Happy times....

Well, the D-Day nears! My engagement is scheduled for next week and it marks the beggining of my transition from bachelorhood to a marriage.

My thoughts at this stage are just to go home and enjoy the occasion with friends and family. But the strange part is, I feel like iam just attending somebody elses engagement...one of my freinds recently asked me " So are you ready and set for the engagement?" and my response was " What do I have to do?, other than just being present and smiling" :-).

But it marks and end to the first phase of a remarkable change period in my life.....new work, new place and new life!!

My currenty thought: Cant wait for the next phase to unravel

Zeitgeist....Mind blowing!

Well this is probably one of the most revealing movies I have seen in a while!

In one fell sweep it answered my long held suspicions of the common roots most modern religions, the lengths a few people will go in order to makea profit and the most elaborate plans to conquer the world!

Well, some things i was not aware of:

• The US fed is a privately held bank
• The US has signed an north american union agreement which will yield the amero currency soon
• The ancient egyptian god Horace was the original reference to gods son, which mean the SUN and the whole of christianity was based on mythical story about the SUN, light and darkness!

I have always felt that religion exists for the purpose of control in modern society and nothing else! But the thought that a group of international bankers and governments would kill so many millions just in order to yield power and make huge profits is still hard to digest, but the evidence is almost incontrovertible.

I am sleepless again tonite, but thats because Iam intellectually stirred! I would recommend this movie to everyone....It was released exclusively on the web and cannot be accesed through conventional media...try it out.

Cheers

Sleepless in Dubai

Finally...My insomniac days are back.....!!

After a loong time Iam unable to goto sleep tonight. Lets see now, I have had ths condition only during times when i have had extreme anxiety , either due to a current depressive state or a current state of nothingness....

Right now, I think I suffer it because of the latter.....Or the simple reason could be that I had a little too much caffiene through the day and a little too much sleep last night ;-)

The worst bout of insomnia i had was in the US, where I could not sleep before 4 AM everyday, real worries about the future then! Then it was followed by forced insomnia at ISB, so much work, so little time n yet it all seemed so pointless!

and then onwards to bangalore, where I had doubts in the future of my job and the prospects.....

Now I think the anxeity is not about career, but about my pointless separation in dubai....

How to solve this? In the past, I have gotten over it by occupying myself compltely or tiring my self out with a lot of physical effort. Or else, I have managed to be on the phone....

Now, I intend to just ride out this night...the best solution, get a lot more physical activity going!

That said....lets hit the sack now!

Cheers.

And the loop is complete.....

Yes....Finally, it all seems real now and Iam loving every minute of it. Only now, I have to start refocussing on work again......

The trip to india was memorable to say the least....I never knew I could smil so much in a 6 day period!! It was action packed time, with the first 3 days being spent in bangalore....beautiful, beautiful bangalore!....perfect time spent with friends and the familiar hangout spots.....

Then onward to chennai......between all the dinners, lunches and shopping we did manage to sneak out some time to drive out of the city.....again its funny how even the heat doesnt bother you as much when you are having fun!....

Now after meeting everyone back home, the loop somehow seems entirely complete.....

Ramadan boredom.....

Well....I got done with my first very interesting project and have now started work on the second. Iam working out of Abu dhabi for this one and it is not even remotely as interesting as the first!

To compound it, its ramadan season is here in the middle east and most of places are closed.....there is almost no life during the day and the working days are very short......Iam practically bored of this situation.


What Iam looking forward to now?...its a trip back home to india and more so to see the situation back home with so many things having changed since i came here......I dont even think I realize the extent of the change that has happened over there.

Of course...cant wait to get to bangalore either! Well, just waiting to see what other surprises are in store for me when I get back.

Cheers

And Life has changed again.....

Yep!! Firstly, I found true love and am getting married to her...now how many people are that lucky?? I dedicate this post to my dear wife to be: Welcome home :-)

the month of August has been truly remarkable!

• Finally found my soulmate and let myself act on my hearts command!
• Accepted a new job to move to dubai
• Shopped like crazy and completely changed my wardrobe!
• Walked straight into a minefield project and came out victorious....worked like a dog though!
• Finally, end of it all i was left wondering why I left so early???

Well.....now life has played a cruel trick.....found the one for me, but iam having to stay away for what seems like ages!....not fair!

Cheers,

(Happy Karthik)

Dubai Ahoy!!

Well.....the far seas beckon again...this time Iam leaving the country for the land of black gold...in search of a little gold myself.......only I struck gold right here .... :-).

During the past week, I have found myself in an inextricable dilemma.......to be or not to be....to say or not say.......Catch 22 as it is rightly put!

Well...Iam moving to Dun & Bradstreet in a consulting role and the role will be very very demanding of my capabilities and skill (!!).

More later....

It doesnt get any better than this!

Well...it most certainly does not!..... No more am I feeling bad leaving, cause My heart is firmly rooted here.

I found love and more so...I found home!

I leave to dubai on the 19th and have a whole lot to get done before that, but Iam in such a state of bliss now, its inexplicable. Its like a scene right out of a movie that I never imagined I would ever be in!

God...please make this last forever!!!

Laterz

Win some ......Lose some!

There are some remarjable phases in every individuals life which he/she will always cherish. I think I just such a remarkable phase in the last month or so.

I have been given some really wonderful things, but somethings very dear to me have been taken away :-(.......Iam supposed to be very happy...Iam moving to Dubai for a consulting job, but I feel very sad for leaving something very dear to me behind.

Life rewards you whatever you ask for, but it also takes what you hold dear!!

This phase of life will only be filled with fond memories and no regrets.........I want to capture this snapshot forever!

Thought for the day: Life always plays a fair game....its us who are confused !

My First Car!

Yep....Finally. It is my 28th birthday gift to myself :-). Its yet another addition to a long list of black automobiles that I have owned.

Black TVS Champ - 1994
Balck Kinetic Honda - 1996
Black Honda Activa - 2005
Black Pulsar - 2003
Black Apache - 2006
Black Santro Xing - 2007

I guess that leaves a black merc sometime in the future!

A prediction for the future: I will gift myself a black BMW/ Merc on my 38th Birthday!

Well....life is good :-)

Ciao

Another year younger !...Its a hap hap happy b`day to me :-)

Well...not really.....I feel older!! I turned 28 today, and alomost feel like people are looking at me differently now ;-)......

Down memory lane:

11th Birthday: Was having fun in the U.S......but desperately wanted to be older...the number was 28 I think!!

13th Birthday: Revelling in a lot of importance having turned into a teenager......was also opening up a lot of gifts post my poonal ceremony :-)

16th Birthday: Was gifted my freedom in the form a TVS Champ....my first two wheeler!! How I tortured that poor vehicle!!

18th Birthday: Got myself a Kinetic honda....dissapointed cuz I couldnt buy a bike!!.....Didnt how how to change gears:-).Celebrated my 18th birthday with my first beer (At least thats what all of my family thought :-))

23rd Birthday: Celebrated in the US....bought my self a 1984 Camry for $300!!! the leaky vehicle cost less than the amount of money I paid for a speeding ticket that i got... :-)

25th Birthday: Celebrated this bangalore.....I remeber this day vivdly....I was so engrossed at work, I was late for my own Bday party.....it was a very low key family thing!

26th Birthday: Another memorable birthday........I had broken my leg and i was brought cakes by both my very considerate frinds and later on by family.....

27th birthday: Celebrated in a pub in chennai with some good friends...it was a rollicking time!!

28th Birthday: Spent most of my time writing about my earlier birthday and sitting around at work......probably the lowest I have felt during a birthday in the last few years!

30th Birthday : ????????

I cant believe Iam 2 years away from being 30 yrs old!!!!......And I have done almost none of the things that I set myself out to do:

• Travel to at least 20 countries
• Make enough money for me and everyone close to me....
• find true love!!
• Achieve some thing so significant..that My name will become a brand!

Well iam not even close to any of the above.....!!! lets see what the years to come have in store for me.

Ciao.

BOOORRRREEEEDDDDD.......

Well...that covers my sentiment today!! After a lot of travel and a whole week off, Iam back at work and doing what I dislike the most.....Typing out a report!!

Last week was possibly one of the worst holidays I have had a while...spent the entire time at home in chennai !!!! Imagine that.......Compare it with last years holiday in the himalayas!!!! AAH....really bad deal this year!

What Iam not clear about is whether Iam bored with this job, or am I bored with work in general???

Is it a question of motivation?? or is it of laziness??.......

Nyways....i think I go through a phase like this every summer...booring summer!

6 out of the last 7 years, I have basically spent the entire month of may doing basically nothing!!

Maybe everyone is meant to have a holiday, but frankly Iam not ready for a holiday yet you know!!!...so much to do, so much to see.....yet that inertia holds me back.....

Wild idea for the day: Just quit now and leave for a world tour..... :-). What an exciting thought!!

More later....

Karthik Bhai.......

Yesterday was one of the most remarkable days I have had in a while! We were to meet around 10 motorcycle customers and have a chat with them about thier preferences and buying behaviour. My biggest insight here was that in the hindi belt of our country, the education levels play a big role in terms of the media mix that can be applied for this category of products. Also, the level of industrial growth vis a vis IT sector growth plays a major role.

We met customers from various income classes, right from bhel puri walas to teachers in udaipur. The remarkable thing here was that lower the education levels, lower was the interaction of these customers with conventional media like newspapers and TV. Key influencers and Word of mouth play a much bigger role in such cases. Also, with a large number of self employed people in these areas, the best medium to effectively communicate and influence them is activities in the marketplace with activities and demos. Almost none of them had any recollection of the communication and even if they did, they did not back thier judgement to make a choice based on such communication.....This has a grave impact on the way companies in such categories go to market with thier products and promotions!

Buzz is the key word , and those who master the art of buzz and build trust effectively will be the eventual winners!

Coming to the interesting part of the day, Our guide for the day was an ex-don in these areas who is under the cover of having turned over a new leaf in the eyes of the police. Initially, he was very quiet but as time went on , he started talking about his escapades and his less than enviable criminal record!.....It was a little scary, but end of the day he was a perfectly nice guy....Bhaigiri is just a way of life, and it was nothing out of the ordinary for people around us. The personality change was so apparent as soon he started talking of the past: "Kyon Bhai....ek dum chakaaas....." with the ostensible accent we all hear only in the movies :-).....

Anyways.....good times....looking for more such experiences....

Thought of the Hour: Education is the only way to liberate the indian hinterlands!

Life is but a movie.....

My life in the last two weeks has been like a scene out a hindi movie......I was talking to a very interesting lady, circumstances lead me to a potential two timing situation and then the classic miscommunication between the characters leading to some heartburn...but now Iam back on track.

This weekend, one of my friends got engaged and he wanted to surprise his bride by turning up for the event which he was not going to be there for initially......this dude tavelled thousands of miles completely undercover and I was the chief enforcer to ensure that the surprise was well executed. I virtually halted the the engagement for a 15 Mts period in order to " deliver my gift" :-).......but alls well that ends well! it was an amazing surprise and it was a very joyous occasion.

Finally, work has brought me to Udaipur Rajastan. I think fate has it that I will have to travel to every nook and corner in this country and make up for all the time I spent cozy in corner of the country for almost 20 yrs of my life! Till I was 21 the northernmost point in my life was Bombay!!....In the last 1 year, I have travelled to Dehli, Bombay, pune, Calcutta, Interior tamilnadu, Kerala, Upper reaches of the himalayas, Manali, Himachal pradesh, Chandigarh, AP and now Rajastan.....Whew that quite a lot!!

Anyways, The Mood of the Hour: Patience is a virtue, but will it get you anywhere??

Travel Travel...till you Unravel !!!

I have never travelled so extensively in my life thus far, I have never seen so much of india thus far, and yet Iam very excited about yet another short trip tommorow (for entirely other reasons :-))

Last saturday, I started from bangalore to chandigarh and then onto Nalagarh in Himachal pradesh.I had been there for the opening ceremony of our new plant there.The highlight of the place was this amazing Hotel that we stayed in. Its called the Nalagarh fort, which used to be the Maharaja`s house. Supposedly he had 365 rooms for each one of his wives...ideal for a hotel huh!! The view and the amazing regal Bar just added to the fun, but the place was a little disconcerting...I mean there were bats flying around and the bathroom was filled with furniture...how wierd is that!....

Then came delhi....now this is one city which is really starting to scale up to international standards in its infrastructure....the metro was just amazing! Then we visited Karol bagh for some dinner and shopping...the hustle and bustle was simply amazing.

Next day, we moved onto UP....Ghaziabad. It was largely uneventful and we returned to delhi the very same evening. The next day, we started our pilgrimage to the holy city of Varanasi. Now this is when it struck me as to how backward india still actually is!! After dusting off some work, we visited the Kashi Viswanath temple on the banks of the Ganges....it was a nice experience and very different from south indian temples. The again tried to shop , but failed miserably....Im just sooo impatient!

Next day, we visited markets like Mirzapur and then to Allahabad....my impressions were further worsened. Supposedly, all that we see in the movies is very true in eastern UP. Allahabad was tense with the oncoming elections and there gunmen all over the place....

Finally, some solace when we finally came to Lucknow...now this place seems to be developing rapidly and did wipe off some of the nasty memories. Hey, on the way there, we were encountered with a freak storm called Aandhi. It was a wierd sandstorm after which it rained.
Finally we ended out trip in the gandhi stronghold of Rae bareilly.

Whew..that was a tough trip especially in the heat! But great experience though....

Thought of the hour: Customers behave remarkably similarly across markets, corporates are the one who are different across markets

Recap of the year

Hmm....Its exactly a year since i started work post ISB....this is a wrap up of what I have done (accomplished??) ;-)

• Started the year with an unexpected raise!!
• Understood that no role as defined to me existed and that i had create one for myself
• dipped my feet into market understanding..a subject on which I was clueless!
• Worked with all the departments across to get alignment to a common stated goal
• The realized there was no such common goal :-)
• Started feeling the pinch of working in an organization which was going through tough times
• Felt like quitting, but wanted to continue...noone calls me a coward :-0
• went on a trip to indonesia, mostly spent in a hotel with all corporate types !
• Conducted a Corporate war game in india...which was widely appreciated
• Then the lull before the storm.....The taskforce
• Got inducted into a taskforce to improve sales in Tamil Nadu
• 3months went by in understanding the problems, facing up to it and addressing it adequately
• Designed and developed my first set of marketing campaigns....which was wildfire hit across the state
• Learnt that strategy is best communicated thorugh actions and result for rapid scaling rather than words
• Worked on a organizational motvational program, learnt the fine art of editing in the process :-)
• Exited the taskforce on a very happy note...very successful, to the extent where the competiton copied the campaign that we designed :-)

On an aside, I also decked up a proper house with all the electronics a guy could want....Well done !! Towards the end, also started looking forward to the next phase of my life.

During these last 12 months, I thought life was very chaotic, but it all seems to be following a nice plan...lets see what the next year has in store for me!!

Cheers.....

Of Mairrages and Conversations......

Well......I have finally started looking out for a life change. I was a little worried and confused, but Iam realizing that the only way to live through it is to go with the flow.

So far, I happened to meet this one very interesting lady.....fiercly independent yet practical. One of the more interesting personalities that I have met so far.

One question which has bugged me for a while now! Should I look for someone similar or someone opposite.....should I look to be constantly challenged, or for a harmonious subdued relationship?....I dunno!!

One thing is for sure.....i definitely enjoy good conversations.......but for the worry that the evil twin will come out soon enough to spoil the party :-)

So net net.......what is the most important consideration parameter?

• Thought compatibility
• physical attraction and chemistry
• bit of both
• none of the above and I dont have a clue :-)

On other aspects......work is interesting, but dealing with politics is extremely draining. I really want to move on to better things...... my interest span for this job has now officially expired!!!

Mood of the hour: Cant wait for whats next ;-)

Rapid Action Taskforce!!!

Well....as the title suggests, I got my stint in a sales function. A group of us were given charge of an entire state and asked to improve volumes and marketshare significantly....Well, We certainly did!!!

It has been a hectic couple of months and the amount of travelling I have done, I need to be paid more!!

Life is Hollow now and Iam convinced that I need a change.....change to what is the big question!!!

Anyways, some of my old friends are visiting this week and I shud be meeting up with them after a loong time now....shud be fun.

Thats it for now, More later....

Round and round on the merry go round

Well....thats the current mood. The pressures of daily life are always at loggerheads with longer term aspirations...looks like I will be revisiting some of my ideals ......

I have been travelling a lot in the recent months...exciting but tiresome. There have been a few bright spots: made a new friend, looked at new opportunities, learnt many ground level realities in the marketplace.....

Life is turning a littlepointless recently though....what is the purspose? why neglect my self at cost of a career?...I have not been able to anwer these questions with any certainity!

Well....I guess I need to go round on the merry go round...will come out a little dizzy, but can say that I did get on it :-)

Updates...

Looong time since I last blogged!! Anyways, life chugs on, the new year briefly brought some cheer (Thro some highly concentrated ethanol ;-) ) but it is dreary again now.

"Boriyath katharnaakh ho sakti hai!!!": tag line of a recent ad......I totally agree. It gets your mind to wander and look outside for other forms of excitement. I have started doing exactly that!!

The most recent book that I read was called "Punchtantra". I read it while I was extremely bored in an airport where the flight was delayed for more than 4 hrs. Review: well it was trashy, it took a modern day view on the panchatantra stories with a funny yet pathetic twist. All in all it just reemphasized that kaliyuga had truly set in and if you still have an idealistic view of the world in the context of the hindu scriptures...well change quickly, cuz you WILL get swept under the carpet if you keep it up.

On an aside, I have always considered myself young, but now looking at a few of my much younger cousins, I realize that Iam getting older now....much more than I would like to be !!!

Hint...Hint: Is it time to settle down and live a Happily?? married life. I really dunno the answer, but iam not one to cringe at change.......wait and watch!

The highlight of the past few weeks was my trip down memory lane at ISB. I had gone back there for our alumni reunion "Solstice". great fun...met a lot of friends, future CEO`s, entrepreneurs and danced like a mad dog. It was truly a memorable weekend...I miss ISB :-(

Well thats it from me now....more later (Hopefully regularly )

Cheers