Who face is it anyway?

A lot of faces. None human!

TN under the lens

"ஹைதராபாத்ல பாதீங்கன்னா, மக்கள் தங்கமானவங்க. சென்னைல அப்படி இல்லீங்க. கடவுள் பயம் இல்லை. 'எவன எப்போ ஏமாத்தலாம். எவன் எப்போ ஏமாறுவான்.' இதேதான் எண்ணம். அதனாலதான் த்சுனாமி எல்லாம் வருது."

("Look at people in Hyderabad. Their heart is as good as they are made of gold. That is not the case with Chennai. They don't fear god. All they think about is when and who they can fool next. That is why they are stuck by Tsunami").

-- A heart-broken Tamil co-passenger in Kacheguda express. Born and brought up in Chennai, and settled for the past 8 years in Hyderabad.

"I love people from Tamil Nadu. I was in Chennai for one-and-a-half years. People are very devout and god-fearing there. People who are so god fearing, can never hurt others. I have also lived in Kolkotta. Girls there were modern dresses and try to be very sexy. But girls in Tamil Nadu a beautiful and are well dressed.

-- A colleague who just found out that I am from Chennai, a Hyderabad native.

"I work in Dubai and I have had a lot of Tamil friends there. They are good at learning others' languages. They never admit that they don't know the language. They always pretend like they know it. But they keenly watch when others speak, stutter while trying it and they end up learning the language. Malayalis, on the other hand don't even move with anybody who doesn't speak Malayalam"

-- A Hyderarabadi catholic christian, and co-passenger in Charminar Express. He was going to Chennai to further continue his journey to Velaankanni in Nagappatnam.

"ஹைதராபாத் நல்ல ஊருதான். ஆனால் ந்ம்ம ஊர் மக்களுக்குத் தேவையான பொருள் ரொம்ப கிடைக்காது. இப்போ பாருங்க. எங்க அக்கா பொண்ணுக்குக் கல்யாணம். பட்டு வேட்டி, சேலை எல்லாம் நான் சென்னைல தான் வாங்கறேன். ஹைதராபாத்ல இதெல்லாம் நம்ம விருப்பதுக்குக் கிடைக்காதுங்க."

(Hyderabad is a good city. But the things that our people need are not always available. If you look at my case, my sister's daughter is getting married. I buy all the silk sarees and dhotis from Chennai. Such things are not available to our (Tamils') liking here.)

-- A Tamil Nadu born Hyderabadi co-passenger while on his way back to Hyderabad.

How come you speek Hindi? People from Chennai normally don't know Hindi at all. When I was in Bangaore, there wer 12 (thinking), no 13 people from Chennai. Only one of them understood Hindi. The rest had no idea about Hindi. Even the guy who knew it, can't speak Hindi fluently.

-- A new-employee and colleague, a Haryana on his first day at work and on our first meeting.

"இங்க (மும்பை) மக்கள் எல்லாரும் 'தான் உண்டு, தன் வேலை உண்டு' ன்னு இருப்பாங்க. சென்னைல அப்படி இல்ல. 'இவன் என்ன பண்ணறான், அவன் என்ன பண்ணறான்'. இதுதான் வேலை. அங்க people are narrow-minded"

("Here (Mumbai) people mind their own business. Chennai is not like that. 'What is this guy doing? What is that guy doing?' is all that goes in their mind. There, people are narrow-minded.")

-- My uncle on during my recent visit to Mumbai. Born, brought up and worked for some time in Chennai. Now setttled down for twenty years in Mumbai

"ஹைதராபாத்ல ஹிந்தி தெரிஞா போதும். தெலுங்கு அவசியமே இல்லை. ஆனா "ஹைதராபாத் தாண்டி வெளியில போனா ஹிந்தி உதவாது. சென்னைல இப்போ முன்னைவிட ஹிந்தி நிறய கதுண்டுட்டா"

("In Hyderabad, all you need is Hindi. There is no need for Telugu. But if you go anywhere outside Hyderabad, inside Andhra, Hindi won't help. But in Chennai, nowadays, more people have learned Hindi")

-- My friend's aunt, a Chennai-native, living in Hyderabad for I-don't-know-how-long, during my recent visit to their home for dinner.

Tiruvidavaenthai

This post is actually a discussion that I had in Kavitha's blog on temples, but, I guess, is interesting enough to be a post in itself. It is about my visit to a historic temple, the first one after my stay in a foreign land which made me realise that temples in India, especially the ancient ones, are more than just places where you pray for your wishes to come true. This temple is special in that way because, during my visit I relived a short life with the belief system, priorities and way of life of our ancestors. It is a not life of faith, but a quest for the realisation of the absolute truth. It is a life of attaining eternal greatness by discipline.

Tiruvidavaenthai is more commonly known as Tiruvidanthai. It is on the East Coast Road, about 7-10 km from Tiruvanmiyur, Chennai. That is if my math is not too bad. The temple is one of the 108 Tirupathi's of Lord Vishnu. Its sanctum sanctorium has Lord Vishnu as Nitya Kalyana Perumal. He gives darshan as a Varaham. He holds Komalavalli Thayar on his left thigh balancing his left feet on Adiseshan. Pretty amazing! It also has a separate Sannidhi (as I am used to call it) for Komalavalli Thayar in her full bridal costume.

The story behind his name is also interesting. In Tiruvidanthai, lived a saint called Kavala Muni with his daughters. 360 of them! He prayed for the lord to marry them, and the Lord kindly obliged, marrying one each day, for a year. Thus the name Nitya Kalyana Perumal. At the end of the year, he merged all into one Komalavalli thayar.

The temple is very good and I guess is one of the temples better protected by the Archeological Survey of India. The outer walls of the sanctum are still inscribed with Tamil, clearly of the (g)olden days. Though I couldn't understand any (and I consider myself not too bad in reading Tamil). What else? There is a shed, possibly for the Ther, right after the Dwajasthampam (the flag made out of stone, if I may say so). Its actually pretty dilapidated. And there were two mandapams, one right at the outer entrance, and one to the left of the Dwajasthampan as you enter the outer entrance. To the right was more facts by ASI about the kings who ruled when it was constructed and other interesting things that I dutifuly forgot.

The temple's tank is about a five minute walk down the approach road from the temple. It is reasonably big. Honestly, I didn't have a chance to stop and look if the tank is any good. But the temple sure is very peaceful. No disrespects, but I would any day prefer Tiruvidanthai to any other Divya desam, or for that matter a temple, which may be more crowded all round the year. If only I was not this far from the temple!

The tale of two "Helpfuls"

There are two kinds of helpful people when it comes to any technical or procedural issues. That is assuming that The Helpful knows the solution to the issue.

The first kind will do a lot of talking and attempt to make you understand what the core of the issue is (which most often allows you to find the solution yourself) and then offer you the solution. From then on you go about executing the suggestion and wear a big, grateful smile across your face when you say "Thank you!".

The second kind will seize the opportunity to prove its capabilities, push you aside and take the centre stage and work hurriedly as you watch helplessly asking yourself "What the hell is going on here". When you actually ask the question with a little decency tagged on to it, it falls on deaf ears. When the solution is executed, you get a line of two of the wisdom which is too less to really make you understand the roots of the problem or the solution. All you know is that somebody has been successful in scoring a point over you, and that somebody is making it felt by the See-I-did-it-when-you-cant looks you get. You end up saying "Thank you", sans the big smile and get on with your work.

What bothers me the most is that the second kind does not necessarily play spoilsports when it comes to other things like partying together, or going to a movie. The whole behaviour is attributable to habit rather than intentions. I pity, rather than hate, such a kind for they appear to be bad when they actually learned the lesson of helping others. Only they got the moral of the story wrong.

The girl I like

When it comes to girls, I had been conservative. At school, I sincerely believed that proximiity to girls is a great risk. Touching a girl is a huge breech of personal code. At college, as one can guess, I was atypical to say the least. To say it all in one line, No dance floors. Hence no girls. Period. Not-so-good-looking girls helped the cause a big way, all the way. Not that these things really bothered me too much. Life was smooth all the way till I landed up a job in Hyderabad, made some friends (all male once again!) and visited Hyderabad Central and met this girl. God just look at her.

Beautiful, yet unassuming,
Well dressed, yet simple,
Slim, yet well nourished,
Busy, yet cheerful!

Better than all, a coffee-drinker like me, hee hee!

All of a sudden she make me realize the meanings of the word sweetheart. Too bad, she has to be a wallpaper at Hyderabad Central. Too bad the search has to continue. All I have now is a picture of her that I took. But hey, atleast I know what kind of girl I like now!

Specialists!

Novice killer? Try your skills on a specialist. Come to Hyderabad!

BE Vs. B.Sc

Say the word "India" and the first that would come to people's mind all over the world is IT. For sure, IT boom has catapulted India's image from poor beggars capable of sleeping on a bed of nails or snake charmers who can also charm ropes, to smart, intelligent, adaptive, ambitious and most importantly, English speaking technologists and businessmen. In other words, India is a big talent pool, a large overseas market and hence a very fast growing economy. Its good to see India trying to take steps to maximise the opportunity it has got.

But I guess there are certain issues that are not yet addressed. No, I am not talking about the elimination of poverty or corruption. Those are oft discussed, but stagnant topics. I am talking about the educational stream Vs. career prospect lopsidedness.

If you are scratching your head about what I am talking about. Here is the scenario. Today, if one graduates out of any college (not necessarily a reputed one) as an engineer, he/she has a bright chances of landing in a decently paid job (More often than not, that job will be IT related). But, barring a very few exceptions, a science graduate has virtually no chance of getting placed anywhere. And I see only *one* reason to it. Service-oriented IT companies limit their technical workforce only to BE graduates. The notion among the companies' hiring team that a mechanical engineer from a not-so-great college will be a better fit than a B.Sc. CS graduate for a computer programming job is nothing more than superstition.

This creates an unequal distribution of job prospects across different educational fields. Having spent a few years of my lifetime in the US, (where else!) this is one clear difference that I have noticed between the two countries. Any educational qualification (even high school) has a sizable pool of jobs that one can land in and make both ends meet. (That explains the fact that a very low percentage of high school graduates go on to graduate with a Bachelors degree in the US). The question here, is "Will I ever get a job?", the question there "Will this qualification fetch me a job that will pay me well enough?".

To reach there, we should work on redistributing the educational qualification Vs. job-prospect mismatch. For starters, I would suggest that the IT service oriented companies start hiring from relevant science graduates (with say, CS, physics or math specialisation) for atleast some of their jobs. (After all, we are still doing more service than innovation). If my guesses are not way off, this might trigger a lot of other phenomenon. More high school graduates will consider science specialisation as a viable option (rather than paying huge capitation fees to engineering colleges). With more students from science colleges getting place in reputed firms, reputation and hence competition among institution will increase. This will in turn, lead to improvements in infrastructure.

On the other hand, with more people going for science field, a number of engineering colleges whose infrastructure is no more than rooms, will disappear allowing the universities to concentrate better on improving the quality of engineering education and infrastructure. Infrastructure improvement in engineering by itself is worth another blog. I hope to dedicate one for that in the near future. For now, its for you (sitting across the table) to put your thoughts OverTea!

Just another day in Paradise!

It was just another day. A Saturday to be more specific. I was returning with my roomies after a lazy morning breakfast and found, to my amusement, found two kids having fun (rather trying to have fun) with cricket, using a home-made bat and an old ball! The rest is secret photography!





Now this is not a secret photography anymore. There is more action and more people!


Now, the playing two followed by a photo shoot with their brother!



But now the big one!

Ramesh, Me! (what's funny about my T-shirt?), Monica and Babol!

I later found out that they are the kids of the security guard at work in the apartment complex opposite to mine. Ramesh, who is upto date with cricket, (he is not satisfied with Venugopal Rao's performance in the ODI series with SL) is studying at a local school. Monica is better at batting, but she is yet to learn the difficult art of talking! She never opened her mouth the whole time. I gave up trying! Babol talks only better than Monica. Monica and Babol are yet to join school. I fear if they ever will. It was just another day, but the venue is Paradise!

Signing off!

Good Work Government!

Rains and relief in Chennai:
I had been to chennai for the Diwali vacations for a week, which eventually falls on the week that followed a week of incessent rains and flooding. I had done a fair bit of travelling around the city and followed up the news, both on TV and news paper. I found that, inspite of a record downpour, normalcy has been restored fast (in a week) to most of the city (though not so in North Chennai!). Relief camps have been setup in 10 areas for relocation of people in low-lying areas. Army was called in for relief operations in suburbs like Madippakkam (which is close to my home!) and trains were restored to operation fast. Good to see news channels like NDTV commend the way the corporation handled the whole issue. NDTV also noted that during the second round of showers following the Diwali week, the officials learned from mistakes in the previous to ensure proper drainage of water in subways. My applause to Chennai corporation for the good work and my encouragements to keep it up. Hope the also learn a little bit from the Vyasarpadi stampede to organise the distribution of food and clothes better!

Rediff: Uniform call rate across the country:
This is a welcome measure apart from numerous other efforts by Comm. and IT minister Dayanidhi Maran. I always believe that the best way to measure a country's progress is to look at how easier the life of a normal man gets. This sure is a good step forward since it makes the life of the rich and the poor alike! Great job. To be cautious, I would hope that after the uniform call rates is set, it would not be set to the current STD rates :)

Fwd: Poetic resignation

Here is a resignation letter your manager will enjoy!

The name is good, the brand is big
But the work I do is that of a pig
The work or the brand, what is my way?
I dont know if I should stay.

To work, they have set their own way
Nobody will care to hear what I say
My will be NULL, they wont change their way
I dont know if I should stay.

The project is in a critical stage
But to do good work, this is the age
This dilemma is killing me day by day
I dont know if I should stay.

The money is good ,the place is great
But the development is at a very small rate
Should I go for the work, or wait for pay
I dont know if I should stay. !

The managers dont know what they talk
The team doesnt know where they walk
That's a bad situation, what say?
I dont know if I should stay.

I can go to any other place
But what if I get the same disgrace
I cant keep switching day by day
I dont know if I should stay.

The -ves are more, the +ves are less
Then why have this unnecessary mess
No more will I walk their way,
Its all done, I won't stay.

Replay of moments

Life seems to cruise along smooth and eventless. Suddenly, I feel something heavy in my head and my mind races! I feel that, this very sequence of moments has already happened in my life. But I couldn't say when. I couldn't say what is going to be next. But when the next moment becomes current, my mind yells out "Yes, this is it! I have gone through this too!". It keeps happening again and again for sometime after which I am no longer so sure about whether I am still in the replay mode. Then those moments fade quietly and here I am, back to the present! I try to go over those moments once again, trying to locate when it has happened. But not once could I do it till date. I feel that it is unfair and live on it for a little while. But before long, I completely forget about it and get on with my life. All that is left now is that there had been moments when I felt that they have already happened in my life. I don't even remember what those moments were! My companions have confessed to have gone through such an experience themselves.

It has been a long time since such a thing has happened to me. It has been long since I have talked about it to anybody. I wonder if anybody still goes through such an experience. I instinctively feel that it would be a rarity. Rarer still would be to find people who actually know why such things happen and identify the situation when the replay was actually "live". Rarer still would be for such people to spot this weblog and respond!

Laugh!

One of the very few forawarded messages that worked my stomach muscles out. I simply can't keep from posting it!

Religion and Society

Recently, in one of my groups we had a discussion on a Times article.

In short, the article was reporting a research which concludes that

"...belief in and worship of God are not only unnecessary for a healthy society but may actually contribute to social problems."


It went on with comparison of US society (considered to be one of the most religious, at the same time, advanced nation in the world) with other less devout nations (in Europe mainly).

A few excerpts!

• Gregory Paul, the author of the study and a social scientist, used data from the International Social Survey Programme, Gallup and other research bodies to reach his conclusions.

• "US was the world's only prosperous democracy where murder rates were still high, and that the least devout nations were the least dysfunctional."

• “The study shows that England, despite the social ills it has, is actually performing a good deal better than the USA in most indicators, even though it is now a much less religious nation than America.”

• "The US also suffered from uniquely high adolescent and adult syphilis infection rates, and adolescent abortion rates, the study suggested."

• Mr Paul said that rates of gonorrhoea in adolescents in the US were up to 300 times higher than in less devout democratic countries

Here is my take!

I think one key point is not discussed in the article (or not considered from the polls' conclusion).

How many of those crimes in the USA and other countries are related to religion?

To me, the conclusions are correct to a certain extent, but based on wrong data. Just because USA couldn't control crime as good as the others, how can we paint a religious picture to it? There are numerous other factors like easier access to guns and licences for guns, drugs and other things. Crimes and social ills (quoted by the article) are due to direct effect of such factors and not because of religion. Also, based on my experience at the US, the country is more religious not because they implement the moral values of the religion in day-to-day life, but more because larger portion of people attend the sunday masses regularly! That is it!

To be fair to them, they are also immune (to a large extent) to the negative side of the religion's effects like evil-superstitions, sticking to customs though they are obsolete or counter-productive (I mean to say that they are more open to new and positive ideas even if those ideas are outside the boundaries of Christianity. One good example may be Yoga!).

Now I feel the conclusions ofresearchearch are correct to a certain extent because, religion has been the reason for a lot (but not all) of crimes all over the world. And if you look close enough, no religion is an exception. I feel, the problem is applying religion in the society-level. (Doing things like some self-proclaimed guardians of Islam issuing fatwa against Sania for not wearing a veil while playing tennis.) and the govts heeding to it (I still don't get the idea behind separate set of laws for Muslims like "Talaak" and a whole bunch of other things). So, if a society has to be devout and at the same time less-criminal (because of religious factors) it has to apply religion at the personal level, and be tolerant to those who opt a non-religious or a less religious path. Otherwise, it is better off being atheistic.

What is your take?

Window 2005

My workplace is situated at the 4th floor (of 5 floors above ground level) in a fairly large complex at the center of the city of Hyderabad. One of the good things about working on a higher floor, I thought on my first day, would be the view of the city. Being an IT related company, my centre is completely air-conditioned, windows are tinted and screened. That doesn't leave much for you to view.

Ok, what about outside the office. The hallway, the stairs...does that have anything to offer? Like any shopping mall (which essentially is what the ground floor is!), all the shops and other businesses are built along the main wall, with the entrances and hence the hallways from inside the mall. So, all windows are inside one business or the other, again, carefully tinted and closed for air-conditioning!

There is a window by the stairs at each floor, but then there is always somebody standing there, pondering over a smoke, or worse, sitting right under it and talking to his/her (girl/boy)friend. So, that doesn't do any good about the view either. It almost looks like the whole mall probably convened a secret meeting before my joining date and said "Ok, guys! This is it! He is coming tomorrow. Now, I want all the windows in this building hunted down, tinted and screened! You've got one day to complete this mission! MOVE!". I almost lost all hopes of a good ariel view.

After nearly half a day's work, I wanted to ease myself (you know, the one which you spend longer time of the *two*). I walked towards my goal thinking hard over my work. I opened the door and was blinded by brightness. For a moment, I thought somebody will say "Hello! Neo!". Where did so much light come from? A Window! Positioned high enough to protect privacy and low enough to provide a good view without much effort while doing you-know-what! Perfect! With a fly-over, airport nearby there is enough to keep you from being bored. Flights taking-off and landing. Large hoardings by the fly-over and the numerous motorists on the. Being in the 4th floor, air keeps gushing in like the devotees at Tirumala. This is place offers such a big relief for a stressed mind (apart from its actual purpose, of course). I must admit, I have visited the place even when I didn't have to, just to enjoy the vista and fresh air. I wonder if I am the only one here, who feels that way.

...strangers are pop-ins

Yesterday, as I would do on any weekend, I was roaming the crowded streets of Hyderabad with my friend in his bike and we hit a red light. From our past experience we knew that its break time for our loyal motorcycle and let it sleep. Lost in thought, I merrily started whistling a favourite sound track from Kill Bill (you know, the piece that Daryl Hannah whistles when she goes as a nurse to kill Uma Thurman). When my senses came back to the real world, I found myself looking past a girl next to me. She gave hard glare at me and started raising her scooter's throttle periodically like a racer waiting for the "go" signal. I thought "Great! Now I am a loafer!" I foolishly smiled and raised my hand as a sign of apology. She hastily looked away feeling more insecure, most probably thinking "Crap! Now he is trying to talk to me! *&$@^>?*! Do they pull them aside and teach them to do this or something?". And she was off like a horse at the signal and turned right. I don't know if she was actually headed right or if that was an impulsive decision.

That made me think about all the strangers I meet every day. It struck me then, that strangers are like pop-ins. They come in different colors and tastes and melt out quickly from your mind. And the taste of these pop-ins are not only in them, but also in your tongue! And this tongue of yours is made of millions of taste buds like, your personality, state of mind, age, sex, status, what you are doing, what you are wearing, where you are going and many other things.

- To a baby, a stranger is probably a green coloured alien with transmitters in his head (recall that puzzling look in their face before they start wailing?),
- To an unemployed, he is a potential job opportunity,
- To a guy carrying heavy cash, he is a probable pick-pocket (remember the crowded bus or the guy standing behind you in the ATM?),
- To a girl's father (or a girl herself), he is a potential loafer,
- To someone who has realised that he/she is badly dressed, he is all eyes,
- To a single-and-looking, he is a potential date,- To someone like Forest Gump, a stranger is a great pass time, (remember Tom Hanks in that bus stop?),
- To a blogger, he is a faceless audience.
At some point of time, I have been all the taste buds and all the pop-ins (sadly, the single-and-looking is an exception). As the famous phrase goes, "...life is a box of chocolates.". Well, strangers are just a little bit different, aren't they?

Seven

So, thats what tagging is about. I had to visit a few others Maayaa had (and had not) tagged before I got an idea. So, its a question of seven. Why seven? Well, I guess why not? Anyway, here it is!

Seven

things I want to do.

1. Travel to Maldives. Its a wonderful place and will be off the map in about 10 years!
2. Learn human psychology and apply it.
3. Teach part-time at school and/or college.
4. Think proactively.
5. Watch all well-made movies
   
6. Learn and experience varied culture.
7. Learn Telugu and Urdu
   

things I can do.

1. Hold off anger
2. Get up early!
   
3. Respect someone's view, even if I don't buy it.
4. Make friends of diverse people.
5. Jog non-stop for 45 minutes, and work-out for an hour.
6. Listen out others (as I found out, many can't), especially in an arguement.
   
7. easily doze of while reading!
   

things I can't do.

1. Bargain
2. understand money matters (Business, profits, stock markets..)
3. Eat meat or smoke tobacco
4. flirt with girls
   
5. return a "Hi" with a "Hi" (I always say "Hello")
   
6. detect an ulterior motive
7. stop checking out girls (C'mon, don't hate me! I'm a guy! Atleast, I am honest!)
   

things I would like in the opposite sex

1. Simplicity
2. Sensibile spirituality
3. Good decent dressing sense
4. Out going personality
5. Sense of humour (atleast, a sense to appreciate a good joke!)
6. Unbiased attitude
7. Good looks (my favourite is girl-next-door's like Vidya Balan)
   

celebrities I like and why.

1. Vidya Balan (looks)
   
2. Tom Hanks(Acting)
3. Jack Nicholson (do)
   
4. Kamal Hassan (versatality)
5. Amir Khan(do)
6. Rani Mukarjee(acting)
   
7. Sania Mirza (performance)

Spam comment filters

Its not even ten minutes, since I became active and I already know what the blog needs in the future. Spam comment filters! Look at the first comment on my previous blog today. Its about some food allergy and why am I so damn sure that it was auto generated. Is there anybody in any corner of the world working on the spam comment filters?

Rising from the ashes

Whew.... a long time absence. Not that I have run out of ideas. But I had been travelling....half way around the globe. I wish that was a travel for pure fun. But I relocated to take up a new job. So, if my location still says that I am in Oregon, its a lie. Now I am in Hyderabad - in a new place, and in a new role, new experience and renewed excitement. Now I feel like the English Cricket team...I feel like I am rising from the ashes!

Special Mention: V.Murugan

V. Murugan - a soldier from an agricultural hamlet in Tirunelveli,Tamil Nadu - is remembered for his sacrifice in Kargil War. How? Read the story Remembering son of soil from The Hindu. You can do your honours for him too! Details in the article itself.

Scaffold: Mixed Bag

Culture:
An article about the city in Tamil Nadu build around a magnificiant temple.. Madurai from The Hindu

A look into numerous and unique chariots of temples of Tamil Nadu. Another special from The Hindu

A French musician inspired by Indian Cine Music.. from Times of India

Life:

The disgrace of killing precious life by carelessness..A MUST READ! . The Hindu

Disadavantaged children find a chance in BornFree Art School. Deccan Herald

Health:

Women's Health: A clarification on Dilatation and Curettage D&C and why its done The Hindu

A good news for diabetics Deccan Herald