worry not, in laws promise a good welcome, hospitality and a jolly good time taking inspiration from the Barjatiyas, Chopras and the Johars)

Her name is Shweta, she is an engineer-MBA, currently working in ICICI Bank in Pune, will get a transfer to Mumbai in a few months.

So please to keep yourself free for all the festivities and drunken revelries. Formal invitations, silly looking photographs, dates and invitational phone calls follow.

Movie watching target

After narrowly missing my movie watching target last year i promised myself that i will reach the magic figure of 52 no matter what happens. And am quite happy that it is going quite comfortably right now. With week no. 30 coming to an end my tally stands at 36.

So if everything goes according to the script i should have reached the magic figure by October end. The only assumption here is that both bollywood and hollywood will have at least average watchable movies lined up . By average and watchable i mean one should not feel like wasting 150 bucks after 2 hours in the theater.

I have made an attempt to rate the hindi and english movies i have seen from January till date on the basis of the following criteria:

• Entertaining
• Good Story
• Great performances

English:

1. The Dark Knight
2. Kung Fu Panda
3. Ironman
4. Horton Hears a Who
5. Juno

Hindi:

1. Jaane Tu ya Jaane Na
2. Mithya
3. Aamir

I don't think i can rank top 5 hindi movies looking at the crappy standards which we have seen till now. I sincerely hope things improve from now on.

Was very impressed by some performances also, more about that in a later post.

Life Update

Feels good to know some people still read the blog. Life is in a moving quite slowly right now. A quick round up of the happenings.

• New client portfolio has been allotted in office, slightly better than previous ones, boss says i will make more money off these clients. I will say something only after a couple of months.
• Mom still worried about getting me married. Me still chilled and claiming i am only 26. Weekend arguments still on.
• Immense dissatisfaction with salary still there. However plans of quitting on hold for the time being till i am able to figure out the new portfolio thing.
  
• Trip planned towards the month end with the sons and the latest lady to join the family. Cause for happiness :-)
• Plan to watch 52 movies this year is firmly on track. Present count is 24, watching Indiana Jones tonight and Sarkar Raaj tomorrow so will meet my half yearly target with 3 weeks to spare. cause for pride (and a little happiness also).

Thank you to the chosen one, friend from the east, old friend and new friend for still bothering to drop in and reading the blog.

Coming soon:
Tales form the Metropolis - 4 (The three tasks) (in which agememnon makes a plan to reclaim his supremacy)
Pictures of the new house (immense pride once again)

Tales from the Metropolis - 3 (where we stand today)

The rise and fall of human civilization has been the eternal conundrum. A subject which has fascinated many learned men. The emergence and re-emergence of magic, the appearance and disappearance of various races, the unbelievable rise of science and technology and its equally baffling fall to medieval depths have all contributed to the intrigue surrounding human civilization.

The first age ended when Frodo took the ship to Valinor with all the ring bearers. This was followed by a rapid and inexplicable disappearance of elves, dwarves, hobbits and all the old creatures of lore. Kingdoms and dynasties emerged a bit of magic still remained but technology started making rapid strides. Religion emerged as an authority and the conflict between faith and rationality caused another upheaval in the world. The second age ended with Lord Asriel establishing the Republic of Heaven.

Very few details are known about the time in between the great ages. However historians claim that this was the time when the triggers for change were activated and if we are able to know what happened during this period we might be able to solve the mystery of civilization as well. The third age saw the continued dominance of technology and thankfully ended when the chosen one finally saved zion and destroyed the citadel of the architect. Surprisingly in the fourth age humans chose to ignore technology, research was banned and the focus was on the development of human values. Magic made its reappearance and many old magical beings were frequently sighted. However the magic and magical beings stayed on the fringes of human society, the humans held absolute power over the world and its future. The magical beings also did not resent this and expressed a desire to co-exist peacefully with their less magical brethren.

The coexistence of humans and magical beings led to many new races and orders being formed. The Jedi, the Ninjas and the Samurai were the predominant orders formed in humans due to their knowledge of magic. Powerful races like druids and shadow snatchers emerged due to cross breeding amongst magical and non magical races.

It was in the beginning of the fourth age that the map of the world as we know it was redrawn. The Island kingdom emerged as the most powerful settlement in terms of military power and economic growth. The Republic was a close second and was acknowledged the world over as a centre of learning and the seat of ancient magical craft. The Northern kingdom mainly kept to itself and rarely meddled in world affairs. The Southern and Eastern states were the cause of many a war and represented the rising order. They wanted to supplant the Island Kingdom and The Republic in terms of territorial strength, military power and economic prowess. However they feared the military strength of the Island and the mysterious magical powers of the Republic. So all their efforts were restrict to covert operations and spying.

Our story begins towards the end of the fourth age. The Republic is deeply fragmented and there is a struggle for power. The national council (containing representatives form all states and cities) is falling apart. The eastern states are trying to take advantage of the situation and induct their own men into the national council. The economic power of the republic lies in the metropolis. Anyone who controls the metropolis will in effect control the republic and needless to say will have a very important say in world affairs.

Odysseus, Achilles, Agamemnon, Leonidas, Ajax and their clan belonged the the human race. Our stories follow the events which unfold when the struggle for power unfolds in the metropolis and how its affects the republic and the world order. Druids and shadow snatchers have an important part to play, so do robots and the orders of jedi, ninja and samurai warriors.

Each and every one of these races, their characteristics and events have been shamelessly copied from books which the author grew up reading and the fertile imagination of his idle brain has contributed to the structure of this tale which is his fantasy played out in words.

State of Mind

Five months into the 2008 and still no big reason to be happy. Actually its not surprising considering the fact that my happiest moment of 2007 was when Sreesanth took the catch which made us world champions. Some observations / emotions / feelings experienced detailed below.

• Pride in owning my first house
• Pain of losing a close friend
• Extended periods of inactivity affecting the ability / creativity of the brain
  
• Anger / Sorrow every time i look at my payslip
• Sadness on the confirmation of the inevitable
• Irritation at the unbelievable amount of illogical / irrational / retarded / spastic behavior i have been observing around me for the past 3 months
• Feeling of heightened stupidity when i start believing that the best way to constructively utilize time in office is to update blog which no one has bothered to read in past one year
  

Am still in the process of figuring out the purpose of this blog. Maybe to update people in lands far far away about my life, maybe to comment / complain / offer opinion of things which people generally don't care about or maybe to continue writing tales from the city - a shameless attempt to blend fiction, mythology, fantasy and real life incidents, which surprisingly a couple of people found interesting. Thank you to the 2 people who liked it, you are my inspiration to continue writing.

If you are still there keep watching this space for updates and developments in the plot.

Tales from the Metropolis - Part 2 (How they Began)

(The below post and this series is entirely a work of fiction. Although some might believe its an exaggerated version of some real life incidents which seek to glorify the protagonist. However the author would like the maintain the pretense of humility which he claims he has stood for all his life.)

Achilles was just 18 when the first great war had begun. His penchant to strike the right deals and know the right people made him very valuable and resulted in him being appointed chief adviser to Commander Raphael who led the forces of evil against the Jedi council. Meticulous planning and flawless execution of several ambushes and financial scams was his forte and he did that with aplomb during the great war breaking the backbone of the enemy. With the war almost won, Raphael wanted to move in for the kill and eliminate all the remaining Jedi warriors it was Achilles who made him see some sense and got him to enlist the services of the survivors. "If they could survive our relentless onslaught for the past 6 months and still regroup and plot against us then they are gifted, incredibly so.." was his retort when other generals opposed his idea. The Jedi, tired of running and living underground gratefully accepted his offer and being the noble race they were, never forgot the favor Achilles had done to them by sparing their lives. They were the founding blocks of his army, the army which the world would later annihilate all traces of evil from the Satellite city and usher in an era of dominance by the 'Family'.

(The Great War was fought in AD 2125 for the control of the Satellite City, a suburb of the Metropolis. The city was ruled by the noble clan of Jedi warriors who stood for righteousness and truth. Their dominance was challenged by the evil forces of General Raphael. Although the Jedi were much more powerful and had technology and money at their disposal, it is widely believed that their downfall was plotted by an unknown strategist. It is rumored that a young boy acting as the adviser of the general was responsible for the tactical warfare which led to the collapse of their industries and banks, which in turn led to a local uprising signaling the beginning of the decline of the Jedi empire.)

In AD 2110, Odysseus entered the limits of Silicon City to work as a waiter in the 'Water Down Cafe'. 10 hours of hard work later he joined the street hustlers to gamble. He was one of the gifted few who could take big risks without battling an eyelid and could keep his nerves during the all important finish. The waiters salary was just a facade to maintain legitimate income, Odysseus was one of the wealthiest hustlers in the Silicon City. He would bet on just about everything, right from race results to the weather to shares to the good old game of blackjack. But behind the calm face was a raging storm, he was in the city on a purpose and he had to achieve it somehow. Count Dooku had led to his downfall from one of the most promising student activists in the country to a disgraced criminal who would be hounded by the red brigade for the rest of his life. It was Count Dooku who ruled the Silicon City when the great student riots happened. In a span of 24 hours Dooku's empire was reduced to ashes. It is said that the rebel student groups who fought against the might of Dooku and eventually killed him were not even from Silicon City. They were mercenaries hired by many charitable trusts in the city. These trusts were secretly financed by a group of hustlers who claimed they were fed up of Dooku's oppressive tax regime. Some claim that the group was just a front to shield one powerful and immensely wealthy hustler who harbored a personal grudge against Dooku. Till date no one in Silicon City knows his name.

(The riots of AD 2123 in the Silicon City began as minor student protests against the forces of Dooku accidentally hitting one of their brethren. However in a span of 24 hrs they grew into a massive fight against the state machinery. Thousands of students mysteriously joined the protests overnight and attacked all state offices and virtually burned down the city. Elders say that it was one powerful individual who orchestrated this slaughter to gain revenge against Dooku who had cut one of his fingers when he had led a similar students uprising against Dooku's mentor down south)

(to be continued...)

Tales from the Metropolis - Part 1

(The below post and this series is entirely a work of fiction. Although some might believe its an exaggerated version of some real life incidents which seek to glorify the protagonist. However the author would like the maintain the pretense of humility which he claims he has stood for all his life.)

Agamemnon was pacing up and down in his study. He has changed his mind three times in the past one hour. His plan was finally shaping up but a few niggling doubts remained. He had hoped to clear them in this meeting. He was really tired, after 3 years of hard work it was finally time to hand over the reigns of his kingdom to a new leader. The council needed a new face. Someone who could inspire both awe and fear. Someone who was both gentle and tough. In short he needed someone who was all he was and much more. After careful negotiations and deliberations with the other lords and the administrators who ruled the city he had arrived at his choice. Odysseus it would be.

The Beginning:
Achilles was always an ambitious boy. Right from a very young age when he led his small band of followers to conquer the east banks of the river, he was touted as a great war lord. Someone who would bring the glory to both his family but the entire city. The idea to rule over the Metropolis came to him when he was just 17. That was when he got together with a bunch of friends and followers and formed his family. Due to his razor sharp financial brain and an eye for good deals he soon led one of the most prosperous families on the outskirts of the city. But his prosperity brought along many enemies apart from the usual admirers.

Odysseus was the quintessential street fighter. His fighting skills were honed by many street brawls and public fights during his days of student activism. He was one of the brightest and toughest guys to head an activist outfit. His charming ways and penchant to spot an opportunity early on helped him expand his network of sympathizers and friends who helped him form his first major outfit which took over the business on the streets of the Silicon city in the early 21st century. But the Silicon city was just a stepping stone for him to his ultimate ambition, Metropolis, the land of dreams.

The City:
The city was divided into 4 main regions Southern, Central, Eastern and Western which were ruled over by their respective councils supervised by a corrupt board of administrators who held every conceivable power on paper but rarely were allowed to exercise them. The council had the region in its iron grip. The council was headed by a leader for a period of 2-5 years (sometimes longer). Most leaders after finishing their stints at the top of the council became legitimate businessmen or political leaders. Few harbored bigger ambitions and tried to head the state or national councils.

The Western council was economically and strategically the most important of the councils of Metropolis. Many of its past leaders had gone on to head the city and state councils and a couple of them had even headed the national executive.

Agamemnon succeeded Leonidas in 2002 after the latter in his glorious 5 year rule had changed the face of the region. Almost single handedly he has shifted the balance of power in the city and snatched it from the hands of the Southern council. After a 3 year reign Agamemnon finally decided to enter legitimate business and channel all his funds and contacts to build a nationwide network of commodity traders.

He had won many wars and battles in his reign with the help of his lieutenants Achilles and Odysseus. Odysseus handled the people who went into the battle and the contacts while Achilles had his vast network of financial resources at his disposal. Together they made a formidable pair, in fact they were the most lethal combination to have emerged on the city crime scene for almost a century. Both were proud and brave, steadfast in their friendship and terrifying in their vengeance.

Today all Agamemnon hoped for was his decision should not in any way weaken this bond which was the foundation on which his empire stood.

(to be continued...)

The Family

The Rich One (also known as 'The Chosen One') and the Wise One hated each other at first sight. But slowly began a friendship which laid the foundations of 'The Family'. Over endless sessions of drinking, smoking up, watching movies and organizing events the family grew into a close knit bunch of individuals.

As it is with any other organization the family soon developed its unofficial hierarchy. Both the founders adopted kids who would inherit their legacy. The Wise one chose a couple to inherit his events and political connections while the Rich One selected his successors to inherit his legacy of technological excellence. The family was supposedly ruled by the council consisting of the Rich and the Wise ones ably supported by experienced people both inside and outside the family. Soon the family extended its reach to encompass all social and political barriers. Members or people recruited by them influenced every sphere of life and strived hard to make a difference. Right from professors to peons to Hitmen to politicians, they all patronized the family.

As time passed the family structure changed to fit into the new social fabric. Women were also made a part of the family. Primary qualifications required were knowledge of geography (country capitals most importantly) and respect for age old family traditions. The family of course protected its female clan and saw to it that each and every person irritating them was followed by threatening calls, abuses and physical harassment (in each and every form).

As human nature changed so did the women in the family, many came, many left but one decided to stay back. The Chosen One had finally chosen someone. However like Karan Johar once said, every happy event is followed by a tragic one, the Chosen one had to leave the shores of the country to pursue greater goals. The Family was going international. Reluctantly the Wise One accepted the great burden of leading the family and keeping it together.

As time passed the younglings migrated in search of love and riches, many members passed the seas, the rivers and the creeks to find their place under the sun. Through a combination of Birthday celebrations, Drinking Sessions and Movie screenings the Wise One kept the family together and ensured that the ties of loyalty which bound them to each other were never broken.

He believed that the family which drank together always stayed together. In his zeal to keep traditions alive a family slogan was coined, so that every family member was proud of it and associated himself / herself with the great family legacy. “Jis Toofan Mein Dushman ke hosh ud jaate hain, us toofan mein hum chaadi sukhate hain” (courtesy: Great Bong) is the war cry the family members roar before they plunge themselves into battle.

Seven years after the founders sat around the council table with holy spirits and smoke, another member of the family prepares to take the long journey across the seven seas to meet the chosen one. The first woman to join the family will now play a greater role in shaping the future of the family in the international landscape. With the family core migrating and the younglings still hunting for their place under the sun its finally time for the family to reinvent itself and unveil its new and more powerful avatar.

Looking back at the splendour and glory which the family enjoyed, the Wise one wishes each and every member of the family every success. Of course the family still lives on. Its only a matter of time before we unveil version 2.0 in typical corleonisque fashion. Till then the wise one signs off with a small verse which the family younglings grew up listening to.

Another turning point
A fork stuck in the road
Time grabs you by the wrist
Directs you where to go
So make the best of this test
And don’t ask why
It’s not a question
But a lesson learned in time
For what it’s worth
It was worth all the while
It’s something unpredictable
But in the end is right
I hope you had the time of your life

Back for Sure

Have decided to resume posting regularly. No longer depressed (so no sad songs). No longer bored (so no irritating 2 liners trying to sound cheeky). This time its for sure. Am planning to so a couple of series of posts on some of my favorite themes (mythology, LOTR, Improving Indian sports etc. Will try to keep the boring quotient to the minimum.

Life's been moving along well. Excitement about work varies between the 'I love what i am doing' and the 'WTF' days. But overall its fun. Have started learning how to dance. After the first 15 mins of sheer agony (where they make you stretch;which makes every muscle in my body is in excruciating pain) its quite fun.

Social calender is looking sufficiently engaged with marriages, engagements and outings. So will try uploading pictures also (not mine of course...the beautiful surroundings).

Plan to watch a movie a week for 52 weeks in 2007 is slightly off track. Mainly due to lack of good movies and the rains in Mumbai. But am just 3 movies behind the schedule and am hoping to make up for it in the coming few weeks (assuming the quality of movies released is at least average). Till now havent really seen any really good movie which stands apart from the rest of the mediocre offerings. But in hindi "Life in a Metro' was well worth the 150 bucks spent on it and in english there were quite a few ones i enjoyed but 'Blood Diamond' stood heads and shoulders above the rest.

Plan to finish the following in the next one month:
1. Join Salsa Classes
2. Form Quiz Club in Office
3. Take a weekend off for Trekking
4. Start doing yoga again (flab around the tummy needs to be tucked in)
5. Finish reading Sacred Games.

Thats all for now. Comments welcome. Better quality and frequency of posts promised. Tata.