Mera Yaar - Jogiraj Sikidaar

There was a time when I used to stay with friends , who were my colleagues in my previous company. Jogi, an old college friend, came back to Delhi and was with Zee. Since Zee was in Noida and we were in Noida, we had many evenings together.

He would steal an hour or two from his evening shift work, drop by, have a glass of beer and go back. Incidentally he would talk very little during that time because he would enter singing, sing-drink-sing, and exit singing.

Here's a MP3 of his work, old recording from some live concert. also he misses a note here/there because none of these were in a recording room. bad/no monitor at times, you almost sing on instinct. :-)



He is now in Dubai and i miss his songs.

Tuborg Pint has a tin kind of opener

Most of the beer in India have non-twistable or non-screw caps which means that you need a bottle opener to open them. While this may sound perfectly logical and right way to do, you would find a lot of (esp of American origin) beer pints in America which can be just opened using hand by twisting the cap. You open them the way you open a half-a-litre Coke Pet Bottle.

Recently I found something which I have not seen so far here so thought that I would write a small blog. Well, I found a pint which has a cap which can be pulled off. The beer is called, Tuborg and for the pint (dont know about the full regular bottle) you do not a bottle opener. You simply pull it, the way you open a Coke or a Beer Tin, and it pops out. Happy.

Let me click some pics and show you, how it looks.

Here I am. The first two are the ones when its bottled.





And here's when its gone.




hope you like this information and by the way, I was saving the caps to shoot them some day and write this blog, the ones where the cap is intact are getting chilled for the evening.

'Most Watched' User Generated Video

I bumped into this last week and I thought I would share this with you. A cute funny video of two kids.



There is lot of talk about this video on the internet. UGC (User Generated Content) was the backbone of Web 2.0 (with podcasting, blogging, review and commenting, rating and what not) and a video with millions of views probably validates that.

Watch it since its cute. Very cute.

Go Slow ....

This was sent to me by Abhijit (http://www.ghumakkar.com/author/Abhijit/) and I thought that this makes so much of a good reading that one should simply spread it. I do not know how much of this I have personally been able to do. Thanks Abhijit for the gracious permission.

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It's been 18 years since I joined Volvo, a Swedish company. Working for them has proven to be an interesting experience. Any project here takes 2 years to be finalized, even if the idea is simple and brilliant. It's a rule.

Globalize processes have caused in us (all over the world) a general sense of searching for immediate results. Therefore, we have come to posses a need to see immediate results. This contrasts greatly with the slow movements of the Swedish. They, on the other hand, debate, debate, debate, hold x quantity of meetings and work with a slowdown scheme. At the end, this always yields better results.

Said in another words:
1. Sweden is about the size of San Pablo, a state in Brazil.
2. Sweden has 2 million inhabitants.
3. Stockholm, has 500,000 people.
4. Volvo, Escania, Ericsson, Electrolux, Nokia are some of its renowned companies. Volvo supplies the NASA.

The first time I was in Sweden, one of my colleagues picked me up at the hotel every morning. It was September, bit cold and snowy. We would arrive early at the company and he would park far away from the entrance (2000 employees drive their car to work). The first day, I didn't say anything, either the second or third. One morning I asked, "Do you have a fixed parking space? I've noticed we park far from the entrance even when there are no other cars in the lot." To which he replied, "Since we're here early we'll have time to walk, and whoever gets in late will be late and need a place closer to the door. Don't you think? Imagine my face.

Nowadays, there's a movement in Europe name Slow Food. This movement establishes that people should eat and drink slowly, with enough time to taste their food, spend time with the family, friends, without rushing.. Slow Food is against its counterpart: the spirit of Fast Food and what it stands for as a lifestyle. Slow Food is the basis for a bigger movement called Slow Europe, as mentioned by Business Week.

Basically, the movement questions the sense of "hurry" and "craziness" generated by globalization, fueled by the desire of "having in quantity" (life status) versus "having with quality", "life quality" or the "quality of being". French people, even though they work 35 hours per week, are more productive than Americans or British. Germans have established 28.8 hour workweeks and have seen their productivity been driven up by 20%. This slow attitude has brought forth the US's attention, pupils of the fast and the "do it now!".

This no-rush attitude doesn't represent doing less or having a lower productivity. It means working and doing things with greater quality, productivity, perfection, with attention to detail and less stress. It means reestablishing family values, friends, free and leisure time. Taking the "now", present and concrete, versus the "global", undefined and anonymous. It means taking humans' essential values, the simplicity of living.

It stands for a less coercive work environment, more happy, lighter and more productive where humans enjoy doing what they know best how to do. It's time to stop and think on how companies need to develop serious quality with no-rush that will increase productivity and the quality of products and services, without losing the essence of spirit.

In the movie, Scent of a Woman, there's a scene where Al Pacino asks a girl to dance and she replies, "I can't, my boyfriend will be here any minute now". To which Al responds, "A life is lived in an instant". Then they dance to a tango.

Many of us live our lives running behind time, but we only reach it when we die of a heart attack or in a car accident rushing to be on time. Others are so anxious of living the future that they forget to live the present, which is the only time that truly exists. We all have equal time throughout the world. No one has more or less. The difference lies in how each one of us does with our time. We need to live each moment. As John Lennon said, "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans"..

Congratulations for reading till the end of this message. There are many who will have stopped in the middle so as not to waste time in this globalized world.

'Tasveer - 8 X 10' - Movie Review

It was a free lunch and I happily grabbed it, since wifey was out and Pihu (my , I am 3, going on 4, kid) was at Nana's place. I am a big fan of Nagesh and would love to pay for my lunch anyday for Iqbaal, Dor, HB so the decision was made so much easier.

The movie is mostly shot in Canada and that's refreshing. Watching the greens, sparkling water bays, upmarket houses and what not. 'Precept' which produced the movie along with T-Series is not a great name to reckon but they did spend some money by shooting in Canada.

The plot is around Akki who can look beyond a photograph and can go back in time when the pic was shot. He is usually seen going back by a minute since by then he gets unconscious and is usually taken to a hospital after such a act. The film moves very well in the first half, tight editing, no-fuss dialogues, good locations, clean camera work and no distraction (Sorry, Akki doesn't bare. Ayesha looks beautiful and thats about it).

So far a good movie but come 2nd half and it falls apart. Let me give you the plot.

Akki's dad is murdered (a oil baron) and he makes his wife as the sole winner of the fortune. He has some friends and they were all there on the boat from where he fell and everyone thought that it was a case of accident. Come Javed Jaffery (He is Super, he acts as a HYDi, super) , a dismissed cop who claims that the dad was murdered and that starts Akki's journeys into past life.

Actually before the accident happened, a group photo was clicked by Sharmila (Akki's mom) and with that photograph he now goes behind the scene (1 minute past) and tries to figure out. I wont give you the complete story but once the truth is out, the film still goes for another 20 minutes. It reminded me the grueling last sequences of movies like Dar (KKKK....) and Bhoot where director/script-writer just got carried away.

No great music to write about. Javed shines brilliantly. Ayesha does well and Akki was pretty good.

My high point in the whole movie was to find old TV stalwarts on big screen after a long time viz. Benjamin Gilani, Anant Mahadevan and Girish Karnad.

Not recommended.