The Beautiful Hills of Pune....

One of the most buzzing and happening place in pune is the ARAI tekdi also known as law college hill, loyola hills, and many other smaller names depending on the access road !
this place depicts the true spirit of a true punekar... healthy, wild, spiritual, serene and boisterous.
you have the young people doing their jogs, workouts, the kids and their moms (also some dads) enjoying the manicured wild life ... peacocks, birds, flowers, exotic trees. then you have the real enthusiasts, using  this terrain to train before their himalayan jaunt, avid photographers with their deadly SLR Camera n equipment clicking with real precision what to an innocent bystander may look like a random act of amateur indulgence. and ah ! how can i not forget to mention the cute army of dogs... great danes, dobermans, labradors, mixed terriers with their faithful owners, trying to experience the mirage of freedom.
truly a magnificent eco-system within another one but this is the one which manages to stay cocooned from the wrath of development, pollution and economic disparity !

hotel vaishali katta..... all about coffee idli dil dosti aur thoda pyar !

one of the most important experience while growing up in pune, is the time spent in 'Hotel Vaishali' or just 'Vaish'........ the morning ritual of catching the correct table, and ensuring there is a constant relay of musical chairs so that one can witness the city come to life ... the health freak, the tennis patu, the bunch of old men in the undersized shorts and  of course the most important ingredient 'Young Teenage Girls 'also referred to as 'saaman, tappa, chick, item......etc etc.... from the nearby colleges.....the sharing of the 2 rupee coffee several times before the pocket for the day is empty, all of the above while there is a constant intense discussions on the topics of the day..... politics, music, sports, fashion, new relationships, family gossip.. the list is endless and the knowledge shared even more epic in its essence. if ever there is a manuscript which had documented that.. all the googles and face books of the worlds would have been put to shame... jus shudder even now when i recall the conversations that took place day in and day out.... jus until somebody said' Aye bas na, dokyachi mandai karu nako' :)
how the days passed by as the above episode unfolded itself like clockwork beats me,  this i was one place which can claim to be the pioneer of a chat room, social community, digital network, data centre, KPO ..etc etc.. !
cant imagine this same scenario now, where it is so so crowded that there is no concept 'waiting on your coffee' , now its just walk in , wait, sit, order, eat, pay and you are out.. where is the question of a meaningful existence....
Yeah yeah I really miss the vaish hangouts of the 1990's !

My pune or whatever is left of it.. right ! ;(

Every day while making my way around pune, I cant but complain of everything and anything.... the roads, the buildings, the pollution, the people, the weather etc etc etc.... Seems to be not long ago (1987), when we shifted back to a clean, beautiful, serene, cultured city of education, culture,festivals, laid back life surrounded by greens and hills, full of friends and family, a city which offered anything and everything that one could crave for.... at that moment seemed to be perfect decision to run away from the polluted, money minded,culture cluttered society of Bombay !! alas time has played the devil and we are back to square one, each and every aspect that we ran away from has come to haunt our very existence in this city, they say change is the only constant and I could'nt agree more.. especially in the back drop of my daily experiences in our city... hoping to cover much more in this space,keep watching, until then ..... RIP Amchey pune !

The heavy willow is back....ll.l

Here I go again...the first innings of blogging didn't last long but I hope this one will.... The whole idea of 'heavywillow' sprung from my approach to use of a heavy bat to strike the ball, my blog also would replicate a similar approach to express my views and share experiences as well as opinions on subjects that are close to me......my cricketing approach was probably ahead of its times, those who have seems me bat would definitely agree, those who didn't just imagine today's T20 batting in a different more sedate era where a 40 over game was thought to be way short, hitting a seam bowler over his head unthinkable and to play the sweep or lofted stroke to every ball a spinner bowls blasphemy... Even have had to do punishment running rounds for the above approach and now batsmen make millions jus for that. I hope to use this medium and space to play many more suCh knocks to express myself ...Jus that it's a more mature me, a more cautious me , a more aware me....hope you enjoy reading this as much as I will writing..... .cheers !

when the god played guitar ...!!!!

Last sunday was simply amazing. I went for the Mahindra Blues Festival. the finale was a 2 hour 'out of this world' experience' of BUDDY GUY ! He is been playing for more than last 50 years .. and could be credited with every trick/ lick in the book , wihch is played by today's blues, rock or metal guitar players. he influenced everybody right from hendrix to clapton to satriani to john mayer.even on that day he played the guitar like he was born only to do that.....!
in mumbai that day there were people from all walks of life ( geeks to metal heads) all ages (10 to 80), common people to film stars. guys,men, babes, aunties & grandmas all being enthralled by the Buddy !!!

All i can say is 'IF PLAYING GUITAR IS A RELIGION, THEN BUDDY GUY IS THE GOD !' .
does this sound too outlandish .. you gotta see it to believe it............. !

What went Wrong ? ..was it Right in the first place !!!

The title is a reflection of one's sate of mind when things are going NOT as per plan ! we as learning individuals, teams or companies tend to think about many things relevant as well as irrelevant in a bid to try to peg down the reasons for failure & non-conformance.
but very seldom do we really question the basis of the very first assumptions of the plan itself. things will go right only if our assumptions are based on the right metrics in the first place.
it is always said why to change something which is working... in our bid to improve, reform and transform, we sometimes undo things which are reasonably doing well!(but not well enough)

In a green field project it is relatively easy as the slate is clean and the canvas is fresh .. you just go to paint as you please ...
but this changes dramatically when you are transforming something existant into something else.. the process is more painful, risky and more importantly decisions may have to be based on existing assumptions of the available information (irrespective of whether true or false)

I CAN GO ON WRITING ON THIS AND NOT REACH ANYWHERE .. GUYS n GALS,Need your thoughts to crystalize this one !!!!!

Life in the fast lane !!!

saw a lovely marathi natak 'U turn' yesterday. the lead lady in that has a habit of writing a daily diary which she uses as a mirror to reflect upon life's moments/thoughts. is a blogspot the new version of the same ?

we live at such a hectic pace .... very little time to slow down and dwell on the 'real feeling' of the experience.
life just passes by like a moving picture.. changing light and shades as we go by and looking forward for the next light and shade.
what do we like/treasure more ...
memories of the past or experiences of the present or the anticipation of the future ??

or do we just use the past to process the present which will give us the future ???
and what about relationships ??

how they have changed in the years gone by .. your mother / father, your friends, your first love or love's.
yesterdays daughter / son is now todays' mother / father.....

do we treasure 'what we have' than 'what we have lost' or ' what we shall get'

questions ! questions ! questions !

too many of them .... all seemingly irrelevant & unimportant but omnipresent in the innermost thoughts.......
any answers !

far more difficult than answering on next best investment, new management process, new movie, next car, new travel destination & housing rates @ pune !!!!