Everything is invented

From Maira Kalman's brilliant post.

@sgElectra got hurt

sgElectra got raped. I had to courier sgElectra from Mumbai to Delhi since I dint want to leave it alone in Mumbai. I wanted to ride it all the way but my parents dint like the decision. And now after looking at the shape of it, I dont like my parents decision.

From the looks of it, its very bad. I have been able to figure out these things so far ...

1. The footrest got bent. I will have to hammer it back to get it right.
2. The front indicators got bent. They cant be repaired. Will have to live without them.
   
3. The battery got discharged. I can put some money to buy a battery. Kangali main aata geela.
   
4. There is rust all over the bike. Apparently there was leakage while shipping and since it was packed they could not wipe the water. And hence the rust. I dont even know what can be done about it.
   
5. The ignition is screwed. The wiring will have to be changed. I am hoping it can be done.
   

Come to think of it, the bike is just three odd months old and it already has so many scratches and injuries.

Brings me to another lesson. Never ever ship a vehicle. This is my second bike that got screwed while shipping. 2131 met the same fate when it was coming from Chennai to Delhi. It was beyond repair and it was sold without me even knowing it.

Anyways, next time on, I am driving/riding.

Har shaakh pay ulloo baithe hain

My sis sent me this ...

Barbaad chaman ko karne ko, jab ek hi ulloo kaafi hai,
anjaame gulistan kya hoga, har shaakh pay ulloo baithe hain

A teeshirt perhaps?

Love Aaj Kal

I had composed this when I saw the movie. Dated review.

Saw Love Aaj Kal. This is one of the most talked about, awaited movie of the season. Saif Ali Khan's first home production, with Deepika Padukone and directed by Imtiaj Ali (the Jab We Met guy).

And before I move on, please be warned that I will be talking about plot hereafter.

So the story goes like this. Saif Ali Khan (don't remember his onscreen name) is a typical gen-next who falls in and out of love as easily as people change clothes. But for some reason he sticks around with Meera (yes thats what Deepika Padukone is called). Then they have to move to different countries for their work and all. They get into this huge debate about practicality and love. Since both Saif and Meera are educated and think a lot, they decide that they need to part ways. Fair enough. I can relate to it. I have parted ways with someone with similar arguments (because we thought we cant work out things with emotions and if looked at practically, things wont work).

So, Meera moves to India. Saif bumps into Veer Singh (aka Rishi Kapoor). Veer Ji, once upon a time, had fallen into love with one Harleen Kaur (aka who?) at first sight. Ms Kaur moves to Kolkatta, VeerJiloans money, sits in the Punjab-Kolkatta train and follows her there, apparently to have one last look. All this happen and they dont even exchange words except some mush encounters.

Now Veer Ji tells his story to Saif and then a lot of mumbo jumbo later, Saif and Meera get together. And they live happily ever after.

I wish I could critically review the movie (as good as 2s does for mutiny) but since I cant, I can only point at good things and bad things.

Good things to start with

• Rishi Kapoor
• Ms. Padukone. She looks stunning in her shaadi outfit.
• Music. Chor Bazari, Aaj Din Chhadeya are simply awesome. If you cant buy the music and give two hoots to piracy, you might want to download songs from here.
• Last scene of the movie when Harleen has grown up into Neetu Singh.
  

And bad things

• Ms. Padukone cant dance or act.
  
• Harleen cant act.
• There was only one moment that made me laugh. Otherwise humor is drab and flat.

And final rating? 1.5 on 5. And this does not comes from a professional reviewer (if there is a breed like that). I am an armchair activist at best.

And btw I am not sure how Imtiaj Ali wrote our story without meeting us.

Private and/or Public

So, after my last few posts, someone very special asked me what is the merit in having a public blog that anyone can read. What kicks do I get by sharing my life with strangers? I was told that I share things that are very private in nature and yet allow everyone to read them.

I think blogging helps me. It helps me put structure to my thoughts. I helps me take a stock of situations. I helps me with vital feedback and links me to the outside world. And obviously its a great marketing tool. I cant imagine not having a blog. A vent. A window to the world. A place where gyaan, bakar and conversations flow.

However, I do realize that I tend to get personal when I am writing and I need to stop that. Since writing is such an integral part of me, I shall start a new blog, private, strictly for myself and few very dear friends.

On War of Words, I shall only share random interestingness and oddities. I will talk about things like Bing's and Yahoo's "merger" in the search business, Manmohan Singh's reply in the Parliament, Bangladesh winning a cricket series over West Indies and so on so forth. And obviously I would keep writing fiction and posting one word posts. Hoping that they are cryptic enough to hide things ;P

And for the other blog, lemme know if you want access to that. There ARE early bird prizes.

Life 2.0. Part 1: Work

So after ab0ut a week of rest/leisure/running-around/buying-computers/explaining-to-mom-why-i-resigned/thinking/procrastinating and hazaar other things, I am back to action. I started work. No, I did not join any company but I started thinking about life and what I want to do next.

Working for myself is way different from working for someone else (GE Money or Creativeland Asia). Let me write them down in bullet points.

1. Home Sweet Home. While working for self, I work out of home. This means I have to tolerate door bells, telephone bells, courier deliveries, maids and other such sundry things. I also have to be polite to mother India who is trying to feed me with her best preparations. I have to get creative while answering questions from relatives (in some cases lying to them). There, no one wanted to know how much I earned, how bald am I, how long does it take to reach from CP to East Delhi etc. No questions asked, easy life.
   
2. Money. Not to mention that constant worry of where that next rupee would come from. After all I am used to an extravagant life style. In Mumbai, I knew my paycheck (not that fat) would arrive by the first week and I could splurge it on gifts, knick-knacks (all those tiny obscure things that I got for P, rruts, random people), pool (lost most of the times to Gandhi and won most of the times from Gawri), restaurants (next time you are in Mumbai, try Caravan Serai) and teeshirts (white/black, one large block on print on chest and thats about it).
   
3. Place. While working for someone else, I could concentrate. There was tea/coffee/soup (which sucked btw) on demand. The loo was always clean (ok not always, but mostly). I had a place that no one else could take. My desk. My drawer. Here in Delhi, I dont even have a room to myself. The things that my "almost girlfriend" gave me when I was leaving Mumbai, I dont have a place to put them up (show off). P.S. I hope you ARE reading this and you now know why I haven't unpacked gift #5 :).
   
4. Computer. I did not share my Macbook with anyone. Although it was company property but the company had entrusted it to me and it meant I could customize it the way I want, it had my music on it, my passwords were saved onto it and so on and so forth Here I share my desktop with my dad and my cousin. Thankfully my sis is still in Mumbai. And since they belong to the Garg clan, they are curious by nature and on top of everything else, they know how to access hidden folders in Windows.
   
5. Media. I had access to printed copies of ten newspapers, 20 odd periodicals including Wired (which IMHO is one of the greatest publications ever). Now I have to rely on RSS feeds and a electronic screen to know what is happening in the world. I have a fetish for printed material. I dont think as long as people like me are alive, printed media is ever going to run out of business. Here I get three newspapers that I don't even read. I have no clue why I dont.
6. Time. Time management is an issue. Not trying to brag but I loved reaching office before anyone and playing my music out loud (Hindi songs mostly). And here, I wake up at leisure, laze around, roll in my bed, dream, snooze etc before I even get out of my bed. Leave alone computers. That sense of discipline has vanished. Though I used to work strictly till 5:30 PM, I somehow had time for reading, writing, blogging, meeting people, coming up with ideas and all that. Here I am always short of time. I haven't read my RSS in days, replied to my mails, twittered, FBed, Linkedined or even blogging.
   
7. Resources. I could use copious amounts of pens, pencils, pantone books, notepads, staplers, post-its and other items of miscellany. Now I need to scavenge a pencil, write on the edges of newspapers, buy my own post-its and keep the use in check.
8. People. I had access to tons of wonderful people. They had brains, talents, ideas and they were my window to the world. Every individual was special and taught me something. Now, only people I have access to are people I meet for cyntax and thats about it.

There are like another 12,334,233 items in this list but since time is somewhat precious now, I shall not delve on em. And then there is rant on Mumbai vs Delhi. On similar lines. But again, tonight is not the right time. Any thoughts anyone on how to fix these things?

P.S.: While ending, got an idea. I will make this a multi-part list. Since I am effectively restarting my life (and hopefully this is that reset button we always talked about), in each part, I will rant about my life on one specific thing. Today it was on work. Next would be Mumbai/Delhi. Will think about the third when am there.

15 August 1947

Got this from a friend.

Indias First News Paper After Independence

Settling down

Finally dust has began to settle. I am finding my groove. Will be going on full steam in few days. Keep watching.

Moved On.

For the record, I am no longer employed with Creativeland Asia. The decision to move on was a personal and I am glad I am still very good friends with the entire team back at CLA.

The two years went past in a jiffy. Little more than two years ago, I joined CLA from GE Money and things couldn't have worked out better. While I was there,

• CLA grew from a dining table to two offices (thought I dint play any part in that growth),
• I was given a lot of room to learn, experiment, make mistakes and grow,
• I learnt how is it to work on brands like Frooti, Appy Fizz, Cafe Coffee Day (amongst others),
• I made many good friends (and almost found the love of my life),
• I travelled and explored Mumbai and Maharashtra extensively
• And finally I grew by miles as a person.

I wish I could have stayed on but as they say, all good things, come to an end.

Creativeland IMHO is one of the best places to work at. Apart from coming up with great work time after time for all brands, CLA is a collection of few of the finest minds and interesting people. Everyone is handpicked (even our receptionist - Prakash Jee aka Yogi Bear) and its a lot of fuin being there.

If anyone is keen, I would be glad to setup a meeting.

P.S.: Just for the curious few, I dont know what I would be doing now. Would post here moment something is finalized.

I am ...

26. Going onto 27.
Intelligent. Frustrated.
Bored. Fragile.
Sleepy. Disgusted.
In love. In despair.
Suffering from QLC. Awaiting for that AHA moment.