The Pursuit of HappYness

Ever since I did my summers at the private banking department of a bank in Hyderabad during May and June this year, my brother had been asking me to see this movie in which Will Smith is an intern at Dean Witter Reynolds. I had more or less been doing the same that Will does during his internship at DWR. Calling up prospective clients,(High Net Worth Individuals) for the private banking services of the bank. I didn't have the pressure of standing first among the group of 20 that Will had, to become a broker.

Moving on to the movie, there are very few movies, the mere mention of the name of which, brings you a myriad of images and makes you think for a few minutes, however busy you were or whatever you were doing. This definitely is one among those few. The others that fit this list from my limited scope are Forrest Gump, Shaw shank Redemption, Apollo 13, Life is Beautiful in English and Anbe Sivam, Kaakha Kaakha, Dalapathi, Mahanadi, Nayagan and Ethir Neechal in Tamizh.

The movie is based on the real life of Chris Gardner (played by Will smith), who struggles to make ends meet and tries every possible way to come out of the daily grind and make it BIG in life. Chris gets an internship at DWR and is simultaneously faced with crisis at home (with his wife leaving him), and is even rendered homeless, over unpaid dues.

I particularly liked the scene, where Chris tries to solve the Rubik’s cube, while Ronald Reagan addresses the nation on the state of the economy. It seemed as though the entire economy is one big Rubik's cube for which no one knew the solution, while common men and women endured agony for their existential necessities.

The best performance in the movie undoubtedly is by Jaden Smith, Will Smith's real life son who plays Chris's son Christopher. The rapport that Chris and Christopher share on the screen reminds you of the one between Guido and Joshua in 'Life is Beautiful’.

The movie brings to light the problem of homelessness that even the 'mighty' U.S faces. This is a stark contrast to the glass, steel and tarmac that we are used to associating with the U.S. The way Chris manages his time at the office without taking restroom breaks and rushes back to the charity shelter before 5 in the evening, after getting Christopher back from the day care, makes one feel that Life is a mystery and can be unravelled only by showing grit, when the world shuts its doors on you.

The last day of the internship when Chris is chosen among the 20 in his group to become the broker, Will Smith walks into the deal room with an ' I am the king of the world' look on his face, for savoring which any amount of hardship can be endured.

The AIMA Pune trip

Went with a gang of friends to Pune for 2 days for a management simulation game conducted by AIMA. The event happened at Singhad Institute of Management in a serene village called Kondhwa outside Pune. So, we started from Mumbai on Monday evening by the Deccan Queen. The train has a number of firsts and onlys to its credit, like

The first train to be certified ISO 9000 in India.

The only train with a cafeteria, where you can actually sit and have food as you do in a hotel.

The route between Mumbai and Pune is one of the most beautiful ones in India, as far as I have travelled, where the tracks cut across the Western Ghats. During monsoon, which it was this week, it offers you some breathtaking views of valley, waterfalls and mountains all in fresh green. The added pleasure of travelling by the Deccan Queen is that you can enjoy all this as you relish your cutlet and coffee as you do in a bakery down the street.

The game was conducted by AIMA on a software that they have developed called Chanakya. The software was robust. There was not a glitch in it throughout the 2 days that we played. The game was a board room simulator in which there were 4 members per team and each had to play the role as a CEO, CFO, COO and CMO.

Each four member team was a company. In each group there were 8 teams, which made it essentially as 8 companies competing for the same market. We had to take decisions on the operations, marketing and financial aspects each quarter, and the game was played over 5 quarters.

The winning criteria was the book value per share, which made the way you managed your finances more crucial than the way you invested in technology, produced efficiently or marketed the product. This winning criteria, made the reading of the seemingly simple Balance sheet, Income statement and the cash flow critical after every quarter. We felt that we should have had one of the CAs from our class in our team as they would have helped us in reading these statements in a jiffy.

The game helped us realise, at least now, how much of financial accounting had been misunderstood by us. We made a stupid mistake of not issuing equity shares during the 2nd quarter of the game when the chance came our way and hence not capitalising the share premium into the reserves and surplus, which would have improved our book value. This made us go from 3rd to 8th rank after round 2, the end of day 1.

The next day, we had to play 3 more rounds and somehow jump from 8th to the 4 th position to scrape through to the next round. We did play a little better on day 2 than on day 1, and managed to move from 8 to 6 to 5 and stayed at 5.

Of the 8 teams from NM, one managed to get to the regional finals and they have also ended up being the regional winners, who will play in the national finals at Coimbatore in October. Hope they win at Coimbatore and become the national champions.

Overall, it was a great learning that made us realise that small decisions that you make in the board room has a significant impact on the company, which makes business seem simple yet remain complex.

A treasure trove

The Hindu has come out with a superb 24 page supplement on the 60th Independence Day. I laid my hands on it at the NM library today. It can be accessed online here.

I haven’t read it in full and i think it will take at least a week for me to do it, because of the depth and the sheer number of the articles in it. These articles are a good reality check written by an illustrious list of contributors , than the breast beating that most of the other newspapers and magazines did on the occasion of the Independence Day.

It also has a special painting by M.F.Husain, and photos and cartoons from the archives of The Hindu.

I think it is a must read for every Indian.

India 2007 to 2022

India 2007

60 Years have passed since we got the right to decide on our own collective destinies. A lot has been achieved and a lot more could have been….

The Prime Minister's speech from the ramparts of the Red Fort has much of the usual rhetoric.

The key points can be summarised as,

1. Rs. 25,000 Crores infusion into agriculture
2. Rural infrastructure and connectivity through Bharat Nirman
3. Urban infrastructure augmentation
4. Planned Industrialisation
5. Universalising of secondary education
6. Increase in the number of IITs, IIMs and IIITs
7. Social security for senior citizens below poverty line
8. Conservation of natural resources and concern towards global warming

Overall, it was a reiteration of the UPA government's policy initiatives and the usual quotations and two from Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and ofcourse, Rajiv Gandhi. The text of the speech glaringly omits even a mention of the 123 nuclear deal between India and the US.

This being a special independence day, I decided to give my shot at some of the events that might happen between the diamond and platinum jubilee of our independence.

I hope that whichever of my predictions are gloomy, I am proved completely wrong and in the ones that look good, I have a gross underestimate.

India 2007 - 2022

The following are some of the key events that might happen between today and 15 years from today

1. The Government will keep pumping in thousands of crores of rupees under the name of agriculture under a minister who will spend his time in the offices of the BCCI in Mumbai or the ICC in London, while the farmers will keep commiting suicide in Vidarbha and Andhra Pradesh. Atlast, by around 2015, when farming becomes impossible for most farmers of India and our food security is threatened, the Government will call in for the private sector participation in agriculture. Large companies will enter farming and take over thousands of hectares of land. This seems to be the only way a second green revolution will be ushured in, unless the Government creates SAZs (Special Agricultural Zones) as adviced by Dr.M.S.Swaminathan.

2. The political structure of the country will not undergo much change, except maybe for a little more federalism and splitting up of a few states in the Hindi heartland towards governable smaller units.

3. The private sector will continue to flourish and remain the largest employment creator, absorbing large number of people displaced from agriculture.

4. Education and litreacy will spread. Hopefully, secondary education will be universalised before 2020.

5. College education will spread, foreign universities will set shop in the country, making careers in teaching remunerative and good teachers to be sought after.

6. More and more conflicts will be seen in the transition from agriculture to industry, like the latest one being witnessed for Tata's Titanium-di-oxide plant in Tamilnadu. This should settle by around 2012, when comprehensive regulations on rehabilitation should emerge.

7. God forbid, we will have a confontation with China, with the sort of resources they are building up in Tibet and coming very close to our backyard. Hopefully, UN will intervene and good sense will prevail.

8. India will win 2 medals in Beijing 2008 and 5 in London 2012, and hopefully one cricket and hockey world cup in between.

9. India will become a nuclear powerhouse and get closer to US as a strategic partner as we are the most trustworthy in Asia.

10. We will bid a sad adieu to a few great species that inherit the wild of our country. I hope it is not the Royal Bengal Tiger and the Asiatic Lion.

11. India will send an unmanned mission to moon in 2010, manned space mission in 2015 and manned moon mission in 2020.

The times have never been more exciting to live in India.

I hope to revisit this on 15th August 2022 and be happy to find myself totally wrong in the points 1, 6, 7 and 10 and 3, 4, 5, 8 and 11 being grossly underestimated.

Jai Hind !

India Quiz at NM - Finals

These are the questions from the main round of the quiz by me and Ankur.

The Answers are in black and you can highlight the space after the question to find out the answers.

1. Name this monument. Humayun's Tomb

2. This city derived its name from the Sanskrit equivalent of the term ‘city of virtuous deeds’ and was as usual modified by the British to its current name. Which city are we talking about? Pune from Punyanagari

3. Why was this gentleman recently in news? P.Sainath for winning the Ramon Magsaysay award in Journalism

4. Who comes next to complete the trio? Lata Mangeshkar, "The Nightingales of India". The ones in picture are Sarojini Naidu and M.S.Subbulakshmi.

5. Which Company says “ Its all about Imagineering” ? L & T

6. Yashwant Sinha, recently wrote a book with the oxymoronic title “ Confessions of a swadesi reformer”. Which politician from the opposite camp wrote the book with an equally oxymoronic title, “Confessions of a secular fundamentalist” ? Mani Shankar Aiyar

7. Flying officer, Nirmaljit Singh Sekhon, has a unique distinction on behalf of the IAF. What is it ? First and only officer from IAF so far to win the Param Vir Chakra

8. He was the youngest Indian participant in 2000 Sydney Olympic games. At the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, he broke the Olympic record but failed to win the medal in his sports event category. Who are we talking about? Abhinav Bindra in Air Rifle

9. This cricketer who was written off 2 years back, was asked at the airport, in West Indies during 1970-71 tour, if he had anything to declare. He said, “I have come here with runs and I’ll go back with more”. Walking the talk, he scored 642 runs in the 5 match series, next only to Sunil Gavaskar. After this series, he was referred as the “Renaissance man of Indian Cricket”. Dilip Sardesai

10. In 1932 Los Angels Olympics, India won the gold medal in Hockey by defeating the US Hockey team in the final. What is special about this match. Highest victory margin ever of 24-1

11. Who is the first Indian ever to win a medal in the World Championships in Athletics? Anju Bobby George in Paris 2003

12. He is the first army officer below the rank of brigadier to be awarded the Ati Vishisht Seva Medal, a non gallantry award for exceptional service. He essentially got this for exceptional service in a sport. Who are we talking about? Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore

13. This tournament is the third oldest tournament in the world in it’s game, started in 1888 in Shimla, with only the English FA-cup and Scottish FA-cup being older than it. Name this annual tournament. Durand Cup

14. Which iconic sports man’s biography was recently released under the name “ Forgive me Amma” ? Dhanraj Pillai

15. The founder of this media company decided on the logo of his company after he saw the bindi on the forehead of his wife. Which media company are we talking about? NDTV

16. This Indian company claims that only 4 countries in the world have population more than the number of customers it has in India. Which Indian Company is this ? LIC

17. This is an exhaustive list of Indian Companies. Connect. Indian Companies on NYSE

1. Dr.Reddy's 2.HDFC Bank 3. ICICI Bank 4. MTNL 5. Patni 6. Satyam Computers

7 .Sterilite 8. Tata Motors 9. VSNL 10.Wipro 11. WNS Holdings

18. Which is the largest food brand from India, in terms of sales ? Amul

19. Which Specialized Indian Government owned organization's logo is this? EXIM Bank

20. What was founded by 6 young men who, in 1976, left their well paid jobs at Delhi Cloth Mills (DCM)? Fortunately, an year later, this company got a fillip in its business when the Janata Party led government drove IBM out of India. HCL Limited

21. Who holds the Director Identification Number (DIN) Number 1 ? Ratan Tata

22. Maniratnam, in 1997 made a movie Iruvar, (The Duo), dealing with the dynamics of Dravidian politics with Prakashraj playing M.Karunanidhi and Mohanlal playing MGR. This movie also marked the movie debut of an already famous woman who played the role of Jayalalitha. Who made her debut playing Jayalalitha in Iruvar? Aishwarya Rai

23. This Indian film director, writer and composer has scored music for films like Sathya, Chachi 420, and also for serials like Jungle book, Alice in Wonderland (the Indian Adaptation). His first venture as a director was a children’s film and he later on also directed another children’s film, based on a story by Ruskin Bond. Who is he? Vishal Baradwaj

24. Sivaji: The Boss, recently became the first Tamil movie to figure in the UK Top 10. Which Indian Movie, in Aug 1998 had the distinction of being the first Asian movie to feature in the UK Top 10 ? Dil Se

25. He was a popular radio announcer with the Hindi service of Radio Ceylon before he moved over to Acting. He was elected to the Lok Sabha for five terms from the same constituency in Maharashtra. Who is this actor-cum-politician? Sunil Dutt

26. This Classical Musician from India was described by George Harrison as the “Godfather of world Music”. He holds the Guinness record for the longest International career. Who is he ? Pandit RaviShankar

27. He was jointly awarded the Grammy for best world music album in 1994. He modified the Spanish guitar to form a new instrument called Mohan Veena. What is his name? Pandit ViswaMohan Bhatt

28. This king like his father, lost his kingdom early but with Persian aid he eventually regained an even a larger one, controlling major parts of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Northern India. Upon his succession of throne for the first time he had rivals in kings Sultan Bahadur and one more Afghan king who defeated him in the battle of Kannauj forcing him to flee the country. Who was he ? Humayun

29. Who holds the record for the highest victory margin of 62% of the electorate in a parliamentary election, while defeating H.N.Bahuguna in the 1984 General Elections ? Incidentally, he didn't complete his term in that Lok Sabha and had to resign in 1987, following the newspaper reports of his implication in a scandal. Amitabh Bachchan

30. What comes next
Fatehpur (UP), Ballia(UP), Nandyal(AP), Lucknow, Kanakapura(Karnataka), Jalandhar, Lucknow ,____________ Assam. The constituencies represented by Prime Ministers of India from V.P.Singh till Vajpayee. Manmohan represents Assam in the Rajya Sabha

31. What is this ?
1. Mutual respect for territorial integrity and sovereignty
2. Mutual non-aggression
3. Mutual non-interference in each other's internal affairs
4. Equality and mutual benefit
5 .Peaceful co-existence

Panch sheel between India and China

32. None of us can visit the building shown below anymore. Name this building ? Babri Masjid

33. Which King’s empire spread as far as this ? Rajendra Chola I

34. In which Rajput king’s court will u find Poet Chand Birdai, whose poems are still sung in most households in Rajasthan ? Pritviraj Chauhan

35. What happened when a demonstration was held to seek the release of Satyapal and Saifuddin Kitchlew arrested under the Rowlatt Act ? Jallianwalla Bagh Massacre

36. ‘Pattern 1853 Enfield’. This holds a special place in the history of the India’s independence struggle. What is it? The rifle which was greased with beef and pork fat which caused the First war of Indian Independence in 1857

37. In the 1938 session of the Congress, serious differences arose between the Mahatma and Netaji, with the Mahatma saying, “ Subhas’s victory is my defeat ”. Facing a no-confidence motion, Bose resigned and formed a new party which is still alive today with 3 MPs in the current Lok Sabha. Name this party. All India Forward Block

38.Also known as Indian Statutory Commission, this was a group of seven British Members of Parliament that had been dispatched to India in 1927 to study constitutional reform in the Raj. Ironically, one of its members was Clement Attlee, the British Prime Minister who would oversee the granting of independence to India and Pakistan in 1947. What is this ? Simon Commission

39. What does the drawing on the rear of a 500 rupee note depict ? Dandi March

40. This has been declared as a national geological monument. This is about 65 million years old from the Mesozoic era and now it’s a 61 m tall monolith column of black basalt rock from the molten lava. This is unique in the sense that such an old geological monument inside a big metropolis. Name this monument. Gilbert Hill in Andheri, Mumbai

41. The Geographic Indicator of this product reads like, “been cultivated, grown, produced, manufactured and processed in the hilly areas of Sardar sub-division, Kalimpong sub-division, comprising of Samabeong estate, Ambiok estate, Mission hill estate, Kumai estate and Kurseong sub-division”. Which Product are we talking about ? Darjeeling Tea

42. Which Indian nationalist, businessman, philanthropist’s memorial at Golders Green in London reads as, “What we call life, is a wonderful journey - full of purpose . When the mission is realised the person passes away ... this is the eternal law of nature” . G.D.Birla

43. There has been only one Indian, who has been named by TIME as the Person of the Year. Incidentally, He was also the first non-American to feature as the TIME Man of the Year. Who was he? Mahatma Gandhi in 1930 for the Dandi March

44. They were first used in India in 1989-90. Then it cost Rs.5,500. The microchip used is sealed and imported from Japan. Any attempts to tamper with the chip can lead to the destruction of the chip. Each of this can record 3840 entries and the data can be stored up to 10 years. In 2004, we used 10.3 lakhs units of them. This device has saved an estimated $ 40 million for India and precious greenery. What is this ? Electronic Voting Machines

45. It is an equinoctial dial, consisting a gigantic triangular gnomon with the hypotenuse parallel to the Earth's axis. On either side of the gnomon is a quadrant of a circle, parallel to the plane of the equator. What are we talking about? Jantar Mantar

46. On August 14th between 11 and mid night, the constituent assembly of India met when Nehru gave his “Tryst with Destiny” speech. Actually there were three speakers who spoke between the national song and the flag hand over on that day. One was Chaudary Khaliquzzaman representing the Muslims who chose to stay back in India and another who was arguably the most learned man on eastern philosophy. Who was this third person who spoke on that historic day ? Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan

47. Potti Sriramulu, started a fast-unto-death on 19th October 1952 in Madras. This went on for 58 days against an unrelenting Nehru and Rajaji until he died on 16th December 1952. Ultimately after his death Nehru yielded. What did this fast lead to or what was it for ? Creation of Andhra Pradesh

48. What does Antrix Corporation do? Market the services of ISRO for launching the payload of other countries

India Quiz at NM - Prelims

On the occasion of the Independence day, me and Ankur hosted an India Quiz. The following were the questions for the prelims. The Answers are in black and you can highlight the space after the question to find out the answers.

1. Whose Memorial is this ? Rajiv Gandhi's in Sriperumbudur





2. This Sensex-30 company, tried to design and manufacture a product indigenously for the first time in India. This Product was launched in 1998. The code name for this project/product was MINT. What does MINT stand for ? Maruti in Trouble. The Product was Tata Indica.

3. Project Tiger was started in 1972 as an effort to conserve the tiger and its habitats. A similar conservation project, started in 1992, aimed at protecting which animal and its habitats? Elephants


4. Identify this legend from the world of Movies and Music. Mukesh





5. This freedom fighter and great leader was the first Asian to be a British MP in the House of Commons. Dadabai Naoroji

6. Name the film company started by Dada Saheb Phalke. Hindustan Cinema Film Company

7. This game was included in the Asian Games held at Beijing in 1990 with India winning the gold medal. Since then India has won gold medal in this game in every Asian games in 1994, 1998, 2002 and 2006. Identify this game. Kabbadi

8. Which famous temple in South India is reputed to have the longest set of corridors in the world measuring at 400 ft each in east and west and 640 ft in north and south ? Ramanathaswamy Temple, Rameswaram

9. What quote is D.K.Barooah (in)famous for? "Indira is India. India is Indira."


10. Which famous Hindi writer’s original name is Dhanpat Rai Srivastava? Munshi Premchand

11. This vary famous small town is surrounded by five salt ranges and hence got its name which means “the place of five mirages”. This town’s name is associated with India’s prowess in a particular field. Which Town are we talking about? Pokhran


12. Which company has recently changed its tagline to ‘Win in a Flat World’ ? Infosys


13. When was first broadcast in India, it shattered television records by reaching 97.8% viewership. When it was broadcast in the United Kingdom on the BBC achieved audience figures of 5 million, unheard of for a subtitled series being aired in the afternoon. Name this TV series. Mahabarat


14. According to Hindu beliefs, this begins on the Ashadha Poornima and ends on Shravana Poornima and lasts for 45 days. What is this? Amarnath Yatra


15. In Greek and Latin accounts, which king was referred to as Sandracottos or Andracottos? Chandragupta Maurya


16. On 23 January 1957 he delivered an unprecedented 8-hour speech defending India’s stand on Kashmir. To date, this is the longest speech delivered in the United Nations Security Council. Who was this terse gentleman? V.K.Krishna Menon


17. This organization is headquartered at Belapur, Navi Mumbai and had invented and introduced the anti collision devices for trains, by the name of Raksha Kavach and the concept of RORO. Which organization are we talking about? Konkan Railway


18. One of the greatest players of his game, he has launched a website Kheladi.com and authored a book in 2005 “success vs joy”, that has received exceptional reviews from Amitabh Bachchan. Who are we talking about? Geet Sethi


19. Name these States 1 to 7


1. Assam
2.Arunachal Pradesh
3. Nagaland
4. Manipur
5. Mizoram
6. Tripura
7. Meghalaya

Cicadas as Number Theorists

On my roomie Prakash's recommendation, have been reading a book called "Fermat's Last Theorem" by Simon Singh. This book deals with how the world was baffled by a seemingly simple equation,

X ^N + Y ^ N = Z ^ N ( Put N instead of 2 in our familiar Pythagoras theorem).

This had kept the mathematicians hooked for over three centuries from Fermat's days, until this was recently solved by Andrew Wiles from Princeton.

Mid way through the book, describing the properties of prime numbers, the author says an example of prime numbers applied in the process of evolution, which makes us question if insects are just insects.

The periodical cicadas are insects found in North America, which have an extended and unique life cycle, which begins underground where they stay as nymphs for 17 years, after which they emerge in vast numbers and live for a few weeks and die. The choice of 17 years is where the cicadas stump us.

There are parasites which have life cycles of 2 and 3 years, which live by feeding on the Cicadas. By choosing a lengthy life cycle of 17 or 13 years (two varieties of cicadas), they ensure that there is no parasite that is also coming to life in the same year as they do.

How did an insect come to know that there is something called a prime number and that they can increase their chances of survival by just choosing 13 and17 instead of a 12 and 16. More importantly how do they keep track of the time of 17 years, when they stay underground without the sun and season to keep track of time?

Gandhi, My Father

Went to the movie, at PVR, Juhu, which is based on the play, Mahatma Vs Gandhi , by Feroz Abbas Khan. I had heard of the play which created a lot of waves in 2003, when it was staged. Kudos to Anil Kapoor for believing in the play and making it into a movie.

The movie has a one line story. The Father of a Nation was not a very good father to his eldest son.

The best thing about the movie that I loved were the locales in South Africa and the way the actors of the movie have been put into the sepia tones of the original freedom struggle videos. The two persons who leave a mark are Akshaey Khanna (playing Harilal Gandhi) and Shafeli Shah (playing Kasturba Gandhi).

For Akshaey Khanna, see the scene where he gets hurt while playing football (in South Africa) and Gandhi says to him while applying a medicament, that he has recommended someone for the scholarship to study in England. Akshey has spoken a million words when he says, " Main Theek Hun" and walks away, limping.

For Shafeli Shah, there are far too many scenes that make u remember her large eyes.

The movie moves very slowly, as with most movies dealing with Gandhiji. Mahatma says that there are two people who never understood him, Jinnah and Harilal. Probably, Harilal would have said there was only one and it was the Mahatma.

The camera work needs special mention for the way silhouette has been used all along the movie and a golden hue running throughout the movie trying to bring back the days of the raj to life.

For people believing in realistic cinema and history buffs, it’s a must watch. Others can wait till October 2, 2007, when it should be out on Zee or Sony.

Raison d ' etre

After toying with the idea of starting a blog for an year now, and having written two posts before(sometime in October 2006), which i deleted just now, i planned to start one afresh today. The reasons for staring it is, defenitely not to change the world. A friend of mine from the TVS days, having started her blog recently, said that I should start one, and was confident that I will write something worth the pixels.

I was(am) not sure.

Being an introvert that I am, I have seldom been able to express whatever i have felt. May be speech is not my cup of tea. Let me see if i can write what ever i feel without the compulsions of being politically correct.

I have a few ideas on what I should do with my life. I haven't figured which one it is yet. May be its Journalism, May be its Movie Making. May be its Tamizh litreature, May be its Indian History. May be its Civil Services ( i m just kidding).

So, as Steve Jobs says in this, "You cannot connect the dots looking forward; You can connect them only looking backwards".

For a guy as confused as I am, May be this blog is just a dot.