Category: Personal

Tally of Yes Men

Tally of Yes Men. I have never come across such a brilliant name for a music album. Yet. Anyways, so the post is not about the album or about Mr. Khosla or about Goldspot. The post is about me. What else did you expect on my blog? huh?

I was talking to a friend and he told me that best part about me was that I never say no. To requests personal or professional. And for some time, I did bask in the glory of the uncalled shower of praises and affection. But then I got stuck by this thought. The way Hancock strikes the train or the way Sachin strikes a cricket ball, the way I stump readers with my analogies. Anyways, I realized what was wrong with me.

I never said no! To anything! Not even to strangers. Not even to bad ideas. Not even to things that I know wont help me.

  • Dude, I think its a brilliant idea. Lets do it. Ya man! why not.
  • Dude can you lend me like a 5K? Ofcourse dear stranger. Here.
  • Do you have a minute? Yes I have all the time in the world.
  • Do you want to buy this shoe that you would never wear again? Oh! it will be my pleasure.
  • Do you think I should try this? Yep, you should.

Not even once. Not a single time do I say no. Do I need to change things? Yes! See I fucking say yes to everything! No, not anymore! I no longer want to be in that tally of yes men!

Pizza for Breakfast

Lets talk in bullets.

  • Imagine a day that starts with Pizza for breakfast. Leftover from last night.
  • Imagine a day that starts with a meeting at 9. For cleaning up the pile of shit that some people have left on the conference tables while they were “working” the previous few days.
  • Imagine a day that starts with writing a test for a friend. And the test is meant to help him get a job!
  • Imagine a day where you decide that its the first day of your new life.
  • Imagine a day that starts with all of the above. And more.

Hello @sgNetBook

As of now, I am officially migrating to a netbook.

Reasons are quite simple. My work is all about making lot of presentations, making bills on excel and writing an occasional document or two. Apart from this, I watch movies, listen to music, spend a lot of time on Internet. And I am on the move all the time. And I have a smart phone (#sgBB).

A netbook allows me to do all these things very effectively. It weighs less than 2 KGs, it has good battery life (will buy a spare battery), it has a big enough keyboard to allow me to write fast without too many acidents, and yet a small enough form factor to allow me to carry it with me in my bag pack. Only thing that I would probably miss is a good mindmapping tool for a netbook and an alternative to iTunes.
For my infrequent design and dev needs, that are anyways minimal (and will remain minimal for the foreseeable future), I have #sgAcer and #sgDesktop!
To get it up and running, I have already accessorised #sgNetbook with a Tata Photon (till I get a 3G card), Sennheiser earplugs, notepads, pens and a Logitech cordless mouse.
P.S.: This is the first post on #sgWOW that was thought on #sgNetBook.

An Ode to Agony Aunts

Amongst all the wonderful things that God made, before He put us down here, probably the most underrated is this creature called the Agony Aunt.

Folklore has that when Adam got bored of Eve and all the apples in the Garden of Eden, he got so disillusioned with life that that he actually shunned all forms of pleasure. He became a nomad and set about on a journey, with no destination in mind. And while he was meandering around, he bumped into this his wonderful creature, which initially looked like yet another human being, but tuned out to be much more. He immediately felt at peace moment he saw her. He knew that she might not have all the answers, infact no answers at all, but she is someone with whom he could be himself again and let all worries take the back seat. He called this creature Agony Aunt.

So who exactly is an agony aunt? Someone who is around when you need her? Someone who you trust? Someone who won’t judge you for your actions or for your thoughts when you go and bare your soul? Someone who would not sell out gory details of your actions to paparazzi for paltry money? Someone who would not expect any damn thing from you? Someone who is all of this? And a wee bit more?

I am so grateful to this life that I have the bestest agony aunt ever. Funny thing is that no greeting card company has created The Agony Aunt’s day. Lemme take a lead and declare 15th Nov as Agony Aunt’s Day.

Happy Agony Aunt’s Day VK! Thank you for everything!

Delhi to Bangalore and Back

So for my birthday, I decided to disappear again (last year, I went for Vipassana). Why would you do something like that dude? I think I just wanted to hide. I cant handle all the sudden attention for the day. I mean I dont mind attention but then I cant tolerate how fast the attention disappears after the special day.

Anyways, so I went to Bangalore. Of all the places in the world, why would I choose Bangalore? Because I have this very special friend there. I trust her and her family and I know if I am with her, I will be left alone and I can do what I really wanted to do in these few days. Then I had grand plans of borrowing her car and driving to some hill station in Karnataka of Kerala. And I wanted to read, write, think, laze around, catch on sleep, do things that I like – walk, window shop, click random pics etc. I made copious amount of notes and I am hoping to jot them down (digitally) tomorrow.
I met up with a few friends that I hadnt met since ages. And a friend that I have been talking on the Internet for some months now. And a senior from MDI who I am enamored by. I am trying to coerce him into becoming my mentor. Second after VK.
BTW I loved Bangalore. The weather is very pleasant. Imagine, I was walking around Bangalore at 11 in the afternoon. There are ample roads and footpaths to walk around. Most of these are covered with trees. And there are surprisingly very less beggars. Those tales of racial slurs and attacks sounded distant as whatever few people I interacted with were warm and hospitable.
Most of my opinions tend to be colored anyways. I loved the time I spent at Bangalore. And I think I need to do this every three months.

Confused? Clear?

I want more hair on my head but I do not want any facial hair
I want to live at my home and yet I want to be alone
I want roads to be empty and still be able to make people jealous
I want to get settled and yet I don’t want to commit
I want more money than I can ever spend and yet more time to do things
I want followers and yet I want to be left alone
I want to live on a mountain and yet not far from the beach
I want to have more wants and cant really think of more
I am confused and yet I am so clear

Happy Birthday Vivek Gawri

Happy Birthday Gawri aka Vivek Gawri aka Neo aka Jokey.

I hate him from bottom of my heart. I hate him for everything he is. I dislike him for all the useless things he says. I really do.

Having said all that, if I have a best friend, its him. If I can count on someone, its him. If I would ever do something for, its him. When I was in Mumbai, Gawri and RamPyari were the only two outlets I had. I couldnt wait for the weekend to begin so that I may fuckoff to Vikhroli and take refuge in Rampyari’s lap. Three of us made numerous trips to all parts of Maharastra and we loved to escape.

Thanks for being there 🙂 Have a wonderful life ahead.

P.S.: He blogs here. Please ignore his photography skills ;P

Happy Birthday Agony Aunt

Happy Birthday V!!!

Thanks for being there. Always.

Strange it may sound but yes, I do have an agony aunt. Everytime I am low and I dont know what to do, I goto her place, talk my heart out without any inhibitions, chit chat about random things and come back fresh. Its like coming back from a teerth yatra (aka pilgrimage).

She listens to me without prejudice, she seems to understand everything without me having to say em explicitly and has answers for every damn thing in the world (MS tells me that I have answers for everything. If MS had met V, she would have known that SG has just about a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of V’s coming-up-with-ingenious-answers-at-drop-of-the-hat skills).

Coming back to her, she is super intelligent, very strict taskmaster, amazing mother (shes got two sons – I tried talking her into adopting me as well, but she dint budge) and wonderful listener. The world needs more of her kinds.

I know her for about an year now. I know her from an online forum that both of us are fond of. In fact she gave me my first project when I started Cyntax in July last year (btw we still haven’t finished the project and she has been chasing me incessantly for it and I have now mastered the art of avoiding her phone calls about it).

Wish her a great year ahead.