How Would That Be..

Movie: Some typical Bollywood style..

Scene: Our hero who until yesterday was a nearly “numb n dumb” guy suddenly transform himself into a uber cool professional (maybe he had a read of “You can WIN” last night J), run into the boss’s cabin and delivers some filmi lines so perfectly. Finally throws his paper on him moves out. Before he even turns around the “devil till yesterday ” boss is almost on his feet and offers him all he wants.

Comes in the demands…. salary raised 4 times, a secretory and “the Corner Cabin”. Done. Deal signed.

Next scene, he is in his cabin, a black textured wooden floored room. The back scores is celebrating his victory. Camera is doing a merry-go-round around him. He pulls up the curtains and the whole of the city trimmed by the endless sea is for his view. On the back wall, the larger than life logo to the company fills up the view. The side wall is covered by the largest TV is have ever seen, flashing Bloomberg with sensex and stocks running in the scrolls. He can see all of his office, including of course, his love interest form the other side. Perfect start to his heroism, I’m impressed.

Rest was waste, but that gave me an idea. How does my office’s “Corner Cabins” looks like?

I couldn't afford to attain any such high (or even low) that I can manage to drop in my CEO’s cabin. All I could manage is to move uphill is to my VP’s Cabin. It was a rather a simple one, a whiteboard on front wall. Interestingly, it a had map of Pune denoting all the major IT companies. It was the best thing I could find for me there. There was a daily diary on the desk and few markers. 

The view out was of a connecting road followed by the garden, impressive all together. It had a calendar hung on the wall with Lord Venketeshwara blessing him 24x7. A hanger too, but seems like never had it’s worth taken for. The backdrop was donned by numerous momentous and  certificate marking his 3^rd and 5^th  years in the company.

Having said that I just wonder how would be my CEO’s room be..

Whenever I have walked around his room, I have seen that red blub ON, declaring “Silence Please. Meeting in Progress”.

Just wonder how would it be, how large it would be. Have you redesigned it by your taste or it’s the same standard as all over. I’m sure it will have a huge TV, but not sure what goes on it, does it also flashes the same Bloomberg. 

I also want to know if it also have the virtual golf turf J. All the Hollywood style movies ,I have seen,  whenever shots a CEO’s room, they almost always have this gadget placed in their rooms. Does it also stations a mini bar and if yes, what all you have for the toast. J

What must be on your book selves(don’t tell me you don’t have that), Martin Luther King, Karl Marx or Corporate Laws or something else. Do he also uses the same desk phone as I or something more fancy (which I doubt) or something more basic. Does a brass made Ghandhiji too finds the place in the cabin. I’m sure you have a closet but just interested to know what all in your wardrobe here. How does that “red signal” goes ON or it is an ever red thing. How is the view out of your cabin and do you too can see your secretory cabin from your desk.

Well the question will only keep on growing. So Mr. CEO, or someone worth capable, in case you come across this, do call me for a visit to cabin. I really want to write a sequence to this with answer to all my questions. And in the meantime my efforts to make it up to your room is going in full swing at my desk.

Meet you soon at your place. J

The NULL Blog

When a player goes over a bad patch, he moved back to nets. When a coder can’t make the things work as he wants, he truns to google. And when a blogger have nothing to write about, he writes “NULL” blog.

NULL blog is a common phenomenon among amateur blogger like me, those who essentially feed their blogs by personal experiences. And when they have almost nothing happening to their life worth writing about, and people start saying “Aaj Kal kuch likhta nahi hai tu”, they are made to write these NULL Blog, as mine is the case today.

It has been more than 4 months that I haven’t made any trip. And the worst part of this is that there is no specific reason to it. I can manage time for the trip easily and these days bucks have started staying in my pocket. But it’s just not making. May be I have grown lazier than ever before. I can now understand how someone snails into office on Monday and say they did nothing over weekends. I initially used to amaze over them and now I’m one of them. L

Office life too has grown busier (not actually busier but more “donkier”). I’m not complaining but things soon starts looking like a burden if you don’t see them fruiting at right time. You spend many more working hours sitting in front of your box and at the end of day you can’t draw any worth enough to leave office satisfied. Those are really bad times. I’m going over same patch. You keep on debugging others code all over the day and same keeps on going in your dreams too. I actually had dreamt for some 2-3 times in last one month where I was debugging some beans and going deep into a hollow dark cave.

The things are made even more tiresome for lack of interesting events/peoples these days around. At times they too leave you with something interesting to speak about. Unfortunately, I have not hit any such in last few days. All whom I meet these days share same level of excitement in their life as I have. You get to hear same old office talks or frustrated one-sided lover talks from them.

As I’m writing it, I realize that I have not met any new person for so many months. I’m finding it really hard to remember who the last new person was I met and when.

I just hope that this ends soon and I could get something worth to share with you. I want it more so as I don’t want myself to be prey to this IT laid back lifestyle culture. But by the time any such happens, here’s my NULL BLOG. L        

Bahoot Samay Ki Baat Hai..

“Do you think before writing any blog?” someone asked my few days back.

And I started pondering so hard as if he asked me some astrophysics speculative idea. Do me? Well not exactly, the probable reason why writing comes so easy to me. They all are either travelogue or my experience with life, in both cases, no brain required.

The same happened today. I got my story from a place I least expected any.

It a junkyard far off from the city limits, and I’m prisoned here for if not atleast some 3-4 hours. Please don’t ask me on why, how or what, I might not be able to answer any. The place was lovely with all rusted scrap all around dotted by some green patch. The only other human sharing the space was a 50+ old keeper of the yard. He was like any other old man should be.

“Chai Peeyoge”, he offered and I couldn’t refuse. He moved into his room and came out in some 5 min saying “Ban rahi hai”. Thus started the conversation, and in next 20 min I knew that his name was Dhaniram, a resident of Chhattisgarh and was a Bheel (it’s a tribe which carries a very rich culture, for all those Indians who don’t know Bharat). In an hour or so, I knew of almost all of his family, his two wives, n numbers children and many more.

Well this is not what I want to know. There was a very interesting folk story, I got from him, which I want to share. Folk stories are always a treat to hear, especially when you can hear it from a sound story teller, which he was.       

“Bahoot samay ki baat hai…” and he started. Long before there were humans on earth, Sun too had many children same as Moon (stars). Both sun and moon along with their children used to live happily in the sky. But because of sun and his thousands of children, temperature of earth used to be so high that no one could live here. So one day mother earth went to moon and asked for help.

Moon made a plan. He invited sun and all his children for a dinner. He made all delicious and exotic cuisine for them. But just before sun and his children moves in for dinner, he hide all his children behind the cloud. The sun was really impressed with the dinner and asked moon for the recipe. The moon then replied that he cooked all his children, which made this food so delicious.

Next day sun also put all his children into a pot and put it on flame, but what cooked was not even editable. Sun was cheated. All his children were killed by he himself because of which the temperature on mother earth cooled down and human started living here. Since then till now, Sun is chasing Moon to kill his children, the reason why moon comes only in night and sun in day. Every night moon comes in different disguise (changing shape of moon). Sun gets hold of moon sometimes, but every time moon managed to escape (lunar eclipse). Sun however keeps bowing arrows at moon’s children hiding behind the mountain (shooting star).

This is not the first folk story I have heard but the way Dhaniram narrated the story, made me put up this here. It also gave me an insight to believe and culture of Bheel tribe. But what amazed me the most was how this story enveloped these many natural phenomenons (Lunar Eclipse, Life on earth, Day-Night phenomenon, Phases of moon, Shooting Star) and being logical acceptable.

By now, we have talked some good 2-3 hours, and prisoned time was over.

“Phir kabhi chai ke sath kahani sunni hui toh jaroor wapas aaunga…” I said and smiled.

“Jaroor aayiga” he smiled back. May be the context to my next blog is already set.       

Remembering Pather Panchali

I love Trains.

 Given the fact that in my 4 years of my college life, I have covered more that 16,000 Km on wheels, even today every moment on railroad is so speacial and awaited for me.  

For some reason each time I’m on a train passing through vast fields in the Indian hinterland I’m reminded of the unforgettable train scene from Satyajit Ray’s classic Pather Panchali when Apu and his sister Durga ‘discover’ a train in a field of Kaash flowers.

Born into an accomplished Brahmin family himself, second to none in their achievements in the Arts, Ray’s Pather Panchali(Song of the Road) is a story of a poor Brahmin family from rural Bengal in the early twentieth century and charts the story of Harihar Ray’s impoverished family struggling to make ends meet. In a backdrop as grim as this the film belies the seeming futility of their existence with its portrayal of Harihar Ray’s children, Durga and Apu, as alive to possibilities of life, and ever ready to imbue meaning into the simplest of things that simply being alive had to offer.

Riding on their unaffected childhood innocence that manifests in their discovery of the world beyond their immediate circle of life the film unravels time to the pace of Durga and Apu’s life, and nowhere more so when Durga and Apu find themselves in a field of Kaash flowers, possibly drawn to the humming of high tension electricity wires, only to hear an unfamiliar sound carried their way on the breeze. Never having heard a train before Durga stills herself, her eyes having averted to a non existent visual frame before her, only the occasional jerk of her face in the direction of the sound indicating she was seized of the unfamiliar, and Apu having gone quiet, looking for cues in Durga’s absent gaze presses his face to the high tension electric metal pole even as the Kaash flowers sway gently to the breeze now bringing the mystery to the fore.

Seconds turn to minutes and as Durga breaks into a run to meet the mystery, Appu follows her. There among the head high flowers they pause unsure of the direction the sound was coming from, their heads still, the sound grows louder, and in the split passage of a moment on the threshold of unfolding the unknown, realization dawns, and their heads jerk to their right just in time to catch sight of thick black smoke in the distance gusting back above the heads of Kaash flowers, the engine and coaches hidden from view. Pushed back by the force of air yielding to the train’s momentum as it hurtles across the plains, the swirling black smoke might as well have been a demon snorting rage. Appu breaks into a run to meet his defining moment as he comes face to face with a steam locomotive for the first time in his life.

In that one moment of sprinting innocence I understood the Indian hinterland from a different perspective and my travels by Indian Railways were never to be the same again.

And yes, when back to my world and hunting for this artistic iconic movie of Indian Cinematography on google, I came across a postage stamp dedicated to this film. It might seem purely out context but I cannot avoid myself from posting it. Here it goes……

Why Being Simple is Complicated

And so I spent another day wasting a lot of time online, supposedly working, but actually doing a lot else. I have turned a little bit of a net junkie, though I will not, will not admit it! Following one link after another, I came across some articles on the Amish people in theUS. I often tend to read up a lot on some topic that catches my fancy (there is a word for that sort of reading, I just can’t remember what it is now) and while doing so I ended up watching a documentary on them. It was specifically about the practice of ‘rum-springa’ (loosely translated to mean ‘running around’) that allows teenagers to live like the rest of the world for about a year or more. After that they have to choose to either be baptized or leave the community if they prefer not to follow the customs of the Amish.

Now for those of you who haven’t heard of them, the Amish are an ultra conservative community that is mainly known for simplistic living and for shunning all modern technologies, including electricity, cars and communication devices. Children study only up to class 8 after which they are baptized and work in the fields from dawn to dusk. The patriarchal system of society emphasizes on family, the church and the community and discourages much contact with theHigh People or The Englishers as the non-Amish people are called. Predictably, there are several cases of crimes of hate against these people who continue to drive around in horse driven buggies and wear 17thcentury clothes.

Watching the videos and reading up on them, I got thinking (what else could you expect, eh?). I remember vaguely an old Readers’ Digest article on them, talking about how they churn fresh butter every morning. The pictures were taken at dawn, a cow and some Amish people around a table. Addicted that we are to modern amenities, I wondered how easy (or not) it would be to go to a simpler life. No, I don’t mean the Amish way, which would be rather regressive in these times. But then, hear me out here, will you, do we really need all that we burden ourselves with?

There was a time when I was mighty interested in the idea of kibbutz and even contemplated visiting one. I would be the last person to be comfortable living without my personal space but these experiments in alternative living (I believe ‘conscious living’ is the fancier word these days) have long fascinated me. A kibbutz is where you work for the community, where the kids live in separate quarters and there is no concept of individual space. I wonder then what role individualism plays in the creative process of a life. If all things are for and by the collective, would creativity still thrive? Or in the other case of places like Auroville, where nothing belongs to the individual, would it be an ideal field for a creative process to take root in? I have often wondered.

In that light, I sometimes wish (call me regressive, or perhaps idealistic) for ignorance. Ignorance of how big the world is. Ignorance of how many ideas there are. A simple life comes with simpler concerns at least. But when you have seen the other side from over the window, it is just too complicated to let go. To let go of complications in life. To choose the simple over the so-not-simple. To find my way out of another tangle that I have landed myself in with these paragraphs here!

Within the blink of an eye, we go from what is simple to what is twisted, drawn like the proverbial moth to the fire, singeing its wings on the burning blue edges, yet unable to turn away. When simple has been the way things were for longer than they were complicated, why should it be so tough to revert? But it is. Or maybe I am just peeking in from the outside through the coloured panes of the window.

Thank God They Are Not CREATIVE

My day starts early by cosmos standard and the first know-by-face person I meet is a lady that sweeps the pedestrian way through which I jog. She does her job in the most un-creative way one can. Starts from same end and ending at same, piles up the kuda at the same place and guess what dump it in the same very dust-bin. So very repetitive, no fun. And on the same pathway, I try to jog by million a way. Sometime sprint, sometime side-hop other time back-side, because ‘m creative you see.

Off to the park for some perspiring. And I meet the gardener doing his job the same way for ages. He always rolls the garden from left to right, never try the other way. The Serbs remains in the same shape all their lifetime courtesy to him. He plants the same type of sapling every rains, never try to be differentt. On the other side, since last 4-5 years everyday, at least I spend my two minutes of my day thinking had this bench been there it would had been better. Or had this tree not been here it would had made the perfect view. Again imaginativity, you see.

Few hours late in office, I meet the Housekeeping Lady. She spent all her day in the pantry, same as ever, probably from the times of Napoleons. She does the same job (cleaning slab, washing cup, dumping waste) same way everyday. No change in the routine. Not at All. But I, yes you guessed it right, being innovative do the same thing in hundred uncertified way. Someday washing cups for myself, other day sliding from one end to other of the slab (whenever ‘m in rolling mood) ultimately to land it in sink. And when time permits, putting all my knowledge of projection physics and dynamics to make the paper-plate- turned-ball into the bin.  Needless to say, I want it different everyday.

I case you have been more than confused by now, all I wanted to say to all those who believe that had not the man been creative (I also part of this mass) man would have remained apes. Pal, you are wrong, you can stand and proudly boast of being innovative is because of millions of people like them who have chosen to be uncreative only to hold your base tight. Had they been there to hold the ground intact, your glasshouse of innovatively had never been here. It’s only because these happy-doing-same-things people, you get space to try new. Had all apes gone out to do thing their way, leaving of making up to manship, I doubt if we could have managed to remain ape itself.      

Had not people like them confined themselves to being repetitive, probably you would have never got a ground to sketch your creative world (imagine the world where everyone tried to do everything differently everyday). So next time you conclude being creative, spare a second to thanks all those who chose not to be as creative as you. 

Pecha Kucha "I Duobt""

“Pecha Kucha” : For the first time when I heard that I looked as it might be some Chinese cuisine or might be a name some African sprint racer (I would love to hear from you what you think of the name if you are listening for the first time).

For those who have not yet been exposed to this little wave taking over library land, it’s a presentation, or series of presentations. Speakers go 20 by 20, twenty slides twenty seconds each. The slides are supposed to be artistic and metaphorical, and the content is supposed to hit the high notes. Pecha Kucha (“Chit chat” in Japanese) is another presentation format, much like poster sessions, elevator speeches, or un-conferences. It’s not meant to be a replacement for the traditional conference program that is 45~60 minutes long. You also have to remember that the format comes from the design/art profession where they are used to using an image to convey much more information.

There are a few lessons to be learned from the Pecha Kucha format.s
- It is possible to make a good point in 6 minutes 40 seconds. That also means that 45min session could have at least 6 good points 
- You can have a Pecha Kucha presentation run automatically, which means it can be running on a loop at a poster session or display.
- YouTube has a limit of 10 minute videos, so the Pecha Kucha format is ideal.
- It would make a great exercise for student presentations.

There’s probably more but this is what I can think of at the moment.

At Amdocs's recent internal nerd fest, I participated in my first Pecha Kucha night.

I may be getting myself in trouble here, or possibly get my acceptance to speak rebellion, but I will out myself anyway:  I am not a fan of pecha kucha. I get that bad powerpoint is painful. I get that speakers reading their presentation, word for word, is enervating. And I also get that pecha kucha is really entertaining to sit through. But I think, at its core, pecha kucha is anti-intellectual.  It’s ideas without content, all in broad strokes and generalizations. It feels more about the pretty slides than the meat of the matter. And while I like big ideas, and I like being entertained, I also really like the stuff of the stuff. I want the details. Conferences without the details? are twinkies. and ho hos. I like my conference sessions to be … a little more.

I really find myself left with no option but to enjoy the session as a two min. standup comedy,when the presenter trise to tell me how a Application Manager interacts with Resource Manager with showing me a “Love Birds” on the screen.

Pecha kucha supporters — what am I missing? I’ve watched two, I’ve made one, and I just don’t get it. Is it more than an entertaining trend? tell me what you love about the rapid chatter, either as speaker or audience.

 Halt………………half ways in my blog and after having a good chat with some profound brains around me, ‘m into a fuss. Half of me is in complete agreement, but the other half wants to vigorously disagree.I suspect that a certain measure of the problems I identify derive from the presenter(s), rather than the format. But I also agree that the format doesn’t lend itself to details. Many of them, on the other hand, find that most presentations only give them, at most, one really profound takeaway. They appreciate when someone is forced to deliver that profound takeaway in a very tightly-constructed fashion, rather than stretching it over 30-45 minutes.

 Final Conclusion: Our problem is that this format is totally foreign to us and people haven’t learned how to use it yet. Give it time.

EXTREMES on BBC

The apathy of National Broadcasters( sorry I should use a more relevant nomenclature here “Government’s Mouhtpeice”) all around the world had been can a common topic of gossiping all around the world. Be it the news they push on the their citizens or be it the content they serve to the them.

But then the world is full of “EXTREMES”, and one such is the most subscribed broadcasting service of the world better known as BBC(British Broadcasting Channel). The service making of the mark in 1932, capturing the royal times of England in its lenses still enjoys reaching to the largest reach in the world. Though they also had their piece of red , but even today also it keeps striving hard to bring new and original stuff to its BBCites and one such extravaganza from then is “BBC Extremes”.  

“Japanese people live the longest lives, with an average life expectancy of 83 years – almost twice as long as the people of Zimbabwe and Afghanistan, who can expect to live to 42*”

Contrasts such as these are brought up in a new series of special reports on the BBC’s international news services, called Extreme World, began in December. The series, on TV, radio and online, will studies some of the world’s most dramatic divides, highlighting the extraordinary disparities in people’s lives and lifestyles. Focusing on the boundaries of the planet, as well as cultural, social, geographical, political and religious topics, Extreme World explores just how different, and how alike, we really are – and asks whether one country's people can be measured alongside another when other key factors vary so dramatically.

From December 2010 to June 2011, eight key themes are being explored; the extremes in climate, corruption, dying, education, crime, business, waste and religion. In an increasingly connected world, Extreme World examines how great the world's divides really are and if these divisions can be clearly defined. On Wednesday 1 December, Extreme World launched from two very different parts of the planet; with journalists reporting from one of the hottest places on earth, and one of the coldest. Adam Mynott visited Siberia, while Pascale Harter traveled to the Republic of Djibouti, for BBC World Service and BBC World News, to discover how local residents live in such extreme conditions.

 When watching a episode on death and dying, for example which turned to my favorite, some of my perceptions were given interesting new contexts. Dying in a developed country, for example, might give you access to better medical care, but hospitals, hospices and care homes can leave people remote from their loved ones and sometimes completely alone. Poorer countries may have a lack of medical facilities, but the role of the community and family in a remote village in sub-Saharan Africa make a solitary death far less likely.

Extreme World promises to be an exciting and intriguing collection of content that will continue to take shape over the coming months, providing reports with fresh angles and perspectives and offering audiences a range and depth of compelling reports on TV, on radio and online. I’m optimistic  that it will offer a fresh way of looking at subjects which might otherwise get lost in the blizzard of 21st-Century media.

Moreover it provides not only a food for thought to me, but also a chance to appreciate how versatility of acceptance of human breed. My best wishes always remains with all those who are part of this experiment and to BBC for keep giving us such innovative and thoughtful contents, and living up to their reputation of being “WORLD BROADCASTER”. 

EDUCATION KA BAZZAR

It’s that time of year when lots of young minds from India (sorry sorry only in metro n some class B cities which is the blessed few) will be burning their midnight oil with only one dream in their eyes “MAKING IT TO IIM”  and their parent will thinking of how to manage 4-16 lakhs for remaining a parents who always share their child’s dream .    


   And yes it also the same time of year when another majority of India will be thinking how to arrange two sets of sweater for each of their kids so that they don’t miss their school this WINTER as the school had asked for the same and if not given, kids will be rusticated. 


   No I’m not again taking up the same issue of poor education system in India. This is draw your attention over a serious problem that of and that is of modern “SCHOOLS CUM MONEY-SUCKERS”. This is era in India where even the poor and illiterate know the important of   education in life. They don’t want their children to face the same hardship they faced whole of their life. For that they are ready to even burry their aspirations and dreams.


   But little they understands that yielding more on educations never give you the guarantee of better. I was actually amazed to know from one of my colleague in office that a renowned school in pune had asked for a donation of 50,000/- for the admission of his son into “PLAY-SCHOOL”. Had that boy not born to a parents who both are working in MNCs, he would had lost his life in some Govt. School.


   When I say lost, I mean it. The standard of schooling in any Govt. school is not hidden from anyone. It high time that govt. should come into play and put a break to these MONEY SUCKERS. Otherwise I can see a future of india where education is again a deal for rich and poor will be again deprived of it.

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT FOR FINANCIAL IRREGULARITIES

November has been the month of scams “Adarsh Scam”, “2G Scam”, “The Great Commonwealth Scam” and hundreds of them which probably will never be taken up.

What a pity that in India the max. punishment for any financial irregularity is just a life imprisonment. If you talk about a man who in half of his sense kill other, my law find him suitable enough to hang him till death. But on the other hand if someone in full  of his sense make ups and downs of billions of dollars, he is thought to be given a nice treatment by just asking his “RESIGNATION”.

Because of this man hundreds of young mothers and their child cannot survive the hardship, which they might not have to if they could have been given a proper medication but for money.

 Because of this man hundreds of old people die while been taken to the nearest hospital which is no less than 50 km from the village.

Because of this man hundreds of young kid will never be able to see the face of books and enjoy their childhood.

So it up to us to decide that who is more guilty. How come the law cannot find the simple fact that a man eating up money is actually eating up thousands of happiness and rights to live from million of people.  I strongly recommend “CAPITAL PUNISHMENT ” for financial scam. Let these people know that they sre even worse than a murder who kills only only once but they kill thousands millions a times.