Seshadri's Musings

There are many instances of stars refusing movies in Hindi film industry that have gone on to become super-duper hits.   These stars had refused the movie because of the director not agreeing to their changes, or they not believing that the movie will work or some date issues.   The stars who got these rejected films went on to become superstars or established their star-status on the basis of these films.   If you want to make it big in Bollywood, you need Destiny to partner you 😊!! When I started researching this, I thought there will only be a handful of such films. But the list was big!!   Most of the stars would have cursed their luck on seeing these films do wonders after their release!!   F ollowing is the list of Stars who refused These films: - Kangana Ranaut refused Dirty Picture Akshay Kumar refused Bhaag Milkha Bhaag Hrithik Roshan refused Swades Salman Khan refused Chak De thinking it will not work Hrithik Roshan and Abhish...

I was working in a dot-com company who were into virtual education. This was in the year 2000 when very few people had heard of this concept.   Since it was a dot-com, there was always the chance that it might go bust.   During this period, I saw an ad in the Economic Times’s Careers page asking for marketing professionals in the financial services field, a field that I had earlier worked in.   So, I applied for it and sent my resume over email in the morning.   Next morning, I got a call from a person from Hyderabad. He said they have shortlisted my profile. He asked me if I can meet his MD that day in Delhi as the MD was coming to Delhi to meet Bill Gates 😊 .   I was awestruck!!   I told him I will meet his MD. Later only, I got to know that the MD had come to Delhi to participate in a meeting where Bill Gates was addressing a huge gathering of people 😊 😊 .   I was given the name of the hotel and the MD’s room number.   I went to t...

During my first stint in the earlier organization, I was approached by another Mumbai based company.   They were looking out for a senior person in marketing their products.   Now the difference between this company and the company that I was working for, was between heaven and earth 😊 , as far as work was concerned.   The company that I was working on, was focused on getting more sales at any cost.   The other company did not want to confuse the customer in buying their products.   They felt that they had a great product and the customer should buy it only when he was also convinced of the same.   The characteristics of both the companies was well known in the industry circle where both we operating in. I got a call from the company stating that their VP of the Delhi office wanted to meet me.   I was told to post my profile to their office address and then they would let me know when I can come and meet them.   I just wanted to meet them ...

Those days, in the evenings I used to meet my school friends for a walk in Karol Bagh area market. Since there were no gadgets at those times, roaming with friends was the pastime 😊 !!     During one of those days, one of my friends, Subbu, told me that his father’s friend is working for a Mumbai-based company in Delhi and was looking for someone who knows computers.   He asked me if I would be interested.   I told him yes and I will be definitely interested.   He then went home and with the help of his father managed to arrange a meeting for me with his father’s friend, the next day.   I never imagined that with this meeting, my career will zoom into the field of financial services industry.   Thanks Subbu, for the intro, without which, I don’t think I would have ever reached the place where I am now in!! The next day, I went and met the gentleman. He showed me a stock market magazine and asked me if I had seen it any time?   I told ...

Interview is something I have not been able to ace at all throughout my life.   Yes, yes, I know.   You will be wondering as to how I became so successful (I think I have done reasonably well in life 😊 ), without having aced any interview at all 😊 !!   When I started to think about on this subject, I found that whenever there had been a mention of an interview, I have fared very badly during the interaction.   If you just change the word “interview” and replace it with “meet and talk”, then it seems I have done fairly well and have come out successful 😊!! I have come to realise that whenever the interviewer has trusted me and taken me aboard, I have done reasonably well in whatever post I was selected for.   If I was not able to ace the interview it seems that I was not destined to do it and that is the reason why I could not ace it 😊 .   It is always in hindsight that you feel that everything is destined to happen the way it should happen!! ...

Another blog on this subject with food being the main topic 😊 !! Sometimes my mother-in-law would sleep till 930am or so.   By the time she got up, my daughter would have gone to school and my wife would have left for her office.   She will come to the hall and sit.   I will ask her if she wants coffee.   She will say yes. Then I will make coffee for her and give to her.   Apparently, she had told my wife that I make coffee better than my wife 😊 .   I make my own breakfast and was making my mother-in-law’s breakfast too during these 2 months 😊 .   Mostly it would be either dosa or poha.   I know how to make both of them!   By the way, poha is an instant one where one just needs to add boiling water to the poha mix and mix it well 😊😊 !!   Only on weekends, my wife would be making the breakfast for her mother!!   Sometimes she will make some other breakfast and I will then have to heat it up and serve it for myself and...

Another blog on this subject 😊 Once my wife told her mother that she is sleeping while writing or watching TV and she should not do that.   She should lie down and then sleep, else she might fall down.   Her mother flatly refused and said she was not sleeping and was in fact doing something.   Next time, my wife told her mother that her son-in-law was saying that she was sleeping while writing or watching TV and she should stop doing other things and then go to sleep.   For this her mother said, if my son-in-law is saying this, then this must be true 😊😊 !! On a daily basis, I will be doing exercise by walking in the hall for about an hour.   The total distance one-way is about 14 meters and I keep walking this distance to-and-fro.   There are two “stretches” in this “track” where the space is restricted so that only one person can pass through this track.   In one place there are sofas and the recliner while at the other place, there is a ...

It all started sometime during the end of August.   Since my mother was away to stay with my brother in Jakarta, my wife wanted to call her mother to our home and make her stay with us.   Her mother was staying with her son in Bangalore at that time.   Both my wife and her brother were debating as to who will escort her to our place.   Both were not able to take time out from their busy schedule 😊 .   Fortunately, I was traveling to Bangalore to attend to a relative’s wedding and I offered to bring her with me.   That is how she came to our house and stayed with us for 2 months or so. She is around 80 years of age and usually stays with her two sons alternately, one in Chennai and the other in Bangalore.   She can walk on her own and uses a cane for support while walking.   She will be around 5.1 or 5.2 feet.   Since she is forgetful, she is not allowed in the kitchen to cook anything.   Almost all of her time at our house was sp...

This is a random blog that I am writing.   The reason for this is that I am in Chennai and the blog that I was supposed to publish today is lying in my laptop in Hyderabad J . Normally I write the blogs earlier and have it uploaded and published on Saturdays.   In case I am travelling on weekend and I don’t take my laptop, I upload the blog a day before and then publish it on Saturday.   What happened this Friday was that I forgot to open my laptop at all!!   Since I consider myself to be an orderly man, I normally write down the things-to-do on a regular daily basis.   As I did not check the Friday schedule, some of the items became pending, the consequences of which I had to bear!! I was supposed to bring some medicines for my mon, who was coming for a function in Chennai.   I had bought the medicines and on Friday’s schedule it was mentioned as to be packed on Friday!!   I thought about this only after boarding the train!!   Since my...

I had one customer who was using our software.   One day he called me to his office and ordered another copy of the software.   I asked him as to why he is buying another copy when he was using one already.   He said it is for someone else and refused to tell me who that was.   He said the person does not want to identify himself and all the communication will be routed through him.   The order was placed on his name. After the order was placed and the payment collected, I asked him where to install the software.   He asked me to come after 2 days and he will tell me where to install. After 2 days when I went to meet him, he showed a laptop and said I can install it there.   I installed the software and asked him about the training.   He said he will take care of it. I left it at that. After one week he said the person who is using the software wants training on the product.   I told him I can come to his office tomorrow and train t...

Another interesting incident!! When I was working in the same company, there was a call from someone who was calling from a hotel and wanted to see our software and buy it.   I went to the hotel to meet him.   He had an office suite in the hotel which was quite big. He said he wanted to see the software.   I started showing him the demo of the software.   While showing the demo, it seemed to me that he was not that interested in the demo.   I asked him a couple of time whether he had any questions to ask for clarifications.   He said no and asked me to continue with the demo. After about half an hour, I told him the demo is completed and how do we proceed further.   He then asked if me Harshad Mehta was using this software.   At that time Harshad Mehta was the king of stock markets and was regularly being featured in the magazines.   Also, there were many stories floating around on his lifestyle.   And fortunately, his firm ha...