2 States - Sarson Da Saag and Murungakai Sambar

We were determined to see this movie.. Lido screen 1 shut down after ten minutes and we went and bought tickets for the next show in screen 3 yesterday to watch this movie made on Chetan Bhagat's story. It is a delightful movie with many many interesting moments. I encourage you to see it, to understand today's Indian youth, especially educated ones. And more so what successful authors and moviemakers peddle.

In any case, it was once again a revelation to me how much we have stereotypes and myths about people and their ways in different parts of India, for example Madrassis. The myths that people who eat sarson da saag and swig Scotch have about Madrassis has been roundly blasted by Chetan Bhagat, Karan Johar and everyone else who have made this movie. BUT alas these moviemakers have added a lot of incongruities and fancy notions of their own. The kind of stuff you put into your movie when you don't ever overestimate the intelligence of your audience. 

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I list only a few simple, very simple ones, and you can add more.

1. 95% Madrassis are dark or kaale=Nonsense. In fact a celluloid baby or a doll made of pure bone china called Alia comes from the heartland of Mylapore. In fact under floodlights, her face glows with a bloodless ivory colour. But she does have absolutely pink lips that would make a Paris and Milan fashionista jealous.
2. Madras has a water problem=Nonsense. The inner courtyard in your traditional home receives copious rain night and day in typical Kerala monsoon style.
3. Madras is hot, humid and dirty=Nonsense. You have only three types of places - treelined Pondy-like neoclassical avenues with teak and rose wood classic houses, or lovely lovely flower markets, or glitzy 20-storied corporate towers with curved large glass windows overlooking a Madeira-like coastal skyline.
4. A Madrassi IIMA Iyer girl entrant can't pronounce the word Sambhar to save her life.She eats simple food- tandoori chicken, rumali roti and beer at lunch time.
5. A lady who has won all the Tamil Sangam singing contests is rejected by a series of Carnatic music teachers (all well groomed with talcum powder and pot belly). She can't get past the Mohana varna Ninnu Kori but sings a song in a corporate get-together better than Sunidhi Chauhan.
6. Where do bank managers hold their daughter's wedding? A seashore rockcut temple that would shame Mahabalipuram.
7. Whiskey is as much a last resort of a poor bank manager in Madras who is learning Plugpoint, as it is the staple of an abusive Punjabi husband who was thrown out of the army, (The Punjabi ex-armyman runs a security agency called Securities, in a go-down like office full of carboard cartons.)
8. Madrassis are after USA MBA bridegrooms. Punjabis are after fatso UK-returned Dukes. 
9. All the tensions between 2 irreconcilable states vanish into thin air as you type out your dream best seller. Note that you do that on a portable typewriter, no matter that you prefer to use a laptop to draft letters for your dad and to make fancy powerpoint charts for your f-in-law who thinks it's called Plug point. Some humbling for Gates and now Nadella, to see the sentimental might of good old typewriters. 
10. You actually carry your twins back to back and cope, since your ivory queen of a wife is nowhere to be seen. How you pacify them, feed them, and what language you speak to them in, etc. are trifles. Because you are the new Indian youth, earning a salary 4 times that of your IIMA professors with your first campus hire job- which is by itself a  pittance compared to your best-seller royalties.
11. Last but not the least, if you feel suicidal, don't  panic. Seek out a therapist who sits in a lazy boy as you prance around on a sofa, ignoring the large glass windows at the back that cry out for you to go, crash through, and land some 30 stories below in a mess that ends your life. Unless Rajni the Robot comes and saves you.

Time management for the hopeless

I know many folks who are obsessed with deadlines and targets. Hopefully they are very few in my part of the world. But the GREATER problem is that there are the hopelessly disorganized folks who have spent an entire life time on procrastination. This piece is for those folks.

As a starter, although I do believe I am rather better than average on time management, I am not preaching here. I am simply trying to suggest some simple if radical ideas to those who create all sorts of trouble for themselves and others by poor time mangement. Hope this helps.

Definition: if you have at any time more than seven really important and urgent things you have been meaning to do but haven't done in the last seven days, then you are a hopeless time manager. Remember seven things, seven days.

Now make a list of all the things that you MEANT to do. Make in fact three lists, call them Red, Green and Yellow.

The Red List: list all the things that you meant to do FOR OTHERS - and they are hurting because you didn't do it for them. The Red List is what you owe to others because you committed to do it for them.

It could be a simple thing like a phone call or even a text message giving a phone number. It may be as big a thing as returning a borrowed book or keeping a date. The Red List shows you how you are failing as a member of society. This is hopeless because no religion, no politics, no career and no family  pressure should come in the way of doing the RED LIST. 

The Green List: this is all the things you promised to do for YOURSELF. you are shooting yourself in the foot by not doing it. It may be exercise, taking medicines, studying for tests, fixing your home or wardrobe or kitchen or whatever. By failing in the a green items, you are failing your own life. This will have long term and short term consequences.

The Yellow List: this is the most benign list. it lists simply all the things you would like to do, when time permits, like seeing a movie or going  to a temple or church. You agree this is not an important or urgent list, but by doing this you have a better life. This includes even important things like planning your finances and buying or remodeling your home.

Now that you have three lists, Red, Green and Yellow, take SEVEN to-do items. 

The first four are the TOP FOUR RED items.

The 5th and 6th are the TOP TWO GREEN items.

The last one is the ONE TOP YELLOW Item.

You now have a To-Do list of seven items, consisting of four you committed to do for others, two you must do for yourself, and one nice to do thing.

NOW DO THESE SEVEN THINGS TODAY.OR LATEST THIS WEEK.

Remember, those things that take longer to do, are tackled by just starting to do them and keeping them on the burner, front or back, but keeping track of them. I think most things don't take too much effort to complete but take a hell of a lot of effort to just start. That is the idea of To-Do lists anyway.

Keep striking off all done items from the three Red/Green/Yellow lists, and keep adding new To-Do items as they come up.

If you run through your lists well for seven weeks like this, I promise you that you will become a time management expert!!!!!

SEVEN-SEVEN-SEVEN formula of time management. For the no more hopeless folks!!!

Dupanahalli Mural

A small plot in the next lane that once belonged to someone in Dupanahalli village is now readying a multistorey apartment building. The owner wants to remember his roots. See the beautiful mural at the front!

Get an MBA, right in your kitchen.

I think you needn't go to a fancy business school and get an MBA. Let me show you how you can get an MBA right in your kitchen. I give a list of 10 points, nowhere near exhaustive. Happy to discuss this further.

1. Your kitchen exists only for your family,ie those who eat with you - your consumers or customers. If it doesn't serve their purpose, it is dead. 

2. What you give has to have value - cost and price are immaterial. Value is as perceived by the client or consumer or here, family. I may cook the meanest pasta this side of the Mediterranean but if my son wants Idli and Rasam, I need to give him THAT. And no bragging please about Virgin Olive oil for all my cooking or that I use Naati Badami and Spanish Kesar in the Halwa. The value perception overrules all brag about ingradients.

3. Want To learn about just-in-time inventory? No place better than the kitchen. The best run kitchen optimises everything, and no wasted bags of rice or tons of pickle. Everything fresh, everything now, everything flavoursome. But this just-in-time principle means one has to be extra-efficient and remember to get things at the right time, or you run out of what you need the most...

By the same token, woe be to the kitchens with deep-frozen vegetables and dishes excavated like mummies after months.

4. Every MBA learns how to be efficient in terms of time, energy and process. A streamlined kitchen has less noise and more aroma. Less shelf space and more inviting dishes on the table. Less show and more action.

5. Everyone has to have pride in their skill. Talk to a home-maker. She will tell you what her people love, and how she has preserved their love for her cooking. Innovation is to be measured in terms of longevity of your consumer base!

6. Want to experiment with new cuisine? With new TV recipes? Answer the key question: why? Do your people want novelty? Variety? Give them what they want. That way, you deliver value and avoid disasters.

7. How do you celebrate success? Simple. That's why you have festivals. When people all eat together and celebrate what the family has enjoyed thus far, that is celebration. 

8. Ecology begins in your kitchen. Anyone who understands the sustainability of resources in the kitchen will easily translate this to the outside world. Do you know how dishes can be made with jackfruit seeds, orange peels, leaves of vegetables which we tend to throw away...so many  dishes without wasting valuable resources.

Long ago, people were making natural manure with kitchen waste in their backyard. 

9. It's funny how many electrical gadgets we use today in the kitchen. If one works with the hand, and manages the preparations by close supervision, you can be sure of the results. It improves efficiency and reduces waste. Of course intelligent use of efficiency multipliers like cookers and grinders reduces manual work. But one always should strike a balance.

10. How many servants do you employ in your kitchen? Does your cooking top have an Italian finish? Do you have the world's largest fridge? Each of these is a valuable resource and has to do something to produce more value. Otherwise it is a waste and you will regret it later!

Postscript: how about cleaning up and doing the dishes? Glad you asked. That's the unglamorous part..just like EHS. If you don't do it, sooner than later, you will shut down:-)