I read Subroto Bagchi's viewpoint about professional life :-

One of the things why Indians don't get to understand workplace issues till they are 23 or 24 is because they don't go to work as youngsters. When a 13 or 14 year-old in a country like the US or Japan or Europe or anywhere goes and works in a store, packs bags, or becomes a gas station attendant that individual knows the difference between my time and company time, my money and company money, what is the meaning of a paying customer.

So when you are a waiter or a waitress at 14 you know very well that you can't be on a cellphone when a customer walks in. The point is simple: workplace issues may not be understood when you take a big degree from a reputed college. You can make people aware about issues in a classroom but you can't make professionals in a classroom.

I remember when I graduated from Engineering, I thought I will be typing programs like I used to in my labs all the time. Later now I realize (I hope!) the program executable is something for which people PAY MONEY for and making it work. This will be stronger when you join a small company fighting for funds. This is something which is not taught in classrooms. Showing up on time (punctuality), proactive spirit and other things are not taught. Some people pick it up as soon as they enter the workplace, some people do not.

I feel budding engineers should be sensitized on aspects of Project Lifecycle Management , Budgeting and Management.

The largest dead snake ever found, over 50 feet.

In case you have the time to 30sec. video, let me know what was your reaction :-
See the video titled The largest dead snake ever found, over 50 feet..

Lounge

There are some lounge songs which are tingling in my mind. Enigma, Buddha Bar, Karunesh and once again Rahman's song is up there.

Enigma is just an amazing project. They really managed to make Lounge partially mainstream. Very intricate and very close to nature and most of the times, very dark. Some songs of Enigma are like "eargasms" (or if there is some word like that)....Deep Forest is another band who samples forest sounds into music.

I found the history of "Buddha Bar" (according to Wikipedia) pretty interesting :-
It is not a band, but a restaurant in Paris, famous for its ambience! They have made a franchise out of the music. But I think the music is really serious, and it needs more attention than just being played in the background.

Rehna Tu from Delhi-6. To appreciate this song and intricacies you should have a keen ear to music. Rahman sounds like Sting in this song.

Enjoy Lounge when you are in introspection mood.

My uncle's blog has got featured in Star Bloggers of Big Adda.
Great Going Chikappa.

Have a look at his blog here

one random song

long time ago there was a time when we used to have 6 cable channels. At that time there was a song called poda poda punnaku.

No idea what it meant. But I used to find it funny. Suddenly remembered that song after seeing a guy in office with a comic face the song just came out from my head

Blogging at an odd time. Yes, that's probably because of many things running on my mind.

Concentration dip is the most reasonable explanation I can think of. a)There are some days when I can literally envision a TODO list in front of my eyes. b)And there are days when the mood is bad and I want to do nothing. c)And there are some days when I want to do nothing because I feel happy and jovial and merry. Today I would tick option b.

Planning to leave early before the rain pulls yet another fast one. I have been getting caught in the rain for more than 5 times. The last time I got caught for straight 3 hrs. Eating bisi kallekai in the market below the flyover wearing a wet shirt and trouser. It was kind of fun. Uncles lifting their lungies above the knee because of the incessant rains and the mini streams.

Dasara has brought a lot of rain. And wetness. I wait for Friday => Which is also a holiday.

Late evening on a Sunday with some time. Some time, it feels good to put a blog post as a stress buster. Have been busy for the past three weeks with work going on a full speed. Tomorrow is a Monday and people want to ask what happened last week....When I think about the fact I will be scampering around tomorrow morning for following schedules and deadlines and reporting what are the NEXT STEPS and all that follow up things, I feel "haaa! How many more days of this ?".

There is this ICICI Retirement ad, in which a guy is shown doing his dream job of apple farming. Mine would be growing grapes and a vineyard and filling a barrel with clean water and filling it with grapes and stomping it. Tasting wine in the Champagne region. Wow sounds cool. Gawd knows how good or bad that is, as a job. Everything on the superior looks nice and interesting. When we get into the details and there is a responsibility tag, you just can't ignore it, thats when the grind of the routine makes a potato mash of your brain.

Apart from job blues, I have been thinking about the concept of Joint Family and what impact it had on me. I stumbled across my Upanayanam video which was from 1988. Half the elderly people featured in the video are no more and they are just memory. But there were so many relatives to my parents and so many joint families back then.
I had been a part of a Joint Family from my birth till almost 1999-2000 till which time there were about 13 people in my house under one roof. There were (and still are) many good memories, heated arguments etc. But I never had something like a "lonely childhood". There were always people around me. ALWAYS. I was specially attached to one of my grandfather (technically he was not my grandfather but my uncle's father-in-law who stayed with us ), but I cherish the conversations I had with him. He is the first person who comes to my mind. He was 68 when I was born and 95+ in 2007 when he breathed his last. I still remember him giving us a lecture on Hamlet-Prince of Denmark. It was like poetry. Hmmm Whatever. What I think is, a joint family brings in a implicit sense of hierarchy. Not sure whether this is applicable in today's India.

And it needs space (both physical space like sufficient infrastructure, financial resources as well as space for love and understanding) among its members. The festivals and other celebrations were ( and even now are) always great. It gives a sense of oneness among siblings. But if there is too much bitter competition, conspiraicies joint family just doesnt work - Like what happened to another jolly joint family which I knew.

But still Joint Families are a hit in Saas Bahu serials and Telegu movies and movies like PreethSod Tappa ?

World Integration

Wow... I loved this video on Youtube.
If there was a "World Integration" song analogical to the "Mile Sur Mera Tumhara" National Integration, it would probably look like this.

World Peace!

Watch WHERE THE HELL IS MATT

Bikini Noise

why is there so much hype in bollywood about actresses donning a Bikini.....

the first news that popped up on Rediff was "Lara goes the bikini way in Blue".. phewwwwwww

the question is can bikinis increase ticket sales??

I really dont think ppl pay Rs 150 for 3 min... rather 2 min.. as the 1 min is already aired on TV

So media pls cut back the hype

Enjoy the ride

I stumbled across this lovely melancholic tune from Morcheeba and a really haunting and beautiful music video. I urge to listen to this song, follow the lyrics and enjoy the cartoons.

This video just proves that cartoons can express any human emotion.

Powerful.

Morcheeba : Enjoy the Ride

The BIG 10 bus

Has a strange logo.

Or so, I thought.

Initially, I could not even read it as Big 10 (it looked some kind of SriLankan or Malayan language). But now after thinking about it, I realize the Big10 is written both in English and Kannada. Slant your head for the Kannada script. And the English script can be read a little easily.

Good innovation.

Avatar

Wow...The story is so alien yet the essential premise of moral dilemma is so formulaic.
But I am sure, James Cameron will do justice to the story. Looking fwd for this movie Avatar.

Ideas

Well some ideas are getting generated in my head about some independent ventures. Although, I neither have the plan of taking this seriously at this point of time, but it is fun to at least orient myself.....

Eating, Working, Sleeping and sometimes Dreaming. That's been what's happening for me right now...

One idea which is definitely profitable is to start an agency which caters to the needs of the reality tv shows. One of the integral parts of Reality Tv is to elicit feedback. Feedback is basically in the form of sms'es (as of today) but it can change in the future to may be interner or web based applications on mobile, interactive television etc. So, this agency should give feedback services, conduct surveys, provide authentic voting (of the contestant mechanisms), show the voting trends etc. to a prospective television show producer. He has to just pay this agency for offering feedback services. Going down the lane, this can actually be a branded service.

Another idea (implemented by my cousin brother Sujay Rao in the US as Grasshopr.com ) which is going to catch up, in another 5 to 10 years(in India) is an agency which will provide web based services to MLA's and MP's to interact with the public. The agency should implement the processes for citizens to track and hold MPs (and the officers) responsible for their complaints. The work will be very visible. There could be a tool like a Software Defect Tracker where we raise complaints which get assigned to officials who can track the problem.

Ideas make the world go round, round, round ....

World Maps

My new found fascination with history continues (in this post) and I have found a very good website related to historical maps.

Have you ever wondered : How will an atlas published in the year 1300 B.C. look like ?

Well even I had not, but one guy has taken all the pains and created an atlas for historical eras. I just realized how much of a melting pot of cultures India has been. People from every nook and corner (of the Old World) have visited India. Chinese, Afghans,

Check this website about historical world maps

A coincidence

Yesterday I just found this three piece documentary called "The story of India" - presented by a historian called Michael Wood. And today it is Independence Day. What a coincidence!

If you have the time (like more than 6 hours) on a lazy rainy weekend (like how it is today here in Bangalore), then I would recommend this series. Very insightful and passionated documentary. Michael Wood's approach towards History appealed to me, as he puts forth the story of India right from the Dawn of Indus Valley Civilization till the Indian Independence.

The first series talks about the the Africa=>Mid East Yemen=>Kerala migration of humanity to Kerala and about the original gene preservation in some Kerala tribes (because of marriage between first cousins) and then moves over to the IVC (Indus Valley Civilization and the Aryan Invasion and Sanskrit.

The second series talks about the thinkers in Ancient India namely Budhdha and Jainism and the existence of caste system and how it worked in ancient india.

The third was about the Silk Route. Did not know much about this and enjoyed this episode the most...I was particularly fascinated by a king called "Kanishka" whom I had heard during my school days but was not aware much about him.

I could get only three episodes of this 6 episode series.

I would like to read "The Discovery of India" by Nehru someday but, you need both time and energy , so such a series is good enough for the time being :)

I saw the Hangover

recommended by zeeds ... sakkath aagi ide .... yappa nakki nakki sakkaagoythu!
I think the fat guy and the Doctor (dentist) have done a good job!

There was a similar picture called Sideways which I saw a couple of days ago. That was the same premise and there are fleeting references to Sideways in Hangover (like Napa Valley reference and the Wine tasting)

Sideways was not a goofy/slapstick comedy. It was a serious movie and there were some elements indicating a (?) dark comedy approach.

But nonetheless Hangover was fun. Saw it when I was really tired and bored and laughed the whole night!

BCB, Drag n' Drop, Coffee n Biscuits and McDonald .... Life has been pretty hectic!

The Hangover

highly recommended and not adivsed if doctors have recommended that "laughing is injurious to your health".

The name and the premise ( lost memories of a bachelor party) does not really give you the right ideas about the movie. I was in split minds when I entered the movie hall. But my doubts lay to rest as soon as the credits start to roll.

This movie is a luaghing riot. The character "Allen" is f***in (i used this for a particular reason) hilarious. The minute details are handled very well.

Dont miss it unless laughing is injurious to your health.

Another movie you might want to catch for some laughs is Sankat City.

Egomaniac politicians..

Bill Clinton recently visited North Korea to bring back two American journalists in captive back home. There could never be a remote possiblity of this happening in the Asian world. Asian political representatives are probably the biggest ego-maniacs in the world. The issue of pride (which is mainly ego), face (china and other eastern nations), royalty (middle east) will prevent them from doing anything for the common people.

The Chinese, Indian, middle east, south east politicians are probably the worst kind (combined with their counterparts in africa as well). They just keep a huge distance between themselves and the public. The political standards in this part of the world (which is usually a privilege passed on by the family or a cadre or a religious sect) totally sucks and the worst part is there will be no reform.

I wish to see a King abdullah/ Hu Jintao / Sonia Gandhi moving sometime for someone apart from their near/dear ones. We never do anything unless things reach a critical mass like the racial slur in Australia, which made Mr. Foriegn affairs minister fly down under

KPL ??

Any opinion on KPL ?

I totally agree to Kumble's opinion :-

Kumble warned that the tournament, “in its current form, would allow a backdoor entry into the KSCA for people not passionate about cricket”.

Why are people just promoting 20/20 format ? Any money for sponsorship would just be drained for 20/20 format :-( Test cricket is slowly becoming an antiquity.

Seriously, we need to support test cricket. By 20/20 format, we will forget the worlds of Yorkers, In Swing, Out Swing, Maiden Overs and getting beaten ...Ball weathering out, tiring out bowlers and fielders, slip fielder placements, off spin, leg spin and the googlies....Lunch/Tea and all the things which are actually cricket in a conventional sense. The Wisden Cricket, the real cricket. I heard that ICC wants to get away with a 5 day test cricket format which is not a positive development.


The real cricketing pundits are conspicuously missing. All we hear is about BCCI politics and some bloody Bollywood stars who just want to make money and fame and view Cricket as an investment. And Indian Media is shamelessly more interested in dishing out the politics like coach v/s team v/s captain and all that cr@p. Why can't it just focus on the cricket.

I am happy nowadays happy watching some great test cricket videos on Youtube.