What makes consultants succeed in what they do? Is it their skill? Is it their knowledge? Is it their experience? The very simple answer is a straight NO! Well yes, consultants are the subject matter experts, consultants are skilled, consultants have experience – but an average young consultant just doesn’t match an experienced industry professional. So  what sets consultants apart, is their excellent ability to communicate, to tell stories, to pull the audience together, and to explain things in the most understandable manner. I learnt this at my first job with the consulting firm I am talking about – the consultant who succeeds isn’t the person who is the most capable or most skilled or most knowledgeable, but the person who communicates the best!

If you are a seller, you need to convince your potential buyer in order to sell your product. This applies to almost anything in life. Many years ago, just after the IIT entrance result had come out, I had asked my dad to buy me a digital portable music player (that it broke in less than a month is a different story). I had to explain my demand, not just with justifiable reasons, but also by giving examples of people I knew who already had such a device. It got tough for me to convince him, but I got it nonetheless as a gift for cracking the exam ;). Nowadays, I apply the same tactics back. Dad asked me to buy a house as an investment, and I was hellbent on making sure that he justifies the demand. The economist-banker’s sense prevailed, and today, 33% of my monthly salary flows out to the loan account the day it arrives in my salary account!

Ability to convince comes with the ability to communicate the right thing, in the simplest of terms, with the most relevant correlations, and a juicy story to weave it all together. Not everyone can convince, else there would have been no bad sales guys, and hence no good sales guys. Leave alone convincing, not everyone can communicate! Of course, had everyone been a great communicator, we wouldn’t have found our not-so beloved Members of Parliament, or our very-much beloved Bollywood movie stars often misquoted in the media.

So long story short, I’ve realised that they way forward for me, is to be more convincing in my discussions. Especially when I am recommending something to someone, or selling my idea! For that, I need to be able to weave a story, I need to be a good story teller!

Have you noted that I haven’t yet made a resolution for 2013? Well, guys, this is it! By the end of this year, I hope to be a better storyteller, a better seller of my ideas, and overall, a better communicator! Oh, and after reading this post, next time we talk, please :( do not argue with me just for the heck of it, even if you believe you can play a part in helping me achieve my resolution! :P

First, I changed jobs! Yes – it took me a while to make a decision, but I was pretty firm about it. This new job is my third in 5 years. Who talks about too many switches ruining your career? I don’t think so. Have heard about it, but haven’t come across cases yet. As long as you are in the same domain, and doing better work than before, constantly learning and contributing more with time, there seems to be no problem! Touch-wood!

With the job change, came change of homes. Staying on the outer skirts of the city was not helping us, even though it was one of the best places to stay at. We moved closer to my workplace, actually we found a place midway between mine and hers. Banjara Hills. Fancy name, isn’t it? Yeah yeah. Ask me about it. It is fun living closer to the happening places in the city. Not that we have been making the most out of it, but it is still cooler on the liters of petrol you save every weekend!

We have been spending precious hours every evening after getting back home, searching the internet for cheap fares all around the world. Can you believe that we haven’t yet decided where we will travel this year, or when. By this time last year, we had already come back from the most amazing trip to Istanbul. I had also made a trip to frozen Europe just before that. This year seems dry. We just came back from a road trip to Suryalanka. Surya what? Yes, Suryalanka. It is a tiny little beach (long, but largely cordoned off due to the presence of Air Force Station) with just one pretty mediocre AP tourism resort (that charges you a bomb). Okay, it was relaxing, and the drive was a lot of fun, but a slightly cleaner beach and a slightly better resort would have made me immensely happier. We plan to do two more trips this year. One, preferably to north India in summer, and then one outside India, sometime in the last quarter of the year.

So what makes you happy? Long drives like we do? Sitting on a beach and watching the waves hit the shore endlessly till the sun goes down? Dancing your night away to loud beats? Talking to your friends? Or eating an ice-cream? Cats?

Remember my last post,  ‘People, Always’? It was about how people end up making you happy or sad, it was about how people end up teaching you something for life, whether you like it or not. But I recently came across a song, which emphasizes that it isn’t always people you can hold responsible to make or break your day, but you yourself! Go “watch” this video, don’t just listen to it. This video makes me happy for some reason. Just as I told you last time that good conversations make me happy, good music also makes me happy!

P.S.  To get a feel of the newly launched Google Play Books for Indian android users, I started reading Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables. Read about 100 odd pages during the days off at Suryalanka. The story seemed so engaging that I could not resist checking the synopsis and character outlines, online. That is when it dawned on me that the novel is almost 1500 pages long, with the abridged version itself running beyond 600 pages. Killing my curiosity, I moved over to YouTube to watch the 4 hour long epic 1958 movie, based page-to-page on the novel. It took me 3 sessions over a span of 3 days to finish watching the movie. It left me touched, and not really feeling miserable. I went back to the book and read the last 50 pages, in a fitting finish to my overwhelmed emotions! And this, I realized, is the best way to read a book and also watch a movie based on it!

When I was a kid, I was a complete introvert. It would not just get tough, but rather uncomfortable for me to strike a conversation with anyone, forget a stranger. I think I was in that mode pretty much till I graduated from college, and a bit into my first job. I would generally stay away from ‘people’, and much to my own self. Today, I think, I am in a much better position. I think I need to thank social media for that! Facebook, Twitter and the likes, make it easier to connect with people you share similar interests with. Similar interests means something to talk about. No? I think yes.

Everybody is talented. I learnt this at college. What talent each individual has, is best known by that individual himself. When I meet people, all I look for is their talent, all I see is their talent. Recently, I’ve come across a lot of people – at work, at parties, at social gatherings, at meetups, on Twitter, etc. All of them are awesome. Seriously! Now I know a bunch of people who bake great cakes, who write awesome blogs, who click awesome photographs, who know awesome restaurants, who travel to awesome places, who play awesome music, who are awesome fitness freaks… and the list goes on. You know, each of you is awesome! And a good conversation with any of you makes my day.

However, people often don’t know what their talent is, or they knowingly misuse it. Those are the kinds of people that worry me. These are people who don’t know where they are going. People who don’t know what they want from life. Okay I know that Great people discuss ideas. Average people discuss events. Small people discuss people. However, the people I am discussing here, are even smaller. Tiny, really lost in the vastness of the universe. These are the people I meet and wonder how lucky I am. These are the people I pity. These are the people I meet and wonder:

All the lonely people
Where do they all come from?
All the lonely people
Where do they all belong?

You changed your travel plan only so that you could come and stay with me for a day? You cared to go out of your way only to get my favorite perfume from Istanbul? You took me around the city when I had just moved in? You RT’ed my tweet when a friend’s friend’s friend’s wife needed blood in Srinagar? You replied to all my emails asking for help? You made a difference to my life! :)

You managed to lose 15 kilos last year? You have a baby and a full time job and also party every weekend? You climbed some of the highest peaks in the country? You fought a miscarriage? You sang a beautiful song? You made a difference to my life! :)

Talk to me about food, places, photography, health, technology, religion, history, policy, or just about anything under the sun! And I will figure out a way in which you would end up making a difference to my life :)

You all get a warm hug :)

And all you lonely people? Yes, you’ve made a difference too! You’ve taught me to be more cautious. You’ve made me realize that I can’t read people very well in the first interaction. And you’ve given me a chance to do my homework, sharpen my skills and be a better judge. You too, made a difference to my life :)

At the end of the day, it is the people you meet and the people you interact with, who shape the person you are! So, shall we catch up at LaMakaan? :)

… that!

I will keep this short and to the point – Starting Feb 8th, this blog hosted on WordPress.com, will only be accessible via the link http://aditto.wordpress.com and no longer be accessible via http://blog.aditto.info. Let me put it once more – you will reach my blog only via http://aditto.wordpress.com.

It is too much for me to renew the domain subscription every year and also the WordPress domain mapping. Henceforth, I will simply let WordPress be where it is!

What does it mean for you? That depends on how you access/reach my blog:

1. If you are subscribed via WordPress.com
No change for you :) Lucky yougaiz!

2. If you are subscribed via Feedburner
No change for yougaiz either!

3. If you have subscribed via feed aggregators such as Google Reader:
Please check your feed URL, and if necessary change it to http://aditto.wordpress.com/feed/ (Thanks :))

4. If you visit my blog via Twitter or Facebook shares
Going forward you will continue to receive the updates with the correct URL. Most historic links will however not work.

5. If you reach my blog through a Google Search Query result
I am hoping Google Search automatically reverts all blog.aditto links to aditto.wordpress links, since the suffixes will remain the same.

6. If you have linked my blog on your blog, either in a blog post or blog rollI am afraid but you may just need to update the link to http://aditto.wordpress.com/ (Thanks :))

If you are not yet subscribed to my blog, check the subscription options on the top or in the sidebar on the right. Or just leave your email ID in a comment below.

I hope I don’t lose any regular readers/subscribers with this change. I also hope the number of hits/day don’t go down!

Merci beaucoup :)

You would need:

• ½ kg (boneless) chicken breasts (2 to 3, depending on their size)
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons oil (I mixed groundnut oil and olive oil)
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ½ cup sesame seeds
• ½ cup toasted breadcrumbs OR rusk OR biscuits OR bread-sticks
• 1 full orange/mandarin
• ½ cup orange marmalade (yes, you’ve read it right!)

For the sides, you would need:

• 8-10 baby potatoes OR 2 regular sized potatoes
• 1 carrot
• 1 tomato
• Few drops of oil
• Dash of salt and black pepper

1. Defrost your chicken if you purchased frozen chicken, and wash it well with water. Pat dry with paper napkins.
2. If the breasts are thicker than 1cm each, cut each breast along the thickness into two thin breast slices. Make 3-4 cuts on each of the chicken breasts.
3. In a wide bowl, grate about 1 tablespoon zest from the orange and add the marmalade to it.
4. Add the soy sauce, oil, red chilly flakes, salt and black pepper to it and mix well.
5. Place the chicken breasts and turn a few times to coat them well. Let this sit for a while (30 minutes is enough, but at least 15 minutes if you can’t wait).
6. Saute the sesame till they become crisp and turn brown. Watch out while you roast them, they can get burnt very easily.
7. Crush the rusk/biscuits/breadsticks into fine powder and mix in the toasted sesame seeds.
8. Set your oven to pre heat to 200 C / 400 F. If you are using a microwave oven in the grill/convection mode, use the higher of the two racks.
9. In the meanwhile, set the potatoes and carrot in a pressure cooker, or boil them till soft. Peel the carrots before boiling and the potatoes after boiling!
10. Take out the marinated breast pieces one by one and dip them in the crushed rusk+sesame; turn to coat both sides. Place them on the rack and then into the oven.
11. Dipping the marinated chicken in rusk+sesame not only stops the marinade from dripping, but also makes a crispy grilled chicken.
12. Grill for 10 minutes, remove, flip the pieces and put them back in the oven for another 10 minutes.
13. While the chicken is getting grilled, cut the tomato into 4 pieces and stir fry a little bit on a pan in a few drops of oil.
14. Toss the boiled vegetables and the tomato slices in a pinch of salt and pepper.
15. Set the sides on your plate and add in some orange slices.
16. Serve the chicken straight out of the oven, along with the sides and enjoy with a tall glass of coke :)

Difficulty: Low
Inflation: Moderate
Calories: Low to moderate
Eat when: Dinner
Yumminess Factor: You may just love to dip that chicken in some mustard sauce and put between a sliced burger bun!

Buon Appetito!

I just love cooking fresh fruits and adding them in as main ingredients in regular food :) Actually, I just love fruits!

We visited the Kanha National Park, and Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve, and in between spent a couple of days marveling at the gorgeous Marble Rocks gorge in the Narmada river basin.

It is a little bit inconvenient to reach those places from Hyderabad. While going we had to take a train to Katni (MP) and then a taxi to Bandhavgarh, and on the way back, we drove from Kanha till Nagpur and then took a train. Jabalpur, Katni, Gondia and Nagpur are the nearest railway stations that have decent connectivity to most major Indian cities.

All throughout our vacation, we stayed at various MP Tourism Hotels/Resorts/Lodges. They were not “the best” at each location, but certainly in the top 5.

Bandhavgarh was our first stop. This is one of the smaller forest reserves in MP, but with one of the largest tiger populations. There are about 60 odd tigers here, and because of the small size, the probability of spotting a tiger is much higher than that in other forest reserves in India, the highest in fact. We did two safaris, one in the evening that lasted 2 hours, and the other early in the morning that lasted 4 hours. The best times of the day to spot animals is either just after sunrise or just before sunset. Summer is even better, we were told.

The guy in the pic above was our guide, Anil Sharma… if you ever travel to Bandhavgarh, and happen to stay at MPTDC White Tiger Forest Lodge, ask for Anil Sharma’s services during the safari! He is the best safari person they have, and has been there for the last 20 years. He knows the forest inside out and will tell you amazing stories! Whether you see a tiger or not is a matter of chance, but your guide being expert enough to understand animal alert calls and track tiger footprints is a subtle key.

The next stop was Jabalpur’s Bheda Ghats, where we spent a couple of nights to take a break, and enjoy the vistas provided by the beautiful Marble Rocks gorge formed by the Narmada. From there we moved on to Kanha, the largest of the forest reserves in MP, and also the best! At Kanha, we stayed for two nights at Baghira Log Huts (Kisli), run by MPTDC and one night at Forest Safari Lodge (Mukki). The Baghira Log Huts are the only place to stay within the core area of the forest. All other resorts are either in the buffer zone, or beyond that. Being in the core area meant that the animals would come on a safari to meet us rather than us going out looking for them. Monkeys, spotted deer and sambar were constant around the huts. The nights were dotted with deer alarm calls (on seeing a tiger around). We did 2 safaris in the Kisli/Sarhi zone of Kanha, and one safari in Mukki zone. We could spot more than a handful of the 30,000 odd species of animals/birds at Kanha. And sprawling meadows gave us a chance to see herds of deer, and much more, grazing happily in the sun. Unfortunately, the best we could get to spotting a panther, was a Leopard whom we saw swiftly jumping across the road. We did not see any tiger at Kanha (Kanha is twice as big as Bandhavgarh and has lesser tigers, so the probability of spotting one is really low). Below are some pics from our trip…

In the pic above, clockwise from top-left: Jackal, Male Barking Deer, Male Barasingha with Spotted Deer, Female Barking Deer.

In the pic above, clockwise from top-left: Deer in various parts of Kanha, with a fawn, in a herd, with family and solo.

Most people go on safaris with a single intention – spot the Tiger. It was very sad to see depressed faces of groups returning from safaris without spotting a tiger. We were also one such group after our first safari, when all we could spot was a tiger pawmark. We met the Tiger during our second safari at Bandhavgarh. The first sight was from a distance, the Tiger retreating into the woods from a meadow. Sharmaji, our safari driver was quick to turn around and take us to the spot where he anticipated the Tiger would come out from on the other side of the woods. We waited and watched in awe as the majestic creature walked out – stood on the road, turned around to show us his full strength, and turned back to climb up the hills on the other side. We watched as he lifted his tail up and walked away with pride. Seeing the Tiger on the morning of 25th December was our Santa gift :) Honestly speaking, even we went out on all the 5 safaris with the hope of seeing just the Tiger, but it was many times more pleasing to see so many other beautiful animals and colourful little birds in the forest.

Monkeys were a common sight all throughout our stay in Kanha, and above are 4 snaps from the hundreds I clicked for them. They posed and acted funny too!

I am bad with remembering names of cereals, flowers and birds. But these gorgeous birds we spotted at Kanha will be remembered for a long time: In the pic above, clockwise from top-left: Indian Roller (Neelkanth), gorgeous Peacock (I had never seen so many peacocks ever in my life!), Indian Pond Heron, Owl (I think Burrowing Owl, though I’m not sure).

In the pic above, clockwise from top-left: Diya, my adorable niece, Baghira Log Huts, Dhuandhar Falls, Bheda Ghat at the Narmada, Dense Bandhavgarh Forest.

And of course some usual crazy stuff from the two of us :) In the bottom left photo is my sister-in-law and her family… they had planned this amazing trip for us!

Roshnai has always wanted to go on a jungle safari, more specifically, African Safari. I, however, had never been in favour of one. Now my thoughts have changed and I would love to visit the Serengeti soon!

I spent the 31st evening at my cousin’s place in Nagpur before catching a train back to Hyderabad. We had all plans to scream “Happy New Year” and scare fellow sleeping passengers in the train, but the train arrived 2 hours later than scheduled. That meant we had to watch the fireworks in the sky waiting at the railway station and greeting each other :)

With the year ending well, we have already started planning for our 2013 vacation/vacations! The idea is the have at least 2 vacations, preferably one within India, and one abroad :)

If you plan to visit Kanha/Bandhavgarh and need more information, you know what to do :)

P.S. Please excuse me for the rather large and in-your-face Copyright Watermarks I have used in this post. Most internet users do not think twice before feeling free to lift images from blogs. Ask me and I will be happy to share them with you!

1. What did you do in 2012 that you’d never done before? Lost weight! I’ve talked enough about it in the previous posts… go read!

2. Did you keep your new years resolutions, and will you make more for next? I had a NY resolution for the first time ever. Yes I did manage to keep it! Not sure yet if I want to have a resolution for 2013.

3. What date from 2012 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? The dates I remember from any year, are the ones on which I travel. March 2nd is the day we landed into Istanbul. The sight of the fully lit Bosphorus Bridge and monuments in Sultanahmet that I got from the descending aircraft, is not something I am going to forget for a very very long time to come.

4. What was your biggest achievement of the year? The biggest achievement of the year, and perhaps of the last 27 years, was of course losing those 16kg!

5. What was your biggest failure? That is a very good question! (Which means, I do not have an answer for it!)

6. Did you suffer illness? A little bit, but nothing like 2010!

7. Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed? Idiots :) Always! (This answer is getting constant)

8. Where did most of your money go? Travel, travel, travel, travel!

9. What did you get really, really, really excited about? Oh, so many things! The trip to Istanbul, my upgraded DSLR and finally, staying in a forest lodge in the core forest zone at Kanha!

10. What song will always remind you of 2012? I heard a lot of awesome new songs this year. But if I have to choose one song that will always remind me of 2012, it would be ‘Maroon 5′s Payphone’.

11. Compared to this time last year, are you happier or sadder? I was quite happy last year this time. I think I am equally happy right now. :)

12. What do you wish you’d done more of? Cooking!

13. What do you wish you’d done less of? Nothing, really!

14. Did you fall in love in 2012? Yes, yes. With all those pretty places I visited!

15. What/Who was your greatest musical discovery? Lenka!

16. What did you want and get? Don’t you remember I had asked for some traveling in my summary last year? And I have no clue who all read my blog, but travelling is what I did all round the year! For work, for family, for recreation, and for adventure!

17. What did you want and not get? Nothing really, let me think...

18. What was your favourite film of this year? I saw some really awesome films this year, but if I have to choose one, it would be “Life of Pi”.

19. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? I think I went for a nice dinner… I turned 27 in 2012.

20. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? Had I lost a few more kilos, I would have been immeasurably more satisfied! But, nevermind!

21. What kept you sane? Some cooking, lots of cooking actually! All those sad weight loss diets forced me to take control of the kitchen :) and it was fun!

22. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2012. Stop wasting time with people who do not matter! (This has been reinforced in 2012)

23. Which new places did you visit in 2012? Oh so many! Copenhagen, Malmo, Munich, Salzburg, Milan, Prague, Istanbul – That makes it 7 countries. And also Bidar, Bangalore, Kochi, Jabalpur within India! And we have already started planning our 2013 vacations!

24. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year – This song by Gary Sachman/Alicia Lemke used by Matt Harding in his 2012 Where the Hell is Matt video:

Remember we’re lost together, Remember we’re the same;
We hold the burning rhythm in our hearts, We hold the flame;

We’re gonna trip the light, We’re gonna break the night;
And we’ll see with new eyes, When we trip the light!

25. Tag some bloggers you would love to read these answers from: I do tags very rarely. Honestly, I do not remember who tagged me to this post, but ever since (2007), I’ve done it for each year. I am tagging ‘some’ of the awesome new bloggers I came across this year :) DI, Deepa, R’s Mom, Puneet, O

Want to read the summaries for the last 3 years?
Click here to read circa 2011…
2010…
2009…

This photo for all of you who haven’t seen it yet on FB.

Oh and I just realised that the wedding blog we had created before our wedding is still active. Here is the link http://roshnai.aditto.info > Go read :)

This happens to be the first blog post composed on a phone.