Mumbai - Part II

My first few months in Mumbai was crazy coz I was coming to terms with East and West of every suburb, central, eastern and western lines of a massive local trian network and the fast paced life of Mumbai.


But slowly and surely I started falling in love with Mumbai and here are a few reasons why

• There is something the watery shores and the sea of Mumbai did to my mind - very fascinating and intriguing - carrying hopes of millions that grow, die down and resurface just like the waves of this sea.
• A city that carries so many dreams and can support with its heart, millions of people who eke out a living - a true melting pot of people and cultures.
• Something for every one - take your simple roadside eat out serving value-for-money lunch right upto the swankiest hotels; there is something for every one; intrinsic accomodative nature of this city, it seems.
• I have lived in many cities but none as time-conscious as this one. Everyone knows that you have a schedule and values it - the cabbie, the pizza delivery boy..and so on.
• Public transport despite being overburdened is user friendly and you are never stuck in any place at any time for want of transportation. This is the beauty of Mumbai.
• Within a few hours of occupying your new apartment, you will have at least 3-4 menu cards from nearby restaurants promising door delivery; just a phone call away
• Mumbai is usually the Lead Indicator market for most consumer products or lifestyle trends; you will see most trends / marketing campaigns here at least 6 months / a year ahead of other cities.

That's it for now on Mumbai. Maybe some more..maybe later!!

Mumbai - Part One

I started my career in Mumbai. Having never left home till then, I was posted to Mumbai to manage business in Mumbai and coastal Maharashtra. My first thoughts about the city in no particular order then:

• So many people in sight and all seem to be in a hurry. But where are they rushing to?
• Apartments and apartments and apartments; what about individual houses?
• Most apartments look dilapidated and appeared as though they were crying!!!
• All of them have windows with a standard protective grill (the grill maker must have surely become a millionaire)
• People wait in queues at bus stops; they always board the bus only from the rear door and alight only from the front door. Anyone trying to jump the queue would be suitably hospitalised
• Buses would stop AT the earmarked bus stop and not 10 metres ahead/beyond
• Trains scheduled at odd timings (9.17AM, 10.22PM), no 9.15AM/10.20PM here. By the way, they would be on time, all the time, every time
• Bus conductors and drivers smartly dressed in well maintained bearing name and ID badge
• Auto/rick guys would quietly flick the metre and get you to where you wanted to go and not where they wanted you to go!!! (unlike most other Indian cities)
• These guys always seemed to have enough rupee change and importantly, enough fuel in the cab/rick (you know what I mean!!??)
• Auto/taxi waalaas pay back change to the rupee; coming from Chennai, something I was shocked looking at coz in Chennai the minimum return-worthy change was in denominations of 5/10...MIND IT!!
• A huge number of coin operated phones and people not wanting to part with them and go (someone has a bag full of one rupee coins hunh??!!)
• Restaurants all over, each with door delivery (customer centricity at an all time high here)
• People having breakfast in the car, women plaiting their hair in trains, some even chopping vegetables on their way back home
• Local trains that are scarily crowded; when the train approaches you, it is as though humanity is headed towards you (btw 'local' I learnt means 'suburban train')
• And in these crowded trains, people play cards, read a 10:1 folded version of the ET. New lessons in space management here

Well these were a first aspects that stood out as I went around the city.

More thoughts and life in Mumbai follows!!!

Zyaada Ka Iraada (Resolve for More)

I was seeing this very interesting TVC of Max New York Insurance...the punchline being KARO ZYAADA KA IRAADA ( meaning 'make a resolve for more'). Let me run you through it (those who remember and have seen it, please bear with me).

A youngster with long curly hair and music on his ears crosses a road. As he does, he looks at a slightly older guy waiting at the signal on a macho bike and wonders ''WISH I HAD A BIKE LIKE THAT''. Now the teenager on the macho bike looks at another guy on a bike with a hot girl behind him and wonders "WISH I HAD A GIRL LIKE THAT BEHIND ME"....The hot girl behind the 3rd guy looks (as she waits at the signal) at a woman taking care of her child in a pram and wonders '' WHEN WILL & WISH I COULD BE AS CARING A MOTHER AS SHE IS"....This young mother as she walks her baby passes a jewelry store and inside sees a rich middle aged man holding a beautiful necklace and she wonders " WISH I HAD MONEY ENOUGH TO BUY THAT OR WISH I WAS THAT LUCKY WOMAN WEARING THE NECKLACE"....Finally that middle aged man is in his car, looks at a teenager with long curly hair crossing the road (remember that first boy?) and brushes his bald plate wondering " WISH I HAD NICE LONG HAIR LIKE THIS".

Run this entire sequence with Kishore singing the track in the background with his trademark yoodleiooooe!! Isn't it interesting to look at so many thoughts flying at a traffic signal and I am sure all these thoughts are for real.

I was left with the strong thought that humans despite all that we may have, constantly crave and aspire for those we don't. A slightly different version of 'the grass is greener' funda.

As I write this, I remember watching SRK saying in an interview (when asked how he looks at what he has & doesn't have in life) - "What I have was meant to be mine and hence I am happy. What I don't was never meant to be and hence I am never sad about it" Nice one SRK!!

Imagine this

Usually when at airports or calling your telebanking, we are subjected to so many instructions and announcements like do this, go there and press 1/2/3 and so on. I get imaginative and make up some announcements myself, make them kinda funny and keep laughing quietly inside. Check out below for examples:

• This is a paging announcement for Mr. XYZ, Mrs. ABC travelling by 3J123. You better get onto the plane right now or you know what? We will wait another 2 hours for you.
• Welcome aboard flight PK420, we take pleasure in serving you with a fleet of pathetically maintained and totally unsafe aeroplanes. Our cabin crew have been randomly picked from among the choicest roadside dhabas across the country. I have specifically ordered them to treat you like servants in my own home. Sit back and don't you sleep!!!
• When you wrongly type in your bank account number on the call centre number, you will hear an ''I AM SORRY!! THAT WAS AN INVALID NUMBER''. Note the really sad and shocked tone of that lady's voice. Well, I would be like WHY ARE YOU FEELING SO SORRY...ITS MY ACCOUNT!!
• One more flight announcement - ''We are thrilled to announce a 24 hour delay in our flight to Mumbai. Passengers are requested to now quietly go home ''on your own'', get a good night's sleep and better get yourselves back here tomorrow morning'' OK?.
• Telebanking or mobile call centre- Press 1 if you haven't had breakfast today (??!!), Press 2 if your boss sucks, Press 3 if you are married (again !!??), Press 4 if you want to surely watch SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE, Press 5 if you are still holding onto this nonsensical call. At any time during this call, Press 9 if you want to hear this or any fresh nonsense all over again in Swahili. You diligently press 9. ''I AM SORRY'' (you know the tone rite?) our Swahili speaking representative is busy attending other cartoons like you. Press 2300479828834 to speak to our Mongolian representative!!
• Welcome abode flight 55RHJ, all you guys won't get even a drop of water on this flight. You are like dead..I tell you. Our music and television sets have been deliberately taken apart to give you one memorable flight. No blankets or pillows. Temperature has been turned down to 4 degrees centigrade. Now, better sit straight, don't slouch and enjoy this rotten flight.

The Past, Present & Future

The title sounds like one of those cult movies right (Kal Aaj Aur Kal types in true Bollywood eshtyle)!!

Now this is something I was discussing with a classmate of mine recently. Basically one looks ahead and wonders what the future might hold; planning what one should achieve / gain and work towards them- both personally and professionally. We did think that it helps and that all of us should do a kind of stock taking as we stand right now in this moment in time - THE PRESENT.

Someone rightly said - The past is gone, the future is unseen. Today is with you...it's a gift. That's why it is called PRESENT. Nice one!!

Now, when one looks at the future and what it holds, it invariably touches areas, aspects and things that one doesn't have and hence wants to have...a happy family, home, a car, a vacation, a successful career and so on.

But what about looking back at the past, the path one traversed and how things have changed surely for the better in all aspects of life. It's all in the way one sees it. There surely will be some bitter memories, some want-to-forget incidents but all in all, one needs to happy with whatever transpired (contented at least) to move on and ahead with life.

One needs to feel proud and happy with what life has given him/her. I often recollect visuals of someone offering a small prayerto God thanking him for what he has given them; for there are people who don't get even one meal a day. How different is this thought / gesture from all our other needs and wants; something that we yearn for in the future?

It is but human to look at people better off than us (in whatever be the aspects) and strive to move up a notch. It is not wrong that one needs to move ahead in life and will have more needs and wants but we felt during our reflective session that since no one ever knows how much is enough, maybe it makes sense to be content and happy with what has happened.

Contentment is the gist of life; someone so beautifully said.

Why the crying baby always gets milk

How many times have all of us seen this happen? at home..at work..in school/college..almost always and everywhere. If this always happens, wouldn't there be a reason for it? A proper reason I mean...

So let's think through this....What actually happens when the baby cries? (not literally folks..please grow up!!)? Well the baby is expressing itself...expressing its concern..pain..displeasure...non-acceptance right? So take a step back and try looking at a baby which is unhappy but isn't crying - ''How would I know you are concerned...pained...unhappy..."I WOULD NOT RIGHT??!!! Coz I am not a mind reader or an ace psychiatrist or an astrologer? So how do you expect me to know what you are thinking?

Now, how many times have we heard the other person (parent, teacher, boss, peer worker) say this - " Had you told me this at all....then I would have taken care...." and you were mumbling inside to yourself - " I thought you would understand without my saying...!!!!" This happens in personal lives as well surely; between friends or couples or siblings and within families....

Recollect the essentials of communication - SETTING EXPECTATIONS. Remember? Most if not all of us seem to have missed it completely. Speak up....Express Yourself. At least do we remember that non-verbal communication is 93% (rite?) of overall communication. So why aren't we crying and making ourselves heard?

Having understood it so well, why haven't we tried changing it and become CRY BABIES!!!??? Me thinks (at a philosophical level though) that it is probably because as we grow older, we physically and emotionally are becoming less fragile and weak (which as babies we actually are) and hence are expected to and be able to put up with things around us.

Maybe a good bunch of us took that too seriously and stopped crying completely. I am surely not acting preacher here, coz I am very much in that 'MOST OF US' gang.

Another angle to this thought is a very subjective aspect; some or most of us have gotten more tolerant to what happens to us and hence maybe dont CRY!!! Take a deeper view, can anyone define HOW TOLERANT IS TOLERANT? Who sets the metrics for tolerance and for whom? THE good manufacturing organisations continuously define and redefine tolerance limits, don't they? So the VERY humans who created these organisations also should? What say??

The line of thinking in engineering & then in B-school

I was wondering and looking back about the thought process and intellectual takeaways (apart from pure academics) as one progresses from an engineering campus to B-school.

One aspect came out strongly to my mind. In the engineering course (non engineers pardon me!!), you are taught at a very generic level that everything is well defined, structured and hence needs to be adhered to. I am not sure if this is because engineering is applied science after all.

However, at B-school you are trained to think and believe that everything can be influenced, can be restructured, and modified to suit conditions and scenarios.

These thoughts are at a 30,000 feet level and might not be pin point. Also, not sure I am right in viewing this change of thought process but this was what flashed in my mind. Hence finds a place in today's post :):)

Connecting the Dots

Who can forget Steve Jobs saying these words during his 2005 Stanford Commencement Speech? It is a treat to listen to him speak...it is like a demo on public speaking with the crowd just riveted to his crisp words and powerful narration. Add me to the fan list!!! :) :)

Now, he refers in his first story to CONNECTING THE DOTS. Not sure how many of us believe in it. I stand by this belief though. For starters, Steve Jobs says that we can always look back at life and knowing what has happened, tie the loose ends, review our past actions and make a coherent story...CONNECTING THE DOTS. Only by looking back...Only in hindsight!!!

However, it is the ONLY simple yet practical way to look happily at the past, the path traversed and thereby make sense of it. I call this 'one-sided' because those who manage to connect the dots and talk about it, usually have been successful in what they strode out to do. To turn this thought on its head, you wouldn't find anything tangible (if you weren't successful) to try to connect the dots and make a theory out of it.

For example, when a successful actress says 'I always wanted to be an actress or model and hence was focused and never did anything else but act in plays and model...blah blah'; we would applaud and put her up as a role model. Picture this - If a wannabe star or a flop actress (to say it in Indian filmi style!!!) said the same, would someone give it a serious hearing?

Another typical example, Mr. XYZ wasn't an Engineer/MBA ..wasn't he a pioneering entrepreneur? You know what such theories exactly do....CONNECT THE DOTS. Who would remember him and that he wasn't an Engineer/MBA if he hadn't made it big. That's the point.

Reality is, that it is always IN HINDSIGHT and usually with the sweet fragrance of SUCCESS that one makes sense of actions and his/her life. I wonder if it is just a pat on one' s own back by appearing prophetic but all the while being just a historian.

My Latest Movie Reviews

I have been bitten the last 2 weeks by the movie bug and a sudden urge to see movies. Something atypical of me. So here goes (btw not that i have seen like a movie a day..so people chill!!!)

Movie No. 1 - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Movie No. 2 - 13B

My thoughts are as below:

Movie No. 1 - I liked the underlying theme - something that Brad Pitt's character spells out towards the end of the movie as he reverse ages...You can be anything that you want in your life and at any point in time, ITS ALL IN YOUR HANDS..he talks of the lady who wanted to swim across the English Channel and after missing out in her prime, manages to do it finally at the age of 62 (if I remember rite?) or his own self as he explores the world, Tibet (I think) and does what he actually wanted to do. I could sense a message of what people refer to as INNER CALLING...something i guess all of us deep inside crave or want to do.

I also kinda interpreted the message my own way as 'staying young mentally is critical to one's self at any point in his/her life'.

The chemistry between Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett is amazing and her aging has been depicted beautifully as is Brad's reverse aging (I could sense most women in the theatre melting you know...every time he apparently grew younger!!)

Movie No. 2 - Somehow reminded me of 'THE RING' right from the day I saw the promos or even the movie today. I liked the theme or the intended plot so to say, of paranormal intervention through diverse media. However, I felt it didn't instill fear in the audience...I felt so at least from the reaction of people around me at the theatre, in fact it kinda invoked laughter at times!!....surely not something the director ultimately intended!!

However, I also appreciated the courage of the director to try out a screamy thriller theme like this without blood and gore (something kinda new to Indian viewers)...and ya...the song and dance had to be there to bring in that Indian flavour. The narration i felt was fast paced though I didn't feel it was scary (like BHOOT for eg.)..i hardly could hear any screams around...

Next target on the list - THE READER

Reclaim Your Life

WELCOME TO MY BLOG AND ITS FIRST POST!!!

I suddenly got thinking, during my morning fast-walk and breakfast about the tagline for TATA SAFARI - 'RECLAIM YOUR LIFE'. The last couple of weeks as I have been in a reflective mood, this line seemed to strike a chord.

So, what do i want? What did I want 5 years back? Or even as a young boy? Obviously those wants have changed but is the core still intact? I wonder...

The sales & marketing professional that I am, I couldn't help think about the vibes this line would create in prospective SUV customers; RECLAIM YOUR LIFE. Isn't an automobile a reflection of your inner self; the go-getter, the follower, the innovator and so on...okay I could go on and on talking sales and cars here... END IT!!

But this line has gotten me thinking of what my inner self actually is? Have I lost it on the wayside as I went through the routine of graduating, working and earning money?

A school mate of mine recently advised me that the best thing to do when alone is to use that precious time to introspect and improve self awareness. A time to discover one's self, ask questions and seek answers. I am trying to take her inputs seriously and do this.