I am dead against late night Champions League matches. It not only makes my habit of staying awake late but routinely upset my stomach. The atmosphere in 2009 European League Football was electrifying.
I have never seen any spectators in the stadium who was less colorful than the other. Be it the red devils’ uniform glittered throughout the stadium or the Barcelona’s amazing dresses. It was great.
The closing ceremony witnessed a spectacle opera tune from the Gladiator and then the drama begins. It was always Christina Ronaldo competing with Lionel Messi. I guess before the start of the match everyone had already predicted the outcome of the match to be 3-0 or 2-1 from Man United, but I had a different view.
Intuition works in some times, and I felt that since Man United were clear favorites Barcelona would have very little pressure. It proved correct. I had predicted my friend Saty 2-1 for Barcelona, and it was 2-0.
Ronaldo missed quite a few chances right from the start, and it seem that Man U will score now and then. They played very supreme football. Owen, Ferdinand got busy and saw Park Suen in action. But it was Barca who scored first.
All through out the match it played the game they are known for pass-pass and pass. Of course, looks ugly in paper but it is this kind of game, which they are not afraid to hide.
The opposition practically knows their limitations, but sometimes you are caught unaware. Maybe Barcelona has this unique ability of scoring where it should be. They got a few chances but they made the most out of it. Eto and Messi demonstrated brilliance in their games.
Messi reminds me of so much of Maradona. Falling and dribling over, yet never losing the ball.
The point is that Man U are a good team, but nobody can deny that Barca are a better team even though you say that Man Utd are better. Surely did Barce get lucky against Chelsea but in the final against Man Utd we saw Barca play at their best and when they do that, it doesn't matter how well the other team plays, they are still going to lose. Everyone keeps saying that something was missing in Man Utd's game but the fact is that Barca never gave them a chance and that is what winners do.
It was a match that I will remember in the years to come, and as my friend said who knows in the next European League Finals, I may just be there to witness it.
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Monday, May 25, 2009
Management lessons from the INDIAN PREMIER LEAGUE
I am penning this piece 12 hours next to the 2009 Indian Premier League (IPL) Finals. A tournament like IPL displays brilliance in the departments of batting, bowling and fielding from high-ranged international and domestic players from around the globe.
It is an occasion for the Indian Cricket fraternity to exhibit their supremacy in the game. Money flows from different quarters and there is no short of fun be it a cheerleader bootlicious movements or any Bollywood actor act. After watching the tournament from the last 2 years, I chose to arrive with couple of management lessons that I could take from the tournament.
1)If you have a popular brand that has stakes in the market, then you are bowed to use it all quarters. India is a brand now. It’s supremacy is felt in most of the international places. The opportunities of it getting it recognizable with other brands is easy. Everyone wants to be associated with it.
2) If you have an idea, never keep it in your mind. It just gets wasted. Share the brilliant idea with people who can be the horses to drive-in. Of course, be prepared with your questions, which are going to be asked. You'll have to get the ideas floating and have solutions to back-up.
3) Be it Cricket or any other sports, engaging prime-time audiences is very important. So, also in a business catering to customer services, it is essential that the product meets the requirements of the end-users. Once you know who your users are and match your services to the requirements, your product can be an amazing success.
4) Always keep an optional plan backing you while executing your plan. Changes may arose at any point of time; you should be ready to execute the plan in toughest of the situations.
5) Marketing is essential for a product to succeed. What is in it for me- you don't just give them the product, but you give the oomph factor. Tieing up with celebrities is another way of making the product' presence in the market.
6) Always be loyal to your customers; owing to much success of the latest IPL in South Africa, the BCCI has decided to have a mini-IPL in the upcoming years. This is your way of backing up your customers. Remember, you are here in the business because of the customers.
7)Have a nice pool of individuals in the committee; experience talks in most of the situations.
I am sure folks can add-on to the list.
It is an occasion for the Indian Cricket fraternity to exhibit their supremacy in the game. Money flows from different quarters and there is no short of fun be it a cheerleader bootlicious movements or any Bollywood actor act. After watching the tournament from the last 2 years, I chose to arrive with couple of management lessons that I could take from the tournament.
1)If you have a popular brand that has stakes in the market, then you are bowed to use it all quarters. India is a brand now. It’s supremacy is felt in most of the international places. The opportunities of it getting it recognizable with other brands is easy. Everyone wants to be associated with it.
2) If you have an idea, never keep it in your mind. It just gets wasted. Share the brilliant idea with people who can be the horses to drive-in. Of course, be prepared with your questions, which are going to be asked. You'll have to get the ideas floating and have solutions to back-up.
3) Be it Cricket or any other sports, engaging prime-time audiences is very important. So, also in a business catering to customer services, it is essential that the product meets the requirements of the end-users. Once you know who your users are and match your services to the requirements, your product can be an amazing success.
4) Always keep an optional plan backing you while executing your plan. Changes may arose at any point of time; you should be ready to execute the plan in toughest of the situations.
5) Marketing is essential for a product to succeed. What is in it for me- you don't just give them the product, but you give the oomph factor. Tieing up with celebrities is another way of making the product' presence in the market.
6) Always be loyal to your customers; owing to much success of the latest IPL in South Africa, the BCCI has decided to have a mini-IPL in the upcoming years. This is your way of backing up your customers. Remember, you are here in the business because of the customers.
7)Have a nice pool of individuals in the committee; experience talks in most of the situations.
I am sure folks can add-on to the list.
Monday, May 18, 2009
An Adventure in Hard Rock Cafe
Many of you who have written to me off-list suggesting me of spicing up my blog, I intend to bring cardamom from the market to do it. For those who think I am lucky, the answer is 'By lucky’, I need not explain what I meant but in every course of life you have some share of experiences, and I got my share with a pinch of love.
Anyway, coming back to this latest episode that happened in a Hard Rock Café in a very popular Indian City, I offer my humblest apologies to my so-called competitors in a bid to converse-whose-the-spiciest-girl amongst competition
The evening had been a wonderful one and it had everything right from music to amazing food and drinks. Women can be seldom ignored at these situations and every norm of superlative form can be attributed to them. In these situations, they are usually addressed as Sexy, but I chose to address them as Smoky!!!
Situations lead to interesting results, but I believe it’s good to have low-expectations set in order to get the desired results. If the café had nearly 300 people that night, out of which 200 were guys, then the girls as expected would be 100. But what makes numbers interesting are the numbers 100 viewed by 2*200 man’ eyes, so almost 400 eyes were viewing the 100 odd girls.
Now, consider these out of these 100 odd girls on a Saturday night, in a Hard rock café, I guess 90 of them would have arrived there with their guys (it’s a different story of whom they leave with)..so that leaves only 10 girls. Now these 10 girls will have either a combination of 5 groups of 2 each, or say 2 groups of 5 each. Am I making sense here?
Now, we have to leave 90 committed guys out from the 200 men..so that will make 110 men of which 10 will be likely to be homosexual. so now, 100 odd guys will be up for the competition for 10 girls. This number becomes more interesting when you check the homely appetite of 100 odd guys with Tequila, Whisky, Beer and so on.
After bracing all of these, I sensed 5 chicks in a table, extremely smoky and each with attitude. We were 5 guys if my memory serves me right; my memory had suffered a great deal after my ex-gf started eating my head he he…So, unlucky throughout the night and a reputation of being a dude, I was approached by couple of my friends to go ahead with this competition.
The round table conference that we had for 5 minutes witnessed various levels of high-pitched emotions. All around the table there were sparks flying of who would go first and approach the girls. Someone in the group mentioned of how smitten he was of the girls’ beauty and how his mom would fancy her as his eligible bahu. Some expressed their fanciful desires of candle night dinner with her.
It all started as a challenge of who can pick up one of the 5 chicks’ no. God himself was reluctant to initially of the plan. Bhaktjan squad decided to wait and watch. I quickly assessed the situation, understood our limitations and changed the plan a bit. As stated earlier being practical always helps.
After looking at those smoky hot chickens, we knew where we stood. We were neither models or hunks, but simple fellas whose fame can be compared to paunches of their stomach. I saw no chance of getting a vibe from the girl forget about the cell no. So, I changed the deal a bit. Now, I was given a cult status of a guruji here, so my words are taken as solemn.
I said guys let one of us go and speak to one of them, while the rest can watch the fun. Everyone nodded their heads approvingly. Bhagwan added on a bit of twist saying that he will be the second lead to this momentous expedition.
We were 20 steps away from the table of girls. In front of us lies the border strength of handsome hunks and would-be-actors. I knew it is a tedious task to go and approach them all. I picked up the nearest girl to the door. As I started, the God next to me also started walking.
I went ahead of him, and almost every time wondering if I will be able to deliver a perfect line. From far across the distant, I think she got scared as this divine creature walked upto her. It almost felt like the world froze for the instant. I went straight, stood near the table and waited for her to look. The chances of being procrastinated as a waiter seemed not bad, but wavered a bit for since the waiters had a uniform and thankfully! I wasn't wearing one.
She looked up and so far as I can remember I uttered certain lines. Trust me! it wasn't the best of the few lines that I ever spoke, but she somehow turned towards me and said thank you. God later told me that she showed a very disgustingly thanks. Chalo! maybe my trick didn't work. But to be honest, I think I conveyed the message to her. We left the place, but all throughout out the journey my friends kept on applauding the adventure.
I myself felt a bit I don't know comical, serious and out of touch. But hindsight, I knew it was a job well-done. Jab dil main hain kuch baat, then folks go ahead and express. Have confidence. We all can't be John Abraham, but if we can present our self with a good sense of humor the chances of getting a girl is more. Trust me..some years of experience this guy has doing the dishes.
Anyway, coming back to this latest episode that happened in a Hard Rock Café in a very popular Indian City, I offer my humblest apologies to my so-called competitors in a bid to converse-whose-the-spiciest-girl amongst competition
The evening had been a wonderful one and it had everything right from music to amazing food and drinks. Women can be seldom ignored at these situations and every norm of superlative form can be attributed to them. In these situations, they are usually addressed as Sexy, but I chose to address them as Smoky!!!
Situations lead to interesting results, but I believe it’s good to have low-expectations set in order to get the desired results. If the café had nearly 300 people that night, out of which 200 were guys, then the girls as expected would be 100. But what makes numbers interesting are the numbers 100 viewed by 2*200 man’ eyes, so almost 400 eyes were viewing the 100 odd girls.
Now, consider these out of these 100 odd girls on a Saturday night, in a Hard rock café, I guess 90 of them would have arrived there with their guys (it’s a different story of whom they leave with)..so that leaves only 10 girls. Now these 10 girls will have either a combination of 5 groups of 2 each, or say 2 groups of 5 each. Am I making sense here?
Now, we have to leave 90 committed guys out from the 200 men..so that will make 110 men of which 10 will be likely to be homosexual. so now, 100 odd guys will be up for the competition for 10 girls. This number becomes more interesting when you check the homely appetite of 100 odd guys with Tequila, Whisky, Beer and so on.
After bracing all of these, I sensed 5 chicks in a table, extremely smoky and each with attitude. We were 5 guys if my memory serves me right; my memory had suffered a great deal after my ex-gf started eating my head he he…So, unlucky throughout the night and a reputation of being a dude, I was approached by couple of my friends to go ahead with this competition.
The round table conference that we had for 5 minutes witnessed various levels of high-pitched emotions. All around the table there were sparks flying of who would go first and approach the girls. Someone in the group mentioned of how smitten he was of the girls’ beauty and how his mom would fancy her as his eligible bahu. Some expressed their fanciful desires of candle night dinner with her.
It all started as a challenge of who can pick up one of the 5 chicks’ no. God himself was reluctant to initially of the plan. Bhaktjan squad decided to wait and watch. I quickly assessed the situation, understood our limitations and changed the plan a bit. As stated earlier being practical always helps.
After looking at those smoky hot chickens, we knew where we stood. We were neither models or hunks, but simple fellas whose fame can be compared to paunches of their stomach. I saw no chance of getting a vibe from the girl forget about the cell no. So, I changed the deal a bit. Now, I was given a cult status of a guruji here, so my words are taken as solemn.
I said guys let one of us go and speak to one of them, while the rest can watch the fun. Everyone nodded their heads approvingly. Bhagwan added on a bit of twist saying that he will be the second lead to this momentous expedition.
We were 20 steps away from the table of girls. In front of us lies the border strength of handsome hunks and would-be-actors. I knew it is a tedious task to go and approach them all. I picked up the nearest girl to the door. As I started, the God next to me also started walking.
I went ahead of him, and almost every time wondering if I will be able to deliver a perfect line. From far across the distant, I think she got scared as this divine creature walked upto her. It almost felt like the world froze for the instant. I went straight, stood near the table and waited for her to look. The chances of being procrastinated as a waiter seemed not bad, but wavered a bit for since the waiters had a uniform and thankfully! I wasn't wearing one.
She looked up and so far as I can remember I uttered certain lines. Trust me! it wasn't the best of the few lines that I ever spoke, but she somehow turned towards me and said thank you. God later told me that she showed a very disgustingly thanks. Chalo! maybe my trick didn't work. But to be honest, I think I conveyed the message to her. We left the place, but all throughout out the journey my friends kept on applauding the adventure.
I myself felt a bit I don't know comical, serious and out of touch. But hindsight, I knew it was a job well-done. Jab dil main hain kuch baat, then folks go ahead and express. Have confidence. We all can't be John Abraham, but if we can present our self with a good sense of humor the chances of getting a girl is more. Trust me..some years of experience this guy has doing the dishes.
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Revisting Panache With Godfather
"Michael, your father loves you very much, very much".
I was watching Godfather for the umpteenth number of times, and each time there is something new to take from the movie. I grew up watching Al Pacino and Robert De Niro's movies, and dreamt of someday to deliver a power-packed performance like them in a stage. That of course, never happened...so far.
The beauty of Godfather is in the powerful script. If you start analyzing Godfather trilogy, you will see that none of the characters had lot of dialogues. Marlon Brando as Vito Corleone spoke more through his eyes and meant it. Maybe the director Francis Ford Coppola was forced to get Marlon's anger sparkled in the screen when he threatened the five families of utter consequences had anything happened to Michael Corleone, exiled for murdering Solloze and the chief cops.
Al Pacino, undoubtedly the greatest of all time actors, plays the son of Vito Corleone with a certain deal of panache. He too moves and scales up his life and family with a certain degree of calmness.
Robert De Niro, playing Vito Corleone in his prime shows the determination required to grow up in life. He is a family-oriented man, who loses his job, because the shop owner had to give his job to a local mafia's cousin. He is disheartened by all this, but he smilingly accepts the decision. His humility is astounding.
In life the road to success is filled with hardships. I understand it is not going to be an easy one, but if with all my humility I can walk ahead in my life, believing that I ain't hurting others in my actions, and helping others to succeed in their careers, it would be worth one. Everyone wishes for success and I believe the day it comes to me, I have all the humility to accept it.
I was watching Godfather for the umpteenth number of times, and each time there is something new to take from the movie. I grew up watching Al Pacino and Robert De Niro's movies, and dreamt of someday to deliver a power-packed performance like them in a stage. That of course, never happened...so far.
The beauty of Godfather is in the powerful script. If you start analyzing Godfather trilogy, you will see that none of the characters had lot of dialogues. Marlon Brando as Vito Corleone spoke more through his eyes and meant it. Maybe the director Francis Ford Coppola was forced to get Marlon's anger sparkled in the screen when he threatened the five families of utter consequences had anything happened to Michael Corleone, exiled for murdering Solloze and the chief cops.
Al Pacino, undoubtedly the greatest of all time actors, plays the son of Vito Corleone with a certain deal of panache. He too moves and scales up his life and family with a certain degree of calmness.
Robert De Niro, playing Vito Corleone in his prime shows the determination required to grow up in life. He is a family-oriented man, who loses his job, because the shop owner had to give his job to a local mafia's cousin. He is disheartened by all this, but he smilingly accepts the decision. His humility is astounding.
In life the road to success is filled with hardships. I understand it is not going to be an easy one, but if with all my humility I can walk ahead in my life, believing that I ain't hurting others in my actions, and helping others to succeed in their careers, it would be worth one. Everyone wishes for success and I believe the day it comes to me, I have all the humility to accept it.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
The Parting
How should I put this episode? The calm before the storm, I guess.
The boxes have been packed. Each thing that requires attention had been sent across the border. Kumar household bears a disappointed look. 10 long years in this home have made them nostalgic. The chipping of the birds from the terrace, sounded more of a farewell tune to the household.
The family witnessed moments of happiness with the marriage of their two daughters, and the bereavement of the passing of their old grandmom and grandpapa.
"Let's go Anitha,time to leave". Just a sec, mommy. Anitha climbs up to the staircase and in between the racks, searches for a dabba. She takes out the dabba, and in that lies a photo. A photo of a person she loved and she cared. She knew that she won't forget that person anytime, and that person won't her also.
Tears rolled down from her cheeks. "I'll miss you, Deep!!! I'll miss you badly"...Down somewhere in Koramangala, a wreck felt her tears. He knows that he was going to miss and love her more with the progression of time. The radio broadcasted her favorite song.
The boxes have been packed. Each thing that requires attention had been sent across the border. Kumar household bears a disappointed look. 10 long years in this home have made them nostalgic. The chipping of the birds from the terrace, sounded more of a farewell tune to the household.
The family witnessed moments of happiness with the marriage of their two daughters, and the bereavement of the passing of their old grandmom and grandpapa.
"Let's go Anitha,time to leave". Just a sec, mommy. Anitha climbs up to the staircase and in between the racks, searches for a dabba. She takes out the dabba, and in that lies a photo. A photo of a person she loved and she cared. She knew that she won't forget that person anytime, and that person won't her also.
Tears rolled down from her cheeks. "I'll miss you, Deep!!! I'll miss you badly"...Down somewhere in Koramangala, a wreck felt her tears. He knows that he was going to miss and love her more with the progression of time. The radio broadcasted her favorite song.
Friday, May 01, 2009
Tips for Office Romances
Office romances have had been happening from ages. I myself found couple of instance where romances have their roots in the office boardroom or cafeteria. These romances are not all appreciated by the management, and here is what I advise folks who are in romance with their office mates:
1. If before Cupid made its mark on you, you were the type who believed in eating solo, not socializing too much with colleagues or leaving office solo, then stick to the same. Don’t ever change your regular routines. You are constantly watched and a little bit of negligence from your side may land you in trouble.
2. Do not use office stationery to send love notes, if it gets into the hands of your manager, you will surely get another note from him or her, which will not have anything to do with love! Do not send email from your official addresses, it can easily be tracked down and the next thing you both will see will probable be the door!
3. The best way to behave would be like complete strangers. Never ever walk in or leave office together. No offering lifts, unless accompanied by a third party.
4. Avoid dining or having lunches if not in a group. You can do this once or twice, but the moment you are seen having lunch together for more than once, you are for some questions and trouble.
5. Never spend much time discussing personal things with her or him at cubicle. If there is a project that makes both of you work together, try to sound as serious you can be.
1. If before Cupid made its mark on you, you were the type who believed in eating solo, not socializing too much with colleagues or leaving office solo, then stick to the same. Don’t ever change your regular routines. You are constantly watched and a little bit of negligence from your side may land you in trouble.
2. Do not use office stationery to send love notes, if it gets into the hands of your manager, you will surely get another note from him or her, which will not have anything to do with love! Do not send email from your official addresses, it can easily be tracked down and the next thing you both will see will probable be the door!
3. The best way to behave would be like complete strangers. Never ever walk in or leave office together. No offering lifts, unless accompanied by a third party.
4. Avoid dining or having lunches if not in a group. You can do this once or twice, but the moment you are seen having lunch together for more than once, you are for some questions and trouble.
5. Never spend much time discussing personal things with her or him at cubicle. If there is a project that makes both of you work together, try to sound as serious you can be.
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