Another news item which kept lingering in my thoughts the whole day.

Why did they target only women in western attire and not men? When did pants and shirts that most of the Indian men wear become our traditional clothing? 1827 A.D. ?? Why not stop all men in western attire, chase them, swear at them and beat them? Why did they beat only women who were in the pub and not even a single man? Does the Rig veda say, Men can go to pub and drink?

Who are they to tell me what to wear and what not to wear? Who are they to dictate where I should go and where I shouldn’t?

Are there any followers of this so called political party? If there are any, shouldn’t we be admitting them to an institute for mentally(socially??) retarded people? Weren’t political parties supposed to provide welfare schemes or at least promises to people? Has this party ever done any good for the society? May be a water tank, a bus stop, a public toilet at least? What do we call a group which has not done any significant philanthropic activity or a welfare deed but only disturbing and harassing people? Terrorists?? What are the real police doing? Why couldn’t they arrest these moral police when there is a video proof? Why is the central government not empathizing with it’s female citizens?

Why didn’t anyone stop to help when these women were in danger? Are we so irresponsible that we would go to a pub and drink to oppose this group and not stop our vehicles to protect a woman in trouble?

Why do they harass only women? Is it because most women are physically weak? Or is it an expression of fear that women have become equal to men? Women are educated, they go to a job, they dream about their future – A result of a silent war that lasted for more than hundred years against people who were obsessed with female infanticide, sati, illiteracy, dowry deaths and a lot more evils against Indian women. Just another idiocy to fight against. Where are Karate, Kung fu and judo classes in Bangalore?

If Mahatma Gandhi was alive today, he would have said, “Real freedom is only when a woman wearing jeans can walk safely on M.G. road in the day.”

I stumbled upon this link and I thought I’d answer it first before reading.

Here are my list of bad habits:)

• “You would end your English sentences with semi-colon”: 6 years back I laughed at this statement when I read in YPK’s Let us C. By the end of that semester, I was ending my normal sentences with semi-colon;
• My pranayama count is 8 and 16. I feel a sense of completion with 1024. Any number which is a power of 2 is a round number these days.
• I’m multitasking when I cook two or more dishes at the same time. I’m context-switching when I move from one dish to another. I think of little Endian and Big Endian when I break eggs. I sometimes explain colors in their RGB values.
• Attributing to my laziness, I always want a for loop for all menial tasks.
• Thanks to Larry and Sergey for their Page Ranking Algorithm. I google for even simple things.

The first doubt that sprang up in my keyboard class: Can I play National anthem sitting down? Can I play it whenever/wherever I want? The first civics lesson taught to a kid in primary school, “Stand up for National Anthem”

My independence day was not special. As a citizen of India, I started my day watching Prime Minister. Manmohan Singh address Indian citizens on DD. With my very little Hindi, all I could observe were only the celebrities and  kids in white, saffron and green seated to depict our flag. I switched on to my independence day special playback of national anthem at home. After a few attempts, I decided to spare our national anthem at least on independence day.

Like most Indian citizens, I was also glued to my television set the entire day. We’ve heard a lot of people ask “Why do you interview an actress/actor on Independence day and Republic day? Did they get freedom for us?”

I wonder if anyone would watch documentaries about our freedom fighters for at least 4 hours. But applause to Vijay TV for providing some sensible material to watch. There was a good mix of entertainment and ….(er,.what do u call that??) stuff that doesn’t make you feel very bad because you blew the whole day watching TV?

Another Kannada music channel also wanted to answer those questions through their I-day shows. They expressed their independence day spirit in a style which gave me a hearty laugh for minutes. Colors of the Indian flag adorned the background of this Live music request show. The VJ was wearing a military uniform which looked more like a new suitcase cover stitched as a shirt. He was holding a gun( most probably it’s the air gun kids play with. I wish it’s a bubble gun and he should have triggered it ). To top it all, he didn’t have any non-verbal communication. He did the entire show holding the gun across him with a perfect fighting posture and asking for music requests.

Besides drinking Complan, I’ll also write some substance here to depict I’m growing up. A few questions that sprang up to my mind today: Is expressing nationality right? Are we saying because I’m born somewhere near N 9 55.075, E 78 07.205 and it belongs to a region defined as India, should I call myself Indian? If so my parents and my grand-parents were born in a caste called ………… Are we not promoting the same groupism? Should we think we belong to a bigger group called Homo Sapiens? Should I also say, “Mahatma Gandhi did not take up his non-violent fight for India but for the human race in India”?

Were Vande Mataram, our flag and the Indian national anthem, a means to spread this group emotion with freedom as purpose? Just like the new AR Rahman’s Vande mataram and our cricket idols who also spread the same emotion with a well defined purpose – to win a match against Kenya? Why do we have to propagate this emotion at all when basic facilities has not reached common man even after 60 years of freedom? Would we need the new Vande Mataram, the movies and sports as a channel to fight against our own corrupt politicians in future?

Before I trigger the bubble..

Other than VJs and RJs, I believe I’m the first person wishing you. Happy Independence day

Though I know nobody was eagerly awaiting for my posts, let me justify why I didn’t update my blog for 3 months. A few friends still asked me. My reply was usually,

“I’m lazy”,

“Not in a mood to socialize”,

“No interesting stuff happening around in my life”,

“The alien couldn’t survive. Lot’s of oxygen man“,

“Yeah… I gotta update. It’s really been so long”.

To say in short(Read in Will Smith style;) ): This period in my life is called, “Fast-ups and slow-dragging-evil-downs phase”. No more justification

C ya soon.

P.S: I forgot how to publish posts. Posting 2nd time

P.S 2: I forgot to add category this time. 3rd

On a boring day in office, have you ever wondered “How long am I going to be another Dilbert?, Can I start my own business?, What will be my kinda business?”. You are excited reading famous blogs and you discuss about a small business to your colleagues, a startup idea with your brother, sister or partner, a hobby plan with a friend. You start coming up with new ideas for your own small businesses, startups and that cool NGO plan to make a difference into your monotonous living pattern. This has almost become my weekly routine. Another day I think “What if I had to work for someone for the rest of my life and what kind of work will I want to do?” and I start writing this post on my top 10 cool work profiles.

(10) I would love to design my own outfits. What if I had to design Aishwarya Rai’s outfit in her next blockbuster movie? The fame and money that an extraordinary fashion designer gets is huge. And it involves more right brain activities. A very good opportunity to rekindle the creativity in you.

(9) My inspiration is Mr.P.Chidambaram. I do understand that I’m not qualified to become finance minister of India just because I read almost half of this financial year’s budget. Working towards improving your country’s economy and growth to compete with other developed nations is exciting. But the responsibility that comes over to you is also huge. A role to be taken up with dedication, systematic working model and most of all superior financial intelligence.

(8 ) I wanted to be a librarian in my high school days. You can be lethargic, read a lot of books, have a separate room for yourself and look into returned/lent books once in a day. I got this impression from a school which never encouraged reading anything else but text books. Obviously the librarian had little work. But in reality, the task of a librarian in a huge library is too big and not really exciting to me now. A librarian indeed has more work than shouting Silence to Rajnikanth. If I had to live in a small organized town then this would be the ideal job for me.

(7) Organic farming.. no, Natural farming.. no, Spiritual farming.. no, it’s Pragmatic farming.. My father’s new experiments. I’m gonna have my own farm when I grow old and if I had to do now, the only person I would work for is my father I often wonder how could a chemical engineer go against chemical fertilizers and stick on to pesticide free farming methodologies? I want to build a small house in the middle of a farm, use vegetables and fruits from the farm itself for food and spend time watering trees and leading life lethargically, Isn’t that a peaceful life? It’s not going to be tough if you put up solar panels to power sprinklers and rain guns to water those trees, a machine built with intelligence to plant saplings and seeds at constant intervals. By the time I grow old, I wish I have those equipments at a cheaper price.

(6) Have you ever tried Vanilla ice-cream with Pepsi? This is my favorite combination. This work profile I’m gonna describe is really cool. Ice cream taster Yeah.. The road side ice cream vendors sell Vanilla, strawberry, butter-scotch, Mango, Pista. Local restaurants serve American delight, fruit salad with ice cream and three in one cup. Bangalooru malls have outlets which serve Italian Gelatino ic creams. My favorite ones are those at Kodaikanal where you get custard apple, chickoo, mango ice creams made from real fruits. Hey.. I’m a qualified Ice cream taster. Anybody hiring Ice Cream tasters reading this post??

(5) A man is lying dead. His neighbor says they had a fight and he shows his bruises as a proof of the other person trying to kill him. The blood drops on the floor are spherical. They would be elongated and pointed at one tip if they had a fight. And the case unfolds with so much points about the carefully cut wounds, blood stains discovered on the floor. An episode in New Detectives. Only by the time I entered graduation, I realized forensic science in India is not mature. The opportunities to study and work as a forensic scientist is less and it is not as exciting in India as they show in Discovery channel. Given good opportunities to work, forensic scientist is still my favorite job profile.

(4) Ian Wright walks into that beautiful hotel, he admires the artistic work, he has a sea side room, he travels in bus and train, he visits local people’s house and city markets, he eats local delicacies, he plays on sea, he reaches the top of a mountain…. Ian Wright is the host in Lonely Planet, now known as Globe Trekker. Travel show hosts, a cool job, lots of places to visit, good money and most of all work is never a pain. A slight variation in this work profile is traveling to places, cooking and eating local delicacies. A travel show host in Planet Food cooks Caramel Custard in Mexico, eats a crispy insect in China , cooks fish on a boat in Kerala. Wow..

(3) I’ve been reading ET these days to follow stock market. Sometimes I look at what stocks mutual fund houses buy and sell. The role of a fund manager is exciting. Making money for thousands of people, doing strategic stuff, having a list of statistical data. It’s easy to become a fund manager. Study for CAT, join one of the IIMs, choose a fund house to begin your career and earn a lot.

(2) Have you read Anti 9 to 5? No? Me neither. It has been sleeping in my book shelf for months. (I don’t lend my books unless I complete it ) Being a freelance writer is a good option when you can write well. I believe I write better. Do I? Transforming the pictures that you alone see into words that everyone can understand is an art by itself.

(1) The first position goes to the most challenging job in the world. You have to build cities, fight enemies, shoot people, manage armies, form an empire…. The job title is Game Tester Why not game developer? A game developer will end up hating the game because of the process in the company which will allow him to work only on a archer or a boat component Freelance games testing is becoming a hot job these days. What if you get paid for playing games? And that too a strategic game? Which is stable? Hoo.. Hoo.. You can ask for new features to developers and enjoy your favorite game, hmmm.. no, favorite work everyday. Nobody is gonna scold you for playing games in office.

P.S: It would be nice if you share your kinda cool job here

I missed my daily shuttle last Wednesday and took an auto to office. The auto stopped near Forum. A small boy not more than 4 years old asked for money. He was too tiny to beg. Dirt on his face and a drop of tears in his eyes. I couldn’t take my eyes off this little boy. He had a twinkle in his eyes which reflected his innocence. I simply nodded my head for a no when he asked for money. I was tempted to take a picture of him but I didn’t. Minutes after he left the place I realized that I had chocolates with me and I could have at least given that to him. I missed my bus on Thursday and Friday as well. I looked out for him thinking I could give him a bunch of chocolates and see him smile.

I left for home on Friday evening. I was traveling with my husband and two of his colleagues to Hosur in our car. The road was blocked. We were afraid there might be riots because of the Hogenakal issue. Many vehicles tried to take a different route. We were stuck in the service lane. There were around four kids on the main road hitting every lorry and taxi with a stick. I was not aware what exactly is happening. They started hitting vehicles, lorry drivers and cleaners. The drivers never returned the blows they received. These kids should be around 9 to 13 years of age. Their strategy soon unveiled before my eyes. These kids were backed up by adults. Even if one of the lorry drivers or cleaners would hit those kids back, the riots would begin. I took a small video of the scene from my mobile phone and until I crossed the place, I had my hands in my bag clutching my swiss knife.

I should appreciate the drivers who were patient and did not turn violent in that instance. They should have gone through a big emotional crisis and dishonor in that moment. Riots benefit corrupt politicians and individuals who try to take advantage of the riot to go against law. The purpose is a mask to these people, be it “Hogenakkal issue” or “Rajkumar died and we’ll hit Tamilians because a terrorist who kidnapped him years before is a tamilian” or “Cauveri issue”. None of the barriers that separate Karnataka and TamilNadu will vanish in the next few years. I only wish that few years later, the innocent little boy near Forum doesn’t take a stick.

P.S: My Video – not clear in my mobile phone camera but still if you look close u can see 2 kids climbing up the lorry.

A little girl of 5 walks into her new class room ‘Standard I- Section A’. Just like Ishaan Awasti in Taare Zameen Par, she has shifted to this new school in the middle of the term. A teacher appears and asks the class to copy the contents on the board. This little girl had a slate but didn’t have anything to write with. She is embarrassed to ask for a chalk piece. She thinks it will be humiliating to ask for a chalk piece. She walks over to her teacher and asks for a pencil. The teacher laughs and asks her, “what do you use to write on a slate? A pencil or chalk?” The little girl now humbly replies chalk. She borrows a chalk from another boy. The boy tells her that she has to return his chalk the next day because it’s special. As you would have guessed, the little girl is me.

Second Standard: I move to a new school. One day, I forget to take my pencil box to school and I borrow a pencil from my neighbour. If you know me well, you would have guessed what happened next. I lost her pencil. Everyday, she would let me know the height of the pencil I lost. The height kept on increasing day by day and one day it eventually reached double the height of a normal pencil. I never returned any pencil to her and years later this courageous little neighbour who lost her pencil to me became my classmate once again during my post graduation.

Third Standard: Nothing great happened.

In the middle of my fourth grade was an excitement that conquered every individual in the class.. Upgrading from Pencil to Pen. This post is about my fantasies for pens I’ve admired and used.

The first pen I admired was a bright red coloured, ink pen which my dad bought for my fourth grade annual exams. I loved the smooth nib and the glossy feel while writing with that pen. I tried very hard to buy a similar pen in later years. Unfortunately I didn’t get one like that till this day.

In my fifth standard, I’ve seen the best use of pen on April Fool’s day. Students frantically staining each other’s uniform with red and blue ink. I didn’t develop a fantasy for pens until my teenage. Before that, Pens meant ink stained hands, ink stained notebooks and ink spilling over pencil boxes because of shaky auto-rickshaw travels.

All of a sudden I started buying new pens. Hero pens and colorful pens which do not write very smooth after 2 days of me using them. A white hero pen with an art on it which was admired by everyone and as usual became a museum piece in a week. I soon became a regular customer of nearby stationary shops. I bought pens with so many designs. Zebra skin styled pens, tiger skin style pens, pens with lots of mickey mouse images and sometimes with fishes.. When quality came into picture, I shifted to pilot pens.

From my high school, I stopped using ink pens because my brother humiliated me saying I haven’t grown up because I was using a ink pen. My favorite pens during high school days were Uniball eye and Zebra which was smooth while writing and had a sleek and stylish look. They lacked funky animal/cartoon designs. In my college days I was a big fan of Cello Pointec gel pens which also gave me a smooth writing feel. I also had the fattest pen which was a gift from my aunt. It had both funky look and smoothness while writing.

I would associate 3 qualities to buying a pen. 1) Looks: Funky or Sleek and Stylish 2) It should write smooth and have excellent quality and 3) Brand name.

Despite trying out so many pens all these years, my hand-writing has been steadily bad. Talking about my bad handwriting, I can recall an incident during my class 5 mid-term holidays. In one of my dad’s attempts to make my handwriting look good, he made me write a to z in cursive writing. I was disappointed, for all my cousins were playing and me writing a,b,c. One of them looked into what I was doing and teased me for learning a,b,c at class 5. That was Master.Vinodh Balaji when he was 11. Some people never grow up. He still does the same, trying to peep into my desktop to find out what I’m writing.

]]> http://thunderbyte.wordpress.com/2008/03/18/the-art-of-writing/feed/ 5 thunderbyte http://thunderbyte.wordpress.com/2008/03/06/living-in-the-present/ http://thunderbyte.wordpress.com/2008/03/06/living-in-the-present/#comments Thu, 06 Mar 2008 10:52:27 +0000 thunderbyte http://thunderbyte.wordpress.com/?p=23 ]]>

Rachel beaming with pride, says “I just had a great time with myself”. This happens in one of the episodes in Friends where she visits an Italian restaurant all alone. Last Wednesday, I too had a great time with myself. It was around 9:30 p.m and all shops were closed in the mall except food outlets. I’ve always felt a little self-conscious whenever I go alone. This time I indulged on a Ferrari Rocher at Italian Gelatino. I went 3 floors up switching between escalators and stairs. Window shopping with no one to stare at me as if I’ve done a big crime by not purchasing at their outlet. I peeped into at least half the shops that were closed. By the time I came to the ground floor, all my Ferrari Rocher had been gobbled up.

Wondering what to do next, I entered McDonalds. I bought French Fries and started my climb again. A few people still stared at me. Still peeping through the closed glass windows for bags, clothes, cameras, utensils and toys.

The best part of the visit was there was nobody to control me, nobody to stare at me for not buying anything, nobody to bug you for special mall offers, nobody singing, spending less than 100 bucks and of course my Ferrari Rocher and French Fries. The controller came and I wanted to say, “I just had a wonderful time with myself”.

It was around 8:30 p.m. I was going back home in my office shuttle. I was engrossed with my new mobile phone’s features. The shuttle stopped in a traffic signal. Few buses and lots of bikes waiting for the signal. A traffic policeman came closer to an Activa, took the keys, rattled it in front of the scooter owner and signaled him to come aside. I was shocked at the way the policeman behaved. I wanted to take a video of the policeman asking for bribe(Of course, with my brand new mobile ). To my dismay, a KSRTC bus came in between and hid the entire scene from my eyes. No, from my mobile phone camera. My blog would have been another tehelka.com if I had captured that video

24 Feb 2008, It was around 11:30 a.m. I was going back home on a Sunday in Hosur Road. Traffic jam on the way. A three road signal blocked by vehicles coming from all sides. Banker’s algorithm will not help in clearing this deadlock. May be common sense will. (I still remember OS fundas I studied in College!!). All of a sudden, one guy got down from his car and started hitting another guy who was on a TVS 50. The car driver tore the other man’s shirt, hit him badly and pushed his TVS 50 down with a bang. All for the sake of a scratch on his new car. Doesn’t he realize he doesn’t have any right to even touch the other person’s vehicle, if he’s worried about a scratch in his car? The TVS 50 guy tried to resist but someone in the crowd convinced him to leave the place immediately. I could read his face. He was very self conscious when he left the place. His TVS 50 didn’t start properly.

I do not know how I’ll react if I was in the Activa guy’s situation. It depends upon the urgency I’m in to decide if I should bribe or not. But in the second case, what would I do if I were the TVS 50 guy? Will I call the police and complain? When there’s no traffic policeman there, to whom will I complain? Probably, what if the traffic policeman demands for a bribe taking away my keys? Will anyone from the crowd come as a witness if I file a suit against the car driver? May be I will break all his car glasses for damaging my vehicle. Tit for Tat. That will satisfy my ego. I wish the TVS 50 guy had done this.

A common way to start a conversation with a stranger is inquiring about health or weather. If you stay in Bangalore, here’s one more topic to begin a conversation. Traffic.

Who do we blame for this insensitive traffic?

(a) Attitude of drivers (b) Traffic Policemen (c) Government authorities

I’m sure any citizen of Bangalore would say All the above. A few examples of the eccentricities of these classes are:

- The ultra smart decision from the authorities to occupy half of MG road for Metro Rail Project.

- Traffic Policemen who thrive on bribe

- Drivers who fight in the middle of the road.

- Drivers who have forgotten there is a horn in their vehicles.

I leave it to you to discuss the rest with the next stranger you meet.

]]> http://thunderbyte.wordpress.com/2008/03/06/ka-21-n-1234/feed/ 4 thunderbyte http://thunderbyte.wordpress.com/2008/02/12/run-lola-run/ http://thunderbyte.wordpress.com/2008/02/12/run-lola-run/#comments Tue, 12 Feb 2008 09:02:35 +0000 thunderbyte http://thunderbyte.wordpress.com/?p=21 ]]>

This is not a review of the movie Run Lola Run. One of the well-thought movies I’ve watched. For those who’ve not watched this movie, here is a small gist: Lola has to get 100,000 Marks in 20 minutes to save her boyfriend Manni’s life from a gangster. “Does she get 100,000 Marks in 20 minutes and reaches the destination to save Manni’s life?” is the essence of the movie. In the first run, Lola dies. In the second run, Manni dies and in the third run, Manni gets back his money from the thief and Lola also brings money from a casino. The film is woven around the plot so well that every minute in the movie conveys the nature of the run.

A similar theme was observed in the tamil movie 12B. This movie showed how the hero’s life changes if he gets on the bus and what happens to him if he misses the bus. Both the plots run in parallel unlike Run Lola Run.

Here I’m describing my run from RT Nagar to Kudlu Gate in a similar fashion to Run Lola Run.

Plot 1: (Imaginary)

I get ready at 7:35 a.m. Car starts. Go to Contonement Bus stop. Take office shuttle and reach office on time.

Plot 2: (Imaginary)

I get ready at 7:50 a.m. Car doesn’t start. Get back home. Eat and Relax. Take an auto at 8:35 a.m to infantry road and reach office by 10’o clock in office shuttle.

Plot 3: (The characters described in this story are real and any similarity to living or dead people is intentional)

I get ready at 7:50 a.m. Car doesn’t start. Get back home. Eat in a hurry. Take an auto. Auto-wala refuses to go till Kudlu Gate due to lack of fuel. Take a bus from Madiwala. Conductor says the bus goes only till Bommanahalli by the time I take ticket. Take another private bus from Bommanahalli to Kudlu gate accompanied with the torture of seeing a Kannada movie. I reach office at 9:35 to find out… (I’ll be sued if I continue further )