Uncensored Nonsense.

Somebody talked to me about following incident to illustarte changing times in our society.
A decently educated girl got married to a software engineer. Arranged marriage. And hence dowry too part of package.
Very soon girl approached some elders with a request for divorce. Both parties engaged persons of very good social standing to forward their case. What's the problem?
Girl says Boy isn't enough potent in bedroom. Boy says "let's adjust". Not enough potent and not "impotent". I hope I am clear.
Discussion as it progressed became more lurid. She wanted atleast 2 hrs of carnal pleasure. I see no problem with that request. My doubt is how to verify that for next marriage atleast. Middlemen became more and more uncomfortable , because they cannot argue againest such demands or suggest a good alternative. It seems one guy feebly tried.(Now don't make me shameless by asking what his suggestion was)
Ok, things cannot be fixed, what next? The girl wants more money than her dowry to be returned. Ok, how should one take that? Compensation? I am not judging anybody or anything. I just say times are changing.

Walmart and India

There is a buzz that Walmart plans to open it's stores in India and govt too may agree to that.Here is my thinking about the topic. There are these statistics. Walmart sources goods worth $ 20 billion from china and $1 billion only from India.
By now everybody is tired of the fact that China is fast becoming manufacturing capital of world.
If Walmart opens it's shop in India, will it increase it's sourcing from India for shops outside India? Logical answer is "need not be the case". What if we ask Walmart to be foreign exchange neutral? That is it will export as much as it's going to import.
Sounds good.
What are other implications. according to one estimate atleast 10 million people are dependent on retail business. What happens to them? Rational answer is "that's a stupid question". What happened to horse carriages with the advent of automobile? What happened to theatre with the advent of Cinema? With increased efficiency society will get benefited on a whole though some sections may ger adversly affected.
Walmart will demand better products, better service from manufacturers. It will be like education. It's painful, but needed. :)
Why do we need a Walmart? Because our domestic giants aren't delivering results.
I personally want commerce & Industry to grow at any cost. Only then politics will become irrelevant.
For living conditions to improve in this country, we need to become more skilled, more competitive, less lazy, less stupid. I wanted to talk more about Walmart & India. But somewhere I lost the thread.:( Later.

Poetry.

I came across lot of blogs with quoted lyrics and few blogs with own poetry. Quoted lyrics reflect our taste. But own lyrics will also reveal our mental state. Isn't that so? What if someone ridicules your poetry? Will you be same poet again? :) I suspect that.
I have my friends visitng my blog, so I wouldn't go for poetry. It will be posted on my dark blog. Now start guessing about my dark blog.:)

Volvo Buses.

We, in India, atleast my part i.e southern India are witnessing a sort of revolution in road transportation over past 5 yrs or so. Road quality is getting better every day. With optimism in air about economy better and better bus models are introduced. Gone are days of metal boxes. These days we see 6 million rs worth VOlVO buses with seats competing with first class Plane seats. (That's an exaggeration , but not by much)
They are soooooo comfortable that only worry is we may not wake up from our sleep when our destination arrives. :)
When buses start around late evening, they stop for dinner break. I was so sleepy in pas couple of occasions, I didn't care to get down for food. But hustle bustle ensures that we get disturbed.
A disturbing thought lurks in mind all through the travel. What if some fellow takes away luggage stowed above when I am asleep. I am talking about my laptop and unlocked bags with non significant valuable stuff.
Ok, luck hadn't run out till now. Or I should buy myself briefcases that resemble nuclear briefcase carried by security personnel of American president i.e.. chained to their wrists. :)
Ok, feeling too sleepyyyyyyyyyyy.

Stupidity.

I know a bit about gadgets and memory storages. But then, I commited data suicide multiple times. So many times, I formatted and reinstalled OS without data backup. When I could have simply taken harddisk out of my f***ed up laptop, I sent it to US for repair. Ofcourse it returned broken. (Courtesy Customs guys)
To cut he story short. Today I was experimenting with GPRS settings on my phone. It wasn't working. In a crazy moment I thought all the stupid applications I installed on my phone might be an issue. I wanted to return to pristine-out-of-box state. I performed a soft/hard reset. The result. All my installed applications remain, but photos and clippings of my great kids are erased. :(:(
Ok, it isn't as bad as projected. I have backup of 90% of media(photos, videos) on my PC and 100% contacts elsewhere.
At times , my knowledge lays buried somewhere deep in my brain and my stupidity takes over in a rush to achieve some not so important objectives.

Different things.

I got to drive a new vehicle for the past couple of days. Toyota Innova. Guess it falls under MUV category.
Colour:White.
What's good about the vechicle? Powerful, smooth engine. Great suspension. Nice front row seats, good steering, great AC, nice looking instrumentation panel. Good speakers.Good quality materials all over. (We are talking about Toyota here)
What's bad? Cramped third row seats. Basically not fit even for children. No boot space worth speaking. (Ofcourse let's trade third row seats for boot, but then we could have gone for a car if we wanted just 2 decent rows of seating.) Mileage is only decent.
Verdict : Could have been better. Not upto "MY" expectations. Should curse mself for buying the vehicle without even a test drive.

Coming to other things, my books to read are just piling up.:( I should do something soon about that. Ask my boss a 3 month holiday.:)

Time to leave to some other place. More updates in few hrs.

Bangalore for Nth time.

I am leaving to Bangalore for Nth time in past couple of months. More updates from that place. I love train journeys. Later.

My experimients with "Microwave Oven"

I had this small secret desire to buy a microwave since a while ago. Ok, I am an Indian. And Indian husbands by default don't cook. Now don't start the gender equality thing. My wife too doesn't cook.:) We luckily have service providers.:)
Coming back to Microwave oven, I always wanted to be creative when it comes to cooking. That doesn't necessarily translate into action or skill gained. But with microwave and a free "Tarla Dalal Recipe" booklet, one doesn't need even imagination. One needs only ingredients.
Chalo, one for kid. Banana muffins. Ingredients: Butter, wheat flour, banana, walnuts, sugar, baking powder, sodium bicarbonate, a pinch of salt and a few drops of milk. I had one or two ingredients missing. (Baking powder) So muffins weren't fluffy.
As my friends know, I can justify anything related to myself. So taste turned out to be good, with ingredients results will not deviate from specs.:)
Next turn is some potato stuff. Peel potatoes, add chillies, salt, cumin, a teaspoon oil. Power High, time 5 mts. Whatever, turned out to be ok.
Now I have 97 more pages to experiement. So wait for more adventures.:)

Kill Bill

I have watched Kill Bill-1&2 over 2 nights. Let me talk about them. Kill Bill-1 was great while watching. But didn't feel same after a while. Reasons go like this. Fights were long drawn. Consistency was lacking in presentation. But dialogues were great in occasions. Couldn't understand what to make of movie. Is it a parody, is it a tribute to different genres of films, is it sham to dupe everybody expecting something great from Quentin Tarantino? Heroin looked great.
Next night it was turn of part-2. It was such a lengthy movie. I was trying hard not to sleep. Our hero(ine) sets out to complete the revenge stuff. She gets buried alive. I attimes wonder what is it like being in a coffin andbeing buried alive. But my mind isn't strong enough to think about such horrible events for more than 10 seconds. In the film, that particular episode must have been for few mts atleast. I still wonder if anybody can come out of coffin buried under soil. Let's come back to film. The presentation changes from part-1 to part-2. We don't see any blood fountains in part-2.
I am not enthusiastic aout continuing this review. In short, Kill Bill (Both parts put together) is a ok film. Nothing more.

Rambling.

What are my problems? Not being able to buy all the gadgets I want. Not being able to visit all the countries I want. Not having enough money to snub Ambanis and Bill Gates' of world. And a few dark ones.:)
Coming to gadgets and countries, I can afford most of them, but guilt conscience comes into picture.I will do all this only when everybody else in world can do the same. (Didn't ask you to believe that)
We talk about various issues. Poverty, aids, racism, casteism, gender inequality, clash of civilizations,..
Shall we solve them one after another or go for a single shot solution? Problems vary from region to region. What is possible in one place isn't being possible in another place. How are we different from each other.
It's wonderful that 5/6 of human population goes with proper food every day. 1/2 with decent amenities. We aretalking about 6 billion homo sapiens here. So it's matter of filling the small gap to ensure affordability of gadgets and foreign travel to everybody.
Computers are good for everybody. They increase efficiency. Then, why not give one to everybody. Why does microsoft and intel sit on such large hordes of cash. If they decrease prices , affordability increase and many positive implications follow. why does a car (Metal & plastics) weighing 1 tonne cost atleast 10 times the material cost by weight? Value addition, right? What value addition, after a million or more of same piece are sold.
Why is it that, more than 50% of petrol's price is tax component? I am not advocating business without profit and govt without taxes. But then, where is accountablity?
If an article is published about holoy book, cinema star, nationalism, why do people die? Is anything worth dying or killing?
Many problems can be solved with language. Let me explain. Say everybody is educated to decent levels in same language. Say english. Everybody comes to know about working of world. I mean aspects like other religions, other economies, other production systems, other ways of agriculture, other needs. Everybody then decides for himself where he fits in. With free movement of goods, services, intellect things will even out eventually.
If we don't play our role in making things better for everybody, we will end up in same cesspool. Being good is selfish in nature and is a necessity.
I believe , with more contacts, barriers of all kinds will go down among races. Our efforts to tackle various issues will accelerate and ultimatel allow everybody to lead a reasonable life. I hope that happens soon. because I see no fun in buying gadgets and travelling once I have become old. :)

A book and then lot of books.

As promised , let me write about "Seven years in Tibet". If one has to talk about this book,one has to talk about it's author. Because it's non fiction.:)
Heinrich Harrer, (Do a wiki, google search about him) an austrian mountaineer comes to scale Nanga parbet in Pakistan (the then British India). This happens during late 1930s. He is captured by british and interned in of their camps. He along with fellow white prisoners tries 2 times unsuccessfully to escape from confinement. In his 3rd attempt he is successful. He escapes not because confinement was bad, but because he yearned for freedom, adventure. Infact, nice treatement by british enables him to make all preparations for escape.
After escape , he teams up with another caucasian to proceed to tibet while fellow escapees had their own plans. Without any valid permit and limited resources, they face lot of hurdles. Severe cold, Bandits, hostile authorities... But postive experiences outweigh negative experiences as is evident in their successful flight to Lhasa, capital and abode of Dalai Lama. They arrive in a wretched state. Good natured to tibetans look treat them well. Harrer and his friend in turn utilise their higher skill set to prove themselves useful to local population. Their popularity increases with time. So much so that , young Dalai Lama expresses his wish to meet Harrer.
These foreigners build dams, fountains, gardens. They also get involved in town planning, making videos on behalf of Dalai Lama.
Let us digress here for a bit and talk about the then tibetans. Tibetans respect life so much so that, they don't even kill mosquitoes and ants. Their needs are simple. Their progress is stuck up medieval ages. Their hygiene is poor. For them religion is above everything. Their contact with external world is poor. (as can be guessed from rest of factors) Dalai Lama is god king for them. Lama is Buddha's incarnation. Polyandry and polygamy aren't taboo.
Let's come back to Harrer. Harrer had no problem fitting in Tibet and leading his life there. he doesn't miss his home much. But after second world war, China's communists start threatening the independance of Tibet. Tibet is aware of threats, but can't do much about the whole scenario. China considers tibet to be it's integral part. When china starts taking decisive steps for annexation of Tibet, harrer takes leave of Lama and starts leaving Tibet. Very soon Dalai Lama too takes the same option and leaves Lhasa and starts towards India.
The book ends at this point. For those who want to know what happened next. Dalai Lama and his loyal followers are still in India with no hope of returning to Tibet in his lifetime. India has come to accept officially and otherwise that Tibet is integral part of China.
A movie featuring Brad Pitt was made based on the book. The author is still alive and active. There seems to be controversy about his SS(Hitler) background.
China has it's own interpretation about motives, backgorund of Harrer and other foreigners based in Tibet around 1940. (I came across a website)
Ideally I should have made and included a map showing Harrer's route. But then I am either lazy or busy or both.:)
Coming to Lot of books (Title) I have lot of books crying for my attention. If I need to make money, I need to stop reading this kind of stuff and start reading books like "Captive generation in India:A report".Later.

Sorry for delay.

I apologise for delay in posting. No excuses. I have completed "Seven years in Tibet". So a review will appear in few hrs.Apart from that, thre may be some other stuff. So see you soon.

JackieChan.

Jackie, I love you. If I were girl, I guess I will shriek like they do whenever I see you. Let's get down to work. Wll you admit my son as you pupil? Ok, I have changed my mind. I will not send him anywhere. If possible, you come to my place. I can find you few more students.:)

Quality.

I said earlier that no of spelling mistakes doesn't reflect anything about my personality. But then unclear posts are a different matter altogether. My recent posts wer substandard. I can delete them, modify them. But I want a record of my mistakes. :)
Tomorrow, I will be writing review of "Seven years in Tibet". That's other way of saying I didn't complete the book yet. I swear, I will not touch another non work related book for next couple of months.;)
My son's school reopened 3 days ago. One good thing is , we didn't face any trouble sending him to school. Did I tell you the school is 20 ft from my home? ;)
We are worried if he can got to MIT or not? Kidding. We want him to have fun, be athletic, rational,informed,..My kid would say "going to MIT would be easy".:)
Chalo, nothing more for today. Tomorrow, I will have a lot to say, including medical care in India.

Roger Federer, Upendra

Ok, everyboy knows the first guy. I will talk about the second guy a bit later. I like the first guy. Like any other non tribal person, I had my normal sporting heroes. McEnroe,Pete Sampras ( for record sake, I hate Agassi, for the precise reason that too many people, especially girls like him) in tennis, Dean Jones, Kapildev in cricket, Karpov, Anand in chess,.....
Oh,yeah, I liked Martina Navratilova (not chris evert), Monica Seles (not steffi). Now you can see that, I didn't want to like the most liked/hyped person.
Anyway, I thought Pete Sampras is last great champion. And here comes Roger Federer. Yeah, I am aware of Nadal, that's for some other time.I like Roger Federer for his consistency in winning , for crushing people like Andy Roddick&Leyton Hewitt who rely only on brute power , for his linguistic skills (4 languages), for his composure,...
Ok, the reason mentioned him is, I have come across his interview where he informed public that he was very hot headed a while ago. Many people go through that phase , I guess. He was also talking about reaching a position where he will not be compared to any other person, say Rod Laver or Pete Sampras. He is 23 yrs old. I guess, he needs to be similarly consistent for another atleast 5 yrs to be considered greatest of all time. But then he has to watch out for likes of Nadal.
I was? hot headed. I hope, I have changed for better, like Roger. I am not a tennis player, but still..:)
I should mention Asafa Powell too. (100 mts world record, 9.77 secs) This is one record that continues to amaze many people. I can understand marathon record being shortened by a minute. But 100 mts, every next iteration is something to be amazed at. Hats off to mankind which consistently throws new heroes.

Like any other day.

I decided to replace computer at my home. Ok, to make you people jealous. I have a tablet pc, my 5 yr old son a laptop and almost 3 yr old a PC. My wife has right on all these.:) No, I am not related to Sultan of Brunei. It's just that, I am fond of and lucky when it comes to gadgets.
Coming back to replacement, the PC had been giving lot of problems. It doesn't detect wireless router, my cdma phone, hangs up frequently, restarts for no reason,.. I have neither patience nor time nor skill to fix the issues. So replacement instead of repair. Ok,ok, I tried replacing motherboard, ram, graphics card in various combinations.
And new (or not so new, because, I am replacing a P4 system with celeron) system arrived. WinXP loaded, ATI graphics card from old system inserted into new system. Drivers loaded, system restarted, system fails to find OS,..the story is getting tedious. Now I started believing in Vaastu (Indian Feng Shu). The story will restart tomorrow morning.
About 10 days ago, I had fever. And not-so-learned doctor diagnosed it to be Typhoid. And I recovered in a day. Either the fever was not related to typhoid or I am super human. I am losing respect for doctors who casually drop names of big diseases to make the patient feel more melodramatic than he/she should.
My left hand is sort of numb these days. I refuse to go to doctor. When my wife indicated symtoms to a doctor, he said it could be spondylitis, whatever that means. What next, Cancer? Even that's ok. AIDS isn't.;) I don't want to be shunned by society.:)
"Seven Years in Tibet" is half complete. I should take more time and complete the nice book. But then the concept of "loss of productivity" comes into picture.
What else? Enough rambling for today.

Being Alone

Consider this situation. You have lot of decisions to make. And each decision has multiple ways to go. You don't know beforehand the implications of various options. You have no history for help in decision making.You have none to discuss with. And at the end of it, the whole exercise means nothing to you.
How does that sound like? A thankless exercise?
Think this way. You are a sole warrior. You fight because fight means more than result.
You don't need audience for your effort. You do it to feel good. You do it to justify your continued existence.
It's like those Japanese samurai movies where Hero dies because he is a Hero & Samurai.
What's the point? Who knows and who cares?

Eugenics, Mechanisation.

How do we solve the problems of world? How do we ensure that essentials likeipod, laptop, home theatre, Game cosoles are within reach of every kid in the world. How do we ensure that, every kid enjoys his food like an european does? How do we ensure that, ever family member has a SUV to roam around. How do we ensure that, everybody gets a chance to appreciate stuff like anime/manga, Basketball, hollywood?
Kidding apart, I wonder, if we can settle things like poverty, hunger, malaria, housing, gender equality.
I wish, we had a "humanity simulator" where we can input our questions, simulate the stuff and get the answers.
Yesterday's important, but unglamorous news was that rich countries had written off $40 billion debt. I don't know the total amount of debt. I don't know if those poor african countries will be able to take advantage of this relief. I don't know if world bank, IMF are good. I don't know if patents, especially on medicines are good. I don't know if "Global Warming" is real. I don't know if Gulf Oil belongs to whole world or just caucasians. I don't know too many things.

I wish

I wish, life was a bit slow, a bit less cruel, a bit less demanding. Not for me. For everybody, including me.:)

Encyclopaedia

Today while going through "Reader's Digest" I had come across a guy who read the Encyclopaedia Brittanica completely. I thought only kids and immature idiots harbour such ideas. What's the point? He wanted to be most intelligent of all. Or is it most aware? How does one ensure that, he/she remembers all that he has read. Will he/she be able to utilise all the information one tried to cram into various folds of white matter.
Ofcourse there's no point critcizing every such super human effort. Atleast they aren't restless, listless like you and me, I mean 90% of humanity.

Boy bands, Girls bands.

I am no aficionado when it comes to music/ dance of any genre. Yes, some music stirs me, some music saddens me, some music lulls me, some music makes me throw up (right, some video game, made me do that),....
Why are some boy bands and girl bands so successful? By now, everybody knows it's more about marketing than about talent. (whatever be the definition of talent) Planted stories, same sex preferences, wardrobe malfunctioning, ..But still we give in and keep buying, listening stuff. So that atleast few artists (and their troupes), labels, executives become millionaires.
Why? Is it because, we need to like somebody, even if that somebody is nobody? We remember Bach, Mozart..Will somebody in 2126 AD remember britney, madonna, usher, spice girls?

Meaning Of life

What does that mean? Let me admit I was one of those who asked that question few times in my life.
Today, a new approach dawned upon me. Why should there be a meaning? How are "meaning" and "life" connected? I guess when I thought the question was profound, I got carried away by philosophical books I read.
That is, I wonder, if anybody comes up with such questions if he/she is unaware of
"philosophy" as we know it.
I guess, we are limited by our language, which in turn is linked to our genetics.
Where is this going? I know I am not making much sense.So, let me stop.

Errors

Attention: 1.5 visitors per day.
Please don't judge my language skills by spelling mistakes I commit on my blog. Errors are proportional to entropy of brain during the time of posting. Hope you understand.

I hate work.

Attimes (Or is it most of time) I hate work. My work involves meeting people. But there are times, I need/want to be alone. I need to take a comprehensive view of things happening around me and then plan for future.
But visitors have their own reasons to disturb my plans. By the time, I am done with meeting people, I will have no time left for my plans, myself. :(
I cannot afford to avoid visitors. (That's my job) With no clear reasons for optimism, let me be optimistic about future. :)

Unions

I am an important memberon management side that's meant to deal with unions. How do they go? Each side prepares a list of piorities. Management tries cold logic while union goes with emotion. Management tries to find one idiot in the opposite side to target and sidestep important issues. Union tries to find the ways management is exploiting them and harp on them.
It's rare that both sides are sincere in their approach. Mutual suspicion, psychological games make the whole exercise an energy sapping, mentally draining experience for those sincere guys looking for solutions on both sides.
I hate business, because it's about people.

Give me a month.

I will be more learned, more enlightened, more wise by then. :)

Living (Dying) on edge.

I missed my train few mts ago. In the sense, I couldn't get my ticket confirmed, because I booked that late. I should be considered lazy by standards of 90% populace. I should be considered succesful by //(similar) percentage. How's that? Till now, combination of luck and my crooked intelligence helped be get away with my laziness.
But then, luck , by trend must run out one time or another. What then? My ambitions were never matched by my efforts. Yes, my results matched expectations of people around me, but my dreams, no.:(
I know what to do, I know perils of laziness, I know virtues of hardwork, I know virtues of planning. But then, somebody told me "You live only once".;)
Enough of this crap. I realise that some work cannot be wished away. If you aren't doing that in right time with right kind of effort, pressure and effort required will only increase to damage your physical and mental health.
Hence maintain a to-do list, strike down each task(not literally) and sleep well.
Later.

My Son & Hair"STYLE".

My 5 yr old son was resisting a haircut fiercely. Once he had his haircut, I asked him
"why?". He says "My new haircut is bad, it's not stylish". I was stunned, recovering from that, I asked him "what's style?". He said "looking good".
Hope this process doesn't accelerate. :)

Prejudices.

I am a person of too many prejudices for my own peril. One prejudice I have is about refined aspects of world. Say a painter, a director,an author is very well known. I approach their work with suspicion.
One such fellow is Maniratnam, a famous film director in South India. I consider his works to be over rated, too polished, devoid of substance.
I was watching one of his films on TV today. It turned out to be better than I expected. It's about 3 young men finding their destinies in life after an incident involving all 3.
I wish, I were so sure about what I want in life. Latest trend is I want to be serious about charity. Yesterday, when I was in delhi, I saw kids not more than 6/7 yrs begging on streets. It's not a new sight in India. Probably, I am becoming more sensitive to such visuals. I wish, it doesn't stop here.
Ideal situation will be , I will be working, making money, spending some money on my sons, (My wife is rich, so need not spend on her ;)) , make them competent to live in this world, and spend rest of energies and resources to make lives of other people better. Huh, does that sound grand. Hopefully, it's practical.

A tale of 2 eateries.

1.Pizza Hut.Delhi.

{Meal for 4} Constituents:: 1 Medium Sized Pizza, 1 Personal Pizza, 4 Garlic Bread.....

Price :480 Rs + 12% service tax.

Pros : Great Ambience, good food.
Cons: Price.

2.Roadside Dhaba.

{Roti, Egg Curry} Constituents:: Roti, Egg curry, Sweat, child labour...

Price :80 rs + 0% service tax. (For 4 members)

Pros:Great Ambience, Great Food, Price.
Cons:Comfort level is proportional short sightedness ofr hygiene.