Aah, Taj!

Taj in moonlight. AI's interpretation.

It is quite mysterious how Taj Mahal came to be the most known symbol of India. India is hard to define, harder to describe and hardest to brand!  On top of everything, asking for one single image to encapsulate it all.....somebody; most likely an alcoholic British colonial halfwit chose Taj Mahal and it has stuck.

Of all the amazing masterpieces of architecture India has; they had to pick this! Why had they not heard about the largest monolithic structure in the world; the kailasa temple? A 107' high building  site, two times the size of Parthenon at Athens; carved out of a single rock?

Part of the taj story is the romanticism associated with the building. A king apparantly got it constructed to bury his fourth wife Mumtaj ......oh; was it the third. Ok, 3rd then! There is no knowing how many wives, concubines, keeps and other subjugated women passed thru the royal chambers! Islamic love is hard to keep count of !

Shahjehan, according to popular belief  killed Mumtaj's husband to marry her. The evidence is a bit weak on that but it is historically proven that Mumtaj bore 14 children in the 19 years they were together and she died in childbirth! None of this 'permanently pregnant' status sounds like love to me!

I visited Agra first time on a grade 2 school trip. I do not remember much except the bus ride and the fact that a teacher scolded me for something which I do not recollect. There is no picture. I wanted to have my picture taken, since so many other people were getting clicked by the commercial photographers. I do not think we had a camera along. We were so little and it was more than half a century ago. It is pretty hazy! It was a day trip, we returned late evening and my mother collected me from school.

A couple of years later my maternal uncle tagged me along on a trip to Agra. This time we stayed overnight with the friend of my uncle. They were both completing their M.D. at Delhi. We did not see the taj at night. This friend had a Rolliflex  film camera  and I asked for my picture to be taken. I posed , they clicked. It was a pretend click just to humour a child.  No individual picture ever got produced. You should never deceive a child! Being honest is not hurtful, it shows that you trust them with information. Simplify it, but tell the truth! It is also helpful if you can provide another option while denying one. It is very humilating when you lie! Children know you are lying; as I did! Deception has a negative effect on a child's innocent mind! You are teaching them it's ok to lie! It is not.

One of the most beautiful sight in the world is a laughing child. One of the most satisfying thing in this world is being the reason for that laugh!

There is a B&W group picture from this trip somewhere that features me. It is somewhere but also etched on my heart. A young boy in shorts standing at an angle to the camera.  You see they could have easily told me this. " We will get a picture of everyone together", There, see how easy saying the truth was! I would have been happy and would never have remembered this bad lifelong experince! I do have a clearer idea of this trip. I remember sitting on a stone bench and eating. I was still too young to understand that this place was the lover's ' Mecca'! 

As an adult I did see it in moonlight; eventually. A friend accompanied me on this occasion. We boarded a slow train and travelled on the upper berth from nizamuddin railway station to Agra. I liked this trip better because of the company. Although there were a few anxious moments and some disagreements. Not sure why! Anyway I saw it in moonlight and God knows I did not feel any romance in the cold building at all. Once you know the history of things , it is not possible to unknow it! It will colour all of your experiences going forward. Especially if that history was not exactly kosher!

Agha Khan award for excellence in architecture is prestigious and is held every three years. I designed the built part (there was a performance part too) one year it was held in Agra. There were a few different sites for different elements like seminars/workshops and winning design showcase exhibition ; in addition to the main award ceremony site; which was an open ground at a hotel called Taj Khema.  You can see Taj from its grounds. We used that view as a background  for 'no design high creative appeal' effect. Incorporating the free view into overall design / planning  did go rather well with the client's brief. It actually sold our project design.

I have to admit that Taj looks shimmering in moonlight from a distance.

I did travel a few times to Agra before that event for client meetings; site measurements; design presentations, contractor selections etc. however I never set foot inside the Taj premises. Even during the build process at various venues I just did not bother to visit. There was no time either and nothing was scheduled at the monument premises anyway. You might have guessed by now that I am probably the only person on this earth that is not a fan of  Taj.

Last time I visited though was so  very different from my previous experiences. My daughter was set to go to university and her complaint was that she has no experience of 'India'!  "People think I am Indian. They ask me and I am blank. I have not even been to Taj Mahal", is how she put it. So we promised to show her a bit of India before she heads out to the uni. This time I went like a 'not Indian", which I certainly am not. I am not a not Indian. We booked an agra  package. A vehicle  would pick us from our home in Delhi. We got a guide and we bought queue free express entry in Dollars. Guide tells you a lot of rehearsed non sense but it kind of makes the commentary nuanced. This was the  best Taj trip for me because my children enjoyed it. I skipped the gory history as did the guide.

Remember what I said about bringing a smile to children! The  experience was made greater because the travel agent my son had booked online with had also included  a lunch in the price. Something we did not realise till our vehicle stopped at the restaurant.  It was one of the best meals I have ever had and trust me I used to work for Hyatt and for two and half years I only ate five star lunches everyday; and dinners too;  quite so often! I know what good food tastes like! 

That travel agent had done a good job with our booking. I met the guy at his inlay souvenir  factory. He was old money with several pies in the oven. This travel thing was one of his sons extra curricular activity. Old money are class- mostly; nouveau riche are crass -mostly !

 

No, I still do not see Taj as even remotely romantic. Firstly it is mislabelled. Taj Mahal means Taj Palace! It is an effing graveyard! Palace, are you serious! How on earth do you build a palace  on the foundations of dead bodies? You can only erect a grave stone on the buried. It is a big white Grave Stone with inlay work!  Who in their right mind would wander off to romance in a cemetery? Really who? Love and romance is associated with warmth, colour and exuberant joy! Not with a cold, white, barren marble tomb;

made to mourn the loss of a beloved ! I do not blame the builders though! They designed it for the mourning king and to that extent it is doing its job. Their intention for it was never  to be a palace, much less a mecca of romance . It is a mausoleum. Would you ever use a mortuary building as a marriage hall ? 

 

Remember this in life too! You can not laugh by making others cry! You will never get peace by robbing others of theirs. A deceiver will get deceived in time! Karma is real. It may take a long time and it maybe one  lone man pointing at the  king that has no robes on; but some day, someone like me will come along and say it out loud!

'' The palace you made is your grave"! It is a grave! It is! It is!

 

Black & Bitter!

 

"Coffee Theory". AI generated

 

Some time ago a relative invited me over for dinner. Their son in law had returned from a business trip to silicon valley with a nice bottle of single malt and they generously thought of me as well. As his son was pouring the drinks for everyone he asked  how much water do we wish to add!

Nothing; I screamed !  It is an insult to this bottle! Their son in law quickly agreed with me. " Pour it over some ice cubes for us"! Our hosts were surprised!" Isn't scotch bitter" ? They were confused! "That's the whole point"; I said! Had to explain to them that a sophisticated drink like that needs to be sipped slowly in its full strength and swirled around  the mouth gently a few times before swallowing. You need to experience the heady aroma and smokey richness of the golden liquid  in order to fully appreciate it. It is not meant to be diluted ; hastily gulped down the throat ; get high fast and slink down from that chaise lounge in a drunken stupor!

They still added water to their glass; a lot of water! Ouch! There ; that was the coffee theory in real life! What! You have never heard about this theory? 

I joined a company and worked there for ten years. Early, around beginning of year two, It became clear that  hidden racism and inbuilt biases will not allow me to reach anywhere close to the  initial potential that opportunity falsely promised. I kept diluting my drink metaphorically! If not this year ,maybe next; or next! Tomorrow it will be better;  or the day after! Kept scaling back my goals; changing my targets; tried to branch out into areas of little interest, chop this, forget that..... nothing really was taking off and I stayed for another eight years out of fear;  ego; pride; confusion...! Absolute cowardly of me. I am ashamed, I should say! I made a hard decision only when there was no other decision possible!  They kept breaking one promise after another and kept me boxed in where I belonged in their estimation. I had to break out. It sadly was too late ,too little! I had flushed down the toilet a lot of prime time; become  a lot less desirable older hire and lost my professional edge. Serious costs of which I am paying on an ongoing basis. It is a self goal!

Had I accepted straightaway that it is a bitter pill  to swallow and made the decisions I made ten years later.... If nothing else I would have been richer than I am. Of course there were more aspects than money involved; but more  money is never known to hurt! Does it? 

They say that most of our troubles are because we resist what is ! That in a nut shell is the coffee theory. We add milk to coffee; it is bitter! We go on and add a bit of cream to it; it is bitter. We add sugar on top and amazingly it is still bitter! Just a different kind of bitter each time! We do all of this because we are resisting the fact that coffee intrinsically will be always bitter. We should drink something else ; good old tea perhaps!  

Do you know who buys art? Nobody! That's who! As an artist I realized it soon enough. Lucky for me as I adjusted to this bitterness in my own unique fashion  rather than get increasingly frustrated year over year and do something drastic like Vincent Van Gogh or Mark Rothko. I  am in awestruck admiration for both of these world famous artists and both committed suicide! I won't! 

If you go to Khajuraho  you can see that amazingly large complex of temples. Purely indescribable beauty and world heritage site of exquisite art, architecture and sculpture. Poetry in stone indeed! We  know some of the names of the architects and  sculptors that created the masterpieces. Vachchharāja;  Pahasaga; Deda; Jajega; Śrī Jasa; Chhichchha are some of them and there are others too marked here and there on the structure. How I wish I had a fraction of their talent! 

Understand that Chandel kings financed  this massive endeavour as their kingly duty to their subjects. No other axe to grind. In a way it was financed by public money since king collected tax from people. To his credit  he gave it back in the shape of these public buildings. Temples anyway were way more than a place of worship in Indian society. It was a social club ; a school and library; a repository of art, culture and wisdom;  centre for astronomy & celestial sciences; a grain storage and a safety vault of valuable assets; simultaneously with being a pious house of  God !

Kings do not exist any more! Art is bought by a few rich people to save and make money for themselves. So here is how it works: Someone buys a painting for let us say $1000. He keeps it in his basement for a couple of years. At which time he gets it officially appraised. The new value for the painting is determined. if it is up and it mostly is; the collector donates it to a museum. Let us say the new value is $ 10,000. Now the person goes ahead and deducts $10,000 from his taxable income. He keeps the $9000 profit and also gets the tax rebate. There is no aesthetics; culture, beauty, art or civic duty involved. It is a pure business deal and the donation sounds philanthropic to boot! Superb for PR! I kept the numbers small to explain the process and it takes years ; decades;  even  a life time and a lot of luck for an artist to reach that  initial stage where his work can get picked. Bitter but true! I am an artist what sugar can I add to this?

We unfortunately tend to sugar coat everything; dilute everything and resist every fact  staring us in the face. We keep quite about someone's obnoxious behaviour hoping that it will become better. It becomes a pattern and we learn  a new normal till it becomes worse! We do nothing till we have to burn the house down in order to bring some sanity. Trust me we can never come out unscathed or not singed ourselves! Our personal, professional and social life is rife with this malady. Most of the fault is our own!

Listen; if they wanted to, they would have! People, places and events always show themselves up in their true colours. Believe them the first time! We need to wake up and smell the coffee! It will always be black and bitter! Stop complaining or  stop drinking ! 

Coffee theory! 

 

 

 

 

 

  

Table for four?

 

                                    ' Table for four please', Digital illustration         

It was my final year of school. Exams were near. Its results would determine a lot about our future. Maybe some students cared a lot ; I was naive enough to care a lot less! Always romanticizing my life with my head a bit in clouds! Trusting fate and fantasy rather than facts! Which is a polite way of saying I was clearly an idiot. I  still am not exactly the sharpest tool in the box! Of course I have paid heavily for my idiocy in my life. If only I had applied myself  better on time..... Regrets; regrets; that is what life gets reduced to towards the end! Makes one understand why the final end of what you never ever wanted to end; seems such a relief! 'Regret' is what all  of it distills down to!

Anyway , our school sort of prided itself for a large number of students that passed out with distinction. My bad luck  that day was my English teacher Bhatia sir boasting in the staff room during lunch break. " Ashutosh is brilliant; I am sure he will pass with distinction"! Lal sir, my math teacher was livid; "That boy, absolutely no way ! he just does not work. I will be surprised if he just passes!" An argument followed and Lal sir, being the mathematician he was, decided to prove his theorem. unfortunately it was his class right after the lunch break!

I was alright with algebra and rather good with geometry. It was the reason I passed the subject. Lal sir however stormed into the class and straight away asked me to come up to the board. He wrote down a differential calculus problem and handed me the chalk! "Solve it", he thundered.  My heart sank as  calculus was my Achilles heel. I bravely started but got stuck after the third operation and despite a lot of prompting by my class mates - failed! Lal sir was ecstatic, I told Bhatia sir; I told Bhatia sir !"  

Next day Bhatia sir gave me a long lecture about time management and how I should dedicate more hours to practising math. He was wrong in the sense that he thought I am good with English because I work hard at it and I am not good with math because I do not practice enough!  Fact was, those days I never worked hard at anything, period! I had to really work my butt off later in life because I could not be bothered  to do so in time! The exam results proved both of my teachers right! While I was the top scorer of  English among all the schools in our district; I passed the math exam by the skin of my teeth! If I remember correctly I got 47/100. It is a good thing that the minimum passing marks were a mere 33/100. 

It was a different era. I did not attend one of those top private schools in our city. No Modern school for me; no DPS; no St. Columbus; not even Ramjas school! Our family could only afford a  government neighbourhood  school for me. Somewhere I could walk to. The school fee was 15 paisa / month as opposed to those upmarket schools which I remember were about  Rs. 25/month, equal to 2500 paisa. My father's entire monthly income was about Rs 125 after rent and taxes !  It however is quite fair to say  that I did not receive a bad education at all. Teachers cared a lot, students were treated as family.  I remember getting invited to a teacher's own wedding. As with most other things in life, money had very little to do with it, if at all.

Slowly money started gaining importance and it has now become the measure of all things. Love , respect, ethics , morals, right ; wrong .... all are measured with  money as a scale. There is a funny story - maybe not so funny! I had just landed my first job in Canada at a design company called Expographiq. It was based in Quebec and I was part of a small team in  the Toronto office. Anyway one day I saw my Vice President Fred Fox cleaning the office wash room. I was surprised but held my council. Later I checked and found that the toilet door has a list with all the six / seven names of people that worked there, including mine. They also had a day of the week in front of their names. I was a little sneaky but found from the office secretary that it is the duty roster to clean the toilet ! What  the @#%% !

I had never even seen that list and it was right by the entry door. Till that moment I had never cleaned a toilet in my life! Company wanted to save the  little money needed to  hire a cleaning service so we had to do it ourselves. Nobody else thought much of it; except me and I kept my mouth shut! That I thought was another way of thinking of your staff as your family. Of course, I can clean and unclog toilets now! I do most of the cutting and chopping in the house. I cook  from time to time and regularly do the dishes after dinner every day. All of this was unthinkable in families only a few years ago!

Who is part of your family? What does a family even mean? It all became clearer to me a little later ; in Walmart of all the places on earth. As I told you I am quite a  romanticizing, crazy  idiot! I still feel a person I would gladly have taken a bullet for, as my family; even though they were the one's that held the gun to my head! This person only exists in my memory too! What world do I live in ? Do not follow my example!

Anyway, I was in Walmart to buy an ice box. You mostly use it  during picnics to carry drinks. It's lid can be reversed to make a table. That table has a place for 4 drinks. I asked the Walmart guy and he told me I could get a bigger box but the lid would still have four indentations. That they have determined is the usual number of the picnic party. A family of four !

In my childhood, picnic meant hiring a big boat. Getting all the children together and sometimes their friends too. Invariably there always were a couple of last minute guests. Often times guest of the guests were also invited. Everybody was welcome as the long as the boat could safely hold them. A party of twenty was the norm. Four people; just four...... seriously!

Home I grew up in had an eight chair dining table. It was rarely used! We always ate together; we always had guests & the total number always was more than 8. So we sat down like a family on a carpet around  a  plastic sheet and ate! Picnic every day! young me resented it quite a bit those days. Today I see how valuable, innocent, kind, generous and pure those moments were! 

Russell Peters is a world famous stand up comic. His net worth is close to a billion dollars. His home is  not too far from us. He mostly lives in the US; his aged but lively  mom Maureen lives there by herself. Their next door neighbour are our family friends. Each time we go to their house Maureen is there. She is treated just like any senior respected family member traditionally gets treated in an Indian home. With love, & constant care! There are significant social, cultural, religious and economic disparities there. Maureen is not even remotely related to the Misri family. Is she their family? Absolutely yes ! It always warms my heart to see her! Their love and care for each other restores your faith in humanity!

You do not have to be related or even live in the same house to be a ' family'! Your hearts need to be on the same frequency though!  Otherwise  like everybody else I too have  experienced family members who are not 'family'! Several of them....my bad karma certainly!

That reminds me when I went to buy a dining table  at IKEA. Most designs were.... you guessed it! You can get a six person table too. There are fewer choices but the real trouble starts when you try for an eight seat kind. Things start getting rare. Any bigger and they start calling them banquet tables! Not dining tables anymore. Seriously! I anyway needed a four seater so I was fine. There are several table designs for two and the sales trends show them to be a  very popular choice.

Family as we know is getting smaller and smaller. Your parents are a different family. Your siblings are not part of yours. Of course your adult children have to look after their own family! Rings a bell! doesn't it ? Family is quietly getting reduced to two and I suspect trending towards one. You are  becoming your own family! Selfish, money minded  materialism has done this to us! We have destroyed the most cherished achievement of the human society - family!

A table for one ? Can there be such a thing? How would you go about designing that?

  

 

 

Best Before!

 Representative Picture

Himalayan salt is a rock that has existed for , what , a million years ; maybe 10 million. It has been there for a very long long time time, let's say. Yet when you go and buy some at the grocery store , the box it comes in shows a best before date. Usually about two years from the packaging date. How in the blazes does that happen ? It can not be right! Right? It did not expire for millions of years but it will  now that I have bought it! This sounds like a con , or does it?

I can understand this for bread. It will go stale and eventually develop mould and fungus. Milk will also spoil after a certain time, even in a refrigerator . Usually If we can not finish it in good time we  curdle it and make cottage cheese or warm it, stir in two spoonful of yogurt with active culture and let it set  in a warm environment. It soon becomes yogurt. Of course you know how this is done. I am not explaining the cheese making process using lemon juice or white vinegar. So you can re purpose milk ; but no matter what you do, it  no longer remains  milk.

Apparently everything in the world has an expiry date. Don't be alarmed  but the entire life in this world is also going to end.... in a billion years! As solar warming will evaporate oceans and make any life  impossible to exist. In about 5 billion years the planet earth will be entirely engulfed by  the sun! 

Imperial house of Japan is the longest ruling dynasty. It  has been ruling for about 1500 years. Pandyan dynasty in south India also ruled for 1500 years and is historically considered the longest ever to rule, world wide. Roman empire ruled for about 1400 years. There are other long duration regimes too.  They are all gracing the pages of history books.  Japan is an exception currently; albeit their monarchy is largely ceremonial. Actual power has expired long ago.

Can you really imagine Nazi Germany actually Planned  Tausendjähriges Reich;  1,000 - year rule. And we all know it  expired in 1945 after a mere 12 years. Despots usually are narcissists and vice versa. They refuse to see beyond their nose. They can not even imagine that they can ever be wrong and  are in fact just insufferable! Trump is thankfully limited to two terms other wise he thinks too highly of himself and his administration. The insolent twit actually demanded ; repeat demanded a Nobel prize for himself. When it did not materialize; he somehow conned or arm twisted the Venezuela's leader of the opposition to gift her Nobel prize medal to him. It is the same Venezuela that Trump had invaded earlier in the week. Trump is a certifiable Megalomaniac indeed whose best before date is long past!

Mamta Banerjee is quite another character. It was not a small feat to wrest power from a deeply entrenched cadre based communist regime of Jyoti basu's successor Budhadev. She started life as a crusader against corruption and successfully took over power in Bengal, 15 years ago. A bit like kejriwal in Delhi against Shiela dixit's corruption.

Corruption has an expiry date? Should be, but apparently honesty has one! Just like kejriwal lost badly in feb.2025 on corruption charges ; Mamta lost on 4 th may this year, mainly over corruption and matters of public safety. It was such a come down for the poster boy and poster girl of virtue , fairness and honesty! They both went down by brazenly condoning massive self serving corruption and lawlessness under their watch . According to person's in the know they themselves have became corruption  personified.

We have seen it before so many times. Narcissistic despots never learn. They are so full of their own BS that it no longer smells to them. Hitler never believed he was losing the war; until the last day when the victorious Soviet army tanks rolled into Berlin. He had to shoot himself to save himself the indignity of being captured alive .

Last time Trump lost his election, he became incredulous to the extreme. He claimed a stolen election and egged on his supporters to invade Washington DC. People are still facing legal consequences for acting impulsively and immaturely to Trump's advice. He of course is back in office creating more chaos in other parts of the world!

Kejriwal was stunned by the scale of his defeat  in Delhi. He has resolutely refused to look at his own fault lines; his endemic corruption and his massive bribe taking in the liquor scam. He simply shrugges accountability and  blames the defeat to the misinformation and propaganda of BJP!

Mamta is not an exception. Her acute sense of entitlement refuses to look in the mirror. She was running a mafia, not a government. In Bengal one could not even get their own house white washed without paying a bribe. Usually one had to engage an 'approved'  contractor suggested by the local trinamool party enforcer or else! People were scared to even speak out. She could jail; unbothered by democracy or law; a cartoonist for his cartoon; a professor for sharing a tweet; a journalist.......

Mamta did not read the label. Her expiry date was long before 4th of May 2026. She had already putrefied and was stinking to hell. 4th May was  Bengal's garbage collection day and People took the garbage out.  She was not planning to lose;  but she could not see that her time was up! There are indications I think; that she can re purpose herself into a  nasty little nuisance but she is not getting back her crown anytime soon. I think never; the opportunity she had  to govern was completely missed and misused by her. It has expired. Mamta  beyond her best before date is useless! Even the opposition will start keeping a distance from her. This defeat will effectively end her political saga.

Before you point it out let me preempt you! Yes; pure honey does not expire. It has an indefinite shelf life. Properly stored and sealed honey jars have survived thousands of years without spoiling! Nature is amazing really!

No! I have not forgotten about our rock salt question. You see  salt is like love. Eternal, unconditional and forever. Everything tastes better with a little bit of these two.

Sadly life is not forever. It ages and degenerates. Health challenges, social, financial, and familial conditions constrain  and deteriorate it inexorably. One reaches an age where very little can be held up, much less the massive responsibilities of love or a lot of salt for that matter ! 

I found out that the rock salt  actually does not expire; the carton it is packed in does. With age it starts degrading; disintegrating and contaminating the product it holds. Whole package has to be thrown out if not used in time. Honey for that matter is not indestructible either. You let it  loose and not cared for....... It too will spoil in  quick time !

What it teaches us that everything  in life has a best before date. Life itself has a best before date. Timing is everything. You  do the right thing;  on time or regret it forever! The voters of Bengal hit the nail right on the head! First chance they got! Good for them!

 

 

HUM 'AAP' KE HAIN KAUN?

 

Digitally adapted from the original Black ink and Pen Cartoon 

by Ashutosh Kaul; April  2026.

 

Politics is never short of drama and chaos at any time. Some politicians however are masters of playing politics with politics. So before I tell you the main story I am going to recount my experience with such a thing! It is a bad boss story! Can't help it since I am in my sunset years and stories are all that is left to me!  Just a word of advice; never; never; under any circumstance criticize your boss or your old company while interviewing for a new job. No exceptions ! Zero ! Nada! Zilch!

 

Anyway I had a boss who specialized in shifting blame for all the mess that he created. Let us  call him "Da". Da was not formally  educated.  He did attend a basic technical program  but liked to pretend that he has graduated from IIT Chennai. He came from a privileged background and could talk a talk ! He would project himself as a technical wizard or a creative giant depending on whatever suited the occasion. He got found out from time to time as he would  screw up the tech or design.  Both at times.  My internal name for him was "foontru" and I always had a plan B for projects I was not even designing, since Da was always playing by the cuff and would influence junior designers into presenting plans to clients that we were hard put to fabricate and execute on site due to tech, budget, regulatory or contractor limitations ! Lot of times I had to fire fight!

 

Have you met someone that has gotten promoted way over their abilities? Anyway he had reached the position of an AVP and he had a team.  I was hired to be his second in command. Office needed to fire someone from the job , he would push the task on ... to me! I hated it so much. If a client was getting difficult; the project would fall in my lap if it was very complex and to other designers on the team if comparatively simpler. Any accolades that came our way were simply never properly acknowledged and stopped at his desk. Self serving politics was evident for all international projects. To be fair I got a lions share of them; but only because he wanted to be free to have a good time with  a staff he was intimate with;  without worrying about  the project.  He never forgot to attend the opening of the site and collect thanks from the clients. At times with his trophy girl friend in tow. I minded a little but it was an opportunity for me to excel, elevate and work freely!

 

Before I forget ; he was the best person to be with if you wanted a fun night. The fellow had expert knowledge of all the best watering holes and of entertainment and red light districts; in most of the world cities! In Delhi most evenings he could be found at the bar in press club which possibly he still frequents. Drank like a fish too! 

He did show up for me once. I was on a Hero Honda site getting the pavilion constructed on a very tight deadline. It was my design and we  had suffered a lot of niggles from the client's DGM. This guy was very brash and wanted to replace the GM. In their internal tussle he would pin prick every project  that could show the GM as inefficient in the eyes of the owner; Munjals. He came on site and wanted this and that changed. I humoured him a little bit but then he asked for whole sale changes; not in the plan; as ' it is not looking good'.  We had gone through the entire painstaking design approval process and even shown the client the entire full scale mock up off site. We had approvals at every stage and  yet this insolent twit had the temerity to tell me "it is not looking good" 30 hrs. before I have to handover the project.  I lost it and told him to 'F' off my site! He was stunned to say the least! To cut a long story short, my boss came in took him for a drink and explained to him that I had said ' buzz off'! I certainly had not! Listen; don't do what I did! Do not abuse your client! It is a good way of loosing your job!

 

 Unfortunately whenever shit hit the fan; as it did once in a while; our boss would put a team member on the chopping block and save his own neck. By the time I  joined apparently three teams had already been shown the door in a very short period of time. Two different individuals that held my position before I came on the scene, had to leave in quick succession. I was not expected to last either. Since a failed project was given to me to be lost on my responsibility; second day on the job. A couple of junior most people left in the studio from previous groups clung to me as some saviour that will protect their jobs! I turned their fear into a  creative gale force to recon with. Together with my team I did manage to put structure and accountability in that office . I  increased average rate of return from projects three times by designing smartly; using my contractors pool judiciously; according to their strengths and by exercising tight control over the entire process ; from  design concept development to the final delivery of the project on site to our clients. Clients insisted for me by name to handle their projects. I survived seven years; two promotions and several big complex project; both  in India and  international ones; but really in the end had to make an exit; largely in disgust ; partly for other financially lucrative opportunities and foreign shores. 

Some day I will write about how and why I became an Exhibition Designer but listen  that office was a great platform to work from and I had an amazing team willing to jump off a cliff on my word! I really miss it sorely !  Trust me you are as good as your team! You can be the greatest designer on earth; just be thankful to your team that enables that design to see the light of the day! If things were a little different I can easily see myself still working in that office. In my opinion it was the best in business but got asphyxiated slowly for a boss that could not keep it in the pants and  got greedy & ambitious way beyond his capabilities. Doesn't  the word  ambitious remind you of someone -  Arvind Kejriwal; Yes! No ?

 

So a humiliated Raghav Chadda left AAP and joined BJP! Who would have thought?  Politics they say is the art of possibilities. In the corporate HR world they have a saying," employees do not quit a job, they quit a bad boss"💔! According to a survey 90% of all resignations are due to a non compatible toxic manager. I think it is largely correct! I know it kind of feels like a targeted attack considering I have written about this individual so many times! The fact is this is a hypocrite  and a blatant liar that rubs me the wrong way. Right from the days when he used to publicly wave  300 pages of proof of Shiela Dixit's corruption ; I have kejriwal pegged as a charlatan and a con man. Incidentally nothing came of those proofs! This fraudster did not even prosecute Shiela DIxit , and he had become Chief Minister  of Delhi. Obviously those proofs were either a smear campaign or he got reached!

 

Reportedly This very same Raghav Chadda was aap's rising star. He was inked by kejriwal to marry his daughter; move to Chandigarh and be a super CM over Bhagwant Mann! That would keep all power in the family! 

Well we know that marriage did not happen and neither did the rest of that agreement. Again it is hearsay but reportedly Chadda was supposed to collect graft funds and bribes from the transfer and posting of officials in Punjab. This Chadda either did not do or the collection was not up to the mark or Chadda took the money and parked it in London!  Whatever - but Kejriwal did not get his hands on the money and he  fired chadda from his leadership role in the Rajya Sabha! Chadda's popularity had risen after he married an actress and his media presence got a larger footprint after he started talking about the joint income tax for both husband and wife ; as well as the price of samosa at an airport! Middle class India was lapping it up. Insecure; pygmy minded; narcissist, Kejriwal saw all of this as a challenge to his leadership. Chadda sadly for kejriwal, is younger; educated abroad ; speaks and looks better on TV. All thorny barbs that worry kejriwal and make his heart sink. Six more people have left with him. Among them Sandeep Pathak; AAP party's election strategist. Huge blow indeed; if this narcissist pygmy Kejriwal could see beyond his nose!

Sadly it was not the first time that he has felt a sense of envy and danger from his own party colleagues. First person he stabbed in the back was his Guru in public life; Anna! Anna's agitation for probity in public life gave kejriwal his public profile and soon as he gained some traction, Anna was junked. Everything Anna said and Kejriwal agreed to was consigned to the dustbin. Then came Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan. They were high profile founding members of the party and kejriwal expelled them as soon as they pointed out the "one man culture" in the AAP party!

 

Kumar Vishwas is a poet; a professor  with quite a popular public persona. He was also  a "family Friend" since forever. Kejriwal's ambition however got challenged as he sensed a danger to his numero uno status. Kumar Vishwas was humiliated ; his position was eliminated and a Rajya Sabha seat was denied. He left the party activities around 2018. Legally speaking he never resigned ; he was never thrown out as far as I know.

 

Shazia Ilmi was a founding member too. She came from media: a well known TV personality. Well spoken and balanced women that she was ; naturally has an opinion.  She was made to leave and is in BJP since 2015. You probably remember Swati Maliwal and how she was physically man handled inside Kejriwal's Delhi house by an underling; who was rewarded with an advisor's position and removed from scene to punjab.

 

Ashutosh; another media person and Ashish Khetan were also cut to size and had to leave. Anjali Damania, Mayank Gandhi, Anand Kumar, Ajit Jha, and Madhu Bhaduri are some other names that have had to leave because  whatever qualities this boss has being a boss is not one of them. Kejriwal has given himself the title of the National Coordinator. Apparently all he seems to be coordinating is the departure of all brilliant team members into other parties. He should change his designation to "Admissions Coordinator"! 

 

A boss is definitely horrible as a boss when every talented team member sings;  " AAP jab hamare hain he nahi, fir Hum 'AAP" ke hain Kaun ? ( When you are not mine; no way in hell, am I yours!!) Arvind Kejriwal .... man ; he is a narcissistic disaster wrapped in hypocrisy! Needs to be put away for good!

 

 

 

 

 

Isometric view!

 

"Isometric View"

Lalit Modi is a disgraced Indian Cricket Czar hiding in UK mostly.  The idea of IPL can certainly be accounted to his credit . Of course as the tournament became commercially successful several powerful entities wanted a ride on the gravy train. Some wanted a free ride to boot! That led to what can only be termed as falling out of the thieves ! 

You might remember the fiscal controversy about now defunct Kochi Tuskars  Kerala franchise & the tragic demise of its 'sweat equity' holder Sunanda Pushkar under very mysterious circumstances. Supposedly due to complications of the Lupus disease or a drug interaction; or both; or a sophisticated, hard to detect poison called polonium, traditionally used by KGB to assassinate rivals! That famous '50 crore ki girl friend' remark about Shashi Tharoor by Narendra Modi is epic. Perhaps one day I will write about it -  when I feel like a crime thriller !

For now Lalit Modi has an interesting proposition !  He proposes that One day cricket format of 50 overs variety should be abolished entirely and cricket world should focus on test cricket; which is the classical 5 day, white clothes, red ball , 2 innings per team format and T20 format which is like after dinner, evening entertainment of 120 balls for each team kind. Wildly successful and popular IPL is a T20 tournament! There is ,as expected, a stiff opposition to this idea and even a sense of dismissal out of hand by some quarters because it is 'Lalit Modi' !

 

You do not know Swapan Mitra. He was my drafts person for a very long time. He was quite a bit older than I was and he was exceptionally good at his job. It was before cad software and a plethora of AI tools had made most of the drafting skills redundant. One thing that he really excelled in was 'Isometric View'. This comes from the world of design and simply put it is a 3 dimensional representation of an object in 2 dimensions; done in scale without any foreshortening as  you would find in a perspective view. One can accurately measure all dimensions. It gives a complete view of the object as if one is looking down from above the frame. 

 

So Mitra always made an isometric view for every plan; at times he made an exploded view too. He made that decision without my input. Fact is I was able to explain my concept to clients countless times on the strength of that Isometric view. Otherwise we as designers tend to focus  primarily at the plan view. It took me some time to realize why Mitra included it in every presentation ! Well; because it is the best client centrist view! And I am not even talking about design here!

 

When we look at people, life, events, concepts, theories; ideas, whatever; we must look at an isometric view! No foreshortening; no distortion; clearly measurable dimensions on all X Y Z axis. At the same time we must  look at the entire picture from above and avoid getting into the frame. Remaining a bit distanced and staying critical will lead us to see things clearly for how they truly are!  Get complete picture & present complete information! Mitra taught me this life lesson; though he is not aware that he did!

 

Let's circle back  to cricket! It is well known that cricket originated in England. Power  and decision making stayed there for a very long time. As the game spread across British colonies like Australia; South Africa; west Indies and the Indian sub continent; that power continued to grow and stay concentrated in MCC, England. First challenge to it came from Australia as their teams started winning matches. Don Bradman , arguably the greatest batsman ever was the face of it. They have produced several great players in every generation. Jeff Thompson  was tearaway; fastest ever according to some while Shane Warne is considered the greatest leg spinner ever! 

That challenge  to English power was managed well. Australians were white, western and subjects of the British crown. They got co-opted. The challenge turned into a great rivalry limited to the playing field. Off the field they merrily consulted and shared  power & cricketing  decision making. Moral and ethical considerations regarding their apartheid policies kept white South Africa out of the world cricket for decades. They were only readmitted after apartheid was dismantled in 1991 with a tour of India! 

There is no country called West Indies! It is a group of separate nations. Little specks somewhere in the Caribbean sea and North Atlantic ocean ; that field a joint cricket team. To my knowledge it is the only multi national team playing under one banner, in any sports anywhere in the world. Gary Sobers and Lance Gibbs are well known old stalwarts of the team. Clive Lloyd, Rohan Kanhai, Alvin Kalicharan and batting giant Brian Lara of a later generation are noteworthy. What really propelled west Indies to firmly dominate world cricket was their legendary ' fearsome four'; express bowling attack.

Holding; Roberts; Garner and Croft established west Indies at the top during '70 and 80'. And who can forget Malcolm Marshall? An absolute delight of fierceness ; if there is even such a word! Together they pummelled every opposition in sight and left them in dust. Smaller individual cricket boards making up  West Indies gained a lot of traction over the years but the power quietly stayed with ECB - English Cricket Board.

 

Trust Pakistan to play a sly hand! They perfected the reverse swing. It is achieved by roughening one side of the cricket ball and keeping the other side shiny. The aerodynamics at high speed ensures that the ball unpredictably and unconventionally swings to the shiny side instead of the rough. They achieved that by picking the seams with fingernails and roughening one side with bottle caps and other found material. It was not illegal at the time although not exactly in line with the spirit of the game. Their quick bowlers achieved tremendous success . Imran , Akram and Waqar easily come to mind. The success was rather short lived . White nations ensured that the rules changed and 'Making' the ball became illegal as it should always have been. Pakistan never became the centre of the cricketing universe.

 

In between an  Australian media tycoon, Kerry Packer of  channel 9 designed the one day match - a short format of cricket played in the evening wearing colourful dresses and a white ball! It allowed a lot more people to watch it on TV. The cheeky tag line was, " Big Boys Play at Night"! Marketing , sponsorship and international playing talent made sure that it catches public interest. There was a lot of opposition by various cricketing boards. Several players got banned for participating in this so called circus, but the money was good; way too good ! 

Money eclipses your brain cells; blinds your eyes and softens your heart!  Eventually it makes one forget  all principles; if there were any to begin with! Short format and Long money had come to stay in cricket.

 

Money! You can not keep Indians far from money! They are like a trained bloodhound tracking a prey! Traditionally Indian teams were known for their spin bowling and some batting brilliance like Gavaskar holding the highest test run record for long and that flag bearer of his legacy , Tendulkar; who has that record now as well as the record for all time highest total runs in all formats together . You may even have heard about Suravanshi ; a young 15 year old ,that is promising to carry that baton now!

Bedi, Chadrashekhar and Prasanna are the much celebrated Indian spin trio. Indian Fast bowling was rather slow and cricket pitches, game and rules were slowly veering towards favouring quick bowling. This is when Kapil Dev rose to prominence. He was quick and he was  supremely talented. With the bat as well! He won India the short format world cup in 1983 and changed the loosing Indian mindset for ever. 1.4 billion people now have 10 fresh world class talents available for selection; to replace one retiring player. India can and at times does field more than one National team simultaneously. They can boast  of a world champion Indian women's cricket team as well!

 

It was bound to happen! With this big a market; third largest economy growing  @ 7%( highest in the world); massive popularity of cricket and visible rise in the disposable incomes; something had to give. India generates 80% of all the cricketing revenues worldwide and money talks! The Board of Control for Cricket in India ( BCCI) is very powerful to say the least. Currently even the chairmanship of International Cricket Council (ICC) is held by India as well. Who likes it ? It is complicated but the short answer is nobody! Specially people that held the reins for so long and those envious people that can never hope to do so. Who can do anything about it ? See the answer above!

 

 If India wants to relegate 50 over one day format to disuse....... the format will reach the end of the road pronto! So coming back to Lalit Modi's proposal. I think he has a point or two there. 5 day red ball, white dress, test cricket is absolutely beautiful, classical and everything good cricket is all about. Except test cricket is hard to monetise. It should receive support and funding because You can not sustain it by gate money and few sponsors  alone. People also have paucity of time to engage with it fully even when they appreciate it. Money has to come from the shorter T20 format which has the potential to engage several times more people; can be easily organised frequently ; can also have more participating teams that can qualify to play at the world stage and has shown to generate several times more advertising revenue from TV rights. Redistribution of these funds will support test cricket and make all the cricket purists like myself happy.

 

50 over format increasingly fails to fall in either the classical category or in the  revenue generating entertainment category. It can easily be retired to enable strengthening the other  two formats. 

That sounds like a good plan for cricket's future. At least that is what my isometric view shows!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Birds Of a Feather !

 

                    Digital Mosaic of singing bird images

As you grow older, life continues to impart new meanings to old beliefs. The firm knowledge that there is life that ends in death , does not look so firm after all! Depending on your perspective there is no death , since there is life after death! Conversely there is no life apparently for some ; since life can be more cruel than death itself. Some souls can not live a single day because they are so tormented; while some other souls can never die because they are so accomplished.

God is rather benevolent; of course for those that believe ! It does take some insight to recognize the great gifts universe bestows each and everyone of us. These gifts come in various shapes , sizes and kind. Some are in the shape of circumstances. Like getting born into the Kennedy family for instance. Some blessings come in the shape of people that God sends your way; like coach Ramakant Achrekar that came into the life of one little boy named Sachin Tendulkar!  It sometimes takes the shape of a special talent like Leonardo da Vinci; who was active as a painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect.

The difference between these great achievers and us is 1. They recognized their blessings. 2. They did something about it. Most of the time they really really worked very hard and showed up consistently to nurture what God gifted  them.  When I look back at my own life, since I am now old enough to do so; I see where I dropped the ball. I had several blessings been given to me. Some I lost entirely, some I utilised partially and for others I just did not work hard enough. I Should have drawn more; designed more; written more. I Should have done more of what makes me - me! Sadly I lost motivation, lost vision, lost focus..... Onus of my mediocrity lies entirely with me!

Orchard with Cypresses, a painting by Vincent Van Gogh sold for $117millions in 2022.

Yeah! there is no mistake in the numbers! It is 117 million US dollars for one canvas!  In his lifetime he only sold one solitary work  for 400 francs. Did that stop him from nourishing his blessing ? He worked everyday at his craft. Van Gogh died on 29th July  1890. He was only 37.  Is he really dead? His work is what he was and his works live ! Is he alive?

What would you say about someone who has had an active career spanning 80 years?  Who has recorded 12,000 songs in 20 different languages; most she did not even speak. I can personally vouch for the songs she recorded in the Kashmiri language. Her diction and pronunciation sounds better than mine - and I am a native speaker. She was one face of female Indian playback singing; other being her elder sister - the incomparable Lata Mangeshkar ! At times people compare the two. I think it is an insult to both of them. No two singers are similar but totally different. Maybe we will talk about this concept some time.  Just as an aside their third sister Usha also sings and their brother Hridaynath is a musician. So was their father Pandit Deenanath Mangeshkar. Do you see a pattern here? Do you see how God blessed her  firstly by sending her in the right family; then by giving her an inherited talent that got honed by the in house  teacher - her own father. And then providing her the celestial umbrella of an elder sister to look up to for inspiration! This is the very epitome of "Birds of a feather flock together"!

She started singing early with Lata tai to make ends meet since their father passed away when the children were young. Life could not have been a cakewalk! One can only imagine the struggles their family had to endure. The thing is they were honest enough to respect their blessing that God gifted  them- their music. They stayed with it and music returned their loyalty; multiplying it many folds. It elevated them to be the best version of themselves and gave them immortality. Here is a list of some of her iconic songs ( not compiled by Me)  

https://youtu.be/_JAcOdCcqZM?si=VDQyKQXDCTEleoe2

 

My Personal favourites list is very long; spanning almost her entire eight decades long career. Over 100 songs on it; but if you want to know the number one -  here it is. Never fails to bring up a well of emotions, memories, longings and lot of tears.

https://youtu.be/OlvXDGJAMT0?si=6pNPPaotIAUrMAId 

Movie:- Ijaazat (1987)

Song:- Mera Kuch Samaan Tumhare Pas Pada Hai 

Singer:-Asha Bhosle

Lyricist:- Gulzar

Music Director:- R. D. Burman 

Asha Tai , as she is lovingly called worked with several composers. O. P. Nayyar and Asha Bhosle have given some amazing numbers that are on everyone's lips even fifty years later. He is the one who gave her a distinct identity and shaped her career. Blessings can take the shape of adversity too! O.P. Nayyar did not work with Lata Mangeshkar, the reigning diva of Indian music. They had  some professional differences and What God did  instead was to send Asha Bhonsle in his life. The only wildly successful composer of the era that did not work with Lata Mangeshkar gave his best compositions to Asha  Bhonsle and Geeta Dutt to some extent. Absolutely legendary timeless music got  created as the result. You decide who was a blessing and who got blessed!

The composer who really  polished her is R. D. Burman. Most of her modern numbers came from this collaboration. Together they changed the face of Hindi film music forever. Their professional union is the stuff legends are made of.  They were married to each other too. Sadly it did not stand the test of time as well as their professional relationship.

I find it  awkward  saying Asha Bhonsle is no more! Maybe for some she is  no more. However for me Asha Tai meant her music and that lives ! Is she alive or is she dead?  Do the loyal ones ; one's that do not betray their blessings find eternal life? If history is any indication, they do ! They just do not die. They live with you; in your heart; and they will talk to you through the work of their life time. Generations after generations.

Listen these people are a  great blessing universe just put in our lap. They live through their work and deserve  our respect & honour as all  blessings do!

To paraphrase what they say in England , Asha is dead. Long live Asha as her music!