Jas Blog

Catching a flight requires a meticulous planning unless you want to spend a good amount of time sitting on a bench in airport. You are most likely NOT to use your own transportation unless you are coming back very soon, so you will need to take your time, reporting time, travel time, waiting time and buffer time for unforeseen events like your cab dying on you or cab driver unable to find your place or police catching your cab for speeding etc etc. This may all add up to about 2-4 hours generally. And we are mere mortals, who play at hands of devil who will assure us that even if we keep bare minimum margins, we can reach there in time, and that there wont be any traffic jams, cab wont die down and of course road will be all well. As for me, devil gets me most of the time, leaving me with some crazy stories of catching my flights. So am coming out with a series on this, how I have been able to pull up some of the craziest heist to my aeroplane flights.

PS: The concept of the post’s flow has been borrowed from my friend, this should settle the plagiarism case later!

Catching the crazy flight

The basics: Catch the SpiceJet flight SG 226 of 10:25AM from Hyderabad to reach Delhi by 12:25PM on a sunny yet breezy Friday of November.

Friday 9:02AM: I can see the airport pick up bus of 9 AM taking a U turn about 100mts away from me and then speeding away in the glory of sun, my heart beat has already risen to 120 beats per second (bps), my auto driver’s heart beat has just moved an inch to 78bps.

Friday 9:04AM: I reach the boarding point and ask when the next bus is. “10AM”, comes the terse reply. It doesn’t take a Bill Gates to calculate that the next bus is useless for me (bus journey time – 55mins).

Thursday 11:05PM: I decide to pack my bag for the trip next day. A little calculation and I decide to take the 9AM airport pick up bus, and leave home at 8:40AM. The pick up point is about 2+kms from home, to be filled by auto travel.

Thursday 11:50PM: I manage to end the call made by my mother to make sure I have put all the necessary items, I tell her that am yet to move an inch over there as she points out the things which need to go in my luggage. Screen says “Call duration 00:42:35″

Friday 01:45AM: I pull the zipper of the bag and sleepily set the alarm for 7:00AM in my mobile handset. Mobile prompts me to set the date and time; I ignore that and go to sleep.

Thursday 5:00PM: I change the SIM in my mobile and start it. It asks me to set the date and time, I cancel it.

Friday 8:10AM: My roomie is tapping on my shoulder shouting, “Jassi wake up! You will miss your flight!” Startled I look at my mobile, it is not showing the time, I go to Alarm menu and it asks me to set the date and time. I dump it and run for washroom.

Friday 8:40AM: I reach the main road, and hunt for an auto. I get one and he charges Rs.50 (for 2+kms), I grunt and put my bag in there and ask him to start.

Friday 8:44AM: A little further we find ourselves into a traffic jam; you can find such a jam on this road once about in a six months. I pass a louder grunt and look at my wrist to check the time. I have forgotten my watch. I take my mobile out, it doesn’t show any time or date.

Friday 9:05 AM: With my bus having gone in front of my eyes, I ask a guy at pick up point if he can arrange a taxi cab? He looks at me empathizing and tells that the cab will take 20 mins to reach us here. I ask him the time and set the time in my mobile, it now shows the date and time. The auto driver holding the Rs.50 note I have given him. My heart beat is 137bps and auto driver is at 97bps.

Friday 9:07AM: A cab company tells me that there is no free driver near me and it will take them half an hour to reach me. Auto driver is still looking at me, he says he can drop me if I can give him Rs.450; am cribbing that amount is too high as auto starts for the airport.

Friday 9:37AM: We are struck in another traffic jam, am being convinced by driver that it is just a small one and that he will get me there by 10AM flat. Estimated time to Airport: 23mins, estimated distance to airport: 9+kms.

Friday 9:57AM: I can see airport road, its race against time now; zero margin for error, 100% margin for miracle. I call my sister if she can get me checked in via web; she checks website and tells me I need to web check-in at least 2 hours prior to departure. My heart beat is 130bps, auto driver is at 120bps and my sis is doing somewhere above 145bps.

Friday 10:10AM: The departure terminal is at first floor and a long arc of road will take us there, I can see the departure terminal clearly with everything else blurred, its still 350mts away from us. A constable stops us, saying the auto can not go further. I use all my salesman ship, push my auto guy to pitch for me, show him my flight tickets. “Sorry Sir, I will lose my job if I allow you.” He points me to a nearby bus which is supposed to take me to the departure terminal in another 2 min. I settle the bill with auto guy and run for the bus.

Last week: I have been down with undiagnosed fever for over two weeks. Doctor has made me take tests for Malaria, Dengue, Chikungunya, Hepatitis, Typhoid and multiple samples of blood, and he is till unclear.

Thursday 6:20PM: Doc advises me to get hospitalized and be under constant care. My joints are already aching like hell and it has become difficult for me to even walk. Doc tells me with smile that if I get hospitalized all my bills will get reimbursed and it will be cashless admission. I smell commerce and call my parents who order me to come ASAP to home.

Friday 10:12AM: I push hard to walk fast to reach the bus as my joints cry foul. Bus is filled with passengers but not the driver. I scan the periphery and can see long line of Mahindra Logan taxi’s of Meru. I ask the guy if he will drop me on departure terminal up 350m for Rs.50. He looks and me says he can do so for Rs.100. I grunt as the cab race on the arc.

Friday 10:17AM: I thrust hundred rupee note on the guy and race for the entry, get through the initial pass and bang on the SpiceJet counter. The guy’s name plate reads ‘Sikandar’; I plead customized pleas to Sikandar and put on counter all the doc prescriptions.

Friday 10:28AM: He prints my boarding pass and tells me flight is late by few minutes and asks me to rush through the security check. I thank him profusely and tell him that I will always remember this favor (it’s been a year now, and yes I still remember his name!)

Friday 10:40AM: I call my sis to let her know I made it. My heart beat – 72bpm, my sis at 78bpm and average hear beat at that moment on earth – 80bpm

Friday 11:15AM: Flight attendant says we can use our laptops and non interfering electronic devices. I put on earphones and turn on my Sony Walkman MP3. Ozzy Osbourne’s lyrics “Mama am coming home” fill my ears.

Jas Humor, Travel Experiences, My Life, Places

Its 2:30AM and am not sleeping, there are two reasons. One, its Friday night  and who the hell sleeps on Friday night! Second, I went out to see the movie Wake Up Sid and have come back and cant wait to blog on that!

Cinemax, 10:45PM show and am still feeling as fresh as 5AM breeze in forest on banks of a river in mountains. Credit goes to Karan Johar, for a change. Wake Up Sid is as refreshing as a lemonade and as cool as a cucumber. The story is very well 21st century and urban without ever getting ’sexy’ or ‘adult’ as Yash Raj’s films. I could not help to notice the similarities in performance and music style with Lakshya movie (whose first half is very very fresh and crisp and similar).

When at 8:30PM today my friend told me that he was going for a movie, I had no idea what was there in store, and movie came out to be ‘Wake up Sid’. We left by 9:20 as packed my stuff from Gym, throwing myself in his car with my backpack still on. We raced through the troughs and crests of Banjara Hills Road no.36 to hit Cinemax looking for food inside cafeteria there. A little good news after months and months of gloomy news had me perked up already for the night. Ladies in the eatery there looked finely dressed and two faces just caught my attention for such cute were they! Wearing IIM Indore shirt gifted to me by my friend I sat down with my friend once we got the pranthas we had ordered. Just then I hear a feminine voice address me asking if I was from Indore. I take a look and there stands one of those pretty faces; Boy! she was beautiful! As I clarified that I was from FMS Delhi and the shirt was from my friend only. the simple nods of the glowing face just made the day/night. Human, aren’t we!

The opening shot of the mobie looks so similar to our story, trying to read night out, trying till an hour or two, then hit for food/laptop/net etc and spend crucial 2 hours there, coming back to study at 3/4AM and deciding its better to sleep and study tomorrow. When the results would come, we would decide that next time onwards we will study on regular basis from very start, but then that day never does come and plans are made, scrapped and sublimed.

I really liked acting of Ranbir, it made the evident harsh truths so easy to come out. And the credit here goes to debutant director, Ayan Mukerji. There’s a subtlety with which he repairs the relationship between Sid and his mother (Supriya Pathak). The distance between the two is born out of the different cultures the two belong to. She is uneducated, he is westernised and the twain don’t meet. There’s a grave dimension to the Punjabi mother who tries to speak English with her son, even though it is pretty awful, hoping that it will make her a friend of him as his other friends whom he talk to in English. It’s grave because we know it’s so real, we see it all around us.

Even when Sid ruffles up Ayesha’s place and when she is upset for a reason, it does not get melodramatic, as she doesn’t intend to make him feel guilt from inside, as melodramatic women would do. Instead it is as smooth and plain as a chocolate bar. And Sid’s animated T shirts with perky colors pep the screen up.

Neatly lensed, the movie looks at Mumbai — with love and affection. The picturisation is very vivid and colorful. The painting of Ayesha’s home, the interiors of Mumbai magazine the leads are working for and the  colorful paintings of areas around Ayesha’s home add an array of colors to the story. Amit Trivedi’s Iktara, a song filled with an unbearable lightness of being, keeps the promise made from songs of Dev D. Songs make the movie soar; they help us look inside the head and mood of Sid and Aisha and help carry the story forward.

Actually, Wake Up Sid is a slice of life film. It’s not merely real in concept, but has also been told most realistically, so much so that you can’t help but draw parallels with your own life or with someone you know. There are so many things I have done myself which Sid does, so once the movie ended there was a lightness in the mind and a big smile on the face. While we moved to go back from the cinema (it was already 1:30AM), I wondered if I will again find those Indore people! As my friend went to loo, I just stood near stairs lost in self. After some time I just turned around and saw the Pretty Face. As the I started walking slowly towards their group, the sweet music filled the mind inside me. Just when I was going to approach them, a voice says “Lets go”. It was my friend who had come back from loo, suddenly the music stops, and I look between the two and know what needs to be done. Still next moment I am stepping down the stairs, walking back to his car with mixed emotions. Still appreciating the freshness of the movie, we cozied ourselves in the car, as the speaker stared blurting out the appealing title song of Wake up Sid. It was time to wake up, go home and sleep.

Note: Some truths have been dramatized for intended hue.

Jas Movie Review, People Movie Critics, My Life

Aimless meandering around the booking sites like BookMyShow.com surely helps once in a while. Last Wednesday I came across this advert for a live musical being organised in an auditorium near my home in Hyderabad (India) – Mamma Mia, based on the hit – world’s most successful musical by same name.

The show was performed by newly floated Hot Shoe Entertainment Company, celebrating the 10th anniversary of the legendary Greek fable-based musical Mamma Mia. The show is a veritable treat for Abba fans who slip into nostalgia, courtesy pop favorites like Waterloo, Dancing Queen, Money money money and a whole range of ABBA hits. The energy and enthusiasm with which the crew performed, showed they haven’t taken audience gratis a bit. You could see the enjoyment on the faces of crew members as they danced away the play and showered the euphoria, being part of it. The very face of the lead lady here (on the right) who played Sophie, the bride, says it all! Am impressed beyond limits young lady, hats off to your enjoyment of the career, for many lesser and higher mortals miss it. The way she could dance, act and sing at same time, reminded me of a friend from Nagpur who has similar skills.

And to make sure the energy gets siphoned in the audience too, crew invited audience too to be the part of the all time famous Mamma Mia song, which saw about 50 people taking stage and stairs to join the troupe in singing and dancing on the song. As Jeffrey Vardon, co-producer and choreographer, put it this evening – “Mamma Mia has history of running house full and still having 50% of seats vacant as public could not keep their feet from dancing along!“

For those who do not know about ABBA, they were the legendary group of Pop culture of 70s. Mamma Mia just collected their songs and threaded a musical play around it, tweaking the songs a bit. Over here the troupe has made sure the dresses and play’s flow matches the actual movie. The songs, which are sung live by the way, captured that charisma of ABBA. The lady who plays Donna (mother) also happens to be single mother in real life. I must admit I was lucky that I had not seen the original so could take a fresh look at the performance, rather than compare it all the while.

After the play ended on lines of original musical, the two producers came on stage to give a damn neat performance dripping with elegance and panache. The control that beautiful Varalaxmi Sarathkumar showed here, stamped her élan over the final sequence. (see below)

Another thing that happened was that I could not convince any friend of mine to shell Rs.770 for a musical play, so I was left all alone over there (with other families, essentially two fat ladies  in post 50s to accompany me on either side!) to savor the performance. And do I regret it? No way! Maybe one of the best Sundays I have spent in Hyderabad!

Psst.. next performance of the crew is in Banglore, then Mumbai before they leave for Dubai and Colombo.

Jas Current Affairs, People Life, Music, My Life

Had tried to see the movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind many times before but then every time it was at about 1AM in Friday or a Saturday night and I would leave the movie in very starting as it was too slow for that hour. All the while I have been hearing from people about how great the movie is, but never knew about the storyline or the theme for it. Surrealism has always attracted me, and am glad I watched this movie today!

Such a mentally gripping and vivid capture of surrealism can only come out of European mind, so it is no surprise to know the movie is directed by a French director Michel Gondry. The film uses elements of science fiction and neosurrealism to explore the nature of memory and romantic love.

Story
Emotionally withdrawn Joel Barish (Jim Carrey) and the emotionally dysfunctional, Clementine Kruczynski (Kate Winslet) meet each other for the first time at a beach in Montauk, New York, and subsequently become romantically involved. However, they fall out of love with each other. Clementine discovers the services of Lacuna, Inc., a firm that is able to erase all specific memories from her mind (of Joel). Joel cames to know about this and himself opts to have his mind wiped of all memory of Clementine too.

During the process Joel realizes that his memories of Clementine are being erased in reverse order. As he experiences in his mind the earlier, happier times with her, he realizes that he wants to stop the procedure and keep the memories of Clementine. He begins to fight the mind wipe by trying to hide Clementine in the deeper memories of his mind but realizes that he is not able stop the mind wipe. Before his last memory of Clementine at the Montauk beach house, on the day they first met is erased, she tells him she loves him and says “meet me in Montauk.”

Joel wakes up the next day, decides to skip work, and goes to Montauk where he meets Clementine (who is now a stranger). Unaware of whom each other is, they quickly bond and begin to form a new relationship. After returning to the city, Joel drives Clementine to her home where Clementine finds her Lacuna file in the mail and plays the tape from it for her and Joel. Clementine travels to Joel’s apartment. She finds Joel with his own Lacuna tape and holding a drawing from their former relationship that was missed out when he handed over his possessions to Lacuna. They both become aware of their former relationship, and that it had flaws. The two recognize that their previous relationship may had problems based on their past relationships with other people, but decide not to let those failings prevent them from seeing each other… and trying again. The movie ends with them in a teasing snowball fight on the Montauk beach.

Personal Rant
We all have the memories that we will like to just forget; they say that it takes for wounds of hurt to heal and I would point that the yes the time would heal, but how much time is what we decide on our own and that is the main thing. Some people takes few days and others few years. We never forget our first love and for people from advanced culture – our first parents! Blessed are those who found spouses in their first love but others go through hell. Then there are people who have an embarrassing experience which they would just like to forget while others have trauma to be forgotten.

US researchers said in 2008 that they were able to selectively erase memories from mice in a laboratory, raising hopes human memory afflictions like post-traumatic stress syndrome can one day be cured. But then how many of us who would wish for these memories being deleted, be actually ready for deletion? These memories may be tough on heart but then they are lined with something we always cherish deep within. Yes, it is for the people who have suffered greater at the wrong hands, not for those who suffered at the right hands, for we the latter, shall keep and protect these memories deep within for ever.

Jas People, Update Experiences, Movie Critics, My Life

Today we had CEO of Cognizant Technology Solutions (my current employer) visit us in company campus. The 6k+ employees were all bubbled up to see the one of the youngest CEOs of a company of this scale. Having heard about him from management, followed his internal blog, I was not having much of an image about this guy. Most of the business dailies of today were shouting about Cognizant being a contender for Satyam Computer Services Ltd, especially with Wilbur Ross making statement about a joint bid with Cognizant for Satyam. With only three bidders left in fray (L&T Infotech and Tech Mahindra being other two), the campus is surely abuzz around the coffee machines. And not to forget that Satyam was the one which mentored Cognizant, a joint venture between Dun & Bradstreet (76%) and Satyam (24%), when it was formed. That surely had put more focus on the man with the red button – Francisco D’Souza.

Francisco D'Souza

Now what would be the image of a CEO we would have? A wise old man, silver or white hair elegantly showing the years of experience and an air of formal composure which stamps the authority. Francisco was totally different. Still looking like a homely man in mid thirties as in this picture on right (his actual age is 40), he brought that shine in the eyes of all his associates (and am not dramatizing!). Damn it man! Such a young CEO? I mean we have such CEOs for self styled start ups, but a global giant of almost 3billion USD… this young!

As he answered few questions about his own personal life, the image of a high handed CEO came crashing down. He was such a plain person with simple straight answers, even his accent wasn’t ‘phorein‘ (slang for foreign – as in western). A son of an Indian Foreign Services (IFS) employee, he got a great global exposure as his father kept shifting as per his job cycles. He talked about how when his family moved to Hong Kong, he could find only one English medium university and that too taught only night classes, so he started working in mornings. That is when he taught himself programming to make some money on the side as a contract coder, something which was going to change his life forever. And he says that life’s best moments came to him by chance.

That was teens. At 24, he was already a part of Cognizant Technology Solutions, an American it services company that was created to leverage the India advantage. At 33 he got elected as Chief Operating Officer of the same company and four years later, he was promoted as CEO of it. What stuck me was that he said that when CEO position was offered to him he first thought of his family. He understood what would it mean to take up the CEO role, and for him the family came first (he has a boy and a girl). Only after he was convinced he could juggle both, did he say yes to then CEO – Lakshmi Narayanan. And he lives by that even today, saying , “Children do not need too much time from you, just quality time.”  And he makes sure he spends quality time with them before they go to bed, when he is at home.

What hit me and most of us the most was that when asked what would you advise to your associates, his reply was prompt and precise – “Take risks”. The questioner had to wait for few seconds and ask back, “That is all?”. “Yes!”, Francisco replied with an assurance and smile, the whole auditorium was filled with sounds of claps.

Addendum
This is my third employer, first and only one post MBA and I already have seen three acquisition headlines about my employer! When I was at Adobe Systems, ‘we’ took over Macromedia. Being an ardent user of products of both , I was just gaping at the headliner. Coming to Cognizant in July 2007, it announced the acquisition of Market Rx, a pharma analytics firm, some time later. There was some more acquisition I guess by Cognizant between that and now. And now Cognizant is already in news as one of the three bidders for Satyam Computer Services!

I sure am a good catalyst for inorganic growth!!

Jas People Experiences, My Life

Jas Update Experiences, My Life

I have seen it all,
from freshness of spring to autumn’s fall,
I have seen the blood diamonds shine,
an amputee telling his family that he is all fine.

Cities being raged by bombs and fires,
the elders being charred by burning tires;
kids being shot and operated without anesthesia,
while their mothers prayed in silence for the panacea.

From the religious hatred to blood drenched rains,
from laughter filled school wagon to blood pouring trains.
An innocuous girl fearing men of her own religion,
a granny crying over her kindergarten grandson’s loss of vision.

In one house I have seen a brother kill brother,
the next one had no one’s son being cared by someone’s mother;
for what we see is that just after a violent strife,
you will see in eyes of people, coming back, the spirit of life.

Cities have bled and nations have been strangled,
Respect has been forgone and humanity wrangled;
Everybody thought they could bear no more and for grim reaper they should send,
but each time, I repeat, each time its the spirit of life that has triumphed in end

We have seen it in Delhi and seen in Mumbai all the time,
every such horror brings humanity to its prime.
people come together and forget small clashes,
the spirit of life makes the beaten to rise from ashes.

An elderly man being helped by a policeman at CST terminal in Mumbai after a terrorist had opened fire in the crowd.

See the irony, people have been killed after saving killer’s life with water,
killer could have paid by leaving that feeder’s life, but he didn’t have faith in that barter.
When a youngster’s mind is trained nothing astute but brainwashed for terror,
they don’t understand humanity but dismiss acts of kindness as a silly error.

So lets hold our hands and stand together against terror,
Gloom has come, but doom shall never…

This photograph was taken in Mumbai after the 7/11 train blasts.

Jas Uncategorized My Life, Philosophy, Places

In the beginning there was neither existence nor non-existance.
There was no atmosphere, no sky and no realm beyond the sky
What power was there? Where was that power?
Who was that power? Was it finite or infinite?


There was neither death nor immortality.
There was nothing to distinguish night from day.
There was no wind or breath, god alone breathed by his own energy.


In the beginning darkness was swathed in darkness, god was clothed in emptiness


Then fire arose within god; and in the fire arose love.
This was the seed of the soul.
Sages have found this seed within their hearts;
They have discovered that it is the bond between existence and non-existence.


Who really knows what happened? Who can describe it?
How were things produced? Where was creation born?
When the universe was created, the one became many.
Who knows how this occurred?
Did creation happen at God’s command, or did it happen without his command.
He looks down upon the creation from the highest heaven.
Only he knows the answer – or perhaps he does not know.

I couldnt agree any more! There are things which we will never know, and can only contemplate…

Jas Uncategorized Experiences, My Life, Philosophy

When you are in a foreign land, you get introduced to some really fresh traditions and festivals. During my visit to US I got a chance to be part of a ‘Baby Shower’; something which I always thought was a all ladies event. For the incognizants, by convention, a baby shower is intended to help parents get items that they need for their baby, such as baby clothes. It is common for the host to provide baby-themed games during the shower. So as a native was telling me in party that how it was celebrated only for first child earlier but now is a more general event, one of our senior System Analyst came with the games. Everyone was to guess the exact size of the expectant mother’s waist using a string. Then there was another where we had to guess the exact date of birth of child and the weight. Now hold on, this wasnt going any better for me. Had I flirted in my college life (any of the two!), I could have made a worthy guess, but I couldnt be any closer to cutting the string right as of her waist! So I took it that she was married for two years, must have been on cheese diet (as any other Arizonian), and was due for delivery in another two months so she should be one ‘big’ lady! Well the female readers would have guessed it by now – my string was way more than her waist. No doubt she did not appreciate it that how fat I thought she was, given the fact that I work as Sr. Business Analyst. (So accurate an analysis!)

And not to forget the baby’s size, weight and all. I really felt like calling my mom to ask how heavy I was when I was born but then left the idea. I was always told that I was heaviest of the lot that was in hospital in those days and my childhood pics only confirm to my chubbiness in that time. And heck I dont know when will my bread come out of the toaster, how can I tell when a baby will come out! Strange ways life tells you that you still dont know anything!

And the early Sep was spent well in marrige of my best friend who has been more of a brother than a friend. I have never felt so responsible in my life, I had to make sure that all his friends did not feel left out at the function, were catered to well, danced, laughed and aptly farewelled. Marrige, as has been my experience, is the time when your relatives gaguge how valued they are in your life. If you miss them out, you mess yourself in. Anyhow the wedding was good thought I had to miss out on food part due to time constraints, and could come back to Hyderabad with just a box of sweets.

Jas Uncategorized My Life