Turbulent times

It was a day like every other. The morning roads were dusty, clogged and long queues of colored cars were fuming and honking at each other for moving past their immediate signals. Just as they were doing what they usually do, the bridge collapsed. Collapsing with huge noise – no, it was cacophony – The noise of metal bodies scrapping against each other, crushing and maiming one another. The cars didn’t care about the bridge they used to stand on every day - all they were worried was about getting off the bridge at the earliest. Today, it was the bridge’s turn to seek attention. And what a dramatic way of seeking attention. Not only were all the cars seemed to be asking what happened to the bridge suddenly, thereby the only object of everyone’s attention being the bridge – but also the bridge was seeking karma by destroying a few of them as a cost of neglecting the bridge for so long. The cars were sorry, the bridge was sure, because the only place where people say sorry was when it is too late. As the maimed metallic lumps were crashing into the dry bed of the long lost friend – the river – the bridge was cursing itself for not taking the decision long ago. To accompany a good friend is never a bad decision. The day the bridge was born, the river was in its youth, flourishing with a lot of life, pace and vibrancy. The constant play through the day, the river used to change its moods from slapping to kissing moments – Ah, those wonderful moments. Those days even the odd cars which passed over the bridge seemed to be better behaved. Thanking the bridge, smiling and waving at the river. The days seemed more dreamy. Alas, how things changed so soon, was incomprehensible for the bridge. The river was sucked in by the huge reservoir which came a few miles upstream. Nowadays, the river appears once in a while, like an epilepsy patient, ferocious when it appears. The bridge does not even recognize the river nowadays – it is like the river is out to take its vengeance on everyone else with its rage. The rage, in fact, has made the bridge more worn out and hence made it easier for the bridge to commit suicide – It is, in fact, more difficult to kill a healthy body. Neglected, overused, under nourished, tortured, the end seemed to be obvious. It was all like it was planned. But by whom, the bridge failed to understand.

Will Farhan Akhtar make a legendary director?

When Farhan Akhtar is a 50 years old, assuming he is going to choose to work in the film industry in some capacity, will he be remembered as a legendary director? Would he have proven himself to be a prolific director good/great movies?

I beg no. I have a few reasons to say so.

The first three movies of Farhan are Dil chahta hai, Lakshya and Don. DCH was a very well made and connected really well with the urban young crowd who related with a lot of emotions, situations and character streaks. Lakshya was also well made, albeit a little loose and slow, was a coming of age movie of a rich slaker with a patriotic flavor. The third movie was a smart remake of a yesteryear hit (for which his father happens to be the script/story writer).

I see a pattern in Farhan’s directorial career so far. DCH and Lakshya are full of south Bombay elements. DCH is a story of three rich south Bombay youngsters; Lakshya’s protagonist also happens to be a south Bombay young slacker. I guess I can imagine that Farhan also would have been a rich south Bombay kid who slacked most of the time till he reached the age of having to do something with his life. A lot of the script would be, I am assuming and hence deriving, is based on his life experiences.

Don’t take me wrong – I like all his movies so far. He has told his stories extremely well. But where he falls short is in generating good stories independent of his life experience. I think all good directors would be extremely well read on wide range of topics, history, good observers of other people/situations and great commentators. The fact that his third movie was a remake and the long gap since “Don”, sort of reinforces my reading of him – that he is barren when it comes to story ideas. But if given a good story, he might execute it well.

City life : Enthusing me towards sanyas

My office and home are within city bounds. But the unfortunate part for me, is that, both are in very distinct distant parts of towns. I cut across through the middle of the city and drive about 15 kms one way to reach my office. In bad days one way travel can take about 1.45-2 hrs. I have tried many ways of travelling to office and have found no single option to make do for a single positive solution

1. Self driven car:

1. If I leave early enough both from office and home (leave home at 8 and leave office at 5), then driving takes around 50 minutes and its bearable. If I don’t, then I go through a feeling of killing myself multiple times over in the course of pressing the clutch and brake multiple zillion times over.
2. Car driving in city (especially Bangalore I think) is slow but sure poison

2. Auto:

1. The pleasure of having the vehicle driven by someone else is offset by the constant vibration which shakes every single bone in my body more than a coconut would go through in process of becoming a chutney. And the best part is that the vibration is not the worst part.
2. The worst part is that I sit for 90 minutes in midst of poison chamber inhaling all the other vehicles spew black fluids graciously into my face. I can feel my lungs cry out of mercy killing during all those 90 minutes. Bombay train travelers – Thank your gods for making the trains relatively non polluting

3. Bus :

1. The closest bus stop from my office is 2kms away. Worst!
2. There is no direct bus. I need to take two buses. I take the change of bus in majestic. And in the evenings, my second change bus takes atleast 20 minutes to get out of majestic itself! I sit, sit and sit, staring at the humanity bustle around me in majestic – in no great interest or excitement.

This is the first time in my 5 years of office life that I feel so burdened by the act of “going to work”. And the fact that I am experiencing it in bangalore, I think, is no coincidence. Bangalore, just happens to be designed for such.

Eeram

The entire theatre had 8 people including 6 of us. But that can be no indication of the quality of the movie, Eeram. Produced by “Director Shankar” and Directed by Arivazhagan (yet another masterful find of S pictures), the movie is definitely watch worthy and a good brangan-review worthy.

A few points that stood out as x factors in the movie:

1. Surprise factor : The trailer of the movie did not give any hints on the genre/story-line of the movie. And the movie also, does not give out the broad direction of the storyline till about one hour into the screening. I found that good.

2. Good dialogues : I thought the movie dialogues were very good. Like when Adi tells the heroine Ramya’s father on why he wants to become a police officer, or on the way the lady living in the opposite house cribs and whines or on the way in which Vikky talks. The dialogues were reflective of true human behavior and not theatrical charade.

3. Camera work : The camera (The movements, angles, change of focus in the water choreography scenes) was very good.

4. Water choreography : Water choreography is awesome in the movie. No two scenes with water choreography are repeated and the angles of view and patterns are quite exquisite. Very well done.

Among other things, hero (Adi), Music (Thaman), overall casting, narration style, production values were also good. I strongly recommend this movie to anyone who wants to watch a well made movie!

The issue of ownership

On Saturday, myself and two of my friends were participating in a protest march organized by the residents of GKVK Campus near MG Road. We were protesting against the proposed cutting of over 3000 trees inside the campus, which would enable the laying of road through the campus. This, apparently, would save time and energy spent by people who travel to the new airport by travelling all along the circumference of the campus.
We typically measure the worth of any initiative through the number of manhours. For instance, if we by mistake delete a word document that we have been working on, we say that we lost 2 man hours of work. By cutting (deleting) 3000 trees, just imagine the number of god hours that we are losing. Most of the trees would be atleast a 100 years old. Its atleast 3 lakh god hours. Not wanting to compare god hours to man hours, I would like to believe that the protest was for a just cause. Cutting even one tree is a stupid idea – according to me. (According to me, architects should try and develop methods by which they would be able to build buildings along with the trees within them – somehow).
Anyways, coming back to the protest march, there were barely 30 people, trying to save 3000 trees. It was a very sad turnout. For what seemed like a just and obvious cause, with immense benefits, people who are directly affected are refusing to turnout. I started thinking of a few behavioral reasons of why
1. Unknown enemy : The thing with fighting with the state is that the state is a fuzzy concept. In some ways, you are also part of the state. So its not a defined debate structure where you have the enemy easily identifiable
2. David vs Goliath : Even if we identify the ruling party or the ruler person as the enemy, he just seems too big and too busy for us measly citizens to command his attention, influence him and change his course of action
3. Petty thinking : People believe that they can profit in the short run through “development” measures. If the road comes up, property values might increase, thereby increasing their assessment of their own worth.
4. Pure laziness : Who will get up and stand like a loser on the platform on MG Road with placards stating the obvious (“SAVE TREES”). After two hours of grueling effort, all you may have got is a few burns and hungry and thirsty stomach.
5. Prisoner syndrome : While I have successfully, evaded all the previous reasons for not going, and am ready to go – Wait! What if, the rest of Bangalore have fallen victim to the previous reasons and I would be the only person standing there. What can I achieve alone! Let me not take the chance prone effort.
It was even more disheartening because, north Bangalore is supposed to be the area where it is the “locals” who are more affected than say in areas like Koramangala or Indira Nagar, where there may be a chance of migrant population (who typically are expected to care less) being more predominant.
Whatever be the case, In an attempt to create something for small short term reasons (Save travel time to airport of few hundred people by a few minutes a few times a year), 300000 god years of effort is just about to be destroyed. God willing, he should do something to safeguard his efforts. Amen!

Startup

If you want to start your venture, what is the correct approach? I may be wrong in attempting to get to a "correct" approach. What are all the possible approaches that one should be aware of before choosing one? I tried asking a few questions

- Area of expertise or acquintance or interest : Should the area of business be related to your studies or your work experience or your interest or your background. For instance, I am a tam bram who studied engineering and business, worked in a bank, interested in innovative advertising and now wants to startup. Do I have to go with something which is in line with my tambram instincts (like a captive research unit), start a engineering unit or a consulting firm, or start vendor operations for a banking business or start implementing my ideas on innovative advertising... Which one is will yield best results?

- Single player or Multi player : Should you start something individually or is it better to find like-minded people and then start as a group. Starting in a group will obviously help in terms of keeping the energy levels high and team work would be fun. However, sooner or later, groups will need to confront conflict on multiple issues on decisions, money, etc.

- Jump or evaluate : Is it better to start with the current idea in hand or is it better to wait for the better or the best idea (which might emerge in a few months)?

- Risk vs Return : Is it better to put in your own capital or try and raise capital through bank/VCs/acquintances etc?

- Sequence the quit : Is it better to quit your day job completely and then get down to work or moonlight to setup the basics and then quit the job once things pick up

For the "qualified salaried" segment, which has lived life evaluating exit options, evaluating an entry option and approach does not come naturally. But not to lose heart, I am confident that answering all the questions accurately is not necessary for a successful startup. We should attempt answering them, but if we dont have a definite answer - dont worry, we shall come back few months after business starts to take corrective actions.

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