55 word story

"An arrow hit him on the back. He spun around. She smiled. He smiled. They approached closer; he felt warmth seeping into his body from where the arrow entered. As they kissed, he saw an arrow sticking out of her back. All eyes turned towards them. Nobody noticed a nude child scurrying down the stairs."

"She was slightly tired, but looked happy. He kept looking at his watch. “Unusual date. Well-dressed, well-mannered, smiles a lot though. A bit too eager, perhaps” she smiled. “And guys really don’t know to make coffee, yuck."

The time for the ritual was drawing closer. He wondered how long more before the poison takes effect."

I seem to be getting good at this. :D

Six Word Stories

Guy: Vidi, Vici, Veni
Girl: Asshole!

Accident! Signpost: The road less travelled

Two Thoughts on Music

Was feeling particularly vella yesterday, and when we (me and another colleague) met a colleague on her way to Barista we decided to accompany her even though we had been there just a minute back. The conversation somehow veered to music (from my singing, I think :D) and two interesting thoughts came up:

1. Intangibility: Music is still a wonder to so many of us and liked so much because in this world where more and more things become analytically divisible and logically represented, we are still not able to figure out analytically why we like some sounds and not others. This sheer intangibility of music makes it so beautiful. With music, you can get away from the world and enjoy it, and have no logical reason for it.

2. Transcedental: Some tunes, snatches of music stay with you for a long time, and have the power of bringing back some scenes and memories of the first time you'd heard this music and then your soul fills with the same feeling as you were back then. For example: the song "Bhumro Bhumro" from Mission Kashmir reminds me of my home during the early winters, cool evenings, onset of diwali, the first feel of a sweater on your body, and sometimes makes me move to tears. I had heard this song for the first time in the last Diwali I had spent at home in six years until this year. It also reminds me of a simpler time, the age of innocence, because from that point on (and that period was the onset of those changes), my character has undergone a lot of changes and though the man writing this is a more competent and successful individual, I liked being that boy. Sorry, for straying from the point :).

Well, as they say, "Music is the opium of the masses", with due respect to Karl Marx. For all the weirdity and sadness in this world, music is one of last few bastions of pure joy left.

Arghhh!!

Perhaps an individual is best characterized by what irritates him the most. All of us would want everybody else to be perfect but since we are not (and as a corollary), nobody else is too, we frequently get irritated by what we deem as foibles in other people. Coming to the point, a good way of characterizing people could be what qualities they deem most reprehensible in others; which make someone's blood boil which in others wouldn't merit other than a raised eyebrow.

There are two things that irritate me the most:

1. When people/newspapers talk of statistics and anecdotal evidence to draw out trends: This post is in a lot of ways inspired by this week's issue of Business World (a magazine which I otherwise read/respect), which talks of the Indian youth. Now, they talk about the entire Indian youth with their sample population restricted to the mega-urban youth only, those which can talk about cellphones, gadgets, the likes, a section which is not more than 1/8th of the total "Indian youth". However, it is not only Business World I find guilty in such cases, almost all newspapers, carry opinions/surveys/statistics based on an elite section of the society but tout it as the voice of the nation. I can go on and on, and some day I will, but will restrict myself to this much today.

2. When people are tardy and remain nonchalant: All my life, my goal has been to meet targets and timelines. I realise people have different competency levels and can't meet targets sometimes but I can't forgive two things:
a. When people realise that a particular deadline is unviable and stuff IS gonna get delayed, why do they accept such deadline. Most probably, if the person in front of you is sane enough, he'll realise the same and address it.
b. When stuff is in the process of getting delayed, why can't the knowledge be flagged early enough. It affects other arrangements of the person and an early warning can go a long way in keeping the situation from getting out of hand.

Was just in the mood to crib a bit :). It's a beautiful morning.

Transactional Nature of Relationships

Two posts earlier, I had talked of a conversation where the issue "how to get girls" came up. Now prior to this, we had been talking of my run-ins with girls and their aftermaths. As I tried to explain to her how I perceived such relationships, she suddenly said "So you believe in the transactional nature of relationships". And that I think had been the word I had been looking for all along.

What that would imply is that while in relationships or whence getting into one, I take the cost of this relationship in terms of a few parameters, how does it affect my alreasy existing relationships, how much time I would need to devote for this one, how much money (to a small degree, yet there) and how long will it last? Therefore everybody relationship would be like a transaction which I would mull over a lot.

The thing with relationships is that you can't really bargain on the terms you get. Take it or leave it, is the rule. Plus, you don't want to be seen dithering over deciding whether you want to pursue the relationship or not. Most emotional relationships are supposed to "just happen" rather than be engineered.

Therefore, while this would work in almost all other dealings in life, while looking for emotional realtionships, a transactional approach wouldn't be very useful.

I don't know what the moral of the story is, however atleast now I have another cool funda to talk about!!

And we owe our happiness to

I recall very vividly the farewell of the batch of students from my department in my college when I was in my first year. It was a singularly depressing sight. Only 4-5 out of a batch of around 40 had gotten jobs (even they didn't have what they'd have liked or aspired to) and the rest were as morose as they had been attending a funeral. It was a funeral, mostly, as student after student came up to the dias and in turn, lambasted the department, the placement cell and implored future batches to pay more attention to their studies. The effect on a fresh bright eager student (yours truly) was strong enough, that all my actions for the next three years was towards ensuring I don't suffer that fate (but that's another story).

Coming to the summer of 2006, as this year's batch was having its farewell, there were smiles all around. People were in a self-congratulatory mode and generally having fun. I took some time out to students to tell them to work hard since times are not always the same, but I don't think anybody paid much attention. Jobs were aplenty, and people had better things to do than listen to an old fogey.

What has changed?

Most of the jobs that people have were in sunrise sectors, IT, ITes, KPOs, the like. What has brought these jobs into India? I believe a lot has to do with government policies that go back to the reforms in 92. As a partner in my firm told me a few days back, before McKinsey came to campus in IIMA in 92-93 (don't particular remeber which of these years), the packages were something like 60-70K a year, which McK took to 3.25 and doubled it a while later. Before these companies came with the wave of liberalisation, there were hardly any jobs through which a person could dream of buying a house, a car in a few years while working in a regular job. And that, over the years, changed.

And now we are witnessing the second wave that is sweeping the country bringing in its wake more jobs fulfilling the aspirations of our generation.

However, as we wallowed in mutual backslapping, in none of these farewell speeches were the architects of our happiness, our future prosperity thanked. Well, I apologise, but thanks Mr. Narasimha Rao, Mr Manmohan Singh, Mr P Chidambaram, Mr Montek Ahluwalia and several others, who didn't come into the limelight.

Thank you sirs. Thanks for making India a happier place.

Getting a Girl

This is at the end of a discussion that we were having at our office (my friends if I told them, we had such discussions at office would be hard put to explain why we were making so much money :D). Anyways, the discussion began with a few of us discussing what was the right age for each of us to get married, and then veered towards girls as a species and how to get girls. Many posts can be written about this discussion since a lot of interesting theories were put forward but the biggest takeaway :) I had from it was one what female colleague explained as the three rules towards getting a girl:

1. Don't consider that they are from a different planet. They are like you in more ways than you'd expect them to be.
2. Don't put random fight to get a girl. Becomes unsustainable (if successful).
3. If you like someone, tell her.

Hmmm. Some food for thought. Especially since I am so vella these days.

I am sure nobody reads this, but just to keep track of time, Happy Diwali to everyone. Am going home for Diwali after 5 years. Should be good.