I'm on the grass (well, not literally) in the Centre Court at Wimbledon. It's a Men's Doubles match. I'm playing the match; with Tim Henman as my partner. I don't know who the opponents are. Henman is beating the living daylights out of the opponents. I'm standing and watching him in action. It's turning out to be a one on two. I can see the guy's getting tired.
Tables turn. The opponents start dishing out the punishment. And they keep it going. Till we finally lose. Tim smashes the racquet to the ground and walks away into the tunnel.
10 minutes later is the presentation ceremony. Apparently, we have finished third in the tournament. The winners go up, heads high and proud. 2nd place guys go. They are visibly disappointed. Tim and I are up next. He isn't around. I guess that he must have driven back home. I go up. The Duke of Kent shakes my hand and hands me a cheque for 90,000 pounds and says - "You are the hero of our tournament. This prize money is higher than that given to the 1st and 2nd place guys." And I'm thinking to myself - "Why?""
I'm tossing one other question in my mind - "Should I split the prize money with Henman. He won't know. I think I'll just take it away. I'll go to college. I'll be rich and famous. I'll take all the hotties of PGH to HHH for lunch. (We might just stay on for dinner!) Drinks for the men. That's fun! Screw Tim Henman. He's got a lot of money anyway."
A dream is more than a dream when you write it down. It becomes a story. Like the one here.
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Notes from the Tycoons Journal - P3
Day 2 at camp. We need to report at 630. The slug line of this outbound round has been 'On time is late'. We slip our wet socks and shoes from last night and report at the field at 625. Even if one from the team is missing, the whole team is punished (translates to 5 rounds around the field; you don't want that, trust me).
Number one: Suryanamaskar.
Number two: A 12 kms trek to the waterfall and back (race to the finish line).
Number three: tent pitching.
Number four: Lunch.
Number five: five minutes break.
Number six: A six kms trek to the rappelling spot.
Number seven: Crossing the 'Burma bridge' [It is just 2 thin logs of wood connecting two landings with the river flowing below. forget safety harnesses. It's you and that thing called balls].
Number eight: Walk back to the base camp in the dusk with the fear of being attacked by village dogs.
Number nine: Reach camp and put up the cultural evening.
Number ten: chill by the bonfire.
Number eleven: Go sit on the hot seat and face an array questions from the instructors (camera rolling, Roadies style).
Number twelve: Crash.
(to be continued)
Number one: Suryanamaskar.
Number two: A 12 kms trek to the waterfall and back (race to the finish line).
Number three: tent pitching.
Number four: Lunch.
Number five: five minutes break.
Number six: A six kms trek to the rappelling spot.
Number seven: Crossing the 'Burma bridge' [It is just 2 thin logs of wood connecting two landings with the river flowing below. forget safety harnesses. It's you and that thing called balls].
Number eight: Walk back to the base camp in the dusk with the fear of being attacked by village dogs.
Number nine: Reach camp and put up the cultural evening.
Number ten: chill by the bonfire.
Number eleven: Go sit on the hot seat and face an array questions from the instructors (camera rolling, Roadies style).
Number twelve: Crash.
(to be continued)
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Notes from the Tycoons Journal- P2
We hit Rishikesh at 5:30 next morning. And for the record, we had a camera crew following us everywhere we went. The previous night, just as the bus started from Delhi, the crew came around to each one of us. One guy (forgot his name) who was handling the recording mike, thrust the lights,lens and the mike in each of our sleepy faces and asked what we expected the outbound round to be like! We answered, of course.
Krishna was the facilitator for our group. We crossed Rishikesh and went 12 kms further. It must have been around 6:30 when we stopped in the middle of nowhere. We got off the bus, rubbing our sleepy eyes. And Krishna announces: "The whole team together needs to do 250 push-ups." Rude awakening number one. We realised how rusted our bodies really were as we did push ups on the road blocking the traffic! Advice: Exercise. We carried our huge suitcases downhill for almost a kilometre before we reached our tents by the river. 48 of us were put into 8 groups of 6. I was in team 3 (and subsequently in tent 3) with Yash, Pikoo, Piyush and Saumya. Jasleen was the girl in the group.
We lined up for river crossing after breakfast. What an experience walking across the breadth of a flowing stream forming a human chain! The rule was that if the chain broke midway, we start from the beginning. Guess what happened? We crossed the river to and fro 4 times without our human chain breaking once. We played a soccer game (versus Team 4, I think). We were 1-1 and the game went down to shoot-outs. 4-4 and the last kick was there to be taken. The decider. I took it. And missed. I ran back to the tent (I wanted to drown myself in shame). After lunch that day, we set out on a 6-7 kms trek to the main Ganges river for rafting. (For the rafting experience, look up on the post titled 'Rajjan'). Jumping off the 20 feet cliff was the craziest thing of the day. 100 points for anyone who jumped off the cliff.When you stand on the cliff and look below, there's only green water visible. It feels as if you are on Mt. Everest, I mean it feels so high! And the boatman who's there tells you not to look down but to keep your gaze fixed on the hill straight ahead and just walk beyond the cliff. One chilling experience as the ground from beneath your feet disappears and the 9.8 kicks in!
We got back that night, gobbled down dinner and crashed in our tents. Some 14 people were called to sit for a 'hot seat' session with the facilitators after dinner. Rumours went around that these people were already selected for the next round (24 out of 48 were to be picked. So we were told by the rumour mongers that 14 were already booked). How untrue. Advice: Trust your judgement, not the rumour.
(to be continued)
Krishna was the facilitator for our group. We crossed Rishikesh and went 12 kms further. It must have been around 6:30 when we stopped in the middle of nowhere. We got off the bus, rubbing our sleepy eyes. And Krishna announces: "The whole team together needs to do 250 push-ups." Rude awakening number one. We realised how rusted our bodies really were as we did push ups on the road blocking the traffic! Advice: Exercise. We carried our huge suitcases downhill for almost a kilometre before we reached our tents by the river. 48 of us were put into 8 groups of 6. I was in team 3 (and subsequently in tent 3) with Yash, Pikoo, Piyush and Saumya. Jasleen was the girl in the group.
We lined up for river crossing after breakfast. What an experience walking across the breadth of a flowing stream forming a human chain! The rule was that if the chain broke midway, we start from the beginning. Guess what happened? We crossed the river to and fro 4 times without our human chain breaking once. We played a soccer game (versus Team 4, I think). We were 1-1 and the game went down to shoot-outs. 4-4 and the last kick was there to be taken. The decider. I took it. And missed. I ran back to the tent (I wanted to drown myself in shame). After lunch that day, we set out on a 6-7 kms trek to the main Ganges river for rafting. (For the rafting experience, look up on the post titled 'Rajjan'). Jumping off the 20 feet cliff was the craziest thing of the day. 100 points for anyone who jumped off the cliff.When you stand on the cliff and look below, there's only green water visible. It feels as if you are on Mt. Everest, I mean it feels so high! And the boatman who's there tells you not to look down but to keep your gaze fixed on the hill straight ahead and just walk beyond the cliff. One chilling experience as the ground from beneath your feet disappears and the 9.8 kicks in!
We got back that night, gobbled down dinner and crashed in our tents. Some 14 people were called to sit for a 'hot seat' session with the facilitators after dinner. Rumours went around that these people were already selected for the next round (24 out of 48 were to be picked. So we were told by the rumour mongers that 14 were already booked). How untrue. Advice: Trust your judgement, not the rumour.
(to be continued)
Monday, March 24, 2008
Notes from the Tycoons journal - P1
Tycoons 2008 was a nation wide leadership hunt. It started off as a hunt for India's youth business leader (which was why I was drawn to participate in it at the first place). However, towards the end, it seemed like the hunt had transformed more for a leader in the public domain (society,politics, welfare and the kinds).
Round 1 was an inter-college round. We had about 50 people participating from NIT Hamirpur. 6 of us were short-listed to go to the City round (the Metro of Hamirpur round). At the city round (which was at the Career Launcher centre in town), only 3 of had turned up from the insti- Neha, Brighu and I. There were 4 others from other colleges nearby. We had a couple of rounds of quizes followed by an extempore (which was a mere formality).
Out of 7, 2 of us (Brighu and I) were selected to represent the City in the Regional round at Chandigarh. This was where the real competition was. Round 1 was a Micro presentation. Every participant was required to make a presentation on an Indian business tycoon to a panel. My tycoon was (and has always been and will be) NRM. We then had a role play. Out of 27 that were at the Regionals, 10 were shortlisted for the next round which was a debate. The topic read as: India is growing but not everyone is benefiting. We drew lots to go for and against (I got against). From this 10 that had made it to the debate, 5 were picked to go to the Nationals. Ketan, Rahul, Zoya, Abhinav and I were the contestants chosen to represent the Chandigarh zone at the finals in Delhi. That night, we partied at Copper Chimney :), courtesy CL.
Since Deccan was one of the chief sponsors, we actually flew to Delhi from C'garh (not bad, eh!). 48 of us from practically every part of the country were there (barring NE). We had an orientation session with Satya and the other facilitators (Aashish, Amit and Krishna). After dinner, we picked up our luggages and filled into 3 buses and headed towards Rishikesh,Uttaranchal for the outbound round.
(to be continued).
Round 1 was an inter-college round. We had about 50 people participating from NIT Hamirpur. 6 of us were short-listed to go to the City round (the Metro of Hamirpur round). At the city round (which was at the Career Launcher centre in town), only 3 of had turned up from the insti- Neha, Brighu and I. There were 4 others from other colleges nearby. We had a couple of rounds of quizes followed by an extempore (which was a mere formality).
Out of 7, 2 of us (Brighu and I) were selected to represent the City in the Regional round at Chandigarh. This was where the real competition was. Round 1 was a Micro presentation. Every participant was required to make a presentation on an Indian business tycoon to a panel. My tycoon was (and has always been and will be) NRM. We then had a role play. Out of 27 that were at the Regionals, 10 were shortlisted for the next round which was a debate. The topic read as: India is growing but not everyone is benefiting. We drew lots to go for and against (I got against). From this 10 that had made it to the debate, 5 were picked to go to the Nationals. Ketan, Rahul, Zoya, Abhinav and I were the contestants chosen to represent the Chandigarh zone at the finals in Delhi. That night, we partied at Copper Chimney :), courtesy CL.
Since Deccan was one of the chief sponsors, we actually flew to Delhi from C'garh (not bad, eh!). 48 of us from practically every part of the country were there (barring NE). We had an orientation session with Satya and the other facilitators (Aashish, Amit and Krishna). After dinner, we picked up our luggages and filled into 3 buses and headed towards Rishikesh,Uttaranchal for the outbound round.
(to be continued).
Friday, March 21, 2008
Rajjan
There's joy in traveling, not to mention the people you meet along the way. It would be more interesting talking to the old lady who sells scarfs at the Eiffel Tower than in seeing the monument itself. There's nothing wrong with the monument; all I'm trying to say is people (by virtue of being humans) are far more interesting than inanimate objects. And as I understand, the grand sum total of people with their beliefs and practices in a region is culture.
Rajjan is a rafting instructor. 6 of us sat in the raft that was under his guidance. At the command of 'Forward All' we started paddling on our sides and set the raft in motion, heading straight towards a Grade 2 rapid. Rafting is fabulous. A 12 km downstream trip in the River Ganga (near Rishikesh) can cost about Rs 300 to 400 per person. Usually there are 6 persons in a raft and an instructor. Along the course, you learn how to navigate the raft through rapids, turn it, slow it etc. The exercise is very safe if it's done correctly under proper supervision. Adrenalin is not half the word to describe the feeling.
As we entered calm waters downstream, dusk was setting in slowly and we had another three kilometers to row. There was 1 raft in front and 4 behind ours. I chatted up with Rajjan asking where he came from. Rajjan is 28 and is a native of Nepal. He isn't married. At the age of 24, he left his country and journeyed his way through to India before moving on to travel through Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Philippines and many other places in the east. His love for adventure found him a variety of occupations in all the places he went. Since he sans any family commitments, he has been able to move around freely. As he says : “Money does not really matter to me. I want to travel and see many places.” I could sense the free spirit in him. I had finally met a man who not only wanted to travel, but also did it. A month from now, he will be rafting in the Indus river in Ladakh before moving to Sikkim.
As we passed under the Ram Jhulla, I saw the temple lights burning in the semi darkness. We got off the raft. I shook hands with Rajjan and almost asked for his card; and then I remembered that the world was his home. He might not understand the meaning of 'permanent residence'. I climbed up the temple stairs and went to the chai wala for a hot cuppa.
Rajjan is a rafting instructor. 6 of us sat in the raft that was under his guidance. At the command of 'Forward All' we started paddling on our sides and set the raft in motion, heading straight towards a Grade 2 rapid. Rafting is fabulous. A 12 km downstream trip in the River Ganga (near Rishikesh) can cost about Rs 300 to 400 per person. Usually there are 6 persons in a raft and an instructor. Along the course, you learn how to navigate the raft through rapids, turn it, slow it etc. The exercise is very safe if it's done correctly under proper supervision. Adrenalin is not half the word to describe the feeling.
As we entered calm waters downstream, dusk was setting in slowly and we had another three kilometers to row. There was 1 raft in front and 4 behind ours. I chatted up with Rajjan asking where he came from. Rajjan is 28 and is a native of Nepal. He isn't married. At the age of 24, he left his country and journeyed his way through to India before moving on to travel through Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Philippines and many other places in the east. His love for adventure found him a variety of occupations in all the places he went. Since he sans any family commitments, he has been able to move around freely. As he says : “Money does not really matter to me. I want to travel and see many places.” I could sense the free spirit in him. I had finally met a man who not only wanted to travel, but also did it. A month from now, he will be rafting in the Indus river in Ladakh before moving to Sikkim.
As we passed under the Ram Jhulla, I saw the temple lights burning in the semi darkness. We got off the raft. I shook hands with Rajjan and almost asked for his card; and then I remembered that the world was his home. He might not understand the meaning of 'permanent residence'. I climbed up the temple stairs and went to the chai wala for a hot cuppa.
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Honda is right
In October 2004, I sat in an auto with 2 others driving around the India Gate area in New Delhi. A couple of blocks away from there, we chanced up on Hotel Shangri-La. At the very first sight, my brains blew out. This was the most enchanting (yes, enchanting) 5 star I had ever seen. I got a dream that day: to go into the Hotel on invitation.
I must have driven past Shangri-La at least a dozen times after that. Every time I looked at the tall building with its majestic driveway, I felt more strongly about my dream. I sat up at wee hours during many a nights in my little AF-2, and visualised myself walking through the doorway there. How would I get an invite? When would I get it? I knew nought, but I knew that it would come.
I was at the National Round of Career Launcher's Tycoons 2008 (separate posts on this coming soon). After 4 gruelling days into the competition, we were to have the Graduation Ceremony. It was at the Shangri-La.And of course, there was an invite. At 7 pm, I walked past the gates of my dream, up the drive way, into the lobby. I climbed the stairs leading up to the banquet hall. And I thought that my dream had come true. The best was saved for the last.
Satya, the Chairman of Career Launcher called me over to the table where he was sitting. There were 30 minutes left before the start of ceremony. And he said- "Will you be the Master of Ceremony?" I jumped at that opportunity like a hungry dog. And I went on stage and compeered the night. There were dozens of CEOs, Venture Capitalists, Journos,reporters et al. in the gathering. It was humbling to talk from stage that night. I also realised what a small thinking person I had been. I asked for one time chance to go the S'la and do nothing there. I would have been on top of the world if I just sat there for an hour, sipped on lemon coriander soup and walked out. But I got what i asked for and ten folds of it.
The Power of Dreams- Honda. They are right.
I must have driven past Shangri-La at least a dozen times after that. Every time I looked at the tall building with its majestic driveway, I felt more strongly about my dream. I sat up at wee hours during many a nights in my little AF-2, and visualised myself walking through the doorway there. How would I get an invite? When would I get it? I knew nought, but I knew that it would come.
I was at the National Round of Career Launcher's Tycoons 2008 (separate posts on this coming soon). After 4 gruelling days into the competition, we were to have the Graduation Ceremony. It was at the Shangri-La.And of course, there was an invite. At 7 pm, I walked past the gates of my dream, up the drive way, into the lobby. I climbed the stairs leading up to the banquet hall. And I thought that my dream had come true. The best was saved for the last.
Satya, the Chairman of Career Launcher called me over to the table where he was sitting. There were 30 minutes left before the start of ceremony. And he said- "Will you be the Master of Ceremony?" I jumped at that opportunity like a hungry dog. And I went on stage and compeered the night. There were dozens of CEOs, Venture Capitalists, Journos,reporters et al. in the gathering. It was humbling to talk from stage that night. I also realised what a small thinking person I had been. I asked for one time chance to go the S'la and do nothing there. I would have been on top of the world if I just sat there for an hour, sipped on lemon coriander soup and walked out. But I got what i asked for and ten folds of it.
The Power of Dreams- Honda. They are right.
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