Anything but Pink, Honey

Valentine's day just went by and this time the fatigue for pink grew deeper. 

This season it wasnt just archies cards, rose vendors and red ribbon sellers who made money.  Infact their market share was grabbed by Kajori, Good morning, Lux, roopa, and many such undergarment manufacturers, who were busy catering to a growing demand for pink undies. If you dont know what i am talking about do a google search for Pink Chaddi Campaign

Pink turned out to be a color far more dangerous than i ever thought it would be, beyond my farthest imagination. The gurly and innocent connotations of the color, what once was, is never gonna be the same. 

One of the first victims of pink, i recall was Karan Jowhar, who had a pink-n-white pansy setup for his talk show - Kaufee with Karan. The color created an instant association with the buzz that suspected him to be a "Queen" to a king of the industry. Not a wonder, that his next season consciously avoided pink. 

Coming back to the recent happenings- 

First, it was pink slips raining all over the place in the wake of the global meltdown. People particularly in finance domain got scared of pink.

Then we had a bumper crop of strawberries, which made me see pink all over. 

And now.. its raining Pink underwears shed by pissed out pubbing women claiming independence from chauvenistic culture police, Ram Sene,  who recently assaulted women at a pub in mangalore and were determined to spoil V-day celebrations. I had some of my friends enroled in the group. When i said that i was amazed at the rate at which their group of pubbing women shed their pink precious clothing. They were quick to respond saying - we are a part of the group, but we dont drink... well just Juice. 

Ram Sene responds back with what could really bring a slowdown in retail cloth sales - They planned to give a saree in return of every pink chaddi received. Imagine - what could be more discounted than a nice handloom saree available for a new and cheaper currency - Pink Chaddi!

Things dont end there, there is yet another group of pissed out men conveying a mutual reciprocative feeling by starting a  pink condom campaign. 

Do a word search of pink on this post.. you will be fatigued i am sure.. imagine the pain of seeing it all over the news... media.. everywhere..... Terrible!

Doodhwala...Dhobi..Postman..and Terrorist

"Please welcome the newest member of our urban community. You have no choice but to accept his presence. Guess what.. there are many of them ruling you!"

I sit here at my office which is within a kilometer radius, and right in between two places where there are commando operations happening for the last 36 hours.

Fortunately for me, there is a safe route between these two flash-points which leads to my office. Over the last couple of month's this is the second time, mumbai has been brought to a halt by activities which make the word violence seem musically calm. Everytime the newschannels have misinterpreted the hungry daily wager going to work, as the "spirit of mumbai" with amazing resilience... Welcome to reality..

A reality where 26 people less than 26 years of age can rise from the sea and hold the entire city to ransom. They can easily bypass the numerous metal detectors which do nothing more than... Beep... and of course give kickbacks to its procurers.

They can stock arms and ammunition at any location, including the spare refrigerator space in five-star locations. They are all around us.. Someday they may enter with battle tanks.

If you are beginning to think, i am practicing writing the next sequel of " War of the Worlds"... look around yourself. The outlaws who make our laws. And the helpless machinery that tries to implement it. The net result: We have Terrorists with easy entry and exists. If they die, they are martyrs of their men.. If they get caught, until proven guilty(read infinity), a privilege of our proud lawkeepers, they are given great tax-funded facilities. They may eventually be released and may be elected as our leaders (Ref: Abu Salem and Md. Afzal Guru)

The only way to be prepared for this is accept..that we have a terrorist like a milkman.. who is protected either deliberately or through our systemic lacunae. Either ways.. he exists. He has nothing personal against you, your religion, your family life. Perhaps he likes the colour of your blood.

When you leave your home for work, Pray hard. When you spend time with your family and friends, shower your love, as though the very next moment.. you would be gone!

The Joy of learning - by teaching

A rewarding third term as a budding B-school visiting faculty is nearing its completion. Through my participation in this noble profession, I breathe my passion of sharing whatever little i know, in its complete or incomplete state without any inhibition of being dubbed stupid :)

The students of our generation and that too in BSchools are much smarter, their curiosity and sincere inquiry does keep even the best faculty member on his/her toes.

When my passion got extended to the classroom, i discovered the fact in the statement - "Learning begins when you make an attempt to teach". Yes you sure do, since you cannot teach anything unless you go through a revision and reflection of what you know at that point in time. When you get conscious of what you know, you compare your knowledge with whats actually happening around you. In that process, you dig deeper, you learn further, you clear your misconceptions, you plead ignorance at times, and in the process .... you truly learn.

My heart today is once again filled with deep gratitude to the batch of my friendly students at VIT Management institute, an upcoming B-school in mumbai with a brilliant first batch of students waiting to graduate. They made me feel at home and sailed me smooth through my teaching curriculum. Their response has instilled deep confidence in me giving me immense energy which will power me in all spheres of my life.

Thank You students... And Thanks to the Classroom of life which enrols you in the womb and graduates you in the tomb :-)

PS: thanks to Harekrishnaji for reminding me to update my blog!