Win-win

Formula One is becoming a win win game for me. Till last year there were very few moments when the race result would leave me satisfied. That was because ever since I started following the sport in 2001 I have had my favorite driver in my favorite team. Mika Hakkinen and later Kimi Raikonnen were both McLaren drivers. This year hence with Schumi finally vacating his Ferrari seat (realising that F1 will br much more exciting without him) to Kimi and Alonso at McLaren the race result always keeps me in good spirits. Past two races have sure been so. Lets hope it continues for the rest of the season.

Another one bites the dust

As the West Indies crashed out of this edition of the World Cup I once again felt remorse and sad. Many years ago (1994) is was the West Indies that lured me to become their biggest fan. That was the series against India which the Windies levelled in Mumbai after being one down in nagpur. It was the summer and I was at my uncles house and since I had nothing better to do was watching (grudgingly!) a Test match!

They say childhood influences last a lifetime. In that series I saw Walsh, Kenneth Benjamin, Anderson Cummins and a coupla other quicks. Lara, Chanderpaul, Hooper, Keith Artherton and Simmons as batsmen and a wickety called Junior Murray. I fell in love with their style and their flamboyance. I made it a point to learn more about them. Soon I was mesmerised by the bowling of Curtly Ambrose and the batsmanship of Brian Lara. Till today my favorite all time players are Ambrose and Lara. And I really wished that the semifinals against Australia went differently in 1996 when they lost by 4 runs. It would have given these two great players the highest honour due to them.

Over the latter half of the 90s they have gone through their lowest with a poor domestic structure and a lack of unity. The former has seen dirty linen being washed in public and the latter has seen players revolt on salaries and contracts. Combine that with a lack of one person to bring different islands together and you have a recipe for disaster. Clive Loyd was perhaps the last great unifier of West Indian cricket. Viv Richards to some extent but Lara is just not there as a people person.

But I am not completely disheartened because there is potential. The last two editions of the ICC Champions trophy has given proof though its not exactly a revival of fortunes they are capable of coming up with good cricket. It is also a fact that every dog his day. The Aussies were the whipping boys of cricket int he days of Merv Hughes and then came along Border who changed Aussie cricket. Similar is the story of what Cronje did after Kepler Wessels handed him the South African captaincy. What West Indies cricket needs is one person who can see ahead and build a team that will be world class a few years down the line. Till that time we will have to see the Windies whipped around.

Buck up dudes!

Poker and Walker ... a nice combination

Well this was not inspired by 'Casino Royale', the latest Bond flick. It all happened when I was in Mumbai last month for Avenues at IIT-SOM for Avenues 2006, a business simulation game. On the way back we Mandevians played poker. For me it was the first time. And at the end of two days and countless games I made a profit of Rs.2.00 Obviously the stakes were small with cover charges of 25p and a stop loss at Rs.20. Nonetheless it was a great experience. We didn't have tokens but Harshit Jain made good the absence with his chopdi (notebook)

A few days ago we played poker again in the basement of the hostel. This time it was different. First, it was international. We had participation from Belgium, France, Germany, Morocco and India. Second, there were tokens finally instead of the chopdi toting Harshit Jain. Third, we had Johnie Walker Black Label for company.

The exchange students were good players. Its a different thing that Verghese always ends up winning some. The tokens added to the jazz and the JWBL was superb. I decided to have the Scotch neat. Bloody smooth. Three large ones later I was still feeling good. And mind you, no hangover in the morning.

I was wiped out in the first round and went to play some table tennis. I returned later to play for Verghese and as lady luck would have it I had two aces in my hand and one round later I had another on the table. Undoutedly, I cleaned up a huge pot I dunno how much coz by then the Black Label had had its effect. As for the net winnings, as usual I broke even. No profit no loss!

L-R: Tim, Thibaut (both from Belgium), Slyvia (Italy, onlooker), Moi, Verghese (Indian reps!), Robert and Evaristo (both from Germany)

Hasan (Morocco) had gone to get some stuff hence not in the pic.

Project Lean (and Mean ;) !)

It seems that I have 14% body fat. (Calculate) . Though the method is crude and highly subjective, you can take it as a nice approximation. Evaristo, one of my friends from Germany has roughly 8% by the same calculation. And today I have decided to reduce body fat to single digits. For the past few weeks I have been on 'Project Cut-the-tummy'. Apparently fat around the waist doesn't go through ab crunches. It seems you can have a great set of abs hidden under layers of fat. Jogging, sprinting and aerobics will burn that fat away. And of course there is the good food habits that one must cultivate to eradicate fat. In keeping with this I have cut down heavily on the bad habits developed in the past 18 months at MDI:
(1) Insisting that my sandwiches have a 2-3 mm layer of butter
(2) Taking a slab of butter with anything and everything during breakfast
(3) Putting 2-3 tablespoons of refined sugar with my lime juice
(4) Eating all the oily stuff in the world
(5) Eating loads (and I mean huge loads) of rice

One might ask what prompted this change of heart. I happened to chance on one of my old photographs from 4-5 years ago. I had six pack abs then. I immediately stood up straight and looked down. I couldn't see my toes :( *shame-o-shame* It didn't help that friends here in the hostel had started pulling my leg about the portly tummy I had developed.

That was 2 weeks ago. The progress is good. I can see my toes now :) Hopefully in a months time I hope to burn the shit. Cheerio

Dharamsala trip (Chapter 9 - Mundane things & Alls well that ends well)

The small things that go on to make a great trip. Some bloopers ...

Me asking the receptionist: "Is this Dal lake the same as the one in Kashmir"
Harshit (after some apple cider) sees parallel water pipes between two cottages: "I din't know there was a railway track here"
Pradeep (when being told that Smirnoff was sold at 900 bucks a bottle): "We got it at McLeodganj for 400." We were subsequently driven off by the theka owner. I think word had then spread around that there were three guys who are easy targets for conmen. We bought some shitty liqour from this theka guy at a ridiculous price.

Watch this space for some more witty ones if I remember them.

We got a better deal when coming back. A straight bus to Delhi. 10 hours flat. 2 hours later we were back in the Hostel. It was a great experience. The month looks to be full of travelling. Im off to Mumbai on the 26th to represent MDI in 'Colloseum' at 'Avenues 2006' - The management fest of SJMSOM IIT Mumbai. It seems to be a nice trimester!

Finito

Dharamsala trip (Chapter 8 - Second day at McLeodganj)

St John of the wilderness is the oldest cathedral in North India. Built in 1853 it is known for its unique gothic style. The church grounds ar filled with coniferous trees and the whole atmosphere is still and calm. Also buried here is Lord Elgen, some Brit bigshot celeb of the 1800s.

Conifers!

St. John of the wilderness

Tibetian Childrens Village - is a school. We were just in time for their annual day celebrations. It was a great experience. When you enter the complex you feel like you are in the Collosuem. The accompanying music was great too!





From here we trekked to Naddi - supposedly the highest point of Dharamsala. On our way back we went through quaint villages.




And finally we visited the most famous landmark at Dharamsala - The Buddist Monastery and the home of the Dalai Lama.

The prayer wheels. Each wheel is filled with some prayers and everytime you roll the wheels, the person is granted the prayers in it. Wierd ... I turned the wheels without knowing whats inside! Just hope it was meant for some good.

The throne of the Dalai Lama. Pity he wasnt there!

Dharamsala trip (Chapter 7 - McLeodganj)

Well you just can't describe this place with words. You have to see it to believe it. The best part of the trip.

McLeodganj market

On the way to Bhagsur

The Bhagsurnath temple

Behind a cottage ... picture perfect

Trinetra cafe. Stop for refreshments

The trail to the waterfalls

The Bhagsurnath waterfalls

Shiva cafe ... last point for the trek ... about turn!!!

It was Old Monk for company. Kept us warm throughout the trek on a rainy day. Lunch was Tibetain. Tofu, Thuppa (tibetain noodles), Thukpa (clear soup), Tibetian bread and veggies. That was almost the end of day two.

Dharamsala trip (Chapter 6 - Dharamsala)

Some pics ...

Capturing evening in Dharamsala

What people here do for a living. We demand a course on this topic next term. Entreprenuership will have a new meaning!

The hotel which looted us ... Damn its the other way around here. Private hotels are cheaper!

The view in the morning. The small town on the mountain and the Himalayas in the background.

Dharamsala trip (Chapter 5 - The Gypsy Kings)

With Harshit at Jalandhar bus stand a.k.a East Berlin

With colourful experiences behind us we continued on our quest. The local vehicle dropped us finally at Jalandhar. The bus stand at Jalandhar looked like East Berlin from the past. Rubble and debris all over the place. Not that it did matter, what was worse was that there is nothing called an enquiry desk, no timetable, nothing. Just conductors shouting destinations. We took a bus to Pathankot. They screened a Punju movie 'Dhee Jatt Di' which mysteriously rewinded every now and then. If that wasn't enough, they started blaring Punju music. Punju music also runs along similar business models explained in the above post. There seems to be one singer (or all of them have a similar tone which seems unlikely!), there are standard beats, standard lyrics too. Most songs revolve around 'Pind' (village), 'mitran' (friends), 'daroo' (alcohol but whiskey in this case), 'gaddi / truck' and similar rustic themes. Such amazing levels of economies of scale. If only Indian manufacturing had taken a leaf out of the Punjabi music industry we would have beaten the Japs at concepts like Lean Manufacturing.

Enjoying 'Dhee Jatt Di' enroute to Pathankot - Cheap entertainment for cheapos ;)

Another striking feature is that Punjus have their personalised metric system to measure time. No two persons gave us a common estimate of reaching Dhramsala. Huge volatility in their estimates, ranging from as low as 2 hours to 8 hours!!! As usual I bow to their brilliance.

Pathakot is a lovely place. Alcohol is available at unbelievably low prices. Possibly because its a cantonment area. (Tip: If you wanna go on a holiday you know where to go!) With Old Monk for company ;) we boarded a bus to Gaggal. From Gaggal we took a bus to Dharamsala. Finally after 24 hours and million bus changing operations when we got down it was heaven. We felt like Gypsies.

After a 24 hour ordeal ... Finally in Dharamsala

We went to a Himachal Pradesh Tourist lodge. 440 bucks later we realised that there were cheaper options. What the hell. We resigned ourselves to Old Monk.

Dharamsala trip (Chapter 4 - The Great Indian Con Trick)

If you thought that was the last of the studboys you are wrong. Morning brought us to Ludhiana where the bus stopped. LS and HS announce that this is as far as the bus will go and that he will put us on a different bus to Jalandhar! Some of the passengers scooted. Others, around 20 of us stayed behind. To cut a long story short the bus driver was beaten up, the conductor called his henchmen and before we were witness to a bloodbath we also decided that it was in our best interests to hit the road.

Now lets spend some time on the business model of our studboys. First they have a variable charge for all the forty passengers. In this case, the fare ranged between 240 and 400. Expenses like border tax, road tax are dealt with by playing 'Good Cop - Bad Cop'. The driver is the Bad Cop who runs away with the bus stranding the conductor / owner with some passengers. The Good Cop cries in front of the police, it fits in because the anxious passengers are around who have no clue whats going on. Fortunately, the police in this case are Sardars too. They fall for it hook, line and sinker! The bus meanawhile heads on, the others hitch a ride (who cares anyway). Somewhere at a major city along the way comes the coup de grace! The studboys put you on a different vehicle to your destination, Downgrade you from a luxury bus to a local vehicle, Pay a nominal amount to the new guy and scoot off. Wonderful I must say and I was totally impressed by the conceptualisation, planning and implementation. Pity they don't teach strategy at BSchools!

Dharamsala trip (Chapter 3 - The kidnapping ... almost!)

The bus stops at the border and some of the passengers including Verghese get down for a chai / smoke, etc. After around 2 minutes, the bus driver LS, sudddenly locks the door, jumps into the drivers seat and veers off the road into the wilderness!!!

Me and Harshit startled as we are, rush to the cabin and question LS, telling him about our friend (verghese). LS assures us that all is well and in 5 minutes he will tell us everything. The bus meanawhile jets like crazy in what was a bullock-cart path. It turns sharply at corners wide enough to let two cows pass. All this would have been OK if the bus had its lights on. But LS was apparently playing Chor-Police in realtime with real cops. The bus lights, headlights, etc was all OFF. The bus was rushing through the fields now in the dark without headlights, occasionally turning on the lights to search for firm ground!!!

At the other end, the police who were negotiating with HS were stunned too! How can you leave your passengers behind?! they asked HS. The reply was even better,"My driver is mad. He drives off likes this and leaves me stranded too. I dont know what to do." I have to hand it over to HS. What a looney way to answer the cop. And before one thinks this to be jest guess what, the cop (Sardar that he is!) believes the reason and murmurs something about how he cant catch the bus now that it has disappeared!!! Crazy place!!! Hilarious people these Punjabis!!!

The first thought that went through my mind was that the 40 of us would be sold as slaves to the Pakistanis. Too Drastic!!! I toned the thoughts down to getting robbed at gunpoint and being left in the jungle. Verghese meanawhile was asked to hitch a ride to Jalandhar on a truck. Fortunately, the negotiations (Harshit, me and onearmy guy versus LS) worked and he finally stopped the bus in a quarry. Some phone calls later (obviously it was my phone) LS decided to head back and pick up the others who were left behind.

We pick up the others some distance before the border and again get into the bushes to avoid the police. As luck would have it the police caught us again. This time LS cooly tells the police that he bribed the police some distance down the road and he can collect his share from there!!! Talk about transperancy! After 90 minutes of nerve racking moments we were finally on the road again, towards Jalandhar.

PS: Due to the stress and anxiety of the situation we were not able to take pictures here.

Dharamsala trip (Chapter 2 - The studboys)

At ISBT, we found that there was no direct bus to Dharamsala due to Diwali. We would have to change buses. The best option was Pathankot. But one dingy agent with an open air office wanted us to tour Punjab. So he convinces us that he has our best interests in mind and tells us to go through Jallandhar. Ahem! we have no choice or as Subir would put it, our BATNA (Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement) was low. So we say WTF! How bad can it get! and trudged to the bus where we met the studboys.

Lets call them Laurel and Hardy Singh (LS & HS respectively). The driver, LS was a thin bearded sardar. Along with him was HS the conductor, a fat Sardar in three-quarters and sports shoes. If you heard them speak you would prolly think one (LS) was chanting prayers while the other (HS) was lamenting. HS's voice made him sound like the biggest loser in the world. He was almost crying at times. Little that we knew beneath the loser face and sad voice was a master strategist, logistics expert and a don at negotiation.

The vehicle used by the studboys. I'm sorry I don't have a picture of the studboys. The biggest loss of the trip!

We left ISBT towards Jalandhar at 10:30 odd. After some dozen stops at random petrol pumps where they keep on filling 10 litres of diesel (?) per stop, they realise that the police is following them in a jeep. At the last petrol pump HS gets into the police jeep and negotiates. The bus moves ahead of the jeep and reaches the border. Dunno which state we were crossing coz it was dark. The issue of negotiation was some tax which HS dint want to pay. It was irritating that we were stopping so frequently but I would not have complained only if i knew what was coming ahead.

Dharamsala trip (Chapter 1 - The plan)

Mid terms behind us, we decide to go on a random trip. Names of places come up like the participants of a beauty contest. The judges Harshit, Verghese and myself look at the only parameter to make the decision - Pranesh, who knows every nook and corner of North India (because thats all that he apparently did during his four years of engineering:))

After considering the budget, logistics and the sightseeing opportunities, we try to rope in some more guys to share the fixed costs :) . C'mon an MBA should help you somewhere! Unfortunately our marketing fails and the shared costs comes down to the taxi that Pranesh was taking to the airport :( So the three random guys that we are, we pack off our bags in the direction of Dharamsala.

Get Set Go! L to R - Harshit, Verghese and me

We reach the Inter State Bus Terminus (ISBT) and there we meet the studboys!

The greatest overtaking manoeuver ever

This is one of the best overtaking manoeuvers I have seen in F1. Obviously it involves one of my favorite drivers - Mika Hakkinen (the other is Kimi Raikkonen) and in my favorite team - McLaren.

This was at the SpA Francochamps in Belgium during the 2000 season where Mika overtook Schumi and Ricardo Zonta by zooming past the inside line. I won't say more. Watch the video for yourself.

Goodbye Kimi and all the best at Ferrari

Kimi Raikonnen moves to Ferrari next season. Though emotionally I would have liked him to remain at McLaren, rationally the time is just right for a change. Frankly I don't know whom to support next season. I have been a hardcore McLaren fan right since I started watching Formula One way back in 2000. Mika was the star at the Silver Arrows (It was sponsered by West) then and I took an instant liking to his style. It was a fight to the last race at the Japanese Grand Prix. Unfortunately Schumi won and Mika lost the opportunity to make it a hat trick. But what stood out was a 21 yeat old kid with just 23 race events to his credit in the Sauber car. People wondered what was about him that he had to be woken up from deep slumber 20 minutes before his maiden F1 GP. Nonetheless that kid impressed me with points on debut. Welcome Kimi Raikonnen!

Mika in the meantime had a listless season in 2001 with more engine failures and technical problems. One of those moments that will probably rankle in my mind forever was at the Spanish GP when with just a few hundred metres to go on the final lap, Mika's McLaren stalls! At the end of the season, Mika announced that the next year would be his year off. Though the sabbatical shocked many, since many thought that the Finn has much more racing left in him, Mika thought it best to leave when he was still regarded as a F1 great. And who was to fill in the shoes of the Flying Finn at the McLaren stable. Enter another Flying Finn! And so partly due to friendship and mostly due to talent Kimi replaced Mika.

The next seasons saw Kimi come close to winning the championship crown in 2003 when he and Schumi were separated by 2 points and again in 2005 this time with Alonso. If it were not for the Mercedes screwups, Kimi might have well been Champion in 2005. There were brilliant driving moments in all these seasons. Many times Kimi has started from the back of the grid and landed on the podium; something I consider the hallmark of a great driver.

Readers might wonder why I am not paying tributes to Schumacher, whom almost the entire world considers to be a legend. Well he is a great driver but I have a certain emotional thing for McLaren, my first love. It was the first team I truly enjoyed watching, be it pit-stop strategy, the flair of the drivers Mika and Kimi and also the colours of the car!

Which will make it very difficult for me to support a team next season, since Kimi will move to Ferrari. But then Kimi has a better chance to be World Champion at the RedDevils than at Silver Arrows. All the best Kimi, may you make history in the sport that is F1!

Mountain delight ... Part 7 All good things come to an end

It was a wonderful trip. I guess if one actually spent some time on understanding himself and others he would gain maximum benefit from the course. Some final pics.


Contemplative here ... looking at the mountains when Bhobe decided to use me as a guinea pig to test the finer points of Evaristo's cam!


Pranesh, as usual the stud of the North, seems to know all the Godforsaken places in the world. Here he led us to a steep cleft in the rock face which led to a place he called 'The Rock'. Me with my fear of heights decided not to do any 'chavagiri'. I lay down quietly on the rock with largest surface area. Great pic no doubt!

A jungle path behind the rocks!


Stepped mountain slopes.


Stepped slopes again!


And then it was evening. Time to pack up and head for the aademic rigour of MDI ... :(

Mountain delight ... Part 6 (Cliff capers ... Rock Climbing)

Rock climbing required a lot of understanding of the rock face to know where to put your foot. It also required more cheering / motivation and a lot of coaching. It tested the aspects of how well your team gelled together, and a leader as a coach. Pranesh led with strategy, Deepa led as a coach. 'Google' Guglani led as a motivator. Others coordinated the effort. I chipped in with my usual 2 cents. It provided us with many insights about ourselves. Above all it was a very physical activity.

We had to scale this


Another view of the same rock. This looks less scary!


My years at the pull-up bar at home came in handy when my turn came. Not too difficult considering the fact that I had an 'A' in Physical Training in School. I slipped once but the rope held me well. Finally I scaled the rock. Would have loved it if someone had actually taken a pic of me when I was climbing! :(


In the pic above, arms raised in victory.


The cheering party.


Other views of the valley below

Mountain delight ... Part 5 (Cliff capers ... Rappelling)

Rappelling was another exercise where we had two teams with one appointed leader. The idea was to observe how groups behave when the stakes are high, when risk is increased and to observe the transition from group to team. Different aspects of leadership were observed at different parts of the exercise and one had to seamlessly slip into those many roles. It was a good experience, since the feedback from the previous day really helped.

Myself .... shit scared at first, but took to the challenge. Dint follow the instructions of the observer. Got a lot of flak for that.

Got into the groove of things later on. Biggest grouse is that I dint smile for the camera. At this point I swivelled around twice, and banged the rock face. Minor bruises. Anyways I touched base soon. From base, it overlooked the valley below. A stronge breeze was blowing and standing there actually felt like you were lording over the area!

Base. The end point for the rappelling exercise.

Pic taken from base

Other views down the cliff

The surrounding mountainside


And some more of the mountainside

Mountain delight ... Part 4 (The morning after)

Well ill type less & let you just admire the beauty of the place

View from the resort of the valley below ...


The morning sun as seen through the branches of the trees in the resort.


Another one of those picture perfect moments...


Can you see the Himalayas in the distance? Look carefully. There is a faint hint of the snow capped mountains.


Self indulgence ...


We were here .... the lodge in the background. Foreground we had to use cheap models! Jetwani, Justice, Neta, Sameer Dhar.


Another view from the resort.