Good Excuses are Still Excuses

"It is essential to understand that battles are primarily won in the hearts of men."
- Vince Lombardi

About me : There is another person who lives inside of me... who comes alive every now & then.. the one who is completely different than me...

I live in constant feud with myself ... the question... "To Be who You Are Born To Be" or "To Be What You've Become"...

Essentials:
- what will others think of me
- who am I dissappointing
- who else is going to get affected
- Am I not doing good enough for myself
- Is the compromise a chance I am willing to take
- Do I have it in me to go all the way
- Is it all worth the effort
- What if I am wrong
- What if I fail

Some answers are straight forward, some are probably a bit more twisted... some we agree upon and some we totally disconnect...


Many people suffer from this syndrome, a state of living of others dreams and others wishes... then there are a few living, exactly the way they wanted to...Lucky Bastards

Anyways off late, most people I've spoken to fall in the first category... almost everyone has this urge, this desire to chase a dream which is totally different from what they are doing... things they are passionate about... the solace, the peace when doing it... the things where the heart lies... things they feel they know they should be doing... the things one feels he's born to do...

Ask them, the fear is more or less similar, if not the same...

They all have a reasonable excuse(s) for not following their heart, their dreams...

I have mine too...

Yet despite these reasonable excuses, one cannot change who they are… who they were born to be...

No matter how old you grow... how far you've moved... what you've achieved... a brief let in into these... and the old fire ignites... the desperation seeps in... the passion never dies...

Today, I was reading a story about this guy, who dreamed of being a locally held soccer tournament’s champion. From the time he was a child, he was swift and agile, with an obvious athletic gift. During his schooling years... he played in quite a few tournaments... though his team never won anything, but was always amongst the top teams and regarded as the best player locally...
Anyways when he went to the grad school... dedicated himself to the sports... he was named the soccer team captain... and during one of the practice matches for a major tournament... he tore a ligament... and couldn't continue playing... he came back the next season... he wasn't in the best of speeds and the agility was a question as well... was scared of giving in... feared he might injure himself more seriously... and might lose out to future prospects of playing a coach to the home team in future... his team was losing like never before...

Witnessing this and knowing the turmoil inside... he was more desperate than ever… he always knew he had it in him... soccer was his passion... the anxiety of the game… the emotions...

He just couldn't take it any longer… the mere thought of this injury beating him to his passion... continuously kept dragging him into his own shelf…

So just before the tournament started, he decided he had enough and had to break out of this…

He pulled himself together... requested his coach to place him in the line up... he started attending practice sessions... he worked hard in his physical training sessions... and with his game improving with the practice sessions... manage to play the critical games for his team... the team went ahead to play till the finals of the tournament and were placed second.

Even though he didn't win the most desired tournament, but he walked away knowing he’d gained so much more...

In his words...
“In the end, I knew I did exactly what I was born to do, using every capability contained inside of me.”


Inspired...

This also reminds... of someone... who did make the Biggest comebacks ever... Saurav Ganguly... but that's another story...

Ghajini

Had bought tickets for ghajini... I had seen the movie before... In telegu... of course I'm crazy abt ASIN ever since...
Aamir... was disappointing in this one... he dinn do justice to the role... I meant by building the body that was similar to that of Surya shown in the telegu/tamil version... he did everything possible... but he was not half as convincing as Surya was...

Asin has now moved on to be a new favs amongst quite a few guys...

the ending of the movie is clumsier than before... so...

Overall rating: 4.5/10

Cpla Questions:

Cpla Questions:

1. On a Serious Note?

has this virtual world turned u a bit more introverted than before?


2. On a not so serious note?

Now that we live in the so-called "E-WORLD"... should we still use terms like " All ears" or shud these be replaced with "All eyes"

for this...

This ones a comment posted by someone...
(about whom I have no clue but... m sure... something has changed inside of me... and just hope that the comment would do so to you to0...)
thanx a million... for this...

Read the post, whole of it though it was quite long. It's around 3 at night. I didn't feel like sleeping and wanted to read or write and feel some sort of connection. I was literally searching for something that can have some impact. Read a few blogposts of unknown people randomly (following random links) and reached here. Read this post and then I knew I'd to write something. Let's see what follows.

around 200 people died in Bombay. farmers commit suicide in India. The flood in Kosi devastated lives of thousands. What did I do? Cringed, wrapped myself in another thick layer to keep my inside untouched by the dirt of this world. The realization: or the irony of it: how can we remove the dirt and still stay pure? How can I touch something and still stay untouched?
Clueless, directionless I ventured into an unknown world where the voice again said to me the same words.. stand up, grow up, get out of these days of fairytales and magicworld, and hold them. those millions of people, the orphans, the forlorn, all of them need you.
Everytime it happens, I tell myself: Yeah! I know that. I'm aware, 24 X 7 aware. I know the bigger purpose, I know that it's calling, I know that I'll eventually have to take that first step and initiate the war. If I don't, my soul won't find its peace. However, amid all this, the little girl inside..... what of her? Her dreams? Those dreams and secrets of her world which she has kept so safe, so preserved in her heart for such a long time. What of them? all the wait in vain? Right now, I can feel her, her shivering dreams which she's kept inside her fists unscathed and preserved like her own little child.. i can feel her heartbeat.. so fragile it seems that it fills me with a fear. Will she be able to let go of all her dreams, all her desires for the sake of that purpose?

Right now, I've no clue. It seems just too hard. Just with a bit of self-belief, how far can we go? How far? You look up at the sky and scream, and in return, you find God's silence. Why does God always reply in this unknown language?

.................................
There's so much turmoil at times. Perhaps He speaks through silence. And the silence always tells me that she'll, if she has to find her peace, she'll be able to carve her own path. The soul in her will outdo that girl. The spirit will take her to the level where she can feel herself inside every other individual. When her own world won't exist, because their world will become hers and her own will sink deep inside her. Perhaps during this lifetime, she won't get time for herself, but the wait will continue, in silence, in solitude, in those moments when she will pray or look at the sky, when she will dream of that unknown, or when the infinite amount of love will again oodle inside her tiny heart, she will stay assured, she will know that wherever He is, He would be feeling exactly the way she's feeling. This life is just not for love. This life of ours doesn't belong to us. This life is to let go of all dreams, all desires. This life is to step out of the shackles of "me" and "I". This life is a prayer to God. and like a prayer, it must be kept selfless.
and someday, in some birth, this wait will be over. and that would be in a better world. The world we and the children of this nation will create.
I love that unknown. But I'll keep him off, I've no way to justify this, I just have to. But someday I'll return to him, with all dreams and every bit of love kept preserved as my most precious jewel.

and till then, the purpose, the call, the sacrifice, dumping that little girl and all her dreams in a corner.... everything justified. The purpose. that's it.

---------------------------------------
and you, my dear dear friend, when you feel the pinch in your heart, when your soul cringes at the thoughts of terror, when you feel the drops of tears filing your eyes, when your heart cries and soul wants to scream, please do it.
I'll give you some idea: have some friends of yours with you. Make some posters, banners and put them at public places, colleges/CCDs etc. Have some sort of get together and talk, debate, argue, and ignite the fire inside others. Spread the fire around. It's not that tough. And if you cant' do this, then at least discuss it all with people, take this vow that you'll try your best to trigger such sort of discussions amongst your peers. whenever you're out for any lunch/dinner, dont let your friends discuss yuvraj singh or shahrukh's new movie or their other friends or gfs/bfs, discuss with them India, our society, our people, the evils, what's wrong, how it can be rectified etc etc, the list is too long. At least make them "think" so that they may look outside their own cosy world...

the onion soup story

“Onion soup sustains. The process of making it is somewhat like the process of learning to love. It requires commitment, extraordinary effort, time, and will make you cry.”

siyasat aur pakistan

"and the soul was buried..."

Today, I'm forced to question my existence, my own identity...

Series of incidents:

Terror Attacks in Mumbai...

I'm not a Mumbaikar, but have spent close to an year in the city and I absolutely loved every minute of my stay there, I do have a few distant relatives and yes, some of my friends do live there. When the terror attacks happened, I phoned them all, and confirmed if they were all ok or not, thankfully, they were all safe... so do I still worry... do I still need to bother about the entire episode, turns out that's exactly how half a billion population in India and millions living outside associate with the attacks... then why am I so restless... it's not my city that's in flames, neither my property or belongings being messed around with... then why am I so restless...

I am currently residing in a different country, I was glued to the laptop 24*7 watching the news, hadn't slept for more than 36hrs straight... blood shot eyes... at the end of it... I'm left feeling ashamed of my existence and my identity.

Politics...

Let me begin with our "Puppet King", the prime minister, the speech he gave on the Thursday night addressing the country, was so bloody lame, no emotions, no sternness, felt more like a nursery kid who's forced to recite the alphabets, by the teacher, screw you Mr. Prime Minister, where is the rage, the aggression... the comforting words...Like I said, this was just the beginning from the Congress, as I mentioned, I was following the news, being streamed on the internet, the IBNlive.com, there was this flash ad which kept appearing hovering over the headlines section asking for votes by Shiela Dixit .

Mr. Advani, started of saying big words, we stand united and everything else, sounding sensible for the first time, only to contradict and to use this to his political advantage, and all this within 12 hours of his first statement of standing in unison, add to this a letter by our previous PM, Mr. vajpayee, do you need to summon the country at this hour and that too with your political agenda. Mr.Narendra Modi, I don't even want to spare a thought for your actions and reactions, I really think you need psychiatric help.

Then the claims from BJP party leaders, nothing of this sort happened in your regime, blah blah blah... for god’s sake, someone knock some sense into them, terror attacks are not planned periodically or based on who the leader is/ which government is ruling or not...

Also, the most annoying thing, at the time of the siege, there were these prime important people, including, the above mentioned, i.e, Puppet King (Mr.Manmohan Singh), Mr.Advani, Sonia Gandhi etc. making visits to the location, as if what was happening there was not enough, these guys had to add to the pandemonium, the concerns for their security and all, and added burden, more lives at risk. On being questioned there then there were believers of the fact that they should be there to console people and to instill strength & courage... Yeah right!!!, the right answer for why they were there, "It's election time, how can I miss a golden chance to earn brownie points"... how I wished for one mistimed bullet... and never again...

Nonetheless, this was just the beginning, Mr.Vilasrao Deshmukh takes the cake on stupidity and insensitivity... on Friday, Mr. Deshmukh had expressed is disappointment, that the Stock Exchange remained closed, and that people in Mumbai are letting this "so-called small" incident, affect their lives... this is not all, in one of the press conferences yesterday, I heard him say, we have written a letter to the Central Govt. to develop an NSG of our own state, for our own state... what shocked me is even now he doesn't want to strengthen the existing security measures, he is still not focusing up on cleaning up the system cause of which that kind of access of our country is being levied to the terrorist, what is wanted is to kill the disease from the birth and not focus on the medicines for remedy.

Oh yes... how can I forget during all this, Mr.Lalit Modi, wants Cricket to be on...

People...

To be honest, I am not mad at the politicians as much as I am with the people, they are the same dirty lot wherever you see, there is no one absolutely no one whom you can call as the ideal one, for me to compare and complain. I feel disgraced by the people more. There were some elite mumbaikars on the panel of discussions, then the cameramen were covering up some common people, they were all cheering for the "Spirit of Mumbai", i.e., people will not let this episode affect their regular lives and continue with their regular lives... and the local MP's and all taking pride in the fact... in my perception, this disgusts me, the entire "Spirit of Mumbai" thing... for everyone who's still living in fantasy world... please be seated, as I invite you to the world of reality...

To start with, I really can't relate to the fact that people can go back to being regular, to pretend as if nothing ever happened... and I also can't somehow accept the camouflage of so called, "spirit of Mumbai" that Mumbaikars wear, just to cover up the fact that, it is not the willingness of people that forces them to bring them to go to work again, but in reality a fact of life, the horrors of their life, that unless they work, they can't survive... they do not have the luxury of time, the luxury of sitting back, growing out of the fear and into the comfort zone before walking out again. As I mentioned, I currently reside outside India, I was on social networking site, with most people in my network (mostly Indians) are more bothered about how to spend the weekend off... or how they are waiting for the next couple of days off... off from work, so they cans it back and relax... yeah people may say, matter of personal choice... but yes... in my opinion disgraceful...

The worst bit...

There was an SMS spread amongst the Indians for a Candle Vigil at the Indian Consulate, for all the brave ones and the ones who suffered in this inhumane act of terror... I wanted to be a part of it... as I reached the Consulate, and enquired with the security guard, he said he has no clue of any such thing, I strolled around the corner in anxiousness and saw ten odd people, still trying to light the candles... we reached there and counted heads, there were just 12 others, i.e., 3 families and us... in a country full of Indians, only 12 of us had the time for this...

Ironically, the Indian Consulate was hosting a play or something and there were people who were walking by us, to go and see the "show"... but no one absolutely no one, even bothered to enquire of what the candles were about... or even stopped a second to pay homage...

For Chirst sakes... 200 + people have lost their lives…

The Worst is yet to begin, the bunch of people who were there had already left and it was just me and the other friend of mine, who decided to sit there for sometime and pray for the lost souls.

It struck me that we were the only two people who were sitting there, both of us are not mumbaikar's, neither of us lost anyone in the attacks, but we still wanted to sit there, for we were sad, it was aching inside, for we felt that this attack was Personal, we take offense of any wrong doing on our Nation...

It was just ten minutes, the roads were deserted, I kept looking here and there, hoping for at least a few more heads to join in, join in this moment, to pray for those affected... suddenly a consulate security comes to us and starts questioning us, on what is this, why are we doing it... he spoke to us, as if we're committing a crime for being there... he took our identities and kept speaking to us in a rude tonality... within the next ten minutes, we were questioned on this by another two officers and again, but this time more questions were being asked, we told them the reason, and we told them that there were a couple of more guys who were attending the cause, but now have left, and that we don't mean no harm, its only prayers that we got... anyways the rude tonality continued, they said, we saw you here, and we hold this against you and that they had called the cops...

The cops... it’s really difficult to deal with the cops in this region, firstly they don't speak your language, they are bloody biased, they won't listen to you, if they don't want to and they can accuse you of any offense...

So during all this, I requested the guards, if I can speak to someone in the consulate, only to learn, there was some kind of celebration happening inside the consulate, some plays and all... which actually was the last straw on the horse's back, until now I was still feeling ok, but once I learned that the consulate was hosting activities, I was broken, I wanted to scream at the top of my lung in remorse, what shushed me was the fact that when the play got over, there were people ( supposedly all were Indians) who walked past us, no one stopped at the vigil... not even for a second, everyone was laughing... and walking away... and there was this one lady dressed in black, who couldn't even refrain clearing of the ash of her cigarette in the candle lit area, not shushed exactly... but silenced for sure.

For this indeed is a "Black Day" for me... I couldn't help but question, how colored and cold have we grown...

In the midst of all this there was just one other family which came to pay homage, but the security guys fleed them away.

Anyways, we stood their in silence, for we waited for the cops to come, just before the cops did come, there was someone from the consulate whom we managed to connect and to come and speak to these guys... in case anything severe happens...

It was best he didn't come... this guy was sloshed, he was drunk beyond limits, and the minute he heard cops are coming he deserted us and skipped.

The Cops came, luckily they spoke to us in a language known, and we explained the cause... they did let us go... but before they did... we were forced to blow off all the candles and clear the place up...

Along with those candles, a soul was burnt, my identity was raped and I felt BURIED...

26/11

26/11... by far the scariest moment of life of many...

I only have one f*ckin Question, how much hatred can you seed in... how much... ?

right now in my head...

1. relieved for someone i know is now (hopefully) safe... after an 48 hr ordeal

2. i'm bloody pissed at the politicians... who are using this as an opportunity

3. I want a blood bath if that's what it takes to shshsh this ravageness... once and for all...

4. I feel sorry for all those *&^%@&(@))@__ who... inspite of everything going right run into these so called spiritual talkers... indoctrined... get ready to lay down their life for nothing... and I hate those *&^%@&(@))@__*&*)())... who... talk them into all these...

5. helpless... mad at myself... for there is so much happening... and I sit here...not able to do anything... playing an audience to this...

[p.s. the swear words have been curtained and not censored coz... I'm still thinking of something that bad which fits in here... all the existing swear words are understatementz]

'madagascar 2'

As much as I am a sucker for animated movies... this one was long awaited...

Madagascar 1 had set really high standards... I would have seen it at least 20 odd times or more...


Escape to Africa

The Appalling law of Sequels continues: "most sequels made, usually suck as compared to the original"....

Disappointed... I am...

The movie revolves around the story of ALEX ( the lion)... a simple backtrack on Alex's life... and how he meets his family... to end with... how he has to prove himself as the alpha lion... to lead the "Pride"... there is this another lion... who wants to be the King... and tricks Alex... and forces the banish on Alex and his family... Alex's father was the leader of the Pride until then...

Haven't we seen this before... " The Lion King".. yes, absolutely... that's exactly what I felt... watching a low-budget version of The Lion King...

About other Characters :
MARTY ( the zebra) -discovers that he's no longer unique but the same as every other hundredth zebra out there...
GLORIA (the hippo) - looking for true love... and how she realises... true love can come from anywhere and from anyone...
MELMAN ( the giraffes) - appointed the witch doctor for the new found glory land... fighs his own cowardice to reveal his feelings for Gloria...

Yes of Course... the movie ain't all crappy... I mean there were quiet a few good stints every now and then... I liked esp. the penguins...I think they sould have a movie of their own... I liked the lemur too... I think he totally rocks...


Overall... can be watched if you got nothing better to do

Rating : 7/10 (6 for the movie + 1 for the penguin and the lemur)



A third Se

"And I bought the idea, a bit too well"

.

Click the pic to read it clear...

Thanks SN...

SCore kya hua hain bhai sa'ab

---Khabar-Nahi---

A Beautiful song from Dostana...

Though the beginning of this song seems to me a rip off from a song of Enreique Iglesias song ( can't remember which one, but that has a similar stop strings sturmming and yes the rhythm... only the first few seconds...) but still I loved it from the first time I heard it... in the movie yesterday, heard it again today and now I love it even more....

The song is a beautiful composition, with vocals by Vishal dadlani (voice of a rock band called Pentagram, heard him first on a rock show in those college fests... sounds so bloody different in this one... its unbelievable that he's got melody along with the coarse... abt the band they did have an album out.... and have this rocking single "Voice"- this one rocks).

And now for the song...

its on esnips for u to dwld...

Mere Maula Maula Mere Maula, Man Matwala Kyun Hua Hua Re
Man Maula Maula Mere Maula, Mere Maula..
Kis Taraf Hai Aaasmaan, Kis Taraf Zaameen
Khabar Nahi, Khabar Nahi
Oo Oo, Jab Se Aaya Hai Sanam, Mujhko Khud Ki Bhi
Khabar Nahi, Khabar Nahi
Oo Oo, Hosh Gul Sapno Ki Mein Bandhu Pull, Aankh Kab Khuli
Khabar Nahi, Khabar Nahi
Oo Oo, Kis Taraf Hai Aaasmaan, Kis Taraf Zaameen
Khabar Nahi, Khabar Nahi
Mere Maula Maula Mere Maula, Man Matwala Kyun Hua Hua Re
Man Maula Maula Mere Maula, Mere Maula..

Jaane Kab Kahan Kaise, Tere Ho Gaye Kaise
Hum To Sochte Hi Reh Gaye, Aur Pyaar Ho Gaya
Mere Khawaab Dil Saaansein, Mil Ke Kho Gaye Aise
Tujko Dekh Ke Aisa To, Kai Baar Ho Gaya
Tu Kahe Dil Yeh Tera Hi Rahe, Aur Kya Kahun
Khabar Nahi, Khabar Nahi
Oo Oo, Kis Taraf Hai Aaasmaan, Kis Taraf Zaameen
Khabar Nahi, Khabar Nahi
Mere Maula Maula Mere Maula, Man Matwala Kyun Hua Hua Re
Man Maula Maula Mere Maula, Mere Maula
Aayega Woh Is Intezaar Mein
Ud Chala Dil Wahan Sapne Jahan Mein Janu
Lagta Hai Woh Mere Kareeb Hai
Aisa Kyun Hai Magar Dhunde Nazar Beqabu
Hosh Gul Sapno Ki Mein Bandhu Pull, Aankh Kab Khuli..
Khabar Nahi.. Oo Oo

Kis Taraf Hai Aaasmaan, Kis Taraf Zaameen
Khabar Nahi, Khabar Nahi
Oo Oo, Jab Se Aaya Hai Sanam, Mujhko Khud Ki Bhi
Khabar Nahi, Khabar Nahi
Oo Oo, Hosh Gul Sapno Ki Mein Bandhu Pull, Aankh Kab Khuli
Khabar Nahi, Khabar Nahi
Oo Oo, Kis Taraf Hai Aaasmaan, Kis Taraf Zaameen
Khabar Nahi, Khabar Nahi

Mere Maula Maula Mere Maula, Man Matwala Kyun Hua Hua Re
Man Maula Maula Mere Maula, Mere Maula...

"Dostana"

Powered by: Chakpak.com	Dostana

Dostana:

A fultoo timpass... gud sense of humour all along...

Abhishek & John were rocking, only dissappointment was Bobby...

there were a few weak moments every now and then but the good comic timing helped us throught the movie

worth a watch...


rating : 3.5/5

" Just did it "

"She will be loved"

MAROON 5 is gonna play in my city in the next couple of weeks...

I actually got introduced to this band... when a colleague forwarded this song to me saying... this was one of her favs... I fell in love with the song but however due to the changing workplaces... and my shift to another city lost grip of this song

The next time I heard this song was when I was driving my way back home and the song was playing on the radio, that night I went home and search for this song on the internet.. And ever since...

The song seems to be a normal love song... the guy singing it for his girl.. But wait until you watch the video for this song... the video for the song features a young man (played by vocalist Adam Levine)... who falls in love with the mother (played by the hot Kelly Preston) of his girlfriend... it is shown that the mother does not receive love from her husband... so... "She will be loved"... is actually for his girlfriend's mother... Complicated... is it?...

It's said that this song was inspired by the complication in Adam Levine's (the vocalist) realtionship with his wife... "She will be loved" is however, the band's one of the more popular songs...

And yes... M not going for M5...

"His highness, god of the offside"

Saurav Chandidas Ganguly

Born on 8th July 1972, in Kolkata,born on 8th July 1972, in Kolkata.
Ganguly made his One Day International debut for India against West Indies in 1992 and scored three runs. He was dropped immediately since he was perceived to be "arrogant" and his attitude towards the game was openly questioned. Following his heavy scoring in the domestic cricket,in the 1993–94 and 1994–95 seasons, he was recalled to the national side for the tour of England in 1996,amidst intense media scrutiny. He scored a century, becoming only the third cricketer to score a century on debut at Lord's, after Harry Graham and John Hampshire. Andrew Strauss and Matt Prior have since accomplished this feat, but his 131 still remains the highest by any batsman on his debut at Lord's.

ONE DAY INTERNATIONALS & TEST MATCHES

TESTS     

  M    I   NO  Runs   HS     Ave     SR   100    50  

 113  188  17  7212  239    42.17  51.25   16    35

ONE-DAY INTERNATIONALS

  M    I   NO  Runs   HS     Ave     SR   100    50  

 311  300  23  11363  183   41.02   73.70  22    72

He is an aggressive left-handed middle order batsman who opens in One-Dayers and also bowls right-handed military medium pace.

Ganguly scored his maiden ODI century in 1997, 113 runs against Sri Lanka. Later that year he won four consecutive man of the match awards in the Sahara Cup with Pakistan, the second of these was won after he took 5/16 off 10 overs, his best bowling in an ODI.

In the 1999 World Cup Ganguly scored 183 against Sri Lanka at Taunton,in England. The innings took 158 balls and included 17 fours and 7 sixes. It is the second highest in World Cup history and the highest by an Indian in the tournament. His partnership of 318 with Rahul Dravid was the highest ever in the World Cup.

CRICKET ACHIEVEMENTS

July 1996: Became one of the few cricketers who have scored a century on debut. He made his Test debut against England at Lords in 1996, and went on to score a century in the very next match as well. He joined another select brand of 3 batsman who made tons in their 1st two Test innings.

July 1996: Sourav was only the 3rd batsman in the world to score a century on debut at Lords. His 131 still remains the highest by any batsman on his debut at Lord’s.

Aug 1997: Completed 1000 ODI runs in 34 ODIs in a game against Sri Lanka.

Nov 1997: Completed 1000 Test runs in 15 Tests in a game against Sri Lanka.

1997: Became the first player to receive 5 consecutive Man of the Match awards in one-dayers in the Sahara 1997 Cup. He also won the Man of the Series.

1997: Scored 1000 runs in a calendar year (1338 runs) in ODI and made the highest number of runs by any player in ODI for 1997.

April 1998: Completed 2000 ODI runs in 65 ODIs in a game against Australia.

1998: Scored 1000 runs in a calendar year (1328 runs) in ODI.

Jan 1999: Completed 3000 ODI runs in 87 ODIs in a game against New Zealand.

Feb 1999: Completed 2000 Test runs in 27 Tests in a game against Sri Lanka.

Mar 1999: Sourav became one of the few distinct players in the World to score a century and take 4 wickets in an ODI match.

May 1999: Sourav’s highest one day score, a mammoth 183 against Sri Lanka in the 1999 World Cup was, at the time, the highest by an Indian in an ODI, breaking Kapil Dev’s record of 173.

May 1999: His 183 against Sri Lanka remains the highest by an Indian in a World Cup.

May 26 1999: Was involved in the 2nd highest partnership in ODIs: a 318-run partnership with Dravid vs. SL in the 99 World Cup. Rahul & Sourav became the 1st pair to put up a 300 run partnership in ODIs.

Aug 1999: Completed 4000 ODI runs in 110 ODIs in a game against Sri Lanka.

1999: Sourav bagged as many as 8 Man of the Match awards in the year!

1999: Scored 1000 runs in a calendar year (1767 runs) in ODI and made the highest number of runs by any player in ODI for 1999.

Jan 2000: Completed 5000 ODI runs in 131 ODIs in a game against Pakistan.

Feb 2000: Became the captain of the Indian team when Sachin Tendulkar stepped down in Feb of 2000.

Oct 2000: Fastest in the world to complete 6000 ODI runs in 152 ODIs in a game against Zimbabwe.

2000: Scored 1000 runs in a calendar year (1579 runs) in ODI and made the highest number of runs by any player in ODI for 2000.

2001: Sourav and Sachin became one of the most successful opening pairs ever in one-day cricket!

Mar 2001: In the 2nd Test vs. Australia at Kolkata in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, Sourav became only the 3rd captain in Cricket history to lead a team to victory after following on. India went on to win the series 2-1!

Oct 2001: Fastest in the world to complete 7000 ODI runs in 180 ODIs in a game against Kenya.

Nov 2001: Completed 3000 Test runs in 47 Tests in a game against South Africa.

2001: Sourav and Tendulkar were involved in a World Record Opening Partnership of 252.

Sep 2002: Completed 4000 Test runs in 62 Tests in a game against England.

Nov 2002: Fastest in the world to complete 8000 ODI runs in 208 ODIs in a game against WI.

2002: Scored 1000 runs in a calendar year (1114 runs) in ODI.

March 2003: Became the 1st Indian Captain in 2 decades to take his team to the World Cup Final!

2003 World Cup: Became the 2nd highest century maker in ODIs, after Sachin Tendulkar.

Jan 2004: Led his team to a 1-1 series draw against Australia and retained the Border-Gavaskar trophy (2003-2004).

Jan 2004: Fastest in the world to complete 9000 ODI runs in 236 ODIs in a game against Australia.

2004: Became the fastest player to score 9,000 runs in ODIs (in just 236 matches and 228 innings), breaking fellow teammate Sachin Tendulkar's record of 242 ODIs.

Mar - Apr 2004: Became the first Indian captain to win an ODI and Test series in Pakistan.

April 2004: Became India’s most successful Test captain, with 18 test wins in just five years, of which 9 have come on foreign soil. No other Indian Captain has achieved such a feat.

May 2004: Joined the top 20 list of players who hit the most sixes in Test cricket, with 41 sixes.

Feb 2005: Climbed to the #3 spot in the list of most sixes hit by a batsman in ODI with 168 sixes in 247 matches.

April 2005: Became only the 3rd cricketer and 2nd Indian after Mohammed Azharuddin to make 5000 ODI runs as skipper in the Pepsi Cup vs. Pakistan.

August 2005: Sourav's fifty in the 3rd ODI against Sri Lanka in the tri-nation series in Sri Lanka helped him pass 10,000 runs in ODIs. He was only the 3rd cricketer and 2nd Indian to achieve this rare feat.

December 2006: After being out of the side because of politics for 10 months, Dada is RECALLED to the Indian Team for the South Africa Test series after India recd a drubbing at the hands of the hosts in the ODI series, losing 0-4. This is the 1st test team selection after Kiran More stepping down and Vengsarkar taking over as Chief Selector.

Jan 2007: Dada emerges the highest run-getter for India in the South Africa Test series with 2 50s and 214 runs in all. Silences decorators within and outside the team with his remarkable return to Test cricket.

Jan 2007: After a terrific comeback into the Test side, Dada is recalled into the ODI team after a gap of 1 and a half years. The Maharaj makes a brilliant comeback in one-dayers also with an explosive 98 off 110 balls. Dada is back on top and is hailed by fans and critics alike.

Feb 12, 07: After scoring 168 runs in the home series vs WI at an average of 56.08, Dada is picked in the final 15 men squad for the World Cup in the Caribbean. His dream finally comes true!

Feb 2007: Dada is awarded the MAN OF THE SERIES award in the home series vs. SL for making the most runs in the series - 168 runs in 3 games at an average of 84.00! In the six matches since his recall, Dada scores four 50s. Across the country, he is hailed as the "KING OF COMEBACKS" for making one of the strongest comebacks ever in the history of cricket. This award comes in only his 2nd series after the recall and after a gap of 6 yrs.

June 2007: With their 134 run open partnership against South Africa in the 2nd ODI of the Future Cup in Belfast, Sourav and Sachin Tendulkar registered their 17th 100-run open stand to become the most successful opening pair in ODI cricket history. Sourav and Sachin reclaimed their record after Adam Gilchrist and Mathew Hayden had edged past in Feb 2007.

August 2007: Sourav reaches 11,000 ODI runs in the 3rd ODI against England in the Natwest Series. He is only the second Indian after Tendulkar and fourth player in the world to achieve the feat. He is also the second fastest after Tendulkar to reach 11k.

September 2007: Sourav is only the 4th Indian player and 8th overall to reach 300 one-day internationals in the 5th ODI vs. England in the Natwest Series at Leeds. Dada celebrated his 300th ODI in style with a man-of-the match performance that bought India back into the 7-ODI series after being 3-1 down.

September 2007: Sachin and Sourav put their 19th century open-partnership together in the 5th ODI vs. England in the Natwest Series at Leeds, crossing 6,000 runs as an opening pair - the highest ever in ODI cricket.

September 2007: Dada reaches 1000 runs in a calendar year in ODI. Since his comeback in January 2007, Dada has played 20 games in which he scored 1000 runs at an average of over 55.

November 2007: Dada reaches 100 ODI wickets with the wicket of Shahid Afridi in the 4th ODI vs. Pakistan at Gwalior. Sourav is only the 3rd player ever to score 10,000 runs and take 100 wickets in ODI after Sachin Tendulkar and Sanath Jayasuriya.

December 2007: Dada completes 6000 Test runs in 2nd Test against Pakistan at Kolkata. Also hits 1st Test hundred in front of home crowd at Eden Gardens.

December 2007: Dada hits 15th Test hundred to bring up back-to-back tons in the 3rd Test against Pakistan in Bangalore. Sourav has achieved this feat three times in his career - on debut, against Sri Lanka in 1997/98 and against Pakistan in 2007.

December 2007: Dada reaches 1000 runs in a calendar year in Tests for the 1st time in his career in the 2nd innings of the 3rd Test.

December 2007: Dada is awarded the MAN OF THE SERIES in the India-Pakistan Test series at home. Sourav a whopping 534 runs in 3 Tests at an average of 89.00. Sourav scored 8, 48, 102, 46, 239, and 91 in 6 innings. He also took 4 wickets to take India to a 1-0 series win over Pakistan. Dada was the highest scorer in the series.

December 2007: Dada is only the 7th Indian to reach 100 Test matches.

March 2008: Dada receives Young Achiever's award for being an inspiration to youngsters.

April 2008: Sourav is awarded man of the match for his match winning 87 in the 1st innings of the low scoring 3rd Test at Kanpur against South Africa, April 13 2008.

June 2008: Sourav swept top honors at the 1st Castrol Asian Cricket Awards in Karachi. He was adjuged "Castrol Asian Cricketer of the Year" and "Castrol Best Asian Batsman of the Year" for being the highest run-getter in Asia in 2007.

October 2008: Dada reached 7,000 Test runs in Mohali in the 2nd Test of the Border-Gavaskar series. He is only the 4th Indian cricketer after Dravid, Tendulkar, and Gavaskar to reach the milestone.

November 2008: Sourav walked into the sunset in the 2008 Border-Gavaskar. Like Sir Don Bradman, he was out for a golden duck in his last innings, but Dada did score his 17th Test Century in his final series.

"look at someone who has a lot to learn, be different and prove your critics wrong"

To the god of offside... and the most magnificent sixes ever hit on the field...

I want the recruitment officers number, do u...???

On my way to work....

"cpla lines : Jim "

"GOlmaal returns"

golmaal... was gud....

golmaal returns... average

... Indian film industry still needs to learn the art of making sequels...

GR : definitely packed with quiet a few punches every here & there, that made the break into laughter... but somehow... you can feel the disconnect... ther story ain't too strong... there were a few characters who were absolutely redundant, from a movie's perspective... the story line ain't too strong, the concept is not too fresh... but yes the comic timing... was decent enuff..

then again ...

amongst all, the charater played by Arshad Warsi, most hilarious of all...

overall fun to watch...

rating: 5/10

An Article from Businessweek - Peter Drucker

P.S : it's too long... everyone in management would have already read it but those who haven;t ... its worth it...

"I'm not very introspective," he protested in his familiar guttural baritone, thick with the accent of his native Austria. "I don't know. What I would say is I helped a few good people be effective in doing the right things."

...an excerpt from an interview with Peter Drucker

The story of Peter Drucker as told by many a management Gurus is the story of management itself. It's the story of the rise of the modern corporation and the managers who organize work. Without his analysis it's almost impossible to imagine the rise of dispersed, globe-spanning corporations.

But it's also the story of Drucker's own rising disenchantment with capitalism in the late 20th century that seemed to reward greed as easily as it did performance. Drucker was sickened by the excessive riches awarded to mediocre executives even as they slashed the ranks of ordinary workers. And as he entered his 10th decade, there were some in corporations and academia who said his time had passed. Others said he grew sloppy with the facts. Meanwhile, new generations of management gurus and pundits, many of whom grew rich off books and speaking tours, superseded him. The doubt and disillusionment with business that Drucker expressed in his later years caused him to turn away from the corporation and instead offer his advice to the nonprofit sector. It seemed an acknowledgment that business and management had somehow failed him.

But Drucker's tale is not mere history. Whether it's recognized or not, the organization and practice of management today is derived largely from the thinking of Peter Drucker. His teachings form a blueprint for every thinking leader.

In a world of quick fixes and slick explanations, a world of fads and simplistic PowerPoint lessons, he understood that the job of leading people and institutions is filled with complexity. He taught generations of managers the importance of picking the best people, of focusing on opportunities and not problems, of getting on the same side of the desk as your customer, of the need to understand your competitive advantages and to continue to refine them. He believed that talented people were the essential ingredient of every successful enterprise.

RENAISSANCE MAN

Well before his death, before the almost obligatory accolades poured in, Drucker had already become a legend, of course. He was the guru's guru, a sage, kibitzer, doyen, and gadfly of business, all in one. He had moved fluidly among his various roles as journalist, professor, historian, economics commentator, and raconteur. Over his 95 prolific years, he had been a true Renaissance man, a teacher of religion, philosophy, political science, and Asian art, even a novelist. But his most important contribution, clearly, was in business.

After witnessing the oppression of the Nazi regime, he found great hope in the possibilities of the modern corporation to build communities and provide meaning for the people who worked in them. For the next 50 years he would train his intellect on helping companies live up to those lofty possibilities. He was always able to discern trends -- sometimes 20 years or more before they were visible to anyone else. "It is frustratingly difficult to cite a significant modern management concept that was not first articulated, if not invented, by Drucker," says James O'Toole, the management author and University of Southern California professor. "I say that with both awe and dismay." In the course of his long career, Drucker consulted for the most celebrated CEOs of his era, from Alfred P. Sloan Jr. of General Motors Corp. (GM ) to Grove of Intel.

-- It was Drucker who introduced the idea of decentralization -- in the 1940s -- which became a bedrock principle for virtually every large organization in the world.

-- He was the first to assert -- in the 1950s -- that workers should be treated as assets, not as liabilities to be eliminated.

-- He originated the view of the corporation as a human community -- again, in the 1950s -- built on trust and respect for the worker and not just a profit-making machine, a perspective that won Drucker an almost godlike reverence among the Japanese.

-- He first made clear -- still the '50s -- that there is "no business without a customer," a simple notion that ushered in a new marketing mind-set.

-- He argued in the 1960s -- long before others -- for the importance of substance over style, for institutionalized practices over charismatic, cult leaders.

-- And it was Drucker again who wrote about the contribution of knowledge workers -- in the 1970s -- long before anyone knew or understood how knowledge would trump raw material as the essential capital of the New Economy.

Drucker made observation his life's work, gleaning deceptively simple ideas that often elicited startling results. Shortly after Welch became CEO of General Electric in 1981, for example, he sat down with Drucker at the company's New York headquarters. Drucker posed two questions that arguably changed the course of Welch's tenure: "If you weren't already in a business, would you enter it today?" he asked. "And if the answer is no, what are you going to do about it?"

Those questions led Welch to his first big transformative idea: that every business under the GE umbrella had to be either No. 1 or No. 2 in its class. If not, Welch decreed that the business would have to be fixed, sold, or closed. It was the core strategy that helped Welch remake GE into one of the most successful American corporations of the past 25 years.

Drucker's work at GE is instructive. It was never his style to bring CEOs clear, concise answers to their problems but rather to frame the questions that could uncover the larger issues standing in the way of performance. "My job," he once lectured a consulting client, "is to ask questions. It's your job to provide answers." Says Dan Lufkin, a co-founder of investment banking firm Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette Inc. (CSR ), who often consulted with Drucker in the 1960s: "He would never give you an answer. That was frustrating for a while. But while it required a little more brain matter, it was enormously helpful to us. After you spent time with him, you really admired him not only for the quality of his thinking but for his foresight, which was amazing. He was way ahead of the curve on major trends."

Drucker's mind was an itinerant thing, able to wander in minutes through a series of digressions until finally coming to some specific business point. He could unleash a monologue that would include anything from the role of money in Goethe's Faust to the story of his grandmother who played piano for Johannes Brahms, yet somehow use it to serve his point of view. "He thought in circles," says Joseph A. Maciariello, who teaches "Drucker on Management" at Claremont Graduate University.

Part of Drucker's genius lay in his ability to find patterns among seemingly unconnected disciplines. Warren Bennis, a management guru himself and longtime admirer of Drucker, says he once asked his friend how he came up with so many original insights. Drucker narrowed his eyes thoughtfully. "I learn only through listening," he said, pausing, "to myself."

Among academics, that ad hoc, nonlinear approach sometimes led to charges that Drucker just wasn't rigorous enough, that his work wasn't backed up by quantifiable research. "With all those books he wrote, I know very few professors who ever assigned one to their MBA students," says O'Toole. "Peter would never have gotten tenure in a major business school."

I first met Drucker in 1985 when I was scrambling to master my new job as management editor at BusinessWeek. He invited me to Estes Park, Colo., where he and his wife, Doris, often spent summers in a log cabin, part of a YWCA camp. I remember him counseling me to drink lots of water, ingest a super dose of vitamin C, and take it easy to adjust to the high altitude. I spent two days getting to know Drucker and his work. We had breakfast, lunch, and dinner together. We hiked the trails of the camp. And I became intimately familiar with his remarkable story.

Born in Austria in 1909 into a highly educated professional family, he seemed destined for some kind of greatness. The Vienna that Drucker knew had been a cultural and economic hub, and his parents were in the thick of it. Sigmund Freud ate lunch at the same cooperative restaurant as the Druckers and vacationed near the same Alpine lake. When Drucker first met Freud at the age of eight, his father told him: "Remember, today you have just met the most important man in Austria and perhaps in Europe." Many evenings his parents, Adolph and Caroline, would gather the intellectual elite in the drawing room of their Vienna home for wide-ranging discussions of medicine, politics, or music. Peter absorbed not merely their content but worldliness and a style of expression.

When Hitler organized his first Nazi meeting in Berlin in 1927, Drucker, raised a Protestant, was in Germany, studying law at the University of Frankfurt. He attended classes taught by Keynes and Joseph Schumpeter. As a student, a clerk in a Hamburg export firm, and a securities analyst in a Frankfurt merchant bank, he lived through the years of Hitler's emergence, recognizing early the menace of centralized power. When his essay on Friedrich Julius Stahl, a leading German conservative philosopher, was published as a pamphlet in 1933, it so offended the Nazis that the pamphlet was banned and burned. A second Drucker pamphlet, Die Judenfrage in Deutschland, or The Jewish Question in Germany, published four years later, suffered the same fate. The only surviving copy sits in a folder in the Austrian National Archives with a swastika stamped on it.

Drucker immigrated to London shortly after Hitler became Chancellor, taking a job as an economist at a London bank while continuing to write and to study economics. He came to America in 1937 as a correspondent for a group of British newspapers, along with his new wife, Doris, whom he had met in Frankfurt. "America was terribly exciting," remembered Drucker. "In Europe the only hope was to go back to 1913. In this country everyone looked forward."

So did Drucker. He taught part time at Sarah Lawrence College before joining the faculty at Bennington College in Vermont. He could be a difficult taskmaster. One Bennington student recalled that Drucker said her paper "resembled turnips sprinkled with parsley. I could wring his fat frog-like neck," she wrote in a letter to her parents. "Unfortunately, he is a very brilliant and famous man. He has at least taught me something."

Drucker was a professor of politics and philosophy at Bennington when he was given the opportunity to study General Motors in 1945, the first time he peeked inside the corporation. His examination led to the publication of his groundbreaking book, Concept of the Corporation, and his decision, in 1950, to attach himself to New York University's Graduate School of Business. It was around this time that Drucker heard Schumpeter, then at Harvard University, say: "I know that it is not enough to be remembered for books and theories. One does not make a difference unless it is a difference in people's lives."

CREATING A DISCIPLINE

He took Schumpeter's advice to heart, beginning a career in consulting while continuing his life as a teacher and writer. Drucker's most famous text, The Practice of Management, published in 1954, laid out the American corporation like a well-dissected frog in a college laboratory, with chapter headings such as "What is a Business?" and "Managing Growth." It became his first popular book about management, and its title was, in effect, a manifesto. He was saying that management was not a science or an art. It was a profession, like medicine or law. It was about getting the very best out of people. As he himself put it: "I wrote The Practice of Management because there was no book on management. I had been working for 10 years consulting and teaching, and there simply was nothing or very little. So I kind of sat down and wrote it, very conscious of the fact that I was laying the foundations of a discipline."

Drucker taught at NYU for 21 years -- and his executive classes became so popular that they were held in a nearby gym where the swimming pool was drained and covered so hundreds of folding chairs could be set up. Drucker moved to California in 1971 to become a professor of social sciences and management at Claremont Graduate School, as it was known then. But he was always thought to be an outsider -- a writer, not a scholar -- who was largely ignored by the business schools. Tom Peters says he earned two advanced degrees, including a PhD in business, without once studying Drucker or reading a single book written by him. Even some of Drucker's colleagues at NYU had fought against awarding him tenure because his ideas were not the result of rigorous academic research. For years professors at the most elite business schools said they didn't bother to read Drucker because they found him superficial. And in the years before Drucker's death even the dean of the Peter F. Drucker Graduate School of Management at Claremont said: "This is a brand in decline."

In the 1980s he began to have grave doubts about business and even capitalism itself. He no longer saw the corporation as an ideal space to create community. In fact, he saw nearly the opposite: a place where self-interest had triumphed over the egalitarian principles he long championed. In both his writings and speeches, Drucker emerged as one of Corporate America's most important critics. When conglomerates were the rage, he preached against reckless mergers and acquisitions. When executives were engaged in empire-building, he argued against excess staff and the inefficiencies of numerous "assistants to." In a 1984 essay he persuasively argued that CEO pay had rocketed out of control and implored boards to hold CEO compensation to no more than 20 times what the rank and file made. What particularly enraged him was the tendency of corporate managers to reap massive earnings while firing thousands of their workers. "This is morally and socially unforgivable," wrote Drucker, "and we will pay a heavy price for it."

The hostile takeovers of the 1980s, a period that revisionists now say was essential to improve American efficiency and productivity, was for Drucker "the final failure of corporate capitalism." He then likened Wall Street traders to "Balkan peasants stealing each other's sheep" or "pigs gorging themselves at the trough." He maintained that multimillion-dollar severance packages had perverted management's ability to look out for anything but itself. "When you have golden parachutes," he told one journalist, "you have created incentives for management to collude with the raiders." At one point, Drucker was so put off by American corporate values that he was moved to say that, "although I believe in the free market, I have serious reservations about capitalism."

We tend to think of Drucker as forever old, a gnomic and mysterious elder. His speech, always slow and measured, was forever accented in that commanding Viennese. His wisdom could not have come from anyone who was young. So it's easy to forget his dashing youth, his long devotion to one woman and their four children (until the end, Drucker still greeted his wife of 71 years with an effusive "Hello, my darling!"), or even his deliciously self-deprecating sense of play.

During his early consulting work with DLJ, the partners flew out to California to meet with Drucker at home. After one of his famously meandering monologues, Drucker thought everyone needed a break.

"Well, boys," he said, "why don't we relax for a few minutes? Let's go for a swim."

The executives explained that they hadn't brought their swimming trunks.

"You don't need swimming suits because it's just men here today," replied Drucker.

"And we took off our clothes and went skinny-dipping in his pool," recalls Charles Ellis, who was with the group.

Surely, Drucker never fit into the buttoned-down stereotype of a management consultant. He always favored bright colors: a bottle-green shirt, a knit tie, a royal blue jacket with a blue-on-blue shirt, or simply a woolen flannel shirt and tan trousers. Drucker always worked from a home office filled with books and classical records on shelves that groaned under their weight. He never had a secretary and usually handled the fax machine and answered the telephone himself -- he was something of a phone addict, he admitted.

PRIVACY PREVAILS

Yet Drucker also was an intensely private man, revealing little of his personal life, even in his own autobiography, Adventures of a Bystander, the book he told me was his favorite of them all. Not surprisingly, perhaps, the Drucker Archives at Claremont Graduate University contain only one personal letter from his wife to him. Doris had clipped two images from a 1950s-era newspaper, one of a handsome man in a plaid robe, fresh from a good night's sleep, another of a couple in love, man and woman staring into each other's eyes, over a late evening snack. She glued each black-and-white image onto a flimsy piece of typing paper and wrote the words: "I love you in the morning when things are kind of frantic. I love you in the evening when things are more romantic." It is undated and unsigned.

It was Doris, in her own unpublished memoir, who told the story of how she once locked Drucker in a London coal cellar to hide him from her disapproving mother. As Doris' mother turned the house upside down in a frantic search for a man she thought was sleeping with her daughter, Peter spent the better part of the night crouched in a cold, dark hole. Doris' mother had long hoped her daughter would someday marry a Rothschild or a German of high social standing. The last thing she wanted was for her to marry a light-in-the-pocket Austrian.

In his later years, as his health weakened, so did Drucker's magnetic pull. Although he maintained a coterie of corporate followers, he increasingly turned his attention to nonprofit leaders, from Frances Hesselbein of the Girl Scouts of the USA to Rick Warren, founding pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif. Warren, author of The Purpose-Driven Life, considered Drucker a mentor. "Drucker told me: 'The function of management in a church is to make the church more churchlike, not more businesslike. It's to allow you to do what your mission is,"' Warren said. "Business was just a starting point from which he had this platform to influence leaders of all different kinds." Still, it was clear Drucker cared deeply about how he would be remembered. He tried in 1990 to discredit and quash an admiring biography of quality guru Deming, whom he seemed to consider a rival. And when Professor O'Toole assessed the influence of Drucker's landmark 1945 study on General Motors, he concluded that the guru not only had had no impact on GM but also became persona non grata at the company for nearly half a century. "I sent it to Peter, and he spent hours going over it with me," recalls O'Toole. "He was a little unhappy with it because he didn't like the conclusion. He felt he had had a big impact at GM. I thought that was either very generous of Peter or else he was kidding himself."

During the same period, Drucker, then 80 years old, penned a severely flawed foreword for a new edition of Alfred Sloan's My Years with General Motors. In one passage, Drucker quotes Sloan as saying that the death of his younger brother Raymond was "the greatest personal tragedy in my life." Raymond, however, died 17 years after Alfred. In another section, Drucker noted that the publication of the book had been delayed because Sloan "refused to publish as long as any of the GM people mentioned in the book was still alive. On the day of the death of the last living person mentioned in the book, Sloan released it for publication," wrote Drucker. In fact, Sloan generously heaped praise on 14 colleagues in the preface of his book, and all were still alive when My Years with General Motors was first published.

Whether the mistakes were a result of sloppiness or his declining intellectual power is not clear. But Drucker was no longer at the top of his game. The dean of the Drucker school, Cornelis de Kluyver, had reason to believe that Drucker's influence was on the wane -- the school was having difficulty attracting big money from potential donors. To gain a $20 million gift for its puny endowment, de Kluyver agreed in 2003 to put another name on the school, that of Masatoshi Ito, the founder of Ito-Yokado Group, owner of 7-Eleven stores in Japan and North America. Students protested, even marching outside the dean's office toting placards decrying the change. An ailing Drucker volunteered to speak directly to the students. "I consider it quite likely that three years after my death my name will be of absolutely no advantage," he told them. "If you can get 10 million bucks by taking my name off, more power to you."

In April, during our last meeting, I asked Drucker what he had been up to lately. "Not very much," he replied. "I have been putting things in order, slowly. I am reasonably sure that I am not going to write another book. I just don't have the energy. My desk is a mess, and I can't find anything."

I almost felt guilty for having asked the question, so I praised his work, the 38 books, the countless essays and articles, the consulting gigs, his widespread influence on so many of the world's most celebrated leaders. But he was agitated, even dismissive, of much of his accomplishment.

"I did my best work early on -- in the 1950s. Since then it's marginal. O.K.? What else do you have?"

I pressed the nonagenarian for more reflection, more introspection. "Look," he sighed, "I'm totally uninteresting. I'm a writer, and writers don't have interesting lives. My books, my work, yes. That's different....

*******************

A few success mantra’s from Peter Drucker's are:

# Efficiency is doing better what is already being done.

# The productivity of work is not the responsibility of the worker but of the manager.

# Follow effective action with quiet reflection. From the quiet reflection will come even more effective action?

# No institution can possibly survive if it needs geniuses or supermen to manage it. It must be organized in such a way as to be able to get along under a leadership composed of average human beings.

# The most important thing in communication is to hear what isn't being said.