As my winter project with KPMG, I am currently doing research in the area of Information Security in order to prepare an authoritative 'guidebook' for IT professionals in this area. To tell the truth I mostly search content on the net, screen it and realign it - of course my work is then reviewed by people with experience in the area who improve it, plug the holes and correct mistakes. But fundamentally we are just recycling the same old concepts . . . . Even during our MBA, when we submitted assignments to our Profs we used to 'compile' them from what we found readymade on the net. There were some professors who would themselves indulge in extensive Googling and thus catch 'googled assignments' red-handed. Once that started, we changed our tactics; we used the same readymade stuff but changed the language - changing active to passive, or using synonyms. We were still caught at times but more often than not we escaped unscathed and ended up with above-average gr

Raj, Kshipra and me (M. Rajkumar and Kshipra Katakwar - my batchmates at NITIE) were sitting in the mess waiting for our '5th meal of the day' (night mess... another habit of NITIEans) to be served when Kshipra blurted out - "The tragedy of life is that one gets used to it" . And suddenly I realized - how true! Everyday while returning from office when I get on the Mumbai Local I see numerous faces - most of them are tired, sweating and stressed, and on every face you see the expression of acceptance - acceptance of their life, acceptance of the crowded local, the sweat and the stress that their life comprises of! These are not happy people (not by their looks at least) but they are not sad as well - their life is still; constant . . . . should we say lifeless? I wonder! None of these mortals would ever want to create a revolution but they would also not be a hindrance to it. They are like a buffer solution - oblivious by what goes on in their surroundings. But mind y

The weekend is here and many of you must be planning to watch a movie. I saw ‘My Brother Nikhil’ (yes my own name too is Nikhil!) yesterday at R-Adlabs, Mulund. The movie is well made and does justice to the sensitive subject it deals with. Here’s a review of the movie from me. If you are not interested in my review here’s a link to a good professional review http://in.rediff.com/movies/2005/mar/25brother.htm While Swades was a documentary presented as a movie/fiction, ‘My Brother Nikhil’ is a fiction presented like a documentary. It is a flashback narrative primarily by – Nikhil’s sister Anamika (Juhi Chawla), mother (Lillete Dubey), father (Victor Banerjee) and most importantly a dear friend Nigel (Purab Kohli). With dates appearing in the bottom left corner as every scene changes the documentary effect is so complete that sometime one wonders if this is indeed fiction or reality. Those of you who have seen ‘Phir Milenge’ will find this movie a better presentation in terms of depth a

I was going through different blogs on people’s description of holi celebrations when I found Manish Chauhan’s Blog on Holi. http://manishchauhan.blogspot.com/2005/03/aaj-biraj-mein-holi-hai-rasia.html His blog reminded me of my own childhood Holi days – Holi Dehan and Holi Milan were the most awaited days of the year for me too. But apart form the colours and sweets – Holi for me had a special attraction – a chance to showcase and exercise my ‘event management skills’. At our place there used to be a community dinner and cultural show in the evening on Holi (rang waali). This was time when we children used to prepare a small show with skits and games for the adults in our mohalla . Some adult also used to participate by their singing/acting performances. I must credit many of my ‘project management’ skills to the experience of organising Holi Dehan and these Holi evening shows when I was the ‘bhaiiyaa’ of the Mohalla [Incidentally I was known as dada even among my friends during my

Wonder If any of you have ever heard of this Movie; nice one! I just chanced upon it on the Movie Server and thought why not!! But it really turned out to be a fantastic flick ... and had a great message in it ... what's more is that what it said is what I myself have been feeling for the past few days. Here's the link http://www.ingoodcompanymovie.com/ Its about this 52 year old salesman Dan Foreman(Dennis Quad) who works for a sports magazine but suddenly finds himself demoted and being 'bossed' over by a 26 year old Carter Duryea (Topher Grace) when the magazine is taken over by a another company. At first this new exec is all booming with ideas about the company's new 'synergy' strategy. 'Synergy' is shown as some shitty management jargon which is far from the company's real-life business. While during the movie Dan has to lay off his old buddies while not agreeing with the company's new policies and has a hard time; the end makes things

A very interesting discussion is ‘ON’ on Manish Chauhan and Ramanand’s blogs. [ http://manishchauhan.blogspot.com/2005/02/rising-in-response-to-ramanands-post.html ] [ http://quatrainman.blogspot.com/ 2005_02_01_quatrainman_archive.html#110934441279858050 ] The discussion is about the gap between fact and fiction in relation to the movie ‘The Rising’ – supposedly made on Mangal Pandey’s life. Such questions have always been raised whenever Indian Cinema has dared to make films based on real life instead of fiction. Recently the Supreme Court had stayed release of Black-Friday (made on Mumbai Bomb Blasts) because it used real names of victims and accused in the Blasts. On the other hand just see how different Hollywood is – movies like Apollo 13, The Rookie, Titanic and many others not only do well but go on to become classics. Then there are movies like Saving Private Ryan, Three Kings and Forrest Gump which are made in a backdrop of a real life event like a war and are widely apprecia

Action?... no dudes I am not missing Amitabh's Angry-Young-Man-Movies. Today was Sansmaran the annual Alumni-Fest of NITIE. Though we (PGDIM10) are yet to be officially declared alumni but since we no more attend classes so we did behave like 'real' alumni :D. It was great to see so many alumni from batches as early as PGDIE 7 (1979) and PGDIM1(1994). Many of them are the whose-who of the corporate world now and some are on their way to become so !! I should commend the junior batch for making the event a big success. They really worked hard and it showed in their performance. Apart from flawless management of logistics there were a stage-performances and among those worth mentioning are Solo Dance by Sugandha Agrawal on the song 'Jiya jale' ; and the play by the four - Vidya, Sastha, Divakar and Dinkar. It was really a great script and the fact that it was conceived by these guys themselves makes it all the more great. The play was a comedy on a dialog sequence bet

I have always felt that love can never be at first sight and love is in no way related to attraction or liking. It has more to do with knowing a person in detail and accepting him/her with the negative as well as positive features of him/her. An exactly reciprocal behavior of love is 'intimacy' - you tend to be intimate with people who truly 'love' you. Since these people accept you as you are hence you can behave naturally without qualifications with them. Intimacy is closely related to Love. I read a very meaningful article in TOI on intimacy yesterday. Some excerpts are quoted below (couldn't get the link 'coz it was on epaper and not on indiatimes) :- "What intimacy is not; And also what it is . . . . . " 'All beginnings are lovely' - a French proverb reminds us, but intimacy is not about that initial 'Velcro stage' of relationships. It is when we stay in a relationship over time whether by necessity or choice that our capacity for

Today as I was traveling through Mumbai I saw the tall glass buildings and thoughts came back to me when I dreamt of working in these places and doing some great stuff. Now that I am an Advisory at KPMG, I am working in not one but with many companies who have such offices - I will be interacting with CIO's, CTO's and other senior people. But as happens most of the times - this success has lost its sheen. I am today a person whom many admire and many envy - but all this professional success has also raised many questions within me. I have lived a life of an individualist (not selfish at all but you can say my locus of control is internal) - I did what I felt was correct, I stood to my own ideals and ideas, was always in competition with myself and never thought what others will think. At the same time since I think that living for others is 'real' living so my attitude was never selfish. But somehow I think I have failed to make personal bonds - I have friends, many fri

No. . . I am not getting enrolled into Shiv Sena but I have just read the following article in TOI http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1019524.cms I too agree with what is there in this article. But let me be a bit logical - why do we have such days - Father's Day, Mother's Day, Valentine's Day etc etc. Mainly because in the fast paced life of today we tend to neglect the people who matter most in our life - our parents, our friends and to those who are married their spouse. And so these days so that we remember them atleast once a year. But do these days continue to serve this purpose? Everyone from greeting-card companies to restaurants have made a business opportunity out of these days. All this forced jollity does not make you happy from inside. Isn't making you and your companions happy the real purpose of such events? And more so with the tremendous advances in Information Technology I see no reason why our busyness should any more be a problem? I can t