All the World’s a Home

The other day I could not help my tummy ache when my friend told me that his nephew wants skates for both his ‘feet’. We talked further and I was quite sure that the little boy might have observed a single skate board in some movie or on the idiot box and so wanted to specify which one he exactly wanted. My friend did prompt for a half assertion as he excused of being unaware of the child psyche. Neither do I master it, but this was what I could gather after spending a good time with my three cousins all full time imps. We talked further over our human mobility defining devices called as mobiles and I gradually turned him to ask whether he got something for the family or his naughty nephew who really deserved something from his ‘chachu’ (who had been loitering away in the streets of LA, enjoying the snow of the SF; read San Francisco and romancing with the beauties on the sand and sun of Maldives). And guess what? All that he had to answer was a big ‘No’. I really complimented him on his brazen remarks and he took it with pleasure. God! Friends are one thing in the world who even if beaten up a million times cannot get better for the less. At last tired of all the rebuking I had to willingly ask him what the reason was exactly. He reluctantly answered that was no such thing that was unavailable in India. “Even if you talk about the international brands which though I don’t feel like spending a penny over is available there in any of the glammy glittery showrooms of Delhi or even be my own work place Hyderabad.”, he said. I did ponder over it for a while and then lost in my reverie I could see that my dear friend was quite right. I remember on my trip to Bangkok the only thing I could find useful was five kgs of chocolate for which I almost emptied the shelves of the mall and none of which I wanted to give away to my team mates (as they yearned for it after having lost the opportunity of buying them as they had forgotten that this too could be taken home as token of gesture); some key chains with their national animal elephant made on it and a piece of the traditional garment ‘su’. I must admit that my friend is right on his opinion (it’s just that I like pulling his leg every time I find an opportunity to). Goodness gracious, if I talk about another instance it was my brother’s friend whose daddy went to a place in may be US if I am not wrong to get him an English willow and ended up finding a cricket bat ‘Made in India’. Blame it on the globalization; I think India has a better grip over the world than ‘Osama’. You can see many Indians tattooing the butts of totally white and totally black beauties and at the same time you can see whites and niggers selling away ‘Bhagwad Gita’ in the Iskon temples in Delhi We have everything from every nook and corner of the world and every Indian specialty hovering over the globe – be it the ‘curries from the kitchen of Sir Noon’ or ‘Dr. Sanjay Gupta assisting the US President’ or ‘The Pussycat Dolls displaying the Indian dress up’. What all you need is a plastic card that can shell out an ample amount of cash for you at any point of time. So, next time you want to go out for a holiday, you just need tickets for the destination and look out for the rarest of the rarest thing that might be unavailable in your motherland. What else can I say – shopping bags are avoidable on an overseas trip!!

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you r always blessed with what you desire for

Management in movies
Management today is a term that is regarded relatively as a broad spectrum phenomenon that has taken the whole world by its side. From the kitchen menu of an ordinary suburban human settlement of a developing economy like India to the allays of the 9, Pennysylvania- The White House everybody is engrossed in this adjustment of their time schedule and regulation of even a handful of people or things or events, whatsoever may be the case. B-schools have flooded the market and an MBA degree is a mandate be it a graduate, a medical practitioner, an engineer or a lawyer. The curriculum of this course offers a kaleidoscopic variety of subjects and chapters that could be taken up. The best B-schools all over the world are trying to provide a plethora of activities to make the entire course a bouquet of experiences and learnings. A relatively new discipline it is considered as the most flexible and the most sought after field and is selling almost like hot cakes. Everyday new concepts and ideas cascade the market to be adopted as a teaching method. And there is one thing that has emerged as a recent vogue practice and that is management through movies. Audio-video modes have always been a superior way to impart education as whatever we visualize and hear in our vicinity is what we imbibe the maximum. And movies throughout the international arena have been able to win accolades for their masala and magic. The utopian institutes like the IIMs have shown an inclination towards movies like Lagaan and Corporate. Lagaan, a unique example of team work, belongingness, loyalty, sportsmanship has a serious impact on the viewer as to how to opportune over a deal which might come your way and grab hold of it hard enough to make it your ultimate destiny. A plain but a solid view of the importance of the five separate fingers which indicate diversity and the stride that binds those fingers and presents the unity in diversity was sequenced in a manner which is rare and extreme. Corporate, a Madhur Bhandarkar brainchild depicts the actual corporate scenario, the plots, the plannings, the ditching of relationships for an organizations growth and the dirty games that are often a part of this oddessey named the corporate. Lakshay is another such military saga that defines the nuances of the managerial building blocks like motivation(positive when the guy is in the battlefield and negative when the journalist Preity shuns Hrithik and then he discovers the real answer to his ‘main aisa kyun hoon’ doubt), learning, group task and attitude in the work field (read battlefield). One more feather to the cap is the ‘Team India’ spirit that comes up in the whacky and barbaric; ready to scratch each others hair from their scalp type of fourteen wild girls who mollify down to a brigade of confident gals who are ready to conquer the globe- by hook or by crook in Chak De. The spearhead is the coach Kabir Khan (aka Shahrukh) who gels up the bewildered menace of girls into an entity and steers them to perfection displaying the most outstanding instances of leadership skills; reminiscent of a true story of India winning the women’s hockey World Cup under the label of an unfortunate captain who was once termed a traitor after losing a finale with the rival country Pakistan and who patiently waited for time to come and then fought back in the end. Another undisputable story is of Guru Bhai who defines himself as a ‘no big man’ lest a simple ‘baniya’ who wants to earn profit and offer the maximum to his stakeholders. A step by step planning and an utmost display of confidence, prudence and passion by a school dropout shows how focused a man can be to achieve what he actually wants. Along with this what favors him is his lady luck and blessings of thousands of employees who have freed themselves from the debts by the profit they earned from the shares of the industries owned by Guru. Its famous oneliner-‘agar koi tumhare khilaf bole to samjho tarakki kar rahe ho’ explains how an opposite blow of wind can make a man more determined to accomplish his dreams leaving the rest to cry over their spilt milk. If you watch it as an entertainer it is a soft romantic feature film but in reality it showcases the crux of life with its heart touching dialogues. Imtiaz Ali would have never thought that he with his maiden baby production Jab We Met would create something that would reveal the real jest of life. A person always gets what he wants, time spent, whether good or bad was spent so that it could be cherished forever, its not always essential to be serious in life, take your own decisions and never regret them are some of the to-be-grabbed-soon stuff from the movie which can contour the troughs and crests of the path and help you to move on. Slumdog Millionaire, another magnificient Box-Office champion that helps to witness a very uncommon and exemplary idea of disaster management where the boy from the slums is able to compile all his underdog situations into answering a quiz show and embraces the most coveted crown of becoming a country’s first game show millionaire just by using his wits as when required. A perfect example of radical decision making- the entire story gives each man a food for a thought. On the global podium movies like The Troy is a rendezvous to strategic management where instances like the entry of the Trojan horse, hiding and fighting in the Apollo dome, war negotiations of challenging Paris who was good enough to love the princess of Troy –Helen but had the least guts on the battlefield tell you the tricks to let your competitor fall an easy prey to you. The leadership qualities of Achilles, his provocation to his army to fight till death, his dare to avenge his cousin’s death and his sole promise to himself of being a Pole Star in the sky of immortality are enthralling enough to instigate in the audience a sense of being the best and doing the best against all the odds. Lionidus of 300 is a brave king of virtues and values who conquers the satans by his superiority, positive attitude, proper and calculated moves and a belief that if he is right in the court of the Almighty, no one can perish them to dust whatsoever be the strength of the enemy. A beautifully cinematographed movie 300 shows that the power lies not in the number count of men but in the mental integrity of a force, in the ways an army is synchronized in its working and in the strong acceptance of the fact that whatever we are doing is right and no devil power can stop us from completing it.
Our planet Earth has been inhabitated by many talented directors and script makers who are continuously experimenting on new stories to unleash the secrets of this well known but still to be discovered thing called life around which circumnavigates the all so essential element of management. It is necessary to analyse these works of art and put to use the vital information that they try to convey us. Movies if shown, discussed and studied in the B-schools can really magnify and create a crystal clear vision about the managerial concepts. The only thing you future managers need to do is that next time you watch a movie, try to think beyond the edge and then feel the difference for yourself. Your idea of an efficient manager would surely strengthen and your fundamentals would be more clear to you which may develop your out of the box thinking and carve out a better manager out of you.