My airport story ..

So, I have a long history of almost meeting celebrities, those who have read my earlier posts will know what I mean. And so, as it is bound to happen, history repeated itself a couple of weeks ago at the Mumbai Domestic Airport.

I was returning back to Bangalore after a 3-day IT Expo and conference, tired and with a bit of a sore throat (it’s uncanny but every time I visit the city, I get this ailment). Anyways, I was dutifully like a good citizen standing in the security check line, when suddenly I spied a pretty lady in a simple black salwar kameez picking up a tiny pink suitcase and standing on the other side of the security check. She looked very familiar, but for the life of me I could not remember where I had seen her before. Was she a business associate I met at the conference, was she someone from Bangalore, was she from my organization? My brain was working furiously but I simply could not place her. I must have made her conscious with my snake-like staring, but she was pretty composed and was chatting amiable with the Jet Airways staff helping her with her luggage, while at the same time looking at me as if she was expecting me to come up to her and say hello, which I would have if only I could place her!

After our ‘staring competition’, I got my security check done and left the place without greeting the lady in black, who soon let the place with her male assistant wheeling her tiny pink suitcase.

It was only after entered a bookstore while waiting to board and picked up a magazine and saw a doe-eyed pretty face staring at me, did it finally dawn on me that I just missed saying hello to the very talented actress of Parineeta & Dirty Picture - Vidya Balan!

India Calling...

A good friend of mine, H called me up the other day and yelped excitedly "TD Jakes is considering coming to India and guess what it's all because of a tweet ( Well, he actually said a tweet and God's hand!).

For those who haven't heard of Bishop TD Jakes, well he's one of the better knows evangelists of today. Founder of The Potter's House , a motivational speaker and author. And my friend like so many others is a HUGE fan of his preaching and style , so much so that sometimes when he preaches, the TD Jakes style invariably sneaks in. But this post is not about TD Jakes or my friend or even about TD Jakes coming to India (though I am happy that he is).

This is about the power social media . To understand that we must get back to the TD Jakes story. Well, after H calmed down (which essentially meant started breathing again), he let me on what exactly happened. Shyju, his close friend had apparently posted a tweet on TD Jake’s profile about how his sermons had been a blessing to him. Surprisingly the Bishop replied saying he had no idea people in India knew about him and his sermons and what would be a good place to visit for a first-timer. Well, that got Shyju all excited and he created a post on his blog asking people to tweet on how TD Jakes had been a blessing to them and inviting him to India, which they did with enthusiasm. Well, that set the ball rolling and now things are now moving ahead!

It set me wondering, if it weren’t for the transparency and connectivity social media offers, how would a 25 year old greenhorn evangelist based in India interact with a 63 year old renowned preacher living in Texas. Social media is not only bringing people closer, it is more importantly empowering them. It’s no wonder celebrities, governments and other corporates are leveraging Social Media to function more efficiently. In fact Gartner predicts that by 2014, social networking services will replace e-mail as the primary vehicle for interpersonal communications for 20 percent of business users. I am not too sure how good this prediction stands, but it sure demonstrates the popularity Social Media carries.

So whether a Shyju reaches to a TD Jakes via twitter or a 13 year old amateur singer Rebecca Black reaches more than 15,000,000 listeners via YouTube, it’s a simple demonstration of the power Social Media can harness, a power that changes lives, changes people, changes destiny!

An enchanting evening with Leela

The weather gods have gone crazy ! Bangalore is damp and soggy with incessant rains and deserted roads , ruling out any outdoor rendezvous.

So, what better way to spend a rainy evening than with a steaming cup of chai and one of the most beautiful woman in the world . Time pass at its best !
As for the book, it makes an interesting read with tit bits from the leading lady’s life with a twist of irony and humour. Gives a glimpse into the charmed life of a legend that was Leela. I especially enjoyed the chapter - The British on a hunger strike in the land of the Mahatma ! Great insights in some pages too and an easy style of writing . Do read it if you get the chance .

The BIG Lesson

I have a new disgusting pass time! I watch Big Boss! Okay don’t be so judgmental, no one is perfect except Rajnikanth on screen! Yes, I am very ashamed to admit that I am addicted to this reality show and so is my flat mate, Deepthi.

Deepthi & I spend at least 30 minutes every day doing a post mortem of the show , with each giving in our opinion on each of the participants nature and behavior. To add to it all, Deepthi varies in her evaluation every day. On Monday she swears Rahul Bhat is the most genuine person on the show and on Wednesday she makes snide comments on his insensitivity. I too have been guilty of making contrary judgments on each participant.

Just set me thinking isn’t it strange how a certain incident changes our perspective and opinion. We tend to judge people by the last incident and experience. So a single good incident can wash out a series of negative actions and one single unconstructive action can undo a whole lot of good done earlier. So, essentially we are as good as our last behavior to strangers. Well, thank God for God, family & good friends who oversee the one odd faltering to continue to believe in the good in us.

If Big Boss has any lesson to teach, it’s that one should be not form opinions instantaneously! A lesson hard to learn but totally worth it!

So, with a lesson in my kitty, let the entertainment continue!!!!

Badlav - The Change

The poem below is written by a collegue and a friend who due to his modesty refuses to let me put his name on this blog , so let's just call him SG.

This poem owes its existence to a situation where another of our collegue was moving out of the company and was expressing a myriad of emotions he was experiencing. SG manages to capture these raw emotions and convert them into a fine poem that reflects the inevitable thing in life - Change !

So take a dekko at this beautiful poem 'Badlav'. Its in a JPEG format so you may experience a little difficulty in reading it. But it's worth the effort !

Clinic Casualties !

It's strange how sometimes you write a bit on something , then work and life takes precedence and you totally forgot about it. Here's another post I had written probably a couple of years ago.

The past 10 days have confined me to limited space (a single bed) , limited activities ( checking office mails/replying them and internet surfing) ,limited food ( soups, milk, soups, milk , eggs, khichidi , milk ) and unlimited medicines, thanks to a bacterial infection that caused havoc in Yours Truly’s body by way of fever,throat pain and severe cough !

My mysterious malady, bought me in touch with two of my greatest fears, the hypodermic syringe and extraction of blood!

Well, it so happened that since my adamant fever refused to come down , my doctor suggested a blood test to rule out typhoid and malaria , which was a very noble act except for the naked fact that I have an irrational fear for the syringe and the sight of blood makes me weak . Now couple the two and I have a problem that makes the Iraq bombing look like fluffy clouds.

But doctor's orders are like the ten commandments that have to be obeyed at any cost ! And so I dragged my heavy feet on a bright Friday morning to Appollo Clinic to accomplish this mammoth task. My sister tagged along for moral support , which was lower than the sensex on 'Black Tuesday' .

To begin with things went pretty smooth, the medical attendant seated me comfortably in a chair and then tied my arm with a band to tighten the nerves. Then he dabbed some spirit on my arm and that did it ! That pungent smell unleashed a wimpy & weird creature in me that comes alive in such medical situations. I am not proud of it but I think I outdid Rakhi Saawant with my hysterics. I tried everything under the sun to evade that dreaded injection, right from pretend-fainting bouts to bribing the medical attendant to intimidating him. But the man was unmoved while my sister quickly moved to the end of the room and pretended she was with not with me.

After much deliberation and discussions, we finally decided on a fool proof plan. The medical attendant would be as gentle as possible, my sister would sing ‘Amazing Grace’ and I would try and allow them to do their jobs. I tightly screwed my eyes close and said those magical 3 words ‘Let us begin’.

Well, the room was flooded with a beautiful stream of ‘Amazing Grace’ with some occasional off-key notes contributed by me in my attempt to distract myself. Finally, towards the end of ‘Was blind, but now I see’ I opened my eyes and saw that the job was done with the Attendant triumphantly holding a syringe full of dark red liquid that once ran freely through my veins.
We all looked at each other with a look that must have been on Neil Amstrong’s face when he landed on the moon! Well, the medical attendant also had a look of relief on his face!

Some people conquer nations and scale mountains, I ,on the other hand braved the terrors of a clinic and returned shaken but wise ! Okay, I was exaggerating about the wise part !

So the next time you visit your doctor’s clinic remember Yours Truly and her brave exploits! And if it's Appollo Clinic, you might not want to mention me. I am not exactly popular there !!!

IPL

Wrote this bit long ago. Found it while 'spring cleaning' my computer . I am a firm believer that a piece of lace and an article written should not be wasted. So here you go..

IPL is everywhere!

I am not into cricket so you can understand my predicament!

I shudder at the word. I open the newspaper and there it is in big bold letters, I switch on the television and every news channel seems to be covering it. I turn to my friends for conversation and all they talk about is IPL.

I fail to understand this obsession with IPL or cricket for that matter! As if that were not enough there comes more confusion on the Tharoor controversy which I am trying to follow.

Don’t our hard working, tax paying and corruption bearing countrymen have better things to do? The Sania-Sohaib saga was a refreshing respite from this cricket mania, but now that Sania, Sohaib and Ayesha are appeased, its back to boring !

Well, I did try to get a hang of it but the whole thing was too complicated for me to understand. So I sought the help of some cricket-buff friends of mine to get some aid in understanding the whole IPL thingie.

So the next time I met them at Barista and the conversation went crickety as it was bound to happen, I said ‘I don’t know why Modi is so upset about the whole thing, I mean Gujarat doesn’t even have a team. Right?’

TK & HK, the 2 cricket buffs I unfortunately got as friends looked at me blankly.

Looking at their puzzled faces, I elaborated,” I mean, what does Narendra Modi have against Sashi Tharoor ? Neither of them are cricketers. Why are they fighting?”

HJ nearly choked over his cafe latte and TK looked at me with a mixture of disgust and amazement. In fact, the couple next to us stared pointedly at me and then at each other in disbelief and the waiter looked at me with scientific interest.

Through it all I patiently waited for an answer.

“You idiot, its not the Gujarat CM is Lalit Modi” Spluttered TK as droplets of Swiss Mocha Frappe spotted the table.

"Oh, okay, what’s the big deal ? A Modi is a Modi- bound to create trouble whether its cricket or politics" I retorted feeling a little silly , especially since the waiter was now retelling my gaffe to his peers.

I suddenly felt like the Maroon Leaf Monkey at Bannerghatta National Park, except that the monkey gets free food and I had to pay for food and humiliation.

So much for trying to understand the gentleman’s game. *Sigh *.

Lesson Learnt? – More of ESPN and less of CNN.