People Archive

RIP King of Pop

Published: June 29, 2009Posted in: PeopleTags:

Funny how one can suddenly feel so heavily at loss and so fortunate too at the sametime. Lohithadas (54) and Michael Jackson (50), great artists, geniuses, passed away this week. Lekshmi and I once spoke about how we are so lucky as a generation to experience the genius of such artists and even wondered whether we ever will have people like them again: Mammooty, Mohanlal, Tom Hanks, Kamal Hasan, Steven Spielberg, Roger Federer, Obama, Yesudas, Chitra – a few that came to mind at awe by the wonders of their work and persona.

Our generation did miss out on the likes of Mahatma Gandhi, Nehru, Lincoln, Martin Luther King. I’m glad that we as a society do understand the need for preserving history and passing on the greatness of such people to younger generations. Oh please, whoever’s in charge, do take care of all that is left of these demised souls (finished and unfinished work, artefacts etc). I pray for the King of Pop to Rest In Peace and thank him for bringing in me the love for music(I think ‘beat it’ is the first song I ever hummed in my life!).

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Wimbledon 2008 men’s singles final, what a ride!

Published: July 7, 2008Posted in: PeopleTags: ,

I just finished watching half of the Wimbledon final. The second half. I have never been so nervous, excited, humbled, impressed, (a true rollercoaster of emotions), watching any other sporting event ever! I am yet to understand fully how the game’s point system functions but I tell you, I went mad for every single point earned. I wanted Federer to win and you can imagine how I felt when he was on the verge of losing more than two times before the final ‘fatal’ fall. The way he came back and the way Rafael kept his cool! Federer truly summed it up when he said “tried everything!” :)


To be the best in the world and to beat the best in the world, these two gentlemen truly displayed great character speaking after the awards ceremony.

Federer(very cool and calm, with his characteristic charming smile): “I tried everything, it went a little late and everything, but look Rafa is a deserving champion, he just played incredible today…. He’s the worst opponent on the best court, but it’s been a joy again to play here, I know I couldn’t win it under the circumstances, but I’ll be back next year.”

Rafael(very happy but yet calm): “This is my favourite tournament, for me to win on this court is a dream…. I’m playing in the same time as the best player in history, Roger Federer…. He’s still number one, he’s still the best, he still has five titles here, and I just have one.”


If ever I get a DVD for a sporting event, this shall be it! And I want to get to playing tennis! :)

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Why did Jack select Jeff?

Published: April 21, 2008Posted in: PeopleTags:

I recently read an interview between Kumar Mangalam Birla(Chairman – Aditya Birla group) and Jeffrey Immelt(Chairman & CEO – GE). Birla was doing the interview for the Economic Times “Straight Talk” section. It was very interesting with KMB getting out good juice: goals set by Jeff when he took over GE seven years ago, numbers in his mind when he qualifies an acquisition decision, when does he choose to divest, his view on India(he’s all gung-ho!), how he apportions his time at work and many other informative points. Here is the whole interview.

There’s this question by KMB “What do you think made Jack select you for the role of the chairman”. Jeff says:

“I always think people get a chance like this not because of what they know but more because of how fast people think they can learn. I’d have to think that maybe Jack and the board thought that I was a good learner and that I could adjust to the world and drive the right changes at GE. “

I was thinking, leaders are definitely those who have in them tonnes of courage. For Jack & Jeff, there was enough money(12 billion plus dollars cash reserve!) for the new CEO to ‘learn’ with :)

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You have time to blog?

Published: February 19, 2008Posted in: PeopleTags: , ,

I was so fascinated with Seth’s statement, decided to post it here! He was asked if posting a blog post everyday was “intimidating or a grind”.

His response:

“I view it as something I get to do. I spend most of my blogging time deciding what not to post.
The best work, at least for me, is the stuff you get to do. If you are really good at that, you’re lucky enough to have very little of the have to stuff left.”

What bothers me: “I spend most of my blogging time deciding what not to post“… someday, somehow I’ll get to that :)

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Nick Vujicic – The true Man of Steel.

Published: January 27, 2008Posted in: PeopleTags: ,

This post was begun trying to do a separation/identification of all those really successful people who went out there and ‘Got what they liked’ rather than ‘Like what they got’.. Yeah we must have all come across many of them motivation stories.

What if you got something you hate? Worse, what if you’re stuck with a nightmare-come-true for the rest of your life? Here’s the story of a young man, aged 25 years, born without any hands nor legs. Do take a minute or two and think through a parents’ state of mind in finding their newborn limbless. Another minute to think of how many times the kid would have felt deep despair as he grew up.

Nick Vujicic, ‘the limbless man’, hated how he was born. He did try quit life. But today, he’s out there “Getting what he likes” and the best part – helping everyone around him live their dreams through his organization : Life Without Limbs.

We’ve got so much to thank God for. We can do so much. It’s all within us. Thanks Nick. My prayers for your new book and I hope to see you in Oprah’s show very soon.

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Thirst for Education

Published: September 8, 2007Posted in: Off-label, PeopleTags:
Lots happening for me at work. I think the last time I enjoyed so much learning was in one of my Operations Research classes by Mr. Srinivasan. He taught brilliantly, very aware of that simple killer of a question in every student’s mind – “How is this going to be useful to me?”.

The best part about learning at work is -

  1. you learn by yourself and
  2. you find answer for the killer question above so easily.
The teaching in my MBA program was so different and more industry-focussed than my Undergraduate course. If India is to satisfy the growing quality needs of the job market, we really need to critically look into our Education methods. We should come about with a requirement that every college should have a certain minimum percentage of teachers who are from the industry. Or maybe every corporate in India should think about having a certain percentage of their top executives do their society-serving by doing some teaching. We need to have teachers who can bring relevance in our education.

To create that “thirst for Education”, let’s show some water.

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Happy Independence Day India!!

Published: August 15, 2007Posted in: Off-label, PeopleTags:

Today’s Hindu newspaper is certainly worth a good read and keep. Almost every write-up gives one the feeling that India is one huge torpedo moving faster and faster to the ‘developed country’ status. There were many articles highlighting the gender bias, poverty, poor infrastructure state and corruption in India too. Personally, I feel India could not be in better hands than those of Manmohan Singh and Chidambaram.

Amid all the celebrations I can’t help feeling sad that those who experienced the power struggle and saw the birth of India may not be living among us in another 20-30 years. I miss my grandad and his stories and wish my grandmoms would live forever. I was very disturbed by this article on how Laxmi Panda who joined the Army in her teens has not been given her Freedom Fighter recognition and benefits. My prayers to her and the journalist Paresh Rath who gave her a place to stay and brought her story to light.

On this special day I salute all Indians for making India the power she is today.

“A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history” – Mahatma Gandhi.

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Walt and Roy Disney

Published: June 23, 2007Posted in: PeopleTags:

I’m reading a book ‘How to be like Walt’ and I tell you there is so much we can learn from good ol Walt Disney’s life. Thanks Ashish-Sindhu for the book – I think this will be the first book I’ll ever read more than once.

I’m a sucker for love/emotions between brothers – in K3G, I shed da tears in that bench scene with Hritik n SRK! There’s this incident in Walt Disney’s life that got me all mushy again! ..

The first person to lend money to Walt was his elder bro Roy. And for the 40 years together when the two made Walt Disney the name it is today, it was always arguments with Walt wanting to do mega projects and Roy kicking in reality for want of funds.. Their company had to go public n “shareholders wealth” was always the reason for the real thick fights between the two brothers.

One fight got real ugly – lasted a year with correspondence between the brothers happening through messages and intermediaries! Roy sent a team of attorneys to final things out with Walt but the talk went ugly & loud. Roy overhearing the arguments, stepped into the room and confronted his attorney team – these guys talked with no respect for Mr. Walt Disney. Mood changes in the room and agreements were struck, but yes with Walt getting most of his wishes.

Then came Roy’s birthday n Walt comes up to him with a gift. An actual Native American peace pipe! The continuous ingenuity of Walt – absolutely marvelous. The two bros filled the pipe with tobacco n smoke in turns. At the end of the day Walt personally wrote his brother this letter:

“It was wonderful to smoke the pipe of peace with you again – the clouds that rise are beautiful. I think, between us over the years, we have accomplished something. There was a time when we couldn’t borrow a thousand dollars and now I understand we owe twenty-four million!
But in all sincerity, Happy Birthday and many more –
And I love you.
Walt”

Sigh! :-)

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