Power Shift by Alvin Toffler

Amazing book. Close to five hundred pages and just 100 Indian rupees (at the old books store).

A proud me carried the book home, refusing the khaki cover the shopkeeper gave me to carry the book in. I was elated. I was about to read a guy, who could see future. I had been told he was also a member of some committee formed by Prez Bush for the governing of US.

Toffler is Tom Clancy and Issac Asimov rolled into one. Just that I had read Clancy and Asimov (Naked Sun) when in grade X.

I finish the 3-page first chapter on The End of Empire, and found it awesome. I call up a few friends, who like me pretend to be good-book-aficionados, and tell them about it. The pretenders they are, they feign excitement.

I come to office and tell Rajesh (my cricket-eating-breathing-drinking colleague) about the book.

“He is a stupid guy,” Rajesh starts off. He is pretty upset that I bought an Alvin Toffler. He says he has never come across a bigger pretender in life. Was he talking of Toffler or was it me?

Now, I am reading the second chapter God in white Coat and am not impressed. Am I impressionable?

Sonia yet to find friends

Very special, double strong coffee …err…correspondent Jamshed V Rajan will be covering the Election beat. Irregularly of course.

By Jamshed V Rajan

Delhi: This scribe did not expect somebody of the stature of Mr Vajpayee to come out against Sonia Gandhi`s nationality. But on second thoughts one wonders…maybe…just maybe the present Indian Prime Minster could be right.

I checked with Venkaiah Naidu, the BJP party President and he said: “Sonia has never spent a day without food, has never waited for a bus, has never tried to retrieve her dead relative’s body from the Govt. Hospital’s mortuary.” Wonder if he has undergone the above mentioned.

Sitting next to Naidu on the make-shift pandal was LK Advani (Lieutenant Kolnel Advani?). An indignant Advani said, “agreed there are no cases of communal riots against her, but she is dangerous to the social fabric.” I held back a ‘yeah right.`

When pointed out that she was neither a Hindu nor a Muslim by birth and thus would be better placed to solve the Ayodhya issue, he would say that Ayodhya had never been on BJP’s manifesto. Guess Advani would rather be Vajpayee’s deputy than be stripped of his portfolios and made to sit in the opposition.

Down south, Karunanidhi, who had till very recently been hobnobbing with BJP, all of a sudden has no problems with Sonia’s origin. “In fact, I asked her to wear a Saree with the `DMK pallu` but she refused,” he said.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu could not be traced. According to reliable sources, he was closet with his cabinet trying to Spam Sonia`s inbox. The source also added that the former airhostess` mail id was still_trying_to_be_PM@India.gone

I am 4,69,094,588th richest in the World

I have always known richness as a relative term. And have always thought that I hailed from a family which – was, is and always will be – as rich as the coffee they serve at Foodcourt (an eating joint in my office building). Guess, that explains my eagerness in finding out where I stand in the big bad world.
Knowing fully well that I will never make it to the radar of the Forbes editors, I embarked on a journey of my own. The journey that would end tonight…at the doorsteps of a website.

I’m the 4,69,094,588 richest person on earth!


Discover how rich you are!>>

Funny, I felt happy after trying out the website’s Find Out How Rich Are You calculator. Man…did not know I was this heart-less. Neither did I know the World was this poor!
With the pittance that I get at my company, I have managed to be beat 5,952,025,529 people from all over the World, in the income stakes. To be precice I figure in the top 0.799% richest people in the world. Phew, I thought I was poor!

Writing on the wall

Times (New Roman) are not too good. A Century (Gothic) back cricket was played in the spirit of the game. The way they play it today is Comic (Sans).Gone is the rule Book(man old style). Enter emotional Impact. The Microsoft (Sans Serif) appeals have given way to persuasion of the umpires; at times threats.

Though there have been some past cricket greats who have Courier-ed the need to purify the game from the pavilion, few of the current crop have heeded.

Maybe the current cricketers cannot read the writing on the wall. How about changing the fonts, dear coaches?

My quote (you can quote me on that)


Do onto others what you do not want them to do and then run.
– Jamshed V Rajan

My Creative Thoughts

Somebody once said, “It’s a good idea to keep on good terms with everybody, especially with your wife, your banker, your stomach, and your conscience.” If that somebody had worked in a corporate, he would have added ‘colleagues’ to that long list.

Yesterday when my boss was chiding me for not being creative at work, I shot back an excuse. “I am working hard, hence cannot afford to be creative.”

After the words had left my beer-bloated lips, I realised I was on target. I really was working hard (Now, that is a lie) and being creative was something I could not afford.

Many in my office work hard. Sometimes also burning the proverbial mid-night oil. My hats off to them.

But a person is either hard working or he is creative. He cannot be both. And that is final. Creativity is the power to connect the seemingly unconnected, and it can not be afforded by somebody who is hardpressed to finish his work and be home by 7 p.m.

No…no…Pls. I do not intend to point out that my office’s Creative team is not working hard. Neither am I hinting that they are not creative! Smart workers, perhaps. 😉

Shaving….

Has your father ever chased you around the house to apply that dirty lather (that`s what one thought till one started shaving) on your cheeks? If the answer is no, you would probably not understand the romance involved.


My father was trying on my sisters, and me what he had already tried on my mother. I can imagine her running around the house, but I guess after a few years she got bored and stood still, and probably said: “Mister, how about you just apply the lather on my cheeks and buzz off. I have chores to do.”

As a result, we became our father`s victims. He chased us around every day in the morning and we ran helter-skelter. My sisters would even start crying. When we grew up a little we started noticing the naughty smile on our father`s face even he brushed the lather-laden shaving brush softly on our cheeks. He was a romantic for sure.

When in Grade Eleven, I started shaving and have tried copying my father to the tilt, except maybe for the washing-of-the-brush act.

Recently, when I was in Madurai, my hometown, I tried the trick on my sister. She is a grown up now and did not quite enjoy it. Or maybe, she would find it romantic when her hubby tricks her. As for me, this is all she had to say: “Do that to your wife when you are married!” Guess she is right.

Now, am looking for a romantic who would not mind me chasing her around the house with a shaving brush in my hand. Of course, I could later graduate to the kids. Did I hear you say, like father like son? Thanks.

My father once owned a bank

A series of blogs on my father, in the hope that he doesnot end up reading it. I am in luck: for my father the internet is as good as a fishing net …

I know it is hard to believe, but my father once owned a bank. Yes, a bank.

Name: Royal Ramawamy`s Bank
Account Holders: Three (My two sisters & I)
Max withdrawal possible in a day: Rupees Two
Headquarters: Our House (Incidentally named ‘Gun House`)
Timings: 24X7 Operations

My father was trying to inculcate in us the habit of saving money. He gave the three of us account books made of pages torn from our own school notebooks. He also ensured we had unique account numbers. Mine was JVR-1.

The three of us fell for the trick and spent close to four years of our life in penury. Eventually, better sense prevailed and we realized our father was not the ideal banking guy.

The money our relatives gave us when they visited and the money my father himself gifted us for we being nice made it to the bank the very same day. Later while doing Economics, I would understand the tactic as ‘plough-back policy` – give the money but ensure it comes back to you.

Over a period of time we amassed a fortune. But the suckers that we were, we did not realize the futility till one day my father announced our account books had expired. He said it was the bank clerk`s (…and that was my mother) fault for she had forgotten to inform the account holders that if one did not deposit money for over a week, the account would expire. He knew we would not revolt against our mother.

We never got back the money we saved, but we sure got new clothes. It was neither Diwali nor our Birthdays, so I guess my father did not usurp our money.

Besides, I am yet to tell my father that one reason why my account had eight hundred more than my sisters` was because I was doing my own `plough back` – hiking the fee structure in my school and depositing it in the bank. Now, who fooled whom?