Quote of the day

Don’t go the way life takes you.
Take life the way you go.

- Seen on a cubicle board

Heavenly

Heads leaning on one another...
Arms locked in one another...
On a bench in a park under the cool night air...
Under a canopy of side-by-side arching branches...
Greenery, shrubs and trees all around...
Orion filling the small visible sky...
Not a thought in the world...
Not a worry in the world...

Heavenly!

Happy New Year 2010!

For the first time since I can recollect,
I slept on the New Year’s Eve…

A sleep year ahead?!
Happy New Year!!

Vishnuvardhan is no more...

Everyone informed that he was one of the finest human beings on Earth and a wonderful, wonderful man. What a great honor to be said thus as eulogy...it just makes his whole life worthy.

But there was a peculiarity in this natural death: Just a few years ago, actress Soundarya died before the release of Apthamithra film in which Vishnu had acted. This was a film based on paranormal theme. Vishnu died before the release of Aptharakshaka film in which he was taking part when he died. This was supposed to be his 200th film, and a sequel to Apthamithra. This film also was based on a paranormal theme. It was also said that there were 'peculiar' incidents happening to the film crew during the shooting of Aptharakshaka. Like the actress of this film feeling someone was sleeping in her hotel room, seeing shadows, etc. Whats with this 'Aptha..' and 'Paranormal' theme thats haunting the Kannada film industry?

Whatever be the case, Vishnuvardhan is no more with us. There were many films of his that I liked. I especially remember Rayaru Bandaru Maavana Manege. May his soul rest in peace...

Sigh.

The 'Treasure-Hunt' feeling!

I vividly remember one Friday in September when I left office at 4.30 pm to get AAA maps of New York City [AAA closes at 5 pm]. If you have noticed a AAA map, it is HUGE! It spans across almost a 3*3 table top and the street names are tiny. As I was driving home (and thence on to NY with wife), I had this strange sense of excitement and anxiety within me and I could not understand why.

It struck me a while later that it was because of those AAA maps! Apart from the mapquest printout from and to my sole destination point in NY city [I did not have a GPS], I had not taken any further mapquest printouts and I was totally relying on the AAA map. This feeling of finding out driving directions from a paper map was alien to me and feeling was almost akin to a treasure hunt! Hence the excitement! I was totally looking forward to it! Just goes to show how a device like GPS can kill or mute an innate human feeling of excitement.

Manhattan, with its streets and avenues and traffic jams, is a pain to drive as it is but with no clear sense of direction, it is even more difficult. But I was able to manage it with ease and learnt a lot more about Manhattan than I would have if I had used GPS [A related post]. Not just that, it was plain fun to find roads by myself through paper maps and navigate through the NYC traffic.

PS: I finally fell to the charm and versatility of the GPS and bought one last month.

Quote of the Day

Wealth is relative to the amount of time one has to enjoy it.

~Robert Ludlum, The Bourne Identity

People and Work

There are some people
Wanting to do the same work
At the same office
Day in and day out
For years together
And yet be very content.

And then there are some people
Wanting to do different work
In different offices
Because they get bored and discontent
With a particular stream of work and location
Within a short span of time.

Why that passivity?
Why this restlessness?

Lingua Franca

It will be reasonable to say that Man came on Earth a very long time ago. Based on Continental Drift hypothesis, it is also reasonable to say that a very long time ago, Earth was just one land mass. Might not exactly be correct to deduce (as cited in the website) but as per Transitive Property of Equality, it is possible that when Man came on Earth very long time ago, Earth was just one land mass.

Continuing thereon, Man would have led to Men (due respect to Woman!) and Men to Community and Communities. Supposing that we had Communities of Men on Earth when Earth was still one land mass, it is possible that the Native Man started some form of communication to communicate with one another. This would have led to the creation of alphabet and sentences and grammar and what not. Its all hypothesis because no one can really say how it all really evolved over period of time.

Now my thought is this: when Earth was just one land mass and Men lived in one community or neighbouring communities, then how did so many languages evolve on this planet? Should not there have been just one language in this whole Earth?!

Since there are more than one languages, it implies that when Man came on this Earth, the Earth was not just one land mass. But then this means that Men came on Earth simultaneously in different parts of the continent at the same time and Continental Communities created their own languages. Of course, this discredits Adam because we are now saying that Men came simultaneously at different parts of Earth. Of course, another explanation is that this implies that Men got separated by continental drift before a form of communication was developed and this resulted in different languages across continents and regions. Possible.

But its surprising and fascinating that there are so many languages on this planet. Its understandable if a huge land area talks one language (like countries having their own languages) but its unthinkable to have neighbouring people (like states within a country) talk different languages. Its almost as if there was a time when people hated one another so much that they thought they should have a language of their own so that they can converse secretly without being understood!

In this one planet, we have 6909 languages and in India alone, there are 452 listed languages! I mean, why take all the pain to create alphabet, create grammar, create sentences, meanings, synonyms, antonyms, etc to create a new language when someone has already created a language? Was the hatred so much that the pain of creation of a new language was absolutely worth it?!!

Or was creating a new language the order of the day for regions, just like how states and countries got created and are being created? Like, as if its an achievement to have a state of one’s own with national language and national flag and national animal and national bird! Did it not strike then that the wheel was being reinvented, so to speak?

One reasoning is that perhaps there was one main language, but it got broken down over the ages to something simpler and easier. For example, if you consider Sanskrit as a parent language, Hindi came out as a child language. The script is the same but content was simplified. Again, its all my hypothesis.

I guess it is too vast a topic to write about and I know too little about evolution of Man and languages. All I know is that when I travel 6 hours from my place, I cannot talk nor read nor understand what people are talking, and I will be left wondering – again – why was there a need to come up with so many languages in this world!!!

:-)

Thought for the day

Sometimes change is all what we crave for...
Sometimes constancy is all what we crave for...

Sick Leaves

In my organization, employees at onsite are entitled for 10 sick leaves per year. If they are not taken, they get lapsed at the end of the calendar year. I had not taken a sick leave as long as I was in onsite just for the sake of utilizing the sick leaves. But one day I really fell ill and I took the sick leave.

At the back of mind, there was a sense of satisfaction that I was utilizing the sick leave. I was staying at home, taking rest, being leisurely on a working day. Completely away from work and tension. And yet, I got to keep my earned leave balance the same. Happy-happy!

Then I realized that, due to me not going to office, the client would not be billed for my 8 hours of work by my organization that day. So, my organization would not receive pay for the 8 hours that I was supposed to work that day. In effect, the overall profit would have got hit however infinitesimal this hit might be. But if the organization is over 100,000 people strong and if a considerable number of this population are in onsite and take sick leaves during that quarter, then it is no longer an infinitesimal hit. When the profit hit is significant, then it gets reflected in my own pay slip because my variable pay reduces. So, the sick leave I had taken was essentially back firing me monetarily. Not so happy-happy now!!

Another classic case for Improper Initial Perception.

Life in a suit case...

After 6 months in Heights,

12 days in Royal Crest,

10 days in Raleigh and

15 days in Homestead.

At least now, for some time,

We do not have to live out of the suit case...

Geography and Electronic Communication

When me and my wife were in Jayanagar-Bangalore-India, my wife’s mom was in Jalahalli-Bangalore-India and their daily communication was through cell phone.

When me and my wife moved to Marlborough-MA-USA, my wife’s mom continued to stay in Jalahalli-Bangalore-India but now their daily communication was through video –chat!

Geographically farther though we went, their communication became much more audio-visually closer and clearer!

Hail Technology! :-)

Why does the queue not move?!!

When you are driving from New York to Boston, during one particular stretch, you will have to exit I 91N, merge onto CT 15N which becomes I 84E. Now, generally, the traffic from New York to Boston (or MA state) and vice versa during weekends is heavy. This particular exit from I 91N to CT 15N is a one-lane exit and hence, very often, there will be a huge queue – about a mile, mile and a half – on the right most lane even before this exit.

Now, those who are not aware of this traffic condition at the exit, usually - innocently - drive right to the exit and then realize that there is actually a queue. Upon realization, they humbly, meekly slide onto the queue and become a part of it. If there are a huge number of such innocent humble drivers, the guys who are in the queue get delayed and the queue at the very end doesn’t move at all.

Now, those who are aware of this traffic condition at the exit, are also aware that the queue at the very end doesn’t move at all and hence, usually – deliberately – drive right to the exit and then smartly, savagely get into the queue and become part of it. If there are a huge number of such deliberate smart drivers, the guys who are in the queue get even more delayed and the queue at the very end doesn’t move at all.

So, those who are aware of this traffic condition at the exit but are neither smart nor savage join the queue at the very end and stay there for a long time…

Quod Erat Demonstrandum

Sandhyavandanam and Science

The crux of Hindu practice of Sandhyavandanam lies in the repeated chanting - with utmost concentration - of the sacred ‘Gayatri Mantra’. The repetition range is anywhere from 11 to 101 to 1001. At a highly superficial level, this is what you are told to do when you are 7-year old and this is what you do in the initial stages after the sacred thread ceremony [also called Upanayanam]. But this manual chanting of the Gayatri Mantra - repeated chanting of anything, come to think of it - is more often than not associated with the wanderings of the mental state to the oh-so-wonderful materialistic tastes that go with the modern life, and this defeats the very purpose of Sandhyavandanam [SV]. And so, after some years of blindly following the ritual, you feel that it is not really enhancing the spiritual in you and so, the 1001 comes down to 101 to 11 and then even 1 and finally – if you come abroad, especially – you stop performing the Sandhyavandanam ritual completely. This is exactly what happened to me.

As I grew older, the science around me tried to tell me that SV is not just about repeating a sloka x number of times. It is about trying to “connect” to an almighty through your mental faculties. If you can do this, then the sloka is irrelevant and the x is irrelevant. But it is easier said than done, to get through this “connection”. It needs high amount of concentration and an absolute removal of yourself from everyone and everything around you. Like being “amidst the clouds” all by yourself. [It helps to picturise being “amidst the clouds” feeling if you travel abroad in an airplane. It is such a wonderful sight!]

Then I read this book called ‘The Secret’ by Rhonda. Concept encouraged in this book is that if you want something, act as if you already have it and feel it in you so much that you will eventually get it. Personally I didn’t like it so much and this is what I thought about it. Perhaps it was the way it was written. But the concept seemed interesting and almost believable. The missing thing in this book was of course exact science. And then, when I read Akbar’s blog, the science blended in beautifully.

Akbar wrote two blog posts: This concept of Manifestation and 15 minutes of meditation. He has written both extremely well. It all makes so much sense when you read them both.

To put it concisely, this is what the first blog post says: [refer to the pictorial graph in the first blog post link]: When you think of something and something alone hard in your mental state, you cause such a high amount of vibration within you that it breaks through your own negative barriers and belief system and eventually outputs the desired goal. The human mind has the power to create just by thinking! And how do you achieve this level of thinking? Normal thinking will not give desired goals because normal thinking wanders from one topic to another!

Akbar mentions that this level of thinking can be achieved by meditation. And, in the second blog post, he mentions how to meditate. And, if you think about it, the whole point of SV was about meditation. Concentrating on the Gayatri Mantra for a definite or indefinite period of time is actually nothing but meditation. Meditation, in its purest form, means not to “connect” to any God, but to improve the thinking process, to negate the belief system, to know that a human mind can create wonders just by thinking. Akbar himself talks about the advantages of meditation in his blog post. [Going one step further: yoga, meditation, vocal music and SV are all concentrated on the human breath. The more you can control your breath, the better control you have on your own life]

So, coming back to the multiple chanting of the Gayatri Mantra in the Sandhyavandanam:

Was the real intention of multiple chanting of Gayatri Mantra in Sandhyavandanam to get a better control of one’s own life by a strong mental state, to channelize the thought process to create what one wants in life and achieve one’s own goals?

It is a question to be pondered about...

Related:
1. Saw this video recently. Isnt this what we do (or we see people do) in temples?! Super Brain Yoga, indeed!!
2. The meaning of Namasthe. Courtesy: Nikhil's blog.

7 Blankets

Its been 7 years since I am in employment in my current organisation.
Each year of employment in any one organisation, I feel, is like a blanket wrapped around you.
The more years you are in any one organisation, more the blankets wrapped around you.
More the blankets wrapped around you, more you get stifled and constricted. And sometimes, comfortable.

Of course, it gets more difficult to free yourself from all the blankets wrapped around you with each passing year!

:-)

The 1%

There is a park near my house in Bangalore which I used to often visit. The park is a square shaped garden and the entrance is in the middle of the west side. As soon as we enter, there is a walking/jogging track leading to the left and right. The left and right tracks form the periphery of the park. There are also 2 center tracks which cut through the park and divides the park into 4 equal parts. One such center track starts from the entry point too. Benches are strewn all along the walking/jogging tracks. It was on such benches that I often used to sit leisurely and gaze lazily at the walkers and listen to the humming of the birds. Aaah, what pleasure!

A thing that I noticed was that most walkers and joggers, as soon as they enter the park, tend to follow the clockwise direction of the path, me included. Only 1% (a layman approximation) used to follow the anti-clockwise direction. I used to muse on this a lot and somehow find it very amusing and fascinating.

How does the mind decide which path to go when it is faced with 3 paths [left (anti clockwise), straight (straight), right (clockwise)] and there is no aim in particular other than just walking or jogging nor is there any level of difficulty defined (all the paths were even)? What makes that 1% of the populace to go the other direction?!!

The reason I bring this up now is that in the apartment community in which I stay now, there is a parking lot with about 20 parking lots, all at the same angle to the curb. All residents park their car facing the curb. Except me. I park the car reverse, facing the road.

So, in this case, I am that 1%.

5800 in 6 months

3000 in 3 months.
I very nearly came to 6000 in 6 months.

Now that winter has started,
I guess the pace reduces....

Floods at Mantralayam

If the Saviours themselves get drowned...
Then what of us...?

Marriage and Responsibility

You are responsible for your spouse...
You are responsible for your parents...
You are responsible for your offspring...
You are responsible for your yourself...

17000, but 3 runs short!!!

Sports can make one so sad....and so happy!
Felt happy for Sachin...but was so dejected about the outcome.

When 1 person gets half the required runs [175],
It is disappointing that the remaining 10 cannot even get the other half of the required runs...

Mathematically representing today,
Sachin > 10 fellow-mates.

"Anmol" Moles!

A mole on left arm.
A mole on right shoulder.
A mole on left middle finger.
A mole on right elbow.
A mole on left thigh.
Two moles on back.
And all of them in the exact spots respectively...

These are the things I share with my wife apart from Birthday!!!

:-)

Temperature and Population

Noticed a strange thing last week. When just me and my wife were at home, the room temp hovered around 70s. My parents and sister-in-law came and the room temp climbed to 73s. Brother joined, and room temp further climbed to 76s. It could be coincidental that the outside temp too increased, but…it was food for weird thought. Just to bring down the fundamental laws of Geography, lets look at the facts...(!)

Average population density in US is less than average population density in India => Average temperature in US is less than average temperate in India.

So, is temperature directly proportional to population? There is hardly anyone living in Arctic and Antarctic. Hence climate is so cold out there. But if the entire world’s population was distributed evenly across all parts of the globe, perhaps we will have uniform temperature everywhere!

Its like people on a sinking ship. If one part of the ship is sinking, tendency is to move towards the safe part. But the safe part becomes unsafe if all of the passengers move to one side of the ship.

People move away from colder part of the world because it is cold but it could be that that part of the world is getting cold because there is no people living there; People move towards warmer part of the world because it is warm but it could be that this part of the world is getting warmer, and if not hotter, because there are lot of people moving into this part of the world!

Well, as I said. Its just a weird thought.

Books and Friendship

There is no surer foundation for a beautiful friendship than a mutual taste in literature.

~The World of Mr Mulliner by P G Wodehouse.

Over 3000 in 3 months

Oil change for a car needs to be done within 3000 miles or 3 months of the previous oil change, whichever is earlier.

All these years I used to fall into the latter category.

For the first time, I crossed 3000 miles within 3 months of oil change.

Just shows how much I am traveling in own car.

Angels and Demons

Once upon a time
An ex-Demon gave birth to a Demon
And thought it was an Angel
But then this Angel turned out to be a Demon

And then the ex-Demon wished it was not a Demon before
For, this thought-to-be-Angel would not have been a Demon
If the ex-Demon was not a Demon before
And for this, the ex-Demon bemoaned...

Why does God make Demons?
Why do Angels have to suffer due to Demons?

Work and Pay

Most of us at work, are trying to figure out something, that is not working;
Trying to find a solution that is elusive, which makes you tear your hair out.

The more it is elusive, the more you want to tear your hair out, the better the pay is.

:-(

The Wait

Couple of decades ago,
I used to wait for my father to get back home from office.
And today, the roles have reversed.

Well, I guess,
It’s the same since years now.
But its more pronounced in US.

Quote

"Worry is interest paid in advance on a debt that never comes due."

The Spanish prisoner

The office telephone number

The office telephone number that is assigned to me
Since I assumed US office in May 2009
Is exactly the same when I was here in US from 2006 to 2007!
What a coincidence!

:-)

PS: One more thing that hasnt changed, eh?

Question of the day

My wife and I were playing badminton for the first time in our lives, in United States of America, just in front of our house, in the lush garden that spans across our community. We had asked our parents to get the rackets and the shuttle cock from India and it seemed a nice game to play in the evenings.

Apparently, it is not a well known game here. Soon after we started playing, some kids came and started watching us. One of them ventured to ask what the name of the game was. But another one had an even more interesting question:

“Are you adults?”

:-)

The joy of self discovery

Today, we were driving to the temple from a different starting point (not home), and I was trying to catch up to the road that ultimately leads to the temple. Perhaps I was going to meet that road in a roundabout manner but at least I was sure that it was the right way. Without GPS, one has to compromise. But then, on the way, I found a road whose name seemed familiar. On an impulse, I took the turn and went in that road. Within minutes, I was in the temple premises! My joy of finding this new road was immense!

True, if I had GPS, it would have led me on this same route but the joy of finding a shorter route on my own is inexplicable. And not just that, since I found this on my own, I shall always remember. It is not to be easily forgotten because the impression would have been made on the brain. However, if I did have GPS, I would have blindly followed whatever I was told to and next time on my way to temple, I would have again asked GPS to guide me instead of relying on my own human power. Not that GPS is bad and I advocate against it; it really is a remarkable invention and a life-saver at times.

But this is not just about GPS. Alarm clock (farmers don’t use alarm clocks, do they?), calculators (yes, the calculation is right! No need to confirm with the calculator!), writing down things to do (have you noticed how brain stops remembering the moment you put down things to do in a paper?), remembering phone numbers (thanks to cell phone, we remember none), etc.

Well, this post is more about how man has become so dependent on electronic gadgets than utilizing his own self to the best ability. I have already written on the same theory but wanted to write once more on the joy of self discovery and realize how potential (and beautiful) the human mind is!

The Month That Was

July has been a whirlwind of a month. It was the same last year too and this post is more like a Part Two! It swept through under our feet so quickly that we didn’t even realize it. Well, I guess I can say the same to the last one year too, considering that we just completed our first year wedding anniversary.

Parents came from India on the second week of July and I had to chart out the itinerary for their month long stay. We ended up going to Mount Greylock and Lake George on July 12th, Cape Cod on July 18th, Boston (Quincy Market and Bunker Hill monument) on July 19th, Orlando the weekend after and then it was time for them to head back!

Apart from the trip, whose photos can be seen in links provided above, here are some snaps from the month that was.
And here are some videos (Gouri skipping and mom singing – no, not related!) from the month that was.

First Year Wedding Anniversary

Prologue: This post is delayed by almost a month due to heightened activities in July.

It seems we got married recently, and me and my wife still act as newly-weds, but the fact is, it’s already been a year since we married. To celebrate the anniversary – well, considering that July 4th is a holiday and we get a long weekend, it was a week before the actual date of anniversary - we went to Canada and enjoyed each and every moment of the 4 day trip.

On July 11th, to celebrate our actual wedding anniversary, we went to temple in the morning and had a romantic dinner at Top of the Hub – a restaurant on the top of Prudential Building in Boston which gives an excellent view of the Boston skyline especially at night. The restaurant has nothing much to offer for vegetarians but the setting and hospitality and service is really amazing. Had a gala time!

Here’s wishing us a Happy Wedding Anniversary!!

:-)

MTE

Got this as a forward:

Life can be categorised into 3 phases - MTE.

Till employment - We have time and energy, but there is no money
During employment - We have energy and money, but there is no time
Retirement - We have time and money, but there is no energy

:-)

Thought for the day

“Chumps always make the best husbands. When you marry, Sally, grab a chump. Tap his forehead first, and if it rings solid, don’t hesitate. All the unhappy marriages come from the husband having brains. What good are brains to a man? They only unsettle him.”
***
“There was too much in New York to remind me. That’s the worst of being happy in a place. When things go wrong you find there are too many ghosts about. Don’t ever be happy anywhere, Ginger. It’s too big a risk, much too big a risk.”
***

~ Excerpts from P G Wodehouse's Mostly Sally.

The World Is Flat

Some professions are satisfying and some are not. What is it that differentiates a satisfying profession and dissatisfying profession? Simple. The end result. If you sweat out for for days together, you want to see the end result and the end result should make you happy, should inform you that what you did, the hours you sweat all those days were really worth it.

A doctor would like to see a patient walking out of the hospital free from pain with which he was writhing when he entered the hospital. A teacher would like to see his disciples doing well in life. A mechanic would like to see the problem in the vehicle solved. An editor would like his readers to enjoy the publication. A retired civil engineer would like to stand and admire his bridge after years of designing and construction. An architect would like to appreciate the beauty of the construction he just completed. A driver would like to deposit his passengers from station A to station B on time and safely. A chef needs to see the patrons enjoying his recipe.

In most professions, the end result is directly visible. Its almost physically visible, like the bridge, the taste of the food, the cured patient, the beauty of the building, the article in the newspaper, etc. Outputs of some professions are meta physical. Its not really there, yet its there.

The professions with meta physical end results can be generally classified as dissatisfying professions. Basically its because the end result is not seen, and if seen, is not enjoyed, or even if enjoyed, cannot be enjoyed as one’s own creation because there were so many participants involved.

Lets say, someone comes to you and charts out a problem. You think about the problem and provide a solution. The solution works, the customer is happy. This gives joy to you. The profession as such gives joy to you.

Lets say now, some group of people, say GOP, go to someone else, say SE1, and tell a problem. SE1 discusses pros and cons and whats in scope and whats out of scope with GOP. SE1 then breaks down the architecture into different modules and goes to groups of someone elses SE2, SE3, SE4 and assigns tasks to each sub group. Lets say you are a part of SE4 group and your task is this and that. You do this and that. A number of people in SE4 also do their parts, and the number of people in each of the sub groups do their parts and finally, its one whole nice part that integrates perfectly. SE1 reviews this final part with GOP and GOP likes it and starts using it and the work for GOP has become a little bit easier.

You, being a part of SE4, never saw GOP. Never saw GOP using the small module that you created. Never saw the GOP’s smiling faces as GOP’s trouble got solved. Never realized that GOP’s life became easier. You perhaps just got impersonal mail stating ‘Thanks for a wonderful job!’ that meant nothing to you. Somewhere, that happiness didn’t flow down to you, and you felt you just did what was asked of you and you are not even sure if its being used or not and to what it was worth. Worse, you are out of that project and put in some other project midway during project execution, and here you are doing something else.

This happens in many professions. Nothing can be done about it. That’s how the system works. That’s why there are so many people cribbing about their professions. Me, included.

I am in software engineering profession. The profession involving computers. I am just a guy in that SE4 or some such sub-sub-group who don’t end up seeing the folks using the end result which I created. Who didn’t see the trouble suffered by the users in the first place, nor did see the solution being implemented.

That’s why open source and freelancing is so popular in computers. If someone has a problem and poses a problem, there will be innumerous people wanting to help. Come to think of it, many a time, people have come to me asking for help in computers like writing a small program, designing an excel spreadsheet with multiple requirements. When I get down to it and give this final result to the person who asked, after working on it for hours together, I feel happy because someone wants to use it, someone is happy to use it, because I made someone’s life easier and happier. This gives me joy. This gives joy to the freelancer.

Technology has bridged the continents and made this world a smaller place. A person in India codes a software program that interacts with a hardware device written in China and the whole thing is integrated in America to be used in Australia. Who’s happy, who’s smiling, who’s trouble is solved, we will never get to know.

I have never read it but I guess this is what Thomas Friedman meant when he said ‘The World is Flat’: Putting a piece of electronic information in a digital file across the globe whose real result you will never see but assume that it has made life for someone a little bit easier.

The cc

I goofed up at office today…
I got a mail to fix it ASAP..
The mail had over 300 people in cc.

Thought for the day

There is symmetry in cemetery.

:-)

The Law of Balances

There has been another demise in the family. My father’s cousin. In other words, my second cousin's dad. My second cousin was my batch mate in Engineering. Thats sounds ominous, isn't it?

I guess yearly there is roughly about 2-3 deaths in every large family. Generally, when you are kids, you tend to lose the great grandparents or grandparents. As you grow older, the age of the deceased nears your age. Then, there is the age when people of your own age start dying. And then when newborns are born in the family, its about time for you to depart. Its like a balance. That’s when you start thinking it can be you anytime.

So, as you grow older, people who grew along with you, such as your parents, your uncles, your aunts, your cousins, your spouse, your friends, start deserting you and there starts the panic, the “risk” of you being left alone in this world. All of the above loved ones are either people who were born before you or were born in your generation. And soon, its just a matter of time and turn. Its either your turn or someone else’s. So, there is always this chance of being left all alone in this world.

Hence, to keep the Law of Balances alive and going, you gotta have kids, and they gotta have kids, and you have thus created an environment wherein, even if the loved ones of your generation or of the past generation have passed by, there is another new wave of fresh loved ones, which you have created, who will still remain with you, in all probability till you die. That’s what, in project management verbiage, is called “risk mitigation”.

So, more the kids, more the happy environment, more the likelihood of being with loved and dear ones, more the likelihood of offsetting the sadness that’s caused due to the demise of folks of your generation. Its like padding yourself up with as many layers of generation as possible so that the hands of loneliness and sadness do not touch you till its your time to depart.

At the end of one’s life, its rare to find, beside the deathbed, one’s close friend or one’s relative (who’s born before one). Most likely it will be one’s own child.

We cannot all be Benjamin Buttons, right?

Professionalism

I have noticed that there are three things in US that must go hand in hand: Car + Cell Phone + AAA Membership. Even if one of them is not present, life is tough. So, when I landed in US on May 1st, I ensured that I got my cell phone on 4th and AAA membership on 5th. When I finally got car on 9th, I had all three.

Since I got the car in Pittsburgh, I had to drive all the way to Boston and that’s 500 odd miles. So, I wouldn’t blame the car when, for the first time in my life, on May 10th 2009 at about 3.30 pm, I got a flat tire on the expressway, when I was just 50 miles from my destination. 50 or 500, it doesn’t matter. Stranded is stranded.

So I took my cell phone, called up AAA and told them my problem and where I was. In 15 minutes, I had a AAA guy with me and in 5 minutes he fixed my car. He replaced my tire with a temporary usable tire that I had. That was where his task ended, right? Wrong. He went beyond that. He asked me how long I had to go, advised me that it was not safe to travel that distance in the temp tire, told me where to find the nearest tire shop and asked me to get myself a new one. I thanked him profusely and made my way to the nearest tire shop that the AAA guy told me to.

The Firestone shop was open on Sunday till 5 pm and it was 4.15 pm. I dreaded them saying it was too late. But when I went there, the guy at the counter was all inviting. He looked at the tire that had gone flat, checked first whether he could fix it, instead of making me buy a new tire. He realized that he couldn’t fix it and a new tire had to be bought. As with most cars here in US, if one tire is replaced, all tires need to be replaced. So he checked if other tires need to be replaced too and informed one of them was new but two others had to be replaced too. However, he said, I can consult my mechanic and get new ones whenever I want and not necessarily with him nor that day.

Then he gave me three options for the new tire that I had to buy and gave honest opinion for each one of them. He didn’t recommend the costliest as most mean people do. Finally I choose the one in between costliest and cheapest and I had my car all set and I was back to business at 5 pm.

Between 3.30 and 5 pm on a Sunday, I realized how professional the two guys were: the AAA and the Firestone mechanic. As long as I dealt with them, I knew I was in safe hands. I had the confidence that I was not being cheated. That’s what humanity is about. Its about trust and being fair to one another.

PS: Recently, I read two more instances of such professionalism. One was in Germany when my friend lost his digicam. He had to head back to India and he even came back to India, but upon enquiring with the Lost and Found department, he was able to get back his digicam even after 30 days after he came back to India. The article was written in Kannada and its not a blog and hence I cannot link it. The other one is here. This one’s really inspiring. And very touching.

Breaking the head. Then and Now.

It was rough seas last week at office. Came home late almost all days of the week and clocked more than 60 hours. It is no big deal back in offshore but at client site, it is very pronounced. Especially because the office is deserted at 5 pm and you are all alone breaking your head. The lights are sensor operated and if there is no human movement in the room or the hallway, it will automatically switch off. So if you are sitting continuously at your desk for quite an amount of time, the lights too desert you and you are too occupied – or is it too lazy?! - to stand up and walk around to get the lights back on.

My thoughts compared this life to the life a decade ago when I was in college. Then too I was breaking my head in the computer lab, but I wasn’t alone. There was the whole batch breaking their heads in a brightly lit lab during day time and it was time limited. Either we got the program right or we didn’t in the stipulated time. It was all over either way in 3 hours. So you are liberated and you are either happy or sad in 3 hours, once the exam is over. You move on.

But that isn’t the case here. We have a task and its got to be solved or resolved as soon as possible. Sooner the better. But it is not time bound. Its result bound. So you have to be at it till it’s solved. Day in and day out. If it isn’t solved today, you go home thinking about it and breaking your head at house too. And you dread going to office the next day because it’s the same nasty thing to meddle about. And there are people above you asking how it’s going and checking if there are any results.

And then there are groups that are waiting for you to resolve so that they can continue from where you have left off. It’s like a relay game. You need to reach a point in the track where you can pass the stick - or whatever they call that thing you carry in your hand in the relay game - to the other member of the team who will then start running. So if you don’t reach that point sooner, the other members in the team are left idle and people ought not to be left idle in office, especially when they are being paid to work, right?!

So, then. That’s an example of how life gets complicated in a decade.

:-)

Can you beat that?!

Although I am not a teetotaler, today was the first time in my life that I went to a liquor store to buy alcohol for myself. In 29 years of my life. Can you non-teetotalers beat that?!!

:-)

Finally found it!

I have been seeing and seeing if there has been any difference in Marlborough since I was last here 2.5 years ago, and confound it, if I can find anything or anyone different! I recognised even the tellers in the insurance company, the librarians, as old as they were before! The same roads, the same yield signs, the same lifestyles...

But today I found one gas station which was Exxon before and has now become Gulf!

:-)

For the first time...

Was awake for the whole 24 hours (Apr 30th 6.30 am to May 1st 6.30 am).
Except for a disturbed half hour sleep while waiting for the pick up cab to come...

USA

Back in USA. Third time. Zillions of thought processes going on. Perhaps will write about it sometime later...

Quote of the day

Most of the luxuries and many of the so-called comforts of life are not only not indispensable, but positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind.

by Henry David Thoreau

Quote of the day

It’s very simple to be happy, but difficult to be simple!
Anonymous

Quote of the day

‘Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go’

by T S Elliot

Did you know?

If the earth had no atmosphere, the sky wouldnt be blue at all but a pitch-black sea and the sun a big bright star in the dark.

Excerpt from A thousand splendid suns by Khaled Hosseini

Outplaced Vs Ousted

Large companies, thanks to recession, are resorting to 'Outplacing' as compared to 'Ousting' their bench employees, provided they clear the interview and have the right skill set and are agreeable to work in shifts. 'Outplacing' - a new word coined due to recession - means placing an employee, who is on bench, into a sister concern which is less attractive because of the menial tasks involved and comparitively lower pay.

Now, it is not easy getting into the sister concern either. It needs its own particular set of skills and the employee should be fine working odd hours on tight schedules with lower pay. But, any day, 'Outplaced' is better than 'Ousted'.

Now, there are two types of people who get on bench. (For the uninitiated, 'bench' refers to people with no work but on pay roll of a company, waiting for a project to which they will get allocated.) Either an employee is a poor performer due to which he has been ousted from his project or the project in which he was working closed down and hence he has nothing to work on.

Now, projects generally do not close down in one go. Work associated in a project gradually reduce and subsequently, employees working in a project too get gradually reduced. And when that happens, obviously, the manager chooses to get rid of less efficient / poor performers first to retain the cream of the team till the end, in the hope of a renewal of the project contract or to at least ensure the brainer of the lot do not get on to the bench strength. So, logically thinking, the first-comers to the bench strength are less efficent and poor performers of the company.

Now, a company cannot keep lots of people on bench for a long period of time. Hence, they start placing them in their sister concerns which does neither has attractive work nor has a decent pay. But, since outplaced is better than ousted, bench folks are more than glad to accept the offer.

Of course, sister concerns also have a limit on how many people they can take, for they too have fixed amount of work and, in all probability, work that is reducing by the day too. So, just as the lot of poor performers and lesser efficient trickle down from bench to sister concerns, the brainer lot and efficent people start filling up the bench as the projects get closed down and renewals do not come through. At the same time, sister concerns are full too and they do not need any more people. So, now, there is not even an avenue called 'Outplaced.'

So, does this mean that its better to get onto bench as quickly as possible so as to keep hopes of being outplaced than ousted?!