Day 2/21 Corona Quarantine

Day 2 was surprisingly busy. Day began as usual. Had my studio concall at 10 till 11am. Thereupon, sat down to get the biggest monkey off my chest- thats my reimbursements - was pending since Mar 3rd. SO was done and dusted with it by 3.30pm. Tried to nap a bit by 4ish but in vain- due to couple of spam calls. Lost it on Mom for a silly reason. Regret it. Evening came by- got on to removing and organising my personal pics from the Studio Laptop. By 8ish- had a long concall with relatives in US- "princeton". Helping them out to refurbishment their 1500 sqft basement into a hometheatre and Bar and associated Jazz. Got a bit moody towards the night and hit the bed quite early by 10ish

Breakfast: Omlette and Pav. Lunch: Chapati and Gobi ki sabji Dinner: Rasam rice

On the essentials front- well we have stocked up necessities till the next monday/ tuesday. Managed to get 4l of milk at 6am, from the apartment premise itself. Big Basket restarted the daily delivery of milk- need to check today if its continuous. Couple of folks in the apartment stepping out - had called for any necessities with rest of the guys. we refrained. nes that Amazon and Big basket have started deliveries, but couldnt see them online as yet. Evening got a loaf of Bread from our regular Javed Bhai. He mentioned all the local bakery folks have migrated back- but the company supplies are getting stabilised. he has promised he will get more loaves today. Lets see. Yes, it was also declared all the grocery stores can be opened 24*7 in mumbai. again wait n watch. So overall, one level of panic has settled down. Markets have also been ralling since last 3 days- after the mighty fall. So optimistic, that today's RBI governor's speech gonna make it more buoyant and help me recover my lost money. all fingers crossed

Ruminations

• Need to watch my plate- 100% sedentary lifestyle now atleast for the next 3 weeks :-(
• Struggled a lot to get here- and still a loooong way to go- dont want this Corona to screw this up. Hope- life turns on a new leaf !
• Life has been quite complicated so far.

Day 1/21 Corona Quarantine

It was an ironic moment- that the Day 1 of quarantine was supposed to be 'New Year' for most of the folks around here. again NBM (never before moment - gonna be used a lot of times) thing- all funfare, gala, gaiety all seemed like such a privilege.
Well the day started late that 7am. Being a 'Holiday', i had no mood to indulge in any Studio related work. The morming was a blur. Breakfast (Poori), chatting with a friend, and Twitter update was enough to make me drowsy. And off i went from 11.30am till 4.30pm .....which was an incredible Wow! in the background, could hear the folks- do the puja/ wish all the relatives/ etc etc. So had my lunch at 5pm (pongal). Opened my laptop finally- created a social media account to upload my pics and necessary associated stuff. Came across this Pencil Tablet- REMARKABLE 2. Reviewed it on couple of websites- reminded me of my BAMBOO tablet experience & hence ditched it. Evening came along- spoke to couple of relatives. Dinner was Maggie. Prior to hitting the bed, again !!- collated few of the Bills which needed reimbursement. Guess that was the day
Ruminations

• wierd urge to splurge on a Gadget
• how best to utilise the quarantine
• Felt quarantine is like a holiday- already one day down
• wanted to completely go off the smart phone
• so wanna tweak my trajectories
• so wanna moult!!
• human behavior and 'indianess' in human behavior

COMING SOON V3.0

V1: 1995-  2000
V2: 2000-  2016
V3: 2017-  ......

Back !!!! to Square one

Guess this has been my longest hiatus- no doubt - i shall have loads to summarise on the 31 Dec- which is almost there. Just dropped in to express- that work has just held my head beneath water- and hence all the struggles except for a break which is just sufficient enough for another gasp of breath. More importantly- this year marks the 5th year of my firm - which is an achievement in terms of sustainability and financial stability. And Boy- certainly the '' coming-of-age"for my career- Gosh feeling the urge to pen down everything that happened in this eventful and most stressful year- but guess need to hold on for that. But to capture the current moment- feel loads and loads of work- considerably understaffed- same time the will not to compromise on quality no matter not has been more reinforced. But slowly but surely realising that this is how life is gonna to play out and I need to adjust ASAP and Ïdeal Scenario is just a mirage. Need to make the most of the moment and tread very close to the Ground as much as possible. Let see. More to come.....

Highs and Lows of 2013

HIGHS

• Handed over 13 projects this year- 4 successful years of being on own
• Got 15mbps 40 GB Internet High Speed line
• Lamb Burger at Singapore Zoo
• Lovely city of Singapore
• Samsung Galaxy Note 800 Tab
• Catching up with Shru and Manish
• Driving through Bandipur with Kush
• Unwind in Wayanad
• Son missed me late night- early morning flew to see him
• A nest in the making
• Driving around & cycling with my son together
• All the pickups and drops with my lovely wife.
• Crossed 1 Cr turnover
• Received Gold as a token of appreciation from the Client

LOWS

• Dad's cancer condition
• Unbelievable Stress levels- realisation & acceptance
• Laptop RIP
• Frequent Illnesses
• Disappearance of my Memory Card & bike keys
• Spend 4 months without my son and wife around
• No movement still towards Health & Fitness

Singapore- A tourist's Experience 2013

Visited the Lovely city of Singapore in Feb 13. A quick and brief summary of the experience.

Wow factors

1.       Ofcourse- Roads

2.       All roads are boulevards

3.       F1 Track

4.       Gardens by the Bay- The Rainforest Dome

5.       Gardens by the Bay- Outdoor Tree structures

6.       Singapore Cable Car- riding over the seas

7.       Resorts World- Open seas wall

8.       Night Safari- Driving silently thru the thick forest in the night & wolves howl.

9.       Lamb Burger at Singapore Zoo foodcourt

10.   Lebanese (brinjal) starter dish

11.   Imported top-quality vegetables (1 ft long and 3 inch thick carrots)

12.   Food courts- can eat anything, anywhere, anytime

13.   Buildings designed by all the well-know architects

14.   Mexican Food at the Boat Club

Haan, theek hai

1.       Malls

2.       Lamborghinis, Mini, Benz, BMW etc

3.       Public transport- Volvo styled buses

4.       Singapore Flyer

5.       Singapore Zoo

6.       Museums & Souvenir Shops

7.       Marina Bay Sands & Its lazer shows

8.       Boat Quay

9.       Skyline

10.   Super-markets

Common Sense

1.       Signages

2.       No-nonsense Immigration

3.       No-parking lanes marked on the road- instead of on boards

4.       Unified Parking Ticket & Flash Cards

5.       Swing of the automatic Doors marked on the floor

6.       Extremely tourist friendly help & information providers

7.       Unique Bus-stop Ids

8.       Amazing Kerb stone and drainage design

9.       City within the trees

10.   Parking lots with indicators above for vacancy- to avoid searching for parking

11.   No Camera Fees – where everything is worth clickable

12.   Memorabilia Photos- Buy only if u want to

13.   Pipes and other Services guarded by rail in Basement so that cars don’t bump into them

Arrey, yeh kya baat hui

1.       8 Days in Singapore- didn’t see a single cop

2.       Parliament didn’t have a single guard outside

3.       Too much Public Smoking

4.       Vibrator – which vibrates once your order is ready in restaurants.

5.       Best quality Granite imported from India is used everywhere

6.       Rains atleast 6 hrs in a day and yet there is construction work happening all-over the place in full swing

7.       Saw- tyres of Dump trucks being watered to remove the muck- before coming on to the road, within the construction site

8.       No parking attendants

9.       Underwater aquarium- 90 mins waiting- 40 mins inside the aquarium

10.   Heavy reliance on Electronic Security and no security guards

11.   Public phone is hard to find. Tourists don’t carry cellphones!!!

Alchemist and Ayn Rand

The Alchemist - 2012 - just out of Undergrad college- was the year this book got into me, and glad to see where i am now. I do acknowledge this book as the First storey in my "Conscience Building", wherein the Foundation and Ground Storey was already laid by Swami Vivekananda and Metallica & Pink floyd respectively.
Yes, though looking back now- i feel these books are bit over-rated- fundas seem 'of-course' LOGICAL and 'as a matter of fact'- but then in the same breath- never deny or doubt the trip and the grip these books have on us & the way we respond by trying to be 'some-one' out of a 'no-one'
Guess, to be put in a nut-shell, all these books say the same god-damn thing- in different contexts and languages. It is 'old wine- new bottle', after a while. Now atleast- after a decade of going through atleast 4 different philosophies, innumerable lecturers- the effort since a year or so- has been more towards 'implementation' of this. These things are nice to read and feel good about- but then i feel the real test is 'putting them into use'. eg: It is soooooo damn difficult a cultivate a new habit- i am amazed at the sheer effort it takes and the amount of strain on the willpower. So far, i have none on the board- just goes on to show that i need lot more inspiration 'within', and decade of reading has hardly helped. Well, i end up comforting myself saying that it is new phase - just a year old and have a long way to go......
Now, coming to Ayn Rand- Let me tell - being an architect - i shamefully accept that it was only in Mar 2013- did i read 'Fountainhead' and starting nibbling at Rand's universe. And this is one book- which shook my 'Conscience Building'- by completely questioning the fundamentals of my beliefs, our upbringing and Indian way of Perceiving oneself and the Society. Still confused and yet to buy in- the theory of Ayn Rand. But dread to even think - what i would have ended up had i read this book- a decade back ( the usual time any architect- is forced/ bound/ inspired to read this book- kind of 'me-too' factor)
Here's the question for you- ARE YOU ALTRUIST ? (Something which Ayn Rand admonishes)

Chennai Express: Review

Watching a movie 3 weeks into its release- its indeed a challenge not be judgemental. But, should admit was quite successful in this. Getting on the movie- first on- its not at all a 'bad', 'pathetic', 'bore' movie as how the critics have panned out. Needless to say- we have been subjected to lot worse movies. In a nut shell- its a decent earnest movie- which knew what it was doing and to whom it was being made. If this seems to be a problem- the critics must take a hike. There are several positives in this movie- the production value of the movie is top-class & technically, a brilliant hindi movie- each shot / colors/ locales have been digitally enhanced- (deja-vu Life of Pi, Potter series). In terms of visual pleasure- certainly one of the firsts for Bollywood. There are couple of scenes where the colors are too blinding but they are few and far. Then, is the 'story telling'- Narrative and alike a lot of hollywood movies- the movie is a series of well-scripted 8-12 minute plots- each unique- like humorous song narratives, Dipika's Midnight avatar etc etc. It is in this segment that I dont feel its as bad as what the critics have portrayed. Then, its SRK SRK SRK all the way- midway through i was tempted to count the number of frames without SRK. Its SRK a movie and that too - surprise surprise- no overacting - except for one scene in the climax. I must agree that he has a done a great job. Dipika too adds on and compliments SRK and poses no threat to him, as who owns the movie. Besides, these Yes- there are cliches, predictability, bloopers, 'nothing new', 'cartoonisation' etc etc- but as i said- when you know the intent of the movie- there is no point reviewing it otherwise. Out- on Out full paisa vasool movie, and do not regret watching it. Rohit shetty and team deserve the kudos.