Kuch Padhai Ho Jaaye

             “Main padhonnga, likhoonga aur ek din bahut bada doctor banoonga” (I shall read, write and someday be a good doctor). Somehow the line stuck and I decided to be a Doctor. The problem was I was not meant to study. Back in the day, I remember this being the slogan of my country, India’s, literacy campaign and how it piqued my interest, thereby making me decide to be a Doctor. Later I thought studying till you breathe your last was the norm in the field of medicine and incidentally, yours truly was never wired to connect with studies.

               They say, when God sends you down and gives you some qualities, he measures which ones you would actually need. In my case, he must have thought, “You will be born in a middle class background in a country that is obsessed with education. So, here are the qualities I want to give you. Take intelligence, honesty, determination, perseverance, incandescent talent of course and the will to study.” But just when he was giving the last quality, I think I ran to the bathroom.

                Every night when I go to bed, I envisage my tomorrow to be better than my yesterday or today. Tomorrow will begin the new phase of my life. From tomorrow, I will study for at least a few hours just like most around me are doing right now. But that ‘tomorrow’ never comes and this goes on and on until I realize that I’m good at making such bumper decisions.  It’s late and I slowly slip into a Good Night’s sleep. 

              It’s not that I do not want to study. I do want to. You see, I’m a hopeful sprig of 28 and high on capabilities. I can sit on a couch like an atom of dust with my books open and… It’s just that God missed giving me the quality of learning something from my study materials. If only he had thought, “You do the studying and I’ll be the brain!” Anyhow,  no sooner I sit down to study than something really  important  creeps in.  For instance, “Oh my god, I did not watch that movie trailer yet!”; “Oh I had to make that phone call!” or sometimes even the fact that “my water bottle is empty, it needs to be refilled.  Let me first do this and then I will study.” And these small but important tasks lead to another keep piling on and hours pass by before it’s time to do something more important again.

            The flair that I have to avoid studies, the expertise with which I do this job and the commitment I show towards not studying is commendable.  If only I had these toward something more meaningful - like not opening my mouth to tell people the truth because they hate it - would have done me so good.

            This post just happens to come at a time when I had a much needed holiday.  I had decided to study from morning through the night but failed to open my book till 8:15 PM. At 8:15 I decided to study and then thought its 15-20 minutes post which I will have to go for dinner. Ergo, I will study post dinner.  By the time I was done with my supper and other important things, it was time to hit the sack and as usual I decided, “From Tomorrow I will…Pakka”

Cheers!

Tryst with Destiny - SPJain PGPM Course

Hello,

For some this might seem like a regular update from me, while others will be surprised to see the email. As part of an assignment in my management course
( yes we do get such weird assignments :-) ), I would like to explain the dilemma faced when I was taking a decision to join the course and my experiences after joining the course.

As some of you are aware, one of the main reasons I quit the USA assignment was to come back to stay in India with my parents. And that was my biggest consideration when I had an offer to join the full time residential one year Executive MBA course from one of the best B schools in India (SP Jain).

 But I also knew that if I had to grow at a pace faster than what I was now, the knowledge and skills associated with the degree was going to be a big boost.

Finances was also a big factor. The fees, though was within my reach because of my savings from aboard visits; but the priorities to spend that money was on the comfort I wished to provide my family with it.

However after many sleepless nights, support from my immediate family ( parents and Bro's family) and the thought of thinking long term coupled with the fact that I knew Fate had a part to play in me getting that offer, I decided to reward my hard work by accepting the offer.

Life in the B school has just started. Its just 2 months.But within these 2 months I have noticed that the course is not just gonna give me knowledge and skills or change my attitude but also giving me a chance to work on the many flaws I had in me. Specially the way the course was structured with so many activities forcing us to undergo reflection on our life so far and what we want out of it.

I already have my resolutions and one of those is to be very focused of what I want and not be distracted by the environment. Ofcouse in a B school where every Admit thinks he had the potential to lead and never want to follow, people management and ignoring or eliminating noise is something I am learning quick.

This probably may be the best decision I took in Life, may be not, time will tell. But I am sure the year 2014 is going to be exciting, is going to be full of all sorts of learning and might be LIFE CHANGING.

Hoping for the BEST.

Cheers!

Kapil Gosain

Kuch Raas Nahi Aaya : Ram-Leela (Movie Review)

             So we get to read a movie review from  another movie-nutjob who thinks he knows it all about  films. If this is what you are thinking, please read on. If not, I am sure you will still read on. And yes there are no Spoiler Alerts.

            I am not one of those who know the art of movie-making. I do not understand how extravagant the colors of the movies are or how awesome the Art Direction. I am just a common man who happens to be movie crazy and makes it a point to watch all (yes, read ALL) the movies ever made. The difference between me and the movie critics who gave the movie ‘Ram-Leela’ 4.5 star rating is that they were paid to write a review and watch the movie while I paid to watch the movie and the pain forced me to write a review.

           The movie  bumped into controversies,  consequently getting banned just  four days before its release;  the ban  was lifted. But now the ban surely looks more like a publicity stunt. The response to the trailers and songs might not have convinced Sanjay Leela Bhansali (SLB) that the movie would be a commercial ‘Hit’. Going to watch a SLB movie, one expects grand sets and colors and a lot of songs. But this one   faded in the stretch to look like a movie when the first 70% of it just resembled an amateur attempt by Bhansali to create a musical injected with a deluge of songs which were really not required.  I mean in no part of the world, including the Culture shown in the movie,  there is dancing and singing for everything that possibly happens under the sun. Not only were the songs a lil too many but also the dance sequence was  not very eye-catching. The chicks’ grooves really looked like a cohort of drunken penguins on a trampoline.  It might have caused a collective back-ache to the troupe  but  honestly, who dances like that?

            A lot was expected from the gorgeous Deepika Padukone after ‘Chennai Express’, but all we got was a female who looked sex deprived (more like 40 and yet a virgin) eager to sleep with someone who could challenge her. It took me some time to realize that the first sequence in which the hero meets the heroine was actually the first meeting too. I mean come-on, I have not seen even hopheads and drunk bimbos act like that when they see a guy for the first time. The scenes that were supposed to be sensuous were just crass and out of place.

            Ranveer Singh might have improved his dancing and physique (that pretty much explains why Ms. Shuttlecock Player thinks monstrosity is sexy incarnate) but his acting skills still need a lot of improvement. More than that, he needs to be selective in the roles he chooses and plays, in case if he is serious about his acting career. What? I did not yet mention the story line?? Yes, because there isn’t any.Most scenes emoted Lust rather than Love and the story missed chunks in between that made it really difficult for us to connect the scenes.A lot is left to guess and makes no sense at all. What was supposed to be an adaptation of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet became such a sad story that he would be tossing and turning writhing with agony inside his grave.

            For those who still feel they can watch the movie just to see a topless Ranveer, a sensuous dance song from Priyanka Chopra and who could manage to see Deepika like this after Chennai Express, please do watch the movie. But yes. Before you do that, please do give a thought to all the good things you could do/buy with  that 500 Rs/- you would spend on the movie.

Cheers!