Relationship between Money, Friends and Fun

Back in our PU days: Jagannath Balachandran , Preetam Modur , Vijay Balachandran , Vikram Maheshwaran and I decided to celebrate New Year by going out for dinner on 31st night and then go to MG Road in Bangalore. Those were days where we depended on our parents for every single rupee.

We decided to have dinner at Pavithra hotel at Jayanagar and only when the bill came our assumptions came out that the other person would have brought some money to pay the bill. We tried taking every rupee out of our pocket and yet fell short of what we needed to pay. We promised the hotel guy that we'd pay the balance but I guess we did not. We ran away from that place as quickly as we could and then spent half the night on MG Road.

Those were days where we didn't have money but had fun together as friends. Today we have money to afford the bill for all of us but we don't meet that often.

Days when we had no money sounds like a lot of fun and friendship than days that are about making money. Happy Christmas and Happy New Year to all.

We kill the patient :)

I was browsing through a hospital website that was competing with other hospitals for its ability to cure a specific kind of disease. The way they were marketing themselves was to talk about several patients (disclosing their names) and mentioning how other hospitals were unable to cure them.

I found a particular sentence from their website that tickled me and here it is, "We have treated this patient for an year. Usually such patients don't survive but this patient does"

I can understand what they were trying to mean by that but I just hope they could have worded it better. Review of the text might help but then who cares, they got a blog post from me :)

Swades - movie and inspiration

There are reasons why you shouldn't probably watch a movie the moment it is released. Although I had heard a lot about Swades, I didn't watch it until yesterday. I am not sure this movie would have made so much impact in my life had I watched it during my college days.

I had watched Chak De India and thought SRK did an excellent job in it to bring the patriotism back to some people who might have allowed it to drop. But then Swades is on the same lines but a total different genre.

My throat choked several times and I was forced to have the "dharthi ka pani".

I am just wondering what today's parents are trying to achieve. They want their children to go to America. Huh! Here goes a snippet of the lyrics of a song from Swades

Ye jo des hai tera, swades hai tera, tujhe hai pukaara…
Ye woh bandhan hai jo kabhi toot nahin sakta

Mitti ki jo khushboo, tu kaise bhoolaayega
Tu chaahe kahin jaaye, tu laut ke aayega
Nayi nayi raahon mein, dabi dabi aahon mein
Khoye khoye dilse tere, koyi ye kahega
Ye jo des hai tera, swades hai tera, tujhe hai pukaara
Ye woh bandhan hai jo kabhi toot nahin sakta

 I just cant stop being emotional even when I was reading it. AR Rahman should have been given an Oscar for Swades than Slumdog Millionare.

I will do something for this country and I dont care if others are doing.

Happy Independence Day India : Aug15, 1947

We were declared independent on August 15, 1947. There is no record if we remained independent after that date.

In memory of all those who laid there lives and bore the torture for August 15th, Happy Independence Day! 

In memory of all politicians who have made themselves dependent on our tax money, Happy In-Dependence Day!

CNN IBN Exposes MLA asking for money : Welcome to India!

Photo courtesy: ibnlive.com

CNN IBN exposed MLA's asking for money to sell their Rajya Sabha votes. Fantastic job CNN IBN but I am not surprised or shocked. If I am surprised, it means I haven't understood India. Also, as an Indian, I know nothing would be done to those MLA's although the next few days, you will have news about different parties saying something.


As an Indian, I know, that the money I am paying as tax is helping some ass hole take a flight to go bang someone.

Feathers in the bull shit:

• Raj Thackrey accuses people from other states responsible for malaria spread in Mumbai as though people from Mumbai are immune to Malaria
• 100 Bajrang Dal men beat up a woman for celebrating Friendship day. Wah! Bajrang Wah!

I am proud of all achievements the aam admi is doing because they are doing it amidst so much of corruption and politics. They are my heroes.

You want me to vote next time, sure, for which ass hole is the question.

Any good news?

In India, there is one BIG problem I have been observing. Everyone thinks the next logical step after marriage is to have a child and keep pestering the happily married couple with the question, "So, any good news?".

People can hide a job change or a promotion but not a child. So, everyone shall be informed when it happens. The more people ask, the more delayed it might get because stressed people can't produce a child and that is medically proven.

Henceforth, if you are going to ask someone "So, any good news?", there will be people waiting to do it to you. I have something to say to such people; Go, fuck yourself and ask yourself, "Any good news?"

Inception - the movie, the life

If you haven't watched Inception, you wouldn't know why people who pass by you look at you when they cross.

If you haven't watched Inception, you'd think you know the reality without knowing it.

If you haven't watched Inception, you'd think you have a control over your thoughts.

If you haven't watched Inception, you'd think you know why things are the way they are.

If you haven't watched Inception, you might think you know what happens is for good.

If you haven't watched Inception, you might think you fight with your wife because she wanted to.

It was all your idea. Go, sleep to be awake.

There was a chance and I lost it

After about 14 years, I found a few of my school class mates on Facebook. I just added them as everyone else in my situation would have done. Little did I know that one of the friend whom I added would die in an accident and I would never be able to see him again.


I must have wasted a lot of time at home, in front of my computer, on twitter, and on facebook. I just wish I could have moved my butt out and met him.



While inquiring about his death to another friend, I got to know that another class mate whom I'd been searching on Facebook and Orkut also had died long back.

I probably might never get to see them again. I just wish I meet people instead of wasting time. Miss you my dear friends. I am sorry, I did not meet you all this while.

Death isn't destiny. Remembrance is.

India is the biggest democrazy in the world

In India, there is an outfit called Maoists. No one would jail me for calling them internal terrorists. So the Maoists have killed a lot of people and the most recent being this as you see in the image.

 While these Maoists kill for blood there are politicians who don't bother to bring down the bloody Maoists.

Not taking action against those who do such cowardly acts are Maoists supporters.

In India, if you steal 500 rupees, you'd be caned to death. If you steal 500 crores, you'd be given Z class commandos for your security.

Old is gold but can they learn?

One of the things I observe about the oldies living around me is that they appear to have lost the ability to learn things or patiently listen. I am not sure if this is the case with all oldies. I know of Jerry Weinberg, who in his seventees and eightees is learning as much as he must have done in his twenties and thirties.


Age might not be the barrier to learn, its just that they learnt a way to live without having to learn.

Rules and Fools

So, I met an IT guy who works for an organization infested with lots of process. Whatever name you want to give to the process I am fine.

He had proposed to use a tool to simplify a great deal of work they had been doing. It had to go through a lot of approvals before he could install it on his desktop. Finally he installed the trial version to demonstrate the proof of concept and that demanded him to be the administrator of his desktop.

As per the IT rule of the organization no local admin access was to be provided to employees unless someone with lots of authority says "go ahead". He went around looking for approvals and some big guns were on leave or put this in low priority.

By the time the approval came and he got the local admin access, the trial license had expired. WTF! I am sure he is not going to be taking any more initiatives to save cost for the organization. There are going to be more people in the organization with similar experience. What a loss for the organization!

Two sides of a coin called "advice"

I know of someone who communicated to me that he hates getting advice from people and yet offers advice to others. Isn't it interesting that a specific thing such as advice is not being liked when on receiving side of the table but is liked when the same person is on the other side of the table.

Investigating a little bit, I see that it has got nothing to do with "advice" when someone hates it. Its about people. On the other side as we love ourselves so much that we feel elated offering advice to someone else.

The coin called "advice" doesn't have two sides but it is we humans who have multiple sides that make a coin feel bad about itself.

The useful dad

I met someone yesterday who I know has a lot of public reputation and credibility for his work and contribution to the IT industry. He travels a lot around the world and his calendar is a good evidence that he has little time for his kids. He acknowledged that in his talk, too.

I am wondering if he is really being a useful to his kids beyond pumping them with enough money? Look, I don't have kids yet but that shouldn't stop thinking about the duty a father has towards his kids. It also doesn't mean I don't respect him.

What great education are we trying to give to the world as teachers when we don't have time for our own kids? Oh, we want them to grow up and understand what we are trying to say to the world?
 

What a teacher needs to be taught?

I do a lot of coaching other than other kinds of IT work I do. I have couple of people who claim to be my students. Students do not mean those who are present in the class when I teach but those who go beyond the class rooms to connect with me.

The problem with me as a teacher is that I try to expect a few things from my students. Not money, not gifts but their commitment to deliver something when they promised. Turns out that I learnt a lesson about it.

Good students who are under committed are likely to hurt a teacher more than bad students who are not committed at all.

Money can't buy great sons!

I went to a place and accidentally discovered my school teacher whom I last met 25 years ago. We started talking.

Teacher: "What do you do?"
Me: "I am a software consultant"
Teacher: "Nice. My son is Senior Director at a large MNC"
Me: "Nice mam."
Teacher: "I don't get to talk to him. He is so busy."
Me: "It happens mam"
Teacher: "He gifted me this phone a while back but to activate internet there are some settings to be done. You are a software consultant, right? Can you help me with it? I dont understand this software part"
Me: "Oh sure! It would be a pleasure to serve you"
While I was fixing the settings and getting internet activated... Teacher, "I asked my son to activate internet for me but he is so busy he hasn't been able to do it ever since he gifted the phone".


For style, we gift our parents mobile phones and don't help them set things up in it. What problems are we software people solving without solving one of them for our own parents?

BTW, I thanked the teacher son. He gave me an opportunity to serve my teacher.

Invited gang rape

Today morning, I had been to a hair cut and had to wait for about an hour to get my turn. While waiting for my turn, I discovered a few newspapers lying beside me and picked up reading as many things as possible.

After reading the news for half an hour, I landed up on a page that had a news about a woman gang raped. I think news about someone being raped catches every eye that I know of. I started to read the report and here is what is the gist

"A married woman waiting for bus and late to attend a conference decided to ask for lift from someone passing in a car. The people inside the car learned that she was new to the place and drove the car to a lonely place and gang raped her. Later, the rapists, threw her out of the car somewhere near her relatives house"

While my heart goes to that woman for having undergone such a pain in life, I am concerned if that woman invited such a thing to happen to her. Being late to a conference is the most inexpensive thing as compared to being gang raped.


The news continues,

"This is not the first incident of a gang rape on a woman who asked for lift from car-passer-by-strangers in that locality"

 
I wish there is a law to cut off the penis of those men who rape but but but but but I know of woman who would take advantage of that. So, woman are a trap to themselves. No, let me rephrase that. Bad woman are a trap to good woman.

Reality show off

Have been watching a few reality shows on the television, at least because my wife watches a couple of them and I am forced to not change the channel.

So, there is a singing competition on and one of my favorite singer is a judge. I have been watching the way she comments on others singing for a while and was not happy with it. I started to build a hatred towards her and then all of a sudden an idea flashed my mind: "How about continuing to be her fan considering her singing skill?"

I liked her for her skill of singing and not for her skill to critique others singing. So, let me continue to like her for her skill than dislike her for lack of another skill that I don't get affected by anymore.

I think I will use that approach to help myself a lot more people.

Love on screen versus love in life

When I had a crush on a girl during my college days, I used to enjoy every bit of love scenes on the screen or on television. Many years later, I got married to someone else. I still enjoy the love scenes on screen and hardly remember my ex but mostly my wife. So good for my wife :)

However, I discovered a friend of mine on Facebook, who had so many posts on his wall about a movie that is mainly a love only kind of movie. This guy, is running late to find a partner in his life. This guy in just an year + or so, wont find a girl to marry but a lady to marry.  He is almost bald and looks little older than his age is.

When his time is running out, I am wondering why he is spending so much time watching those movies about love instead of trying to find a love for himself. Ok, so you think I am forcing him to find a love, not really. Turns out that he has plan to find a love and marry but his time is being spent on watching movies about love.


As a friend, all I could do is to help him understand about it. Wondering how many people are like him.

When people are not serious about their own life and distracted by movies, how could I ever think of helping people in the IT field gain focus about their career. A good lesson for me. A learning re-iterated.

Thank you for it, my dear friend. Your sacrifice to help me learn the above lesson is commendable. Time for you to go and watch that movie about love again.

Chappathi diet versus Rice diet

In South India, there is a popular belief that Chappathi diet will help those with Rice diet, lose weight. Some dieticians say that Chappathi and Rice more or less are induce same level of calories into the body for equal quantities and it doesn't make a difference.

Assuming that is true, how come people who changed their diet from Rice diet to Chappathi diet claim to have lost weight?

I tried it and here is what I observed. Cooked rice, is soft and easily chewable. I could even swallow a lot of rice without having to chew it. So, I didn't even know how much quantity I was consuming. However, the case with Chappathi is I had to chew every piece. It would choke my throat if I try to swallow. For a lazy person like me, in order to avoid a hell lot of chewing, I cut down on the quantity of chappathi I could have.

There you go!

Bond without bonding

Discovery Science appears to be a new channel that got added up in the package we had subscribed to. While flipping the channels, I stopped by to hear some guy talking. Turned out that he was spy and an interview with him was on.

As I had interest in the way a spy works, I stopped flipping and tried focusing to what he was saying. He said the following, "Spying is one of the professions where you feel lonely. When you are spying in a different country, it doesn't happen like James Bond movie that you hang out with blond woman. The only companion is the mission to accomplish".

I flipped the channel and heard an IT engineer crib in a news channel. Some creatures are born to crib and most creatures who crib are from IT.

Truth about truth

So, you go somewhere, discover a truth and tell the businessman, "Your staff aren't smart" and the businessman says, "Sssh! I know that. We needed such people and they come at cheap cost".

You then go to the staff and say "Your boss thinks you are cheap staff" and they say "Sssh! I know that. All I needed is a job that ain't hard to do and a salary every month that takes care of some expenses".

In the context of trying to tell people about what you think is truth, you'd discover that what you thought as truth isn't the truth and people know about things much better than what you think they know.


In such a context, you'd know the truth about truth.