The Catfather

 

I created this at http://fontmeme.com/godfather-font/

       

       You might not be altogether mistaken for expecting a blog-post named The Godfather from me, but The Catfather. Really? Don Vito Corleone himself was a cat lover as seen in the first scene of Francis Ford Coppola's magnum opus The Godfather. I am no different. I have liked felines from childhood and even have a photograph of a 3 year old me holding a white cat, giving it a fashion makeover using a lipstick! But that was 22 years ago and in my grandparents' place. Mom never permitted me to keep a pet though we lived in a nice bungalow in Bangalore with a small garden, trees, terraces and open spaces. But it all changed on 23rd June 2012 when my buddy Ashwin Kumble informed me that our mutual friend Bharath Hebbar, was giving away kittens for adoption. 

        I was in a dilemna. I knew that Mom would never approve of this. I also knew I had to leave for Dallas in 50 days to join the full-time MBA program at The University of Texas at Dallas. Yet, overpowered by my intense longing for a pet, I instinctively gave two kittens a warm home, without anyone's approval; just as Santino Corleone in his boyhood had brought home a homeless Tom Hagen from the streets of Hell's Kitchen, New York City and made him family, without worrying about the great Don's wrath.

Anish, age 3

         When I went over to Bharath's place to pick up the kittens, the first thing I noticed was the name of his house being Jagad-dhaatri. In Sanskrit, the oldest language in the world, it meant- Protector of the World. Indeed. In his 2-storied sanctuary I saw 9 cats spanning across 3 generations living in harmony not only with one another but also with Bharath and his younger twin brothers, who were as cute as the cats themselves! I saw a granny-cat, a mother-cat, and 7 kittens who were two months old; old enough to survive on their own, and young enough to be gleefully playful! Was it not exactly two months ago that I had heard from the University about my admit? Was that just a coincidence? 

  

        I had wanted kittens for quite sometime and I saw this as a manifestation of my belief that whenever we really want something, the whole Universe conspires to make it happen. This belief is echoed in Paulo Coelho's books and The Secret. I decided to adopt 2 of them as they would have each other for company. This could have been done in 7C2 ways, but rather than me selecting them, I let them select me. I opened a small basket, kept a distance and watched attentively. Not all of them behaved the same way. Some were too shy to venture outside and some were too afraid of me. But two of them were purr-fect. Their curiousity and spirit of adventure had me smitten. As both of them jumped inside the basket causing the lid to fall down, a big smile silently crossed my face :-) 

          Carrying the heavy basket, I walked up to my door expecting a lot of resistance. But Mom, who is as formidable as the Don himself, put me in shock as she permitted them in without saying a word and fed them a bowl of warm milk and boiled rice, the taste of which they would never forget. I was so overjoyed at this miracle that I started debating with my brother whether to name them "Katrina-Kareena" or "Changu-Mangu". Somehow the names Softy and Browny stuck! I put their basket in our patio and built a makeshift wooden shed for them. After covering them with a blanket, I closed the patio door and stood by the window, looking at them and wondering what they were going through. They did not know where their mother was. They were in a whole new world where their very existence was in peril. They were staring at uncertainty.

         But I must say I did not see one bit of fear or shock in their bright, shimmering eyes. Softy and Browny had this amazing attitude towards life - Fearlessness. Swami Vivekananda, a firebrand monk from India once said that if there was one word that you would find coming out from The Upanishads like a bomb, bursting like a bombshell upon masses, it was the word Fearlessness. Also known as Zen in some circles. I couldn't help seeing their life in contrast with mine. Their situation was not unlike mine. I was in that point of time where I knew I was going to a premier University on the other side of the globe, in a fabulous place, a land of Dreams, a place where a person would actually be treated like a human being. 

Jindal School of Management, University of Texas at Dallas

          This was after 4 years of struggle with the flawed CAT based MBA procedures in India and getting rejected by mediocre institutions such as Tap-Me, Eye-am-eye, Yes-Eye-be-am and Eye-am-Tea despite having a desirable profile, diverse background and high test scores; without even evaluating me in an interview. To this day I do not know what they were thinking. My patience and peace of mind were running out, and it gave me great satisfaction when I got my admit with scholarship from the Jindal School of Management UTD, the Only school I had applied to in the US. I was glad that they saw what the other schools couldn't. Sometimes Brain-drain is better than a Brain in the drain- a wise man once said. Rightly called The New World, America was thousands of miles away from home, family; making no promises about the direction my life would take. 

These were among my deepest thoughts in the last few days in India.

courtesy: Dr. Sohan Raghavendra aka Tsadbodt Dot Eek

        On the other hand, Softy and Browny were very enlightened beings. Uncertainty did not bother them. They lived every moment in the present, making the most of it by being delightfully playful and curious, entertaining anyone who happened to look. They seemed to know that as long as they did what they always do best (i.e. be playful), and gratified a Power greater than them, that entity (i.e. I) would provide for all their needs and take care of them. They did not have to worry about anything beyond their control. They could do things that either please that Power or anger that Power. Doesn't this boil down to the ideas of Dharma and Karma? Loosely translated, Dharma meant righteousness and doing one's duty, keeping everything aside. The law of Karma is essentially about the cause and effect our actions, spanning across lives, and how our past or present actions will account for our future lives, even if done when no one is watching! "As you sow, shall you reap." These ideas reverberate in the modern breakthrough book - Many Lives, Many Masters. 

       I was amazed by this phenomenon. When animals intrinsically observed this, was it so difficult for mankind to understand this analogy? It baffled me when I saw mankind exploit such evolved beings in the name of food, when better options were available... 

       With Softy and Browny I saw a side of me evolve; a side that I thought did not exist. I learnt to feed them Cat-food and milk at correct times and in the right quantities. I learnt to clean up after them when they did their job (after getting blasting from Mom!), and never complain or get angry! I learnt to bathe them without making them restless, and also figured out how to deal with them when they meowed and clawed my door at midnight wanting to sleep on my bed. 

Without realizing it, I became The Catfather.

        The 50 days passed by sooner than I thought. It was time to catch the flight to Dallas. I played with Softy. Purring softly, poor Softy did not have a clue that it was the last time I would be playing with it for sometime. It had no idea that I was going far away from it. As I looked into Softy's eyes, dark clouds were forming inside me. A thunderstorm was brewing rapidly and about to precipitate from my Eyes...

last few moments..

        Love is a powerful emotion. Each time I have experienced it, words have trickled down from somewhere deep in my heart, seeped into the pages of my diary and sprung forth as a blog post here... Nowadays, when I see infants, I relate to them like how I did with kittens. They are very alike. Whenever I video chat with my family, I always ask for Softy to be brought over. Last week I heard from them that Softy and Browny left, and never returned. I do not know what happened to them. 

Surprisingly, I am not heart-broken. Some bonds are so deep that they are carried over beyond a lifetime. Who knows if we'll be re-incarnated as family in the next life! No love is ever lost... 

 "Until one has loved an animal, a part of one's soul remains unawakened."

-Anatole France

"Jeevan ke safar me raahi..

milte hey bichhad jaaneko

Aur de jaate hey Yaade

tanhaai me tadpaane ko.."

- a Kishore Kumar song

The Big BONG Theory

       Ever since my first encounter with the fiery Bengali folks in early 2010, I am a changed man. I am in love with everything about Bengalis - their rapidly spoken lingo, their weird slangs such as bokachoda (loosely translated as foolish f*****), their Anglo-Bangla accent where the English alphabet and vowels lost all their sense of  phonetics and, bhecame bheri bheri fhonny sounding :)

      The plethora of food, right from savoury snacks like Golgappa and  Jhaal mudi to sweets like  Paish and Chitrakut, and traditional meals like Luchis with the choto aam misthi jhol (small-mango-sweet curry), their fearless socio-political ideas, their soulful music such as  Mohiner Ghoraguli (plagiarised by Pritam in Gangster) and Art movies like Paath'er Paanchali, Antaheen and The Japanese Wife  have endeared me to them. This endearment is so overwhelming that when I meet a stranger who happens to be a Bengali, I tend to strike a conversation and crack a joke with him in Bangla, much to his shock and my amusement!

The good ol' Bullee is now,  Bongo bondhu Bullee Moshai, loosely translated as Mr. Bullee, the friend of Bengalis.

     It happened in Hyderabad during the months of Jan and Feb 2010 during the Initial Learning Program of the IT company I had joined. I was away from my family for the first time, in an alien land with no one to call my own. I had been brought up in a very protective environment, where I was dependent on my family for everything, with limited sense of responsibility and freedom. For this reason I was apprehensive when I left Bengaluru. What waited for me in Hyderabad was a culture shock- A batch full of Bengali and Oriya people who all belonged to the same university, knew each other and also had their own friends' circles.

But I am no underdog.

      I found Bangla and Oriya to be linguistically similar, and to me Konkani and Bangla sounded similar too. Putting together all the similarities, I picked up Bangla rapidly and in 2 weeks, I was in a position to engage in a mild conversation with a native Bengali speaker, and embarrass even a hardened Bengali in a competition of swear words! (Special thanks to Sudip Chandra Mitra aka Robot) This, and my Life Skills class oratory and comic timing (Hats off to our zesty coordinator Sreedevi Nagnur) coupled with my entertainment quotient, social concerns and friendly demeanour won me a whole lot of friends. Sometimes, people who did not even know me personally but had heard about me from their friends, would come and talk to me, share a joke or two. Then, they would invite me to their flat for a gathering and walk away with a glow of satisfaction on their face when I replied in affirmative!

      My guitar sessions with Avik and Chasu in the spacious living room of our flat where we sang songs like Bheegi Bheegi, Lukka Chhupi, Nirvana, Give me some Sunshine, Tu hi re and Bangla songs like Prithibita Naki.. were an instant hit with the tenants of our co-ed hostel. We sometimes had clandestine visitors who secretly listened to our jamming sessions, by crowding the staircase near our flat window! An Everybody Loves Anish situation prevailed, making me thank the Almighty for giving me the best time of my life! (upto that point in time)

     Before long, I couldn't help but notice the likeliness in Konkani and Bengali culture, clothing, jewellery, worship, festivals, wedding customs, bridal wear to name a few. There had to be a link. All this compelled me to research my forefathers' history and genealogy to find out the missing link between Bangla and me. I found that the community that I belonged to, the Gauda Saraswat Bramhans were a community whose existence was chronicled in the Puranas, Ramayana and Mahabharata. We were settlers along the mystical River Saraswati in North India, which is how we were called Saraswat. All was well until thousands of years ago, when the grand river dried up and changed its course due glacial changes in the Himaalayas. The once fertile Rajasthan, Kutch and Sindh became deserts and this event forced the mass migration of the Saraswat community to the banks of River Ganga, and led them to the blessed land - Gauda Desh - which was the ancient name - for modern day  B E N G A L.

      The Saraswats prospered here and absorbed the traditions, cultures and the language of the land and had a good life. In 1000 AD, the king of Gauda desh sent 96 families of Saraswats to settle down in Gomantaka Desh - - Goa and flourish, as he had a marital alliance with the King of Gomantaka. Those 96 families that came down to Goa were called Gauda Saraswat Brahmans by the local people, refering to their place of origin. The Saraswats who remained in Bengal mingled with the local population and lost their unique identity, while these 96 - 'shud-navi' (Origin of the name Shenoy) families - "shud" meaning 6 and "navi" meaning 90, most of them being educated and experienced in trade, administrative services and Mathematics recieved the patronage of the Kadamba kings and flourished in Goa.

      Again, all was well for another 500 years, until 1500s when the Portuguese landed in Goa and replaced the local kings. The religious intolerance of Alphonso de Albuquerque, the policy of INQUISITION under which Hindu holy places were destroyed, combined with the forcible conversion of the local population forced the mass exodus of the Konkani people further South, along the west coast, to places like Mangalore, Udupi and Kerala. I found that my family, was among the ones that settled in Udupi. I was filled with a sense of pride and admiration when I knew this :)  At last, I had found my Bong Connection.

      I was growing up, mentored by Sabiha. I was just beginning to discover new facets of Life, shown to me by Avik and Uttam. The fearlessness of Chasu and Hula, and the light hearted-seriousness of Sudipto and Sapto were beginning to permeate inside me.

But the 45 days passed sooner than I thought.

    One by one, all my buddies departed to different cities, not even one going to my destination - Bengaluru. I was all alone. Sometimes I wonder, if I should have chosen Mumbai over Bengaluru, and given life a chance. The times that followed were very hard for me. I was reminded of my Bengali friends,  every moment; and their advice, laughter, care, love and all the good things they had inside them, which they showered on me.

Life became monotonous again.

      I always wondered when things would be normal again; like in Hyderabad my beloved city. And Lo. A miracle. It was as if the Almighty heard my plea, in August. I consider my new Bong team mates to be a God-sent gift;...

An answer...
To my long standing ... Guzaarish! (request)

Mother India and Micro-Finance

   

        We watch so many movies these days thanks to uTorrent and the Internet! Even those art movies that are not available in most video rental stores, are now freely available to the niche audiences that desire them. Some of these movies are very touching, and leave so big an impact that the viewer's life is turned around; he is awakened from the core and begins to see a new meaning for his existence.

One such movie is Mother India.

         Mother India is a realistic story of a simple Indian farmer, the hardships he has to face, his exploitation at the hands of the lecherous local money lender, and his ultimate betrayal by the Indian Monsoon. Released in 1957, the story revolves around the life of the newly married farmer Shamu (Raaj Kumar) who takes a loan of Rs.500 ($67 in 1957 dollars) from the money lender to cover the expenses of his wedding with Radha (Nargis). They have a happily married life and are blessed with a son. Shamu, feeling very joyous about his son and the freshly cut harvest, begins to distribute parts of the grain to the poor and needy. All is well.

           At this juncture, the money lender enters  the scene and claims that the harvest belongs to him, and that Shamu doesn't have any rights over its ownership. Shamu thinks that the money lender is playing a joke on him. But then, the money lender brings forth the loan contract bearing the thumb-impression of Shamu. It turns out that Shamu was illiterate, and was duped by the money lender into entering into an unfair contract which said that Shamu had to give away three-fourths of his harvest to the money lender as "interest" until Shamu paid back the Rs.500 loan. Shamu is enraged, as three-fourths of the harvest was on any day more valuable than the Rs.500 he owed, and presents his case to the village elders, who rule in favour of the money lender, so as to appease him and not put the rest of the village into problems related to the availability of easy credit, however unfair the terms of which be.

         Shamu is not bogged down by this crisis and is determined to pay back the principle amount before the next harvest to avoid losing any more of his hard earned produce. He and his wife work hard in the sowing season and are very soon confident that the contract conditions would be met much before the harvest. But the Indian Monsoon plays spoil sport and drought sets in. Shamu's crops wither away due to the lack of water, and Shamu is compelled to sell his wife's jewellery and his farm bullocks to pay the money lender the equivalent of his "interest". Meanwhile, one more member is added to the family. Shamu and Radha, raise their family bravely facing all hardships.

         In order to pay off their mounting debt, Radha and Shamu decide to cultivate the rocky patch of land that they had hitherto not cultivated, due to the rugged terrain. Fate plays a cruel joke while Shamu is using his hands to clear the huge boulders, and both of Shamu's hands are crushed in an accident. Shamu is totally devastated. To perform even day to day activities, he is compelled to take his wife's help, which the wife provides without a grudge. There is a very touching scene where Shamu's 2nd son Birju (Sunil Dutt) holds a Beedi cigarette to his Dad's mouth while Shamu smokes it. Six year old Birju is mischievous, and takes a few drags himself! Radha serves her husband with utmost devotion, but Shamu thinks he is a burden on his family, as he is not a working member anymore, and leaves his family. He is shown to have gone to an undisclosed holy place to beg for alms.

   

       Again, Radha and the kids work hard on the land and manage to raise a healthy harvest. Radha has a baby daughter. But, a storm sweeps through the village destroying the harvest and leveling all the homes. Radha's youngest child dies in the midst of all this. The villagers start to migrate but decide to stay and rebuild  their lives upon Radha's request.

15 years later -

       The movie is all about the strength of Radha, who singlehandedly raises her family and pays off her debt. Birju, embittered by the wickedness of the money lender since his childhood takes out his frustrations by pestering the village girls, especially the money lender's daughter. The elder son Ramu on the other hand, has a calmer temperament and is married soon after.  Birju becomes a highway bandit and harasses the money lender and plays Robin-hood by helping the villagers. The film ends after a while when Birju is shot dead by his mother.

        I was shaken after watching this movie. For a long time I kept thinking this - "Why did the poor, hard working farmer have to undergo All this in the first place?"

If he had gotten a loan from a bank with a well defined and reasonable rate of interest, he need not have gone to the wicked loan shark. But alas; I found that our system is so uptight that our banks did not give out loans to small time farmers whose land-holdings were not big enough to grant a loan. When approached, the banks out-rightly denied loans to small farmers, while favouring big farmers at the same time, so that the banks could be sure that their investment would be returned on time. Most farmers are too confused to know about the devious procedures our banks have. Even well educated youngsters like myself are intimidated every year when we pay our college fees (or perform other financial transactions,) standing in the long queues at the bank counters, dealing with unclear documentation requirements and unruly clerks, who do nearly everything possible to increase our hardship.

        In 2008, the Govt. of India announced a Rs. 60,000 crore ($13.6 billion in 2008 dollars) farm-loan waiver for Indian farmers to save them from never ending debt. The farmers were very happy about this, but their relief was short-lived. The fine-print said that only those loans that were obtained from one of the Nationalized banks were eligible to be waived off,. The small time farmers were doomed. The farmers with large land holdings, who had consequently obtained their loans from big nationalized banks were given the waivers, while the farmers with small land holdings, who actually needed the waiver because of their never-ending loans from local money lenders under exorbitant interest rates, were not given the waiver. In India, the welfare measures taken up by the govt. somehow do not reach the needy. They get lost somewhere along the distribution channels in the mouths of avaricious govt. servants.

That was when I heard about Mohammad Yunus.

       An economics professor at Chittagong University in Bangladesh in 1970s, Mohammad Younis was disturbed by the poverty around him, which only worsened with crop failure and famine that were raging on at that time. He started out by making small loans to the poorest of the poor people who had no papers, land, jewelry or other signs of credit worthiness or collateral. He told them that it was a loan, not a gift, and that they ought to pay it back when they could afford to do so. He relied purely on the goodwill of the people to return the loans.

        The people were touched by his gesture. No one had ever extended to them such a helping hand in their lives, literally or as a figure of speech. They were so happy upon getting the much needed monetary support that  they put their heart and soul into their work. They got the maximum output out of it, and returned the principle amount with a huge sense of gratitude; not to mention, a small interest amount as well. Its a well known fact that the repayment rates for micro loans are well above 98%, ie ~2% default, whereas regular loans given to well to do individuals and institutions default at much higher rates.

This was the birth of  Micro Finance.

         Slowly, Md. Yunus extended his operations all over Bangladesh and alleviated millions of lives out of poverty. He won a Nobel Prize for this feat in the year 2006. Now his Foundation works worldwide to help people. Few of such organizations exist in India though.

          One thought kept coming over and over in my mind. . . What if. . .

         What if? ..an educated, liberated and empowered Indian, could take up an MBA in Finance; work in this field and gain valuable experience about raising and lending capital, and then start a Micro-finance organization with best practices to uplift the millions and give them a decent life.

          How awesome would that be? !

(To end this post on a more earthly-note: On the sets of  MOTHER INDIA, Sunil Dutt fell in love with Nargis who played his mother's character, and married her in 1956. Our very own superstar Munnabhai Sanjay Dutt was born out of this adventure in 1957.)  Lagey Raho !

Head over Heels..

6th June, 2009

         It was a bright Saturday evening open to a lot of possibilities for making merry, and I was attending BYJU's CAT workshop at Jyothi Nivas College, Koramangala. This workshop was so much more informative and useful than the T.I.E.M. classes I had attended last year. All  T.I.E.M. did was make false claims of having sent more number of students to IIMs than any other institute. Falling for their advertising, I had joined them last year. It didn't take me long to realize that my 20K had gone down the drain.

        After CAT '08, I was all set to start my prep for this time- the elusive final attempt. A do or die one. It was then that I heard about Byju's classes. Byju Raveendran was a mechanical engineer from IIT and a serial CAT topper, who had this habit of scoring a 100 percentile and rejecting calls from IIMs every year! He was a math genius and an expert in mentally solving even those math problems that mere mortals feared to solve even with a calculator. 1 out of 8 students in his class made it to an IIM! He was a Keralite bloke, with a straight serious face, well built physique and of good height. Though he taught 1200 students in a class at a time, his classes were very well structured and effective. At the end of every class, he along with his knowledgeable aides would wait outside the hall to impart clarity and helped to cement all the concepts and tactics that students needed assistance in. Needless to say, his support staff knew almost as much about the subjects as he did, and were fully qualified.

That was why My confidence level went up after each class.

        June 6th was a "Numbers-1" reschedule, dealing with the Remainder theorem, divisibility rules, Euler's number, Chinese remainder theorem and so on. It was a heavy-on-concepts session and incidentally I had a few concepts to clarify. I directed my queries to one of his support staff, a young lady, who looked more like a Bollywood actress, than a member of the teaching profession! She did resemble Perizaad Zorabian :-) It was spoken among the students in hushed tones that she was an IIM-A topper, who gave up her lucrative placement to teach here. That made me wonder how much more Byju had offered her to bring her here.

        She borrowed a pen from a guy standing nearby, and effortlessly solved the remainder of (11/77)^97 on my book. Then, she had one look at me, and just like one of those hot professors in the commercials who smiled weirdly and scribbled cardiograms on the blackboard when the cool dude entered the class, this lady went head over heals, and handed over the pen to me, profusely thanking me; while I tried to say that the pen actually belonged to the other guy standing there :-) For a few seconds, she froze, thanked me again, (??) and handed over the pen, to me !!! Only when I said it the second time did she understand what she was doing!

Courtesy: sheknows.com

    

        She looked down, gave me a sheepish smile and handed over the pen to the other guy, who stood there witnessing this event with his mouth wide open! Maybe, she was hit by The Thunderbolt. In The Godfather, "being hit with the thunderbolt" was a Sicilian expression referring to a man being spellbound and stupefied at the sight of a beautiful woman. 

           She was short, petite and delicate, with a sharp featured face not unlike Perizaad's; with beautiful kohl laced eyes, wearing some designer Kurti, and having a flowing hairdo like Perizaad's, only better :-)

The break ended and I went back to the class.

           Later, at the end of the session, I was standing at the hall entrance waiting for Byju when she herself came to me and asked me what I wanted. I hadn't expected this. I blabbered something about some topic that Byju had forgotten to cover that day, about which I wanted to remind him. She told me it had been covered in some other class and was about to give me more details when, out of nowhere, Byju swooped in with a mean and impatient look on his otherwise calm face. Instead of debating about it, he quickly summarized that topic for me then and there, with a look on his face that unmistakably conveyed the message- "Are you done now??"

          My eyes were wide open, witnessing this bizarre spectacle. I answered in affirmative, and asked her some concluding questions and left the place, shell-shocked. As I walked outside to the parking lot, all the variables in the equation were showing themselves, the haze around everything was clearing up and soon the picture became clear. One thought rang in my head over and over - - - - - -

"SHE MUST HAVE BEEN  BYJU'S  GIRL !!!!"

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(PS: Byju's classes were a great blessing. I learnt almost everything that he had to teach there, and IF the paper based CAT had continued, I would have most likely landed in a premier-management-institute in India. But CAT 09 was the beginning of the decay of the CAT system of MBA entrance exams. The exam was made online, and had several flaws. The quality of questions and the evaluation and "Normalization" of answers was abysmal and continues to worsen every year. 

A few years later, someone told me that they both were indeed a couple, and that they got married recently. My intuition was not wrong!

Meanwhile, I jumped into the GMAT boat, and used the knowledge gained @ Byju's to secure admission  in a top ranked B-School in USA.)

To Grandpa with love..

Today is the last day of Diwali, 2008. On this special day, I wish to write a post about someone I really care about, and means a lot to me.

26th of January, 2008

             Saturday was India's 59th Republic Day. It was the commemoration of the day our country chose to get rid of all kings and rulers of the land, and brought together all the provinces and princely states in the subcontinent to form a Unified India. I watched the India-Gate parade on TV. Each of the regiments of the army had its elite troops marching in sync to their respective bands, saluting our President, Pratibha Patil and the foreign dignitary Vladmir Putin, the Russian president.

            This year's parade was a hogwash where lots of dummies and cardboard cutouts were used in the place of the actual aircraft, helicopters and missiles. It was hilarious to see a gas balloon model of our Dhruv ALH advanced light helicopter, to see GI Joe like models of our aircraft propped up on trucks using lanky poles. Even the BRAHMOS cruise missiles, Agnis and other ICBMs were only props. They did not seem real. Not even from a distance! Only the outdated tanks and artillery seemed real.

            At noon, Dad and I set out to bring home my late grandfather's brother, Govindraya Bhandarkar from Dadar, Mumbai, who had been staying at my other grandpa Vasudev Bhandarkar's place in Nandini Layout, Bangalore.

           After lunch, I brought him to my room and offered my bed for his nap. I was longing to ask him so many things about his life, which I doubt anyone knew. Because I felt this could be our last chance.

           He sat on my bed and I sat on my chair, facing each other. "I'll turn 87 this July" he said, when I asked him his age. I could not believe it. He was of medium height with a lean body type, with sharp eyes and a round shining head with grey hair neatly growing at the sides. He had round cheekbones that gave his clean shaven, moustache-less face a benevolent look when he smiled, baring his sparkling white teeth. He wore double pocketed full sleeved shirts(worn tucked out) and trademark cotton trousers with horizontal slits as front pockets that went out of fashion in the 80's. (revived by Shah Rukh Khan in Om Shanti Om !)  Looking at him, I had always thought he could be 70+. Maybe 75. But he was 86! He was so fit and so away from the usual afflictions of old age.

           He said that they were 8 siblings, and that my great-grandpa was a Goldsmith, who had a Jewelry store in the narrow lane leading to Rath Beedhi in Udupi, where the multitude of silk saree showrooms are now located. When my grandpa Srinivas, the eldest sibling was in 8th grade, his dad had an untimely death. He dropped out of school and worked odd jobs to immediately support his huge family. The other siblings were very young, some of them toddlers. "Those days were very hard..", he often said during our conversation.

           My grandpa Srinivas commandeered two buses and ran a transport service with some partners. He worked hard day in and day out. Soon, he expanded his service by adding 60 buses to his fleet, adding more routes, and one day took over the whole company. This prosperous company was christened GAJANANA MOTORS, and I feel proud to say that it is operational even today. Its also listed in the Bombay Stock Exchange. He also ran a car dealership and service centre at Sagar, and Rubber factories in Bangalore.

           Govindray-ajja matriculated in 1942 in Udupi and left for Bombay, the city of dreams. WW II was raging in full force and Bombay bore the brunt of the frequent German Luftwaffe reconnaissance airplanes. The Germans never bombed the city, but nevertheless air-raid warnings would be issued and the people would run out of buildings and head to open grounds, he said. This is a little known fact even today, where people believe Indian territory was unaffected by WW II. Because Bombay was a British stronghold, the threat of an aerial attack on the city was imminent, and this made the citizens of Bombay head for safer places in the countryside. As such, the rents of buildings and apartments went down drastically, as they had no takers. This was the ideal time for immigrants to settle in the city they would one day make their home. Ajja found a good apartment in Dadar-Matunga for an un-putdownable price. He stayed there with his friends who had a Holy Calling. They later went on to become heads of great spiritual institutions like the Ramakrishna Mission at Belur Math in Bengal.
Their ideas rubbed off on Ajja, and he too decided not to marry, though he did not become a monk.

            The British govt. made Bombay the hub of manufacturing war materials. The American made GM brand engines arriving from England would be fitted into armoured vehicles here, and then sent away to the battle front. Millions of hectares of forests were destroyed to supply timber for the rifles and battle ships. Foodgrains, meat, fodder-grass and any available item was shipped to England, and India was plundered to the core. Inflation touched the roof and people died of starvation. Ajja worked as a shorthand specialist in the war supplies depot, he said.

            "London was completely destroyed by the Luftwaffe bombing.." , he recounted thoughtfully. Only the great leadership of Churchill saved Britain, and the American nuking of Japan's cities effectively ended the war, which otherwise would have dragged on for a much longer time. The British were so fed up with Gandhi's Satyagraha that they promised to give freedom to India a few years after the war ended. Ajja said he had actually seen Gandhi and other leaders in speeches and rallies held at Shivaji park. Satyagraha was so popular that, all the Indians were ready to even give up even their lives on his cue. But the British couldn't see us rejoice and partitioned the country before they left. Widespread revolts broke out all over the country where once upon a time, people of all communities lived peacefully. "No one was safe..", he recalled.

             According to the Bombay Buildings Act, structures constructed prior to 1940 would see no significant increase in rent, compared to the current market prices. So even today, my grandpa only paid the same rent that he paid in 1942! I have seen the heritage building and its amazingly well maintained and spacious, with wooden windows, old fashioned black colored antique electrical switches, and trees flanking the compound walls. They don't make such buildings in Mumbai anymore!

             He also told me a secret. One of my uncles was confused in his youth, and was yet to learn a profession and settle down. My grandpa worried a lot about this uncle. Then, sometime in the late 60's, that uncle was sent to Bombay to live with Ajja, for career guidance. He said that he had a hard time controlling him. Ajja made him work out in the gym, involved him in sports, and also taught him a few tricks of trade. Later, that uncle came back home and became interested in Government tenders and contracts. He formed a group of people who went to the Govt. auctions and as a group, agreed not to bid for a tender for more than HALF of its actual price. Then they all equally split the profits.
He is now a multi-millionaire with a flourishing business.

             Sometime in the middle of our conversation, my brother Sachin entered the room and was a keen audience. After this, I left Ajja alone to resume his nap. CAT classes were cancelled on account of Republic Day.

            The next day, Ajja woke me up and handed me a roll of currency. I accepted it after a small protest and touched his feet respectfully. I later found out there were 5 bills of 500 each, a small fortune for a cash strapped teenager. Later, I accompanied him back to my cousin's house in Nandini layout.

            Why did he do that? I did not comprehend. Being in college with just a couple of 100s in my pocket at any point of time, I thought 2500 was BIG money. Was it because he felt happy for the kind attention I paid? People usually do not talk to old people and I don't think anyone had asked him so many things about his life in such depth. That must have immensely warmed his heart.

            All I can say is that, I did what I did out of love, and because I genuinely enjoyed doing it. It gave me utmost satisfaction, during and afterwards. And what happened to the 2500? I bought myself a Guitar with that money and started to rock n roll, at that point of time when I wasn't getting any support from Dad!  :D

(my Grandpa's brother, the Nandini layout Grandpa, Vasudev passed away on 24th August this year. I dedicate this post to his memory. My entrepreneur Grandpa Srinivas passed away in 1990 and the bachelor  Govindraya Ajja lives in Mumbai alone, to this day.)

The Green Mile

It has been a long break from blogging, a very long one indeed! The metric to measure the goodness of a blog is the quality of the posts, and not the frequency or word length. I try to make each post of mine better than the previous. Therefore I write 1 or 2 posts in an year. Prodded by my avid readers to post new stuff, I have come back, with a handful of posts in my kitty. Here goes..

7th of July, 2008

from my garden

           I love greenery. It never fails to charm me. I have learnt to identify various tree species, some commonly seen in Bangalore, and a few not-so-common ones. All around me, I usually observe the trees that are present, their size, their condition and foliage, and commit this to memory.

a beautiful street in Nagarbhavi, Bangalore

          When most Bangaloreans construct a concrete structure, they destroy any trace of greenery around it. I had been looking at a Rain tree near a newly constructed building in our locality for quite sometime, untouched by the builders. It seemed like the builders had some love for greenery and had spared the tree. Knowing that there were people who still cared for trees gladdened my weary heart.

          But today, as we set out to watch Jaane tu.. Ya jaane na at Abhinay Talkies, I saw that tree cut down. The tree's branches had been chopped off and only the stout trunk stood there bravely, appearing to be laughing at the inability of powerless men to uproot it completely. Surely, even the trunk would be chopped off soon, before anyone took notice, not that they cared if anyone took notice anyway. Such was the psyche of Bangalorean public.
It was the tree that had got cut, and it was I who felt the pain.

          What right did they have to do this dastardly act? It was neither blocking their 'view' nor their entrance, quietly growing on the side. I was filled with grief.

          We couldn't get the tickets, so we did some shopping and returned home. I was morose throughout. I decided I wouldn't take things lying down. I dashed an email to the Editor of The Times of India, the newspaper that claimed to be a mouthpiece of the Mango People, AKA the Aam Aadmi, the common man of the (Banana) Republic of India. I recounted how trees were cut down, for no reason at all, and that whether it was a new house, or a shopping mall, the first thing that was done was to cut down any nearby tree, even though it posed no harm to the people or the building.

I cited the TOP 5  reasons why people did this, from my own survey and findings,, I listed them :-

5. "I hate clearing away the fallen leaves on and around my property.."

4. "That big tree blocks the sunlight to my plants.. "

3. "It blocked the 'view' of our beautiful house.."

2. "A tree in front of a shop is bad for business.."

and now, the best one... the silliest of them all ;

1. "You mean that wild thing there that grew there? I had a dream that it was going to fall on me one day.. It could have caused my Death.. "

            From what I reckon of the situation, in Bangalore especially, there is no solid reason most of the time. It is a deep rooted mentality. There are no permission letters or "cut-1-tree-plant-2-trees-" involved. My blood boils when I mutely witness this , with no power in my hands...

            I asked the Editor what could be done in this matter.. I wanted to know if WE, as Bangaloreans could petition the CM to grant powers to the general public, wherein any person who witnessed such crimes could report the wrong doers, and as a community, enforce punishments in whatever way they thought best. If this measure were to be implemented seriously, it would act as a deterrent and more trees could be saved.
Or else, the future looks bleak :-(

            But, realistically speaking, we can't prevent every such case.. What we CAN do is plant more trees and nurture them till they are independent. No one can take away this right from you, nor do you need anyone's permission to do so.

            Ending on a positive note, lets hope the stout trunk grows again, and the persons involved won't cut that down too!

Double Whammy !

March has been good to me... Giving me those things that other men mostly dream about during daytime, but never get close enough! ;-)  But wait, dont think otherwise; by double whammy , I only mean favourable VTU results and a mind blowing job interview where I am taking charge !!


1st of March, 2008

It was a pleasant Saturday, and the day of our Reckoning, the day the 5th sem VTU results were out. It was evening when I accessed my results page. This time I got marks close to what I had predicted. A distinction, close to 72%. BUT, the scores predicted for each of the subjects, were not as predicted. There was the Operating Systems paper for which I was expecting 70, but got 36 and there was the Advanced Microprocessor paper which I was only hoping to clear decently, and I got a 63 in that !! Amazing VTU evaluation! My projected score was 665, and my actual score was 645. The disparity was only 20 this time despite getting an unexpected 36 in OS.
I felt good and I felt relieved. I have good faith in the VTU re-val system. I got 20m last time.. those bastards cant correct papers sanely the first time, they do so only when students like me pay 400 bucks per subject for re-val.

Right from the beginning of this semester, we were always told that the placements would be after 6th sem exams. This kept me off my guard for all these days till the 4th of March, when it was announced that Tukali Consultancy Services( lets call this TuCS now on! ) would be coming on 17th March!! But I was still in a jolly mood, brimming with confidence, knowing I could depend on my wits in any situation... Me and my classmates decided not to attend classes till 19th.. internals were kept on 10,11,12th. As I had not touched my textbooks till now I decided to make the most of this situation by turning it into a 'mini vacation'...
... By bunking the 1st set of internals : ) [ really evil plan, eh? ]


And wow, what a great time I had... I had something like 14 days all for myself, without having to go to that same old college, see the same old faces of those dumb people paid to engage us for 6 long hours and ruin our days; I revisited all the things I couldn't do enough in the 'regular' vacations. I watched 1 movie per day, doing nothing else except playing IGI-2 Covert strike.. I also read True Believer by Nicholas Sparks, and Quite Honestly by Sir John Mortimer. And these were the movies I caught up with - Mithya , Awarapan, Halla bol, the patriot, Braveheart, Crouching tiger hidden dragon, Donnie brasco, Scary movie-4, Mystic river, American gangster, V for vendetta.........

As they say, good times fly... and soon, days flew by and it was 14th march. 3days left for the TuCS placements. I literally jumped out of my dream. I had a remote feeling of remorse, for not having prepared, but I still had not given up. I knew I could come out of anything... I had a plan. and I was going to do just that.


I first started building my resume.. After 3hrs, I had a power-packed resume in my hand... It was a format widely adapted in the United States, unlike the average local student resume which began with a huge underlined heading, RESUME, having things like carrier( career ) objectives, dairy ( diary ) writing hobbies, pubic relations [ public, actually ! ], a huge box filled up with their percentages, and finally, a declaration of the veracity of their CV! Really funny resumes.. I could write a whole post on them...


Then, I Visualized the interview scenario, and how I would answer the likely questions. I mentally prepared myself for any likely case by 'play'ing each one in my mind.. As for the Quant questions in aptitude, I knew what their standard was, and was wondering why others were fretting so much over nothing.. the verbal part, I felt needed no special preparation as my vocab was good and I could figure out things by my own.. the critical reasoning was one area I needed to learn. It was serious CAT standard. You needed fundaas for that, without which, you couldnt go ahead by even an inch.


It was late afternoon on 16th when I actually started a sample TuCS paper.. that was the only paper I solved.. then, I quickly revised whatever C++ I had learnt 2yrs ago. That took time. We would be asked what our favourite subject was, and questions would be concentrated on that..



17th of march, Monday

After making us wait for 2hrs in the audi, the HR person of TuCS, a great fellow by name Chakravarti arrived on stage and gave an excellent presentation about his company, extolling all its successes and inadvertantly overshadowing all other IT and telecom companies, and creating an impression in our innocent minds that TuCS was the world leader! [ which is true! ] This guy actually used the phrase "blah blah blah" wherever a normal person would use the latin word "etc" !


The online aptitude tests followed shortly. An online test is different from a paper test, here there is a time-out set for each of the 3 sections of the paper unlike the paper tests, where we can answer any question we want and spend whatever duration in any individual section, not exceeding the total time...


The verbal section was challenging; serious GRE level questions. The quantitative section was a cakewalk for a CAT Aspirant like me. Critical reasoning was where I faltered. I had some 5min to spare before the test would time out. Suddenly after timeout, I got a pop-up saying, "You have not qualified in this test, Thank u for taking this Test."
I was shocked. All the colour drained out from my face.


I was perplexed as to how I could not get through the lower cutoff after doing so well. There were not many people who could have outdone me. And TuCS were going to take in lots of people... something was wrong. And only a handful of ppl had got that message. I seriously felt bad.. The list would be put up in the evening, but there was no point waiting in college till then. I went home, and just slept the whole afternoon away. Then I decided to go to the college and check out, late in the evening... and to my surprise my name was right at the TOP ! I had crossed the Upper cutoff, that was why the stupid machine had displayed that msg !! I'l explain, the companies usually keep two cutoff's. 1 lower- which you all know, and another called Upper cutoff. To filter away those students who maxed the test [ I cant understand why.. ! ] the others who had got that pop-up dint have their names in the list.

I was overjoyed ! My fame spread everywhere :) Cant explain how happy I felt !



Monday, the 18th

I wore a light blue cotton shirt, a dark bluish silk tie, and black corduroy trousers. These had cost me a bomb, 2800 bucks apart from the expensive Italian shoes! And I looked like a thoroughly professional executive, more impressive than the HR fellow interviewing me! I was among the first to get interviewed. The bloke who called me for the technical round was mild looking and good natured.

He asked me questions that ranged from virtual memory, page faults, heap memory, CDMA & GSM networks, to dangling pointers, circular linked list etc. Then he asked me to explain the logic to build a software for a casino owner who wants to know the odds of his customers' winning in a Roulette game having two dices. He also asked me the data structure needed to implement that. He was impressed by my answer and its approach.. He asked if I had any questions.. I asked him about the work culture in TCS, and how close they actually were in achieving their 2010 goal of global dominance in IT.. He smiled and said that they were much ahead and that they would reach that in 2009 itself !! My interview lasted for 15 min, and I questioned him for a good 10 min ! From what I heard, other students just left the room when they were asked if they had anything to ask ! !

I knew I had floored him :) and here comes the exciting part, my MR- management resource round... The transcript :-


him( ha ha ): So Ashok....
me: Sir, my name is Anish... [ :-) ] Ashok is my dad's name

him: then why have you written it in ur middle name?
me: Sir, wen you study in Bombay, they re-format your name as SURNAME / FATHER'S NAME / FIRST NAME
and thats how I got my new name !

him [amused] : Anish,, so u r a maharashtrian?
me: No sir, I only lived there 5yrs,, i'm a Konkani actually.

him: so tel me abt yourself
me: sir, I'm a smart worker. I like to work smart. than working long hrs and doing very less work.
I like to motivate myself and those around me.
apart from my success, I also like to see my friends succeed.

him: brief me as to what you did to motivate others
me: as I was waiting outside I saw many guys fretting and getting tensed for the interview..
I relieved them , gave a pep-up talk

him[ amused ] : wat did you do, dance in front of' 'em ?
me: No sir ! as I said, it was only vocal support :)

him[ a big amile on his face ]: so anish, u r good at quiz?
me[ grinning ] : yes sir!

him: who was india's 1st president?
me: Dr. rajendra prasad

him: who came next?
me: dr. s radhakrishnan

him: are you sure its not the other way round?
me: positive.

him: wat does "S" stand for?
me: Sarvepalli.

him: is he a Kannadiga?
me: no sir, Tamilian I believe

him: you are just guessing , aren't you?
me: sarvepalli is near tiruchirapalli. in TN

him: Are you sure?
me: sure...

him[ convinced ]: i'l check it out later !
and who came next after him?

me: neelam sanjiva reddy
zakir hussain
gyani zail singh.....

him: okay okay ! stop.. !
me: ... and I also went to IIT madras fest where I won a quiz held by GE...

him[ with his mouth wide open ]: oh.. so what where the questions there like?
me: some of the good questions were...

1> NASA built a new space launch vehicle running on nuclear power.. but it was banned by the IAEA after its test launch.. Sir, can u guess how it worked, would you answer that?

him: i... ahem..... o.... lemme see... huh....
okay I give up
me: its not like it carries a nuclear plant, converts water to steam, etc
all it does is bust a Nuke under the rocket which has a channeling mechanism to direct the energy... this propels the rocket !!
As such it was banned . its like making a nuclear test every time you want to launch something !

him [ eyes wide open ]: oh.. never thought it that way !
me: 2nd Q
2> incandescent bulbs are filled with a rare gas- Argon. why ?
could u answer that Sir?

him: err.... is it for heat retention?
me: NO sir ! actually tungsten [ the filament ] has a low melting point.. it can emit light only below the melting point.. and 230V of electricity is enough to melt it down... so a rare gas is added inside to reduce the temperature inside, to avoid meltdown and actually make the bulb emit continuous light !!
him [ bowled over !! ] : oh.. those were pretty good Q's !
me [ grinning ]: IITians are a class apart.. it was a very challenging quiz...

him [ :-) ] : how would you rate your communication skills?
me: sir, i think it would be best if u throw some light on that !
him [ amazed ] : now come on, give it a shot.. is it 5 , or 6, or 7.....? ? ?
me : i would rate myself a conservative 8/10

him: that will be all anish, do u have anything to ask?
me : of course !
I liked Mr. chakravarti's PPT yest... it was wonderful.. i'm impressed by your company; he has succeeded in creating a favourable impression in our minds...
[ i asked him abt the work culture in TCS and abt their goal of global dominance, which he happily answered.. ]

[after 15min]
him[ tired, but still ] : anything else you wanna ask , anish?
me : that will be all Sir :) [ big smile on my face ! ]
have a good day...

Next came the HR round... It was same as the MR with similar questions asked, but by a different person.. from wat i understand, our way of speaking and confidence level is monitored. After the usual do u have anything to ask, I asked the Fat HR guy [ Naveen benedict ] the same questions I had asked others...
But I went 1 step further ......

I had noticed that the HR guy was very young, not more than 25-26. this surprised me. HR guys are the ones with loads of experience.. out of curiosity, I asked him just that.
He said what i had guessed was right ! He was just 2yrs out of college ! He said, in TCS our qualities and talents are noticed well and we are placed in those areas where we can excel on the account of our natural ability, and not just made to work as a programmer for eternity. There is unlimited potential for our growth ! And he was a living example !

He felt so happy , he promised me an introduction with the Chief HR of his company later in the evening ! !
the list was put up at 10pm in the audi, and needless to say, I made it there :) It was surreal... I couldn't have asked for more !!
 I felt I could scale to any heights I wished to. The future held unlimited bounties and opportunities.. I had seen others crib about how bad their interviews were.

I   R E A L I S E D     M Y   T R U E    W O R T H...