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My World My Eyes 3
Steve Jobs would be a really happy man today!
My grandmum speaking to her sister in the US, using my iPhone and the handsfree!
Paa – The Movie Review
Paa, in addition to multiple awards (that I am sure it will fetch) should win the Simplest Movie of the Year award. Its a wonderfully simple story, narrated in a simplistic fashion from the eyes of Auro. It is honestly, as if watching the world from the eyes of a kid.
Amol (Abhishek Bachchan) is a politic, ala Rahul Gandhi (or Sachin Pilot, if you will). Young, suava, sophisticated, committed and single! In his normal world, he bumps into Auro (Amitabh Bachchan), a 13-year old kid suffering from a rare genetic disorder Progeria. The disease speeds up the aging process, thereby making Auro look like an 80-old year old.
But Auro is happy. He has a fantastic mom (Vidya Balan, looking at her best!) and a cool grandmom (Arundhati Naag – where was she all this while) whom he fondly calls Bum, for obvious reasons! And in his happy world, he strikes a chord with Amol, which blossoms into a wonderful relation. Ofcourse, its only the audience that knows that Amol-Auro are actually father-son!
What follows is a wonderful father-son relationship unfolding through the eyes of Auro (and more importantly experienced by the audience). The dialogues are fantastic…crisp, funny (remind you of Dil Chahta Hain) and Amitabh is at his best.
I thought of who all could have done this role, in Indian Cinema and could think of anyone apart from Kamal Hassan. Maybe Aamir?
Needless to say, full credit to the make-up artists Christien Tinsley and Dominie Till who made this look totally unbelievable and yet believable! And for the director Kalki to bring about such masters together.
A Comparison to Taare Zameen Par is unevitable, and I find the battle a little hard to resolve. Unlike TZP, Paa doesnt focus on the sensitivities of the disease. It has a few unnecessary sub-plots (political wars, love story etc). So while I would call TZP a social movie which saw commercial success, Paa is a commercial movie meant to simply entertain. Its another thing that in the process it has brought forward Progeria and some astonishing stories!
Acting performances are top-notch. ALL are awesome! Even Paresh Rawal in his teeny role! The music begins with the catchy Mudi-Mudi track and continues with the “hummable-but not fantabulous” music!
Overall, a great movie to catch, for the sheer genius of Amitabh Bachchan! And the art of simple and effective story-telling!
Rating 4.5/5
The Women Linked To Tiger Woods
I am a consultant, and honestly, the word slideshow (as expected) is quite sacrosanct in the profession.
It not only defines our very existence, it is also proven to the perfect hypnotic pendulum swung infront of clients with the chant “your business is doomed…we can save it if you give us all your revenue”
but evidently, a lot of people like slideshows for some very different reasons!
I found one of the best reasons today!
Slideshow: The Women Linked To Tiger Woods (NSFW)
Only Fox could have come up with such a masterpiece
And for nationalists, the Fox counterpart is Indiatimes. YOU HAVE GOT TO CHECK this out!
Immense WTFness lives in this world!
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Comment of the day:
My opinion of Tiger has sunk so low… The man has lousy taste in women.
Why Men Shouldnt Write Advice Columns
Or why automated responses to most queries fall flat! Take your pick! 
Warren Buffet On The Speed of Economic Recovery
“You can’t produce a baby in one month by getting nine women pregnant. It just doesn’t work that way.”
Read some other gems from the Investing Master
Its 1-0 in Google’s Favor
And this is the battle of the new age, Ladies and Gentlemen! Google vs. Newspaper (and not yet Rupert dude!)
So it all started with Rupert suggesting that he will (or can, or whatever) block Newscorp Sites from being part of Google. Basically, stop Google from indexing them and thus not showing them in search result. Because Google friggin hasnt made all that content, which has supported the lives of random journalists (only half of whom are actually needed to write that shit!) and so doesnt have any reason why it should show all that content when being searched for.
So Eric, comes back with a stellar response! If not for the battle, the sheer honesty and clarity in his thoughts makes it for a fantastic read
With dwindling revenue and diminished resources, frustrated newspaper executives are looking for someone to blame. Much of their anger is currently directed at Google, whom many executives view as getting all the benefit from the business relationship without giving much in return. The facts, I believe, suggest otherwise.
Google is a great source of promotion. We send online news publishers a billion clicks a month from Google News and more than three billion extra visits from our other services, such as Web Search and iGoogle. That is 100,000 opportunities a minute to win loyal readers and generate revenue—for free. In terms of copyright, another bone of contention, we only show a headline and a couple of lines from each story. If readers want to read on they have to click through to the newspaper’s Web site. (The exception are stories we host through a licensing agreement with news services.) And if they wish, publishers can remove their content from our search index, or from Google News.
t’s understandable to look to find someone else to blame. But as Rupert Murdoch has said, it is complacency caused by past monopolies, not technology, that has been the real threat to the news industry.
Brilliant!!
ISB Launches launches Post Graduate Program in Management for Senior Executives
Very Interesting Delivery model that ISB has introduced today…the PGPMAX (Post Graduate Programme in Management for Senior Executives)
Basically the program is designed on a schedule that minimises disruption of work and personal pursuits. Participants will typically be on campus for a 6 day schedule of classroom learning once every 6th week. The 6-day schedule will include full days of teaching and evenings will be used for guest lectures, projects, and group work. Participants will be required to stay on campus during those 6 days.
I dont know if such a program happens anywhere else, but this is fairly innovative (and at Rs 25 Lacs/USD 53,800 fairly expensive too). Wonder how many takers will it have…!
Putting myself in the shoes of a senior (read busy) executive, honestly, I have my doubts. Spending 6 days away from work, every 6 weeks is maybe a little too much to ask for. No wonder the concept of executive education is so successful, because its short term and meaningful impact.
But yah…ISB has impressed people even with its innovative (atleast for India) 1-year MBA program….so I would love to be proven wrong!
All the best…
The Maharaja is used to living like one!
Reminds me of the kings, who long after their ‘kingdom’ had vanished, still insisted that they are kings and insisted on living that way!
Air India, yet again (but this time bigger and better!) posted losses, amounting to a shocking Rs 7,226 Crores in the last 2 fiscals! Ok…let me take that back. Its not shocking, more like expected!
But THIS is shocking
AI issued an order allowing chairman and managing director Arvind Jadhav and his spouse to travel first class on its flights, whether on work or leisure. The order also allows serving chief executive’s parents and children to travel in AI’s business class during vacation.
The mayhem continues
The diktat making it mandatory for senior officials to fly only economy class, part of AI’s much touted economy drive, has also been reversed in this latest order
And stamping it down is the addendum
AI and IA’s retired CMDs or MDs will be entitled to business class travel along with their spouses, parents and children. The same will apply to people who retired from the posts of DGM to corporate directors
Read the entire shit here…! And honestly, it is shit!
Kurbaan – The Movie Review
As is with everything else in India…it’s taken us 8 years to realize the impact of 9/11…or maybe it was 26/11 that made us go…”wow, there is a story in there”!
Kurbaan is (yet another) version of terrorism under the guise of religion, juxtaposed with a love story (without which there is no desi movie).
I felt it wasnt better than New York, and at the same time I felt there were moments which made the movie stand out (or made it feel realistic, which is not expected from a KJo production…for god sake…he called Kabhi Khushi his most realistic movie ever!)
Storyline predictable – Kareena (Avantika) is a Prof who lives in NY and is back in India because of her father’s ill-health. She falls in love with Saif (Ehsaan) and both of them decide to move to NY and start a life there, in the backdrop of an unwilling father.
Once in NY, the usual post-marriage love story unfolds…finding house, setting it up, kisses on way to office and back home from work, grocery bills etc etc. They move to an Indian neighborhood, which is a Muslim dominated area and thats where the trouble begins. Avantika realizes that one of her neighbours is in danger and in an attempt to save her uncovers a truth that rips her apart (cmon..we all can guess what it is!!).
This is where the movie breaks down! The characters unfold themselves in a fashion that is not normal…and honestly at no point of time are you able to connect to them, unlike New York (the movie).
The movie does attempt to (half-heartedly) bring out the other side of terrorism, pointing to the way the US has bulldozed the Middle Eastern Region due to selfish needs. And while the argument is not entirely wrong, the movie fails to really grip the audience into believing it.
And ofcourse, the high point of the movie is the realization that NY Cops are as useless as Delhi Police, when it comes to chasing convicts. To showcase simply this fact, Shiela Dixit should make the movie Tax-free!
However, to his credit, the debutant (Rensil D’Silva) does a fantastic job of making the movie LOOK awesome (but then again, its a KJo production! You would expect that, though I was surprised that Saif didnt sport any DKNY outfits throughout the movie). The cinematography is fantastic…there are some really brilliantly executed scenes which the Indian cinema has not been subjected to so far.
And if nothing, Vivek Oberoi’s American Accent steals the show, oh so totally! That guy is all set of join Genpact as Team Lead – US Processes!
Overall, good attempt. Though I wish New York hadnt happened before. Just in comparison, I would give this a lower rating
Rating – 2/5
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And while at it, this has got to be the best review of the movie possible…!
Why Do Indians Work Long Hours?
Everyone who has had the opportunity to work outside India almost always has to say one thing about it – Amazing work life balance!
I remember my days in the US when the office used to be empty by 6pm…or in Dubai when we (the Indian Team) used to be the only ones left behind after 5.30 pm (or 3.30pm during Ramzan) alongwith a few other guys from the client side, again all Indians!
I always wondered why is that the case, until I heard from some of my friends in China and Russia (they are from Kearney, so might not be a fair dataset!)
I think the reason has got to be the GDP growth rate of the country!
Indulge me…
If one were to really plot all the countries on a worklife balance scale, I think there will be a high (negative) correlation with the GDP growth of the country. The developed economies (with a low GDP growth rate) will typically have the best work-life balance. And vice versa.
The same can also apply to industries. The one with higher growth rates will typically have people with better work-life balance than the ones with lower growth rates, even within the same country!
And all this is because of the growth prospect.
Even if an american slogs his butt off and works like shit beyond office hours…how much more can he really make, financially and professionally?? Hardly anything.
But if an Indian slogs his butt off…he can easily emerge as the best in a lot of people who dont…which results in fantastic paycheck raises, bigger opportunities etc etc!
Emerging markets are growing so rapidly…and there is such lack of talent especially in the middle, that one can easily rise up provided they bring in quantifiable (or at times just visible) levels of extra output than the average. And this suddenly results in a ratrace, where everyone is trying to outdo the other by spending more and more hours at work…at times ostensibly!
Same goes for companies in general, which have a “bad” work-life culture! They know that if they get their people to work like donkeys, they can actually grow in double digits! Something that a US company cannot think of, even if it gets all its people to work 24 hrs!
This also reflects on why most Indian managers are not comfortable with the “working from home” concept! They need to SEE the output…they feel that the sheer back and forth will result in precious time lost that could bring in that additional 10 basis point of growth!
Naturally…the west is the opposite…and amazingly…working from home is turning out to be as productive as office, as this interesting piece suggests!
So…the next time your boss asks you to stay longer…blame it on the friggin 9% growth!
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