Ceaseless Reasonings

2011-06-07T12:46:00.000-07:00

Just an interesting quote,it is one of those quotes that makes you say "so true"

I have found out that there ain't no surer way to find out whether you like people or hate them than to travel with them. ~Mark Twain

2011-05-25T13:51:00.000-07:00

Going Green...Back to Basics...

It has been a really long time since I wrote in my blog, so my English could be a little rustic and out of sync with the intention of my thoughts but still I guess there is nothing wrong in trying.
I took a paper called “Green Management”, though I was skeptical on the breadth of the content, I was glad to know that there was much more to it than just the mostly failed green talks and Al gore videos. It talks about how corporations from developed economies mostly are taking accountability on a product even after its useful life cycle, it seems you can recycle your jeans and Nike shoes after you no longer use it. That is a good thing but they do most of their manufacturing in Asian countries like China and India and with no proper implementation of pollution related laws, it seems like these countries “produce” more green house gases and thus contribute heavily towards global warming.

It had other measures and initiatives taken in a more corporate/policy levels like carbon credits and carbon emission trading. It was all very informative and looks like there is so much going on in terms of containing global warming especially from a business point of view.
But I guess we need to go more basic than that to tackle meaningfully the problem of global warming. I am kind of having an vantage view point in terms of able to observe American and Indian lifestyles and that leads me to question the true intentions of the companies and how they are trying to cash in on this “trend” of “green culture”.

The other day I was watching TV ad about “going green” by using “reusable” lunch boxes and they showed a lunch box that we use in India to carry food to hospital or from a hotel in my grandfather’s time and claim it to be “green”. I definitely appreciate the effort but we have been doing the same things for centuries for want of resources.
The other thing is the ill treatment of trees by printing coupons, for everyone who has stayed in US knows that you get more coupons and ads than you can possibly use or buy and there is a big waste bin right next to the mailbox for discarding the same. I understand that coupons help you save but these mindless printing of paper ,just because you have resources ,even if its made from 10% recycled paper is total disregard for the environment.Atleast in India, if this happens, whether you buy the advertised item or not, you can sell the paper aka recycling.

There was a “green” campaign reusable coffee mugs and tumblers for “saving” earth here, the funny thing is we were doing the same thing sometime ago, till we decided to bring in plastic cups for roadside tea shops back home. Some times I really hope India does not “advance” in these terms because we will not be able to handle the burns and issues related to customs not like our own.

Traditionally in Indian culture, when you drink anything liquid, you should not be sipping the same rather pouring the same, this solved the dual problem of wastage and hygiene. I hope we stick to that and help save pollution on the roadside and elsewhere.
I hope in India, they advertise and encourage green habits whether traditionally followed or otherwise to educate people. The first lady appears in a public education campaign out here, I don’t think even an actor would do that in India except may be for AIDS campaign, I hope those actors and cricketers, who get crores for advertising coke and airtel, also consider educating their fans on these things, may be, and just may be they would listen to them and similarly in America, I hope they understand that there are other “people” living outside the US(the rest of the 95% people in the world) who would be just happy to have a single serving of food and water on their table.

I am not sure exactly how much percentage of Indian population has stayed in developed countries, I hope these people take back the good habits from Americans and not just the dollars,brands and photos. Sometimes technology helps and sometimes we should help technology by our usage and habits.

I know, I have used so many “hopes” but as we know,if there is no hope, there is no tomorrow.

2008-10-28T14:48:00.001-07:00

PART II

I got this weird thought while on a conference call, the conversation goes like this:

"Meow"

"Is that your kitty?”

"Oh yeah, he is a sweet little kitty and he wants my attention fully but occasionally I need to work on my computer while working from home, unfortunately"

"I understand"

Try to translate the same thing to India. I am not even able to translate this scenario.

I guess we can do with raising more pets back in India. That way I think we can reduce our population and it will generate more job opportunity.

Together with the rising number of child care centers, we can do with more pet care centers, pet motels, pet fitness centers, pet care products and what not.

Another upside being, students need not struggle to keep just the human population hale and healthy, we can make vet nary science popular too.

Also, if there were more pets in India, the job opportunities will be more varied than here, for example, more cleaning service(since we believe in nature and not clean up after our dogs in India, I have seen my neighbour use all the two wheelers in the neighbourhood to relieve her dog),more normal doctors to vaccinate people against dog illnesses, more cases in domestic courts when girls decide to raise pets rather than children and Many more that I have to imagine (Not that idle or bored now)

I have seen in all Hollywood movies that most of the houses have pets but you have to see it to believe it in real life.

I have seen some dog owners with 5 to 6 dogs.

another funny thing I have noticed is ,whenever any dog is not on leash or on an extended leash and tries to come and lick you or bite you or smell you, only the dog knows what it intends, I have heard the owner say "he/she is friendly" to your typical Indian prejudiced reaction of revolt/fright.

I got so used to it now that when I am back in India; I might offer my ankles as willing bait for our own street dogs.

Once I went hiking on a steep hill and no dog,was on leash, which had come hiking with its master. So, even though my normal reaction would be to run away as much as possible from the canine family , I had no choice but to stay on path, to keep myself from falling off the hill as much as possible and just pray that they ignore my existence.There was a couple of people with a couple of dogs going the opposite direction, they turned around, yelled back at me,

"Hey, are you from India"

"Yeah"

"Meet coller here, he is from India too"

I kept searching for another person with them, when they continue,

"I got him, when he was a small puppy"

I thought good that they didn’t atleast name him Raja( pronounce as Raaachaaa)

And like any other dog, this dog came and licked me and like a true Indian, I showed a little fright and they said,

"Don’t worry, he is clean, we vaccinated him"

Hmmm I Was wondering, what happened to "he is friendly" routine.

But I guess it is expected because, it’s an Indian by birth

2008-07-14T16:06:00.000-07:00

Being in America-Part I

I got a really funny forward regarding America not knowing what "the rest of the world" means.

I think that is 100% correct accounting for the fact that even some Indians forget India when they come here.

I remember fighting for a pot of water during my board exams near the metro water lorry near my house in madras and now I see sprinklers running even when it is raining near my house here.

Of course, one can not help it, if there is lots of water. All the same, I was wondering how one part of the world thinks there is no other parts existing in this world. I mean, I can not be writing all kinds of facts that I know of, here, then it might get too personal and it’s not needed as long as the meaning is conveyed.

I will just write some common things I notice here and of course take it with a pinch of humour if you like America and as a sad state of affair if you hate America. It’s left in your hands.

I had an Indian friend here complaining about the gasoline price increasing up to a dollar per gallon and there was one funny board in a gasoline station, which just stated the price as "LOL" and compare that to the increase in petrol in India, I guess it is around 10 rupees per liter, so in turn around an increase of 35 rupees per gallon and compare it against the average salary, the average salary here is say 5000 dollars per month and in India it is around 30,000 rupees, now do the math. Clearly India is suffering much more than America but Americans and Indian Americans cry here.

I found another funny thing, if you go to a restaurant in here, you can always forget about cooking for the next day where as in India, you need to order at least two dishes to keep you from getting hungry if you visit a hotel in India. Some restaurants here bring in their "TO-GO' boxes even before we finish eating, because they know. How can there be no food shortage?, also in most of the places it is always "All you can eat buffets", they keep this confidently because, everybody eats too much so the distinction of what is "too much " thins off, no hotel owner in India will dare keep buffet in this scale, if they do they will go bankrupt very soon because people are underfed there.

The only good thing that I can never be sarcastic about is cleanliness here and if ever you find some place thrashed with waste, be assured it is an Indian who has done it. I am saying this, not to make anyone feel bad but I felt bad when I saw one fellow Indian here who kept thrashing in anyplace and everyplace he went, worst of all he talked of politically correct things before I saw him doing this , something like "Indians are keeping their country dirty”,” Indians are not ethically good" and many things like that and when I asked him why he talked like a really good person, he replies that is what everyone does, I was really p***** off hearing that. I can just say this, Indians are hypocritical, at least most of them are, if you are exception, I am happy for you.

These people think America is cool because they can ride great cars, speed on roads, go to gymn, go to LV and get salary in dollars. They don’t even think that they can do their bit in their county to make it cool too.

I understand that somethings we can not change easily (as a common person) like quota system, inflation, exchange rate etc but at least you can keep your country clean. If educated people who come to America do this, not just to India but to America as well, then what will Americans think about us? If I were an American, even I would say the same things that they say to us.

I know not many people will read this but all the same if I meet anyone like that one hypocritical person, I will give a piece of my mind even if it means they wont change or they wont be friends with me again, it is better to be truthful than hypocritical. As I said in one of my "ramblings" before, somethings have become default because we think we can not change and there is no use just talking if you can not be what you are talking. It is injustice, not just to this great world you are born into and but also to yourself.

I read somewhere, if Earth is just a speck in this universe, we are not even visible in it and yet we destroy it before we go.

2008-05-30T14:09:00.000-07:00

OF Icons and Fans....

Recently everyone from TamilNadu talks about “CBSE” itself, mentioning an extract regarding Rajini(pasting the same above). It just set me thinking and no offence to anyone.

The forwards say something like “An abstract of the early life of Our Super Star Rajinikanth's has been included in the syllabus of 6th standard school children….. Note that, it's not in the state board syllabus, but CBSE Central board syllabus, under the heading 'Dignity of Work'……………….”

Well for at least two things I find this interesting. One is the stress on “CBSE” syllabus itself mentioning about Rajini and the second thing is the title was not “Rajini” but “dignity of work” and just because Rajini is mentioned there, people associate the two, completely ignoring the other character in the passage, just like the movie “chandramukhi”

I don’t dislike Rajini but at the same time, just because he appears somewhere, I don’t like the undue credit given to him, I feel Rajini himself, would not like that.

The passage tells about how his friend supported him when he was down and how he became a history later on, but we completely ignore the first part and I think that is the reason why there is only one Rajini.

I was telling my friend that sometimes description overshadows the content and nowadays no one wants to look for the content .CBSE never keeps a straight passage. I was a good student in my class and most of the times I scored well in English. I was in CBSE and I feel the others did not score because they didn’t see the content. If descriptions overshadow content, Glamour overshadows even descriptions. It is pretty dangerous, it makes us forget that we are “humans” and no human value is appreciated in front of it.

If “CBSE” intended to talk about Rajini then in that case, in the “evaluate” section why is all the questions regarding the “obscure” normal “faceless” person ?But the one good thing is , everyone is happy that “Rajini” was mentioned in a CBSE textbook, acknowledging the importance of good education.

If only people don’t just go by fancy words and look for the fine prints in everything, India would be a better place and no one would want to leave that country and go after developed countries, most of which has thousands of “rajini’s” in their country already.

People who are famous are to be appreciated for their work and sincerity and more than them the people who identify them when they were “obscure” are more important according to me.

By just looking at one Rajini, One Tagore and One Theresa, people don’t look around for people like them ,in between them and those people loose the opportunity of a friend, like Rajini had.Evenetually, we are neither becoming Rajini nor Raja bahadur.

2008-02-18T15:50:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I wonder....

Why I wish things were different if I can not change anything or at least something.
I read this book called " The onion: Our dumb World, Atlas of Planet Earth",
There is of course an online link for this too (http://www.theonion.com/content/atlas) check it out if you want.

It is hilarious but hurts.

In that book, the introduction to the western world or for that matter for anyone who just knows India as just another country in these endless borders of the world is that it is dirty with all capital letters.

I found it really true though hard to accept in front of others.
Our Country is Extremely Dirty and everyone contributes to it and thinks India is not as great or as clean as Singapore or USA and the best part is some people start arguing that USA is not all that clean. We are missing the point there. Whether USA is clean or not, India is definitely not and No one cares or thinks it is a big issue.

Honestly, I don’t even put a bus ticket on the road, even though my bus stop is near the famous or infamous Coovam River in the heart of Chennai, the headquarters of all its filth. Even though I know it doesn’t make a difference anyway, I don’t want to contribute to this ever growing filth and talk about migrating to other cleaner countries.

I have seen lots of people from Tidel Park, spitting and littering in the MRTS train. I am sure 90% of these people are educated to the basic level and talk with multinational clients. If you can copy their accent and their style of dressing, why not their habits?

If these people, who know how some others in this world behave well, are not able to be clean and are not conscious of their surrounding, how can the uneducated people, be blamed for what is happening? IT contributes economically; I think it should contribute socially and behaviorally too. Otherwise there is no use blowing the horns of IT or for that matter economic growth.
So all said, I feel powerless for not able to get anything done.Now, Anniyan and Mudalvan (for some who might not know, these are movies in India regarding setting the country right) are not enough to create awareness, since it was obviously ineffective except for Vikram and Arjun since glamour overshadows anything and everything in cinema in our place. So those fictional characters in real life, is definitely not possible.

So the only thing I can do is write this but there again I am sure at least 90% of those who happen to read this know this already and have similar opinion as me. So there again it becomes a useless exercise. I am not prejudiced against those who read but as far as I am concerned many people who read also think.

But I still went ahead and wrote this cause, I wanted to do at least the 0.01% that I can and if at all it helps someone somewhere not to pollute the world, I am more than happy.
As I said in one of my previous ramblings, Earth is not ours to take for granted; you have rented and just because you don’t have any leasing fine on it, it doesn’t mean you can spoil it in whatever way you want. Of course there is no fine, but in future there will be no life if this goes on.

2008-01-24T22:04:00.000-08:00

Its history....

Today, was talking about some incidents which i read in history with couple of my friends and they don't seem to have heard on the same , but hey they were part of lessons for any kind of board you take in India.Not that they weren't interested by the topic, they found it interesting enough,but then why did not they, either remember reading about them or missed reading the same?

It is not that no one is interested in the past, if you ask me since we can not know about the future,at least knowing the past covers two of the three tenses and also your virtual exposure to expanse of the time in the universe,after all universe was created in the past,so it is history besides science.

I have also noticed lots of people taking pride in saying that they did not like history in their school and complaining that it is just a memory game.But I don't seem to remember any dates but i do remember some interesting incidents that i read and trust me, people, who hate history ,have always found these topics engrossing.

Then i think the culprit can be either our education system or our educators.but it is more often the educators rather than the system, if you ask me, how else can you explain my interest in history(more to do with the way my teacher taught me) and another friend's hatred of the same,coming from the same board, leaving apart our individual interests, a good educator can make you read the subject if not love it.

Knowing the past also makes us value the future and the present.If we really value,energy for example,that means you know how difficult it is to get the same and we did get the same because of the past.

There is this ride in EPCOT, as everthing else in Disney is, is huge and it is about conserving energy.I dont have the money to tell the same in a huge screen, i really dont know how many inches the screen was, but it was huge,really huge, but i think it got across people ,atleast 10% of them who came to disney.

We get energy from the past and we get everything else from the past, for the future to have their past correct, we have to make our present undestructible for the future.

I always want people to think before wasting anything leave alone Energy, just because you can afford to pay a few extra bucks on the energy that you waste,doesnt necessarily mean the future can afford it.Every small thing counts and small things in the past is a huge assert for the present and small things of the present are a huge assert for the future.

Just quoting a wonderful line i came across " You have borrowed the earth from your future generations, you have no right to destory it".

If your selfish enough to think that you dont mind what happens after you die after say 100 years, just think about how we think of people who tried to say that 100 years before.

Preserve your present to preserve your past for your future.

2007-10-04T15:42:00.000-07:00

It’s Organic.........

Everything is so huge in here (USA).I was hugely surprised to walk into a 'shop' selling vegetables and see all the onions the size of a watermelon and all small watermelon in the size of huge watermelons. Though I thought it is twice the worth of the money spent on the same, there is always a costlier section on the same vegetable with title "organic" on it, making you feel guilty of eating the inorganic ones.

Even squirrels are not puny here, are they inorganic?

Even milk is either organic or not organic here, though it comes from an organic cow.

So essentially, any living or formally living and presently edible things are either organic and small or inorganic and huge.

I feel being identified with an "organic" status to an already organic material, as a pathetic result of population expansion and development of technology to keep up with the population. But the irony is, India is a more populous country than USA, then I am not able to get, why the organic matters are more organic in India than here. I am not arguing that India does not use pesticides and other damaging cides in its agriculture but matter of factly , the organic materials there are what is specifically available here as "organic".

Even a simple cabbage tastes different here than there. So anyone learning cooking here with traditional recipes should be aware of that and be happy that the taste of the food they make is not entirely due to them, its due to the organics and inorganics of the vegetables here. Well, in any case that is the consolation I give to myself.

The other day I saw a movie in which a person smokes "an organic cigarette", well I will believe that when said two times too. It’s possible they might even get “organic water it’s really possible or is it already there?

But I think you should not have an organic air, in that case it becomes toxic.

So essentially, that conveys that, all organic things are not too good.

But even after all these ramblings about organic, only one thing strikes me strange and ironical, when nature began its course without human intervention, every plant and animal was organic, when man multiplied, the plant part of the equation , or more so , even the animal term of the equation dwindled but man needs them for his uninterrupted rule of the world, so he multiplied them inorganically and found out that its bad for him, so he demarcated some of the things he needs as organic and it comes with a price tag for the humans who can afford it. So eventually, human population should gradually dwindle due to the bad effects of inorganic things but I don’t see that in the near future, so essentially that means either you eat organic or inorganic you survive. The trouble is for the future generations. I am curious how they handle it.

Probably we should redefine chemistry and biology regarding the carbon compounds.

2007-10-02T15:08:00.000-07:00

It hurts to be shrewd....At least for me

"Reduce your tension" if you want to get rid of your jaw pain, head aches and other entourages associated with the same, was the prescription given by my doctor for my recurrent pains . I went for physiotherapy, had regular appointments with the orthodontist and mentally told myself to reduce my tension. In fact, when I had to move away from my family for a short duration (relatively short in terms of my probable life time) I promised to my dad that I will be calm and patient and won’t get tensed.

Well, the underlying logic in this is, I get tensed when ever I think “otherwise”, in the sense I got tensed whenever I had other views than my peers and of course I never got tensed if I told my views to my friends who understand me, here also the catch is “who understand” me. I found it extremely to make them understand and in the process of making my point I got extremely tensed. Trust me I got so tensed that I got a XYZ pain syndrome, its XYZ now cause I don’t want to name the pain in public, basically it gets to do with the bones.

So naturally my faulty or smart logic (Yet to be determined, which of the two, since its in experimental stage yet) was that if I avoid having thoughts of my own, then I will get my pain reduced. So, as soon as I came to this new place I avoided confrontation on all fronts possible, or in other words I became a “yes –woman”.

Though this completely eliminated my original problem of pain in the jaw and bones, it created side effects, just like any other medicine. Basically, people started taking me for granted and talked at the back of me and even in front of me. Due to the allegiance to my vow, I smiled and kept smiling even if they ignored me. Even matters concerning me, that is, if my roommate disturbs my sleep, I didn’t talk back and kept quiet when she talked back. So on the whole, the new people I saw or I am seeing think of me as a subservient person who will listen to all the crap anyone talks and smiles back or rarely talks back like a stupid. Well, my medicine did work for one part of the problem , that is people who talked back on me , were again talked back on them by someone else, its basically a lucky instance when you will escape being talked back on and “miraculously” they became tolerate to my presence and didn’t ignore me as much as they did. But it fails on the second part of being taken for granted by a person whom you stay with.

So, after lots of patience and tolerance, I am starting to get back my previous symptom of pain when I start thinking how they take me for granted. The thought that someone is basically using me for their purpose and their wellness hurts my bones. I have to prepare hours or sometimes weeks in advance to put across my view on certain things when it concerns me and hurts me like hell. It’s very hurting to be shrewd and do things for my own and the worst part is I am able to identify that the other person is acting either cunning or shrewd but I don’t talk back, because that’s not me and if I do try to be them, it hurts me again.

So, the conclusion I got is, it hurts if I try to act for my own good and it hurts if I don’t .Though, this is not a solution, I feel I identified the problem at least, there might be no cure for cancer but it feels better when you get diagnosed properly.

2007-08-28T15:10:00.000-07:00

I never seem to learn.....

There is nothing wrong being part of an accident if you know how not to do certain things.

Just 2 years ago, when I went for a Outbound training as part of an initial learning program in my company, I fell down in the most stupidest way, I fell down on my head from a log in which I was standing holding an untied rope. If only I didn’t concentrate on holding on to an unsupported freely hanging rope I would have fallen down on my legs which is much better than getting your head hurt.

I was concentrating on the rules of the game (part of which is catching the rope) rather than apply my common sense.

I had to give a finishing speech( actually you can say a finishing "speech" literally not a "literary" speech per say), in which I told the people ( that is my fellow participants) that I learnt how not to fall on that day and that it was a valuable lesson to take home and everyone laughed for that. But I really meant it. But the problem is I never seem to follow it.

I am beginning to notice one characteristic of mine, namely I don’t balance properly, even on my legs.

I slip down on even the tiniest crack on the floor, which is all very ignorable if you are on land and the crack is not ignorable.

But I seem to carry this habit of me falling off given the slightest chance, it’s as though I wait for a chance to fall down.

As I said above, it’s all very fine if it’s ignorable which is what most often happens on land, but I seem to religiously follow this even in or rather inside water.

The point to be noted is I choke on even one mug full of water, given that imagine sitting on the safe side of a raft (that it is indeed the safe side is identified as that because everyone else on that side of the boat didn’t fall down) and plunging down into the other side of the boat into the water as if I was in a diving contest.

Everyone else on the other side of the boat did fall down, but they did so, so that they can at least follow some safety measures briefed before going rafting since they fell down on their side of the raft, where others don’t fall from the safe side of the boat, I did not leave the opportunity to fall down even if it meant diving for the other side.

As one of my friend recently said “I follow every instruction for safety" read as in” I don’t follow anything", I cannot be without agreeing with him even though he might have been the person who flipped the boat so that I fell down. Even given sabotage, I am easily susceptible to do the wrong thing even on the right side of the situation.

I realise only after an accident that it should have been handled in a better way. But at least I pacify myself by saying that I at least identify my fault. There is no use in finding a problem if you can not fix it.

So I think the only way I can ondition my mind to not be susceptible to the wrong ways to handle accidents is I need to have mock accidents, which is very expensive.

So, I just pray that I get lots of lives just as in a video game to retry for the right way to fall each time I fall the wrong way!

2007-06-02T05:52:00.000-07:00

At last...some thoughts...

Its been a very long time since i put my thoughts in writing.I think the main reason being laziness as well as blocking of Blogger.com @ work since thats where i get to have lots of "Free" time !

There were numerous things i want to write about but at present while coming to this place where i get access internet for free( My library), i saw a huge police force at work catching the "miscreants" without helmet on their heads and i found it immensenly funny cause i have never witnessed such an active traffic police at mount road in the past few years i am at this place.

I think atleast all people in TN will be aware of the new rule of "must wear helmets" else pay a fine of Rs.100 .I am not against safety but there are limits to a rule.At busy times atleast on mount road , one gets barely to move a feet in one minute and the needle of the speedometer even crossing a maximum of 40 is very difficult, with this being the case i am not able to understand the necessasity of this " life saver" given the fact that most of the traffic patrol on the road are now side tracking the two wheelers with a pillion passenger without an helmet while there are abundant reckless auto ricksaws without silencers increasing the level both noise as well as toxic compounds having a free ride on a busy road.

Most of the times the lane discipline is not followed and whenever there are no "lanes" the possibility of finding a " road" is tough and even in places near the IT highway, the roads are very uneven and just a few sprinkling of water is enough to flood the roads.

With all these unaddressed i am not able to get the "safety" aspect of a helmet, after all it just protects the head and the possibility of protection under severe impact is questionable given the fact the helmet doesnt come with the pressure rating and its not made of diamond or titanium.

Infact it is bound to happen like all traditions, followership without the original reason or fine without common sense.Since riding at 30kmph and in a high traffic density area , the possibility of lung congenstion is more severe than a head injury.

But its field day for the traffic police, reasons being:

Rule with no cost on part of the department
People who argue that after all they employ people to implement the same, it has to be remembered that no extra person is employed for the same.
By employing the same force to catch normal people without helmet, other important rules can be easily disregarded and might go unnoticed
Marginal revenue increases!

And its a field day for chain snatchers and smugglers as far as people do not remember seeing anything apart from the helmet colour!

I personally feel, each person's safety should be their own concern and their families concern and in the name of "giving safety" to people, unnecessary wastage of police force time and effort should not be incurred.

Probably ,a rule like "you need to wear a helmet and in case of a head injury , you are not liable for an insurance if you had not been wearing a helmet" might be better but ofcourse in that case, if a person was wearing a helmet and met with a head injury in that case , the state should take up medical care on spot for the person without the long winding legal procedures which might cause delay in his treatment.

Probably a survey of number of accidents before and after the rule in a particular time period should be done and in case of no difference , the rule should be reverted and more better ways of providing safety thought of!

2007-01-01T04:59:00.000-08:00

For all IIM aspirants.......

This is no opinion of mine...for a difference i wanted to inform to whoever happens to see this regarding a program called PGSEM from IIM-Banglore....

An open discussion and information regarding the program can be gathered for those who are interested in an Open House which will be held between 2.00 p.m and 5.00 p.m. on Sunday, January 7, 2007 at Hotel Green Park, No.183, NSK Salai, Vadapalani, Chennai 600 026 (Phone : 237575 75). This is a discussion forum where you will have first hand information about the Post Graduate Program in Software Enterprise Management offered by IIM Bangalore. There will be presentations by faculty, alumni, and current students. There will be opportunities for one-to-one interactions before and after the formal presentations.

In case interested do go through the details given the website(http://www.iimb.ernet.in/pgsem) to avoid repetitive questions in Open House.

Hope it was useful for some atleast !!!

2006-12-06T03:16:00.000-08:00

There is nothing wrong with IT BUT................

I have been thinking of this for a loong time, finally thought not to procrastinate anymore. I have been in this booming industry for almost 2.5 years now and so find myself eligible to comment on the same without any hesitation (infact it seems that I am senior in my project,see that’s what IT does to experience).

But before proceeding further, I just want to give a disclaimer that the situation is as I perceive it and with respect to India ,especially Indian companies and more with respect to maintenance and testing aspect of IT and not all are my personal experiences(some are).

So now that I have made amends for possible back slashes and fight backs on the situation, I hope to write my feelings without guilt of hurting anyone.

Imagine this situation, especially during appraisal time:

"
You can not be given more than this since

1.You didn’t do any value additions for the client...
2.You didnt do any 'more'certifications....
3.You didnt give any business proposal to the client...
4.You didnt listen to the clients ... "

and many such slurs on a perfectly respectable job that you would have done....

and your answers

" 1.There were more number people on the project than necessary, i gave the idea of reducing the number of people , but promptly looked upon as traitor to 'our' company since that means reduced revenue from the client.......so why are you acting concerned about the client?

2. I do just front end testing, so how can I understand some concepts without given an opportunity for the same. I asked for a chance to design/develop something but readily refused since it involved asking the client.

3. I am just a front level testing engineer, how can I give a business proposal, How can I make the current account with the client survive when the business units can not

4.All through the year I listen to the clients, is it wrong to go on leave for my marriage "

With respect to the fourth answer, its a reply written as an example of the height of slavery and frustration caused by some of the so called managers(Most of them, the rest of the good people dont mistake me).By the way,I am not getting married any time soon( i have to mention this because ,some of my friends have started Congratulating(!!!!!) me on the same.Sorry for sending the wrong signals!!!

Well, these are the answers that you would not have given, since that involves an "attitude" problem.

And the under liner here is you might have been a gold medallist in your college and the guy with the maximum number of arrears in your own class will be a developer here and might look down upon you for being a tester....now I am not saying, guys with arrears are not intelligent but surely a gold medallist is not a nitwit. So the ramblings will go on.

The reason for the same:
1.Indian companies are myopic and are cornering all the left out markets by the developed countries.
2. Aspiring engineers are not given the correct scenario; they are promised pasture green lands when the reality is dry hard lands.
3. Some people get very 'official' and dampen the career of really intelligent people.

The solution:

Either try for a bigger pie in IT or at least do not promise the discovery of a bold new land. Be truthful.

And for the people like me who hate this sort of politics and boredom in IT:
Be bold and don’t worsen the situation for the future probables in this sector by petty politics when you are in a good position.

Well this is just the part I of my observations from the front line 'associate' stakeholder point of view, probably i will try to come up with a more vindictive analysis on how this affects the Psychological health of fresh graduates and dreamers like me.

I know some people might be enjoying the multitude of bounties IT endowes on a normal middle class aspirant, but looking beyond the some people who get lucky, there is lot of unevenness in the terrain of this wonderful precipitator of economic boom in India.

2006-09-07T10:31:00.000-07:00

Is idle mind a devil’s workshop?

Everybody knows or at least believes that they know what it means. But I feel it depends on what you think is idle. Some four months back I was literally jobless (I was getting paid after tax in my office for doing some mundane unmentionable stuffs) and I think that’s being idle (since it was mechanical and I think being mechanical is like a machine which doesn’t think and hence idle and not the figurative idleness of a machine which will rust without movement).Anyway ,the point being, I thought I was wasting my life and so started writing my thoughts on MSWord( since stationary is not provided in my office to help in cost cutting) and really felt happy after typing my thoughts and my mind was really working fine churning out ideas on all themes . So I concluded that being idle (with no innovation being done) helps you to think a lot and thus makes you creative. To be clear, being idle makes one want for more and thus end up being creative.

But to steer my brain from the above mentioned workshop (since being idle is bad) I started going for MBA classes from IIM to get busy. Well, I need to say no more as my classmates might know. But for the benefit of the others, I hardly had time to think, not that I had no interesting subjects or that I was working 24 hours, but the reason being the difficulty in managing both office and studies. My life became so busy that I couldn’t afford to worry on a single thing at a time since the second event would come up so quickly that you totally forget about the first irritant.

Well I can say this for sure, MBA definitely teaches you to grow numb to problems whether you solve them or not. The side effect being, you become (or at least I became) so blank that I stopped thinking (of course thinking for strategic management or economics is different) and consequently forgot that I can write something about my feeling (remember I told in the previous lines that I became blank).Suddenly, one day, I started thinking when I was traveling and since there was nothing else to do but sit idle ( I forgot to get my economics book that day) I started wondering if I lost touch with the words and so resolved myself to write some before I forget. In fact, in the 20 minutes I traveled I managed to develop a good article in my mind but of course, I couldn’t manage to translate it that day since I got busy at office and had to finish off my assignment after coming home. So you see, I could not write since I got busy and consequently I am not thinking if I get busy, which implies that those who think are idle, which in turn means they are devising evil schemes?!?!? Which brings out the fundamental flaw in my original reasoning that I was idle doing mundane stuffs.

In fact, I have managed to write this confused article after my first quarter exams. You can readily imagine the effect of management on a healthy brain, previously all my articles were debatable topics and I managed to maintain a strong view on things at least to myself and remain sane and consequently the articles were of relevant topics. But now, I want to prove if an adage is true or not as if it matters if someone sits or runs all day.

So the moral is, it doesn’t matter if you are sitting idle or running all over the country to attend classes, don’t worry if you are bored stiff or if you hardly have time to breathe. But manage to think even in adversely busy conditions, since the end result should be to let the brain remain in running condition. Devil’s workshop is when you don’t think and not when you don’t work, now remember thinking and workings are different (at least in 90% of the cases in India-no offence meant!)

2006-05-16T00:10:00.000-07:00

Democracy......................

I always fail to understand democracy, i read in my civil textbooks of yester years that its a system of government for the people,by the people and etc etc.I am not sure if they have changed any definitions as yet.When thousands and thousands of people(educated and necessay citizens of india at that), protesting against a proposal initiated to give admissions on higher learning centers by the caste into which they were born into, are not given any respect,how can we call ourselves democratic?

Is the voice of one 'peoples representative' more final than the voice one million people affected by his voice?

Shouldnt the original drafters of the constitution have considered the contigency of these representatives not passing any laws agaisnt themselves?If they can pass laws according to their whims and fancies, i feel we should take a referendum for important policy decisions to be voted by non-political ordinary citizens with intellegence.I know, here again there is the problem of finding such people, casue there again the minister might require quota .But in case its money well spent than a normal election.

History repeats itself, even if it does so very slowly, about 50 years ago ,the British were compelled to leave when people they crushed rose against them,the current scenario is no different,but people at high position seem to be myopic to a dangerous extend.

As of the forwards say, we should save brand india,before its too late.

But to be more practical , I feel we are no more democratic, its a quasi-dictorial regime which repeats after every five years or should it be lesser???

2006-05-06T04:15:00.000-07:00

It’s not easy to say NO.....

Its not wise to sit lazily when 'opportunity' is knocking at the door, its a good adage but it doesn’t take into account the fact that, what if opportunity is knocking at two or three different doors at different corners and you have just milli-seconds left to decide which door to proceed to before it stops knocking and goes away....

There lies the difficulty in predicting, what sharp turns can occur in your life, one is invariably confused regarding what lies behind which door and which knock should not be left unanswered....

Most of the time, we find ourselves bored stiff because of the mundane work(applies to those who think they are doing mundane stuffs) we are doing and apply for two or three things, thinking that even if one of them gets by your side ,we will feel happy and different. But the biggest problem which can occur is when these completely different chances knock in the name of opportunity at the same time and that is where the difficulty of choosing arises.

One might wonder what I am drivelling about, well its pretty much like this, I find myself bored stiff with my desk job(without any challenges, I think the room was sealed without doors for fear of any opportunity doing its usual knocking) and applied for a high level MBA degree and for the sake of the artist in me ,a chance in writing or directing with a theatre company, thinking even if one of the two comes my way , I can make up for the lull in my work.

Well for the entire period of six odd months, nothing happened, making me wonder, what happened to any of my 'luck’. Spent the whole time trying to hear through keyholes, just in case I miss out the sound of a knocked door. But little I realised that , one of the two courier guys were late and I landed up getting both the things with a loud thud on the door at the same time.

Now you realise, its classic situation of , you choose either of the two.... So its not easy to say NO to an opportunity as some might claim, no 'things happening' might be boring ,but two or three things happening together , will make you cry for loosing out the other.....

I hope I opened the right door, I am not sure what lies behind the door I opened, I just wish , there is no big canyon on the other side.....most fervently I pray that on the side of the unanswered door there is no big crowd waiting to cheer me up .

2006-05-06T04:10:00.000-07:00