Wednesday, December 28, 2005
The Road Ahead...
Every road in Mahabaleshwar is so surrounded with greenery that it is like walking in a grape-vineyard...
Mahabaleshwar-A rugged beauty...
11 of us friends went on a tour of Mahabaleshwar (120 km from Pune) and while the memories are fresh, I would have to write few more posts on this great trip. To sum it up, here was a comment from Parthiban (to the group) on the trip-"Defer your marriages. We can have more of this for a longer time. (Thathuvam of the day ;-)))))"
I am hard-pressed for time right now, so this will take time; but before I forget, let me quickly list down things I need to record, more on them later.
1. The bus journey between Mahabaleshwar and Pune and dumbcharades (esp. the special movie enacted by Muruganandam:))
2. The hotel that sucked big time-Bharat Hotel, Mahabaleshwar.
3. MTDC-An unexpected surprise (esp. their canteen and Dosa:)
4. The great trekking expedition and songs on the way.
5. Strawberry gardens and Fresh Strawberry cream icecream.
6. Midnight walk to the market (some 3 km from our hotel)
7. Night of jokes and carefree arattai.
8. The mad scrambling for Dosas and Uthappam at the canteen reminding me of hostel days.
9. Meditating at the edge of a cliff and then breaking loose on the packed lunch.
10.Amazing views (this I am not sure if words can capture, since even the photographs weren't sufficient in espousing).
11.Roaming aimlessly on the streets of Pune
12.Anbazhagan's Birthday bash at 12am enroute Hyderabad.
I will load some great pics in the next post.
I am hard-pressed for time right now, so this will take time; but before I forget, let me quickly list down things I need to record, more on them later.
1. The bus journey between Mahabaleshwar and Pune and dumbcharades (esp. the special movie enacted by Muruganandam:))
2. The hotel that sucked big time-Bharat Hotel, Mahabaleshwar.
3. MTDC-An unexpected surprise (esp. their canteen and Dosa:)
4. The great trekking expedition and songs on the way.
5. Strawberry gardens and Fresh Strawberry cream icecream.
6. Midnight walk to the market (some 3 km from our hotel)
7. Night of jokes and carefree arattai.
8. The mad scrambling for Dosas and Uthappam at the canteen reminding me of hostel days.
9. Meditating at the edge of a cliff and then breaking loose on the packed lunch.
10.Amazing views (this I am not sure if words can capture, since even the photographs weren't sufficient in espousing).
11.Roaming aimlessly on the streets of Pune
12.Anbazhagan's Birthday bash at 12am enroute Hyderabad.
I will load some great pics in the next post.
Tuesday, December 20, 2005
Prudence-the need of the hour...
The incident that happened with the employee of HP Bangalore has left most of the IT fraternity shocked. The repurcussions could be felt in my city as well, as most of my female teammates have added reaching home by 8pm to their list of new-year resolutions and I have been receiving email forwards on the importance of being "safe" and tips to avoid mishaps. Every time an incident like this happens we suddenly awaken to the fact that we are not living in a safe world.
I would not make the mistake of trying to be a judge here of who was wrong in letting this happen. But I am definitely reminded of one incident which puts things in perspective. I had to work from my company's Bangalore office one day and was waiting for a cab there for home-drop at around 8pm. There was one lady with me and the cab arrived after a wait almost 15 minutes and patience not being one of my virtues, I goaded the driver to start immediately. His reply was_"Sir, we have to wait for the escort". I was shocked-why the hell do we need an escort at 8pm in a bustling city like Bangalore. Anyway since it was decided that way we had to wait for 30 full minutes before the burly guy with an ominous stick in hand entered the vehicle and we were ready to go and before this there were so many formalities like the coordinator nothing down each vehicle's passenger details, driver's name etc.
When I think back about it, all of it starts making sense. I somehow think it has more to do with the culture of the organisation-whether it is being thorough in every detail and every aspect of the employee's work-life. I can bet my salary on finding atleast 10 other companies in Bangalore which have never paid attention to this detail. It is just that one of them is involved in this unfortunate incident. Now I am sure there will be a flurry of safety activities in each of these companies and things will improve-but at what cost? Reminds me of the road near my college in Chennai where the divider was built after a lot of non-fatal accidents when a student finally lost his life on the road in one of the most horrible ways imaginable!
If you are reading this and are an employee of some company, start asking yourself what things could go wrong with the system that is present in your company and raise your voice before something goes wrong-dont think it is too much to ask-it is your right! Though you might not get the credit, you could end up saving a life!!
I would not make the mistake of trying to be a judge here of who was wrong in letting this happen. But I am definitely reminded of one incident which puts things in perspective. I had to work from my company's Bangalore office one day and was waiting for a cab there for home-drop at around 8pm. There was one lady with me and the cab arrived after a wait almost 15 minutes and patience not being one of my virtues, I goaded the driver to start immediately. His reply was_"Sir, we have to wait for the escort". I was shocked-why the hell do we need an escort at 8pm in a bustling city like Bangalore. Anyway since it was decided that way we had to wait for 30 full minutes before the burly guy with an ominous stick in hand entered the vehicle and we were ready to go and before this there were so many formalities like the coordinator nothing down each vehicle's passenger details, driver's name etc.
When I think back about it, all of it starts making sense. I somehow think it has more to do with the culture of the organisation-whether it is being thorough in every detail and every aspect of the employee's work-life. I can bet my salary on finding atleast 10 other companies in Bangalore which have never paid attention to this detail. It is just that one of them is involved in this unfortunate incident. Now I am sure there will be a flurry of safety activities in each of these companies and things will improve-but at what cost? Reminds me of the road near my college in Chennai where the divider was built after a lot of non-fatal accidents when a student finally lost his life on the road in one of the most horrible ways imaginable!
If you are reading this and are an employee of some company, start asking yourself what things could go wrong with the system that is present in your company and raise your voice before something goes wrong-dont think it is too much to ask-it is your right! Though you might not get the credit, you could end up saving a life!!
Sunday, December 4, 2005
Mayakkamaa...Kalakkama...
There is a line in one of favorite songs-Mayakkama Kalakkama-which goes like this...
Unakkum Keezhae Ullavar Kodi...Ninaithu Parthu Nimmathi Naadu...
This translates into something like this:
There are crores of people even below you...think of it and seek peace.
This might sound like a very cynical way of seeking peace, but I rediscovered the meaning of this over the last week. I had the opportunity to interact people from different walks of life at one place. When these people discussed their problems with me, I got a sense of real guilt-what I used to call as my problems were not problems at all when compared to the magnitude of problems these people were talking about. And most of them had successfully come out of it (infact I knew some of them for some time and not in my wildest dreams could I have guessed their burdens from their demeanour). Now my problems really seem lighter...almost comical when I think about them:).
Unakkum Keezhae Ullavar Kodi...Ninaithu Parthu Nimmathi Naadu...
This translates into something like this:
There are crores of people even below you...think of it and seek peace.
This might sound like a very cynical way of seeking peace, but I rediscovered the meaning of this over the last week. I had the opportunity to interact people from different walks of life at one place. When these people discussed their problems with me, I got a sense of real guilt-what I used to call as my problems were not problems at all when compared to the magnitude of problems these people were talking about. And most of them had successfully come out of it (infact I knew some of them for some time and not in my wildest dreams could I have guessed their burdens from their demeanour). Now my problems really seem lighter...almost comical when I think about them:).
Friday, August 26, 2005
The Immaculate Americans
Ever since I visited the US I have dropped many of my misgivings about the country and its people. Ofcourse the fact still remains that I think Bush is the biggest enemy to world peace next only to Osama himself. But what I am talking about here is the people side of it. I have come to hold them in very high regard for a few reasons. I will talk about one reason which holds a lot of relevance to India;
Outsourcing-this is one word that has generated more heat in the 21st century that anything else and I should say I am truly impressed by the way Americans have accepted outsourcing as a fact of life: it is painful today, but ultimately it brings a level of competitiveness to their companies and hence to their economy which will be really difficult to be surpassed by anyone in the foreseeable future. Trust me, operating on a global scale with countries like India (with a 12 hour time difference) is not an easy task-and the American companies have just begun to master it. There have been huge layoffs-in the order of tens of thousands of people. There were ofcourse loud noises-that is natural-but the point is that there were no draconian "populist" measures to pacify these noises. The politicians were still able to “sell” the idea that outsourcing is good for the Americans and the people accepted it-this is true democracy-where leaders don’t look for the impulses of the people and be carried away by that-but are able to think long term and “lead” their people to success and prosperity.
Well, just imagine this scenario-some time in the future an "Indian" company in Mumbai is laying off five thousand people to stay afloat amidst tough competition. What do you expect would happen the next day? My guess is atleast 10 buses will burn the next day. The communist parties would be marching all the way from Kerala to 10 Janpath, from Kolkata to Mumbai, creating havoc disrupting public life. Newspapers would highlight the fact that this company could just as easily closed down its branch in Kenya (which was by the way operating at half the cost). Then all public attention would have been diverted to the fact that the evil Kenyans were ultimately responsible for all of these. Then the government would chip-in and make laws which prevent any company from opening divisions in Africa-just protecting the locals they would say. Then the communists would hail it as a victory and parade it in the next elections to come back to power now to include along with Africa, other parts of Asia as well in the list of “prohibited” areas. Soon these businesses would be chucked out of competition by smart American firms who have by now established a firm foothold in Africa and Asia. And our communist babus will be flying in airplanes (as cabinet ministers ofcourse) to US and other countries begging them to establish centers in India-all the while wondering what was so wrong with this country that noone wants to invest here!!!
This might be a bit far-stretched, but this is not very far from reality-I bet in another 25 years we will be facing something akin to that-will we be mature enough by then?
Outsourcing-this is one word that has generated more heat in the 21st century that anything else and I should say I am truly impressed by the way Americans have accepted outsourcing as a fact of life: it is painful today, but ultimately it brings a level of competitiveness to their companies and hence to their economy which will be really difficult to be surpassed by anyone in the foreseeable future. Trust me, operating on a global scale with countries like India (with a 12 hour time difference) is not an easy task-and the American companies have just begun to master it. There have been huge layoffs-in the order of tens of thousands of people. There were ofcourse loud noises-that is natural-but the point is that there were no draconian "populist" measures to pacify these noises. The politicians were still able to “sell” the idea that outsourcing is good for the Americans and the people accepted it-this is true democracy-where leaders don’t look for the impulses of the people and be carried away by that-but are able to think long term and “lead” their people to success and prosperity.
Well, just imagine this scenario-some time in the future an "Indian" company in Mumbai is laying off five thousand people to stay afloat amidst tough competition. What do you expect would happen the next day? My guess is atleast 10 buses will burn the next day. The communist parties would be marching all the way from Kerala to 10 Janpath, from Kolkata to Mumbai, creating havoc disrupting public life. Newspapers would highlight the fact that this company could just as easily closed down its branch in Kenya (which was by the way operating at half the cost). Then all public attention would have been diverted to the fact that the evil Kenyans were ultimately responsible for all of these. Then the government would chip-in and make laws which prevent any company from opening divisions in Africa-just protecting the locals they would say. Then the communists would hail it as a victory and parade it in the next elections to come back to power now to include along with Africa, other parts of Asia as well in the list of “prohibited” areas. Soon these businesses would be chucked out of competition by smart American firms who have by now established a firm foothold in Africa and Asia. And our communist babus will be flying in airplanes (as cabinet ministers ofcourse) to US and other countries begging them to establish centers in India-all the while wondering what was so wrong with this country that noone wants to invest here!!!
This might be a bit far-stretched, but this is not very far from reality-I bet in another 25 years we will be facing something akin to that-will we be mature enough by then?
Sunday, August 7, 2005
Flying without Wings...
Since my childhood, I have been fascinated by train journeys-thanks to my father's transferable job, I must have traveled in train atleast a hundred times. I love the journey so much that I almost pounced on my classmate who innocently asked (he was traveling for the first or second time in train) "Why are there only four berths while there are 6 people assigned to a cabin!!"
The first and foremost thing about these journeys is the peeking out thing...initially I used to be the good-boy resisting my temptations and peeking out only through the grilled window. That itself used to be so much fun. After I gained independence (!!!read started traveling alone), I started doing the "cooler" thing-standing on the doorstep with the wind blowing on your face gives you a really amazing feeling-one of the "freedoms" that we enjoy by being in India-in most advanced countries the door locks automatically.
Then there is the meeting of people, I have been guilty of not getting to know my neighbors in my building (everyday I meet new faces in my flat and move on uncaring), but in train, there is this joy of talking to strangers and not having to worry about seeing them the next day. The mix of people in my bay (cabin) has always been highly variegated, from cute children to ravishing girls to interesting youngsters to reminiscing elders...infact during college days, I had a friend from Madurai and we used to go in the same train to home and Though this fellow was reserved with outsiders, he (and I:)) harbored fancies of meeting the Miss.Gorgeous and striking up a (life-long::)) conversation with her. But every time, I repeat EVERY TIME (we did this almost 7 times) we used to have people over 60 in our compartment-not even youngsters of our age-it was always the same:). It was like Railways had a built-in rule to redirect people over sixty to our cabin!! We used to blame each other for our extraordinary luck. Still it was fun as we heard some of them talk about their children who lived in US (does every child live in US??), the antics of their grandchildren and so on..
Definitely trains in India, inspite of their delays and inconveniences is one awesome thing about this country and I love it:).
The first and foremost thing about these journeys is the peeking out thing...initially I used to be the good-boy resisting my temptations and peeking out only through the grilled window. That itself used to be so much fun. After I gained independence (!!!read started traveling alone), I started doing the "cooler" thing-standing on the doorstep with the wind blowing on your face gives you a really amazing feeling-one of the "freedoms" that we enjoy by being in India-in most advanced countries the door locks automatically.
Then there is the meeting of people, I have been guilty of not getting to know my neighbors in my building (everyday I meet new faces in my flat and move on uncaring), but in train, there is this joy of talking to strangers and not having to worry about seeing them the next day. The mix of people in my bay (cabin) has always been highly variegated, from cute children to ravishing girls to interesting youngsters to reminiscing elders...infact during college days, I had a friend from Madurai and we used to go in the same train to home and Though this fellow was reserved with outsiders, he (and I:)) harbored fancies of meeting the Miss.Gorgeous and striking up a (life-long::)) conversation with her. But every time, I repeat EVERY TIME (we did this almost 7 times) we used to have people over 60 in our compartment-not even youngsters of our age-it was always the same:). It was like Railways had a built-in rule to redirect people over sixty to our cabin!! We used to blame each other for our extraordinary luck. Still it was fun as we heard some of them talk about their children who lived in US (does every child live in US??), the antics of their grandchildren and so on..
Definitely trains in India, inspite of their delays and inconveniences is one awesome thing about this country and I love it:).
Wednesday, August 3, 2005
Are you happy?
This is part of a mail I received on Art of Living mailing list and it made a lot of sense...hence wanted to share it here...
What is your commitment in life? You may say you are committed to happiness. Every living creature wants to be happy. Whether it is money, power or sex, you get into it for the sake of happiness. Some people even enjoy misery because it gives them happiness!
To be happy, we seek something. But despite getting it, we are not happy. A school-going boy may think that if he goes to college, he will be more independent, free and therefore happy. If you ask a college-going boy whether he is happy, he feels that if he gets a job, he will be happy. Talk to somebody who is settled in their job or business, you already know what he will say! He is waiting to get a perfect soul mate, to be happy. He gets a soul mate, but he now wants a kid to be happy. Ask those who have children if they are happy. How can they relax until the children have grown up and have had a good education and are on their own. Ask those who are retired, are they happy? They long for the days when they were younger.
All of one’s life is spent in preparing to be happy someday in the future. It’s like making a bed all night, but having no time to sleep.
How many minutes, hours and days have we spent our life being happy from within ? Those are the only moments you have really lived life. Those were perhaps the days when you were a small kid, completely blissful and happy or a few moments when you were surfing, swimming or sailing or on a mountain top, living in the present and enjoying it.
There are two ways of looking at life. One is thinking that, “I'll be happy after achieving a certain objective.” The second is saying that “I am happy come what may!”
Which one do you want to live?
What is your commitment in life? You may say you are committed to happiness. Every living creature wants to be happy. Whether it is money, power or sex, you get into it for the sake of happiness. Some people even enjoy misery because it gives them happiness!
To be happy, we seek something. But despite getting it, we are not happy. A school-going boy may think that if he goes to college, he will be more independent, free and therefore happy. If you ask a college-going boy whether he is happy, he feels that if he gets a job, he will be happy. Talk to somebody who is settled in their job or business, you already know what he will say! He is waiting to get a perfect soul mate, to be happy. He gets a soul mate, but he now wants a kid to be happy. Ask those who have children if they are happy. How can they relax until the children have grown up and have had a good education and are on their own. Ask those who are retired, are they happy? They long for the days when they were younger.
All of one’s life is spent in preparing to be happy someday in the future. It’s like making a bed all night, but having no time to sleep.
How many minutes, hours and days have we spent our life being happy from within ? Those are the only moments you have really lived life. Those were perhaps the days when you were a small kid, completely blissful and happy or a few moments when you were surfing, swimming or sailing or on a mountain top, living in the present and enjoying it.
There are two ways of looking at life. One is thinking that, “I'll be happy after achieving a certain objective.” The second is saying that “I am happy come what may!”
Which one do you want to live?
Sunday, June 26, 2005
God is subtle, but he is never vicious:)
I decided looong back that I will have this status message on Yahoo,the day the High Court delivers the verdict quashing the dim-witted fancies of the Chief Minister of Tamilnadu-rendering entrance exams obsolete purely for electoral gains uncaring for either the students nor the universities who are the actual stake holders. That day is today. I will write about my experience in driving an opposition to this (which I felt was the right thing to do) in some other entry. As of now, anyone who cares to ask me will get an icecream treat today:).
Wednesday, June 1, 2005
Baby one more time
I often ask myself-which was the happiest time of my short and sweet life so far...there are immediately a flurry of events which come to mind. Then I wonder why are non of these feelings permanent? Ofcourse when I think about it now I am happy-but along with it comes a tinge of dissapointment which says-"Things are'nt the same anymore". Is it necessary to have some disspointments in life to really realise the happy moments?
When I dig a bit deeper, I find a commmon thread that runs through all these events-they were all in one form or the other some event of social acceptance, some "acheivements" (I am using this term purely in the way the society defines it), time spent with friends...and so on. Each of these satisfied atleast one of the basic human cravings-acceptance,recognition,desire to be part of a community and so on...
But wait, there was one other time when I was happy, so happy that I dont even remember it, how many of you remember the time you were a small kid, I am talking about a really small one maybe one-two years old. Well at that time I didnt care about what people thought about me, I didnt care about how eloquent I was, I couldn't just hurt anyone's feelings, I had no expectations of myself and didn't just care about whether or not others had one for me. I never judged anyone because I knew noone. I was a great listener and a great observer primarily because I couldn't just talk, there were simple ways of expressing myself-crying when I was hungry and laughing when people made faces at me. I didn't just care about how rich the guy next door was, nor was I concerned with Bush's pursuance of hapless nations. I was so so happy with the current state of things that I didn't even care to remember those things.
But there I made the mistake, I didnt bother to remember...I have totally forgotten the meaning of being happy and today even if I want to go back it is well next to impossible. I have allowed myself to be conditioned so well that now the society beleives (and so do I) that I am happy for all the preconditions to be happy (family, work, friends etc) are all met. But my question is where did this precondition come in the first place!!!
When I dig a bit deeper, I find a commmon thread that runs through all these events-they were all in one form or the other some event of social acceptance, some "acheivements" (I am using this term purely in the way the society defines it), time spent with friends...and so on. Each of these satisfied atleast one of the basic human cravings-acceptance,recognition,desire to be part of a community and so on...
But wait, there was one other time when I was happy, so happy that I dont even remember it, how many of you remember the time you were a small kid, I am talking about a really small one maybe one-two years old. Well at that time I didnt care about what people thought about me, I didnt care about how eloquent I was, I couldn't just hurt anyone's feelings, I had no expectations of myself and didn't just care about whether or not others had one for me. I never judged anyone because I knew noone. I was a great listener and a great observer primarily because I couldn't just talk, there were simple ways of expressing myself-crying when I was hungry and laughing when people made faces at me. I didn't just care about how rich the guy next door was, nor was I concerned with Bush's pursuance of hapless nations. I was so so happy with the current state of things that I didn't even care to remember those things.
But there I made the mistake, I didnt bother to remember...I have totally forgotten the meaning of being happy and today even if I want to go back it is well next to impossible. I have allowed myself to be conditioned so well that now the society beleives (and so do I) that I am happy for all the preconditions to be happy (family, work, friends etc) are all met. But my question is where did this precondition come in the first place!!!
Tuesday, May 10, 2005
Reservations
This was a mail I had sent to my group in reply to a mail on the subject of reservations in private sector and I still hold these views.
Hi,
I have always believed that our constitution makers were great people with a very high degree of far-sightedness and insight. But the only issue where I felt they slipped (or should I say misjudged...) was in this reservations issue.
One fact have to recognize and accept with a pinch of salt is the inevitability and indestructability of having a caste system( I wonder how many of us, "progressive people" would dare to marry an "outsider"...for instance!!!). At the point of independence the caste system was much more stronger. We know the stories of untouchablity and cruelty people inflicted on the so-called "lower castes". (The sad part is that we still keep hearing such incidents after 55 years of "independence").
Now to break this kind of a jinx our constitution makers(CM) had no choice but to accord them special treatment. This is because at that point of time even if our CMs had opted for reservations based on economic status they would have run into two problems- 1. Putting in place a fool-proof system for judging economic status is in itself very difficult. 2. The so-called higher-castes held all the important posts in all the administrative bodies and they would have ensured that their position was not compromised by issuing false certificates or by any other fair/foul means. To avoid this our CMs envisaged this caste-based reservations.
So all along they have been doing the right things...where did they go wrong? The only mistake was in misjudging the role of a politician. They believed that a politician was a person with high moral standards who has sacrificed his life for the cause of public-service and they gave the powers of this reservation systems to the politicians. What actually they must have done is to give these powers in the hands of an independent commission formed in the model of the Election commission or the Judiciary. But now we find politicians coming to power and clinging to it by openly giving promises of reservations. Secondly, we find that people who enjoy the benefits of reservations form a chain. The father takes the benefits gets a good government job, settle down well, the son again uses the benefits gets an engineering seat settles down well..his son again....the story goes on while there are thousands of so-called low castes who still do not know that there are reservations available for them and they can make use of it. They are probably too busy waiting in queue outside the loan-shark's house for a paltry sum to save his crop without knowing that he is pledging his life on it. This is ridiculous..a family should be allowed to enjoy the benefits of reservations only once...say once for a college seat once for a government job and probably once for an MP/MLA seat!!!
Privilege once give can never be withdrawn. So the reservation system which was supposed to be phased out in 25-40 years has grown and taken deep roots in our society. Now we hear about reservations in private sector...well I can only say one thing-"Long Live Democracy...Longer Live the Bloody Politicians..."!!!
Yours,
Arvind Sharma.
GK wrote:
Hi everyone,
Having discussions to make the grps lively is a good
idea but mere participation of 2-3 people wud be an
argument rather than a discussion.
Rather than discuss about the earlier topic which is
sure to have no ending, why not dicuss on the
reservations which the UPA government headed by left,
sorry ManMohanSingh is planning to implement shortly
in private sector too.
This was the topic of last week's BigFight too in
NDTV.
Infy chief Mr.NarayanaMurthy, Bajaj grps, Godrej ,
Proctor & Gamble all have protested against it.
Reservations of anykind shud be opposed. Whats the
need of reservations? Does it mean that all those who
get preference are very poor and those who doesnt very
rich. If at all there need to be reservations, it shud
be based on economic status of people , which albeit
is difficult to implement can be done.Such a thing can
bridge the economic disparities in r nation.Morover
physically challenged people can get reservations.
Worst of all seculars like Mulayam and Karunanidi
spoke about reservations to minorities before the
Lokshaba polls.Such a thing will only spark communal
tensions. If reservations are totally banned there is
no need for either religion or caste in r
certificates.
Dr.Ambedkar while framing r constitution has given
provisions for reservations only for a time period but
r political parties has used them as their poll weapon
and want to continue for eternity.
My aim is not to offend any particular community.
Urs,
S.G
Hi,
I have always believed that our constitution makers were great people with a very high degree of far-sightedness and insight. But the only issue where I felt they slipped (or should I say misjudged...) was in this reservations issue.
One fact have to recognize and accept with a pinch of salt is the inevitability and indestructability of having a caste system( I wonder how many of us, "progressive people" would dare to marry an "outsider"...for instance!!!). At the point of independence the caste system was much more stronger. We know the stories of untouchablity and cruelty people inflicted on the so-called "lower castes". (The sad part is that we still keep hearing such incidents after 55 years of "independence").
Now to break this kind of a jinx our constitution makers(CM) had no choice but to accord them special treatment. This is because at that point of time even if our CMs had opted for reservations based on economic status they would have run into two problems- 1. Putting in place a fool-proof system for judging economic status is in itself very difficult. 2. The so-called higher-castes held all the important posts in all the administrative bodies and they would have ensured that their position was not compromised by issuing false certificates or by any other fair/foul means. To avoid this our CMs envisaged this caste-based reservations.
So all along they have been doing the right things...where did they go wrong? The only mistake was in misjudging the role of a politician. They believed that a politician was a person with high moral standards who has sacrificed his life for the cause of public-service and they gave the powers of this reservation systems to the politicians. What actually they must have done is to give these powers in the hands of an independent commission formed in the model of the Election commission or the Judiciary. But now we find politicians coming to power and clinging to it by openly giving promises of reservations. Secondly, we find that people who enjoy the benefits of reservations form a chain. The father takes the benefits gets a good government job, settle down well, the son again uses the benefits gets an engineering seat settles down well..his son again....the story goes on while there are thousands of so-called low castes who still do not know that there are reservations available for them and they can make use of it. They are probably too busy waiting in queue outside the loan-shark's house for a paltry sum to save his crop without knowing that he is pledging his life on it. This is ridiculous..a family should be allowed to enjoy the benefits of reservations only once...say once for a college seat once for a government job and probably once for an MP/MLA seat!!!
Privilege once give can never be withdrawn. So the reservation system which was supposed to be phased out in 25-40 years has grown and taken deep roots in our society. Now we hear about reservations in private sector...well I can only say one thing-"Long Live Democracy...Longer Live the Bloody Politicians..."!!!
Yours,
Arvind Sharma.
GK wrote:
Hi everyone,
Having discussions to make the grps lively is a good
idea but mere participation of 2-3 people wud be an
argument rather than a discussion.
Rather than discuss about the earlier topic which is
sure to have no ending, why not dicuss on the
reservations which the UPA government headed by left,
sorry ManMohanSingh is planning to implement shortly
in private sector too.
This was the topic of last week's BigFight too in
NDTV.
Infy chief Mr.NarayanaMurthy, Bajaj grps, Godrej ,
Proctor & Gamble all have protested against it.
Reservations of anykind shud be opposed. Whats the
need of reservations? Does it mean that all those who
get preference are very poor and those who doesnt very
rich. If at all there need to be reservations, it shud
be based on economic status of people , which albeit
is difficult to implement can be done.Such a thing can
bridge the economic disparities in r nation.Morover
physically challenged people can get reservations.
Worst of all seculars like Mulayam and Karunanidi
spoke about reservations to minorities before the
Lokshaba polls.Such a thing will only spark communal
tensions. If reservations are totally banned there is
no need for either religion or caste in r
certificates.
Dr.Ambedkar while framing r constitution has given
provisions for reservations only for a time period but
r political parties has used them as their poll weapon
and want to continue for eternity.
My aim is not to offend any particular community.
Urs,
S.G
One Memorable incident-Redmond Continued..
This was a mail I wrote to my cousin when I was in Redmond about one unforgettable incident...
We went to Mt.Reinier (about 3 hours drive from here) on Sunday and it turned out to be an unforgettable day in many respects. We reached a point 5400 feet high in car and climbed for 2 hours to reach a point 7200 feet high!!! There was almost noone there and we had snow all around. We were so close to the peak. We played there for almost an hour. It was the best adventure I ever had.
Finally at 8.30 we decided we need to go back and started the descent. It took almost an hour and finally when we reached the car all exhausted and drained, I found that I had left the headlights on and the battery had completely drained!!! Then we found that the visitor's
office and all such places were closed as it was sunday night!! Finally there was a hotel there and we went into that and made a call to the Emergency services of the rental agency (Avis) and they arrived in about 2 hours and we waited patiently.
I should say Mt.Reinier is quite a sight in the night with the clear sky and countless stars in the background (though the temperature must have been around 10 degrees or lesser). Infact we took a few pictures of our incredible car with the night sky in the background!! The mechanic finally managed to jump-started the car. Finally we started at 11pm and bingo!! we didnt know the proper route back as the maps we had taken had some road named incorrectly.Also since I didnt want to risk a half-filled tank, we stopped at a petrol bunk and my friend went and filled the fuel. Then just before we left I noticed the name on the fuel station and it was written-DIESEL FUEL. I was totally dismayed.
We kept driving hoping that the diesel part would not enter the engine until we reached home. Finally in the darkness of the night (with occasional bursts of fog) we finally managed to get back through three freeways and reached home by 1.30am.
It was an unforgettable day in many respects and now, I am more confident of my driving than I have ever been in my life!!!
Yours,
Arvind Sharma.
We went to Mt.Reinier (about 3 hours drive from here) on Sunday and it turned out to be an unforgettable day in many respects. We reached a point 5400 feet high in car and climbed for 2 hours to reach a point 7200 feet high!!! There was almost noone there and we had snow all around. We were so close to the peak. We played there for almost an hour. It was the best adventure I ever had.
Finally at 8.30 we decided we need to go back and started the descent. It took almost an hour and finally when we reached the car all exhausted and drained, I found that I had left the headlights on and the battery had completely drained!!! Then we found that the visitor's
office and all such places were closed as it was sunday night!! Finally there was a hotel there and we went into that and made a call to the Emergency services of the rental agency (Avis) and they arrived in about 2 hours and we waited patiently.
I should say Mt.Reinier is quite a sight in the night with the clear sky and countless stars in the background (though the temperature must have been around 10 degrees or lesser). Infact we took a few pictures of our incredible car with the night sky in the background!! The mechanic finally managed to jump-started the car. Finally we started at 11pm and bingo!! we didnt know the proper route back as the maps we had taken had some road named incorrectly.Also since I didnt want to risk a half-filled tank, we stopped at a petrol bunk and my friend went and filled the fuel. Then just before we left I noticed the name on the fuel station and it was written-DIESEL FUEL. I was totally dismayed.
We kept driving hoping that the diesel part would not enter the engine until we reached home. Finally in the darkness of the night (with occasional bursts of fog) we finally managed to get back through three freeways and reached home by 1.30am.
It was an unforgettable day in many respects and now, I am more confident of my driving than I have ever been in my life!!!
Yours,
Arvind Sharma.
Wednesday, April 6, 2005
How to make the maggi better...
In the recent times there has been a barrage of criticism against Ganguly for his poor form, the most popular one being the Maggi joke, where the maggi is supposed to be cooked by the time he returns to the pavillion. I was a strong voice in favor of these critics, forwarding this endlessly to my friend who is a die-hard fan of Ganguly (for his cricket and his looks!!:)).
Considering that this set of criticism included a Hindu editorial (which I respect to quite an extent except when they write on "communal" parties and "secular" front) on why he should be removed from the captaincy and why we should set the Australian standards of "each person plays for his place in the team" formula, I was pretty much biased against our captain.
Well, I happened to read one more email coming out strongly in favor of our captain and hence had to rethink. The most interesting argument of the article is this-"When players like Sehwag, Harbhajan and even Dravid were struggling with their form early on during Ganguly's captaincy, he supported them and included them match after match, until they started performing. Now why can't we extend the same courtesy to Ganguly?" Makes sense, right?
Secondly, why I think the Australian model works in Australia is because they have an abundance of international talent-mark my words here-"international" talent-I am not talking about rookies who have played on placid wickets in front of a small crowd (mostly including their parents and family). I am referring here to a rigorous county cricket and professional cricketing academies where kids are taught to bowl at the age of 7 or 8!! Where they can afford to have two distinct teams-one for tests and one for the one dayers. Our guys have come from the "gullys" so to say (and that ofcourse makes them more robust).
More importantly our Indian work-culture is more Japanese so-to-say;we don't hire and fire, we trust and build great teams on that foundation. I really appreciate Ganguly in this respect. I can recall that people were out for Laxman's blood and Dravid's head at different times, if he had let them go, we wouldn't have had the feast at Culcutta (follow-on followed by win) .
It is time to let the captain know that he can play his natural game and take his time while the team will stand behind him. I hope each team-member would come out to him and give him that confidence, boy...he is severely in need of that. All it takes is one dazzling innings, doesn't it? Lets give atleast that for the captain with the best overseas record, who has been the martinet patriarch of the team for so long now.
P.S: I might have gotten some facts wrong here as stats has never been my forte. People, feel free to correct.
Considering that this set of criticism included a Hindu editorial (which I respect to quite an extent except when they write on "communal" parties and "secular" front) on why he should be removed from the captaincy and why we should set the Australian standards of "each person plays for his place in the team" formula, I was pretty much biased against our captain.
Well, I happened to read one more email coming out strongly in favor of our captain and hence had to rethink. The most interesting argument of the article is this-"When players like Sehwag, Harbhajan and even Dravid were struggling with their form early on during Ganguly's captaincy, he supported them and included them match after match, until they started performing. Now why can't we extend the same courtesy to Ganguly?" Makes sense, right?
Secondly, why I think the Australian model works in Australia is because they have an abundance of international talent-mark my words here-"international" talent-I am not talking about rookies who have played on placid wickets in front of a small crowd (mostly including their parents and family). I am referring here to a rigorous county cricket and professional cricketing academies where kids are taught to bowl at the age of 7 or 8!! Where they can afford to have two distinct teams-one for tests and one for the one dayers. Our guys have come from the "gullys" so to say (and that ofcourse makes them more robust).
More importantly our Indian work-culture is more Japanese so-to-say;we don't hire and fire, we trust and build great teams on that foundation. I really appreciate Ganguly in this respect. I can recall that people were out for Laxman's blood and Dravid's head at different times, if he had let them go, we wouldn't have had the feast at Culcutta (follow-on followed by win) .
It is time to let the captain know that he can play his natural game and take his time while the team will stand behind him. I hope each team-member would come out to him and give him that confidence, boy...he is severely in need of that. All it takes is one dazzling innings, doesn't it? Lets give atleast that for the captain with the best overseas record, who has been the martinet patriarch of the team for so long now.
P.S: I might have gotten some facts wrong here as stats has never been my forte. People, feel free to correct.
Wednesday, March 16, 2005
Microsoft@Redmond
Well, we didn't get the opportunity to get into any of the Microsoft buildings in the first 2 days and it got us really restless...we had seen them from outside ofcourse, because Redmond is filled with them. Redmond is a small village in Washington state and I should say it is "filled with" Microsoft. To my knowledge there are atleast 115 buildings there...these are not huge ones though, each would have a maximum of two floors, the exceptions being the buildings containing offices of Bill and Steve which are 4 storied ones. Since Washington area is prone to earthquakes, there are limits on the number of floors a building can have.
The buildings are all surprisingly similar from outside (even our new campus at Hyderabad has the same exteriors), but very distinct on the interi0rs. Each building has a theme for the interior decorations. Ours was Paintings, and the walls were filled with illustrated paintings. JP's building theme was customers, they would be filled with life-size "cut-outs" of different customers of Microsoft, one would be a German customer, explaining his features, like "Marc was born in Germany and is an accountant, he has been using Windows 98 for a long time and is thinking of moving over to XP. But of-late he has been hearing a lot of stuff about something called Linux. He is an advanced user of Excel 98 and..." I am not doing a good job of reconstructing the profile here..:(...anyway it would be focussed on a German customer's perspective on software.
There is no concept of cubicles here and everyone from the lowest level programmer to the CEO gets a cabin for himself/herself. We saw cabins decorated in every wild way possible. In one cabin we saw some 200 cans of pepsi, coke etc piled neatly one on top of another to form a man-sized pyramid. Some people had comfortable sofas installed on their office. We saw a few people who used to sit on the floor outside their offices working on their laptop..couldnt figure out why...maybe they liked it that way.
I and JP were lucky to get our own cubicles all for ourselves since others had to share an office due to lack of space. But I got so bored sitting all alone day long that when Arun came over I made him share the office with me.
The kitchen deserves a special mention, the principle seemed to be anything liquid is free and everything else is charged...there was a really huge refrigirator housing hundereds of cans of coke, pepsi, chocolate milk (my favourite ofcourse:)), sprite and a number of American drinks like Dr. Pepper (it has a real horrible taste) and canned fruit juices like apple, cranberry, grape etc. There was also a pay-with-a-coin style parlour which housed stuff like chips chocolates and everything to make you fat (and people blamed me for getting fat after the trip!!!!)
People who were really busy (or atleast pretended to be) put a sticker outside their offices saying "DND-Email Only". I really liked the way in which people respected other's privacy. Even my mentor (an Indian) would get my consent before setting up a meeting or even for coming over casually to meet me).
There is a huge ground where football and cricket(!!!) were the favourite sports. We played quite a bit there. Apart from these, things that deserve a passing mention are the continuous shuttles which carried people around these 100-odd buildings, huge (really huge) car parks below the buildings, the fooseball table(which we managed to get here as well), the state a hall in Building 34 (Bill Gates's office is in this building!!) was after some beer-bash (it was just like what a director would love to show if he wanted to protray some "Saraaya-kadai" fight scene in Usilampatti-really nasty and last but definitely not the least my own office overlooking the street and the beautiful drops of rain dripping on the glass every time there was a drizzle:).
The buildings are all surprisingly similar from outside (even our new campus at Hyderabad has the same exteriors), but very distinct on the interi0rs. Each building has a theme for the interior decorations. Ours was Paintings, and the walls were filled with illustrated paintings. JP's building theme was customers, they would be filled with life-size "cut-outs" of different customers of Microsoft, one would be a German customer, explaining his features, like "Marc was born in Germany and is an accountant, he has been using Windows 98 for a long time and is thinking of moving over to XP. But of-late he has been hearing a lot of stuff about something called Linux. He is an advanced user of Excel 98 and..." I am not doing a good job of reconstructing the profile here..:(...anyway it would be focussed on a German customer's perspective on software.
There is no concept of cubicles here and everyone from the lowest level programmer to the CEO gets a cabin for himself/herself. We saw cabins decorated in every wild way possible. In one cabin we saw some 200 cans of pepsi, coke etc piled neatly one on top of another to form a man-sized pyramid. Some people had comfortable sofas installed on their office. We saw a few people who used to sit on the floor outside their offices working on their laptop..couldnt figure out why...maybe they liked it that way.
I and JP were lucky to get our own cubicles all for ourselves since others had to share an office due to lack of space. But I got so bored sitting all alone day long that when Arun came over I made him share the office with me.
The kitchen deserves a special mention, the principle seemed to be anything liquid is free and everything else is charged...there was a really huge refrigirator housing hundereds of cans of coke, pepsi, chocolate milk (my favourite ofcourse:)), sprite and a number of American drinks like Dr. Pepper (it has a real horrible taste) and canned fruit juices like apple, cranberry, grape etc. There was also a pay-with-a-coin style parlour which housed stuff like chips chocolates and everything to make you fat (and people blamed me for getting fat after the trip!!!!)
People who were really busy (or atleast pretended to be) put a sticker outside their offices saying "DND-Email Only". I really liked the way in which people respected other's privacy. Even my mentor (an Indian) would get my consent before setting up a meeting or even for coming over casually to meet me).
There is a huge ground where football and cricket(!!!) were the favourite sports. We played quite a bit there. Apart from these, things that deserve a passing mention are the continuous shuttles which carried people around these 100-odd buildings, huge (really huge) car parks below the buildings, the fooseball table(which we managed to get here as well), the state a hall in Building 34 (Bill Gates's office is in this building!!) was after some beer-bash (it was just like what a director would love to show if he wanted to protray some "Saraaya-kadai" fight scene in Usilampatti-really nasty and last but definitely not the least my own office overlooking the street and the beautiful drops of rain dripping on the glass every time there was a drizzle:).
Life after Hostel...
This is a mail I wrote recently to my hostel groups...(edited a few sentences to protect privacy of some of my friends)
Those were really memorable days...every minute was fun:)
Hi all,
So nice to see this group up and running. I thought I would do my bit to keep the discussions flowing in the group.
There are quite a few things I miss about college life...the comforts of life have definitely increased manifold mainly due to the new-found financial independence...but still here are a few things that have changed....
- My slippers dont get lost anymore...a few days back I was searching wildly for my pair of bathroom slippers to go to the terrace….and then found them on my roommate's feet. We laughed over the fun times we used to have searching for our slippers in the hostel from room to room early in the morning and I have been guilty of putting on the first pair that I can set my eyes on in PN’s room or AN’s room or wherever with the good intention of returning it where I took it…just when I am done..someone would come over and ask for it “Machan…koncham seruppu kodaen…” then I would give it saying “Return it to PN’s room…” and there begins the never-ending journey of the chappals…
- No more gang-watching of movies…though we guys in
- No more queues in bathrooms….first year we used to run all the way from yoga class to the bathrooms and whoever reached first would bath first….then we used to have buckets queued outside…but when people started putting their buckets a day before…then we started the amazing practice of “solli vaippathu..” till date that is the best application of a linked list I have seen…
- No more birthday fun…we do celebrate birthdays….but nothing like those wonderful nights when starting 12am we used to be dripping wet after lots and lots of bums and a dip in the holy “thotti” water…I was lucky to be among a benevolent set of friends to be getting only some 5-minute bumps….I really used to pity (though I also gave them my share) some fellows whose bumps kept going endlessly for hours with stalwarts like AN doing their job…
- No more discussions…But the thing I miss the most are the marathon discussions we used to have on anything from sex to Ramayana and Mahabaratha….every time there was an assessment we would go to some room with the sole intent of “studying”…then as we dozed off with the books…someone would ask some doubt…that would lead to something else…then something else….finally after 2 hours we found ourselves at the same page but having discussed 101 “important” things…boy that was fun….
These are only a few things I can spell out right now…but I am sure there are 100s of other things which made those four years memorable…
Those were really memorable days...every minute was fun:)
Monday, February 21, 2005
Black Magic....
Almost every time we watch a movie, there are a few things that linger on to the mind; a few scenes from movie, or a character, or just a place. And I have a habit of judging the quality of a movie by how long it is able to cling on to my senses.
Well here is one movie that might be able to create an impression for a lifetime. I am hearing the songs (actually the background music) of the movie right now and the scenes run through my eyes...the most visible form of magic for me I should say.
As all of you must be knowing by this time, this is a story of a blind and deaf (and hence dumb) girl and her tutor, played so effectively by a small girl first (I dont know her name anyone?) and then Rani Mukherji and the maestro Amitabh Bachan respectively. This would definitely go down as one of the best performances for both of them. As for the director, very frankly I for one, never expected a story like this from the creator of Devdas. The parallels in the two movies are the breathtaking settings. But thankfully the similarity stops there. The director found something better to fit into the grand settings:). Kudos to Sanjay Leela Bansali.
Some of my friends have been judging the movie by the number of times they cried...by that measure, yes..I did have teardrops in my eyes, but unlike other movies (and also unlike what I expected), these were for most parts, tears of joy..of optimism, of a feeling of a vicarious thrill for the girl on the screen. One heart rendering dialogue which I am still thinking about is this-"Mainae shayad Jindagi se kuch jyada hi maang liyaa thaa..."-which translates into-" I probably asked a bit too much out of life."- the misery of a girl not able to get things that others take for granted couldn't have been put in better words. In order not to spoil the experience for those who are yet to watch the movie I will stop here.
The best thing about the movie is the ringing optimism in it. If you are expecting a teary portrayal of the miseries of a girl with such disabilities, be warned....neither the director, nor the tutor is in a mood for that. There are beautiful jokes scattered here and there which make you smile without losing perspective of the bigger picture.
This movie deserves every accolade film industry can provide...but more importantly it deserves audience's support for producers to be able to do away with the "Murder"s and "Jism"s which have come to plague the Hindi film industry.
After you watch the movie do drop in your comments.
Well here is one movie that might be able to create an impression for a lifetime. I am hearing the songs (actually the background music) of the movie right now and the scenes run through my eyes...the most visible form of magic for me I should say.
As all of you must be knowing by this time, this is a story of a blind and deaf (and hence dumb) girl and her tutor, played so effectively by a small girl first (I dont know her name anyone?) and then Rani Mukherji and the maestro Amitabh Bachan respectively. This would definitely go down as one of the best performances for both of them. As for the director, very frankly I for one, never expected a story like this from the creator of Devdas. The parallels in the two movies are the breathtaking settings. But thankfully the similarity stops there. The director found something better to fit into the grand settings:). Kudos to Sanjay Leela Bansali.
Some of my friends have been judging the movie by the number of times they cried...by that measure, yes..I did have teardrops in my eyes, but unlike other movies (and also unlike what I expected), these were for most parts, tears of joy..of optimism, of a feeling of a vicarious thrill for the girl on the screen. One heart rendering dialogue which I am still thinking about is this-"Mainae shayad Jindagi se kuch jyada hi maang liyaa thaa..."-which translates into-" I probably asked a bit too much out of life."- the misery of a girl not able to get things that others take for granted couldn't have been put in better words. In order not to spoil the experience for those who are yet to watch the movie I will stop here.
The best thing about the movie is the ringing optimism in it. If you are expecting a teary portrayal of the miseries of a girl with such disabilities, be warned....neither the director, nor the tutor is in a mood for that. There are beautiful jokes scattered here and there which make you smile without losing perspective of the bigger picture.
This movie deserves every accolade film industry can provide...but more importantly it deserves audience's support for producers to be able to do away with the "Murder"s and "Jism"s which have come to plague the Hindi film industry.
After you watch the movie do drop in your comments.
The Stay
We had a few imaginations about the place we were going to stay in. But the one we got surpassed our wildest imaginations. We were given the biggest apartment I have ever lived in. The entire floor was covered with a soft (I am not sure what to call this..) flooring which is the norm here for all apartments. I felt sleeping on the floor more comfortable than my bed back home:). The rooms were spacious and we had every home appliance that one could think of- Refrigerator, microwave oven, dish-washer, knife-set, washing machine and so on. Ofcourse for $100 a day which my company was paying them these were the least they could do:).
Ofcourse we left all the kitchen equipment almost untouched. The appliance we found the greatest use were indeed the TV and VCR (you read it right-here VCRs and video cassettes are are still immensely popular. We watched a movie almost every weekend. More about that in
another post.
I was feeling a bit eerie with the huge house and living all alone and decided to move in with Raghu (he had a two-bedroom apartment). Then began the party-time. Raghuram often became so sick with hotel-food that he used to cook at home and ofcourse I helped with him in the most crucial part-eating and certifying his cooking skills. He is so sweet that inspite of being enraged at my watching TV endlessly while he toiled with rice and puliyotharai mix (he became a specialist in making puliyotharai-tamarind rice) and making empty threats of cooking for him alone-always at the end of it there it was....I had steaming rice, watery, but tasty sambhar, sometimes curry, curd and to top it all-Puliyotharai:). You are a pleasure Raghu:):)
Towards the end we took detailed videos of the whole house. Here apartments are not stand-alone entities. They have a set of apartments forming a community kind of thing and they have facilities common to them. There was a small swimming pool for the place and we deigned on it only once during the whole stay. They had a tennis court as well.
We had the chance of watching the firemen in action twice during our stay. When there is smoke in one of the apartments there is an alarm that goes off for the entire building. Everyone in every apartment who hears that is supposed to leave everything and rush outside. The firemen are automatically alarmed and they arrive within few minutes. They are very professional. In full gear, a few of their men march inside the house and make sure there is nothing serious and declare "All Clear". People can go in only after that. Both the times thankfully only the fireplace had had some problems and was emanating too much of smoke.
Ofcourse we left all the kitchen equipment almost untouched. The appliance we found the greatest use were indeed the TV and VCR (you read it right-here VCRs and video cassettes are are still immensely popular. We watched a movie almost every weekend. More about that in
another post.
I was feeling a bit eerie with the huge house and living all alone and decided to move in with Raghu (he had a two-bedroom apartment). Then began the party-time. Raghuram often became so sick with hotel-food that he used to cook at home and ofcourse I helped with him in the most crucial part-eating and certifying his cooking skills. He is so sweet that inspite of being enraged at my watching TV endlessly while he toiled with rice and puliyotharai mix (he became a specialist in making puliyotharai-tamarind rice) and making empty threats of cooking for him alone-always at the end of it there it was....I had steaming rice, watery, but tasty sambhar, sometimes curry, curd and to top it all-Puliyotharai:). You are a pleasure Raghu:):)
Towards the end we took detailed videos of the whole house. Here apartments are not stand-alone entities. They have a set of apartments forming a community kind of thing and they have facilities common to them. There was a small swimming pool for the place and we deigned on it only once during the whole stay. They had a tennis court as well.
We had the chance of watching the firemen in action twice during our stay. When there is smoke in one of the apartments there is an alarm that goes off for the entire building. Everyone in every apartment who hears that is supposed to leave everything and rush outside. The firemen are automatically alarmed and they arrive within few minutes. They are very professional. In full gear, a few of their men march inside the house and make sure there is nothing serious and declare "All Clear". People can go in only after that. Both the times thankfully only the fireplace had had some problems and was emanating too much of smoke.
Thursday, February 17, 2005
The Flight.
I actually had imagined quite a few things about the flight journey after hearing that in Singapore Airlines each seat had a LCD monitor and each passenger had a choice from 17 movie CDs to watch and also that Lufthansa was even better than Sing Air. Well...it turned out to be otherwise. The seats were cramped and there was one small monitor for some 20 seats, the person in the corner seat has to stick out his head to see it avoiding the over-head baggage box and as luck would have it I was in the corner seat quite a few times.
Frankfurt airport was quite something. It is not huge, but it is bustling with activity. There are 2 magnetic levitation train between the 2 terminals with a frequency of about 1 in 5 minutes. It was truly amazing to go in that. We saw the freeway of Germany and the speed with which cars flew (literally!!) was just amazing. We did a lot of window shopping until we were tired enough to return to the boarding gate. There are car-like vehicles inside the airport for old people to commute!! The security check was amazing. Each person was asked to remove everything metallic (even shoes..if they have metal strips) and put in a seperate box which goes through the scanner. They frisk you completely with gloved hands (no metallic detectors). Then we flew to Los Angeles and got down. The queue at the immigration check was simply amazing. There must have been atleast a thousand people there!! We waited for almost an hour on our queue. After that was done came the dreaded customs and agricultural dept checks (where they throw out most our indian foods if they are not satisfied with our explanations) and whew..there was no checking at all. They let us go without even stopping us for a moment. LS airport is huge with a lot of terminals.
Finally we reached Seattle and took a taxi home. The taxi was moving at a speed of almost 75mph (120kmph)..little did I imagine that I would be driving at 100mph very soon!!!
Frankfurt airport was quite something. It is not huge, but it is bustling with activity. There are 2 magnetic levitation train between the 2 terminals with a frequency of about 1 in 5 minutes. It was truly amazing to go in that. We saw the freeway of Germany and the speed with which cars flew (literally!!) was just amazing. We did a lot of window shopping until we were tired enough to return to the boarding gate. There are car-like vehicles inside the airport for old people to commute!! The security check was amazing. Each person was asked to remove everything metallic (even shoes..if they have metal strips) and put in a seperate box which goes through the scanner. They frisk you completely with gloved hands (no metallic detectors). Then we flew to Los Angeles and got down. The queue at the immigration check was simply amazing. There must have been atleast a thousand people there!! We waited for almost an hour on our queue. After that was done came the dreaded customs and agricultural dept checks (where they throw out most our indian foods if they are not satisfied with our explanations) and whew..there was no checking at all. They let us go without even stopping us for a moment. LS airport is huge with a lot of terminals.
Finally we reached Seattle and took a taxi home. The taxi was moving at a speed of almost 75mph (120kmph)..little did I imagine that I would be driving at 100mph very soon!!!
Redmond....
I was fortunate enough to be sent over to Redmond by Microsoft for three whole months to undergo training. These three months were definitely an experience I would cherish for a lifetime, not just because this was my first foreign trip or because the place was "so cool", but more because I was there with a set of very close friends, an opportunity that few people being sent "offshore" get. We had so much fun there the term weekend itself has acquired a special meaning for most of us:)
And while I was there, I used to write mails to myself describing the experiences at the place, starting from the flight, to the food, places we visited etc. I couldn't complete it there. I will try to do that here. From now on I will post our experiences under different headings.
I wanted to do this earlier, but didn't get the bandwidth to do it. I will delay this no longer....
And while I was there, I used to write mails to myself describing the experiences at the place, starting from the flight, to the food, places we visited etc. I couldn't complete it there. I will try to do that here. From now on I will post our experiences under different headings.
I wanted to do this earlier, but didn't get the bandwidth to do it. I will delay this no longer....
Monday, January 31, 2005
Just a passing thought
Today I had an interesting chat with a friend I havent met for quite some time. All his friends know him as a silent, composed person who keeps his deepest feelings and thoughts to himself but is always cheerful with friends. He has just joined a very good company (lets call it L) after a long and difficult time. So as is usual with anyone, I started off asking "How is life at L?" and he asked "What do you expect as an answer". I told him "Honestly I am not 'expecting' anything...so go on and tell me whatever your answer is..
Then he asked "Is it life at L or L in life? I feel it is the other way round...isnt it?" For a second I didn't understand him...then it struck me..it was like an "Aha reaction...":). Most of us limit our (and others') lives to the mere circumstances and work that we do at that moment. But life is bigger than that...to realise that life is bigger than Microsoft itself was a big realisation for me personally:).
I am not going to conclude this entry with my judgements like I generally do.....I leave it to you to decide for yourself how you want to interpret this one...
Then he asked "Is it life at L or L in life? I feel it is the other way round...isnt it?" For a second I didn't understand him...then it struck me..it was like an "Aha reaction...":). Most of us limit our (and others') lives to the mere circumstances and work that we do at that moment. But life is bigger than that...to realise that life is bigger than Microsoft itself was a big realisation for me personally:).
I am not going to conclude this entry with my judgements like I generally do.....I leave it to you to decide for yourself how you want to interpret this one...
Tuesday, January 25, 2005
Friday, January 21, 2005
Why they call them classics....
It has been a while since I wrote anything....no reasons for that though I would have loved to claim that I have been busy:)...I guess I have just been plain lazy. So here goes a fitting compensation for the lost time....
I would have titled this "Inba Kana Onru Kandaen", but for my propensity to keep non-Tamil folks entertained as well. I had the opportunity of reading the novel "Gone With the Wind". For the facts-this is a novel written 1936 and is around 850 pages long. It describes the American Civil War of 1860s through the eyes of one character called Scarlett 'O Hara.
There were two factions in the Civil war one headed by Abraham Lincoln (called the Yankees) which was bent on freeing the slaves and the other were the Confederates (or Southerners) who were so imbibed in the system of slavery that they felt that their birthright was being threatened by the Yankees. Our Scarlett belongs to the confederates, who are very conventional people sticking to their "old" practises of men doing the "war-work" and women folk taking care of the family. And as one would expect our heroine is anything but conventional. She is a spoilt child who has never even tied the laces of her own dress (as there are black servants to do it) and she is pushed into a post-war world where she has to work on the farms doing double the men's work and saving every penny selfishly. The transformation is slow, but beautifully described as she receives each blow with amazing "gumption" which is a term the author uses to describe strength and instinct for survival and she undergoes physical and emotional changes.
Initially I was quite put-off by the huge size and the never-ending descriptions that the author employs for each scene. She would meticulously describe each and every detail, which I found at times to be even redundant. But after crossing 150-odd pages I realised the purpose and the genious behind this method of writing....pretty unconciously you stop reading the words and start seeing images. The picture built slowly and painfully over the pages sticks to your mind so well that you start living the life of Scarlett 'O Hara. Through those 800 pages I have loved her, admired her, despised her, pitied her and finally as I put the book down I could see her in my mind's eyes as if she were living next door to me.
There is one point in the book where a major character who has been pivotal to the story dies and to tell you the truth I could literally feel the grief for her. The images of that character and the consistency in her actions are so coherent that I am sure you would feel a tinge of grief at that point and I would really appreciate if someone who has read the book can echo their sentiments at that point to prove that I am not alone:)
Well, I "had to" read Da Vinci code given that it was the best-seller this year and you seem like an ignoramus at many places if you have not read it. But (no offense to hardcore Dan Browne fans) despite the story being so riveting and the information being so fascinating I should say I really couldn't get out of the Scarlett shell to appreciate anything that is fast paced and edge-of-the -seat stuff.
I am dying to watch the movie which grossed half-billion more than what Titanic grossed in adjusted dollars and is considered to be the greatest American movie ever produced. Lets see if this can dislodge Godfather from the top spot in my heart:).
I would have titled this "Inba Kana Onru Kandaen", but for my propensity to keep non-Tamil folks entertained as well. I had the opportunity of reading the novel "Gone With the Wind". For the facts-this is a novel written 1936 and is around 850 pages long. It describes the American Civil War of 1860s through the eyes of one character called Scarlett 'O Hara.
There were two factions in the Civil war one headed by Abraham Lincoln (called the Yankees) which was bent on freeing the slaves and the other were the Confederates (or Southerners) who were so imbibed in the system of slavery that they felt that their birthright was being threatened by the Yankees. Our Scarlett belongs to the confederates, who are very conventional people sticking to their "old" practises of men doing the "war-work" and women folk taking care of the family. And as one would expect our heroine is anything but conventional. She is a spoilt child who has never even tied the laces of her own dress (as there are black servants to do it) and she is pushed into a post-war world where she has to work on the farms doing double the men's work and saving every penny selfishly. The transformation is slow, but beautifully described as she receives each blow with amazing "gumption" which is a term the author uses to describe strength and instinct for survival and she undergoes physical and emotional changes.
Initially I was quite put-off by the huge size and the never-ending descriptions that the author employs for each scene. She would meticulously describe each and every detail, which I found at times to be even redundant. But after crossing 150-odd pages I realised the purpose and the genious behind this method of writing....pretty unconciously you stop reading the words and start seeing images. The picture built slowly and painfully over the pages sticks to your mind so well that you start living the life of Scarlett 'O Hara. Through those 800 pages I have loved her, admired her, despised her, pitied her and finally as I put the book down I could see her in my mind's eyes as if she were living next door to me.
There is one point in the book where a major character who has been pivotal to the story dies and to tell you the truth I could literally feel the grief for her. The images of that character and the consistency in her actions are so coherent that I am sure you would feel a tinge of grief at that point and I would really appreciate if someone who has read the book can echo their sentiments at that point to prove that I am not alone:)
Well, I "had to" read Da Vinci code given that it was the best-seller this year and you seem like an ignoramus at many places if you have not read it. But (no offense to hardcore Dan Browne fans) despite the story being so riveting and the information being so fascinating I should say I really couldn't get out of the Scarlett shell to appreciate anything that is fast paced and edge-of-the -seat stuff.
I am dying to watch the movie which grossed half-billion more than what Titanic grossed in adjusted dollars and is considered to be the greatest American movie ever produced. Lets see if this can dislodge Godfather from the top spot in my heart:).
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