The Deadly Duo

Picture this situation; you are reaching the end of the financial quarter and this has been a terrible quarter, both for your company and your client as well. The sheer volume of financial transactions has been mind-boggling and the ongoing economic recession means that your company cannot hire additional resources to handle the increased load. You and your teammates are pulling in all-nighters as well as working through most morning hours as well, and yet the load simply refuses to come down. The only times you can relax a little and forget about work is when you folks go to the company cafeteria to grab a cup of coffee and some snacks as a team. It is only in the lobby of the cafeteria that all boundaries of hierarchy, age, gender and class are broken down and your true spirit of camaraderie comes out to the fore.

Now, while the company management realizes that while monetary compensation is probably the best reward that they can offer the team for all the hard efforts they are putting in during the quarter, there is only so much happiness that money can buy. Your bosses really want to do something special for you folks. They literally want to re-energize the team and charge them up so that it can take on the additional work-load with renewed vigor. What would you suggest?

Well, why think any further than the ‘deadly duo’ of music and dance? After all, there is hardly anybody who doesn’t respond positively to foot-tapping music and mind-blowing dance performances. It is a universally known truth that the right genre of music is probably one of the most effective therapies for all of us to take our mind of tensions, worries and live in the moment and enjoy life to the fullest. It also goes without saying that when we hear awesome music, if we see an equally mind-blowing dance performance, then our bodies and minds will be doubly re-energized.

And when you think of this ‘deadly duo’ of dance and music, why would you want to look any further than the ‘deadly duo’ of Anushka Manchanda for the music and Allu Arjun for the dance performance. After all, they have more than half the country’s youngsters rocking and re-energized with their bubbly, chirpy and overall energetic personalities.

Picture this, your bosses arrange for a secret impromptu concert of this duo without publicizing it within the company at all. You and your team head out to the cafeteria for your much needed break, and you find the cafeteria engulfed in darkness when you step out of the elevators. And then suddenly the music starts, foot-tapping music, and gradually when the lights come on, you see Anushka behind the turntables at a makeshift DJ counter. By the time this fact registers and you begin enjoying her groovy beats, Allu Arjun makes his way on to the stage by literally tearing through the back of the specially made prop for his foot-tapping, mind-blowing performance.

Just imagine this, the combination of music and dance, of Anushka and Allu Arjun, of good food, good music and good times. Do you think you and your team could get any better re-energizers? I don’t think so.

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I am blogging for #MaxFreshMove activity at BlogAdda.com. Are you?

Kapil Dev ki ek nayi league

Not too many cricket fans from the 1980s can forget the sight of a fully charged up ‘Haryana Hurricane’ Kapil Dev charging in through his run up to the popping crease and delivering that beautifully orchestrated outswinger. It could be argued that he was among the best, if not ‘the best’ all-rounder of his era with Imran Khan, Richard Hadlee and a few others making up the rest of the group. One thing is for sure, the passion with which Kapil Dev represented India and the competitive spirit with which he played his sport was second to none.

And therefore, in the Ek Nayi League teaser promo videos (http://www.eknayileague.com) that are doing the rounds nowadays, when he mentions that something new is coming up which will probably involve leading sportspersons and other celebrities competing with something more than just passion, then it really does give food for thought.

Here are my guesses at what the Nayi League might be about.

A celebrity golf league

Given Kapil’s penchant for the sport post his retirement (if I am not mistaken he even played a couple of competitive seasons in the Indian golf circuits), it could very well be possible that he intends to promote a new celebrity golf league. As it is the sport attracts more than its fair share of prize money worldwide and enough blue chip brands already flock to sponsor golf tournaments around the globe, and it would therefore be a no-brainer that a celebrity golf league would surely attract more than its fair share of eyeballs in the country.

And the fact that Kapil keeps mentioning agar dil se kheloge toh hit wicket ho jaaoge makes me doubly sure that he is indeed talking about the sport of golf, where each competitor basically plays against himself and his own best scores rather than competing with each other.

A celebrity quiz competition

I have been a quizzer during my school and college days and know for a fact that quizzing as a competitive sport is anything but dil se. It is purely a dimaag only type of endeavor and requires competitors to be at their sharpest bit throughout the competition. Kapil’s frequent dil se mat khelo makes me suspect that his new league might even be something of this sort.

All said and done, the fact remains that Kapil Dev’s open invitation to MSD, Yuvi, Sania Mirza, Kapil Sharma (of Comedy Nights fame) to wait and watch as to what his nayi league is all about surely builds up enough and more anticipation for all sports fans across the country. And given that it is Kapil Dev who is promoting the same means that much more to all of us who have respected the passion and competitive spirit with which he represented the country.

So here’s wishing for a dhuaan dhaar nayi league from Kapil Paaji.

Real Happiness

In this day and age where people have no time to acknowledge the role that family members play in their lives, it is quite rare to find good friends and relatives who not only play important roles in our lives, but also acknowledge the contributions that we make to their lives as well.

I remember the stories that my dad used to tell me about growing up as a joint family with six brothers, two sisters and countless cousins in small town Kerala in the 50s and 60s. Almost all these stories had at least one brother or a cousin or an elderly uncle who had helped out with something or the other that has had a lasting impact on my father’s life; it could be something as simple as developing the habit of cleanliness or something as complicated as helping out in learning and mastering the discipline of Financial Accounting. However, one thing that stood out in all these stories was the unadulterated gratitude that my father has for all the contributions that all these people have had in his life.

As for me and my generation, given that almost all my friends and me have to endure terrible commutes to office on a daily basis and have to face extreme work pressure in extremely competitive workplaces, means that we probably don’t recognize or thank all the people who have had a positive impact on our lives. And on the rare ocassions that we do, those days turn out to be celebrations, no less.

And these days are celebrations of the happiness of the good times in life that are probably a direct or an indirect result of the wonderful contributions of these people. All the contentment, laughter and banter that are part of these days end up creating memories and form the topics of conversations for future get-togethers and gatherings. And the best part is that these celebrations don’t necessarily have to be large scale parties in posh hotels or pubs. They could be something as simple as a bunch of four or five friends getting together at a common friend’s place, having some good food coupled with some awesome conversations. And add the omnipresent Coca Cola to the mix, and lo and behold, you have some memories which last for a lifetime.

I am blessed enough to have at least three good friends who have been with me through thick and thin for the last three decades of my life. And to double these blessings, the family that I married into brought some wonderful relationships in the form of my in-laws and a wonderful co-brother as well into my life. This small group of people make up my small relationship circle, and whenever I am spending any time with these people, either in groups or individually, means that I am having a really good time. In fact, this post itself is being typed out at the fag end of one such weekend where my wife and me have driven down to Hosur, just to spend some time with my sister in law and her husband. Although there was no fixed agenda to the day trip, the fact remains that we are having quite a bit of fun, and that, to me, is what true happiness is about; spending quality time in the company of people who don’t judge you, don’t make fun of you, don’t expect anything in return, and who only have unconditional love and companionship to share with you.

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This post is part of the Coca Cola campaign to celebrate the International Day of Happiness. Check out their awesome TVC below

Go sleeek with the new ASUS Eeebook and AIO

Let’s face it, most of us use our laptops only for browsing, the occasional blog post publishing and mostly for listening to music, watching movies and consuming social media. And in such a scenario, it goes without saying that the lighter the laptop, the better; and any laptop which allows us to perform these tasks competently without being too much of a burden, either on our shoulders or on our pockets would be nothing short of God-sent, would it.

If you agree with my thoughts on the paragraph above, well then, all our prayers have been answered with the launch of the ASUS Eeebook X205. Picture this, a computing device with a full keyboard and trackpad, weighing less than 1 kg, a battery which allows 11 hrs of video viewing, 12 hrs of web browsing, 13 hrs of music playing, with Intel Inside, a free one year subscription to Microsoft Office 365, four vibrant colors, and all this for less than INR 15,000/-. Can you ask for more? Wouldn’t it be too selfish to wish for more?

So then, what are all you wonderful folks waiting for. Head right over to Flipkart [Link] and explore as many details as you want about the device itself and click on the Shop Now buttons to make it yours as soon as possible. Remember it has already run out of stock once since its launch a week ago, but fret not, the company has promised as much stock as we need to satisfy our mobile computing needs.

As if the launch of this one wonderful product wasn’t enough, ASUS also launched their latest offering n the All In One (AIO) space, the ASUS AIO ET 2040. Now, this device is designed in such a manner that while your entire family can use it for all its computing needs, it is also designed keeping convenience and the aesthetics of your living room in mind. After all, most AIOs today find a place in the living rooms of our homes where they double up (or is it triple up) as media consumption, entertainment and social media devices all at once. Weighing at less than 3.5 kgs, with a nicely designed swivel stand and enough ports to connect it to any conceivable accessory (such as printers, scanners, TVs, external HDDs, etc), this device packs a punch that is way bigger than its weight in kilos.

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I am more than sure that most of you are already torn between the choice of purchasing the laptop and the AIO, but this post would surely be incomplete without the wonderful launch event co-organized by Indiblogger and ASUS for these devices.

I mean, how many product launches feature 200 of the best bloggers from Bangalore, a live band, a five star hotel ambience, fun impromptu events and some sumptuous food at the same time. Trust Indiblogger to pull out all the stops and organize what will probably remain one of the most memorable blogger meets that Bangalore has ever seen.

I guess as the saying goes ‘absence makes the heart grow fonder’ and the gap between the previous meet and this one probably contributed to the fact that the team went all out to make this a memorable product launch, and in my opinion, they succeeded in this endeavor quite well.

My worst fear

Over the last eight years now, one thing that has remained constant throughout has been the salary amount hitting my bank account on the last working day every month. And yet another thing that hasn’t changed all these years is the fact that every last working day of the month, my hands start tingling and I tend to be jittery and flustered until I get intimation via mail or SMS regarding the credit of the amount to my account.

Let me be honest with all you readers. It’s not like I ‘really’ need the salary amount every month to stay afloat financially. Not to boast or sound brash, but the truth is that between my wife and me, we are quite financially prudent, both with our savings and our expenditure. We are not the type of people who tend to unnecessarily spend money on impulse purchases and almost always plan our expenditure quite carefully, while putting enough away in savings for a rainy day or unforeseen emergencies.

As a result, over the course of seven years of married life, we have saved up a reasonable amount, and for sure, this can tide over any financial emergencies, including a situation where I can afford not to have my salary credited for a couple of months and still not ‘feel the pinch’, so to speak.

Despite this, I still get all jittery when that salary amount does not hit my bank account at the end of the month. It probably stems from the fact that for all of three years (22 months of MBA and 14 months before that when I was preparing for my B School entrance exams) I was literally devoid of any income apart from the money that I used to shamelessly take from my parents.

I was all of 23 yrs old and in a job when I was unceremoniously and with a 4 hr notice thrown out of a job due to a sudden change in the educational qualifications required to continue in the job. At that young and impressionable age, this incident did create quite the lasting impression on me. And given that I had decided to enroll for CAT coaching classes and intended to apply to a few B Schools all over the country meant that all of this had to be funded using my parents’ retirement money and that was something that I absolutely hated having to do. But I was in a corner and had to use this money to dig myself out that tight spot.

In any case, this period very clearly left me with the impression that there can never be enough money saved up from one’s earnings. Situations like the one that happened in early 2003 can easily happen again and this time around I didn’t want to be stuck in a situation where I had to approach anybody else, even my parents, for financial assistance.

Therefore, my biggest fear today is a situation where I am left without a decent monthly income to back me up.

That being said, the only way that I would actively consider quitting my day job and sit at home to pursue my creative and other interests would be if I managed to win a lottery or an inheritance from a rich relative (not that I have any, but hypothetically speaking) to the tune of around INR 20 crores or so. I would then invest some money in engaging a good wealth manager who would ensure that I get interest income commensurate to my upwardly mobile middle class lifestyle while investing enough to tide over my old age and that of my family as well.

So what about you readers? What is the one thing that you are most scared to do, and what would it take for you to get around to doing it?

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This post has been written for Project 365: A post a day where the intention is to publish at least one post a day based on the prompts provided. Today’s prompt was to discuss the one thing that I am most scared to do and about what it would take to get me to do it.