Defending A Title

Folks,

My apologies for not being regular over last few weeks , the Internet connection back home is still not up and running .

I have heard that if you are a defending champion in any kind of a sport or an event , they say you have to soak the pressure of defending the title and people's expectation. As always when somethings are said its hard to understand until such time that one has a practical experience.

Yes, I had a hands on experience of defending a title yesterday.

Since last year , we have an annual quiz event in our organization. Last year , our team won by a narrowest of margin, we won by one point. This year the quiz was conducted yesterday and we were overwhelming favourites to win the quiz.

As you can imagine the pressure was on our team from the word go , to first get through the preliminary round and to make sure that we get into the finals which we did reasonably well. Although we did make couple of obvious mistakes in the preliminary stage.

Into the finals pitting against eight teams, the whole crowd expected us to win hands down , as one can imagine expectations rise sky high in no time . There were five rounds in all and by the end of round one , we were sixth with four points . We did not miss any questions but other teams did well.

Come round two , we still were in sixth . Round three came and we we just notched up couple of places to move into fourth place. We could have capitalised even better had it not been for the nerves to get the better of us in couple of questions.

There was a eerie calm before the start of round four we still had a mountain to climb , the deficit between first placed team and us were twelve points , we were focused and calm , we scored ten points and moved equal to second placed team and two points adrift the top team.

Come the last round , we were not leading and we missed the first direct question again due to pressure we knew the answer but blurted out the wrong one , fortunately for us none of the other teams got it right , so positions remained the same. Then came the real magic , The first placed team got one question half right to score two more points and we got three rebuttals and answered all three to go seven points clear with one question remaining which for reasons other than being tricky one , none of the teams answered and we were finally relieved to have defended the title. Although not in the best possible way but still results is what counts.

This was just an ordinary quiz amongst colleagues nothing major was at stake , i just sank and thought about what it would be like to be a Roger Federer , Sachin Tendulkar, Valentino Rossi or could be any major sporting icon . It would be like a pressure cooker and they absorb those pressure time and again . These people have done this for years now and that too in front of millions of their fans ... Phew that's phenomenal feat and an achievement in my view of epic proportions.

Jessy - Vinnai Thandi Varuvaya

Its not my normal habit to write about movie characters but this one definitely deserves a mention in my blog.

All credit to Gautam Vasudev Menon for making the character as real as possible. Does Jessy live in real life? yes i think so.

When i was watching the movie the thing that struck me the most was how confused Jessy was and why the whole mess? She tends to waver between to hold on and to let go.

The character tends to keep everyone around her and herself happy. Is that at all possible , surely not .One cannot keep everyone happy , its close to utopian to even think about keeping everyone happy.

Jessy seem to be thinking that she would be a good daugther and a good lover and also keep every one happy.I was just dumbstruck as you are. I was thinking oh , what a joke , that you come from a traditional family and get into an affair and want to keep your parents happy , well forget it.

That's precisely is what she did. Whom did she forget , well the scapegoat in the whole drama - Karthik.

There are umpteen Karthik's in real world as well. To be fair to him , its impossible for a real intense lover to even imagine that his love will break, trust is everything in love and he trusted Jessy blindly. Do i say that he could have anticipated what transpired, certainly not.

As to Jessy, she was torn between Parent's love and a Lover's intense love . Ultimately parents won.

Does that mean Karthik lost , definitely not. He did make it big in life as a director . A great saying goes like this "When you trust some one, trust them blindly either of the two will happen. Either you get a good person in life or learn a lesson of life" Karthik had to learn a lesson of life.

As is often said behind every sucessful man , there is a woman. Even in Karthik's case there is a woman but just sad that she was his Ex-lover.

Was Jessy right in doing what she did ,its pretty hard to say. One need to be in her shoe's to even comment. Its a matter of one years love vs 23 years of love,care and affection.

Everyone knows the longer the love,the more intense it is , so was the case with jessy that her love for her parents ultimately was decisive.

Luckily she did not spoil Karthik's life , atleast he was not a Devdass at the very end .I certainly believe that it should not be the case in anyones life.

Life is much bigger than any one individual,life has its own ups and down's. That's the way its designed . Life has to move on in any case.

All good things happen because it had to happen and all bad things have happenned because they have to happen as well.

Jessy could have been little more decisive.

To all the Jessy's and Karthik's in the world , love isnt everything. If its lost , it is lost for a reason and if its won , its won for a reason as well.

If you have lost it , well better things are awaiting in your life and if you have won , well this is the best thing to have had happenned.

To all the parents of Jessy's and Karthik's of the world, you are putting your daughters and son's through hell and a pain full process. It is not worth anything . Is this why you bring them up with lots of care and affection? Do think for yourself. The answer is already in your mind.

In anyways keep enjoying life. Life is never lost with just one incident.

Note:- This is just my opinion, if you would want to refute it , please do . Do not think that i dont seem to understand Jessy's pain . I certainly do understand and empathize with Jessy but life just does not end here.It certainly has to move on.

F1 Again

Looking forward for this years F1 season.

With all speculations about the driver line up put to dust and all issues about the new cars on the grid taking a sideline. Well its time for the real racing to begin.

Who will take the honours,will Schumacher be able to match the young turks , will Alonso be the unassailable king of F1 or would any of the other drivers carve out some magic,only time will tell.

As for me and millions of fans around the world, the wait is just about to be over and by far one of the best F1 season is about to begin.

May the best team and best driver win, i cannot wait to see the start.

What an Difference in Experience

After ages i wittnessed what has been said for long , govt run corporations need some basic customer service training if they are to compete with the private sector.

Firstly my modem had crashed and the same was given to service a week ago . After one week of hassle , i went today to find out what the status of it was . The officer in charge just took the modem and said that it was not ready, the time was already 1.15 p.m so naturally his hunger took the better of him. I left the place, fifteen minutes later my mom calls me and says that modem is ready and we can collect them . I was baffled. Here is the same man telling me that it was not ready and in fifteen minutes he calls my home and says all is well !

Same afternoon, i went to a private shop to buy a mobile phone. The time was 2.45 p.m. I went up to the service person and enquired about various models and also about the Blackberry service. He patiently explained and said that with my current mobile connection i would not be able to use the blackberry and hence i would need to switch to another connection if i were to buy a blackberry. I asked him how long it would take. He made a swift phone call and said everything can can be done in less than four hours.

After some hassle, i finally let go of that guy for lunch and i promised that i would be back in 30 minutes to buy the phone and change the connection. Promptly within 29 minutes i get a call stating that the phone service man has come from lunch and the phone connection dealer has come to collect necessary information to switch over my phone connection. I settled for a new black berry. All done in a matter of less than 15 minutes. Promptly after 3 hours , my new connection was activated.I only had to speak to the phone service provider only once in the whole process.

World of difference , huge difference in customer experience. Here is a govt. run organization rendering a service which can only be said to be sloppy and that too in a country which aspires to be a information power house, while i am treated like a king in a similar services company but only difference being its a privately run company.

If govt run companies are to compete and if we are to be world class , the mind set of the people have to change and top quality service should be the motto . I do know that these govt. run organizations cater to various kinds of people but service is a service whether it be rendered by a private party or a govt. run organization.

What do you say?

Movies

Don't think what's this guy got to say about 'Movies', he is anyway a dud in that subject . So what's in store.

We do not need to be the same always and can heed to feedback and suggestions that your friends give. Certainly all good feedbacks can be taken and worked upon. That's what i have done.

Lots of my friends watch movies, some of them like Tinku aka Kishore, Goks and Udupps aka Anand are big time movie buffs. Absolute movie gurus from my view.

I really wondered why and how are these fellow spending so much time on watching movies. its boring , always been a critic of these fellows.

Very recently Kishore just made a remark on me saying "Dude you need to grow up" Watch movies.

Well i tried to heed to his advice and interestingly during the period that i was actually thinking, conversation amongst my friends started flowing on some movies and their reviews typical discussions as you can expect them to be and to be honest these were just not any other discussions but really intense and open . I took keen interest and understood how these discussions panned out.

I thought to myself , so ok let me give it a try. Let me take some time to watch movies i.e. quality ones.

The pinnacle of it came yesterday ,while i was flying back from London . Watched two movies of different kind. One was "Hitch" where Will Smith weaves his magic and the other one was Erin Bronkovich , Julia Roberts was truly outstanding and her portrayl of the character was simply awesome.

I actually watched them back to back straight four hours. After i watched both these movies ,i felt so light and it makes you think gosh that's intersting.

Movies i realize need not only be to pass time , they do have messages and it makes you start thinking . "Innovative thinking" .

I am still a long way off to get near to our movie Guru's but am certain to catch them.

Folks watch this space.

Tinku, Goks, Uddups thanks to all of you. Ofcourse you all direct me into what's so called the "Quality film Space" and not any other movies. Always looking for your guidance on this subject.

Truly Multi Cultural

Multi Cultural, what does it mean. In my view it is where people from different culture and walks of life live together.

The best example that i have for a truly multi cultural place is London. When one walks in the street or travels by the bus or the Tube , it is easy to get confused where you are. One can easily spot different vagaries of people.

Right from Chinese, Indian, American, Latino what not you name it and you are bound to find them. Its truly amazing to see how people from different societies come together and amalgamate.

London is truly a epicenter of multi faceted city and in that sense is an undisputed leader in that front.

I cannot imagine another city in the world which could be as multi cultural as London,yes Tokyo,Hong Kong,Amsterdam,Frankfurt,Chicago all do vie for that spot but my take is that London wins it hands down.

Open for comments.

Valuable Lessons Learnt

I am a big fan of learning by travelling and i firmly believe that travelling teaches you a lot.

No better way to put this to test than to see it in action.

I am staying in a hotel on a business visit . Yesterday, as usual got bored and did not venture out to eat anything , so ordered stuff via room service.

After 30 minutes of patience, the door bell rang and i see this room service person carrying a huge tray with my food ,not that i ordered for so much. I began to think well that should be an easy job for him.

He left the food on the table , food was crap and after i half finished the food, i said to myself enough was enough so now let me leave the food tray outside as adviced by room service.

So here i am carrying this big tray and as you could imagine in a blip i dropped the whole tray and my room was in complete mess.

Lesson One - Never Take any ones job for granted , only when you try it ,you'll know what it takes to do it.

Then i called the room service and said i need my room to be cleaned . After couple of minutes a lady came.I was now cautiously thinking well should how would she clean this mess.

Believe me or not in ten minutes with absolute precision , she cleaned all the broken glasses and the food that was strewn all over the place .The room was back to its usual self,spick and span.

She cleaned all the mess in my room , turned around to me and said sir,are you happy that your room is now ok!

I was just dumb struck, i went over and thanked her and opened the door for her so she could carry her stuff out.

Lesson Two - If one has dedication to his or her job, any job is enjoyable .

Very valuable lessons learnt.