4 days of meeting and networking with business leaders of India - Kumarmangalam Birla, Adeshir Godrej, Ravi Kant and much more importantly, non traditional business leaders of India -who are building the next line of global businesses in India - CEOs of Sony TV, IPL, Lightspeed Venture Capital,UTV and many many others. 4 days of traveling around Mumbai and grudgingly agreeing to the fact that it is a little more cosmopolitan than Delhi. ( Delhi does have MUCH better roads and women though:)) - The scrappiness that comes with hard ambition and lack of uninherited wealth is I think the primary difference between Mumbai and Delhi.
The author loves Mumbai (its easy to love it from the wonderful Taj Lands' End). Mumbai has a cosmopolitan easiness of a big city, that Delhi still has to imbibe.
All in all, made some friends, hung out, met some exceptional individuals (some of who flew in from Delhi for the meeting:)), learnt a lot about India and where its going - from the people who make the headlines, unwrapped the macro-economic indicators to understand what's happening at the micro-economic level.
Off to Delhi today.
Friday, October 30, 2009
Monday, October 19, 2009
Of people
Of joy and sadness, of smiles and tears, of memories. Of Birthdays. Of small gifts.
Of Images. Of Thoughts.
Of Rights. And of Wrongs.
And in-betweens.
Of loneliness. Of Togetherness.
Of crowds. Of Solitude. Of me. And of you.
Of everything that life brings and takes away,
Life itself,
chugs on.
Monday, October 05, 2009
Trip to where it all started
In the second iteration of our now annual re-union, the gang from Michigan State decided to travel to East Lansing this weekend for a Michigan - MSU football game.
AR,Maddu,SB,RT and myself showed up - all of us were room-mates during those years spent there at some point, and this annual meeting up has become something of a ritual now.
Flew to Detroit and then rented a car to drive to East Lansing. It was a cloudy, rainy evening, with this beautiful diffused evening light - like a lot of the evenings in Michigan are, in the Fall.
Met Maddu at the International Center, ate at Panda Express, walked around aimlessly in the campus; the MSU campus is beautiful this time of the year - with the oncoming fall, the slight chill in the air, the clear waters of the Red Cedar river, the colors on campus, the greens all around, the students all sort of come together in this magical world which almost seems away from real life.
Coming to campus brings back a lot of memories especially for me. It was funny about how every small part of the campus - Trowbridge Road, BSRSI, Engineering, Owen Graduate Hall, International Center, Spartan Village, the Red Cedar walk all had some memory associated with it that seemed like yesterday, all these years later. Heck, even Hannah Admin did.
We spent 3 days there - 3 days of College Football, drinking beer at the Peanut Barrel, eating hot dogs and doing things that college students do. A lot of us had to go back to the spouses - so it meant 3 days of being with the boys; for a few of us, it was just meeting old friends, drinking beer, watching Michigan State beat Michigan, driving around Campus Hill, Twickhingham (which is called something else now), Grand River, the place on Okemos road where I totaled my car so many years ago, eating at Peking Express, Woody's and the Denny's and remembering sometimes hilarious, sometimes funny and sometimes poignant stories and people.
After 3 days there, we all came back to our daily grind.
One endearing memory - As I drove towards the campus from our Campus Hill Drive in Okemos (we drove around, for nostalgia sake), I crossed a little railway bridge. On the other side of the bridge used to be 2 places - the Denny's is still there. The Circuit City, obviously, is long gone. Remembered incidents. Realized that growing up ultimately meant realizing that experience teaches. Sometimes in a hard way. But its good to keep the memory refreshed.
Was a wonderful trip.
Left without comments.
AR,Maddu,SB,RT and myself showed up - all of us were room-mates during those years spent there at some point, and this annual meeting up has become something of a ritual now.
Flew to Detroit and then rented a car to drive to East Lansing. It was a cloudy, rainy evening, with this beautiful diffused evening light - like a lot of the evenings in Michigan are, in the Fall.
Met Maddu at the International Center, ate at Panda Express, walked around aimlessly in the campus; the MSU campus is beautiful this time of the year - with the oncoming fall, the slight chill in the air, the clear waters of the Red Cedar river, the colors on campus, the greens all around, the students all sort of come together in this magical world which almost seems away from real life.
Coming to campus brings back a lot of memories especially for me. It was funny about how every small part of the campus - Trowbridge Road, BSRSI, Engineering, Owen Graduate Hall, International Center, Spartan Village, the Red Cedar walk all had some memory associated with it that seemed like yesterday, all these years later. Heck, even Hannah Admin did.
We spent 3 days there - 3 days of College Football, drinking beer at the Peanut Barrel, eating hot dogs and doing things that college students do. A lot of us had to go back to the spouses - so it meant 3 days of being with the boys; for a few of us, it was just meeting old friends, drinking beer, watching Michigan State beat Michigan, driving around Campus Hill, Twickhingham (which is called something else now), Grand River, the place on Okemos road where I totaled my car so many years ago, eating at Peking Express, Woody's and the Denny's and remembering sometimes hilarious, sometimes funny and sometimes poignant stories and people.
After 3 days there, we all came back to our daily grind.
One endearing memory - As I drove towards the campus from our Campus Hill Drive in Okemos (we drove around, for nostalgia sake), I crossed a little railway bridge. On the other side of the bridge used to be 2 places - the Denny's is still there. The Circuit City, obviously, is long gone. Remembered incidents. Realized that growing up ultimately meant realizing that experience teaches. Sometimes in a hard way. But its good to keep the memory refreshed.
Was a wonderful trip.
Left without comments.
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Mahalaya and Memories
Its Mahalaya today. For those of the non-bengali stripe, its the official beginning of the Durga Pujo season. Its that morning when we bengalis wake up early in the morning and put on All India Radio to listen to Mahalaya - this chant/narration of the story behind Durga Pujo. If you grew up listening to it, it obviously has many memories associated with it - in my case, the smell of tea being made as Mahalaya blared on the radio, Baba sitting next to me trying to explain what the chant meant, the excitement of Durga Pujo round the corner and everything it meant - new clothes, the freedom to roam around different neighborhood pandals all day long, extra pocket money, eating out, the crowd and so many other things - both big and mundane.
Its Mahalaya today. I came into work as usual at 7 am and started getting ready for all the meetings I have all day long. And it was a Facebook status message from someone that reminded me. And as I listen to Mahalaya - now on YouTube - all these memories come flooding back.
One of the fundamental characteristics we all have is to adapt to where we are; to condition the mind to align with our activities. And it works well for the most part - until there is a disruptive trigger like that Facebook status update.
And now, 15 minutes before I have to provide a high level executive update - all I am thinking about are those early mornings at home; the smell of Green Label Tea brewing; Baba explaining what Mahalaya meant and the excitement of knowing that Durga Pujo was finally here.
The most famous excerpt of Mahalaya can be accessed here.
Its Mahalaya today. I came into work as usual at 7 am and started getting ready for all the meetings I have all day long. And it was a Facebook status message from someone that reminded me. And as I listen to Mahalaya - now on YouTube - all these memories come flooding back.
One of the fundamental characteristics we all have is to adapt to where we are; to condition the mind to align with our activities. And it works well for the most part - until there is a disruptive trigger like that Facebook status update.
And now, 15 minutes before I have to provide a high level executive update - all I am thinking about are those early mornings at home; the smell of Green Label Tea brewing; Baba explaining what Mahalaya meant and the excitement of knowing that Durga Pujo was finally here.
The most famous excerpt of Mahalaya can be accessed here.
Sunday, September 06, 2009
suddenly remembered
in a boat of a rental car; "bye bye seattle"; in that inimical way, now long dead.
bye bye indeed, lake union.and seattle
left without comments.
bye bye indeed, lake union.and seattle
left without comments.
About time
So I got some free time. Was wonderful hanging out in the city yesterday, with some new and old friends. With the new friend, it was MoMa and Chelsea (had a wonderful lunch at the Chelsea Market - best Chicken Curry and Basmati Rice ever) . Then, subsequently with the old ones, at Union Square, Upper East Side and then the Village (Thank God for the Kathis, the hukkas, the crowd, the spiderman on the rickshaw and New York madness in general - where are all the gelatos, that I heard about a long time ago, in the village? Ideas?)..
I still have to upload the photos.
Still, glad I went. Had a lot of fun. And a lot of alcohol; as is wont in the City.
PS: My friend SA is visiting Mt.Rushmore:)
I still have to upload the photos.
Still, glad I went. Had a lot of fun. And a lot of alcohol; as is wont in the City.
PS: My friend SA is visiting Mt.Rushmore:)
Tuesday, September 01, 2009
Slob
I have been getting my workout clothes to Denver for the last 6 weeks. And I have worked out exactly 0 times.
I am such a lazy slob!
I am such a lazy slob!
