Mumbo Jumbo

Temple of tigers

2012-01-25T03:52:00.000-08:00

After exactly 2 years, I'm going back to Ranthambhore- the Temple of Tigers. Setting so dramatic and so full of photo opportunities that I've always been unhappy after a visit. I never think I did justice to the opportunities nor that I got enough. My last trip report to Ranthambhore can be found here. Was a fun trip though we did not shoot much.

This time around I go with no expectations. As they say contentment is indeed the mother of happiness. It's not the best time for sighting (which is March to June)and as usual I've not planned this through. Called up Dicky day before yesterday and today evening I'll be in a plane to Jaipur and then to Sawai Madhopur. (Thank god for little mercies - Air Arabia flies directly to Jaipur helping me avoid Delhi and saving around 8 hours)

Indian forests, more than anything else she has, takes me close to spirituality. Being in Rajbaug, taking the scenery around in the soft orange glued winter light of Rajastan through the morning mist is as close to being spiritual as one can be.

I often wonder - what's it about nature and forests that is so deep ? Almost a painful melancholy; a stark reminder about what we have borrowed from future and have been pretty callous about in our present. A throw back to the most primitive and adventurous core of a human. A salutation to free spirit and a million possibilities.

Whether I see anything or not, it's going to be a week of peace away from the urban jungles of Dubai. Cheers to a million possibilities.

Be back soon...

Reads and views !

2012-01-19T02:31:00.000-08:00

Been quite a busy quarter for me even without too many cross continental flights. Anyways, catching up currently on some reading and some viewing ! Couldn't help but recommend a few

1. Born Wild by Tony

Personally for me, Tony and George has both been inspirational people. I know purists who are extremely skeptical about their tactics and about any reintegration program around the world especially pertaining to big cats. But hey, conservation is about life forms - science/scientific research can only so much predict and draw the contours of what is right or wrong. These two humans did whatever they did with extreme passion and extreme love. And for this reason, Ill forever be in awe of them

2. Eternal enemies - one of the first major docu movie from Duba plains in Okavango by Jouberts who have since then become synonymous with this delta in the sweltering Botswana. I've never been to Bots but this clearly has put ideas in my mind ! Amazing lighting, visualizations and patience in every shot is evident. The recently released Last Lions is again an excellent text book in wild life film making. One does feel it has some editing issues at least for my pretty amateur tastes - sequences stitched together from clearly different lighting situations to create the flow in story. Eternal enemies for me presents Jouberts and Duba at it's best. Even more than Last Lions (which of course is still better than many others from 2011 coming out of Africa- but then that is expected of the Jouberts)

Don't yet know where 2012 will take me - but hope I can go back to my favorite continent soon !

Revisit

2011-12-18T04:34:00.001-08:00

During my second year at B School, one of my profs had (probably as a punishment for not submitting some assignment) asked a bunch of us to write up who are the 5 people who have touched us the most and why. As I was cleaning my IIM A HDD, I stumbled upon this giving me some fodder for introspection.

1. My father
He taught me the value of education. He taught me what it means to stand on one’s own. He also taught me the cost of freedom. He always says , “ I’ve given you all the freedom in the world in the belief that you won’t misuse it!”.

2. Adolf Hitler

I have been inspired by his war tactics and single minded determination. He is one
person whom I probably hate the most amongst human beings without a complete lack of
respect.

3. Viktor Frankl

Among the 3 philosophers from the Austrian school of Philosophy, I am inspired by
the works of Frankl more than both Freud and Adler. His belief in love even under
the inhuman conditions of concentration camps and his will to survive even while his
parents, sister and wife were being burnt alive or gassed in the chambers speaks volumes about him. His works on existentialism have always given me new meanings in life whenever I read them

4. Paulo Coelho

If there is one person who has instilled huge optimism in me towards life, it is Paulo Coelho through his masterpiece “The Alchemist”. The motif that if we will for something strongly enough the whole universe conspires for our success has lifted me out of despair and put me in search of success with renewed vigor many a times.

5. Mahatma Gandhi

Here was yet another individual whom I loved and respected even though I did not
really identify with or support all his decisions and methodologies. I think he merited a lot of respect for his single minded devotion to chosen path of success. He taught me that end need not always justify means. Though if independence struggle was taken as a singularity then I would put Bhagat Singh or Subash Chandra Bose above Gandhi as persons who have instilled in me a deep love for our country, Gandhi gave me a benchmark in passion towards a cause.

I've changed a bit since that day 6 years back. How has it affected the list ?
Adolf Hitler is out. George Schaller is in. My views of Gandhi has changed from cynical respect to pure respect without yet being a "fanboy". Paulo Coelho just about remains in the list under competition from Sachin Tendulkar. (Close choice!)
Would be interesting to read this list 10 years, 20 years from now ! Make a list !

Brazil

2011-10-16T14:46:00.000-07:00

I'm in Sao Paulo or Sampa for the locals. Its raining all the time thus far since I landed here in a direct EK fight from Dubai, clearly the longest haul I've done without stoppage. One cannot help wonder the efficiency of modern jet engines doing over 16 hours straight with no refuel. The temperature is temperate due to the elevation from sea level. It has been around 16-17 throughout - cold enough to not break a sweat and cover the city on foot where ever possible and warm enough not to be wearing super warm cloths.
The initial plan was to fly into Sampa and then connect to Campo Grande to head to Mato Grosso and Pantanal in search of the Jaguar. Inclement weather and logistics put paid to that plan.
So here I'm walking the street of New York of Southern Hemisphere a bit bored and a bit excited. For starters it's an intriguing city. Lot of culture, breakneck growth, crime, traffic chaos, brilliant parks, amazing restaurants and theaters and museums. Also famed for the more seedier side with it's prives, clinicas, favelas and strip clubs. It's a hotch potch for sure where immigrants from Italy, Portugal, Japan, Korea, China, Africa etc have all settled in to make Sampa their home.
I've taken to walking the city down the famous Paulista Avenue (a bit like Oxford street in London) and Brooklin (the new financial district where I'm staying).

The Estaiada Bridge over the Pinheiros river (the bridge occupies place of pride among the new marginal pinheiros financial district)

One question that pops up when one thinks of SP or Rio is safety. Once here I've realised that the whole safety question is relative. As a matter of fact so far in the areas that I've roamed, I felt more safe than even in London or Munich or even Vienna given the large number of people around even in night. I hear Rio is worse. Also downtown Sao Paulo is pretty dangerous if alone at night. But which city these days even in EU is safe when alone at night ? But I like that element of risk. Anyways Sampa is nowhere in the league of Nairobi or Dar es Salaam or Joburg. So I'm ok with the risk. I will definitely do things here that I never did in Nairobi or Joburg. There is seldom a threat to life which is omnipresent in these cities.

Will I be back ? Not to Sao Paulo per se - but I should come back for the Pantanal and then Amazon.

The Epic of Mara

2011-08-11T22:57:00.000-07:00

Masai Mara. The mottled plains of South-western Kenya watered by Mara and Talek rivers. Abode to the Maasai warriors. The savannahs that many believe is the cradle of mankind – making him climb down as primates from trees due to the conversion of the rainforest into grasslands. Driving the homo sapiens to walk on two limbs, develop tools to escape from ground predators and finally start agriculture.

The legend of modern Mara is it's eminence as the 8th wonder of the world. Home to multitude of animals, birds and trees. Home to the wildebeest migration across the greater mara conservancy and the Serengetti plains of Tanzania. I had never been to the Kenyan side of this vast wilderness and was very much looking forward to the same.
As the flight touched down at Nairobi we met up with co-wildlife photographers Paul McDougall from UK and Dicky & Poonam from India. After the usual round of tuskers and bush stories we were on our way to the plains across the rift valley. I was a little skeptical if Sandy is going to live through the stark nylon tented camp-in-the middle of -lion territory without running water or electricity. As it turned out, it all went like a dream !
On the way, I was wondering – What makes Mara so legendary? Who is the hero of Mara's drama? Is it large super prides of lions like the Serena pride or the Marsh pride? Is it the famous cheetah families like the Honey’s boys or the Three brothers? Is it the unfortunately fast disappearing Rhinos? Is it the stealthy Leopards with their Impala kills up the trees? Or is it the herds of Elephants sashaying across the savannahs without a care in the world ? Over the next 8 days, I’d get my answer. And the answer would humble me.
Over a million wildebeest, and half a million zebra and antelope migrate from the Masai Mara all the way to the Serengeti ecosystem. It is a perilous trek with crocodiles lurking at river crossings, predators such as lions, cheetahs and leopards a constant threat – and yet it takes place every year, year after year.

One should go across the plains into Tanzania to search for the origin of the legendary migration. In the plains of Ndutu in greater Serengetti ecosystem, come February, over 500,000 pregnant mothers give birth to their next generation. Half of them would be eaten up by predators or otherwise dead in months. Those that survives join their mothers, fathers, Zebra uncles/aunts and begin their quest for food across the Mara.
By May/June the plans of Mara gets watered by the long rains, providing enough grass for the oncoming visitors. They reach the plains by July and August completing one half of the cycle. By October/November, the herd is ready to go back the same route into the Serengetti for the next calving season and welcoming a new generation to join in this massive cycle of birth, death and regeneration.
Journey and life inherently becomes one for over a million. They fight, drink, play, run, nurse, have sex – all during the course of this epic journey of life.

Their path is littered with hurdles that lesser willed souls will surrender abjectly to. For starters there are the cheetahs that hunt the baby wildebeests mercilessly. There are lion prides that hunt babies, mothers and fathers alike – and in 100s. Vultures feed on the carcasses and pray for their death.

The migration reaches its crescendo as the herds cross rivers like Mara, Talek, Grumeti in their 1000s. Mothers lead the way across the rivers full of ferocious crocodiles that hunt down the weak, the young and the contemplative. Witnessing these crossings are nothing short of spiritual - the rush of adrenaline, the struggle of life, the timelessness of the event - all makes the viewer reach a transcendental stage.

Many of these wildebeests get eaten up – by the rapids of Mara or the crocodiles. Many get trampled upon by their own, in a mad frenzy that needs to be seen to be believed. Zoomed out, a wide angle gives you a determined herd, purposeful in it’s journey of life. Zoomed in, the tele portrays a different story. Eyes full of fear, babies frightened, mothers tense. One final kiss and nuzzle on one side of the river before the drama begins. It ends on the other side – with many actors not making it across. It is a most painful sight to see the bleating calfs and mothers separated from one another. Standing aloft on stone ledges beside the river, watching their loved ones brutally killed by crocs or drowning into the endless Mara.

In their death they finally become one with nature’s cycle once again. Providing food for the scavengers – vultures and monitor lizards, crocs and hyenas. And soon they are forgotten by the Mara plains. Till the next season.

They are, for me, the true heroes of the Mara. The ones that define the lifelines of these endless plains….

When I die do not throw the meat and bones away
But pile them up; And let them tell
By their smell
What life was worth
On this earth
What love was worth
In the end – Kamala Das

License to Africa

2011-07-07T03:56:00.000-07:00

I marked a decade of African experiences last week - in the most obviously unnatural way. By getting a syringe inserted into my hands as part of the Yellow fever vaccination. (Once taken, validity lasts for a decade !) So much has changed in my life across the two yellow fever shots that I became a bit philosophical as the Malayalee nurse gave me my vaccine in a government clinic in Dubai. I could smell the grasslands, taste the Ugali, drink Kilimanjaro 300 ml bottle beer and hear the ever present Hakuna matatas in that one moment. Things only a dedicated Afrophile can acknowledge. (Maybe East Africophile, if there is any such adjective ever!). I just had license shot to go and reclaim the memories.

As the old African saying in those parts go - Go back to the water holes ; you will get more than water, you will meet old friends and fading memories.

I had just returned from trekking the rift valley Mountain ranges in Ethiopia (without malarial shots I must proudly/foolishly say) and looking forward to the savannas of Kenya. The relationship of the two is as interesting and mythical as everything in Africa - to it's folklore, to it's men of death and after life, to the baobabs and to blood diamonds, and the gods. Without one the other is non existent. Without the Ethiopian high ranges blocking the rain carrying clouds to allow for watering of the grasslands of Kenya and Tanzania, they would have been more or less like the Namib desert.

Anyways, after this philosophizing, I realised that with the amount I paid for the vaccine in Dubai for the two of us, we could have gotten vaccines for our whole lives in India ! (Which is maybe another 4-5 times by the by ;)

One starts the countdown to Africa once you have had your first malarial shot which happens around a week to 10 days before the trip. I'm waiting for the shot day - to start my count down. To the promised land. To the water holes - in search of fading memories and a treasure trove of new ones to hold fast unto the next journey.

Big cat diary - India folio is up !!

2011-06-13T02:08:00.001-07:00

Sneak peek of other galleries which are still under construction here

Colors of Ethiopia

2011-05-15T23:59:00.001-07:00

Let the pics do the writing ! :-) The temperate climate, higher than average African altitudes and reasonable habitat availability has made Ethiopia a land of some beautiful creatures. Though I could not even scrape the top layer of it's beauty due to paucity of time, it does motivate me to go back to the continent asap !

(Equipments : Canon 40 D, 7 D, 100-400)

Bee eater

Colobus monkey
Weaver

Ethiopia diaries

2011-05-11T04:10:00.000-07:00

Dubai to Addis, EK 723 boarding. That is when the reality hit me that I was finally going to trek the Ethiopian highlands cut in two by the enigmatic great rift valley - an area that Ive wanted to be in for long, given the legacy and natural history associated with the place.

Three things from economic point of view stuck me particularly on this trip

The fertile soil of the place (due to the volcanic ash) is being increasingly getting turned over to MNCs involved in flower trading by the government. This ensures less fertile land for cultivation for the local farmers
This has led to a double whammy. On one side the income levels of local farmers nosedives due to the poor productivity and hence they cannot afford a better lifestyle. The inflation, especially, food grain inflation is tending up leading to further erosion in buying power of local people
Real estate is booming everywhere around Addis. Driven by the fact that most farmers are giving up hopeless agrarian roots (unless they work for flower firms) and shifting to doing other labour in city centres. The migration has driven up housing prices and everywhere around the city you can see uprooted trees and grotesque naked mountain tops having brick buildings getting erected.

Anyways, my main agenda was to trek in the high lands surrounding the volcanic crater of Wonchi. These forests house the enigmatic Colobus monkeys. Exceptionally difficult to sight given their predominant presence on tall tree tops with few, if any visits to ground. The whole area gives you a feeling of being in an Indian hill station. Temperate climate, monsoony smell of drizzle, goats & cows, hills & huts. Me and Sandy initially decided to do the 6+ hour trek by foot. She gave up even before the trek and shifted to horse ! To be fair to her, she has done more difficult ones with me. However, the chance to be on a horse through the rather dangerous terrains was something which appealed to us. After couple of hours of arduous trek, I decided I too was getting older and not younger by the day ! We had the horse to carry our photo gear and it was natural to get on the patient animal for the rest of the way.

We did track and photograph the Colobus, the brilliant Tecazze sunbird, Ethiopian mountain thrush, comical speckled mousebird and few other endemics. Honestly, the pics don't do justice to the grandioseness of the place. The never ending mountains, quaint churches in desolate islands, colorful birds and flowers, precariously placed huts on volcano cliffs, the absolute silence of being away from motorable roads, the almost spiritual experience of being one with nature.

Dubai - An Arial Mosaic

2011-04-19T08:36:00.001-07:00

It is almost 6 months since I shifted my base to Dubai. I've been thinking of a photo shoot for some time. Getting all my equipments from India and being gifted a Canon 7 D from my wife finally pushed me to action ! The challenge however, was what to shoot ?! There are many monuments and buildings that you can click, lovely deserts in great lights, infrastructure marvels, beaches and mountains. But somehow, the output did not move the artistic mind though technically they were brilliant. That is when I had this thought that probably you need broader brush strokes to create the mosaic named Dubai. One practical way of doing this would have been to shoot from elevation to create spatial continuum. When I enquired on chartered flights to do this, I realised for the money that I'd be spending I could upgrade to some high end primes ! The cheaper alternative finally was to get into a sea plane. Checked one and realised the quality of the output will be compromised a bit due to the poor quality of glasses in the windows. But that was what was affordable and quick. Here is a sample set of output

Unfinished story

2010-12-09T23:04:00.000-08:00

I'm at a Saravana Bhavan, a big south Indian culinary success story that was globally scaled to create a unique brand. I've ordered for a Butter roast Dosa. Outside the french windows, the park is green - bushes, trees, plants, flowers and bees on flowers. There is a seemingly Iranian or Lebanese family enjoying the sunny day by picnicing in the blanket of healthy green grass. There are multiple varities of birds chirping about - pigeons, myanhs, sparrows. An idyllic winter morning. Couple of Britishers next to me are sipping hot coffee to complement the lovely weather of 20 deg C. Atleast a few shops around already have Xmas trees and decorations to welcome the holiday season. I recollect my hotel too was beginning to build a rather large Xmas tree.

Dubai - it never ceases to amaze me !

It's over a month since I decided to shift my base to Dubai from Bombay to serve EMEA clients. And still, I'm unable to place Dubai. Everyone looks and feels happy. Sthere is an unknow-able subtle longing in everyone I speak to. Everyone here is in transition. Building their stories.- for ever an unfinished one. All looking for a suitable climax that is a chimera.

Colors of Kerala

2010-11-02T00:59:00.000-07:00

I've kind of had more of Kerala than I'd have ever expected. Or anticipated. Thanks to a passport renewal process which underwent full blown Murphy's law (All that can go wrong will go wrong!) I've been in Kerala now for almost a month. This is the longest yet I've stayed with my parents continuosly since I was 18 and went off for my undergrad engineering. Looking back, it was a fantastic time - great food, enjoying the almost unabated Kerala rains from our porch having hot tea and bhajji (The Kerala variety which is made of raw bananas fried in some great tasting dough) and planning some great bird shoots. I might soon get my new passport finally. Though I'm pissed off and frustrated currently about the who episode, looking back a year from now, I'd probably be glad of the forced break !
The project on which I spent considerable time at home was shooting sunbirds. I've always wanted to photograph those tiny few cm long birds flitting from flower to flower. Approaching them on foot had never ever given me even one decent shot. After studying their habits for couple of days, I created a make shift hide using some brown/green cloths and mother's bunch of sarees of similar color. (Since it's long since Ive spent time with them, they were prone to turn a blind eye to my crazy acts!). After around 20 hours of shooting spread across around a week, I finally nailed some great ones. Used 100-400 on Canon 40 D with very high ISOs of 800 odd given the cloudy weather and continuos rains. (Have used noise reduction software to reduce some effects of the high ISOs) The overcast conditions did help to preserve the color shades better than otherwise though. So here goes the output of the project !

1. Loten's sunbird - male

2. Loten's sunbird - female

3. Purple rumped sunbird - male

4. Purple rumped sunbird - female

Exif : Should be f6.3-7.1, 400 mm, ISO 400-800, speeds of over 1/200

Forced vacation !!

2010-10-15T03:28:00.000-07:00

Seldom does events conspire to give one a forced holiday ! That is exactly what has happened to me. Though I'm not complaining, it has been frustrating few weeks. My passport renewal got rejected and now I can't travel outside of India. I had around 5 government provided identity proofs for my address and still they did not renew my passport from Kerala for reasons best known to them. So now I'm forced to be in my native place waiting for the police to come home for verification. Anyways, there isn't much I can do. So rather than fretting about what could have been, I'm enjoying the walks in our garden and the lovely rains. It seems it never ends raining - torrential downpour every now and then. It's beautiful just sitting back in an easychair, listening to the sound of rain having ginger tea prepared by mom ! Haaaaa. What is there to complain !
I just walked in my garden with couple of lenses (One tele and one normal walkabout with a reasonably macro). It's unbelievable how the small gardens in kerala are all examples of natural richness of the state. Hope some of this remains over the next couple of decades atleast if not more.
The following is the output of just 1 day of garden walking with a Canon 100-400 and Tamy 28-75 on my Canon 40 D.

Reading !

2010-09-22T21:56:00.000-07:00

I realised how little reading I do these days. I might still pick a tintin or a scott adams or calvin - but seldom words that make me think deep (Ok - Calvin and Scott are bad examples - they probably are more profound than most people can guage!)

Blogs like this here at ecologic makes my day these days - takes me back to the days of reading things which make you take a deep breath, pause for a moment, think about life. It is not the dabanggs of writing but the kurosawas that really makes one do that. I needn't fully agree with the authors - I do trust only capitalist ways can save our forests, one of valuation and equitable distribution. (ESOPs to tribals around forests?)
However, I do wish the world was full of Shankar Ramans and not Suhas Anands - but I know,we, as a race have lost the privilege of making that choice !

And that Schaller quote is worth reproducing multiple times. Reminds me of the National Geographic of sometime around late 80s or early 90s that I had bought from roadside seconds at Churchgate which was my bible - cause it had Schaller's interview !

For epochs to come the peaks will still pierce the lonely vistas, but when the last snow leopard has stalked among the crags and the last markhor has stood on a promontory, his ruff waving in the breeze, a spark of life will have gone, turning the mountains into stones of silence.

―George B. Schaller, Stones of Silence

NB: Just back from yet another conference on water conservation and sustainability that a friend had invited me to. Completely delinked from conservation ! Everyone spoke about the feast, no one spoke about the fields !

Cambridge

2010-08-11T08:43:00.001-07:00

Has obviously been very busy over the past few months to blog. Just back from a whirlwind UK tour where the most peaceful fact was being in Cambridge for around 4 days - enjoying the campus, the legendary pubs (Including The Eagle where the discovery of DNA was announced to the world) enjoying the ghost stories and also getting trained in leadership !! (Ok stop laughing!). I was staying at Christ College right opposite Charles Darwin garden. Across it was Kings & Trinity (At one time my dream place to study arts - ok stop laughing again!) Cavendish's study, Newton's room and what not ! I just wonder how can students there not study ?! It will be sacrilegious to waste time there like what I did during my engineering days ! (LOL). I tend to think I did not waste time during post graduation, atleast first year at Ahmedabad (Ahem ahem..).
Back to India and loving the rains here (Why do we never love rains in London ?!) - conditional to me being in Mumbai. Since Ive been in Delhi more than Mumbai, it is indeed disastrous ! But surprisingly all flights Ive taken are on time - the new rule from AAI is really kicking some ass and Im loving it !

Sharing some Cambridge shots. All taken with my obedient 40 D and Canon 18-200 on with a Hoya CPL. Worked in PS CS3 - the usual workflow, nothing dramatic.

Conversation with a call centre executive

2010-05-06T03:45:00.000-07:00

Me: I could not web checkin. Can you figure out what the issue is ?
She: Can I tele check in ?
Me : That is fine, thanks. But do figure out what the issue with webcheck in is,ok ?
She: Ok sir. There is a problem sir.
Me: Thanks, What ?!
She : Sir it is a problem !
Me: Yea. I got that much. What is the problem and what is the solution ?
She: Sir your name is spelt as Anand Suhas Mr instead of Anand Suhas Mr.
Me: Hunh ?! Isnt that both same ?
She: No sir.
Me: Is my name spelt wrongly ?
She: No sir. But it is Anand Suhas Mr.
Me: That is how it always is. But I have never had this issue before.
She: Sir there is no space between Suhas and Mr !
Me: Oh so that is the issue ! How will I know that if you just pronounce Anand Suhas Mr and Anand Suhas Mr ?!!!
She: Sir you are male no sir ?!!
Me: What ?
She: That is why Mr Sir !
Me : !!!

Indian Hatch market - Victory of customer and liberalisation

2010-03-30T03:40:00.000-07:00

The recent happenings in the Indian hatch car market is an example of what globalisation, liberalisation and the resulting competition can do for customers. The pricing of the newly introduced Chevy Beat and Ford Figo is a stark contrast to the days of waiting in the queue for sub standard value products like Ambassador (Whatever nostalgia people might have for the car, it definitely is not VFM at the pricing and features that it provides).
Three things that make me happy

1. The pricing is definitely value for money. Right from barebones to the top end version (LT and Titanium respectively), each price point is VFM. The top end diesel Titanium version of Figo will be sub 6.5 lakhs OTR. This is clearly due to competition and the need to beat incumbents like Maruti, Tatas and Hyundai.
2. These cars are not "dumb down" versions of cars made for western markets. These are made in and for India. And no, the designs do not cry out "Sorry India - we have made this sedate box for you in which we have put windows, chassis and a sub 1 L engine tuned for 15+ kmpl".
3. The top end versions come with ABS and Airbags. These safety features, pretty much standard across the west are atleast provided as optional in the top end versions. A significant shift in safety feature provisioning for Indian small car segment.

With VW, Nissan, Honda and Toyota too coming into the segment, we would have a bevy of beauties to choose from. (A sub 6 L German car in Indian roads - My grandpa, if alive, would never have trusted his eyes on this one. But yes, the Polo is here!)

Hunt for food !

2010-03-18T03:56:00.000-07:00

It's almost a year now since I've been shuttling between Delhi and Mumbai - I can safely say I'm a half Delhiite now (Will separately blog about a BOM-DEL comparison - it's lose-lose since someone will take offense!!)
Anyhow, to the more mundane. I realised I was free last evening by around 8 - a free calendar with no work, no calls and no meetings ! Since I had never had Kerala food in Delhi I had this sudden urge to check out places. Some net browsing gave me two options - Keraleeyam at Yusuf Sarai and Coconut Grove at Hotel Indraprastha. Thankfully, I decided to call them up to check if I need to book seats. Both are closed ! Former years back and latter taken over by the new Shangrila. I called Shangrila to check if they still have the coastal food restaurant and they said no !
Many FB status replies asked me to head to Hauz Khas village having multiple options like Gunpowder (Quaint name!) and Naivedyam (Sounded very vegetarian !)

Neither my gardner nor cook had any clue about Kerala, let alone Kerala food. Cook even threatened to cook Masala Dosa for next day's breakfast which I politely refused (He had made a version of Idli sometime back which was well, lets say, not quite it's namesake from South). Security guard asked me to go to PVR Priya market saying it has many good restaurants like McDonald (!!), Subways (!!) and Pizza Hut (Ughhh) and anyways it's 5 minutes walk from our house.
So without much help from internet, Delhi friends et al, I decided to search for Coastal Food instead of Kerala food. Figured out Swagath had a few choices - situated at both Def Col and Malviya Nagar. Avoided the former given the traffic mess during peaktime. For a change my driver took me to the right place - Malviya Nagar market. (For someone who took me to West Delhi via Gurgaon from Vasant Vihar this was an A+ performance!)
Decent place - mid market ; decent food (I even packed a curry for tonight - I'm sure my cook is going to be disappointed at this affront). No alcohol was a big let down - Kerala place without Alcohol ? The owner has clearly not read this
Drove back home, walked to Priya and had the Chocolate Pan to top off a nice evening. (My first dinner date with myself, which I realised is not all that bad !!)

But alas, it still feels a let down that there are no good Kerala food place any where close to Vasant Vihar !! Quite unfair !

Are we Assholes ?! Yes we are. Thank you !

2010-03-09T09:10:00.000-08:00

Tiger conservation circles/ general public are in uproar over the weekend murder of two young adult tigers in Ranthambhore reserved areas - poisened by a couple of Gujjars living in the reserve as revenge for killing two of their goats (Probably three going by the latest reports emanating from the premier tiger reserve of the country)

Three goats = Rs 3000 / USD 60 even at an aggressive price tag of 1000 rupees per goat.
3000 is big money for these villagers ; probably their lifeline.
Two tigers were nothing, worthless for them.
Why blame them when all they have got from tigers is loss of livelihood.

Oh by the way, Rs 3000 is one-twelfth of what I spend in Ranthambhore last time I was there to shoot Machali and her ilk.

Isn't the answer obvious ?!

60 Crore is a very conservative estimate of the total revenue the 40 odd tigers in Ranthambhore brings in per year. That is 1.5 crore per tiger per year. That is 25+ crore over an average life span of 12 years. That is around 15 crore present value at 10% discount rate. That is 30 crore across the two dead tigers.

3000 rupees = 300000000 rupees !

Why isn't the answer obvious ?..

Anyone who thinks we can conserve tigers by huge billboards in Mumbai is smoking dope. Anyone who thinks we can conserve tigers by not leveraging it's tourist potential and creating system of equitable distribution to people around the reserves / tribals is smoking dope too !

Anyways I should shut up since Ive done nothing for tiger conservation anyways! Im a bigger asshole ! I should just go back to my cozy job in anticipation of next month end paycheck ! Thank you !

Oh god !

Ranthambhore Diary, Jan 2010

2010-02-04T01:42:00.001-08:00

Ranthambhore - that little tiger habitat amidst fort ruins in Rajasthan's Sawai Madhopur has been in my dreams for the last 3 years. The last time I had gone there was in 2006 and I had not seen even a single tiger back then.

This Republic day weekend (Taking leave on Monday) me and missus were planning a relaxed drive away to Goa for sun, sand and buckets full of beer. The idea was to leverage some "army" connection to get to a beach no open to junta. Since it fell through we ditched Goa. Just another Goa trip did not sound like fun.
So Friday night, 22nd of January she flew down to a fogy IGI airport in Delhi. I picked her up and took a train from Delhi to Sawai Madhopur after arrangin stay at ITC Welcome Heritage through Junglelore.
We were quite apprehensive of the trip given the extreme fog, lack of Gypsy booking and not staying with Ranthambhore photo experts like Aditya Singh, a friend from INW. We were cursing ourselves for not planning this better. Finally we decided we will just go and enjoy the forest not worrying about photography.

Day 1 Afternoon Safari - Zone 4

Rated as a "good" zone, we were off in a Gypsy (Thankfully could manage one last minute) accompanied by two Brit couples. Nothing major happened other than the usual suspects like CSE, Wild boars, Sambars, Cheetals and Nilgai. It was quite chilly during the evening drive and it forced us to deck up in all winter finery for the morning on Sunday
Oh yea, some normal forest / land birds too for the camera !!

Day 2 - Morning Safari - Zone 4

Again Zone 4, said our lady luck. And we were reasonably pessimistic. TO top it we were in a canter with 16 odd folks. Thankfully not daily tourists decked in red sarees with cry babies throwing plastic biscuit wrappers all around the park - atleast helped my blood pressure as well as avoided fighting with them ! Was driven by one of the most experienced drivers around, Raees Bhai. He soon became my favorite driver - almost as good as Ive seen in other national parks.
Nothing happened till about 9 a.m. Did see some forest birds blah blah. Just when people were settling back for the drive back out of the park, the guide shouted "Tiger Tiger". And there she was. Some where down on the right side close to a water hole was Machali. (We had a long debate on her identity and finally the guide and driver said it's indeed the legendary Machali). Machali was recently conferred the Life time achievement award by BBC and rated as the most photographed / videographed tiger in wild along with B2 of Bandavgarh. I had B2 in my last Bandavgarh trip and adding Machali was indeed a nice bonus.
Had 10-12 good shots of her flehmen response, scent marking the territory and generally moving around the grassy landpatches. Angles were tough, a big challenge of shooting in Canter. So was light. Since unlike in a Gypsy I cant ask the driver to move around the big canter with ease for best lighting. Whenever the light was good, it was divine. The winter light in Ranthambhore is stuff of dreams for Photographer.

Day 2 - Evening - Zone 3

The usual..nothing exemplary but for the great scapes and fort ruins across Rajbaug lake, Padam talab. Also could shoot Sambars in water, few water birds, bar headed geese, pied avocet, brahminy ducks etc. But the real essence of Ranthambhore in a way is in Zone 3. Majestic is the only word that comes to mind.

Went back to the hotel. Rested a bit around the pool and went to meet Aditya dicky singh. Had a great time at Ranthambhore bag with him, his wife and couple of friends from INW. Had dinner around a good fire to ward off the biting cold. We were quite jealous about his charming life so close to the tigers that he loves so much. We then took a walk back to the hotel in the moonlight with the forest right beside and the sounds of forests in our ears. There was flowing Rajasthani folk songs wafting from some faraway hotel. Was a great day that ended all too soon !!

Day 3- Morning - Zone 3
Zone 3 again. Again waited close to the lake for a tigress who had made a Sambar kill a day back to appear to drink water. 3 hours wait and nothing happened. Go back to the hotel. Had lunch. Downloaded pics. Charged batteries. Removed winter attire and got into something more lighter. By 2.30 was ready for the second safari

Day 3 - Evening - Zone 3 !!
Ok..Now this was becoming all too familiar. Off we went again to Zone 3. Shot the brahminy ducks and pied avocets at Padam Talab and scapes of Sambars eating at Rajbaug lake. ALso couple of cute little mugger crocs. Waited for couple of hours close to the lake for the tigress to appear at water. Again nothing happened. We had invested a total of close to 10 hours for her to appear. Shot vultures, white brested drongo, treepies, partridges and prinias in the meantime. Drove back with a rather heavy heart.

Day 4 - Morning - Zone 1 !!

Aditya had told us Zone 1, was the most underrated zones of Ranthambhore with most tourists not liking Zone 1. Though it had leopards with cubs, bear with cubs and 2-3 potential tiger opportunities including T 38 male. Since it was very dense sighting would be tough unless on the road. The forest in Zone 1 is lovely, giving feel of a pench or tadoba for some reason. Shot a spotted owlet which was pretty cute. Nothing happening other than that.

By around 9 there were alarm calls from a Sambar. Waited at a point close to the end point go Zone 1 for some movement. After 15 minutes we decided to go further up and there she was. A beautiful shy young female tigress in all the glory. THought light was still not super good, we got some head on shots. Got atleast one eye level shot when I got down to the canter steps , hunkered down as low as possible and waited for her to come into the view finder.

All too soon the trip was over....Two sightings, 2 GB worth of pics and some nice evenings lying on hammocks listening to Rajasthani folk songs in the cold weather. Was also great catching up with Dicky and getting some connects with guides and good drivers like Raees bhai. Might plan a return in April. Sighting will be better but I guess I wont get the winter light. That is only if Im not going to Bandavgarh !! ;)

Market for Forest - A viable proposition to save our forests ?

2010-01-04T01:44:00.000-08:00

This article from the world policy journal here - some interesting thoughts on carbon market being a potential option to save our forests. Highly debated around, but I think this could potentially be a viable option to save our race and planet the way we know it. (Too capitalistic for most of my conservation friends, Im sure !!:))

Also a note on Avatar is worth noting in this context. I presume our race won't do to our rainforests what the "corporation" did with the indegenous people in Avatar. One way to satiate the corporate would be the "unobtanium" of carbon credits in lieu of destruction of endemics. Sad stage of progress for our civilisation !

Decades worth of blog !

2009-12-29T00:25:00.001-08:00

I know Ive not been blogging. Blame it on a full calendar day after day - oh that is just an excuse ;). So i thought - hmm - y not blog for the whole decade ?

What a decade it has been ! I know I speak like I were to speak of the man's time in this earth. But for now, its just my life upon this earth that I'm partial to !
A decade is a long time. For me four things stand out which has defined my life today and has had a lasting impression on my (then) young mind ;)

1. Passing out of NIT and joining Larsen and Toubro and within there going on to live a life of recluse in an East African island off Tanzania. What a splendid opportunity to grow, lead and work across cultures. Apart from learning to love races, places, animals and nature in all forms and fashion

2. Joining IIM A Class of 2006 - with stars in eyes and a dream that the youth in me had laid seige to, to be in the best business school in India (Some would argue in Asia Pac). Looking back if I had joined IIM B or IIM C Id still have probably had pretty much a similar life thenceforth. However, IIM A made me humbler, helped me interact with great folks (Friends and gurus) and probably made me a better, more confident and suprisingly less arrogant human being. As against my fears, I came out putting life in a bit of a perspective answering couple of key questions - how important is money, how important is being in India, how important is it to give back to the nation.

3. Joining The Firm - McKinsey was everyones dream. A dream I did not dream. I honestly thought I stood no chance. I wanted to have my time with sports which I would not sacrifice. I wanted to have my time with bed and sleep which I would not sacrifice. From whatever I had been fed of IIM A and McKinsey it was that McKinsey prefers to hire only from Top of Class and to be top of class in IIM A one has to sacrifice all interests and sleep. As I realised both these are not entirely true !
The Firm remains a place close to my heart. I made great friends, learnt a lot, made some moolah along the way and answered one additional important question - how important is family and spending time with them ?

4. The wedding - Keeping aside all romance and kinship and sense of family (which are probably more important) I got a great friend in Sandhya. We keep pulling each others legs, mostly meet during weekends only , works our ass off through the week and crib to each other about how our marriage is always at half life. (If we are married for 50 years, that would essentially mean only <25 !!). We love common things, which we knew as friends before dating - sharing a lasting passion for nature, nature conservation, trekking, mountains, forests and a liking for small pleasures of life (Travelling in double decker buses, eating roadside food, having chai watching monsoons from our balcony, listening to birds sing, smelling first rains, train travel etc etc). It has been one fun ride.

Fifth, if I were to pen down, would be my ever growing love for wild life and a growing need to do by bit to protect the planet especially the forests. Downside has been my extravagant spending on photography equipments for wildlife shooting (One of the very few luxuries that I afford apart from premium clothing!!)

Where the rains are born....

2009-09-23T05:17:00.000-07:00

There is a definitive beauty of western ghats aka sahyadris that makes one go to her lap time and again. Every trek to these beautiful cloud mountains brings in new sights, smells and tastes. This time we decided to trek close to Bhimashankar in Maharashtra. And on the way back at Junner / Malshej regions. Some of the most beautiful landscapes that Ive seen outside of Kerala and Europe can be found here. Pity that not a lot of folks know the place - oh well, in a way it's good that the crowds dont know a lot of the trek trails herein. Else if will just become another Malshej or Lonavla with the city slickers on their honking cars, playing hindi bar songs at top volume, eating and throwing leftovers and plastics all over or in general making a mess of themselves and their surroundings.
We took off early morning at around 4 a.m from Mumbai. Decided to drive through the expressway rather than take the Malshej route on the onwards journey. Had hired a Tavera given that there were close to 4-5 of us. Reached Bhimashankar at around 10 after a few breaks and stayed as usual in the Blue Mormon resort. As a friend and I tried the gupt bhimshankar trail for some birds to shoot, wife and friends went to Ahupe to trek the ghats there. Next day all of us trekked the Gupt Bhima trail (A very small and easy one) followed up in afternoon a drive to Junner and Malshej.

Nature

2009-09-10T00:44:00.000-07:00

Our report on Environmental and Energy Sustainability is out.

As we fight our way to reduce emissions, its also critical to create carbon sinks through afforestation and prevention of the largescale destruction that we are forcing upon our forests. I like to look at simple broad indicators to assess the health of pristine forests. One of which is the rate of death of free ranging tigers.
Most observations point to the alarming fact at that rate of 10 per month, we have another 10 years at best before free ranging wild tigers are wiped out from India. That would also mean huge water crisis, droughts and floods since many river sources are inside these protected forests. What a sad turn of events from a point during the time of Indira Gandhi when many felt we might win the war on tiger poaching.
Planned construction of a memorial for YSR in the midst of pristine forests is yet another knee jerk reaction. Haven't enough sacrifices been made by nature for your gods and politicians ?

Finally Toyota brings home the Fortuner !

2009-09-05T06:53:00.001-07:00

So its finally here. In what would be a strategically important move for Toyota Kirloskar in India and one that is going to make the off road pretence of CRVs and Captivas of the world take notice, the Fortuner is in India after a wait of more than 6 years.

The price at over 18 L is still out of reach of many but is clearly unercutting CRVs and Captivas and Endeavours. That is a key pricing point for SUVs in India. Sub 20 L. To that extend one might think Toyota has got it right - once again ! But hey the same one is sold in Thailand at around 13 L. I was expecting something like 15 L for this in India. Anyways as of now it remains in my dreams. But yes, if they had priced at around 12-13 L it would have been pushing my bankruptcy quite strongly ;). That would also have sent a big warning to Mahindra to get their act straight on Scorpio which though an able product is quite ageing.

Lets sit back and enjoy the drama in Indian SUV market ! For now, Im glad that Fortuner is atleast introduced albeit at a higher price than comparable markets.

2009-07-30T00:54:00.000-07:00

Trekked to Malshej ghats during the weekend. Though just trekking is not something that really perks me up, I'm always game for monsoon treks. Thankfully wifey could persuade me to go along with her for this trek. And boy, I'm glad I did. Though neither of us took our normal photography gear for fear of getting wet and carrying through some tough trek, we did put a sony cybershot in our jacket pockets - just in case. That turned out to be a boon.
Malshej is a monsoon heaven. Around 150 km from Mumbai its generally not as crowded as much hyped Lonavala (Which cannot even be remotely compared with the beauty and serenity of Malshej)
You have to avoid the easy trek routes and roadside waterfalls where legions of families will be taking bath, washing cloths (!!!) and rowdy youths drinking their Smirnoffs and Teachers, stripping to ugly underwear and dancing as if they are indeed sex-changed Lopez from Shall We Dance. We had to create our own trek route and at some stages did think of returning back due to increasing difficulties and slippery rocks without too many holds.

From photography POV, made two images with which I have started my monsoon collection. Its a major down in plans since I was planning to take a month break from work to follow the SW monsoon through Konkan, Agumbe, Valparai etc ending in Kerala !! Alasss best laid plans of men!!

Natural disasters and economic "earthquakes"

2009-07-27T23:33:00.000-07:00

Some of our recent research is throwing up striking parallels between natural disasters like forest fires, earthquakes etc and "manmade"crisis like the economic crisis, bankruptcies of large corporates, variance of industrial output for large countries etc. These are all falling into a "power curve" something that statisticians and mathematicians have been using a lot in studying complex systems.
One symptom of such a system’s behavior is that the frequency and magnitude of outcomes can be described by a mathematical relationship called a “power law,” characterized by a short “head” of frequently occurring small events, dropping off to a long “tail” of increasingly rare but much larger ones. The latter was dealt in lucid details by folks like Nicholas Taleb in his much famous Blackswan books.
For most of us who have looked at / studied bell curves and always intuitively think of a spread as bell curve, this is quite fascinating. Quite simply, the implications is that extremely large outcomes (Call them black swans if you are a Taleb fan like me!) are more likely than in a normal bell curve.
One self serving thought I had the curve charecteristics were that for PG courses like in IIMs we should use power curve rather than bell curve for relative grading ! Even one of those IIT M quant jockeys can srew-up the grading for the rest of us in a quant paper if using a bell curve rather than a power curve for RGing ;) Hehehe. Sometimes I think Ive still not grown out of the ultra competitive kid ;)

Questions !!

2009-07-08T21:08:00.000-07:00

Harddrive weight correlation with data stored - Have you read it yet ?...Read Here

Ofcourse we can all laugh and say its a stupid question ! Im afraid some such stupid questions would have given rise to some of the most lasting discoveries / inventions of our times !!
Who would have ever imagined there would be a Tweeter where people would put down minute by minute their life description for whole world to see ?!
Now hark back in time and think of a public forum where someone would have asked, "Is there a platform wherein I can tell the world how I pee ? A minute by minute account of how I open my fly, put my Johnny out and then force it out steadily ?".
It reminds me also of an aspiring photographer who once asked me, "How do I zoom in and out with my prime lens?".

aala ree

2009-06-25T01:32:00.000-07:00

Eyes that used to throw furtive glances at the sky in anticipation can rest...Monsoon has finally come to Mumbai shores ! Rains bring in plethora of memories - all sewn up across time lines.
Rain drops on through the windows as you wake up. The smell of sweet earth emanating from the moist cool breeze. Pigeons resting at the windows safe from the deluge. Slightly soggy newspapers. The sound of viper making swoosh noise at the car. Foggy windows at Grandma's mansion where paper boats were initiated on a endless journeys. New school uniforms for June reopen which soon gets messy and wet in the school bus. 3 a.m walk to canteen at IIM A in knee length water to have hot coffee. Trekking in the rainforests of Kerala with leeches all over as an 8th standard student part of WWF camps. Splashing of water drops on the historical facades of Angkor watt temples. Water bellowing through the grand roots of the trees which has eaten Ta Prohm temples. Kerala and her sex appeal. Fishermen going into deep seas with cloudy horizons in Kochi. Slushy peace of a small rural temple in Kerala where rain drops fight with the oil lamps. Dazzle of thunder all around as you hold onto fixtures in a storm inside a pipe laying barge with huge waves all around you. The rage of seas along with rains beating my small seaside cabin in Tanzania to pulp in a span of 2 hours. Coldest of rains and hailstorm in Alps while trekking in Austria. Waking up on a Sunday afternoon to have Sandy's masala chai and roadside bhujiya. Gulping buckets of Beer at Seaview, Juhu before walkign to PVR to watch random movies or lying down at the chowpatty with waves and rains drops beating you down. Going from Juhu to Borivali in double decker bus sitting in the front seat at "top floor" with front windows opened. Cheapest Brandy mixed with water from Canteen and lemon pickle to go along as a poor Mechanical engineering student. Driving my Pajero over unforgiving terrains in Africa with visibility close to nil due to the watersheets falling from heaven. Sitting with my Gujarati pilot born and bought up in Nairobi flying in a Cessna over Arusha forests/river in a storm and his profoundly comforting words," Dont worry, I won't crash land. Why ? Cause death from a mid air crash would be so much more peaceful than by those crocs down below!"

Angkor Watt with clouds gathering before a deluge !! (Taken in 2008 while on a Steve McCurry inspired trip to Cambodia, taken with Canon 40D, Tamaron 28-75 f2.8, Manfrotto support, worked in PS CS3)

Last frontier of Asiatic Lions - The Gir Odyssey

2009-04-06T05:42:00.000-07:00

Gir was in my dreams for couple of years. When an opportunity presented in the form of hurriedly applied for and obtained leaves for me and Sandy, we decided to embark to the last abode of Asiatic Lions in the world - Gir Sanctuary (~170 km from Rajkot and 45 km from Veraval)

Had a quick chat with Yogendra bhai from INW (Our lion leader and go to person for all things Gir) and booked the ever reliable gypsie driver of his, Lalit bhai. Knowing my love to stay with locals as deep in the jungle as possible rather than in posh hotels, he arranged Chaman bhai's (One of the most hospitable individuals Ive met - imbibing all the fineries of the amazing Saurashtrian hospitality) farmhouse for our stay.

On March 31 me and wifey reached Sasan from Rajkot. Chaman bhai's farm was adjoining the gir forest where freqently leopards and lions roam freely at night. (We could hear them sometimes, never could see them in our search lights the couple of nights we gathered courage to venture out)

First safari the next morning yielded amazing results. We tracked a mating pair in route 1. And spent around 3 hours with them. The attack of the lioness on the lion before mating, the roars, the love making - these 3 hours gave us both memories of a lifetime. We could not stop thanking our stars for helping us witness such a rare and intimate moment in the life of these animals.

Next day was bitter sweet. While we could photograph a brother and sister (Both extremely good looking), we missed the chance of shooting 5 cubs which were sighted on another route. From our route we could see them at distance but could not go since that would have meant breaking the "route rules" at Gir (Each gypsy is supposed to stick to their assigned routes - largely this is followed to the word!)

Afternoon was again spent with the mating couple observing them spar at each other (Lion sustained a huge gash in his face). Post mating (Which this time they did behind bushes) they came out in open road and sat resting. We could observe them for an hour from as close as 15 feet. Could almost feel their breath on our body and it did send a tremble down our spines. There is nothing bigger an adrenaline rush than looking eye to eye with a male full grown Lion at 10-15 feet. It is like 500 sky diving and 1000 bungee all rolled into one !

Third day morning was on route 2. 2 and 6 are the routes which is allocated to most local tourists and hence pretty busy ones- also more noisy especially if there are rather clamorous kids in some jeeps. The morning was spent with just a single lioness sighting deep in the bushes for any good photo ops.

Went back to Chaman bhai's farm for lunch and the usual bucket of chaas (buttermilk). Took a break to download pics, process a few of them, check internet for sometime and catch up on some sleep. At 3.30 sharp we started off in Lalit bhai's gypsy for the safari. Nothing happened till around 6. We did shoot a few birds like common kingfisher, tickells blue, green pigeon etc. While on the way back we saw a gypsy full of students waiting across a water hole. We waited there along with them. After about 10 minutes a lioness appeared across the hill - slowly walking down to the waterhole behind bushes. Then we saw her brother appear lazily ambling across. They gave a brush to each other and came towards us. Passing us in front they started walking along the road. After 10 minutes, the male decided to rest right on the road in full view - that too in super golden light falling on his beautiful full maned face. At that moment, he could very well compete with the most handsome tiget Ive photographed as the most beautiful thing Ive ever shot.

As wife shot the video in her panasonic, I took 2 GB worth of memorable snaps. We had to leave them as the time was almost 6.30. Going back to Chaman bhai's farm we discussed the day and plans for next day with Lalit bhai. Went to the field to take bath under the water pump and then off to the machan to lie down under the sky in the field with mind full of happiness. Got down to have a sumptuous dinner and chaas as ever !! :)

The last day again proved to be unfruitful for photography as there were no lion sightings - nor any great birding opportunity. However, we saw fleeting glimpses of Jackal and two leopards - one in each safari. It was my first leopard sighting. That day morning Lalit bhai had told - today we should aim to shoot leopard. His words came close to being true twice - we saw it twice but could not photograph either time as it was too fast between the bushes for a good shot. Anyways, I was more than happy since in all the time spent in the Indian and African wilderness, I had not once spotted the beautiful leopard let alone photograph one.

As the trip came to a close, we were really sad to leave Gir - both the lions and it's amazing people, especially Lalit and Chamn bhai who were like close relatives all through the week. We caught up with "Dhamal" a performance by the small african community which thrives in the Gir forest - little known to the outside world.

As we went to Rajkot for onward trip to Mumbai and it's daily chores we were wondering when would the next opportunity be that we can be back with the kings of Gir forest and the love and hospitality of Chaman bhai and gang !!

Tips for first time visitors :

1. The road from Rajkot to Junagadh is real ossum. Junagadh to Sasan is not bad either.
2. If you are taking bus, ensure you take a GSRTC express from Rajkot to Sasan. That will save you more than an hour - it becomes a tiring and sometimes irritating journey in a non-express.
3. If you are coming by train, see if you can take a ticket to Veraval and travel back to GIr (45 km from veraval) rather than from Rajkot (160+ km from Gir)
4. Book a nice place to stay. If you are adventurous, I suggest farm houses as close to the forest as possible. You can then walk along with experienced locals at night to search for some lions ! (Or just walk in that hope - it is indeed quite thrilling and you probably are happier when you fail in the endevour). If you love local life, local food, local folklore and lots of great hospitality head to Chaman bhais !! Else you also have airconditioned swimming pooled hotels galore.
5. Get a good driver (If you are a photographer) who can maximise your sighting by collecting local intelligence regarding animal movements.
6. Tip the guides and the driver - they work overtime to get you to see and photograph your subjects. ANything from 50-150 over and above the stipulated guide fees is fine.
7. There are no ATMs of any bank. Pay in advance or check if they can accept credit card/cheques.
8. Alcohol is officially prohibited ;)
9.Understand and accept that inspite of best efforts, the guides / drivers can't make a lion appear for you ! However, in summer months 2-3 safaris should yield atleast one sighting. And in winter 5-6 should yield atleast one.

Lastly just feel blessed - you just went to the last remaining abode of the Asiatic lions. Truly the king of the jungles in these parts of the world. Lets all do whatever we can to ensure this population grows for generations to come.

Vacation at Gir

2009-04-03T00:40:00.000-07:00

Me and Sandhya have taken a break (finally) of a week to track and photograph the remaining Asiatic lions in their final frontier Gir in Saurashtra, Gujarat. We are staying at a local farmer's house here in the forest. Sleeping at the machan in the field open to the stars, hearing the roar of lions close by, bathing under the pump in the fields and drinking bucket fulls of chaas whenever we are not photographing in the jungles..
Detailed report and pics soon...

Sachin Tendulkar - Legend in my life !

2009-03-19T20:48:00.000-07:00

I woke up today, started brushing my teeth watching Sachin score yet another century. That's when I suddenly felt a strong emotional connect with a man whom I have seen only 3-4 times and spoken to only once in my entire life. Still he felt so much a part of my life. Like a close relative. He has at various points been a guide and philosopher (unknown to him ofcourse!!) as well as being forever an inspiration in professionalism and how to lead a worthy life. Right from when I was around 8, over the past 20 odd years, he has been always close to my heart.
Right through my days of playing district leagues and Inter University through engineering and working as an engineer, through MBA and working as a consultant there had always been tid bits that I have tried to imbibe from the his life. Some of his interviews with Harsha Bhogle, I regard as masterclass in philosophy as well as being truly inspirational. Like when he said "Experience is a double edged sword. For every ball you know all possible shots, but you also know all possible ways it could go wrong and result in a catch".
I never used to keep his posters in my room, or drool over in his fan clubs. Or buy t shirts with his face. And surprisingly I was not angry at the fans who booed him at Mumbai. For me he is beyond all this. I'd be thrilled if I can do 1% of what he has done in his chosen field in my own area of work. With the same dedication and more importantly the same humility.
Thanks Sach bhau - for being there !

Im a consultant !!

2009-03-17T06:04:00.000-07:00

I'm at the lounge in Delhi struggling to place myself in between the huge Friday crowd, ordering a lemon juice with water and sugar and asking at the counter if the flight is delayed the 8th time. That is when I realised that your occupation clearly changes a bunch of things that you find amusing and boringly exciting (Oxymoron ?).

Here is a small list of "consultant life ring view items" from my side. If you understand why atleast half of these are interesting then you are probably a consultant too. Sigh !!

You are traveling economy. You call up for check in and 10 C and 10 D are both available. Your mood is up for the rest of the day!
Jet lounge at Mumbai does not have the same Andhra Upma and Banana Smoothie on Monday morning!
You get upgraded at ITC – now you have a massage chair and lo and behold a free wine bottle in your room! (And you don’t have client meeting early next morning!)
There is new collection of video and audio in In-flight entertainment
Its 1^st of the month and a new Jet Wings is available at your seat. After reading all the papers and work docs, you still have some more feed for your voracious reading habit!
You get upgraded to business because economy is full!
After your 4^th flight in 5 days, the check in counter staff doesn’t smile – after all you don’t smile whenever you meet your old friends. You just know !
A five star hotel has a bum jet – your Indian ass is happy! No need to use the shaving glass as mug !
You wander over the 85 item buffet and pick either dal-roti or rice-curd-pickle combo and enjoy the amused expression of other guests. OR worse still you sit for ala-carte at Bukhara and the waiter asks you if you will have anything other than Roti and Dal Bukhara !
You have traveled to a huge number of exotic places – but mostly all you know about the geography of the place is which direction is security from check in and where the premier lounge is. (And if they serve the same old Andhra Upma and Banana smoothie there too!)
On Saturday night at pub your friends asks you if you will have kingfisher and you reply I’ll have 9w actually !
You call Jet Airways check in and press 1,1,1,3 since you know the whole bloody call centre menu and options to select!
You wake up in the middle of the night to pee and checks blackberry till you finish peeing.
You get into a meeting post a red-eye flight and finish the meeting saying good night to everyone at 10.30 am local time.
You find investment bankers amusingly dumb - the ones who come in CNBC and spout inanities atleast. You still are envious of the amount of money they make! You definitely believe they don’t deserve it! J

So what is your Paris ?

2009-03-09T02:50:00.000-07:00

Saw Revolutionary Road this weekend (Along with Da Cunha's Pune Highway).
Rev road is a must watch ! One of the most intense old school cinema making I've seen in recent memory. If Slumdog is very good, Rev Road is excellent ! (Now that is saying a lot)

IMDB and Oscar panel might have differing view, but for me this is a timeless classic. It could be anywhere, anytime setting. A story which is riveting, a script which is tight and above all Kate in as good as performance as in The Reader.

So what is the Paris that you are waiting for ?...Do you need a Mike Shannon a.k.a John Givings to ask you those tough questions ?

2009-02-23T06:19:00.000-08:00

Had gone for a trek at Sinhagad valley in Pune. It turned out you don't need to trek a lot to shoot the amazing number of flycatchers. In keeping with the decision of not posting too many pics here directly given the bandwidth issue faced by some blokes
So if you have tha bandwidth you can catch a few from the trek here

Good day ! (Oh what a day - ARR got his due finally ;)

To MBA or not

2009-02-16T03:58:00.000-08:00

I often get asked by MBA aspirants on what to study, what not to study, if they should go for the MBA at all etc etc ! Recently I have figured out a quick check for the folks to come to a decision on this (It is a very rough and generic way of looking at it but honestly at the end of the day this is what it shall come to ! - my big insight 3 years post MBA!!)

So here is the big insight ! (Hehe)

A. To build your knowledge (Not for CAT - Im sure all smart folks out there can crack it) - read Mint for atleast 6-8 months before the interviews / GD

B. Again read Mint for atleast 6-8 months - If you like around 75% of what is written in there and look forward to reading it daily, you are good to go for an MBA. If you dont like even 25%, you should definitely not go for it. For all who fall in between, it is a tough call !!

Some of the stuff is a bit too technical for non Accounting/Economics majors but even engineers /others can intuitively get what is being said - just by thinking through the logic from first principles. I'm a huge fan of Mint since it's inception, unfortunately these days I dont quite get enought time to read it end to end. On a rating of 1-10, if ET is 4 and Business Standard is 6, I'd rate Mint at around 9 ! And it costs only Rs.2 !

Disclaimer : Ive nothing to do with LiveMint and in no way is this an ad for the same :))

2009-02-12T00:48:00.000-08:00

A friend of mine had tagged me in some chain thingie in Facebook and wanted me to write 25 little known things about me ! I quite didnt have the time or inclination to write like 25 little known things about me !! Thinking about it latter, when I had some time, sipping a Glenfiddich on rocks, I thought atleast as an introspection it might be quite worthwhile ! But 25 is still a large number. So I thought I might rather blog about it - maybe 10 things maybe 13..whatever !!

1. I was predominantly left brain..Recently I can percieve a shift and now Im quite balanced between left and right ! I can look at a good photograph and feel the mood (Before Id have just seen the colors or the object)
2. I was born in Kerala. Going to school in monsoon ravaged June in Kerala is one of my most fascinating childhood experiences.
3. I love my teachers. I believe what Im today is to a large part because of their guidance.
4. I love alcohol. There is nothing like having a good peg or two of well made liquor in a nice setting with a bunch of close friends
5. I love watching bollywood item songs after drinking beer on a lazy weekend. I dont care if I havent heard the song before (Only condition being it should be energetic, pulsating and must have good looking girls with reasonably low volume of clothing). I love to do it with my wife sitting beside me, poking fun at my rabid taste !
6. I would have never become a doctor. I refused to even cut a rat in school during biology practical since I found no "value add" to that process. I still think it is a stupid thing to do in school (I hear it is since abolished atleast in CBSE)
7. Im fascinated by nature and wildlife. It is my religion, my passion and hopefully one day an area to which Ill dedicate lot more of my time and effort.
8. I think Im a good photographer. (My left brain thinks so, my right brain refuses to acknowledge!!)
9. Im an engineer at heart even 3 years after my MBA.
10. I adore A R Rahman (Much before the slumdog hype). I used to listen to most of his tamil songs even though I couldnt figure head or tail of it. "Kadhalan" inspired me to stretch myself to aspire for distinctiveness in whatever I do.
11. I almost became a cricketer after being selected to U-19 camps. But post playing Inter Univs, I never could really rise any higher. I had to sacrifice cricket for acads.
12. There is not much that can feel as good as standing at first slip on a cool sunny morning and taking a sharp catch and then smell the red cherry as your team homes in for the high fives. Or putting the straps on the pad, smell the gloves and taking guard on a sunny day. Nowadays, taking my Canon 40D, putting on the 100-400 lens and focusing on a subject gives me an equal thrill.
13. My wife is my best friend. We have still not gotten used to us being married. We still think we are just like the olden days. So we cannot introduce each other as "Husband" or "Wife" in front of relatives and it is quite embarassing ! ;)
14. I dont believe in morals. Morality is perverted. You do what is best under the circumstances to the best of your beliefs.
15. I hate people who in the garb of protecting our culture indulges in terrorism (From kashmir to mangalore). Id prefer that these terrorists be shot dead. Im not too much a fan of non violent protests like the "Pink Chaddi Campaign".
16. I love Bhagavad Geeta. I am also fascinated by Islam. And Im saddened by the world's misunderstandings about the religion based on the act of a few bastards.
17. Forests and nature gives me higher spiritual pleasure and peace of mind than religion.
18. I love economics. I have not lost more than 1 mark in economics till date in my life across all classes including MBA.
19. I respect content more than form.
20. I love my job. I believe McKinsey is a truly distinctive institution. Not perfect, but great.
21. I'm quite vain - Have exaggerated sense of self-importance. However, Im more humble now than couple of years back for example ! And Im quite pleased about it ;)

That is it for now !..Phew...

2009-01-29T05:08:00.000-08:00

Bharatpur pics goes live here

Hope you all like a few of them ! :)

I see trees of green, red roses too
I see them bloom for me and you
And I think to myself, what a wonderful world

I see skies of blue and clouds of white
The bright blessed day, the dark sacred night
And I think to myself, what a wonderful world...

-- Bob Thiele & George David Weiss

Spirituality and nature !

2009-01-27T23:53:00.000-08:00

For someone not deeply religious like me, spirituality has different connotations. For me, personally, it is something which touches you deeply, makes you think about meaning of life and existence ! And some of these instances could be relatively mundane.
Few such events are listening to a Sachin Tendulkar interview with Harsha Bhogle. Or listening to a "folk-touch" song composed by A R Rahman (Ghenda Phool in Dilli 6 for example). That clearly shows, atleast for the more profound "spiritualists", that I've no clue about spirituality !

One such recent experience for me was a trip to Bharatpur with Sandy and another friend of mine, Shireen. Bharatpur is a National Park in Rajasthan (Officially it is the Keoladeo Ghana National Park). I was there last year too but due to severe drought experienced, there were not many birds or animals to see. What makes this place amazing is the vastness or it's wetlands and the absolutely mind boggling number of birds that visit this place every winter.

Sandy was coming from Mumbai and I was coming from Delhi. After meeting at Bharatpur and checking into our hotel, we went to the park. I was trying my new Benro tripods for the first time along with my trusted 40D and Canon 100-400 L IS. Sandy was shooting with her 12X zoom Panasonic. In many cases, we had to work together for shots - especially for flight shots, where she would predict with reasonably good accuracy the flight path and landing moment.

Just being in the quite park (Before the weekend tourists flooded the place - singing, dancing, wearing outrageously loud cloths and generally behaving as if it was a picnic spot) looking at the mist covered horizon where thousands of birds fly around gives you a "spiritual" high. It is as good (even better!) than seeing a Sachin Tendulkar cover drive or a listening to an intricate Rahman composition!
You also see the raw life unfolding in nature - fishes shredded to pieces, smaller birds being eaten by birds of prey, jackals hunting smaller antelopes (A jackal almost attacked me as I was lying low to click it's pic - it probably thought I was another small prey!!)

The place is also exceptionally romantic - as much as some of the Alpine EU regions that Ive trekked in. A very apt setting for Sarus cranes - the most elegant of creations that God has blessed mankind with. They mate for life and are strictly monogamous ! Even if one of a pair is dead, the other doesn't accept other mates. Valmiki is supposed to have cursed the hunter who killed one of such a pair (The famous Ma Nishada episode) which purportedly became a precursor to his writing Ramayana. Being with them, enjoying their elegance in the romantic ambience that Bharatpur is in itself a "spiritual" pinnacle ! Unfortunately, only around 20000 of them are left, thanks to modern day hunters - humans who kill it for meat and for fun! - We need many more Valmikis with a plethora of curses !!

Vacations are back !!...

2008-12-22T18:07:00.000-08:00

Im having a rather long and deserved vacation in Kerala. The kind of peace that the land brings is amazing. Even from the moment you can differentiate the coconut palms from high up in the air before landing, even inside the enclosed cabin, you can smell the fresh air. Even over the landing announcements you can hear the birds sing. Even as you pop the remaining packet of After Mint or the Jet's typical tamarind toffee into your mouth, you can taste the culinary delights of this small strip of land south - south west of India. My days are packed with weddings and receptions and meeting people et al. This is the first time Im taking Sandy to Kerala after our wedding. So she is damn thrilled.
For me it's homecoming. Again. But everytime, even over the familiarity brought by number of trips, each is unique in what the abode of Gods can throw. Im planning to squeeze in Thattekad / Salim Ali bird sanctuary. If it happens, expect some good pics (Hopefully ;)

Merry Xmas and Happy New Year !!!

Bastards of perverted faith

2008-11-29T02:21:00.000-08:00

Carnage at Tiffin. Fire at wasabi. Places which had fed many a days of mine.
Many friends evacuated after hours of anxiety.
Whole of my office building right in front of Oberoi ground zero is shut for days.
I had had lunch even 24 hours earlier at Oberoi. Was supposed to go back to Indiana Jones there on the evening of dreaded Wednesday before deciding on K&K at ITC since a friend wanted to catch a flight. Thankfully I am alive and well. Not so many of my co-Mumbaikars and foreign guests.

Mumbai has been raped and left bleeding again by bastards of perverted faith. In a strong reminder to pussy footing politicians, they laid bare our pitiable intel infrastructure and protection for innocents from sick terrorists.

Unfortunately, people who will buy "terrorism has no religion" cliche is fast becoming endangered. It is time the world over, we stand up and realize that Terrorism indeed seem to have a predominant religious proclivity. And it is Islamist. However, one should also differentiate the same from the faith of Islam, practiced by millions of people the world over who would be as grief stricken as any of us non-Muslims in what has transpired here in Mumbai. This is probably the biggest conundrums that humanity faces in Post WW II era.

For starters, once we get all information that we can squeeze out of the single alive terrorist, we must publicly kill him, Afzal and others of their illk. Message ought to be clear. If you believe you shall become martyrs by doing these disgusting cowardly acts, you shall see hell here before you might have a chance to die. Make them beg for death that would exonerate them.

It is high time like minded nations like US, UK, Israel and India fight this war together. As for now, we can only hope that Congress and allies doesn't come to power in the next elections.

Prayers to the real heroes and all who had to sacrifice their lives because of a bunch of shemale cowards.

Just cross linking Mohib Ahmad's Letter to last standing terrorist from Indianmuslims.in. One of the better write ups Ive seen in recent times.

Updates on photoblog

2008-11-23T23:43:00.000-08:00

Check it here

I've decided to reduce photos in this main blog keeping in mind friends who browse on dial up..

Currently, planning for the year end vacations going on. Mostly thinking of Kerala itself. Haven't been home after wedding and it seems there is a line of Uncles and Aunts to be visited, sweets eaten !! Im looking forward to the festival at a temple close to where I was born. Should be able to shoot some folk art / elephants etc. Let's see !! Planning to do Gir at Junagadh after that for the Asiatic Lions. All depends on my wife's leave apps though !!:)

Andy's blogs !!

2008-11-20T01:31:00.000-08:00

Dont know if you guys follow Andy's blog about cricket. Or if you follow The "Bugle" Andy at all. He has started blogging at Cricinfo. Super hilarious. Dangerously good humour. If you read at office & your boss catches you laughing your guts out in these difficult times, you might be sent to shrink. So beware !

Worth checking it out with this one here
Definitely Zaltsmanisque !!

Diwali Trekking Bhimashankar

2008-10-30T22:05:00.000-07:00

Have been under some stress due to the way markets are turning out. The best panacea for all stress is nature. One of the key distressing tablet for me is trekking & shooting in forests. This time Sandy & I decided to trek the Bhimashankar forests. The key trails we did were the Gupt Bhimashankar, Machaan and Forest rest house trails, as suggested by the noted naturalist Adesh who knows these places like the back of his hand.
My idea was primarily to shoot the highly endangered Indian Giant Squirell for which the WLS is created. Sandy's idea was to trek the tropical evergreens & the adjoining mountains. Both were quite complementary. She helped spot some rare species that I could then shoot.
The trails are all small and we did only around 15-16 km over 3 days. Not for the serious trekkers. More for people like me who are what I call " forever aspiring trekkers". (Well old age is getting to me you see...I used to do 30km in 2 days, but of course without the photo equipment weight on your back...now its like a distant memory !!)
Bhima WLS it is a little known jewel in Maharashtra created for protecting Maha's state animal - The Shekru or Indian Giant Squirrel.

We stayed at the blue mormon resort - quite a decent place over a plateau overlooking some splendid valleys giving one terrific sunrise and sunset shots. We used to trek starting 6. Come back for lunch. Rest a bit and start afternoon treks. Come back. Have sumptuous maharashtrian snacks like Kanda Poha, play cards for 2-3 hours. Hit sack by around 10 for an early morning rise. It just rejuvenated the whole body and mind.
Photographically, shooting shekru is difficult. It is forever at high foliage. Lighting and BG are additional challenges. But could shoot a bunch of birds ranging from bushchats, orange headed thrush, bonelli's eagle, swallows, bee eaters, pipits, larks etc.
Its a good 3 days plan for people in Mumbai. For Pune folks even 2 days is good enough to cover up the place. I will go back mostly in Jan / Feb once the winter migratories too come down from up north.

Belated Diwali greetings to all. Hope you guys had a safe diwali.

Strangeness !!

2008-09-18T13:28:00.000-07:00

Its snowing here in September..At the peak of summer...It is strange. But then this week has been the epitome of change. The ice man I mocks at me and says "Change. It is the only constant".

Im coming back after a sumptuous (??) lunch of duck, leaves, potatoes and red wine. Im emotional. So much has changed in the last week that I still think Im in a daze. Many of my friends have lost jobs. Two companies which had offered me plum jobs are no longer extant. (The only reason I did not take jobs with them was that I got into McKinsey). I've lost most of my savings invested in Indian equity markets atleast on paper. I can't of course file for bankruptcy even though Im pretty much broke.

The CDSs and CMOs designed, sold, bought and hidden by many of my friends have come home to roost after grander days. Some people I speak to here (who are from US) have houses where their equity is completely wiped off.
There is a sense that someone cheated everyone. That someone always predicted upward sloping curves for housing prices. That has now come crashing down. And in its wake it has swept to ashes the dreams and aspirations of many young men and women. We can all debate till cows come home on whether the Fed should have done an LTCM and saved Lehman. Or if by allowing Bankam to pick Merrill it has helped create yet another "too large to fail" monster. In all the technical debates, one must not forget the thousands of people involved, their families and homes.

As we all pick up whatever is left of our lives, some lines in some half read Indian spiritual book gives me the courage to face these uncertain times

"We came into this world with nothing. We shall leave this world with nothing. So why sweat?".

As I flick another waft of unseasonal snow from my Indian winter jacket and shiver, I say, Quite True.

This link from a friend of mine quite correctly sums up what has happened over the past year or so. Enjoy clicking here. Quite sarcastic. But unfortunately true.

Kitzbuhel

2008-09-06T22:23:00.000-07:00

Im in the quaint sleepy European town of Kitzbuhel in Austria. It is only around 1.5 hours drive from Munich (That is if the highways are not teeming with the cars of weekenders going up north / down to Italy).
It is everything that picture postcard EU is & then some more. One of the most famous skiing resorts during Jan - Feb - Mar it even hosts the world championships. I'm living in Grand Hotel which has an old Euro charm to it. It is an amazing property where one wakes up to clouds coming down the mountains outside your window. Compare this to what many Mumbaikars wake upto, and you start thinking really about what lifestyle is. And what money can & cannot buy. But ofcourse, come winter and there is seldom a sunny day. So take your pick :)

Starting a photoblog

2008-09-05T05:32:00.001-07:00

I've decided to start a photoblog separate from this. Just pics and no words is the aspiration.Predominantly on nature and landscapes. Even there the focus would be on wildlife (Birds and animals). This hopefully shall showcase some of my better works and hopefully inspire a bunch of folks to do something towards nature conservation or even create awareness towards the same.

Here is the link

Let me know what you folks think. I know, Im a complete novice on webpage building. So excuse the odd looking layout and dimensions :)

Bloom

2008-08-25T23:58:00.000-07:00

Had been to Bangalore to catch up with my sister for couple of days and see the home Im planning to buy there. I think Ill write about IDBI and their pathetic customer service soon. For now anyways, the much better processes and people of HDFC has meant Im going to have the loans sanctioned in time :)

If you like shooting flowers, I think Bangalore is one of the best places in India. Probably it is the weather and the umpteen number of gardens that make this an ideal location. Here area a couple. Nothing great. Just tried two different compos of two simple flowers.

Terror comes home

2008-08-20T01:09:00.000-07:00

I almost went into depression reading the article on the terror suspects recently arrested / implicated.
Reasonably well educated, Indian born Muslim youths in 20s - proficient computer engineers, doctors, teachers, electronics specialists. Add to this the charade happening in Kashmir through the I Day celebrations and its now clear that religion has become bigger than country for millions.
The funny thing is,as I read the article, the places mentioned there made me nostalgic.
Vadodara - a city I worked
Ernakulam - city I was born
Pavagadh - ranges I've trekked & camped through beautiful full moon nights
Ahmedabad - City I went for a post graduation in management.
It is then that it stuck me with a finality that sent a chill down the spine.
Terror has come home to roost. And unlike the cows and the crows, they are not going to be shooed away by the first rays of a new morning. They are here to stay. And no, they are no longer visitors from our northwestern neighbor, they are our own brothers, comrades and countrymen. And they are out to kill us.

There have been times over the last week where I wondered if the price to pay for secularism is so huge, would we have been better being a mono religion country. Answer was clear. An emphatic NO. But there are no solutions for the current mess.

Its not a problem that one can state, understand constraints, boundary conditions and find a logical solution to. My personal belief is there is only one way to fight this and that is through Madrassas and spiritual teachers. Madrassas, Ive personally seen, touches children at a young age and touches them deep. What gets indoctrinated at that impressionable age remains firm for long. If it is love, we have a bright future. If it is not, we have a dangerous one. Same holds in case of Hindu terrorists. It might not be madrassas, it might be some other agency. But touching them young and making them proud of our multi cultural fabric is the one and probably only way.

Al Kafiroon
Chapter 109, 6th verse
109.006
YUSUFALI: To you be your Way, and to me mine.
PICKTHAL: Unto you your religion, and unto me my religion.
SHAKIR: You shall have your religion and I shall have my religion.

Love Letters

2008-08-13T05:20:00.000-07:00

We saw Rahul Da Cunha's love letters over the weekend from St Andrews .
We watched it coz

1. It was from the team who gave Class of 84 (If you love theatre, you must watch it)
2. It had Rajat Kapur (One of the rare Kapur specimen I like right from Byomkesh days)& Shernaz Patel (Only white lining of Black)
3. We did not have anything better to last Sunday evening (The other scary option was
to watch Sing is King. Oh by the way Ram gopal verma, it seems have said that the most scary thing for him is Karan Johar's movies. What irony coming from the maker of such remarkable masterpieces like Ram Gopal ki Aag).

Love letter also brought to focus the fading purpose of "Handwritten letters" in our
lives. It must be over a decade since I last wrote a snailmail. I think it had its own sweetness. I miss writing letters sometimes. The blue Inland letter had a charm of its own. Getting it in hostels made one nostalgic, brought back deja vu through the khaki of the postman. (Especially all those love letters to school sweethearts;)

It also made me realise that some of the best actors in Indian filmdom have their roots in Theatre/Drama. Whether it is Nasrudeen Shah, Rajat, Irfan, Boman etc.
Im off to Bangalore for the I Day weekend. Hope I can shoot some nice snaps around in the city / if I could drive to outskirts.

Hope all you folks out there have a great I Day and hope Paes / Bhupathi can add to Bindra's tally.

Easy predictions !

2008-07-22T23:37:00.000-07:00

Couple of years back when I used to blog at Rediff I had talked about how oil prices are going to shoot up (At that time I thought it would be around 80 $) and how India is going to have an issue of inflation at hand. And that the RBI would have to shift focus from a pure growth driven agenda to something more akin to inflation targeting. Though I had blogged about it, I never really thought things would turn up so rapidly within couple of years. Read here what one of my most illustrious alumni and one time chief economist of IMF & his committee advises.
Again, end of last year I had talked here about how the large I Banks are sitting on instruments whose risk is increasingly becoming difficult to predict, hedge or price. Within a year now, read here about both Citi and MS reporting some of the biggest quarterly losses in their history. (For MS the first of its kind!!)
This is not to say Im an economics Nostradamus. Just that somethings do come true (Id have predicted 100 things out of which 2 would have come true, so let me focus on those 2!! - the typical black swan problem / astrologers luck)
Maybe I should start predicting happy endings !! Like I would end up being a Lok Sabha MP in 10 years. (The highest paying job probably in India). I was just thinking after yesterday's tamasha, as to how much I would take to cross vote !!..Def 25 crore is huge money. I might take 3 crore for abstaining. How many of us are ethical enough /unselfish enough to say we would not take that kinda money ?....Is my character strong enough to say no to 3 crore rupees for not doing anything ?..If it is not, what has failed ?...Education ?..Value systems ?..Upbringing ?!!...Tough questions !

Angkorrrr

2008-07-10T21:51:00.000-07:00

A heady admixture of Budhism and Hinduism, Angkor is as exotic as exotic could get. When words fail, I let images that I create talk. But I don't think even they can do justice to the essence of Angkor or Siem Reap where it is situated.

It is religious. It has history. It has the shadow of Khmer Rouge bombings. It has land mine blasted limbs. It has ten dollar full body massages. It has budhist monks advocating the middle path. It has buxom Cambodian babe stroking the penis of a western tourist at a roadside hotel lobby. It has the temples. It has the roots of Ta Phrom. Eternity of Angkor Wat. Smile of Budha at Bayon. Innocence dancing in the eyes of the kids selling Dollaaar One bangles. It has culture.
And it has an extremely friendly people. People who have saved their beautiful outlook towards life even after all that Khmer Rouge did, even after all that blood spillage, all those limbs lost to mines, all those kids with machine guns shooting childhood dead, people running around holding their intestines from falling apart, eyes gouged, smiles vacuumed.

Still like the Budha Smile of Bayon, Cambodia lives on.

(All shots taken with 40 D and Tamaron 28-75 on Manfrotto).

Project Angkor

2008-07-04T17:43:00.000-07:00

Im at Cambodian city of Siem Reip. I have been wanting to shoot Angkor during monsoon months for ages since I set my eyes on Steve's Cambodian shots. The brilliance of Steve is one of the major reasons for my first trip to Cambodia on my Birthday weekend.
The art and architecture and mood of the place is amazing. Unfortunately I don't know if Ive done justice to this masterpiece in my work.
Will share in the days to come as I process the photos.

Oil - Why not Eco 101 (Or why Eco 101!)

2008-06-28T22:28:00.000-07:00

Slightly technical. Skip it if you are absolutely not interested in economics ;0 (Or if you have never ever learnt it).

Does the supply demand pattern that we learn in Eco 101 work with Oil ?

It would seem so. I happen to read a file note recently by an analyst in a top Investment Bank (Dont know if it is still top - it was still Friday afternoon at least!!) taking a contra call by saying oil prices are going to go down in medium term. The reasons appeared very plausible the way he enumerated his logic. At higher oil prices, many hitherto unviable fields (due to logistical issues, high drilling costs etc) will see new drilling using much more advanced technologies and higher investments. Hence more supplies will come online and as we all know from our Eco 101 we shall have lower prices. Brillianto. We can expect lower oil prices soon. Our inflation worries will subside. Rates will be lowered. My EMI will reduce. Yippieee !!!
Since I met up with the author (a reasonably good friend of mine) we had a nice debate on the same. Ive always believed in not using the normative SD curves to predict oil prices. (Even I might be wrong - but well, its my blog ;). And Im not an eco proff atleast as of now :)

My points were :-
1. Normative SD curves for prediction of oil prices has many pitfalls. Assume Im a supplier. I see oil prices going up. I am ready to make investments (huge by the way) to capitalise on the rise. If I can monetize the assets underground currently, early enough I can make a great returns. But I will invest only if one of the following is true
A - Im such a small producer that my additional supplies wont affect market prices. If market prices were to come down by my additional production, I would never invest in the higher cost new technologies since my marginal cost of production will be higher than existing player. Hence a reduction in price would reduce margins for existing players but might wipe me out.
B- Im a large producer. But the demand far outstrips supply that the curve is inelastic.
In either cases, the points put forth by the analyst would not hold merit, i.e prices wont come down.
There is an exception to this. It is that Im a large player such that even with a decrease in price my margins would not get affected significantly . This would be because the market price is set my a marginal producer whose marginal cost of production is way above mine. He will be wiped off. Ill remain in the market with a slightly lower margins. Caveat however is that, good strategic thinkers in market leaders would rather want higher cost marginal producers to remain in market than getting wiped off !
2. Oil assets are value by an index linked to prevailing market prices (It might be spot / forwards - lets skip the details!). If I drill more leading to higher supplies to meet increased demand, my revenues increases (even with a price drop let us assume that the revenues might increase overall). But my valuation is not just a function of my revenues. In case of oil producers, the very same analysts,like my friend above, values their underground reserves too. So along with an increased revenue, the price drop ensures that my reserve valuation decreases. (Since it is linked to current prices or at best an index to futures). Hence even if we assume margins might not get reduced even if prize falls (the price decrease might get offset by a comparable fixed cost reduction due to enhanced economies of scale), my companies valuation might actually suffer. Why would a market savvy CFO allow his COO take that path ?
At the same time if price reduces, I might actually produce more since my underground assets are anyways undervalued. Let me atleast produce more and increase my revenues at the same time hope that the economies of scale will help me combat the margin pressures a bit. Inverse SD curve ?!!
3. Many countries including our dear India doesn't even allow the effects of price increase flow down to demand patterns. By acting as a cushion protecting the common man against increased prices the governments are creating additional imperfections in an already imperfect market. Worse still this keeps opportunity cost for alternative avenues like solar, electric cells very high (Civic hybrid was recently introduced for something like 21 lakhs - What a sad joke!!)

The writing is clear. Oil is not going to come down to historic levels. Going green is the way. Governments must stop acting as sponges soaking away the price signals that can reduce consumption of oil. (SUVs and trucks are getting jacked in US - people shifting to more environmental friendly alternatives). This shall have multiple benefits - cleaner environment, reduced global warming, more investments in green alternatives (No, I DONT mean the other big joke Biofuels!!).
We can continue wishing and dreaming Oil will be back to 30-40 per barrell. (But honestly as a conservationist - albeit armchair for most part - I hope it doesn't!!)

(Taken when I was more an Oil & Gas engineer than a photographer - hence excuse the artistic merits of this shot ;))

Of post marriage life !!!

2008-06-25T04:55:00.001-07:00

The first question people ask me these days is "Dood, so hows this married thingie going on man?". After reading this blog by Apurv
I thought its time to write a blog on the oft debated Q. Especially since Ive like a 2 hour gap between meetings and Im sitting looking at the Bandra Worli sea link getting drenched in monsoon fury from my client's 8th floor office overlooking the sea.
For starters, nothing dramatic has changed post marriage. We still love, go for movies, pull each others legs, go to Irish pub to catch IPL / Euro on weekends, go for photo shoots to nature parks/mountains,get drunk and fight just as before.
The major things that have changed indeed are that we stay together during weekdays. She cooks (I try to help till she banishes me from kitchen for all the nuisances I create and call me back for doing dishes sometimes). I buy vegetables some time from the market downstairs (Well that IS a major change - for the life of me I would not have believed that you can buy ANYTHING in this era for 1 Re. I don't know in the post 11+% inflation, +50 BP raise in CRR & repo era, but at least till last Thursday I could get a handful of those leaves that you put invariably in all Indian curries as well as ginger for ONE rupee!!). Yes guys you really can buy stuff for 1 Re from vegetable markets ! That was singularly the most profound insight in my post marriage life.
We bought a house (I'd have done it anyways but still I would have pontificated between a house and an SUV for months on - thankfully I went the home way instead of SUV way - a very green decision I must say since I not only am NOT buying a fuel guzzling SUV I bought a house close to a lake in the verdant Bangalore. Verdant adjective strictly in comparison to Mumbai !!)
I've become more muted in my appreciation for other females ! Especially if it is a physical comment ;).
I've reduced all-bachelor binge parties.
I've given up grass (Sigh, especially when I listen to high hopes or great gig in the sky with only Smirnoff and orange juice for company).
Fixed cost of existence decreases since rent is allocated over two heads (MBA Speak!!). Savings can be obtained even in variable costs if you buy from volume discount stores ;)...Ok Ill STOP !
Net net, if you are a bachelor my advise would be marriage might not be as scary a preposition (Why "E" instead of "O" , cause proposition is a logical statement that has a binary end product to it - good or bad, black or white, sweet or sour - which I do not think marriage can be bracketed into. It is more like a preposition which modifies the core word without really completely changing the core!!)- as we might have hypothesized.

Bandavgarh - Fort of the Tiger, Canvas of the gods

2008-05-22T05:08:00.000-07:00

The start

We were staying at Royal Tiger resort quite close to Tala gate and their Innova had come to pick us up at Katni railway station. Even within the cool confines of the car one could feel the burning heat outside and for a moment we were foolish enough to doubt this venture of ours in the month of May. If there were vestiges of doubt, it was quickly removed in our first safari. We drove directly to Rajbehra on entering the Tala gate after checking in. And sure enough the mother and 3 cubs which have become quite a common sighting this season were awaiting us. After close to an hour their mother came from behind the rocks and headed straight for a herd of chitals and Sambar grazing across the meadow. It was a once in a life time experience seeing the tigress stalking its prey. It was cut short by a dust storm that swept the meadow and we had to retreat back.

Meeting with royalty

One day we were returning from our evening safari and there were whispers in the air about someone seeing B2 in a water hole far from the road. B2 is the dominant tiger of Bandavgarh. Currently, B2 is being challenged by Bokha, the younger and much more fitter boy. When we reached the Chakradhara area where B2 was last sighted, we decided to wait on a hunch. We could see him in the screech of a peacock from far away bamboo thickets. We could see him in the alertness of a Sambar. We could see him in the calls of the frightened-to-death langurs and chital. And then the king came. It was kind of anti climax. He just came in front of us in open like a beacon serpenting through the brown grass. For a moment, I didnt know what to do. Thankfully, my hands went into autopilot increasing the ISO to counter the fading light, putting the bean bag on a lower beam to get eye level shot. Eyes fastened onto the view finder and 40 D firing at around 6 per second I could shoot 10-12 decent shots of the king. He did not once look at the gypsies. And this devil may care attitude towards everything else around him is what has helped him rule Bandavgarh for these many years. Sure enough, Bokha will lead him to his death. That is the rule of nature. The last fight had left him bruised and limping. But the old man had given Bokha enough injuries to keep the younger male rethink before the next attack. It was over in half a minute. But those 30 huge seconds are something which "I shall take to my grave" as Metallica would have put it!

We did see the king once more in during the week at a firebreaker at Chakradhara area itself. Better sighting, better light, more than a minute but the first one would remain in my memory more.

Sidhbaba Tigress

Tigresses in B'garh are named after their territories. This female is seen around the Sidhbaba temple area and hence the name. That day however, with Chakradhara female, one of the many queens of B2 not around, we caught up with her at Chakradhara meadow itself. Thankfully, we had gotten the E route allocated that morning safari and lo and behold she was waiting. She is arguably one of the most beautiful things Ive laid my eyes upon. Hope her imminent litter with B2 would turn out to be as magnificent as their mom. Tourists going after park reopening in October would hopefully have a feast. Pray things go fine and there is no more litter missing cases.

Andhiyari Jhiriya Male Cubs

During one of the safaris in the latter half of our stay, we decided to stalk these male cubs about a year old. They are the cubs of B2 and tipped to one day rule Bandavgarh. They have clearly inherited the magnificence and stealth of their dad. They also look almost as handsome as the king already. Thanks to our guide and driver Mohan who reads pugmarks like we read newspapers, we spotted them lying in the shade. We enjoyed the serenity of the jungle all around with no other gypsy coming close. For around 15 minutes it was just us and them - the two charming boys. In time 3-4 other gypsies also came down. And then the drama started. A village dog had entered the park and and was barking. True to their inheritence the cubs were up on their feet in a jiffy and off they went hunting. Within minutes the barking died off. The driver and guide said they did remind them rightfully of a young B2.

Rajbehra Family

Most of this month, tourists have been given darsan by the Rajbehra female and her three cubs. Unfortunately, one of the cubs have developed some swelling / growth in it's tummy and was not seen in the latter days. But the other two cubs (of Bokha) and their mom gave us a spectacle that was unforgettable. It was a Sunday afternoon and the park was filled with the daily tourists too. We were not really expecting any sighting and was just enjoying the forest. Sometimes it is a great thing just to enjoy the jungle, keep away the cameras and stop worrying about tiger sighting(Well not sometimes, guess most of the times..but as they say old habits die hard!!). And then they came. World was silent. Somewhere a king vulture perched down. The bee eater took another insect in flight. Few kids were eating biscuits in their waiting gypsies. And then it started. Langurs shrieked. Sambars ran. Chitals called. Wild boars scurried away in a tearing hurry. From afar they came. The mom and the two cubs. They just decided to lie down in front of the waiting gypsies and play. The cubs jumping around the mom. Photography was difficult as the cubs were covered in the grass with the mom lying down. But it was one wonderful drama which makes all the hardships worth it. 15 minutes, 2 GB and a shaking hand and trembling breath latter, I beamed a smile to my wifey & photographers in other gypsies. We just looked around and nodded our heads. No one spoke. Everyone just stood still. We felt like a brotherhood bonded by the spectacle that we had shared. We went to Mukesh bhai's shop at Tala (Mukesh is a wonderful driver cum tiger lover cum conservationist cum Bandavgarh historian all rolled into one). Over tea I shared the pics with him and Mohanji. Latter Mohan and me went to the resort, put three chairs outside and we discussed the events of the day over few king fisher strong beers. Mohan have been driving at the B'garh parks for the past 12 years. He has seen Charger & challenger. Then the Bs - B1,2 and 3. He has dejectedly seen the guard change. It is tough on some of the more dedicated drivers like Mohan who so love these individuals. Day in and day out , morning and evening, their life is filled with tracking these brilliant creatures. And then some of them disappear. Some die. Some get killed and it is as if you suddenly lose a member of your family or a dear friend.

After Thoughts

The numbers of these beasts are decreasing at a fast pace due to poaching primarily for China and Tibet. Though there has been a bit of awareness of late, it might be too less too late. Tiger conservation is a national priority. But in the post Indira Gandhi era, none of the governments have done enough to protect our national animal. It is as important a symbol as the national flag and national anthem - even more since it is a living breathing beacon of hope for the country. Read what I had written some months back on economic and political importance of conservation here.
Let us all pray for and help create awareness on the criticality of this mission lest these magnificent beasts walk into the sunset of their era. And then there shall only be darkness. For generations to come.

The paradise called Andamans

2008-05-09T19:59:00.000-07:00

Andamans have been in our plans for sometime. So me and Sandhya set out for the trip immediately after the wedding. Cyclone Nargis which wrecked havoc in Burma had left a little sister in the Andaman seas leading to all ships to the further islands being called off for a week. As we landed at Port Blair airport the guide who picked us up sounded sceptical regarding our trip to Havelock island which was our base for the 5 day trip. He said no ferry had sailed from PB Jetty over the past 3-4 days. However, by grace of god, it restarted the day we landed in Andamans.

The ferry from PB to Havelock is probably the most boring and tiring experience one can have in the trip. Before the ferry starts at 2 p.m we could take some time to walk around and see the cellular jail infamous for the incarceration of multitudes of Indian freedom fighters during the independence struggle. The clouds, colors and angles in the structure gave many wonderful photo ops.

Once disembarked on Havelock, it was smooth sailing . We were staying at the famous barefoot resorts built amongst rainforests where all one would hear is the distant thunder of waves in the lonely beaches and the sounds of many birds chief being the parakeets. (I think two species that I could spot were red breasted and long tailed). Alexandrine and vernal hanging are also around but I could not shoot either).

The first day itself we could spot a few endemics primary being the andaman woodpecker and black naped oriole.

There are many things to do at the islands. Most tourists are foreigners atleast at Havelock and prefer being on the beaches, diving and snorkelling. The forests are pretty much left untouched by tourists which is a thankful thing. I could see plastic bottles and garbage at some of the beaches but the forests were more sanguine. The littoral rainforests here were not as dense as what we get in some inland rainforests but the trees are as huge. And the trekking experience is quite eerie. You realise how small humans are in comparison to nature and how critical it is to protect whatever remains of these wildlife labs.
On the second day we had a glimpse of the large monitor lizard thanks to the alarm calls of a bunch of hill mynas. Could see it only for 3-4 seconds but was quick enough to get a half decent shot.

The third day was primarily dedicated for trekking around the Neils cove where the notes of other birders had noted presence of black headed kingfisher. However we could not spot them. We did see the collared KF instead which were too far off for any decent pics but were still interesting to watch.

Fourth day trek was through cultivated lands and fields. At the forest edge on a tree we saw the highly endangered Andaman serpent eagle apart from andaman coucal,white headed starling and shrikes.

The last day was a typical rainforest day. The morning was bright and sunny. During lunch it became as dark as say 7 p.m Then came the thunderstorm. I've seldom witnessed such heavy rains for around 2-3 hours. Rains inside the rainforests are an ultimate feeling. Craking frogs, crickets and myriad other creatures presented a swansong for what was arguably one of my best trips ever. I'm counting days when I can be back in the Islands.

The return sail to PB and flights to Chennai and then to Mumbai led us back to concrete forests. We are off to the Bandavgarh pilgrimage in 4 days and hence back to the real forests !! :)

Birdlist (Key ones)

Andaman Woodpecker (Endemic)
Andaman /Brown Coucal (Endemic)
Asian paradise blue
Emerald dove
Green pigeon
Black naped oriole (Endemic)
Hill Myna (Endemic race ? - Not sure)
White headed starling (Endemic ?)
Andaman Serpent Eagle (Endemic and highly endangered, probably only a few left)
Olive backed sunbird
Collared and white breasted King fishers
Common flowerpecker
Brown shrike (?)
Black naped monarch
Fulvous breasted woodpecker
Glossy swiftlets
Red breasted parakeet
Alexandrine parakeet
Long tailed parakeet
Some brown flycatcher
RV and RW Bulbuls
Jungle crow

Edited to add : The best place to stay at Havelock is Barefoot.. Highly recommended jungle resort...Quite close to what was rated as the best beach in Asia by Time (3 minute walk). A bit on the expensive side for Indians atleast :)

News news !!

2008-04-22T23:30:00.001-07:00

Many great news from my side :)

As many of you would already know Im going to get married on 28th. It has been quite a busy couple of weeks at work and hence its yet to sink in. Any which way for us both its not as BIGGG yet as for our families ;)...We are more thrilled about the traveling that we get to do after the wedding. Last year around this time I guess we had gone to Alibaug to shoot sunsets, boats and the sea gulls. This time planning to go to Havelock off Port Blair for a week and then latter to the paradise Bandavgarh. People just dont understand why we want to do "honeymoon" at
1. One of the oldest littoral rainforests in India off Andaman coast
2. Amongst dense central Indian sal jungles rated as THE Tiger capital of the world

But for us both it was quite a natural thing. Both of us love nature more than things like city life, great food, amusement parks or other such routine things, both of us love India and have traveled outside enough for it not to be a big novelty. Also where else to go for honeymoon but to Bandavgarh ;)..(Ok ok - that is a bit of exaggeration but still ....)
Our initial plan was to do Kenya or re do Tanzania. But the internal troubles meant that our tour operator advised against it. So we have postponed Kenya for next year.
Hopefully we get some endemics at Andaman and then tigers+other species at B'garh. Only issue is it wont be quite pleasant at 40 degs + on the 4 wheel drives :D.

Im actually looking forward to the whole wedding rituals too...Sad that I can't click my own wedding ;). Taking off from work tomorrow onwards for 25 days. Will keep you gals/guys posted and hopefully can upload a few stirring snaps too from the travels.

NB : 40 D is back in my hand after quite a re haul according to Canon service center. Hope it sticks fine during the travels. Else my only back up is an Fz50 from Panasonic.
Adios for now...Will be back soon as a married man..hehehe

Glorious Spring

2008-04-15T06:15:00.000-07:00

I was in Kerala for 2 days since it was Vishu (New year for Keralites). It is always nice to go to Kerala during spring. (Though this time it was amazingly hot and humid - much worse than Chennai - the place I work out of around 4 days a week).
But the morning and evenings are as amazingly glorious as ever. As the slanting rays of sun falls on new blossoms, you can see myriad small birds hovering to have their share of spring honey. As the grand ol man in the neighboring villa waters his garden, the sweet smell of wet soil mingles with fragrances of the new blossoms. There is a earthen pot behind out garden where water is collected - it becomes the social bathing pond for an amazing number of species - bee eaters, tailor birds, treepies, babblers, robins,golden orioles and red whiskered bulbuls and atleast 2-3 species which I could not identify.

During one of my shooting trips, I followed a black cat in its quest for food. It planned and executed a brilliant attack on an oriental magpie robin. These are times when you realize the precarious nature of life in nature.

Also met up with old school mates at various stages of marriage - dating, engagement, marriage, wife carrying, child born etc etc. Why do I have a sudden feeling that I've now truly grown old ?!!!!

Geniuses

2008-03-27T05:22:00.000-07:00

There are people whose works can transcend generations and seasons. The other day when I was browsing Monsoon (Coffee Table collections By Steve McCurry)I could literally feel the chill of rain and hear the sound of thunder. I could see myself sitting with my grandma and looking at the coconut trees in rhythmic unison with the muse of monsoon on a spent July month from memory. Steve McCurry is god.

Who won't be transported to the war torn Afghan looking into the green eyes of "Steve's girl". Who can't feel the serenity of Buddhism by looking at his Angkor Wat collection ? Or the pain of desperation in the eye of begging woman from India from his India collections.

For many of us who haven't quite "known" Ansel Adams and his pioneering work, Dykinga is often portrayed as the one who have come closest to the master. I personally would rate Steve up there with Dyk. His photographs are time/space machines - it travels as fast as memories, faster than light. Takes you across space and years. If that is not being "god" I can't see what else can be. Maybe there is a recency bias in my adoration. We are living in his generation. Just like we adore Sachin Tendulkar more than say Gary Sobers.

Phew !!!

2008-03-20T06:18:00.000-07:00

Have been crazy month or so. Traveling like crazy, basically living out of suitcase. Covered a few cities that I had not been to before like Jakarta. Unfortunately, my camera is hospitalized still. The doctors (The canon service engineers) are still unable to figure out her disease. Hope she's back with me soon. Feeling kinda depressed without it around. I love just holding her, caressing her curves, keeping the view finder close to the eye, changing over to multi shot mode and keep firing at some random sparrow flying outside of my window.
Me and my girlfriend figured out a new place in Mumbai to shift to. Of course on rental basis since I realized that given my career stage, I cannot afford an own accommodation in Mumbai. But looking at the rental bill we are going to pay Im seriously thinking of shifting out of Mumbai. A rough calculation shows me that if I were to buy this house instead of rent it, I'd have to pay an amount for which I can afford to buy a villa in Bangalore along with my current dream machine Honda CRV. So now for the first time over the past 6-7 years Im thinking of shifting out of Mumbai ! It is really crazy. Recently when I was in Singapore, I met a class mate who is even planning to buy a house there. The amount he is going to pay is almost equal to what I would have to pay if I were to buy a similar apartment in Mumbai as close to office as it is for him !! What was it about PPP and all ?...With Indian rupees being 1/30th of Sing D ?!!!...Sometimes I feel like I should shift to some small company somewhere in Mysore/Hosur (or any such cities in South or even West for that matter - Baroda, Surat, Nashik etc) where even 1/4th of my current salary can give me a lifestyle that is better than this. So should we now speak of Intra country PPP ?!!!!

Reality and fantasy - Business and Photography (A random pic from a meeting room in Jakarta)- Taken with my mobile !

Save the Tiger NOW

2008-02-21T02:54:00.001-08:00

The NDTV Santuary campaign to save tiger - Click here

We are almost looking into the stark dark future of our forests where the Royal Tiger won't roam free. People are no longer talking of if but when will the tiger become extinct.

Art & my unintelligence

2008-02-14T03:44:00.000-08:00

We as a team decided to leverage Chennai's status of being a cultural hotspot. After much planning , we finally finished work early yesterday at 7.30 and went to watch what is called Purusharth (by a group fo artists from Bangalore) - which prophesied to integrate movements from the Kerala martial art form Kalaripayattu and Tamil Nadu's famous dance form Bharata Natyam.
The artists were beyond doubt supremely talented. Their movements were very rehearsed, perfectly stitched into cohesion and so well displayed that we were a bit awestruck. The hall half full of firangs, clapped off and on.
After 5-10 minutes, most of us used to the original Kalarippayattu and Bharata Natyam couldn't figure out what was happening on stage. Agreed, it was still nice to see the movements. But without music, traditional instruments we were at a loss to understand anything. There were many images which appeared on the screen behind the actors / dancers. I overheard a group saying "Wonderfully thought out post modern images". I felt it was a badly made media collage of skulls, dead bodies, movie stars and such other eclectic assortments.
30-40 minutes into the program we (The poor MBAs without much contemporary art exposure but with quite a handful who had learn Bharatanatyam for years on) started wondering what exactly was happening. We had NO clue - neither of the story, nor of anything that the dancers were showing. The audio was only numbers. So it went " 10, 13, 7, 25 8 minutes". This was repeated a few times. Then a few other numbers.
Suffice to say we did not get either the dance, nor the music nor the digital fusion over the back wall. This is not to take away anything from the people who made it happen. Im sure they were doing it with all sincerity and many in the crowd seemed to understand something (I overheard desolation, sex, sensuality, existence, meaning etc repeated in hush hush tones).
I was left wondering - Am I really so dumb ? Is that art better, which is appreciated by a smaller number of people ? Why should people always feel forced to appreciate that which is not manifest ? Is what is manifest a lower form of art than what is implicit ? Did the creator really mean what others perceive as the implicit to be part of what he created or is it a post facto analysis by "analysis crazy" critiques ?
N.B Similar doubts creep into my mind when commentators make comments during cricket matches which goes something like - Sachin has waited on it a fraction of a second more so that he could place the ball in the small gap between square point and backward point. Did Sachin really do that intentionally or is the commentator giving the credit based on the success of the event (of the ball getting placed between fielders).
I also remember a mallu movie where the protagonist sat smoking a beedi for 5 loong minutes. When it got some award, a critique was ga ga over how the act of smoking for 5 minutes showcased the complete desolation & loneliness that the character felt. How can anyone other than the creator of art make categorical statements about unmanifest meanings ?

Movies and life !

2008-02-04T19:58:00.000-08:00

Since these days I am working for a non Mumbai client, I fly back to Mumbai mostly on Friday nights. To maximise the time we have at Mumbai, me and my gf decided to catch American Gangster early morning show on Saturday. It is a terrific movie. One of the best after Departed and Blood Diamond. Some sterling performances especially from Denzel.
In the afternoon though the very idea of great movies shifted by a notch. We decided to watch In Pursuit of Happyness starring Will Smith. If you have missed this classic, dont wait. Go and get a DVD and watch it. NOW. They seldom make such great movies. And when one comes along you just celebrate great movie making.
The movie also made me think about what most of us are doing for our country / society. And after an hour of thoughts I came to the gigantic conclusion that I am a wimp. That I have done nothing useful in my life. (Ok that might be a slight exaggeration but not by a long way). When a movie stirs up such strong emotions, I'd personally declare it a hit. Notwithstanding how much it makes in box offices.

N.B My jinx with electronic items continues unabated with my new Canon 40 D going kaput in 3 months of small time usage !! Grrr. It just gives me an Err99 message and takes no pics. It tucked away in the canon service centre in Mumbai. I might well have to spent a fortune on that since I bought it without Indian warranty !!! :(

NNB : I started exercising today after months and months of thinking through and making excuses!!

Chennai Man !!

2008-01-21T03:15:00.000-08:00

Im in Chennai for the past 3-4 days. Most probably Ill be visiting this city every week 4-5 days for the next 4 months. Yesterday my gf had joined for some shopping and I was shocked at the crowd all around. And I thought Chennai was better than Mumbai when it comes to crowds / traffic ! Peak time traffic is same as Mumbai with slightly better roads maybe. But the number of people on bicycles will pretty much take away all the road advantages !
Took time off day before yesterday to go to Vedanthangal, a bird sanctuary close by to see the famed painted stork colonies there. It was a great experience though very few species seem to be there. Did click a few pics and thought it was a worthy trip.
Oh yea the dosas and filter coffee are every bit as good as they are famed to be :)

Uran - birder's paradise

2008-01-13T19:59:00.000-08:00

Assume all had a grand NY party to welcome to the new year !....I have had a rather busy first fortnight in 2008 and hope that is not a sign of things to come ;).....
Anyways, me and Sandy took off to shoot flamingoes in Uran salt pans this weekend..She did not have the Pany FZ 50 though since only I was planning to shoot. It was the first outing for my new baby, Canon 100-400 L IS which I had gotten from the US of A...On the 40 D it felt like I was in gym doing weights....Im still very much low in the learning curve of long lens and the pics were definitely not of the same quality that I would get from my shorter focal lengths..But we did have a great time shooting in the morning half and then heading to Uran plaza (Though there are mixed reviews, we did like the place a lot - a nice getaway for a day at a budget less than 1500) for loads of beer and a nice lunch. It is as the regulars know the most famous eating joint in that part of the world..It is a very reasonable place and the ambiance is really lazy - hammocks, beds, easy chairs......And ofcourse close by around JNPT and Uran you have some of the winter migratory birds - little bit of heaven close to Mumbai...

No title ! :)

2007-12-23T18:14:00.000-08:00

My gf is meeting my parents ;)..(Oh no, no fingers crossed, bollywoodish pangs!!)...We are planning to get married around April-May next year, so this Xmas is as good as any time to meet up and be merry !! :D...There are pros and cons to romancing & marrying one of your best friends...Me and Sandy have already realised the pros....Cons can wait :D..hehe..(Oh yea and I reserve to right to pass appreciative comments on other girls just like we used to do a year back when we were not dating and were just friends ;)

Elsewhere Modi has done it again.....For me he was once the most hated human, the very face of everything secular gone wrong in India. Today he has reached a point where he is, in my books, one of the most respected politicians. I generally do not change my opinion about people...But after chatting up with many Gujju friends across both major religions there (but only in the management cadre / urban elites),I stand corrected. I believe he has done enough in the last 5 years to merit reelection. Has he done enough for poor Muslims ?...I think no. Hope he does get an A in that box too in the next 5 years. But from D -ve to B-ve is a long way for most Indian politicians in 5 years. And Sonia Gandhi/Congress does get a big stinky F for some real rotten election strategy, pathetic choice of speech writers and a general lack of understanding of emotional undercurrents in Gujarat.
Heres's three cheers to Modi. (Non alcoholic,vegetarian cheers ofcourse :D)

Seasons Greeting

2007-12-19T05:40:00.000-08:00

I'm on vacation from tomorrow onwards. Hope all you folks out there have a great holiday season. Im planning to put 40 D to some real stern tests (Hopefully will get some time to shoot)..
Download this video - Lead India TOI music peice - A slightly cliched motif, but well composed, shot and edited. I loved it.

Of Jungles and "Citi"es !

2007-12-14T01:16:00.000-08:00

Back from Pench tiger reserve after a 3 day meet. Met a bunch of very interesting people - actually a fine break for someone whose friends / well known folks circle has always been MBAs and Engineers and Techies :D...There were cinematographers, journalists, wild life photographers (ofcourse!!), conservationists,techies / engineers / MBAs too !! Also et up with Field Director, Range officer, couple of eminent scientists from Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun. Many of them are doing exception work in the field and its really inspirational how much impact they are creating for the kind of rewards that they are being offered. (Ofcourse Im speaking of the materialistic part -the work itself is THE reward for most of them and that is laudable).
I did not see tiger or leopard at Pench but did see Jackals, Wild Dogs (with a Chital fawn kill - a lifetime experience), Wild Boars, and around 50 species of birds. A very decent outing from that perspective. We would wake up around 5.30 in the morning with temperatures of around 5 degrees, have a much awaited tea, jump into the open jeeps wearing as much cloths as we could covering as much of your body and go into the forests. Mostly after around 15 minute of the drive your hands would be so numb that you can't even click. You have to warm your hands first by putting inside your cloths and then control the camera for the shoot. Since we went to many non touristy routes making our own roads it was an incredible experience - the rush of blood knowing that at every corner there could be a hiding tiger, trailing packs of wild dogs through dense thickets, driving the jeep on 4 wheel drive over some difficult terrains and then coming back to camp to have simple but much awaited lunch !! There certainly are some things that money can't buy !!

Coming back to the more mundane, I was glad to know Vikram being selected to head Citi. Though my firm belief remains that Citi as it stands today has no future. In an era where lenders had all loans in their own books their scale helped, deep pockets to tide over minor hiccups helped. But in the new era where lender repackage their portfolio to be sold to multiple smaller players who are third party investors, scale necessarily doesn't give you much advantages. There has been so much of aggregation and disaggregation of loan portfolios that many FIs today probably have no clue of their exposures. Wall street traders keep inventing "god knows what" products in exotic names which most of the normal junta can't figure out in their life time - including managers in many FIs. I'll bet on smaller FIs with sound risk management practices having a clear handle on what everyone in the organisation is upto over unmanageable monoliths to give more returns in the coming years.I like Edelweiss for example - many feels the listing premium is cause of all the hype. I look at it and say this could be the next big story from India. If I am a long term investor Im going to think what it could be 5 years from now and I don't see anything worrying about it.(all disclaimers apply - Invest after your own research !! ):)

Journey

2007-11-30T08:15:00.000-08:00

P.S Bought Canon 40 D..More on that when I get more time and do some test shots!! First impressions - Heavy - much heavier than Pany FZ50 and my ol Canon EOS 66. I need to build some muscles when it is with the 100-400 zoom ! (Total of around 2.5 kg!)
P.P.S Going to Pench Tiger reserve today for a 3 day camp..Around 50 nature conservationists and non-pro wild life photographers would be there - hopefully a great learning / networking opportunity !:)

Euphoria and sad(mad) ness

2007-11-12T08:06:00.000-08:00

Just back after a week off traveling across Bangalore, Mysore and Kerala. Managed to catch up with friends, families, cousins et al. And ofcourse did some shooting at Mysore (Ranganathittu BS and Karinji lake) and in Kerala. Sadly my plan of covering periyar wildlife sanctuary did not work out due to paucity of time:(.

More from the trip at my Flickr account
I come back being glad of the break and was greeted by this ridiculous & extremely dangerous news item - Vidarba has a shoot at sight order on tigers cuz one female is suspected to be a man eater !! And the order is passed by the forest department !! Hello !! It is like - I was staying in a large country. You took my country away by force and gave me a small plot to live in.(<1% of my country in size) You killed and destroyed my prey base. After sometime, you come and destroy my plot & whatever is left of my food. I have no option but to fight back a little. Then you blame me of resisting the plunder. And then police, who are assigned to protect me shoots to kill me! *Clap clap*...I've heard weird stories..But this one is up there as the worst of the lot (And that includes Ram gopal Varma ki Aag!!)
People think tiger conservation is a project by and for an elite rich bunch of nature lovers smitten by the mega fauna. Little do they realise that death of tiger is death of water security for our country. Protection of mega fauna doesnt happen in isolation - it includes protection of myriad small creatures, insects, birds, trees, rivers and origin points of rivers in those mega fauna reserves. Co-existence with humans is not possible for these big carnivores in the current scenario. Even after studies after studies have proved this beyond doubt, the vote bank loving politicians (and sadly even some conservation orgs) live in the false belief of sustainable development and allowing localites right to forests. It's like asking homeless people to come and take over Taj Mahal as a "sustainability" gesture. Open buffer zones to tribals at worst leaving a core of every reserve protected from all forms of human plunder. Corbetts and Kanhas are as much our national treasures and part of our heritage as are the Taj and Gateway of India. Man eaters will be created as long as we are blind to this factual finding of thousands of scientific studies.

Why MBA !

2007-10-29T00:08:00.000-07:00

I had once written an article on MBA and other related stuff during my first year at IIM A. Looking back I don't even remember most of the "hard" stuff I learnt while on campus. I do remember the proffs, friends, garbas, night canteen, Kutch & living in tents discussing philosophy as part of the course Explorations in Roles and Identities, dance / presentations under Managing Across cultures, all the novels read & movies watched under Leadership, Vision, Meaning and Reality.
Yesterday while debating average as a performance metric for sets with a PE friend of mine, my mind was taken back to one of my favorite professors from IIM A, Ravi C.
(For those who know him I needn't explain, for those who don't I can't explain!!).

There was an event something to the following (I can't remember word by word)

Student : Sir, on average the queue is 2.25 people long
Proff: 2.25 people? Do you think average is a good measure to put forth in this case ?
Student : Welll....
Proff: That’s like the censor board saying that average family size in our country is 3.2 . Means a woman in the family is almost perpetually pregnant. Right ?

The topic of Ravi C brings back many many valuable memories. He is definitely one of the top 3 things you can take away from IIM A.

You can go here (Orkut Fan Cub) or here (Ranga's blog) for his more famous one liners. (Highly Highly recommended)

Some of my own favorites are

1."Cycle time does not mean that you take three women and expect to have a child in three months, it will still take nine months"

2.On scheduling conflicts:
Student: “It arises because of shared resources.”
RC: “You mean like Princess Diana or Draupadi..?”

3. On core value proposition :
If IIMA, on the strength of its brand, tries to run a circus, it won't work. Even if it tries to convey the fact that the PGP (the "MBA" equivalent) and the circus are one and the same!"
4.I once had a TA who had three daughters, over a period of time of course! He named them Lira, etc, etc based on some foreign currencies because he liked foreign currencies. Now what kind of a man would want to think of his daughters and think about money at the same time!
If you have to name them arbitrarily, you might as well call them 1.1, 1.2, 1.3 and so on (after a loong pause) Not 2.1, because then you would have some explaining to do. [A guy in the well is lost at this comment, to him: You dont get it do u ? (Turnign to the class) He did not get what the difference is between 1.2 and 2.1, i can explain to him the difference but not the process, let him figure that out for himself!
5.RaviC asks a guy to explain the first case of the course...
He starts: If we do SWOT analysis....
RaviC: (who has a clear aversion to all such legendary frameworks being adopted without a clear understanding) What is SWOT?
Student: ?
RaviC: I'll tell you. Strength is your wife, Weakness is your neighbor's wife, opportunity is when your neighbor is away, threat is when you are away!

Personally I still remember me giving him the good news of my getting through to Mc Kinsey. Different people complimented me in different ways. Ravi C was typically Ravi C. All he said was "I'm glad but not surprised". I regard that as one of the best compliments I've ever received in life :)

Sporting Spectacle !

2007-10-22T21:24:00.000-07:00

I dont think a Hollywood script writer could have written such an enticing script. What a victory for Kimi. What a victory for Ferrari. I've seen quite a few sporting spectacles in my life and the Interlagos race would remain among the top three most exciting sporting events I've seen in my life. Going into the race, I just wanted Hamilton to win. (Assuming that Kimi's victory would be a black swan!!). I just wanted Alonso to loose. The script was one better. Kimi won. Alonso finished only third and Hamilton could not finish in top 5! I feel sorry for Lewis. He definitely was an equal driver to Kimi. He is going to rule the F1 circuits in the years to come. I wish he does it in the red.
The race also showed what teams can achieve working like teams in true spirit. There is so much teams can achieve if people are not preoccupied with who gets all the credit. Just like what the Indian 20-20 team showed. The India- Australia series was also interesting from multiple perspectives. The most "media hyped" ofcourse being the racism controversy.
Looking at the pictures of the "monkeys" acting like monkeys in Mumbai, all I could think was "Senseless". Though I don't think it was racist, it was wholly unwanted and ridiculously stupid. Many columns point out to the fact that Aussies themselves are not "angels" and hence have no right to complain. As a society we are far from being angels on this one. Subtle and sometimes crass "discriminatory" undertones still exist on multiple walks of Indian life. On the basis of skin color - I've been shocked by people throwing unappreciative names on some of my dark colored friends and by all the now infamous "marriage ads" ; On the basis of race - I've been embarrassed and sickened by some comments on "looks" of a north east friend of mine during a heated football match; On the basis of caste - shameful as it might sound, my grandmother used to keep separate utensils for the so called "low caste" workers who used to come to work at our house and we could stand at a higher pedestal when visiting temples (Thankfully, I never took "advantage" of the same - I'd rather die of embarrassment than do that !!); On the basis of sexual preferences - How many times have we all been guilty of making fun of Gays, Bisexuals and Lesbians just cause they prefer something which we majority think is not straight? And I am not even getting into the religious discriminations and those based on sex.
Aussies might not be angels. We Indians are not angels either. Discriminating between humans in any form based on color, race, caste, sexual preferences,sex,religion has no justification in a civilized world. Not in sports, not elsewhere.
If majority were always right and no one bothered to think/act different, we as a race would still be in caves leading a nomadic existence. (Well, now that I think of it, that would not have been too bad. Abundant nature with no pollution, no fear of species getting endangered,forests all around, clear lakes, naked girls all around, daffodils and butterflies - an assemblage of beauty & bliss,redolent with sweet smells within a pristine nature !!!)

When markets fail!

2007-10-16T01:20:00.000-07:00

Leonid Hurwicz, Eric S. Maskin and Roger B. Myerson have won the Nobel for Eco for the year.(Link)
If more proof was required as to how far the world of economics have come from free market libertarianism of Adam Smiths days, this year's nobel goes to proponents of "mechanism design theory". It helps in demonstrating areas / situations / contexts where the free market system would fail. This will help deploy government & other regulations proactively before waiting for laissez-faire to fail. Many of my Ayn Rand worshipping objectivist friends would be surprised at an open acceptance of free markets and capitalism's failures. Another case of Nobel Committee's "noble" shift from classical theories adding on to Kahneman being awarded for his pioneering work on behavioral finance based predominantly on the fact that humans are not always rational entities. Leonid and Daniel would have been heretics for classical economists not in too distant a past. And today, within a span of 5 years they have both been awarded the biggest prize there is. Government regulation is not always anathema, people are not always rational. Such simple truths require so much debate !! He he.That is why I love economics and why it would remain so close to my heart!!
Over the weekend, I had gone to Rajastan's Keoladeo National Park in the hope of shooting some migratories. It was a quickly made plan fully changing the previously decided plans (obviously much to the chagrin of my girlfriend;). Barring rajastani food, fresh air and a trip from Bharatpur to Jaipur in a dilapidated UP Transport Bus (Just about managing to take my flight back to Mumbai), it was absolutely uneventful. Droughts have made sure that neither humans nor animals have water. Birds are few. Very little to shoot (Flickr Link). Environmental protection is certainly an essential item which would require Leonid's "mechanism design theory"!!! Guess at some point in time humans have to pay the price for destruction of nature.

An Indian Darter / Snake Bird from Anhinga family looks into a scary future devoid of habitats and water.

Art, Design, Philosophy

2007-10-03T22:03:00.000-07:00

Interview with Freeman Patterson. Brilliant. Get it here. Read it. Print it. Save it. (It is bit dated in production, but guess never dated in content)

Strategy !

2007-10-01T03:32:00.000-07:00

Blogging about my bread and butter word is something that I have avoided - for that matter I don't blog on any of my work since it is part of our confidentiality agreement with clients / shareholders.
Strategy is often an overused (and abused) word on B school campuses - any "farty" statement becomes synonymous with strategy. It is always interesting to look at strategy within the scope of a mathematical treatment / economical treatment. Something like using game theory or economics of scale etc to look at differential strategies would make it more interesting.
Product based strategies are an area which I am very interested in. Especially when a large incumbent is pushed to action by small new comers. It is always worthwhile to analyse how they did it.
An area that I am researching a lot these days is the various strategies adopted by top firms in the field of photographic optics (Pretty obvious hunh !! ;))

Canon has been having an upper hand over Nikon in terms of market share for loong now. But probably an analysis of Nikon would show higher % margins. The interesting thing about camera / lens sales is that in general these are "bundled products"

Canon and Nikon created lenses / camera which are mutually combatible. I.e A nikon lens would not work on the mount designed on a canon camera. This was done to keep customers loyal / continue investing in the same "system". But they did this by using different strategies - Canon by concentrating on lower priced lenses espcially the long tele lenses. The idea was - create good quality long tele lenses and some would be forced to shift bodies from Canon to Nikon. Nikon at the same time concentrated on creating world class bodies whose ergonomics were superios to canon & concentrating more on wide angle lenses. The new comers creating lenses (third party lenses) understood that the way for them to maximise market is by creating lenses for both mounts - very few parts (especially the couplings) had to be redesigned so that their lenses could fit both type of bodies. Canon then went one up by creating lenses that had inbuilt image stabilisation in their lenses (Which Nikon had to follow). The new entrants like Sony (With alpha series) and existing smaller players like Pentax then decided to go one up on the major incumbents - they brought stabilisation in the camera body rather than lens so that even third party lenses could be stabilised even if the lens by itself did not have stabilisation.
It is an area where a B School student can take up a detailed research thesis / an independent project. There are also various other lines of analysis possible - Co branding of body and lens, gray market economics, regulatory environment for imports, geography based differential pricing, sacrificing margins in one of the two bundled products to garner market share for overall bundle (and getting the margin loss nullified through the second product in the bundle), long term loyalty programs / warranties, dealer management / partnering etc.
I had done an independent project on economics of strategy. Strategy and the "games people play" to obtain & sustain an upper hand is one ossum line of study. And strategy, then you shall realise, is not all fart !! :D...or Hot air balloons. How I wish I was back on campus !!!:)

V for Victory, V for Vendetta !

2007-09-26T03:46:00.000-07:00

Whattay victory !!! When T20 started, I was not very amused. I thought the gimmick would fail. (I thought especially the cheerleaders & music was distasteful - well I still think so!! I also thought cricket would not be very exciting - I stand corrected there !!)
Today morning I got delayed for around 2 hours getting to the office since my house is along the road that the Indian team took from Airport to Wankhade. And man oh man, I have not quite seen anything even close to what I saw on either side of the roads. Oceans of men, women, old, young, school kids, execs, sweepers, policement, priests !!! Maybe it was over hyped. Ofcourse we have probably had better sporting moments even in recent past. But heck it was a time to celebrate and thats what Mumbaikars were doing even though it was the morning after visarjan. It was all the more sweet since we had beaten Pakistan in the finals. For some reason it is always better when we beat our "dear" neighbours !!! This team looks good. But it is too early to say we shall rewrite history in ODIs too soon as some journos would make us believe.
Shoaib Mallik made a ridiculous assertion at presentation. Something to the effect of "I want to thank everyone back home in Pakistan and Muslims all over the world. Thank you very much and I'm sorry that we didn’t win, but we did give our 100 per cent. Godwilling we shall make you all happy next time". Two of the world's largest Muslim societies wouldnt want to partake any of this "Pak bats for Islam" logic. Indonesia wouldnt be bothered what goes on in a strange game called cricket. Vast majority of Indian muslims will be proud of our cricket team which defeated Pakistan. One excuse for Shoaib is his pathetic English and probably he didnt mean it the way we might have interpreted his words. I think on being given to third umpire he might jusssst get the benefit of doubt..But just about !!!
Anyways, I had gone to Mangalore and Kerala for some temple, family get to, photography trips. New pics added at Flickr. It was great sighting and shooting the Brahminy kite as I was driving from Mangalore airport to Udupi. Mookambika wild life santuary is a case in point of how temples have lead to some really scary environmental degradation in many parts of south India. No god would want her devotees to destroy nature. Wish the devotees are more careful of ecological protection.

Kerala Calling

2007-08-23T21:34:00.000-07:00

Had taken the weekend off to Kerala since it coincided with the start of Onam festival. Had a meeting to attend for a couple of hours in Bangalore and hence took the opportunity to visit Kerala. Sadly nothing seems to ever change in the beautiful state - roads are screwed up, traffic is screwed up,there still exists strikes / tools down and bandhs frequently and often without any warning. Even though government is led by a well meaning and popular chief minister, his commie friends from rebel camp doesn't see eye to eye with him. The day I landed there were protests against Reliance Fresh opening stores - it was not muted, the wordings roughly translated were, "This is just a signal; if you don't learn through signals, we will have to act".
Kochi real estate pries are skyrocketing. I saw flats worth 85+ lakhs and even touching 1.5 crore where there were huts of fisherfolks 3 years back - areas we used to never go without a very valid reason. For covering 5 Kms one takes 1 hour in peak time. The inconvenience costs are fast offsetting real estate price hikes and localites are feeling the pinch of cost of lost time in traffic and rising "localized" inflation. People who used to wake up at 6, go to office at 9.30 to reach office by 10 has to start at 7 to have a realistic chance of getting into their seats by 10. Breakfasts from roadside places have jumped 100%.
In between meeting relatives and friends, did some shooting too. Especially used the lax time to experiments with motion blur for close up subjects. Find them here

Attaching a few samples :

Random !

2007-08-06T20:07:00.000-07:00

Couple of interesting experiences over the weekend inspired me to blog on uncertainty / randomness. It was a great coincidence that I am also reading "Fooled by randomness" by Nassim Taleb (Highly recommended, especially if you are a trader, analyst or of that tribe ! Even if you are a gambler or a mathematician!!!)
A friend of mine asked me to shift to trading/investment banking (An option I had consciously avoided after B School since I love trading – I wanted to preserve my love by keeping it as a hobby rather than my bread & butter) cuz someone had hit jackpot - a 50 lakh bonus.
Whenever people give examples of success stories and ask you to take similar career paths the question one needs to ask oneself is if this example is a randomly selected sample ! In many cases these are heavily biased by what are called Survivorship biases. We see successful people (Traders, entrepreneurs etc) and come to the conclusion that there is success/money to be made – and rather easily sometimes. Seldom does media / our own intelligence take the “Expected value” of success. For eg:- in the former case if one person got a bonus of 50 lakhs and the rest of his batch (Say 49 of them) under similar circumstances got only 1 lakh each, the actual value that one must be looking at is more like 99/50 rather than the 50 lakh alone while taking decisions. In some ways the actual value of his bonus is only that much! Similarly some startups succeed, many many fail.
Often I meet people who ask me advise on which stocks to invest in. I often answer them by saying that in the long run it doesn’t matter as long as you are investing through MFs. But many many people gamble in cash market with no idea about the risks that they are taking. Post facto some of them are regarded by peers and relations as heroes. A monkey would have made money investing in Indian equities if it had bought a random basket in 2002 and held on till today.
I can do it if anybody has done it - this is the basis of many irrational exuberances. Same irrationality is in play when people fuck around without using condoms and say AIDS won’t happen to me, or drive recklessly after consuming alcohol. These are, in behavioral finance, called denigration of history (there are innumerable live AIDS victims present and in history) and denigration of other’s experiences (Perreira chap would have accident, I won’t have accident if I drive under alcoholic influence)
Life is a gift – but a pretty random gift at that. Buy insurance and live each day as if it is a treasure. (And we should all be more responsible in acknowledging history than denigrating it – wear helmets & seats belts, no drive after drinks, no sex without condoms with strangers, no drugs).
There is also the other extreme in living by expected values / probabilistic evens. Taleb in his book speaks about an evening where he and his friend went for dinner. They tossed a coin to decide who will pay the bill. Taleb had to pay the bill wrongly calling the toss. Instead of thanking him his friend told, “Well I paid half of the bill probabilistically!!” (Probability of each event head / tail - in a toss- being equal to 0.5)
Boringly long and pedantic ?..Sorry !! :D

Coexistence

2007-08-06T07:00:00.000-07:00

Whattay Race !!!

2007-07-22T09:50:00.000-07:00

One of those races where you come out knowing that you probably witnessed one of the most event filled races in history. Also that the best driver did not come close to podium. But for all of us who were watching the race together - not just McLaren fans & more importantly the Ferrari fans included - Hamilton was the hero. There was only one idea floating around - when shall Hamilton shift to Ferrari and rewrite F1 history. Atleast we (Ferrari fans) hope it is not long before he shifts !! ;)...

Congrats Alonso - great stuff ; but Hamilton remains the champion.

Added later (Not connected to the first half of the post!!)

For those interested in debates of what is art, what is photography and ethics of digital manipulations have a look here..I personally have no major issues with his pics..it is indeed good art. Some people have issues since the photographer Rarindra purportedly wrote that he seldom alters the lighting and bokeh in Photoshop or similar softwares. It def has an oil painting look and the kind of surrealism that he has "created" is probably not close to physical truth at the time and space that the shot was clicked. Truth defined in the world of photography and Feynmans laws of lights. It definitely is good work of art - even in PS I would not be able to create 1/100th of what the guy has done:). What is, by the way, truth in art ?

Orkut !!

2007-07-12T03:52:00.000-07:00

My mom is on orkut !!! Hehe...She scraps as though it is a very private place !! And she makes statements like "Have a nice journey and do scrap me once ur in Mumbai!!!". I know NOW that IT revolution has hit us square !!! What that essentially means is that scraps like "Dood, we still have the fivestar chocs, hide n seek biscuits & grass leftover from last Saturday. I also bought the Floyd discography DVD. So when are you joining next?" is definitely out. Also out is, "Honey, where are we meeting tonight?" (Hope you understand this !!).
What is in ? "Suhas, which temple are we going to, next Sunday morning 7 a.m for the weekly prayers ?" He he. Frankly I dont care ! She is one of my best friends & pretty much knows everything thats there to know about her son !! :)

Orkut has become part and parcel of life seemingly !! Scraps like "Why don't you orkut me the new change management plan brief or scrap me the size of your bra so that I can buy it from Bangkok" makes me feel if the people know that it is a public arena !! It is not email !!

I have learnt a lot from Orkut including the fact that some of the best female lingerie is available in Bangkok. More on that in a latter blog !;). If government bans orkut, I guess loads of folks will have syndromes similar to the ones exhibited by people who have been forced off LSDs or acids.

Got marsh croc close up !!

2007-07-01T21:39:00.000-07:00

Had a very successful weekend. Given the monsoon fury in Mumbai and rest of Maharashtra, decided to spend the weekend in Bangalore. Wanted to go to Ranganathittu for the birds in rain pics and the marsh crocodiles which are in relative plentiness there. The result was worth the efforts (Hopefully). Went as close to a croc as I have ever been in India or outside. Got one ossum pose too....The guy was real gentle..Though swam close to my little wooden boat, did not pursue the matter further ;)...

The main birds were herons, painted stork, gray stork, ibises (Black headed White Ibises), terns, kingfisher, brahmini kites, parakeets, bulbuls, egrets (large, medium), cormorants (Large and Little) etc etc. The best time to go would be around March/April/May....Would have good light to shoot as well as more variety (Winter migratories etc).

You can get more pics here

Oh and by the way...Saw the Rajni starrer that seems to be making waves in India - Sivaji - The Boss !! hehehehe.....Watched it in PVR Juhu with a theatre full of Sardars ...Was ossum fun !!!

Arbit

2007-06-18T23:41:00.000-07:00

Celebrating one year of moving to my one room studio in Mumbai !!! Done on one rainy night with nothing better to shoot than the lock on my door,snail in my bathroom and water droplets from a faucet ! (Arbit modifications on PS as is so painfully obvious)

Went to Karnala for the weekend. Nice place if you are looking to see clouds descent over the peak. Nothing much in terms of trekking per se or even photog during monsoon (Atleast nothing befitting it's name of being a bird sanctuary - check here what I got!!). Caveat : I was there neither for the morning / evening so obviously sightings were very few. And season is anyways around Oct to Feb !!
Still being very close to Panvel it is nice drive for Mumbaikars to go and enjoy clouds / rains.

Kerala Monsoons

2007-06-13T03:41:00.000-07:00

It was an ossum welcome break ! Spent 4 days in monsoony kerala with cousins and friends. Attended a couple of family functions....

Was nice re-living the nostalgia - of paper boats in water, flooded roads, chinese nest against the cloudy skies, fisherwomen with skirts lifted up exposing fleshy thighs, diamond droplets over long grass reflecting early morning sunshine, coloured flowers, massive rainbows, variety of birds wet and drying themselves whenever sun comes out (Woodpeckers, robins, drongos, sunbirds, sparrows and even owls), playing cards in cozy sofas as the rain beats heavy against the window panes, just looking at the water flow down the tiled roofs of traditional kerala houses, walk through the pools of water splashing it around like a school kid, playing cricket with the wet ball that skids along as if on a matting wicket, watching mallu comedy movies, going to temple for the smell of burning camphor & agarbathi & oil & flowers, squirrells and mongooses all over the place shaking their fur ejecting water droplets against weak rays of sun coming down through thick cloud covers, driving the car fast in the rain through highways with water filled paddy fields on either sides, drinking filter coffee at the front verandah watching the coconut trees swinging like mad, eating mangoes and then eating them some more, put alarm for 6 o clock so that you can wake up and KNOW that you have taken leave & hence go right back into the confines of the covers as the rains sing the morning ragas - Life !!
As always when ever I am in Kerala loads of youngsters come for advice on which branch to take for engineering, which college to go for in MBA, what is the scope for CA etc...And I thought - How does it matter ?... When will we all stop planning for life and start living the life ?...Noone in their final days would miss all the extra hours not spent in office, the MBA degrees not taken from top schools,the bank balances that never bulged enough,.............But ofcourse I did not say any of these - would def be construed as the "show off" by someone on the other side of the green grass syndrome !!! :)....

Could not photograph a lot since FZ 50 is not good at creating sharp images in low light conditions. (Or I am not good enough to use it properly !! hehe). Maybe I shall have to buy a tripod soon enough.
Few samples here

One year of 2nd Janam in corporate life !!

2007-06-05T06:29:00.000-07:00

I am one year out of business school. One year in my new job.

Think it is time to take a few breaks !! Went to Alibaug last weekend for couple of days of fun, frolic,sun, sand,football,cricket, vodka and bonfire... That is when I realised that it is looong since Ive taken a real break. It also inspired me to take another weekend off - this time taking couple of days of leave to enjoy the Monsoon in Kerala.So have decided to fly to God's Own Country this weekend and be there for 4 full days !!! Enjoying the beautiful monsoon and attending a family function.
Over the past year there have been two key changes. One of course is that I've learned so much and the learning curve has been challenging - may not be on par with first year at IIMA but a close second. Second is that I've developed a new passion !!! It is still very vague (Can passion be vague ?!! - is it a passion then ??!!- but it centres around public policy, economics driven policy for nature conservation and probably policy teaching / advising in the long term. (With wildlife and wildlife photography thrown in as serious hobbies where I won't mind spending good money!!;0) However, I've decided to continue with the Firm for foreseeable future. There hasn't been anything that have made me re-look at the decision I made of joining consulting.
Personal wealth creation has become couple of notches lower in priorities than when I was at IIM A. Don't know if this is a sustainable idea which has germinated or is a passing phase.

Overall a great 1 year return to corporate life !!!!

Lovely weekend !!!!

2007-05-14T23:34:00.000-07:00

Almost a perfect weekend !!!

10 hours of reading Wilbur Smith (Time to Die - the veritable African Adventure. Though game hunting is not something I support, licenses for hunting old adult male species is one of the few successfull way of raking money for protection / prevent poaching in the huge wildernesses - Esp Mozambique / Zambia region - where Safaris are not as popular / accessible as Kenya / Tanzania and SA)
2 hours of watching Afro wildlife DVDs - In my next life I want to be Chief Conservator of Selous Game Reserve, Tanzania - Period !!!! :D:D
5 hours of partying at Velvet Lounge - Nice and cheap place, though a bit difficult to access without own transportation. Crowd probably not as hep as Insomnia nor probably as raunchy as Shack ;). Still fun filled evening!!
75 minutes of Metro First Half (Music is amongst the best one have heard in India in a loong time!! Brilliant first half, stellar performances from most of a stellar cast - I don't understand how in a country of Kay Kay,Irrfan and Konkona, Salmans/Shahrukhs and Kareena Kapoors are stars !!)
One and half hours of Vagina Monologues !!! (As brilliant as any - amazing Indianisation, excellent cast / script - Atul Kulkarni's vagina worship and the Parsi Aunties flooded cum - & the moanings - OM fing G hilariously funny !!!)

First Shots

2007-04-26T22:58:00.000-07:00

Update from Outdoors : Went butterfly shooting in Bangalore over the weekend..there is an interesting butterfly theme park there where density of these lovely creatures are high and the whole area is quite and peaceful...It is close to Bannerghatta and people in Bangalore / travelling to bangalore might want to check it out.

Few trial shots with the F Z 50. At higher ISOs quality is as good as my Nokia 2 MP cell phone in bright sunlight!! :D.(Excessive NR leading to one wondering if the image is a photograph or a painting)
FZ50 has an ossum SLR like feel. As a matter of fact it is more SLRish in look and feel than even probably my lensless Canon EOS.:)..Haven't yet tried out the camera for anything serious outdoors...Need to do it probably over the weekend if I get some time.

Whose hands that savours the blood ?

2007-04-20T02:07:00.000-07:00

Cho's Richard McBeef

Eng's Glasses

If Cho accused "them" with Mercs and trust funds and gold chains for V Tech massacre, Eng (self styled god of universe who "supported" V Tech massacre since an equal number of whites and blacks were killed !!) is more philosophical about life after college - a sudden burst of angst that there is nothing left after college - 30 years of job brooding in a house waiting for death to relieve from painful dullness. Product of a society in pursuit of hedonism without meaningful avocation to it's youth ? Nah. I'd say the guy has fully and completely lost it. Whoever (and I have read a few blogs especially from Indians) is accusing US culture (Gun, family, sex, hedonistic as prefixes) for this is nuts !!
"What man would spend 30-odd years working just to sustain his life and maybe buy a house at old age? Who would want to live in a quotidian shade of gray until death took him? If one was to live, one ought to make life an adventure, a party of challenges for the mind and body. Only then could one really celebrate, for it mattered not how long one lived as much as how he lived."

More of Eng

Every meaningless minute spent
begging mercy for every wrong thing.

Feeling strangely numb,
his hand moves against
the cool metal of the .45
tucked inside his jacket pocket.
Somewhere, a lost dog howls...

And many more..

Fuck I am falling in love with Eng !! I guess many of these extremely violent distorted personas are amazingly strong writers / speakers !!! Phew....

By the by, who the fuck would want to drive a Purple colored Fiesta ?? Maybe the same guy I saw in Mumbai airport the other night wearing pink shoes, yellow shorts and green see through tee...

Po

2007-04-16T00:58:00.000-07:00

I bought Po's much acclaimed What Should I do with my life - the one on finding a purpose for life and being fulfilled, which I picked from the Bangalore airport waiting for a rare delayed Jet to Kochi for the Vishu weekend (Belated Vishu to all by the by)
It is a good read - no one can debate that. I love my work today. I love the people part of it. I am working with an amazing set of individuals - people of high integrity, values and a need to do something useful to society too. But still the book evoked / stirred deep emotions in me. Set me thinking about finding meaning in my work. Me and a few of my colleagues have had this discussion before too.
For some the best way to deal with meaning in life through work is to look at work as a "funding agency" which funds your family time together. Weekend funs. Movies. Brands. Cars. Housing mortgage payments. Some just don't search for a meaning saying its an abstract thing which is for concern only for people who have jumped out of the top of Maslow's pyramid.
Buy the book. Read it. Think about it. Chew it. 350 rupess well spent. A VERY STRONG BUY :)

Sawatikaaaaaaa !!

2007-04-09T03:52:00.000-07:00

Had a nice weekend at Phuket. Sun, sand, drinks and ubiquitous Tuk Tuk - both varieties !! I was at the Hilton Arcadia close to Kata-Karon Beachstrip and it was the most sprawling hotel property I've been in. Close to 30+ acres. Barring their Dal Makhani and Punabi numbers in the Deep Sea Disc, the place is absolutely fantastic !!
The one thing that struck me was how they have rebuilt Phuket after the Tsunami. Places like Kamala and Patong beach which were washed away by the waves are back in full regalia. Its just amazing the kind of work that the government and people have put in the country to rebuild it. And if the Suvarnabhumi airport at Bangkok is anything to go by Thailand is in for bigger things.
That also instills in us fear and hope - fear regarding how many more years of 7+ GDP growth we would need, to come anywhere close to some of our Asian friends. Hope that probably the only way forward for India is Up.

Forgot to add : Bought a new Panasonic Lumix FZ50 to go with my Canon EOS film SLR. Thought its a good prosumer camera..As close to DSLR as it could get but without having to change lenses for shots. Would primarily use this for long zoom shots since I don't have telephoto lens for my Canon. Let me see how it performs. :)

Aaargghhh!!

2007-03-29T02:03:00.000-07:00

Ok so now you know what happened to my India - Pakistan final prediction !!..Atleast Sri Lanka is still around and Murali is bowling as well as ever. So I still have hope !! Murali will do more wonders in this world cup. The doosra that got Dhoni and the straight on from around the stumps that got Sehwag were unforgettable. I am not too bothered by India's exit. I think the game has changed so much from what it was even 10 years back. All the wristy ground shots and "static" & Sunday afternoon fielding that Indians are famous for has been dealt severe blows by powerplays, airy shots, superior fitness and body builder physique batters.
I remember when I used to play in under 16, coaching centred around playing "Only" ground shots. We were coached only in offdrive, ondrive, cut (with rolling the wrist over to keep the ball along ground), leg glance backfoot defense, front foot defense, leaving down leg side, leaving outside offstump and ducking on bouncers.
In my early days as opener, we used to be at scores of 10 for no loss in 5 overs and it was considered a job well begun. 40-45 for no loss in 10 overs was brilliant!! By the time I was playing intra University and District leagues we openers used to aim for 50-60 in first 8 overs and coaches stopped swearing at you for lofting over covers or hooking down the fine leg.
In early days work outs were mostly in the ground. Running, stretching, rotating followed by regulation slip catches, high catches, ground fielding. Weights and pumping muscles was considered absolutely unnecessary. The last time I had visited one of the clubs I was amused that most guys spend lots more time in gym. Fielding includes sliding, flat throws,running between the wickets. Specialist fielders having specific drills ! For example, the point/square leg fielder would throw down a single stump, long on and long off doing running high catches - they had thought about who would field where prior, just like jotting down the batting order.
In general cricket has become less "puritan", more brute. And Indians are genetically at a disadvantage. Come 20-20 and it would herald deeper depths of THE cricket that we are better at playing.
Not trying to justify our poor performance, just that the problem is more fundamental. I think we would be better off concentrating on chess, carrom board, bridge, poker and other amenable avenues !! :D

Some Arbit Snippets !

2007-03-12T05:56:00.000-07:00

Saw Water. Impressive direction. Strong visuals. Great acting. Cute Kid. Amazing Seema Biswas. Strands of genius from AR Rahman. Clearly "Location not Banaras" written all over the south Indian Women, palm trees & temple architecture. Storyline which raises many questions - Some serious existential ones through a Laddoo, some serious "equality" ones through a Kid's eyes. Must watch.
At the end of recruiting season for IIMs A/B/C / ISB, anecdotal evidence clearly suggest a move in favor of Indian companies amongst the toppers of IIMs. More and more people in top 50 prefers to stay back in India. Interesting in the backdrop of another anecdotal evidence suggesting less than 20% of Class of 2000 would be in India today.
Was in this posh pub/disc the other day. There was this rather queer incident. As I was sipping the usual Gin and Schweppes, saw this well endowed young lady with a bright yellow Tee. I burst out laughing. Written over her breasts was "Himalayas". Then I realised, maybe it is not a faux pas. Maybe it is a fashion statement. One never know these days ! Thankfully the panty & ass crack showing low cuts seems to be out of fashion !
Saw Apocalyptico. Thought it was a well made movie by Gibson with more than enough blood letting and morbidity. Waiting for the mega opening of 300 though. Atleast from trailers it looks to be a "digital history" in making.
Vagina Monologues came back to Prithvi for Women's Day. It would make eminent economic sense for it to be screened more often during weekends (rather than women's day Thursdays). It is forever fully booked. Same holds for Russell Peters. I heard a friend got a DVD from RP signed "Be Brown" !! :)
Cricket world cup officially started. Fearing chronic lack of sleep over the days ahead given the timezone differences. I predict India - Pakistan final !! Or India - Sri Lanka, with Murali, Man of the Series. Ok ok. I am not going to predict that Virender Sehwag will be the maximum run getter though I have such a gut feel !!!

Weekend well spent !!

2007-02-04T22:35:00.000-08:00

Finally broke the jinx of not seeing Sachin bat. Whenever I have seen India play, Sachin was either injured/resting or not part of playing 11. Finally got to see him bat when I went for the final of Ranji trophy between WB and Mumbai. Sachin scored a 40+ and gave money's worth for around an hour. The laziness of Sunday was well spent doing something which I absolutely love. Early morning beer and loads of decent quality cricket ! By the by, if you can get hold of some CCI (Cricket Club of India) member do go to Polly Umrigar bar there. You an have fish & chips or plain old potato chips/french fries with beer and watch live action from Brabourne. Food is also decent and pretty cheap for as elitist a place as CCI. You will mostly be dining with who is who of erstwhile cricketing fraternity of India/Mumbai. There is a rare Bradman pic signed by Bradman himself !! Every nook and corner is embellished by artefacts of historical meat.

Evening though was wasted watching Mahesh Manjrekar and Sandya Mridul in Double Deal at Tata Theatre, NCPA. One of the few bad plays hosted there in a long time. Went to Moshe's for the Hummus and Pita starters and Salads.Even that did not remove the pain of wasted time !! Star value do not imply real value ! Speaking of which, I finally downloaded Avial's Nadanadanada from you tube which was introduced to me by IIM A juniors when I was there for our campus fest Chaos. It is by far one of the bestest mallu non film music Ive heard in 25+ years. Also one of the best in it's genre from India - a mix of really energetic hard rock with a bit of thrash thrown in between. So what if it sounds and feels like Linking Park, it is a great debut by these bunch of youngsters (who were even doing rounds in MTV). Way to go. (Check it)

Nostalgia

2007-01-10T04:11:00.000-08:00

If you love swahili love songs,
Well No,
If you love swahili songs,
Well No,
If you love songs,
Well No,
If you love,
Well No,
If you.....Then listen to this piece of beauty in case you haven't - Malaika Nakupenda Malaika (Angel, I love you Angel). Lyrics clearly demarcating the perenniel conflict in African existence - Love and life ; in turn for the african a conflict between love and money.
Most of our nightly "Taarab" trips in coastal East Africa would have as a constant companion this song. Also Jambo Jambo Bwana (Hello, Hello Mister). All these and more here..
Oh How I miss the strolls along the deserted beaches under starlit sky and full moon,with the smell of Africa in nostrils, her drumbeats in the ears and feeling her breasts in everything around. It is 2 years to this date since I returned.

I long for you still my .....Angel !! And I know you know it !

Females and Human Development !!

2006-12-20T21:04:00.000-08:00

"For nineteen-year-old Rinki dreams of a happily married life was never to be. Barely a month after her marriage, she was allegedly tortured and then set ablaze by her in-laws for dowry in Indiranagar in the small hours of Saturday. Daughter of late Gyan Chand, a fish contractor who expired a year ago, Rinki was married to Anil on April 19... However, soon after the marriage, Balakram [Anil’s father] demanded a colour television instead of a black and white one and a motorcycle as well. When Rinki’s mother failed to meet their demands, the teenage housewife was subjected to severe physical torture, allegedly by her husband and mother-in-law... On Saturday morning she [her mother] was informed that Rinki was charred to death when a kerosene lamp accidentally fell on her and her clothes caught fire. However, prima-facie it appeared that the victim was first attacked as her teeth were found broken. Injuries were also apparent on her wrist and chest." From TOI

During a debate last weekend over Brandy (unadulterated with impurities like water,coke or Ice), Benadryl and Zedex with couple of eco post grads and a mallu communist, I was asked if I were "a bra burning feminist". In and off itself the answer is obvious since I dont have to take recourse to the said undergarments, let alone burn the same. All I had said was that Female Literacy more than anything else defined the bar for overall development. I remain a staunch supporter of equality - both for technical and conscientious reasons, even though I've been called variously as "Bra Burner" and "hypocrite" to "pseudo egalitarian".

Let me touch on technical reasons here.

If any of you are interested in Public Policy/ Developmental Economics or even supports equality for women, you might do well to find the r^2 between HDI (Human Development Index, a weighted sum of GDP in PPP, avg. life expectancy, avg. literacy rates etc) and each of the variables involved. If you can lay your hands on data across countries you will see Norway coming at the top and I think Niger coming at the bottom. Norway is, under this HDI index definition around 5 times better a society than Niger in terms of "Human Development" (Quotes added purposely so that we dont get into a philosophical debate of what is development or what is Human !!!)
The rsquare for any such analysis shows the highest value for female literacy - implying in some ways that a society with limited resources need only to concentrate on increasing female literacy for overall development. (One can debate till we all become old that r square only throws variance of predicted values from a system/equation pre chosen etc etc but let us keep it simple for the time being!!)

The aspect to stress is that one cannot underestimate the importance upliftment of women for social development. My personal experiences with SEWA has opened a whole new world of opportunities. The facts some of them threw up was like bombshells - 25000 girls gets maimed/killed for things like "B&W TV instead of Color", "3 gold bangles instead of 4","10000 instead of 13000" and the likes. One of them told me that during one of her research in Rajasthan-Gujarat border , she was pleasantly surprised that dowry deaths had come down from historic highs - only to later realise that it was driven by increasing female foeticide!!!
Intellectualising about issues in blog never solves anything and hence I'm apprehensive to write reg the same. Yesterday I met someone who is working on these , on the field, sacrificing a 6 figure dollar salary in a Wall Street Bank. I felt so small !!

So what shall be your new year resolution ?!!

I'm off internet starting 23rd (Hopefully) till 1st. Xmas party in Bangalore followed by a much needed break in Kerala for a rather private and quite New Year after ages !!
Yuletide wishes to all !!

I AM OLD !!

2006-12-01T03:13:00.000-08:00

Yes friends...I guess it is time for me to accept that Im in Sidin's parlance an "After Youth".

1. I have more formal cloths than informal. In fact the number of tee I regularly use is limited to one. Jeans - 2
2. I have back aches if i sit in front of the lappy for more than 5-6 hours at a stretch. Ive taken to sleeping on carpets since soft beds seems to accentuate the problem !!
3. Money suddenly doesn't seem to be as important a motivating force as I thought
4. I am worried less about success and more about legacy.
5. I am neutral towards that girl in Hard Rock Cafe, who is hot and smiles at me. (Worse still she's wearing a micro mini and I still look at her face!!)
6. Marriage doesn't seem the most weird human intervention in biology. I think even I can settle with a single girl for more than 1-2 years !
7. I cant work till 5 and wake up at 8 and be back in office. I can't even party till 5. I actually prefer lounges to discs these days.
8. All nighters of IIM A and Oil Rigs in African rigs looks like a distant dream. I can't do that today unless there is a dangerously high level of caffeine or a highly intellectual debate happening or a hand of rummy or 29!!
9. I am more worried about the kids who beg at the light for the right turn at domestic airport at Santa Cruz than my salary.
10. I can't manage more than an average of 2 hours of flying without feeling uncomfortable.
11. Girls who used to pamper me more than I would have asked for, have started noticing my paunch and worse still asks," Do you think you should go back to gymming?".:(. Worse still aunties wearing leopard skin short skirts and high heeled leather boots at Monza at Phoenix Mills think she can make me notice her by giving weird looks !!

I dont want to get oldddddddd.........

Branding for PSUs

2006-11-21T04:43:00.000-08:00

Couple fo days back on a misty morning at 6, was waiting at the Kolkatta airport waiting for an Alliance Air ATR to take me to Guwahati for a key meeting . The flight was delayed for around an hour. Since I hadn't slept the previous night it would have been too risky to try and sleep at the lounge. There was a clear chance that I would not wake up to my cell alarm. Hence I decided to take a walk around the airport having one coffee per 15 minutes. That is when I saw this rather interesting ad of Indian.
"We do things that other airlines don't - for our nation - like flying to earthquake affected areas, flood hit far flung airports. We evacuate stranded passengers from strife torn foreign lands. Because we work for the nation"

Today I saw an ad for SBI in TOI/Eco Times whose brief was something as follows :

"We would rather open branches in remote areas in our country to serve you than build plush offices for ourselves. Hence we have reach at every corner of our nation"

Interesting takes on existence of PSUs. I am suitably impressed on the messages. I think there is an element of truth in these messages. But would the customers be impressed ?

I had stayed at ITC's Shonar Bangla property while at Cal. They mailed me couple of days later asking me to fill their feedback form on service/food/bar etc. They said they would donate a sum to an orphanage if I would send back the feedback. Most of the other hotel chains would ask for a feedback and say you could be a lucky winner. I never used to reply to the feedback mails but this time I did. Partly ofcourse because I thought Shonar Bangla Sheraton was one of the best hotels I've ever checked in (both in India and abroad). But more importantly I really liked the way they inspired me to fill the form. Excellent service followed by a social "utility" message - icing on cake.
Icing has to be on cake.

The Departed !!

2006-11-05T08:16:00.000-08:00

In between Kalimpong, Noni, the retired judge, Sai and Mutt and the beauty of Himalayas well imbued in the beautiful Desai scripted Man Booker Winner I & a friend of mine decided to see The Departed. I was planning to write about Inheritance of Loss and recommend it without any doubt. But be warned that I'm biased in favor of Indian authors and Man Booker prize winners. So it would eb doubly biased in favor of the very Arundhati Royish Desai novel too.
But The Departed is being recommended in a very unbiased manner. THE Best movie of the year. And up there in my all time Top 15. Not yet a Pulp Fiction, but almost there.Though the story (taken from an HK production) is not top class by itself, the direction, acting and above all the dialogues make it up there among the greatest. Each and every character has done a great job. An ABSOLUTE MUST WATCH.

"No human had ever seen an adult giant squid alive, though they had eyes as big as apples to scope the dark of the ocean, their was a solitude so profound they might never encounter another of their tribe. The melancholy of this situation washed over Sai" From The Inheritance of Loss, Kiran Desai

School as Free Markets !

2006-10-19T00:47:00.000-07:00

I was thinking about school days. School days remains for a lot of people extremely memorable period. Our gang in those days still keeps in touch. The trumpets of old age whistles on us through marriages in the gang and those of our sisters/brothers. We realize that we are getting old.
School for many of us were the place we started first commercial activities - Selling name slips, stamps, coins (without worrying too much about exchange rates!!). Apart from our first kisses/make outs, romance, beer, smoke, adult abuses (both English and regional languages), porn movies and magazines trading is an integral part of my memories of school days. It started of as barter system evolving into (what we thought) was the more adult currency system. But I loved the barter system more since the negotiations would be much more intriguing. Also the fact that pocket money would rather be used for buying chocolates for your sweetheart rather than spending on a Botswana Stamp having a the picture of a beautiful Impala.
Looking back the “market” was amazingly ingenuous. People with advantages in a particular product (Say a stamp from RSA cause her dad is working for the UN in Capetown) would leverage that - say One RSA stamp for 2 stamps from KSA. KSA, Oman etc were by the by the cheaper foreign stamps since every other person in Kerala seemed to be working there. Since snail mail was a major communication tool there were many letters from the gulf countries to Kerala. Similar advantages would exist in coin trade! So the normal “price” which was prevailing before gets really disturbed when someone with such rare advantages comes into the market. So one RSA that would have been trading for 10 Omans start trading for 2 Omans.
Name slips had multiple parameters determining pricing. (For stamps it was mainly country of origin though a beautiful stamp, new having a picture of a bird/animal/flower did have a premium). For name slips the main factors were – Type (Ready to stick or normal), picture on the slip, area to fill in details like Name, Class, Subject etc, Brand (Bismi, Walt Disney etc were premium brands) and if it were a collector’s item (Part of a collection – all Butterfly stamps from say Bismi / all Walt Disney characters). Here the advantage was in terms of access to the products – People from Town side could buy the Sticker Slips and then used to sell it in class at a premium to people who didn’t have similar access to these “high end” products. The premium was used either for reinvesting in the trade itself or for things like “Sip Pepsi”, Lemon Soda or (in exceptional cases of profits) in a Paratha + Beef Fry combo.
Other commodities traded included Footballer’s/Wrestler’s/Cricketer’s stat cards, which used to come free with chewing gums. These were sold in secondary markets for money. Sometimes people used to get as much for a card as for a new gum. Hence if you could “fool” customers then essentially you could have your gums for free. Pricing here was not straight forward – it was more like art. Value based rather than Cost plus. So I might pay a large sum (or a Maradona and van Basten) for a Carlos Valderemma where as someone else might pay more for Maradona. Then there used to be some “nut case” who would pay anything for getting all goal keepers. So you could sell a “cheap” English Goalkeeper for a Gullit. I never collected wrestlers. (Never once did I find any thrill in looking at muscular men in undies!!). So I was a “nut case” in their market. I used to give up Hulk Hogan for Gavaskar/ even some unknown South American forward with weird hair-do. Someone had also introduced pics of blondes in lingerie but it never really had takers – people would “check” the product for 4-5 minutes and then return it since it was too risky to be kept at home.
As we got older the trades died down and the products became obsolete for us. Younger brothers and sisters had a windfall then since they inherited these possessions and the market was sustained!!
I wonder what it is like in today’s school. From my cousins I gather that Wrestling is still in. Blondes are in. Indian actresses are also in. (Since they wear only as much cloths as Card Blondes of my time used to). Game CDs are in. But sadly there is no trade. Kids go and buy what they want from the market outside the school – the adult market.
Meanwhile I saw two matches of Australia (One practice and one against WI). It was nice to see the stars in reality who adorns the Chewing Gum cards of today!