Targets for H1'10...

Before I go on to list down my targets for the first half of 2010, I want to revisit the targets that I set myself in 2009 and how I fared on those counts...

1 chess tournament -> Done
1 one week holiday -> Done
1 new language -> Partially, Bengali is a language, is it not
Read at least 12 books -> Done
1 half marathon -> Did a quarter marathon
Blog more frequently -> Hate to admit, but did not
Build 2X corpus -> Done
1 teaching workout -> Yes, but not in the conventional sense
Bullet Proof Manager, closure -> What can I say, no
Visit Shiridi -> Done

Here goes my list for the coming year:

A one week holiday,
Read atleast 24 books,
1 half marathon,
Blog more frequently,
Learn guitar,
Build a corpus (liquid + invested long term) of 6X.

Let the fun filled months begin...

Signing off...

Holding oneself back...

The primary reason, why most of us do not achieve our potential is because of the fear that we might end up looking stupid while trying...

Just let go and give it a go...

Signing off...

Trapped

Today I won my fastest game to date against a a rated player, in all of 9 moves...

How did I do it, simple, I deployed a trap...

Which one, the Ruy Lopez Berlin Defense Trap...

Needless to say, I was playing black and my opponent opened with the king pawn and I mirrored his move...

Then he played the king-side knight and I lunged forward my queen-side knight...

He moved his bishop to the c4 square and I marched my d-pawn one square to defend my central-e pawn...

He castled and I rode my king-side knight forward...

He did the same with his queen-side knight and then trap line starts...

I throw the fishing pole in the form of my f-knight to the g4 square...

He tries to shoo it away with the h-pawn and falls right in the trap...

I play h2-h4, hoping that he would take the knight and I then I would get a chance to open up the file for my rook...

He resists the urge and moves his knight to the h-file, so as to attack my knight from another angle...

I move my queen on to the h-file and intensify the onslaught...

He chooses to take the knight and I wholeheartedly accept the pawn and thereby opening up the file...

He pushes the f-pawn in the hop of opening up an escape route for his king...

I block all routes by marching my g-pawn by one square...

Helplessly in a hopeless situation, he resigns...

Signing off...

'Figure'ative Perfection

Never met a girl who was pleased with her pictures,
Displeasure more at the lack of perfection then at her features.

Tell how should her, that beauty is a lovely journey,
And that numbers are better left in a lowly tourney.

Perfection is but only a number,
Whose quest will only make them numb-er.

If could never understand a feminine mind did Freud,
Them how could I even think of dispelling the void.

Humbled by the predicament, I paused to ponder,
Answer dawned on me from up and yonder.

To experience the fruit of compassion,
She has to drive away the cloud of comparison.

Signing off...

Rubik's Cube

I bought my own Rubik's cube...

One of my entries in my bucket list reads, 'to solve the Rubik's Cube under 2 minutes'...

So I started working towards striking this entry off...

I will give it my first shot on Saturday...

Signing off...
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I successfully managed to solve my first Rubik's Cube on Saturday...

I comfortably managed to solve it 5 times in a span of 1 hour on Sunday...

I effortlessly managed to solve it under 6 minutes on Monday...

I consistently cloaked under 7 minutes all day, no matter what else Iam up to...

Next target, under 4 minutes by next Saturday!

Signing off...
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I managed to crack the fisher under 3 minutes, on tuesday...

Did not spend too much time on it but have it figured out for most part...

I think crossing the 2 minute barrier is only a matter of time...

Wish I find an equally challenging taget before I conquor this one...

Signing off...
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Aristotle believes...

The chief condition of happiness, then, barring certain physical prerequisites, is the life of reason - the specific glory and power of man. Virtue, or rather excellence, will depend on clear judgment, self-control, symmetry of desire, artistry of means; it is not the possession of the simple man, nor the gift of innocent talent, but the achievement of experience in the fully developed man.Yet there is a road to it, a guide to excellence, which may save many detours and delays: it is the middle way, the golden mean. The qualities of character can be arranged in triads, in each of which the first and the last qualities will be extremes and vices, and the middle quality a virtue or an excellence. So between cowardice and rashness is courage, between sloth and greed is ambition, between stinginess and extravagance is liberality; between humility and pride is modesty; between secrecy and loquacity, honesty; between moroseness and buffoonery, good humor; between quarrelsome and flattery, friendship; between Hamlet's indecisiveness and Quixote's impulsiveness is self-control. "Right," then, is ethics or conduct, is not different from "right" in mathematics or engineering; it means correct, fit, what works best to the best results...

Signing off...

Interaction Dossier - Antony

I spend a lazy afternoon in the only 24/7 CCD in the east of the country, the one in Infinity Towers, reading Liar's Poker. I leave early in the evening and reach home by 6ish. I am about to reach the guest house and I realize that my mobile is not to be found. I mentally backtrack to all the places that I visited through the day and all the calls that I made or received, it became clear that I left my mobile at the Coffee Day...

I pick my roomiez mobile and dial my number, an anxious voice greets me. I ask who it is and the voice booms back asking if I misplaced my mobile. I reply in the affirmative and the voice goes on to explain how the mobile was lying on a sofa and that the person found my mom's number in the dialled list and appraised her of the development, she was a good 1500ks away from the scene of occurance...

I was mighty pleased with the voice, the owner of the voice was a gentleman by name Antony. In his own words, 'I am the manager of the only round the clock CCD in the east'...

I went back to collect my mobile and that is when I first met him, he was a shortish, balding, peacocked (a Neil Strauss term, a person whose attire consists of one or more entities that are meant to act as conversation starters), accented guy. But what do I care, I got my mobile because of him and I thanked him for the same.

I ran in to him a couple of days later in the RDB CCD. 'Hi Sir!', he excused himself from a table packed with CCD managers and flambouyantly greeted me. He introduced me to the other managers, a development that proved useful later, will write about that later...

Our paths crossed on a few more occasions, mostly at one or the other CCD...

On one occasion, I walk in to the first mentioned CCD as run a bill of 310bucks, he walks over to the table with a sidekick, again flambouyantly, and declares that we did not have to pay for our consumption but should do for the cookie boxes (3 of them, each worth 110 each) that he will offer us and that the 'beverages were on the house'...

Me being me, I got suspcious and checked the expiry date, they had 3weeks left in them. I could have turned down the 'offer' but then let it be, the mobile episode remember...

It actually turned out to be a good deal, I exchanged one of them for 2 coffees at anoter CCD. Someone whom I owed a hundred bucks wanted to munch on cookies, I was only too glad to repay in kind. The third one earned me a good amount of 'dua' from a mendicant who was longingly staring at the can.

That was about the deal, not coming back to the dude.

The other day I was in the same ol' CCD and he grabs the order book from a waiter who was walking towards out table and did so himself.
'I will be moving to the South City CCD', he informed, rather proudly...
'Oh, is it like a promotion?', his demeanour seemed to suggest that is was a good development...
'Yes, a much bigger place, you should come some time', he suggested...
'Yeah, sure bro, I will and Good luck'.

That was our last interaction.

Signing off...

My Weakness...

I have a weakness, which is, I lack 'sense of time'...

Not to be confused with punctuality. As in, I may not be the most punctual guy around the table but my 7 up on 10 times bang on-time rate definitely puts me out of the perpetual late-comers list. It is not that I do not respect time or that I derive some vicarious pleasure by making others wait. Neither am I a romantic, who thinks that the world runs at my pace, which I have to admit is rather fast. It is nothing to do with intuition as I am a fairly intuitive person.

I just lose track of the absolute value of the time a given point in time...

Now that I know, a weakness of mine, I need to chalk out a plan to overcome it...

Signing off...

The 'rickshaw' Series - part 1

I walk up to a hand-rickshaw stand and declare my destination aloud, on my way to the gym, I was...

One of them walks up to me and dusts the seat for me to sit...

Not to be taken in by this strategy, I ask for the expected price (One of the better ways to close a deal is by giving a impression that the deal has actually been closed, while the negotiations are under way). X taka (X rupees is Bangla), he replies. Sounds reasonable, so I hop on...

I was exploring my mental paradise and suddenly a hoarse and unsure voice pulls me out of it...

'Will you be coming back?', he inquires.
I reply in the affirmative.
'By when?', he seemed to be making small talk.
'In an hour, maybe a little less, not sure.', I say noncommittally, I really did not know.
The amount of time I spend in the gym is purely a factor of how long my stamina holds up...
'Hour is too long, if you can come back in half hour, I can wait for you.', he offered.
Ever heard of a rickshaw guy waiting, not me, never did, this was a real first...
I knew there was no way I would get out so early, but the guy was being nice so I thought why refuse bluntly...
So I politely tried to change the topic...
Then he said something that caught me totally off guard.
'If you pay me waiting charges I will wait for an hour', he sounded slightly upity...
What, if I pay him waiting charges, sure I will, I bollocks will...

Here is a guy, who wants to sell me something that I do not even want and to worsen the bargain he wants me to pay a premium...
Is he not a nut at negotiating...

'How much would you charge?', My mind was made up but I played along...
'X for one way so 2X for both ways and X/2 or X depending on how long I wait', that was his offer...

On most days I jog back from the gym, so he wants me to spend 3X when I normally spend X and he is not even making it sound useful to me...

The customer is always willing to pay more not less, provided he sees value in what is being offered...

This gentleman neither demonstrated value nor sympathy, so obviously I did not take his offer...

Signing off...

Gangtok Ho...

16th June

Off to Gangtok on the 4th of July...

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17th June

Kolkata to Badhdogra, one way flight fare for 1250, now if this is not a steal then what is...
What is better than a steal? Getting the same deal again...
Baghdogra to Kolkata, return flight at the same price (including passenger fee, fuel surcharge, ADF...)...

As of now these are the only reservations that I have made.
Need to run some googles and make a few reservations.

Must see list:

• A monastry
• Cable car
• Buy souvenirs

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22nd June

Looked up a few hotels and travel options, but yet to finalize anything.

My travel period not being the most sort after travel time, I presume accommodation should not be a huge concern...

Tried reaching out to a couple of Helicopter folks, nothing materialized...

Read up a little about Gangtok and Baghdogra.

Gangtok is only 4hrs away from Darjeeling, that is giving me a lot of ideas.
Toy train, now that is a tempting proposition...

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23rd June

Came across this useful site: www.world66.com
It is a Wiki, in that it can be edited at will...
I ran a google on it for Gangtok but did not get anything that I did not already know...

However, it had a lot to offer for more popular cities like Amsterdam and Paris...

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4th August

It was one of the better holidays that I ever embarked on...
Fairly eventful, extremely insightful and definitely useful...

I reached Baghdogra, drove up to Gangtok. Was in Gantok for almost 36hrs...
I can almost account for each minute that I spent, time very well spent...

I drove further up to Darjeeling and explored the place for a good 5hours...
A much more developed place but not as charming...

In Gantok, I came in touch with the spiritual part of my soul, a shade that I never knew existed in me...

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IPL - A $2Bn brand...

Knight Riders (after dropping Kolkata) have been in news lately for a lot of reasons. Most of them not very pleasant, be it the surfacing of the Fake IPL player or their Coachs strategy (or the lack of thereof)  or the absolute nonperformance on the field or the endorsers asking tough questions. 

All these have hurt a lot of people in a lot of ways but if one had to name a single person who lost the most, it has to SRK, not just money and fame but also to a certain extent his reputation as a schrewd businessman and a master promoter.

All of the King Khan's men and coaches could not put the proverbial humpdy dumpty back on the wall...

However, going against the tide of happenings a news emerged, which if accurate, would prove everything that I wrote about SRK till now wrong...

That news is about IPL being valued as a $2Bn business and KKR as a brand worth over $42Mn, now this is accoring to a UK-based brand valuation consultancy Brand Finance. One other point to note is that KKR are the most valuable team of the franchise. I have a serious issue with this fact (if it is one), not because their points are less then the games they have played (like one of them, you know who pointed out) but because the parameters deployed to arrive at the figure go against the team.

Apparantly, the brand value had been claculated by considering the estimated revenue (from multiple distribution channels) and combining them with increase in sponsorship, revenue, cricketing success, franchisee city's population and iconic players. The distribution channels in question are broadcasting, merchandising, sponsorships and gate receipts.

Temporarily keeping aside revenue, KKR will be found wanting on 2 of the 5 incremental factors and 2 of them do not make much sense. On the 'cricketing success' and 'iconic players' parameters, the team will lose out heavily, one it has not performed well and two all its top players have have lived up to thier fancy price tags. One factor that I have serious contentions is the 'city's population', considering the fact that the games are being played in the Republic of South Africa, how does the size of population of the home city matter at all, if it contributing to the TRPs is the reason for having the parameter then it is more of a reason however a myopic one. The other factor that baffles me is 'revenue', if the whole calculating is starting off by taking in to account the revenue generated from 4 different sources then what is the point in having it again. The only additional factor on which KKR might do better than others is 'merchandising', more because SRK has roped in RBK, nothing really to do with the team per se.

More on it, soon...

Signing off...

Writer's Block

Want to word my thoughts,

How should the drive be brought,

Fingers have the force,

Cannot my mind coerce,

Is it, just the time of the day,

Or, my newness to the bay.

Maybe a literary style,

That I always kept away a mile,

Will act as a lucky charm,

To fill the writers chasm,

So, should I stick to prose,

Or somehow bloom this rose...

My first poem -> Dedicated to Dona Ines...

Targets for H1'09...

I have drawn up my targets for the first half of 2009, I have only four moths to achieve then, considering the fact that we are two months in to the year...

1. 1 chess tournament...
2. 1 one week holiday...
3. 1 new language...
4. Read at least 12 books...
5. 1 half marathon...
6. Blog more frequently...
7. Build 2X corpus...
8. 1 teaching workout...
9. Bullet Proof Manager, closure...
10. Visit Shiridi...
    

Unlike the last time around, this time I intend to post monthly status checks, in order to be able to course correct better...

Signing off...

Need advice - 1

At 12:34PM on 29th May, 2008 I spoke with M for the first time. She came across as a charming lady with a streak of naivete. My equation with her started on a smooth note and only improved with the passage of time. Like I did for most of her teammates, I meant good for her and tried motivating her at every possible opportunity.

When she pinged me on the 10th of February asking me for a convenient time to talk, I was not exactly sure what the scene was. Truth be told, I knew that his day would come, circumstances are something that I was not sure about.

I flashed my chivalrous side and expressed my willingness to reschedule my calendar to suit her...

I suggested Barista as a possible venue (my love for espresso has been well documented), which she also felt was an appropriate backdrop for the task on hand. So we descended upon the place with different modes of mind, calm and chaotic, mine and hers respectively.

I made some small talk, mainly to put her at ease. Then I made some more small talk, to help her compose her thoughts. You know what, I made some more small talk and realized that it was not helping the cause and got lost in my thoughts. Thankfully my americano arrived and so did her sizzling brownie.

She was a visual person, seeing the hissy bubbles of chocolate coming in contact with the vanilla scoop opened her perception and she erupted, well almost literally. She spoke for a good half hour, I did not do much to guide or direct the conversation and sailed with the flow. She was neither cohercive nor logical, two of the many aspects that I intended to address in a while...

She had issues but that was not the problem, the problem was her lack of clarity about the issues...

I might not be happy with my life but unless I know the exact reason for my unhappiness I can get no where and wore still, if I get the reason wrong and work towards setting it right, I will do more harm...

Her clarity or the lack or thereof and her make belief crystal castle will stand out in the following converstion exert:
M: I do not want to get married till I fulfill all my ambitions!!!
Me (picking up my red pen): So what are your ambitions?
M: 1) I want to learn all the dance forms in the world...
2) I want to paint all the emotions in the world...
3) I want to earn professional respect...
4) I want to be eternally independent...
Me: Wow...
M: I know I will never get them and I am not even making an effort in the direction so...
Me: Oh ok...

M has never been on a date, the person she names as a possible partner is her high school class mate...

She sure has issues...

Tried to clear her thoughts a bit and give her some techniques to work with...

Updations will be posted.