Dhobi Ghat- A cine painting with grey shades....

Dhobi Ghat(Mumbai Diaries) is a piece of Cine art...a painting that captures the shades of Bombay with all the colours it offers to its inhabitants...

Colours which are seemingly bright but as we delve further it appears grey...colours that often suffuses our hearts with joy and in other times haunts us to the point we feel ridiculously intimidated.

The movie revolves around the lives of 4 characters-Arun (Aamir Khan)- a painter,divorcee,loner middle aged man; Shai (Monica Dogra) is an Indian banker who is in Mumbai on a sabbatical to pursue her passion 'Photography'; Munna (Prateik Babbar) is a washerboy by the morning & rat killer by the night who dreams of being a bollywood superstar one day and Yasmin (Kriti Malhotra) is a lower middle class migrant from UP who is newly wed.


Inspite of the disparities in their social status, views and circumstances, their lives are intertwined. Shai (Kriti Malhotra) gets fascinated by the art work of Arun (Aamir Khan) and progresses into an intense relationship which lasts only for an iota of times. Shai (Monica Dogra) meets Munna (Prateik Babbar) and gets besotted by Munna's charm and innocence. Along with Munna she captures the lesser known essence of Bombay through her camera lenses.

Arun increasingly gets drawn towards the video diaries of Yasmin which encapsulates her delightful fascination with Bombay yet exudes her conflicted & gullible relationship with her husband. This inspires (as well as depresses) Arun to capture the elements of his interpretation of Yasmin's video diaries and her short yet impressionable relationship with Shai in a painting.

To what extent these relationships between the four characters are interwined?

Only the fifth character of the movie 'Bombay' which closely witnesses their lives getting interwined can answer the question.

As mere viewers of this Cinematic genius we can only make an effort to interpret the multitudes of possibilities yet not seek the answer.

The joy is encapsulated in making the effort to interpret the possibilities. Possibilities which might be promising...depressing...bright...dark...but most certainly with shades of grey....At times a darker shade of grey ...and in the other times mercifully lighter...

The Royal Ganguly snub and a few lessons...

These are hard times for Sourav Ganguly. Similarly, these are hard times for me to keep my objectivity intact for purely cricket reasons.

Tough to understand why Sourav, who displayed one of the best batting performances in the last IPL edition (Amongst the top 5 run getters with an impressive strike rate) get ruthlessly snubbed in the IPL auction.

First inference is that he was snubbed not on the basis of performance.

Was he snubbed because of his age?

Not really!! Warnie, Gilchrist, Dravid & Laxman also found place in the auction.

Was it because of his larger than life approach to cricket?

Naaah!!!! Remember his performance in the Sri Lanka tour after his comeback from a considerable break due to a spat with Aussie Dimwit 'Greg Chappel'. He integrated with the team fabric in an effortless manner and even won the 'Man of the series' award.


Was it because he doesnot gell well with Aussie coaches (Most of the team coaches in IPL are from the Aussie land)?

Maybe Yes!!!

Whatever be the reason, here are a few lessons one can learn from the 'Royal Snub':

• Be careful of your image: His 'Prince of Kolkata' image probably went against him. Team management might have found him tough to be handled.

• There is nothing like 'over-communication': Ganguly is an honourable man, yet he should have seeked complete information from various teams to gauge their interest in buying him.Only after that he should have made himself available for the auction.(He could have also gone the Kumble way)

• Honour versus Idealism: Shahrukh Khan extended the olive branch to him offering a chief mentor role in KKR. He has not been very kind to the request. But if he truly cares about KKR then he might just accept the role of a mentor and play an integral role in fulfilling KKR's mission of 'Korbo..Lorbo..Jeetbo Re!!!(We will do..fight & win)' .Of course with KKR in context, there would have been too many mentors and there is certainly nothing official about it.Saurav is intelligent and let him decide the rest.

• Keep the passion on!!!: If the intent and passion is right then many seemingly significant (otherwise insignificant) outcomes do not matter in long run. His fans will always love him. His critics will always make ridiculous judgements. But he will be respected by all forever and beyond. Till now his batting did the talking. It's time his silence does the talking. And if he ever gets the bat he will ROAR!!! In the true ROYAL BENGAL STYLE!!!!
  

Do you have enough HEROes (Dabanggs) in your team???

There are two places in Chennai where you can locate me on a Sunday late morning:

My room or Landmark Bookstore!!!

While surfing the books I came across 'Empowered: Unleash Your Employees, Energize Your Customers, and Transform Your Business'.

A few random turning of the pages & I found an insightful matrix:



The X axis signifies 'the quantum of empowerment one feels at work' and Y axis signifies 'quantum of resourcefulness with which one acts in his workplace'.

It's depressing to know that only 20 % of US Information workers fall under the category of 'HERO-Highly Empowered Resourceful Operatives'.

So who has a greater onus in ensuring that the employees fall under the 'top right hand quadrant of the matrix'??? Employees themselves or employers???

I would not recieve any brownie point for giving the lucid answer. But the answer is 'Both'. In the age of Co-creation, it's both the employee and the employer who have to work in an ever inclusive manner to 'co-create' many Heroes.

However, the most conflicting issue is that when companies want to create more 'HEROes' and employees themselves desire to become 'HEROes' then why dont we have enough HEROes (Based on the above matrix)?

According to my ever innocent opinion, I feel the conflict often arises when it comes to paying the right price for either enabling or becoming an 'HERO-Highly Empowered Resorceful Operatives' from both the employee & employer's end.

The singlemost important attribute in creating enough 'HEROs' at workplace would be the 'mutual confidence' in 'co-creating HEROs'.

I wish everyone a Glorious & Dabangg('Fearless' in Hindi spoken in Uttar Pradesh, India) new year in the persuit of finding the 'super heroes' within & around themselves.