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 !!!!

read,think, pause and live on !!

was fortunate / unfortunate to be a part of a corporate delegation of CII working on India -Africa partnership towards development. there were over 1000 people in taj palace delhi wherein over the two days people exchanged ideas and projects which can be done together for mutual benefit and combining competencies. all looked fine and professional until, i attended a session with non other than our ministers of external affairs and industry ....Mr. S M krishna and Mr. Anand sharma addressed all of us .................
they talked at length about the importance of development , role of mahatma gandhi !!!!???, and the need for india africa to come together for setting up standards for the future generations ... ( for over an hour )

my mind raced back and forth from the images of africa i carried from my past visits .. and the resemblance of the same to our rural territories..... the similarity is alarming. only difference is in the attitude.
most of the african nations like ivory coast, senegal, congo, ghana..etc etc have been riddled with crime, civil war and corruption.
we in india would like to believe that ' India is shining' .. and refuse to accept we are also in same situation... thing maoists, bodos, kashmiris, naxals, muslim extremists and last but not the least the our own elected jokers.. the politicians.

India is not just delhi, mumbai, bangalore and chennai.. India is also gadchiroli, maldah, bastar ghowa ..etc etc .

our government talks of millions of dollars support for under developed african countries.. but if you see the last budget
what was offered to our own under developed areas was comparitively miniscule.

some times being a big country is a great disadvantage !!! i see more and more smaller countries tightening up and holding the politicos accountable and responsible.

stranded at a beach on HOli..... day !!!

Yesterday was a rather eventful day. when the Shende family (shaantanu, neelima and your truly) decided to celebrate differently.
off we went at 7 am to our destination .. Gorai beach.
the empty roads, speeding skoda and rocking music added a special ambience to the much anticipated day long picnic.
just past 9 am we were thru the ritual of an omlette bread and tea breakfast .. and the lovely shore, with the high tide just picking up beckoned. we took the car on the beach and found a small shanty restaurant to park.
the next few hours were full of incoming high tide, a game of cricket and playing in the raging water of the sea.
at about 11 we thought , we have had enuff and much against a ranting and non co-operative shaantanu , we decided to head back home..... then we realised that how can we take the car back to the road as the shore was now being washed out by the high tide. the hotel manager shook us to reality by announcing that ' we can go only by 4 pm' as thats when the water level will ease out enuff to let the car pass. that was a blessing in disguise..
we found a nice spot under some coconut trees , laid out the multi purpose picnic sheet and out the came the car pillows, water bottles and all other amenities in the car to enable us to last out the next 4 hours, stranded !!
more cricket, chatting, some beers and lemonade amidst 1000's of dancing bhang intoxicated celebrators (remember 'rang barse'), barbeque mutton being cooked and smelly wild horses. !!!!!
the time just flew until we suddenly realised that the tide had indeed gone by ...
we packed up .. and off we went back tired, tested and with a part of the minds' RAM etching the
events of the last few hours .... to be saved permanently in memories of an eventful holi !!