Ruminations

Book Review: No Higher Honor by Condoleezza Rice

2011-12-08T23:02:00.001+05:30

When I read about the launch of this book, it piqued my interest a bit. I'm not much of a biography or a memoir fan, but Condoleezza Rice's tenure as the American NSA and Secretary of State were one of the most tumultuous of my times. The Indo Pak Karil war, 9/11 , Israel Palestine War, Israel Syria war, Iraq war, Afghanistan war and 26/11 attacks,North Korean Nuclear tests, the worst recession ever and George.W.Bush!!!!!

The book reads like a compilation of world happenings in the first decade of 2000. You get some insight into the way American dealt with many issues that happened and how the discussions to resolve many a dispute played out.

It was an interesting book to read. However, it could have been a lot better if it had not been stuck in a loop about Israel and Iraq.

These two entities make repeated appearances throughout the book that you almost start to believe that Condoleezza Rice did nothing else. This is partly due to the fact that she goes to great lengths to describe the logistics of each Israel - Palestine talks happen or her trips to Iraq. But when it comes to the incidents in the rest of the world, she rushes through the portions as though they were gossip news. I say this purely from observing how much space she devotes to the major incidents in the S.Asian region. Namely, the Lal Mosque siege in Pakistan, 26/11 and the Nuclear deal. These incidents were major ones and played out big time our news. Make no mistake, she has devoted chapters to two of the three items i have quoted here. But they are not described in the level of detail she describes for instance, her dinner with the Saudi King and her meeting with the Matriarch of the Royal family!

Despite all of this, this book is an interesting read in understanding how crucial the role of Secretary of State is.

Book Review : Steve Job, A Biography by Walter Isaacson

2011-12-08T22:47:00.001+05:30

Enough Has been written about Steve jobs and the biography. I'm going to just keep this short and brief.
The book is an awesome read for someone in the IT industry and especially if you are following the gadget world.
The book provides an insight into the working of the Jobsian mind. What one discovers in the course of reading the book is that Steve Jobs, the man was a man obsessed with details even if its about something no one will notice. Here is a sample, how would you react if your CEO spends hours debating and deciding on the exact shade of gray, yes the shade of gray and not which color, to use on , hold your breath, the toilet sign in an Apple store. Yep, that was Steve Jobs and you won't be at fault to think that he was crazy, because he was!
His craziness is what made him obsessive and that obsession is what made him driven, his drive is what made him realize his obsessions and that's has made Apple what it is today.
He took on an approach where every product that had an Apple logo on his guard was his child. He had a say in the outcome of every piece of screw and glue that went into Apple products. He did not do so just to micro manage, he did so out of real passion in his beliefs that a true standard of a product is not just in how it is built on the outside, but on this inside as well.
As a human being, he probably will get ranked 0.5 on the scale of 10 with 10 being the best human being ever. He was a jerk and a good one at that. He made lives of his co-workers miserable, trash talked their work, claimed their ideas to be his, did board room wars(though I would not count this in the reasons) and drove people insane with his methods. The few who realized the positive of staying with him, survived the Jobsian ways and made their careers. The rest just left.
The mix of the Jobs persona just tells you the don'ts of a human life and his obsession to delivering a quality products teaches the reader how driven one must be, if one must make a mark in the world.
The awesome mix of jobsian persona and his chequered career is finally what makes the book tick. This will definitely be one of the top ten of my fav books.
Addendum: My wife (a non techie) tried to read this and lost interest 10% into the book. She could not understand whats the big deal about Apple1 and LISA and yadda yadda. Thats a confirmation that this book is only for gadget fans or for management students

Book Review:The Millenium Trilogy- Stieg Larsson

2011-10-23T13:56:00.003+05:30

The Millenium Trilogy has become a cult classic of sorts hitting best seller lists all over and winning critical acclaim worldwide. So, when I picked up the first book in the trilogy, expectations were, naturally sky high.
Did the book measure up to the hype? Does it belong right there with the greatest of the great books? Is it one of the books that makes you want to read it over and over, again and again?
To begin with, i must find a nice log of wood, just squat and a feet long, to clobber the idiot who named the books. The names are so cliched that they might as well belong in a 80s chinese movie. That apart, they dont give a clue as to their place in the sequel. I ended up reading part 3 first.. . *gasp*.. I told ya. The worst is yet to come. I realized that only after I finished reading it. *gasp*.. i told ya already.. if that makes me an airhead, so be it. But I will stick to my complaint.. silly names for the book. They might have as well been named Millenium Trilogy -1,2 and 3. I hear that their swedish books have appropriate names.. Anyway.. lets move past names.
Stieg Larsson is a master writer and there is no doubt about it. To write a book that spans a 1000 pages over three volumes and write it in such detail that it might as well be used as a script in a movie and keep the reader glued to the three books and that too in a genre that is not Fantasy or War or High voltage spy games is a stupendous feat. Stieg Larsson has weaved a plot that must involve about hundred characters (i have not kept count) and all around just two central figures, Mikael Blomkvist and Lisbeth Salander. While all the three books involve the two central characters, they are episodic in nature. The first book has two stories. One about the missing prodigal daughter of the Vanger family. She's been missing for 40 years and Blomkvist is called upon to dig up the reasons behind her disappearence/murder. The second one is about a financial powerhouse run by Wennerstorm and how Blomkvist must attempt a second time to uncover the dirty scoundrels behind the empire.
The second and the third books (no, i wont name them.. you go figure that out yourself) are two parts of the same story. The history and future of Lisbeth Salander.
While the one line synopsis may not sound much to go on, Stieg Larsson builds the plot with a touch of a veteran writer (this was his debut and his only series before he died tragically). He weaves the characters in books to almost a life like form. Their raw nature keeps you intrigued till the very end. He does justice by keeping their characters true to their original form till the very end. In other words, a socially introverted and a untrusting woman as Salander is, suddenly does not become emotional or soft as the series closes.
So how does the books work? Part one is pure adventure and its easy to see how that works. The second and third part seem to work so well due to sheer realism. The opinion of realism is obviously subjective and is based one what one believes could happen and that one finds it too much to happen in reality. The plot is such that it could happen if one is willing to overlook a few fundamental flaws.
I cannot review this book without referring to its weakness, casual sex. The books are peppered with it. Nothing detailed or shedonesque. But just that Blomkvist takes women to bed more than he takes them out for coffee and they all seem to be ready to jump into his bed. Someone wrote that these books have drubbed an already drubbed Swedish society. I can see why. While I have no idea if Swedish culture is such, i can understand why it can be exasperating if its way out of line.
I'm not going to get into the plot summaries and reviews of prose on a translated book. I will just sum this up as a book everyone must read. This is like watching a good suspense thriller like.. say Se7en. If i open a genre in my collection for simple crime thrillers, these books go right at the top. These books will definitely figure in my top 10 recommendations for a young reader for they have message too, delivered in a dark package.
Please do give it a read. Remember, this a dark crime thriller.

Book Review: Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts

2011-09-14T10:48:00.000+05:30

When I saw Shantaram on the bookshelves of a leisure store a few years back when it was launched, I did pickup the book and read the synopsis. It said.. "The story of a fugitive from Australia who sneaks into Mumbai and ends up in the slum and joins the mafia and goes on to fight with the Mujahideen in Afghanistan against the Russians. "
I dismissed it as a yet another attempt to write a cliched book on India and its miseries. I never thought about the book again though the unusual name for the 900 + pages tome stuck in my mind. Fast forward 2011. When I chanced upon the book again. This time I did not read the synopsis. I already knew it. How strange! I opened and read the first page.
"It took me a long time and most of the world to learn what I know about love and fate and the choices we make, but the heart of it came to me in an instant, while I was chained to a wall and being tortured. I realized, somehow, through the screaming in my mind, that even in that shackled, bloody helplessness, I was still free: free to hate the men who were torturing me, or to forgive them. It doesn't sound like much, I know. But in the flinch and bite of the chain, when it's all you've got, that freedom is a universe of possibility. And the choice you make, between hating and forgiving, can become the story of your life.

In my case, it's a long story, and a crowded one. I was a revolutionary who lost his ideals in heroin, a philosopher who lost his integrity in crime, and a poet who lost his soul in a maximum-security prison. "

What a start! I was intrigued and I picked up the book. It took me a well interrupted 3 weeks to finish it and am not proud of it. But I must say this. The three weeks were perhaps one of the best three weeks of reading in my entire reading life. This book will go right up there as one of my top 10 favourites.

So what makes the book click? To start with there is the simple and yet astoundingly lovely prose. Personally I for one never give much thought to prose in books as long as they read nice. This book simply floored me with the simplicity of the lovely prose.

Then there are metaphors. We can perhaps compile a book of metaphors from Shantaram. That is the strength and the weakness of the book. GDR uses the to a great effect.

"Kavita hugged me. It was the hug of a woman who trusts you completely. The hug of a woman who knows your heart belongs to another woman".

The way GDR describes every aspect of every scene to its minute details in his powerful and simple prose literally transports the reader to the middle of the scene and inside the body of Linbaba a.k.a Lindsay a.k.a Shantaram a.k.a anonymous. The lead characters original name is never revealed through the book. Since the book has been written from a first hand perspective, one is led to believe that this is an autobiography of the author, which he claims it is not and has however said that it uses many incidents from his life.

So, what is the story? the all important plot that is the lifeline of any work of fiction. I must say that there isn't one. Before you jump out of your seat. Let me add, that there isn't one story. There are many. The book begins with the arrival of Lindsay who is later rechristened as Linbaba by Prabhakar. Lin is intrigued at first by the happiness he sees in the many shanties in Mumbai. He begins touring Mumbai with the help of Prabhakar and is slowly swept into the cosmopolitan circle of Leopolds where he meets many expats who have settled down in Mumbai. Each one has a story of their own that they do not wish to share. Lin understands. Losing his money and other possessions in a theft, Lin is left with no choice but to shift to the slum Zhopadpatti. He is soon enamoured by the camaraderie and kinship of the entire society which leads a poor but principled life. Living peacefully in the slums, Lin soon meets with Kadher Khan, the good bad guy of Mumbai! and so the story goes, money, mafia wars, crime syndicates inter-vine with the personal ups and downs of lin .

By now, the reader has barely touched 300 pages. The story is more of what Lin sees , does and experiences in his life in the sprawling city of Mumbai, his life as a criminal, his life as a Mujahideen, his life as a fugitive.

The book is full of several interesting takes on religion, science, war and crime. Finally what makes this book an epic is its positive outlook on even the corrupt and negative aspects of Indian culture. I can go on and on, but its a book that must not be read. It must be experienced. If you have not read it, do yourself a favor pick it up and you'll definitely find some good in it.

Book Review: The secret of Nagas

2011-09-12T10:36:00.001+05:30

I finally wrapped up Shantaram on Friday and finished the Secret of Nagas over the weekend. The book had better plot and is immensely readable. Amish has taken forward the debate on the concept of what is evil and how does one define it. The whole premise of the book is that 'Evil is in the eye of the beholder' and Amish has woven the whole plot around this basic concept and how Shiva, the man, literally crowned the Neelkanth for no reason other than his blue throat and given a status of a super hero, tries to help the kingdom Meluha, in its quest to vanquish its evil enemies.

This quest carries him to the breadth of India and then on its length. Each battle is an eye opener and Shiva continues to discover the definition of evil is quite different from what one perceives. In this quest, he is assisted by a plethora of Kings, princes, princesses and others. The man, Shiva, who refuses to acknowledge his superhero status, wins people over by his deeds and deliverance of what he truly believes to be the contextual justice. Yet, at every step, he is surprised by the turn of events and the many faces of evil he discovers. Vasudevs, the clan of priests who advise him on his quest, direct him to seek the greatest of all evils and vanquish it, just like his predecessor, the great Rudra did.

Strangely this what would be an epic journey throws his personal life and family in the direct line of fire and his constant struggle to make amends for his own failures and the pressure to keep his promises make up the drama portions of the story.

The reader would find it interesting as a story given the spin that has been given to the traditional Hindu characters of Shiva, Sati, Daksha, Nandi, Veerabhadra and the rest. Readesr who are not familiar with Hindu mythology must be forewarned that the plot and the characters are just namesakes and have nothing to do with the actual Hindu mythology.

The two books , Immortals of Meluha and The Secret of Nagas are good books that are worthy reads given their fantasy genre and a healthy mix of masala. The points i have made about the earlier book holds good for this too. The prose is very average and the fantasy world has not been given too much focus like a Hogwarts or the Middle earth. Nevertheless, its a worthy read and more importantly will most likely make you want to read the third in the trilogy 'The oath of Vayuputras'.

Book Review: Immortals of Meluha by Amish

2011-07-18T22:49:00.001+05:30

What if Shiva was a man as human as anyone can be thrust with an enormous burden of responsibility to fight for good and vanquish evil, thrust with a stature of god for reasons he cannot come to terms with, and not a worker of miracles like the lore says?
What a brilliant premise for a work of fiction? Amish does not disappoint. He has woven a fine work of classic Indian masala with a stage of all too familiar mythological names with a good dose of magic, bravery, brotherhood, romance and social issues into a story that often teeters to the grade of a B grade flick. But it is gripping nevertheless.
A self doubting , grounded and flawed man that Shiva is , instantly wins the reader's affection as a good hearted leader of a neighborhood youth brigade. Amish portrays Shiva as a people's leader who detests being bestowed any titular position and constantly reminds others that he is their friend and not a Lord as they often call him.
He has been lured out of his homeland at the base of the great Himalayas into the all too ideal land of Meluha that is the land of Suryavanshis, the descendants of Lord Ram! He has been sought out and crowned as Neelkanth who is prophesied to be the saviour of all that stands for good. Like any grounded man, Shiva is at first baffled at this coronation. Soon and very soon, he finds himself in the midst of terrorist attacks and finds himself successfully defending the soon to be his sweet heart Sati from the hands of a powerful Naga (evil deformed monsters) who are after Sati, thereby further influencing the Meluhan's conviction that he is the Mahadev.
Soon, Shiva finds himself leading a battle against the Chandravanshis who are blamed for the repeated terrorist attacks on the Suryavanshi villages. The book weaves the plot leading up to the grand battle scene that stirs the reader's imaginations with its detailed formations and fights.
Amish does a fine job developing the characters in the book. Many of them are stellar personalities worth admiring. Parvateshwar the general is a worthy mention for his stern and yet fair demeanour towards Shiva. Needless to say, Shiva himself admires Parvateshwar for his righteousness.
Sati is another fine character Amish weaves into the book. The sparring between Shiva and Sati during the initial stages of the book is endearing for its brilliant dichotomy in the behavior of the two characters. Shiva his unabashedly brazen advances to be close with Sati while Sati herself a dignity personified flame that refuses to be disturbed by the winds that Shiva is, trying to swirl around and win her heart.
Where Amish Falters, is in his imagination and creativity. His imagination of Meluha is all to familiar modern day City but placed in the BC 1900s. It does not interest a reader that a 1900BC city actually has water taps or under ground drains. What has been squandered away is an opportunity to do a J.K.Rowling on this mythical and yet ideal city of Meluha. Likewise the concept of Ayodhya being an uncouth society full of citizens every ready to indulge their desires of flesh is all too unimaginative and belongs in a B-Grade Hollywood flick some Chennai Based former Tennis aces would have produced out of Hollywood.
It has been said before and I repeat it, the conversations and phrases used are sometimes too American and seems tailored to the American audience than to the originality of character. "Is that the best line you can come up with " , "Is she spoken for".. are modern day usages that seem rather out of place in a book that is placed so far before Christ. Thankfully we don't have any characters using 'Holy Christ'.
Having pointed out the flaws, they can be forgiven for the sake of the overall story which is gripping and engaging to the last line. Hopefully Amish has saved enough delicacies to last two more books of the trilogy. The second part, the Secret of Nagas due in a month hopefully would be as interesting if not better than the first one.
Go for it, you may find yourself sneering in the beginning, but its a good book towards the end. The characters have been introduced, traps laid, let the story unfold Amish.
One more thing. While the characters are all too familiar mythological Hindu gods and their aides, the story itself has little to do with their mythology. Its important that young readers do not confuse the story to be the real story of Shiva. It is not.

Gandhi was bisexual?

2011-03-31T14:51:00.003+05:30

Controversial book on Gandhi banned. Apparently a new book says that Gandhi was bisexual and so India has banned the book and sic is even contemplating a blasphemy law appropos Gandhi. Does not make sense to me. If this is all that is 'controversial' in the book. I say 'controversial' because .. i do not understand what is controversial about someone being bisexual. For heavens sake. half of the world's saints were thugs, womanizers before they became saints or were anointed one.

If all of Gandhi's sins were being bisexual or drinking or eating meat before he changed himself to become a Mahatma, i say fine! He was all of that and none of it matters to an Indian than what he achieved for India.

For example, Churchill was a complete bigot and yet he is regarded as one of the greatest leaders of the empire for his leadership during world war 2. Everyone accepts Churchill's duality of character.

Does the book say that he did nothing for Indian independence, ban it. But not for this. Get over it India. so what if our great Mahatma was bisexual or drank wine or was an avid racist in his earlier life? Remember? he was not born a Mahatma. So we have to make allowances for the 'coming of age' period of his life. It was what he did in his later life is what made him a Mahatma and that is what we must be proud of. All of this even without a shred of proof of whether he was one or was not one. I just do not care.

I say sue the author for libel if we are so sure. Even then I do not know how calling one a bisexual becomes libel. If not, lets not give it more publicity than it would merit otherwise. Lets just get back to cricket.

My Sins against the Gender stereotypes:Tag

2010-07-05T14:53:00.000+05:30

Cee Kay tagged me!

This is an interesting tag - originated at IndianHomeMaker's. Following are the rules:

Please list at least ten things you have ever wanted or done which your gender is not supposed to.

The tag is called ‘My Sins against Gender-Stereotypes’. And you must tag twelve blogging friends or else you will be cursed to wear blue ~~clothes~~ pants if you are a woman and pink shirts if you are a man – for next twelve years.

Boy! How do I manage to always land in such trouble? Doesn't matter, it delights me to think that I have an opportunity to take down 12 more with me .. laugh now at my expense friends laugh .... but I'll get my share eventually.. har har har..

But the stereotypes thing is posing a problem!! lets see how this goes
1. I never had girl/lady friends till I got married! My wife refused /refuses to believe me. "Not even a Crush?" she asked ... the answer is same.. 'Nope'. Of course the rider is that if you don't count gaping at all girls as Crush :)
2. If you didn't see this one coming in the earlier sentence here it is.. I have quite a few lady friends now that am married. I say so, coz for some reason, I believe ladies seem to find it safer to talk to me after they gain the "KNOWLEDGE" that am married and have kids :) I asked myself why it is so.. the best answer I came up with is the same as what Chandler Bing got from his gang of F.R.I.E.N.D.S, I perhaps have a 'quality' that makes me look threatening to women! Of course that is until they realize that I'm settled in life. Don't ask me to berate this any further.
3. I don't consume Alcohol . Nuff said
4. I don't smoke. Don't know if this is a stereotype though. Not every guy smokes
5. I like to cook! and I like to experiment a little too! My best ever concoction is Ginger Rasam.. made it up myself. Don't know if one exists 'officially'.
6. I prefer living in India (chennai to be precise.. ) to living in US and came back for the same reason
7. I'm scared of lizards!
8. I cried after watching TZP.I remember pulling over the car near Mylapore on the way back from Satyam Cinemas , crying my heart out and then resuming home.. There it is i've said it
9. According to my wife we get into fights often. In our world fights are when she shouts and I listen apologetically.
10.I thought Pratibha Patil was a hot young lady until she took oath. (no thats not true, I made that one up to make it ten.. What? this is disqualified? alright, bring out the firing squad.. )
11. Ok ok.. here is a lame one.. i hate shopping for clothes. Even if its for me..
12. I don't like to comb/style my hair.I wear it really short.... why? Its hair.. !!! didn't you read that.

Here is the best part!! tagging others... rubbing my hands in glee.. alright who goes first? its the missus..
1. Caramelhill
2. Lavanya
3. Aparna
4. Vidya
5. Hema

Alright I don't have 7 more friends to tag okay. Fine go ahead and decide that am a loser.. don't care.. guess what you can't tag me back and tag the ones i've tagged.. so all the best ha ha ha ha ha hah a ha ha ha.. .ha ha ha h a fading into silence....

Its about my Sibling citizens : Srilankans

2010-06-10T19:38:00.000+05:30

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

According to me this blogathon should have been preponed.

2010-06-04T11:27:00.001+05:30

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.

Green Revolution in Indian IT Industry needs pragmatic solutions

2010-06-03T14:09:00.000+05:30

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.

Hey Ram-

2010-05-14T11:28:00.000+05:30

Its a movie review that I log ten years after the movie was released. It was year 2000 when this movie was released and I was then living in the US. I remember being all excited about the much hyped up movie. The glitzy star cast was making it even more juicy.
We made reservations and undertook a 160 mile journey to New Jersey from Connecticut just to watch the movie. When the credits rolled at the end of the movie, I was left with a sense of emptiness. I had no reactions to the movie. I realized that I did not entirely grasp the inner workings of Saket Ram, the protagonist.
I told myself, "Ha it is your problem, you cannot understand Hindi well and the movie used many languages as well scenes seamlessly jumping from Hindi to english to tamil, Bengali and Marathi at times"
I ended up watching the film twice more, once in tamil and again in VHS with sub titles. Well, i was astounded and shocked that I still could not grasp it. Upon checking with some good friends, I realized I wasn't the only one.. Phew! I was almost convinced that I had lost a bit of my neural cabbage that sits between my ears.
Fast forward Ten years. Year 2010. By now I have read India after Gandhi, by Ramachandra Guha and am half way into 'A Bend in the Ganges. a novel by Manohar Malgaonkar' and many other art films and serious films later, I believed that I should try watching this movie again and I did thanks to a friend who lent me his video.
Boy, I loved the film now. I would perhaps rate this second only to Anbe Sivam which ranks as the best ever Indian film I've watched.
I will not bother giving the complete story here, but rather would like to appreciate the many aspects of the film. Kamalahassan has a death grip on the screenplay. Frame after frame, characters come to life and their many layered nature comes to the fore.
Like all Kamal's films, this one also has Kamal all the way. He performs and performs like a veteran. From the ever vacillating Saket Ram, the average joe who wants to break away from the traditional Tam Brahm life to the raging lunatic who wants to do anything to avenge his Aparna to the mature husband who embraces the young and timid Mythili. Kamal is completely in his element through and through. It is gut wrenching watching him walk senselessly through the rooms of his Calcutta residence trying to come to grips with reality of Aparna's murder. Limping and walking aimlessly room after room while Thiru's awesome camera perched outside the balcony helps the viewer watch him go from room after room, limping with a hurt leg.
The eye for detail is astounding through the movie. For instance, in a scene where Kamal is driving through Calcutta as he returns home to Aparna, he is surrounded by mobs who throw tomatoes at his car and he manages to drive through. Later in a different scene, when the car drives up the porch of his home, one can see dried tomato stains on the window glass. Its a small thing, but it shows that the unit cared for this detail.
Another instance where Kamal is led through a hospital by a doctor who shows the damage the violence has caused to the society, Kamal sees a small girl with her feet amputated. She cries and she cries 'Ammii.. Ammii.. ' you almost feel the pain and she cries like a child who has cried long and hard and cannot stop herself. This, again is a small detail, but it is astounding that Kamal thought it fit to give attention to the way the child cried. Amazing!
Again, the star studded cast provide a terrific punch to all the supporting cast through the movie. With the exception of the legendary Hema Malini (who for a dancer still cannot emote!), the entire cast of Saket Ram's tam brahm household pack a punch and is utterly realistic in the language, behaviour and extremely witty in a way only a Tam Brahm household can be. This family single handedly provide a comic relief to what otherwise would have been an extremely serious movie. Kamal and his casting director needs a standing ovation just for this.
Kamal's prowess in weaving his characters also need a standing ovation. If Aparna was a temperamental, sensual, fiercely independent within the house and yet afraid of the society, Mythili is a study in contrast. The well read, strong minded and yet an obedient girl who will not dare counter her elder's words. Vasundhra shines thanks to the weighty script and dialouges seamlessly jumping between the many shades of Mythili. One moment a timid wife, the next, a strong and opinionated Gandhian who will not be coerced into accepting what her husband believes to be the bane of the country and the next, a young adolescent. who asks her husband of sometime, "Can I hug you?". You also feel sorry for her innocence in waiting to be accepted by Ram as his wife even after they are married.
Atul Kulkarni's, Abhyankar is a strong willed and hard minded Hindutva who will not hesitate to cleanse the nation of its muslim stains as he puts it. At the same time, Shah Rukh's excellent Ahmad Khan espouses Gandhian ideology like a level headed Muslim. In the midst of stereotype Muslim terrorists, Ahmad Khan's mussalman is a kind who often do not get enough screen space in Indian cinema. . Kudos to Kamal for doing something different. However, Shah Rukh Khan's acting ten years back was nothing to write home about. He has scaled many heights since then in the last decade, but somehow his Ahmad Khan does not strike a chord with me. Ahmad Khan's Nafisa from Ambur, however leaves a punch even if she got only 2 minutes of dialogues in the entire film. During the final stages of the film, Ahmad Khan is injured and police take him away in a stretcher to a hospital. A worried Nafisa comes out asking Ram "where is Ahmad." . Kamal is distraught with all the violence that he had unintentionally initiated and is unable to speak coherently and he simply points in the direction of the stretcher. She then proceeds to ask him to tell her that Ahmad is fine and Kamal mumbles something. Nafisa, as each millisecond passes, expecting a 'yes, he is alright' from Ram, is terrified and confused by his strange reaction and is getting worked up and tries to elicit a proper response from him and implores him to talk louder.. "Aanh?".... "Aanh?" she goes rising in pitch and fear. This scene happens perhaps for five seconds in the film. Yet, it stands out for its natural portrayal of characters of the terrified wife and a distraught Ram who is sick of the violence.
There are even many moments in the film when much is said without dialogues. When Ram meets Lalvani on a roadside after the riots and when he has joined the Hindutva brigade, they embrace each other crying when they find out that both have lost their entire family in the riots, the Maharaja and Abhyankar seated in the car watching them exchange glances that spark fury as though to say.. "Look what this Mahatma has given the commom man of this country. He has given only misery and poverty. This is why we must finish him off". Again, this shows how much the film was ahead of its times in a filmdom known for its punch dialogues and elaborate explanations for even the inane of intentions.
If there is something Kamal needs to work on, it is with moderating the protagonist's sexual appetite in his movies. Almost all of Kamal's protagonists feature a stereotype of insatiable hunger for sex. Well, even if Kamal claims otherwise, his frames speak out aloud.
Illayaraja's score is power packed and Kamal did the right thing in roping in the veteran replacing
L.Subramaniam though for different reasons. The background music adds flavour to the movie without makings its presence felt aloud. The piano intro of 'Nee Partha' by Asha Bhonsle would forever be etched in everyone's memories for its strong and yet simple notes. The point when the Violins and the base guitar join the piano tunes, one is transfixed in the heavenly sound the three instruments produce. This tune will join the ranks of Nayagan's Thenpaandi cheemayilae intro as one of his best ever.
The crisp editing of Renu Saluja keeps the overly long movie (3 hours and 20 minutes) tight and gives shape to the director's Hey Ram!
I can go on and on.But it would only be just to say that this film was way ahead of its times and assumed an intelligent audience to get into the inner workings of Saket Ram and that proved to be a tough nut for many audience like me. But, boy, am glad I watched it again and this will join my list of best films i've ever watched.

Where to buy Camera Accessories and Equipment in Chennai

2010-05-07T17:35:00.001+05:30

When I wanted to buy camera accessories such as tripods, flashes, strobes, off camera flashes, hot shoe adapter, cold shoe adapter, super clamp, umbrella, diffusers and all such hobbyist or professional studio equipment, I called all high profile camera stores and could not find any of them even stocking decent camera equipment for hobbyist. All they had were P&S and DSLRs, Memory cards, cases etc.,
I tried Camera Citi, Shetala and all such high profile stores. Finally through a gentleman in Flickr, I found out that there exists an area in Chennai that is the Ritchie street for Cameras.
There is a whole plaza full of them at
Fazl Complex
Wallajah Road.
Chennai

I was referred to INDIA PHOTO HOUSE in this complex.

How to get there
From Beach Road (Marina)
From Chepauk Stadium proceed straight towards Mount road
This complex opposite to the new TN Assembly building on Wallajah Road Itself (DONT GO TO MOUNT ROAD)
This complex is a couple of stores next to Radio warehouse.

From Mount Road.
Take the right next to Shanti Theater / VGP before the secretariat to enter Wallajah Road
Proceed down Wallajah Road to take the first available U-Turn.
Proceed back towards Mount Road find out Radiowarehouse. This building is a couple of stores next to Radio warehouse and opposite to the new TN Assembly complex. Remember this is on Wallajah Road NOT MOUNT ROAD.

I'm writing this hoping that search engines would catch this and some hapless person searching like me would come across this.

Finally, a note of thanks to Mr.Pradeep whose lead made me check this place out.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/epradeep/

Why does it still rain in India?

2010-04-29T19:49:00.000+05:30

Alright, this is nothing about rain.
The last few weeks I've been scouting Adyar area shops for a set of Sanyo Eneloop batteries. These are the best alternative to Alkaline Duracells in the rechargeable world. Unfortunately, I could not find any.
So, I tried to give ebay.in a shot and to my surprise I found a few sellers selling those. However, I needed four batteries to power my strobe /Flash unit and so I ordered a charger and a set of four batteries from an online vendor.
The vendor had listed the charger to ship free and a fifty rupee charge for shipping the battery. Fair enough I thought and coughed up the money.
The seller was prompt and shipped it out within two hours of my ordering it and I received it the third day! I received a tiny surprise when I opened the shipment!
Tucked deep inside and wrapped in a sheet of paper was fifty rupees! The seller had bundled the charger and the batteries together and had refunded my fifty rupees shipping charge!
Well, as logical as it may sound, I was quite taken aback at the honesty of this vendor! The honesty of this vendor came as quite a shock and surprise having gotten used to all vendors always asking more for their wares! Here is a vendor who is honest to his profession!
May he prosper! His name is basco4u and he sells in ebay!

Does this answer the question?

India after Gandhi : Ramachandra Guha

2010-03-02T19:09:00.000+05:30

This book is a must read for anyone interested in India's progress since its freedom. As the author points out, Indian educational system and a vast majority of historians have dedicated an enormous quantum of effort in documenting the centuries that run up to the 15th of August 1947.
After this, India attained its freedom and then time stood still! literally! if one were to go by historians!
Fortunately, the ilk of Ramachandra Guha have taken it upon themselves to remedy the situation and boy they do a fantastic job.

The book begins with a India attaining its Independence and Nehru's famous "Tryst with destiny" and covers every decade until the late 2000s. The book itself has been narrated in a wavy manner where the reader is constantly transported through the several years of a decade as the author picks a topic, say the Naga struggle and narrates the turn of events that happened over the years since its beginning and final culmination of the struggle.
The book is full of names, anecdotes and quotes from various authors with genuine references that we can re-read this book several times over and still feel charmed about the country that we call India!

The generation of youngsters today remember stalwarts like Jawaharlal Nehru only for his philandering ways and blame him for the mistakes he made. This book enlightens us of all the good he did along with his faults. It makes one appreciate the man that was Nehru better. This is just one example, the book covers many such great men and women who paved way for what India is today.
The book covers the formative years of the Constitution and how it was hotly debated and how Dr.B.R.Ambedkar who was an employee with the British government went on to became a mass leader that became the face of the lower caste of this country.
The book talks about all the British officials who stood by India through one crisis after the other that dogged India through the century! The book talks about all the naysayers who wrote thesis after thesis writing off the very concept of India pooh pooing the will of the masses as being too immature to hold such a vast country together.
We see through the author's eyes, India's integrity being tested in each decade by different forces within and without and how India has stood testament to the word 'Democracy'.
We see how our great leaders achieved great things and made even greater mistakes such as Rajiv Gandhi in his capitulation of the Shah Banno case or forcing the reopening of Babri Masjid for Hindu prayers.
We see Nehru, refusing to believe that his country was under fire, like Nero and his daughter on the other hand forced the war on East Pakistan to end the menace on the eastern front.
Overall, the reader becomes prouder for what this country stands for and realizes what pains our forefathers have gone through to give us the life we live today.
I will recommend this book to every Indian. As with any history book, there will be another author who would contest some of this book's writings, as Mr. Guha would agree, if this book brings out more such historians, then this Author's mission is deemed complete

Rediscovering yourself

2010-02-23T16:05:00.000+05:30

What happened to all those hobbies that used to keep you charged all the time? Where have they gone?
My hobbies have always been seasonal. Not in the traditional sense of weather based hobby, but rather each of my hobbies would have its seasons.
There would be some months, I would be glued to one book after the other.
There would be some weeks I would spend watching movies back to back with no let up
There would be some fortnights when I would pick up my camera and go for a stroll in the beach looking for shots.
or
There would be simply years when I would just keep racing Need for speed on the comp!
I miss them now, for I don't any of these nowadays. So much so that I've come to believe that am not the same person I was since I don't do any of the stuff I loved.
It is not that I chose not to do things, there simply lacked time for me to give them due seasons of their own.
So, what has changed then? I've been married and had kids over the last ten years. Thats what happened.

Its not a bad thing by itself. I'm having a wonderful time with my wife and children. But, my hobbies have suffered and I yearn for them nowadays. Which is a good thing if you consider that I still do yearn for them and I have not become one grumpy old man! at least not yet in my opinion! :)
So, slowly, step by step, am trying to allocate incremental amount of time to my hobbies. Finding spaces where I could get to read a book over a month what I would have otherwise finished in a span of days.
Pickup my camera and shoot around the house and the sky!
Waiting for an appropriate window to get myself a PS3 to frag away to glory!

Viva life!

My Name is Khan and am not a terrorist.

2010-02-16T11:25:00.000+05:30

I must say that My Name is Khan is perhaps one of the best films I have learned from till date. I make this vague statement because the movie lends itself very much to Bollywoodish and specifically Karan Johar's soap and shampoo treatment very much. But, underneath the soapy texture lies a very beautiful story that has been woven with such dexterity that am inclined to give a standing ovation to the story writer Shibani Bathija.
First look at the message
Most international terrorists today maybe muslims. But all muslims are not terrorists. Its a message that MUST go out to the world today. A world that has been spooked into jumping out its own body at the mere sight of a stereotype Mussalman. The story has a very very simple message. The protagonist wants to tell the U.S. president that his name is khan and he is not a terrorist.
Why the U.S. President?
The leading lady undergoning personal trauma just for bearing the surname khan beseeches the protagonist as to how they expect to live a life that makes them sinners and terrorists just for carrying that surname. He tries to tell her that he will tell anyone that he is not a terrorist. She challenges him as to how many will he go and explain this. Will he tell the president and thereby to the whole country? she cries out trying to drive into him the futility of the exercise and that it is doomed from the start.

The second portion of the message is that relegion is just a by stander in the whole thing. Relegion is not tainting people. It is the other way around. This message is conveyed so beautifully in a non-cliched manner by the protagonists mother when the protagonist himself is too young to understand the incidents happening around him. The message she conveys, there are only two types of people in the world. Good and Bad and relegion does not make them so. How true. Later in the movie, this is proven by a whole bunch of people who almost get brainwashed into jihad by a radical is swung back into their senses by the protagonist.

The most important message that this movie spreads is that 'Love begets love'. Throughout the movie, the protagonist due to his nature, goes about spreading innocent love wherever he treads. People cannot help but reciprocate his love. This am not talking about emotional ladies. Even customs officials and random police officers and normally people of brawn mellow down and give him a pat on the back and almost seem to redeem him of the social stigma attached to him name! and yet he wants the same from no less than the president of america. Boy does he get it?

Shibani again aces the whole plot by making the protagonist an 100% innocent, childlike, lovable and poker faced protagonist who occasionally guffaws like a 4 year old and makes the whole audience laugh with him. All of the above messages coming from anyone one else would have been so so so so cliched and would not have made the audience amenable to the message as Rizvan Khan does.

The movie (though not pioneering) also has set made minnows of major bollywood plots such as inter religion love, divorce and other such things that otherwise would have hijacked a whole bollywood plot! Perhaps several decades of films have revolved purely around the topics of love and inter religion marriage. Thankfully Karan and Shibani have deftly delegated this to the sidelines as though to convey a message that such topics are not going to get full movie length slots any longer.

Finally, songs have been used lightly in stark contrast with traditional Karan Johar films where music does the heavy lifting and is intense part of the back ground score. My ears still ring from Lataji's "Kabhie Kushie.. Kabhi..ghaammmmmmmm" every five minutes in the K3G backgorund score.

Coming back to My Name is Khan, This one picture has so eloquently conveyed several lovely messages of love, tolerance and good will like no other Indian movie till date has. This would not have been possible but for a brilliant execution by the team comprising of Karan Johar, Ravi.K.Chandran, Kajol and Shah Rukh.
The two lead characters pretty much carry the weight of the complete film on their shoulders with Kajol getting lesser screen time albeit. She does an amazing job nevertheless. Its difficult to not fall in love with her Mandira and not to cry with the mother in Mandira. This actress has an amazing range of emotions and she challenges Shah Rukh to raise the bar in acting! Pity that we do not get to see much of this actress on screen these days.
Ravi.K.Chandran is the man who has wielded the lens and he makes his presence felt at several places and yet he quietly slips to the background when he should not be around and yet for the discerning viewer we can feel that he has been there. Scenes involving Kajol at her emotional best uses excellent use of closeups, not too tight and yet sufficient allowing her emotions to fill the frame and reach the audience and soak them in. His shots have a very nice range and this film has allowed him to exploit his strengths very well!
Music, by Shankar Ehsaan and loy is I must say salt of this movie. It adds taste to the film though by itself is nothing to write home about.
Overall, this movie, though served in a traditional bollywood style is packs a powerful punch and is perhaps one of the best written and executed. I will even go so far as to say that I will perhaps nominate this for Indian entry to Oscars unless something else comes along.

Fuel for thought

2010-02-06T21:45:00.000+05:30

For quite sometime we have been seeing advertisements that say that 'In another 40 years, there would be no fuel left"
I would be 75 by then! Hopefully??? alive????? to witness the last drop of today's life line drying up?????? (Why would you even want to be around when this happens?)
The effects of the drying up resources would be foreboding its arrival much before the actual 40 years elapse. The prices of fossil fuels would likely to have reached such insane levels that they are probably not even available through common outlets! Hopefully by then the world would have shifted to alternative sources of energy.
By energy I don't just mean transportation, I mean pretty much everything that we use from electricity to cooking gas. Going by present day technologies, nuclear and solar energies are perhaps the only ones that have promise. If there is a some remarkable invention that promises to harness more solar energy than the ones available today and if this technology is mass produced we will see a sea of revolution in our power reliance. We will hopefully see solar panels on all rooftops be it at homes or vehicles or even a phone booth!
Nuclear reactors would have advanced to such an extent that robots are used extensively where humans tread today facing the risk of irradiating themselves. The reactors themselves would have advanced to such an extent that we use fusion reactors instead of the fission ones today, thereby multiplying several times the energy harnessed.
The discovery of higgs boson would somehow have helped scientists understand black holes better and perhaps (this is looking remote) have embarked on a road to simulate blackholes in controlled environments without allowing it to get out of control much like simulating tornadoes in a lab today! The new millenium will look towards this promising source of energy much like we look upon nuclear energy today!
Energy efficiencies would have also improved greatly by the next twenty years. All countries would have ensured that light sources are reduced to solitary units with piped light supplies to all rooms much like centralised airconditioning works today! This would greatly reduce the greenhouse gas emissions improving efficiencies!
Cooking is an area that will continue to rely on electricity and heat based stoves. Even if alternative forms such as microwaves are invented, cooking methods evolved over thousands of years based on heat generating stoves cannot adapt that fast and will continue to primarily rely on classic stoves with perhaps inventive heat generation techniques!
What will happen to vehicular transport? At the pace we are evolving only battery driven vehicles are going to rule the roads in another twenty years! I cannot imagine where all the electricity for charging the vehicles is going to come from? Pace of nuclear technology evolution is not keeping pace with the potential demand of electricity in another twenty or so years.
hmm.. will this happen or not? Lets see in another twenty years. Hopefully blogger is around for me to check what the heck was I thinking twenty years prior (that is this date)

Hypocrisy to the core.

2010-02-05T11:42:00.003+05:30

Is it even possible for someone to be never a hypocrite? At all, not once in their adult life? I'd like to be and I find many a times when my conscience strong arms my own arm and untwirls my clenched fists to point at myself and tell me that
'You are a bloody hypocrite'.

Take for instance, road rage. I have been driving for about twenty years now and I thought I had matured as a driver and learned to take with equanimity situations where I would otherwise feel terribly wronged by the other driver.
Normally, I find myself even telling my dad to calm down when he would set out with his "rascal" from the safety of the largely soundproof airconditioned car! I would beseech him with a 'Whats the use?" he is not going to change because you yelled at him. Let it be."
Today, much to my shame, I found another driver pointing his finger at me and cursing me for what I strongly believe was his mistake (he tried to pass me on the left and got caught in a tight situation when I had to swerve left to give way to an oncoming vehicle). My valve blew and I was seeing red .
I immediately tried to give him a chase to yell at him and did not get to move more than 100 yards before the traffic stopped me. Suddenly I was enveloped by a whole bunch of people who started screaming at me for driving like a lunatic :( and my mood swung 360 degrees from anger to shame! I apologized instantly and they moved off cursing me :(
I'm still feeling ashamed at my own behavior! Why did I behave the way I did? My reaction was not even commiserate with the incident of the biker yelling at me! At the end only I was left with a bruised pride, broken principle, depression.
I realized that the crowd was just in shouting me down for rash driving. I would have yelled at myself and cursed myself worser had I been in the crowd watching myself drive down the way I did.
Though I never even got to shift beyond the first gear! I merely accelerated loudly to 20kph! venting my flash of anger on the accelerator pedal, its still an act that reeks of hypocrisy!
In a flash, I was brought down to earth and I felt ashamed at myself. I lost a bit of my own self respect.
I realize with humility, I have not still conquered the road rage and I still have some way to go. I accept this judgment and will work on it.

Part 2- Instant Karma!
Hot on the heels of what happened this morning, I proceeded to work with shame and depression attacking me from all sides. As we were trawling in the traffic, I heard a loud bump and realized that someone had rammed into me from behind.
I got off the vehicle and saw that a Santro had bumped into my back. I looked at the driver of the car who was inside and was wearing a bemused look on his face. He opened his vehicle and asked me
"what?"
"You ran into my car"
"Did you reverse?" he asked me
".....what?"

"you would have reversed thats why you bumped into me"
am too stunned to even react! I start laughing

".. how will i reverse when the traffic is moving forward?
" move move.. take your vehicle. you'd have reversed thats why you rammed into me"

"Sir, the least you can do is admit that you ran into me by mistake and say a sorry, instead you are making such wild goose accusations and trying to wiggle out of the situation. Is it fair?"

"....... Ok, sorry,.... "
" thanks.. " and we move on.
He waves sorry again as he passes me now. I'm sure he would have regretted his behaviour and said sorry.
Now that coming from me hot on the heels of lunacy just twenty minutes earlier, surprised me.
Well, I got rammed into the back as sort of instant punishment for my stupidity earlier in the day. That's what I'd say instant karma, delivered!

Action Item: work on the anger further!

Someone Tagged me!

2010-02-04T21:29:00.001+05:30

Lavanya, one tough job you gave me. Phew... here goes

ah.. one more thing. I did not play by the rules . I changed/added questions more than the rules permitted :)

1. What is your current obsession?
Gadgets, Photograhy, reading, music,gaming the degree of obsession keeps changing by the season.

2. What are you wearing today?
As though men have a thousand choices to wear to work - Shirt,Tie,Trousers,Shoes. and everything else under it :P

3. You are on your deathbed and you want to judge your life. How would you.
Have you been a good son, a good husband, a good father, good brother, and an honest human being.

4. What’s the last thing you bought?
ahem.. got excited by a 325 bucks car vacuum cleaner in IndiaVarta.com and brought it. Worked thrice and died. Serves me right!

5. What are you listening to right now?
Dekha ek khwab maine silsile hue - Silsila (in my car right now)

6. What do you think about the person who tagged you?
Tough question. How will I do justice to this question? Lavanya is a very kind person for having tagged my blog. I will need to know her better to be fair to answer this.

7. If you could have a house totally paid for, fully furnished anywhere in the world, where would you like it to be?
India, Kodaikanal

8. What are your must-have pieces for summer?
If this is about dress, then its always Veshti!

9. If you could go anywhere in the world for the next hour, where would you go?
Any river bank where the water is softly gurgling down cobblestones, with me sitting on a big rock with my feet in water with tiny fish nibbling my toes!
Nothing but the sound of gurgling water enveloping you except for the rare sound of a bird calling out its partner surrounded by tall trees with bright sunlight poring through gaps in the ferns making the water sparkle in places, doing nothing but just revelling in the marvellous nature and losing myself!

10. Which language do you want to learn?
Hindi! :( I studied it and yet do not know it much to my shame. a few significant relatives of mine are Maharashtrians and Punjabis (What a desi family eh?)
It would make me get to know them better :)

11. What’s your favourite quote?
Courage in your mind, prayer on your lips, horizon in sight, march ahead, success is yours!

12. Who do you want to meet right now?
I'd like to meet my wife and talk to her! Its been 4 good years since we spent quality time talking (nothing happened, just that we had children since then)

13. What is your favourite colour?
Sky Blue. Always

14. Give us 3 styling tips that work for you.
Style? well, almost mottai thalai summer crop. A kurta pyjama/Sherwani or Formals with Tie!

15. What is your dream job?
A job where I have manager who is also my guru, a team that I can keep happy, look back each year and tell myself that I have accomplished something this year.
I'm in one right now (pst...am a frog in a well)

16. What’s your favorite magazine?
Autocar, Engadget.com, autoblog.net cannot live without these

17. If you had $100 now, what would you spend it on?
A valentine gift for my dear wife.

18. What do you consider a fashion faux pas?
Men wearing bermudas, sitting cross legged.

19. Is exercise a part of your daily routine? If so, what kind of exercise is it?
Jog 2 kms daily

20. What kind of haircut do you prefer?
Summer crop (always)

21. What are you going to do after this?
Go home to my wife and kids!

22. What are your favourite movies?
God father 1,2 LoTr-1,2,3, Green Mile

23. What inspires you?
A good photograph, stirring music, a good story (I guess art inspires me)

24. What do your friends call you most commonly?
cv

25. Would you prefer coffee or tea?
Depends on the time of the day. First thing in the morning its always Coffee! After that only tea!

26. What do you do when you are feeling low or terribly depressed?
Stay quiet.. and either kick my own butt out of it or some one always picks me up :) am lucky ain't i?

27. What makes you go wild?
When someone automatically makes you accountable for the task that you once helped them with! You hate to help again and you hate yourself for thinking like that.

28. Which other blogs do you love visiting?
There is a whole bunch. Check my profile.

29. Favorite Dessert/Sweet?
Ice cream . Period,

30. How many tabs are turned on in ur browser right now?
15 :)

31. Favorite Season?
Dec-Feb in Chennai

32. If I come to your house now, what would u cook for me?
If my dear wife would let me, then I'd cook mm.... some spicy ginger rasam and beans! Sorry Lavanya, I cannot throw up something fancy myself!

33. What is the right way to avoid people who purposefully hurt you?
Ignore them!

34. What are you afraid of the most?
losing my credibility! I like to be fair 100% but am afraid I wont be!

35. When you looked at yourself in the mirror today, what was the first thing you thought?
when will I ever lose that flab?

36. What brings a smile on your face instantly??
My son's toothless grin! My daughter's innocent face when she is asleep (oh she is a terror when she is awake.)

38. What would you do if you were made PM of India for one day?
Introduce eligibility criteria to be a minister. Make sure all ministerial nominations are approved by a panel of the respective Industry's top bureaucrats and experts!
Make it a criminal offence to make statements such as Maharashtra is only for Marathis or Tamil Nadu is only for tamils. Don't even think prez has these powers

39. What is that one thing that keeps you going.
Truthfulness and fear of losing trust placed in me!

40. Whats one thing that you used to love that you left
Hanging out with friends. I got married !

41. What would be your reaction, if you come to know that today is the last day of your life
Panic and fear for my Children's future! A fervent prayer to god to take care of them and give them good education and courage to face life!

42. What are your hobbies?
Photography, cars, gadgets, Reading, music, blogging

43. What do you hate about yourself?
I try to be politically correct most of the times. Wish I could go bindaas, speaking my mind with a care a damn attitude.
Rules for those who are tagged:

Respond and rework – answer these questions on your blog, replace one question that you dislike with a question of your own, and add one more question to the list. Then tag others :)

I tag
http://advaithandyukta.blogspot.com/
http://caramelhill.blogspot.com/
http://www.blogger.com/home
http://my2centstoo.blogspot.com/
http://petalsfromtheheart.blogspot.com/

Will the next Indo Pak war trigger WW 3?

2010-01-27T10:59:00.002+05:30

Recent visit by the US Defense secretary Robert Gates has given some signs that are alarming to say the least.
He has repeatedly stated to the press that 'India cannot be expected to show restraint in face of yet another attack similar to that of 26/11'.
This single statement is actually thought provoking. It could be construed as
i. US agreeing to Indian viewpoint on pressuring Pakistan to act on 26/11 perpetrators and the terrorists on their soil in general.
ii. Or like journalists suggest, is the US pressing Pakistan to act on Af-Pak border using India as a threat?
iii. Or is the US playing it smart and setting up ground for India to attack Pakistan on its behalf?

If the US is losing its hope on Pakistan's ability to reign in the terrorists, why is it going around giving away twelve drones to the PAF?
It is not like the US is having great success in either IRAQ or Afghanistan with the mightiest and technologically the most advanced fighting forces in the world, for it to comment on Pakistan, a third world country that's barely standing on its feet with its own problems.
As for US just using India as a threat to force Pakistan to act, Pakistanis could be temperamental, but they are no fools. Cunning as a fox, they will not hesitate run into China's wide open arms should US play tough. Bad news US. I, personally think that may not work that well.

Even if the Indian policy makers decide to wage a war on Pakistan when god forbid another terrorist strike happens, with US's tacit approval, it would only spell disaster. China will be quick to blame US for encouraging India and start providing arms to Pakistan free. Worse, it might start exerting pressure on eastern borders to distract India. If the NATO countries rally behind India, it won't be long before Iran, North Korea , Venezuela and a few vocally anti american countries to join the fray to support China's hands! What could taste better than the joining the world's emerging super power in challenging the might of the ageing super power? A golden opportunity for forging a super alliance and changing the axis of world powers. A perfect recipe for WW3.

In all of it, the losers are India and Pakistan.

I hate Corporate Rewards

2010-01-20T19:17:00.005+05:30

I hate corporate rewards. Phew! I finally got it off my chest! Its pointless at best. I just do not see the need for an awards ritual where an employee is awarded for 'good performance' and other such half a dozen categories in an organization that is mid sized.
The perceived benefits of rewards are
i. Employee motivation
ii. Recognition

Personally, a reward is the last thing I need to motivate myself. What is needed is faith and belief of the customer and encouragement from your manager and sound support of your team that stands by you every step.
An award is not going to compensate for any of the above.

Recognition
An employee is recognized as a star performer through appraisals that directly result in promotions and other monetary benefits. Nothing is more satisfactory than this. A quiet appraisal of performance with positive inputs to improvement go longer than a piece of plastic or metal donning my shelf. Recognition by senior management is another myth. These rewards ceremonies are conducted each quarter or even each month that its become pointless to reward the same person each time for the best performance. Eventually the system becomes a round robin and everyone knows that this is just a placebo and just don't care anymore.
Senior management recognizing the employee by virtue of having won an award from their own hands is also a bit far fetched. When it comes to business, word of mouth and trust plays a far more significant role than, again, the number of plastics that I have won!

Truly star performers do not seek nor do they benefit from limelight.
EDIT: Pursuant to this post, I received a call from a relative that he won an all India award for excellence in performance and he was one of the three to have won the award! Well, thats awesome! Thats recognition and it gets all the ticks in my above checklist. However, compare this with typical IT projects where each team of 5 or 50 gets to award a person for excellence every quarter or month!! Now the latter is what I hate!

Dream of a teacher!

2010-01-19T13:51:00.003+05:30

Most of my dreams are unrealistic and have illogical stories and concepts in them! Take for instance yesterday. I dreamed of being invited to my high school by none other than my most favourite teacher in my life! Ms.Padmini Iyer!
She taught me Chemistry in my Elevent and Twelfth years! I'm totally awestruck at the mere thought of her and that's how much I love her teaching! So, I was called for by Ms.Padmini Iyer in my dreams and I dropped everything to visit her in school!
So, I venture into my school after what Eighteen Years and find her teaching a bunch of kids something. She sees me come in and immediately throws a question at me
"How do you prepare HCl" I'm taken aback. I realize that she is asking me about Hydrochloric acid and am thinking 'nobody prepares HCl. One just buys it from a drug store" . But obviously that cannot be the right answer and am instantly that I do not know the answer and I stutter!
Just then as though luck would have it an office attender appears and tell her that the Princi wants to see her and off she goes!
I heave a sigh of relief and turn around. The whole class is staring at me and all eyes seem to say "So, you do not know how to prepare HCl" . I try smiling away and I realize I start sweating. All my happiness and elation of meeting my favourite teacher remains but I shudder to fail her command!
My heart starts to beat faster and I wake up suddenly and the dream comes to an end. I have some water and go off to bed again! Now, what do I read from it? Why her and why all of a sudden?
Should I meet her? Is it like puranic times when gods appear in dreams and tell them things? Well she is god for me! No one else has stirred so much passion in learning than she has in me.

Oh my god! I lost my gmail password!

2010-01-14T07:49:00.002+05:30

I had a few hair raising moments when It appeared that I had lost my gmail password. I panicked because it refused to log me in how much ever times i tried! For some reason it kept asking me to fill in the captcha and the password!
I was terrified to think that my password has been compromised! I had only one email account and thats pretty much is my registered email for most of my critical internet systems. I shudder to think of being locked out of my gmail account!
It has enough emails in it that someone could have me all figured out and wipe my existence from the net altogether! All sorts of such crazy thoughts were creeping me out!
Finally I realized after five minutes that gmail never said that my password was wrong! It just kept prompting me to enter the captcha! I realized this and then it was straight to my inbox!
Phew! What a scary thought! I realized today that I must get myself a secondary account! Perhaps make my wife's main email account my secondary account!

Instant Karma

2010-01-05T15:25:00.004+05:30

There are times when I believe that gods have done an exemplary job creating this universe full of wonderful things that are overwhelmingly beautiful! and then there are many times, I think god got it completely screwed up when he failed to introduce 'Instant karma' along with the other laws of nature.
When we read about gross atrocities being committed by individuals, governments and dictators against innocent, my blood boils. Why does not god strike the perpetrators down with a bolt from the sky?
Alright, at least make them fall into a pit and bury themselves alive!
Time and again we watch in stupefied silence as pedophiles and mass murderers go about their crimes with gay abandon for years and years undetected until when someone uncovers them.
Why cannot these guys find their crime hitting them right back? One does not expect miracles, it can be a natural phenomenon. You commit a murder and walk out only to be hit by a bus and drop dead! Ta da, that's a natural way of bumping off a murderer!
The bus driver is not to be mistaken here. Let the law enforcement agencies spend their energies in ensuring that the bus driver did not commit any crime. Ironically, law enforcement agencies then would not have any murder to solve! For world will be on 'Autopunish' mode! They just have to log the facts and close the case!
Thievery shall be 'auto-punished' with temporary amnesia or even better, they trip, fall and break their leg on their getaway!
Law enforcement can be restricted to traffic policing , crowd control and other regulatory jobs! God can perhaps leave alone civil cases to humans? Its up to you god to decide! Like suing your neighbor because their dog pooped on your un-mowed lawn!
Imagine the amount of money the world will be saved! All those high security prisons that can be converted to schools!
Viva Instant Karma!
God, pls consider this as a change request if you have not earmarked this for your next edition of the world! Pls try to do better than a new sticker job.

Will History repeat itself?

2009-12-29T19:19:00.003+05:30

It was year 1952 when one gentlemen and an eccentric Gandhian by name Potti Sriramulu started a fast unto death whipping up mass frenzy towards a demand for a separate 'Andhra' . Madras Presidency and the Central government procrastinated way too long and finally the whole issue erupted into a mass movement. Chaos and bedlam ensued. Still the centre paid no heed to the protesters. Finally, it directly affected the election results and Congress lost considerable ground in the general elections .
Now the Congress took notice and by the time Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru decided to act on the problem, Potti Sriramulu was dead and the region was in the grips of violence.
After Andhra Pradesh was created, the other regions soon followed suite demanding their own states carved on the basis of linguistic organizations.
The flood gates had been opened and Pandit had no choice but to initiate a committee to analyze these demands resulting in reorganization of regions and redrawing of Indian map as we now know it.
fifty years on, Andhra Pradesh is now witnessing a similar demand now based on no logic other than economics that is at best a theory! We are once again witnessing the central government ignoring the issue and muddling up decisions. Once again politicians are whipping up mass frenzy costing the exchequer and private establishments crores of rupees.
Where will this lead to? Even if the centre finally gives into the demand and creates a Telengana and the 'Rest of AP' as two states, it would set a precedent for other such demands. The politicans with no issue to cook up are only waiting in the wings for an excuse such as this.
After all what better way to win an election than by whipping up mass movements for a 'cause'.

A marriage proposal

2009-12-24T15:37:00.003+05:30

This landed in my mailbox last night
" Sir, this is with reference to your advertisement in ... I'm seeking an alliance to my daughter. Sm.t... I have attached a photography of my daughter and her bio data along with the horoscope. Kindly check if you find the horoscopes matching and if we can proceed further.
Signed.
xxxxx"
Attachments: Pic of a young lady and other documents!
Initially, I was taken aback and verified the email addresses. Obviously they had gotten the mail id wrong! Soon, I was laughing at the context of someone trying to match 'me' with their daughter.
Soon, I realized the enormity of this mistake and its consequences if it were to land with some mischief monger. They would have access to the complete bio data of a young woman !
Imagine the kind of harassment one could be subjected to.

The more I thought of it, it dawned on me that it is a kind of mistakes most Indian fathers of earlier generation are very likely to commit. They are not internet savvy, at least a vast majority Indian fathers today's adult children are not!

I shudder to think the kind of risks they are taking on the internet without realizing the consequences of such errors!
On the other hand, the era of internet has made this marriage making process too disconnected. I have seen many of my associates do their own match making by creating accounts in the name of their parents!
Gullible fathers of daughters who seem to forever get into a mindset where they would do anything and even bend backwards to 'service' the prospective grooms, sending full details of their daughters with photographs and salary details without first ensuring whether the party they are addressing are genuine!
In an age even personal information is wealth, there are professionals who harvest personal details for money, I shiver at the thought of my personal detail being gleefully harvested by a fat and bald man with a stubble and a torn banian!
I can only think, 'God! protect the good souls'

Apathy towards human life

2009-12-22T12:28:00.003+05:30

Is it a problem of plenty? I really do not know, but, that's the only answer am able to come up with regarding the Indian government's attitude towards public safety!

Just this morning, I saw a news item that wrung my heart in despair. A grand father died of massive heart attack on hearing that his grandson had fallen into an open man hole! The child is yet to be spotted in the drain even after twenty four hours! It will be a miracle if the child is still alive! God willing he will be!

What a needless loss of life! An average Indian immediately will pounce with a thousand questions.

Why should there be an open man hole in the first place?

Why did the corporation leave it open?

Why did the public (not including the questioner) not inform the corporation?

Why did the child's parents let the child play 'near' the manhole?

and so on and so forth.

None of the questions matter, a life has been lost and another one is hanging in balance of hope and faith!

It has become a general Indian attitude at all levels to think that a problem is never our problem unless it directly affects us!

I'm sure the average citizen would have seen the manhole open and probably it was open for even days on end. "Corporation would close it!" we would have told ourselves! or we would have even ranted it out at corrupt and inefficient corporation officials for their sloppy attitude towards work!

But its rare when an average citizen endeavors to close the manhole! Yuck! who would touch it! Even the supreme court has declared that human beings cannot be used to get into man holes! we would say pulling a ruling out of context to our defence.

The moment we are affected, the government is to blame!

Even enterprising individuals are cut down by the average Indian! The other day a truck was parked in the main road obstructing the view of the main road in such a way that the smaller street joining the main road would not have a clear view of the on coming traffic before it joined the main road. When I walked by and told the truck driver to move his truck he says

"How does it affect you? move on.. "!

When I was riding a bus one day, a pick pocket was picking the pocket of a foreigner who was on the same bus and I happened to see it. I tried warning the foreigner to move away , which he did. But the pick pocket showed a big knife and threatened to attack me should I raise alarm and I did not and he got away!

Women are being socially abused, molested in public transport and other such places and yet we do not have an uprising amongst women that says 'enough is enough'! They put up a stoic silence and delegate the problem to be foreign to their nuclear world until the day dawns when their own wards face a similar problem!

Even at work, when a worker sees a problem in the system, he does not act on it. When a water pipe is leaking in the faucet, it is the plumbers problem, its not my job to close the water supply to the faucet and inform the administration, let some one else do it.

There is a section of society that is constantly drawing attention to such problems who are being given a deaf year on most accounts. Let us take the simple case of making our country disabled friendly.

Very few places in the public infrastructure are disabled and elderly friendly! The central government has taken note of this and has slowly started incorporating this at basic level in their establishments. For instance the entrance to the chennai railway station has a ramp for wheel chair access or for the elderly to use! But beyond this, the trains and platforms themselves are not all that accessible for disabled!

If the government is taking small steps, the private establishments are nowhere in this. In a country that's bustling with development and a booming economy, hardly any private establishment today takes effort to make their place disabled friendly. Even the larger amongst these such as big malls or multiplexes have taken little effort to make their services disabled friendly. We can perhaps count with one hand such facilities in this part of the country!

There are many such places in Indian society that we seem to have this proverbial 'chalta hai' attitude or 'care a damn what happens to others' attitude that must change!

It is when this attitude of the public changes , it is when we look upon social problems as our own problems will this country improve.

Mahatma Gandhi said that "Be the change you wish to see in others.". I'm going to try sincerely. You should too!

A Gratifying experience

2009-12-21T15:19:00.003+05:30

Shopping for books are not usually a gratifying experience unless you walk in without knowing what to buy and end up buying a treasure trove.

Mine was slightly different. I wanted to buy Srimad Bhagavatam by Kamala Subramaniam and found out that a copy was available in Pushtak Bharati (Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Chennai) at Mylapore.

I rang up the book store and a gentleman answered the call. He was courteous and said that a copy was indeed available. My lazy self was wishing for a way to get a copy without having to go to the store (I work about say 2kms from the store) and asked him if the only way to get a copy was to visit the store.

To this he answered back saying that he can courier it or he could even have it dropped off. He then proceeded to ask me where I live to assess which option would suit me. I replied and he said he would personally drop it off on the way home.

The unassuming way he put this across some how made me feel ashamed of myself. I could make out from his language and voice that he was an elderly gentleman and here he was offering to come to my residence that in all probability is not exactly on his way and yet here he was offering to do a task I was too lazy to do myself.

I was so ashamed of myself and I told him not to bother himself to that extent and I would visit him.

I was in his store the twentieth minute! (so much for my laziness!) and I found him to be a very soft spoken and smiling gent who heartily congratulated me on my choice of book and said it was perhaps the best condensed book of the huge epic!

He then very courteously introduced himself as V.V.S.Manian and he told us that he and his wife ran the shop purely out for the pleasure it gives them to be among books!

The lady, a typical tam -brahm lady was the authority who was helping us with the books with her insight. She asked of us the reader's age and appropriately selected different copies of the epics that would suit them and even in different languages.

While she was helping out my friend find his books, I was browsing casually and chanced across this wonderful manuscript that read roughly 'All the four Vedas and the Upanishads" in tamil. It spoke in simple Tamil the meanings of various mantras that are a part of a Brahm's life. I found it very attractive and approached the lady to check whether the book would suit half baked Brahm's like me.

She heartily recommended the book and was happy that we were even endeavoring to read such books.

Then I told Mr.Manian that it was his offer on the phone to bring the book over prompted me to kick myself out my seat and come over to the store. I told him that I was glad I came over and learnt about the treasure trove he had.

He then told us that he has many customers who are aged and do not have the resources to come down to their shops and they usually courier it at no extra cost or they deliver it themselves in person if the location is en route. What is another 10 minutes of commute time if it brings pleasure to a customer Mr.Manian said.

I was moved by their warmth and genuineness.At the end of the trip, It was gratifying to have met two humble and genuine human beings.May their breed grow.

Are these guys brave or are they...?

2009-12-18T13:26:00.000+05:30

There is a bunch of folks who believe that medication of any sort is an abuse of nature's purity that is human body.

Here is a mild example. A guy I know has the flu.. no not the swine one, the common variety, yes, the common /mild flu or whatever one calls it.

He had been suffering and coughing like a dying man for the last several months. One day I took pity on him and asked why his medications are not working. To this he responds with this proud look on his face as though he had just climbed Mt.Everest without even as much a rope in his hands..

"I don't take medications.."

I don't know If he expected me to look at him in awe, but my reaction was

"wonderful.. folks, lets give this guy an award for not taking medications.. " I was furious

Not only was this guy torturing himself, well am not furious about that, but I was furious because he had been coughing his life out in office spitting out god knows what germs into the air for months putting everyone around at risk.

Well, you might ask, what big of a risk, flu is.

But, my question is, however mild an infection or disease might be, why risk someone with it? Why?

Call for capital punishment in retrospect

2009-12-17T15:52:00.000+05:30

I was aghast when I read this news item this morning in the local newspapers. It spoke about a case for euthanasia being filed before the Supreme court of India.
The court has since then admitted the plea.
Here are a few highlights of the article.
i. Shanbaug was a nurse before she was attacked by a hospital sweeper who then tried to strangle her to death
ii. Permanent injuries to her nervous system has left her vegetative since then. This happened in 1973!
iii. It has been thirty six years since she lived by herself and has always been on life support and been force fed
iv. Her bones are brittle, her teeth have decayed and she is living a sub human life!
v. Her parents are dead and none of her siblings care to visit her any more.
vi. The most shocking thing is that the rapist sweeper served a sentence of Seven Pithy years for rape, attempted murder and robbery all combined.

I was enraged to read that the rapist got off so easily. How can this be, especially considering the consequences of his act. Did it not then matter to the courts of law that the victim was in a permanent vegetative state?

I'm still seething and am unable to coherently communicate my spite for this character. May he rot in hell!
But I say lets track him down and hang him. Why is he still alive?

South Indians and Dressing

2009-12-11T15:58:00.000+05:30

I'm a South Indian and am not exactly proud of my dressing sense along with that of most of my fellow South Indians, men and women alike.

Dressing sense is a very subjective topic and most of what I say here can be countered on the grounds that fashion is not formulaic and need not be bound to convention and rules.Nevertheless, I have observed quite a few quirks in our dressing patterns.

I have noticed that our forefathers have devoted utmost care to their dressing and have always appeared with picture perfect dresses and postures in those old jaded black and white pictures. Unfortunately, our generation seems to be confused by their habitual affinity to traditional wear and new found attraction in western wear.

Here I list a few things I have found to be queer in our dressing senses.

- Men wearing trunks and seated cross legged on a high platform takes the cake.

- Men wearing coolers inside a building

- Men sneakers with western formal attire

- Men wearing sandals with formal attire

- Men wearing sneakers with ethnic attire!

- Men wearing tie with checked shirts

- Women wearing western clothes with traditional indian Gold Jewellery !

- Women wearing western clothes and a Bindi (This is subjective..)

- Women wearing western clothes and a flower donning their tresses

- Women wearing high heels and a saree with the high heels showing !!

- Women wearing platform flats with a saree!!!

- Women wearing a Salwar-kurta on top of a denim trousers!

I'm not a fashion judge nor an expert on the subject. These are purely things I have observed and found to be distasteful to my senses and not everyone may agree and this is not meant to offend anyone, so please do excuse if you find anything offensive.

India needs a credible referendum platform

2009-12-09T18:46:00.001+05:30

The MPs in Hyderabad are now clamoring to get Hyderabad to be granted a Union Territory status in the Indian Union. They are gathering political votes to push this idea through urging the central government to accede to the wishes of the people.

This is where it gets sticky. Wishes of the people? how do they make that one up? Did they go to all parts of Hyderabad and ask every one of its citizens if thats what they want?

Obviously not, politicians being politicians are pushing their personal agenda in the name of people's wishes.

If the government wishes to truly take key decisions based on the wishes of Indians, we need to seriously consider building a reusable and foolproof referendum platform that helps governments to quickly gather public opinion on all matters of the state.

Now, having said that, I must admit that building a referendum platform in a mostly illiterate country like India is nothing short of impossible, fraught with challenges on making it fool proof and accessible to all citizenry of this vast country and most importantly to make it cheap!

I have come to believe that the best way this can be implemented with least margin of error is by taking a combination of votes from the general population and the political bosses of this country.

For instance

lets simply consider the people of India and the bosses to be a part of any decision making board that is seeking the referendum with a 49:51 split with government being the 51% stakeholder.

75% vote is required to pass a judgement failing which the government pushes for prime minister's veto card.

How will the people of India vote? Send an SMS to 8989 + password + with a YES or NO!

or something like that. I know this is not the best or fool proof way of executing things. But this should work. We can ensure that all voters register first by providing their IDs such as Passport Number or PAN number or EPF number or other such numbers and a telephone.

This will ensure we can tie-in the telephone number with the voter and provide the citizen with a password.

The central db will register PAN#+Tel#+IMEI# as the unique citizen referendum account. This will even allow same cell phone to be used for multiple individuals should the cell phone be shared.

This is not only cheap, but can reach even the remotest of villages since cell phones have become the most pervasive of technologies since sliced bread!

This system is not without its flaws, it can be secured with little effort by the telecom companies but will provide and stringent measures would have to be taken to prevent any SMS frauds and other such activities by fraudsters.

But, imagine the power that will be bestowed with the citizens of this country should we build such a platform!

The whole nation would become truly self governed! and Bharathi's dream would have been fulfilled

"Ellorum innaattu mannar..." everyone is king in this holy land!

Interpreter of Maladies

2009-12-07T16:02:00.000+05:30

Is a novel by a Pulitzer winner author of Indian origin by name Jhumpa Lahiri, did i get that spelling right?.. hope so.
I have been wanting to read her book for quite some years and managed to do so over the weekend and I must say I'm impressed.
Hers is unlike any of the other books I have read for they are nine short stories with not much of a story in them and yet I like them.
There are nine stories that place its protagonists either in India or in Boston, US. The stories are about people, their characters their pains and pleasures, their mould, their outlook, their deepest desires, their flawed outlook and their rather delicate and intricate relations with one other .

The characters are very realistic and layered with such unique features you almost tend to believe that they are real life persons living their life quietly someplace. So much so that you start believing that this book is just a compilation of lifted portions from real life diaries of many individuals.

The book swings from moody, dark and up lifting lives of different characters. Each reader has their favourite and mine are the last two stories. The one of Bibi Haldar and the one of the third continent.
I will not delve into the plots or the lack of it, but suffice it to say that dexterity with which Jhumpa spins her layers around the characters gives them life in manner I have never seen before. You must be Indian and should have a little bit of been away experience to appreciate her work of art. Yes this is a work of art that needs to appreciated and not a cup of ice cream that can be enjoyed with gay abandon. It requires careful look and study to appreciate the texture of this book.
While I love this book, I cannot read such moody books all the time. Its good to sanitize one's self with such lovely prose every now and then.

Plight of women

2009-12-05T00:11:00.000+05:30

I came across a wonderful blog written by a lady that goes by the name heartcrossings highlighting the plight of women in India. Mind you this is not about domestic abuse . This is about social abuse women endure in this part of the world.

Needless to say there were loud voices of men who said many things and soon it became an all out debate which am sure is not going anywhere.

However, that set me thinking. It is a known fact that women in India are being abused in public transport system and are being ogled at by countless men of all ages in all places outside their home, inappropriate comments and untoward moves by men in power on subordinates and the list goes on and on.

My solitary question is , why do women have to put up with this systemic abuse quietly?

I'm sure there will be a dozen ladies who would jump at me and scream what would you know, you are a man.

Yes, I agree i cannot possibly even imagine to the smallest levels the kind of mental agony a woman goes through when she is physically or even verbally molested.

What I cannot understand and what am sure ladies will give a thousand reasons for is that why must ladies put up with this.

Why cannot they fight back and slap the guy who abuses them? Why must women be cowed down?

Without sounding overtly dramatic, I wonder, if there was to be a quiet forum of ladies who form an online portal that recruits women who formulate a guideline on how different forms of abuse can be effectively responded to in such a systemic manner.

For instance take a picture of the abuser and distribute it in the local circles so that people know when they see one. Just the picture with something like the skull mark so people know this guy is an el-cheapo?

too childish? But what is the way this scourge can be rooted out from this country?

The interpreter of maladies

2009-12-03T15:40:00.000+05:30

I recently brought this book by Jhumpa Lahiri, misses and father in law called it first and took the first reading opportunities. They were quite turned off by the book. The book is meandering about with no plot they said.
I started reading it yesterday night and I have just finished the first story. I must say that the narrative is intriguing.
The first story had no plot, no beginning, no ending. Its just a glimpse at the life of a couple at one of the difficult junctures of their life and how each reacts to it.
Jhumpa seems to relish detailing human emotions. You can almost feel the script playing out in front of you, characters coming alive and enacting the scenes in front of you. Thats what makes a successful book doesn't it?
The book is a piece of art, it has to be appreciated for its beauty. Its not an ice cream treat that tastes the way you expect it to.

Two states - the story of my marriage

2009-12-01T10:20:00.001+05:30

Chetan Bhagat's new book is a hoot to read. Story-wise its a plot thats been done to death everywhere from movies to serials since the days of DDLJ. Guy falls in love with a girl, parents don't agree, children ensure they win over the parents and finally all ends well.

However, what makes the book an interesting read are the characters, the classic conservative Tamil Brahmin family with its flaws to the core and the stereotyped boisterous Punjabi family and their beliefs make up all the fun in the book.

'... on the wall was a picture of her family... .they were all standing so stiff and sober that one could almost hear the national anthem playing in the background..' chetan writes.

Chetan's natural wit and humour more than makes for a lackluster storyline invariably evoking quite a few laughs along the way.

Its a pure masala and don't expect a literary genius from Chetan. However Chetan has kept the script tight and ensured that its fun as long as it lasts.

Chetan's leading ladies are always liberal thinking even if the plot were to place the characters in the remotest village of India. Even the characterization is all too predictable for he has repeated this in all his books and should look to vary his leading ladies a bit.

Being a masala writer, one cannot fault him for his tendency to throw logic to the winds and inserting cinematic miralces in his books!

Otherwise this book is a good change for readers and 95 bucks a copy makes it one of the cheapest on the book shelf. It is even cheaper than some monthly magazines!

Go and get your copy

Courtesy begets strange looks

2009-11-27T20:21:00.000+05:30

I have started to believe that my country, the one I love with all my heart is strange in some ways.

I'm referring to the concept of courtesy. To be honest, I must admit that I was not used to being courteous during my childhood days.

Courtesy was limited to the mandatory wishes of Good morning/afternoon at school and a Thank you sometimes when a relative chose to buy you a gift.

It was a cultural shock for me first when I moved to college. I studied in a college right in the middle of Tamil Nadu in a lush green city called Thanjavur (Tanjore). People there were extremely courteous and I'm referring to fellow students and hostel mates hailing from rural areas or other places that were not Madras (the capital city where I hail from)

Everyone addressed each other with the respect they accorded an elder. I was first taken aback at this rather undue respect I was getting from friends and alike.

The practice I thought would change over the years once we got to know each other better. Boy, I was wrong. Their language stayed the same right through.

I was initially ashamed at myself for being such an uncouth and for using a friendly language (with da's and other innuendos) while I was being some strange respect.

Soon, I picked up the 'skill' and started speaking in the same tongue as the other. Now, speaking of tongues, each district in Tamil Nadu has its own dialect of Tamil and each one spoke with a characteristic vernacular accent. Soon enough, I was using the same vernacular by closely watching them.

Fast forward 2001 and I returned from my stint abroad slogging for an NRI. Back home , all smiles that I don't have to go to a foreign land again, made the first mistake .

I said 'Thank you' to the customs officer who cleared my passport and 'officially' let me into the country.

He stared back and said with his eyes 'Move on'..

The hanger in my mouth (of course the silly smile) vanished in a sec and I was glum.. 'Did I say anything wrong.. ?" i asked myself.

I moved on thinking to myself and shrugged it off when I could not find a sane reason.

This trend continued.. I was driving to work and stopped at an intersection and waved the other car to go. I did this with a smile.

Here is what happened. The other car passes slowly with the driver giving an intent look at me and he stops the car sticks his head out of the window and stares at me with a nasty look on his face..

Him: 'Enna...'.. (What?)

Me: Onnum illaye... (Nothing ).. smiling

Him: Pinna .. ennathukku kaya kaya aatina?(Then why did you shake your hands)

Me: Illa neenga ponga .. piragu naan poren'u sonnen (I just said you go first and I will follow you)

Him: Aan... enakku poikka theriyumm..nee onniyum sollitharavenaa... puriyudha... oyinga poi seru.. summa.. .. kaalila torture pannitu.. (you dont have to teach me how to go.. I will find my way.. understand?.. torturing me in the morning)..

Me: Stunned into silence

Fast Forward 2009: The door bell rang and a stranger stood opposite me.

Him: Edhir flat watchman sir naanu (I'm the watchman from opposite flat)

Me: seri.... (Ok.. )

Him: Sir'dhaan seceratary'a (Are you the secretary?)

Me: aama (yes)

Him: Unga flat'la car parking free'a irukku illa.. adhula enga flat vandi vittukalaama (You have unused car parking slots in your building. Can we rent it)

Me: Illaenga.. enga association'la adhukku anumadhi kedayaadhu.. mannikanum.. ennaala thanippata muraila endha maatru mudivum solla mudiyaadhu.. mannikanum (Our association does not allow for outside vehicles to be parked in our premises. Please accept my apology for not being able to help you. I do not have any special authority to overrule residents wishes even I'm the secretary. Please accept my apologies)

Him: Saar.. enna solreenga neenga periya vaarthayellam. (Why are you speaking big words.. apologies and all)

Me: .... (...)

Him: Seri sar naan varen (Ok sir, I will leave now)

Me :Ok

Whats with courtesy in this country? are not watchmen, electrician eligible for respect? What's wrong if a watchman or an electrician or a plumber is accorded a respect due for say, a neighbour? Why do we have such a graded system of respect.

We have one level for neighbours, another for watchmen and drivers. yet another for our children's school principal. yet another special one for according one who is about to take a decision on subject of our interest. such as the driving inspector before the driving test. The college principal when asking for a seat, the bank manager before a loan.

While I wrote of the unexpected reactions from people for courtesy they did not expect, I did not write about those that people expect, like in the situations I have explained above. They would be rather unsavory and i chose to leave them out. You can imagine what it would have been.

I dream of a day not too distant in future when every Indian accords the basic courtesy and respect to others irrespective of the nature of the work they do or the region of the country they belong to or the position they hold in an organization or their current disposition to our cause.

The truth in advertisements

2009-11-17T10:39:00.000+05:30

I wonder why consumers dont believe the only advertisements that speak the truth!
Yeah, am talking about the tobacco advertisements. They shout that you will die if you use their products.
But consumers seem to think... 'Uh huh... good one.. give me a six pack of those..'

Finally, after twenty years of abuse, when you end up sitting opposite a glum doc who is shaking his head with your medical examination report in his hand and hear
' you have a malignant tumour in the lower lungs that has reached its secondary stage.. "

you go.. "yeah.... right.. " with big doses of nods.. with an equally intense look.. and follow up with..
" whats that..?"....
Doc looks up with a look that mixes "oh dear" and .. "Oh you are stupid.." and says .. " you are going to die!!!"
"But, am only 45 doc.. "
"yeah., you are too young to die, but you've contracted cancer in the lungs and its too late for a cure.."
That's when it dawns on you .. the advertisements indeed spake the truth! If you think that they have been humbled by the moment of truth! Oh boy! you are wrong!

Sue the tobacco companies!! For they deliberately made me ignore those warnings with enticing advertisement themes that somehow made them to those big bold fonts and the sign of skull on the pack! ha ha ha.. going to get rich.. payback time folks!!!! I'm going to get back all the money i paid for those six packs!!! ha ha ha... .

Soon in the death bed, surrounded by sons and daughters who have caught on the habit as well and have just stepped back from their tenth puff for the day, and who are equally deaf and blind to the consequences of the vice as you were, whom you cannot reprimand for you were a slave of the same vice, you realize that you have not only killed yourself, you have also deliberately endangered your children who are also on the same road to death by their own hands, you realize the gravity of the situation. That one day when you were sixteen and had gone out with the boys who were trying out a new fad.. Why not? Let me give it a puff.. i don't want to sound uncool by not joining the gang.. that one moment in lapse of judgment... Wish life had an undo button!

The enigma called Indira

2009-11-12T11:04:00.001+05:30

I was all of 9 years old when the then prime minister of India was gunned down by her own body guards! I still remember a deep sense of sympathy i felt for the first time towards a third person's family. I stayed glued to the television watching her entire funeral procession and the sober faces of the family members.
As I grew up , I have learned a little bit more than I knew at that age. All of them hear say and read from magazines, I must admit. It appears to me that she is an enigma of a woman.
Bold, daring and courageous to some, ruthless , conniving and autocratic to others. The bias has always been extreme.
Recently we observed her 25th death anniversary with a mark of reverence and media going on a full blitz to sing her laurels.
I happened to chance across a local congress veteran's( Mr.Peter Alphonse ) interview to the state run channel. He gave some very insightful answers to Indira's life that we would have never otherwise understood. I have tried to reproduce here what I have gathered from the interviews.
-The humility of Indira Gandhi
The local congress had a new chief who had been vested with the responsibility of preparing for the election campaign launch in the south in a village near Tirunelveli. He had ensured that the stage was set and all the arrangements were made for her security and the electronics were working and the press duly in attendance.
Mrs.Gandhi arrived with her entourage by road from Madurai and took the stage. As soon as she sat down, she gestured to the local congress leader and said,
"Mr.Peter, Can I have a cup of Coffee Please"
Peter was aghast! he had thought of everything for the meeting, but the refreshments for the guest. To his dismay he realized that he had nowhere to go and get a cuppa for the whole village had shut down its business to see Mrs.Gandhi.
He then saw a cycle born vendor who was selling tea and coffee to the crowd seated below. He runs to the vendor and manages to get a cuppa in a soiled glass. He was terrified to think that he was going to give the dirty cup to the great leader.
He goes and gives this to Mrs.Gandhi who looks at the cup and then at Mr.Peter and with a smile she says, "Thank you Mr.Peter" and just quietly sips it.
He was humbled to think that not even a murmur or a sigh had escaped her mouth! To think that small town leaders fuss and throw a ruckus at even the hint of anything less than the grandest, he admired that he had such a humble leader! She had in turn won over the life time membership of a local leader.
He is no more the local congress leader, but to this day, he remains a staunch Congress worker working at the grass roots level.
-Operation Blue star.
This one operation proved to be her nemesis. In the earlier days after the military marched into the most revered Sikh complex and carried out a flush operation to evict the terrorists who had made the temple their bastion, she received a note from her security advisor that said.
"Madam, in the recent review of your security arrangements we have noted that most of your personal body guards are from the Sikh community. 'm afraid that there is an element of higher risk due to this fact given the current public resentment against operation Blue Star. We request your approval to a change of your body guards....." it said.

Mrs.Gandhi wrote in the note
"..thank you for your note. I have taken an oath to be up-hold the secular thread of this great nation and I choose to live as an example. I have the utmost trust in my personal guards and I have no desire for them to be replaced. Doing so will be the worst act of disrespect to the Sikh community..."
Her trust proved to be in vain, however, her principles were something to behold in the highest honor.

-Where did she get her grit
Indira Gandhi was born into a family of freedom fighters. Her father, mother, grandfather and grandmother were all leaders of the great Gandhian movement for freedom and as a consequence spent several years in prison.
Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru through the nine years he spent in prison, wrote her letters to ensure that she did not miss her father. The letters are now available as a book as 'Brief glimpses of world history'
Indira Gandhi grew up with none of her parents by her side and managed her own affairs and attained tremendous levels of political shrewdness even at a young age. She grew up watching and learning from her fathers decisions and mistakes on the world stage and strengthened her understanding of world politics much before she held any post of authority.
China's betrayal only furthered her steeliness and resolve to be an iron woman of India. This reflected on her strategic thinking and can be seen in her moves to free Bangladesh which today is a peaceful nation.
One would shudder to imagine the scenario had it still been a part of Pakistan and suffered the same evils of what Pakistan today is undergoing. Her far sightedness has today saved us of at least the east of India being relatively terrorist free.

-The era of nationalization
1969 was a year that marked nationalization of banks. Many a financial expert verbally crucified Mrs.Gandhi citing collapse of public confidence in banking infrastructure followed up with predictions of mass economic collapse.
Today, nationalized banks are the financial arteries and capillaries of this nation. Even small villages have access to a nationalized bank thereby allowing for small savings sector to hugely benefit from the services of the country's financial infrastructure. In addition to this, nationalized banks have also proved to be a powerful instrument in government machinery when it comes to doling out monetary relief, stimulus packages and other such government mooted aid measures to the poor and downtrodden. Today, these very banks help the city bound sons and daughters send money to their parents and relatives is the nook and corner of the country through simple network transfers.
One cannot refute the far reaching connotations Indira Gandhi's action in 1969.

-The family's that gave it all to the nation
Jawaharlal Nehru was in Prison when Rajiv Gandhi was born to Indira. He longed to see his grandson. He wrote to Indira that
" I would love to have a look at my grandson soon. I would be taken to court for renewing my remand to prison tonight. On the way back, the van will stop for a moment before the gates of the prison for the doors to open. You bring Rajiv to the gates and stand next to the lamp by the doors of the prison. I will try and catch a glimpse before the van rolls into the gates."

True to what he said Indira was there by the road lamp by the prison gates waiting for him to return. Night weather in Delhi at that time was cold and foggy. In a turn of events, Nehru was not brought back to the prison until early next morning. However, when Nehru arrived at 4am that morning, he checked to see if his daughter was still around with the infant. To his surprise there she was under the lamp shade as he had instructed with just a shawl to protect the infant from the biting cold of the morning. She uncovers the baby and in an instant the van is gone.
Nehru later writes to Indira saying .. "I could not catch much as a glance at the baby, the mist played truant. However, I could make out that he has inherited our pinkish skin tone and the nose..."
If we stop for a moment and think that they gave even the simplest of pleasures of life that we enjoy so much today, and all of that they gave up for the cause of the nation. We must be thankful today that we are able to enjoy the pleasures of our normal lives thanks to the sacrifices made by our leaders.

In an age when misdeeds get more publicity thanks to selfish politiciking, I wrote this piece share what I heard so that we also revitalize our beliefs in our great leaders by learning the good things they have done, but also to remind myself that I'm truly blessed to have live in the land of mahatmas.

Nature works its magic

2009-11-02T15:10:00.000+05:30

I Love going on nature tours. But, its been four years since I ventured out for a nature trip. Two children and and all consuming project work being the reasons.
Tall trees blocking the sunlight with the smell of raw earth emanating from the ground that is slightly wet from the previous evening's drizzle. The random smell of the berries and thorn bushes that mingle with the breeze, the forlorn call of the mynah calling out its partner piercing the silence. The ominous looking hornet nests threatening to sting you should you get anywhere near them, the suddenness in the change of terrain from soft soil layered with decomposed leaves to rocky terrain with sudden drops , the exotic plants and vines that creep out of nowhere and climb up all the way to the sky forming wonderful loops that serve as an impromptu swing for the kids, the large leaves of some exotic plants that appear as though they were time transported from the Jurassic age, the sudden streams that emerge from nowhere and make their own path as though saying, we are visiting, just like you, the freshness of the unpolluted water that tempts you to take a sip, large mushrooms that look like the wonderland Lewis carrol spoke about was indeed here!
The freshness of the atmosphere that simply swamps your senses, unclutters your mind, wipes away your worries and puts an automatic smile on your face without you even realizing, recharging your brain cells with new energy and invigorating your body with confidence and belief that the beauty of this world is much bigger than the pettiness of the problems life throws at us.

Farmville, is a small game in facebook that allows players to do some simple farming such as planting seeds and watch them bloom into a full grown plant and reap it. It also allows you to design your farm layout with farmhouse, scarecrow, barns with cows and pigs! Watching a variety of fuits and vegetables grow from a seed to a beautiful plant gives a sense of micro elation.

Its a small compensation for the drudgery of city life, but its a tonic nevertheless and I have only facebook to thank for it.

All things plastic

2009-10-29T11:43:00.000+05:30

Its interesting to note that we Indians have an OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder) when it comes to using plastic in our lives.
We simply cannot live without it. There are many instances where it is indispensable and we have to thank plastics for that.
It is however very interesting to observe how we have extended the use of plastic in our lives.

Often we see cars being driven about, new cars especially, that still have their car seats wrapped in plastic covers they came with! I have a good friend whose car seats are still wrapped in the precious polymer even after a year of road usage!

A relative still has their sofa cushions wrapped in plastic! lest they become dirty!It actually does not seem to matter if the seats are uncomfortable to sit on! they should not become dirty!

Mobile phones are used without peeling off the sticky plastic it came with for protecting the screen! its alright if NOKIA is written boldly on it obstructing the screen view. I'm happy as long as it protects the screen from scratches! It is another matter that the keypads are already dirty from coming into contact with the my oily hands. The screen is still pristine you see!

My computer keyboard is wrapped in plastic and so is the desktop and my monitor! My shelves are lined with plastic sheets cut from food world covers and unused garbage bags!

My milkman likes to use plastic covers as caps to escape rain when he rides around in his 50k Honda motorcycle.

Even my money has become plastic thanks to cards! Now, the government is seriously considering discarding paper for plastic to print currencies! Better security , they say!

Local street-side food vendor uses plastic sheet over paper plates to guarantee purity of the plates!

The Bihari at the food restaurant round corner that serves Chaat food , wears plastic gloves(yes, not rubber) to make his preparations! Every five minutes he removes it to sneeze the phlegm off his nose and dons the gloves back on! Clean hands you see!

I also started using plastic plates and cups for the birthday parties, it can be recycled until my year old becomes thirteen you see and not to mention my yet to be one son! I'm looking at an returns several times over! who needs Styrofoam anymore Simble logic you see!

In my city, everyone and their mother-in-laws have an enviable collection of plastic covers stashed away in yet another big plastic cover! she uses it at every possible occasion. There is always a plastic cover for any activity. Be it stocking vegetables in the refrigerator or keeping the plant saplings until they become adults and claim their own piece of land in the garden!

When I was a child, I vividly remember Balamurugan, who used to wrap his note books in Milk covers and other such covers instead of brown paper! Lasts longer he'd say to my curious stares!
Today, brown paper is manufactured with a shiny plasticky coating on it! water-proof I heard!

The local vegetable market is always swathed in multiple hues ! Not because of the lovely green and red vegetables in the market, it is because the sun bathing the place in light through the huge multi-coloured plastic sheets that covered the area between the shops should it rain and chase away the buyers!

Even the asbetstos sheets are now plastic! So are the glasses I wear, smiles of the models on TV!
Boy! I cannot imagine what we'd do in India if we did not have plastic!

Unreal shows

2009-10-26T17:43:00.000+05:30

I'm sitting in an amphitheater watching gladiators gore themselves to death there was a section being mauled by lions to the thunderous applause from the onlooking crowd.
I could feel adrenaline surging through my veins watching these brave warriors fight it out. It is a curse rather for these warriors who are doomed to die , one way or the other , sooner or later, all the time entertaining the crowd.
How I wish I could throw my mother-in-law, husband into the ring. Let them survive even for five minutes, they will understand my life. Ha.. the sweet thought of revenge! mmm..
---x---x---

The mother-in-law was pouring some powder into the milk and planning to give it to her daughter-in-law, the daughter-in-law was actually planning to seize the property and kill the husband. The mother-in-law had overheard her plotting this with her brother and now the mother-in-law had somehow overcome her five year old weakness(really, thats how long the serial ran) and decided to settle the matter once and for all, now this powder is special, it will not kill her, but it will make her a vegetable. She pours the powder and turns around stirring it. Her daughter-in-law is standing behind her at the doorway watching her prepare the milk.. CUT - ad break

----x---x---
The elderly woman has been watching this dutifully from her retirement home, she no longer could wait for the ad break, she started debating the plot with the octagenerian neighbour. She wished she had the courage of the lady in the serial. If she had even the courage to speak up against her vitreous daughter-in-law, she would not have been here. Now all she wanted was to see the lady in the serial win. She felt almost like winning her own battle.
She had even written a letter to the director of the serial thanking him for presenting such a true to life program.
---x--x------
The couple were breaking it off said the scantily entertainment host, Yajna could hardly contain her elation. They never suited each other, Ash and Viveik. Eh.. what was he thinking. Thank god she threw him out of his life, wish I did the same with Ashok. I was too blind to see his nefarious ways. He had been sneaking behind me and seeing Rupa, I wish I could strangle that conniving tramp! She had been depressed for the past few weeks. Now she was feeling murderous, watching MTV roadies made her feel a lot better. She like being the conspirator for a change, shilpa was plotting on stealing lakshmi's boy friend. How she wished she could steal Ashok back from Rupa. One moment I hate him, but I want him too!

----X-----

Now I finally seem to have an imaginary understanding of why Serials and Reality shows work in India!

The fine line between patience and weakness

2009-10-23T20:58:00.001+05:30

I have been managing the apartment maintenance and funds for the past one year in the building where I live. Its not a big building. There are eight apartments and most are occupied by working couples except a few.
All the residents are duty bound and pay their maintenance by the first week promptly. There is this one couple who have their own problems and often find it difficult to pay their maintenance. Earlier it used to get delayed till almost the end of the month before they paid up.
Slowly and slowly they started slipping and now they have accrued up to three months of dues. Even at that point I used to dutifully request them to pay up the maintenance at least in parts to help them catch up their big backlog.
By this time all the other apartment owners had to be intimated that we are short of funds by three apartment months due to this resident and all owners were pressuring me to get stricter with this resident.
However, I could not see reason how it would help if we ended up antagonizing this resident and continue to be pleasant with this resident till date. My patience bore a little result last month and they paid up a part of accrued maintenance dues for two months together.
However they are again slipping by two months and I dont see any end in sight. While I'm going to continue my strategy of patience, I wonder whether my patience is perceived as a sign of weakness and will being stricter help? hmmm...?

This was in Oct 2009.
Now: Feb 2010. The said resident has paid up all their dues by themselves even as their dues crept up to a relatively high five thousand! This happened as I was slowly resigning to the amount creeping higher! What a miracle! I'm humbled and I feel bad that I even had a shade of doubt of their willingness to catch up. Once again, the world has reaffirmed that appealing to the good person in everyone definitely begets only goodwill. I'm glad that I was patient.

Its all about the name Chennai

2009-10-21T11:49:00.001+05:30

Most of today's Chennaiites / Madrasvasis have been believing that the city's name was 'Restored' to Chennai reversing what the British did. But, here is what I found out in a radio debate I accidentally tuned into on the way to work today.
Chennai, formerly Madras, was originally a fishing hamlet that went by the name 'Madarasapatnam' a hundred or so years back.
It gained prominence when the East India Company, the erstwhile proxy front of the British Government used to colonize the south asian countries, bought a piece of land that is now called Fort St. George, from a local ruler.
History has it that the local ruler agreed to sell the land to the British and imposed one condition for the sale. He requested that British to name the city there were going to develop after his father and former Rajah, Channapa Naicker(Naickan).
The British, however did not honour their agreement and went on to refer it as Madras as short form of referring to Madarasapattinam.
The name stuck for hundreds of years until one day when the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu Mr.Karunanidhi (also known as Dr.Kalaignar ) issued a G.O renaming the city as 'Chennai' claiming that he was restoring the original Tamil name to the glorious city and we all believed him!
What I found unbelievable was that this Channappa Naicker/Naickan, never visited this city and had nothing to do with its existence and survival, leave alone developing it to be a cosmopolitan commercial hub.
Why should we name our city against a non-entity? I find this unacceptable as a proud citizen of this country and city.Why should I call my home by a name of a person who meant nothing to this city?

Much to my disgust, the radio featured a youth Congress leader who was making inane arguments about how we are changing everything . He was referring to IT growth and changes in Financial sector, and he was accusing the general populace for not willing to accept a change in the name of the city. I cannot fathom what is the connection between IT sector and the name 'Chennai'.
A research scholar was trying in vain to counter his arguments by explaining that she had nothing against change that is meaningful , but the youth congress leader would not listen to her and was just sticking to yelling unrelated arguments about how even in court they have started referring to the judge as 'Your honour' killing the British practice of addressing the judges as 'My lord!'.

I do not know if it is worthwhile even spending time and effort in discovering the truth and making a movement. Do I need to change it back to Madras?
I live in a world where a child's parents' names keep changing, the workplace names keep changing, the lanes and roads are being constantly renamed, products are being rebranded, even planets are suddenly being declared as just a piece of rock.
Frankly speaking, I dont care any more by what name my city is being called, it just will be 'home' to me.

Indian Woman

2009-10-19T15:56:00.001+05:30

I fail to understand the Indian woman, she is a paradox. She is a pandora's box of conflicting emotions.
She can be the most loving and benevolent creature on earth. She can be the most patient and tolerant being in this universe. She can be the most determined and frightfully competent force to deal with. She can be fierce when it comes to protecting those who depend on her.
Yet, she is the weakest in amongst her own breed. She cannot peacefully coexist and share her space with her own breed. I Wonder why?

Advertisements are sexist.

2009-10-19T14:30:00.000+05:30

Of late, i have taken to observing the storylines and plots and the analyzing the minds of creative agencies that come up with ad-spots for the junta.
I cannot but help notice that advertisements meant for women are so beautifully done. So much so that I wish why men should not use them. Be it the 'Dove therapy' or 'Pril dish wash concentrate' or even the personal hygiene products.
All of them focus on the strong points of the products and how each product provides more bang for the buck and why they are chemical free and next best thing to what nature has already created for you.
In a strong contrast, it makes me cringe at the sight of advertisements targeted at men. Almost none of them focus on feature or functionality. I'm being constantly told that women will literally undress and fall over me if i use one perfume or the reason to buy the new Suzuki motor cycle is for its snazzy flashy stickers!!!!! and i can do wheelies all the way to market if I buy Mahindra Rodeo scooter and again, women will fall for my hair gel if i use the latest wet and sexy product. Somehow you become macho and dive down the cliff in a jeep and get out unscathed after a cup of mountain dew or even worse, how cars will cringe at the sight of my new Hunk motor cycle because it looks like well. ahem.... a ..... a bull!

Whats wrong with these guys? They What happened to the days of "Fill it! Shut it! and forget it?" Why don't men get advertisements that are focused on the product features rather than on women and the primal instincts of men.

Children and Memory

2009-10-14T20:28:00.000+05:30

I had a rather unnerving moment today with my daughter when she recounted an incident that happened a year back when she was all of two years old with alarming vividness that shocked me.
Here is what happened

Grandpa: தீபாவளி Saturdayஅன்னிக்கி வரபோரதே, அப்பா பட்டாசு எல்லாம் வாங்கி தருவாளே, நம்ம ஜாலியா வெடிக்கலாமே(Deepavali is just round the corner, appa is going to get you lots of sparklers and we are going to have fun!)

Daughter: ஆமா , அருந்ததி அக்காகூட வருவாளே, ஜெயந்தி அத்தை வீட்டுக்கு வருவாளே அவ! பட்டாசு வெச்சிட்டு காத முடிப்பா இல்ல ? ரோஹித் கூட அழுவானே !
(yeah! Arundhati will also come to Jayanthi Athai's place and she will close her ears to all the loud crackers! Even Rohit will cry for bursting his quota of crackers!)
We were all stunned to hear her say this, for among the host of hindu festivals, she correctly related the festival of lights by name t the one we had a year before and vividly recounted the incident where she met small girl (Arundhati) when we visited my sister on that day. She has never met Arundhati after that day!

Timesheets are such a waste of time

2009-10-13T12:48:00.000+05:30

Timesheets are the bane of the Indian IT Industry
They have evolved to a point when the have ceased to serve any meaningful purpose other than present some meaningless numbers to senior management.

We have been told countless times that it is a sin not to keep one's timesheets up to date.There is barrage of emails from PMO to keep our timesheets up to date. The nagging is so persistent that our managers literally plead with us to put in our timesheets.

I however find the ritualistic update of the number 8 in some five meaningless boxes every week to be such a criminal waste of time and effort of multiple people at least in a development project.

For one, the manager has to prepare a detailed plan as to what each and ever person in his team of five or fifty is doing every hour that makes up the forty hour week.
Imagine doing this for a fifty member team every week, activity takes up so much time of the manager that the manager starts being deviant ,vague and starts making up tasks that take the entire duration of the project to complete. Here is a sample
i. Development of code
ii. Testing
iii. Code review
iv. Build management

these are not task types, but tasks themselves marked to begin at any point but will only end along with the end of the project which is probably two years away.

Added to this plight is the problem of reconciling MPPs with that of the online system that maintains the timesheets.For, the senior management always wants to see both online reports , MPPs and additional dozen Exel sheets along with a PPT on the status of the project.

The entire team thus begins entering timesheet of 8 hours against the five or six days of the week against the meaningless tasks created for them.

It has become so stupidly ritualistic and I'm surprised that most senior management personnel do not realize that the system is being subverted and is not serving any purpose and keep insisting on them being kept up to date.

To the credit of the timesheet systems, they have tremendous amount of features in them and could throw up a great deal of light on who is doing what, but if it were only simpler to use.

Firefox 3.5 - Maximizing Screen space

2009-07-14T17:33:00.000+05:30

Firefox 3.5 is an amazing browser that is blazing fast. However it is a victim of one thing I dislike in most browsers, chrome(The section above the browser content viewing area) overload. Google's Chrome browser does a fine job of minimizing the Chrome area and maximizing viewable content space.
I set out on a mission to make my browser use as little screen estate as possible for non-content sections. Here is screenshot of how my browser looks today. This is a complete screenshot of my desktop with firefox 3.5 on. Notice that there is no menu bar (File, Edit...), no google search bar, no bookmarks , no google toolbar, no Tabs, no status bar at the bottom.
This provides an amazingly vast screen space that allows me to extract maximum viewing with little scrolling.
Here is how I did it.
First the simple ones.

The tool bars
Use the 'View->Toolbar option in your firefox browser and deselect the 'Bookmarks' toolbar option to get rid of the annoying bookmarks section.

Now, that was easy.

Getting rid of the Search Box and shrinking the back button.
The next one is to get rid of the default search box that comes with firefox. Now, why would I do that? you may ask. The reason is that the new firefox 3.5's URL bar by itself doubles up as search bar. So, if you were to type "Search Barrack obama" in the URL bar, firefox 3.5 does a search using your favourite search engine and presents the results. So, this makes the search bar an unecessary function. So, lets get down to removing it.
Right click your mouse on the browser chrome area and select customize. Firefox will present a customize tool bar window and a grab handle. Now use the grab handle and pull the search box from the firefox's chrome section and drop it into the Customize Toolbar window. This will remove the Search box from Chrome section.
The next is to shrink the back button. In the customize toolbar button select the checkbox that reads "Use Small Icons". Now the extra large back button would be shrunk to a normal size.

Lets do a quick check of things to do.

Hide Title bar that says "Mozilla Firefox...."
Hide the Menu bar that reads "File....."
Hide the Tab strip
Hide the Status bar.

Hiding the Title Bar
The Title bar serves no purpose when the window is on top. Thankfully we can hide this in firefox. Download and install this add-on(You may be required to check the select the Let me install the experimental add-on check box).
HideCaption AddOn
Restart your firefox once the addon is installed and voila! the title bar is gone.

Before
After

Hiding the Menu Bar
File Menu bar is something that people seldom use in a browser. It really takes up a useful line of space from the screen. Hide Menu bar is an addon that makes this menu bar go away . We can always bring it back by clicking the alt key in the keyboard. For those who prefer keyboard to access menu functions this is a known method to access menu functions. For those who prefer to use mouse for all operations, this is a trivial detail to remember.
Now lets get to business. Here is the link to the add on. Once you have downloaded this and restarted firefox you will notice that the menu bar does not appear unless you press the alt key.
Before

After

Thats another line freed from the clutches of the tyrant! Okay I overdid it. Move on, shall we.

Auto Hiding the Tab Strip.
Well, this one is a personal preference. I dont want to know about the other tabs until I'm looking to move away from the current tab. So, I'd love it if it would auto hide and show up only when i need it! I can do this by installing the Tab Bar Add on
Hit the link and download the experimental add on like you did earlier by selecting the 'Let me install this experimental addon' option.
Now, restart the firefox and the tab bar is gone! Moving the mouse over to the URL bar area brings the tabs back automatically! Its just perfect!

You can even customize the tab bar behaviour by using the options in the addon section.

Now, we are almost done.
The last step

Auto Hiding the Status bar.
The status bar is of no use once the page is done loading unless you are a developer who uses the status bar for a bunch of other things. I would love it when the status bar shows up when a page is loading and goes off once it is loaded and displayed. Here is how to do it. Download this experimental addon Hide Status bar and restart the firefox! ta da! the status bar is now dynamic! It can be even further customized to show up on mouse over of hyperlinks etc., Wonderful isn't it?
Now for the real Before and After images!.

You have just liberated more than 25% space in your browser! Liberating is it not? It would not have been possible for all those add on developers doing their bit.
Thank you good fellas.