A Kite Rescue

Dhruva was on his way to work, in an auto, when he saw this injured kite fall on the road, and a policeman stop all traffic to pick it up and put it aside. He went onto office, but it continued to work on his mind. He decided to walk back and check, and in a while he found the kite lying on the footpath, like a piece of paper, wings torn and totally hurt.

I don’t know how he did it, but he actually picked it up and took it back to office. Apparently it was too hurt to attack. He called PFA and they said they could come by only in the evening. So per their advice, he went and bought a box and put it in for rest of the day. 

With help from a colleague they give it some water, and dhruva was in for a surprise when he was trying to clean its nose and it actually bit him, but luckily it got only his hanky. And he says, he was so happy to see it was already getting stronger with the water. He looked after it rest of the day, and evening PFA did come and pick it up.

A kudos sent dhruva’s way for the thought and the effort . Thoughts, Feelings and Actions aligned. Keep it going Dhruva !!

The Bihar Experience

 I’ve been in Bihar three days now and if I haven’t written, it’s not just because I’ve been doing  sixteen hour work days, but also because I’m yet so dazzled by the experience, that I wasn’t sure I could put down coherent thoughts of it.

What can I say.... it’s like viewing life through a whole different lens.  I all over again get what it means to say 'Índia is a land of diversity' .

Dhabangness is a word you hear a lot of. And two days, and you feel a lot of. It's an approach, an attitude, a whole different way of life. Up until I came here, Dhabaang was just a movie, didn't even know what it meant. It was just this image of the hoarding of Salman Khan and his shirtless six pack, shades and a swagger. 

Here, that's life. ...it's just everywhere. Male dominant wouldn't say it.  It's raw Machismo that you see, feel , hear.....even the guy who serves you tea at the road side dhaba has a six pack with rippling muscles and an attitude that's ...well, Dabaang :)

And what's hard to digest is that, it seems to be to the exclusion of almost all else. Like a friend said….law, women, lower castes..... even life.... have little or no value. 

The place itself is really beautiful. We’ve been driving through the districts of Munger, Bhagalpur and Samastipur, and it’s almost all along the Ganges. It's picturesque, green, cute huts, beautifully colored sarees ( you see very little of the woman herself) ,  small peaked temples, jersey cows, huge buffaloes, jajaariyas, sweet bandis...very pretty. Rest through pics

Ganga Ji, as it's always referred to here

                                                       
                                              All temples are like this, small and sweet

                                             Salman Khan se kuch kum hai kya??

Wonder how they make it stay on the head ?

                                           A boy balancing on the buffaloe as he washed it

An interesting anecdote here. A colleague was ealier working with HLL, selling soaps and shampoos and stuff in Bihar, and the company wrote to him saying there is a very high sale of godrej hair dye in a particular village and to go to the field and see , and he found that they were using the hair colour on their buffaloes :). They really love their cows and buffaloes, and take a lot of pride in making us tea from ghar ka dhoodh.

                                                   

That's us with our potential entrepreneur , Yashwanth Kumar on my right, with whose help we're hoping to electrify this village which has no connection to the grid...... and those little kids up there, I'm hoping they grow up knowing the pluses of electricity :)

The INOX Experience

Is it Bangalore, or is it INOX or what? Since when has watching a movie become a Rs 2000 worth experience. First reaction…..It’s such a rip off !! 

Is it really??

                                   Dhruva and Diksha, with their popcorns

A ticket on Friday evening costs two times what it does on weekdays. And the popcorn and coke…actually as much as the ticket. But then it’s true right? Weekends are the right time. And popcorn? totally integral to the experience. In fact, I like caramel, but I also like butter, and I love these guys who’ve innovated and come up with a popcorn cup with a divider in between, where I get to have both in one cup. They’re actually thinking of you.

Overall real nice experience.... so what exactly are we cribbing about? 

This whole value for money is such a mind thing. 

A small anecdote on this:

I remember this was way back when we’d get salary in cash and dhruva would get to buy an Asterix on salary day. It was ritual; pick him up from the gate and go buy with the first notes ( we used to even get crisp new tender). And there was resistance from some saying 400 rupees (like 15 years back) for reading something in ten minutes…it’s not even a book.

But to Dhruva, they were like really dear...like friends I think. If Diksha or I wanted to read, we’d have to say Hello to the book, finish it, and then give it a pat, say Thank You to the book, and put it back on the pile. At first Diksha was like..nuts or what, I’m not doing all that. But he wouldn’t let her read, and slowly we both got used to doing it. 

So yes, value is really what we give to anything, its not necessarily about value for money.  End of evening I was happy with the evening, so totally worth what it costs no. .All of us do what matters to us, but we crib. Maybe we shouldn't.  Do, and do happily or don't do.  Going forward, no grudging, just budget better :)

Pancham Da

Yesterday was R D Burman's birthday, and I fully owe it to Fever 104 FM, my favorite radio station,  for making it a full on celebration. I almost didn't feel like getting off the car, and I did do longer drives to and back from work.

And the songs were all from those wonderful years, the years of discovery and growing up, with many of them having associations and memories which were so totally brought alive that it stole my day.....and wonderfully so

Here are ten from the ones I heard, pick the ones you like, and enjoy the listening :)

Pancham Da 

The list reads like this:

Yeh Shaam Mastaani
Bahon Mein Chale Aao
Roop Tera Mastaana
Churaliya Hai Tum Ne Jo Dil Ko
Humko Tho Yaara Teri Yaari
Raat Kali Ek Khwaab Mein Aayi
Bheeghi Bheeghi Raato Mein
Jaane Jaan Dhoondtaa Phir Raha
Tere Bina Zingadi Se
Meri Soni Meri Tamanna

TL....RL

TL....RL; Too Long.....Read Later

Part of life right? Especially in the inbox. I'm sure each of us has our own version of this in our inbox. I've always had, not one, but three. A 'Read later, But must'. A 'watch later' and 'Read at leisure'.

And the sad thing is that it's not often enough that we get down to those folders. Even with the 'But Must', I somehow don't seem to ever get to it. Couple of weeks back I happened to browse through these almost archived folders, complete clean up, and not surprisingly,  found some really really good stuff in it. 

So how do we resolve this?

Ideally, one would say, try and browse through soon as you get it, but that's really not possible, especially the long ones, or videos. You could be in the middle of work, or not in the right mood, whatever. And this is proper that 'Important' bucket we spoke about....perfectly fine to not do it, life will go on in nice quiet mode. But do we want that to happen? Can we catch that important stuff too? The life enhancers you know ....

My solution.....An hour on Sundays devoted to the TL ...RL folders of the inbox :)

A SELCO Story - Airlight

This is innovation of a different kind. Airlite, a mechanism to enable lighting and ventilation in houses and schools with tin roofs. It's a fairly familiar concept used in upmarket urban residences...... adapted here for use in the under-served segment. 

A friend and colleague Nagaraj, works on the Airlight product and he kind of stumped me the other day when he asked me a very valid question. I was like.....I'm not sure we can do Airlight under the Entrepreneur Fund..... it's not really renewable energy intervention (I was thinking photovoltaic or thermal) and he's like, "it's still solar, right?" And then he sent me this video to convince me. It's a short 2 minute video, so watch......and, if you come across slums, houses, schools which you think could benefit from it, do reach out  :)

Raghu - on LifeIsMusic

Seeing Raghu on the maiden venture of LifeIsMusic was a really really heartening feeling.

LifeIsMusic is an online video platform hosted by the Essel Group to search for India’s original music talent and set up a most-elite band to be mentored by three renowned maestros - Louiz Banks, Taufiq Qureshi and Purbayan Chatterjee

Couldn't put the link on the picture, so please use this:  Raghuraman Ramasubramanian, Guitarist

Raghu's is a classic story of follow your passion and your dream to the exclusion of almost everything else..........He almost chanced upon his passion during his late teens, (apparently finding an old guitar lying around in the library), went at it with focus and dedication, literally playing till his fingers bled ( and pretty much chose to stay self taught ),  stayed clear, calm and quiet through the process of conflict and pressure of a difficult choice....... of music and not engineering (which he did too).

One of the few I've seen follow his desire, for the sheer love of  music, no specific goal, seemingly seeing nothing but the guitar in hand.

Kudos Raghu, Proud of You ...........Enjoy the journey and Good luck  !!

I cannot not give credit here to my dear friend Girija, who has stood by him through all those years. She held out against immense pressure from family and friends......  not to speak of her own deep fears and misgivings, which would surface ever so often, sometimes moving her to tears. Take a bow lady :)