Short Story: The Red Devil

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Short Story: The Red Devil

Christian was feeling at the top of the world. The satisfaction of owning a brand new Ferrari F430 was inexplicable and unparalleled. It gave his a feeling of having arrived at the big stage. He had owned a lowly Chevy for a while now and was getting restless and itching to upgrade to a luxury car. His peers owned an Audi R8 Spyder and a BMW M3 GT which were good cars in their own right but a Ferrari was just in a different league. Lamborghini he felt, was not for him as he despised the yellow color and felt it was more of a ladies’ car.

 He had been slogging day and night to achieve this target which he had set for himself last year. The crimson red Ferrari F430 spider was always on his mind when he was chasing those quarterly targets. The smooth curves, the high-revving engine and the effortless acceleration were what he dreamt of. He never cared about the jeers from his peers about his old Chevy. He knew very soon their Audis and BMWs would stand no match for his Ferrari.

And then came the day when the brand new Ferrari F430 was royally delivered to his home. The paper work was all done well in advance. Christian took the new Ferrari on its first ride after the purchase. He stepped on the gas on the straight stretches and the car just sped effortlessly. It did great on the curves and bends without giving him any discomfort whatsoever. It was as if the Ferrari was made for these tracks. The other cars on the road simply couldn’t match up to the red devil and he was reveling in the stares that he got.

He was enjoying the whole experience when he heard a honk. He looked back with a scorn on his face and thought, “How could anybody honk my Ferrari?!” it was an insult. He pressed on the gas and was driving as fast as he could. He heard the honk again but this time he also heard his mom shout from the kitchen, “Chrissy I think it must be daddy. Open the door, will you?” Chris dropped his 1:18 scale Ferrari F430 model and rushed to the door, climbed on the stool and took a peep through the door scope. “Yes, it is his daddy! “, he shouted with excitement.  He opened the door and immediately gave his dad a bear hug. He said, “Daddy I have been waiting for you from so long. You are the best dad! I just so love my new Ferrari and the driving course that you gifted. Look at Ron and Ian’s cars, aren’t they so boring?! What will you gift me the next time I stand first in my class?”

END

- Radhakrishnan Ravi

Short Story: Out or Not out?

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Short Story: Out or Not out?

 “It doesn’t get better than this. Nothing come even remotely close to an India-Pak world cup semi-final in terms of sheer excitement!”, so goes Ravi Shastri’s cliché into the microphone. The crowd is packed and brimming to full capacity in the Eden Gardens stadium on a cold overcast Sunday afternoon.  The crowd is chanting “Rameshhhhh… Ramesh..”, the name of the best batsman in the team. He is on 96 and India needs 4 runs off the last ball to beat arch-rivals Pakistan and make it to the finals to play Australia which has already qualified by beating South Africa in a close match in Semi Finals-I.

The bowler Akram Khan just started sprinting towards the bowling crease when Ramesh’s thoughts flashes back 13 years to that special day which changed the course of his life -

Circa 2000:

 Indian cricket was in doldrums with match-fixing scandals and bad performances by the team. BCCI had put forward a plan to create a National Cricket Academy(NCA). Young players with special talent from across the country were to be selected and groomed to make them ready to take their coveted places in the Indian cricket team one day. “Every cricketer’s dream”, thought Ramesh.

Ramesh was the only son in a middle-class south Indian nuclear family.  The norm was to focus on academics, complete an MS/MBA from an Ivy League university and settle down in a good corporate career. Sports sadly, were never in the radar to be considered as a career option.

His life was at cross roads. It was the NCA selection match and he had to perform well to get selected. This was the last hope to prove to his parents how serious he was about his cricket. Ramesh’s dream from childhood was to play for the country and beat the supposedly infallible Aussies in a World Cup final and he knew this was his last shot in that direction.

The criteria for a batsman to get selected through the NCA selection matches were as follows:

1. Spot selection- if you score a century in the match
2. Panel selection- a panel of selectors choose a pool of players from the NCA selection matches from across the country and then shortlist based on some criteria (not revealed)

Ramesh knew that he had the talent in him to earn the automatic selection. He was aware that the second option involved a lot of politics and one needed influence to get the selection and he had no chance at that. He had been practicing diligently for this match for the past one month and put extra hours in the nets.

His team mates used to call him Dravid Tendulkar, for possessing Tendulkar-esque precocious talent while having the work ethic and perseverance of THE WALL. Sachin was his hero and he had got the MRF bat and signed it “Sachin Tendulkar” himself as he couldn’t afford the costly branded MRF bats signed by the God of batting himself

It was match day and he had woken up early, cycled to the local Academy nets and practiced for an hour. He was all determined and prepared to make it big. His only competition in the side was opener Vijay. He was a talented batsman but didn’t have the temperament or the work ethic of Ramesh. Being a relative of the selector from South Zone, he was sure he could sneak his way into the National squad by the second option. Ramesh’s aim was to score a century and was focused on it.

Ramesh walked in at No.3, his favourite batting position and was batting well. He had promised himself to play his natural game and not be overwhelmed by the situation. He was his fluid self and was hitting the sweet spot on his bat consistently. He reached the half-century mark in 60 balls and knew he was in good nick. He played with controlled aggression after that and was on 99, one run away from getting automatically selected for NCA squad.

The field was brought in close with all of them inside the ring. The fast bowler Raman bowled a bouncer. Ramesh tapped it close-by and started running for that final single that would take him closer to his dream. The close-in fielder picked the ball and hurled it towards the stumps. Ramesh knew it was a close call and he dove. All the fielders went up in the appeal and they were literally crying and begging the umpire. Ramesh’s heart was pounding hard (could beat around 200 bpm) and he could almost feel it in his mouth. The umpire was in his typical position to judge a run-out.

All players had their sight on his right hand and his head. “Which would move first?”, was the question on every player’s mind.

The local commentator shouted into the microphone, ”And the umpire’s decision is:”-

NOT OUT:

Circa 2013: The scene shifts back to India-Pak World Cup semi-final. Akram Khan bowls a length delivery. “And it’s a six. Ramesh plays a swashbuckling innings to take India to the finals of the world cup! What a player!!”, exults Ravi Shastri, the commentator. Ramesh points his bat towards the dressing room and the crowd and shouts to himself, “Yes this is a dream come true!”

OUT:

Circa 2013: The scene shifts back to India-Pak World Cup semi-final. Akram Khan bowls a length delivery. “And it’s a six. Ramesh plays a swashbuckling innings to take India to the finals of the world cup! What a player!!”, exults Ravi Shastri, the commentator. “Appa, yeah!!! India won the match!!, now let me play the finals”, cries Ritesh, Ramesh’s 6 year old kid grabbing the joystick to continue the game “EACricket 2013” on his XBOX 360! Ramesh just smiles and tells himself, “My kid will beat the Aussies in the World cup Final J!”

 

Epilogue:

The umpire decision on the run-out chance in the selection match is NOT OUT:

Ramesh gets automatically selected to the NCA squad. He performs well in the Academy training and gets an Indian ODI berth in 2 years. He goes on to become the best batsman in the Indian team

The umpire decision on the run-out chance in the selection match is OUT:

Vijay gets selected from his team instead of Ramesh due to nepotism while Ramesh is dropped in spite of his valiant 99. He goes on to do an MS from Texas Dallas and now works for a Silicon valley firm in SFO. He has a 6 year old son, Ritesh whose hero is also Sachin and plays EA Cricket 2013 with him on weekends

 

END

Super-mom 2020, will she be better than my mom?

I am lazing around at home with absolutely no work to do.. so this devil's mind realized that it had not posted anything on the blog for a long long time. So here it goes..

This is about the movie Sasirekha Parinayam which i happened to watch on TV this Sunday. Was an OK types movie with all the now popular antics and tantrums of Genelia. While watching the movie i realized how the characters in the movies change according to the changing behaviours and cultures in the real life.

The hero of this movie is Tarun(yes he has made a comeback after the chocolate boy stint of his in the early 2000s) and Genelia plays the female protagonist. 

I couldnt resisit doing an in-depth analysis of the kind of characters that were portrayed by them in the movie( yes i am that jobless now!).

The characteristics of the hero:

Calm and Composed

Cool head over shoulders

Caring

Atleast looks responsible

Has seen the outside world and understands its demands

Patient(very)

Takes well thought out decisions

The characteristics of the heroine:

Naive

Throws tantrums

Not afraid to throwaway her marriage

Demanding

Doesnt look very much exposed to outside world or feels the need to

Cute and intruguing(atleast for the movie)

Brash

Impulsive decisions

Irresponsible ( if u will)

Mind you this is not a one-off movie which has such character portrayals, this is something which has come to be a sort of norm while etching characters of a (Gult/Tam) movie nowadays.

As the cliche goes, "reel life imitates real life", i would put my money on you finding every other guy or gal on the street or in your neighbourhood having qualities similar to those listed above more or less.

I would clearly put a huge disclaimer that this is no male-chauvinist speaking here and i have just unbiasedly illustrated the change in the behaviour and characteristics of the X/Y/Z etc generation. 

Gone are the days where the girl would be subdued,shy and confined to her home and college, learn the errands at home ( give a helping hand to mom), a bit hesitant to voice her opinions, be ready to take on family responsibilities etc. In a way it is good that there has been great leaps in woman empowerment and the fairer sex is demanding its pound of flesh in the corporate jungle. But somewhere down the line i am really worried if the quintessential woman has lost those special qualities that we always admire in our moms who are:

Patient, Responsible, caring, multi-tasking, a true home maker, adjusting to situations et all

I really hope our future generations will continue to have such super moms which we were fortunate to have. 

At the same time i am not trying to drive home the point that all guys are like how Tarun is in the movie, but from whatever little experiences i have had IMO the current generation guys are far less chauvinistic ( i wont say that we've totally lost it :P), more open to adjusting, even if unorderly at times understand responsibility, yes the brashness remains but controlled one though. ( Yes i am going to get brick bats from the gals for this!)

I really want to see, if at all there is a sequel Sasirekha Parinayam - 2 where the couple get married and later have kids, i want to see how Genelia manages the show and the kind of chemistry the couple will have.

I really hope she kicks a$$ and forces me to put a foot into my mouth. :(

Go Genelia go!

Go New-age girl to be woman go!

E summit 2009

This is one event for which i have put my heart, sweat and blood for to make it happen.

Tomorrow is the event, hope it goes on well for the team..

Cant call this blogging but posted after a long time..

Totaly exhausted. I think inow i can put on my tshirt which reads "100% overworked"

Totaly swamped tomorrow:

1. my event

2. Wipro online test

3. Mom coming to Calcutta(yippie)

Structured Creativity!

Oh i am back. As my orkut status reads, term 4 in IIM Calcutta is really screwing me. Lots of projects, quizzes, portfolios to manage, endterms looming over(just a day left). Amongst all this frustration, drama and jugaad there are some creative and lighter moments which while screwing you one side, still manages to bring a laugh or smile on your face by the sheer uniqueness and brilliance of it.

One such hillarious thing is our tryst with a course called Structured Finance in the term 4 of our MBA. This was one of the few courses which didnot have a cap or cutoff grade. For the uninitiated, cap in a subject means the professor has set a predefined maximum intake (Eg. 50 students) and cutoff grade meant u needed a minimum of B+ in a few related courses to opt for the course . So this subject was opted for by a whooping 144 students in the batch. There were two tranches of people who had opted for this subject. One lets call it T1, who were really focussed on finance, specifically markets and had come to know from the seniors that he is one of the best visiting professors taking a finance course in IIMC. The other T2, were guys who were having a mixed bag portfolio of subjects. They were looking to take one FIN course and Struct Fin seemed a good and easier option since it dinot have a cap or a grade barrier.

And here comes Prof. VK, the securitization stud who teaches at a level which needs atleast some basic knowledge about bonds, fixed income, options etc. Most of the T2 and some of T1 were in for a shock and had given up on the subject in in the 3rd,4th classes itself. The classes were conducted on the Saturday mornings which was the worst time to go to a class. All this culminated into an indifference on the part of many students towards the subjects and many had made it a habit to sign the attendance sheet and leave the class. The professor dint care about it in the first few classes but started getting frustrated slowly. And then he thought enough is enough.He had his own way of vendatta. He started conducting quizzes in the last 5 minutes of the class when atleast half of the class had left after the ritual of signing the attendance sheet.

Quiz 1: He started with the first quiz. With just 5 mins left for the class to end he asks the students to take a sheet of paper out of their books write their names and reg nos and answer a few SIMPLE questions. People still couldnt believe that they were actualy going to write a quiz. Before anyone could even react to what happened the quiz was over. Half the class was literally RAPED since they just missed a quiz which had 5 marks weightage ( 5 marks really matters here since you might lose or gain a grain for even 0.5 marks).

Quiz 2: The same event happened 2-3 classes later in the last 5 mins of the class. This time people were accustomed to the surprise if not prepared for it. Some of them managed to call their friends who had already left to rush in time to attend the quiz. This time it was more interesting. This was like a real Quiz Quiz. We had to guess the word or the concept which you could decipher from a cryptic statement. There were 15 suchs.
One interesting one was:
"It goes well with bed, bread and bonds!"
The answer was: Spread
There were many nore such interesting hillarious cryptics. One was relating "wardrobe malfunction" and CDOs, can you beat this for creativity.(Answer was Ramp up Risk:). We managed to survive this one too

Quiz 3: By now we were like anticipating a quiz almost every class. Risk averse people slowly stopped leaving the class after the ritual while the risky guys left and had someone in the class who would buzz them if at all the quiz happened. The creativity levels in setting the quiz was growing exponentially. I was wondering if the Prof had a split personality - one which was a hardcore FIN focused securitization God and the other was a Creative and Art oriented person.
Ok without deviating from the topic lets go bang onto the quiz. This one was a Yes/No or True/False type quiz. We were a bit happy that we dint have to write paragraphs like we did in Quiz 1 or concepts like we did in Quiz 2. This was merely a Yes/No one but no it was not to be cake walk. In the quiz we actually had to write if each of the 10 topics which he gave was taught in the class or not! If yes we had to write a line on it. It has negative marking too. There were people rushing in in the middle of the quiz. Yes the buzzers haddone their job. The vendatta part of this quiz was that if u didnot attend the classes properly you wouldnot have any clue what he had taught even if you learnt it on your own. The funniest thing was when we came to know that all the anwers were "No" i.e the Prof hadnt taught any of the 10 topics in the class!!

Quiz 4: This was an encounter that i faced just today. As usual the Saturday morning blues. Again the last 5 mins quiz. Here ended the routine or stereotype. The CQ(Creative Quotient) was hitting the roof. This quiz was the randomest of all. We had to write as many one-liners, punch lines or Rajini type "Oru dadavai sonna nooru dadavai sonna madiri" one -line punches. This happened when is was my frustrated best because of Struct Fin. Still i managed to rack my brains and come out with some some bizzare and few horny ones
Some of them were as below:
SPV(Special Purpose Vehicles) are like pimps!!
In securitization, there are many friends who want to share your joys and sorrows.
REITs(Real Estate Investment Trusts) are like beehives. Each hole is a unit in it and every bee(read investor) has a right on the hive. The bees provide honey to the beehive(read investment)

And thus ended our last class on Structured Finance!!

This professor is so much into securitization that he even made 2 different tranches or classes(exams) during our end terms. One was a low risk moderate return, a written test. The other one was a high risk high return class which was a excel based spreadsheet exam. Even the evaluation was weird as he came up with his own Beta( scaling factor) for the risky tranche.
We manged to make him realize that he was playing securitization games with our Grades and got our End term de-securitized.

I hope i maximize my returns in the End Term exam..

PS: Pardon me for the highly loaded Finance jargon. The theme of the post needed it to be so..

DD1 Nostalgia @ 3 AM in IIMC

Today i truly got nostalgic about DD. As usual we at IIMC were going full swing on the IP messenger discussing all the latest gossip on the campus, about the frustrating Term 4 and how the quizzes, projects and exams screws you. The topic suddenly drifted towards the old DD1 channel and what people remembered the most about it. Now everyone pounced upon this and went back to the good old days when DD 1 was the one and only channel and there were so many interesting things that came out. Some of them that we had totaly forgotten. It had taken us back to our childhood. Of those chitrahaars, rangolis, sorry for the interruptions, Didi's comedy show and what not. The newsreader aunty with her 2 rupee coin sized bindi. To put a few things down on paper sorry on the post. Here we go: ( the list is too long so bear with me). I beat you will remember atleast some of it and that would surely bring a smile on your face.

Remembering DD - 1
1. Sorry for the interruption screen
2. The calendar photo that they show with some crap music as filler
3. All regional channels will restart at 8 AM. Over to Delhil screen
4. Chitrahaar ka woh logo
5. Rangoli's hostess with that flower pot on her side gives some arbit gyan and plays some old songs
6. The kaal chakra thing bfore Mahabharath starts
7. Sunday noon news for the hearing impaired
8. Potli baba ki
9. UGC programs
10. Super Human Samurai
11. Super Hit muqabla
12. DD1 female news reader - fully clad in saree, huge 2 rupee coin sized bindi and her hair tied like a volley ball
13. Swami and Friends
14. That DD1 logo with the music in the morning when telecast resumes
15. Chandrakaantha
16. Rozgaar samachaar
17. Raashtriya saaksharta mission
18. Mala-D Ad
19. First Nirodh Ad (Guy opens a friend's drawer and finds lot of girl's photos)
20.Baingan Raaja
21. Rukaavat ke liye khed hai
22. Ek chidiyaa
23. 11 am program for farmers
24. CIET le kar aaya Tarang Tarang Tarang Tarang
25. Vande mataram in the morning (sigh..... I really miss that one)
26. kisan bhaiyon ki choupal
27. mile sur mera tumhara
1)Mile sur mera tumhaara
2) Bhaje Sargam
3) Lijjat Papad advertisement
4) Spirit of Unity Concert
5) He-man Cartoon
6) Vyomkesh Bakshi
7) Chanakya
8) Tenali Raman
9) Tehqiqaat
10) Junoon
11) Swabhimaan
12) Shanti
13) Aparajita
14) Waqt
15) Dekh Bhai Dekh
16) Zabaan sambhaal ke
17) Motu Patlu aur shekh chilli.... doctor chadda hai bheeghi billeeee (still remember the title song)
18) Stone Boy
19) Milkibaar ... give me the power
non-stop nonsense :)Non stop nonsense - oh that was cool, 4 videos in the screen each with a lagAnd finally the guy comes out and acknowledges the applause from the crowd
1) Ulta Pulta
2) Flop Show
3) Waghle ki duniya
4) Buniyaad
5) Hum Log
6) Doosra Keval (Shahrukh Khan)
7) Jungle Book
8) Shikaari Shambhoo (small serial ... didnt run for long)
9) Phulwaari Bachon ki
10) Rambha's island
11) Disney hour (Tailspin, ducktales, darkwing duck, quack pack etc..)
1) Bhaarat ek khoj
2) Turning Point (A science show featuring Girish Karnard)
3) Gaayab Aayab
4) Meena (cartoon to promote girl's education)
At the night- Primetime
Knight Rider
Street Hawk
Oshin
Fauji
Nukkad
Circus
Buniyaad
Kile ke Rahasya
Byomkesh Bakshi
Tehkikaat
Reporter
Surabhi
Turning Point
Bharat Ek Khoj
Mitti Ke Rang
~plztoadd: : Swabhimaan: : Shanti: : Ek Do Teen char ( yes there was such a serial): : ek, do teen , char.................charo mil kar saath chalein to ho jaye chamatkaar : : : : Chuna chuna .... some paint ad: : : Torino .. its a new new feeling .. ( was an Indian cool drink )
Emi ramayya emi alochistunavEmi ledu ma intiki godda chavadiki em veddamaniIndulo alochinchataniki emundiCharminar Asbestor sheets veste sari!!
Elephant ad of fevicol featuring rajkumar hirani (director of munnabhai MBBS)
Aishwarya Rai : "Hi! I am Sanjana, do u have a pespi?"
Mera joota hai Lakhaani
O ho ho schooltime Action ka Schooltime
Khaae Jaao Khaae Jaao, United ke Gun gaaye jaao
Asli masaale sach sach, MDH MDHAmritanjan - poye pochu, its gone ad
"Kya hua?... Bacha kyun ro raha hai?.... Use woodwards pila... jab tu chota tha to tujhe bhi wahi pilati thee"
"Vicco turmeric, nahi cosmetic, Vicco Turmeric Ayurvedic Creame"
"Soundarya Sabun Nirma... soundarya sabun Nirma,Tum Husn Pari, tum jaane jahaanTum sabse haseen tum sabse jawaaaaaa"
"Detergent Tikiyaaaa..... 555"
"Dhoondte reh jaaoge"


Forgive the repititions and numberings. I couldnt start formatting and renumbering them. Too huge a list and yeah cases to be done for tommorrow so apologies..
I am sure the Y2k generation can never relate to these things. Please pour in your comments if you could even relate to a part of it.

~RIP DD1

Hong Kong ke Rang!!

We are staying in a Hotel called Bishop Lei International which is in mid-levels in Hong Kong Island. Hong Kong Island is one of the 4 territories in Hongkong. There are other good ones like Kowloon. But this is the place where the money, people and the highrise buildings are there. This is the island which turns up on all those Hong kong tourism site ads and post cards. It is a very small island and well connected. The roads are too narrow and people walk very fast and all over the place. The financial hub in Hong Kong is Central. It is where the business is in Hong kong. The area is full of bankers and executives in their business attire walking from one building to another without having to touch down on the ground. There are sleek elevators, escalators and direct connectors between buildings. You have to venture out on the roads during the lunch time to see the mayhem. Hell breaks loose as whole of the HOngkong is on streets. From Mid levels the place where we stay there is a so called travelator which is world famous, its a continuous stretch of flat travelators and escalators down the hill (and uphill depends on the time of the day). Its about 1-2 kms of travel without having to walk. This is one reason we dont have to pay for our travel up and down the hill daily to the work. In the morning there is also a free shuttle from the Hotel which drops us at Central from where it is just a few hundred metres away. Strangely most of us in this hotel turned out to be vegetarians and to our utter dismay we cannot find proper vegetarian food at any local restaurant. There is a place called Lung Kai Fung where there are a few Indian restaurants which serve good food. But otherwise it's a fight daily to get vegetarian food.Chater House where JP Morgan has its muiltiple floors of office is great. It houses all the top brands in the world like Armani and what not. My desk is on the 25th floor of the building and it is a trading floor full of Swordfish type computers with 2-6 screens for a single PC. Looks mind boggling. Work has already started in full swing and I am working for about 12 hours a day after long time. On Saturday we had gone to an island which is about an half an hour travel on Ferry from Hong Kong Island. Its a hilly island with a small waterfall, a small beach etc. Each of us rented a bicycle( that is how ppl travel around the place) and went around the island which was great fun. On Sunday we went for a hiking on a hilly place called Shek - O. We went on the trail called Dragon's back. Its called so coz it has ups and downs just like a dragons back.. it was raining slightly and the whole areas was very foggy. It was really a great experience doing the climbing.. Then we went to a beach nearby which was awesome.. the color of the seawater was good and the beach was nice. Wanted to jump into the water but because of bad planning didnot take extra clothes so just went leg deep into the water..