Mehdi Hasan

Mubham baat paheli jaisi,bus wohi boojhay jis ko bujhaye

Bhed na paye to ghabraye, bhed jo paye to ghabraye,

Jis ko akele main aa aa kar dhyaan tera reh reh ke sataye,

Chupke chupke baitha roye, aansoo ponchay aur reh jaye

Sari kahani bechaini ki maathay par likh deti hai,

Aisi baat ke ghut te ghut te munh tak aaye aur reh jaye,

Arzoo apni dhoondhta hai patta, thaan chuka hai marne ki

Jaana boojha rog hai yeh to, Samjhe hue ko kya samjhaye

Heard this lovely ghazal written by Arzoo Lucknawi, sung by Mehdi Hasan brilliantly, after quite some time. You can listen in too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pixNDH4O1oI

An interesting thing about the first word. It sounds like Mugham when you listen to the ghazal, but it actually is Mubham which means 'ambiguous'. The meaning becomes clear (or, the ambiguity clears) when you realise the meaning.

Friends

A couple of good friends from my IIMB days visited this week. One was Prabhakar Valivati, who came to deliver a punchy lecture on Shakespeare's 7 Ages of Man (As You Like It) and its relevance to managers, as part of our Institute Day at IMT Nagpur. His description of the life cycle of a professional manager using the Bard as a base was fantastic. He was CEO of RelQ, a firm he founded, and then sold to EDS a few years ago. He now mentors start-ups- not upstarts.

Sandhya Sekhar was also a CEO of a research/tech park in Chennai until recently (the number of CEOs we have produced from our batch is not funny). She has also worked at Aptech and Gartner in the past, and written a book on Knowledge Management. A Ph.D. from IIT Chennai to boot, she is here for a guest session in the Strategy course.

Great to reconnect with these two and glad they made time for our budding managers.

Randhir Kapoor

Also known as Dabboo in his khandaan, he was a peculiar guy in the industry. He was a hero in a few films, some of which were big hits, but he never was perceived as a great star or a great actor. However, there was an innocence in his face which contributed to his being very good in the village bumpkin roles that he did very well in Rampur ka Laxman, for instance.

Some of his songs were superhits too. I can remember these-

Bhanware ki gunjan, hae mera dil..
Tujhsa haseen dekha na kahin...pehle milan mein hoti hai kashmakash, ..
Aap yahan aaye kis liye? Aap ne bulaya is liye...
Gum hai kisi ke pyar mein dil subah shaam..
Yeh jawani, hai diwani, ..
Jaane jaan, dhoodhta phir raha..
Saamne yeh kaun aaya dil mein hui hulchul..
Peenewalon ko jeene ka bahaana chahiye..

Party Week

No, I have not joined the BJP, Congress, JD (A, B, C,..U) or any other political party. Nor am I planning to. I am just another aam aadmi and will continue to be. What I am referring to is the mundane act of having a party.

For various reasons (like having important guests) we had through the week, and a colleague throwing one, I had a hectic week of lunches and dinners being thrown (by or at me) and attended. All in all, a satisfying bunch of them, exploring different cuisines from the ridiculous to the sublime.

Also got a chance to educate the waiters of various establishments in town about some wines that they had in stock-wines are tough to keep track of, and I don't blame them. There are literally thousands of wines, made in dozens of countries. Since one guest was a wine aficionado, the waiter ended up learning a lot. Grape names like Merlot, Shiraz, Pinot Noir, Cabernet Sauvignon, etc. will now flow off his tongue like the Ganga flowing all over Uttarakhand this past sunmmer.

Anyway, now there is some respite, and that is also welcome, after all the hecticness (this may not be a word at all). It continues to rain in Nagpur, much more than it usually does.

Saving Newsprint- Shortest Essays

Indians generally use 100 words where two would suffice. If England was a nation of shop-keepers, we are one of speech-makers. But in order to save the listeners, and trees when this verbal barrage appears in print, I have come up with a brilliant solution. The two-line essay/speech. R.I.P, TV debates, Arnab etc..

Examples

1. Should India adopt the Western model of blah, blah,..(put here any suitable word for a good thing they do)?

Yes.

2. Should we let China go on taking evening constitutionals in Ladakh?

No.

3. Should there be Food Security?

Yes.

4. A Bill for Food Security?

As long as someone is ready to pay (the bill).

5. Should we allow pizza places/dance bars/Wal-Mart/Pubs/Poonam Pandey/?

Depends

6. Should we have a spitting Tax?

YES.

I want to be...

I want to be at least one of these...

The royal baby of a what's his name Prince of an also-ran country which was once an Empire, and whose media think that they are still one. The way they cover their royal babies, one would think that a King of the Universe has been born. I love it. If that's not possible, I want to be the kid of an Indian celebrity. Same reason.

I would love to be the mid-day meal that did it. The amount of coverage that I got would make up for the bad vibes from the parents of the kids.

I want to be the Chief Minister of at least one State in my lifetime. Even if I have to carve one out of my backyard. Just make me a Chief Minister. Even if I last only a day or two.

I want to be the anchor-who-runs-the-country. You know who I am talking about. Now you got it!

I desperately want to be the judge on a dance show. The inane comments I make would get me tons of money in fees. Comes closest to a do-nothing and get paid fantasy. Cricket commentators are the only other species that can produce such miracles.

If you think I am going bonkers, you are absolutely right. I have a right to. This is my 800th blog post. I have run out of new things to write, maybe?

PJs and OJs

An old classic Ajit joke.

Ajit:         Raabert, Test Match mein kyaa ho raha hai ?
Raabert:   Boss, Vivian Richards chhakke pe chhakka maar raha hai.
Ajeet:       Saale ko sabak sikhana padega. Lunch break mein usse phone milana.
Raabert:   Yes Boss.
Ajeet:       (on phone, to Richards)   Veeveeyun Reechards, soch lo. Tumhari maa hamare kabze mein                  hai ...

Some OJs (Originals)

Why are toes missing from most photo(e)s?

Is it named face 'book' to remind you of something you should be doing-reading?

If a mad man produces agarbattis, what will the product be called?

Insane sticks.

Administration rarely gets any admiration. Is it because it does not minister to the needs of the administered?