introducing me flatmates

bugger - i should've known - introducing frends on a blog is never a good idea cos u can never cover the whole lot .. so let me cover the set who can cause the most damage to me in the short term - my flat mates in Singapore..

No one starts off anything in our house without taking the name of Nayak... aka BM, Dalla, Geela Presi, and other things that only Shahana can call him..

Under-educated commerce grad from Mumbai - This guy is about 2 primary things a) Women (now replaced by woman) b) Sports (not doing justice to his tremendous singing skills or his funny jokes some might say..but will leave those for Shahanas blog)

Nayak is the quintessential centre of a group - he cracks the jokes that no one finds funny, he makes that plans that no one likes, he claims to do most of the organising in trips .. but most importantly he does this with a smile on his face.. but dont ever fall for that one, cos he is the lowest form of haramipanti available on this planet - he'll take ur case in ways and times that you wont even realise.. he has the ability to take ur trip and still make u feel that u got something out of it..

Of course, no write up on nayak is complete without a mention of :

a) his immense sporting talent - bugger is literally a sponge, throw him into a pool of sport and you'll see him soak it all up - i learnt when i taught him the rules of TT and hours later he was smashing me in what he calls a learning game.. Shankar always claims that nayak stood all night at the Q for sporting talent when god was distributing it upstairs..

b) His complete self denial about his lack of humour and wit - lesser said about this, the better

Anyways, all said and done, the man is a leader, friend and deep down (not very visibly) a philosopher.. 2 years, 2 girl frends, his 20 odd women and some very drunken nights later - I can vouch for Nayak and his frendship :) cheers mate!

introductions

Ive decided to introduce you to some of my frends today... in the order that i interact with them today :

First guy i found online when i woke up was Gopi ..

They say that being a maroo must feel like the cockroaches got a better deal - but if u add a generous portion of a bengali - then u have the lowest form of life - now re-christianed the 'gopis' - He's not very tough to imagine honestly - black as coal (seldom see-able on a moonless night), light blue front teeth (dont even ask why!) and a hair style that screams Jeetendra. And when u really dont think it can get any better, add in a liberal dose of a personality that switches between an 80 year old gyan baaaba and a 16 year old pimply teenager at his first crush and at times a weird combination of both of these (dont ask me how he pulls it off)

Gopi (or gopester as he is still hoping we'll start calling him now) is a chuddy buddy for the last 12 years - 5 years in school where he looked down at me (being the hep guy and me being a commoner), 4 years in engineering looking at me (given that i was his roomie) and 3 years after that looking out for me..

Currently in the US of A this consult to be has a heart of gold - often tripping over his well set principles and several metres of 'chool' (to get more context on this - wait for the section on Ghosh).

Heres to the guy who i know i dont have to talk to for a year and yet when we meet, we'll be just the same :)

ps: For those who came in late - Gopi is the left ugly - the guy who looks like hes been to prison is me

how do they sustain themselves

This blog today is dedicated at the one question that I ask myself everytime i think of Shankar - 'Why?Why would you work this hard?'..

To start off, ill take a couple of steps back and show u the large picture (diligently doing what Alissa - my boss taught me to do.. :p .. 'take a step back Shiv!' ). There are 4 kinds of jobs :

a) High effort and high return : I banking/consulting kinda work i think
b) High effort and low return (god help these ppl ) : sales cos. in india, a lot of non-i banks
c) Low effort and high return : this is the kind that doesnt exist :pp.
d) Low effort and low return : This is the zone of the slackers, the poets, the painters, photographers etc etc and as post MBA options - u have the P&Gs and a host of IT companies

The typical P&G person would lumber in at 9:30ish and makes his way to the pantry area (or if your aussie or wannabe aussie - ud get spinnelli) to get his days first shot of caffeine.. and add to that the subsequent quick exchange of gossipary(is that a word?) notes and you've spent the best part of the next 30 mins.

The rest of the day is not very different - only interspersed with 'meetings' - basically avenues of doing IM! - anyways - i will not digree into a describing a typical day - will leave that for another day..

Back to Shankar - our diligent IIT, IIM topper type guy who is a Tam bram to boot - rational and structured to the core, does not believe in ambiguity - a full head and shoulders above any1 ive met at clarity and depth of thinking ... A guy who will question the smallest thing till he has understood it to a level that u didnt know exist - People call him the 'Why why?' guy. - He is the only one ive met who can break down an emotional response to several smaller rational ones :)

Anyway - our man is a non-typical P&Ger in several ways :
1) He will not stop at a 80:20 analysis - no analysis is complete without doing the full 100% even if that takes 5 more hours
2) He does not believe in constraints like 'personal time' and 'sleep' - supposedly the only question he asks himself is 'can i work a little more to grow the business'

Anyway - the objective of the blog is not to glorify or vilify shankha - its to try and understand what makes these people that driven? Ive got several very very driven frends - Gopi, Tholia, Anuj, Soumi etc etc - but none of the others put so much fight for so less return .. and I continue to wonder..

So we did a 'why-why' analysis with Shankha - and it turns out that he wants to do it for himself - to feel good about what he is doing at work - to revel in self glory that he has gone that extra distance today ... and his learning everyday sustains him!

And im surprised - and pleasantly - cos everytime some said in an interview that im there for the 'learning' - i thought it was a whole load of bull - and today to see some1 really live that life.. wow...

anyway - yet another useless blog - doesnt help any1 - doesnt talk about issues.. just a rambling of whats going on in my mind.. and especially when in a confused head - its a sureshot recipe for what shankar would call - 'hopeless meandering in the desert'.

wow - its happening!

so this is a week of changes!

I finally am moving on from just making blogaddresses and forgetting my password or username or the site itself - but more importantly the following have happened:

- Our house is clean , we can actually see our dining table (not to say that we ever use it but who cares..), the ironed clothes are in the almirah (as opposed to the living room)

- nayak isnt staring at the walls thinking of the times when he and muh bong sis were together - he is actually talking within 10 mins of waking up (more fundaes on this as we get to know each other more)

- rupeee now has 2 sets of papa-mamas :) finally she is gettitng married - ye ye!! U can feel the joy in her even as she walks in to the room - she is glowing!! positively :)

- Bharat is not being harami and oli is not focussed at what he wants - naaah - who am i kidding ... somethings dont change ;)

anyways - amongst other things that havent changed:
- India lost to SL - and tendulkar failed in a crunch match
- Yet another weekend which i thought would be full of sport, activity and excercise and here I am at 1 pm still in my pyjamas watching tv slouched on the couch
- i am already dreading monday - i hate weekdays ive realised :)


anyway - gotto go and fill the paunch with some more food - will come back and introduce u to me and my life - if u come back that is :p