Oooooooh...Iam totally floored

Like the subject says,

"Yeah!Iam totally, undoubtedly, completely floored.Iam highly impressed and absolutely stumped...yeah in short,that's clean bowled.Blame this charmer of a man!He's adorable,admirable,respectable,damn smart and extremely witty.I've never been this fanatic about anyone, ever before.Never ever"

Well, after a slightly-exaggerated version of my fanaticism, here go his vital stats:

Height:About 5'7"
Smartness quotient:200 out of 100.
Wit levels:The highest I've ever come across.
Humour:Full of intelligent wisecracks that'll have everyone around, in splits.
Affableness:Absolutely no airs about himself; extremely down-to-earth; very, very friendly.
Education:BE (Chemical) + MBA from IIMA.
Occupation:Has been a consultant, a quiz master, a writer, a commentator and a producer!
Achievements:Too many to pen.
Passion:Cricket.

Age: About 45! :(
Name:Harsha Bhogle :)

15th October saw SPJIMR hosting the West Zone Finals of Acumen 2005 - the inter B-school debate and quiz contest.Being a member of the PR Committee, sweating in a black blazer on a hot sunny day, I waited at the gate for a good hour and a half to receive our guest of honour for the day - the host for Acumen 2005.The wait was made bearable,thanks to his pretty secretary who was a non-stop chatterbox herself.The man himself - Mr.Harsha Bhogle - my long-time idol, showed up after exchanging a zillion calls with his secretary (the zillion calls are quite understandable when you have such a pretty woman for a secretary :) ).Just as I was getting all jittery and eager to ensure impeccable welcome formalities, he alighted from his car. I said my hellos,shook hands and offered to lug some of his kit bags. He just flashed a warm ear-to-ear smile that put me instantly at ease.We walked into a classroom where he freshened up for the show.

To cut short the rest of the story,I got to tag around with him all day,chit-chat with him,watch him mug up his lines,watch him rehearse,host the 8-hour-long events with unbelievable ease and no drop in energy levels,gel unbelievably well on-screen with a co-compere whom he was meeting for the first time on stage(!),deliver a whole lot of hilarious off-the-cuff remarks on stage etc.

The best part, though, was that I got loads of snaps with him,got an autograph of my super-star on my T-shirt,got him to take time off for a one-on-one interview with me even though he had a flight in 45 minutes!Whew!it was one of my very best days at SP.Iam now too overwhelmed with admiration and awe, to write in detail about the 'mind Bhogling' conversations I had with him and about how impressive it was to unveil a man with strongly-etched values concealed behind a veil of light, rib-splitting-humour.Iam glad I shared a few of those gems from the golden guy with my folks back home.They were all-ears and all-happy to know I was finally floored but a tad too unhappy to know who it was who had floored me flat :)

Quote for the day:"If life were measured by accomplishments, most of us would die in infancy." A. P. Gouthey

Of what they said n what I learned

It's quite amazing, and maybe quite amusing too, to notice the stark contrast between the maxims that were "taught" or "imparted" to us and the maxims that we actually learn for ourselves,based on what we see in the world around us.That's when a process of confusion,questioning,unlearning and learning sets in.

My musings on this contrast centred around what I observed in my workplace and current college, and I spotted a number of new maxims waiting to replace or dilute the older ones that I clung to.A few of these replacements were easy to accept, since they bore no relevance to me. However, it was pretty unsettling to accept a few others, because they pose a serious trade-off between adherence to values and being diplomatic enough to survive.

What they said: Distance makes the heart grow fonder.
What I say: Nay, distance just makes one's heart wander!

What they said: Modesty and humility will take you far in life.
What I say: Generally true but in the corporate world,modesty and humility don't get you one-tenth as far as your hollow-headed braggart colleague.

What they said: A diamond is a woman's best friend.
What I say: Too many vices vie with the diamond.

What they said: A woman's heart is an ocean of secrets.
What I say: A man's heart is no better.

What they said: A girl needs a confidante apart from her family.
What I say: I've never felt the need till date.

What they said: If you judge people, you have no time to love them.
What I say: If you love people, you'll never want to judge them.

What they said: Serenity is when there's no storm.
What I say: Serenity isn't freedom from the storm, but peace within the storm.

My struggle with Hindi continues undaunted

Hindi is one language that I absolutely love for its rich repertoire of expressive lingo and the melody that oozes out in its spoken form. However, there are a few seemingly complicated profound touches to it, so profound that my poor lil mind has never been able to grasp the hilt of it even after 5 torturous years of pursuing Hindi as my 3rd language :( Whether the profoundness of the language intricacy is to be blamed or my highly crippled mental capacities are to be blamed is another issue and is best left unspoken. For now, it just suffices to say "Despite those 5 torturous years when I had to bribe mom to do all my Hindi homework for me and another 2 years in office when I was forced to converse in Hindi or risk being outcasted, I fail to get the hang of ka, ki, ke ke prayog".

What I could never comprehend way back in school was:

- The difference between machli,makkhi and macchar! Even after humongous efforts at learning my words, I often used to answer "Use the following words in sentences of your own " pathetically like this:

Kal raat ek machli aake meri khoon peeke gaya.
Priya makkhi khaa raha hai.
Mujhe aam pasand hai aur macchar ko bhi pasand hai.

- Why it is "car aati hai" but "truck chala gaya".

- Why my Hindi ma'am used to find it so amusing to read out my answers to other teachers and have a hearty laugh with them.

What still beats me:

- When to use kaa, ki and ke - Gender ka koi logic hi nahi hai!(or is it Gender KI now...aaaargh neva mind)

- Why my wingie finds it so cute n pinches my cheeks when I say "Ab theek hoon.Meri bukaar chali gayi".

Whew!I'll NOW try n learn n talk a lot in chaste Hindi n stun my teacher flat.
Drat! How soon is NOW? That is the question.

Quote for the day:I am learning all the time. The tombstone will be my diploma.
~Eartha Kitt

Closed Indian mind - does it let you live for yourself? - Part II

...continued from Part I

Finally my point: What’s factor X!?! Initially I thought it was an allusion to the kind of compulsion and pressure that our immediate society exerts on us, limiting the choices WE can exercise on OUR own lives. However, on deeper thought, Iam strongly convinced factor X is NOT that! It IS, on the other hand, a lack of self-confidence, a lack of mental strength of today’s Indian youth, to live life on their own terms, to decide for themselves and stick to it despite all odds. On one hand, the supposed hallmark of the Indian value system imbibed in most Indian youth right from their birth, screams out to them: “Don’t be selfish with your life. Live your life for the sake of others and not just for your own sake”. So they are tempted to let their immediate society pull the strings – moms dictate careers, dads dictate love-lives, friends dictate lifestyles, mothers in law dictate religious beliefs and even clothing! On the other hand, the influential breeze of western culture to which the youth are exposed through mass media and their friends’ circles, places a heavy accent on individualism and whispers to them “It’s YOUR life, the only one you’ve got. Live it the way YOU want it, not the way someone else wants you to live it”. Thanks to the two influences, a lot of directionless confused behaviour results and even passes off unnoticed, in the guise of the cleverly camouflaged term 'balanced individualism'. Balanced Individualism, as we may like to trumpet it, is by no means a positive sign. It is just a eunuch outcasted from the coterie of both class A people and class B people. Class A people are the highly individualistic class of people who want to make their own decisions, live their lives the way they want to, hold the reigns of their lives completely in their own hands and realize that just because parents, friends and relatives have showered them with love, it doesn’t mean that they can exercise undue influence in one's major decisions in life. Class B people on the other hand, are the ones for whom, keeping their near and dear ones satisfied, living by the society’s norms, swaying to the trends of the day in order to gain social acceptance, matter more than their own terms in life. It wouldn’t be wrong to say that the former class let their heart rule over their head, while the latter class of people do just the opposite. None of these classes, however, can be categorically stated to be superior to the other.

It is NOT wrong to be class A, it is NOT wrong to be class B either. After all, it is just about making a choice of which type one wants to be and being at peace with oneself about the choice one has made. However, the whole problem with most Indian youth is that they are so insecure, want so much of everything, need the eunuch called Balanced Individualism so much, that they neither firmly choose class A, nor firmly choose class B. If they ever do, they end up cribbing about losing out on either the social circle or on self-satisfaction as the case may be. The trend in India regarding the 2 classes, has been an interesting one too. The fairly orthodox Indians of the yester generations, were mostly of class B and the contemporary generation is of neither classes – it is in a transition phase, uncomfortably stuck between the two classes. It won’t be long before there is a huge shift and most of the Indian youth will be Class As. This latter transition will definitely be a welcome change and will be far more euphoric, not because class A is better but because there will atleast be a much-needed certainty in this critical decision of who controls one’s life to what extent.

I, for one, am surely interested in following the trend and checking out what difference it makes to the great Indian psyche.Maybe when it's finally a society filled with class A youth, a college student won't think twice about dropping out of a course he doesn't like and starting off a new enterprise...and maybe, there won't be anymore Vidya's and Meena's cribbing about we know what...and maybe,a die-hard travelling fan, much like today's foreign tourist, will just pack his bag and leave home one fine morning when he feels like travelling, with a few hundred bucks, a few pairs of clothes and nothing else - not even an idea of where his travel's gonna take him, return after a good travel and sit back n smile satisfactorily "Aah!THAT's what I wanted to do with my life" :)

Quote for the day:Ultimately, it isn't what choice you make that determines how happy you are.It's just how much you can be at peace with the consequences of your choice that really matters.

Closed Indian mind - does it let you live for yourself? - Part I

My caveat cum recommendation to a cyber-wanderer who may inadvertently stumble upon this space of mine:Before you waste your time and energy and whatever else on this post and curse me for the rest of your life, please take a look at the head-line of my blog.Like I claim in the head-line, I post my insane ramblings on topics close to my heart, with no diplomacy, no polish, just straight from the gut!I don't write for someone else to read, I just write for myself ... simply because I absolutely love to write.This post's heavy on psychology and an extremely lengthy one too.So it's best avoided...

IMHO, Indian youth are a very highly confused lot and are growing increasingly so, thanks to what I will, for now call, factor X. Be it a career choice, a relationship with a member of the opposite sex, fashion trends, religious beliefs or something as simple as the next travel decision, dilemma has become the hallmark of many a young Indian soul.

Discuss a career choice with a 22 year old and this is most likely what you'll hear some 'dudes' and 'dudettes' say: "Well, it was my dream of a lifetime to be an interior designer and start a business of my own. However, my parents’ dream was to MAKE ME (eeeeks! I hate the expression) a doctor; all my friends were keen on being software engineers to make a quick buck; my grandfather just wanted me to stop studying and take over our family’s silk business. I was thoroughly confused and thought it was SAFER to just go with the crowd. So I ended up taking Computer Science Engineering". Whew! An interior design entrepreneur aspirant transforms one of the most major decisions of HIS life overnight, thanks to factor X.

I just happened to overhear some “bahu cribs about saas” episodes in my neighbourhood. I could hear the newly-wed Mrs.Vidya hush-hushing “I love wearing jeans. They are trendy and a lot more comfortable than sarees are. However, my mother-in-law is strictly against it. My husband cannot let me go ahead with it and disappoint his mother”. Her co-sister Meena chipped in “I understand, Vidya. Iam an atheist and have never visited a temple for as long as I can remember. Things have changed drastically after I’ve started living here though. I now have to spend atleast half an hour every morning performing what I personally believe are meaningless rituals. I even have to visit the temple every evening, no matter what I think about it”. Factor X at work again.

Another snippet from college where I heard my 24-year old classmate doing some sob-talk: “Both of us have been in love for the past 3 years. Iam more sure of this girl than I have been of myself over all these years. My parents find her reasonably good too. However, both our parents are against our marriage coz society’ll shun them if they consent to an inter-caste marriage. So I had to give up on her”. There’s factor X raising its ugly head. His friend, on the other hand, wails for a different reason “Iam used to a very simple lifestyle. Huge malls, clubs, parties, wine, discussing women, blowing money on golf, infact anything remotely aristocratic, is not to my liking at all. However, if I just stick to my interests of Indian Classical music, philosophical books, coding competitions, cricket and the like, I shall be reduced to a companionless nerd n people around me will scream “Go get a life you sucker!” So I’d rather tune myself to live their lifestyles than live the way I want to”.

...Continued in Part II