Anniversary

We just celebrated our anniversary with a relaxing few days at the lovely Victor Exotica resort in Goa, spending endless lazing around in the pool, reading a few books, watching the Oz Open, and walking down the beach.

We had some challenges initially getting our reservations done through Footlooseyatra, who were asking for an additional 2% and also accidentally had booked us to Ooty instead of Goa :-) I instead called Victor Exotica directly to make the booking. They were very helpful, and gave us a pool facing room (the one with the balcony on the right in the picture). Needless to say, I spent a lot of time in the pool, and my back is burnt charcoal.

I last stayed at Victor about 2-3 years back when my buddy Laurent had visited me from the States, and we travelled up the coast from Allepey. Amazingly enough, the prices and service at the resort havent changed much despite the drastic differences you see across the rest of North Goa. I would very highly recommend the place for anyone planning a relaxing weekend trip since their package with food included is quite reasonable in comparison to other resorts. They have no internet access (period. forget wireless), which I was quite happy to forego and stay disconnected from the wired world for a bit (although my crackberry craving got the better of me eventually).

I also got started with reading former President Abdul Kalam's autobiography, "Wings of Fire". It's been fascinating so far, and I'll write back once I'm done reading. Incidentally, Kalam has been teaching at my alma PSG Tech as a visitor professor.

And finally, I watched somewhat ruefully as my prediction that Djokovic will beat Federer at the Ozzie Open came true. It's a breath of fresh air to see players like Tsonga and Djokovic. I loved Tsonga and his attacking game - it's like watching the Brazilians play soccerFor a moment in the fourth set, I though Tsonga may have pushed Djokovic around the court a bit more, taking advantage of his mobility challenges, and have gotten his nose ahead. While that didnt happen, both of them emerged as champions today.

It should be interesting see how Roger responds to the new challengers. To me, he'll need to focus on three things over the next few years:

• Building on his fitness levels further as Agassi did mid-career to improve endurance and ability to avoid injury
• Play a more attacking game to close out points faster, especially using his serve, since he's up against some young guns now who are a step ahead of him, or soon will be.
• Start to focus more on the key Slams and conserve his energy
• Ok - lets make it four things. Watch that Tonga-Nadal game a few dozen times - the game plan with which Tonga attacked Nadal's backhand with swinging serves and then volleyed into the open court is one which has been talked about for ages and has now been executed to perfection

Djokovic will beat Federer

Djokovic will beat Federer. But Shhhhh for now.



I have a good feeling about Nole and his all court game.. Let's wait and see how 2008 plays out for this man.

Who is Bhagiram Barman

On November 24th, 2007, a young Adivasi girl was stripped naked on the streets of Beltola, Guwahati in Assam, and several others Adivasis were beaten up and tortured by a mob of local residents, leaving one person dead and several injured. The locals claim the Adivasis started the trouble by damaging vehicles and breaking shops in the area. The conflicts between the city people and the tribals has been around for a while now to the point where it doesnt matter who started it first since ultimately, common people suffer.




I cant quite describe in words how upsetting these stories were when I read them and saw some of the videos on youtube. Has the very fabric of humanity been torn to such shreds?

But I just read this - On January 30th, the Adivasi student leaders shall be taking the girl along with them to a court hearing in front of Justice (retd) R.K. Manisena Singh Inquiry Commission. I'm sure that the human rights violators will be dealt with. But for the girl, these are difficult and painful scars, and I can only hope that time will be healer, and I wish her all the strength and fortitude to overcome the challenges ahead.

I also learnt today about the identity of the man who saved her from the mobs while she ran through the streets. His name is Bhagiram Barman.

Bhagiram Barman runs a teashop in Guwahati. For those of you who may have seen the 90's flick Hero, Bhagiram comes across to me much more of the dubious Dustin Hoffman than charming Andy Garcia.

But when the girl was running down the streets, being harassed and beaten by the angry mob, it was Bhagiram who had the courage to offer her the shirt he was wearing and give her cover so she could escape down an alleyway. Other people in nearby houses were too afraid of the mob to help her, and it must have taken immense courage and valor for Bhagiram. I dont know much else about Bhagiram, or the girl, whose anonymity has understandably been maintained, but I am deeply touched by this incident.

This reminds me of another sad incident last year - one of attempted female infanticide, where a dog rescued a 2-day old baby allegedly buried alive by her grandparents in Andhra Pradesh. 2-day old. Buried alive. What is this world coming to?

Monami on cover of Cosmo!

Monami is on the cover of Cosmopolitan!!!

As a clever reader of my blog, there's no fooling you, and you've likely already guessed this was just a gag :-) We found this site called Magmypic.com off Prasan's blog and have been having a bit of fun.

Here are a few funny samples - Me at the Kremlin, on the cover of Life. Monami on Cosmo (with the web sites watermark restored to the bottom right corner), and Rini on Vogue.




Health-wise, I havent been doing too well lately. I fell sick in Brussels for a whole week with a wierd viral fever which left me completely drained and a few kilos less (hmm, guess its not a bad thing then). The Belgian doctor was great, but somehow his antibiotics didnt do the job. I got back to Chennai to spend the holidays with Monami & family, during which we visited another doctor and went through another round of antibiotics, which at the end of the day has left me with a weak stomach and immunity. I'll need to be careful over the next month to ensure I get back to being fighting fit.

I found an interesting blog off SepaiMutiny that I've started following. Dr Khandelwal is an Indian psychiatrist who is posted in the Maitri station in Antartica. Did you know that India has had a base there since 1989, and expeditions since 1981? He is doing research on how the stress of the expedition is impacting the psychological health and cognitive functioning of the team.

He has posted more interesting pictures like the one above off his blog here, as well as several interesting ancecotes about everything from how to survive with minimum water to a visit to a Russian station where the team leader there talks about challenges managing the people dynamics in the gruelling conditions.

I think its wonderful to learn from the varied experiences of people, and Dr Khandelwal's posts offer a uniquely Indian perspective into life in Antartica described in a simple unassuming style.

Another fine blog is Sanjeev Himachali's. It's perhaps the best blog I've read so far by an Indian HR person, with several insights on human relationship management which are relevant to the Indian context. One post I found touching was his story of how he overcame his early career challenges. As Sanjeev says, 'At the end, I only like to say that, "It is easy to give-up but it is very difficult to continue"'.

We picked up a pirated internet print DVD (Rs 50) off CMH Road and watched Taare zameen par, the recent movie made by Aamir Khan about the challenges faced by a child having dyslexia. I felt the movie was respite from the usual Bollywood masala mix, and was very moving. Aamir, who dominates most of the second half, slightly oversimplified dyslexia. But then, it would have been hard for the movie to fly with a broader audience without that.

My dad is planning to start-up a new free circulation community newspaper in south Chennai. We have registered a new company, and expect to launch the paper soon.

And in time to blow my blues away, the Australian Open starts tomorrow!

P.S: Please let me know what you think about Dr Khandelwal and Sanjeev's blogs.

In Memoriam: Sir Edmund Hillary

In Memoriam: Sir Edmund Hillary
(20 July 1919 – 11 January 2008)

Hillary has inspired me not just through his legendary mountaineering exploits, but his philanthropy. He spent much of his life helping the Sherpas, and was also the Ambassador to India for a short stint. I saved a 5 dollar note from my 2005 New Zealand trip as a little souvenir with his profile.

“I think it all comes down to motivation. If you really want to do something, you will work hard for it.” - Sir Edmund Hillary

2008 - Carpe Diem!

What a crazy, crazy world we live in! Time flies by through the year and the best time to reconnect with your friends is often through a new year greeting seeking confirmation (Dude, are you alive?), interspersed with executive summary style status updates (BTW, did I tell you I joined a non-profit?), or worse yet, a cut/pasted greeting (Long time no see - just wanted to wish you a happy new year) over a mass-email.

In case you were wondering, I've been guilty of all of these over the years! But now, what better alibi than to try to get away with an update to my blog and ask you how you missed it ;-)

2007 was perhaps the busiest year of my life so far. I continued to work at SupportSoft, the organization I had worked with for a few years in California and had later helped setup their Indian operations. The India office has grown now to over 100 people, I can hardly believe that back in May 2003, I was out hunting for BOO/BOT partners to explore setting up our virtual extension and we were just trying to get our office registered and trying to pick a name for the local company. The focus of this year was on growing our Asia operations as well as the revenue contribution of our Global Delivery Center, which delivered a little over $4 million to our regions across the year. I have been fortunate to work with a highly talented and capable team, who continue to blow me away by their leadership, innovation, and I learn from each one of them every day. And finally, I have spent the last couple of months in Europe working with the regional team on a strategic plan for the coming year, which has been a fascinating experience, working with diverse issues from organization design to cultural challenges.

But the biggest highlight of the year has to be my wedding to Monami on a lovely evening in Nagpur (see invite here). For most of the traditional Bengali wedding ceremony, I struggled to mime after the priest whose Sanskrit had a strong Bong accent, and Monami couldnt stop laughing all the way through. Interestingly, she didnt have to say any of the wedding vows, and you may wonder what that bodes for me!

The other memorable moments have been our travels - we honeymooned in Hawaii, but also travelled through San Francisco, Vegas, a special return trip to Hampi, Gokarna, Mahabalipuram, Seoul, Shanghai, Singapore, Brussels, Amsterdam, Ypres, Brugge, and Spa.

Of all the trips, the ones dearest to me are our snorkeling adventures in Hanauma bay in Hawaii,

and being surrounded by World War veterans in Ypres, the site of the bloodiest WW1 fighting during the memorial service on Armistice Day.

Although my busy schedule hasnt let me keep up with writing food reviews for the local dailies, my food blog has been attracting quite some attention, and I've been contacted by various journos and publishers inviting articles and requesting advice on local establishments. I sure hope to do better justice to my writing over the course of the coming year.

As many of you know, I'm a sucker for live music, and try and catch as many concerts as I can, particularly smaller more intimate performances. For the second year running, I attended the Fireflies festival of Sacred Music, a dusk to dawn all-night concert in outskirts of Bangalore featuring several artists - rock, jazz, ghazals, carnatic, hindustani, baul, qawali, etc. If there's one concert you go to in 2008 - make it to Fireflies!

A Mac lover was born, and I finally made the switch over, buying a Mac Mini after much deliberation. Now that I've been using it for a few months now, I cant understand what took me look long to make the leap.

I've also been catching up with some reading finally. One book that I'd single out - Rob, my boss, gave me "Riding the Waves of Culture: Understanding Cultural Diversity in Global Business", a lovely read about how differences in global cultures affects how we do business and lead teams. While it is written from the perspective of a western reader, its nuggets of wisdom are essential for aspiring global leaders in your organization.

And few things can help me unwind as much as a hard game of tennis. Or, on a lazier day, lying back and watch Roger play. His game is such eye candy, and I hope we'll see some close games with Rafa and Nole this year. And oh, I was in Belgium while Sampras played Roger in Malaysia and man would I have loved to have been there to watch that. Speaking of sports, Monami is an expert swimmer and I've been getting some neat lessons under her tutelage.

This year had its share of lowlights too. Monami and I had to cancel a much awaited holiday trip to Europe during the Christmas holidays due to her visa not coming through in time, which was disappointing and stressful since we'd been planning it for a while and had close friends who had made a trip to Paris to meet us. We landed up spending the holidays in a tent by the beach near Mahabalipuram, and couldnt have been happier in the end - a reminder of how the simplest things are often the ones that matter the most. Work wise, our company went through a difficult period after a tough quarter, where some talented people were let go of, and while running a business requires such decisions, these things are never easy. And then, my dad has been pushing pretty hard to launch a community newspaper, which got indefinitely delayed due to registration problems due to the Delhi bureaucracy. Fortunately, he got the clearance two weeks back, and we expect to have a big launch in the next few months!

But most of all, I'm delighted to recall the many personal and professional milestones my friends and family have reached - 3 of you got married, 5 of you had babies, including one set of twins, 4 of you completed PhDs, one of you climbed to the summit of Cotopaxi in Ecuador, four started companies, one interviewed Stephen King and Paul McCartney, one got venture funding, two of you made movies, a gifted musician has been performing across the country, a performer choreographed and danced in several shows, a bike designer won two awards, and one of you has been teaching at a school for the underprivileged. Even as we are spread out today, oceans apart, you all inspire me every day! Thanks for all your support.

I'll leave you with an extract from the Latin poem by Horace -

"Dum loquimur, fugerit invida aetas: carpe diem quam minimum credula postero".

"Even as we speak, envious time is running away from us. Seize the day, trusting little in the future"

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2008, Everyone! Have a great year ahead.

Ratatouille in one word - Yummy!

To me, Pixar's animated movie, Ratatouille, is perhaps the very best of 2007. I watched it on a long haul flight, and was fascinated by the brilliant storytelling, imaginative animation, attention to detail, witty dialogs and visual elements. It's a simple theme - we have a rat who wants to be a chef. And of course, no kitchen wants a rat, and the conflict that ensues is hilarious.

The main protagonist, Remy, is inspired by a deceased French Chef Gusteau's motto, "Anyone can cook", which the humorless vulture-like food critic Anton Ego later realizes actually means "Not everyone can become a great chef, but a great chef can come from anywhere".

The scenes involving Remy and his fellow rats are pretty funny.

Remy: Hey, I brought you something to...
[sees Emile eating garbage]
Remy: AH! NO, NO, NO, NO! SPIT THAT OUT RIGHT NOW!
[Emile obeys]
Remy: I have got to teach you about food. Close your eyes.
[Emile obeys; Remy hands out piece of cheese]
Remy: Now take a bite of this...
[Emile snarfs the cheese]
Remy: No, no, no! Don't just hork it down!
Emile: Too late.

But above all, there's this lovely scene where Remy first takes a bite of a piece of cheese, which immediately creates an upbeat swirl of flavors. He then separately takes a bite of the strawberry and feels a more delicate flavor. And then when he combines the two together, they create a brilliant epiphany that sparks fireworks that dance and sparkle in his mind.

In this one lucid scene, Pixar has captured the joy of combining flavors, the quintessential feeling of delight that floods my mind when I sample food during one of the reviews I do as a hobby.

Sigh - I just hope the chefs I meet dont think I'm like Anton :-)

Watch Ratatouille - you will not be disappointed. While we keep hearing of animation film kids like that adults might enjoy, this is definitely one for all. And oh, if you may care for sampling some decent ratatouille, check out Road Trip in Indiranagar.

Have any of you seen Ratatouille yet?