This That and Everything in between

  To go Virtual or stay real So, first of all, the preliminaries, it’s been really eons since I wrote here. Reason 1: I forgot I had this blog. Reason 2: I really was engaged with some useful, almost irreplaceable work - my kid. Reason 3: Nobody really reads my blog except for few believing and caring friends. The reasons I think I should start scribbling again. Reason 1: I remembered that I have this blog. Reason 2: Though my irreplaceable work still remains useful, my kid gets by without me for few minutes. Reason 3: Few of my faithful friends asked if I still blog. So that out of the way. I thought I should probably start with my thoughts on the most important dilemmas pertinent to a modern parent, to go virtual from infancy or not.   Almost everyone I know or see "manage" their kid's tantrums and boredom with an app, a rhyme video, TV, mobile phones, dedicated tabs and anything else on the edge of technology. This starts right ...

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

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 ...

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...

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 gaso...

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 hims...

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 roa...

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 histo...

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 t...

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...

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 neve...

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 ...

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 !!!

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...

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...

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, he...

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 diffi...

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Reservation will defeat the Cause We want to defeat any good system prevalent, I think it is politically incorrect to have any system which is almost perfect or which is straight forward. Like any right minded, sane Indian I want my country to become great and a country most definitely doesn’t become great by claiming to be one. Promoting deserving students to better position by providing opportunities for them is one sure step to achieve a goal of being great. Till now, everyone around look up to a person passed out from IITs and IIMs. Its not just because they pass out from an institution named 'IIT' and 'IIM',it is because those institutes are known for their quality of training and student body and the public knowledge that only meritorious candidates after tough competition are selected to become a deserving candidate. If the government thinks they are going to pull the country to greater heights by bringing in 'Quotas' here too, I think it is a very bad mo...

Every Night @ the call centers....... I read in the Hindu that One night @ the call center by Chetan bhagat( I am not sure if the name is with or without an 'h') is selling hot like the latest pirated CDs. From the review I gather that the author is not for the call centers.....I completely agree to that line of thought. Its bad in the sense that too much of a mass exodus to call centers will eventually play havoc with the way the youth of the country think and act intellectually .Even those who are for the call centers will not deny to themselves that its not much of an intelligent exercise. Think alternating your way of life every second week.You get up in the 'Indian' morning some days thinking its the best thing that happened to you in the last one month,since before that you might have gone to office when everyone else in your home goes to sleep.Probably you might get some compensatory allowance for that, but I feel that is just peanuts for a starving traveler in a...