Udayananu tharam

Udayananu tharam

Finally lalettan delivers.

But I was disappointed. I went for the movie expecting some tear-jerking tummy aching comedy….but what I got was something very different.

It was a meta-movie…a movie about movie making…and a very satirical one at that which takes good digs at the super-stardom in Mollywood. But surely they are exaggerating?!! Do they really change the script the suit the super-stars? I know that there were movies like Harikrishnans which had two endings to cater to different areas....but do superstars in malluland demand to change the script to suit them?

They were also very good digs on Mohanlal and his export business and about all the good actresses retiring after getting married.

Good performances by Sreenivasan and Mohanlal though lalettan overdid it quite a lot in the first 2-3 scenes.

What I liked about the movie were the songs. Liked all of them. Especially parayathe..... which has a haunting romantic tune to it perfected by Yesudas and Chithra and also karale karalinte ….especially the new sound given to it by Vineeth Sreenivasan, who is actor Sreenivasan’s son if I am not mistaken. Really good job by Deepak Dev on the music scene. Karale... is my earworm these days.

Only one spoiler. Why don’t they serve bhajji in the KSFC cinemas? Had to make do with an oversweet cone-icecream :(

Poop coffee! what next?

How much can a human being sleep in a day?

I seem to be setting new records…maybe we should be born with a feature called ‘hibernate’…uninterrupted sleep for a week…then back in action rejuvenated after a hot cup of coffee.

Talking of coffee...…anyone heard of Luwak coffee?

Well, it is an exotic coffee and costs around $300 for a pound of the stuff!

Know why?

Cause it is collected from the poop of an animal called Luwak in Sumatra!!!

Though I wouldn’t like to start my day without a strong cup of coffee, I’ll leave the exotic variety to other willing enthusiasts. Nescafe classic is all that I want.

They say that because of the strange method of collecting, there isn't much Kopi Luwak produced in the world. The average total annual production is only around 500 pounds of beans. Well, I guess the people who are into selling this product would be happy if the luwaks have a feast on the coffee cherries and then have diarrhoea!

Read about Decaf Poopacino by Dave Barry here.
One hell of a sense of humour!

Been watching a lot of movies to kill time…

Mackenas gold
Legally blonde
My Fair lady
Gone with the wind
Page-3
Thommanum Makkalum



Thommanum Makkalum

Now that is one mallu movie that made me laugh in a long long time. A mallu movie which I am happy I watched. The only reason I went for this movie was the enthu of going out with my cousins – who I get to see only a couple of times a year – and my mom. But then for a change, this mallu movie I enjoyed more than the bhajji during the interval.

Fantastic performance by Rajan P Dev and Lal and worth-mentioning comedy by Salim kumar and Mammootty. Whoever said PJs are out of mollywood? This movie proves them wrong. But then maybe mallu janta has forgotten how to enjoy silly jokes….cause at times during the movie I was the lone person giggling away in the cinema hall. :?

Though the movie dint have a very good storyline or anything new to offer it really did break the spell of mallu-movies-i-regretted-spending-time-watching.

Next in line to watch before I leave for my summer training
- Udayananu tharan
- Achuvinte amma
- Perumazhakkalam
- Kathavaseshan

What am I waiting for?

Every time during my term break, all hell breaks loose for me. My daily schedule is altered. I lose sense of what I am supposed to do whole day, I oversleep, overeat, whine a lot and complain about anything and everything.

This time the feeling is even worse. It feels as if I am in a waiting room, apprehensive about the next journey I am about to embark on. I am mentally all packed up and ready to go. But I am missing the sense of ‘home’.

It's been eight years since I left home and since then have come back just for a weekend or a short vacation. In the beginning I used to pine for those days - to be back at the place where I can walk around blindfolded without bumping into anything. Then it was a sense of acceptance that it's always gonna be like this from now on. I’ve accepted that my home is gonna be something like a vacation resort for me.

I don’t feel at home at my home anymore.

And this disturbs me. Especially when I am home.

Wisecrack of the day

If Steve (Job, CEO Apple) could create a sphere with one single button on the outside, that glowed, and had any realistic expectation that it might sell, he would. (and the button would be optional)

:)

Marketing ……Sony style

Cheers erupting around you, you stare into the glare of camera lights with the grin of an Olympic champion. You raise your arms, holding over your head your trophy: the Sony PlayStation Portable, or PSP. Later you are driven home by Sony in a black stretch limo.

This was how PSP was launched in America by Sony.

The much awaited gadgets went on sale at 12:01 a.m. Thursday, and as Sony knew well, there were a lot of people waiting outside the Sony complex at San Francisco for more than 40 hours to be the first one to get his/her hands on the PSP and to go down in history and be talked about in media!

Across the street hung an enormous replica of a PSP, displaying a clock that counted down the seconds until midnight. When the doors were finally opened at midnight, a throng of Sony employees cheered the first customers as if they were conquering heroes. :P

Well according to the ‘winner’, who shelled out $271 for the PSP after all the waiting, nothing else mattered at the moment of the glory.

Sony was getting into psyche-marketing their target customers by hyping the new product and making it available when most of the world was in bed and acting like those who are slumbering are the biggest losers by missing out an opportunity to lay their hands on the first PSP to be launched in the country.

Same tactic had been used very successfully before in the case of Harry Potter books and movies like Star Wars and Passion of the Christ. A successful tactic to build a cult for the product.

Little do people realize that the over-hyped first piece is the same as all the other ones made in the same assembly line with the same set of operations. But then they get to bask in the glare of television lights and media coverage….what people wouldn’t do for 10 minutes of fame!
And for Sony their product gets talked about as the cool thing around these days and they would get free publicity in media after all the stunts they put up at the launch!
A win-win situation.

The 400-odd people who had nothing better to do but wait in life for more than a day has to be a crazy bunch. But thank god for such people so that these marketing gimmicks work as planned.

For a guy who was there in the line throughout, being a member of the first-to-buy club is something that he would be proud for the rest of his life. And when the PlayStation 3 hits the market sometime next year, he says he plans to get in line even earlier.

And to top it, sample a smart dialogue from the winner “To buy without late-night sacrifice is like getting the girl without the chase."

:P

One flew over the cuckoo’s nest

When someone told me that there are some movies which have turned out to be even better than the books they were based upon, I didn't give it much thought. But I realized it myself when I watched the movie One flew over the cuckoo’s nest yesterday. Had read the book of the same name by Ken Kesey long back and have been saving the movie for the holidays. Bully Nurse Ratched, big chief Bromden and of course candid McMurphy came to life just for me yesterday. :)

The beauty of reading a book is the images you conjure up for yourself….how you give life to the characters by visualising them in your mind. When you watch the movie and the characters fit a T to what you had picturised, there’s nothing like it.

This movie was ditto of the images I had in my mind while reading the novel. Must be one of the biggest factors why I liked this movie so much.

Thalavattam, a super Lalettan hit of mid 80s is based on this novel……...according to Priyadarshan, the director, it is not based on the novel, he just picked up the plot and that's it. Well in a way it's true. Except for the way the movie begins and ends everything else has been commercialized to suit the mallu audience. Mohanlal and Karthika as the nurse falling for each other, the numerous comedy scenes and the typical angry father, who also happens to be the doctor making sure that the fully cured Mohanlal is reduced to nothing but a vegetable!!

Without all this masala in between, the mallu movie would been dry and it definitely wouldn’t have been such a big hit.

But imagine such a plot in the english version with McMuphy and Nurse Ratched pining for each other!!!!

Ciao 3rd term at K!

How did it all end so fast?

Term 3 at IIMK has been the swiftest term ever….the one by end of which all of us were crying for some free time to sleep or just to be back to our zombie lives. Though our summers were over in 2nd term itself and placements-fever was for our seniors, 3rd term had its toll on us too. Record number of projects and cases finished in this term. And some of them very memorable too…like the report on Pesticides and Food, which according to the prof deserved to be published for the benefit of the rest of the world, the case study on Trade unions and K.S.E.B, the marketing research study on detergents and of course the 20 page handwritten Indian Economy end term that cost me two full nights’ sleep to complete!

More than the academic related stuff this term had been packed otherwise too…Arthanomics and Backwaters right at the beginning of the term….also Media cell was at its peak this term what with Junior MC taking over the reins and of course IIMK was in almost all the papers once the placement report was released.

This term also had lots of parties being celebrated….hostel wise parties….farewell parties….placement parties….parties for no particular reason. Then there was the biggest time guzzler – the big fight over electives allocation! And finally thanks to new big classrooms it ended up being a lot ado over nothing.

Seems like we’ve had a zillion batch meetings this term….SCON re-elections…all other committees re-elections, blog policy meetings, elective process announcements, hostel room allocation…..no wonder we dint have much fun to laze around in this term.

And then came the end term which had all searching for iodex after some of the papers….and the marathon presentations and submissions on the last day!



Mr. Kiran Karnik stole the show during convocation 2005. The last day of the first year at K was made very memorable by the inspiring convocation address.

IIMK Placements 2005

Highlights...........

The highlight of Placements 2005 was the debut of foreign recruiter Capital One, putting IIMK firmly on the international recruiter map. The US financial services giant made an offer of $85,000 (Rs.37 lakhs) to Gaurav Agarwal, who will be joining the firm in the USA, as a Senior Business Analyst in October.

The highest Indian salary came from the consulting sector – an offer of Rs. 10.15 lakhs from Deloitte Consulting.

The average Indian salary was Rs. 7.3 lakhs, (a 15% increase over last year) and with 194 job offers for 120 students, students had an excellent choice of top jobs across sectors, with a number of companies having to go empty-handed as there were no available students.

The largest recruiter at Placements 2005 was IBM, which made 17 offers for roles in business consulting, SAP consulting, sales and marketing and human resources.

Its celebration time at K.

Read the official report here.

And read the article that came on Hindu National edition here.

:)

Today is a very special day....

Know why?!!

OM End term over and I come out with minimal damage, I think? No!

Madhari Dixit gives birth to her second son? No!

India has moved up six notches to the 39th position in the Networked Readiness Index (NRI)? No!

I finish reading The Goal by Goldratt and Cox and wish that I had read it earlier!? No!

Its market research season here at K and I have been getting a chocolate bar for each questionnaire I have filled? No!

Just realised that one more month and I would have shoulder length hair? No!

Bomb hoax in Wipro and I miss all the excitement? No!

My daily horoscope says “you're ready to rock. If it's reckless, you're in. If it's slightly scary, you're in, too. Better warn anyone you expect to be spending any time with today!”? :) No!

I get a special mail today? Yes!

My baby came to life today? Yes! :)

And about time too.

Today I get a mail from my manager announcing the signing-off a very critical project I had been working on. It was heartening to note that I was remembered and was included in the official communication. Nothing can replace these small felicities in life. Thanks Vibu.

This milestone is all the more sweet because this was one of the complex projects for one of the biggest clients at Wipro. Working on that project actually prepared me to face the schedule here at K ;) The project was executed using stable workforce – variable working hours strategy. (OM is still fresh in my mind after the end-term) 16+ hours working days and ever-changing specs and never ending bugs and data issues and ppl moving in and out of the project before you could say “Hello there….” the looming deadlines…….phew!

Working as part of a nearly 100-member team had its own charms. So many people around, everyone a character in himself/herself……but then your dependencies increase too…….A typical day in that project would make a good read. Will pen that down some day. Before my RAM decides to erase it forever.

Here’s to all the people who made ATD a big success.

For the first time after leaving Wipro, today I wish that I could be back there for this one day to see my baby up and running. :)

But only for this one day.

What gets measured gets reviewed and what gets reviewed gets done

We had a talk by Marico Sales CEO Mr. Pradeep Mansukhani a couple of days back. He was talking about how IT initiatives like CRM/SCM have helped them manage their primary customers- the distributors efficiently.
Something he said that struck me “What gets measured gets reviewed and what gets reviewed gets done.”

The ultimate truth.

The same reason why all of us here at K are burning more than just the midnight oil almost everyday these days.

Either it’s a project submission or an end term or a quiz or a case or something else that gets measured!

This has to be the most loaded term.

10 more days to go till we get to watch our seniors' convocation and finally say "Phew!" after the 3rd term.

Microsoft has come out with robots that can watch children. After watching the movie I, Robot this news doesn't sound very exciting. Actually its scary. Leaving a small kid at the mercy of a robot programmed by Microsoft?

But here is something that sounds more useful -
Idea of connecting the traffic predictor to an alarm clock, allowing the user to sleep in a few more minutes if traffic is looking light, or rousing the commuter if it's looking like a rough day on the highway.

Would be even more useful for me right now if the traffic predictor module is changed to Surprise quiz at 8:00AM module. :)

Thoughtware

We had a talk by a Malluland big shot from Reliance Infocomm today. His PJs are the talk of the day in the campus.

The talk was mainly on Communication, networks, new technology, future prospects etc liberally garnished with 'Narada', PJs and small stories. At some points it got too technical that I thought I had been somehow transported back in time to a typical Telecommunications lecture taken by Suresh in NIT C.

But there were some interesting points too. One was 'Thoughtware'. Its more or less Think and make money! According to him there is always a new idea around the corner that would make it big in the present day world and make one's market position seem like a space time accident. Many of the ideas are "out there". Most of the times the initiators fail to see their potential, and those who stumble on them last bring them to fruition and go on to become millionaires.

Basic concept. But neat way of putting it. One more jargon :)

There even seems to be a software called 'Engage Thoughtware' to stimulate thinking and get ideas out of people's heads and into the organization where they can be used. Well, wonder whether it works.

Another new term that caught my attention during the talk was 'nude economy'.
Here's what Economist has to say about it in the context of Internet and B2B.