Selamat Datang !

Malaysia makes a good first impression . And sticks with it right through its hills , beaches , straits and cities . With its swanky international airport and its elevated monorail that connects the boarding area from the checking-in area . The monorail flies right under the airstrip , so one doesn’t wait for the other . The simultaneous arriving and the landing are one great representation of great Malaysian efficiency .
Then comes the acres of green with a drive through one of the densest forests heading towards the city . The city itself is a good mix of the old and the new , the fast and the slow , the black and the white .
There’s a great amount of diversity in the city , the structures reflect different architectures , temples , mosques and pagodas dot the landscape , the entire population is a mélange of Chinese , Indians and Malays . The Buddhist maha vihara temple near Tun Sambanthan is a stark contrast to the spectacular Batu caves in the hills on the way to Genting . One needs to climb the three hundred steps upto the top of the hill to see the temple of Muruga , the son of Shiva .
In Kuala Lumpur , we stayed on the thirty fifth floor of the swank Berjaya Times Square Hotel , the forty storey hotel on top of a ten storey mall on top of a four storey games arcade and with the KL monorail running through its first floor .Some great food at the Big Apple restaurant kept us in good spirits just like the great harmonious city all around . The monorail gives a great overview of the city as it travels from Titiwangsa in the north to the KL sentral and Tun Sembanthan in the south passing Imbi ( where we stayed ) and Chow kit , the riotous shopping place .
The Petronas is an imposing structure and so is the Surya KLCC mall it houses . The variety of fish in the aquaria make interesting viewing .
Malaysia also makes for good mystery .
For instance , while little is known about its origins , some say that Indians discovered Malaysia as they crossed the Bay of Bengal looking for some sort of Swarnabhoomi or “land of Gold” ,only to find this heavily vegetated land , most of which still stands as is . In fact the cable car gondolas that transport one from Genting highlands to the lowest altitude past through 500 year old scary and dense rain forests . Genting itself is like Ooty , nestled amongst thick vegetation at a height of 2000 feet above sea levels , the only thing it has is the massive amusement theme park . It’s like Pattayya and Las Vegas as cities built on just one source of income.
The most outstanding ride is the Space Shot . As it slowly takes you high up , so high that you can see KL many miles down . Rising slowly , it gives you a great glimpse of the entire rain forest around Genting , building fear in your soul to its maximum . And then it drops you . Feet , heart , mind become numb and you shriek hard to stay alive . It is one of the most remarkable experiences one can have .
Probably , it helps you conquer fear . But it’s great fun for twelve ringgits a head .
Malaysians seem very impressionable too . Their flag is a replica of the Amrican flag with the stars replaced by the half moon crescent and star , an Islamic adaption , and most of their earlier kings were called ‘Rajah’s , straight out of Hindu history .The Government is a replica of the British monarchy , a King ruling the country with the administration looked after by a Prime Minister . Even their traditional wedding ceremony is remarkably similar to the ones done in India .
Srivijaya , the oldest of Malaysian ports was the original name for the port city of Malacca . Rajeev Menon , one of my neighbours in Pune and a great badminton buddy did the sixon-sixoff schedule as a merchant navy captain with a Norweigan company , would often recount tales of how pirates would jump ship and how he was once lighter by two thousand dollars of his personal wealth when they attacked just off the coast of Malaysia .
Pirates of the Malaccan ! plays out every night in the dark waters of the Andaman bay. The Kingdom of Malaysia forms a strange ‘V’ sign with the south China sea as its backwaters with the richer nations of Brunei and Singapore occupying pecks of land in its borders . The intensity of trade makes it a much desired destinations for pirates .
As Malaccan trade grew in volume , it attracted the middle east businessmen and soon the local heads started to call themselves Sultans and forming a cross cultural network of ships controlled the pirates .
This and the fact that non-muslim ships couldn’t dock anywhere near Egypt attracted the Portuguese who landed in Malacca in 1511 .If one were to look at the boat of the Portuguese sailor , Alfonso de Albuquerque preserved in its splendour on the coast of Malacca , one can see the spirit of adventure and the great conquest that the Portuguese made .The Dutch attacked the Portuguese ruled Malacca till the next invader came along .
The resort of A’Famosa spread over many acres has a gate that replicates the original fort as constructed by the Portuguese before the Dutch took it away . We spent a great three days in our three-bed villa with private swimming pool . A banana truck took us along around the resort .
As we sat down by the sea on the strait of Malacca , the Portuguese locality around us had a stark resemblance to Goa . They count amongst the poorest of the people now and are culturally the most bankrupt .
‘One not like this place , ‘ said Syed talking about the sea front Portuguese locality in Malacca , the dashing driver who doubled up as a history guide too. Syed had five children and his wife was buzy expecting the sixth , all of whom he supported by ferrying tourists around the Melacca city .
‘ The British change everything ‘ , he said affirmatively , ‘They come to Penang , dock ships , refuel , and go to China . But the Japanese beat them ’
As the world war played out in Europe , the Japs down here , part of the italy – germany axis , were plundering the localites here . Malaysia happened to be in their way of total eastern control ,so they threw the british out in 1942 , a couple of years before the war ended and invited the B2 bombers and the only bomb ever exploded saw them surrender it back to the British .
Finally , the Chinese came invading in 1969 , before a series of treaties signed amongst all these city states and countries settled the definition of land borders and created amongst the most efficient and progressive states in the southeast .
The road from Genting to Kuala Lumpur or the one from Kuala Lumpur to Malacca were superb , well laid , and a great drive .

The KLIA doesn’t need luggage to be screened as the entire airport has been wired and screening happens the minute you step into the airport .
I stared at the Flight scheduler with horror . The flight was delayed by over twelve hours and was slated to leave now in the morning.
I managed to convince the Chinese supervisor and his Indian assistant that I needed to be on the flight leaving right now via Chennai to Mumbai and couldn’t wait for the morning flight . Persistance paid and we managed our way back .
The Air India baggage retrieval counters in Mumbai were a mess . The luggage of different airlines turned up in different counters and there was utter chaos at two am . There was utter chaos as the conveyor belt of the Air Indian Malaysian flight got loaded with the Air India South Africa flight and all hell broke loose.
As one drove out of Andheri in the pouring rain , the dilapidated buildings , the incomplete structures , filth and ‘work in progress’ signs dotted the lanes onto the western express highway .
‘Selamat Datang India !’
‘Welcome to India ’, as they say in Malaysia .

Meter Down !

Here are some of my fav songs on Mumbai from the movies , though I can’t place the movie with the song :

Aye Dil , Hai Mushkil jeena yahaan ,
Zara hatke Thoda bachke , yeh hai Mumbai meri jaan
Kahin motor , kahin carein , kahin busein , kahin manzil ,
Milta hai yahaan sabh kuch , bus milta nahin dil

I like the reality check !

Yeh Bombay sheher hai ,
Haseenon ka sheher
Yahan kissi pal bhi ho sakta hai
Koi na Koi
Haadsa ,
Haadsaa .
-from the movie Haadsaa , indicates the city's open canvas for action and opportunity.

Bombay se aaya mera dost , dost ko salaam karo
Raat ko khaao piyo , Din mein aaram karoo !

There’s an anachronism in the above line , though it celebrates the friendship . Unlike say Bangalore or Delhi where you are likely to say that you stay in Bangalore or Delhi without being a typical Bangalorean or Delhiite , a Bombay guy says he is a Bombay guy . Cosmopolitanaism in Bombay is atypical .e.g. your money skills , survival skills and opportunity capitalization skills convert you to a Bombay guy unlike in the other two cities where you can never convert to become a quintessential typical rude , arrogant and post-9pm social circuiter Delhiite or a meek , unadverturous localite typical Bangalorean . You never belong to those places , but to Bombay , you could belong . Bombay …..even against your wishes and even while you are pretty unaware of it , takes you in its fold and cosmoses you !
So the daily grind of action , the 35km daily commute , the continual adjustments that one does to quality of life in Mumbai , there can never be a ‘Din mein aaram karo ‘ kind of Mumbai guy ! for this is one city that truly never sleeps .
But I like the zing of a welcome for a Bombaiyah guy in the song here .


Eh Hai , Eh Hai Bombay nagariya tu dekh babuaah !


And amongst the newer ones ,

Na biwi na bacha , Na baap bada na bhaiyya
The whole thing is that ke bhaiyya sabse bada rupaiyyah ! ‘

-the beautifully choreographed song on cool Abhishek Bachchan from Bluffmaster .This was the get-rich-quick formula that saw the younger B’s wealth-creating opportunites only to be conned into a bigger game .


‘Kissi ka chhuta , Kissi ki daulat ,
Kissi ka lost , to kissi aur ka found ,
Yahaan pe Jindagi me har kushi
Rupaiaah hai ya dollar ya pound !
Meter down , down , down , down , meter down .
-from the great John Abraham movie Taxi no 9211 .
This was an outstanding movie with this brilliant sound track that pitted the fantastically rich billionaire against the existing-struggling-selfpitying taxi driver and chronicled their parallel lives in the city with each claiming Mumbai to be his .

Finally , there’s Rudyard Kipling’s ode to Mumbai
“The Seven Seas ”

Surely in toil or fray ,
Under an alien sky ,
Comfort it is to say ,
Of no mean city am I !


And here’s my poetic take capitalist Mumbai :

This space on which you stand
Is worth a thirty thousand grand
The time which you take with me to talk
Kills some other opportunity that knocks !

So said this steel merchant in Fort
Many years ago to me , and him ; here I quote
He, in that one line ,taught me more about life
Than Toil , Sweat , Study or Strife !

For he had put a price
Without being polite and nice
On opportunity , effort and time
And thus defined this city of mine .

Ballet on grass

32 nations will battle for the soccer world cup . Who will win this one ?
Surely , the ruling deity - Brazil !
When Brazil was playing a practice match just before the final FIFA matches , 25000 people turned to see Samba magic . That’s a helluva lot of people . And why not , they have a record of 60 wins in 87 matches for an unprecedented 5 world cup titles in the 17 that have been played so far .
I was completely involved in the last world cup finals way back in 2002 , having organized the screening in Pune . Brazil won with the help of Ronaldo’s brilliance against German organization with the blazing 2-0 victory . I had gone berserk with the drums in the excitement of that match . And Ronaldo had arrived , carrying forward Pele’s legacy .
Brazilians don’t play defensive football , they don’t give long passes , they play a great risky game with short passes through competition and strike at will . They create opportunities that are studies in soccer rule books .That’s why watching them play is wonderful .It's like a ballet on grass.
Between them , Ronaldo and Ronaldhino have between them been selected world footballer of the year five times out of eight in the last eight years.
I saw all the matches of the 1986 world cup , missed the 1990 world cup completely as I had no access to television during those college years and missed the 1994 world cup as I settled into matrimony and a high pressure job . But logged into the 1998 world cup selectively as I climbed the corporate ladder . I turned the 2002 edition into a money spinner by converting it into an event and now will be a complete part of the 2006 world cup with the promise that the next world cup , I will see live in whichever country it is held in .
I love the game , it’s the best game for practicing leadership and team work at the same time ; and it’s the only sport for which I have ever won a medal . I won a silver medal for the school competitions way back in 1984 in Ambala , Haryana . I remember scoring two of the eight goals scored in all the six matches we played with the other schools that year . I have loved the game since .
It is also a great lesson in geography and history . A Portuguese team plays Angola which has been a portuguese colony for 400 years . Serbia plays Croatia , both parts of erstwhile Yugoslavia and now at a bitter five year war against each other back home . Germany plays Poland , years back having started a world war by attacking Poland ; USA plays Iran , where a war could be around the corner . France plays Algeria , a former colony , Netherlands play half of their old colonies and England play Australia , after having taken the cricketing Ashes for the first time in history last year . Cricket playing Trinidad and Tobago is the smallest country to play in the world cup with its 1.3 million population and a total land mass of 5000 sq km .So much excitement has their qualifying created in Trinidad that ther’s a comic book being released on their triumph . Five african teams battle hunger , poverty and financial crisis in their countries to give hope through victory .
It’s also a great study in combat . there are 12-13 formations to tackle different teams. There’s a new format of the ball itself with 14panels and not 32 as is normal .There’s an embedded chip that ensures that each time the ball crosses the line , it’s recorded .
‘For the record , anyone can win the 2006 World Cup’ begins the headline of the Newsweek article in its pre-match edition .Whether its three-time champion Italy or the debutante Angolans , Beckam’s England or Togo , the 61st team amongst the 62 teams vying for the 272 million dollars in prize money and the world championship , anyone can win this world cup .
I , though , would bet on some great exciting matches .
And a Brazil and Argentina final .

One Life

It was pouring and like normal Mumbai monsoons , it was pouring heavily . Visibility had reduced to a couple of metres , no matter what beacon light one had in the car . The concrete roads of South Mumbai shined with the rain , but the traffic refused to thin . A few pedestrians walked on the parapet walls held up by cement tripods keeping the rough sea at bay . The huge waves lashed at the parapet and a couple hugged tightly under an umbrella hopelessly as the waves wet them completely from the sea unexpectedly .The thin girl lost her balance and the guy lost his umbrella to the furious wind .
As Rahul’s car turned the end of marine drive and headed towards the Napean Sea road , the edge of the road was flooded . This was the part of Mumbai that was supposedly well-organized but now it seemed that nature had caught up with the outdated sever system in this part of Mumbai too .
Rahul was the quintessential good son . His dad and mom brought him up with the sole mission of him becoming an IAS officer . He studied hard , gave up sports , gave the exams and made it to be the senior under secretary in the Telecom Revenue Authority of India to the Telecom Minister . Life was a series of meetings on policy . And when there were no policy meetings , there was family .Or meetings with friends like this one tonight .
As Rahul drove over , through the barrage of cars , in Kemps corner , he contemplated whether it was a better idea to park the car and take the cab to Gallops restaurant , tucked inside the Turf club , where Arjun and Palak were waiting for him or should he drive on braving the rains and the traffic mayhem .
The drenched cop on duty took the decision for him . The whistle directed him to keep driving towards Jaslok hospital and then on to the Mahalaxmi race course for the restaurant . It started to rain afresh and the pace of the car reduced to a couple of metres a hour .
He drove into the Race Course , flashing his VIP card and reached the restaurant just before the new spell of rain created the traffic jam at Haji Ali.
Arjun stood up and greeted him . He considered himself closer to Rahul than Palak , as bothhad had fathers in the Administrative services and led very similar predictable lives . Palak was different , son of an army officer , he had jumed into the rough and tumble world of business with a software firm that was billing in good healthy dollars , but keeping him away from having time for relationship . Arjun and Rahul were the only ones he cherished from college . Arjun was rising the corporate ladder , so to say , in the country’s largest engineering firm , Larsen and Toubro .He headed the western region office and was knee deep in the large infrastructure projects the company was involved in . He was the dink ( double income no kid ) guy , traveling each year to a new country , wedded to his schoolmate , Radhika , who worked in a travel firm .
‘Lot of rain ,huh ‘ , said Palak as a non-chalant greeting
‘Mumbai is a mess when it rains ‘, completed Rahul
‘That’s why I came in early ‘
‘Don’t try your one-upmanship games again , Palki ‘, butted in Arjun
‘ Chal chodd , whazzup ?
‘Same old , same old ‘, Rahul sighed , ordering the waiter up , ‘ Get me the same drink as always , and an ashtray ‘
‘The amazing thing is that nothing changes in our lives in the gap between our meetings ‘said Palak
‘Except perhaps the stock quotes ‘, said Arjun ,’ none of my brokers have been able to figure out how the hell the sensex can come crashing down from 12000 to 8900 in ten days when it took a good three years to go the same distance up. Look at my company’s stock , it gains and loses 3-4% everyday ‘
‘These are swinging times . Cheers to the integration with the global economy ’, Palak raised his glass as all of them clinked the glass and sipped away ,‘ My firm sees dramatic creation and erosion of valuation every week . The Fed is increasing interest rates , money from the emerging markets is making its way back into the American market is everyones explanation . What beats me is if the emerging market stocks return as much as 30 % per annum , how the hell is the increase by 2% points back home going to keep their money growing ?
‘Moreover , how could the commodity exchange collapse in Russia or Mittals failure to close the Arcelor bid in France trigger the collapse of the share price of Kalyani steel or Tata steel here in India ?’
Precisely the reason I stay out of stocks , folks ’ said Rahul
‘You babus have no need to work the market . You are pretty well looked after , would never run out of your job and have even when you quit years later you will still get your house , car and rations taken care of till you kick the bucket . We lesser mortals have to make money , ensure employability , pay the taxes and live in constant uncertainity . And when a medical ailment hits us , we are drained of our resources too . The market helps us keep in financial shape .’
Palak broke into a song , ‘
Na biwi na bacha , Na baap bada na bhaiyya
The whole thing is that ke bhaiyya sabse bada rupaiyyah ! ‘
That’s the theme in Mumbai .Everyone is busy making money and ultimate respect is only for the guys who are working at making money . I started small , now my firm employs over a thousand people and I am raking in dollars. My timing was just right , I guess .Yet , my investment advisor insists that I put money in equities for long term gains . Money does buy you happiness . ’
Arjun added , ‘ In fact I like the couplet in the movie Taxi no 9211 as a good descriptor of the times we live in ,
‘Kissi ka chhuta , Kissi ki daulat ,
Kissi ka lost , to kissi aur ka found ,
Jindagi me har kushi
Rupaiaah hai ya dollar ya pound !
Meter down , down , down , down , meter down .
Everyone is seeking monetary happiness . The country is moving from being a socialist country to a capitalist one and spiritual values are the ones that we abandon along the way . Americans will reduce the world to the lowest common denominator of compulsive consumers ”
Rahul was , as always , looking at meaning of life . Money was never a motivator for him and his grooming and childhood had kept him away from the lure of money as his parents never discussed money in front of him , so did he try not ot discuss money in front of others .
“And look at the predictability of our lives ,’ he said , ‘ like they say in our Vedas , the seventy five years of a mans’ life are divided into four parts , first twenty five years is the vidhyarthi stage where he is a student of learning , the next twenty five years in the grahasth where he as a householder brings up his family , next twenty five years is sanyas where he would give back to society the enlightenment he would receive from his experiences . But I guess , all of us are perennially in a stage of existing , just running to do things without reflecting ’
‘That’s true ‘,said Arjun
‘But aren’t we doing different things ?’,asked Palak
‘Well, even though we are all in different professions , we are all pretty much doing the same things .All have studied Science , done engineering and then narrowly specialized either in the Administrative services or in management .Even our families are the same , just that I have kids and you guys don’t .’
‘I don’t have a family ‘ corrected Palak .
‘Out of choice or compulsion ?’checked Arjun
‘Choice , where’s the time ?’
‘Yes, but somewhere along the way you will find someone and settle down to a mundane householders life . ‘
Palak contemplated . It could be the case .
‘That’s why India’s is so different’ , Rahul continued ,‘completely unlike the westerners ‘
‘Meaning ?’ said Arjun , feeling slightly left out at the sudden pace of the discussions .
‘Americans , for instance .No two Americans lead the same life , everyone pursues different careers , follows different paths in life . Imagine taking a two year holiday traveling the world or going to learn scuba diving in the middle of a tough financial year for the company ? ’ Rahul postulated .
‘You are so right , Rahul ,I n my firm , there are atleast 30% expatriates and I look at their lives , and they are as different as chalk and cheese . This guy , Edwin , has had four relationships , is currently living in with a Marine Biologist who visits him in India every three months in between assignments in the pacific . And my project head on Gap , is one hell of an adventure freak , he’s a certified microlight flying instructor and is looking at starting a Flying Institute in the Sinhgad hills in Pune .
I once met a Palestine Engineer who was on our road project in Mysore and when he’s not working the world , he takes a month off as a reading break , I mean , just for catching up on reading . For a guy who has not had a country for years , to be able to think like that is amazing . And here I am , not having even truned a page of the two books I bought a couple of months back. ‘
Palak said agitatedly .
‘It is beginning to happen in the movie business , Aamir Khan has just junked his wife of twelve years one fine morning and moved in with Kiran Rao , a non-descrepit , ordinary soul with film making as a call in life .Then he gets married and takes her along to every film premiere and party . His productivity has surely increased , he’s done atleast three movies in two years which betters his record of one movie every four years . Saif Ali Khan did the same and now lives in with his Italian girlfriend Rosa . That’s just two of them in a billion .’
Arjun laughed out loud
‘There must be a change in society ,sure thing , guys . Look at the number of women who don’t marry or the number that gets divorced every year . Rita , my colleague has just finished completing her divorce formalities . she’s broken but she’s picking up the pieces of her life quickly . Working more hours than normal has seen her land some great assignment , like she went to Malaysia last week to study their Cantilever systems and is now promoted to head the project . Radhika met her the other day and Rita told her that she’s in no hurry for a new relationship and says she understands men now and will define the role they play in her life. ’
Palak ordered another drink .
The rain had stopped and the grass on the race course glittered with the dew. Rahul was two drinks down and so was Palak . Arjun was in his fourth drink .
Conversations were intense now.
‘Bhatia , my security incharge and three of his men actually participated in the anti-reservation protests along with the medical students outside Sassoon hospital in Pune the ther day . They even courted arrest . I think this fight between haves and hav-nots is going to intensify . The country is being divided like never before . the guys who don’t have will fight with the guys who have .’
‘You are right , Palak ’, said Rahul, ‘even the riots in Gujarat is a part of this same thing .’
‘How canyou say that ?’
‘See , around ten years ago , I had traveled through each of the cities in Gujarat when I was attached to the Industries Minister in Ahmedabad . Man , must tell you there ain’t more industrious people than them anywhere . In Rajkot , I remember the strategies they adopted to keep the Chinese out of the Machine tool business . The industrial corridor from Vapi to Mehsana is amongst the largest chemical industrial estates in the world , a full 225 km by 50 km stretch that saw each town flush with great capital and lots of commerce . The state was extremely prosperous and it contributed to national coffers . The state was historically always ruled by the congress , and it also decided the fate of many a central government . Hindus and Muslims lived in great harmony in areas like the old city on the other side of Ashram road . Even the Industrial houses around old city had great bonhomie .
All was well till the Y2K thing put Indian software industry on the world map , creating a reason for a great exodus into the American silicon valley which coupled with the great internet boom , suddenly took the thunder away from the manufacturing industry in India and turned us into a service economy
I remember the pie share changing from 65% agriculture to 20% while services moving from a meager 9% to 45% with manufacturing also dramatically reducing.’
‘You are right , Rahul ‘
‘Look ath e appointment ads today , 90% of them are for software , just a meager 10% are for the manufacturing industry . they are creating jobs by the thousands.’
‘Just yesterday TCS decided to add 15000 people in Pune whisking away 5% of my best managers at 35% increments , added Palak woefully .
‘Guys like Chandrababu naidu and SM Krishna also techno-upgraded their cities and wooed massive FDI’s into their states .Mircrosoft has probably now more people in Hyderabad than in Redmond . GE has massive people on its rolls .’
‘And all this employment was outside Gujarat . The new money simply passed Gujarat , it missed this boom . The gujjus never learnt English , never studied technology and are stuck with their manufacturing skills which the economy doesn’t need now . That’s a have-not . And their riots are a struggle against the haves as people go with traditional low paying jobs . The BPO and IT revolutions have just passed them by . Its easy for any politician to create an artificial enemy and stay in power .’
‘Now look at the reservation ruckus ‘, said Rahul .
‘‘Reservations has raised its ugly head for the seond time running . Last time was when the liberalization was happening and now when the second phase of liberalization under the same government leadership is taking place . While socialistic pursuits like these always put the country back by a couple of years , it will forever create a reason for the merit-oriented migrating to newer countries , this time probably Russia , China or even south east asia could see a stream of Indians moving in . ‘
‘Come to think of it , doesn’t every such move be followed by a move to remove restrictions on emigrations ?’
‘We are caught in the throes of a dramatic social change .’ added Arjun , trying to get in some affect .
‘The BPO IT revolution is also creating newer cities and towns with greater avenues to spend the monies . Which nineteen year old planned for an international holiday every year in the past ? Who pays for a hundred rupee coffee and who pays for a two hundred rupee movie ticket ? This is fueled by dollar income of companies . ‘
‘No wonder when the federal ban k in the us sneezes , dalal street catches the flu!’
‘Rahul , what you say is so true ’
‘Palak , the point is that there has been dramatic change in the last fifteen years , but some of us are in a time warp . Just doing the same things as ten years back ‘
‘Rahul , why do you say so ?’, queried Arjun
‘Look at what you are doing today , Arjun . A traditional engineering job that existed ten years ago ! What’s Palak doing today , a subcontracted tech offshore business which according to me is more akin to slave labour ’
‘There are all kinds of jobs now . You neednt just study engineering or medicine , you could pursue fashion design , architecture , IT , merchant banker , a financial analyst ,creative consultant , you could become a radio jock , a television journalist all of these careers did not exist before . That’s some form of equalization happening between the science , commerce and arts streams . The world has become flatter , for sure .Each of these now pay well .Why not explore these streams ?’
‘So , why are you trapped in babudom ?’ Palak countered .
‘ I love making policy , making some old-fashioned difference .’
‘But , I will quit one day to join the entertainment business , for sure . Probably get into movie making ‘
‘You see ,the movie business is getting organized now . Most movie scripts are all sequels now , reality shows rule the roost ,and our distribution systems are integrating hindi movies into parts of the world remarkably well . Sequels like Krissh , Dhoom ,Phir Hera pheri will now spawn many more . Isn’t that the traditional Hollywood formulae , what was that ? Rocky seven !What about sequels to Jurassic park ?’
‘I can visualize that ‘ Rahul Tandon , movie producer , with a background in telecom regulatory affairs ! Talk about mundane living !’ chuckled Arjun.
‘The movie could be called ‘Dial a ticket ‘ integrating your jobs ! laughed Palak, adding ‘probably , it will be in time for Arjun’s kids ’
‘But do kids go to the movies ?’
‘ Well , my kids today are surely spoilt for choice . In our times , we had one odd game and would play board games all evening interspersed with a game of football or cricket . Today its video games and internet games . Pokemon , Gameboy , Beyblades the japs who are the masters of the indoor games have now invaded Indian homes like never before and in Mumbai with no football grounds , its difficult to get them to play outdoor games anymore ‘
‘My cousins tell me that birthday gifts nowadays are gameboy cartridges and versions of the game . Weused to have national chess tournaments , nowadays it’s the national beyblade tournaments .Each month sees a new television channel , there’s Disney and Cartoon Network each occupying a greater share of free time . Peer pressure demands international holidays and bigger toys and games each time . In our days it was just a simple visit home and time with grandparents in our ancestral home in Allahabad .’
‘Times have surely changed ‘
‘There’s also just no privacy . The mobile ensure 24X7 availability and so there’s no personal space anymore . Anytime access leads to an over-stressed life with numerous artificial emergenceies . Last night I got a call from one of my managers briefing me on the status of a deal with a client in Chennai . Now, honestly , I could have done with the update in the morning as there was nothing I could have done about it till day break . ‘
‘Mine’s worse . I get these funny sms’s on the soccer score from my friends even when I am not interested in the game at all .’added Palak to Arjun’s predicament .
Surely , we live in amazing times , but what has really changed for us .
Maybe a little more money .
Maybe a little more knowledge .
‘But, back to basics . Where’s the fun of living , the enjoyment of simple things uninterrupted by the constant cell phone or business overtime ?’, lamented Arjun , ‘ My relationships are still the same . I yearn for some good company , time doesn’t permit . it’s been ages since I took time off . I am burning at a pace faster than ever before .’
‘Listen , we have just one life . Let’s ensure we make the most of it .India is at a stage it will never be again . Everyday there is a dramatic change in the way we have been living . This is a lifetime we can't imagine again . Let's live it up with abandon. How about starting something exciting ....’ proposed Rahul .
Like what ?
The three looked at each other .
What crossed their mind ?
Well , that’s another story .

The Moolah in the Market

Wednesday , 3 pm , Dinesh Khanija , Investment Analyst on CNBC
‘ The market is testing these levels and it could probably hit the 11200 to 11500 levels in the next 2 trading sessions ., said the analyst confidently .’.. in fact from now there would be a market correction of upto a 500 points and it will face resistance only around the 9500 levels . That’s a 20% downside . From now on the retail investors would jump into the market , the foreign institutional investors have run out of steam and even local institutional investors have dropped volumes . The number of rising stocks has reached a plateau .’


Friday , 12 pm
The market crossed 12000 points and some stocks hit their lifetime highs . Foreign inflows continued unabated . Confident analyst , Dinesh Khanija was not available for comment .

A month earlier the market had crossed the 10000 levels when every analyst worth his salt said that the market would crash post this level and caution was advised , but the market broke the 11000 number in a week and then crossed the 12000 level baffling everyone in the stock trade . We are now bigger than the Dow as an index number . Where is the market headed , why is it crossing level after remarkable level rapidly ? Right now , in the summer of 2006 , there are no answers , just a couple of stock pickings to make a killing .

Stock market money making has been a subject of enormous discussions and since the free trade policies of the government , spearheaded by Narsimha rao and Manmohan singh in 1991 , just as I has passed out of college , the stock market had created a new set of millionaires who create wealth trading stocks . While the handful of Kolkatta’s super rich have created enormous wealth and kept it through the stock market , Mumbai has phenomenal number of stock market millionaires . Delhi doesn’t trade in stocks as much so their stock pages are pretty unanalytical and colourless , they make money through raw trade .

My first stock buy , am the first entry in the State Bank of India’s register for stock Invest scheme in December 1991 at their office in Broadway in Chennai , was the auto anciallary company India Piston Rings , a subsidiary of the local Murugappa group . Hundred shares were allotted to me from the Initial Public Offering worth a thousand bucks , whose value today is around twelve thousand bucks .A thousand percent appreciation .

I understood the meaning of real wealth when at the end of the stock scam in 1992 , the Central Bureau of Investigation ordered the scamster Harshad Mehta to pay Six hundred and forty five crores as fine for his stock manipulations and insider trading . And Harshad Mehta agreed to pay back the amount in six cheques from Monday thru Saturday . I wondered about it for over a month . What kind of money was that .

Dhirubhai Ambani understood the meaning of the stock market when he periodically used the market to fund his industrial expansions instead of borrowing money from the banks . His issues were mega scale , just like his projects and he must be accredited to singlehandedly teach India equity investment strategies . Reliance Petroleum is the issue I remember created such an impact for its size when it was listed .His sons still do the same .

The World is truly flat and we can feel it in the billions of dollars chasing the Indian stock market , they say at five billion dollars we are a ten percent of the investment made in the Chinese economy .

Services stand where agriculture once stood , towering over the contribution to GDP with a fifty five percent share . The other forty percent is shared between the agriculture and manufacturing . Service industry has seen categories like Cable TV and radio , part of the media and entertainment industry hitting 55000 crores today from 3000cr in 1990 and Telecom becoming a $15 billion industry and Retailing with $100 billion in sales employs 8% of the country’s workforce with banking and real estate growing rapidly , India is moving rapidly to becoming a developed country Also, globalization has meant that the Indian economy is intergrated to the word economy is some very complex ways . For instance , experts say that much of the sensex’s current rise is due to an appreciation in the dollar, which has inturn spurred Indian software stocks, and three-fourths of such companies’ revenues come from exports to the US market.

Though we may be the same as the Dow Jones industrial average at 11000 points each , in terms of market cap, the Dow obviously wins hands down. The market cap of the world’s largest economy is estimated to be about $30 trillion approximately (a trillion is a thousand billion), while the sensex’s market cap stands at about $500bn. The US is a mature economy, growing at a much slower rate than India’s. Ours is an emerging market where the economy is expanding at over 8% and is currently viewed as a darling of investors,” said Edelweiss Capital MD, Rashesh Shah. While everyday crores of investor wealth is created , we’ll get to be a developed economy in another fourteen years or so .

In the meantime , I presume , one keeps busy making his moolah !

A ticket to the movies

The queue was bloody long . It reached till the empty patch of land outside . The movie Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak had just released at the theatre and was greeted with an enormous response . the reviews were good and we all landed to see the movie , fifteen of us straight from the college at five pm for the six pm show . Fifteen engineering students armed with a strategy to see the movie on its' first day of release and it's second show in town .
We stood in the queue impatiently , as usual , we wanted to see the movie and wouldn’t go back without seeing it . Come hell or highwater . Getting the tickets was the issue as always , but we were armed with strategies , a sum total of our experience from buying bulk movie tickets many times in the past . To return without seeing the movie was definedly shame and akin to flunking an exam .. The queue was quite well behaved till about fifteen minutes before the movie . Then suddenly all hell broke loose , as everyone wondered if they would get the tickets at all and why the queue wasn’t inching ahead at all . A typical reaction to a stationary queue anywhere in India .As everyone started shouting , we broke into three teams , one that would attack the counter straight breaking the queue and adding to the confusion , the other would break the middle of the line so that the middle of the queue din’t protest the commotion at the counter when team1 landed there and the last five at the back would hold their positions in case the first team didn’t manage to get the tickets . The hefty musclemen standing guard sprung into action , brandishing their lathis . The first hit managed to send no message as the two guys who bore the brunt of the lathi swore back and engaged him in a verbal duel.

‘Look at the counter , there’s absolute confusion . If you have balls, get them in line ‘
‘First you get into the queue , b* ’
‘Am standing where I was standing , m* ’

The thing with dirty abuses is that ; if a stranger does it , you revolt . If your friend voices them , they are part of a seemless conversation with no malintent . Anyone unknown using the b or m word to you is cause for a fight .

That’s exactly what happened .
The guy in the queue shouted back , ‘ Go and tell this to your dad . You m* ’
The dhoti clad six foot hefty guard brandished his bamboo stick and hit him harder .
Three man broke queue and punched the guard .
There was utter chaos .meanwhile at the counter window , there was some success . I pushed in my hand with the money . Some three hundred bucks . Twenty bucks was a balcony ticket , and we saw balcony all the time .

Just the hand thrust in was not enough , you needed to shout for attention and your hand was part of a set of ten hands being thrust at the same time .The guy at the counterwindow would engage with you only when he took the money from your hands .

Just as the burly man at the counter took money from my hand , a powerful force grabbed me back . Another guard had got to me . Bargi and Khot had held him back for some time , but he managed to reach the counter through brute force and a thick bamboo stick .

‘Get back . You broke the queue , get back , get back ‘
‘My money is inside , ‘ said me , just managing to tell the guy at the counter for fifteen tickets .
The guard let go of me and I emerged unscathed through the mass of flesh of people at the counter , sweating profusely .
We had a good laugh , the movie was fun and memorable .

And most movie tickets , we bought this way till one day ,Maheswary had an idea . He suggested that we tie-up with the manager for tickets . Some kind of a pre-booking everytime a movie would be released , blocking fifteen tickets with payment in advance . No theatre manager bought the concept . Trade practice demanded that they block the tickets themselves and sell it in ‘black ‘ at five to ten times the value of the ticket . This was dynamic pricing at its best . Each blockbuster movie guaranteed that the demand for tickets went high and prices shot through the roof , making a parallel booking system with select vendors selling the tickets at this unauthorized premium . It would always force us to make a choice – to see the movie with this high premium , skip it for another day or negotiate it down to a mutually acceptable price ?

Yesterday , seeking relief from a tiring work day in Bangalore , I wanted to see a movie ‘Gangster’ .The movie released just a day back , with rave reviews for Shiny Ahuja , the star of the movie . I logged onto the net , checked the theatres it ran in , only to find one single ticket available in PVR at Forum in Koramangla . Netizens in Bangalore generally don’t leave a ticket free . All theatres , all shows were booked , except for this one . I clicked on it , paid for it by the credit card , and got a confirmation number .
Later in the evening , I glided upto the ticket counter on the fifth floor through its four escalators at the swanky mall, Forum .
There was a small queue of five people buying different movies . A slim , meek and small girl no more than eighteen or nineteen , was manning the counter .
On my turn , I gave her the confirmation number .
The screen showed the seat I had bought in a sort of position chart of all seats in the theatre .
Sitting in great airconditioning , with a well mannered crowd , she probably doesn't know what it was like to see a movie years back .
She punched out a ticket and gave it to me with a smile.

One can’t fight any longer for first day first shows , as there are neither first day first shows nor fights for tickets , atleast in urban India . We have moved from an economy of scarcity to an economy of abundance . While theatres then showed four shows a day , multiplexes show upwards of fourteen a day . There's a movie after every half hour that you land in a multiplex .The concept is to hold movie premieres where the actors would watch the movie with you and you could quiz the actors , directors and producers on key aspects of the movie, mostly a day or two before it opens to public. Also ,there are paid previews , you can pay and see it earlier than its public release .

Great seats , some like Fame adlabs in Andheri have 180 degree seats that become beds , smaller plots , shorter movies and swanky multiplexes .

No sweating , swearing , scuttling or strategy . And no black !

Missing veerapan

Last year , Veerapan , the notorious sandalwood smuggler , was shot dead in cold blood after a twenty year chase through dense forests on the borders of Karnataka and Tamil nadu .

I vividly remember a newly wedded me driving down those very roads cutting through two wildlife sanctuaries Bandipur Tiger reserve and Madhumalai elephant sanctuary on my way from Mysore to Ooty on the state highway . My cool as cucumber 150cc Kinetic Honda automatic bike served me well through those adventure years as it never broke down , never needed servicing , and would give me thirty kilometers to a litre without fail .
In the age of hundred-kilometers-a-litre bikes , the Kiney was a little anachronistic , but was a part of many of my driving expeditions . Had driven it earlier through the thick forests in Dandeli , the forest reserves west of Dharwad . There were bad roads , uneven terrain , heavy rains , strange forest sounds and plenty of monkeys . The forest was so thick that one couldn’t see the sun in broad daylight . We had driven one complete day through the forest chasing the monsoon . We would find an occasional pit stop in the form of a shack with water dripping through it , serving tea and deep fried onions bhajjias. The bike stood through thick and thin with me .
That 160km journey from Mysore to ooty through Madhumalai and Bandipur was one such . From Mysore , the winding road breaks through the shallow vegetation and into the thick green cover quite dramatically . It was rare to see people on the roads , some said it was because of the tigers of Bandipur , some said it was because of the elephants of Madhumalai and some said it was because of Veerapan ,the bandit .
We took the bike journey without much care , no tool kit , no medicines , had no mobile phones then , no maps , no nothing , just the two of us , me and Nal and a small bag stuffed with some clothes and books . Passing Madhumalai was scary – there were three hunting preserves within the sanctuary – Kargudi , Masinagudi and theppakkadu . The road skimmed its borders and cut though Kargudi . We hits the ghats with a stunning hairpin bend that took us about fifteen metres vertically straight above the road we just crossed by .And then another that put us up by another twenty metres , making it a great breathtaking journey for us . There were 56 hairpin bends along the way taking us two thousand two hundred metres above mean sea level , a third of Mount Everest ! Driving through landslide signs , hurriedly erected army bridges and utter greenery was sheer ecstacy . The bike rode the hills like breeze and we took a good part of six hours to climb upto Ooty .From there we chased the toy train down to Coonoor , which with its lush green tea-plantation hillsides was quite a spectacle .
People in Ooty scared us with Veerapan tales , warning us against venturing out at night . He had killed over a thousand elephants , hundreds of police men and presided over the forests of these sanctuaries like a reining deity . Newspapers would talk about beheaded soldiers of the Special task force from tamil nadu trying to nab him , there would be hushed tales of a Veerapan sighting on some side of the hills , some dead tigers , some skins recovered in a truck driving out of the wilds .Then Veerapan kidnapped Rajkumar , the superhero of kannada cinema following it up with the abduction and killing of a former Karnataka minister . It sent shivers down the sides of many a cop who braved all of these to capture and kill him after a fifteen year long chase .

Those days , late in 1994 , the sanctuaries had very few tourists and fewer jungle lodges making it a brilliant experience . It was not even on the 1000 places-to-see-before-you-die list of local Mysoreeans too.

Today , the economy has boomed , people love going to wildlife sanctuaries as tour package deals , partly because they need a breather from the rising heat , stock markets , realty prices , gold prices , capitalistic rat races and partly because Veerapan is no more . There is unabated construction , jungles resorts are coming up by the dozen , there’s a lot of crowds and tourists are coming in droves . There’s a lot of pit-stops on the highway where many shops have come up . Traffic is beginning to get denser than the wilds , there are traffic jams on the state highways . Hair pin bends no longer seem so , as the buses after buses make you inch up , missing out the thrill of the turn . The thriving IT BPO industry in bangalore and Mysore is in need of a weekend break . The forests beckon .

It is not truly wild anymore .

Veerapan smuggled , poached , murdered , and so deserved to be shot . But , he also made sure that the drive through the great forests was thrilling , refreshing , breathtaking and that the wilds stayed uninhabited by man .