Higher up the ladder one climbs
The more one becomes a Devil's Advocate.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Monday, January 19, 2009
Quote of the day
"Health can buy Wealth;
But Wealth cannot buy Health"
Observed at Pulse Diagnostics after I had been there for Total Wellness Check c/o Artha.
On a side note, I am Totally Well :-)
Apart from the 76, of course :-(
But Wealth cannot buy Health"
Observed at Pulse Diagnostics after I had been there for Total Wellness Check c/o Artha.
On a side note, I am Totally Well :-)
Apart from the 76, of course :-(
Sunday, January 18, 2009
"First Time In Life" of the day
* Booked Tatkal ticket on IRCTC.
* Blew air bubbles on road from balcony using soapy water. Courtesy: Wife.
:)
* Blew air bubbles on road from balcony using soapy water. Courtesy: Wife.
:)
Friday, January 16, 2009
Me and Bargaining!
I aint the type to bargain during shopping with street vendors. I only do it sometimes - half-heartedly and hence unsuccessfully - if I am asked to do so by parents. My idea is that: not much money is given to charity or the needy deliberately, and this way of 'not-bargaining' during shopping with street vendors would, if not wholly, at least to an extent, act as an alternate for charity. After all, its a matter of few Rupees.
So I was out there on the streets today trying to shop something for Rs 50, asked by parents over phone to get the value down to Rs 40. So when the shop keeper said "50", I said simply, without even adding meaning to it, purely on the orders of the parents, "Make it 40" and gave him a 100 Rupee note.
I had every intention to give Rs 50 in any case if the shopkeeper so much as even whined a little. I mean thats what I expected, dont we all? When customer bargains, the shopkeeper whines and says how much prices have increased and how helpless he is and blah-blah.
On the contrary, to my statement of "Make it 40", the shopkeeper blinked back at me, put on a face of incredulity and demanded "Why?"
Inwardly, I laughed out loud! No one had asked me this ever before! Why would one bargain?! Anyway, I mumbled something about its value being 40 or something - again, not at all putting feeling into what I was saying - and took my leave, taking back with me the change of Rs 50 which the shopkeeper had returned...
:)
So I was out there on the streets today trying to shop something for Rs 50, asked by parents over phone to get the value down to Rs 40. So when the shop keeper said "50", I said simply, without even adding meaning to it, purely on the orders of the parents, "Make it 40" and gave him a 100 Rupee note.
I had every intention to give Rs 50 in any case if the shopkeeper so much as even whined a little. I mean thats what I expected, dont we all? When customer bargains, the shopkeeper whines and says how much prices have increased and how helpless he is and blah-blah.
On the contrary, to my statement of "Make it 40", the shopkeeper blinked back at me, put on a face of incredulity and demanded "Why?"
Inwardly, I laughed out loud! No one had asked me this ever before! Why would one bargain?! Anyway, I mumbled something about its value being 40 or something - again, not at all putting feeling into what I was saying - and took my leave, taking back with me the change of Rs 50 which the shopkeeper had returned...
:)
And the elevator moved on its own...
There is something about 'things happening on their own without my intervention' that gives me a great kick!
Such as being on a bicycle on a slopy road when I do not have to pedal...
Such as enjoying the warmth of a hot water bath coming from a solar heater and not due to the electric geyser that I had to switch on...
Such as door opening on its own as I near it...
One such desire I had since a very long time was :
1. to stand in front of an elevator
2. elevator doors to open on its own
3. I enter the unmanned elevator
4. elevator to move on its own to the floor I want it to go
5. elevator to reach the desired floor and open the doors on its own
6. and I get off the elevator
As can be seen, I get from one floor to another without so much as even a press of a button. Perhaps the fact I am paranoid about carpal tunnel syndrome or perhaps this kick of 'things happening on their own', but in any case, the above desire to be fulfilled had been going on for a very long time now - almost years altogether.
And, at last, today, the desire was fulfilled!
I was at Floor 2 and I had to go to Floor 0. As I neared the elevator on Floor 2, it was coming up from Floor 0 on its own. So I just waited for the doors to open. Once it opened, I entered in and just waited there. The doors closed and for a moment, the elevator didnt move. It just stood there. Within a minute, someone at Floor 0 pressed the button and the elevator started moving down to Floor 0. Once Floor 0 was reached, I just stepped out, and finally, I had achieved my small ambition of moving from one floor to another floor in an unmanned elevator without even pressing a single button!
And I wasnt alone in this event. I had been discussing about this desire of mine to many of my friends over a period of time. This time, I was with 5 friends and persuaded them also not to press any button throughout the ordeal. It brought even more joy when they too whooped in happiness along with me as the elevator moved down towards Floor 0!
Its a very tiny thing, I know, but it gave me immense joy!
:)
Such as being on a bicycle on a slopy road when I do not have to pedal...
Such as enjoying the warmth of a hot water bath coming from a solar heater and not due to the electric geyser that I had to switch on...
Such as door opening on its own as I near it...
One such desire I had since a very long time was :
1. to stand in front of an elevator
2. elevator doors to open on its own
3. I enter the unmanned elevator
4. elevator to move on its own to the floor I want it to go
5. elevator to reach the desired floor and open the doors on its own
6. and I get off the elevator
As can be seen, I get from one floor to another without so much as even a press of a button. Perhaps the fact I am paranoid about carpal tunnel syndrome or perhaps this kick of 'things happening on their own', but in any case, the above desire to be fulfilled had been going on for a very long time now - almost years altogether.
And, at last, today, the desire was fulfilled!
I was at Floor 2 and I had to go to Floor 0. As I neared the elevator on Floor 2, it was coming up from Floor 0 on its own. So I just waited for the doors to open. Once it opened, I entered in and just waited there. The doors closed and for a moment, the elevator didnt move. It just stood there. Within a minute, someone at Floor 0 pressed the button and the elevator started moving down to Floor 0. Once Floor 0 was reached, I just stepped out, and finally, I had achieved my small ambition of moving from one floor to another floor in an unmanned elevator without even pressing a single button!
And I wasnt alone in this event. I had been discussing about this desire of mine to many of my friends over a period of time. This time, I was with 5 friends and persuaded them also not to press any button throughout the ordeal. It brought even more joy when they too whooped in happiness along with me as the elevator moved down towards Floor 0!
Its a very tiny thing, I know, but it gave me immense joy!
:)
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Moments of the day
* The drama 'All the best' was hilariously magnificent. As were the dance sequences that followed. The setting - Infosys Amphitheatre - was exemplary. The mood was (Sankranthi) festive. The crowd was multilingual although the drama and songs were in Kannada. Suffice it to say that it was jam packed. The MC looked fabulous, and to top it all, when she threw the Dairy Milk at the audience, who would have thought that I can reach out and catch it?! Boy, that made me really a happy!
* There I am riding slowly on the new TVS Streak scooterette, making sure I do not cross 40 kmph (at least till I reach 600 kms), and what do I see but other scooters going at the same slow speed as me! In reality, they are checking the scooterette out in totality - from back to front and from right to left! Talk about advantages of being amongst the first few to own a new vehicle that just got released! Boy, it made me feel as if I was in an ad show!
* There I am riding slowly on the new TVS Streak scooterette, making sure I do not cross 40 kmph (at least till I reach 600 kms), and what do I see but other scooters going at the same slow speed as me! In reality, they are checking the scooterette out in totality - from back to front and from right to left! Talk about advantages of being amongst the first few to own a new vehicle that just got released! Boy, it made me feel as if I was in an ad show!
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Where are all the women?!
For the nth time in my life, I attended a meeting of over 20 people but with just 1 female member.
My first project had several meetings consisting of several male members but just one female member. But then, the whole team consisted of only one female member!! And today again, there was a meeting with just one female member in a room full of male associates. It made me wonder what it always make me wonder.
Either its a male dominated society or I am in a female-deprived projects' area!
In each of these meetings, I truly like the way each of these female associates respond to and articulate their thoughts and opinions clearly, albeit outnumbered in gender. Its really good to see that they do not get outweighed by the situation and feel complex about it, because, in reality, they are the ones who are really admired and respected by the male counterparts.
Question: How would I feel if I were to be in a meeting consisting of only female associates?!
:)
My first project had several meetings consisting of several male members but just one female member. But then, the whole team consisted of only one female member!! And today again, there was a meeting with just one female member in a room full of male associates. It made me wonder what it always make me wonder.
Either its a male dominated society or I am in a female-deprived projects' area!
In each of these meetings, I truly like the way each of these female associates respond to and articulate their thoughts and opinions clearly, albeit outnumbered in gender. Its really good to see that they do not get outweighed by the situation and feel complex about it, because, in reality, they are the ones who are really admired and respected by the male counterparts.
Question: How would I feel if I were to be in a meeting consisting of only female associates?!
:)
Sunday, December 21, 2008
F***
I met two friends this weekend.
It had been quite some time since I saw them.
Both had come down from US to India on vacation.
I noticed both of them using a four lettered F word very frequently.
When I knew them before, the word was not so common in their dialect.
It was not the same word used by both though; they were two different words.
One of the four lettered F word was 'Fish'.
It had been quite some time since I saw them.
Both had come down from US to India on vacation.
I noticed both of them using a four lettered F word very frequently.
When I knew them before, the word was not so common in their dialect.
It was not the same word used by both though; they were two different words.
One of the four lettered F word was 'Fish'.
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Improper Initial Perceptions
A florist shop in front of a wedding hall made me think “Wow! What a strategic place to open a florist shop. Wedding guests can buy bouquet in front of the wedding hall and present it to the hosts.”
But then I realized that not many wedding guests would know about the florist shop in front of the wedding hall and hence they would have already brought wedding gifts along with them to the wedding.
So its not such a strategic place after all…!
* * *
I noticed a water tanker ahead of me, while driving my car, spilling bucketful of water every minute onto the median through the outlet hose, as the tanker chugged along the bumpy road. It made me think what a waste it is to the owner of the water tanker or the company that owns it to have lost so much water in every transit.
But then I realized that the real loss is not to the water tanker or the company that owns it but to the customer - to whom the tanker is heading - who has actually paid for the tanker full of water! So if a customer pays Rs 500 for a tanker full of water, by the time the tanker comes to the customer’s place, the tanker will be about three-fourths full of water and the customer wont even now it!
So all that water onto the median was actually paid by the customer of the company that owns the water tanker…!
* * *
There is a shop at the end of our road which is a part of a 3-storey building, and time and again the shopkeepers need to switch on the water pump to pump water from the basement sump all the way to the tank three floors above. Extremely irresponsible citizens that they are, not a day passes without them switching the pump off before water overflows from the overhead tank. The ingenious architect of the building has so placed the overhead tank that whenever the water overflows from the tank, the water spills directly onto the pavement - where the shop customers are standing - and also a little bit onto the road. The ingenious architect along with the irresponsible shopkeepers thereby has created occasionally an artificial water falls for all passers-by to see and feel!
So, there I am again, thinking what a waste, to see all that good potable water getting spilt onto the road for no reason.
But then I realized that although the water from the tank is spilling onto the road, it is actually not joining the drainage water of the gutter. Due to the slope of the road – should I say architected by another ingenious engineer? – the water just stays there at the edge of the pavement, stagnant. This puddle of water either evaporates by itself or gets absorbed by the earth to add onto the ground water.
So, although it seemed that overflow of the tank was causing wastage of water, it, in fact, was a boon to the ground water table, financed by the shopkeepers!
* * *
Tuesday, December 02, 2008
Thought on the Mumbai Siege
How can anyone be convinced that killing people is for the good...?
Isnt it common sense that making people suffer is a bad thing to do...?
Arent we all aware of what is right and what is wrong, and that that is wrong is not to be done nor followed...?
Do not we have enough issues to battle as it is, of survival amidst depleting resources, amidst irrational weather behaviors, amidst hunger and unknown diseases instead of killing fellow human beings for two-pence attention and two-day glory...?
There have been many blog posts on the Mumbai Siege, but I liked Krish Ashok's the best. Read them here and here.
Isnt it common sense that making people suffer is a bad thing to do...?
Arent we all aware of what is right and what is wrong, and that that is wrong is not to be done nor followed...?
Do not we have enough issues to battle as it is, of survival amidst depleting resources, amidst irrational weather behaviors, amidst hunger and unknown diseases instead of killing fellow human beings for two-pence attention and two-day glory...?
There have been many blog posts on the Mumbai Siege, but I liked Krish Ashok's the best. Read them here and here.
Sunday, November 23, 2008
The Terrace
The terrace is the best place in the house for me. A decade ago, the view was either the sky or magnificent trees. Now, the majority is either buildings or light spilt over and onto the sky. The green trees are minimal and although sky is still there, the bright lights of the advertisement hoardings and the mall nearby eclipse the beautiful twinkling light of the stars.
The stars always remind me of what Yann Martel said in Life of Pi. God has made this world so beautiful in just two colours. The white twinkling light of the stars against this vast blackness of the sky. It is such a wonderful, wonderful sight.
Add silence to this and it’s a beautiful world of its own, shunned from the constant motoring noises. Add the perfect sphere of the Moon and subtract all the clouds and you are awestruck. Just cant help gazing and staring at the tranquility. There is a divinity, spirituality and universality about it all that cannot be explained.
Back in the days when Bangalore’s HAL airport was functional for commercial purposes, we used to have flights preparing for landing over our locality. Some flights waiting for their turn and hence circling, some in the queue and some opening up their wheels, ready for descent. Between 9 pm and 10 pm, there were at least about 10 to 12 flights landing. Apart from the natural beauty all around, this man made bird was another thing of joy!
I don’t know what is it about an airplane that fascinates me but it sure does make me stop my after-dinner-walk and see every time a plane hovers over my house. Perhaps it’s the magnificence of the human mind that has thought of such an engineering marvel to simulate a bird! But alas, now that the new airport is 40 miles away from my house, hardly any plane can be seen.
Well, I wanted to write about something else and instead the prologue itself became the content, although a trifle repeated! But I guess that suffices for now…!
The stars always remind me of what Yann Martel said in Life of Pi. God has made this world so beautiful in just two colours. The white twinkling light of the stars against this vast blackness of the sky. It is such a wonderful, wonderful sight.
Add silence to this and it’s a beautiful world of its own, shunned from the constant motoring noises. Add the perfect sphere of the Moon and subtract all the clouds and you are awestruck. Just cant help gazing and staring at the tranquility. There is a divinity, spirituality and universality about it all that cannot be explained.
Back in the days when Bangalore’s HAL airport was functional for commercial purposes, we used to have flights preparing for landing over our locality. Some flights waiting for their turn and hence circling, some in the queue and some opening up their wheels, ready for descent. Between 9 pm and 10 pm, there were at least about 10 to 12 flights landing. Apart from the natural beauty all around, this man made bird was another thing of joy!
I don’t know what is it about an airplane that fascinates me but it sure does make me stop my after-dinner-walk and see every time a plane hovers over my house. Perhaps it’s the magnificence of the human mind that has thought of such an engineering marvel to simulate a bird! But alas, now that the new airport is 40 miles away from my house, hardly any plane can be seen.
Well, I wanted to write about something else and instead the prologue itself became the content, although a trifle repeated! But I guess that suffices for now…!
Struggle?
Back in the days of me reading Tinkle, there was one short moral story which till date I haven’t forgotten. It went like this:
A king on his way to palace sees a poor man toiling away hard, hitting rocks with hammer, day in and day out, amidst bushes and thorns and sharp stones. Overcome by the poor man’s dedication and commitment to work, the king gave him lots of jewels as a token of appreciation. Overnight the poor man became a rich man.
The now rich man buys himself the best clothes and starts living a lavish life. Soon after, when the king was again going on the same way, he sees the now rich man, dressed royally, sitting on the rock, nursing his finger and apparently resting. When the king asks what happened, the now rich man says he was prick by a thorn and there was a small dot of blood on his fingers due to which he cannot work.
The king then realizes what ill effects money has on man. While the poor man used to toil hard amidst the same thorns for the sake of earning bread, the same man starts complaining of minor things when he attains the next stage of life and is uplifted monetarily.
This made me realize - apart from whatever the king realized - that the intensity and vagaries of a struggle become evident only when it is past and when the next level of comfort is achieved. Till then, it does not even occur that one is struggling, because such kind of toil is accepted as a way of leading life and taken easily for granted.
There are many instances that can be quoted. Nowadays, almost everyone has a mobile phone. To think of a life without cell phone suddenly seems so difficult and so unimaginable. And yet, men lived without it for centuries. The future generation – who are born with laptops and cell phones as toys – will soon be remarking how the olden generation were struggling in life without cell phones in the then era!
We all used to go to school or college by walk or cycle or public transport. Day after day after day after day. Monotonously. A long 30 minute haste walk, an uphill cycle ride, an overcrowded bus – all that seems so much of struggle as compared to driving to office in an AC car now or even going in the plush company bus with added cushion for extra comfort.
Similarly, carrying the backpacks to school seems such a struggle as against taking one notebook to college. Cramming for studies for monthly internal college exams seems such a struggle when going to office. Retirement seems such a pleasure after decades of office going struggle. So on and so forth…
Most of our older generations, immediately after independence, have really struggled to set up and sustain a family. People have fled villages and come to major towns in search of a job. There have been instances also of starving because of lack of money, of walking miles together and of cycling from one part of the town to another instead of commuting in bus due to lack of money.
Our own parents have gone through these hardships at one point of time. All of this seems so much of a struggle, and yet, at that point of time in their life, they wouldn’t have thought of it as a struggle. It was just a mere way of life, of existence. Question of whether it was hard or struggle or not just wouldn’t have occurred to them as there really was no other option. But on hindsight when life is being good, one remembers all of those instances and wonders how one ‘struggled’ so much!
Ditto will be the case with us. The simple tasks we are doing now will be even simplified so much more in the coming generations that a time will come when the next generations will be wondering how much we oldies struggled!
So. Are we struggling? Or are we not?!
A king on his way to palace sees a poor man toiling away hard, hitting rocks with hammer, day in and day out, amidst bushes and thorns and sharp stones. Overcome by the poor man’s dedication and commitment to work, the king gave him lots of jewels as a token of appreciation. Overnight the poor man became a rich man.
The now rich man buys himself the best clothes and starts living a lavish life. Soon after, when the king was again going on the same way, he sees the now rich man, dressed royally, sitting on the rock, nursing his finger and apparently resting. When the king asks what happened, the now rich man says he was prick by a thorn and there was a small dot of blood on his fingers due to which he cannot work.
The king then realizes what ill effects money has on man. While the poor man used to toil hard amidst the same thorns for the sake of earning bread, the same man starts complaining of minor things when he attains the next stage of life and is uplifted monetarily.
This made me realize - apart from whatever the king realized - that the intensity and vagaries of a struggle become evident only when it is past and when the next level of comfort is achieved. Till then, it does not even occur that one is struggling, because such kind of toil is accepted as a way of leading life and taken easily for granted.
There are many instances that can be quoted. Nowadays, almost everyone has a mobile phone. To think of a life without cell phone suddenly seems so difficult and so unimaginable. And yet, men lived without it for centuries. The future generation – who are born with laptops and cell phones as toys – will soon be remarking how the olden generation were struggling in life without cell phones in the then era!
We all used to go to school or college by walk or cycle or public transport. Day after day after day after day. Monotonously. A long 30 minute haste walk, an uphill cycle ride, an overcrowded bus – all that seems so much of struggle as compared to driving to office in an AC car now or even going in the plush company bus with added cushion for extra comfort.
Similarly, carrying the backpacks to school seems such a struggle as against taking one notebook to college. Cramming for studies for monthly internal college exams seems such a struggle when going to office. Retirement seems such a pleasure after decades of office going struggle. So on and so forth…
Most of our older generations, immediately after independence, have really struggled to set up and sustain a family. People have fled villages and come to major towns in search of a job. There have been instances also of starving because of lack of money, of walking miles together and of cycling from one part of the town to another instead of commuting in bus due to lack of money.
Our own parents have gone through these hardships at one point of time. All of this seems so much of a struggle, and yet, at that point of time in their life, they wouldn’t have thought of it as a struggle. It was just a mere way of life, of existence. Question of whether it was hard or struggle or not just wouldn’t have occurred to them as there really was no other option. But on hindsight when life is being good, one remembers all of those instances and wonders how one ‘struggled’ so much!
Ditto will be the case with us. The simple tasks we are doing now will be even simplified so much more in the coming generations that a time will come when the next generations will be wondering how much we oldies struggled!
So. Are we struggling? Or are we not?!
Monday, November 17, 2008
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Another Titanic?
There is this scene in the movie Titanic when for a split second, half of the broken ship is exactly perpendicular to the ocean. Everybody is hanging on to dear life, holding whatever they can. But the gravitational pull is too much and everyone is slipping...
There is this situation currently in the world now where every other day we are hearing news of people getting sacked, companies going down, hikes and promotions being cut. The scene is almost reminiscent of the perpendicular Titanic with people falling down, one after the other, trying desperately to hold but not able to do so...
There is this situation currently in the world now where every other day we are hearing news of people getting sacked, companies going down, hikes and promotions being cut. The scene is almost reminiscent of the perpendicular Titanic with people falling down, one after the other, trying desperately to hold but not able to do so...
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