2015 - A truly interesting year!

Yay!! My New Year’s Eve blog!! This “may” be long because I am going to try and cover all of 2015.

So 2015 has been by far the most interesting year for me. It’s been phenomenal and absolutely absolutely interesting.

The year started off with those super creative calendars most of my friends love, and continued pretty low key until March. While work had its ups and downs, none that impacted me a whole lot. Chaos started April onwards, and since I am responsible for fixing problems, I wake up one morning, almost restless. Tell my wife I think I should go to the US, she gives me “the look” and instantly says “then you should”. News passes to Pratap, his response “Oh finally, you realise”. (Note - I never fancied travelling to the US, I still don’t) 

Tickets booked, US task list done, US was great fun and a very successful trip both professionally and personally. Met a lot of friends, travelled a lot, worked my butt off on week days (oh wait, people say I don’t have one.. ok never mind)

Fast forward – July 8^th, I am back in Bangalore. Thrilled to be back home. India check list made (I erased that check list on 30^th Dec) I came back with a number of projects/tasks. New CRM. More work. Loads of new projects and huge volume of existing business. This is when I feel! “Ah, life’s good”.

Fast forward – September – Shit hits the ceiling, client changes policies, reduces our volume of business drastically. Internal issues. Staff issues. We try to tackle the bigger issues first. Go Head on. Some very threatening issues resolved. The smaller ones ignored (or let’s say “Delegated”)

October – November – Reasonably slow in terms of work. Vacation. Meet Relatives. Meet best friend. Loads of stuff happening in terms of strategy and issues in the background. Certain stuff that threaten our existence. We remain unfazed by any of this, but it does cause a little bit of bitterness. A natural excuse to drink more often *wink*. Started Following this guy Gary Vee on Facebook and YouTube. A new set of learning begins.

December – Floods. First few days of the month, I wake up extremely restless. Because, I am not a person that can sit, watch and just pass comments about things. And that was exactly what I was doing and I hated it. Finally decide to go and help people. Most of them I reached out to helped financially or in kind, travelling to Chennai was never more exciting. Travelled around the city. Very humbling experience helping the ones in need.

This experience kind of teaches me a few very important things. Not going to list that since they are very personal to me. And this followed by meeting some important people. Friends. Dinner. Drinks. More important business decisions.

Like I said, 2015 was one of the most exciting years of my life. Have learnt (or may be not) being genuinely interested in people and helping them has its own disadvantages/pitfalls. But hey, that’s life. It’s not what we want it to be. I will continue to do what I do… I will continue to learn.

2016 looks extremely exciting because of that 2015 taught. Hopeful that, even if it 25% of what we have thought, it’s going to be a truly wonderful year. Plan to travel more. New lines of business. Very excited!

PS – The ones who really know me would find a lot of things missing. That’s because some issues and people have become irrelevant. J

Get your act together..

So, I updated this very fancy blog of mine saying “look who’s back” and I’ve been trying to come up with something ever since, what to write!? 

Loss of topics, was it? Contrary to that – As the ones that read this will know that I am extremely opinionated, which basically means. I have too many things to write about, really! Now to decipher that is a herculean task in itself!

And to make matters worse, last week was quite eventful (or uneventful... Whatever you want to call it)

So, here I am trying to come up with something random. And in-between I check on work – emails, phone calls, listening to Pitbull amidst all this. Get the picture?!

Having said that, the thing that has been lingering on my mind is “Discipline”, and I used to hate this word back in school (I used to get pulled up for random shit and they called it “Discipline Issues”)

So what about discipline? I ponder, when we grew up with certain things we did as a part of our childhood. And I am not even going to mention any of that.

As grown-ups, we have our job, both at home and at work. Most times, the things that fall into the “discipline” bucket are not often checked for sanity. Someone lays the rules, someone else delegates the “job” to someone else and then it gets done (or so we think). One fine day, things come down crumbling like a pack of cards and that’s when we realize that these are caused not because of someone’s inability to do the job but because of lack of discipline to check if everything was being done the way it should.

And every person, job, business have their discipline which is unique to them and they always need to revisit them to make sure they are in-line to their vision for themselves/their business or their family.

I still remember, In Dell, Addy One of my best friends (then CEC who I hated the most) used to have an email signature, In God, We trust. Rest, we monitor.

Oh well, I write this today because, hey – It’s Monday and I’ve had a pretty crappy day. Because, I was undisciplined. :-)

Guess Who's back...

So, I’ve been contemplating... Contemplating whether or not I should blog. Last I blogged was in 2011 and that too about a movie.

With my social circle being as big as it is, I come across a lot of people that write/blog. While I admire a lot of them for their writing skills and the amount of time and effort that goes into penning (or let’s say typing) their heard out; I also see there are the ones that do such a pathetic job and sometimes I start to think, “What if people think I am one of those, that can NOT write?” And then one part of me asks, “Are you writing for yourself or others?” The answer is the former.

That said, I was wondering what I should write about. And something told me... Let’s first figure what I should NOT write about. First thing, Food *Smiles* If you smiled or said Thank God, I’d give you a high five. I am very passionate about food, and when I do write about it in other forms of media; it’s only to share honest feedback. IF I write about food, like a lot of others and only about food, I would be bored and to me particularly, there is life beyond eating and writing about it (only).

BUT! BUT!! If I want to write about food, I will. You know why, because it is my God damn Blog. *Evil Grin*

So now I reserve the right to share my point of view on anything… ANYTHING.

Been watching a lot of Gary Vee videos. I hadn’t heard about him until recently and when I did a little bit of reading up and watched the videos, I realised how great it is to listen to him speak. He does not come with a script and he is very unorthodox (I took 10 minutes to choose that word) and Uber cool.

I heard him mention about being your own brand and how the social media platform helps you to do it better than ever. And it took 3 week for me to come up with this. I then wondered, why I hadn’t blogged for the last few years and then I realized I was busy with setting up Einfach and a lot of my energy went into conceptualizing the company, the products, the website, the Facebook page and so on… All Bull shit. I was just plain lazy. As uninspiring as it is, we all hit that phase. We just do our own stuff and are not doing something that you enjoy doing. And I went through that too and am not complaining.

Hopefully I’ll blog often... Or maybe not... But I want to…

Ko - The Movie that could make a difference..

After quite sometime, I've motivated myself to write a blog. A movie review, it's my way of appreciating the effort that's gone into the movie, KO.

KO, I wondered why this movie is named KO, and I figured that KO in Tamil means a "King".. Well, yes. I had to google the meaning coz I almost forgot the existence of such a word.. Shame on me!

So yes, after a lot of positive review from people, I decided to watch this movie. We made sure we did not read the plot anywhere so that we enjoy the movie.

The title was very beautifully done, the pictures displayed and the Title credit went hand in hand.. For e.g.. Director of Photography - 2 people clicking pictures, Music - A man with a guitar, Editing - A beautifully carved Apples. Very thoughtful..

The movie opens with a brilliant bank robbery, (now I know why the was a dialogue about bank robbery movie DVD in Ayan..) The bank robbery looked very technologically advanced, so filmy stuff, impressed all of us.. There on until the end of the movie, they maintained the edge of the seat experience.. Well almost! They could really have done away with a few irritating songs. The storyline would have been a lot tighter, if not for the songs.. Anyway..

The movie is about sensible journalism and politics. A pure director's movie, Mr. Anand has done is homework. I kind of predicted most of the scene and he has spent his effort to not show what we usually expect to see. So there was someone who would have actually sat down, thought about how a movie goer with think, and made sure he surprises us. Extreme intelligence.

Jiiva - I didn't think he was a great hero until this movie, beautiful performance, not much scope for the masala heroics, a lot of scope for acting and performance. Jiiva scores really well for all the hard work. Good stunts wherever needed. I would preferred not to see him dance and run around the trees with Karthika, but hell ya! he did. not his fault, so no credits to his dance and everything.

Karthika - She could have done a lot better, I'd say she kind of underplayed her role. She could have been pictured a lot better for the chief reporter she was. But not bad.

Piya - She caught my eyes first in Goa, the girl has done a brilliant job. She kind of did a better job than the heroine. Has been given more scope for acting, I'd say. She is cute and promising.

Ajmal - I wondered why he was offered this role, but I only trusted that the director knew what he was doing. My trust was not broken, I don't think there would have been a better choice. Excellent performance by him. Could have done better but this wasn't bad..

Harris Jeyaraj - Apart from the BGM, our friend Mr. Jeyaraj could have been avoided. So no comments about music. I DID NOT WANT SONGS IN A POLITICAL THRILLER!!

Antony - The Editor has kept the story very tight. For once, I actually felt like watching an edge of the seat thriller. Good Stuff there.

KV Anand - I would have wanted to praise the Cinematographer but I would want to give credits to the Cinematographer turned Director the credit for such exotic locations. While I still stay firm to my "so-songs-were-required" point, the locations were just fabulous. Credits to both the Cinematographer, Richard and Mr. Anand.

The movie is about a set of college friends, who want to get into politics and change the state, it clearly shows the amount of responsibilities the young generation have, it goes on to show how a bad leader can make a different, for the worse. Movies like this can inspire youth. There was so much logic on each frame, it was so fast paced that it wouldn't let us think, that's fabulous.

The entire plot uncovered so beautifully, I did not expect such a brilliant 2Nd half, I thought it would be one of those, youth are good, life is beautiful kind of ending.. Well it was not. And I loved it... for it showed reality, no flowery shit.. I would watch this movie again. All in all.. an Excellent movie.

It's better to burn out than to fade away...

Thanks to Kurt Cobain, the last time I felt burnt out wasn't too long ago and these were the lines that kept me going..
While am not a big fan of getting burnt out.. I'd prefer to burn out than just fade away.. fading away to me is losing control, jus disappearing.. without a trace. and is a very scary feeling..
I'm someone who always wants to leave my signature (in a good way of course).. all the time. so burning out is like adding more light.. let's say lighting things up until the last bit.. like a candle perhaps.
So I think it's better to burn out than to fade way..
This is too much philosophy for a come back blog.. I'm hoping to get better.. more cheeky and comical.. more ME! soon.. :)

Life...!

Guess who's back! After a long hiatus, I'm back to do what I'm passionate about.. "Being opinionated" lol..

After doing a lot of different things for over a year under the mask of being a "freelancer" I took up a real JOB! and it's been quite a task ever since.. After being asked my a lot of friends, am here to share a lot of "opinions" so this marks my come back into the blog space again.. And this time I plan to be better than before.. more humorous and definitely more spontaneous.

Am thinking what I should write about.. You guys can suggest...?

Cheers,

~M

Wayanad Ends.... :)

Woke up by 6:30 something,3 of us went for a walk while the great silly was sleeping, before we could return Silly went for a shower, we returned; Silly had finished her shower, we started getting ready. Barath went, followed by me and then Sukanya. Silly for a change was ready quickly, both of them started clicking pictures of each other!! By now, Barath and I were all set, luggage packed and kept into the car also. Sukanya went to answer the nature’s call for a whooping 30 mins! Delay! Delay! Delay! It was 9:45 something

Mr. Sunny Menon’s bill cleared.. Mr. Sunny menon played a perfect host, my intention was to ask him a discount, but I didn’t coz we loved our stay so much and he, roopesh (the guy who guided us to Tall hill) and other chetta played such an amazing role. Our trip wasn’t one bit spoilt. Mr. Sunny Menon, showed us his home stay that’s under construction, showed us his daughter’s tanjore painting, it was a family full of creative people. We all took pictures of us together! And we bid adieu to Mr. Sunny Menon who was almost a part of our group now. I asked him to call me when he came to Bangalore and he asked us to go back there again, we promised him that we would..

We left Vythri by 10 only difference, we knew the directions well.. I was ripping, I knew the roads and the bends well now.. The darlings wanted to buy some spices for home (What’s a Kerala trip without a spicy purchase) I stared, first pit-stop in the first 45 mins!? Hated it…Finished shopping and clicking pictures with cowboy hats!! Took for from there, drove fast to reach our first check post at Bandipur, Karnataka police doing there election checks, cleared the first one. The bandipur forest area was beautiful, the darlings wanted more pictures I wouldn’t agree, they kept cribbing and crying.. I pulled over and braked suddenly, all of them were so happy, they clicked pictures, and I didn’t get out of the car. Started driving again and this time I told them that am not going to stop anywhere else, they agreed. Saw another beautiful place which even I liked, didn’t want the children to curse me, so stopped again, and surprised them! Clicked their pics, started driving again… was driving quite fast this time.

We reached Mysore by 12:30. To my horror the great people pissed me off by saying that they wanted to go to Mysore Palace. They had absolute majority, so we went. Mysore palace was ok, crowded heavily (what else could you expect during a summer vacation weekend) the darlings were repenting their decision, now. Came out of the palace after 90 mins.. I was cursing the kids by now!! They were cursing themselves too..

Lunch!?! Where @ RRR! This time we didn’t have to search too long, all of them directed us well. We walked into a jam packed RRR waited for a good 25 mins before we got a seat, ate some delicious biryani, it was worth the wait. I belted happily! Got out had a nice sweet pan, it was 3:30-4. I’d have loved to take a good 2 hour sleep but time to get back home. I had to meet this friend of mine.. I needed to actually, so I was speeding. Sunday evening heavy traffic, speed breakers and election check posts, I still was averaging at 90s. Something was running on my mind, it is inexplicable, controversial but I wanted to be there by 6.

We reached the city at 7, dropped off Barath by 7:30. This friend of mine who I wanted to meet called and check if I could make it. I responded negative *sad* *sad*. I felt really bad for not being able to make it.. Told that I’d talk to this person in a bit, I went off to drop Sil. We stopped for a bit for some work, I called this friend and apologized for not being able to make it. Spoke for sometime.. Felt really nice..Dropped Sil, Sil’s family members were warm and nice (Sil is the only exception.. lol)! Dropped Sil and her prized possession, her car. Sukanya and I took an auto.. On our way, we discussed about the same thing we discussed the night before and I bid adieu to Sukanya and reached my place after a while.. this my trip came to an end.. Happy Ending.. Very happy indeed… :) *Cheers*

End of Wayanad Trip! ..........Waiting for Pondy!