I figured out if the net can give me info (and porn) it can surely give me quips. Guess what, I was right! I know this idea sounds lame, but check out www.grouchyrabbit.com and www.dearblankpleaseblank.com. Good laughs in both of them, and if you are particularly crazy about grass, check out www.thathigh.com. Wonder if I should charge these sites for advertising…

Flying above I look down and see -
Grey buildings and brown land.
Every inch, an human errand.
The water shining black and blue
Smoke rings which block my view.

Massive dams that make river stop
Flying planes that come to me for talk
Mighty machine uprooting the tree
Opening up place for walking free.

A big drill to break open the earth
And pull out oil even from inside the crust.
Power weapons to tame elephants life
Ivory to jewel converting magic knife
Even the mighty whale cannot freely float
A magic machine can convert them to soap.

So much magic in the world below lies
New things I learn with each span of eye
But each eye-span chills my heart like ice
To realize that all my grandmother stories were lies –

“Blue water and green land” she told
“Elephant the mightiest animal” she behold
“River always flows to meet the sea” told she
“Only birds can reach the tallest tree.”

May be she never flew out of the nest,
May be she told all stories just in jest,
But when I return home to the flock
My grandmother I will delight with my talks.
I will tell her about the real World Rules
About man, machine and all the tools.
I know truth will give her delight
I know she will kiss me with pride.

But before I fly back home round
Why not eat the grains on the ground.
It is nice to chew these grains you bet,
But why are my feet tangled in a net?

As per physics colour is that band of light spectrum(the range of wavelengths) which the human eye can detect.

This band of spectrum is passed to the human brain which in turn ,        helps us to perceive color.

The human eye has three types of cones or colour receptors – Red, Green and Blue(Red , Blue and green are the three primary colours for us). These three types of cones can absorb wavelengths from 420 – 700 nanometres and help us detect about 100 different gradations of colours. The human brain combines these 100 gradations to enable the average human to distinguish about 1 million different colors

But what if our eye can be engineered to detect a wider range of spectrum? Imagine if our eye can have another type of cone to detect more primary colors? This special quality already exists in many animals and some humans, Read – Tetrachromat

Imagine how our new world would be like if we became a tetrachormat or pentachormat or something even beyond?

The rainbow would no longer be of seven colours. The world would be full of new colors and shades. How and with what words would you describe such a world? How would you describe and explain a colour you never saw before. Everything – living or object would look and feel different.

Imagine the impact on culture, art and literature. They would be redefined. All the famous painting of the world would now be fresh. Literature would be at a loss of words. The poetic expressions   – purple rain, green mile; red rose might turn out to be incorrect. The crow might no longer be black.  The grass might not be green now on any of the sides. Pink might no longer be the favourite colour of all the girls.

Imagine the impact technology and fashion. The best resolution monitors would suddenly feel pale. There would now be more shades to permute on the dresses – these new colors would rule the ramp and our minds.

Imagine the impact on our physic. We might initially find it difficult to even identify old and familiar things. We may develop new feelings. We would literally see our old world falling down in front of our eyes and new world takings its place. It would force us to revise the fundamental concept set in our brain. It will make us realize that our perception of things is just a model. There is no absolute truth –

“The sky is no longer blue; it just used to be;
The sky was never blue, we just used to see.”

Perhaps we need such a magical experience to crumble down the rigid walls which have trapped our free will. Perhaps we need such an experience to revitalize, the once considered most important trait of humans – ‘To question something and not believe in it blindly’.
Perhaps we need the eighth colour of the rainbow to appreciate the existing seven.

When one tries to analyse the questions above it brings a few interesting things to the fore front –

• It is almost a modern axiom – Football is a a passionate a game that no country can keep itself aloof from it. Hence .It comes as no surprise that same is the case with India. Another modern axiom is – Quality thrives. Hence it also should come as no surprise that since Indian football is not able to provide quality, the fans have naturally spread their interests beyond borders where quality is supreme.

• Another adage is – Too much pain brings apathy. Fans in India have been disappointed so many times that now they have closed their minds on Indian Football.

• Another fact to be noted is – Every country needs heroes. If it cannot find one it will invent one. In the case of India, a scarcity of national stars has made us search beyond for inspiration.

As abysmal as the situation may seem, all is not lost. If we can bring back the quality in football (or for that matter in other Indian sports). We have inspirational players like Baichung Bhutia and Sunil Cherti in our team. All we need to bring back quality is funds and management. But funds only flow in when there is market for the sports and market is ensured only by consistent quality. This viscous circle needs to be broken.

One innovative solution could be to use cricket’s immortal popularity to push up other sports.

• Imagine a sports championship between India-Pakistan or India-Australia where you have 9 matches

• to revive the emotional bonding for other sports – something which has been lost due to apathy.

This model and other innovations like this would definitely bring alive the passion in India football (and other sports like hockey etc).It will gradually help to improve India’s  virtually unknown status in world sports to a one of  respect an pride..
There is light at the end of the tunnel but we need to move towards the end of the tunnel.

— Lyrics of Song from Joan Osbome . Watch the song on You Tube here

As uncanny and as thought provoking the song may be, imagine another thought provoking scenario-  Among all of us on this earth, YOU are given the privilege to be GOD?

Lucky You!! Or so it seems at the first instant. For however exciting the opportunity sounds, it comes with its set of unique dilemmas. For starters, there are so many Gods in this world, .so which God to be?  Without a doubt you deserve the best (after all , you are God). So why be any other God and why not be the best God?

So the dilemma now reshapes itself into – To find which God is the best? Your dilemma is made even more difficult when you realize that you cannot approach anyone for advice. After all, every person would claim that the God he/she follows is the best God.

After realizing that your Social Network will not be able to help you out on this one, you decide to try your hands at History only to discover that human history is tainted with the loss of countless lives in an attempt to put one God better than the other. But amidst all this bloodshed, History still fails to point toward a Supreme God among other Gods.

Keeping History books into history, you decide to research a modern text. Maybe modern analysis can solve your dilemma .You get hold of the book, If world were a Village. The book tells you that if on this earth there were only 100 people — 33 would be Christians, 18 Muslims, 14 Hindus, 16 Non Religious, 6 Buddhists and 13 followers of other religions.

Aha! This gives some pointers. Should you become the God which most people follow? But does this line of thought not imply that the lesser followed Gods are the lesser Gods? Doubtful of this hypothesis, you lunge into the field of Sales expecting to see some light. But alas, as you feared, Sales teaches you that there is no definite relationship pattern between the numbers of consumers of a product and the quality of that product. There are many other parameters which collectively affect the end users choice. So you realize that the parameter ‘Number of followers of a God ‘ is not a sufficient one to choose The God among Gods. (I told you at the start, it won’t be an easy problem solve)

Perplexed by your dilemma, you come up with an exhaustive solution – Study about each God that there is and then decide which God is the Numero Uno!. As comprehensive as  the idea sounds ,let me warn you  it is not a practical one. Just to give you the reason behind my apprehension , when you would reach Buddhism in your study, you will find the Buddha has 32 avatars. So you have to 32 avatars to understand the Buddha.  Oh! What do you say – 32 is not such a big number. You can study the 32 avatars. Okay, But thrn let me tell you about Hinduism, The total Gods in Hinduism is 330000. By the time you would complete the study of their life, your life would be completed.. Case closed!

You seem to be a bit lost now with all these approaches failing to give you an answer. Let me suggest you a compromise – Instead of choosing the best God , let us only decide to choose the best religion. It seems a more manageable prospect. It is also very closely related to the initial dilemma – after all , it was God only who gave religion to men and women ( Or was it  the other way round ? Let’s not dwell into it , we have work to do ).

And on top of other things, your decision would  also help the whole human race. The whole race has been fighting among themselves for ages  to prove their religion as supreme, May you can decide for them and settle the issue once and for all, And they are sure to agree with your decision ( after all  you are God 1 )So let us work together and try to list down the major teachings of the various religions of the world. Then we will try to categorize the teaching into some categories so that we can analyse them in detail.

So let’s get to work ………………………..

And there!!, we have the table ready below. Now all we need to do is analyse and pick out the best religion.

Yes, my friend, I am as shocked as you are — All the religions teach the exact same things via their respective Gods and via their own respective means ??!!
But why then have humans been fighting among themselves since time immemorial l to prove that their religion and their God is better than the religion and God of others? Apologies my friend, I have no idea how to answer this new dilemma. But I have a feeling that the day every human starts taking the trouble to ponder over this question, the world would be a better place. Do you share the same feeling my friend?

What if god was one of us
Just a slob like one of us
Just a stranger on the bus
Trying to make his way home
Just trying to make his way home
Like a holy rolling stone
Back up to heaven all alone
Just trying to make his way home
Nobody calling on the phone
Except for the Pope maybe in Rome

The opinion of the boy  –

Star fish on the glass,
On the bed a coin of brass.
A scuba toy bubble at you,
Crawling crab in their too.
Magical fishes tail and fin,
I even spot an identical twin.
Green algae tinge so light,
Turtle floating in delight.
Fragment of lost treasure chest,
A gray-white pebble nest ……

An ocean within a box contained
Ocean’s Pandora for all sustained
“An aquarium“, to capture the sea
More beautiful an idea cannot be !!

The opinion of the fish –

An ocean in a jail,
Beyond box cannot sail.
No friend of my alike,
Oh what a closed life !

No waves and no tides,
Nothing new comes in sight,
Same stone and same sound,
Swim again the same round.
Same food all day night,
No new companion in sight.

Freedom is too much to ask,
Dead is life with no task.
No choices in it to make,
No new direction there to take,
Life out of me I cannot shake,
Alas! the glass will not break.

Looking at me exclaims the boy
Other side of glass, the world is coy
For others I am a toy
It is said -
One’s misery is another’s joy !!

A lot of shady landlords recognize that and exploit the plight of these women. They would rent a 3-4 BHK room; put 4 bunker beds into each of the bedrooms and living room. They would convert the house into a chaul (cramped Mumbai style housing with no privacy or living space) and charge 3,500/- to 4,500/- rent from each of the girls. This translates into 50,000/–70,000/- rent collected from a 3bhk house (about 3 times more than what is the rent for a similar furnished apartment)

Government of India provides very lucrative deals for anybody constructing working women’s hostel. They would be providing 50% of the cost of the land and 75% of the cost of construction for free.

Even the permissible maximum rents that can be charged are quite reasonable.

1. rent for single room (without bath or kitchen) = 2,400/-
2. double sharing basis = 1,600/-
3. Dormitory: 1,200/-

However the hostel is allowed to charge extra for electricity, water, furniture, food and other services provided. Considering that about 60% of the cost are borne by the government and the fact that lower rent translate into higher occupancy, any NGO/organization can make a decent return on their investment. Details of this program can be found here and the list of hostels already operational.

What is more surprising is that the restrictions that government has imposed are also quite liberal and understandable:

1. The hostel needs a resident warden and a security guard.
2. The hostel would be open to all working women and cannot discriminate amongst potential applicants on the basis of color, creed, language, caste etc.
3. No women under any circumstance can be allowed to stay for more than 5 years.
4. At least 30% of the hostel at any given point of time needs to be occupied by women (single or married (with or without kids)) earning less than 16,000/- per month. Out here we are talking about take home salary (or salary declared in Income tax returns) so 16,000/- per month of salary (without bonus/commissions) would translate into about 2.5L CTC. This is actually a reasonably high remuneration for a fresh college graduate.

I wonder why in spite of all the lucrative offers, so many NGOs and organizations have availed this scheme.

We stop , listen to both and we think……….
Then
Some of us follow the I
and
Some of us follow the You.

The Me – I

A fear hides in the heart
That dreams would die only as dreams
Unfulfilled ambitions yet
And soul would depart
Body would lay satisfied
But wanting soul would still scream.

Even then ,
No more dreams now I strive to pure
No new dimensions I try to explore
Too many constrains the free will found
It killed the dreams, I lived to bound

Past boundaries have punctured the heart
More failures may rip it apart
So I live now this vegetative life
Daily chores and no delight
No excitement in life for sure
But at least pain I bear No More !

The Me – You

You may fear to die,
You may not – I cannot say
But you fear to live
One by one you kill each day

Intense pain is better
Slow pain to death – Never!
Dormant life is sin for sure
So precious life is
Vegetation is no cure .

Attempt and action
Coulld bring joy
Could bring sorrow
But they bring an alive tomorrow
Dream and decision
May give pain
May give gain
But they make you live again.
Inaction is state of defeated mind.
A champion lives each moment
All the time.

Today you vegetate
By taming your soul
Tomorrow the body
With age will tame you old
Before you decay
Yourself you cure
One life, Do More !

If we reflect upon our life and try to recollect the most cherished moments that we have experienced so far in our journey, we would discover that the majority of these moments were part of our childhood phase. Those indeed were the good old days! And if we dig a bit more into the cherished moments of our childhood, we would, without doubt find that a few of these incidents have a bicycle embedded in it.

The cycle and its cousins have a very special relationship with us. They touch and shape every stage of our life.

We might not realize, but the cycle; in its various forms influences us in so many ways——-

When we are born, a distance relative of the cycle – The Cradle surrounds us with its protection. The Cradle helps us to journey around the world even before our legs take up that responsibility.

With the passage of time, we grow out of the cradle and climb on the Tricycle. It is our first independent vehicle. It is we who control where to take it and with what speed to drive it. It is a friend which helps us explore the world, a friend which rides with us through impossible curvy and crooked places, a friend which takes many a falls with us but a friend which always is ready to go wherever our infant imagination wants to take us.

As we grow up a bit more, the tricycle becomes a thing of the past and out comes the Bicycle. The Bicycle is a big step in our life. When we dash on our bicycle, it gives us a taste of the speed, which is required by us to move ahead in life. When we fall down from our bicycle, it gives us a taste of the pains that life has to offer. When we complete our first bicycle ride without anyone’s support, it gives us a taste of thrill, freedom and confidence required to live.
Then as we grow up even more, we abandon the cycle and its relatives for the more comfortable means of commutation. The Cycle, from being a tool of discovery ends up being just a piece of decoration. And with time, the piece of decoration decays into a piece of debris for us.

We abandon the Cycle and throw it out of our house and out of our life. But the cycle, which was our best friend, is not able to come to terms with the fact that we have given up on the friendship. It desperately tries to come back to us, albeit in the form of a exercise equipment in the gym but there also it hardly gets any extended attention from us.

With time the Cycle realizes that it is not wanted anymore. It then waits patiently and watches us live our life. It watches and sees that the day has come when life has caught up with us, it sees the day has come when our limbs have began begin to fail us.

At this lonely stage of our life, when not many people want to talk to us, we can but only  sit down and reflect on our past days and realize that one friend is still waiting for us in the junkyard outside the house – Our old Bicycle.

But alas, when we could, we deserted it .Now, even though we want to, we cannot cycle anymore. Our body no longer has the strength to do so .We can only think about the time when we cycled and take pleasure in the vicarious thrills.

Our eternal buddy, the Cycle realizes our state. It stays aloof, as it is angry with us for we deserted it for years together. But eventually , for the sake of friendship it decides to come back to us and free us of our loneliness and helplessness — The Wheel Chair helps us to journey around the world even after our legs have given up that responsibility.

Mari – Have you ever ridden a cycle in your life?
Sam – Yes
Mari – Do you still ride a cycle?
Sam – No
Mari – Would you ride it in the future?
Sam -  I ………………

A saint once told me that – “Son, none of us are alone! All of us have Cosmic Energy Waves around us which surround us at each and every moment of our existence”. I don’t know about cosmic waves , but one thing that I know of is that – I am surrounded by stupid commercials around me at each and every moment of my existence. Hoardings, TV, Radios, SMS,Internet, Sales call – they are everywhere.
And so deeply have these ads affected me , that nowadays , I cannot even dream without commercial breaks in between.
Spending a lot of time analyzing these commercials , I have discovered that their behavior is not as stupid and random as it seems , albeit it is governed by well defined laws.

So ladies and gentlemen, let me present before you the Three Laws of Commercials.

Law number I
For our protection first there is God, second there is …….Pepsodent and Dettol

You don’t believe me ? Let me explain.
Just have a look at the Pepsodent Commercial–24 hour security, 24 hour defense, dishum dishum and what not! You are forced to wonder how humans survived all those prehistoric ages without the protection of Pepsodent.”

Now onto to Dettol -Unfortunately, I came to know about the powers of dettol quite late in my childhood.
You see, when I was a little boy , I used to fall sick before every school exam and my teacher used to scold me , ”You dumb head .You stupid boy. Exams make you fret so much that you fall sick.”
Well…., Medical Science was not so advanced in my childhood days. Little did my teacher know that the cause of sickness was not my dumbness but the fact that I do not take bathe in Dettol Soap.

Leaving my sad childhood behind, let me move on to the next law.

Law number II Where ever you go, our network follows

As I already mentioned, these ads will never leave you.
On weekdays, my primary activities in office consist of answering emails, typing some code and convincing sales guys on my cell phone that I am in no need of pre approved car and home loans.
Imagine, after 5 days of such hard work you are enjoying a deserving, peaceful Saturday afternoon sleep and as you are about to fall into deep slumber ,it at this precise moment that your mobile gives an SMS blast. Sleepy and tired, you somehow reach out to your mobile –– Whoosh – “SMS on 54545 to know your Class X th result.”Tell me , why the hell would I want to know my 10th board result at this age ??!!!!
Actually if I reflect upon my marks, I probably did not want to know about them even at that time.

I mentioned about this SMS problem to my friend Sanjeev, and he is like –“What’s the big problem, dude ? Keep your mobile on silent mode while sleeping! ”.
Life …my friends, alas, is not so simple. You see, Sanjeev does not have a girlfriend .But I have. And she calls me every 5 minutes questioning me , “Where are you , what are you doing ? What are you not doing ? What took you 20sec to receive the call ?”

Phewwww…

Believe me my friends , the only thing more dangerous in this world than a GPS tracking enabled girlfriend is the Internet Pop UP ads . The Devil could not be everywhere – so he made them. These Internet pop ups have a tendency to pop up at the wrong place, at the wrong time and with the wrong content. (Boys would know all about it : ) )
For instance ,when I surf the net and no one is around , the pop-up will always try to find the perfect bride for me. It has been trying the same for the past 5 years. But when I surf the net and my father is around, the ‘Matrimonial Pop Up’ is always replaced by the ‘Get Blind Date with Hot Mumbai Girls PopUp’.
One of two more of these Pop Up incidents ,and I am sure to thrown out of the house by my father.

Anyways , popping on to
Law Number III – Impossible is Nothing.

Impossible is nothing for the ad makers. For them, the sun rises in the west. You have no idea what they will end up teaching you in their ads.
Let me give you an example,

Remember the surf excel ad ?
A young chap comes up in a cap and says “Stains are good ?”.
Young chap, you say stains are good!! . Obviously you have not met my mother!

HDFC Child investment plan
Remember , 4 year old, giving investment advice to parents ? “Papa grow up I want to be an astronaut. So do some investment” I wish I was so intelligent as a 5 year old. My family would have been so rich, and, I would have been an astronaut. Better to be on Mars than in this Mumbai traffic. Any day .

One more instance -
Radios are at another level. Before following cricket commentary on radio I used to believe that Sachin Tendulkar is the best batsman that India has. But now after following cricket on radio , I have realized that it is actually BSNL. Sachin only takes 1s and 2s , it is BSNL who hits all the 4′s and 6 ‘s.
”Aur ek laga ek aur BSNL Chauka ”

Those were the three laws, ladies and gentlemen.

I have figured out the laws that govern these commercials but I am yet to figure out how to escape these commercials. It does not seem like happening during my lifetime, In fact, I fear that even after death when I ask the Almighty upstairs -”God , am I going to get heaven or hell. What are my chances.? “ The Almighty would just stand there eating a Britannia biscuit and smile “Son , its 50/50”

On this day , anyone of us could be left behind to
remorse the destruction which
we all caused to our planet.and the destruction
which the planet replied to us……………….

<poem>

For there might still be a green grass bed
Hence I keep dragging my feet ahead
Burning wind beats my skin to death
Air in my lungs sting with every breath
But I keep dragging my feet  instead ,
For there might still be a green grass ahead.

Longs my soul for a flower
Just to rest my eyes;
Longs my soul for a bird chirp
Just to bless my ears.
The forests I still can see
But Concrete grows now for Trees
The lakes I still can feel
But its now dry and Dump-Sealed.

The color of rivers once blue is now so red
Still swim in them the humans but now as dead.
But I do not swim yet;but drag my feet instead ,
For there might still be a green grass ahead.

And now it seems so simple
How we missed it then ;  I dread —
” If trees do not give us food
Industries would  never give us bread “.

And now my time draws a die
No one around but yet I scream ;
Not for help —-
But with  Hope
that now I shall be clean.
But with  Prayer in my heart
That if by chance some human alive walks across my bones
Before he dies , he covers me up just with a few stones.’
But with with Joy in my soul
For in the new place I shall now tread
There might still be a green grass bed.

A professor of philosophy came into his class with a glass jar, some rocks, pebbles, sand and a cup of coffee. Then he asked his students if all the ingredients would fit in the jar. Looking at the entire ingredients, most of them replied in the negative.

The professor proceeded to fill all the rocks in the jar. Then he took the pebbles and poured them in, while shaking the jar. They fit in the gaps between the rocks. The professor then looked up and asked what the students thought of it now. They had started smiling. The professor then proceeded to fill in the sand. It too, fit in between the pebbles. Then finally, the professor poured in the coffee, a perfect fit. One of the students got up and asked him the meaning of the experiment.

The professor replied – “The jar represents your life. The rocks represent your basic needs, the pebbles your secondary needs and the sand is tertiary needs. If you want to have everything in life, learn to prioritize correctly. If you go for your basic needs first, like family, friends and happiness and then for secondary needs as job and salary, you may be able to get even your superficial needs as societal position, recognition etc. Prioritize them wrongly, and your life isn’t enough to hold all of them.”

After a round of applause, another student said – “But professor, what about the coffee?”

“Oh that,” said the professor with a smile, “that just shows that no matter how full your life may be with your needs, always find an evening for a cup of coffee with a good friend. It fits in with everything.”

During my work experience as an engineer, I had to frequently negotiate with Korean suppliers. They couldn’t pronounce my name so whenever they came to my section, they would ask anyone with a sweeping gesture over their lips and chin to indicate me. It later became a standard joke in the department to use that gesture for me.

I was once having a flaming-tequila shot with a friend in a pub. The bartender gave me my shot and said – “Bhai sahib, araam se warna dadhi jal jayegi.”(Go easy or your beard might catch fire). It was some time before my friends could stop laughing.

The latest one was from a restaurateur who saw me after at least two and a half years. I used to haunt his joint often in the earlier days, but I wasn’t sure he would recognize me after such a gap. When I walked up to him and asked if he remembered me, he grinned, shook my hand and said -“Amitabh ki dadhi wale khud ko Amitabh samajte hai, par hum to asliyat jaante hai na.”(People sporting Amitabh’s beard might think they are Amitabh, but I know the real person behind it). Old friends remembering you…it feels nice, it always does.

During these slow, sunny, idle days, I was having a conversation with one of my friends over coffee. Incidentally, he is as vella as yours truly. He struck up the following note –

“Can you guess who is the busiest man?”
“In India or around us?”
“In India, the world…whatever.”
“Umm…the waiter, the PM…or not, the police. Maybe the bellboy. Politicians, definitely politicians.”
“Nope, it’s the vella public.”
“I believe vella people are defined as jobless.”
“My point exactly. The person with no job is the busiest man.”
“Like the happiest man is the one without the shirt?”
“Huh? I can’t draw that analogy, but ok. The point being, the vella is someone whom everyone takes for granted. Hence, he is assigned the most time-consuming, non-productive, boring and frustrating jobs by everyone around him. It takes up his entire time, and at the end of the day, he has nothing to show.”
“For example?”
“Like…you doing nothing, get in line for the telephone bill, today is the last day. Or, go and receive relative xyz from the airport. Or to top it, drop your cousin for his tuition and then get the exam form for him from the bank across the city.”
“Nice, but do you know who is giving us the dirty looks and wants to get busy?”
“Who cares…ok, who?”
“The waiter. We have been here for over three hours over jus two cups of coffee. I think he is reaching his breaking point. Let’s go.”
“Ok. As it is I have some work to do.”
“What, actual work or the vella style?”
“What can I say; I am a really busy man.”

Over the past 1 month or so, I have spent 20-30 hours over phone trying to coach a kid on CAT interviews. He wants to pursue MBA because he intends to use those skills to get into healthcare management, where he believes he can contribute significantly and get a lot of satisfaction. However being an engineer from an unrelated field, he wasn’t sounding very convincing in the mock interviews. Hence he was literally pressurized and forced to change the storyline of “Why MBA” to finance where he seems more natural and presentable. He says just because “I am good at something that does not mean I want to pursue it as a career. Healthcare might not be the most glamorous of the sectors (relatively speaking), but then with my qualifications and dedication I am sure I will never have problems of bringing food to the table.”

IIM Interviews are a chance for which many people would be ready to kill for. During interviews and discussions where one is being evaluated, everyone blemishes the facts or is economical with the truth. However just because everyone lies, does not mean that he should also become phony. I am not questioning the moral or ethical standards because I believe they tend to change/evolve with time and based on the context. What I am asking is that if the stakes are too high, then is it ok to let go of one’s beliefs and conviction in order to make a favorable impression?

PS: He went with the finance story.

My friend’s assertion was that society is better off if we use experts, specialists, machines and equipment. 1 bus for commuting, 1 truck for transport, 1 tracker for ploughing the fields would consume less fuel, time, give more comfort and be less costly for the society than having 4 tractors doing all the above purposes. A tractor is a multipurpose vehicle which can do almost anything under the sun, but that does not mean that it should be regularly used to do it. After all its common sense that the wheels designed to function in mud and fields would consume more fuel on tarred roads.

My assertion was that there are 2 costs associated with any machine Capex and Opex. It is well known that most agricultural families might have needs that require them to work in the fields, transport produce and passengers. However they might not have the financial means to own 3 different vehicles for these specialized tasks. Also even if they can, they won’t be able to fully utilize them and hence making it expensive for the society.

For Opex, one has to take a leaf from the Queuing Theory. Multipurpose vehicles can adapt to the needs of the day. They can be deployed on the fields on one day, as trucks on another and as busses on the third. This way there will not be shortage in any of these varied areas and hence the rental that a farmer has to pay for these equipments would also be manageable. Finally the cost to the society is rental + operating cost. End of the day it’s the economics that guide these decisions in life. As long as village economy feels that their needs are not so large to justify specialist vehicles they won’t have one.

The debate could not be conclusive because soon we drifted to the professional services space. We questioned that for a company/team/project is it better to hire generalist or specialist. When is the tussle between expertise and flexibility which of the two should be given precedence.

Hence I am writing this post to ask for opinion from the readers.

However 2 months ago a friend of mine used my credit card to purchase a digital camera from an online corporate store for 28000/- and due to some billing problem my credit card was not charged for the shipment. Unlike the previous case, correcting this glitch won’t involve any financial cost for me. On the contrary, it would have helped me retain my moral high ground. Yet through my inaction I defrauded my online store, but what is worse is that I had no qualms about it.

There could be several plausible explanations for it:
1. 28000/- might be too tempting an amount for me. However I personally did not benefit from this transaction.
2. Paying back in own coin. However I never felt that this particular store or bank had cheated me in the past and have no grudge against them.
3. I remembered what my mentor had once said… During the 18th century the pious, just and gentlemen could commit genocide and atrocities against the black slaves and yet never regret it. This was because of the simple fact that these whites did not empathize with the blacks. To them they were no more than some exotic creatures that bore close resemblance to humans. (In no way I am endorsing this thought) There is a possibility that I sympathized with the small store owner but not with the corporate.

I am having this strange feeling because I am worried not because I did wrong but because why I did what I did.

It was not a question of trust but cold feet. All she wanted was a few more assurances and signs to make her mentally ready for this transition. However in the search for the reassurance she ended up prying into documents she was not supposed to read. She rationalized it by giving a zillion reasons and examples of sharing between couples etc. Further she argued that a lot of people hire Private Investigators who also often breach the privacy and it is socially acceptable (although considered paranoid) to do so.

However there are faults in this theory. Since all these conversations were not intended for her, there is a strong likelihood that she could misinterpret them or be out of contexts. Most human beings esp. men are quite complicated and often tend to hide their true emotions. Sometimes this is because what the society expects them to do but also sometimes because genetically a guy is a social moron.

However the question still remains. How does one resist the temptation of going through the stuff that you know is important, is valuable to you yet you should not read. How does one draw a line between honoring the personal privacy of someone you love and satisfying ones curiosity.

Human males have the same amount of blood yet have an extra organ to support. Hence if you think too much at the crucial time, one might starve the rest of the body of its much needed blood flow.

On corruption, there is a cultural difference between India and the West. Not that the West is corruption-free. But there is zero tolerance, at least in theory. In India, we think bending the rule is not undesirable as long as the ultimate objective is achieved. It starts with the family and right from childhood.

I don’t know why our people don’t understand. Life is so peaceful when your mind is totally free and abhors corruption. It is something akin to when one has conquered material desires. Being self satisfied with what one has is the key.

In my opinion the most dangerous trend in Indian society is that the society no longer perceives bribery as a crime. Not only have those who give bribes but also those who take now proudly advertized this fact. It is not the policing but the social stigma that keeps such vices under control. However when corruption becomes socially acceptable or even desirable that’s when one realize that the society has begin to rot.
All corruption yield is that overpriced sub-standard goods being produced by under-qualified persons who cannot deliver in time. It also frustrates the honest and competent persons away and makes the society worse off.

However it’s easier for an underdeveloped/developing society to tax the goods than income. The reason behind that is to be effectively able to collect direct taxes you need a sound financial reporting and auditing else there will be pilferage. What is worse is that there will be a situation like it exists in India where the middle/service class end up paying a much higher percentage of their income as taxes than the rich who through hiding their income or via various tax shelters hardly pay any.

One of the important learning/change in viewpoint that happened after my stay in France is that now I understand how the corruption rots the entire system and makes the society worse off. Sometimes end does not justify the means and corruption is one of the instances.

What struck me was that if even in mid 19th century a man could not bury his past. Today everything is documented, recorded for eternity and indexed. A teenager with an internet connection can dig buried skeletons from your closet by finding embarrassing facts and figures about you. It’s easy to say that the best escape is to do no evil, but sometimes even common men like you and me want to bury their past.
There are often many actions that we did because we were not mature enough, or ignorant of the consequences of our actions. Sometimes there are certain actions that looked cool during the teenage but you might not be proud of them now. Morals evolve with time and are dependent on the culture of the people around. Certain actions might be OK or even desirable at one point of time or circumstances but your friends and relatives now might not understand that. Certain times you want to bury your past not because you are ashamed of it, but because you don’t want your kids to repeat the same mistakes (like skipping college to join a band)

How does one protect himself? You might say by coming clean and tell the world your version of the story before it’s used against you. However how good a first impression will one make if he does that?

This sort of scarcity created a maniac rush amongst the google fans. People who had a surplus invite thought they were gifted and told the entire world how great their gift was. Hence increase the desire and perceived value of the email service. While those who were unfortunate enough not to have a gmail invite thought that they were missing the party. In their desperation they flooded the inbox with requests. Everyone wants to be a member of an exclusive club. This club derives its importance not from how good/bad the product is but from how long is the queue of the people trying to get in.

Google wave might be a better product than Gmail (although I could never understand how to use it), but this same marketing launch scheme that banked on Scarcity Premium failed terribly. Nobody seems to care about a wave invite and everybody seems to have a couple of them lying idle. I guess the hardest thing is business is to repeat one’s stellar performance.

1. Number each and every page and have a count of the total number of pages in the document. With the latest software, it is quite easy to even count the number of lines, words and character in the document.

2. Never use a black pen for signing the document. Always use a pen with a hard metal tip and press hard to ensure that the pen leaves a physical dent on the page.

3. Always sign each and every page of the document. Put your initials next to any changes and amendments.

4. Most importantly in the last, spread the sheet of paper as a Chinese fan/accordion so that only the ends of the pages are visible. Then sign on this fan. This makes changing only 1 page of your contract nearly impossible to photocopy or modify. So the entire document now has to be redrafted.

There are several hologram, smart papers, digital signature etc to protect the document. It all depends on cost vs benefit. One security measure you should definitely explore is depositing the contract with a Notary. It might cost as much as 500$ to deposit the contract but it’s quite secure.

I could count:
Bolivia
Ethiopia
Ghana
Lithuania
Benin
Guyana (Guinea)
Vanuatu
Guinea-Bissau
Togo
Sao Tome and Principe
Benin
Camaroon
Senegal
Congo
Mali
and Zimbabwe.

Incidently as per my friend from Senegal al these countries have totally different history, culture and even religion. Many of them are sworn enemies for centuries now. Yet to a layman all their flags looks so much the same.

As my friend Gregory pointed out, this probably has to do with Ethopia (which was the only independent country in the African world)

According to my African friend, who once had an Indian girlfriend and has spent a lot of time in India, this delay is sex creates a barrier between the desires and the practices which is unnatural. It creates a sexual tension and uneasiness, a barrier that prevent the Indian youth to express themselves freely and openly. According to him this causes frustration and might even lead to the increasing crime level.
Being no authority on the subject, I am unable to impartially and accurately comment on the issue. However I strongly believe that it’s only our generation that is facing this transition hiccups. The previous generation had not much problems with chastity because they used to get married early. It’s this generation that wants to follow the traditions, yet be considered cool enough in the modern society with changing values. Most likely the next generation will not face this problem because the transition from a conservative traditional society to the modern liberal society would be complete by then.

There was a river flowing at the Eastern Boundary of the Persian Empire which the Indians called Sindh. The Muslims called it Hind (and hence the name Hindu (which is the name of the main religion of India) and Hindustan (which is what the Indians call their country). The Europeans (esp. the French) pronounced this region Inde which the British called as India and the river as Indus.

Incidentally no portion of the river Indus flows in India anymore. When the Europeans took to the sea, they started labeling almost every new culture as Indians, irrespective of whether they had any ties with India or not. So now many races in Northern and Southern America are also called Indians even though they bear no resemblance.

You study hard because the neighbor’s kids have higher grades. You speak English and not your mother tongue because that is a sign of being educated. After schooling you have no choice but to pursue engineering or medicine because it is hard to support oneself on art or sports. After the bachelors one has to pursue MBA. Not because they want to but because that is expected of them by others. Jobs, marriage, kids, house, cars everything is governed by one big question “What is expected out of me?”

Indians have a greater external locus of control than most people from other countries, however things are changing. It is easier when we are told by our family, spouse, boss or society what to do and what not to do rather than take a plunge ourselves. We judge our success not by how much happiness it brings us, but by the eyes of the others. Surprisingly the system works and the country is growing by leaps and bounds. However the question is when we are going to rise above the Maslov’s basic needs of materialistic success and security to pursue our passions. When are we going to take a time out to fully understand ourselves and take time to develop our hobbies and interests? The goal of life is not material success.

Indians unlike the folks from China and Middle East try extra hard to mingle with the local population of their new country. There a conflict of the values and culture which they need to have to be cool enough in front of their friends and what they are expected to practice at home.

Most likely it is a short transitional phase which most people in societies facing rapid changes and development face.

However the question remains how much freedom should the parents give their children and what amount of say they should have in determining their path in life?

Should we follow the western philosophy that the kids are emancipated once they hit the teens and severe all tied with their parents? They take their own decisions and are not afraid that their parents might disapprove of it.

On the other hand in several families the kids are expected to seek their parents’ approval and even permission for every action they take. Sometimes this umbilical cord stays even after the kid has a family of his own and is financially independent.

I guess there are merits in both schools of thought and the best way is somewhere in the middle of the two extremes. The reason why I am beginning to ask this question is that often I see that the children do what they want to do irrespective of the freedom offered to them or the desires/wishes of their parents.

However by being too strict, a parent might stifle the kid and hence prompt it to hide their feelings, apprehensions and troubles. If the kid indulges in the risky behavior and hides it, is it a fault of the parent of the kid? I am not sure and hence this post.

The greeks have it
hamartia-sin (used to describe “sin” in greek versions of bible)
teleos – opposite of sin

The ancients egyptians have it
isfet – sin
ma’at -opposite of sin

The arabs had many, for example(arabic)
fasad – sin
salah – the opposite of sin

There are many other cultures and languages that have more or less almost perfect antonym for sin…but I am yet to find the perfect antonym for the word “sin” in English….Thats virtue maybe.

- Developed on this Thought

In The Odyssey, another great hero, Odysseus, has a chance of going to (and returning from) the underworld, land of the dead. There he meets the ghosts, or shades, of many near and dear ones and converse with them all. What rattled me completely (and caused undue attention, since I was reading in the middle of a class lecture) was what the shade of Achilles told Odysseus. I quote from Robert Fagle’s translation:

“No winning words about death to me, shining Odysseus!
By god, I’d rather slave on earth for another man-
Some dirt-poor tenant farmer who scrapes to keep alive-
Than rule down here over all the breathless dead.”

Despite getting what he wanted, the hero longed to change his decision! I can’t understand why. I think Bill Watterson put it in a rather amusing one line – “How can something seem so plausible at the time, and so idiotic in retrospect?” Seems the so-called modern dilemma of the grass being greener on the other side has ancient roots.

Even if it was done so, is it equally simple to answer it, truthfully? I remember being in autopilot giving the response – yes, even if I may have thought otherwise. Actually, this thought was triggered off in my head by an episode of Frasier I was watching. Like the protagonist, the more time I took to answer this question, the more difficult the response became. If you take five seconds to think on it, the last incident on your mind will determine your answer. I had a good meal at the mess (for a change), so I thought yes. Then I gave it a minute. My mind started running backwards. And the answer kept changing as I tried to sum up all the incidents of my life I could remember. The deeper I probe, the more complicated it gets, and the answer is yet to come. Although one thing is sure, when I get an answer, I will be in a good position to assess what I want to do next.

So, in the greater scheme of all things put together, would you say you are happy?

In India, most of the good girls find their match while they are still in their High School.
Of those who remain, many of them take advantage of the increased freedom that the hostel life offers.
Still eligible ones go for the arranged marriage immediately after their graduation.
The unlucky few who survive fall prey within the first year of hitting the job market.
So finally what is left is Butter Milk….
i.e. although the name suggest presence of Butter, it has everything but butter.

To see how other people react, I showed this survey around and asked people what they find most startling about this survey
1. A majority of them felt happy that Tata (thanks to Nano, Chorus etc) is in the list.
2. A few questioned the relevance of putting a Chocolate Manufacturer and a furniture retailer in the list.
3. What surprised me is that even though almost all of them were not aware of many of the companies in the list, they were nor surprised of this fact.

Are we Indians so ignorant (and worse accept our ignorance) that the fact that we are not even aware of the presence of these reputable companies?

The hunter can move across the circumference of the pond at 4 times the speed at which the rabbit can swim. However the hunter cannot enter the pond and if the rabbit swims to the surface without the hunter being close by, then the rabbit escapes.

Can the rabbit outwit the hunter and escape?

“It’s lazy of the local shopkeepers to close in the afternoons. I
often needed to buy things during ‘siesta’ time – this should be banned.”

“On my holiday to Goa in India , I was disgusted to find that almost
every restaurant served curry. I don’t like spicy food at all.”

“We booked an excursion to a water park but no-one told us we had to
bring our swimming costumes and towels.”

A woman threatened to call police after claiming that she’d been
locked in by staff. When in fact, she had mistaken the “do not disturb”
sign on the back of the door as a warning to remain in the room.

“The beach was too sandy.”

“We found the sand was not like the sand in the brochure. Your
brochure shows the sand as yellow but it was white.”

“Topless sunbathing on the beach should be banned. The holiday was
ruined as my husband spent all day looking at other women.”

“We bought ‘Ray-Ban’ sunglasses for five Euros (£3.50) from a street
trader, only to find out they were fake.”

“No-one told us there would be fish in the sea. The children were
startled.”

“It took us nine hours to fly home from Jamaica to England it only
took the Americans three hours to get home.”

“I compared the size of our one-bedroom apartment to our friends’
three-bedroom apartment and ours was significantly smaller.”

The brochure stated: ‘No hairdressers at the accommodation’.
We’re trainee hairdressers – will we be OK staying here?”

“There are too many Spanish people. The receptionist speaks Spanish.
The food is Spanish. Too many foreigners.”

“My fiancé and I booked a twin-bedded room but we were placed in a
double-bedded room. We now hold you responsible for the fact that I find
myself pregnant. This would not have happened if you had put us in the room
that we booked.”

I guess there is a big market to be tapped.

Steel consumption in the country rose 3.8 percent and production increased 1.2 percent in the last quarter, Steel Secretary Pramod Rastogi said at the conference. Rural housing and infrastructure will continue to boost demand, he said.

This is probably the first credible indicator that suggests that the worst is probably over for India. Now its time for me to further boost the country’s GDP by drinking a mug of Beer

If an agent sells all the policies in his name, then after paying the tax and kickbacks, hardly any commission would be left for him to earn his bread. Hence instead of selling the policy in his name, he would sell a part of the policy in a businessman’s name. The businessman would hence use the channel to legalize his black money, the agent is able to reduce his tax burden and the black money gets dissipated to the policy holders who receive kickbacks. A very simple arrangement.

As per LIC website, it has over 10,02,109 agents all across the nation. So its not as small as an operation that it sounds like. If you are still skeptical, ask your broker how come there are so many high profile agents from leading business families and he will spill the beans.

I wonder how long will it take for the people to realize that small and medium scale industries form the backbone of the economy.

Like Ram Jethmalani said (0:52 to 1: 20), probably I should vote for the party that I least disagree with.

I am really scared of what the Indian Politics is becoming.

- Cross posted from Sri’s Views

Hardly anybody flushes after using a public urinal (probably it was never a part of their potty training) hence many establishments tried with automatic flushing systems with IR proximity sensors. However they are prone to fail and the whole toilet stinks when even one of them does. Periodic manual/timer based flushing (the older technology) does not adjust with the changing patron usage patterns. Hence the ice makes perfect sense. The melting ice acts as a slow, continuous flush. Since the urine is warm, the more people use the urinal more flushing happens.
Ice cools the air around the urinal. Since cool air flows down, it further helps in containing the smell. Also the chill of the ice discourages flies and cockroaches to approach the urinal.

forwarded by Amit

The fact that tea/coffee contain dairy products (a magnet for bacteria) and is often poured in a dirty glass container does not make it clean. It take 20 minutes of continuous boiling to kill all bacteria. Yet the popular perception is that if the beverage is hot, its clean.

I moved to mumbai recently. The hostel had a tap placed over an ordinarily looking washbasin sink and labeled drinking water. Other residents assured me that behind the wall there is a water purifier (but i could not see it). Hence in spite of all my best intentions the water did taste funny.

Next day morning, I found the water to be cold (as against room temperature the previous evening). Hence the water miraculously tasted OK. All this in spite of the fact that i have no preference for cold water.

Similarly I have seen an amusing habit:
people boil tetra pack milk, then again cooling it before storing.