A Manager motivates

One of the austerity measures by the wise and learned during the downturn was to either to correct the salaries according to the business realities or to arrest the salary increment in response to business challenges. Everyone ended up doing more with less. So, the universally hated but in fact the friendly neighborhood manager is in a dilemma. How does he combat a gradually decreasing morale while towing the line of “more with less”?

Recently, a friend, who is also a manager, was in a similar dilemma. He had to provide a very critical release for the customer. As usual, this task can easily be done by the high performer in the team. The high performer was a lucky person whose salary was not slashed during the dark phase of market correction! But, at the same time, his salary had been stagnant for almost two years now.On top of the money woes, the high performer was already overloaded and was in no state to understand the criticality.

So, my friend, the manager, approached the high performer.

Manager(M): Hey!

High Performer (HP): *ignores and types on the keyboard*

M: *sits near HP, watches the monitor and then hums*

HP: *irritated* What?

M: Nothing!

HP: *resumes typing*

M: You know what? Interesting thing with the customer!

HP: *rolls his eyes and ignores M*

M: *ignores the royal ignore and continues* C, the customer, says the fix can be provided before 6 pm.

HP: *continues the royal ignore act*

M: *continues to ignore the royal ignore act* No way someone can finish with that by 6 pm!

HP: *still ignoring M*

M: I’m willing to bet against someone completing this on time!

HP: *suddenly interested* Are you ready for a bet?

M: Yes. It can’t be done before 6 pm.

HP: 100 bucks?

M: 50 bucks.

HP: Okay!

The high performer being high performer, he had a deliverable ready before 6 pm. The less in the “more with less” slogan worked. The manager walked away with less Sodexho coupons as he paid off the wager with it.

Picture Courtesy: http://highperformanceadvocates.com

Tags: Musings,Manager,High Performer

Movie: Paleri Manikyam – Oru Paathirakolapathakinte katha

Haridas(Mammootty), a detective by profession, is haunted by the brutal murder of an young girl named Manikyam in the village named Paleri, where he was born. The murder was committed in 1955 on the same day when Haridas was born. A local priest was also killed in the same village on that day. Manikyam was murdered 11 days after her marriage to Pokkan, a village idiot. Pokkan’s mother, Cheeru(Shweta Menon), is the village prostitute and local brewer.

Haridas decides to unravel the mystery behind these two murders to satisfy his curiosity. He leaves to Paleri with his colleague Sarayu(Gowri Munjal), with whom he is having an extramarital affair. It is a difficult journey searching for the truth as most of the witnesses for this incident have long been dead. There are a few people alive in the village who were from the same era. So, he has depend on documents from court trial, hearsay from the locals and first person accounts from the people from a bygone era.

The movie tells Haridas’s quest for truth where he patiently pieces the missing information and finds out the identity of the killer.

Ranjith scripts and directs this movie based on the eponymous novel by T P Rajeevan. Ranjith uses Haridas as the narrator and embeds him in the action during the transitions from the present to the past in the initial part of the movie which effectively aids the viewer to orient to the quick changes in the era. Ranjith also has used theater artists for enacting the key roles. This helps in building the suspense as it is difficult to associate good or evil with a lesser known face. For older roles of the key characters, who are well into their 70’s, Ranjith has used Sreenivasan and T Damodaran. Ranjith’s favorite, Siddique, also acts adding to the list of well known actors in the movie. The brilliant part of adaptation is the introduction of Ahmed Haji at the interval. In the novel, Haji appears early on. While adapting, some of the key characters loses their significance. Their contribution towards the investigation comes as a big surprise for a person who has not read the novel. Also, the climax lacks impact.

Mammootty excels as Haridas and Ahmed Haji. While Haridas is a restless and confused man living in the modern times, Ahmed Haji is the arrogant feudal lord who can destroy lives callously. While Haridas is simple yet modern, Ahmed speaks in dialect which is prevalent in northern part of Kerala. Dialect is an easy and comfortable mask to wear for Mammootty. But it is often the lust and arrogance of Haji that pleases and surprises the viewer. Ranjith scores on how he decided to shoot these characters. He has decided to shoot all scenes of Haridas first. This is evident from the fact that Mammootty sports his trademark moustache as Haridas. Ranjith then shot Ahmed Haji who sports a Vaikkom-Mohammed-Basheer moustache. This would have required a lot of planning by Ranjith.

Shweta Menon impresses as Cheeru. She portrays the younger and older phases of the same character. As young Cheeru, she oozes sensuality not only with her body but also with her looks. As the old Cheeru, she has a slight stoop and an perpetual contempt for everything.

Bijibal’s music is loud at places. But mostly, it haunts and also heightens the suspense.

This is not suitable for viewing with kids as it has a lot of disturbing scenes.

Though this falls short of as a classic movie, it is still a noteworthy attempt in creating meaningful cinema.

Language: Malayalam

Genre: Thriller

Rating: ***

Picture Courtesy: www.nowrunning.com

Tags: Movies,Mammootty,Shweta Menon,Sreenivasan,T Damodaran,Siddique,Ranjith,T P Rajeevan,Bijibal,Thriller

Potty, books and newspapers

Recently, I overheard two girls talking. These girls are barely 4 years old.

Girl 1 (G1): Why did we stop the car here?
Girl 2 (G2): My dad wants to buy a book.
G1: *perplexed* Book? For what?
G2: My dad takes the book while going for potty.

G1 digested this information. As this sank in, she wore a content look. But, before long, G2 resumed the conversation.

G2: What about your dad and mom?
G1: My dad doesn’t. My mom takes a book while going for potty.
G2: Your dad doesn’t?
G1: *thinking for a bit* He takes the newspaper while doing potty!

We are teaching our children the importance of books and newspapers though we might not be teaching them the virtues of reading!

Picture Courtesy: http://www.casadavis.org/

Tags: Musings,Potty,Books,Reading

Selecting a laptop

Recently, a friend was asked to select a laptop by his girlfriend.Why is it always the guys in a relationship get to choose the laptop? Not that the  guys do not like to do this for their partner. But why do it have to the guys always? Let it as it may. This experience turned out to be very enlightening for my friend as it helped him understand the complex logic in which the opposite sex chooses a laptop.

The girlfriend had saved enough money for the laptop. Both of them work for the same company and has almost the same salary. Check my friend’s bank balance and you will be surprised to find that he barely has money to buy a toy laptop. Who said that the girls can’t save?

Being aware of the budget, my friend embarked on the journey to select the right laptop. The goal was simple – best configuration within budget. For the next few days, he researched on the internet for the best configuration available for the given budget. After deciding on the optimum configuration, he checked the prices on the websites of different manufacturers. He selected a Lenovo model after diligent research.

My friend do not believe in buying things off the internet. So, he then went to the various brick and mortar stores in the city looking for the laptop. Wherever he found the laptop, he negotiated with the salesman with the knowledge gained from the internet. Finally, he selected a famous retailer.

For the final approval, my friend brought her girlfriend to the store. Like a winner, he pointed at the Lenovo model and said, “That one”. The girlfriend did not respond and looked uninterested. Thinking that she had heard him properly, he pointed again and said loudly, “That one”.

She gave him the “duh” look. My friend raised his eyebrows. She responded, “I don’t want that”. Surprised and confused, my friend explained the pros of the laptop, bringing up the budget constraints as an additional aid in coercing her. She still was not interested.

My friend was devastated. Seeing the look on his face, the girlfriend said, “It is black. If they have it in pink, I will take it!”. My friend was dumb folded. Sensing his disappointment, she added, “I am okay with red too!”.

Lenovo’s loss is Dell’s gain. They bought a red Dell model.

Picture Courtesy: http://www.mobileedge.com

Tags: Musings,Lenovo,Dell,Laptop

Book: 2 States – The Story of My Marriage

Krish Malhotra and Ananya Swaminathan are class mates in IIMA. Soon, Krish and Ananya become friends. Krish is surprised and confused by Ananya’s closeness as he is not able to understand why the most beautiful woman in the campus is willing to be friends with him. The friendship blossoms into love. While their careers are being decided, Krish proposes to Ananya.

The boy and the girl are in love with each other. But as tradition goes, they both want the consent of their parents for marriage. This presents a three fold challenge.

1. The boy’s parents should like the girl.
2. The girl’s parents should like the boy.
3. The boy’s parent and the girl’s parents should like each other.

In order to complicate things further, Krish is a Punjabi while Ananya is a Tamilian. How Krish finally succeeds to marry Ananya by fulfilling all these conditions forms the rest of the story.

Chetan Bhagat is the author of this book which is based on his life. He uses the first person narrative and unfolds the story through Krish’s viewpoint. The theme is about the cultural clash. The North and South, while belonging to India, have different way of living and thinking. This provides the drama and also humor. Chetan might not be writing award winning prose. But he sure does know to entertain. The only flaw is using Hindi-film-inspired props to move the story ahead. Luckily they are very few. But like watching a Hindi movie, you read ignoring the cheesy feeling while encountering these props.

Go for it if you want to read something light and funny.

Picture Courtesy: http://www.chetanbhagat.com

Tags: Books,Chetan Bhagat

Dissecting a Recommendation Letter

An young colleague (YC) has decided to pursue higher education in US of A. As a result, he sent me his recommendation letters for improvising the content. Since I stopped my pursuit of education immediately after getting an engineering degree, I never had to undergo through this pain. After reading through the recommendation, I have a newfound respect towards both the writer and the reader. I am listing some of the excerpts in below in bold.

I have known YC for four years…as an active member of the Malayalee Association. But what is a Malayalee? Does a person sitting in Chico or Kalamazoo and reading this recommendation letter know about Malayalees?

What impressed me about YC right from the beginning is his high spirit and enthusiasm in everything he put his hands on! High spirits make sense. After all, Malayalees are a “spirit” loving people and the sales report of the beverages in the state can vouch for it. But what intrigues me is how the professor found out “everything” that YC put his hands on? The search for everything in the subsequent paragraphs were futile. There is no quantification of everything! It is open to interpretation.

His energy level is so high that everyone wanted his presence for making the function a success. YC is very modest. What can he do if the professor noticed the clamoring for YC’s presence!

He does not accept what he is told to him and asks questions to satiate his curiosity… YC may come across as a person having problem with authority. But we are like this only!

The major issue was attendance shortage. YC took it upon himself to counsel his classmates with a shortage of attendance and ensure that they henceforth attended classes and made up their attendance. WOW! Since I did not have anyone half as nice as you as my classmate, I had to rely on the shady overweight doctor running the clinic who was ready to write out an illness certificate for Rs 20.

Thus, I would say that YC has a very well rounded personality! Bingo! You got that correct. YC is in fact a well “round”ed person!

Picture Courtesy: http://www.apcweb.com

Tags: Musings,Young Colleague

Movie: Paa

Amol Atre(Abhishek Bachchan), a Member of Parliament and fast rising politician, visits King Edwards school on it’s 50th day celebration to judge the “Vision of India” contest. He is excited at seeing the entries and selects a white globe as the winner as it signifies a world without boundaries. When the prize is announced, Amol is surprised to see a 60 year old man coming forward to collect the prize. Amol is perplexed to see the prize winner behaves like a school going kid. The prize winner is Auro(Amitabh Bachchan), a 13 year old boy suffering a rare genetic disease named Progeria. Due to this genetic disorder, Auro ages rapidly and hence he looks older than his age. Auro leaves a lasting impression on Amol.

Auro lives with his mother Vidya (Vidya Balan) and his grandmother affectionately called Bum(Arundhati Naag). When Auro tells Vidya about Amol and his prize, she is shocked. Years back, Vidya and Amol were dating each other while studying in London. When Vidya gets pregnant, Amol is worried as he wants to concentrate on his political career. He wants Vidya to go for an abortion which leads to breakup between them. Vidya flies back to India, gives birth to Auro and raises him. Her mother is very supportive all along.

Slowly, Auro interacts with Amol over email and chat after Auro’s life gets disrupted by the latter’s school visit. Amol promises Auro to show him the Rashtrapathi Bhavan. After this, Auro is very excited and Vidya is terrified. Bum urges Vidya to reveal the truth. During the same time, Amol gets busy with a slum redevelopment project wherein the opposition and the media is not very friendly. How Vidya tells Auro about his father, how Auro reacts to his father, how Amol and Auro bond with each other and how society reacts to an unmarried MP’s new found status of parenthood forms the rest of the story.

R Balakrishnan aka Balki script and directs this drama. Like his earlier directorial venture “Cheeni Kum”, Balki builds emotional scenes using humor which makes this an entertaining movie without sounding preachy or melodramatic. Balki displays exceptional ability in handling kids as it is evident in all the scenes involving Auro and his friends. The conversations are brilliantly written and funny. The interaction with Auro and his group of friends brings the house down. In many scenes, Balki subtly shows that the care, concern and love towards Auro displayed by his friends. He bases his script on a few main characters. As a result, the screen is not overcrowded and the audience develops an intimacy with the characters. His script slightly loses track during the slum redevelopment campaign. In spite of the name “Paa”, the character of “Paa” is underdeveloped while “Maa” outshines.

Aided by PC Sreeram, Balki is able to create picture perfect scenes which are visually pleasing. Ilaiyaraja has reused his previously successful tunes in Tamil for the songs.

Amitabh Bachchan is barely recognizable with the prosthetics. The original voice of Amitabh is lost in the raspy mumblings of Auro. The prosthetics only do a fraction of job in transforming Amitabh to Auro. The rest of transformation is completed to perfection by Amitabh adopting the body language of a 13 year old. The height is the only minus point in this regard. Although Amitabh tries to slouch to cover up this anomaly, he is too tall. But, Amitabh overcomes this with a wonderful performance. His walk, the shrugging of the shoulder and his laughing at his joke are amazing to watch.

Vidya Balan gives a superlative performance as Auro’s mother. Be it the lustful look on her face after spending the evening in pub or reproachful look on her face when Amol touches her to console her, she displays wide range of emotions. This helps her is walking away with accolades in spite of Auro and Paa.

Arundhanti Naag as Bum is a revelation. Abhishek Bachchan and Paresh Rawal sticks to the script.

This is highly recommended and will provide an entertaining watch.

Language: Hindi

Genre: Drama

Rating: ***

Picture Courtesy: Bollywood Hungama

Tags: Movies,Amitabh Bachchan,Abhishek Bachchan,Vidya Balan,Arundhati Naag,R Balakrishnan,Balki,PC Sreeram,Ilairaaja, Paresh Rawal, Drama