An amazing adventure - III

Our next mission was to get to the top of Mount Harriet. This was the highest peak in the South Andamans, and also the British summer capital (the Brits certainly knew how to live life!!). We trekked a bit of the distance and were rewarded with a cool wide vista and a cool breeze. We discovered a 16km trekking path through wild jungle at the top, but did not go because we did not have footwear which would protect us from leeches..


After exploring all these interesting places from Port Blair, we set off for Havelock island with great excitement. After a three hour boat ride, we arrived at Havelock. We were quite excited to be there, what with Time magazine naming Beach no. 7 on Havelock as the best beach in Asia and one of the best in the world (though I am quite puzzled at how something so subjective can be ranked...).
Havelock was a real revelation!! Half the island was still uninhabited (unexplored dense jungle). No cell phone signal, no cable tv, no newspaper, no STD phones!! One dirt track (the highway!!), about 200 population, and massive beauty all around.. check out some of the landscapes there. We would usually wake up at five am to catch the sunrise (and mostly missed!!) and would be in bed by eight cos it would be pitch dark by six!!

We rented a couple of bicycles on this idyllic island, and would set off for Beach no. 7 which was 13 km away from our pretty resort!! Believe me, it was not easy (the pictures say it all :-))

Finally I come to the icing on the cake - our scuba dive into a live coral reef. It was scary and majestic at the same time. We were underwater for 63 minutes straight, and I have never been so determined to keep breathing in my life!! My ears hurt, my nose were blocked and my mouth was totally dry from the dry air pumping from the oxygen tank, and yet I was mesmerised by so many different fluoroscent fishes, snakes, corals and plants!! We went down to a depth of 12 meters (which does not seem so much on paper, but is actually damn scary if you happen to look up!!) and thankfully we were able to overcome our fears and panic (the guide later remarked that it was one of the smoothest rookie dives that he had ever undertaken!). My only regret is that all the wonderous stuff I saw at the bottom of the ocean will remain only in my memories...

After two nights in Havelock we returned to Port Blair. The return ship ride was quite rough (a storm brewing and a choppy sea tossing our ship about as if it were made of paper!!). We were quite grateful to get back to land safely, and our enthusiasm for the sea was severly tempered :-) A couple of stiff drinks helped restore nerves, and yet after this we did not venture back to the sea for the duration of our holiday...
As I revisit my bland narrative I find there is so much I have missed - the shells we collected, the elephants we encountered, the ghost house we lived in, the nice time we had solving very hard sudoku puzzles over neat whiskey, the strange ship with underwater first class... there is enough in my memory to populate many posts. Yet that will have to wait for some other time.

An amazing adventure - II

Port Blair, the capital of the Andaman and Nicobar islands, is a small, beautiful and neat town. Hindi is the most commonly spoken language, followed by Bengali and Tamil. The town looks somewhat like this -
Our resort (the Fortune Bay Island resort) had a fantastic view of the bay and North Island.
Port Blair does have basic infrastructure (unlike Havelock, but more on that later) - you do get a cellphone signal sometimes, and typically get yesterday's newspaper.

Post Blair was only our base station. From there, we visited a multitude of different islands. Viper island was the first - it was somewhat macabre, since all it contained were a prison house and a gallows, and especially since it had been devastated completely by the tsunami and had been abandoned since!!

The next island we went to was North Bay. The island is known for its beach where one can snorkel. We took a glass bottomed boat and saw some corals (which were mostly dead, alas!). However, we took off into the forest and were rewarded for our efforts when we came to this massive lighthouse (the same as seen behind the twenty rupee note!). After a rough and tough climb to the top of the lighthouse, we were rewarded with a massively cold and strong breeze, and a view to die for!! Check out the misty mountains in the distance.


Our next stop was at Ross Island. This island is only a small distance away from Port Blair, and was the erstwhile colony of the British army. It was known as the Paris of the East, so beautiful was it. Even now, ruins of the Brit settlement can be seen. The island is currently owned and run by the Indian navy, and has deer and peacocks, in addition to a beautiful melancholy abandoned beach and lonely World War II Japanese bunkers!!

Next came Baratang Island. To reach this distant place, we had to pass through a tribal reserved forest (no pictures are permitted, so we dont have any, though we did manage to see a lot of tribals). The tribals are totally naked, except colorful belts of beads, and are seen with bows and arrows. They looked totally African, with flat noses, very dark complexions and curly hair!

Baratang island is in the middle of a mangrove swamp. The boat ride to the limestone caves was awesome, through dense and thick mangroves!!
The entrance to the limestone cave came after a trek through dense forest which came after the mangroves. Though the cave itself was pitch dark (so no photos!!), we could see massive stalactites and stalagmites being formed before our very eyes.

We encountered some wild fauna en route (check out this sleeping bat from close quarters and this multicolored reptile!!)

After returning from the mangroves, we trudged further uphill on Baratang to view this mud volcano. Though we could see the bubbling mud oozing out, I must confess the damn thing was a bit underwhelming. Somehow when I think volcano I think of huge craters and large seething masses of lava. This was unique, but distinctly timid :-)

More to go in part III...

An amazing adventure - I

First, a trivia question - what do you see on the back of a twenty rupee note?
Answer - this (Check it now!!) Second trivia question - what place is this??
(Easy to guess) answer - North bay, South Andaman islands

Before you go on reading this blogpost, a quick warning. I'm just back from an amazing adventure in the Andamans, and I may suffer from an overdose of enthusiasm as I describe all there is to experience there. Please bear with me!! The second warning is that words may not be able to describe the sheer beauty of the place, therefore I will depend a lot on photographs (this could make it tough to load this page)

The Andaman islands offer a smorgasbord of different ecosystems - emerald blue sea, dense rainforest, mangroves, high altitude mountains, and of course the best beaches in the world. We were lucky to visit in the lean tourist season, so we had the whole place to ourselves! We had planned the trip as an adventure trip, and we surely had quite a few - scuba diving in a live and impossibly colorful coral reef, trekking through dense forest, going deep into a dark limestone cave, seeing a bubbling mud volcano, and cycling, cycling and more cycling!!

First, the origin - the Andaman islands apparently got their name from Handuman (or Hanuman, son of the wind). This is because in the Ramayan, Ram's army of apes had initally planned to launch an attack on Ravan's Lanka from these islands (though it seems to be quite surprising, given that these islands are quite a distance away from the mainland - it takes the same time to get to the Andamans from Chennai by air as it takes to get from Delhi to Chennai!). Hanuman had come to these islands to do a recce, and wisely decided against it!! The islands have been inhabited by aboriginal tribes (a few of which are cannibals!!) since time immemorial, and only when the British decided to set up a penal outpost (sometime at the end of the nineteenth century) here did these islands see civilization. These islands came to be known an 'kaala paani' or 'black water' ever since the dreaded Cellular jail was built to lock up political prisoners.
We travelled a lot by a small boat between these islands, and though the waters are usually friendly and emerald green, they do suddenly become very scary, black and opaque whenever its cloudy!! More recently, the islands were severely affected by a tsunami, and even a eighteen months later, the effects are there to see - uprooted massive trees, waterlogged shops and destroyed flora, ships etc.
But now for the good stuff. To be continued in part II...

Back again

Whew!! Its good to be back again...

Here is a narration of what's been going on in life in the interim -
http://iimbclassof2004.blogspot.com/

More updates in a bit!

Geography

I was trying to figure out what would be a good place for a 2 week vacation (the jury is still out, after having considered Bali and Indonesia, Maldives, Greece and Sri Lanka, I seem to be deciding on good ol' Andaman and Nicobar islands right here in India!), when I tried to recall the places I've been to and what I've liked about them.

As far as I can remember, I have been to 16 countries apart from India (my ambition is to visit 24, then I will call it a day!!) - vis -
Europe: Germany, France, the Netherlands, Austria, Italy, the UK, Belgium (in passing)
Middle East: Kuwait
Asia: China (Hong Kong), Singapore, Japan, Thailand, Bhutan, Malaysia
Australia
Africa: Mauritius

I think the big ones I've missed (and should definitely visit sometime in the next 5 years) would be the US, Switzerland, Indonesia (i.e. Bali), South Africa / Sri Lanka. That leaves me with 4 more countries to be visited. The Caribbean islands would figure on the list, and so would a South American country (maybe Brazil, though my buddy Mahender strongly recommends Peru, which seems too radical to a guy like me). But who knows what spin of dice life may play, so we will see when it actually happens!

But this post was about what I liked in the places I've visited.
Without exception, Europe has the most beautiful places (London is lovely, as is Munich, and Amsterdam is delightfully bohemian - but I think Florence wins hands down). What I really like about European cities is their smallness - you can walk about for a day or two, and you find that you have seen most of the city already. I did not like Paris because it seemed to me to be too big, and I thought Venice was overhyped. In addition to small size, I seem to like old, beautifully architected grand buildings. Cobbled streets are another favourite. Its places like Pisa or Florence or Salzburg that really get me going.

However, when it comes to comfort, I find Asia much more welcoming. Japan is relentlessly efficient and painfully polite. Singapore is too artificial for me. Hong Kong was refreshing. But Thailand is what I loved. It has the right amount of chaos, beauty, commerce and activity to make it very very relaxing.

Australia is also very nice (esp Sydney - the Harbour Bridge walk was amazing, as was the Opera House cruise), but good only for a week's vacation.
Mauritius had possibilities - nice friendly people, laissez faire attitudes, beautiful beaches, unique experiences (i.e. the artificial ship building industry, sugarcane fields) but again possibly would get tedious after a week.

For the Andamans, I'm looking forward to three things - one is a scuba dive (after some half day training course apparently), the other is a visit to tribal forests (the tribes still live in aboriginal times, according to whatever I've been able to read), and the third is an active mud volcano and limestone caves. Added to sights of the 'Kaala Paani' or the jail which had tales of terror from the freedom movement. All doped with days of doing nothing on the beach (beach no. 7 on Havelock island was rated the 2nd best beach in the world by Time magazine - thought it beats me how you can have a definite rating for a subjective thing like this!!)

I hope I get tickets!!

Black and white

Warning: this post is somewhat meandering and ambiguous - I'm writing as I think!!

I was thinking about this question yesterday - do i really prefer black or white? Dark and mysterious or sunny and cheerful? Do I look at people mostly as black or white? The chain of thought led to some interesting digressions.

My initial thought on this was a balanced 'horses for courses' kind of phenomenon (i.e. on particular days / situations, I prefer black, on others white). Most time anyway is spent experiencing a huge big swathe of gray (or is it grey? - never could remember!!). Most movies, popular literature, and life as we know it is full of the golden mean, the ambiguous middle, the 'balanced' path. Therefore it is probably true that in my inner world, I always look at everything from two points of view. Nothing is right or wrong, there are only situations and actions. Everything can be justified from the other point of view.

But as I think about this, I grow uneasy. To say that everything is gray (or grey) is the easiest way out. It enables you to not take sides. But seen deeply, everything which is meaningful has happened because it was for a cause, a belief. Once you admit the supremacy of gray, everything can find an excuse, a reason for inaction, and inertia would reign supreme.

I think the truly successful person, the real virtuoso, the grandmaster strives to break free from the shackles of gray and strive for the pure. Black or white, never gray!! One or the other, never both. Yes or no, never maybe.

This thought completed, I return to the original question - is it white or black for me? I am allured by black. It beckons with power and secrets. But I think deep down I like white. I'm always optimistic, always believe the best of everything. I like summers and sunshine. I believe in good over evil. Definitely white!!

Till yesterday I would have said I like white on some days and black on the other. But today I can say I like white :-)

Anusmaran 2007 in Delhi

This post comes about due to Alam's effort at informing all our batch junta about the happenings in various cities. I was 'volunteered' by him to cover events in Delhi :-)

Last night IIM Bangalore had its annual alumni meet in multiple locations across the globe. The Delhi meet was organized at the Hyatt, and the party rocked quite a bit!
Among the batch of 2004, turnout was fairly good (certainly much better than last year). I remember seeing Uncle Sarovar (after a long hiatus), Nishant Kashyap, Mayank the sailor, Pranjal, Sameer Mahandru (still living his role of President as he handed out his card which said Managing Director, Indospirits) and Budddy. Drinks flowed freely and the food was quite good (actually I dont know for sure, all I know is that the salmon rolls were yummy!!)

Although a lot (most?) of the faces were new (I felt positively an old fogey as I saw people with badges saying batch of 2008), it was good to catch up with familiar faces from 2003 and 2005. Prof. Rajeev Gowda spoke at length about the good things happening at IIMB. Among other things, i was pretty impressed to learn that Harshdeep Jolly had written a novel on life at the IIMs (the book was on display at the venue), Sameer Mahandru is going great guns in his business of alcohol distribution (his firm had supplied the drinks for the party), Vineet Khunger is experimenting with a multi cuisine restaurant and everyone else was well settled in their 3rd or 4th jobs since campus.

The party blazed into life once the dance music started playing, with the old regulars (Rajeev Chaba, the India head of General Motors and a lot of people from his batch) hitting the dance floor with gusto along with the more recent folk (most notably a stunning looking Pooja from the batch of 2003). The party however thinned out pretty early, with most people gone around the time of the witching hour.

When it was time to leave, I omitted to carry back a plaque that declared that I had attended the alumni meet. However, it was good to have caught up with everyone (most after a year), and renewed and refreshed everyone's numbers in my phone book.

The silver lining - link repaired

Life sometimes hands us a lemon. Only a few of us, however, are able to make lemonade out of it. This was the thought that came to my mind when I saw the following link:

Alam's time on national tv

Lage raho, Alam bhai!!

Monday morning

I write this on a dreary Monday morning. There is plenty of work to be done, but little enthusiam for it. The week stretches out long and onerous ahead, and five days look like eternity. Monday mornings often do this to me.

Interestingly, the 5 day week is a relatively recent phenomenon. Not too long ago, it was usual for people to go to office 6 days of the week. I wonder how people would stand Mondays then!! The history of the short work week is a violent one. Organized labour in countries like Britain, Australia, the US and Europe had to struggle long and hard for limiting the legal work day to 10 hours. Robert Owen (a Welsh socialist and social reformer), first proposed the 8 hour workday way back in 1817 (God bless his soul!!). He coined the slogan Eight hours labour, Eight hours recreation, Eight hours rest. Due to his efforts, the working day came down to 12 hours, then 10 hours in different countries one at a time. However the idea took time to mature.

At its convention in Chicago in 1884, the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions resolved that "eight hours shall constitute a legal day's labour from and after May 1, 1886, and that we recommend to labour organizations throughout this jurisdiction that they so direct their laws as to conform to this resolution by the time named."

There was a massive parade of 80,000 workers in Chicago on May 1, 1886, what is regarded as the first-ever modern May Day Parade, in support of the eight-hour day. In the next few days they were joined nationwide by 350,000 workers who went on strike at 1,200 factories, including 70,000 in Chicago, 45,000 in New York, 32,000 in Cincinnati, and additional thousands in other cities. Some workers gained shorter hours (eight or nine) with no reduction in pay; others accepted pay cuts with the reduction in hours.

The real impetus came, not surprisingly, from market forces and the father of capitalism.On January 5, 1914, the Ford Motor Company took the radical step of doubling pay to $5 a day, and cut shifts from nine hours to an eight hour day, moves that were not popular with rival companies, although seeing the increase in Ford's productivity, most soon followed suit.

France, of course, took the lead in legislating 35 hour work weeks, ironically enough, not out of any altruistic motives, but as a means to combat unemployment!! Most European countries have 40 hour work weeks, while the US has usually 50 hour work weeks. Of course, we in India have 65-70 hour work weeks on average (outside of Government service).

I hope this changes soon, and we move to 35 hour work weeks like our French brethren! For now, of course, this looks like a pipe dream. I'll settle with getting through Monday mornings :-(

Note: italicized portions of the post are courtesy Wikipedia

Flash of insight

The last word has not been said on the war of the cities. Although I make no secret of my preference for Delhi over Bombay, I think I've been successful in becoming friends with Mumbai. We understand each other better now :-)

I've been spending a lot of time recently in Mumbai. Although I live (at someone else's expense!) in the tony southermost part of the city, I have been travelling a lot by local train and autorickshaw, visiting the suburbs. On one of the local train journeys, hanging on to a thin pole (my only anchor against approximately 5000 people who seemed to want to push me off the running train), trying not to breathe in the stench from the tracks, and longing for a sight of land that was not covered in garbage, I finally had the eureka moment.

Mumbai is loved because it is the city of dreams. Survival in this great city requires you to rise above the mundane parts of life. The garbage, stench, crowds, heat and dust - all are mere trifles that necessarily must be overcome if one is to stay sane. An escape from reality becomes a must, and what better escape from reality than through dreams. I have not met many people local to this city who do not dream of great rewards or accomplishments for their toil. And the city of such beautiful dreams necessarily needs to be beautiful.

Mumbai's greatness lies in the fact that dreams could actually come true here. It is a truly green city - only the green is not provided by mother nature, but by the great god Mammon!!

I dont love Mumbai any more than I did before, but I think we understand each other better now :-)

The Good German

I almost missed this gem!!

Even though today is a working day, I went out to watch 'The Good German' in the multiplex close by. The two hours it took away from my day were repaid in ample measure by this searing movie set in 1945 in Berlin.

The movie is in black and white, and stars George Clooney, Tobey Maguire and Cate Blanchett, and is the fifth Steven Soderbergh movie I've seen (Traffic, Syriana, Ocean's Eleven, Ocean's Twelve being the other ones). Apart from Ocean's Twelve, which was so-so, all the others have been brilliant movies.

The movie is set in post-war Berlin, and is a tale of murder, intrigue and mystery. It is Hitchcock-like in its use of frames without dialogue, and background scores which heighten the tempo. Most of all, it is a movie that makes one realize the horror of war and the depths to which human kind can plummet.

Like Traffic and Syriana, this movie also takes 15 minutes after the movie has ended to figure out, and once you do, it stays with you for very long!!

For reviews, visit this http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/good_german/

Bheja Fry

I saw this movie recently, and only the magical sight of the sun setting into a calm ocean could get me to recover from the impact. But first, the context -

I had heard great things about this movie from a dear buddy, who confidently expressed great approval of the plot. Therefore I stood in line for a significant time on Sunday afternoon, and actually gloated when I managed to procure the last ticket in the house - a front row seat about two feet away from the screen.

My enthusiasm waned a bit when I entered the movie hall and saw the seat I had got. Anyway, being a philosopher, I accepted it as fate and settled down to enjoy the movie. With every additional tortuous idiocy from the main character, my neck got more and more sore. At one point in time, I felt the distinct need to shake the main characters by their lapels and ask them to PLEASE get some sense.

I came away from the movie strangely irritated, although I think other people in the movie hall enjoyed the shenanigans of a half-wit idiot and the weird cast of characters. Thinking back, I think what got to me was the complete lack of reality in the movie - such incidents could never happen in real life. Though the acting was good (I particularly liked Ranvir Shorey's cameo), the story and the treatment left me very very cold.

All in all, a complete bheja-frying experience!!

The dome

I have not updated my blog in a long time, primarily because I have been in Mumbai for a couple of weeks and have been doing the usual office-hotel-office routine that leaves such little time for creativity. However, there is one good thing that I have experienced during my stay here which is worth a mention.

And that is the Dome. The dome is a rooftop open air bar at the Intercontinental Hotel, overlooking Marine Drive. Nice seating, a pleasant breeze and nice drinks characterize this hang out. I was at the dome on a leisurely Sunday evening, and the sight of the sun setting into the sea was extraordinarily beautiful. The skyline in the distance and the absence of the normal road noises made the moment quite magical (though I'm sure the large quantities of vodka I had imbibed also helped).

Although I've heard that the food is not great, it is a must-visit, if you need to surround yourself in beauty and contemplate the meaning of life, the universe and everything!
I think I will visit again this week...

Snorkelling

I am recently back from a vacation in Phuket. I absolutely loved it :-) Apart from the usual vacation type things (beach-bumming, speed boating, getting drunk, getting more drunk, canoeing, getting tanned, getting drunk yet again, gorging on seafood, making a fool of myself on the ramp), I had a new experience - snorkelling. Alas, I dont have any pictures to share. So I shall have to remain content trying to describe the experience.

Snorkelling is essentially scuba diving without the scuba gear and without the diving :-) You put a really tight mask around your eyes and nose, and bite into a clamp which lets you breathe only with your mouth. Then you go underwater, floating just under the surface of the sea. And if you are anywhere near the coral reefs near Rang Yai near Phuket, you try to get used to all the fish ramming into your eyes, hands and body :-)

The fish are truly spectacular - shiny and multiple colored. The sea floor is invisible - its covered with coral. The water is cool and mighty. Strange patterns, shapes and forms become suddenly visible. You realize the fragility of your breathing. You try to get used to the strange wheezing sound that signifies your breath. And you wonder at your insignificance and loneliness in this wondrous world. The sea is lovely, dark and deep. It is at once dignified and dangerous, unfamiliar and friendly, ever changing and always the same.

I would LOVE to go snorkelling again :-)

How I got my blog back

I just had a terrible last thirty minutes. Apparently big boy Google has done some skullduggery with my modest blog, and moved it to some new version or some such. Now usually I set cookies so that I can login to blogger and start posting right away. Because of this version shift, I was asked to login to blogger, and when I did so with my google account, it logged in nice and proper, but I could not see my blog!! In other words, Nothing Spectacular was frozen in time for ever, never to be updated!!!
Now I'm usually quite casual in updating my blog, and have never afforded it any kind of importance. But once I realized that I had lost it, I was frantic!! I felt unheard and invisible. My identity had vanished!! (I may be hyperventilating a bit here, but I really was quite upset).
Various help queries and a million links later, I was struck by one stray thought, which led me to check on some old file where I usually store my myraid usernames. A quick check, and I realized the goof up that I was making, so finally I got my blog back... Yippee :-)

This has a few lessons for me (in random order):

1. Backup, backup, backup - usernames, passwords, posts, everything
2. Google really does hold a lot of power over my life (and its surely and steadily increasing)
3. No man is an island - I realize I've begun to covet my blog!!
4. You realize the value of something only once you lose it
5. All's well that ends well :-)

hazaaron khwaishen aisi

I saw this movie recently, and was quite struck by it. Starring Chitrangada Singh, KK Menon and Shiney Ahuja, and directed by Sudhir Mishra, the movie packs quite a punch and is not easy to forget.
The movie tells the story of three college friends - the privileged guy who can afford to care for society and his dream of the Marxist revolution, the pretty girl who will follow him anywhere, and the smart wheeler dealer who is in love with the girl.
The movie follows their story over a decade, and ends on a tragic, and yet ironically twisted note. Wont reveal too much because would like you to see it for yourself.

Yet what struck me in the movie was the passion that each character displays. They do anything to uphold what is dear to them. Somehow, I dont find this passion in too many people around me today.
Is it a function of the times - were the 70s a time of nation building and taking sides? Or is it to do with the fact that its fiction and therefore needs to be made interesting? Anyway, I came away from the movie quite inspired to believe in a cause - feel a passion - and not give it up in the face of the most tremendous odds!
May this feeling thrive!!

Marketing ploy

I usually get a lot of discount coupons sent to me by random retailers. Citibank sends me something each month. So does Shopper's Stop. Mostly these discount coupons are structured to make me spend money in the hope of getting discounts. However, Wills Lifestyle has this habit of sending gift vouchers (not discount coupons). It was always quite puzzling for me - why would they give away stuff? Today I found out the answer.

I had been sent 2 gift vouchers (for Rs 500 each). One was for the clothing range and the other for the cosmetics brand at Wills Lifestyle stores. The vouchers were due to expire in less than a week, and since I was in the vicinity of a store at a time when I remembered those vouchers, I jumped right in!

And then it struck me - the cosmetics range has NOTHING which is less than Rs. 650 (except soap, but very very fine print on the voucher exclaims in confusing legalese that the offer is not valid on 'bathing bars'). Similarly, the clothing range has NOTHING less than Rs 700 (even a plain T Shirt which would cost Rs 200 at Westside costs close to 4x the amount here). I walked out of the store with socks!! and an unused voucher from the cosmetics range.

However, I did like the Rs 650 deodorant, and I think I will go buy it tomorrow. Thus Wills Lifestyle has been successful in making me spend Rs 150 through its one grand worth of gift vouchers. I'm not sure if I wouldn't be happier without the vouchers, though!!

Media rules

Usually when I'm suffering from fever, my mind keeps buzzing with random thoughts and this usually makes it difficult to concentrate on any one thing. Even with slight fever, I had two thoughts today with some kind of business potential - one is actually an old idea, but I tried to put some thought behind it to see how far I could go with it. Interestingly enough, the idea deals with media and how it can be leveraged. I also bounced it off a good friend, and found some support there.

To cut a long story short, the idea is quite simple - it is essentially an advertising revenue driven business model, with low cost outsourced operations. The initial investment required is actually not too much, but the business would not scale rapidly. It would require significant time investment, and I'm sure it is not unique in any way. But I take heart from the fact that most businesses are about execution anyway. I'm excited enough to undertake some rough market research, but I would like to have a proof of concept ready to gauge authentic reactions. I hope I can sustain enthusiasm long enough to make something out of this!!

The other idea I had is still to be fully baked - it is a sub plot in the storyline of my magnum opus :-). Actually I'm not sure if the magnum opus should be a big fat novel or a nice collection of short stories. Certainly the latter is lower effort. But its too early to speak about that!

Today was also the day my friend (and freelance writer) Shraman inspired me to take a crack at a cool idea. This one, I suspect, would be very satisfying creatively, but not so rewarding monetarily.

To sum up, I've got three damn good ideas. Now I need to GET MOVING.

Decidedly funereal

The Namesake is a very popular (and well made) movie playing at theatres these days. It is based on Jhumpa Lahiri's novel of the same name, and stars Kal Penn, Irrfan Khan and Tabu. But this post is not about the Namesake. Rather this is a bland summary of Nikolai Gogol's 'The Overcoat', which is the central motif of 'The Namesake'. Thanks to wikipedia for the content.

I must confess, though, that this summary leaves me quite cold and that I would NEVER want to read this mad genius's works. Its too dark and foreboding for me! But I will let you decide for yourself -

The story centers on the life and death of Akakii Akakievich, an impoverished government clerk and copyist in the Russian capital of St. Petersburg. Akakii is dedicated to his job, taking special relish in the hand-copying of documents, though little recognized in his department for his hard work. Instead, the younger clerks tease him and attempt to distract him whenever they can. His threadbare overcoat is often the butt of their jokes. Akakii decides it is necessary to have the coat repaired, so he takes it to his tailor, Petrovich, who declares the coat irreparable, telling Akakii he must buy a new overcoat.
The cost of a new overcoat is beyond Akakii's meagre salary, so he forces himself to live within a strict budget to save sufficient money to buy the new overcoat. Meantime, he and Petrovich frequently meet to discuss the style of the new coat. During that time, Akakii's zeal for copying is replaced with excitement about his new overcoat, to the point that he thinks of little else. Finally, with the addition of an unexpectedly large holiday salary bonus, Akakii has saved enough money to buy a new overcoat.
Akakii and Petrovitch go to the shops in St. Petersberg and pick the finest materials they can afford (beaver fur is unaffordable, but they buy the best cat skin available). The new coat is of impressively good quality and appearance, and is the talk of Akakii's office on the day he arrives wearing it. His clerk superior is host to a party honoring the new overcoat, at which the habitually solitary Akakii is out of place; in the event, Akakii goes home from the party, far later that he normally would. Enroute home, two ruffians confront him, take his coat, kick him down, and leave him unconscious in the snow.
Akakii finds no help with the authorities in recovering his lost overcoat. Finally, on the advice of another clerk in his department, he asks help from a "Very Important Person" (sometimes translated the prominent person, the person of consequence), a high-ranking general. The narrator notes that the general habitually belittles subordinates in attempting to appear more important than he truly is. After keeping Akakii waiting an unnecessarily long time, the general demands of him exactly why he has brought so trivial a matter to him, personally, and not presented it to his secretary (the procedure for separating the VIPerson from the lesser clerks).
Socially inept, Akakii makes an unflattering remark concerning departmental secretaries, provoking so powerful a scolding from the general that he nearly faints and must be led from the general's office. Soon afterwards, Akakii falls sick with fever, likely to die. In his last hours, he is delirious, imagining himself again sitting before the VIP, who is again scolding him. At first, Akakii pleads forgiveness, but as his death nears, he curses the general.
Soon, Akakii's ghost (sometimes translated as "corpse", though Gogol wrote "ghost"--"привидение" in the original text) is reportedly haunting areas of St. Petersburg, taking overcoats from people; the police refusing to approach and stop him. Finally, Akakii's ghost catches up with the VIP — who, since Akakii's death, had felt very guilty over having mistreated him — and takes his overcoat, scaring him severely; satisfied, Akakii is not seen again. The narrator ends his narration with the account of another ghost seen in another part of the city, but that one was larger, muscled, and had a moustache, bearing resemblence to the criminials who had burglered him earlier.

Random analysis

My buddy Alam commented that I was posting much more frequently these days. I decided to test this assertion. Here is a graph showing the distribution of my 66 posts on this blog (including this one). This graph shows (on the columns) the number of posts per month, and (on the line) the average days per post for each month. Clearly, Alam is correct when he says that postings in March are frequent - as can be seen on the RHS y axis, the average post has been occuring every 3.2 days since the inception of this blog, and the March numbers are pretty close to the average. Clearly, September was an aberration, since I posted a flurry of articles in the first romantic blush of blogging. Oct - Dec were normal months, but Jan and Feb really brought down the average (perhaps because I was mentally disturbed? who knows? - interestingly this means that I'm in good mental health in March!!)

What this graph also tells me is that I'm quite inanely (is there such a word?) analytical and should be spending time on better things!!