Repertoire of good moments

Chicken Ghee Roast Day

It was the turn of trio to hit a good restaurant. Occasion? Gold Lady's birthday. Blame it again to my shyness which forced Gold Lady to dump her celebration plans and execute the clandestine plan of treating the trio (no prize for guess the third person in form of mischievousness Smart Dude). Those were the good old days when we relied on Auto. We soon hit one of the nice restaurants at the city, located near a beauty shop.

Gold Lady's phone was abuzz with calls. In fact the way she greeted her relatives, conversed with them and closed the call taught me a lot of things. I was supposed to be excused that day for being too traditional, as I constantly kept hearing single word "pranaam" reverberating in her conversations. Smart Dude was relaxed and clam. His attention was transfixed to the television. Unfortunately I was seated opposite to him and all I could gaze at was their faces, a wall and the air conditioner. A flurry of american accented words were blasted in the air by a group seated nearby. Their pandemonium of fun and discussion aroused suspicion between the three of us. In case you stumble upon these accent, you would wonder if these are real or fake? 

After assuring(or say assuming) ourselves that the accent was fake, we played with words. Smart Dude often poked Gold Lady for her accent. The order was once again initiated by her, and this time she wanted to try a different recipe. So, what did she order?A chicken ghee roast. 

It was time for the birthday girl to be trapped in the illusion of name as the dish tasted out way contrary to her expectations. Perhaps that was how I remember that day as : the Chicken Ghee Roast Day.

The Russian Salad Day

It was time for me to host my birthday treat. Again it was the trio and we three headed to the best hotel in the city. After initial dilly dallying, we finally settled for menu. Smart Dude wanted to try something different now. And in the process he ended up ordering Russian Salad. Destiny ensued Smart Dude the same fate as that of Gold Lady during her birthday treat. The dish turned out to be contrary of expectations. We soon decided to hustle to nearby restaurant and had a good meal.

Wake me up, when 8'o clock ends

The test of time is the toughest in the world where punctuality is the motto. End up being one minute late and you are off. End of waking 30 mins late, and you loose attendance for losing class. End up waking 12 hours late, you seriously wonder introspecting yourself and quitting things. The fear of quitting things(yes, I did went through a scenario where I ended up waking very late owing to illness) brought me to establish trust with my two buddies: Smart Dude and Nonerasable Man. We established a mutual consent where the one waking up early would ring the other two(I was lazy in this department). I often remember Nonerasable Man banging my door to wake me up. When I look back at those days I realized how an unsaid principle is established among people. We three happened to be the member of same group too and it often helped us.

The world of satire

It was yet again the time to hang out at a pastry outlet in the city. Smart Dude was kind again to pack me in his car and give a ride. My soul thanked Gold Lady for springing the idea of going for the cake at night, as I was damn hungry for a pastry. 

We settled with our orders. I could see Smart Dude giggling and asking me to check out the rest room. When I did I found something unusual. A poster read:

A similar poster as this was discovered by
me (Photo adopted from: www.etsy.com)

" If you sprinkle when you tinkle be nice and neat and clean the seat"

World today has turned much sophisticated to educate people about basic etiquette. Gone are the days of carrot and stick. The mood of today is 'satire'. 

No wonder I find it funny and attractive, but I also got the message quick and clear. Companies and retail outlets are doing everything to : a. educate people using their premises, b. politely list the rules without hurting them. 

As the days go by, we would often see such humongous satires with the basic message relating to etiquette and behavior. 

Something to ponder upon: My experience in city of dreams

Reaching a metro city early in morning was no new thing for me. The AC coach assistant wakes you up. You see people rushing to washroom, brushing their teeth and furiously wearing socks(combination does not matter, what matters is one should get down at right station). Thanks to my friend Mr. Savior, we got off @ LTT. It was turn of the city of dreams to welcome us duo.

After hopping one local train we managed to reach the hotel. Mr. Infant was already stationed since a day and  we had little difficulty in locating the hotel. My curiosity and mobile managed to sniff wi fi connection in the hotel. Infant was getting ready for his event and Savior decided to explore the city(he got lucky with his visit the starbucks). I decided to take to visit my friend's place in afternoon. 

A good nap of 4 hours was culminated with a call from my friend. We caught up after 45 minutes and headed his home. Aunty was kind enough to serve a delicious regale. Soon it was dusk and I boarded auto to Bandra. The trip in Auto was full of riches and rags around, handsome buildings and Savior's texts on going gaga over the place(where the event was held).

If you are wondering where should you visit to experience the 'Mayavi' of Mumbai, Bandra is the place to be. Ultra cool females, sublime luxuries, relaxed couples, smooth driveway and a lovely looking hanging bridge. Bandstand houses the abode to superstars of film industry(including Mannat of Badshah) and the super sleek Hotel Taj Lands End. We were lucky to attend the event in one of the finest brand of hotels across the nation.

With the consultation of Mr. Infant, I headed to the basement, where the event was scheduled to be organized. I soon met with Savior and we decided to explore the hotel and take pictures. In next 30 minutes, I witnessed a sneak peek of life in a luxury hotel, a life I am sure most of us strive to live.

 Mr. Savior posing for a snap

Elite one-on-one meetings on coffee tables, groups of beautiful ladies with the bride rushing to the lift and some lonely souls on the table were found en route our exploration journey. Although I adored the richness of elite, luck of business people and beauty of bride, I could feel a connect with them. I did realize that on basic level, they too are human like us. I felt happy for the bride for getting married, sad for distressed looking rich people on restaurant and acknowledged a daily frame of relationship in form of 'transaction'.  We headed back to basement to attend the function.

The event was held in a grandiose manner. Me and Savior relished the snacks offerings and soft drinks served to audience as a part of event. 

"Dude, I think we are gonna win something. Lets borrow blazer from students back" uttered Savior in a suspicious voice.

Our conviction of winning slowly started getting stronger as our award category approached neared. We managed to borrow blazers from two kind souls, at the time of nomination announcement and were delighted to learn ourselves as the joint winners in our category.

The aftermath of award ceremony was colorful indeed. So jolly was Mr. Savior that our of excitement he picked up a wrong trophy for posing picture. My calculative mind(which I inherited from Smart Dude) alerted me of the discrepancy as I rushed to keep the trophy back at its original position, only to discover a lady faculty frantically searching for it. I couldn't stop smiling(due to Savior's act) while conveying my apologies to madam.

As I was heading out of hotel, I realized one thing. The people in hotel whom we envy, are normal persons. And not everyone out there is rejoicing that choice. There are some who are tied by the shackles of business and didn't seemed to enjoy the luxury. Not everything is hunky dory!

Crust of hopes or wayward dreams?

Seeing impossible dreams is a part and parcel of life.  And mind refuses to accept certain lessons despite committing the same mistakes again and again. So what motivates us to commit the same mistake? What drives us to run on the slippery task and ignore the risk of skidding badly and hurting back? What drags back to the cushion of inertia and coats our mind with lucrative dreams? Answer: the prize.

Whatsoever we may believe, shifting focus from result oriented to process oriented warrants time. One cannot change his/her approach overnight. Even after changing approach, some degree of craziness are bound to crystallize in the adrenaline(for instance one may exhibit result oriented approach sometimes, despite a complete change in outlook). I cite an instance in which three friends submerged into world of fantasy while working hard on their dreams for 3 days.

"I would give you a treat, take care of sightseeing in Delhi and ensure you have a comfortable stay" said Gold Lady, as me and Smart Dude were cajoled to propel our team into the campus round of a prestigious event. Gold Lady was expected to attend a function which happened to be at the same place of campus and at same time of event. We had qualified the preliminary round and working out the next round. The incentive of qualification in this round would be an invite to campus followed by our presentation of ideas.

The trio poses for pic during a break from
 the hectic 3 days effort. Although in vain,
the effort got the best out of the team.

With an awareness of string of bad lucks of past events with me, I tried to tone down the expectation and warn Gold Lady. But soon after Smart Dude switched sides and advocated Gold Lady's belief, I was lured to be optimistic.

So, what exactly does mean by being 'optimistic'? A frank confession from soul would elicit a clear answer "to dream that you can and have achieved the prize". And those who try to correct the 'dream' in the latter statement with 'belief', I must draw their attention to a feeling that there is a blurred line between 'dream' and 'belief'. Do hard workers not dream? Do people who do not work not believe?

We gave our best shot, dreaming of visit to the campus round and eased our anxiousness by mixing it with fantasy of making it to the final round. But..we didn't made it to the finals!

Sometimes its hard to explain a failure, as hard as it is to explain a victory. The only difference being, in times of victory your soul seldom demands an explanation, whereas in case on other side you perform all sort of analysis to understand the reason for loss. Coming to terms with loss is a slow and gradual process, just like recuperating from illness(you don't get well overnight, do you?).

It is easy to point to the fact that the element of dream was the culprit in spoiling our result and question our commitments. But won't that same dream acted a motivator and helped us push the envelope of commitment and hard work.

My belief for victory was a bit muted than Gold Lady and Smart Dude, but I don't blame either of them for believing ourselves to the final round. It is not the first time I have seen efforts gone to bin, unappreciated and rejected. Being persistently exposed to similar rejections showed me a bigger picture. But that has not ceased the urge to dream of accomplishment, and this dream gets grandiose in the waiting time(i.e. time between submission of your efforts and declaration of results). And the extension of result deadline just inflates your curiosity and dreams.

But when I look back today, I realize what I achieved in the process. Three mediocre but arrogant souls burnt midnight oil in a fantasy. Perhaps this is one of the best team effort I have witnessed in life. There has to be a trade off between realism and fantasy as each has its merits. You lose the merits of one, when you exclusively go for a sublime choice. Thus, all our choices are blend of fantasy and reality.

Crazy wave

To go or not...was my initial confusion as I contemplated the cost-benefit of opting out of my committee hangout plan. After some level of coaxing by myself, I managed to pull myself out of bed, don in the shirt and   beat the 6:00 AM 'shut the alarm and continue sleeping' syndrome. I soon got a text from my wicked boss aka the bucketman to rush to reception. Soon I found nikepedia(the fame guy who needs no introduction) and Indu.

Nikipedia and soup share a moment of
 fun after capturing everyone asleep. 

After cajoling out rest of the members(who expressed their initial desire to head out), we finally started at 7:30 AM. Soup, keyycee, preetha, V-kas, Madhu, nidzz, KC sr, raamyaaa completed the gang as we headed to Yana. After a cozy breakfast, nearly all members were drowned in the whirlpool of sleep. Soup and nikipedia managed to get the 'i am in deeeep sleep' pictures of everyone as we cherished it on the camera. Indeed, the clandestine manner in which both were able to get the clicks makes them eligible for any spy jobs. Finally, everyone woke up after an hour to find their wicked pictures.

 On a break while trekking to Yani 

We finally arrived at Yana. The mini trekking to the temple was a fun journey as the group halted for pictures, drinks(notably 'Maa' is the brand name of the drink consumed throughout the journey) and rest(few people managed to climb to the cliffs, do a running race while coming downstairs and beat the heat and pace while climbing upstairs). The walk was a dance in itself as we calibrated the optimum time of keeping one foot at the hot floor before lifting it up and replacing it with other foot. The trek was exhaustive and we relaxed once we reached the vehicle.

After a dosa and tea break, we landed up at Murdeshwar. While my persistent plea to keyycee(to extend the bus journey to goa while everybody was asleep) was rejected, we managed to compensate dirtying ourselves on the beach. While V-kas queitly chose to head to super giant shiv temple, rest of us hustled to beach.

Murdeshwar was all fun!!

A lot of crazy water splashes, hoopla and camera clicks ensured a constantly high momentum of fun. The temple glittered as darkness slowly took over the control. Soon, we headed back to campus. A food pickup was on agenda as we tried out our desired dishes before breaking off for the day.

It was an amazing leaf in the book of pleasant experience of life. Apart from having free 'lunches', I enjoyed the trip, got pictures clicked and saw various shades of emotion on a single day. As one of my professor said "so far, so good', I am happy that the trip would continue to remain in our memories forever. At least, we were a team then :)

A wednesday: The wonder day

Failures and lessons often go hand in hand. A holiday package to USA as prize money looks lucrative to drive you an extra mile, and yet disappoint when fate refuses to smile at you. Then comes the crushing time for those poor, little and cute dreams of how would you celebrate after winning. Life hasn't been different for me either, as most of times I have been through same cycle. Over time you realize to enjoy those dreams as much as you can and make them grandiose than past one. Today, I essay one of the dreams which I lived in those moments awaiting results after a torrid 3 days of hard work.

Smart dude was furiously transfixed on computer screen, doing the best in his department of editing and calculative thinking(even I wonder how did he managed to get these two contrasting skills together). Gold lady was busy translating the ideas scribbled by me and adding them a value of simplicity and validating the logic of every line. A food parcel order at night, coupled with smart dude airing the rumor of ghost in lab(prank call again) to scare gold lady looked to be the highlight of the night. But the night was yet to finish.

Once again gold lady's adventure mind
got us to a super cool morning trip
to witness sun rise 

"Lets go to see sun rise" popped up a lively gold lady. 

Surprisingly our Smart dude managed to pull off his inertia and agree to the plan. And once again, they were kind to pack me in to the car. The surprise had just started. It was gold lady who was driving the car!!! Being a mechanical engineer made her escape from my suspicion as I was confident that she would pull it through. And..she did it with a style by defying the potholes, cruising through the early morning rushers and maneuvering smartly on tricky chicanes.  The car stopped at end point.

If ever you wonder to see the sun rise or sun set in this education hub, hang out here. Its a perfect place to rejoice the first sun rays in the early morning, bid adieu to night, feel the urge to eat breakfast before brushing teeth and have ultimate wish to sleep after returning back. 

Water Splash! Gold lady attempts to splash
water on Smart dude as he poses for camera

After an initial photo session, the trio decided to head back. Little again did I knew that fate had one more surprise as smart dude drove us to Arabi Falls. Its a small fall with perfect ingredients of early morning ambiance, a thick mix of fog to cloud the entire forest separating two valleys and open the floodgates of adventure within self.

Once again, gold lady took the initiative of spinning the yarn of adventure. We splashed water, exposed our rock solid legs to the cool water of the fall, froze some amazing memories and headed back to campus.The mood was strong enough to instigate the adrenaline of adventure in me, as we splashed water on each other. Smart dude, using his calculative mind, had prepared for contingency and had carried an alternative piece of clothing to look fresh.

We returned back to campus and were treated with Puri(yes, it was wednesday morning). Little do I need to say then how much did I enjoy sleeping on holiday. The results of the competition(which we were working on lab) did not had our names, but yet I felt as if I won something in this loss. I realize today what I won was an amazing time with two good pals. 

A wicked hangout

Tuesday evening is nothing special for me. Unlike Wednesday when I get an incentive to crush my sleep and run to canteen to grab Puri in morning, Tuesday does not have my favorite food/show. Incidentally Wednesday has been kind enough to me ever since my engineering days. From getting faculty approval for project, finding the concerned mentor, finding the right shop 'opened' and many more, Wednesday has been the day when all the deadlocks have been cracked and work done. But this Tuesday(i.e. yesterday) was filled with fun.

It has been a good 4-5 months ever since I have hung out with two of my best pals(which I made during my post graduate stint). Blame my 'no show to mass parties', 'shyness to group gatherings' or 'laziness', I have always shied away from invites. Yesterday however brought back the memories to the de-ja-vu lane.

So, it was Smart dude and Gold lady who played the prank with me. For the first time, I got separate invites from each of them for dinner. My initial assumption that we three were heading for dinner together,  was proved wrong by smart dude with a 'i don't know if she is going too??' text message. And it actually got worse when gold lady replied 'no, smart dude isn't invited'. Little did I knew that both of them were on the way to pick me up.

Gold lady : The talk anchor

After playing the prank for a good 30 minutes, both decided to grace their presence and relieve my tension. Yes gold lady, I indeed was damn pleased, relaxed and super excited to see dude friend arrive and break the news that I was foxed by both of you! You guys were betting on timing of my replies!!!!!

We headed out back to the old lanes of a good restaurant. The conversation was business as usual, with me as the topic of conversation(i have pleaded both of them umpteenth time to spare me, but fate seems to web different plans every time we turn up).

          Smart Dude: Let the food come to me, I
would not turn my head from the TV
 screen to focus on food

The treat turned out to be amazing as we trio tasted variety of foods. A sense of appreciation for dal-khichdi(which I recently have developed fetish for) came from smart dude with a 'this is tasty indeed' remark. While gold lady was vivacious and anchored our talk show, smart dude was fidgety in his choice of smile(often posing with a modest smile). However, we managed to get the best smile out of him and caught him transfixed at television screen. Indeed, his attention to television gave me and gold lady ample of opportunities to click pictures, videos and enjoy the phenomenon. But my limited reflex skills acted the hindrance.

Three musketeers, as smart dude addresses us, continued to have fun at the climax with plethora of jokes and talks of bravery of smart dude to challenge the potholes on the city pavement. In a nutshell, it was fun. 

A super proposition: What can we learn from a magic called 'Coke Studio'

A successful business is a result of well timed product, lucrative packaging, enthusiastic team players and creative selling proposition. Mix these and you deliver the customer value. The same 'customer value' which business books relentlessly mention at each major proponent is that intangible feeling which one gets on being satisfied(ranging from the feeling after testing a delicious dish to  watching a superb movie). One of the best examples of a successful business is 'Coke Studio'.

The Product

Consider for example the above video which is adopted from Coke Studio Season 5. The sound track has the lively punjabi music king Arif Lohar sing out the melody with the Meesha Shaifi.  The video starts with a spotlight on Arif Lohar and darkness around, and slowly unravels the rest of the singers and musicians in the due course of time. Notice carefully the visual transition during 1:08th minute of the video. The lights switch on and introduce the other players. The synergy is apt with the audio, as the chorus comes into play at 1:08 minute. The darkness combined with soft rock beacons a cool music, the bright lights combined with matching colors of costumes and apparels turns out to be the cynosure.

The Team Players

The best asset of Coke Studio are its human talent. From music composer Rohail Hyatt to Asad Ahmed, the program combines best of the talents to produce a quality blended fusion music. The 'behind the scenes' video do give an indication of the amount of efforts that is put in for coming up with the music line for a song.

The Marketing

A visit to the website gives an indication of the product marketing, as the limited series of episodes coupled with a glamorous promo makes it 'exclusive' for users. The whole concept of Coke Studio revolves around the identity of its target customers, which is youth and exuberance with a positive outlook while acknowledging the reality of life. The blended colors of the website integrated with flash loaded videos makes it an attractive proposition for user to explore them.

From Forbes to Wikipedia, Coke Studio has been proliferating across the hearts of people across the globe. And internet media looks to be the best channel of propagating it across the borders. The 1.5 million likes and twenty thousand people engaged in discussions on its Facebook page confirms this belief of internet being the major channel for proliferation.Till date, over seventy four million visitors have watched the videos on Youtube and 138,012 have subscribed to the videos. The above video has got over eleven million visitors and over twenty thousand likes on youtube.

While Pepsi used cricket as the medium in Pakistan to entice the people to consume it, Coke has fought back with a strong reply: music. And with the recent success of the initiative, Coke Studio looks to get bigger and better. If entertainment industry is studied for cues on successful business proposition, no doubt that Coke Studio would continue to be one of the best examples.