It's irresponsible to be pessimistic. Happy New Year!

While anytime of the day or the year is a good time to reflect upon one's accomplishments and failures, gains and losses, joys and sadnesses, weakness and strengths the end of the year is an apt time as the general spirit in the air aided by sort of unbridled optimism, permits, if not encourages, such introspection. An advantage in taking some time out at the end of the year is that you are sitting at home avoiding traffic going toward not so far locales where annual revelry would be in full swing if not already kicked in. You could do this in a hotel or a resort farther away. But these places are usually priced higher inviting only those 'who are keen to shell out the marked up' fares. So, the introspective exercise might turn out to be an expensive affair.

Anyway, as I sit down and write at this odd hour, unable to sleep for some reason ...

I recall how my year began with doing something new this year. I completed the Mumbai Half Marathon. I did that at my own sweet pace, although, the timing was good enough to qualify me for the 2012 round without worry.

The next month or so was spent in a hospital tending to a close one, not knowing that they will not be coming home and the loss would be there to bear through the rest of my life. While this shook me up, I discovered my capacity to deal with fundamental realities of life. I learned that life's moments need to be seized with gusto, lest it is too late. Say your thanks now, to those who deserve it; forgive those who have been unkind to you, for it is not your karma whether they deserve it or not, but you deserve the peace that comes with the forgiving.

I also discovered the value of values; the value of human relationships. When I needed it, help came from unexpected quarters. It did not, also, come from some expected quarters. What a funny world we live in! We are generally blind to our surroundings. On a different plane, we also underestimate ourselves about how people perceive us. Whatever you think you know, there are surprises in store for you.

I traveled to more new places; a first, traveled below the Equator. I experienced the shorter version of the famed African Safari, briefly lived among a couple of oldest cultures, ate their food, traveled in their local transportation and got a glimpse of the emerging Dark Continent.

I spoke with authority at a couple gatherings and symposiums for bankers and other technology buyers. In my quest for being a better manager and to lead better, I learned more about what works and what does not. A strong balance between efficiency and commitment is necessary to be productive as a team. Striking that balance is the key to success. Something I started last year at work, showed results this year, boosting my confidence. A few others fizzled out, only teaching me that some things are beyond my control and I need to let go.

There is something for everyone on Twitter. I become active and discovered new channels to keep myself curious about some aspects of life. So far, I have not been disappointed, except that I am probably getting hooked on to it.

The economy has taken a dive, globally. There is general dissatisfaction about Indian state of affairs.

But at the turn of the year here's what we need to remind ourselves "We live in times where anything is possible. We live in a world of infinite possibilities. It's irresponsible to be pessimistic".  A friend said " I have a feeling 2012 is going to be a good year. Something good is going to happen." Agreed, mon ami!

Welcome 2012! Bring in the goodies and the toughness to deal with the baddies.

Review of The Dirty Picture

"Can it get any worse when even your enemies have stopped abusing you?" , "Movies are about three things entertainment, entertainment, entertainment. And I provide that entertainment." are just a couple of lines among a few other than resound even after you have walked out of the cinema hall. Barring the few good dialogues, Silk's award acceptance speech and a couple of emotional scenes portraying Emraan Hashmi and Vidya Balan, most of the script runs like a potboiler replete with double entendres. OK, a 'Dirty Picture' is supposed to be like this, but couldn't it have been more?

Sure the directors and producers might deny it, because it's practical sense to do so, but it is no secret that the movie is based on the life of Silk (Read more about her here) an actor, specifically a siren, from the 70s and 80s who took the southern woods i.e. Sandal..., Tolly..., Molly... etc  by storm. The thematic fusion of Bollywood and southern  styles seem appropriate to the basic context of the story - soundtrack, garish costumes, make up, dialogue delivery of movies within the movie, song & dance routine, the lyrics that seem translated from a southern film; exception is the Sufiana Ishq song which serves better as a standalone music video. But the storyline itself fails to impress simply because it does not delve any deeper than just a narration of men in the life of a rebellious actor who got typecasted because she couldn't care less than to just strut her stuff to realise her dream. There are probably several dimensions to the mind and heart of an actor like Silk which could have been dealt with.

The movie, as it boils down, is just about Vidya Balan. She 'lives' seduction and oomph in the core thread of the movie and carries it out elegantly. After seeing her performance, it is difficult to imagine any other current actor who could have taken up the role.There is definitely a lot of boldness in there and in not just the skin-show. Who else could have done justice to this role , I am really thinking now, hmmm...

There was a lot of potential in the way the story could have been written, rather then just skimming over a series of  men and a chain of events. Maybe they realised it and towards the last 20 minutes when they spent some time on the emotional bonding that develops between Silk and her erstwhile nemesis? Knowing it was Vidya Balan donning the role, they could have stretched a bit and introduced a level to the story rather than leaving it at the pulp fiction level.

Watch this movie if you are a Vidya Balan fan. In my case, I wasn't one, i.e. until now. (Disclosure: until now, I have seen only one of her other movies Lage Raho MunnaBhai, but that was not about her.). Also watch it if you are intrigued by the concept behind the movie, a biography of a siren whose mere presence turned a flop into a money spinner for some movies.

The darkness of Sunshine

Exploring something new with this poem. Any critique of this vers libre is welcome.

The darkness of Sunshine

Once there was a white rose,

They called her Sunshine,

Reflected the day's glow around,

Said she was a creation fine

She sang, danced, laughed

In the wind; Little did they see,

Inside Sunshine there was darkness,

Which beneath her glow she hid

One day a bee found Sunshine,

She opened up to the bee

He sang, danced and played with her,

Wished he'd set her darkness free

But Sunshine was daunted,

Held on to her darkness tight
Fragile, she felt without it,

Thought darkness gave her might

She drew herself deeper into darkness,

And pushed away the bee

But such was the darkness,

Potent, that it stayed on with the bee

-Gowrish

Remembering Steve Jobs

Through growing up and work life different perspectives of Steve Jobs kept developing - a great visionary, inventor, entrepreneur, people manager and a contemporary marketer who revolutionized market understanding, product design and innovation. By way of remembering him, here is a collection of my favourite quotes by Steve Jobs on some key subjects.

Life, leading it purposefully and entrepreneurship:

"You cannot connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect ehem looking backwards. So, you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something - your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life."

"Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me … Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful… that’s what matters to me."

Market understanding and customer needs:

“You can’t just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them. By the time you get it built, they’ll want something new.”

"...A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them."

Leadership and people management:

“When I hire somebody really senior, competence is the ante. They have to be really smart. But the real issue for me is, Are they going to fall in love with Apple? Because if they fall in love with Apple, everything else will take care of itself.They’ll want to do what’s best for Apple, not what’s best for them, what’s best for Steve, or anybody else.”

Design:

"That’s been one of my mantras — focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains."

“In most people’s vocabularies, design means veneer. It’s interior decorating. It’s the fabric of the curtains of the sofa. But to me, nothing could be further from the meaning of design. Design is the fundamental soul of a human-made creation that ends up expressing itself in successive outer layers of the product or service.”

Managing innovation:

"Innovation has nothing to do with how many R&D dollars you have. When Apple came up with the Mac, IBM was spending at least 100 times more on R&D. It’s not about money. It’s about the people you have, how you’re led, and how much you get it."

Personal excellence:

“We don’t get a chance to do that many things, and every one should be really excellent. Because this is our life. Life is brief, and then you die, you know? And we’ve all chosen to do this with our lives. So it better be damn good. It better be worth it.”

“Almost everything–all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure–these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.”

"Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle."

Death:

"No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

Rest in peace Steve Jobs.

The hunter, the hunted and the observer: Part 2

(Continued from Part 1: Read here.)

As we were returning from the Hippo pools we decided that we would give it another 30 minutes and then leave the park. I realised I was kind of dozing off in the odd combination of bright sunlight and cool wind, because I was shaken by the excited voice of my guide, "Look there is the gecko you missed the last time". Some gecko, it was a Monitor Lizard full six feet in length, head to tail, with Matrix-green slimy skin. I quickly managed to get a couple of snaps, before it disappeared under the little bridge. I must have gone back to dozing because then I was startled by, "There he is, at last! I am amazed how fast you can go to sleep." We were looking at the back of a Lion about 80 feet away. On the other side we could see a couple of Safari vans silently parked in anticipation of the Simba to do something spectacular.

Calvin had an idea that we should go around the lion and come face to face with him. So, we started the engines and followed a circuitous route down the hill turning left and coming halfway up the hill on a track parallel to our current one. The route was longer than I had imagined because out of the blue we were beside a pond with a hippo in dark pink and grey hide munching away the tall green grass. He looked up at us when we stopped and made a waving gesture with his head. I kept shooting away on my digicam. In a few seconds another Safari van that pulled up beside us. Hippos are shy, I thought, as I saw the giant pink and grey beast turn around swiftly and in a running-rolling motion ease itself into the pond. We backed our car and resumed the little trip up the hill back to the Simba.

Within a few minutes, we were back in sight of the Safari vans parked by the Lion's spot. Somehow thinking that we had to tread slowly lest we disturb the Lion, we parked the car and turned off the engine. Looking out for the Lion walk his way downhill, we realised he was not alone. I saw the Lioness first, crouched in the grass looking intently ahead into the distance. We were just about 40 feet away from the Lioness. Then the Lion emerged behind her in a majestic gait down the hill.

I kept switching between video and still modes on my camera and remembered that this was the stuff that National Geographic shows are made of, isn't it? I could feel the tension in the air, as we realised that the majestic couple was indeed checking out the dazzle of zebras about 300 feet away. "Animals can sense danger, you know. The zebras are not behaving normally as they do," Calvin kept talking. I thought, nothing was normal about this scene, as far as I was concerned. I could hear every little tweet that any bird was making. If I tried harder, I could probably hear the sounds of the zebras. I am certain this natural drama plays out thousands of times around the world every day. But when have I  been a witness to it in real life? I was really lucky that this was happening in the little time window that I was in the park.

Hunting is a patient game. We had played it all morning to sight the Simba couple. Now, we were watching these two lay out the ground for their hunt. It was already about 15 minutes since we landed at the scene and the Lion and the Lioness had hardly moved 10 feet. At this rate, the hunt would take some time to end in a kill. Calvin reminded me that we would not have time to go to the Giraffe Park since we had spent more than planned time here. He knew about my meeting and my flight and he knew the sluggish traffic on Nairobi roads. He had been my driver for the last three days. So, I had to agree with him and reluctantly decided to end the observation of the lions.

On my way out, I was so excited, I made a long distance call to let my wife know what I had just left behind. She could not believe it. She  immediately decided that I could watch a full hunt when we went to Masai Mara together. So, there it was, a plan to Masai Mara was made. I am definitely looking forward to a longer Safari that would come about in the next 18 months. The Mara's been on our list long enough. We better figure out how to check it off the list.

Until then I have to be like the Simbas, patiently waiting, carefully observing, remaining out of sight yet keeping the goal in sight and swooping down on the target in a quick action.

The hunter, the hunted and the observer. Part - 1

I saw the Lioness first, as she looked far into the distance crouched 40 feet away in the dry Kenyan Savannah patch. Almost invisible, she had been elusive through the best attempts of my safari driver and me for the last two and a half hours. The Lion emerged about 15 feet behind her, in his majestic gait and crouched about eight feet behind her. Within a few seconds, he stood up and walked up to the Lioness as she continued to survey the dazzle of zebras. Calvin, my Safari driver and guide, let out a knowing smile and said in his Kenyan accented English "She is just trying to spot the fattest one". I said," You mean the slowest one." He replied,"Same thing. Man these zebras are all fat." I looked at my mid-riff and decided that I should not continue talking and instead work on my camera.

While I would have loved to start earlier, we had started off at 7 AM. No time for breakfast, I picked up a couple of small pies and a couple of doughnuts from a supermarket. I bought extra batteries just in case my rechargeable ones gave away. We reached Nairobi National Park at 7:30 AM and picked up our Safari passes. There were three other cars waiting to check in at one of the seven gates that open into the park. As soon as I started wondering whether the tarmac was laid for all of the 100 odd kms of criss cross Safari tracks, the tarmac ended and gave way to hard red and black earth.

The first native of the park we met was an Ostrich. After that they just kept coming - Impalas, the Wild Beasts (Oke, as they are called in Masai), Gazelles, Zebras and dozens of types of birds that I do not know the names of, but they came in all colours. After about half hour we changed tracks as Calvin spotted a Giraffe at a distance. Somehow, everytime we kept getting closer the giraffe changed directions. I never got close enough for my camera. About the camera - I own some of the best equipment for a prosumer of photography. But, this biz trip was put together on short notice and I could not get my Nikkor Lenses (one of them a 450mm effective on the D70 that I own), cleaned. I am the only one I know whose lenses have fungi on the inner element. And since it is rainy season, I was told they would not risk opening it until seasons changed and the dry winter began. So, there I was with a 100 dollar SLR-like Fujifilm S5800  digicam, which had time and again proved itself for street, landscape and macro photography. But, I knew it was a crime or even a sin to not carry to a Kenyan safari the best of the equipment I had. I was counting on the bright sunlight to make up for any limitations that my  digicam had. Anyway, c'est la vie.

Everytime we passed another private or hired Safari vehicle, the drivers exchanged notes about what each other had spotted. Even in the open wilderness of the grassland with sparse Acacia groves and very rare clumps of palm trees, it was difficult to predict where a specific type of land animal would be. It was about two hours into the Safari and we were getting eager to see a pride of three lions that we kept hearing about. We even chatted up a ranger with a gun and wearing camouflage fatigues. I did not have the whole day. I had a flight to catch in six and a half hours and a meeting (I know), to attend in three hours. So, we again changed routes.

Shortly, we spotted a tower of Giraffes and since we were driving into the sun, they appeared as tall silhouettes in a light blue background. For a second, it felt like being in  Jurassic Park. I had never seen a dozen giraffes together, let alone this close in the wild. We were on our way to what they called the Hippo Pools, where sometimes the lions hung around. While we saw neither the hippos nor the lions, we had a close encounter with congress of baboons (I wonder if the connection between monkeys and the government is a deliberate one). An enterprising guard had set up a small refreshment bar of soft drinks in a shelter near the Hippo Pools. To draw crowds to his little store, he had displayed sun-dried and somehow cleaned up skeletal remains of several animals done to end by the predators. The most interesting and difficult to guess was that of an Ostrich.  ( Continued in Part 2: Read here.)

Social network experience and its impact

Since being introduced into Google+, I have tried to understand the why of what's fundamentally different about it. Google couldn't have created it as just another social portal, as they already have Orkut, which today is a been-there-done-that for most users in my Facebook network.

Android users have  several real-time integration benefits with Google+, but for now, let me focus on just the convergance aspect of a social portal. If Facebook is about a Wall, why does Google have Circles? That's where the fundamental difference lies, more than just the terminology. What does this mean to our interactions with the two different tools?

In real life, down to ground level away from the cyberspace, do we consider all friends 'similarly'? We mentally slot people we meet as just acquaintances, friends, like-family, family and many other nuances of relationships tedious to compile here. But what happens when you log onto Facebook? There is one Wall and it is up there for everyone to write as they please and for everyone else to read, even if it is not just 'apt' to share it with everyone.  With a Wall on a Network, you are essentially bringing all to the same plane, whether you like it or not. We have accepted this as this is all we got.

Admit it, there are level of friends and you'd like to share not everything with all of them, at the same time, even if eventually you would.  Then, there is the local 'circle' (school, college, dorm, special interest) specific language that you'd like to use with the right set of people. But hovering at the back of your mind is the point that maybe others that who do not understand what's being said might not 'get it'. What happens then? Think of what happens when a group within a party starts talking about a specialised topic or event that is of no relevance to others. The group rares out. Sure, a Wall is asynchronous or not 'live' since not everyone is not interacting at the same time. But the behavior is nevertheless impacted since everyone consumes the same content, eventually. There might be self-selection in what one consumes. But the fact that the information or impressions were put out there has some impact on the user who put it there and those who read it.

For example, there are some friends you will let 'take you for granted'. This, on Facebook might mean you will let them say anything i.e. metaphorically speaking, piss on your Wall. The implication of this is wider than just that it is for there for all to see. In two recent examples my friends 'violated' discretion by writing things that were not for public consumption. They might have done that under a misguided sense of humor. You cannot avoid such indiscretions, as much as you cannot blame them for their behaviour. One of them, in an offline conversation, even went on to call me hypocritical for having deleted his posts. I am still not sure what impression the online exchange might have left on others. The fact that this problem even occured is an implication.

Circles solves some of these issues. But is the Circles or Circles of Circles (Extended Circles) the ultimate answer? This is a great change toward the right direction, but not a panacea. When we create our own Circles, we still end up adding A and B who are each known to U, but not to each other. How fine tuned would you make your circles? How many Circles can you manage? I am sure there is a smaller Dunbar's Number for Circles you can manage. Will your network set-up imitate exactly what you have in your mind?

So, essentially, bogged down by lack of choices, what are the users doing? They might be either getting used to the idea of 'sharing it all with all', or using discretion in what they share, so that they at least deliver a 'common mimimum' content to the 'Wall' or 'Circles'. In a sense, therefore, even the best tools today still give us a compromised experience, even if they are, innovative, technically well executed and design-wise state-of-the-art. Another question to consider is, how is this group level behaviour changing us at the individual level as we continue to use the available social tools in current formats? There are more questions than answers.

My bigger problem right now is learning to juggle my time for Google+ and Facebook.

A walk in the rain

It has been raining in Mumbai continuously for the last two nights. Sometimes a drizzle, sometimes a downpour, but unrelentingly on, the rain has kept at it.

This morning, it picked up pace with much louder pitter-patter. As I looked out beyond the balcony from the cozy living room with the cuppa in my hand I thought about the times, as kids, when we used to play in the rain. Busy life has a way of drawing you away from little pleasures like these. The itch to relive getting soaked in pelting water kept getting bigger.

So, I decided to take a walk in the rain. As if on a cue the rain turned into a downpour. As I stepped into the three inches of water on the concrete road, I noticed people going about their business as usual, on foot. No one seem to be particularly bothered. I was soaked to the core in no time.

There is a natural symmetry that comes with the rain. Water falling from corrugated rooftop sheets create umpteen number of little waterfalls all falling alongside each other, creating umpteen number of little puddles that get washed away in overflowing street water. Nature reminds you that she is all powerful.The underground drains were so flooded, the concrete covers were bobbing up and down in the water gushing from below.

The rain also brings alive sounds new to unaccustomed ears. I stood under a tree and could hear at least seven different water sounds; the pitter-patter of falling rain, the gushing from a water drain pipe into the water bubbling in the drain, water streaming down the street every now & then splashed about by a passing motorbike, slapping of the flip-flops of passers by, drops cracking on an abandoned plastic bag and the harmonic cycle of blobs crashing on to an inverted paint can. On the inverted paint can there was a different sound with every first, second and third drop, only to repeat the cycle of sounds thereafter, making you wonder what must be causing the drops to change size.

I was not the only one that thought a walk in the rain was all fun. There was a quartet of boys from a nearby slum  shouting and singing an undecipherable Bollywood number. Two on a bicycle kept goading the other two who were cartwheeling in ankle-deep water. I shouted in Hindi - Are you having fun in this rain? The boys on the bicycle shouted back in affirmation and flashed a beaming smile. I decided to let the camera phone rolled up in a plastic bag in my pocket remain inside. No point killing the phone even for a good shot.

We take some things for granted. We are too careful and protective of ourselves, maybe even a little inhibited. Walking in abandon in the rain offers a little escape from the life we spend ensconced in our cubbyhole apartments. There is a lot more fun in being a part of the rain than watching it from the living room. There is a sense of  liberation that comes from walking on the streets in soaked clothing, a feeling much distant from walking down the street in formal wear, watching out for and avoiding every little dirty puddle. I was smiling as passing vehicles created waves in their wake and the water kept lapping up to my shins.

After about an hour, I returned to my building and the security guard was beaming. He must have recognized my game. I thought maybe he was wondering what fun these people find walking soaked in heavy rain, or may be he was remembering his fun days in the rain.

As I waited outside my door, I was wondering what the reaction of my folks would be. My wife opened the door and gave me instructions on how to avoid getting the whole floor wet, including a side remark on washing my feet with Dettol water before getting under the shower.

Then, she asked how it had been. I said that I had had a lot of fun and saw new things. She said she would join me in the walk next time.

Mysterious Four

Sometimes, it takes a while to see a pattern. And when you see a pattern there is a natural tendency to fit everything that you encounter into that pattern. I am not sure why a string of coincidences should, firstly, cause us to weave a pattern around it. But we do it all the time. Maybe it is natural (like the seasons). Maybe it is thousands of years of mental evolution that has brought patterns to bring comfort to humans. After all, there are festivals aligned to events that no one has witnessed and then there are those that are created by men; the new years day for example, which are directly linked to our annual trip around the sun. In any case, patterns comfort us; trying to find a meaning each time might be vain task. The fans of numerology may shower a satisfied laugh on us, but that's a matter of faith i cannot dispute until i know better. At least, watching in anticipation is very much entertaining. All it takes is a little effort to spot the markers. A small story follows.

This evening i flew back after a long-weekend trip. The number of the flight i took began with a 4 and the remaining two digits added up to 4. I requested for a window seat and was given one on row# 4. I had dinner at the airport, the bill amount was a multiple of 4 . We boarded from Gate #4. I had seen the pattern by now and was watching intently how far this went. We landed ahead of time, as usual it is for this 'sexy' airline, anyway. There was a brief announcement prior to disembarkation that our luggage could be collected at belt #4.

My bag was the first to arrive (not fourth) and i promptly proceeded to the fleet taxi counter. I was assigned a cab whose registration number had digits that added up to 16, square of 4. When i stepped off at the end of the short trip and paid the bill, the amount was a multiple of 16. I walked into our home and did my little routine of bringing the house back up. One of the last things i did was turning  the microwave on (better keep it off the 16 amps outlet when away for a few days). This meant i had to reset the clock and while at the exact instant it was 3 minutes past midnight, i thought there was no harm in waiting for a minute and setting the clock to 00:04.

PS: By the way, i did not pay attention to the number of the taxi that took me to the departure terminal, but, i am willing to bet & even lose a  few bucks (reasonable multiple of 4)  that the number might have been a multiple of 4.

Limitless fun with possibilities

Two movies that explore similar themes, both released in the same month, make for an enjoyable summer. 

A couple of weeks back i reviewed the movie Source Code. While Source Code was about ‘exploding’ possibilities of the brain & mind, Limitless is about the ‘imploding’ ones. Let me explain.

Source Code dealt with the idea of tapping into universal consciousness and an individual brain & mind reaching out to harness that power. In that sense it is ‘explosion’ oriented. Limitless deals with consciousness too, in the sense of a super sense of awareness. A sense that not only makes you see better what’s around you now, but brings alive those mental circuits which are silenced away in the repressed memories, including some that you did not even know you had made, but nevertheless got trapped in the synaptic meshes. Working upon the fact that at any point of time and therefore cumulatively, we harness only a nominal fraction of our minds’ potential, Limitless, based on a novel ‘The Dark Fields’ by Alan Glyn, explores, quite plausibly, what could we really do if we had the power to use the entire brain/mind together. Can the brain & mind really run like parallel processors on turbo charge? If the brain & mind ‘imploded’ in a controlled manner, what would the output be? It’s neatly imagined by the original writer and executed by the director.

The movie itself is finely done. The storyline starts with a narrative timeline which then midway switches into ‘realtime’, but throughout keeps you wondering where this is going, especially about the meta-plot of the direction of NZT and its effect on Bradley Cooper’s Eddie. You can only guess, because this is such a novel theme, you just have to go with the director Neil Burg on ride he is going. The subplots move like a predictable thriller, with a surprise or two thrown in. While Robert De Niro adds style to Van Loon’s character, he is not really shining through. But Bradley Cooper as the protagonist stands out with his performance. 

The storyline ends on an open note. So, while i am hardly on NZT, i can still predict there will be a sequel to Limitless. Definitely look forward to it, if there is one.

PS: This is my first Neil Burg. But i just found out that the earlier movies of his are user-acclaimed too. This will be one busy summer.

Movie 'Source Code' is 'intellectually gripping'

If Inception set me into a tizzy, Source Code had me gripped to my seat, unable to predict how the story would unfold and then it hits you in the face with its concluding climactic surprise. Duncan Jones nailed it, I say.

Let's take a step back and wonder how neatly can you use something as nebulous as Quantum Physics (QP) on  us commoners. A lot of contemporary reading about consciousness tells you that 'it' is all explainable, let me add, probably explainable. So, taming QP to make it do things for us is way way ahead of us. But what are the possibilities? That is what Source Code is all about. True, the concept of parallel universes, changing what could be by moving back in time and fixing it, turning the world back from the fork in time it took have been tested in several movies like the Terminator series etc. But, those were meant to shock and awe, at large. So, what did the director and producers do with Source Code? They decided that they would take a different route and leave out the robots and the cyborgs and instead elaborate upon something everyone understands - maybe a Simple Cat not the Schroedinger's Cat. Gripping?

Source Code offers a melange of romance, hope, suspense, thrill, action, a bit of shock as well (when they reveal what or who Colter really is). It's a compelling performance by Jake Gyllenhaal. Michelle Monaghan, as the gentle, kind, lost and want to be found Christina does a great job and lights up the screen for the romantic dimension of the story. Vera Farmiga treading the human and ethical dimension of the movie does a neat job.
Russel Peters chips in too to tell us that life doesn't have to be grim. One could end it with a smile or a laugh.

Source Code is not to be missed.

A new paradise for chocolate lovers in Bangalore: The Chocolate Room

When you visit a specialist chocolate place you expect to find something new, something that will surprise you. Because, if you love chocolate,  then whatever your favourite chocolate grub you still yearn for something new. That's the allure of chocolate. After all it is the food of the gods isn't it; called so, literally, because of the natural ingredient theobromine. No wonder then 'the chocolate room' believes that 'chocolate is good for you'.

As of this writing, the one of its kind in Bangalore, a wonderful place for chocolate lovers, 'the chocolate room' is nestled between and within looking distance of The Forum Mall and Christ College off Hosur Road. The first surprise for you would be that the place offers ample parking for your car or bike, something really useful in that locale and something increasingly rare in Bangalore. So, don't worry about how you will go to the place.

One of the first things you will notice when you enter the chocolate room is the soft and comfy ambiance which is both modern and young. While at the far end you will see a Graffiti Wall and Gifts Window, at the other you will see a counter with exquisite chocolate bites and chocolate thins. The conflated smell of chocolate and coffee wafts towards you as you walk in making you more eager for something chocolatey. As your eyes move around the place, you are sure to catch sight of one of the seven wonders of the world... entirely made out of chocolate!

The menu is interesting and offers you several new ways of eating chocolate like the flavoured chocolate shots if you are in the mood for a quick doze of chocolate. There is a host of options to eat chocolate as a blend or a cocktail, as a shake, mixed with coffee and you will find several options of chocolate served hot and served ice cold, with and without cream. There are several interesting non-chocolate options as well, if you simply want to fill up lightly or cool yourself down with a quick cooler.

If you like chocolate and coffee cold, be sure to try the Coffee Nirvana. I will not spoil the surprise by telling you what they are but be sure to bite into one of those little coffee coloured thingies you will see floating on top. Among the shake options, try the unique Tiramisu; it is sure to leave you breathless with the impeccable Tiramisu flavour. If you have had the cake, it's time you tried something drinkable. Seriously.

If you are someone who likes to mix two fine flavours, you might like strawberry with chocolate. Your tastebuds  'graduate' to a new level with the blend. If you get the drift of what I am saying, go try the Death By Pancake. This is a unique dish I have eaten in a long time.

Here, you can simply relax with a book and sandwich & coffee or chocolate, or connect your laptop or phone to the complimentary wi-fi this place offers and go about your business. The staff will simply take your order, fill it and let you be, attending to you with care as needed.

Like they like to say here, chocolate is good for you, whichever way you like it. You will discover it in the chocolate room.This is a must visit place if you love chocolate.

The journey of life and beyond

Quoting a poem extract from The Lord Of the Rings:

The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet.
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say.

-J R R Tolkein

About PGPX and IIMA debuting at #11 on FT.com’s Global MBA Rankings 2011

On January 31^st, 2011, FT.com released their 2011 Global MBA Rankings (Read Here). IIMA made its debut in these rankings at #11. This is the best ever debut, but more on that later. 

When an iconic business school that has, over the last five decades, defined its contribution to the society through leaders who have led big changes in the Indian and international arena debuts on the MBA ranking scales in this manner, there is a lot of surprise. Why? Because owing to technicalities in ranking processes of international MBA billboards, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad never qualified for the rankings before. For the record, no other IIM has qualified, so far.

There is no doubt that MBA rankings recognize the School and not just the Programme. Because the school is what makes the ecosystem for learning; made possible by best in class faculty who do top of the line research, and using tools and pedagogy honed over years of research and student feedback, enable learning in their unique ways. Alumni of the institute keep the flag flying high and attract larger numbers of aspirants to the school. The students thrive in this environment and later as alumni themselves, through their real contributions and progression in their careers carry forward the alma mater’s glory and contribute to it.

In the context of rankings the change began when IIMA started to redefine the IIMA class, in more ways than one, with the PGPX programme. (Read about PGPX here)  PGPX, the 1-year full time residential programme, attracts applicants with substantial work experience. A PGPX student, on an average, has 10 years of work experience, before he or she joins the full time residential programme. Additionally, international experience is recommended, though not mandatory. Now, the international MBA programmes in other countries, typically, admit students having about 4-5 years of work experience. Over the last couple of decades, while the IIMs have seen large growth in student numbers for the PGP batches (the 2-year full time residential programme), the classes continue to have substantial number of students with nil or minimal (by international standards) prior work experience. This constitution is what prevented IIMA from getting qualified for the MBA school rankings, all these years. The much needed, much deserved recognition in the world of MBA schools was left much awaited for IIMA.

At IIMA, FT.com ranking was sought since the qualification criteria were met in 2009, when the third batch of PGPX graduated. Now, FT.com ranking process includes a mandatory survey of graduates who have been working for 3 years after completing the programme. But that requirement changed when FT.com clarified that they needed the 4^th batch out before IIMA could qualify. Therefore, the evaluation of the IIMA for the ranking was made possible only in 2010.

The debut of IIMA at #11 is the ‘best ever debut’ (Read the release here) and it is no simple achievement for a business school from India to do this. Right behind IIMA, on the FT.com rankings is Indian School of Business (ISB, Hyderabad, India). They were quick to clarify in their press release (Read ISB's press release here) that it was the PGPX programme that qualified for these rankings. They have enough reason to make this clarification.

But, as should be well understood, the ranking belongs to the entire Faculty, the Alumni, the managers and administrators and students of IIMA who’ve made possible the millions of aspects that go into building an iconic institution. A great way to begin a year when IIMA celebrates its Golden Jubilee!