Its been a week since it got over, and I hope someone gets around to sharing some impressions. Some of the highlights for me in no particular order:
• Udaipur is astonishingly beautiful, the lakes, the palaces, green hills, cool weather.
• The front list that was presented was remarkable. Great content, well produced and some truly innovative integration of technology
• Once again the School team amazes me at how well all the functions work with each other.
• If Rohit ever chose to, he could make a great career as a musician
• I recall being very pleased with a pun involving the words DSO and Diyasree. But once the effects of alcohol wore off, I'm not sure if that is very funny.

Vivek Govil



Sent from BlackBerry® on Airtel

Batty about ...

 

TT: There I was, minding my business (mostly) and carrying on with my life, when I see THE email. It mentioned that we will be able to play table tennis at the office! Brought up on badminton and squash, my first reaction was, “Hmmm….good for those who like the game. But, I really can’t see myself playing TT”. A day went by and then on the next one, as I was walking by, I saw the door to the “TT room” open. I thought, “I will just take a peek and go off”. Ha! Famous last words. I ended up watching a complete game. Next thing, I cornered another colleague, one equally clueless about TT, to come and play with me. We managed to hit the ball…all over the walls, and the room, and, once in a while, toward the table. That was it. I was determined to conquer this pesky little game. I started pleading with people to play a “few practice shots”. I borrowed slippers on the days I had come to the office wearing heels. I cajoled my way into doubles games, just so that I could hold the racket and try to play for a few minutes. The results so far? Well, some of my hitherto friendly colleagues have developed a habit of mysteriously disappearing when they see me appearing near their seats while others have flatly refused to play with me and accused me of ruining their game. I have ruined two perfectly good pair of slippers, and I catch myself practising with the spatula in the kitchen and dreaming about missed shots. So I guess, it’s official…I have been bitten by the table tennis bug.

 

ST: Before someone else writes about this on the blog or post some photos (as they have been threatening), let me admit that I am an unabashed fan of Shashi Tharoor (ST). And while I am a regular attendee of many book launches, I have to confess that an added incentive to attend Renuka RajaRao’s Study in America was the fact that he was the guest of honour at this one. The launch was quite a success with both Nandan Nilekani and Shashi Tharoor mentioning the usefulness of the book, as well as a desire that hopefully, one day, we will have a book about studying in India for American students (amen!). And I managed to talk to ST (see the evidence).J

 

Eclipse watching: As anyone who knows me at all can vouch, waking up at 6:30 am is not my thing. But Tuesday night, just as I was about to fall sleep, I realized that this eclipse was a big deal and the next one will be at 2132, which I think I will not be able to see. So, I set my alarm at 5:30 am and actually woke up, only to find out that it’s going to be one hour later. I woke up an hour later and realized that my family had already gone up to the terrace. I quickly grabbed my cell and the house keys (later on I found out that I had grabbed the car keys!) and ran. Up on the roof, my father was trying out his old eclipse goggles and we took turns looking through them. The sun was a perfect crescent (See the eclipse photo, which is courtesy of Jason Lonne) and we watched while the slice of sun became smaller and slowly disappeared into the clouds. One of our neighbours came up as well and we reminisced about other eclipses and other places, and then fell quiet, savouring the beauty of the moment.

Jonaki

 

 

 

Chain mails and ringtones

 

I just read Vivek’s post, and his remark about superstitions reminded me of the grouse I have against people who cause inconvenience to others because of their superstitions. I was telling Vivek that I’ve seen people wash all their curtains and bed linen after an eclipse, but that’s not the kind of superstition that really drives me mad. If you’ve received one of those “Tirupati e-mails” or similar ones that claim that great misfortune will befall you if you don’t forward the mail to a certain number of people, I’m sure you’ll know what I’m talking about. I take no time to delete any such mail immediately, but I wish people who forward these mails would understand the purpose behind them and see how impolite it is to tell an unsuspecting friend that bad luck will soon follow. I have often felt like hitting the reply button and saying, “Well then, bad luck to you too!”, but I figure I shouldn’t scare someone who is already so fearful.

 

And while we’re talking about unwelcome e-mails, I thought I’d also put in a request for all of us who don’t answer our phones promptly to keep them on the silent mode. Ringtones that go on and on can be very irksome and distracting, especially if you dislike the tone. Although I love the fact that we’re all on one floor and get to meet each other more often, I think we need to be a little more careful about leaving our phones to ring away on our desks. Having said that, I hope I won’t forget to take my phone with me the next time I head towards the food court or the washroom!

 

Shabnam

 

Random musings

I don't know how many of you tried to catch the eclipse this morning. I was up on my rooftop and had somehow expected to see the entire neighbourhood gazing at the sun. Instead it was practically deserted. Even the newspapers were delivered late. I go for a walk in the mornings (it was once a run) and the path which is normally packed with walkers and joggers was deserted too. Its incredible how superstitious people still are, well into the 21st century.

Another observation from getting out of the house early. Watching kids going off to school in their uniforms is a real delight. You see children from relatively low income homes (I think mainly kids of domestic help) being dropped on cycles by their parents. And while the parents may be shabbily dressed, the uniforms of the children are always clean and well ironed. To me its another little symbol of just how much education is valued in this country.

Jonaki had announced a contest where we had prizes of wine and chocolates, which has been met with deafening silence. If you don't want to write on her theme of holidays, write on anything. Otherwise I will have to drink and eat it all myself.


Vivek Govil


Sent from BlackBerry® on Airtel

NSM Theme and the scope of this blog

Congratulations to the winning suggestion, which I think is great, I wish I had thought of it! As it happened neither of my suggestions even made it to the short list, so I will have to be content with a regular room at Udaipur! I must clarify that if you had a vision of Naveen and me spending the weekend together debating the pros and cons of each of the 22 suggestions, I have to tell you that the actual process was much swifter- I think both of us also have a life to lead!

I secretly (not so secretly now) wish we could have selected Babichan's suggestion and given a Longman dictionary to each participant though!

Thank you to everyone who participated, and maybe all us losers should have a drink together.

The scope of this blog is being widened to welcome participation from other group companies, to begin with the DK and Penguin teams (you may have already noticed the unfamiliar logos on the page!). I hope that gets us more writers and more topics that will be of interest to us all. Since there really isn't a higher purpose to this site than to have an outlet for people who want to share their thoughts on anything, I guess it will be good to have more players.

Vivek Govil


Sent from BlackBerry® on Airtel

NSM THEME CONTEST ANNOUNCEMENT "SCHOOL NSM 2009"

THE STORY BEHIND THE STAGE:-

It was a tough decision for which Judges Naveen and Vivek had to brainstorm for hours and days trying to choose among 22 most exciting entries from team-mates all over India . From the moment this contest was conceived we expected this to be cracker of a contest. But once the "Big Prize" was announced the trickle of entries on blog turned into flood of most varying and awesome ideas which kept coming till the very last hours of extended contest date. Each of theme was unique and amusing, to say the least, and the decision was made after much deliberation with all the names being erased from the themes for sake of impartiality. At last it was short listed to final five entries and out of which judges selected the final winner and it is………
………………
……………
………
…

CONGRATULATIONS

Jaya Prakash with his theme “CREATE YOUR OWN TOMORROW” is the big winner of NSM 2009 contest and he is the one who will get to stay in "Grand Luxury Suite” of Trident, Udaipur. His theme will be official Logo of our NSM 2009.

NSM THEME

NSM THEME –

 

‘UNITE TO LEAD’

 

Best Regards,
Ankit Juneja

District Manager

ELT & International School
Pearson Education
Email: ankit.juneja@pearsoned.co.in

Mobile: +91 9811270705

 

 

 

NSM 2009 theme contest - close

Dear All

                       Thank you everyone. The NSM 2009 theme contest has drawn an overwhelming response from all of you. Everyone came out with their creative best and the entire idea has been justified by your sense of participation.  We will be short listing the theme entries today and presenting it to the judges. I certainly think the judges will have tough time deciding the winner out of so many equally marvelous ideas. You will all be informed about the result of this contest on mail and also on blog. I again thank all of you and wish you best of luck.

 

 

 

Thanks

 

Gitesh Sinha

 

 

 

 

 

______________________________________

Gitesh Sinha

Promotion Executive

ELT & School

Pearson Education

DID: 91-120-4190 204

Mobile: +91-9891899419

 

 

 

Latest Blockbuster from the house of Wandering Generalities Motion Pvt. ltd.

Produced By : Vikram Singh

Directed By : Nikhil Bhargava

Finance By : Self Financing very Private Highly Limited

Cast : Amit Kumar,Bhushan Sharma, and introducing rising stars of the future Raza Khan , Gaurav Singh (new comers)

The movie begins with leaving office on Friday evening , getting in our travel gear on the first Dhaba on the highway , mixing our spirits in right proportions and driving throughout the night to reach our destination called Lansdown

The way up to resort was prepared well by spot boys absolutely without concrete or signboards, perfect beginning to the shooting

Next moring we began our shooting with few glitches like Hero arriving late at the sets and rolling out the usual excuse that they have got a flat tyre

Finally the whole crew arrived at the shooting venue and got busy with their specified tasks

Like……

And then started the shooting with our heroine for which we had covered 260kms in 12 hours “the chicken on the river side” , BTW the stove which we had got for getting relishing “Heroine” ready gave up and we had to resort to our ancestral skills of cooking.

And finally after 3 hours of fire fighting (literally), burnt fingers and smoked lungs “Heroine” was ready for the shoot…

It was time for the climax, by evening 4 o’clock we were able to complete the schedule of our shooting

I am still wondering what happens when this movie hits theatres in this recession and slump ,, will I get audience …lets wait and watch

Credits

Sony
Canon
Kodak
Mohan Meakins Pvt. Ltd.
Pepsico.Pvt. Ltd.
United Beverages
ITC
BPCL
Maruti Suzuki
Reebok,Addidas,Nike (for trekking gear)
NECC (For doing poor ads. And letting eggs hatch to become chickens)
Airtel,Idea,Vodaphone(for having no towers in the region)
Hospitality Partners : Not so famous Dhabas on route & resort@Lansdown
deleted scenes : Please visit me@KD 107

NSN THEME

Hi
               T.E.A.M
T---TOGETHER
E--EVERYONE
A--ACHIEVE
M--MORE