Project 0911

End of September 2011

Probably the worst of the months ever. I did not write (either on the blog, or on Project WSD or on the secret project). I did not read (despite ordering all those books). I did not keep accounts (I have been keeping accounts since Feb this year. This was the first time I missed a month). In terms of output, September 2011 is a month that I would love to remove from my calendar.

However, workwise it has been ok. I played a tiny, almost negligible, part in organizing Kyoorius Designyatra 2011. This is a confluence of designers from across the country for three days of networking and workshops. After more than two years I was part of something that invigorated my brains and made me think of interesting things. And yet again, was part of the team that worked on something, that probably would translate into the single largest project that my employer has handled. So, work wise, the month was ok. Could have been better if I could win a couple of more pitches that I was a part of.

Having said all that, we are end of the day selfish animals. We dont get happy for things that we do for our employers. At least I dont. Need to figure out some way to work on some pet projects by the side.

Travel was ok. Spent some time in Goa, Mumbai and Chennai. In fact got time to travel out of Mumbai with PJ and Rr. Though it was just a day long road-trip, loved the experience. Then Chennai, I wanted to meet a good friend but had to rush back to Delhi. May be next time.

Played poker at a casino on Goa. Made about 10% on my buy-in. At one time, I was up by 800% but then what I end up is what matters. 10% for about 6 hours on the table. More on this in some other post.

And that I guess would summarize the month for me. Hope Oct 2011 is better.

And while I was writing this, I realized that every month I could write a summary of my activities over the past month and put them in categories. These categories could be Travel, Buddhi Vilas, Reading, Writing and Poker. And then I could have mini-categories like branding, communication, reviews etc as regular posts/tags.

What say?

A.W.O.L.

Yes, I know I have committed a cardinal sin. I have not updated this blog for a long time. Despite boasting about Project 0911 and Project WSD. Despite planning well in advance what posts would I be writing and when. I also had in place a strucutre for something larger. But then like all other things that I plan and wish for, I did not work hard enough on this.

Like they say, time once gone, can not come back and I know that the days that I wasted in Sept 2011 so far will never come back, I have learnt my lessons and I shall work harder. Like I keep saying that if we humans came with a definite expiry date, we would be better off. We would stop going through the motions and actually get things done!

Anyways, coming back to the point, I have no one else to blame but I for not posting. I can cook stories and give lame reasons but I dont want to. I accept my mistake and I shall try not to repeat it.

Apologies to myself. Hope to get back to blogging soon.

Dear Nature

Dear Nature,

Before I get into a long drawn rant about things that I want to crib today, I want to thank you. Thank you for a lot of things, including and not limited to, the wonderful life that we are very attached to, the rains that always brings the best of my moods out, the mountains that I love to explore, the cool breeze that elevates my spirits, the diversity in individuals that makes us what we are, the thumb that made us different from our cousins, the absence of the tail that helped us walk straight, the curiosity and more than that the ability to actually chase the questions that trouble us. Thank you. Really I mean it.

Now, that the mandatory disclaimer is done, today I want to talk about something that you think it was required, but I think is inane. I understand when we were nomads and hadn’t discovered fire and invented the wheel, we needed to fend for ourselves. A thick coating of hair helped us keep warm. Apart from being the protective coating, it gave us a natural cushion while we were sleeping. And some people even say that it helped us save ourselves from mosquitoes at night. Whatever your reasons may have been, I humbly want to submit that they are not really required now. With global warming and other things that have made planet warmer, we dont really need hair to keep warm.

You know what bugs me the most? The fact that I need to ~~cut~~ trim them every once in a while. Everyone knows that you, nature, by the very nature, are unfair. You’ve given very few people a lot of things and a lot of people nothing. So while some people have awesome hair, people like me have hairlines that are receding as fast as Usain Bolt can run those 100 meters. In fact imagine the plight when you goto a barber and ask him for a haricut. He also smirks at you and tortures you by asking the style you want to cut your hair into.

The plight bit is fine. I am used to people staring at my bald head and cracking jokes. The bit I cant tolerate is the fact that I need to maintain the hair frequently. You need to get a haircut once a month. Trim your beard once every few days. For a change I thought that let me be supremely lazy. I shall not trim my beard and let it grow. I dont mind what people think or say but since my work requires me to fly often, and security at airports in India is bonkers, I am stopped multiple times at each airport and every guard like man eyes me like I am on the most wanted list of Interpol, RAW, Delhi Police and other intelligence agencies. I am often frisked multiple times, bags searched to the seam, asked rude questions and made to strip to my birthday suits. And not to mention the personal frisking. And why all this? Because I refuse to shave, because my facial hair cant stop growing, because someone, at God’s decided to humor himself by giving us men hair.

I know I cant do jackshit about it now. I can only ignore all those wise-ass comments from barbers and continue being humiliated. But I do have a request. A humble one at that. I shall live my life in whatever way but from the next generation on, could you please do something about hair? And nails for that matter!

Yours,
One of your out of favor childs’

Dear Girl in Blue Dress

Dear Girl in Blue Dress,

I am so sorry. I was in the same coupe as you were in. I was there when those men intruded on your personal space and dared to touched you. I saw your Dupatta being pulled away. I saw you crying. I saw that despair in your eyes. Your eyes were searching for help in that crowded metro coupe and they infact had briefly met mine. I looked into them, gave them my sympathies and then diverted my attention on my ipod, pretending to search for the next song that I wanted to hear. Ofcourse I was pretending and I was still aware of what was happening to you. I told myself, what every other man would have told himself, that I dont know you and hence what was happening to you, was not my problem.

I know that I am proud to be a male. I am chivalrous when with womenkind. I am courteous when I am with elders. I am loud when I am with girlfriend. I am protective when I am with my sis. And yet, I am indifferent, with every other women. I dont even consider that more than all these superficial relationships defined by us, you and I share, a stronger and bigger relationship. HumanKind.

I know we are the men of Anna. We have taken loud pledges against corruption on public forums, and in person we dont mind paying that ten rupee note to get things done faster. We pledged with Anna and we joined him for his fast, and post that we went to fancy restaurants to party and debate on things happening around us We went to India Gate with a candle in our hand, and post that raced our bikes around that very India Gate, a little high, on alcohol and pride. Rather that all these fancy things, a mere act of helping you would have elevated me higher than any other deed.

I am sorry. For not having the balls to act and stop those men. I can ofcourse give a lame reason that there was just too much crowd to do anything. I can even say that since I did not know you, why should I get into trouble. But end of the day, my inaction cant be justified. And of all those men who were meek spectators. What troubles me the most is that some were secretly enjoying the act as well. I wish I could slap some sense into them. And you know, I dont think I even I have the right to comment on them.

I just want to tell you that Delhi is not what you think we are. We are not rapists and we know our limits. There are some people who need a life and I am extremely sorry for letting things happen to you.

And I hereby promise that next time I see something like that happening, even if I dont know the woman, even if I am outnumbered, even if I am handicapped, I would do my bit to help you. I promise.

And once again, I am really sorry. I am sincerely ashamed.

Apologies,
An Ashamed Delhite.

Inspired by an incident that a friend had to go through while traveling by Delhi Metro. And this is from and for all those men who just stood like meek spectators. Would I have done anything about the incident? May be not. But I shall, next time it happens in front of me.

0811 to 0911

There are two agendas today. One is to do a recap of P0811. The other is to put in place goals for P0911.

When I announced 0811, I had 4 things that I wanted to do. Write a post a day, travel, stop eating out and the secret project. I did try writing a post a day. Ended up skipping almost half the month. But then am glad for the other half of the month where I churned out a lot of gibberish. Someday these would start making sense to me. But till then, I am glad that I could churn out those posts. I did manage quite a bit of travel this month. Dopplr tells me that I was away from Delhi for almost ten days. Not bad. I hope September is as much travel. May be more. I am in Goa for DesignYatra between 7th and 11th. Anyone wants to catchup? I did eat out less. And I did not even start work on the Secret Project. All in all a very mediocre month, to say the least. Hopefully, September is better.

Coming to September, like I promised at the beginning of August 2011, the things I would do in a month, September is almost here and its time to announce the Project 0911. Here are the things on agenda.

Continue the post a day bit. I tried it all of August and I had a lot of enthusiasm towards the beginning. And then as the days past by, I sort of lost interest. I know that I am a bad finisher. With these monthly projects, I am trying to change things that I need to change about myself. From September, I need to ensure that I post each day. And I know that I am traveling but I will post. Even if its unformatted or untagged.
Rework on the secret project from the month of August. To jog the memory, here it is. Jevgr n obbx ol raq bs guvf zbagu. Gbbx vafcvengvba sebz uggc://jjj.anabjevzb.bet/ naq znxr Nhthfg zl Abiry Jevgvat Zbagu. Gb or ubarfg, ba qnl 1, V qbag ernyyl unir n fpevcg be n cyna. Ohg V jvyy jevgr n 50, 000 jbeqf. Naq yvxr Zngg (Phggf, bs gur Tbbtyr snzr), fnlf, qb rirelguvat va fznyy fgrcf naq V jvyy jevgr 1650 jbeqf rirelqnl. Hint: Rot13.

And thats about it for the time being! I shall add more things as and when I can think of. Godspeed to me!