Film Review - Naan Kadavul

Me and my friend Vijayan went to see Naan Kaduvul at Lakshmi theater today evening show.The stills and trailer had created some expectation in my mind. I though it would deal in depth about the lives of nagas/sadhus.But the movie was really disappointing.

The beginning of the movie was really good and showed varansi very realistically. I thought the movie would go somewhere.But till the end I could find what the exact story line was.My guess is that neither could Bala :) The movie is just a fleeting account of Nagas/Sadhus and their way of life(no details whatsoever) and reasonably good slice of life of beggars with some dry wit thrown in when dealing with the latter.

The primary problem with the movie is that the characters are not very well defined.Except for the character of Murugan(who is the coo of beggars inc) no other character has been etched out fully. Especially the lead character of Arya , which could have had some more background detail and dished out with little more subtleness.The way chittan's was in pithamagan. The second main problem is lack of any credible plot.The movie seems to flow on its own random tracks towards nowhere.

The fist good point of the movie is its casting. I have to praise the Casting crew's work especially for assembling such a large bunch of incredibly odd people for beggar Inc.The second point is the acting. Both the lead roles (Arya and Pooja) have given it their best shot considering that they have not worked on such pure skill based riles. Arya's getup and physique is excellent and fits the role of the Naga to the T.But he has been limited to emoting just a few expressions over and over again during the whole movie.Totally deglam Pooja has put in her best performance to date.

Although I should appreciate Bala for breaking out of the formula scheme and trying new things, I also need to caution him. Bala needs to be reminded that a semi nude Arya resting in a head stand position and deglam pooja does not help a movie succeed. To succeed, a movie requires a cohesive and compelling story/screenplay.I also pity Arya as he has got very little scope to perform.He keeps repeating just 2-3 expressions.Overall very disappointing.

My Score - 1.5/5

!!My ISB Experience!!

Institute Experience:
The first thing that stuck me on entering the Campus of ISB was the way the security spoke to me.He spoke very good english, with a smile and once my name was checked with his list, wished me all the best for the interview also.Its not always that one gets to see such courteous behavior from a security guard.Once I entered the campus, I was impressed by the landscaping and maintenance.The main building is also really good architecture wise. As I was nearly 2 hrs early, took the chance to go around the college. I could see that the insti was run like a company only.I ve not visited many B Schools, so I cannot compare it with any other place as of now.One more thing was the library(learning resource center they call it).It was massive and 3 floors.The books published by the faculty only filled one full row :) I killed some 1 hr there before going towards the interview hall.

Interview Experience:

I perceived that my interview went quite well.Its another fact that in my case there is usually a large gap between Perception and reality ;-) ..It was more on the lines of a conversation than an interview.There was an one page essay on the word 'MAD' first.I wrote some cock and bull story there.Then the interview.There were three males in the interview panel.One was mid 40s, most probably an external panel member ,one more was a college staff and the other was a current student(called chotu with affection among puys).The questions were as follows:

1) How did u market toast masters in ur organization.(I had claimed so in the essay)?
We painted many chart based posters and stuck them at key places.Sent mails regularly to the office groups and also tried to deviate from the general pattern of toastmasters so as to make it more fun so that more people volunteer.

Why do you have to market such a club in the first place? if it is good people will join is'nt it?
Even though it is good, there is always a need to publicise the advantages.Because lot of people might not know about the existence of such a club.Even if they know they might not know about the benefits of such a club.Hence the need to market it.

If it is such a good forum why not the company sponsor everyone to the forum?Did you approach the company?
There is a entity called Employee club that handles such requests. But they are cash strapped and do not have such powers.Its more like the chicken and egg problem.If we get more people, maybe we can put forth such a request and again if get such a request granted, we might have more people participating the activites of the club. One more problem is quantitatively linking the improvement in job performance to the club activities. Being a communication and leadership promotion forum, membership is mainly for personality development.For example there might be several other factors that influence a person's productivity at workplace.Hence it is difficult to convince the company on these lines. And the last major factor is that, Oracle does not usually give any freebies. In many services organizations, things like oracle certification are offered for free. But in our organization, despite we being Oracle, there is not such policy. Permissions for free certifications are given a token of appreciation for achieving some target.Hence it is even more difficult in my organization.

2) Post MBA goals.. Current job role..

I am at present working as a Technical consultant in ERP domain.I want to move into a more function role immediately after my MBA and gradually to the role of a Functional Solution Architect. I explained how projects work and what are the roles that are there usually and pinpointed where I want to be.And also why I feel the need for an MBA( to get a grasp of the fundamental business functions) by stating pertinent examples from my work exp.

Is MBA degree the only way to reach where you want to.
I ve talked to people in my organization who are at present in such roles.I found that there are 2 other ways.One way to gain function expertise by working in a business for some time.The second way is to gradually shift from the technical to the functional role.

Why not the second way?
It will take a lot of time(3-4 years) plus there may be some blind spots where I am blank.

3) So thats why you want be @ ISB. Just to save a few years.
I explained that Other than the regular reasons like rankings/prof profiles/placements/ 1 year course etc. I had a personal reason to join ISB. It is the peer grp. Growing up in a small town did not have have exposure as to what actually happens in premier institutes like IITs. When I joined college only I came to know the actual gap between such premier instis and normal ones. Whatever ideas we sit and mull over for a long time, students at such colleges take it up and execute it with east. I aspired to be amongst such a peer group atleast in my PG. For example I was talking to a guy who was interviewed by the other panel. He has started and is managing his own social networking site after working with ITC for 8 years. I learnt a lot of things and got new perspectives even in my short 10 min chat. I think what all I could gain from such varied group of individuals over a period of 1 year. Plus the contact I develop in this 1 year among my current batch and also with alumni will help me throughout my life.

4) Tell me three things that you plan to gain from the MBA which would take you towards your career goal.
1-> Basic understanding of how business work
2-> Good communication skills
3 -> Good convincing/marketing skills

Explained all these 3 points.

5)What industries or markets u follow?
None in specific. I just follow the current business trends and news on the papers and magazines.

6) What is the current business trend?
Currently the world economy is in recessionary mode.Reason is misallocation of resources over a relatively long period of time. All orgs are cutting costs/ shedding employees/ going slow on expansion plans etc. Stock markets also are plumetting.

7) What happens when stock proces go down?How does it affect a company
It does not affect the day to day operations anyways.

What about valuation of companies?? They come down is'tn it?
That affect the shareholders/promoters, not the company by itself in most cases except when these is sustained fall. I feel that the stock prices are more an indicator of the people's perception of how a company is performing rather than the actual performance. This is why we have seen that the stock prices fall even based on some bad rumors.

Consider SATYAM's case.. It was trading @ 130s then suddenly dropped to 10 now going @ 30-40.. How will it affect satyam?

It will affect satyam in 3 ways:
1-->Customer trust might be lost as they fear the company may go bust
2-->Investor confidence might be down so difficult to raise funds for expansion
3-->Employee morale will be down and will result in more people moving out of the org and also in lessenning productivity.

7) Any questions for us?

I asked one to the current student.I asked whether students can pursue their area of interest in depth if they so wish within the constraints of one year time frame.He talked abt various avenues to do the same.I asked whether all those are practically possible.He replies telling me that , "As u have told in ur essay, if u have done time management well till now, there is no reason why u should'nt do it in college.If ur time management is spot on its absolutely possible". That gave a faint ray of hope(atleast these guys have gone thro my essays in detail )..

Although I don want to rate/dissect my interview, I felt I had a good chance when I came out.I had told all the things I wanted them to know.Now to judge whether I am good enuf or not is upto the panel and the school(for factoring in the diversity factor too).

But now after going through all that I have told from a third person point of view, I feel I don't stand much of a chance as I could have more clear on a lot of things.Anyways will know the result in another 4 days.Keeping my fingers crossed.

My 4 Day Hyderabad Trip -- Conclusion

It would be a criminal offense if I fail to mention about one of my key observation in Hyd.I was totally surprised by the conspicous absence of any road sense whatsover.There were blatant voilation of even the most sacred of the road rules.For example, cars whizzed thro at 50-60 km in the wrong way, threating to knock the pedestrains(who are on the correct side) off their feet.No one stopped at the signals except when they absolutely could not go in their intended direction. Travelling in an auto(esp in the front seat) is a harrowing experience, with such thrilling twists and turns that even the transporter movie would look like a farce.There is only one rule that all the Hyderadis follow on the road - "I have the absolute right of way". Even while taking U turns, drivers don't even slow down to check the incoming vehicles.He Just assumes that the incoming traffic will slow down to let him pass.What If they don't?? I dont know why they never think of this possibility :(...

Although there are'nt en uf busses in the peripheral areas like HiTech City and Gachibowli,the overall transport infra is good. Lots of share autos ply on the roads and they are very cheap.Even auto wallahs are quite honest and reasonable wven when they ask for a fixed fair, unlike Bangalore.I guess the IT bug is yet to catch on with the Autowallahs. One more reason could be that Hyderabas is not like BLR and Chennai where Goondas and Police own/support majority of the autos.

Climate was pretty hot but not the hottest considering that it is till just Jan end.But due to extremely low humidity one does not sweat that easily, which is a good thing.But one feels thirsty very very often.We were buying so many bottles of water all through the weekend.Wish I should visit Hyd some other time with a more leisurly schedule.

My 4 Day Hyderabad Trip -- Part4

On day four, it was again 1 ish when we were ready to get out of the house.Went to a nice little restaurant named HUB, which was a branch of the Much Touted "Chutneys" group.The biriyani here was amazing.Me , V and SK had a field day trying out all the NV items in the menu, while Subbu ate just some Egg biriyani.I finally got to try the hyd speciality "Kubaani ka meetha".It was nice desert which tasted similar to our panjamrutham, minus the fruits and lots of sugar.It tasted pretty unique and good.As subbu wanted to see the Summit clash between federer and nadal(Auz open finals), he deserted us midway and went back home.After vascillating for some time about whom to join, I finally decided to join my roommates and visit the Charminar.
Charminar is just a glorified roundana on which a big tower has been built.Its not at all magnificient of awe inspiring.It is further more sad that it is not well maintained also.The first floor is nearly 50 feet off the ground and there are huge french arches which are open to the floor.but there is no safety net or not even a simple rope that is tied.It was aweful.Chariminar is right in the middle of the muslim dominated old Hyderabad.It stands right in the middle of a bustling market area within which one can purchase pretty much anything one needs.Although I wanted to buy somke pearl for my mom, I did not venture out for that as I had no experience in buying them and did not want to be taken for a ride.Even if i had some idea about pearls and their quality, I could bargain.As I was totally blank in this regard, gave it a miss.On V's insistence searched for a local cafe and had some good iranian Chai! I left those two who wanted to shop and reached home early and watched some great tennis for 1.5 hours. V and SK reached home @ around 6 and we left for the station and hopped onto our 7.15 Garib rath and came back.I had a nice experience of watching 3 movies back to back on my lappie as the train had comfy plugpoints. I had a dejavu of my college days when we used to watch one full movie on our way back to trichy from madurai.

My 4 Day Hyderabad Trip -- Part3

We found that the park(Sanjeeviah park) was closed till 5 in the evening.Hence we had the full afternoon to kill till we felt hungry enuf to have lunch.So we went for some bowling near Panjakutta in Secunderabad.Subbu was extraordinary in the bowling lane with nearly all his attempts being strikes.SK gradually cut loose from me and V leaving us to battle out for the third spot.I edged out over V thanks to some gutter throws from V.I got bored with bowling and moved to play Snooker while these guys kept on with bowling.Had 3 excellent games of snooker with a regular there.He won the first game by 7 point after a tie, I won the next two by 2 points and 3 points.Now it was nearly 4 and all of us were hungry.So went to the much acclaimed Paradise restraunt to have our shot at Hyderabadi Biriyani. Unfortunately, for unknown reasons the experience turned sour.The biriyani was tasteless and the chicken/mutton peices very rubberry.After stuffing our stomachs a little and lightening our purses a lot, we left the place in sorrow :(

From paradise, we went to the Hussain sagar lake.Its one of the biggest lakes I have ever seen.So vast that it takes around 30 mins plus to travel one half of the circumference despite very little traffic and very good roads.But the lake stinked worse than our own Koovam.I guess the whole of Hyd's sewers drain into Hussain Sagar lake.I wondered, why we care so little about such beautiful natural resources.Had this lake been in North America or Europe, it would have been kept clean and clear and made a major tourist attraction.First entered NTR Gardens and spent some time clicking some snaps.It was a decent place.Played net cricket (similar to the one avaialble in Forum BLR). V made 46 in 3 overs and I made 48 in my second attempt, both of us missing our half centuries which would have given us a extra 2 overs to bat..

We went to the Lumbini gardens next.We sat on the same section of the audi where bomb blasts of aug 2007 killed nearly 50 ppl.I felt a bit sad for the people who would have died for no rhyme or reason.This time though there was three levels of security and heavy frisking.The sound and light(laser) show was disappointing and out of synch.Describing it was awful would be an understatement.But could not leave the place until the show was over so waited patiently.After the show went on a cruise around the Lake and look a few snaps of the Budha status in the middle(not exactly in the middle though) of the lake.It looked magnificient in the night lighting.There was some dance programme by some struggling artists, to a variety of telugu hindi and tamil movie songs.Except one female dancer, rest of them were neither beautiful nor diginified.It was a very shabby show.But we din care.We had to kill time till 10 when we had a show booked @ imax screen of Prasad's.

After the cruise, went to the movie.The imax thetre was Awesome, just one look at the gigantic screen and the Huge speakers takes one's breath away.We had booked for the movie "madagascar 2 - escape to africa".The movie was extremely well made and the imax experience was really awesome.It was an experience that I ll savour for a long time.The clarity of the image ,the vividity of the colors on the screen, the sound affects and the animation, everything was top class.We were dead tired when we finally reached home @ around 12 and just fell into our beds and dozed off...

My 4 Day Hyderabad Trip -- Part2

My mobile had started ringing from the time I was on the outskirts of Hyderabad, asking me to connect for work, as user testing/demo was on at the client location.Finally reached home @ 11 and connected to work for 2-2.5 hrs till around 1.30.Then went thro ISB interview experiences on PG and a few random page on the ISB website , had lunch at a nearby andhra mess , dressed up in the stupid suit with tie and left for my interview @ around 2.15. From here on the ISB part shall be covered in a seperate post.Came back at around 6.45 changing three share autos on the way.Carrying a great looking new Arrow suit in my hands , I sat beside the autodriver in the front all the way. People were staring at me.But as usual I dint care :)
Subbu did not come home from office that day as month end work made him work late into the night.Had dinner with one of his friends DK and his junior and worked for sometime.Got up in the morning and walked over to Oracle office in Hyd(15 mins pleasant walk) and worked the whole day on a stupid bug which was finally resolved at the end of the day @ around 9 pm.Then took some printouts about Hyd from wikipedia and wikitravel and was eagerly looking fwd to the weekend as two of my roomates/classmates Vijayan and SelvaKumar(Hencforth referred to as V and SK) were also coming to Hyd for the weekend.Had a late dinner(around 12 when we were done with it) at some medium range multicusine restraunt, which tasted like any other hotel in its category.Fancy names, fancy prices, but totally bland taste :)
After the dinner me and subbu went for a looooong walk(nealy an hour and half) talking about anything and everything under the sun.We had a lot to catch up on as we were meeting after nearly 2-2.5 years and I am not that good at keeping in touch with ppl over phone.It was nearly 3 am when we finally retired for the day.V and SK arrived home at around 10 am. It took all of us till around 12.30 to brush bath and get ready to go out.Had late breakfast at some local restaurant and proceeded towards some Park on the way to Panjagutta in Secunderabad.

My 4 Day Hyderabad Trip -- Part1

Although the heading reads 4 day trip, I was busy with work for 1.5 days and ISB interview for half a day so ended up sightseeing only 2 days technically :). There shall be a seperate post on my ISB interview.So skipping that part here.

So much for the introduction,lemme start with the actual story! Left bangalore on Wednesday morning , by Garib Rath.I must thank Lallu for the cost effective and luxurious train.Its 3 tier AC, new/clean coach minus the roaches at Rs 500/- for a 12 hr trip.I left office by 6.15 pm,changes 2 busses and reached Yashwantpur by 8.30 pm, just 10 mins before the train's departure time.I was hungry as hell as I had to skip lunch to finish work for the day and yashwantpur station catering gave a luxurious option of choosing between plain biriyani and anda biriyani.I chose the latter bought a bottle of water and checked the reservation chart as usual,(Looking for a F between 18-30). And as usual found none of interest in my coach.(Murphy's law holds good here I guess). When I got in to search for my seat, it was another unpleasant surprise, my bay was the first one and it was only half a bay that means 3 berths on side and a wall on the other.Felt extremely cramped(Psychological feeling I guess as all the measurements should be the same).Then this interesting incident hapenned.

The uncle in the lower berth had just finished his packed dinner and he had a packet of subji and pickle untouched.He offerred it to me.He was using a blackberry phone, very elegantly dresses and carried himself well.I was extremely dissapointed with the plain egg biriyani.In this situtation , I was somehow tempted into accepting, when he offerred his Sabzi and Pickle.When I was halfway thro the food, I suddenly started thinking this could be the usual con job with some sedatives in the food.All random thoughts went thro my mind.For example how pickle could be a ideal food item to lace with sedatives for in its sour taste you could never make it out.But having accepted the invitation and eaten the stuff halfway, I could not explicitly leave it untouched too.Hence finished as little as I could and threw the rest away.But my thought train was progressing unbridled at such a furious pace that I could control it no longer.I had a thousand crazy thought and plans.I said to myself that if I could stay awake tilll midnight, I can be sure the food has not been tampered with.Hence started reading and pulling myself awake with several facewashes(for I had slet only 5-6 hrs on average the whole week). Finally when the clock stuck 12 I was relaxed!! and dozed off immediately..

Reached Secunderabad station in the morning and took a local train to Hi Tech city.As it was a working day, the train was fully crowded.Thanks to my mumbai experiences, I could somehow manage to embark and disembark with 2 bags and a suit, without seriously damaging or losing anything.Hitech city seems to be the IT hub of Hyd.I looked totally out of place amongst the office goers dressed neatly in formals.I was wearing a 3/4th shorts a loose t shirt.But as usual I did not feel odd :) Finally after a interminably long 10 min wait, my classmate subbu arrived in his Unicorn bike to take me to his place.