Close encounters of the 'train' kind

Traveling by train always brings in a set of new experiences - the motley set of people around you, the incomprehensible delays, the food - all routine elements, yet full of surprises! For the past 2 years, my train journeys have been limited to boarding the Kalka Shatabdi back and forth from Delhi to Chandigarh. Of course, I could narrate a flurry of harrowing experiences from my train journeys to and from Kanpur, but that will just be digressing from the topic of this post.

So, well, the Shatabdi! Undoubtedly, one of the best trains to travel if one is in India - comfortable seats, palatable food, and obviously, it ferries you to your destination faster than any other train could. Around 2-3 years back, the Shatabdis (atleast on the route I travel) refurbished their seats and seating arrangements, leading to each compartment getting half its seats facing one side, and half of them facing the other. (the picture might help you understand what I said - I did not click it and have borrowed it from the internet!)

Now, if you are blessed with a keen eye (and/or sense of logic), this arrangement throws up an interesting situation wherein two rows of seats are actually facing each other across a table. Of course, with six seats in question, it is almost inevitable that these six people would turn out to be complete strangers, destined to stare at each other for whatever time it takes them to reach their destination.

Coincidentally, I was allocated this very seat in the last two journeys I took. When I realized this in my first trip, I was rather amused and smiled thinking of the awkward time we passengers would have in the next 3 hours. Then I secretly wished I atleast get some pretty faces to stare at. But as Murphy's law would have it, the facing seats were occupied by some not-so-pleasant looking uncles. It usually happens so that the divine forces would tantalizingly pepper some sweet faces at visible yet too-distant-to-talk seats!

Coming back to the issues these 'caught in the middle' seats present, even sleeping presents quite a quandary when you are occupying one of these chairs. All you want to do is slouch and peacefully utilize this time to recover lost sleep. And then you get this odd feeling that not just the people sitting right in front of you, but atleast half of the compartment is seeing you. So, one has to sleep gracefully too, at precisely the right angle of head tilt and consciously avoiding those moments when one's head trips on one's own elbow.

What's worse co-'facing you'-passengers than silent uncles? Yes, you have it! Noisy kids. These surfaced on my second such trip, accompanied by a grandmother watching their activities. These kids seem to have an issue with everything. When they get Jumpin, they want Frooti. Then they keep pointing at every silly thing they see in the landscape outside. The kids I encountered also started playing some miniature super-hero 'trump cards', and kept referring every single dispute to their granny-court. To top it all, they were talking in Malayalam, which I could not comprehend. Surprisingly, I have often found incomprehensible languages more difficult to ignore than the ones I understand.

Yes, train journeys are interesting. Plane trips are vapidly uneventful. The funny part is that you would rather prefer them to be just that!

Jo Jeeta Wahi Sikandar - An observation!

No, this is not a dated movie review. Neither is this a rant about how I absolutely adore this piece of cinematic brilliance. This is merely a record of an observation I had made some time back (after having watched the movie, perhaps, 30 odd times), and was motivated to share when I downloaded and watched it one more time a few days back.

For those who have seen the movie, you would remember Aamir Khan (Sanjay), Mamik (Ratan), Ayesha Jhulka (Anjali), Ratan's interest Kalpana, Ramlal ji, Shekhar and his gang of friends, and ah! an overtly fashionable Pooja Bedi, as the central characters in the movie. Not to forget sidekicks Deven Bhojani, Asrani, et al.

Keeping these in mind, it strikes me that there is no woman character in the movie! Yes, there are college-going girls. However, no mothers, no aunts. Moreover, even if you run a glance at the town crowd scenes, you cannot spot any over 30 female in the vicinity. The only exception (which was pointed out by a person I mentioned this to, and I thank her for completing my information) is the scene where Aamir Khan visits business tycoon Thapar's house to return the car keys. There, in the party, one can spot certain middle-aged women eating away at the party.

I just wonder whether this was pure chance. Or, a subliminal message thrown in by the director. Or, some idiosyncratic whim of the director (ala MF Hussain, who never drew a female face as his mother had died during his infancy). One can only wonder!

Well, if the above looks alien to you as you haven't seen this movie... Run! Go watch it! Now!

Necessity is the Mother(?) of invention, really?

Disclaimer: This is not meant to be an article disparaging the contributions made by womankind in different spheres of life, but a mere reflection on why the art of inventing eluded them.

The fact that very few notable inventions could be credited to a woman caught my attention when I read a Facebook status prodding readers to think of a woman inventor, given 10 seconds. "That should be easy", I thought, banking on the time I spent mugging the list of famous inventors during early school days. The closest to a feminine name I could think of was Elisha Otis. I had my doubts, and Google confirmed that was a man too.

The stark reality puzzled me no end. Inspite of the conservative view most cultures had on women education, we have been witness to some remarkable discoveries made by women; discoveries, that have revolutionized science. Madame Curie, Lady Ada Lovelace, Jane Goodall, and numerous others (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_science) - proving, categorically, that intellect and the capacity to innovate, were never a problem.

On looking for similar data on women inventors, the few notable discoveries I encountered were Kevlar, medical syringe, windshield wiper (http://www.factmonster.com/ipka/A0906931.html). That also led me to wonder why, unlike in many other spheres of activity, women inventors, inspite of being sparse, had never been championed as exceptions in a veritable male bastion.

Aiming to be an inventor is a rather risky career option. Surprisingly then, the male, supposed to be the family's bread winner, took that risky road more often. However, I would concede that I am rather lacking on data on women who took up research and the ones that finally contributed in terms of tangible inventions. Moreover, I could not whip up data on recent research and inventions, which might have a higher percentage of women contributors. Our conventional inventor-invention lists usually talk about the pre-1950 set of inventions.

All said and done, this seems like a fact worth pondering over, and a pointer to career choices ingrained into the female psyche as a part of their socialization in the developing years.

You, yes you!

H'dare you mock my poetry,

I shall see you in court.

Nay, I am not that forgiving,

I shall you to hell deport!


Alright! I know it's naive,

But I love to rhyme.

Guess that's what verses do,

Is it that huge a crime?


Abstract feelings, moving moments,

I write not of,

To life's untalked of banalities,

Do I my poetic hat doff.

To the Frosts and Coleridges,

I sincerely apologize,

Writing gives me a much-needed kick,

That, for the moment, shall suffice!


Poetry needs fresh flavours,

I shall cook up something new.

Tell then sit back and keep mum,

Don't make me... KILL YOU!

Surely you're joking, Mr. DK Bose!

Before jumping onto some concrete matter which (I presume) shall form the meat of this post, I will like to do a merry little jig as I resume writing on my blog, hopefully, more frequently, as is always wished for. The past two months were a delightful juncture in the course of the years yet spent in my life, as I came to like a job in finance and the bustling city of Mumbai, both of which I had expected to be rather daunting at first.

The city was surprisingly easy to adjust to, although a lot of the credit goes to (I am tempted to say 'Suisse') the fact that I spent most of my time in South Bombay, which, I believe, is the hugely rosier side of the City of dreams. That apart, I enjoyed getting to know a lot of new people and the entire appeal of working in an I-bank too! It was great to pack in a lot of entertaining stuff in the weekends, and exploring and experiencing the city in varied ways over the course of the internship.

This post won't be too long as it is late at night and I am expected to sleep very soon. Also, getting up early for office has got me into a rut and I, inadvertantly, end waking up rather early on my own. Here is where I would draw attention to something I have been feeling very strongly about in the past few days (weeks?). And that is the content being telecast on television and in our movies. Reality TV came up a few years ago as a refreshing concept, but has taken little time to sink to the basest of levels, and the way these shows pander to the voyeuristic tastes and immense tendency for schadenfreude in the Indian audiences.

On a rather unrelated note, the inconsistencies in censorship on screen baffles me. In a situation where HBO/Star movies replace the spoken "Shit!" with "excrement" in their subtitles, we see pervert dialogues from movies being shown in prime time trailers, and Imran Khan's "Bhaag Bhaag DK Bose" in Delhi Belly (which does not mean that I don't think the song in itself is very catchy!). Though I am an unabashed champion of individual rights and freedom, I must admit that the need for responsibility gets hightened when one's audiences range from 4-70 years of age. Parents, these days, must be busy concocting some neo- birds & bees stories to explain some of the songs when their children innocently ask them what they mean!

I think it is time people made themselves more aware of their audiences, their sensitivities and the various stakeholders in the society!

Till then, 'aandhi aayi! aandhi aayi! aandhi aayi! :D'

HeadStrong Builders! ;)

This is a Case I wrote for evaluation purposes in the Business Ethics course:


The rise of Headstrong Builders to the league of top firms in the market had been nothing less than phenomenal. A fresh company merely 5 years back, Headstrong Builders were giving the market leaders, Nadiadwala & Sons, a run for their money. In an industry where revenues were governed by strategies and politicking around tenders for major construction deals, HeadStrong Builders (HB), with a visionary and strong-willed leader in the form of Mr. Akash Bhalla, had always relied on using the best of materials, excellent service and fair methods of bidding for contracts. The Gods had been kind and Mr. Bhalla knew it, but being at the top was a dream he had always cherished.

A mere 45 years old, Akash Bhalla was a man of few words. However, he was immensely innovative, ferociously hardworking and inspite of all the success, remarkably humble. A civil engineer from IIT Cawnpore and a management graduate from Crochet Institute of Management, Mr. Bhalla had learned the importance of hardwork and dedication, and considered no other path to success to be an agreeable option. Having been a brilliant student and studied at the most prestigious of institutes, he had also gotten used to being a success story everywhere he went. The quick success of his company had buoyed his confidence but his ambition to dethrone Nadiadwala & Sons, coupled with the recent spate of contracts his firm had lost to them, had been enough to give him sleepless nights.

When Bhalla had started out his firm in 2005, he had set up shop out of a small rented and renovated godown in the city of Agra. He had a small staff of 30 odd people and invested in rigorous groundwork before establishing a long term contract with a labour supply firm and another long standing firm in the construction materials business. Over the years, the firm had grown tremendously in size, with offices in 3 other locations across India and a working staff of close to 400 people. Apart from a huge turnover of over Rs. 3500 crores, HB's market reputation had grown after the conclusion of the recent CommonWealth Games. The construction activities during the event had come under the judicial scanner due to reported cases of misappropriation of funds and use of inferior materials. However, after painstaking trials, HB was among the few firms who had come out with a complete clean sheet.

HB's major market lay in the Eastern UP belt as the urban areas in many cities in this region were undergoing a major face-lift and the reckless drive of corporate retail giants to introduce the “mall” culture to the towns as well was creating a huge business prospect for construction firms. However, Nadiadwala had been operating in this region for almost two decades now and perhaps it was this knowledge of the pulse of the market that had led to its unparalleled success in winning tenders. Their chairman was a man of the world and was a popular figure in the local circles. There were rumours that all the practices of the firm were not entirely fair and an acute sense of business was not the only factor which had kept the firm going for all these years. Bhalla, however, had no intention to investigate any such matters and believed that their efforts would help them trump this dominance.

Bhalla believed that his success lay in the people his firm possessed. He was very proud of the hiring practices of his firm and to date, kept a keen check on each and every staff member being added to the rolls. Once inside the firm, the employees always knew that Mr. Bhalla would be collecting regular reports about every member's performance and any promotions/pay hikes would be accorded purely on this evaluation. However, he was also open to discussion and whole-heartedly welcomed employees who wished to meet him to share their troubles or any opinion they had with regards to the company workings or policies.

Apart from this, Bhalla had a core group of five employees – brilliant, dedicated managers and engineers who had been carefully handpicked by Bhalla through other construction firms or from the best campuses across the country. One of the recent inductees, Anil Mani, a young man of thirty, had got himself counted in Bhalla's good books pretty soon with his keen intellect and irrepressible drive to stay ahead of the competition. Anil, a product of WimV School of Management, had worked his way through a 'dog eat dog' environment where results were the only thing that mattered. Bhalla was wary of such attitude, having heard faint murmurs about Anil's behaviour from other staff members, but felt it better not to question him till- as long as he produced excellent results.

Meanwhile, towards the end of the first decade of the millenium, construction work in the UP belt was witnessing a massive peak due to certain radical reconstruction plans announced by the State government. Bhalla, of course, saw this as an opportunity to fulfill his dream of achieving market dominance but knew winning huge contracts like the ones in the pipeline would be an uphill task. He organized various meetings with members of the company board and also invited few of his trusted employees to discuss where they could improvise to ensure that results went their way. After long hours of brainstorming, few strategies were developed but Bhalla was growing more and more unsure of what impact these changes would bring in terms of winning them the relevant contracts. It was after one such meeting where plans were being discussed, that Bhalla was sitting slouched in his chair and lost deep in thought, when Anil knocked on his door.

Bhalla was a little surprised to see Anil approach him in his office late in the evening, but promptly asked him in. Anil had been part of the long meeting that Bhalla had gotten out of barely fifteen minutes back and which had worsened Bhalla's unfounded fears of losing the contract to Nadiadwala again. Anil had been remarkably quiet during the meeting, a fact that Bhalla had silently ovserved.

“I wish to talk to you about the plans our firm has for the contract bid.”, said Anil. Bhalla gestured him to continue.
“I believe I have a solution to our company's problems and a sure way to match Nadiadwala's contract. Although, I am not very sure if you would be willing to go ahead with this approach”.
“Would you care to come to the point?”, shot back Bhalla, his frustration now clearly showing in his tone.
“Sir, I might have skipped these details when I came here for employment, but I had worked at Nadiadwala's office for a brief stint and was responsible for analysis of material costs and contract pricing. I know of, and I dare say, am in the possession of certain documents, which reveal that their firm has clear cost standards and a knowledge of those would give us a clear idea of the bids they are going to make. All I require is your permission to act on this.”.
Anil's suggestion left Bhalla stunned. On one hand, he was aghast to hear Anil had never talked about his association with Nadiadwala. However, the other side of him suddenly grinned at the prospect of a way out. But soon enough, his conscience came in the way and he flinched. All this while, Anil was patiently waiting for a response.

“How can I trust you?”, quipped Bhalla. Anil was taken aback at this, but gathered himself soon quickly.
“HeadStrong was where my efforts were rewarded, Sir. I have no incentive to fool you.”. With this he moved out of the room in swift fashion.

Bhalla, though, was left battling a lot of doubts and trepidations. It had been a rather usual day but this startling turn of events had left him in a state of mental disarray. All his life, he had been an honest person and had stayed as far away from unfair practices as possible. The firm's image owed a lot to the transparent policies and the ethical methods it adopted in its day to day functions. Could he jeopardize this set of principles and ideals for the pleasure of being called the No.1 firm? But then, hadn't it always been his ambition? And he couldn't have been closer to achieving it...

Fair dealing, at the end of the day, was merely perception. What if Anil brought him all the information and they worked out the nuances inside closed doors? He was also perturbed by the intangible or evident favours Anil might ask for at a later stage for this act of his. Nobody risks his image for charity, he thought.

His scruples were, more or less, the only barrier in the way of the fulfillment of his ambitions. It had been a long day. With a thousand questions running through his head, Bhalla bolted the door and headed home.

Of moments that bite...

Hansie Cronje once said that inspite of all his successes and wins over the years, he spends numerous uneasy nights itching and searching for that solitary run that snatched a world cup final berth from his team. Ofcourse, he might have resented some other moments in his life later, but what reminded me of his example was the sheer oddity of the fact that numerous achievements, cheerful moments are, at times, dwarfed in front of that one fleeting moment. And, one is always forced to think of what could have been had things happened otherwise.

I, having led a pretty ordinary life till date, can think of some seemingly trivial things/moments (which would not have any consequence on my present, future) but which, all the same, visit me from time to time and play games with my mind. One of them is from a quiz we attended in school and finished second in. Now, it is not as if we never finished second otherwise and I might have aced certain more important quizzes in college (thanks to my team :D). Maybe the reason here was that we were pretty close to beating a certain team which had been pretty much invincible till then. For some reason, that moment, sitting in that chair and trying to answer in the rapid fire round, is still very fresh in my mind. Ofcourse, there were occasions after this when we chose between two alternatives and suceeded with our choice. But well, the wounds are the ones that bite!

There are others which come up in hindsight. One question answered correctly in the entrance exam and I would have landed up in IIT Delhi to pursue a degree in Civil Engg. Now, I won't jump into a comparison between life in IIT Delhi and Kanpur. However, I, being the completely jobless individual I am, ponder at times over how different I might have been had it happened so. The people I met going to Kanpur, the experiences I had, the campus atmosphere I soaked in over four years - all of it would have been so different. But yet, it happened as it did, and it escapes me whether it could have happened otherwise.

Which brings to my mind the discussions we had (in philosophy class, and especially in our college wings) about free will and destiny. All situations are a consequence of so many variables and other preceding situations that I have come to believe that a simulation of a "what-if" scenario if impracticable. I have come to accept a compromised theory of the two extremes and I loved the way "Ted Mosby" put it in a particular episode of 'How I met your Mother". He said that life just puts you in situations you are supposed to be (and you think that you are mere puppets). However, at every juncture it also gives you an option (among maybe a thousand different alternatives). However, once that alternative is chosen, the program executes a certain distance by itself, till it encounters the metaphorical "if... then" command. Well, that suddenly causes me to think that this is what was said in the movie "Matrix". Oh yes! HIMYM being the mushy sit-com it is actually said that all choices are made for you in a way to make sure that you end up in the "right" place at exactly the "right" moment. The "right", it seems, is set in stone already.

As with most other posts in my blog, this seems to have led me into an open ended argument too. Moreover, I stand liable to be somebody stuck in the past too, which, it turns out, is a disaster for a manager! The philosophy-lover in me says I'll pass that. Most of the things, when they happen, seem out of one's domain of control. Would it be wise then to accept that some things were not meant to happen, their lack of being happening to be the only proof of their logical existence? Does this negate the entire idea of a free will? If not, who draws the line between trying hard and acquiescing to the divine will? On this note, I guess I shall sleep and make sure that destiny (rather a lazy me) does not come between me and tomorrow's class!