I am pulling an Unni here...
moved to Wordpress... so... thats the one that stays.. check out my latest posts there... the older ones will anyway be there!
Update : Reasons - easier URL to remember... http://amitdas.wordpresss.com .. and somehow, when I looked at its functionalities, I liked it more than what I was getting at blogger!
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Turnaround
He turned around and left....
It seemed like the perfect setting. They had been talking to each other for an unusually high amount of time every day for the last 3 months. He was was everything for her. Everything except that one thing she yearned for him to be. They both knew it. They both knew that it could not come to be. Yet they prolonged their agony. The perfect sunset had a dark spot.
He used to wait for her outside her office. Drop her home. Talk to her for hours standing next to the ice cream trolley. Every day, the cellphone would ring. Every day, he said bye. Every day, he turned around and left.
Both of them wanted to end this. The suffering, the pain, the longing. They both knew it was not right. Yet, they continued fooling themselves. The temptation to give in was strong. The pragmatism to hold back, was equally compelling. Who would blink first? While cracking jokes, sharing anecdotes, till the wee hours of the night, thinking about all this, he would turn around and leave.
That day was the same. Yet, it wasn't. That day, they both decided to end it. They agreed that it was not what they ever wanted. That day also, he waited for her outside her office. She finished work, came down, and sat next to him in the car. He drove back silently. After stopping at her home, he did not say anything. She kept looking at him. With hope, a silent prayer going up in the air, she clinged on to the belief that this was also not something that they ever wanted. He still did not say anything. She wanted to cry. It was over. He turned around and left.
The next evening, he said I Love You. It was a Saturday, one of the best weekends of his life...
It seemed like the perfect setting. They had been talking to each other for an unusually high amount of time every day for the last 3 months. He was was everything for her. Everything except that one thing she yearned for him to be. They both knew it. They both knew that it could not come to be. Yet they prolonged their agony. The perfect sunset had a dark spot.
He used to wait for her outside her office. Drop her home. Talk to her for hours standing next to the ice cream trolley. Every day, the cellphone would ring. Every day, he said bye. Every day, he turned around and left.
Both of them wanted to end this. The suffering, the pain, the longing. They both knew it was not right. Yet, they continued fooling themselves. The temptation to give in was strong. The pragmatism to hold back, was equally compelling. Who would blink first? While cracking jokes, sharing anecdotes, till the wee hours of the night, thinking about all this, he would turn around and leave.
That day was the same. Yet, it wasn't. That day, they both decided to end it. They agreed that it was not what they ever wanted. That day also, he waited for her outside her office. She finished work, came down, and sat next to him in the car. He drove back silently. After stopping at her home, he did not say anything. She kept looking at him. With hope, a silent prayer going up in the air, she clinged on to the belief that this was also not something that they ever wanted. He still did not say anything. She wanted to cry. It was over. He turned around and left.
The next evening, he said I Love You. It was a Saturday, one of the best weekends of his life...
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Movie Review: Jhoom Barabar Jhoom
I managed to watch Jhoom Barabar Jhoom over the weekend.. Saturday morning first show it was! And I am glad it was so... why? Morning show tickets are cheaper than the evening shows. Much to my agony, in this age of scantily clad actresses and sparkling colors on the Yashraj screen, I was still not able to recover my 90 bbucks. Not even Gulzar's lyrics, Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy's music, london locales... Nothing worked! Pathetic movie!
Its a movie which revels in mindlessness, below average acting, and poor casting.
The basic plot of the movie seems inspired by the movie Chocolate featuring Anil Kapoor, Emran Hashmi, Irfan Khan and Tanushree Dutta. Not the bank robbery thing, but people cooking up stories on the fly looking at the billboards and magazines lying around. Guy meets girl. Girl wants to avoid guy. Cooks up a story about being engaged. Guy cooks up a similar story about being engaged. (How usual!) Both cookup extremely flimsy idiotic stories. Start liking each other. But can't say! Since the other likes someone else. Mess? No! They go back to their homes. Call up each other. Forcefully and with the right set of incentives, persuade their story characters to participate in a 15 minute long dance and music competition, at the beginning of which know the only surprise element left is - "who will win the dance competition?". Everything else is already fixed. Match fixing, eh? Worse still - even the choreo of this 15 minute marathon is not great.
The constant reference to the guys being from india and the gals being from Pakistan is just not needed. There are better ways of advocating unification of India and Pakistan into one nation!
Absolutely no chemistry being Abhishek and Preity. 2 smooch scenes featuring Lara Dutta (once with Abhishek, and the next time with Bobby Deol). What is the bachchan family thinking now? I heard there were some strong reactions to Hrithin-Ash smooch scene in Dhoom2, including some from Abhishek too! Preity refuses to oblige in a similar way. With her, its back to the flowers in gardens, birds in sky and other such metaphors. Bobby Deol is pathetic, no surprises there. Lara Dutt looks hot, but 1. is there for a very short duration and 2. even that doesn't help.
And those who are wondering where Amitji is in the middle of all this - This really is a new role for him! Special Guest appearance as a singing dancing sensation, who sings and dances everywhere in London, without any invitation. And the same song, over and over again!
Best character - Hafeez Bhai! He has his comic moments!
Music- some of the songs are good. You can see some of Gulzar and SEL in action there! Title Song, Bol Na Halke Halke, and Ticket to Hollywood are the ok.
Overall - Dont watch!
Monday, June 11, 2007
Mirroring at Wordpress
Have decided to check out blogging at Wordpress. It seems far more cool than blogger so far. Have created the mirror site here
The Name remains the same.. the URL much simpler to remember.. Look and feel? You guys tell me...
The Name remains the same.. the URL much simpler to remember.. Look and feel? You guys tell me...
The Inductis Killings
I heard about the layoffs at my previous organization today. And needless to say, I am disturbed. So were Meesum and Rajat. And I am sure a whole lot of us who have already quit the organization. The agony, confusion and frustration of those still at Inductis, is certainly not something that I even want to talk about.
But why I am even concerned?
I left the firm about 6 months back. But a part of me is still there. I still am in love with the people and the company I grew up with (professionally)
How it all started
Today just took me back by a little more than 2 years. October 2004, when I had joined Inductis. It acted, worked and felt like a wonderful place. Energy, Respect and Smartness - 3 words that I would have used to describe the Inductis of then. With 100% of my cribs being genuine, I was in love with the firm. I loved the people. I loved the culture. I cribbed about the faults of the company, fully knowing that there are faults that take time to be taken care of. Those were some wonderful times when Shumeet was asked to go for recruitment at NSIT on the very first day he joined the firm, and Aman was found pushing my car in the parking of First India Place at 10 in the night, ably supported by the lean mean machine, Ashish Bang (I wonder if he can even push move a mosquito, given his awesome physique) !
.. And how it ends
Today, I feel pity. For what remains of an exciting firm, is a bunch of leaders who look and sound more like a petty traders, sitting at the corpse of a hundred aspirations trying to make a few quick bucks.
But Why?
What do I think is wrong with this Layoff* (even though I am all for performance orientation and counselling out* if someone does not perform after repeated chances)?
1. Not giving people a chance to improve. Any employee centric firm should have given the people a warning, a chance to pull up their socks!
2. Catching them off guard. If you are bigger, stronger than the person you are going to hurt, you offer handicaps.. rather than keeping as many as possible with yourself.
3. I've heard that some of retrenchment is not even of under-performers. They are of decent/ok/average performers. Reason given - we have made some losses. I don't think six bad months (especially given that you sold yourself to a "bigger" company that would have enabled you to generate enough cash flow to invest in the business) should lead to such brutality.
4. For me... its the biggest setback to what I have always believed Inductis to be. Till sometime back, we used to talk about it... "We've never asked our people to leave. We believe in staying with them, and giving them more than a chance". Things surely have changed to something where people are let go of without even a warning.
The bottomline is - The company does not care about its people anymore.
Anyone ready to take the blame? I don't think so!
*Layoffs/Firings/Counselling Outs - The way I see it, today, there is a difference between these three terms.
Counselling out is when the firm does not believe that this person fits the company's expected performance levels anymore, and is asked to gradually exit the form in a mutually beneficial manner, where (s)he gets a month or more to find a new job. Usually, in counsel-outs, employees are given a chance to pull up their socks and try and perform (within a 3 month window), failing which they will have to move on. They are put on support/improvement programs.
Firings - When someone is being asked to leave based on his performance levels, or some other organizational issues (such as misconduct, sexual harassment, etc.)
Layoffs- When performance is not the real issue. You just want to let people go and immediately so. Because, you don't think you can care for them anymore. Because they are a burden. Or, maybe, because you've lost the means to support them (and you are too proud to admit so)
[Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are solely of the writer. Based on what he's seen, heard and felt, and do not represent anyone else's views or concerns]
But why I am even concerned?
I left the firm about 6 months back. But a part of me is still there. I still am in love with the people and the company I grew up with (professionally)
How it all started
Today just took me back by a little more than 2 years. October 2004, when I had joined Inductis. It acted, worked and felt like a wonderful place. Energy, Respect and Smartness - 3 words that I would have used to describe the Inductis of then. With 100% of my cribs being genuine, I was in love with the firm. I loved the people. I loved the culture. I cribbed about the faults of the company, fully knowing that there are faults that take time to be taken care of. Those were some wonderful times when Shumeet was asked to go for recruitment at NSIT on the very first day he joined the firm, and Aman was found pushing my car in the parking of First India Place at 10 in the night, ably supported by the lean mean machine, Ashish Bang (I wonder if he can even push move a mosquito, given his awesome physique) !
.. And how it ends
Today, I feel pity. For what remains of an exciting firm, is a bunch of leaders who look and sound more like a petty traders, sitting at the corpse of a hundred aspirations trying to make a few quick bucks.
But Why?
What do I think is wrong with this Layoff* (even though I am all for performance orientation and counselling out* if someone does not perform after repeated chances)?
1. Not giving people a chance to improve. Any employee centric firm should have given the people a warning, a chance to pull up their socks!
2. Catching them off guard. If you are bigger, stronger than the person you are going to hurt, you offer handicaps.. rather than keeping as many as possible with yourself.
3. I've heard that some of retrenchment is not even of under-performers. They are of decent/ok/average performers. Reason given - we have made some losses. I don't think six bad months (especially given that you sold yourself to a "bigger" company that would have enabled you to generate enough cash flow to invest in the business) should lead to such brutality.
4. For me... its the biggest setback to what I have always believed Inductis to be. Till sometime back, we used to talk about it... "We've never asked our people to leave. We believe in staying with them, and giving them more than a chance". Things surely have changed to something where people are let go of without even a warning.
The bottomline is - The company does not care about its people anymore.
Anyone ready to take the blame? I don't think so!
*Layoffs/Firings/Counselling Outs - The way I see it, today, there is a difference between these three terms.
Counselling out is when the firm does not believe that this person fits the company's expected performance levels anymore, and is asked to gradually exit the form in a mutually beneficial manner, where (s)he gets a month or more to find a new job. Usually, in counsel-outs, employees are given a chance to pull up their socks and try and perform (within a 3 month window), failing which they will have to move on. They are put on support/improvement programs.
Firings - When someone is being asked to leave based on his performance levels, or some other organizational issues (such as misconduct, sexual harassment, etc.)
Layoffs- When performance is not the real issue. You just want to let people go and immediately so. Because, you don't think you can care for them anymore. Because they are a burden. Or, maybe, because you've lost the means to support them (and you are too proud to admit so)
[Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are solely of the writer. Based on what he's seen, heard and felt, and do not represent anyone else's views or concerns]
Wednesday, June 06, 2007
Itsy Bits.. Life in the pits!
Opening song of the day - Sham-e-gam ki kasam.... (Talat Mehmood, Movie: Footpath)
The new olympic logo has come under quite a bit of fire. For once, I think I can just stop at saying - I AGREE. This logo SUCKS!
JJ and 8 party co are forming a 3rd Front
When would we start covering our backs? Everyonez interested in opening up a front! Thats obscenely blasphemous! Imagine! Another front?
8 parties - JJ heads! Wow! Now, the front will have a lot of Saree to cover their.. err.. back and front!
AC Local Trains in Mumbai gradually seem like a possibility
I wonder- what will happen to those hundreds and thousands of people who just love hanging by the open gates of mumbai local, ready to inhale the fishy odor and sulphurous fumes of a stinky bandra track? There is an old saying - Kutte ko ghee nahi pachta! A dog cannot digest ghee (clarified butter?)
Its a veryyyy long day ahead with the final presentation expected to go on till about 2 or 3 in the night!
Closing song of the day (based on model predictions!)- Dhanyabhaag sevaa ka avasar paaya (Pt. Rajan Mishra, Pt. Sajan Mishra, Kavita Krishnamurthy, Movie: Sur Sangam)
Dhanyabhaag sevaa ka avasar paaya
Charan kamal ki dhool bana main
moksh dwaar tak aaya
Ghat mein goonja naad nirantar
jyot jali antar mein....
Sau sooraj ke ujiyaare mein..
maine mujhko paaya!
Dhanyabhaag sevaa ka avasar paaya
[ Damn it! No audio links or lyrics links for this song!]
Chain kaisaa jo pahaluu mein tuu hii nahiin
Maar daale na dard-e-judaai kahiin
Rut hansiin hain to kyaa chaandanii hai to kyaa
Chaandanii zulm hai aur judaai sitam
Shaam-e-gam kii qasam
Dekh jaa kis tarah aaj tanahaa hain ham
Shaam-e-gam kii qasam aaj gamagiin hain ham
Aa bhii jaa aa bhii jaa aaj mere sanam
Full lyrics here
Audio Link [ here ]
The new olympic logo has come under quite a bit of fire. For once, I think I can just stop at saying - I AGREE. This logo SUCKS!
JJ and 8 party co are forming a 3rd Front
When would we start covering our backs? Everyonez interested in opening up a front! Thats obscenely blasphemous! Imagine! Another front?
8 parties - JJ heads! Wow! Now, the front will have a lot of Saree to cover their.. err.. back and front!
AC Local Trains in Mumbai gradually seem like a possibility
I wonder- what will happen to those hundreds and thousands of people who just love hanging by the open gates of mumbai local, ready to inhale the fishy odor and sulphurous fumes of a stinky bandra track? There is an old saying - Kutte ko ghee nahi pachta! A dog cannot digest ghee (clarified butter?)
Its a veryyyy long day ahead with the final presentation expected to go on till about 2 or 3 in the night!
Closing song of the day (based on model predictions!)- Dhanyabhaag sevaa ka avasar paaya (Pt. Rajan Mishra, Pt. Sajan Mishra, Kavita Krishnamurthy, Movie: Sur Sangam)
Dhanyabhaag sevaa ka avasar paaya
Charan kamal ki dhool bana main
moksh dwaar tak aaya
Ghat mein goonja naad nirantar
jyot jali antar mein....
Sau sooraj ke ujiyaare mein..
maine mujhko paaya!
Dhanyabhaag sevaa ka avasar paaya
[ Damn it! No audio links or lyrics links for this song!]
Sunday, June 03, 2007
Well.. I haven't stopped watching movies, or plays, or listening to music that I want to talk about, or books that I have read that I want to let you know about. and its not that I have been totally deprived of time either! Yes, life has been a bit of this and that, but I think its more of outright laziness lately that has stopped me from writing!
So... Wassup? Me? Watched Shrek3, Cheeni Kum, Shootout at Lokhandwala and n number of Naruto episodes lately. [ Remind me to start writing about animation series like Naruto and Avatar-The Last Airbender as well]
Shrek 3 was neat, not as neat as 1 or 2, but neat nevertheless! Time well spent. Watched it at Eros, Nariman Point. It was a pleasant change to watch a movie from balcony for 60 bucks, in a really downtown location (people tell me that it doesnt get more posh than that in mumbai - South mumbai is "the" place!). I guess one of these days I would stop watching movies so frequently because I don't think a movie like Shootout deserves even 25 bucks, leave aside 250 bucks! The movie was pathetic, to say the list. Rediff was right in commenting about the idiots who fund such movies. Cheeni Kum would have been a perfect movie if the length was shortened and Paresh Raval muted a bit! Tabu and Amitabh are cool, and its surprising to notice that they had a pretty cool chemistry! Its a good movie to watch!
At one time I really wanted to blast movies like Tara Rum Pum having watched the early shows. But thats some less blood on my hands! ;)
Watched a play - "Flowers" at NCPA. Its a monologue enacted by Rajit Kapur (Of Byomkesh Bakshi fame). (Here is a review that I largely agree with) . Same problem as Cheeni Kum. The length, though short by the standards of usual plays (90 mins), could have been shortened further. More so, because there was no change in scene, no pause, no other character but the protagonist, and no movements. Its about a priest who's torn between his duties as a priest, his love for his wife and his lust for a courtesan. Its a 90 minute narration where the priest walks through the course of events, his emotions, his agony and conflict, paints images using his words, and makes us all visualize the drama! Rajit Kapoor managed to be ok. But the play was just not my kind. I don't want to take the credit away from Rajit, but c'mon - I have a low attention span. I can't concentrate on something for 90 minutes on the trot! Not a lecture from the greatest of professors, not the same song even if I am in love with it, nothing!
My analytics blog is still waiting for the remaining articles and a response to Amit's comment.
There is a blogger meet on 9th June in Mumbai. I am still debating within myself if I want to attend! Should be fun. Lets see!
So... Wassup? Me? Watched Shrek3, Cheeni Kum, Shootout at Lokhandwala and n number of Naruto episodes lately. [ Remind me to start writing about animation series like Naruto and Avatar-The Last Airbender as well]
Shrek 3 was neat, not as neat as 1 or 2, but neat nevertheless! Time well spent. Watched it at Eros, Nariman Point. It was a pleasant change to watch a movie from balcony for 60 bucks, in a really downtown location (people tell me that it doesnt get more posh than that in mumbai - South mumbai is "the" place!). I guess one of these days I would stop watching movies so frequently because I don't think a movie like Shootout deserves even 25 bucks, leave aside 250 bucks! The movie was pathetic, to say the list. Rediff was right in commenting about the idiots who fund such movies. Cheeni Kum would have been a perfect movie if the length was shortened and Paresh Raval muted a bit! Tabu and Amitabh are cool, and its surprising to notice that they had a pretty cool chemistry! Its a good movie to watch!
At one time I really wanted to blast movies like Tara Rum Pum having watched the early shows. But thats some less blood on my hands! ;)
Watched a play - "Flowers" at NCPA. Its a monologue enacted by Rajit Kapur (Of Byomkesh Bakshi fame). (Here is a review that I largely agree with) . Same problem as Cheeni Kum. The length, though short by the standards of usual plays (90 mins), could have been shortened further. More so, because there was no change in scene, no pause, no other character but the protagonist, and no movements. Its about a priest who's torn between his duties as a priest, his love for his wife and his lust for a courtesan. Its a 90 minute narration where the priest walks through the course of events, his emotions, his agony and conflict, paints images using his words, and makes us all visualize the drama! Rajit Kapoor managed to be ok. But the play was just not my kind. I don't want to take the credit away from Rajit, but c'mon - I have a low attention span. I can't concentrate on something for 90 minutes on the trot! Not a lecture from the greatest of professors, not the same song even if I am in love with it, nothing!
My analytics blog is still waiting for the remaining articles and a response to Amit's comment.
There is a blogger meet on 9th June in Mumbai. I am still debating within myself if I want to attend! Should be fun. Lets see!
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