Just do it!!!

"Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm"

- Ralph Waldo Emerson


Enthusiasm is the aspect that drives you to do something unique; if not unique at least different from what you were doing; if not different at least something which you have not tried so far. The below picture was something which I tried out of my way:



Neither the best of compilations, nor the best of artistry. But the best I could do with the image portfolio that I had. Now the point of discussion here is not that I started something new, but a couple of inspirational and motivating messages that I received.


Let me go back a little. I was kind of reluctant to publicize this amateur work of mine, but restraining myself from doing that will lead me nowhere. So, after some serious deliberation I sent it out to my "Shaving Set" (that's what we named our closed friends group as). First hour and a half no comments from the group. I surmised that my work was just a piece of crap. But in the 2 hours, I was poured with appreciations; not for the great work that I had done, but definitely for other reasons viz. my patience in compiling this stuff, my thought process, my courage in sharing this with others etc.


It did not stop there - some of my best buddies also came up with suggestions after seriously! analyzing the content and quality of the picture. That was enough for me (Idhu podhume enakku!!!) to get inspired and motivated for some experiments like this. The above scenario is just one of those petty instance that I have quoted. But there were several other instance when a lot in my life had depended over it.


The moral here is people like this can really drive your enthusiasm to reach places which you would have only dreamt of. They are the ones whom I envy, they are the people who stir & motivate me, and they are the ones who drive me to do the unthinkable.


THEY ARE MY INSPIRATION!!!

Clash of the Titans

Disclaimer:
Some of the scenes and the vocabulary exercised in the video attached below are not suitable for individuals below the age of 18. It is also advised to use headphones if you are seeing this video in a public environment.

All of us would have seen the incident embedded above and we would have definitely had a good laughter for the words exchanged between Afridi and Gambhir. I am not here to argue about whose mistake it was, as it is very subjective; in fact Gambhir should have taken a different path to reach his crease at the non-striker’s end to complete his run, but Afridi was also to be blamed for bending his shoulder at the last moment, instead of involving himself into this face-off.

Nevertheless, just like Morpheus in “The Matrix” says “whatever happened, happened in the best way possible; it could not have happened any other way”. Now let us start thinking about how to discipline the players to play the game with the right spirit and not engaging in nasty brawls like this. When I start thinking of things in those lines, my mind really becomes crappy and comes up with funny ideas like these.

To make players not to indulge in such activities the boards should stop imposing a ban or a fine or the players alone, instead:

• Impose fine on each individual of the team

• Make them play in the main eleven (team) and let them not bat or bowl

• Even worse (This was my colleague’s idea - he is FUNNY), play them in the main eleven, make the bowlers to bowl with their wrong arm and make the batsmen bat with their wrong side stands (right-handers to bat left-handed and vice-versa)

• Let the players involving in such incidents to finish off the fuss between them, like those face-offs in ice hockey

These penalties will not only restrict the players from engaging in such controversial “war of words”, but will also encourage their own team members to deter-off such intentions from their fellow teammates.

Any such ideas are always welcome and I would be more than happy to add them to the list. Pour in with your ideas in the comments section, so that I can add them to this list!!!

News on the Loose

I remember the good old days when I used to wait till 10:00 PM on Fridays to see "The World this Week" hosted by the legendary Prannoy Roy. He was a man who revolutionized the way in which news is conveyed at least from the Indian perspective. Maybe he followed the path of the BBCs and the CNNs, but he was the man who transformed the face of news in India.

When he came up with a dedicated news channel in the form of STAR News a few years later, there was a major upheaval amongst the news broadcasters whether a 24 hour news channel will succeed in India; again the man proved them wrong. Then came NDTV and that marked the rising of several new exciting story tellers like Rajdeep Sardesai, Srinivasan Jain, Burkha Dutt, Arnab Goswami etc. Soon there was a flurry of news channels that rocked the Indian media, and I as an ardent follower of news only through TV was really excited about the move expecting diverse perspectives from different people; but what it led to is the topic of discussion here.

The news media is dubbed as the watchdog of the Democracy; but is it really doing its job effectively. This doubt keeps passing my mind every time there is breaking news and soon after that it fades off in thin air. I am talking about the “Jessica Lal Case”, “Amar Singh ka amar kahani”, “Nithari Killings”, “7-11”, “Blue line buses” and the list goes on and on and on…

Every news channel is only interested in bringing the so-called “breaking news” to the viewers to increase their TRP ratings, but they are not really interested in following the story and let the viewers see the final outcome of it; except for a few news items like the “Sanjay Dutt Drama”, “India Fashion Week”, specific sports features etc.

Is this the responsibility of a news broadcaster? I have my own doubts about it and if someone can clarify please do so. The other day when the triumphant Indian team was returning back from Johannesburg, our fragile capital market was at its rocking best touching an all-time high of 17,000. I was really surprised to see all the news channels covering every move of the victory parade of the Indian team from the Mumbai airport to the Wankhede stadium and not the stock market scenario. It was in fact a great feat that India achieved in Jo’burg, but isn’t the economic scenario of India more important that the “Heroes’ welcome”. For me it was…

To add insult to injury, I had to sift through all the news channels back and forth to finally see the figure of 17,000 on my TV screens. That’s the watchdog in full action for you. One more instance: when had lost the cricket series to Australia and we desperately needed to win the 20-20 fixture in Mumbai and you know what is the “hot-news” about the 20-20 match… “Deepika Padukone is going to be at the Wankhede to witness her heroes Dhoni and Yuvraj play against Australia”, what the heck is the buzz about her coming for the match. I am more bothered about the team selection and the fitness of the players.

There is so much of real important news to cover, and there are enough channels and slots to telecast these happenings. The question here is:

• whether they really want to bring the news that is necessary for the public

• whether they are interested not just in improving their TRPs

• whether they want to just engross the audience with “breaking news” and not enlighten them with the hidden facts behind the scene

• whether they want to become the authentic watch dogs of the Indian Democracy.

धोनी का काम क्या हैं? (What is Dhoni's work)

Just as you would have seen in the recent promo's for the ICC World Twenty20, an icecream vendor says "धोनी का काम धोना हैं!!!". It took Dhoni and his men in blue to prove it right in just 4 weeks time. Here's how they did it...



... LITERALLY!!!

DreamWorks ICT

"Dreams are nothing but incoherent ideas, occasioned by partial or imperfect sleep."

Yes indeed!!! Almost 1.1 billion people with partial or imperfect sleep after the ICT’s (Indian Cricket Team) debacle in the World cup, losing to minnows Bangladesh lead to a dream - a dream of achieving something better; something that can console millions of broken hearts; something that the current generation can cherish and pass on to the next generation.

With the stalwarts out of the arena for a little while, owing to opportunity to new blood; with the tag of an underdog entering a new venture; with the stamp of “chokers” at the big stage; with the least of odds to win a competition, what Team India did at the Wanderers winning the inaugural ICC World Twenty20 was a dream come true for every Indian Cricket fan.

India was not the side with the strongest team on paper. It was neither a side whose batting order ran till no. 9 in the line up nor a team with 5 all-rounders, but definitely proved to be a team to be with 11 like-minded individuals destined to perform as a cohesive unit throughout the tournament.

India was never the front runner to win the shortened version of the game as we were “not known” to perform under pressure and that too with only 20 overs to show your mettle and come out winning is definitely something. India proved everyone wrong including Ravi Shastri who commented in Cricinfo “Although my heart says India, my logic goes for Australia” just before the semi-finals.

With the likes of Australia, South Africa, England, and Sri Lanka out of the team tournament (75% courtesy to India), it was left to India and Pakistan to fight it out in the finals. It was an amazing game of cricket, with the arch-rivals competing with each other in every department of the game.

It was a roller-coaster ride for 180 minutes and the momentum was shifting back and forth after every 5 minutes. If Pakistan did well to restrict India to a low score (in the context of the game), India did equally well to take wickets at regular intervals and push the Pakistan batsmen to the back foot.

Some loose shots played by their batsmen and some loose deliveries by the Indian bowlers and suddenly there was amplified blood-pressure and increase in the pulse rate. Thanks to some big-hitting by Misbah Ul-Haq and Sohail Tanvir; from nowhere these guys with their lusty blows took Pakistan towards an unlikely win against the much favored ICT.

It was match down to the wire and worth every second and penny spent on it. With 13 runs to score from 6 balls, I had my fingers crossed like any other cricket lover – but from inside praying for India to win the humdinger. A wide delivery, followed by a six over long off from the extra delivery – what else can you ask for from an India-Pakistan finals. And then came the moment of joy for India with Misbah trying to loft it over short fine leg, but Sreesanth was promptly standing there to take all Indians over cloud nine.

After months of prolonged criticism about the Indian Cricket Team and after futile debates over the composition of the team, the men in blue came up triumphant.

Go-India-Go!!!

And now about the title:

As most of you know, I am ardent fan of movies (apart from sports) and just wanted to relate this dream working for the ICT (Indian Cricket Team) with the movie production house DreamWorks SKG. ;-)

Legends of the Fall

People who have been very close to me, know me as a sports fanatic; may it be Cricket, Basketball, Soccer, Tennis, Motorsports, Badminton, and for that matter any sport that is telecast on TV - I follow it with utmost vigor. Doesn't mean that I do not play anything at all; I used to play basketball regularly during college, and as an average Indian - I do play Cricket in its purest - tennis ball cricket (but at times the real one as well)

Hence as a tribute to some of the sportsmen, just wanted to list down a few legends I have closely followed in the last 20 years:

1. Michael Jordan - My icon, my inspiration to take basketball seriously as a sport when I was in college and would stay very close to my heart for his all-round ability on the court
2. Sachin Tendulkar - Modesty is the man's middle name, and that is what I admire from this little master more than his batting skills, attitude, commitment, so on and so forth
3. Michael Schumacher - The man who redefined Formula 1 (in the current era), and who has several records to his name which are pretty tough to rewrite
4. Pete Sampras - His actions speak louder than his words, as I have never seen him utter a word on the Tennis court
5. Lance Armstrong - When you are already in your 30s; suffering from testicular cancer, and the world has written you off - to bounce back and win 6 back-to-back is no easy job
6. Yelena Isinbayeva - The lady does not get bored breaking her own records in pole vault for the last 5 years or so
7. Michael Phelps - The man burns 12,000 calories a day practicing in the pool, which has earned him 14 Olympic Gold medals so far (and counting)
8. MS Dhoni - Captain Courageous, as we call him - has developed day after day, in his demeanor
9. Tiger Woods - The Accenture ad says it all, I need not articulate much
10. Roger Federer - The king of grass, only after Petey... The Swiss ace has definitely etched his name not just in my memory, but also in Tennis history

I'm sure that this list will evolve, but these sportsgreat are my "top of the mind" picks (rather "Close to the heart" picks)

The art of decision making

Every task that we do in life is definitely a challenge in one way or the other. The challenge may arise at different junctures. It can be when you receive a task in hand, or when you explore alternatives, or when you execute it; but ultimately in each every step in the process of executing a task we make decisions. Decisions - whether or not to take the task, in the first case; how to go about it, what to do, when to do, how to do and with whom to do it. Taking the right decisions at the right time can make or break your success. So, let’s talk about the art of decision making and how to achieve success by taking the right ones:

• First and foremost, foresee if you can stand by your decision till the very end; although “Impossible is nothing”, there are a few instances and circumstances when certain parameters will be out of your reach.
  

• The more opposition you expect to a decision, the more important it is to choose the right moment
  

• Beware of cheating paralysis with analysis
  

• DO NOT stampede into a decision without exploring alternatives; PLAN – B is very important
  

• If waiting will eliminate an option, decide now and decide wisely
  

• When making your decision DO NOT ignore your instincts; because at times your ESP can do wonders to you
  

• Set a deadline; decisions without a deadline is like a bike without a brake
  

• And finally when you do act, act forcefully; sometimes even unwise decisions with a convergent force can beat the odds

Decision making is a distinct art, which does not have any specific road maps that can lead to success, but the above mentioned were some of the finds from my real life experience.

The Shaving Set

We are a gang of 10 freinds who call themselves as the "Shaving Set". To our credit we own a google groups and an Orkut community of the same name. The description about the group goes like:

"This group is formed by destiny. There is no escape or relief for its members to evade from it. Well known for its Poor Jokes. Each one is capable for cracking some non-sense in the name of jokes and make your head reel. Meant for nuts and cracks. it is members pride, non-members envy."

We hang out together right from our college days and we try and come together for all the possible occassions and the latest get together was at my house warming ceremony (which I had blogged about a week back).

The group never runs out of sad, sadder and saddest jokes (which we call "Mokkai" in Tamil vernacular). This is one such episode which was cleanly consolidated by the "King of mokkai" one of my closest buddies Mayilvaganan. For those of you who cannot read or understand Tamil; or those of you who are out of the wavelength of the group the following exchanges will be greek and latin, but it evokes a great deal of laughter everytime I read it.

Adi reaches Sab's house @ 3:am in the morning
- Sab appa shows the bedroom to him and just leaves to take lungi for him and when he returns he finds him sleeping in the room
... next day he feels to all -"Illappa, ippadi thongaravangla naan paarthadhu illa"

Talks about Sivaji is going on
Venkat: Machi, sivaji-la Shreya yeppppadi irukka - hmm, Ahaaa - chance-ey illa
Mehta (a kid in Sab's House): (appavi thanamaga) yennaga Poochi kadichuducha...
... all agree unanimously to call venkat as "Poochikadi Venkat" henceforth

Karthi anna had bought Kouton branded shirts
Adi: Like Kouton, there is a brand called Cotton (and he goes on) - the font and colors will also be same
Venkat: Ama, naan paarthuirukken - C pottu round potturukkum...
Myl: Machi, appadi pottuirutha adthu Copyright -da

While going in Cab
Myl: inga yellam Black-soil -a
Venkat: itha kettu nee enna panna pora
Myl: illada, black soil-na Bengal gram yellam nalla mulaikkume adhunala ketten... anyhow.
Apdi mulaichulum ivange "Pollachi gram"-nnu than soluvange... (I agree - above one was damn mokkai)

During a foto session, Sab
Naan ungalukku korangu-a (monkey) kaamippen, yellarum parkkura mathiri fotovukku pose kodukkanum...
(After the foto was taken, everybody sees in different direction, Adi exactly in the opposite direction...) - Pavi upload that foto for others.

Adi takes a foto in 10 x camera
Adi: Pinnadi ponga..
Adi: Innum pinnadi ponga..
Adi: Innum konjam..
Myl: Ivannukku ithey velaida... pinnadi ponga ponga solli kadaichiya zoom panni yeduppan...

During Trekking, Guide (Srini) shows us
Anga parunga... Kaattu yeruma, anga parunga... kaattu Koli, anga parunga... Kaattu panni After it'z over...
Somebody: Ivanga yedha parthalum adukku munnadi "Kaattu..." sethukkurangeda
Praveen just arrives before the group
Subbu: Athane... praveena kaattula partha udane avane "Kaattu praveen-nu" sollidaratha...

Praveen & Subbu keep calling themselves kaattu Subbu & kaattu Praveen each other and the next day they come to a settlement
Praveen: Nee ippa sonnathukkum, naan unnai kaalaiyela (morning) sonnathukkum sariya pochu...

Sab: oruthar yanai thorathi moocha-ve (urine) poittar
Praveen: Avvalavu avasarathiluma...

We hear "Yaanai Piliral" sound in the morning
Venkat: Yaanai sombal murikkuthu
Somebody: Pirandu padukkuthu...
Venkat: (with expression) ama yeluthuruchu.. 'oh! innikku sunday thane porumaiya yeluthirukkalam' nu thirumba thoongum pola

Praveen couldn't take the foto of a "Pulli Maan"
Venkat: Avanala spotted deer spot panna mudiyala

Somebody: Yeppadi subbu unga appa ippdi fit-a irukkaru
Subbu: Treadmill-a oduvaru
Myl: Yenna periya visayam yenga appa windmill-ulaye oduvaru..
Joke extends... and adi appa, pavi appa gets rice-mill and mavu-mill

Venkat, Adi, Karthi anna (carrying water bottle), Myl - walking to the main room for breakfast
Venkat: (boasting abt his shitting) Kalaiyula yeluduruchu free-a poittu vandhutten
Karthi Anna: thannikku yenna pannine...
Venkat: Bottle-la yeduthuttu poiten
Karthi: Unnakku andha thanni paththuchha...
Myl: Adula avan meethi thanni vera kondu vanthan...
Karthi: Aiaiye....
Myl: Yenna aiaiye... atha than ippa neenga thookittu varringa...
Karthi immediately disposes the bottle.

Talking about somebody who has got 2 cars
Venkat: Machi, Avanellam 2 car vacchu yenna panna poran
Praveen: Mask of Zorro-la varra mathiri intha kaila onnu antha kaila onnu oottuvannu irukkum
Venkat: (as if he missed the scene in that film) yeppada andha scene varum
Praveen: Mask of zorro-vula yedhuda car... appdi kuthiraiya (horse) than ottuvaan...

Praveen, Sab, Myl & venkat sit in the front row in the cab - Congested
Subbu: Praveen - nee pinnadi ukkaru (lean backward)
Sab - nee munnadi ukkaru (lean front)
Myl - nee pinnadi
Peter - nee munnadi
Venkat: Sorry pa, nambanala intha Fibbanocci series yellam maintain panna mudiyadu...

... After some time, Venkat moves forward
Myl: Machi, ivan move pannina vudan dam-a thorandhu vitta mathiri kaathu varuthu da... everybody agrees and says "Correct.. yengalukku yellam kuda kaathu varuthu"

A red "korangu bommai" - full of fur - hangs in the cab - the hands of it are more reddish than the body parts
Myl: pavam itha korangu bommai... thongi thongi kaiyellam sevanthu pochu... (most of them laughed).
Subbu: nee adikkura intha mokka jokukku nanga than sirippom...
Myl: Porakkaila yenda kolanthaiyum mokka podurathilla, Athu mokkaiya varathum, varathathum - athoda friends nala than, (Adade Achchiriya kuri...)

Talk abt expectations of our future spouse
Subbu: Mayil, unnakku yeppadi ponnu varanum ninaikkure
Myl: vandha podhum, subbu
Subbu: Peter unnakku
Venkat: Naan romba yedirpakkala, yenakku parkkable-la irunda podum... (he meant parkkura madhiri irunda podhum)
All in chorus: yennadhu park-kkablelava -> Nanga yeppadi peter unnakku parkable- irukkuma illaiya paththu ponnu paakurathu...

Venkat: Shreya-va paru yevvalu alaga irukka... kadavuloda (God) padaippe padippu than
Myl: yenda dai, neththu full-a unnai Kaadu, Malai, lake, dam yellam suththi kaamichom appalam unakku kaduvuloda padaippu theriyala... rascal

Home Sweet Home

“Veetai Katti paar; Kalyanam panni paar”, this is how a Tamil saying goes to elucidate the intricacies involved in performing a wedding and building a house. I personally felt that this was kind of an exaggeration given the fast moving nature of the world. I was proved wrong very recently, but the final outcome was my “Home Sweet Home”

Building a house of his own was my dad’s dream for almost 2 decades and it was eluding him for all his life. This was because he was moving to different places; thanks to the nature of his job. Finally he decided materialize it about 4 months back. The journey began there and there were a lot of ups and downs during this 4 month period.

Ours is a two-bedroom independent house in a residential area in Udumalpet (for those of you who do not know Udumalpet, it is a 2 hour drive from Coimbatore). A lot of planning and debates and fights have gone in to the construction of this house of ours, as ideas were pouring from various corners. My dad wanted to keep the house straight and simple with a “no frills attached” tag; but I and my brother in particular had different ideas.

Although our contribution in terms of the plan and the construction was very less, both me and my brother took pains in getting the home a “no complaints place”. We took utmost care in making the home beautiful and at the same time not to affect the sentiments of our parents.

With me being placed in Hyderabad and my brother in Mumbai it was difficult for us to oversee the developments and the way in which our home was coming up; but technology helped us a lot in sending the designs and colors that we desired for different rooms of our home and in-turn made my dad techno-savvy.

Finally the d-day came and when the final moment came my dad was a “proud man”. I have never seen him so happy and feeling proud of his work, but yet modest after seeing his longstanding dream come true. All those people who built their houses will definitely agree to this.

That’s not the end of the story. I’ll follow-up this blog with the small tour that I and my friends made to Top-slips and all the fun that we had there.

Traffic - The Hyderabadi Ishtyle

Every time I move into a new town/city I keep getting the feeling that, “If someone can drive/ride a vehicle in this traffic, they can make it a cake-walk in any other place of the world”. This has happened to me 5 times till date and still counting…

As a young boy, I used to travel in my dad’s bike or car in the streets of Coimbatore; that was way back in the late 80’s and used to get a feeling that the traffic there was intense and my dad is doing a real great job driving there. Then I moved to Madurai, a place where most of the public infrastructure was developed by the Pandya Kings. The streets of Madurai were comparatively of lesser width and adding insult to injury, the general public used the platforms and even part of the road for shops. This made it difficult for the commuters to find their way through the city. This was where I started riding a bike and the same feeling crept in to my mind; “I am doing an awesome job and I can do this in any part of the world”.

I became a little older, moved to Chennai for a job and by that time Chennai was not the same city which I saw in the late 90’s. The radius of the city had increased manifold and the traffic – needless to say. I started my career in a sales profile and I had the tough task of not only driving the sales for my company but also to commute in the hot sun of Chennai and the mindless traffic of that humongous city. I had to get ready at least 30 minutes earlier than the usual time needed to reach the destination in time, because of the traffic. There in Chennai, speed does not matter; a guy with a Pulsar 180 and a guy with a TVS 50 will be traveling at the same pace due to the intense traffic congestions. Nostalgia again, “I am doing an awesome bla bla bla”.

I used to hear a lot about the traffic situations in Mumbai from my friends, colleagues and through the media. I also had a chance to visit Mumbai on a couple of occasions for official reasons and the traffic there was again a shock for me. Long lanes filled with honking vehicles, but by far the most disciplined traffic I had seen till date.

Then I moved into the mother of all traffic congested cities. HYDERABAD!!! Yes, believe me, it is Hyderabad. This city which came to the limelight due to the rapid growth in IT companies is now being brought to the limelight again for a different reason. The first time visited Hyderabad I was amazed by the wide roads and the smooth flow of traffic. But that was the last time I had that thought in my mind. It was literally a paradoxical situation of traffic and road-side drama when I permanently moved to this “city of pearls”. The traffic sense of individuals in this city is the most “uncalled for” types and by this I am not sparing anybody. Let it be a two-wheeler rider, car driver, auto-wala, city government buses, you name it and they violate traffic in one way or the other, and let me tell you it annoys me a lot.

There used to be a comedy by Vivek (well known Tamil Cinema comedian); “We’ll put the right indicator (in the vehicle), indicate that we are turning left with our hand and keep going straight by confusing one and all around us”. This is what happens in Hyderabad in the literal sense. Lane discipline, traffic lights, yellow lines, zebra crossings, free-left turns, one-way; you can bet with at least 60% of Hyderabadis to get all of them correct. Although I am exaggerating the situation here, this is very much closer to reality.

To add more to the traffic conditions of the city, most of the traffic lights do not work even at 10 AM in the morning, the traffic constables are mere spectators and you wear a Helmet in this city and you are even eligible of running down people with your vehicle. Cabs operated by IT companies are driven only by Schumachers, Hamiltons and Alonsos; All bike riders are Cappirossis and Melandris. All auto-walas are "top-gun pilots".

Some interesting facts about the Hyderabadi Ishtyle of driving (from my observation):

• 1 out of 100 commuters stop before the stop line in a signal
• At least 1 out of 10 vehicles break red signals
• 6 out of 10 block the road on a “free-left” intersection
• 1 out of 10 take a right turn from the left hand side of the road by disrupting the on-going (straight) traffic
• 8 out of 10 police constables are afraid to stop vehicles not adhering to traffic rules

Best of them all:
A police constable tries stopping a two-wheeler rider for not wearing a helmet, the guy points the helmet locked at the rear of the bike and pushes off. Cool tactics, huh!!!

A beautiful and busy city like Hyderabad deserves more than this from the commuters and city police. It has to come either from the commuters themselves or the city police has to take some strenuous actions to bring the city’s traffic under control, else the development that the city saw in the past 5 years will just be history in the next 5 years.

To Kill a Mockingbird!!!

“It is a competitive world”

Sure, you would agree with the first sentence of this blog. The world has become increasingly competitive because of various factors. The world here refers to all the various aspects, arrays and fields available. May it be business, countries, economies, brands, people, sports, corporate etc. the competitiveness between the players has increased multifold. Everyone wants to outfit the other and emerge as a leader.

Due to the increasing competition the aggressiveness of the participants has also augmented and these days rather than winning over the competition, “running over the competition” has become the name of the game in today’s world. You or me as an individual would have definitely seen such instances in our work environment, where people would want to “eliminate” the competitor by a mere hook or crook. Although there are other factors that supplement this attitude of the accomplice, the “attitude” by itself is what drives this phenomenon.

Let us not take any serious examples of the business environment or a nation (which is brought to daylight by the news & media), but I have a live case to present to you. This has created waves in the sports columns of many a newspaper and sure it has to. This is the “Indian Cricket League” (A Zee Telefilms entity) which was formed as a competitor for the BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India).

For a very long period we (me and a lot of people whom I know) have been criticizing the functioning of the BCCI and the day has come when someone actually came forward to “bell the cat”. There is a lot of support for this new initiative and many old stalwarts of cricket have come forward to support the genesis of the ICL. Seasoned cricketers in the likes of Brian Lara, Tony Greig, Kapil Dev, Kiran More and also a ring of new blood that includes Ambati Rayadu, Vinay Kumar, Anirudh Singh (All of then represented the U-19 Indian team).

But look at what is being to this enthusiastic new comer. It is being battered and trashed by the “big boys” of the Indian Cricketing Tyranny league. They tried killing this ambitious lot right at the time when this “league of extraordinary cricketers” (a little exaggerated, but…) was formed; they failed, and now they are beginning a new innings with a vengeance to halt this provocative enterprise. They have literally threatened the names associated with this league and they have christened them as “outlaws”.

What the hell is happening here? Is this the way to deal with competition? Any ambitious new-comer is here to achieve something new; something their predecessors were not able to achieve or to set a new benchmark for their successors. If you do not have the guts to face your competitor, better get out of the way so that he/she/they can do what you were not able to?

I have always been from a different school of thoughts; “Respect thy enemy (competitor as well)”. If you begin to respect your enemy or competitor you will be able to discover a lot of hidden talents within yourselves that will equip you to perform better, rather than to use (misuse) your power and authority or play mind games with your upcoming competitor and get him out of the scene.

Some Trivia:

And now why this title; this was an inspiration drawn from the best-selling novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee. One of the characters in the novel explains:

“Although they can "shoot all the bluejays they want," they must remember that "it's a sin to kill a mockingbird". It is a sin because mockingbirds do no harm. They only provide pleasure with their songs: "They don't do one thing but sing their hearts out for us"

Serious Siddhuisms

Siddhuism - This new word came into existence a couple of years back and all the credit goes to Navjot Singh Siddhu, the guy with a “big mouth” and a “short fuse” from Punjab. All his statements of sarcasm and ridicule have evoked by-far the loudest of laughter, but there always is a serious element and philosophy behind his words. So, another guy from Tamilnadu with a “sharp tongue” and (again) a “short fuse” (yeah, that’s me) is trying to consolidate these Siddhuisms from various other people as well.

• Ravi Shastri says “A team is like Chicken Biriyani; it is not always about the chicken and the rice”. Does not need much of an explanation, yes this statement was uttered by him when there was a discussion about individual performances in the Indian Cricket team.
• One of my US counterparts says “Don’t piss on my legs and say that it is raining”. Not able to decode the statement, this came from the American dude when he was being annoyed by someone and that “someone” told that it was all for the “greater good”
• Back to the originator’s words: “You cannot make Omelets without breaking the eggs”. You’ve gotta break a couple of hearts or even more to achieve your objective
• One more from the horse’s mouth, “Fattest pigs go to the butcher first” a simple way of explaining Darwin’s theory of “Survival of the fittest”
• And finally my personal favorite, which you would have already seen in this blog; “I never give them hell. I just tell the truth and they think its hell”

It seems to be simple words told in a flow, but speaks volumes when these simple statements are interpreted the way we want them to sound like. Cool!!!

Assume or Ass-U-Me

I work for a company where there are on-going trainings and classroom sessions for self development. There was one such session a month back, when an expat-marketing manager from the U.S. was handling a short session on team building and leadership skills.

The facilitator, she was a lively personality craking a lot of jokes and keeping the audience on their toes for more than two hours, but never deviating from the agenda on her cards. After a few lectures and experience sharing sessions, we had a quick game of jig-saw puzzle. I was kind of "puzzled" about the need of a jig-saw puzzle game in such a training session. The way she carried herself during the course of that session, made me sit back and see what message she is about to convey from it. We moved on, with a few rules, making them, then breaking them, shuffling roles, running around the training room, taking different directions, working with new people, shouting at each other; all for the sole purpose of some learning and at the end of it. I was still puzzled about the outcome of the session.

She took over again, and here are the learnings for the day:

• Change is pervasive and you have to live with it


• Don't always take what you are given, ask for more


• Be a look for person


• Be proactive


• Never let your team down


• Over communicate about what you are doing; you never know when your supervisor or subordinate will understand completely


• Under promise; over deliver

But the best of all the things I learnt that day was:

DO NOT ASSUME; because, it makes an ASS out of U and ME, and that's ASSUME for me from that day onwards.

KILLER BLOW!!!