Actually, let me take a step back.

I was 6 months old when we won the 1983 World Cup. The only memories of that World Cup win is through multiple re-runs of Mohinder Amarnath trapping Michael Holding LBW and running like a nut with a wicket in hand towards the dressing room. The other enduring image was of Kapil Dev running back to take the catch of Viv Richards. And the final memory of that World Cup win was Kapil Dev lifting the cup. Those were good memories. The bad memory – Re-runs of interviews ad nauseam with Madan Lal, Mohinder Amarnath and the like.

We have come far. 28 years to be exact.

Ardent cricket fans of my generation (which included my friends and I) started watching World Cup cricket actively since 1992. The 1992 World Cup was a disappointment. We didn’t even reach the semi-finals. The 1996 World Cup was a mixed bag. We saw the blooming of Sachin Tendulkar into a great force, single handedly winning matches for India. On the other hand, I am still not able to decide which was more farcical – the Eden Gardens crowd going ballistic or Vinod Kambli crying off the pitch. The 1999 World Cup was very similar. The match with Zimbabwe (which eventually cost us a place in the Semi-finals) looked very shady. Sachin Tendulkar carried the burden yet again, scoring the highest runs in the tournament. The disappointment in losing the 2003 World Cup was not that great – we came across an Australian team which is easily the best side ever to have played cricket till date. I don’t remember any match of the 2007 World Cup (strangely?). I only know that we didn’t even make it to the Super Sixes.

Disappointments. Disenchanted fans. In the midst of all this, we had match-fixing scandals, ball tampering allegations, political shenanigans, the Chappell saga and the lot. I don’t know what kept our spirit going. What made us to continue to watch cricket, just like nothing happened? What made us believe in a team which disappointed us constantly? What made us trust the administrator who spouted the line ‘we are looking to build for the next world cup’ after every World Cup loss? (the building took 28 years to build, eh?)

Self-belief? Nope. Patriotism? Nada. We don’t watch any other game with as much zeal and enthusiasm as cricket. I believe one man held fort. One man made us believe that we could win. One man pushed his boundaries so that we could be a part of the action. One man made us hope against all hope. No, I am not talking about Shiv Sundar Das. The 1994 Titan Cup. The 1996 World Cup run getting machine. Desert storm of 1998. Playing through his Father’s death in the 1999 World Cup. Failed captaincy (captaining a team which wouldn’t even fit the India ‘C’ side today). A constant run-getter throughout his 21 years of international cricket, a delight to watch and a character to vouch for. Do I even need to say the name?

Things started to change during the Ganguly-Wright era. The commentators started saying “This Indian team has character’, ‘This Indian team is young and aggressive’ and ‘This Indian team has a lot of potential’. Ganguly had this uncanny knack of picking talent – Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Irfan Pathan, Md. Kaif who have all won matches for India, along with improved fielding. The Dravid-Chappell era consolidated the team, but couldn’t move it past a needle. The 2007 World Cup was the final nail in the coffin. We couldn’t get worse from that point onwards. Kumble’s period was too short to have a significant impact (although I do think his handling of the disgraceful Sydney test shaped this team in innumerable ways).

The Dhoni-Kirsten era (and its truly an era to remember) brought in more talent (Suresh Raina, R Ashwin, Yousuf Pathan etc.) to make this team a world beater (although I still do think that we are one world class fast bowler short).  The T20 World Cup, No. 1 Test ranking, consistent performances (and wins) across all formats in almost all geographies. The final frontier remained. The World Cup was the one to win. To savor. A pinnacle to be scaled.

We have always had a batting line-up which was great on paper. They have flattered to deceive for 20 years now. Not this time. We defeated a fragile West Indies, a tenacious Australia and a volatile but dangerous Pakistan. They were all previous World Champions. Only one former World Champion remained. Sri Lanka in the Final. 275 was a formidable target. 275 in a World Cup final, under lights, with a huge home crowd to support/boo you depending on how the scales swing is more like 325-330 in normal circumstances. To be fair, Jayawardene played a master class innings to guide Sri Lanka to a very good score. I guess we were shell-shocked with the huge hitting in the end where we leaked close to 100 runs in the last 10 overs. It was time to show ‘character’, ‘aggressiveness’ and be worthy of champions.

And Champions we became. After the early departure of Sehwag and the sublime Tendulkar (who looked set for a 100, till that ball), Gambhir and Kohli steadied the innings magnificently. Dhoni’s bold move to move up the order (bold and risky – he would have been pilloried if that move had not come off) paid off big time. With that huge six, Dhoni had put a full stop to a sentence. We did it. We scaled the pinnacle. Sachin got his deserved run around the ground. Indians deserved this win after all the heartbreaks of the previous years. The adrenaline ran high yesterday. It is still running high. This is probably the best time to conduct a happiness survey in India. We might just come out on tops.

Yes We Won.

Yes We are the World Champions.

Yes Sachin deserves every piece of the World Cup win.

As for me, I don’t care anymore if we win any other matches or any other tournaments in the future. This was the final frontier for me as a fan. Nothing beats (or would beat) the feeling I had when we won the Cup yesterday amongst a huge crowd of friends. A memory to cherish. A tear to appreciate. And the 1000 watt smile when you get up in the morning that says it all.

Yay! Forget the banality ‘cricket is the real winner’. We are the winners. Let us gloat for a while. We deserve it for 28 years of starvation. We are well and truly the 2011 Cricket World Cup Champions.

I updated the list (finally!).

Fav Books

Two Non-Fiction, One Fiction and One in the Behavioral Economics category

1. iWoz – Steve Wozniak (Fascinating insight into one of the world’s premier minds) (Non-fiction)
2. Go, Kiss the World – Subroto Bagchi (Wisdom personified!) (Non-fiction)
3. Dilbert and the Way of the Weasel – Scott Adams (you’ll laugh till your stomach hurts. Must read for the corporate types. Easily the most hilarious after PGW) (Fiction)
4. Predictably Irrational – Dan Ariely (Tremendously insightful read) (Behavioral economics)

Fav Movies

All released in 2010. All in the General category.

1. Inception (Who could have ever thought Nolan could surpass The Dark Knight – this is mind-blowing! I didn’t want the movie to end)

2. The Social Network (racy, contemporary, excellent!)

3. Toy Story 3 (You really got to admire Pixar for its excellence and perfection – for the 3rd time!)

4. How to Train your Dragon (Animation and a beautiful story – just loved the movie!)

Yes, you heard that right.

Let’s not bother.

On the eve of the kickoff of the Hockey World Cup in New Delhi, multiple thoughts cross my mind. First and foremost, how many Indians know that a hockey world cup is going on, vis-à-vis how many Indians would know that a cricket world cup might be going on in 2011? My guess – roughly about a billion.

Has anyone heard of Shiva Keshavan? I had not heard of him till I read this article. Seemingly, he is one of our brightest stars to win the Luge championship in the ongoing Vancouver Winter Olympics. The plight of Shiva Keshavan and the Indian player contingent is very evident from reading that news report (summary: they didn’t have money to buy matched uniforms during the opening ceremony). Can it get worse? Yes it can. Similar to the theme of Summer Olympics in 2008, the Indian contingent has more officials than players in the Winter Olympics too. What’s even worse is that a Kashmiri hotel owner is part of that contingent (moneyquote: Mir (hotel owner) is supposed to be aiding armyman Tashi Lundup (cross country skiing), whose actual coach was sidelined to accommodate him). How impressive!

My postulation of not bothering with other sports has nothing to do with insulting the sportsmen of my country. They have probably come up against every barrier possible, human or otherwise, and have yet been successful in their own way. They made India proud in multiple tournaments, least of all, South Asian Games (but more appropriately, Indian sub-continent games if you look at the countries involved) where we are the leading medal winners. But we are a nation who adores heroes – Olympic heroes to be more precise, in which we have come up way short in international competition. But then again, who am I kidding? Except for Abhinav Bindra, does anyone remember which sport Vijender won an Olympic medal in? How about Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore? Faint memory perhaps. Not even that?

We Indians love to complain, don’t we? We love to talk about incompetent and inefficient administrators who have corrupted the sport – but over a cup of hot chai and with a cricket match on. We can brood about the hockey team not getting their pay cheques on time or Saina Nehwal not getting a visa to participate in a prestigious badminton tournament – but in our comfortable armchairs in a group conversation. We complain about enough youngsters not taking up different sport other than cricket – but we will not allow our kids to take up other sports seriously. Yes, we are like that only.

We also tend to blame it on unequal media attention of other sports and try to wash our hands off.  But media being media, respects, adores and worships heroes. The nature of the beast is such. The day Sachin Tendulkar completed his 20 years in international cricket was also the same day Dilip Tirkey played his 400^th international hockey match. Did we care about the latter achievement? I hardly did. I however did read up as many columns as possible on Sachin’s illustrious career. We also bemoan the fact that MNCs and other Indian corporations do not promote other sports (in fact, they are in talks to buy an international club in a non-cricket related sport). The only question is – what incentive do these corporations have to promote any other sport in India other than cricket which gives them the largest number of views per rupee spent? I am forced to agree to that rational argument.

My point is this. Let’s not bother about complaining about other sports. The more money we pour into the game, the more money goes into corrupted officials and administrators’ pockets. We do not have incentives at the infrastructure or at the educational level for young sportsmen in this country. Even the much adored game of cricket has a ton of lost and forgotten heroes in the Ranji trophy. It is not in our psyche to promote sports – at any level, except the international level; on any sport other than international cricket (Yes, once in a while, a Sania Mirza comes up who hogs limelight for her engagement, but very very far and few in between). As much as we have tried to glamorize hockey (our National sport, heh!) in the Premier Hockey League (PHL), many of us do not know the names of teams in PHL? How many of us know the upcoming stars in Boxing, Shooting, Chess, Tennis among other sports?

Let’s not break our heads. Let’s not try to remember all these stars or obscures. Frankly, who has the time?

Let’s stick to our core competency. Education and Watching international cricket. The rest be damned.

P.S – I had a friend of mine who contended that North Korea and Africa have a lot more Olympians inspite of no infrastructure/money and far less proportion of population compared to India. Agreed. But then, again they have no cricket to deal with. Secondly, imagine the number of Olympians from their countries if money was actually pumped in?

P.P.S – It’s of no use complaining or preaching to the government. Really. They care more about Sachin’s 200* than a famous Olympian (yes, including Abhinav Bindra).

COMPETITIVE SECTION

Oye Pappe Pyar karke pachtaya

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_xOnTzk7mc&feature=player_embedded

Crazy Prakash

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efQULGc174c&feature=player_embedded

Chaal pe Chaal

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hv8H8KDYdSM&feature=player_embedded

The Biscuit

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCr2Z2MY6X0&feature=player_embedded

Middle Class Desires (brilliant!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGb6wUrNyAA&feature=player_embedded

What’s for Lunch

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKna2DZ1OPI&feature=player_embedded

Elevator

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pI6YLjWPQA&feature=player_embedded

Disturbance

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCjFlCx3xhI&feature=player_embedded

Love @ First sight

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9paksuEzHo&feature=player_embedded

The Game

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDEjejjG1fQ&feature=player_embedded

Munni (brilliant!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwOf3emsevc&feature=player_embedded

Bark (poignant)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIehp76l0yI&feature=player_embedded

Ice cream (brilliant, rofl!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlHMLblm2mE&feature=player_embedded

The Last Minute

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEMlczgS0Og&feature=player_embedded

Independence

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWiQYzeoorE&feature=player_embedded

First Love (awesome camera work)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tr3CbuLccHI&feature=player_embedded

Noiscesser (rofl)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ky1EzI__Hbg&feature=player_embedded

The Visitor

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FG8iZf6FCmk&feature=player_embedded

The Emergency (funny!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iPVjCEJXbQ&feature=player_embedded

Warped (awesome!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzDXIe2CRDk&feature=player_embedded

OPEN SECTION

Nazariya -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKqFSTtvU9w&feature=player_embedded

Blood Element -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QC1GLkHF9lE&feature=player_embedded

The Story of a Cup -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwQfRNoV-lE&feature=player_embedded

Chinnu (brilliant, so many messages within this!) -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwlPVXRc2HA&feature=player_embedded

Walk the Talk -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZ78wwU4LnU&feature=player_embedded

Breaking News -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_pTntPnb2s&feature=player_embedded

Inner desires (whoa! Awesome!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0drfv_Ce20

]]> http://kirandhanwada.com/2010/01/09/passion-for-cinema-1-minute-movies-brillaint/feed/ 1 http://kirandhanwada.com/2009/08/10/chess/ http://kirandhanwada.com/2009/08/10/chess/#comments Mon, 10 Aug 2009 02:51:29 +0000 Kiran http://kirandhanwada.com/?p=300 I love the game.

Of all the indoor games I have played over the years, Chess is probably the most intriguing and fascinating games. I am still a game freak (indoor, outdoor, video) but I have not come across any game with as many variations and thought processes as Chess. 64 squares on the board leading to a million combinations to a checkmate – it’s certainly a dream come true of a maniac.

I had been introduced to Chess by my grandpa. I was 6 I think, when I was introduced to the magical 64 squares. My grandpa was a fantastic player of Chess, as I later realized. He had a very unique way of teaching Chess, which I never understood and I thought he was a very average player.

-          He let me win. Every game. No questions. He somehow found a way to get his king to get mated.

-          He stressed on elegance in winning. Killing everything on the board would do, but I would get a strong nod of disapproval from him. I still won though.

-          He asked me to play with one piece at a time. Pawns aside, I had to play a game with the Queen only, another with the Rook only and another with Bishops and Knights only. I used to have great fun with the Queen raiding through his defenses (no pun intended) but used to cringe at the game of using only Bishops and Knights. I won every game again.

-          He then asked me to play in combinations. Queen and Rooks, Queen and Bishops etc. I never understood what was going on. But then, you see, I was winning. I didn’t care how I played as long as I was winning. I listened to him, and won. Period.

He passed away after a while (I was 13 by then). I still thought that he was a very average player, and I had become a master at chess. One day, during some conversation, a family member mentioned that he represented his district in chess or something like that. I was shocked at this news. I underestimated his caliber terribly and missed the lesson totally. May be.

Or may be not. I personally think that for anyone to get interested in a game, he/she has to win it. Atleast initially. Nobody wants to end up on the loser side – and if you do lose when you are just starting out, the person is just as likely to quit playing the game. My interest in chess was high because I was winning initially. Lesson One.

I still didn’t understand what was with all the Queens and Rooks and combinations. I then hit upon Viswanathan Anand vs Gata Kamsky matches that were being telecast on TV. I was watching them very intently, although I didn’t have a clue how someone could think 10 moves ahead as was being said by the commentators. They were mentioning various openings and defenses like King’s Pawn opening, Sicilian Najdorf, Nimzo-Indian defense etc. I wanted to learn about these openings and I grabbed a book from the library. To my surprise, I had already learnt about 3-4 strong openings, courtesy grandpa. Lesson Two.

Then, peer pressure took over. I was winning as well as losing. I encountered some amazing players of chess. Losing was indeed frustrating, but with every loss I learnt something. My interest in chess, surprisingly shot up after I started losing to these remarkable players. I wanted to beat them. I learnt more, read more and practiced more. Lesson Three.

Why am I incessantly rambling on my growth in Chess? Well, for one, I love the game of chess and wanted to dedicate a blog to it. Secondly, there was a catalyst. The other day, I attended this Chess club at my place for the first time. I played against some rated players – won some, lost some, all part of the game. Then, this father-son duo walk into the club. The father goes ‘Well, my son has just started learning. He knows Queen’s raid, Two Knights defense, Sicilian Najdorf, Queen Pawn opening and Berlin defense. I hope he can become a rated player soon’. I was stunned to hear all that, to say the least. Firstly, the son has just started learning. He has to learn to enjoy the game (pivotal) and for that he has to win (lesson one). Playing him against rated players will just kill the fun. Secondly, all the openings and defenses mentioned need a lot of memorization of moves. Every move in those openings have a reason attached to them. Just memorizing those moves, without understanding the intent would leave one massacred if the opponent deviates from the text. For understanding the reason behind the move, it is critical to understand how different pieces interplay with each other (lesson two). Without lesson one and two, it is just pointless to push the person to become a rated player. Although I should not be commenting on how one should conduct oneself, it seemed to me as though the father wanted to live his dream through his son. Very wrong, in my opinion.

Chess is to be enjoyed, both by young and old. We need not decide kingdoms like the old kings used to, over a game of chess. As Blaise Pascal said, Chess is well and truly the gymnasium of the mind. It’s an extremely tantalising (easy to understand the basics, extremely difficult to master it) game. Play it and enjoy it.

]]> http://kirandhanwada.com/2009/08/10/chess/feed/ 2 http://kirandhanwada.com/2009/07/20/skydiving-t-shirt/ http://kirandhanwada.com/2009/07/20/skydiving-t-shirt/#comments Mon, 20 Jul 2009 04:02:32 +0000 Kiran http://kirandhanwada.com/?p=287 Thanks to my good friend Pavani who was googling for god knows what, my article on the skydiving experience on July 4^th was selected as the ‘Article of the Month’ on the US Skydiving website, AccerelatedFreefall.com.

I don’t even know how they got to this article – probably they were trolling through the Internet for skydiving articles or somebody submitted my article to them. If it was the latter, then thanks a lot. I would personally be thankful if you can identify yourself.

They are bestowing this honor (*drumroll*) with a skydiving t-shirt that is on the way. Woo Hoo!

Here’s the link where they published my article in full along with their comment.

http://www.acceleratedfreefall.com/blog/skydive-west-point-review-by-kiran-dhanwada.html

Yes, it was bloody awesome, thrilling and exhilarating.

Yes, the money ($239+$99(video)) was totally worth it.

Yes, it was the best adventure I’ve had till date. I have not done Bungee yet. Even then, I don’t think Bungee will beat this.

And yes, I am still as excited as a little kid with his favorite toy, even after 24 hrs of the skydive.

Enough said.

July 4^th weekend is one of the more eagerly awaited long weekends in North America. While the citizens bask in the summer sun and the glory of their Independence, the desis proudly go about their trips to Niagara Falls, New York and Las Vegas. The bright skies and warm weather brings out the best in people. It surely brought about the craziness in me. I decided to skydive.

Skydiving has been one of my long cherised goals – well, around 2 years is quite long enough I think. As a good desi, I also had plans to trip up to NY and explore the Modern Art Museum for 2 full days. However, due to unforeseen circumstances, I couldn’t make it and ended up disappointed for most of Thursday and better part of Friday. And then, the idea struck and it didn’t take much effort to convince a couple of my friends that the best way to spend such a weekend was to skydive.

We arrived at SkyDive Westpoint at around 3 in the afternoon. As was the case in most of the tourist hotspots in the US on this weekend, we encountered a long queue of people who wanted to skydive too, and I ended up being slotted in the 6′o clock skydive. I killed 3 hrs, don’t ask how.

Skydiving has two streams, so to say. Tandem skydiving, wherein an experienced skydiver straps the novice (me) and skydives. The second stream, is the Accerelated Free Fall (AFF) where the diver jumps all by himself. As you would have guessed, I chose tandem skydiving.

We finally boarded the flight at 6′o clock. My tandem instructor, Mario from Argentina was a crazily funny guy. Before we boarded the flight, he came up to me and said (in a baritone voice) ‘hey, why do you want to skydive on this wonderful Saturday? Guess you didn’t have anything much to do, eh? Ha ha ha ha ha’. I was lost for words. Anyways, the flight started its ascent. 1000 ft, 2000 ft….(an altimeter is part of the gear for any skydiver), my nervousness increased in exponential proportion to the increase in height. Beyond 8000 ft, everything looked very tiny and at this point, I frankly didn’t care if it was 10000 ft or 12000 ft as they had advertised. They decided to exceed customer’s expectations like a good company and the other skydivers started jumping off the plane not until the plane reached 14000 ft. So there. I was incredibly happy and delighted as a customer, only short of hitting the manager of the company. I was shit nervous.

Mario, for his part, strapped me on well and checked the gear thrice. Then he says, ‘Anything goes amiss, don’t blame me. I did my due diligence’ and winks. I suddenly remembered the Fed for some strange reason and by the time I realized we were the last one to get out, right near the exit. Our cameraman was Bret, a young chap who was absolutely crazy about skydiving. And then Mario went, ‘One (move in the front), Two (arch back like a spring) and Three (jump)’ and…we were off the plane.

Thrilled? Excited? Scared?

The first thing I realized once I got off the plane was the cold air that hit my face. It was very cold up there at 14000 ft. The second thing I realized was the speed at which I was falling, more like hurtling down at 120 miles per hr (that by the way is the actual speed at which you fall). I looked down and went ‘Oh shit, Oh shit, Oh shit…aaaaaaaaaa (to infinity)’. I never realized Virginia was so beautiful till I was looking around, seeing the huge lake directly below me, the greenery all around and of course, death in near vicinity and only 10000 ft away. Bret for his part managed to come near us, shoot the video while making various antics along with Mario while I didn’t know whether to laugh, scream or just faint. The view, the speed, the thrill – it was breathtaking.

Off We Go

The freefall continued for about 60 seconds. In those 60 seconds, I screamed like never before, moved like never before and enjoyed like never before. I then understood the slogan for skydivers ‘The Ultimate Thrill’ in its truest sense.

After hurtling about 8000 ft in 60 seconds, as instructed before, I was supposed to open the parachute at 6000 ft. I was lost in the entire thrill and Mario prodded me to open the parachute and I did. If you have never experienced a perfect spring ball action, this is it. The moment I opened the parachute, I was pulled up, probably 300-700 ft, like someone up there pulled me from dropping on the earth. Mario, very gracefully, handed over the parachute reins to me for some time while he cracked wild jokes. After about 5-7 mins of gliding through the air, we were about to land when he took over the reins of the parachute again and landed safely.

The entire experience was totally surreal and exhilarating. It was an experience of a lifetime. Will I ever do it again? Well, it’s anybody’s guess.

Here’s the link to my skydiving video (for some copyright background music reason, am not able to upload it onto youtube).

http://www.motionbox.com/videos/7a9dd8b31e1de2c1f5

]]> http://kirandhanwada.com/2009/07/06/skydiving-experience-the-ultimate/feed/ 0 http://kirandhanwada.com/2009/06/29/random-thoughts-2/ http://kirandhanwada.com/2009/06/29/random-thoughts-2/#comments Mon, 29 Jun 2009 01:04:13 +0000 Kiran http://kirandhanwada.com/?p=270 1) The big news of the past week was obviously the death of ‘King of Pop’, Michael Jackson. While the real and virtual worlds were debating on the ‘greatest ever’, ‘best ever’ etc, all odes and tributes aside from millions of fans from the world over, I had this wonderful little gtalk conversation with my friend A, who was well and truly upset at the death of MJ. ‘A’ is usually a very objective, business-oriented guy. Read on to find out the other side of ‘A’ I found it funny!

A: i can’t believe he’s dead  so sad

me:   i think u shud fly to LA for the last rites

A: it’ll be unbearable

Now, i’ll just think its all a dream

infact, i’ll try and fool myself that he’s alive

me:

A: anyway, he’s a legend which can never die

me: i think u shud visit a temple or smthg and meditate for sometime :

A:   u think i’m crazy?

me: lol, no, really

A: he’s a magician dude

not just his music, dance, singing but also his capacity to mesmerize billions all over

look at his fans during his tours, the girls have orgasms literally dude

me: Baltimore MJ sangham start cheyyi {‘A’ lives in Baltimore and I am advising him to start a MJ club}

me: maannn this is like made for the media kindaa situation, exploitin to the hilt

A: you got to be a fan to understand

i understand  :)

me: cha!  :)

A: is that it? is this all there is for life?

work your ass off, succeed, get money fame etc and then finally, thats all you get?

very unfair dude

me: 3000 yrs ago…Bhagawad Gita – same message

2) Watched ‘The Hangover’ and ‘Transformers’ over the past weekend. ‘The Hangover’ is an extremely funny movie, too gross in certain parts but funny nevertheless {Never ever watch this movie with your parents/kids}. ‘Transformers-Revenge of the Fallen’ is easily one-of-its-kind movies, especially with the IMAX experience that I went through. The grouse as usual from the media was that it was all fight and no story. Cars and Motorcycles morphing into AutoRobots – and you expected a story? Really? The graphics are mind-blowing and so is the cinematography. Watch it for sure, preferably in IMAX.

3) With news such as this trickling in, we are well on our way to our past of splintered princely states, this time managed by the well and truly proven morons of the world. Why just states? Let’s split them into different countries and see where it takes us!

Experienced, what I think, is a very profound perspective over the past few days -

- There are no good decisions or bad decisions. There are only different trade-offs for every decision you make.

- For every decision you make, the other side of the decision becomes just a work of fiction, memory of ‘what-could-have-been’ in the long run.

As I was walking down one of the aisles in Wal-Mart the other day, I noticed a wide range of cornflakes – some new brands placed alongside the older ones. This led me to think about the Marketing Management course that I had studied in my MBA, especially the AIDA concept espoused by Philip Kotler.

AIDA is an abbreviation for

A – Awareness (for eg., that a iPhone exists)

I – Interest (that iPhone has n features and its good to have)

D – Desire (I totally want to own a iPhone)

A – Action (I buy a iPhone)

AIDA framework is generally used in the field of products, services and advertising. I extended the concept here to relationships in my overdrive.

That translates to -

A – Awareness that you exist

I – Interested in you. I gotta check compatibility and stuff, but in general conversations etc, I like you and am interested.

D – The entire set of checks and balances, due diligence, compatibility etc. done from my side. I totally desire you and want to be with you.

A – Action, essentially, Proposing.

So, how does this framework work out? Let me explain with an example.

Awareness is the easiest part. I know her. She knows me. For simplistic purposes, let’s assume we meet once in a while and have each other’s phone numbers through which we converse regularly.

Interest is where I try to determine whether she is a good fit or not – in terms of emotional and compatibility issues, interests, general view of life etc. A relationship can only go forward if both parties (that is, me and her) are atleast in this phase. If I determine that the girl is not interested in me, nor do I have a chance in hell in the future, I can cut my losses by not investing any more of my time and effort in further pursuing this girl. At any rate, even if she says ‘I don’t know’, I will atleast know that I have a chance if I can invest time and effort to convert the ‘I don’t know’. People usually jump from Interest to Action, a critical mistake and in which case success rate might not be that high.

Desire – For a relationship to be successful, atleast one of the parties should quickly move to this phase. This is a necessary but not sufficient condition for the relationship to go forward. In this phase, one party would have invested pretty heavily and hopefully he would have had the girl in the ‘I’ phase. Pursuing her through the right means will lead her into ‘D’ phase. Subsequently, move in to the ‘A’ phase.

Action – As much as you think she is in ‘D’ phase, proposing would take guts. Apart from the minute fear of rejection (rarely, unless you have misread her to be in ‘D’), there is also a factor of how, when and where to propose. Easier said than done, but not as ambiguous as the ‘I’ and ‘D’ stage. This along with Awareness stages are very clear in terms of expectations and results.

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