Big Bang Theory...

You're travelling all Monday. You plan to work on the plane. But you watch Big Bang Theory.

Tuesday. You're in a different time zone. You wake up tired. You have a long day ahead of you. You get started in earnest. You knock a few things off your plate. You start to have a migraine. You get a coffee. It doesn't get any better. You pull through till lunch. You think you feel better. You get some more work done. You're feeling worse. You take off. You get some sleep.

You feel better. You try to think what next. You turn on the TV. Big Bang Theory's just starting. You fix yourself some dinner. You watch the 1st episode. You pick your computer. You check your calendar. You have tons of work to do. You have just watched the 2nd episode. You tell yourself you need to switch off the TV. You try to work. You can't concentrate. You watch episode 3.

You put away your computer. You make yourself some coffee. You've done episode 4. You make yourself more coffee. You're down episode 5. You pick your computer back up. Your coffee is kicking in. You start updating that project plan. Episode 6 is done. Big Bang Theory is over for the day.

You finally start concentrating on work. You still leave the TV on. But this time you're serious. You get the work done. You send out a few emails. You look at your calendar again. You plan your next day. You've dotted the I's and crossed the T's. You feel good. You put away your computer. You check the time. It's well past midnight. You decide to sleep.

You turn off the light. You pull the covers over yourself. Your coffee is still working. You decide to fall asleep after a few more minutes of TV. You pick up the remote. You start browsing channels. You do a full round. You see nothing interesting. You give yourself one last try. You stop a minute to watch that funny commercial. You linger one more minute. You hit Gold again.

Coming up Next, back to back episodes of "Big Bang Theory".

It all started with a Big Bang. It's likely to end in a Big Boom! Wish me luck for Wednesday...

One...

One Road with No Speed Limits
One Love with No Expectations
One Cause to Die For
One Moment to Live For

One Idea that can Change the World
One Thing I'll be Remembered For
One Shot at Greatness
Is all I ask from Life...

Views...

They said Manila offers a lot of great views. Here's a list of everything I viewed on my recent trip to Manila:

Crazy Stupid Love
Just Go With It
Harry Potter Deathly Hallows 2
Beyond Borders
Big Fish
Throw Mamma From the Train
He Said She Said
Scott Pilgrim vs Rest of the World
The Losers
Golden Eye
National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon 1
The Dilemma
Honey
The Tourist
The Last Song
Crazy Heart
Burlesque
Labor Pains
Ladybugs
Sunshine Cleaning
I Just Don't Know How She Does It

Needless to say, Manila was Great Fun! Maraming salamat po...

Wish you a Kolaveri New Year (2012)...

Wait, what am I saying? Hasn't the song already been released in 2011? And enjoyed millions of views on Youtube? 30,031,106 to be precise at the exact moment that I write this. Not just that. All you need to do is type "wh" on Youtube and the first match is "Why This Kolaveri Di" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YR12Z8f1Dh8. One simple song has changed the meaning of the word viral and gone from Kollywood to Bolloywood to Hollywood and more. The song was yesterday reviewed on CNN as THE MOST POPULAR song of the year 2011...

So what more can Kolaveri offer in 2012. More views? Sure, yes. The original video from the movie? Of course. But what else?

Think harder. Kolvaeri was a BIG IDEA! "The most powerful ideas are the simplest ones", they say and I say they are dead right about this one. Nothing could have been simpler than Kolaveri in its construction and form. Composed by a first time music director for a first time director of feature films and sung by a talented actor no doubt, but one who has no stars on his lapel for singing whatsoever. Playing on the age-old theme of boy hurt in love by beautiful girl with the clever usage of the expression "Why this Kolaveri (murderous rage)", which has been an"in-phrase" among Tamil youth.

The brilliance began when they key crew decided to shoot how this song was recorded in the studio with the singer cum hero, heroine, music director and director. Releasing that video on Youtube much ahead of the actual movie was a master stroke. And (I don't know how on earth they managed to do this), making sure there is only one video that comes up when you search for this song on you tube was the pièce de résistance. Result? 30 million & counting...

There is no doubt that Kolaveri has originated in a fertile field. After all, Tamil Cinema boasts of legends like Ilayaraja and the Oscar Award winning AR Rahman. But Kolaveri has probably surapassed the efforts of these legends and other illustrious artisans by the sheer popularity it has attained. Truly, I'm sure it has left not just the film industry but millions of people around the world wondering, "Sh*t! Why didn't I get this IDEA?"

I think it's safe to say that ideas like Kolaveri don't come by every day. That said, ideas like Kolaveri don't need a Mozart or a Beethoven to be produced. Neither are they produced in any particluar field of work. There is a Golden Idea waiting to be brought to the fore in every walk of life and it lies in the simple heads of simple people like YOU and ME. All YOU have to do is listen carfeully to what is happening around you, keep your eyes open to see what's new and most of all, to have fun at what you do. Nothing is silly, nothing is irrelevant. So long as you can keep that spirit alive, you never know how the dots will connect and when.

To me, that's the lesson from this Kolaveri...

So my dear friend. It is the last day of the Year 2011. The Year that gave us Kolaveri. Go listen to it a few more times today and increase its number of hits on Youtube to a 50 million plus. At the same time, put on your thinking hat. Don't just use Kolaveri to mope about your lost love.
Vow today that in 2012 you will strive to create ONE BIG IDEA that will change the world, no matter where your passion lies. There was a Google, there is Facebook and no one knows what the the Next Big Thing is? Who knows, may be it's sitting in YOUR HEAD. Just bring it out...

Happy New Year 2012! Let every minute of it be filled with Kolaveri...

My 2012 Colors...

Red & Gold
And many Holiday hues
What I don't want
Are Monday Morning Blues...

Neither Yellow Fever
Nor Green Envy
Only Pink Health
Will do for me...

Many Silver Linings
And Black Bottomlines
No fat tummy
Or Gray Hairlines...

Blazing Orange energy
A little White truce
A Year Full of Love
Is all that I choose...

What does it take?

What does it take to stay away from Chocolate Cake?
What does it take to see a mess and not walk away?
What does it take to know you have work and not watch TV?
What does it take to have talent and not make it work?
What does it take to be nice in a world of jerks?
What does it take to believe in a goal and never sway?
What does it take to make your boss see your point?
What does it take to keep up the exercise?
What does it take to finish what you started?
Whatever it takes, that's what I'm gonna do...

Sleepless in Richmond, San Antonio & Atlanta...

I am the Problem!

I could have got more sleep any day of the week. The Hampton Inn at Midlothian in Richmond pampered me with a huge King Bed. But, they also pampered me with a huge flat screen TV. So every evening I went there this week I spent marathon hours watching mindless comedy shows that I never did any of the work I was supposed to do. And then I woke up at 3 am the next morning to complete the work because my client was expecting it at 8 am. The fact that I ate a full Indian meal before I went back to the Hampton did not help either. It only made me want the King Bed more.

Next stop San Antonio, Wednesday night. Having a 550 pm flight from Richmond that gets into San Antonio at 1010 pm is not a good idea, especially when you have stayed at the Hampton Inn the previous night. (Hello, HINT! HINT! I woke up at 3 am EST). Then when the connection is delayed at Houston and leaves there only at 1045 pm, it doesn't get any better. When you touch down at San Antonio at midnight CST and finally check in to your hotel at 1 am, exactly 23 hours after you woke up, the misery is complete.

Wait, not yet! Not when I suddenly realize I am hungry, also out of money, go 9 floors down to the lobby only to find out the ATM won't dispense any money (that too after taking me through the entire transaction), then I go back up to my room, scrape out the last 75 cents I have, go back up to the 10th floor, this time looking for a vending machine, desperately hoping that it would have something for 75c. Seriously? Dude. This is the Holiday Inn on the River Walk in downtown San Antonio. Nice try.

But then I get lucky. I find the Vannila cream cookie that is the solution to world hunger priced precisely at 70c. Sweet deal baby! I'm even getting 5c back so there's no stopping me. When I have consumed 4 of the 6 pack of cookies, I have wasted precisely one more hour of my sleep, albeit not a King Bed this time but 2 doubles. I realize it's been exactly 24 hours since I woke up. So now I hit the bed. Oh my God! Conference call at 630 am, breakfast meeting at 7 and an all day workshop coming up. Set the alarm for 6 am, no 530...

Sleep was not in scope for Thursday night even in the first place. My flight back home was not supposed to land until midnight and I had conference calls starting at 830 AM on Fri for which I needed to prepare (you do the math). But I started getting really dizzy when Delta airlines told me that my flight to Atlanta (connection) was delayed 2 hours and that I was not going to make my connection and so they would have to put me up at Atlanta for the night and fly me out to Philadelphia first thing in the morning. Now, I've done this before and I know how it works. We were supposed to land in Atlanta at 11 PM and I was thinking that if I had any luck I would get a full 3 hours of sleep before another long day.

My prediction was exactly right. I can't blame Delta though. They were super efficient this time (like Atlanta was on another planet or something). We touched down at 11 PM as re-scheduled and I was in my hotel room at midnight. The last time I had to do this, they took 2 hours just to assign me a hotel. I was quickly into a pair of comfortable clothes and sitting on the bed. My flight Fri AM was not until 730 AM for which I had to be in a shuttle at 6 AM. So there was a minimal 5 hour rest on offer and even a few more minutes if I could shower and change real quick.

I felt a little cold. I tried the A/C but it had no controls and was blowing cold air at full blast. I looked around to see if there was a thermostat somewhere on the wall but could not find any. I tried to tuck myself into the sheets and noticed that the sheets were too thin for a cold night like this. That was it. I could have easily blamed the cold air and the insufficient bedding for my sleeplessness. But it wasn't to be. It had to be me...

I slept that night at 215 AM and woke up at 520 AM because I decided I had to complete some work and reschedule some meetings I had planned for early AM on Fri. Strangely, a sense of responsibility seems to envelope me the closer I get to Friday. I went to great lenghts in those 2 hours to ensure I was up to date on everything and that my work was impeccable.

May be as a result of the sudden surge of work-consciousness, Friday was just perfect. My flight was on time, every meeting brought me the outcome I wanted from it and at 4 PM I was off to my favorite routine in recent times, taking my son to Boys Choir practice and goofing off at a coffee shop with a huge cup of hot chocolate. And not to forget, the perfect ending! Dinner in front of the TV and falling asleep on the couch...

It's 931 AM on Saturday. I am well rested and have already had 2 hot cups of tea (masala chai, to be precise). My son and I are snuggled on the couch watching cartoons while my wife is away at work. Looks like the perfect weekend has just begun...