Inspiration in and around...

Met an interesting person today. He is chief manager at SBT. Had been there regarding transferring my housing loan. This guy impressed me lot. Me and my friend were wondering whom to meet and there was a pat on our back. He introduced himself and took us to cabin. First thing he did was to give us chocolates (like they give in planes) and then offered ice tea which we denied (now I feel like I shd have had it. :P). It was an all-mal branch (afterall it's SBT).

His innocence is something I haven't seen (apart from kids) for a long time. I just kept admiring his talk. He was brutally honest and projected a not so tech-savvy image of his in a computerised branch. I was quick to point out that they use our company printer. Then he asked if I know how to use it as he had trouble understanding. He understood my lack of knowledge and pacified that he doesn't know all the products that SBT has.

All the while, he kept smiling genuinely and was unbelievably customer centric and down to earth's crust (including Gandhian act of doing what he can do himself). Long time since i met a guy who was so impressive. The last exchange we had left me with a heavy heart. He said he doesn't have soft copy of the latest interest terms as he was out of office couple of weeks back as his mother had expired.

Always heard of people saying--dont' mix personal and professional life. but CMH road SBT branch is the place I got to see it in action. Great of him !!

English Spellingsssss !!

Sometimes I end up watching sports channels when they telecast unusual sports/games…one being dart board….A few days back, I caught up with english spelling competition that happened in the US few days back…guess what…the winner is a girl of Indian origin Kavya Shivshankar (hope I spelt her name right. :P)…
The competition already had reached it’s last 10 mins of climax when I tuned in…and not sure how many of us know how this competiton works…the participants are on stage and take the mike and the questioner asks from outside the stage…
The participants can only ask 3 questions (they are life lines available for all questions)…1. What is the origin of the word (It would be mostly Greek or Latin or both as we all know of English). Thats perhaps why all words they asked sounded like greek and latin to me. hehe…2. Meaning of the word…well, this doesnt help much as one of the words meant some kind of a earthworm…how helpfull !!!! 3. Are there any other pronounciation for the word…
The question that Kavya cracked was “‘Laodicean”…phew!!!…She very cutely (she is 13 and so I used the word cute) writes on her palm with her finger before telling the answer…The runner-up guy couldn’t spell “Maecenas”..I felt poor for the 12 yr old boy…I didn’t know spelling of the word “spelling” when I was 12 yrs… ;-))
Well it was a different experience !!!

Dollar dreams !!

It has been a while watching a DVD at home…with books and dvds, there is always a big gap between buying n using (except that books are just bought and never read. :P). Last night’s try was “Dollar Dreams” (Telugu) by Shekar Kammula (has made only 4 movies so far). Well, it’s not just a telugu movie..fair bit of dialogues in Hindi, English too. I am a big fan of Shekar’s movies. Loved his “Godavari” and “Anand” a lot. “Happy days” was his last. Wanted 2 watch dollar dreams (his first) for a while now and I was happy to pay more than what I usually shell for DVDs when I found this one in a store.

He is strong in d genre of romance. The above mentioned films were clean n sensitive in that respect. Dollar dreams (made in 1998 types) was not in the genre that was to follow. It was about mad rush in Indians to study software courses n migrate to US. Must say it’s very clichéd and not that great a watch. All the 2 hrs ppl talk abt going to US or what one loses by doing that. May be one knows a lot more now to endure it now in a movie. However, the last scene was smart….one of the heroes (who was against going to US for an MBA but scenes preceding would show him getting influenced by family and friends) would be boarding a domestic flight and takes seat next to a guy (played by shekar himself).

Excerpts from the last scene:

Shekar :So u r flying to do MBA?
Hero : Yes
Shekar: M going to Harvard biz school. what abt you?
Hero: Jamanalal Bajaj, Mumbai !!

For a moment, I was deceived that the hero would have decided 2 fly abroad too..but realised that it was a domestic flight and shekar would take a connecting flight to the US !!.. It is nice when directors don’t tell everything in dialogues. Certain things should be left to viewers’ intelligence. Btw, Shekar himself is a US return from his MS or something.. Eagerly waiting to see his (along with Shankar’s, Rajkumar Hirani’s, Ashutosh Gowarikar’s) next…

Name does no help!!

Very few of my Saturdays are meaningful..especially when I make it to our NGO-Enable India (into training n empowering disabled)….Yesterday was a recreation event where we volunteers would have to spend time with the students playing indoor games. Every time I interact with these people whose eyes are closed, mine opens. Yesterday was no different. If you asked me couple of days back, if a visually impaired person can play chess, I would have said a big no. not anymore. I played a game of survival for 2.5 hrs with a guy named Issac and lost in the end. Quite fittingly. The board is made in such a way that each coin has to be removed and planted into a hole. That way they can touch and feel the positions of the coins without displacing them. The white and black coins are distinguished by a small spike on top of white coins. It was just amazing seeing him touch and feel and think his next move. Imagine doing it with 64 squares…phew!!! Hats off to him


I am a below average chess player, touching the board after years. But that surely isn’t the reason for losing yesterday. I would have lost even at my peak for the way he played. My name may sound like the great Vishwanathan Anand but that doesn’t help really…:D

Also it was nice to see scrabble board customized (with Braille embossed coins) for them to use.

Better late than never !!

Technology and me are like Tom and Jerry..keep chasing in vain...
I embrace gadgets and technology when it's late and not latest. eg., bought my first mobile in 2004 well after the guys in my group had their teeth in blue, created an orkut account end of 2006 (and you can imagine timing of my FB entry) when my friends already got bored of it, got my first ipod this year and that too a tiny 1 GB one, still can't figure out things in vista when probably microsoft has already come up with newer version. Last but not the least..trying my hand with blog NOW...when people may have finished their autobiographies already....Anyway, better late than never.
Many ppl suggested for a long time now that I shd blog. I wasn't too sure as i am not the diary kind of person....
Let me try doing this during weekends..perhaps coz of d fact that a quality thing i was doing over the weekend evenings got stopped all of a sudden..
Pity the readers though. ;-))