"Design is a passion and Performance is a thriller"

Hmmm.. What’s the first thing that comes to your mind when you read the line..

Seems to be out of place, doesn’t it ? But that’s the new thing our latest gold winning Olympian is mouthing these days; when he promotes the new Samsung TV..

“Performance is a thriller" .. Couldn’t they make something a bit more meaningful and appealing..Maybe if “Performance is a thrill” it would have sounded better. Don’t know .. tried both options in MS Word’s spell check and nope.. no wriggly lines appeared. So they both seem to pass on that criteria.

Anyways the “thrill” thingy just did not cut it for me.. Guess I will have to just stick with my plain old “Sense and Simplicity”.. Tough luck Mr. Bindra :)

Disconnected Elevators

We have two elevators in our apt building. One's a small passenger; complete with a nice mirror where you can preen yourself for a min before stepping out and the other is a bare bones freight elevator. Both face one another. Now I have seen elevators where if they are adjacent to one another they can coordinate with one another and given a passenger request only one of them will service that call. But somehow it does not work with elevators which are on opposite walls. Does not make sense, does it? Just because they are not side by side does not mean that they should be incapable of talking to one another. I have seen this plenty of times. Early morning when people are always in a hurry, they will press both the down buttons. After that both the elevators will stop at all the floors while coming down. Now if they had just noticed that one of them is already servicing the request, the other one needn't have done that completely useless trip..It is anyways going to be always behind the first one as it still has to stop at all the floors where it's service has been requested..

Anyways. hopefully someone from the elevator business does come up with a solution to this. Will surely save some electricity.. and more importantly some swear words from the person who barely missed the first elevator and has to come down on the second :)

nobody's perfect!

There is a new channel on air from UTV called 'World Movies'.. Shows cinema from all over the world. The movies are not dubbed but are instead shown with subtitles. somehow dubbing kills the entire movie.. Sometimes while fiddling with the remote , I have seen Rambo uttering dialogues in shudh hindi. looks horrible to say the least. Anyways the channel is on air for about a weeek now and my weekends could not have gone any better.. They have a marked preference to spanish dramas.. Maybe they will move to other genres but right now it's all cool with me..

Watched one tonight called 'Nobody's perfect!'.. It's a story about three friends who are disabled in one way or the other.. One of them is blind, the other deaf while the last one doesn't have a leg.. The blind dude is getting married the next day and this is their last night where they plan to raise hell around town.. They decide to go for a movie and while trying to park in a disabled spot they find that there is a car parked out there which does not have a sticker.. They block that vehicle, call in for a tow truck and soon enough a pretty young thing comes in and asks them to move their car.. When they tell her that she has parked in a disabled spot and she seems to be perfectly fine, she retorts that she does have a disability.. but she does not have a sticker to prove it.

She goes on to say that she does not have any taste buds on her tongue.. when one of them says that is no disability .. She replies 'how would it feel if you never found out what food tastes like.. you cannot differentiate between salt and sour.. everything tastes just the same.. nobody ever likes my cooking.. don't you think that's a disability !!'. pretty interesting huh!

A strange morning incident :)

You know what… subah subah as usual I woke up in a daze..thinking why do I have to go to the stupid office again.. Can I work from home? Abhi bathroom ke andar jaa rahe the ki got a call from the main gate.. ‘sir.. koi flowers lekar banda aaya hai’..

Apun ekdum hil gaye.. soche kahaan jaaye.. should I go to the loo or should I pick up the flowers.. Upar se who is sending mom flowers and all.. mom getting flowers..hmmm.. does dad know about it..

maine bola ‘aane do.. Dekhte hain kaun mai-ka-laal mere mom ko flowers de raha hai’.. So the delivery guy started the climb up to my apt.. I wrapped a towel around meself and stood near the door all ready to face him. Bathroom jaana hai jaldi.. I am shuffling from one feet to the other, but guess what.. I am still up for the fight . Can’t hit the dude who is sending flowers to my mom.. but I sure can poke his delivery guy in the eye..

Now the delivery guy is atleast twice my size.. Had expected a pint sized nepali dude but this one was straight from bheema’s clan.. So said a meek hi to him.. He thrusted me the flowers on one hand, a rectangular white box which seemed to have a cake on the other.. He had a card too which I am sure he wanted to staple on my forehead .. But anyways he seemed to take pity on my early morning state and said ‘sign karo’.. So I signed as quickly as I can, wrote all my phone numbers and gave him the slip back..

Phir waapas aakar dekha ki card mein likha hain ‘Happy birthday kaku’ J.. Aur to aur opened the box. Card is for me so the cake box should be in all probability belong to me too.. Khola to dekha ki usme bhi likha hai ‘Happy Birthday Kaku!!!’.. Yippeee!!! Felt all happy.. Free cake and cards on a day which is NOT even my birthday!!. Guess today is one lucky day. Aisa rahega to birthday mein I will get some more goodies..

Anyways flowers were cool (mom calls them kochu flowers) and that cake was awesome too.. Thanks Aaoochoo!!

Proposal prices

We have a MS team in Pune too.. Recently they put up a telecom proposal for an African client wherein the total cost including s/w and h/w comes to a cool 6 million USD .. In addition to that MS is also there.. they will ask for consulting charges on top of that.. So you can safely assume that the project cost will be in the range of 15 million USD.. now they want a bakra from our team to go out there and present it.. According to them, they don’t have the bandwith for that. Buggers!!. Anyways one of my colleagues has been chosen as the bakra.. So I was just telling this to him over lunch..

You finish the ppt and then this is what happens…

Client:: “15 million, you say, eh?”

Ravi:: “yeah, that’s how much it adds up to.. This is a big thing.. best solution, latest technology, full SOA implementation and we will give an extended warranty period of 1 year”

Client :: “ yeah but..”

Ravi:: “ We can reduce on some offshore level 3 support prices. But that’s a later discussion”

Client:: “yeah but..”

Ravi:: “ OK.. Will give some discount on the volumes we generate for your new engagements too”

Client:: “yeah but..”

Ravi:: “ No buts..We are a level 5 company and we have MS overseeing us.. So you wouldn’t… “

Client:: “hold on damn it!!.. Let me finish!! Do you know what is my country’s GDP ?”

Ravi (very meekly…):: “nope”

Client:: “yeah, that’s what.. Our GDP numbers are lesser than your proposal cost. So you better run the country for sometime.. Fill in the country’s coffers and then come back.. Hell, we will even make you our President for sometime !!”

Didn't come out so well in the written format. It was much better when I had told it to him L

Bye!!

chekhov's short novels

Took it off from one of my friend's bookshelves about a month back and have been religiously plodding through it for sometime now. I haven't read much of the Russians so thought this will be a welcome break from my regular Indian author reading material.. The setting of the stories are a bit archaic at times, but somehow the description of the land, the environment and settings are extraordinarily vivid in this translated text.. Morning bus journeys, flat steppes showing the vastness of the landscape, Russian peasant life with all it's tidings form a majority of the stories. Couple of them relate to the city gentry with it's usual pretentiousness and obsequious behavior to the higher social classes. In short life in general.. An interesting read :)

Cricket -- The old and the new

Two different channels.. Two different cricket formats..one carrying on with a tradition which is as old as the game and the other a breakaway league where has beens and relative unknowns are trying to slug it out and entertain a non existent crowd...Somehow I am still not comfortable with the new big bang approach to cricket.. It's more like if I don't get a hindi movie ticket what is my next option.. Head right away to the cricket ground and get entertained by a slug fest..

Twenty20 reminds me more of a WWE event.. Maybe cricket is also headed the wrestling way.. Market it more like an entertainment option than an actual sport..Do we really see any class or finesse out there in Twenty20..? Will we ever create any memories out of these games..? We will all remember Laxman's heroic knock at the Edens and Ganguly's sublime touch on the offside in the current test match at Bangalore.. But in the new format will we ever reminisce such stories.. No doubt we are the current T20 world champs, but.. somehow I feel a test series victory against Australia will be more meaningful than that championship trophy..

Maybe I should be more in tune with the times, but having a bowl out to decide on the outcome of a contest does tend to marginalise the importance of the sport.. Don't you think so?

Reliving Malgudi..

"Ta na na tana nana na..Ta na na tana nana na".. A simple melody without words but it was just enough to remind us that it's Wednesday night and Malgudi days is on air. Starting with the music and then with the cartoons, the serial used to evoke such an immense feeling of joy within us that you would willingly cut down on your evening dose of cricket and finish your homework before hand rather than miss it for some reason. Maybe it was the stories or maybe it was the way it was told.. it was something we could all relate to. Swami with his cricket and schoolwork, friends and his school masters.. The stories were set in a different era but still it had that unusual charm and freshness that could transcend time and space. Moreover it portrayed South India at it's best..Traditional brahmin people with the sacred ash smeared on their foreheads, pretty girls with jasmine flowers in their long hair,filter coffee, the concept of tiffin with steaming hot idlis and sambar and then those temples..the entire package was simply irresistible to us living in Delhi.

Went this weekend to forum with some friends and as usual found myself gravitating towards Landmark.. Got tonnes of books to read at home but still could not resist picking up "Swami and Friends". Maybe it reminds me of a bygone era when things were so much simpler or maybe it reminds me of my childhood.. those distant strains still continue to haunt me .."Ta na na tana nana na..Ta na na tana nana na" :)

Cardamom coffee

Chennai is hot and muggy. That's the best way to describe the place. The place literally saps the strength out of you. Anyway after a long wandering day in the open, we went to a quiet mediterranean restaurant for lunch. The fare was decent but I didn't have much of an appetite.. Me was more interested in gulping down glasses of cold water trying to rehydrate myself. The restaurant had these huge hookahs which were available for those who had the exotic bend of mind. But instead of trying to do the twin tasks of gurgling and looking clever at the same time, we decided to go for some Cardamom Coffee. Now we all make masala tea at some point of time or the other but somehow the very act of besmirching coffee with spices did sound sacrilegious to me. The menu called it Lebanese though I am not sure how cardamom went to Beirut of all places. Maybe it did go through some ancient spice route or maybe the stuff was just made up to hook up gullible guys like us.. But anyway since we were in the adventurous mood, we tried it.. and guess what.. it actually tasted pretty good. A bit on the weaker side perhaps but it certainly had a nice aroma to it. Should try it at home sometime :)

Morning

It's early morning at 8:15 and you are just about to leave for the day. The carpet cleaning guy in the lobby says hello as he does everyday, and you give him your usual taciturn nod. It's amazing when you realize that you have seen this same guy wishing you well every day for the past two years; and yet you do not even know his name. Sometimes he is the only person whom you talk to on weekends when spoken words are at a premium and still..
There are doughnuts and coffee near the check drop-in box. You are not supposed to take the coffee and return back to your apartment. Somehow.. that unwritten rule put me off that coffee. I don't even know if that coffee is any good. Better than my office swill or worse.. Anyway holding a plastic cup with bare hands in this weather isn't actually fun.. I lost my gloves a long time back.
The centerpiece table has a vase of new flowers. Fresh birds of paradise flown in from California, Hawaii or some other warm place. They look nice.. Reminds you of actual birds flying around during springtime.

There is a big line of cabs waiting to be called by the doorman. Big low-riding sedans with odd colors.. Yellows, bright oranges, offwhites and green. All of them look dirty with snow hanging from the undercarriage and white chemical stain marks all around..The lake looks calm but bleak.. Grey undertones because of the clouds above.. Ever notice the trees after a snowstorm.. All of them will have snow only on one side. The other side won't even have a trace of white. It's as if somebody has painted a shadow on the tree, only in this case the shadow is white.

P.S. This post is not yet complete.. Will try and clean/finish it up sometime later.

The bridge of San Luis Rey

This pullitzer fiction winner is a novella by Thornton Wilder which tries to answer a perennial question "Why do bad things happen to good people?" Is it because we live in a dystopian society where good is always rewarded by something horrific or is this just another way to test our spirit and faith in a divine entity. Five people fall down to their death when a rickety old bridge falls down in a mountain pass over Lima. This singular event captures the imagination of a young friar named Brother Juniper who wants to prove that this is not just an accident but has some divine logic behind it. The story weaves around the friar building character studies of each of the five victims to find out patterns which might have led them to this unfortunate accident. As expected, the brother fails to find any and the church views the book as heretical for even conjuring up the audacity to question God's will.. Ultimately in a twist of fate both the friar and his creation are both burnt at the stake in the Lima's town center. An interesting but philosophical read :)

New Year Resolutions

Just one.. Seek change

Chai

I was reading Kerouac the other day, and this is what his buddhist friend tells him about the oriental passion for tea ..

"...The first sip is joy the second is gladness, the third is serenity, the fourth is madness, the fifth is ecstasy."

Tea is more than just a passion to us Orientals. It's more of a culture, a tradition, a part of your life.. Starting from the college days when you used to cut classes and sit in the canteen for hours over "Cutting Chai" , to those beautiful rainy afternoons when you can warm your hands over a hot cup of tea and bread samosas, tea permeates our entire desi existence.. It's like a lubricant oiling away the hinges in our lives especially those who work in our sarkari offices.. Couple of rupees given as "Chai Paani" and things mysteriously fall in place. Lost files suddenly reappear and the ever-elusive Babu suddenly appears on his desk to sign his autograph..

In our homes tea is more than just another drink.. Even with the proliferation of bottled water and cokes in our homes today, a hot cup of tea at the end of the day is something we all look forward to. Mebbe it is something to do with how everyone has his own special method of preparing this brew.. There are some people who can literally butcher it, while there are others who can make it divine, divine enough to write/recite haikus about.. as Kerouac's friend does above..

Anyway enjoy your cup.. Here is a nice article I found on CNN/Travel about chinese teahouses. Enjoy..

www.cnn.com/2005/TRAVEL/DESTINATIONS/12/07/
chinese.teahouse.ap/index.html

Jingle Bells

A cool variation to the classic Jingle Bells.. Bart's favorite christmas song.

Jingle Bells
Batman smells
Robin laid an egg
Batmobile lost its wheel
And the Joker got away - hey!

SouthSide

It's been a long time since I posted something.. Things were kinda uncertain for some time and that's one thing I truly hate.. Not knowing what's around the corner.. I am a control freak in that sense. I know I should just try to let things be, but...

We saw the real south side of Chicago last weekend. See, we had to go to this store and since we didn't have a car, the only way was to take the train to the 47th street and then take the bus from there.. It's amazing how things change in just a short 20 min train ride.. Here I am living in Downtown Chicago; a bright gaily lit place with high rises, expensive malls and coffee stores on every corner, and just a few minutes from this enchanted place lies a place which seems to be just forsaken.. Boarded up windows and doors, people huddling for some warmth and I don't know.. there was just this tremendous feeling of despondency which seemed all-pervasive. Unless you have seen it, you wouldn't believe that this was America..I have seen poor places but this was simply not expected in this rich country.. More than the abject desolation, it was the feeling of hopelessness, a feeling that nothing good is ever going to happen here. Ever noticed how we tend to remember all good things and try to forget what is not to our liking.. In that sense, I think most people have just forgotten that such places still exist in the US.

Anyway, we didn't stay long in this place.. We were kinda anxious to get out of that place ASAP.. Seemed we were the only outsiders in that place. We took the bus to our destination, did our shopping, and came back home. But this time, we took another route to come home.. It was a bit longer, but we just couldn't do the same route again.