What Am I

PS: This was drafted a long time ago, but never published it. The only inevitable thing in one's life. My Mother-in-law just expired. Suddenly, there is no one to blame. Honestly!! Most of us consider death as a punishment, whereas it is a liberation from suffering for that person. She died due to kidney issues but once the issue was diagnosed she didn't last long and now to think of it she relatively died peacefully, as she didn't have to bear the suffering that most go through with kidney transplantation and various other things.. It is the near and dears' loss, because you have no one to look upto, no one to blame to. It is my attachment (positive/negative) that is lost.  I was too concerned, how my wife and others would deal with it, especially my father in law.. I am surprised how things shaped out. Suddenly, I felt so close to death and yet felt too indifferent as if I will never be affected.. It is inevitable, yet Iam dying to address my immediate n...

I am married, but am still a consultant :) Most of my friends have achieved greater heights and I do aspire to excel further. The zeal and enthusiasm haven't died, but yes age is catching up!! When I was diving into my MBA and even while doing the course, I'd think that it is so important to study, learn and contribute. (Not that I have done any of this .. but at-least that was the thought). Coming from a shy background, where lot of focus is on getting job (It sounds like getting laid ..rt ;) ) and very minimal on social skills, you shouldn't be surprised at my thoughts. Social skills are an anathema for all of us engineers and continued to remain so, in-spite of the MBA. People, who could communicate and reach out to others, were not considered among the most talented. And, may be it is so, in case of the roles where much of the activity continues to remain stuck to the screen of laptop. But, with decent number of years in consulting and a...

I guess, even if I committed a gang rape I'd not have to worry. What will happen at max. let me see. First, the police, even if they catch me, will keep my identity safe and so I do not have to worry about my future reputation Second of all, some people and media will protest against me, but our bureaucrats and the politicians are very concerned about the law & order situation and hence the protests would be brutally crushed  So, I do not have to worry about the pressure from public Third, do you know what is the maximum punishment that I can get. 10 years or fine.  There are multiple ways to minimize the crime.  "Tujhe pata hai merae baap kaun hai" (Do you know who my father is?") .. need less to say anything else. If I prove that I did not plan for it and it was only in the heat of the moment because I was drunk, my punishment will be lessened since my intentions were never to hurt the person. Of-course, there are ways in which the corrupt...

Monday blues, hangover blues, marriage blues and lot others!! Every one discusses about these normal things .. but the blues that none of us speak about are the No work blues.. All of us crave for days when there is no work, and all that we are expected to do is to come to office, surf, coffee, gossip and leave.. But, what if the same continues for an extended period of time.. especially when you actually love working and need something to keep the senses up and running.. Iam going through these patches, that for the past 10 days I hardly have any work.. Now these blues are actually making me sleepless since the mind is reluctant to allow me to go to sleep for having not used it for quite some time.. Iam only starting to realize what it means like not having any work or sitting on bench (IT parlance).. while I will be paid for my salary, for all the position and experience that I extend to the company, what is the point if all the experience is there only for CV sake.. ...

“We, the willing, are doing the impossible for the ungrateful. We have done so much, with so little, for so long, we are now qualified to do anything, with nothing.” - Mother Teresa (Took it from the article written in Dawn ) Just been to some remote locations from Delhi for the long weekend. Quite an un-planned trip which did end on a good tone. Was in places, where there was no network, continuous vegetation, but still a human to be found. The road was not a proper one, with huge bumpy rides along the road, but the road was still visible and accessible Streams of water, cold, flowing across the landscape at different depth, at varied pace..but we could still take a dip in it and not be scared of getting washed away. Staring into the sky, clear sky, with a full moon, bright stars .. but still there was light that we could see coming from the closest neighborhood and we were sure that we are not lost in the woods. Add to that the scare due to the chance of bumping into a wild el...

I could see that the gate opened into a small ground followed by two rooms with not even a concrete slab. We were waiting for some one to open the lock of the gate. Some guy came with keys. He looked alright..well built and decently dressed and with a badge in his neck. I appeared to be overly dressed up for the occasion in a suit and the laptop. He didn't bother to look into our eyes and was trying to unlock but it didn't happen. The person with me signaled him in some unfamiliar signs and the guy went in, brought another set of keys which opened the lock. I wondered what did the person tell the guy!!  The guy went away with no change of expression in his face as if he has ignored our presence and that he didn't care whether we came in or not. I was bemused at the least! I walked in and I met the lady of the place and the guy, who heads the center, invited me inside. For a place handling the students from Below poverty line, the place was well furnished. It had a...

Was reading the book "Anthem"...Ayn Rand's first novel and her first narration of her philosophy of Objectivism. While Objectivism as a philosophy sounds really great and I would want to emulate it, the execution of the same across the society may not prove effective in the present situation. It sounds very utopian. Her novels have been more than an inspration to me. But at the same time I like the various ideologies in Communism and that of Regulated Capitalism. Did you ever wonder which ideology suits the present world? Hence I thought of comparing various philosophies proposed by certain great personnel. Name Duration Profession Pre-dominant Philosophy Karl Marx 1818-1883 Philosopher Communism Keyne 1883-1946 Economist Regulated Capitalism Ayn Rand 1905-1982 Author Objecti...

The rules say that officially no one can create noise or inconvenience after 11:00 pm. Hence even during diwali, we are not allowed to light crackers after 11:00 pm. Nowadays, especially in Andhra Pradesh it has become a trend that people take out a procession with huge sounds during night and with such noise that it gets unbearable. Even if we complain, the voices are hardly heard. How do we counter the noise, increase the fan speed or put some ear plug so that the outside noise is not heard of. This is what all of us do! we create some other noise to counter the noise. We live in a shell and think that the outside world is safe. None of us go out to actually suppress the noise. Least, no one even tries to raise a voice against the noise. Whenever some tries to complain about it, they are pulled back by their close associates, saying why do you need to get involved in that noise. Every one knows that the noise is a huge inconvenience, but all of us keep mum, because we have our own wa...

I was discussing with a friend about economics defining many relationships in the present world. It was an interesting debate that we had. (I agree with both sides..and Iam open enough to accept that my side of the argument had flaws...) The conversation went like this... Me: It is economics that defines many relationships. The conflict between mother-in-law & daugher-in-law as a case is because the mother-in-law loses her power over running the things her way and the newly wed bride takes aways those privileges and hence the initial tussle between the two women. Similar is the case with most of the relationships. Friend: Economics plays a role only to the extent of necessities. But these necessities differ for every person. Once the necessities are addressed, economics doesn't come into play and the relationships take a precendence. Me: True! Infact only after necessities are met, can people think of anything else. And till the time these necessities are met, which c...

I was just browsing through some articles about the aviation industry. The industry is obviously going through a tough time, but I just happened to look at two airlines which are almost on the verge of bankruptcy. British Airways(BA) Air India(AI) Both are government operated airlines and are equally famous for their misdeeds. British Airways was very famous for its baggage mishandling and the much crowded Heathrow airport in London added to its chaos.. Air India has been always famous for its irresponsible behavior with its customers and what not. But the interesting topic to discuss is the way the employees of both these organizations are behaving during the present crisis. BA employees have voluntarily agreed for a paycut or an unpaid leave instead of mass layoffs. They are trying their level best to keep the company up and floating. AI employees on the other hand are about to go on a strike demanding that they receive all their salaries on time. They are in fact askin...

How much does space mean? I've been looking out for apartment in Mumbai for close to two weeks now, and Iam not satisfied with the response that I got so far. We are being asked too much for the kind of facilities that are promised. I felt like a refugee when I looked at some of the apartments. We are still scratching our brains if the no. of people to stay in an apartment is "n+1" or will "n+2" or "n+3" is also ok..where "n" stands for the no. of bedrooms in the apartment. So much so for the refugee talk... I just realized what it takes to lead a life like a refugee. 75 people including women and children living in three rooms and a single toilet. People sleeping in hand-mouth conditions that one cannot see the ground on which they are sleeping. This is the situation in Pakistan who is tormented by the flood of refugee from the tarnished areas of Swat valley. The Pathans so famous for their hospitality, generosity are being stretch...

Stimulus bills, stimulus bills and more stimulus bills to revive the collapsed economies all over the world. What do these stimulus bills do? Try and increase the economy by increasing the money flow in the economy and make people CONSUME more. So, it's all about consumption. Oh, I forgot that the world over which tries to imitate the US style follows the Keynesian pattern, where consumption is the most crucial thing. So, more consumption and hence better growth rates. Without Keynesian way system India would never have clocked the rates because much of its growth is bellowed by the internal consumption. For that matter US will not retain its status as the world's economic power but for the mammoth per capita consumption that its population have. But this consumption, which most of us should/would have realized by now should be the real cause of worry because we have limited resources or limited access to them. Hence in the long run consumption has to be reduced. I d...

Ever wondered what can be the cost of a foolish decision! A decision taken by Musharraf has just taken a toll on 1.3 million people in Swat valley [details about the swat valley http://www.swatvalley.com/gallery/browse.php?category=mingora] Taliban has almost taken its control over swat valley and people over there are being made to do the things that they never thought they would have to worry about. This reminds of the famous philosopher against the nazis.. They came for the communists and I ignored, because Iam not a communist They came for the Jews and I ignored, because Iam not a Jew They came for the Russians and I ignored, because Iam not one of them And finally they came for me, but there was no one to rescue me... Similar is the situation for people in Pakistan...they ignored the raising threats from Taliban and ignored all the crimes that they performed all this while and now the Taliban came for them and they are helpless.. Police is complaining of lack of equ...

I was just wondering about the major international headlines in this first week of the year and the topics that have created furore a) Israel attacks on Gaza b) Sri lankan soldier's attacks on LTTE These two are marking more violence at the dawn of the new year. But hopefully this may actually close the violence that has been prevalent for quite some time. So, Iam still debating myself whether these fresh attacks are an indication of a concrete end to violence but beginning of more. If the former is the fight over land, then another news is happening due to the fight over resources. Gazprom, the oil major in Russia, threatening Ukraine about gas supply: This major company has been threatening Ukraine because the latter hasn't paid some of its bills. If Gazprom curtails its supplies then many people in EU will be freezed to death since 25% of EU gas supplies are through these pipelines. These two major headlines, ignoring the others, are an indication of the wars that ...

25 years of my life have passed by...But 25 is just another birthday like the earlier 24 years...but somehow Iam fascinated by numbers and 25 does occupy some special position;) and hence a special occasion!! As per the movie padosan, until 25 years a guy has to be a brahmachari and then he is ready for marriage at 25...ha ha.. But I have decided to extend that limit to atleast 50 more years, and if I manage to live that long the postponement would continue...Bad luck girls :-p!! I want to write something on this special occastion though. But, what to write...Hmm.. About Schooling, college, and then office.. thodi masti, thodi sharaarat, thoda gum, thodi khushi aur thode dost . I owe these 25 years to so many people...Ofcourse Iam not goint to say it the Oscar way of thanks to a, b, c etc...But things have happened the way they have because they are supposed to have happened that way.. and hence I met all these people because they are supposed to be present there to show me thi...