[MF] “When I asked you how long you could
stay and you said, “Long enough”…how long is that? [Long pause]

[MF] – When we’re not together…
[RR] …everything shuts down.”
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MF – Michelle Pfeiffer
RR – Robert Redford

And then I happened to hear ‘Everywhere’ from Fleetwood Mac! What a combination
Everywhere

“Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove.
O no, it is an ever-fixèd mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wand’ring bark,
Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken“

It shall persist though the bodies move out in different directions. The connect cannot vanish; the mood never diminish, the space not replaced.

What say shall we? The brain has moved on, heart won’t budge.

One of the good decisions we took was to lodge at one of the best available destinations there – Orange County. It is a plantation cum resort spanning over 3 acres of land. Cottages are set up within the plantation and we needed buggies to transport ourselves using a resort map. There were a couple of tracks too – jogging, cycling, running, etc. which ran across the entire plantation.

We took a couple of trips to the plantation to explore the terrain and the different trees and shrubs along with wildlife. There was the much needed coffee lounge as well where they served the coffee which grew in the plantation in the offset of a small library which stocked short stories – mostly fiction. They served the much adored – Indian Peaberry too . Our days were packed with wholesome adventure as we cycled into the woods, saw coracle boating, met with some 5 species of ducks, 10 species of birds, and tasted raw pepper seeds (green in colour). We also saw a good variety of flora and fauna in their green house – from the most hideous looking to the most enticing set of flowers, all planted in systematic grids. An interesting plant that grew for bio-fuel reminded me of our school days at the beach. By cutting open the stem and blowing air into the gummy fluid, one could make air bubbles out of the tree! Another interesting one we discovered on our plantation trek was the ‘Water Maker Mati’. The female specie of this tree has a thick, corrugated, almost checkered bark. There is a bulge in the lower bark where there is a water reserve of about 18 litres! The tribals come and extract this water in the summers for drinking. It is the purest form of water available anywhere.

Outside the plantation, we visited the Naldroming monastery which I was told is the largest in India. I have a good number of pictures of the interior of the monastery. We also went to the popular Abbey Falls from where the streams eventually meet Cauvery. The most fun outing was the visit to the Elephant camp. There is a government run camp which houses around 15 elephants to ensure they survive in a natural habitat. There is a huge open forest lined with a large pond on one side. There are small tree houses in the open jungle which can be climbed to get a view of far-away elephants. There was also an option of bathing the elephants. Whereas our group decided not to enter the muck along the pond, we did enjoy the caretakers have a hard time convincing the elephants to secede from the greens. The youngest of the lot was a two year old elephant calf called Parshuram. Guess why he was called so? Well, he was the most ill-tempered of the lot, talk about the new generation being wild!

Within the plantation other than trekking and cycling there were separate shacks converted into indoor gaming centers. There was everything for the non-nature lover too – Chess, TT, Ludo, Carrom. It had all that a resort could offer – pools, gymnasium, jacuzzi, ayurvedic massage centres, exotic food (3 restaurants within the plantation) and excellent service. Please don’t mistake this for a promotional email for the resort but can’t help, it was good

The list is pretty long. I might have barely made half way down the list in my days of half a dozen years. However, what is marvelous is what does not go amiss in their list of amusements:
- Tooth Fairy
- Kay Sera Sera…..
- Santa Claus
- House House
- Hide and Seek
- Red Hands
- I want elephant-shaped roti!
- When will we go to Disneyland again?
- Just please play the fool with me….come lets kick each other, can I pull your hair?….can I push you if I don’t like you?….whose den is it now?
[Smiling] Two such kids reside in my neighborhood; sharp young minds, anxious e yes, waiting to get their hands on every new object, waiting for answers to your each move, sometimes simplifying the reason of existence more than ever before. My Pa is every child’s best friend. He has a unique magnetic force to have them fluttering around him all the time. So at the strike of 9, at least three evenings in a week, our residence is audience to a mirthful, boisterous, crazy extravaganza of ‘Kids Fun Corner’!

What I am going to sleep tonight with is a snippet from a personal favourite. Serendipity by John Mayer.

I have these dreams I’m walking home
home where it used to be
everything is as it was
frozen in front of me

and these days
I wish I was six again
oh make me a red cape
I wanna be Superman
oh if only my life was more like 1983
all these things would be more like they were at the start of me
I had it made in 83

Not just me As I look around, I see everyone running their daily slaloms, on ice as slippery as time, with a zillion obstacles to manouevre about. Some win, and enjoy their perfect days, some fall and sing to themselves, “You Had a Bad Day!”….for how long will they sing? how many times will they fall? will they win the race? what do they want from the race?

The answer is simple. We all paint a pretty picture of our tomorrow. We all want to be somewhere. And X number of things go into obtaining Y number of results which will put us ‘somewhere’. At the end of the day it is all for “I”, “Me”, or “Self”.

The 47th verse in The Gita prescribes nishkama karma or selfless action. “To action alone hast thou a right and never at all to its fruits; let not the fruits of action be thy motive; neither let there be in thee any attachment to inaction”

Wait a minute! If I do not set the goal, i.e., do not make the fruits of action my motive, how do I work towards it? I’ve delved deeper….we certainly do not take those words literally. This verse talks about a stage after setting your goals. However, the problem lies with the balancing act. The balance between constant action and decision of inaction. A constant imbalance causes stress. Stress plays the silent din. The silent din one day leaves your mind jaded. Jaded to the extent where everything gets affected in small doses – work, study, family, friends, and hobbies.

Not to say what we want for oursleves may not be noble or ethical, but the question is when will we let the mind rest? When will we stop? Of course, I want to finish that doctorate, of course, I want to create a positive change, of course, one day I want to adopt a child, of course, I want to build the dream library, of course, I want to reach out to the less privileged, of course, I want to educate, of course, I want to apologize to the hearts I’ve broken, of course, I’ll have a book on my name someday, of course, I’ll have my VAIO soon, of course I would not mind a “McDreamy” for a boss….

When will I stop? I guess I have the answer to that too….

A: Just as soon as I make the next post!

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Shakespeare has gained great adulation for his fabulous work in the stream of literature. His praise is beyond words, maybe even if we gave him this task (praising himself), he would have been unsuccessful. However here is an interesting review of his famous contributions.

We owe the core story of the scripts of our popular desi movies to Monsieur Shakespeare’s ‘Romeo & Juliet’. The story of lovers caught between the belligerent families, lives from Qayamat se Qayamat tak  to Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam. Even Hollywood’s Leonardo Di ‘Romeo’ Caprio is indebted for his popularity to Mr.Shakespeare much before the sinking of the legendary Titanic, through ‘The Tempest’.

In Twelfth Night, Shakespeare illustrated in words how a man (that too the king!) fell in love with a woman disguised as a man.  Some men like George Michael and Elton John got so inspired by this play that they didn’t wait for women to disguise as men instead they fell in love with other men itself.

We must also not forget that Shakespeare fell in love many centuries back and Gwyneth Paltrow won an Oscar for it in the last century. I bet many Oscar aspiring heroines wish that there were more Shakespeares who had fallen in love centuries back.

We all remember ‘Catherine the Shrew’ of Shakespeare’s ‘Taming the Shrew’. Some husbands got so excited reading the play that they actually started taming their wives even if they were not shrews originally and then the helpless Catherines had no choice but to turn into shrews. Also the legend of vamps with Lady Macbeth lives forever. In a way, vamps have become immortal in our world.

Shakespeare was not only a writer but also a fashion designer much above his times. He had rejected gold as the fashion statement many years back in the ‘Merchant of Venice’ when a gold casket had been deemed to be unfit to contain the portrait of the beautiful ‘Portia’. And now gold is becoming outdated and metals like silver, platinum make a fashion statement. Also, hold on to the lead in your pencil. It won’t be long before lead is in fashion because Portia prefers lead to gold and silver so soon most of the girls will follow in her footsteps.

So next time you pick up a Shakespearean play, try to read between the lines and make the ‘behind the scenes inferences’ and you’ll discover there’s lots more to learn from it than Shakespeare.

In a way, William Shakespeare changed the world’s perception ‘As he liked it’ but what the heck ‘All’s well that’s ends well’!

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Come November and the postman, courier fellows, liveried chauffeurs, sometimes the parents of the to-be couples come swooping to your household for wedding invitations. As far as stacking these expensive cards is concerned it does not matter much but when it comes to attending these marriages, there comes the world falling on your head.
Trust me, from personal experience, I have been badgered into attending weddings as a necessity to be known in society. It is worse than being badgered for attending college. These ‘show the people’ celebrations are typecasts and illusory. They have evolved into celebrations, which lack the enthusiastic proclivity to genuinely feel delighted by the union of two souls.
It surely is a pain when you are made to attend marriages of people whose existence you are not even remotely aware of! It takes your mom to go five generations up, relate that personality with some bosom pal and then come five generations down to tell you how you are related to him/her. The bride/room faces much surprise when you are introduced to them as his/her daughter/son. Not knowing how to react, all they seem to utter is she was so small when I last saw her (obviously, you would seem younger and shorter, ten years back!). The second aspect being the food. Rarely there is a case where the mutter paneer is not floating in a 2-inch layer of oil, or the naans are untearable or there are less than 5-6 types of cuisines being served. Also the high pitch ‘shehnai’ which is played continuously throughout the ceremonies. The aunties discussing each other’s sarees, jewellery, hairstyles et al. The men as usual woven in the share rates oblivious to the surroundings. The kiddies playing all around the venue in their miniature designer dresses and suits. The isolated community, the teenagers remain to be the ones staring into zenith wondering what their friends might be doing then, while they are made to stare at the married couple bending numerous times to touch the feet of the myriad lot that come to shower blessings and good wishes. Both, the lady and the man are tired of wearing the fake smile and experience the stampede of elephants in their stomachs.

However, the Jane in me is all for the above if the people marrying are close cousins or friends where the preparations are your responsibility. The entire feel of the occasion transforms into a lovely week, full of joy and excitement to meet all your relatives, participate in the rituals and you approve food before finalizing the caterer. Excitement boosts and you are enthusiastic to welcome a new member in the house or happy for the pleasant family, the girl is married into. It is an exciting affair when it comes to attend a known wedding. It is then a mix of emotions. God Bless! Every marriage you attend cannot be that of your friend or cousin. So lets just hope, by the time you are to marry, the scenario is changed or attendance is not compulsory.

The BAD first:
1. It still remains the root cause of violence, abuse, distrust, malice and most of the negativity around
2. Everything is quantified in money. Whatever does not, gets quantified in time which eventually get quantified to money. Actually that is fine but how easily is money made available to each individual is more of a put off than the quantification
3. It has the ability to buy just about everything – people, values, beliefs, faith
4. It can bring people to lick the same person’s derrière who they condemned the previous minute.

The GOOD follow:
1. Shows you the world’s perspective to the value of your work/face/product. You can be your best judge but what about the rest?
2. Gives you marginal power to create change
3. Lets you savor the fruit of struggle
4. Teaches you its value by the speed at which it exchanges hands

The dents created by unpleasant events will not rid the sufferers from circumstantial schwarmerei but will certainly reinforce the fact that there is no looking back for MONEY.
Especially, when it has been a 4,500 year old grand evolution . It has been serving the purposes of

• A medium of exchange
• A unit of account
• A store of value

Purely and very truly, the evolution was intended to benefit more than hurt and make the exchange and valuation a simplified process. Indeed, small is the list of evolutions which mankind used RIGHT.

Some popularly call it the NECESSARY EVIL, some have taught themselves and their children of its nature as a by product, some are desperately trying to balance the demand and supply and have not given any thought to the implications of its nature. However, no matter how much I try debating with myself over its need and validity of its existence, the repercussions of its misuse/dearth/inappropriation urge me to pray for its extinction. Now, only if it were a creature, it would be an easier combat!

I was expecting the usual visit – urchins and flower-sellers at the gate, a big mess of colorful footwear, soft chants, mesmerizing sandalwood scents and the like till I saw something exceptional.

They were like two large diamonds beckoning me – the timid eyes of a calf tied to the temple gate. In an uncharacteristic move I stepped ahead to embrace her. Folding my arms around her feeble neck, I felt the soft young skin touch my palms. Both of us stood still for about a minute and what followed kept me smiling the rest of the day. She had gently rubbed her face to my cheek and batted the scanty lashes in perfect synchronization to mine.

Not everyday does one want to go hug a week old calf and nor does one get vibes to do so very often. The innocence of those innocuous diamonds still lingers clear in my mind. Ironically, a friend commented I had an alter ego of a vet but I’d call this the divine bovine experience!

I hope to be an entrepreneur one day and was rejoiced to see my regular show, Young Turks (CNBC TV18) covering only women entrepreneurs, all of August, ’06.

Interesting profiles. Someone organizes kid parties on a large scale and does corporate picnics and entertainment nights, someone does Bombay Heritage Walks, of course loads of successful interior designers, Mktg. & Sales VPs at budding organizations and much more. But I would like to mention some outstanding profiles -

1. Two young ladies – Sonica and Monica Malhotra took up the family business in the North Indian region from their father at a tender age. These are names associated with the MBD Group. Within a couple of years they have brought the MBD Radisson hotels more than just repute. In an article on woman achievers, I read

Monica is involved in the publishing printing, hotel interiors and macro level decisions. She is also behind the “Interiors with a difference” at the Group ventures, be it group offices or The Radisson MBD Hotel. Sonica, on the other hand, is involved in the hospitality and mall development wing of the group and is responsible for key projects, for branding and positioning and assisting in the expansion plans for the group as a whole. Together in arms!

Besides reiterating that they complement each other’s talents, these young achievers also have something to tell other youngsters – Sonica Malhotra, Executive Director of Hotel Radisson MBD, says

“Youngsters today understand that money is secondary and unimportant. But I would also advise them to think differently. Alternate thinking at the workplace brings success faster and great salaries simply follow.

Along with proper career planning, the ability to explore new frontiers is a very useful qualification in an applicant. Job empowerment is the magic mantra.”

2. Heres a lady whose venture interests me the most. Damani Tandon’s first venture is called ‘Writers Anonymous’. She is the CEO of a small firm which provides documentation services to corporates. She said they provide everything from press releases to technology articles and company-related documentation. Writers Anonymous has no office. She operates from her VAIO and connects to a set of writers she employs across the country, all of them working from home. She chooses to remain anonymous on that front. However, she has also kick-started another venture with a friend, called the Corner Office, exploring the head-hunting business for executives and plans to make it big and spread its buzz. This writer of many many talents plans to take The Corner Office to greater heights.

She says, “I think Writers Anonymous will continue to be the small company it is. I think it will double in size over the next 1-2 years and I will keep it at that size. The Corner Office is really going to grow. We have got large plans and we are looking at placing a 100 people a year in senior management, which is really big and that should happen in the third year. So, you are looking at a fairly large firm, which is very focused and it is a name that people will recognize within 2-3 years.”

Very nice ideas, amazing energy levels and just perfect as they also take care of their respective homes.
I also saw this Infosys special as Mr. Murthy stepped down from chairmanship yesterday. Just to put it down in Murthy’s style…
He was asked, “What advice would you give a young entrepreneur to kick-start a venture?” Without blinking an eyelid, he answered,

You must have

1. A business plan which, can be defined in a simple sentence
2. A brilliant idea
3. A team with mutually exclusive but collectively exhaustive skills
4. A full value system

On another note, they also spoke of his wife’s sacrifices, which I had read about long back. Now with all the women power and innovation floating in my head I gave in to browsing for Sudha Murthy. An interesting piece on how they met and got married – http://www.vijayv.org/wwwvijayvorg/Articles/HowInfoSysWasBorn.php

and and even more interesting piece (came as a forwarded email from a TATA employee), for which now I respect her even more http://www.boredguru.com/modules/articles/article.php?item_id=42

Indeed, I have great Sunday mornings!