Cacofonix

Salt and Pepper

2012-01-29T20:52:00.001+05:30

The thing I like most about the Malayalam movie 'Salt & Pepper' is the beautiful way in which my home city of Thiruvananthapuram is shown. Most Malayalam films, if they are city based, focus on Kochi.

Apart from that, there are many reasons to watch the film- it is a light comedy, with the comedy aspects well woven into the storyline without having a separate comedy track. The movie is an out and out foodie movie (as the title suggests) and one would end up feeling really hungry by interval time.

That someone could make a movie so refreshingly different in Malayalam industry which has already tried various genres is really commendable. Also noteworthy is the lack of any big names in the cast.

Highly recommended, especially if you live to eat (and not the other way round)

Hire & Fire

2012-01-21T22:37:00.001+05:30

I keep hearing from folks and relatives in Kerala on how the IT sector jobs are not offering enough job security. The level to which job security is taken for granted (layoffs during recession notwithstanding) became evident to me while I was having dinner at a restaurant near my office last night.

An elderly staff was suddenly scolding a young staff member. It soon turned out that he had, instead of having food in the restaurant itself, packed it for home consumption. (I wonder why this is prohibited - what commercial harm could befall if a staff member takes out 1 plate of parotta?) And then the elderly gentleman passed the verdict on the young chap's crime - "don't come to work from tomorrow onwards. You are fired". All for packing his dinner to take home, probably to share food with a brother or a friend who stays with him.

And we say there is no job security in IT industry.

Media, sensationalism and safety

2011-12-23T00:18:00.000+05:30

With all the brouhaha over the Mullaperiyar Dam issue, the media is not helping ordinary people in any way. As a Malayali living in Chennai for the last 7 years, I have never faced (touchwood) any discrimination based on my mother tongue.
In the last couple of weeks I have had umpteen conversations with Malayalis in Kerala who ask questions like whether it is safe to speak Malayalam in Chennai openly - I am both amused and saddened by this. Media in Kerala are apparently highlighting attacks on businesses run by Keralites in Tamil Nadu, and here in Chennai I do hear a lot about alleged attacks on Tamilians in Kerala. While folks in Kerala assure me that the average Tamilian in Kerala is still not attacked, I am sure of the same in TN. This sensationalizing of the issue only leads to retaliatory attacks against (fictional?) attacks on either side.
My guess is that whichever businesses were attacked, may have been done by general anti-socials/rowdies/goons who are making best use of the situation to settle old scores, and may not have anything to do with the Mullaperiyar issue or the mother tongue.
I wish media on both sides become more responsible in their reporting and help Malayalis in TN and Tamilians in Kerala live a normal life.

The futility of legislation

2011-12-07T00:23:00.001+05:30

At a petrol bunk near my office, I found a very young boy (must be in his early teens) working to fill air. As I was getting my tyres inflated, I had a casual chat with him, which went this way:

Me: "How old are you, thambi?"
Him: "18"
Me: "Oh, have they told you to tell you are 18?"
Him: "I have my certificates to prove I'm 18"
Me: "Relax, young man, I am asking casually. I have no intention of complaining"

His supremely confident rejoinder: "Sir, even if you want to complain, you can't do anything. I have all relevant documents - school TC, birth certificate, etc which says I'm 18"

I was stumped by the confident with which he spoke. He was clearly lying, and he knew that I could see through that. The tone with which he gave the reply was sort of challenging me to try and disprove his claim.

It is instances like these which make me think that legislation to eradicate social evil may not be very effective. This boy clearly knew what he was doing was illegal, and (probably with help of others/relatives) found out means to get around these 'hurdles'. He probably would have paid at most a month's salary equivalent to get a fake certificate. People who really want to continue such 'illegal' activities will anyway find a way out - if someone takes it to the point of a bone marrow test, I'm sure he might still find a way out through bribing. In fact, with such kind of legislation, we are putting one more layer of rent seeking / scope for corruption. Such legislation is as effective as the "Pollution Under Control" certificates - better save the money for everyone concerned.

What's the alternative then? Better awareness creation, perhaps. Maybe make these children see 'whats-in-it-for-me-if-I-study-a-little-more', a promise of a better life.

The mystery of Saravana Bhavan

2011-08-20T12:13:00.001+05:30

Note to my friends living abroad: you are excused if you are a fan of Hotel Saravana Bhavan

Ever tried to find a seat during lunchtime at any of the HSB outlets in Chennai, ac or non ac? The whole experience of having an overpriced meal is unpleasant, that after the ordeal of finding a seat and beginning your meal, you find the next customer standing very near you trying to 'reserve' the seat you are occupying and waiting for you to finish.

On top of that most items are highly priced (for that kind of food) and one unit will never be filling. One can't have a filling meal without shelling out at least 150-200 per head. That doesn't deter scores of people thronging the place, such is the brand value. The only really tasty item to have from HSB is the real fruit ice cream.

Contrasting this with the new chain opened by the well known Shree Krishna Sweets, called Gokulams, they serve tastier food at around 60% of the price but their restaurants are mostly empty. For some reason they are not able transfer their brandname in sweets to their restaurant business.

How does one explain this kind of consumer behaviour? Maybe we must take a relook at the first principle of economics: humans make rational purchase decisions.

The sad aspect of women's reservation

2011-08-01T18:29:00.001+05:30

The much touted women's reservation has a major drawback- there is no provision to stop proxy rule. The ward councillor from my hometown constituency is the wife of a politician who would have contested if the ward has not been notified as a ladies only constituency. The husband is the de facto councillor.

The same is the case with many women panchayat president. Similarly, the so called young MPs are sons/daughters from political dynasties. I would like to see more first generation young MPs and real women leaders instead of proxies.

Yet another mobile blog post test

2011-07-06T20:02:00.001+05:30

This time from my first android phone, which is more powerful than the first computer I owned. But then it doesn't look like I will get back to posting regularly. Let's put the blame on facebook and twitter, where thoughts get instant capsulated expression without any deep thinking unlike blogs.

testing posting from mobile

2010-12-05T14:18:00.001+05:30

i suppose this may not permit posting in rich text. no, found out otherwise

Encounters with Art of Living

2010-06-01T20:50:00.000+05:30

With all the controversies surrounding Sri Sri Ravishankar's 'attempt on life' I am reminded of the few encounters with his Art of Living classes and its evangelists.

The first and most interesting incident occurred while I was traveling with my friend Murali from Thiruvananthapuram to Bangalore in the slow moving 'express train' - Island Express. The journey is pretty boring and long. After some time, we started chatting with the fellow travelers in the adjoining set of next 8 seats.

We were in our 2nd year of engineering, and a young man working in the then dream field of IT held our attention. After chatting on general topics, he slowly moved on to religion and spirituality. Then he began his sales pitch by saying 'Life is an art, you must master the art to have a proper life'. Then he said that the only way to master the art of life is to join the preliminary course at Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's Art of Living course. With his skills, he had almost convinced the other 4-5 people sitting there to join the course at 1500 rupees. Seeing the crass commercialization of Hinduism, we got piqued and started picking on his statements and presenting counter statements.

During this, he made a mistake of saying 'Why are you folks thinking like this - if a girl tells you I love you, you believe it, whereas if someone tells you he hates you, you don't believe it'. We picked on this and said, no, its the other way round - if a girl tells I love you, she may be saying it with ulterior motives, whereas if someone says I hate you, it is more likely to be straight from the heart and hence more trustworthy. Others who had earlier agreed to join the preliminary course agreed with this point of view. We then went on to say that everything is a part of living, and even art of living is a part of living, playing on silly rhymes.

By this time everyone dropped their plans to join the Art of Living course much to the irritation of our evangelist friend. He more or less threw us out from there but that didn't give him any brownie points with those who had dropped the plans to join the course. At Coimbatore station when we stepped out to have tea, this dude ran away from us when he found we were headed to the same tea shop on the platform.

My second encounter with an Art of Living evangelist was when this distant relative of mine, himself an instructor of the preliminary course, took 'pity' on my living conditions (!) and took me to a higher level instructor. To solve my 'problems' (all in the imagination of my relative) he needed a picture of Sri Sri to be gifted to me. The simplest way to escape was to accept the pic, which I did, and later in turn gave it away to another Sri Sri fan in my extended family.

I do not know Sri Sri personally, nor have listened to his discourses. Whatever may be his real knowledge/powers, his followers are definitely taking religious commercialism to new lows

Travelogue - Sri Lanka

2010-05-27T20:56:00.000+05:30

Been on a rather unplanned trip to Sri Lanka and back - these are my observations: -

(warning: long post)

This was my first opportunity to use my rusty old passport. The emigration folks at Chennai airport put their seal on the 3rd or 4th page, very randomly covering more than one box, and the ink getting smudged. The Sri Lankan immigration authorities did a neat job sealing on the first blank box and doing it very neatly.

Traveling to Colombo from Chennai/Trivandrum is much cheaper than traveling to most other places in India, with the airfare being under 3000 rupees. Duration of flight is also under 90 minutes.

Looks wise, from the air, Sri Lanka looks very much like Kerala, my home state - in fact greener (this is a rare case of me accepting any other place as greener than Kerala). Climate wise, too it is theoretically very similar to Kerala, only that in recent times Kerala has been getting lesser and lesser rates.

When I landed in Colombo (airport being 35km away from the city) it was raining heavily, and the route to the city was flooded due to incessant rains. There were no options other than to take a bus to the city, which wikitravel had warned to be messy. (Since I didnt convert rupees to dollars, and since banks at the colombo airport refused to buy INR, my industry - ATMs - came to my rescue to get Sri Lankan rupees.) Communicating was tough, as very few in the bus spoke English.

The bus journey was not as uncomfortable as wikitravel made it sound like (maybe experience in MTC buses helped), though it took close to two hours to reach my hotel.

There were other interesting observations in Colombo city - though the city has a sizable number of vehicles, there were no traffic jams - unbelievably pleasant surprise was the fact that vehicles kept 3-4 feet distance from the vehicles in the front, stopped at pedestrian crossing, and no one honks irritably! Shops close early (most of them by 6-7pm) and they dont have any shutters - clear glass with lights inside to highlight their main products (I could never imagine such a situation in Kerala - it would have not have lasted 1 month, with either robber or hartal activists taking them down). Maybe the constant vigil of police/paramilitary on the roads help.

The beaches at Galle Face and along Galle Road are excellent. Food options are heavenly for non-vegetarians, and non veg fare starts right from the morning (very much like Kerala). For a keralite, food is pretty much the same - Appam (interesting Anglicized name - Hoppers), Idiyappam (String Hoppers), Paratha (similar to Kerala/Malabar Paratha, except, square in shape), Pittu (called Puttu in Kerala).

Also made a weekend trip to Kandy, but thats for another post.

Review: Vinai Thaandi Varuvaaya

2010-05-08T22:15:00.000+05:30

I would never have thought that I would see a 'Simbu movie' in theatre. I did, finally, with Gautam Menon's latest offering, Vinai Thaandi Varuvaaya. Within 5 minutes of start, the movie plunged in to romance and a song, which I thought was too fast. Simbu fitted the role pretty much, and did proper acting, except for his 'open arms dance step' he kept doing throughout the movie.

Trisha also has done well, with apt looks for the role. She has a well sketched role (not the typical heroine roles you find in Tamil Cinema). The story keeps shifting between realistic and unrealistic. As with all movies, love in this movie is all about love at first sight made to feel as love by perseverance (which could very well have been an infatuation) and based on mere looks and no knowledge of personality. The script has been very realistic from a man's point of view - when he decides to fight back her brother (later tells her not to expect him to get beaten just because the guy at the other end is her brother) and also when he tells her that they can't merely be "just friends" when he dreams of making love to her.

The dialogues have been written well, including the ones that are left unsaid (Eg - when Simbu drops Trisha on his bike and asks why she keeps a physical distance with him on the bike, when he has kissed her in the train - as if if he touches her then.... [leaves the remaining unsaid]). The role played by the cameraman, Ganesan adds light comic relief in sync with the movie (unlike having a separate comedy track like Vadivelu).

The locales are good, especially Alappuzha. The cinematographer has made the places look more beautiful than they really are.

Songs and background music by A R Rahman is excellent, only that there are far too many songs and the choreography repetitive. You could replace any song with any of the other songs and never feel a difference in the flow - all songs having similar dance steps and foreign locales.

Overall, the movie has a different feel compared to regular Tamil movies. Hats off to Gautam Menon in making Simbu act properly. I did feel that Simbu was imitating Kamal Hassan when he was acting emotional scenes - the tone of his voice and body language was very similar to Kamal's.

The twist at the climax has also been handled well, which makes this movie stand out from the rest.

Autorikshaw fares

2010-04-15T22:35:00.000+05:30

Think Chennai, Autoriskhaw, and the words that would immediately come to your mind are of the type - exorbitant, fleece, rip-off, etc. On many occasions I have tried to understand the logic behind the fares but haven't got anywhere. I am trying to piece together my experiences with autowalahs in different cities.

This morning too, for my travel from Chennai Central railway station to my residence in K K Nagar which is about 15km away, all the way from the platform to the pre-paid auto counter, autowalahs were aggressively offering me a "very reasonable" fare of Rs 220. Some others pretend to claim that they are 'prepaid auto' in the vicinity of the prepaid counter with 'prepaid rates' of Rs 170-200. The actual prepaid rate is Rs 129. The prepaid driver does not mumble or crib about the fare and behaves well with you, not even once hating you for the potential "loss of extra revenue up to Rs 90".

If we analyze from a per-km perspective, this prepaid rate of Rs 130 for the 15 km works out to less than Rs 9/km which is cheaper than the auto fares in most towns. My best experience with autorikshaws have been in Trivandrum, Trichur, Kozhikode and Kannur (in Kerala) and Kolhapur, Mumbai. In most other places (all district headquarters in Kerala, 4-5 cities in TN, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Guwahati, Kolkata, Delhi, etc) the experience ranges from unpleasant to worse, the worst being in Delhi. Jaipur and Gandhinagar/Ahmedabad have been average.

In Bangalore, most of them do run on meters (which are a showpiece in Chennai autos). But then you run the risk of being taken for a city tour if you are not familiar with the locality, or being told absurd reasons like 'sunday, so more fare' or ' so more fare', 'meter plus <10/20/30>' or 'meter * 2', etc.

In Trivandrum/Trichur/Kozhikode/Kannur, you get very reasonable and affordable fares, which are at most meter plus 2-3 rupees within the city, well within 6-8 rupees per km. But the moment you step out of the corporation boundary, you are doomed. For example, in Trivandum, from the Central Railway Station to Peroorkada junction (city limit) would be less than 50 rupees for 7km approx, but add another 900 meters to NCC Nagar, they would ask for at least 100 rupees, just because this is technically outside of the corporation limits - taking the per km rate to more than 12.

In cities like Eranakulam, it is nightmarish - the rikshaws themselves have set a rate of Rs 12 per km, and worse, behave arrogantly (which sometimes makes me forgive the average fleecer chennai autowalah, for, though he is fleecing, he would treat you like a king).

One thought I have is that wherever the public transport system is good, the autorikshaws have less demand and more supply, hence try to increase the price. Chennai and Ernakulam have excellent public transport infrastructure and hence have high autorikshaw fares. Trivandrum has a pathetic and irregular public transport and autorikshaws are mostly greater in demand than supply, hence affordable fares.

Another argument I hear as the reason for Chennai fares is that they have to pay a daily rent of 150-200 rupees to the vehicle owner, as well as fend for the fuel expenses themselves, so they have no other option than to charge high. I am not very sure about this part - that most autorikshaws are in fact, owned by policemen in benaami, due to which the policemen also don't take any action to enforce govt approved rates (which are at an unbelievable Rs 6/km, fixed in 2007).

What are your thoughts?

Madras Players' Witness for the Prosecution

2010-02-28T11:30:00.000+05:30

Last evening was made wonderful by Madras Players' excellent play - Witness for the Prosecution, adapted from a story by Agatha Christie.

Courtroom scenes have always captured my interest in movies, but to do such a riveting courtroom scene live on stage must require a lot of talent. And for the Madras Players, talent was in abundance - the protagonist's (played by Vivek) body language and expressions were a perfect fit for the role, and the actor who played the defence lawyer had an amazing screen presence. Other actors too excelled - ones who played the roles of the housekeeper (with very convincing Italian accented English) and that of the protagonist's wife (including a different get up in one scene and German accent).

I must have also benefited from not having read the original story/novel, because of the suspense, one would keep thinking that the protagonist's role was single dimensional till the very end. I had mostly felt that Agatha Christies writing was too detailed and dragging at times. Kudos to the entire team behind the show for converting that into a complete fast paced thriller (and for improvising on some very minor goof-ups).

I'm now a fan of the Madras Players and I have resolved to see their plays whenever possible :-)

How Indian IT growth has affected Indian Science

2010-02-18T18:32:00.000+05:30

It all started with a tweet I had retweeted a few days ago - "IT has destroyed Indian science as much as it has contributed to its economy" - Prof. C. N. R. Rao", to which my friend Nithya Babu responded by tweeting "Indian science? do we have such disciplines that have offered people jobs? In a country with no social security?? hmmm". The response to that could not be compressed into 140 characters, and hence this post.

I have nothing against Indian IT, and has been a beneficiary of its success until recently. And I fully agree with Nithya that any degree that does not create jobs other than teaching posts (mostly in the same university, for the same course) is of no use. But we humans have a tendency to look for immediate benefits (short term returns) and tend to move to fields that apparently give better salaries.

It is true that IT and ITES has given jobs to thousands of graduates in India in the last decade who otherwise would have not found any job, and in that way helped the economy a lot. But then it has also led to a large scale migration to the IT sector from sectors which do generate jobs, but are not as well paying as IT currently is. For example, most of engineering graduates, irrespective of their field of specialization in engineering, have joined IT. Even the IT companies were also happy to take up students who had spent the last 4 years learning to design homes into their fold to make them write code in COBOL for financial applications. It is not that studying civil engineering does not get them jobs - even the buildings that the IT companies operate out of need civil engineers and architects to build them.

Such a skewed migration would hit the economy in a big way after some time, and I don't know how easily and soon this would get corrected by market forces. As a society, there is a real need for all types of work, and the society does not need everyone to be in IT. What is worse, the initial easy life of an IT engineer makes one too complacent to be good at anything else. Also, since a lot of business comes from the US, an ITian is more likely to know which coast of US California is, than knowing where Sikkim is on the Indian map (in some extreme cases, not even knowing that Sikkim is a part of India).

Somewhere we need to get out of the obsessive mentality (in boom times, no one gives you a damn if you are not in IT, in recession times no one gives you a damn if you are in IT). India as a nation and society as a whole needs civil engineers, mechanical engineers, nuclear physicists, doctors, astronomers, language teachers, accountants, - the list goes on.

Evam's Urban Turban

2010-01-18T10:39:00.003+05:30

Last evening I watched Evam's play Urban Turban at Chennai Museum theatre at Egmore with Suraj. Going by the rush at their last play I attended, Five Point Someone (based on Chetan Bhagat's book) I hadn't really thought I would be able to get tickets on the spot - we were lucky this time, and there were lots of empty seats in the small theatre.

The audience profile was also a lot different from their other plays I have attended - this time we felt like odd people out in an all page 3 celebrity type audience.

I had gone there expecting yet another humourous play, but realized that this is a live stand-up-comedy type event. There were performances by three artists (if I could call them that!) T M Karthik, Shannon, and Karthik Kumar (co-founder). T M Karthik was excellent, with great accent and action mimicking skills, taking pot shots at his Iyengar community and polambifying about his desperately available eligible bachelor status. His performance set high standards and raised our expectations, much to the disadvantage of the later performers. Shannon is an expatriate from Canada who teaches at KFI school, and she shared some interesting anecdotes about the differences between the west and India. I am not sure if the high expectations set by T M Karthik was to blame, because I didn't enjoy this talk much, and I felt that she was simply stating the obvious many times and playing to stereotypes. For example, she mentioned about how extremely conscious about skin colour we Indians are (obvious), and how it is not so in the west (stereotype - the west is not without its own skin prejudices or racism, she probably hasn't analysed her own country as much as she has analyzed India). The last talk was by co-founder Karthik Kumar, who tried a mix of non veg humour with gyaan sessions. While the other Karthik's humour felt natural and free flowing, this Karthik's humour sounded forced and he had to resort to non-veg jokes to get the audience interested.

The play was conducted for benefit of the Blue Cross society. It was also ironical that after having criticized PFA/Blue cross for distributing pamphlets to save animals (and futility of pamphlets in having any impact or usefulness), karthik Kumar himself recommended Blue Cross's pamphlets (available at the stalls at the venue).

In related news, Evam's Five Point Someone is slotted for a nationwide tour in the next 2-3 months. My take on the marketing side of this tout is available on my professional blog.

Dakshina Chitra

2010-01-11T23:02:00.002+05:30

This New Year I did something different - went with wife and a close friend to Dakshin Chitra, an art gallery on the East Coast Road, a few kilometres south of Chennai. I am not the usual 'arty' type, and had made the visit of the recommendation of the accompanying friend. Unfortunately we had gone to Mahabs first and dropped in at DC on our way back, reaching at around 4 pm.

There was a North Eastern dance festival going on, and the day featured a dance troupe from Manipur. A spring time dance by the young men with drums in their hands was a very amazing experience, even for me who doesn't have much sense for dance.

There is a lot to see at DC - they have showcased each of the four southern states' cultural heritage through real size exhibits - houses constructed in traditional style, including the interiors, for each region - for example, Chettinad, Trivandrum, Calicut, Ambur, etc.

The sections on Tamil Nadu and Kerala are complete, while the sections on Andhra and K'taka are being renovated.

We just had time to have a quick glance at TN and Kerala section before closing time. I have decided to make another visit, this time a full day trip, to this place, and I would recommend this to all my friends residing in or visiting Chennai.

Official Tours & Getting to Know People

2009-11-07T23:34:00.002+05:30

It mostly takes a long trip together to get to know a colleague up close – may be it is because during the long journeys there is nothing much to do other than talk to your companion.

The discussions during these trips that last for a few days would bring up facets of the companion which you otherwise would never have found out. Recently I had a trip with my CTO which gave me a lot of insights – I have never spoken for this long with an IITian before, and found out that there is more to them than what Chetan Bhagat writes to earn money.

Another trip with another colleague was equally interesting, and brought in a much closer understanding that would never have come from our professional interactions otherwise. In these kinds of conversations, (if you connect well, that is) you can find out a lot about different points of view, and more about the factors that influence each person’s value system.

My current job profile gives me this opportunity to get to know many such people, and it feels good. Another trip I made was with an ex-IAS officer, who still does work for the betterment of

India

for no pay, simply out of passion. In times when you hear of more and more multi crore scams everyday in India, such interactions helps keep your hope alive.

On a public holiday...

2009-10-27T12:02:00.002+05:30

... stay at home and sleep! At least that's what I learnt on the birth anniversary of the father of our nation. After having "wasted" the last 2 or 3 public holidays by lazing at home, I & wifey decided to venture outside and watch a movie. Since we had not planned in advance for the movie, most of the cinemas were sold out, and we therefore tried our luck at Mayajaal.

At Mayajaal though we reached at 1:30 pm, we could get tickets for only a 5 o'clock show. We decided to make most of the available time by going to Mahabalipuram. As soon as one enters mahabalipuram panchayat, they collect Rs 20 as entry fees. Driving further towards the beach the traffic was very heavy with frequent jams, as everyone seemed to have come out for the holiday. We had to turn back as there was absolutely no space to even stop the car, let alone park. Thus we came back to Mayajaal having donated Rs 20 to Mahabalipuram panchayat and without seeing anything.

At Mayajaal also the crowd was huge, and the atmosphere was just like any Rs 20 ticket theatre. The only consolation was the goodness of the movie "Unnai Pol Oruvan" though I liked its Hindi original "A Wednesday". But then that's for another post

Kahan Se Kahan Tak

2009-09-16T17:49:00.001+05:30

At school amongst my friends I spoke the worst Hindi. Add to that the fear of being teased by friends whenever I made a mistake, and I seldom attempted to speak in Hindi. At Kendriya Vidyalaya we had to learn Hindi Course A till class 10, which is originally designed for native Hindi speakers. As I went into 11th standard, I thought of Hindi and Biology as good riddance.

Later when I made trips to other parts of the country I did realize the language's importance and advantage over English in many parts of the country. In many occasions, out of compulsion I became more and more confident of speaking in Hindi.

The culmination of all this happened recently when I was in Maharashtra which uses a common script with Hindi and uses Devnagari digits instead of the international numerals. Since I had no choice, I re-learnt what I had chosen not to study in my school days. Finally, at a function I made a full fledged presentation speaking in Hindi. My hindi teacher would have been proud!

The Taming of a Wild Elephant

2009-06-13T10:43:00.000+05:30

The temple elephant who had recently tasted wilderness has been tamed. It was after I finished an assignment for a client, who was earlier the president of a company I had worked for earlier that he'd asked me whether I would like to join full time.

The role was into marketing of Indian made ATMs for the semi urban and rural markets - giving me a profile I was wanting to do for a long time. The very reason I had done an MBA was that I wanted to get out of IT, and this role would finally take me into a non IT technology marketing. Thus, the ten percent driving factor has also been taken care of :-)

The icing on the cake is that I get to travel to many places in India.

2009-04-03T11:09:00.001+05:30

One of my friends told me the analogy: that a regular employee is a Temple Elephant, whereas a freelance consultant is a wild elephant.

The temple elephant gets enough food at regular intervals, but is a slave to the temple authorities; whereas the wild elephant has to find food on his own from the forest, but he is his own master.

I can endorse this analogy 100% as I too became a wild elephant.

The Ten Percent Driving Factor

2009-03-25T22:14:00.000+05:30

I've recently discovered that I am bored 90% of the time. It is the other 10% of the time when I get excited that keeps me going.

This 10% has come from different things at different times. The key is in having something to make up the ten percent, which drives the 90% boredom out.

Wedding - The 'comeback' post

2008-12-12T17:57:00.001+05:30

I've off the blogosphere for quite some time now - I just now realized that I haven't blogged after my wedding! I'd wanted to blog a few times but then the lazybone in me got better of me. Let me start off my 'comeback' with my thoughts on my own wedding.

For the first time in my life I was thankful to belong to the caste I come from - every other time, it was disappointing to see financially better off people get ahead in admissions and appointments due to their caste. I'm digressing - the point about Malayali Nair weddings is that they are over in a matter of 15 minutes. Some of my friends from outside Kerala who attended my wedding were surprised to find how short the wedding was.

The only tough thing about the wedding was posing for the photographers. What made things worse for me was the fact that the photographer was a family friend - which meant I couldn't shout at him. My funda was (my folks blame my MBA for thinking like this) that I was the customer in this case (of the photographer) and that he was to do my bidding. Sadly this was not the case and me & my wife were made to smile awkwardly, tilt faces by 20 degrees to the right and what not by these bunch of people wielding those heat generating arc-lights. Many times, it appeared as if I was acting out a movie directed by these photographers - on some occasions, these chaps did order a 're-take'.

Afterwards when I got the video of our wedding I realized that it served two purposes: one, a comedy movie for everyone to laugh at the expense of the lead pair, and two, for some people to use as some sort of a register to find out who all came for the wedding.

One important lesson that I learned was about wedding gifts. It was specifically mentioned in wedding invites from both my side as well as my wife's side to avoid gifts. In spite of that I have ended up with at least 15 sets of cups, three dinner sets, many clocks, etc. I now believe that if at all I have to give a gift, I would give as cash (Gift vouchers are even more painful). Or it must be discussed openly with the recipient and purchased accordingly. I got some very useful household items as gift from close relatives and it worked out well because they got it confirmed from my side that no one else was getting me the same gift.

That's a pretty long post already... Signing off for now.

Wedding Sari blues

2008-04-18T00:13:00.002+05:30

"There are only four types of saris. The cream ones, the blue ones, the green ones, and the maroon ones." said my friend Sethu, circa 2002. I'm in total agreement with him. I am still clueless when my mom gets confused over buying one from two saris, both of which look the same to me!

With the wedding preparations getting into the groove, I am being bombarded with questions about the sari for the bride. One conversation with my cousin (sister) went on like this: -

Chechi [elder sister]: Have you bought the sari?

Me: Yes, mom said she bought it in Trivandrum

Chechi: What's the colour?

Me: athu onnum ennikku arinjooda chechi, ammede aduthu chodikkanam [I dont know all that, must ask mom]

Chechi: So you didn't get to see the sari?

Me: No, it was bought after I left Trivandrum last. Anyway, as far as men are concerned, all saris are the same

Chechi: That's not true. If you see a beautiful lady in sari, wouldn't you turn your head?

Me: That has got nothing to do with the colour of the sari.

Chechi: It has.

Me: No, it is just what's inside the saris that make us turn our heads!

Chechi: njan ariyathe paranjatha, ini avarthikkilla [I asked unknowingly, please forgive me, I wouldn't repeat this!]

Poor Chechi. Her impression about me as the studious quiet guy would have been shattered. There was more fun due for me. The same evening I chatted with one of my female friends. It also went on similar lines: -
Friend: Amma said ur mom said saree edukan povukayanennu, edutho? [my mom said your mom is going to buy wedding saris, did you guys buy?]

Me: eduthu. [Yes, bought]

Friend: what colour

Me: what color? how dare u ask me such a question?

me: u definitely are bringing shame to our years old friedship

Friend: poda, tell me...

me: i dont know!!

Friend: don't tell me u didnt ask

me: amma bought sari yesterday. Her family bought a violet one, so this one is probably not violet

Friend: :)), poda, u didn't ask alle[right]? koranaga [monkey]

Me: how come it took u so long to realize?

Gurudakshina

2008-04-10T00:43:00.000+05:30

Since I have met one of my school teachers and spoken over phone to another two in the last three days, it is time now for another nostalgic post.

The teacher I met taught me maths at Kendriya Vidyalaya (KV). I and my friends were 'outstanding' students in more than one way - in the same period, we would get praised for quickly solving a tough maths problem (outstanding), and soon be sent out of the class as punishment for talking in the class (standing out).

One of the other teachers I spoke to today was our class teacher in tenth standard. She is one of the most sportive teachers I have ever met. Once one of my artistically gifted classmates had drawn a picture of devil on the blackboard. He couldn't erase the picture before this teacher came to class. When she sat down on her chair, the picture was directly behind her and the whole class started laughing. She turned at look at the picture and asked, "Is that me?" "Yes ma'am", the whole class replied, though the artist never meant it that way. "Good drawing skills" was her remark, without any anger. In contrast, out physics sir would have given a sound thrashing to the poor chap, and the whole class would have to listen to a lecture on 'showing respect to teachers'. How ironical that by her reaction she more than won our respect.

Looking back, I realise that this same teacher was also one who practiced management principles in school (we didn't realise it then - performance based incentives, mentoring, 360 degree performance appraisal, etc were unknown terms to us then). Our seating arrangement in the class was decided by her as the class teacher - anyone who scored full marks in maths uni test (the subject she taught) could have a seat of his/her own choice till the next unit test - performance incentive. She arranged students in such a way that a bright student was seated next to a no-so-bright student, so that the brighter students could mentor the others. At any point in time during her class, if anyone felt that she was not teaching properly, or was deviating from the topic, one could raise his/her hand and tell it openly (360 degree performance appraisal).

Today I spoke to her after many years as I had got her number only 2 days back. I could feel the excitement in her voice. I asked her how it was at the KV she taught now. "It's the same... every year old faces pass out and new faces come in. Once in a while I get calls from old students, which makes me happy. Hearing from old students - that is the best gift you can give to your teachers".

I dedicate this post to all the teachers who helped me make who I am. My parents give full credit to my teachers for all the marks I scored in school, as I seldom studied at home.

Chennai MRTS

2008-04-04T00:08:00.006+05:30

The first time I traveled in the overhead Mass Rapid Transit System (MRTS) in Chennai around three years ago was out of curiosity. My home state of Kerala doesn't have metro rail in any of its major cities, let alone one that runs on elevated tracks.

[pic: Mylapore (Thirumayilai) MRTS Station]

I became a more frequent user of the MRTS after I shifted my residence to Adyar area, which made Kasturba Nagar station just 5 minutes walk from my house. By then railways had extended the service to Velachery and increased the frequency to once every fifteen minutes. This mode of transport made an excellent alternative to the slow, crowded MTC buses, and the extremely expensive autorikshaws (one has to shell out anywhere between 100 and 150 to travel from Chennai Central to Adyar). At Rs 6 per ticket, and a travelling time of just 20 minutes, MRTS trains are a relief, the only grouses being that the services stops before 9 pm, and that most stations are in bad shape. The station at Kasturba Nagar (at Madhya Kailash signal) sports modern looks (at least most part of it), though the one at Indira Nagar is pathetic. Now that the usage rate has gone up, I hope that railways begin to keep the stations properly maintained and well lit.

[pic: MRTS track near Mylapore]

One-ways and a new definition of Bangalored

2008-04-03T23:47:00.003+05:30

Do one-ways really solve traffic problems? If my personal experiences in Chennai and Bangalore are anything to go by, they do not. They simply divert un-necessary congestion to more places.

Take the case of Little Mount- Raj Bhavan - Halda triangle one way system in Chennai - I personally feel that this arrangement has only made life difficult for pedestrians. The waiting time avoided at the signals have been replaced by waiting time in front of Little Mount court for pedestrian crossing. And if there is no policeman around, then it is impossible for a pedestrian to cross the road, as the road is very wide and all vehicles speed up on this road. In the evenings, the road from Raj Bhavan to Halda Junction (towards mount road) is congested as was the case before the introduction of the one way system.

Similar is the case with TTK road/CP Ramaswamy Road, though I think it is too early to take a call on this.

Traffic has somehow tremendously increased in the last two years and I find more and more roads in Chennai becoming one ways, like it happens in Bangalore. I would like to add a new definition to the term Bangalored (the real one being this whereas my definition is based on personal experiences) - "the feeling you get when you carefully plan your trip from one end of the city to another, only to find at a crucial junction that it had been made a one way overnight! And that you would need to drive at least 2 km extra to overcome this hurdle".

3rd Day's Play - thru chat

2008-03-28T22:56:00.004+05:30

Below is an excerpt from a chat I had with my friend (who is now pursuing higher studies in the USA), about my experience at M A Chidambaram cricket stadium, Chennai, on 28 March 2008

Me: 42 fours, 5 sixes
Friend: !!!
thalle kalippu [cannot be translated, other than to an extreme expression of surprise]
Me: the shots look a lot better when u see directlyand this innings was without flaws - unlike his earlier triple ton
Friend: wow
Me: no lives gifted by the SA team
Friend: I'm very very happy for you... and a bit sad/jealous that I couldn't be there with
you...
Me: :D
u shlda been here
u may not believe - i did mexican waves, used bottles to drum-cheer, boo-ed,
cheered....
Friend: ha ha ha...
Me: esp to see history made, the typical sehwag shots
as far as i can compare based on hearsay - its like watching rajini movies 1st
day 1st show in a b-grade theatre
Friend: he he he
Me: crowd was amazing man
we never had expected a triple ton this morning
Friend: ::)
Me: when sehwag was on 95, he played a lofted four to get to 99then one dot - u musta felt the crowd roar, and then say oh...when arnd 50k ppl do itit is something
Friend: mmmm ::)
Me: and then another lofted four to get to 103
Friend: and the inevitable roar
Me: the whole 50k were on their feet... rather in air!
Friend: ha ha ha including you
Me: the same happened for 200
Friend: wow
Me: ya incl me! then for 300, it was likefrom 291 - massive six to 297
Friend: wwwow
Me: then two dots...that time the stadium was shouting 'sehwag, sehwag...'
Friend: mmm
Me: and then three singles
Friend: ha ha ha
Me: followed by deafening roar
Friend: he he he he
Sabari: one protean spinner bowled almost the whole day
Friend: ?
Me: that chap kept on bowling a difficult line (described by many as a negative
line)
Friend: who was the poor guyohh really
Me: name's harris... i didnt know him till today
Me: a few overs later, sehwag was hitting him all over the field, with reverse
sweeps
Friend: ha ha hahow long did this go on for?
Me: most of the afternoontill stumps
Me: there was a huge contrast between dravid and sehwag
technically the wall played well
Friend: and I'd say Dravid did the right job too
Me: but it stopped us from watching the little master
Friend: ahangaaram paadilla
His role was to give shewag company and rotate the strike, which he'd done admirably well
Me: he took 68 from a painfully slow 168 balls
Friend: it would have been utter foolishness to try to score faster with Shewag going the way
he was
Me: :D
true
Friend: I'd say Dravid did his job very
any other player in his position would've done the sameFriend: maybe expcept for an aussie
Me: but for purely selfish reasonswe wanted the little master and the bengal tiger on the field before EOD
Friend: ha ha haah angaaaram
Me: dravid wld waste away a full over with dot balls, playing perfect textbook shot,
rotating the fielders with each ball
next sehwag wld face the same bowler and punish him to fence with panache
Friend: he he he kshemi nammude dravid alle onnu kshemi
Me: pattilla the crowded cheered whenever sachin was showed on the screen all padded up ;-)
Friend: :)potte tto
Me: the first 50 partnership between them, dravid made 7
Friend: ha ha ha
Me: in the second 50 partnership, he made 4!!!!
Friend: what patience!
Me: ya, patience of the crowd!
Friend: he he he eggchatly
Me: saw gopumon also in the nets
Friend: ?
Me: gopumon - for the un-initiated - is the pet name of one and only sreesanth....
popularized by malayala manorama
malayala manorama had headlines screaming something to the effect that gopumon
saved teh twenty20 for india
Me: for the last over catch
Friend: !!!my god
Friend: embarassing
Me: saw bengal tiger and jumbo jogging around the ground after the days play, before
the police shoo-ed us away
Friend: mmmm
Me: irfan pathan and robin singh gave some fielding practice to the ball boys during
the session breaks
Friend: mmm
Me: btw u wldnt mind if part of this chat finds itself in an update to my blog?
Friend: No, I don't
Me: :D
Friend: :)Somewhere during this chat, you became a kid again
Me: i was one for teh whole day!

Watching a cricket match - directly

2008-03-28T21:33:00.000+05:30

There are a few updates due from me, including about my wedding next month – but then this post can’t wait. I watched Sehwag hit the triple ton, at Chepauk! The experience can’t be properly described in words – one has to be there to fully understand the feelings.

It’s been more than three years since I relocated to Chennai, and I missed quite a few matches – the first one I bought ticket for was washed out in the floods of 2005. Though I had to wait another three years for it, it was worth the wait. And the chance came all of a sudden too – since I was in Thiruvananthapuram for the past ten days (as my Grandpa had a surgery – that’s another post pending), I was not following cricket. I realized about the match only yesterday when I was back in Chennai. So I made quick plans this morning to go and watch the 3rd day’s play of the first test match between India & South Africa.

I was lucky to get ticket – the stadium was packed (surprising for a test match). Then came the wonderful feat by Sehwag – scoring 300 a second time in his career. The mood inside the stadium was exhilarating, cheering on the team in whatever means possible. It was interesting to note how people who were total strangers could execute Mexican waves in seconds. Some others improvised on horns and other ‘instrumentals’.

It was disappointing not to see Sachin Tendulkar play as India lost only one wicket throughout the whole day. The crowd was disappointed with Rahul ‘Wall’ Dravid. Though he played his role well, his slow innings was frustrating. Moreover, this meant we couldn’t get to see Sachin, Dravid & Laxman play. The crowd cheered whenever Sachin was shown on the screens, and sometimes boo-ed when Dravid played dot ball after dot ball.

India had a great day, piling 460+ runs for the loss of just one wicket. We had our consolation when we most Indian players, including Sachin came out for net practice. It was a day well spent, and I fully enjoyed the day forgetting everything else.

A Good Deed

2008-03-11T00:14:00.002+05:30

As I and my friends came out for tea during break time, we found the local street dogs chasing a car like mad. We were wondering what all this commotion was, and then realized that a puppy was run over by that car.

The puppy was crying in pain. The many people around the tea shop looked at the dog sympathetically but didn't do anything. We too didn't know of any vet docs. While all of us returned for our classes, my friend Suraj who didn't have class at that time looked up on the internet and located a vet in the neighbourhood. With the help of a chap at the tea shop, he took the puppy to the vet. The puppy got medical care and is now alright.

This act of my friend made me very glad - though most of us sympathized with the puppy's condition, only he took pains to get care to the stray puppy. I'm proud of you my friend!

Ancient Story, Modern Language

2008-03-02T00:03:00.001+05:30

I had the fortune to read the six volume modern retelling of the Ramayana, by Ashok Kumar Banker. The story is something all of us would have heard and read many times, but what makes this series stand out is that it is not told from a spiritual point of view. The language is also modern, and the narration is similar to that of any modern English Novel.

The characters have been drawn out excellently, and the attention has been paid to the details. At times, it is a bit wordy - certain descriptions could have been more brief. But overall it makes a gripping read. The volumes are titled - 1. Prince of Ayodhya, 2. Siege of Mithila, 3. Demons of Chitrakut, 4. Armies of Hanuman, 5. Bridge of Rama, and 6. King of Ayodhya, totalling over 3000 pages.

The first book has a slow opening (initially a little patience is required, but it is worth the effort), but soon gets pacy as the plot is introduced. The series is in a way Banker's own version of Ramayana, though he tries to stick to the original storyline. Interestingly, he has successfully conveyed deeper meanings, though in a very unconventional way.

The author is now working on the other great epic from India, the Mahabharata, which is supposed to hit the stands by next year. I am eagerly awaiting its release.

Grandma - now only in memories

2008-02-07T22:57:00.000+05:30

I was sitting in the library idling away till the next lecture when dad called me asked me whether I could get a flight to Trivandrum before evening. I immediately understood the bad news. When I was leaving last time, I couldn't get any response from her. There was only one reassuring sound coming from her - that of her breathing. I was very sad, and most mornings I dreamt that I was talking to Ammumma - only to wake up and be disappointed that it was only a dream.A few days that Grandma had become so weak that she had to be put on nasal feeding. Though this brought back some energy into her now frail body, it were not to last very long.

While waiting for the plane, I called up home and was told that cremation is to happen only the next day, and the body would be kept in the morgue till then. It was a tough night, with very less scope for private grief as there were a lot of relatives staying overnight.

In the morning, as the body was brought home, I found it tougher to hold back emotions, at the same time, being nice to the people who were pouring in. Grace had returned to Ammumma's face, and her face looked very peaceful, as though she was sleeping. One good thing I felt was that she didn't have to struggle in the ICU wards of any hospital - she was in her room, in the very house she loved so much till her last hour. And, on her last journey to the hospital, she was lying on her son (my uncle)'s lap.

Her absence in the house is something very difficult to come to terms with, after having lived with her for many years. I was her pet grandchild, one of the very few people she listened to, and was the one who ran most of her errands till I left for Chennai.

Ammumma, your house is very empty without you.

When the hunters become the hunted

2008-02-07T22:55:00.000+05:30

MBAs, especially those majoring in Marketing Management are supposed to influence others' buying and increase sales, and not by buying things on their own, right?
Sometime last week, we had a course in Consumer Behaviour, where we looked at various ways of connecting to the buyers' emotions, and about providing an 'experience' as opposed to a 'product'.

[That week, at Sathyam Cinemas, during advertisements before the movie began:]

Me: That ad was wonderful right? The emotion of happiness felt was conveyed excellently. Brilliant piece of creativity!
My Friend: Was it? To me it was just an ordinary ad. Maybe because I don't have an MBA

[Two days later, dinner is planned with friends (who also are part of the same consumer behaviour course) at a restaurant in Adyar]

My friend, suddenly calls me up on phone: Sabari, change of plans... we're not going to that restaurant... We'll have dinner at Cafe Coffee Day...
Me: Coffee Day? Dinner???
Friend: Yes... come fast...we're almost there.... click

At coffee day, I ask him: Why suddenly dinner at coffee day? Don't tell me you were inspired by the case study on 'Starbucks Experience'...
My friend grins.

Are MBAs more gullible consumers?

Kavery @ Hogenakkal

2007-11-28T12:47:00.000+05:30

Panoramic View of Kavery River at Hogenakkal

Waterfall at Hogenakkal

Bengaluru

2007-10-20T09:52:00.000+05:30

In the last few years, I have been making short visits to Bangalore, visiting friends. Now it is my first long stay in Bangalore - for a month long internship.

The work involves extensive travelling, and I seem to be learning the geography of the city the hard way - by driving around.

Hopefully this one month will allow me to catch up with a lot of friends.

An unexpected trip home

2007-08-21T12:30:00.000+05:30

With strict rules at the institute regarding leave, I kept on ignoring small fevers - till it got real bad, and seeing 104 degrees. And when one blood test showed positive for a variety of dengue I decided that it is time to go home for a break.

Back home, it was diagnosed as malaria. Malaria or dengue, all I was worried about was getting the fever down. Thankfully, medicines for malaria seems to have some effect, and I have now seen the right side of 100 degrees, after so many days.

Thanks to this fever (all its inconveniences notwithstanding), I got a much needed break from hectic activities. Being at home and getting home food is definitely doing good to me.The disappointing part of my visit home has been my grandmother's health. She had a fall two months back, breaking her thigh bone near her hips, and she had undergone a surgery. She was recovering the last time I met her, but now her condition has worsened. Other than recognising me, she hardly spoke, and replied in monosyllables. Thats very much unlike of her. I am finding this drastic change of character almost unacceptable. It's like it is not grandma but someone else. I do hope that she gets to her normal self again, and is able to walk again.

So Far So Good

2007-07-11T17:53:00.000+05:30

It is now close to three months since my one year MBA began. These three months have been quite interesting, with me slowly finding the groove. Initially it was tough to get back to studies mode after three years of work.

Looking back, I miss the following about my office: -
- My Team, and my friends
- The monthly paycheck: There is no longer the feel good factor whenever the date nears 30th!
- Coffee and snacks breaks
- Leave (such a thing is not in the dictionary of a fast track MBA program)
- Playing TT in the evenings

But these are more than compensated by the following at my b-school: -
- Making new friends, meeting new people
- the very fact of being back at school. At 24, this is the closest I can get to school life
- reliving school college style: studying only on the eve (sometimes only mornings) of exams, watching movies on the day before exam, etc

It has been great going so far, and the grades are also looking fine so far. I am hoping to carry forward both the fun part and the grades part throughout the year :-)

Finding Myself

2007-05-21T16:44:00.000+05:30

One thing I knew even before joining a b-school was that making decisions forms the key to almost everything. Especially when it comes to making decisions which can have life long impacts. As someone who always let things “fall in place” than decide, it does not feel good when confronted with more and more decision making – deciding on major specialization, minor specialization, topic for empirical study, topic for Autumn internship, what not.

The underlying question, the answer to which could simplify a lot of decision-making, is what I want to do in life for a profession. Something which I would love doing, and give me a comfortable (not luxurious) pay. An industry where I don’t feel like a misfit, in spite of being above average. Something that would also give me enough time to spend with my family, similar to what my parents could give me.

Introspection only adds to the confusion. When I was in fifth standard, gazing at the night sky through the simple telescope I made with my father’s help, I dreamt of being an astronaut, dreaming of walking in space. In 6th standard, after reading about the Wright brothers and their aeroplane, I dreamt of making my own single seater and flying it.

An overdose of newspapers fascinated me, and bringing out a handwritten gossip tabloid in my class, I felt like a natural journalist in seventh standard. Eighth standard saw me conform to the standard Malayali ambition of becoming a doctor. In ninth standard, after having assembled a stereo cassette player I was sure that I wanted to be an electronics engineer.

In tenth standard, reading the adventure tales of James Bigglesworth by Capt W E Johns, I wanted to join the Indian Air Force as a pilot – a dream cut short by flat feet and myopia. For 11th standard, I didn’t even consider the non-science streams (the general perception in Kerala is that only those who don’t get science stream go to arts and commerce). When it came to choosing between Biology and Computer Science, arbitrarily I chose computer science because I didn’t want to learn biology (that despite being born to two avid botanists). The same repeated two years later, when I chose Computer Engineering.

Through my years in engineering, I could compile a list of jobs I would not want to do, Software Engineer topping the list. Upon finishing engineering, a computer engineer couldn’t be anything but a software engineer, hence I spent three years in the IT industry, often feeling like a misfit, in spite of being an above average programmer.

I needed a change, and here I am, in a b-school, trying to figure out where to go from here. One comforting feeling is that I am not the only confused soul around here. I do feel good that at least I know and accept that I am confused, whereas there are many who don’t. It remains to be seen whether things continue to fall in place, or whether a b-school will make me more proactive.

Back to School

2007-04-11T22:04:00.000+05:30

This post has been in the offing for quite some time, but due to many reasons never got typed in.

After nearly 3 years in the IT industry, I am going back to school. School, and not college because I am joining a one year fast track MBA program, which packs so much into a single year that there are no breaks, holidays, or weekends.

No more monthly visits to God's own country or home sweet home. No more the luxury of eating food cooked by Amma once a month. No more 'decent' pay of the IT industry - back to student life, 'thozhil rahitha vidyarthi'(unemployed student) as we say in Malayalam. To use an exaggeration, joining a jail for rigourous imprisonment where there is no parole!

On the brighter side, this course would open up a lot more avenues and wider options in my professional life. What remains to be seen is whether this one year turns out to be fruitful in finding myself - something that never happened for in the IT industry.

Trichy Ramblings

2007-03-06T18:54:00.000+05:30

I am right now in Trichy, with three more hours to kill before my train to Chennai. Dusty, hot and humid like most places in Tamil Nadu.

The train was supposed to reach at 5 am, and it was not a terminating train - so kept on waking every hour, to discover at 5 am that the train was late by at least an hour and a half. First sight of trichy was the Kaveri river(it is not a river any more - you can see most of the dry river bed, and the little spring like water remaining is only ankle deep - reminded me about Nila/Bharatapuzha in Kerala). Next came the shanties and slums, and the familiar sight of women queueing for their share of water at the hand pump.

I could find easy and affordable accomodation near the central bus stand, and food at Vasanta Bhavan was also tasty (and again cheap compared to Chennai).

Visited the Rock Fort Temple yesterday. Amazing experience - the 7th century temple, its architecture, the paintings, the carvings, and last but not least, the view of Trichy from the top. Initially I also had plans to visit the Srirangam temple, but somehow felt extremely lazy (nothing new).

My planned one hour at the internet cafe is almost over now. I shall upload the pictures taken from Rock Fort soon.

Snaps from Mamallapuram (Mahabalipuram)

2007-01-27T20:45:00.000+05:30

Some snaps of the Shore temple at Mamallapuram, around 50 km from Chennai on the East Coast Road

Snapshots from train - Tirunelveli & Nagercoil

2007-01-20T18:18:00.000+05:30

The Guru

2007-01-13T21:53:00.000+05:30

No, this post is not a film review of Mani Ratnam's latest offering. It is about an evening well spent, with one of the few people whom I consider as my Guru, one of the few teachers who has inspired me.

I met him yesterday in connection with getting a recommendation letter for admission to one of the universities. Once we were done with it, we had small chit chat, general enquiries about my batchmates, work, life, everything. I'd always loved listening to him, mostly because he has a different outlook towards everything - one of the few people who still resists using a cellphone - and, that, on many counts, I found his views to be strikingly similar to mine.

He said he played badminton with some of his students in the evening, invited me over to a game in the makeshift badminton court he had made in front of his department building. I happily joined him, teamed up with him for a couple of doubles matches against his other students, and promptly lost!

After the game, we both went back to his office to cool down for a while, before taking a walk to next bus stop outside the university. We had tea and snacks from a small shop there, continuing with our general discussions, and about my higher studies plans. When we were done with our snacks, we together took a bus to the city.

It was an evening very differently spent than my routine days in the infotech industry, but I enjoyed every moment of it. There he was, a senior professor and director of a research centre, with me, doing all those simple things, like playing a game or chit chat over tea and parippu vada in a small kerala tea shop. But then, to me, it is these simple things in life that give me joy, spending quality time with people I admire.

First Look: Windows Vista

2006-12-15T11:57:00.000+05:30

Microsoft's much awaited and long overdue OS, Windows Vista is finally out - the corporate version was launched on November 30, and the home editions are expected in January 2007.

I happened to attend a seminar on Windows Vista as part of Microsoft ISV, where they were making it sound as the best thing that could happen to the software industry. The talk included a walk through of what's new with Vista, and a few tips and tricks for software development in Vista.

Some of the features in Vista can be back ported to WinXp using Vista SDK, but the rich visual experience can not be ported. The look and feel of Vista is much better than that of WinXP - this could go a long way in redefining user experiences. The other major 'new things' in Vista, apart from the visual effects, are: Improved Search functionality, User Access Control (UAC), Sidebar/Gadgets, IE 7, Speech Synthesis, Guided Help, Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), XAML, etc. My first impression of these features, based on what I saw at the seminar is given below:

Improved Visual Experience

The shift is similar to what typical users would have found when they shifted to WinXP from Win2000. They have taken the visuals to a further level of 3D - with page previews on each open window when hovering on the taskbar, page previews during Alt-Tab, and a cart load of rich visual effects. The start menu has been overhauled, and all windows have a 'glassy' appearance/

Improved Search

The search functionality has been improved a lot, and has been integrated with each functionality of windows, including Control Panel. What's more, the search facility can be integrated with any applications we develop for Vista. There's good news for XP users here - this functionality can be installed with XP too.

User Access Control (UAC)

The UAC provides improved security by making even admin users work at practically standard-user mode. Vista is able to achieve this by elevating a user to admin privileges only when absolutely necessary. Whenever an action which needs admin privileges is to be executed, it asks for admin username & password (if the user is a standard user), or asks for a confirmation from the user using a screen to which it is not programatically possible to send keystrokes. While Microsoft is marketing this as a pioneering feature that would go a long way in computer security, I remember using similar features in various flavours of Linux as early as in 2000.

Sidebar & Gadgets

Vista comes in with sidebar on to which user can attach "gadgets". Again, this is compeletely similar to the sidebar of Google Desktop, including the usage of the term Gadgets. Deployment of gadgets is also ditto!

IE 7

Vista comes bundled with Internet Explorer 7 - which supports tabbed browsing and has an integrated RSS feed reader. Again, tabbed browsing is something that Opera used to have for many years

Speech Synthesizer

This looks like a cool tool, as it does more than merely reading out texts in a particular accent. You can use Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML) to do a lot of things - like emphasizing on some word in a sentence, or modulating how the sentences are spoken. This can be integrated into the application that you develop on Vista - which could make a lot of difference to the user experience of your software.

Guided Help

While this feature is still under beta, I believe this would be an interesting feature to have. In addition to having descriptive help files, Guided Help teaches you visually how to do the tasks. It also allows you to record steps, from which you can build your own guided help for your application.

Overall: So what is my take on Vista? Vista vindicates my theory that 'Software always grows to make your hardware feel obsolete'. Vista is fast when used with 2 GB of RAM. Note that this is a product from the company of a person, who, back in the 1980s said - 640 KB of RAM ought to be enough for everyone. While the new Search, Speech Synthesizer and Guided Help are really good features to have, you can achieve the rest of the features except the visual effects by installing 3rd party softwares - and they wouldn't need 2 GB of RAM. I would prefer to add patches for whichever features that can be ported to WinXP, while I wait for 2GB RAM to become cheaper, before I switch over to Vista.

Attrition, Hikes and Happiness

2006-12-11T20:45:00.000+05:30

“If in another 6 months, I don’t get a transfer to x-branch of the company, I would quit.”

“There is no challenge in this job profile. I want them to put me in x-project, where work would be interesting. Else I would put in my papers.”

“They are paying only x.x lakhs per annum to freshers…Company Y pays double that. If in my next appraisal I don’t get at least z.z lakhs per annum, I will join Y. In fact, Y has already made me an offer to pay my bond money also. Besides, I have three other offers also to consider.”

These are the kind of words one gets to hear from the younger software engineers. Not that I am old, but that’s the feeling I get when I talk to these people. I remember back in 2004 when I passed out, when the industry was beginning to look good, recovering from the 2000 dot com bust, my batch mates considered themselves lucky to get a job. It is not that we all were angels and never cared about the money, but I feel we at least give our jobs more respect than ‘I-sell-myself-to-the-highest-bidder’.

I don’t think the young engineers alone are to be blamed. In this boom of software industry when every company is in need of a large number of ‘resources’ (I hate the term resources – makes it sound as if people are just another computer – maybe ‘talent’ could fit better), they have been blatantly throwing ethics to the winds, openly encouraging prospective recruits to just vanish from their current positions without any notice. That’s just once side of the story. The other part is that while on a recruiting spree, every company fails to keep track of its current workforce, often paying lateral entrants much more than the employees who had stayed on for many years. Thus, loyal employees too are forced to look for greener pastures outside the company. Also, most companies refuse to give proper raises during appraisal meetings – whereas, in resignation meetings there is a better chance of being granted a hike. While most IT/ITES companies are constantly whining about high attrition rates, had they spent half of what they spend on luring others to the company on hikes to existing employees, the attrition rates could have been better managed.

Again, the dreams and aspirations of the youth is very constantly changing – if my previous generation was happy buying a car/house in the mid forties, this generation is still not content buying every ‘kool’ gadget under the sun using their credit cards. If the nth batch was happy with x lakhs per annum as salary, the (n + 1)th batch is not content with x.5 lakhs per annum. Somewhere along the road to economic prosperity, we’ve lost the key to happiness. As my generation becomes increasingly consumerist, I wonder whether with many times more salary than our previous generation, we would be at least half as happy as what our parents were.

Blogging Via E-mail

2006-12-05T12:46:00.000+05:30

Looks like blogspot.com has a very desirable feature - to make a
post, all one needs is to send an email.

Checking out whether this would work.

The Migration

2006-12-05T12:32:00.000+05:30

People migrate from one city to another, from one house to another, from one company to another....
In this age of IT, migration is also reflected in cyber space - we migrate email ids.....This is the first time I am migrating a blog page - from sabarinath.rediffiland.com . Whether I stay here for long, or go back to iLand - its too early to comment.
For a beginning, I may be carrying forward content from my iLand blog - those which I consider as my favourite.