Monday, February 25, 2008

Cricket for Crores.. !!

I had read somewhere - "Money is like a sixth sense, and you cant make use of the other five without it". Its really amazing what money can do to you. The other day, I was watching the IPL auctions live on the news channels and was really amazed at how much the corporates are willing to spend on each player. The owners of the teams (Yes, teams are no longer according to the place where their players belong. They are owned!) sat and strategically decided upon the team composition they wish to have and thereby started bidding for cricketers.

Wow, Now cricketers were on sale. Literally. A total of 70-80 odd players were bought by 8-10 different teams owned by the elite class of people from India including SRK, Mukesh Ambani, Vijay Mallya and the like. Anything between 1 to 6 crores were spent on a single player with the highest getting 6 crore rupees going to our very own MSD. As always a lot of controversy followed with regards to whether cricketers deserved the price they were bought for. Certainly, MSD who does not have a great technique seems to be overpriced (much like the Rel Power IPO) when compared to Ponting (sold for just 1.5 crores).

All this apart, I feel all international players would now be quite in a fix since the IPL tournament clashes with much of their other commitments. Frankly, I wont be surprised if the IPL gets a place in the official ICC calender soon. I mean, with the BCCI (richest sports body of the World) which is even richer than the ICC, there is no doubt whatsoever. What worries me is the fact when cricketers get carried away with money, they really dont seem to serve their primary purpose, which is playing for their country.

Anyways, for a common man and a cricket fan like me, its going to be pure entertainment. Just imagine the fun at Brabourne when Sachin belts Shoaib for a towering six, and when the entire stadium erupts! Wow, am waiting for the calender to come out. Just hope all matches at Mumbai are on weekends.. ;-)

Friday, February 15, 2008

A lot can happen over coffee.. !!

CCD has always been my favorite coffee joint. So much so that I actually thought of writing this. Well, Bombay has always been known for its cafe culture and the youth frequenting the coffee shops for all sorts of reasons. It has really picked up off late with a lot of cafes opening up at every nook and corner of the city, well almost. Malad Link Road itself has 4 CCD's and 3 Barista's. Just imagine within a stretch of 2 Kms from Inorbit Mall to Evershine Nagar, a total of 7 cafes and apart from that a host of other restaurants and freak out joints.

Anyway, I visit CCD absolutely every weekend. Yes, as shocking as it may seem, it has to be atleast 2-4 times in a week. Almost every Saturday & Sunday you'll find me there. Apart from that once in a while on weekdays as well. And to top it all sometimes twice in a single day, of course, at two different joints. I know you would be now wondering why on earth does this guy go there so frequently? Well, to be frank, I don't know. Needless to say, I am completely addicted to coffee which is why most of my orders at CCD comprise of a Cappuccino and for a change sometimes a Chocolate Pastry to go with it.

Sometimes I feel I would have benefited the most if CCD had a Loyalty Program or something like that. In fact, that is an idea I am in someway going to pass on to the Marketing Personnel at CCD. Its not a bad idea actually, its a win win situation both ways. CCD benefits with more customers, and people like me will always welcome this move.

Its really is a great place to just de-stress, relax, chill out with friends. Most of them come in as part of a group of friends probably to just chat over coffee, a lot of two chair tables will be booked for a couple on a date, some prefer coming alone with their ipod playing in their ears and a sutta to go with the coffee, very rarely have I seen people coming with their family and off lately I've even seen business meetings between corporates while sipping coffee with some number crunching on their laptops. As for me, keep guessing which category do I belong to... ;-)

Friday, February 8, 2008

MNS Shit.. !!

I never imagined something like this would occur in the so called biggest metropolitan city - Bombay. Never imagined because of just a few group of shitty people, the image of Bombay would be questioned. Bombay was and will always be my favourite city with the never say die spirit and the so called 'the city never sleeps' tag. And actually, I stand by it.

Seriously, the whole MNS fiasco is crazy. How can they differentiate people by the state they belong to? How can someone be called a UP'ite or someone from Bihar or Jharkhand when they all are from one country? It irritates me, aren't all states in one single country - India. Why are we not Indians first and then from different states? These guys have brains of the size of peanuts I feel.

I just happened to see the video of them brutally beating up the cabbies and rickshaw walas randomly just because they were bhaiyaas. Just imagine the same happening to you when you go to some other 'state'. Actually I hope these MNS guys get the same treatment when they visit UP or Bihar. I mean, I seriously hope this doesn't get aggreviated into a major tiff among states, but I feel just arresting them wont help. Their thoughts should be arrested, and killed forever.

I really hope this episode ends and there is peace everywhere. Anyway, Bombay is Bombay... !! ;-)

Sunday, February 3, 2008

Night Life.. !!

Nopes, am not talking about the Night Life of Bombay (sounds better than Mumbai), which is quite interesting actually. I am referring to my night life. I work in the night shift at an MNC bank. I remember when I was offered this profile, I was really excited since I pretty much liked the job but I was split in two minds whether to accept the night shift and work for a good process or continue working in the day timings but not for an interesting process.

I eventually ended up accepting the new job and thought I would get over the night shift thingy since we had a lot of people working nights anyways. I was supposed to work from 6.30 PM to 3.30 AM officially. I have always liked the idea of going to work earlier than usual and kindof finishing most of the work that can be done asap and just casually enjoy the rest of the day and leave on time (I still do that).

Initially, it was different. Since I was on training, I had to go according to the schedule prepared by my trainers and approved by my TL. I ususally used to go on time go to sleep as soon as I get home (5 mins from my office) :-) and get up by around 10-11 AM the next day. I should admit that was my honeymoon period (ask any of my colleagues about it) in office. I had not been given much of a responsibility yet in the team so was enjoying my training.

Gradually, months passed by and we had a majot transition in the team when out TL moved on the another team and even further some months later another senior member of the team was moved to another process. That left me as one of the most experienced members of the team with which came a lot of responsibility which in turn meant long working hours. That is when I realised, damn! this was not a piece of cake. I am not denying the fact that I am the only one working overtime in the office, a lot of people worked for even longer hours. But I was quick to realise that the difference lied not in the work, but in something else.

Soon I realised the reason behind my constant headache, tremendous increase in coffee intake, loss of weight, weariness, and the like was the awkward working hours (now I felt it was awkward). My style of working was now suddenly a nightmare. Come early to work, go home really late, or I should say early in the morning the next day. Soon, I was called the night watchman.. quite a funny name actually.

And it still continues, it'll probably be somewhere around 2.30 AM by the time I finish writing this blog. After this I have another host of things to do by the time I am done for the day and at the end of it all again reach home early in the morning. Trust me it is not funny to share the lift with the newspaper vendor or the milkman everyday in the morning after a tiring day's work.

Quite depressing as this article may seem, its not really a sad story. Afterall, not everything comes on a platter in life. I am sure this experience is going to make me tough, as a person. I am never going to forget these days(read: nights) ever. Looking at it from a wider perspective, this is going to help me immensly in the long years to come in my career. Hope my managers read it.. ;-)