Long long ago in our neighboring country was founded an organization that like many of its times vowed to fight for the cause of Tamils to rise and question the atrocities committed by a government on its own people. People who ran hither tither turned around and united under these movements to fight back. As time passed, one movement that called itself the tiger of all movements killed its own brethren and became the king of the hill.
As years turned decades, governments changed and the world changed. The world lines relatively blurred and economies merged and the world unified more than ever before. On the sidelines, terrorism became a common menace. Soon there were different flavours, jihadists, talibans, maoists and many others, all of them said they fought for the cause of their people.
Battles became wars and rivers turned red and cities became ruins and people became just living creatures. More blood was shed than the cause that started the whole war and more was lost than achieved in the process. The very people whose cause was being fought by these organizations started running away from them. Maimed, deprived of living, education, hygiene, they wanted no part in the war, they just wanted to be left alone, their newer generations did not even understand why they were living in constant fear.They were not alone, having tried its best to draw a truce, the world grew tired of it as well.
Finally, it had to end one way or the other and it did. Now , the world is all eyes on the government to see how it rehabilitates its citizens and gives them the much needed support. How will this happen, I wonder. The answer lies in the world history, we often underestimate the resilience and capability of human beings. A brief look at our own history tells us that there were millions and millions of people that were killed, maimed, raped and kidnapped in a war that we called partition. Many lost their families and wealth and were reduced to paupers in a stroke that rooted them out of their homes and transplanted them to the streets of cold Delhi, Punjab and West Bengal. Millions of them were farmers and knew nothing else. Deprived off their land, they couldn't farm! The government tried its best to give them land to farm and houses to live. It was far from adequate. People were given meager allotments. This is history, today, one hears that these very people are one of the most patriotic, successful, daring and prosperous people of this country. How did they achieve it? Pure hard work and perseverance. They tilled the soil whether it was cultivable or not and they went about in a bull headed manner and just achieved it despite years of droughts that followed Independence. Thankfully the British did not scream at Nehru saying he was not doing enough. They just did not care if the country went to the dogs.
It shows us that there is nothing time cannot heal and there is nothing that can stop a man from succeeding when it comes to survival , however bleak the situation might seem.
What I wish for the people of my community in my neighbouring country is the same, let there be peace, let the wounds heal, let there be quiet, let them have a new beginning that has been denied to them for so long by the war. Let the lines of division blur, let them live together as one nation, let them give another shot at building trust among their own people, let them rebuild their homes, let them get a chance to educate their children, let them produce a thousand Muthaiah Muralitharans, let them have a chance to prosper and enjoy life the way it should be, let them spend quiet evenings with their grand children, let there be happiness in the air that has been bereft of even a child's smile for decades.
As a brother nation, let us support the cause of unification, let us not be the cause for wounds to remain unhealed, Let us stop drawing afresh the lines of division, let us try and erase them,let us help them rebuild the nation Let us stop spreading the poison of vengeance, let us spread love and not hatred. I love my country and I'm proud that am an Indian and a Tamil. Let us also give them a chance to redeem their pride as a Srilankan and a Tamil too
10 June 2010
04 June 2010
According to me this blogathon should have been preponed.
Sue has started a red marker blogathon that goes like this. Follow the chain.
In short this is about common mistakes in spoken/written language that irks you. Well, to begin with, I myself make so many of them and am not even a light year close to perfect. Did I mention that am not a saint either? I do notice and pinpoint mistakes in language when others make them.
Phew, I got it off my chest! Now, let me get to the rant.
Prepone
About ten years or so back and until recently, I used to be really annoyed with the Indian antonym of the English word 'Postpone'. We Indians used the word 'Prepone' to indicate an advancement of an event to an earlier schedule than initially announced.
The function has been preponed.
I used to gleefully correct people that there exists no such word 'Prepone'. Alas, my pleasure was short lived. One fine morning, I was reading the newspapers that carried a column on newly added words to the English language dictionary. To my utter dismay and horror, the Englishmen had given in and legitimized the word 'prepone' giving it legitimacy and place in the dictionary. I was so angry that day. How dare someone deprieve me off my right to ridicule? :). I would have been one of the few miffed folks in the world to read this news.
I still cannot bring myself around to use that horrible sounding word. Talk about prejudice :)
According to me
The other one is a recent usage amongst even educated folks. 'According to me' is the usage. A friend was giving her opinion on the pricing of a piece of real estate and she went.. 'According to me , this is is overpriced'. For a second, I was left thinking that she was referring to a Chinese friend named 'Mei'. I realized then that she was referring to herself. I then told her to just simply put it as 'The is overpriced is my (humble) opinion' or even simpler. "I think this is overpriced." How difficult is that?
Smileys
Here is another thing I wish to legitimize in English. Smileys! :) :D >:-0 without these smileys. The other day I wrote to a client a reminder to send me a document that he owed me.
The exact words I wrote was 'Hi X, This is a follow up to my earlier email on the subject. I'm writing to just remind you that I need this document by ... date. Could you please ensure that I have it before the said date to help me continue my work'.
I thought this was polite enough for a reminder.However it was not meant to be. The client had complained to my VP that I was being rude. This was a client I have known for more than a few years! I was quite taken aback. After reading my note to the gentleman a dozen times, I concluded that my tonality has been misinterpreted by the client(he was probably having a bad day!) and it had nothing to do with what I had written. So I made a small correction to my email to present here
'Hi X, This is a follow up to my earlier email on the subject. I'm writing to just remind you that I need this document by ... date. Could you please ensure that I have it before the said date to help me continue my work :)'
That would have helped my client a lot in realizing that I was not being rude/stern with him and I was just doing business as usual. One can argue that my mail should have been sprinkled with how are yous and take cares to make it look nice. One can also argue that my client has a problem. There would be no end to this.
The sticking point would still be that such things are bound to happen. I realized that I preferred using smileys in place of unnecessary 'how are yous and hope you are doing alrights.' in a business note. I however realize that smileys may not entirely professional either and hence this rant.
In short this is about common mistakes in spoken/written language that irks you. Well, to begin with, I myself make so many of them and am not even a light year close to perfect. Did I mention that am not a saint either? I do notice and pinpoint mistakes in language when others make them.
Phew, I got it off my chest! Now, let me get to the rant.
Prepone
About ten years or so back and until recently, I used to be really annoyed with the Indian antonym of the English word 'Postpone'. We Indians used the word 'Prepone' to indicate an advancement of an event to an earlier schedule than initially announced.
The function has been preponed.
I used to gleefully correct people that there exists no such word 'Prepone'. Alas, my pleasure was short lived. One fine morning, I was reading the newspapers that carried a column on newly added words to the English language dictionary. To my utter dismay and horror, the Englishmen had given in and legitimized the word 'prepone' giving it legitimacy and place in the dictionary. I was so angry that day. How dare someone deprieve me off my right to ridicule? :). I would have been one of the few miffed folks in the world to read this news.
I still cannot bring myself around to use that horrible sounding word. Talk about prejudice :)
According to me
The other one is a recent usage amongst even educated folks. 'According to me' is the usage. A friend was giving her opinion on the pricing of a piece of real estate and she went.. 'According to me , this is is overpriced'. For a second, I was left thinking that she was referring to a Chinese friend named 'Mei'. I realized then that she was referring to herself. I then told her to just simply put it as 'The is overpriced is my (humble) opinion' or even simpler. "I think this is overpriced." How difficult is that?
Smileys
Here is another thing I wish to legitimize in English. Smileys! :) :D >:-0 without these smileys. The other day I wrote to a client a reminder to send me a document that he owed me.
The exact words I wrote was 'Hi X, This is a follow up to my earlier email on the subject. I'm writing to just remind you that I need this document by ... date. Could you please ensure that I have it before the said date to help me continue my work'.
I thought this was polite enough for a reminder.However it was not meant to be. The client had complained to my VP that I was being rude. This was a client I have known for more than a few years! I was quite taken aback. After reading my note to the gentleman a dozen times, I concluded that my tonality has been misinterpreted by the client(he was probably having a bad day!) and it had nothing to do with what I had written. So I made a small correction to my email to present here
'Hi X, This is a follow up to my earlier email on the subject. I'm writing to just remind you that I need this document by ... date. Could you please ensure that I have it before the said date to help me continue my work :)'
That would have helped my client a lot in realizing that I was not being rude/stern with him and I was just doing business as usual. One can argue that my mail should have been sprinkled with how are yous and take cares to make it look nice. One can also argue that my client has a problem. There would be no end to this.
The sticking point would still be that such things are bound to happen. I realized that I preferred using smileys in place of unnecessary 'how are yous and hope you are doing alrights.' in a business note. I however realize that smileys may not entirely professional either and hence this rant.
03 June 2010
Green Revolution in Indian IT Industry needs pragmatic solutions
We have been long receiving email after email in espousing the virtues of going green and reducing carbon emissions. The email spoke about how travel is the prime contributor for carbon emissions. The email advises us to
i. Carpool - Imagine all the money one can save on petrol
ii. Cycle to work Apparently its good for your heart!
iii. Walk down. Smell the roses on the way!
Setting aside my reaction to this email and coming to the response, I believe that the email cannot be far from what is practical in an Indian IT context. The list above suits an European or an American office better.
Let me list down the obvious to state why the above list will not work in most Indian IT organizations
Car pooling
Yes, with the ever rising car population in India, this seems like a logical step. However the only fly in the ointment is that no Indian IT house works by the clock. This is not by choice, this is more by necessity.Each team works on different clocks and each individual's work hours are driven by the vagaries of their own work load, pull of the duties at home and what not. Given the state of affairs and without getting to the worn out 'Get your work life balance in order moron routine', we can safely state that the probability is very low that two or more workers who live in the same route would be able to synchronize the time they leave for home from work.
Its almost always a problem with returning home than arriving at work. I will go out on a limb and state that its almost feasible to expect pooling to work and next to impossible to pool on the way back for the above reason.
Given this fact, how does one expect to return home when the owner of the car is long gone. Its unfair for the entire pool to expect to stay back when one guy is held up. Doing so only works against the cause of pooling. The next time around you will promptly see people dropping off the pool. "Oh, never mind, I will use my car to work today' and before you know it, the pool is no longer one! I say this from experience.
Instead, if the corporate or the government introduce an efficient mass transport system that services key areas of the city and its suburbs or even the nearest railway station, it would be immensely feasible for the entire workforce to use the facility to hop to work and back! Located at MRC nagar, i would be immensely happy if my office operates a bus service that picks up and drops people from the nearest MRTS station and Mandaveli! I would just catch the next available train to Tiruvanmiyur and then a share auto home for less than twenty rupees per day which works out to be good value and not to mention savings.
Cycling to work and walking to work: I only have this to say. Have you tried this in Chennai and to work? I had a colleague almost 10 years back who used to cycle to work out of necessity and not choice. Problem? He stank of sweat all day. Majority of Indian IT houses that operate in the city do not have bath facilities in their buildings even if one wishes to cycle to work and wash up before starting. Given the hot Chennai weather, this is not going to work either.
I do not wish to be a naysayer for Green initiatives, my annoyance here is to do with the feasibility of the initiatives.
i. Carpool - Imagine all the money one can save on petrol
ii. Cycle to work Apparently its good for your heart!
iii. Walk down. Smell the roses on the way!
Setting aside my reaction to this email and coming to the response, I believe that the email cannot be far from what is practical in an Indian IT context. The list above suits an European or an American office better.
Let me list down the obvious to state why the above list will not work in most Indian IT organizations
Car pooling
Yes, with the ever rising car population in India, this seems like a logical step. However the only fly in the ointment is that no Indian IT house works by the clock. This is not by choice, this is more by necessity.Each team works on different clocks and each individual's work hours are driven by the vagaries of their own work load, pull of the duties at home and what not. Given the state of affairs and without getting to the worn out 'Get your work life balance in order moron routine', we can safely state that the probability is very low that two or more workers who live in the same route would be able to synchronize the time they leave for home from work.
Its almost always a problem with returning home than arriving at work. I will go out on a limb and state that its almost feasible to expect pooling to work and next to impossible to pool on the way back for the above reason.
Given this fact, how does one expect to return home when the owner of the car is long gone. Its unfair for the entire pool to expect to stay back when one guy is held up. Doing so only works against the cause of pooling. The next time around you will promptly see people dropping off the pool. "Oh, never mind, I will use my car to work today' and before you know it, the pool is no longer one! I say this from experience.
Instead, if the corporate or the government introduce an efficient mass transport system that services key areas of the city and its suburbs or even the nearest railway station, it would be immensely feasible for the entire workforce to use the facility to hop to work and back! Located at MRC nagar, i would be immensely happy if my office operates a bus service that picks up and drops people from the nearest MRTS station and Mandaveli! I would just catch the next available train to Tiruvanmiyur and then a share auto home for less than twenty rupees per day which works out to be good value and not to mention savings.
Cycling to work and walking to work: I only have this to say. Have you tried this in Chennai and to work? I had a colleague almost 10 years back who used to cycle to work out of necessity and not choice. Problem? He stank of sweat all day. Majority of Indian IT houses that operate in the city do not have bath facilities in their buildings even if one wishes to cycle to work and wash up before starting. Given the hot Chennai weather, this is not going to work either.
I do not wish to be a naysayer for Green initiatives, my annoyance here is to do with the feasibility of the initiatives.
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