Sunrise on the beach

To be happy is to let loose. What better way to do it than on a beach on an early morning? We went to the Kalpakkam beach near Great Lakes to catch the sunrise. The sea, especially when it is unpolluted by the attendant noise of human crowding, is regal and majestic. The surf, the sound of waves crashing on the shore, the unceasing ebb and tide - it is nothing but precision and perseverance at play, as they say, 'Time and tide wait for no man'.

Here we were, on a sunday morning, without any worries of the assignments the day after, letting our feet and body be washed over by the soothing waves. As we rocked back and forth, pushed and pulled by the momentum of the sea, all our preoccupations, thoughts, worries and emotions ceased as if, for the time being, we had won over the monotonous rumble of the everyday world. True bliss lies in the absence of thought. It is an experience that is rarely countenanced.

We clicked lots of pictures and behaved like school kids on a surprise expedition. Only the sweet sounds of happiness pervaded. It bathed us in an innocent glow, cutting through several layers of age and exposing our pure selves. The shadows stretched long and were gone in no time, the footprints we made were washed away by the gleaming white surf, grains of sand clung on to our feet only to fritter away the next second. Isn't there a bigger lesson behind all this? That, whatever we try to hold on to, whatever that gets attached to us, ultimately disengages from us leaving us barren and empty, save a core that lies untouched.Yet we hanker after things not worth a pursuit, run after riches that are forever elusive, work hard and sweat it out, only to lie down tired and defeated.

When it brightened enough to click a beautiful group picture, it was time to bid the beach good bye and head back to the daily grind waiting to entangle us. Happiness indeed, as my friend said yesterday evening, comes in tiny packages. Better to unwrap the package quickly and indulge in the treasure before it is snatched away.

On Chaos, order, reflections and free will

Like a pendulum gone crazy, my moods swing hither and thither,

Thoughts emerge only to recede among the crevices; gather 

and swell, only to flounder and wither. A hundred memories juggle

for attention, few engage, many tease and mock, in a stark irony!

Here I am, waiting for time to cease, to pause and stay still. 

I need to rewind, relive; take stock, walk without the taunt of 

the next moment and the dread of another dawn turning to dusk.

As the grains of time gather in weight, the measuring glass tilts.

It is all hazy, like a train running at high speed and the rattling

windows thundering to their own rhythm. Chaos prevails!

The stop when it comes, will it be abrupt? Will I remember the 

person sitting next to me or will the overwhelming noise cloud 

out the recollection? I fear and a chill runs down my spine. 

The child next aisle was cute, the girl opposite, sweet.

Were they mirages or did they exist for real? Was I imagining

things and telling stories to myself? Was it free will or destiny,

was it fate or fortune? 

The mills of time have their own rules, slow or fast, 

harsh or gentle, His will shall decide. 

The pawns are sacrificed while the knights wait their turn.

Rajneeti - A commentary on the dark underbelly of Indian Politics

Violence begets violence and hate begets more hate! - the axiom on which Rajneeti is built.

 In a country, where many states from Jammu and Kashmir in the north to Tamilnadu in the South practice dynasty politics, where rhetoric fetches votes more than concrete policies and execution, where politics has appropriated prime time television's entertainment space and where the boundaries between private and public space is increasingly a blur, Rajneeti is like a mirror, a shade more melodramatic and perhaps a shade too conspicuously violent at that. At the outset, the critics seem to have lavished generous praise on what is a typical masala movie. 

What works in favor of Rajneeti?  

1. Fine acting by the star cast -
• Ajay Devghan - After Gangajal and Apaharan, we see Ajay again outperforming himself in a role that was the most difficult to play 
• Ranbir Kapoor - as a scheming brother always trying to get a "one-up" on the challenger 
• Katrina Kaif - comes across struggling in the eye-candy scenes while carrying herself remarkably well in the weighty ones
• Nana Patekar - a natural fit for the role he plays
• Manoj Bajpai - good but was something wrong with his make-up? 
• Arjun Rampal - the character you actually feel a lot of sympathy for.    

      2. The screenplay by Prakash Jha and Anjum Rajabali is pacy and raw.
      3.  A heady mix of melodrama, action and Mahabharat style rendering of story.
      4. Presenting a picture of the Indian polity as a bunch of power hungry, morally                 unscrupulous, manipulative and corrupt men.


What doesn't work?

1. The political language employed in some sequences sounded discordant with the age we live in. 
2. The see-saw battle within the family - cliches of rape and murders. 
3.  Absence of songs - for an intense movie, some songs could have been thrown in...the album has some decent numbers from multiple composers, my favorite being 'Mora Piya'.

The movie was a bit of a letdown despite the fine acting on display. For a movie based on politics, there was very little realism. The effort towards basing the movie loosely on the characters of the Mahabharata was unique and one can comfortably say, successful too especially the characters of Kunthi and Karna standing out! Deserving mention is also the fact that the movie had no real hero, perhaps because of the moral dubiousness of all the characters. The costume was hard on the eye with little variety. Overall, a watchable movie with nothing great or appreciable to take away. 


On a personal level, I went for a movie with friends after a long long time. We had good fun on the way to Mayajaal and on the way back singing some memorable numbers. The oldies again ruled. We seem to have a fascination for them, no matter how modern we consider ourselves to be!!


Continue reading at your own risk:


Now that I am about to complete the first term of the PGPM, I couldn't help thinking - 

1. Were the brand elements of the two parties shown in the movie impactful to get into the customer's (the junta here) cognitive space?
2. Wasn't internal family battle a case of 'Prisoner's dilemma' with the two sides always competing and losing more in each successive round, never for a moment, exploring cooperation?
3. From a philosophical standpoint, isn't the concept of Nyaya always more appealing than rigid Niti?

The passage of time

"There is such a little time that your youth will last...The common hill flowers wither, but they blossom again. The laburnum will be as yellow next June as it is now... But we never get back our youth. The pulse of joy that beats in us at 20, becomes sluggish. Our limbs fail, our senses rot. We degenerate into hideous puppets, haunted by the memory of the passions, of which we were too much afraid, and the exquisite temptations that we had not the courage to yield to. Youth! There is absolutely nothing in the World but youth" - From Oscar Wilde's 'The picture of Dorian Gray'. 

As I turned 24, such an extract makes me think, isn't my youth too waning with every passing day, eluding my grasp like the loose sea sand? Or is it all just a matter of feeling 20 again? Well, sitting in my hostel room with assignments and projects waiting for my attention, I better make this post small. Coming back to college is akin to feeling young all over with a renewed vigor! You are suddenly given a port-key (Remember Harry Potter) and taken back to a place that you once thought you would never see again for the rest of your life.

Here, things are happening way too fast to make sense of, in a relaxed and laid back fashion. I used to do this...take a long walk, observe every little detail on the way, come back to my room, lie down and play the walk like a picture in my mind's eye...change a few characters here and there, add a few things here and there...I had time on my side like an obedient boy doing an errand. It afforded a certain luxury that I cherished. Now, there are too many characters, too many contexts, too many things happening at the same time that the recording mechanism in the mind is not able to keep pace and do justice. 

I get the feeling that life is becoming too racy and as a consequence a little too mechanical to draw any meaning. Meanwhile, Youth - that part of our lives -with rules of its own, is slipping past mockingly and with unabashed glee. Shouldn't we slow down the pace just a little? Just enough to pause and reflect, smile without any other thought fighting for space, admire the beauty all around us and get the courage to do what our heart exactly desires, what we always wanted to do but couldn't find the courage to...? Having said that, I still love the way things are panning out for, in optimism, lies hope and liberation. We are all young in our hearts and we can always make time obey our commands if only we get around to prioritizing what we want out of life. Everything boils down to that...

Lines written in a daze...

You ignite a thousand sparks in me,
You know not who your biggest fan is,
A hopeless romantic knows only verse,
Alas, he knows not how to converse!


The graceful mien, the flutter of the lips
the wavy hair as it gleams on the tender kiss
of the faint breeze - this is bliss and agony.
The joy of admiration, the (un)expressed words,
the (un)stolen glances - let them lie concealed,
let the veil not be shred and discarded, oh,
if only all of us know the heights of illusion,
we can take comfort in the laps of allusion!


In every breath you take, may rosy smells await,
in every path you tread on, a thousand joys erupt,
you have the environs gaze in wonder, at the
improbable creation you are, even the faint hints
of blemish would shudder to disturb those beautiful
tresses. A poetry in motion, you are and you would
always be!

In admiration of beauty and elegance, written in a state of daze...

On addictions and assignments!

Today marks the end of the first month at Great Lakes for some of my classmates here. One month has gone by in no time. It seems as if it was just yesterday we came back from the trek or sang along to some beautiful numbers! Time is indeed a great deceiver; it tricks us into believing that grief is long and happiness is transient and illusory.

To an unabashedly self proclaimed romantic like me, to whom the idea of beauty expands readily to encompass things that would appear silly, this place offers many addictions! New to hostel life, I am loving every bit of it now. Be it, the unexpected knocks at the door, the amazing views from outside my room windows, the walk along the corridor while talking over phone, the friends in my adjacent rooms, the rhythm of it all - it is truly something to cherish.

The plants lining the stretch from the mess to the academic block, the classrooms named after lakes like Ontario and Veeranam, the very shape of the academic block and the little temple at one corner of the campus - all these serve to elevate the place into something more than just blocks of concrete. The wonderful friends I have had the good fortune to make - even though we are not finding time to talk to each other as the rigor of the course sets in- have given me something to hold on to, something that I can confidently count on hereafter and draw strength from. At times, it does annoy me that we can't have enough fun, but it is all a part of the package we committed ourselves to. I have also got a wonderful bunch of simple people in my study group. We get together, work for sometime, talk more than we are supposed to and suddenly find a mountain to surmount. In time, We are going to rock!!

I have come to believe in the laws of attraction very firmly for I never once thought that I would feel out of place here and it has never happened so far. That I consciously strive to see only the best aspects of every person I meet makes things a little easier, I suppose. For once, it hardly leaves any room for judgment, complaints and brooding. I am getting used to the course rigor, by that I mean the language of prereads, quizzes, mid terms and case studies. 

All of us, every moment of our lives, gather memories; to savor them or loathe them is incumbent on us. As I hear a birthday being celebrated now, I am tempted to name this post 'On addictions and assignments'. Indeed nothing can be a better word than "addiction" to describe what this place and my fellow gladiators have done to me. So, until the next time I get a break from assignments, adieu!

Navigating the MBA melting pot

300 students drawn from all over India belonging to diverse backgrounds and communities and speaking different languages come together at Great Lakes Institute of Management in a village called Manamai, 8 kms from Mahabalipuram on the East Coast road. This aspect alone, to a curious person like me, opens up a lot of opportunities to learn immensely.

Whatever the effectiveness of textbook teaching, as one of our teachers said, learning in a MBA course is to a large extent, experiential. The teachers sharing their experiences and the students assimilating it and expressing their own makes interactions lively, engaging and brings a lot of perspective to every class. To me, this is the beauty of the course, the value lies in the journey and not in the destination which is just a byproduct. 

Having taken this view, there is something that every student should remember. This post is like a checklist to me and countless other students all over the country who undertake this journey.

1. "To start with a conclusion puts a stop to all thinking" - J Krishnamurti, eminent thinker and philosopher. Imagine if we try to judge every fellow student from day one. We not only commits the mistake of foreclosing acquaintances and friendships, but also forget the fact that it is not for us to judge others. (On a less serious note, Oscar Wilde says, "It is absurd to divide people into good and bad. People are either charming or tedious."!)
2. One of our teachers put it beautifully in the last class she took - "Connect with others honestly". Networking, she said, sounds like a transaction and a deal. Though it is the buzzword in the industry for career advancement, it doesn't leave a pleasant taste in the mouth if one thinks hard. So, "connecting honestly with others" is the key; as long as people are able to see honesty and sincerity in us, unless we can fake it really well, they tend to warm up to us. Superficiality and duplicity can only take us so far. It is hard to wear a mask 24/7.
3. It is easy to lose our originality and identity in a new environment brimming with tension and competition in a ruthless manner. Whenever anything seemingly insurmountable looms near, connect with your core identity. All of us have one, our identities are our anchors. Connect to them and draw energy from them. This word, ' identity' is a unique one. It encompasses everything we are - our strengths, our friends, our tastes, our dislikes, our passions, our weaknesses...the list is large. Very often, redefining it to ourselves makes its roots stronger.
4. Monitor the Ego - Ego is the biggest impediment to success and from my experience, a potentially explosive one for relationships. Constantly monitor it, never feed it.
5. Application - A very senior manager told me as I left the company to pursue this course, "Siva, take this from me. Always think of application. Learning is just alphabets without application". How very true! Whether it is applying oneself honestly everyday and every moment to the task at hand or thinking of applications to the concepts we learn, it encompasses a lot! 
6. Appreciate beauty - Never lose the eye for beauty in little things in the midst of the rat races. This can be a succor anytime; it costs nothing and has extraordinary power.
7. Maintain a record - Experiences like this can't be relived. Have a record of the good and the bad, the beautiful and the ugly, the boring and the interesting elements. Memories, especially the good ones are precious.

Hopefully, I remember these points through the year ahead. It would serve me well if I manage to! 

P.S: I would try my best to update this blog on a regular basis. After all, it is hard to keep one's passions under check!