Inside the mind and heart of Venkatesh Sridhar

I was recently going through Purnima’s post on Mumbai’s never say die spirit and the following are what ideally should be a comment to her post, but it was way too long to be a comment so I spun it off as a blog.

Let me begin by talking about what happens when a blast occurs? There is massive chaos, destruction and mass hysteria. These are the reactions that a terrorist wants. His aim is to spread fear across the minds of the victims. It is simply to make a point saying we are going to strike you anytime anywhere anyhow we want and you cannot do anything about it? This is pure Guerilla warfare, and they are utilising the element of surprise to the maximum.

Let’s contrast 9/11 93 blasts. The pecularity of the situation was that only one particular area in the city was attacked in 9/11. In Mumbai, there were 13 blasts and they were kept at different parts of the city. Let’s contrast the reactions of the two cities, Mumbai was up and running back on its feet, NYC was panicking and eventually the nation was panicking.

So, why did Mumbai and NYC react differently, Click on more to read further.

Here is the update of the day I turned 23. Sandy and Giri called me. Amresh called me from the US, we had a generic chat. Tarak gave me a call the night before and also called me up on the afternoon.

Yes, the Black Forest cake did arrive and 1/4th of it managed to land up on my face and hair. I will post the pics of the same soon.

Swathi sent me the best birthday card I have ever got, its too cool and it plays a song when you open it. Thanks a lot Swathi She also send me a pair of hankies with my name etched on them, cool na?

My grandparents sent me egreetings and it was very cute and full of love, affection and blessings.

I do not know if I am missing anything more, but still when I look back it is still a birthday that I had to spend alone and it is kind of getting to me…… grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Well, I am now 23. Damn, time just seems to fly and I seem to be getting old, not just agewise but on the mental aspect of myself. It’s my first birthday in a ‘corporate’ setting. Thankfully, there are no balloons or the decorative paper put over my work desk signifying that it’s my birthday. I do not know why but I am still uncomfortable being in the limelight. I guess I will improve with age, after all I need to get used to the same soon.

But, I guess I got the best birthday gift from my boss J Kalyanaraman, when he finally told me the roles and responsibilities. I am now going to be part of the M&A team, I will be rolling out the Internal Branding strategy. So, it’s a more general management kinda role which is what I prefer. I do not want to be stuck in a department and doing a routine thing.

The Senior Management Trainee program in HCL has been a mixed bag so far but it deserves a blog, that I will write about it soon (ya I know, I have not been blogging but birthday resolution is that I will constantly update my blog).

This is the 3rd consecutive year that I have not celebrated my birthday in Mumbai. I miss my best friends Sandy, Giri and Amru. (btw, the fuckers havent called or smsed till now … grrrrrrrr, but they are still my best friends :D). You know it is damn tough to celebrate your birthday alone and emotionally leaves you distraught as a birthday is damn special, a day which is your day and your’s alone. You are the sole star on that day and when you have to celebrated it alone it hurts more. Now, that’s about my life in Noida about which I will blog about later.

P.S: While, I was typing out the blog, the entire office came to know it is my birthday and the reception called and asked me what kind of cake do you want? I have ordered an eggless black forest cake to be neutral towards veggies and non veggies. It is going to be tough preventing the cake from being splattered all over my face and hair. Damn, I should have gone with an egg cake atleast my hair would have got some well deserved and needed conditioning .