Nanban - A Shankar Entertainment

Well it’s been a while since I found time to sit down and write something. Mumbai is starting to get on my nerves; the traffic, the pollution, the public, it’s a war-field put here. What keeps me going on are these small time stealers make me look beyond my work. :)

Catching a movie once a while is a stress-buster. Nanban was indeed more than a stress-buster. To be candid, I didn’t quite expect a remake to be this good. Nanban is the remake of the blockbuster Aamir Khan starrer “3 Idiots” which brilliantly brought out the flaws in the present education system. Nanban to quote my sister is a classic “cut-copy-paste” of 3 Idiots. Starting from dialogues to scenes; everything was a perfect lift from the Hindi movie but catered for the Tamil audience. There have been many remakes in the past, from horrendous remakes (I couldn’t sit through Force… What a torture it was to see John & Genelia to play Surya & Jothika’s roles) to fairly good remakes, all of them left you comparing both the movies and criticizing one. It was mostly lob-sided. The original was always ORIGINAL and the clear-cut WINNER. This one movie has broken that barrier. I loved the 3 Idiots and I love Nanban. Both were equally entertaining and a indeed delight to watch. Well, sometimes a remake can be as good as the original! :)

Who would have thought that they would have been able to brilliantly reproduce the “Balathkar” speech! That one scene decides it all… Once again Nanban doesn’t fail you. It leaves you laughing so hard that you would end up falling out of your seat!! :) Vijay might not be able to match Aamir’s performance but for a change, this movie is not just a “Vijay” movie. I've never liked his work, never dare to watch his movies in the theatre. Even I couldn't resist not watching this movie after seeing the trailer. I looked at him in "All is well" and told my roommate, "Ok wow! He looks nice in this movie."

Why do we watch movies? We need to escape from our routine life and just sit back, have fun and relax, Nanban delivers that; a 3 hour entertainer. Amongst the entire cast, it is Jeeva whose performance has matched Sharman Joshi’s. Kudos to him! It is indeed a treat for the Tamil audience, even to the section who would have seen 3 Idiots.

It is truly a Shankatainment :) :)

Learning the ways of a Mumbaikar

I remember the first time I came to Mumbai, it was in May 2005. I was extremely excited, I was going to see the city I was born in. I boarded Dadar Express, I was very very excited for two reasons; I was going to the city I was born in and I was travelling alone. I bought some juice from this guy who promised to bring back change for Rs. 50. That was the last I saw that Rs.50. Ripped off! That was not a great start. I try gathering knowledge from experiences like this. I learned that I should give exact change or I should get back the change immediately if I buy something from someone apart from the pantry guys. I was cautious from then on. :) The rest of the journey was  pretty smooth. Nothing like a good book that can give you company. When you are a young girl travelling alone, people come forward to make conversations with you and all these small conversations make the journey much less boring :). My cousin made sure that I saw Mumbai the right way; I travelled by local, bus, auto, taxi & a ferry all in one day or rather between afternoon and late evening (Yes that was possible in Mumbai 6 years back). I remember whispering to my cousin when we got into the auto"Why aren't you bargaining with him?". She laughed and told me that autos ran on meter and they wouldn't cheat you. For someone who comes from Chennai, it was a BIG surprise. My jaw literally dropped. You mean you can actually get inside an auto without having to bargain with the auto guy?! That's AWESOME. I remember telling myself that I should live here for a while some day. I had to admit, it is hard for someone to not fall in love with Mumbai... oops.. I spoke too soon..

Mumbai is currently the home for over 20.4 million and I am one among them. The city has drastically changed, it has become dirtier and more crowded. You have to join the crowd to survive here; survival of the fittest. You cannot walk casually here, you have to always do brisk walking, kinda like an exercise while you are trying to get to work! :) Travel by road is absolutely painful. Something that is just 4kms away can take you 1.5 hours to reach. Local! The lifeline of Mumbai is the best way to travel in Mumbai. The amount of time that is saved is tremendous. You don't have to get inside the bus or train, you just have to stand somewhere near the entrance and the crowd will push you inside and also push you outside when you want to get down. Mind you! Nobody tries to take advantage when you are smashed in a crowded bus or train. A girl cannot ask for more can she? It is one of the safest cities for a girl. She can walk alone on a road even at 12 am. Mumbai's uniqueness is its people; there's a varied mix of culture here and people are so friendly. Help is given to those who ask for it. A person might be running to catch a train but he/she will stop and help you if you ask for it. Mumbai is known for its food stalls by the road side; Vada Pavs, Dabelis, Sev Puri, Pani Puri ... The list is endless. For a foodie, Mumbai is the place to be! :) The other attraction here are the malls. For someone who comes from a place that does not have a mall culture it is something new to experience. I recently went to Palladium mall and my eyes became wide when I entered the mall, it was simply royal. :) This mall is a must visit for those who visit Mumbai! A friend once told me that the Britishers left the money in Mumbai. Boy! He was right. I've been learning to cook, manage a house and work all the same time. Finally a change that I have been wanting for such a long time! :) :)

It just doesn't rain here, it pours! Umbrellas do no good here. The rains does get on your nerves and once the rain stops it just become humid and hot and this starts as early as October in Mumbai. The sea is so dirty that you can't even imagine stepping into it. You cannot go to the beach to relax. (What a drastic change from Chennai where the beachside is the best place to go when you just want to sit & relax). Life here is hard and hectic. Travel pain adds to work stress and you tend to lose your sanity every once a while. The topography of the city is beyond pathetic and the city is so polluted that you can end up falling sick every once a while. All this makes you stronger and gives you the ability to survive anywhere else in the world. Life in Chennai & Pune was pretty laid-back and relaxing, Mumbai is just quite the opposite. This place is going to be my home for at least the next two years and I might as well learn to love it. :)

A struggling Chennaite signing off . . .

A bundle of joy

16 October 2010, 5:45 am, I got a call from my sister. I woke up with a start. I knew it was time; I picked up the phone, “Appu! My water just broke” said my sister. So this was it, this was the day I had been waiting for the past 9 months. She informed me that she was OK and she would be given pills for inducing pain. I asked her to be brave and hung up. She was the one who was going to deliver a child and I was the one who was scared and shed tears. She looked like she was taking it easy. I called up a few close friends and informed them that she was in labour. Beep Beep, it was a text from one of my close friends, “I’ve got a very good feeling. This baby is going to bring a lot of happiness into your family”. I smiled to myself and with that thought in mind I forced myself to catch some sleep because my sister informed me it would take time.

Each time, I felt like I was falling asleep, I woke up thinking I got a text/call saying that she delivered. The same happened at 09:45 am, I got up and checked my phone; I got a text from my sister, “Just sitting and waiting. Slight pains am getting I think... you don’t worry ok!” I felt my heartbeat raising. I could hardly sleep after that. I started imagining what could be happening at the hospital, I was wavering between fretting and calming myself down. The waiting which seemed endless got over at 11:58am, I got two text messages from my brother-in-law who was in the labour room; “She delivered. All fine.” and “It is junior Bharat.” I breathed a sigh of relief and the first person I thought of was my mother who finally got the boy she always wanted.

I smiled for two reasons; 1. My sister and the baby were fine and 2. My mother’s wish finally came true.. She wanted a boy very badly and she ended up raising me like one :D

And so I got a “little prince” and I yearned to meet him. This happened 14 days after he was born. I ran into my room to meet him. There he was the little bundle of joy, wrapped in his mother’s arms. Tiny and handsome as ever, I lifted him and he stared into my face, it was one of the most treasured moments of my life!

All he does is; eat, cry, sleep for most part of the day and poop & pee. It’s a different life to have but it’s not as easy as we think it is; everything is a struggle for infants. I see him evolve every day, I see him get angry when his sleep gets disturbed, sad when he is unable to sleep, laugh in his sleep and cry differently when he wants milk & when just wants to throw tantrums. He has started to focus on things recently. Seeing my sister handle him is absolute fun, watching him while he sleeps and trying to understand his every move just makes time fly. This is probably the first time that I have hardly stepped out of home and yet time seems to fly faster.

I am proud to say that I have joined the long list of adults who talk funny when they talk to babies. Try it! It’s absolute fun!

Learning that matters!

Internship; a new world opens up!

Reluctantly, I packed my bags on June 4th and took a flight out from Pune. Reaching here I was still stuck emotionally with my friends back in Pune, I really wanted to stay back and spend more time with them which I still regret I couldn’t. I had a sleepless night on 6th June, the one that you have when you are nervous and excited, like before getting your board exam results, I was due to start my internship the very next day. On 7th June, I entered the premises of an enormous SEZ with BIG dreams, hopes, aspirations and expectations. It was not just an internship for me. It was an amazing learning experience. I was mapped onto a real project and I started undergoing training the very next day. I got the opportunity to work in an organization and practice what I have learnt in books.

The first few weeks (1 week in case of mine), is always about reading documents on top of documents and it’s not like college where you are tested by an exam. It is the understanding that matters; it does not matter if you can display your understanding in a word or in a thousand words. There are no tests, no marks; your performance is the only test and your hike is your mark. I was placed as a Junior Functional (Business) Analyst; something that almost all MBA grads set out to become. I am fortunate that I got a peek into the kind of work at such an early stage. I was involved in everything related to the lifecycle of software product development, from an incubate stage to a grown-up stage. As an intern, it is the experience that matters, I got the much more than I bargained for. An experience that surpassed every lesson that I have gained from textbooks!

I wrote documents that ran for pages. What did I understand from that? Writing (typing) is not the hardest part, it’s not the thought process that goes into the pages of documents, it is making the documents understood to another person (in this case, a person who writes lines of codes). “Knowledge Transfer” is the fancy corporate term coined for this process. As the name suggests, it is transferring knowledge to another. I had to show the sample of a small screen which forms a part of a huge ocean called an application and explain it to the technical guy who would be responsible for writing those lines of codes which would make my screen up and running. And his understanding has to be clear, crystal clear, for anything that is wrongly developed; my name goes down the drain. I was absolutely thrilled when I learnt that I would be doing everything that a Business Analyst does. It was a challenge being a fresher. The fact that my work was taken into importance more importantly formed a part of that application, motivated me to get to office and work harder than ever.

Sometimes, it’s not the work; it’s the people at work who make work enjoyable. Here, it was my bosses and my senior at work who made my work enjoyable and who exposed me to everything related to software development. I spent time bonding with members from other teams. Fresh out of college, I ended up calling everyone “Sir/Mam”; it is corporate culture to call everyone using names. I could not convince myself to call people who were years older than me using their name. It felt wrong. Right from childhood, you have been asked to give respect and suddenly walking into a new place you find people of all ages addressing each other with names. This is something I got used to only towards the end of my project.

Life in the corporate world is very different. Your day could start as early as 5.30am and it would go on overnight. This is life! Office becomes your second home. The initial years of joining an organization, I know what I must look forward to; I would have a lot to do and lot to learn before going up the ladder. I could be placed in one team and then shifted to a whole new different team when the project gets competed, which means I must be able to adapt easily and move around well with people. Time! Something which we can never have enough of drastically seems to fly when you start working. Initially, you wouldn't find time to do anything extra during weekdays as work drains you out and at the end of a very long day all you want to do is have dinner, hit the bed, stretch and sleep. This cannot go on for long though, for fitness freaks like me, will find time to either take long walks or hit the gym sometime before and after work. Saying “I don’t know, please teach me” is not accepted. If you don’t know something, it is your responsibility to find out about it. Your senior is a mentor, a map when you get lost, a light that guides you and not someone who teaches you the ABCD of your work. You have to work your way through. It is just like when you learn to walk or your dad letting go of holding your cycle when you learn how to ride, you are on your own, you fall and you learn. I now understand that the size and name of the organization doesn’t matter. Getting placed with “big” brands is not the achievement/end; it’s the learning that follows no matter where you are placed, and I am happy to say that I got the learning that added sense to my PG course, for there can be no end to learning.

I have a long way to go and lots to do. “I have promises to keep. And miles to go before I sleep and miles to go before I sleep.”

A friend I owe this to!

What’s the first thing on my agenda for today, UPDATE BLOG! Something I have been meaning to but never gave it a thought. Today I sit down to give a “Thank You” to a great friend of mine; someone who I have grown up with, someone who is like a brother to me, a family, a shoulder and to quote him “Bestest Friend Forever”.

It’s been a decade and I still remember the day we became friends, I sat next to him in my first school in Chennai. Transferred from Madurai, I was this kid who refused to accept change, I believed that Chennai is this big city that took me away from the friends I loved, the school which I cherished going to. I focused on all the things I was foregoing, not once did I think of all the people I was going to meet and all the fun I was going to have.

As said before, I sat next to him in school and we started talking like we’ve known each other for years. I taught him some of the words I knew in malay and the rest of the memory is hazy but I distinctly remember thinking that someday this guy will become my close friend and he went to become far more that. I still remember how the other boys in school started teasing him for talking to a ‘girl’ and that propelled him to change his place and go sit next to a guy, he resumed to sit next to me within 2 days when I asked why, he said that he got bored sitting next to that guy. That day forth, we became inseparable.

Who says you’ve got to talk everyday to be close! Till this day, there is no one who knows me more than he does. We changed schools in standard XI and went to different schools; we got so busy with studies and other friends that we spoke to each other once or twice a week, not once did we feel that we are moving apart. Have you had someone whom you know you can trust more than yourself, he is one such person. He is someone who takes me as I am, has seen the good and the bad side of me, loves me dearly and is a great inspiration to those who want to control their temper. We are opposite poles in certain aspects despite all these differences we are blood-pals. It amuses me when people find it hard to believe that you can be “just best friends” for such a long time with no feelings getting into the way and that’s us, not once have we looked at each other differently.

Today, he is in another continent and miles away from me, I remember bawling the day he left thinking things are going to change but all I see is feeling closer to him as each day passes by. He is truly a person who will stay with me until the very end. He is my soul-mate friend, my best friend, my family, my better half, my teacher, my right hand and much much more.

This is for you Mani Shankar. I miss you. Love you loads. Thanks for always being there for me!!

It was a White Christmas after all!! :) :)

Has it ever happened that every time you think of doing something impulsively it turns out to be the best thing you have ever done. Well for me, it always works best that way. It all started out on 24^th Dec , a friend of mine wanted to go to the church for Christmas eve mass. Now, the only problem was transport because we live outside city, in a residential school and so we had to arrange for transport. What’s the best way to travel? The answer is BIKES of course! So we made arrangements for 4 bikes. We had filled out our late night forms till 3.30am and the only question in my mind was “What will we do until then?”

To be honest, we didn’t get on with a great start, one guy who had said that he would give us his bike, backed out in the last minute and we were 1 bike short. We somehow managed to arrange for another one by sheer luck I would say, it was Christmas eve and everyone were out. We were just lucky enough that one guy in college had no plans for Christmas eve. The 8 of us from college left around 11.00pm all well set in case it becomes too cold. Yours truly, wearing 2 overcoats!

On the way, when we could feel the temperature fall, the gush of cold air hitting hard on our faces, that’s when one of my friends had a brilliant idea. “How about having ice creams now?” I wasn’t exactly excited about it in the fear of falling ill but then who can resist natural flavoured ice-cream. It was beyond delightful to have ice-cream when the temperature was nearly 10 degrees. In no time, we were back on the road, on the way to church. We reached the church around 12.15am and we were there for about 20 minutes to 30 minutes after offering our prayers.We decided to leave and make the most of the day before we head back to the hostel. Hungry as we were, sadly none of the shops were open owing to the weather I guess, led us to hunt for shops that would be open around 1am, and there was only one CCD that was open. Reaching there, I got the shock of my life; people were lined up outside CCD waiting to get in. Never ever, have I seen people line up outside a café.

Well there was nothing much to do in a dead city, there was no option but to head back to hostel. We decided not to take the highways as it seemed like it was getting colder by the minute. Reaching outside hostel around 2.15am, one of my friends wanted to go for ride in another area just close by hostel and since we were already out it made sense to do whatever we wished to do at the moment. We geared up ourselves by giving strength to our numb hands by keeping it on top of the silencer. Even that heat didn’t seem enough for our numb hands.

So there, back on bikes for another ride and guess what catches our eye; a tea stall open at 2.30am outside Wipro. The guy was also offering Maggi, my friend was craving for it, and looks like Santa granted her wish after all. After going for a short ride, we stopped outside the tea stall and had hot tea and masala maggi. It was blissful!!

Christmas has always been known for its “Christmas Miracles” and it was indeed a miracle to find probably the only tea stall that was open at 2.30am way outside city where there is no life nor is called a “happening place” to use the lingo. Getting back to hostel, I took a look at myself in the mirror, white from cold, wide-eyed and shivering yet smiling, I realized that Santa had just granted me my wish – It was a white Christmas after all

.

A way to make it work!!

Have you ever wanted something so bad? Have you ever dreamed of holding something you cherish the most? Well there's a little secret to it, If you ever want something so bad, the universe will work to get it for you.

"Positive Reinforcement", something that has driven me my whole life. Keep saying to yourself that something you desire will happen, it will. A little bit of focus, a little bit of determination and conviction behind your desires is all that takes for it to happen. I have always heard of the term "Miracles happen" and I believe in it. It does happen when you really want it to. When a day's going haywire and you want to set it right, you just have to rearrange some thoughts in your mind. :) Keep saying it is always your day and it just keeps getting better, somewhere something out there clicks and you would find yourself having one of the best days of your life.

I recently came across a documentary/book called "The Secret". It was just an emphasis on what I have believed in, or at least a part of it. "Theory of attraction" as they call it, says that you attract whatever that is happening in your life, be it good or bad, you attract not only what you want but also what you do not want. A shift in the focus of what you do want to happen to what you want to happen can just bring about the miracles that you have always wanted to happen. You needn't worry about how it is going to happen, just believe that it will. Even a small amount of contempt or disbelief will not deliver what you want.

A small anecdote crosses my mind, I had performed not up to my satisfaction in my X board exams. I made a vow to myself that when my results come out I will make sure I am beyond satisfied. I just said to myself that I will score above certain percentage. To reinforce this in my mind, I penned it and stuck on walls and wherever I tend to look. I worked just about as hard as I would normally and when my results came out I got exactly .01% more than what I expected. I was beyond happy, flying about simply because something I believed in worked. Call it determination, passion, dedication, positive reinforcement, theory of attraction; they all say the same thing:

"When you want something so bad, the whole universe works to get it for you"

Use it well
Use it wise
Be the artist of your own life :) :)