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Straight Angle™: July 2004
Friday, July 30, 2004
Here comes my photo sessions. This site might get some photo only posts for some days. As, our episode team goes overdrive, these photos might increase in count. For now enjoy these:
2salvation

Dhoom

Douc

Goli

MAYA

MAYAbi

Mayaelee

Sutta

Wcoww

Wednesday, July 28, 2004

Yeah V have done it....... 

Yeah- today(Wednesday) had been a great day. Actually, We had the induction of our Junie Members in our MAYA team. We had a wonderful presentation and an excellent response. The Junior Team is selected through a Random number generation Process.Then every one of the junie is put into any of the 5 teams. Though we started off with the Mayan concept, as of now, the only identity that remains is that of our Logo- which is the Peace symbol and our caption - Balanced Insanity( Remember- this is one of my contribution to the team). We have 27 junie members along with 27 senies. This should be the ideal team, as we senie members share a great chemistry amongst ourselves and that has to be with the junies too. If that exists, then I think our team would be the best of the teams here in TAPMI. We also want exactly that. We want to Win this EPISODE.
Then I personally had a discussion with Prof.Sankaran. We were speaking about how Communism had failed the states that trusted it. He is of the view that Communism lost its humanity somewhere in the Middle. But I think, Communism's ideals were as genuine and as egalitarian as possible, But that sort of system would have been the best suited for such times and for such conditions. Russia became great state not only because of its resources but also because of Communism. That it fell apart because of Communism is also to be considered. Maybe Communism as a "Siththaantham" has outlived it's mandated life. May be the changing times would have been harsh on the System.
India with a passion for Communism and Socialism had long been attaching significance to both of these. But it is time for us to give a second thought about the usefulness of such a system in these times. Only TIME will tell whether such a debate is fruitful.

Tuesday, July 27, 2004

Iam Busy!!!!!!!! 

Now-a-days I have become very Busy. Iam developing a website for myself and our Team "Maya". I have not yet hosted it but the process is going on very fine. Its just at the finishing touches and I think it is going to have a nice Impact.  I will shortly upload all those pages that I have been designing. I would put them up in the Geocities page. I have some 2 MB of pages. It might take some time, yet will be successful. Then We got our Junior Team Members for all the BrandScan Committees. We in EMC(Event Management Committee) have got 3 members - One girl and 2 Guys - Saurav Palit, Suyog Kulkarni, Priyadarshini V Prabhu. Nice Team. Will have to see how this team gell with us. As of now, Iam the only Senior Member new to EMC. I wasnt there in the Team last year. So, Iam as good or as bad as the new Junior Members. Last Year BrandScan was a great success, making around Rs.80,000 Profit on a Budget of Rs.6.5 Lakhs. Given that, its completely Student's responsibility, this turnover was impressive. Last time our Main Sponsor was IBM. This time Though sponsor hasnt been decided yet, our Media partners have been finalised- guess who- MTv. Also, Business India and Times of India would also be our Media Partners. Great News even before we have started working on the Event- in the real sense. I just pray god that this event goes off good.

Monday, July 26, 2004

My Blog!!!!!!!5 

I donno what happened to my blog. As I have already told, the only way I can view my blog is to go to preview option in the Blogger site. When I went today to see how is my blog, I was shocked, My blog looked like this: 
 
Then I tried to post this:

I donno what happened to my blog. As I have already told, the only way I can view my blog is to go to preview option in the Blogger site. When I went today to see how is my blog, I was shocked, My blog looked like this:

Somebody please tell me how it looks normally, if u can open my page. Mottai Boss- If u happen to read this please mail me how my blog looks with you- does it looks like this with the two posts appearing side by side rather than top and bottom. I tried to get into movable blog, but then I don’t have a FTP server, so I left that idea atleast for some time till I get onto an FTP server or I myself get a secure computer. Till then I have to put up with all these problems I think. Wat say?

But since I tried to post from Outlook with a picture, it didnt work, I got a reply from Blogger telling that my post wasnt successful. Then I tried changing the Topic from "@ Last" to "At Last" and guess what- I got it Eureka I have got it........ Thats Great... I have got it. Sometimes things work Luckily....


Sunday, July 25, 2004

At last!!!!!!!!!!!! 

My interest in blogging is wanning( or made to?). Because, our institute has come up with a policy of not allowing sites that install cookies. This means that blogspot sites will not be allowed. Server restrictions. We have spoken to the administrator, but things take their own time to move - I suppose. But then to wait till these fellows make their decision, till then to just view my blog, I need to log into the blogger site, go to template page and view it as a preview, where i will not be able to see many details i have added. IT SUCKS. Really SUCKS!!!!!!!!!.
Coming back to the blogging thing, Still i feel the need to blog jus because this concept of putting myself in open gives me immense peace, and i have been learning quite a bit through this. I have started to look for Movable type- lemme see what that brings in.
The EPISODE team is still in the making. Iam creating a site with geocities describing the entire event. I might also post some of the photos of the event there. It's coming out pretty well.Got finished with the Junior selection for the Event Management Committee- just now. Got struck with 5 people who had been chosen by other committees also. It took my entire day today to sort out the issues and get whom I need. Now it is settled and it's time to start working for BrandScan.


Tuesday, July 20, 2004

EPISODE @ TAPMI 

Its time for EPISODE in TAPMI. Episode- for the unintended, is a intra-collegiate fest-sort of. Here, the entire college is divided into four groups with Senior members as the leaders, and there is always a theme for all the events that happen in EPISODE. This year the theme is "Civilizations". We have chosen the Mayan civilisation and improvised it with Indian ethos. It is an imaginary theme as Mayan Civilization in India- Maya. We just include anything that we can lay our hands on. The brainstroming has already started. We would be getting our team members in a day r two(Juniors). Then there will be all sort of events organised by various academic foras and other Non-Academic foras. We participate in the events as a team. The USP of EPISODE is that, it is now that the strong bonding among the seniors and juniors.I have personnaly seen that the strongest bond with me had been the guys who were part of my Episode team. That continues even now. Also, at the end of all, the leader of all groups have to present a marketing plan involving the concept that their team used during the episode. Our concept would be "Nirvana" and we would be marketing it. As the masti starts in TAPMI, we also get our daily dose of assigments - JIT.

Sunday, July 18, 2004

Realising your Personal Potential 

This was the convocation address given by Mr.Ashok Soota at our Annual Convocation 2004. I personnaly enjoyed the speech and I am sure any one reading this will.


Saturday, July 17, 2004

New!!! - Is it worth all the hype? 

Jus out from "New"-awful film. Full of double meaning dialogues. Simple and Idiotic story line. Except the song"Sakkara innikera sakkara" others are not that great. Even at this age at around 60, SPB is great- simply no competition.I go mad at his voice. That youth and that enthu, I haven't found it with anybody else.
Coming back to the film, its just a plan simple story line in which, a small boy(Surya) of 8 years age, runs away from his family because, his mother (Devayani) scolds him for some mischief. This guy is spotted by a scientist (Manivannan) who prides himself for inventing such illustrious products like an automatic system that  wakes u up by striking literally at ur head and an assembly line sort of morning abbulations functions- with all brushing, bathing drying automated.(Though nice imagination, when seen in screen, it made me laugh rather than believe). Then this scientist reasons the problem is because the guy is small and offers to make him big and thus also test the efficacy of his drug. The boy agrees and he is administered the medicine. This makes him a big man of 28 years age. Now as all men in film does, he falls in Love with a girl (Simran), who acts rather bizarrely at times (Remember Laila in Pithamagan?). Karunas comes in as the assistant for the scientist.
Devyani too is seen a bit dramatic at times. To top the already "spicy" cast, a roll for Kiran too. I have always thought she is not fit to be in any role and she has once again proved it. She comes in as a "Maami", who is perceived to be seducing her husband by Simran. With Simran at your side, I dont understand the need for any other specialised lady to "Show" off. More than Simran, its her waist line and "other" parts of her body that have acted in the film.
Such a pathetic screenplay it is that, Simran comes to know of all the things happened through a kid, who happens to be the friend of the guy who ran away. Then , as every story has, this story also has a "villain". He is enraged because his son cannot marry Simran. So he hires a killer to kill Surya, who eventually turns out to be nothing more than a crude comedy on the viewers. The film is liberally peppered with Double Meaning dialogues and other commonalities. But one thing, still I'm unable to believe that this film fetched Rs.1 Crore in the first week. Amazing are our Tamil Audience. One song with Nithya Sree- Did anyone told me music was A.R.Rehman?. Sorry................She hasn't sung... She had just shouted. Sorry Nithya...... This mortal expects much from you.....Cant take this.......
Surya......I understand u need to make a successful film. Yes you would have made it but I'm Dead....Self Condolences.

In Class..... 

This happened in our class today. We had the Strategic Management class today, and the Prof is a very respected guy with Mc Kinsey background. He is very respected by all of us. Yesterday, he brought the issue of "Rationality" and "Creativity" in Management Problem Solving and I got an impression that people are insisting too much on Creativity concept that they take irrational decision. So, the discussion turned a bit more heavy and then he took  the topic of Sensing and Understanding to explain the difference between rationality and Creativity. He told whereas Sensing is more towards Creative Thinking whereas Understanding is more like Rationality, for which I replied " All that Sensed need not necessarily have been understood whereas all that is Understood must have been Sensed". What I meant was that though u can separate Creative Thinking from Rationality, you cannot separate Rational Thinking from Creativity. Thus, when I tell one as "Rational", it means he would take all factors to consideration- which means he must be Creative in first place to think of all possible solutions and then arrive at a conclusion. I agree that this is always not possible, but at the end, atleast for academic purposes you have to differentiate these two approaches - the class finished without conclusion. Further discussion expected.

Subroto Bagchi - COO, Mind Tree 

I got this touching and thought provoking piece today. Thought I should share it with you.

Address by Subroto Bagchi, Chief Operating Officer, MindTree Consulting to the Class of 2006 at the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore on defining success. July 2nd 2004

I was the last child of a small-time government servant, in a family of five brothers. My earliest memory of my father is as that of a District Employment Officer in Koraput, Orissa. It was and remains as back of beyond as you can imagine. There was no electricity; no primary school nearby and water did not flow out of a tap. As a result, I did not go to school until the age of eight; I was home-schooled. My father used to get transferred every year. The family belongings fit into the back of a jeep - so the family moved from place to place and, without any trouble, my Mother would set up an establishment and get us going. Raised by a widow who had come as a refugee from the then East Bengal, she was a matriculate when she married my Father. My parents set the foundation of my life and the value system which makes me what I am today and largely defines what success means to me today.

As District Employment Officer, my father was given a jeep by the government. There was no garage in the Office, so the jeep was parked in our house. My father refused to use it to commute to the office. He told us that the jeep is an expensive resource given by the government - he reiterated to us that it was not 'his jeep' but the government's jeep. Insisting that he would use it only to tour the interiors, he would walk to his office on normal days. He also made sure that we never sat in the government jeep - we could sit in it only when it was stationary. That was our early childhood lesson in governance - a lesson that corporate managers learn the hard way, some never do.

The driver of the jeep was treated with respect due to any other member of my Father's office. As small children, we were taught not to call him by his name. We had to use the suffix 'dada' whenever we were to refer to him in public or private. When I grew up to own a car and a driver by the name of Raju was appointed - I repeated the lesson to my two small daughters. They have, as a result, grown up to call Raju, 'Raju Uncle' - very different from many of their friends who refer to their family drivers as 'my driver'. When I hear that term from a school- or college-going person, I cringe. To me, the lesson was significant - you treat small people with more respect than how you treat big people. It is more important to respect your subordinates than your superiors.

Our day used to start with the family huddling around my Mother's chulha - an earthen fire place she would build at each place of posting where she would cook for the family. There was no gas, nor electrical stoves. The morning routine started with tea. As the brew was served, Father would ask us to read aloud the editorial page of The Statesman's 'muffosil' edition - delivered one day late. We did not understand much of what we were reading. But the ritual was meant for us to know that the world was larger than Koraput district and the English I speak today, despite having studied in an Oriya medium school, has to do with that routine. After reading the newspaper aloud, we were told to fold it neatly. Father taught us a simplelesson. He used to say, "You should leave your newspaper and your toilet, the way you expect to find it". That lesson was about showing consideration to others. Business begins and ends with that simple precept.

Being small children, we were always enamored with advertisements in the newspaper for transistor radios - we did not have one. We saw other people having radios in their homes and each time there was an advertisement of Philips, Murphy or Bush radios, we would ask Father when we could get one. Each time, my Father would reply that we did not need one because he already had five radios - alluding to his five sons. We also did not have a house of our own and would occasionally ask Father as to when, like others, we would live in our own house. He would give a similar reply, "We do not need a house of our own. I already own five houses". His replies did not gladden our hearts in that instant. Nonetheless, we learnt that it is important not to measure personal success and sense of well being through material possessions.

Government houses seldom came with fences. Mother and I collected twigs and built a small fence. After lunch, my Mother would never sleep. She would take her kitchen utensils and with those she and I would dig the rocky, white ant infested surrounding. We planted flowering bushes. The white ants destroyed them. My mother brought ash from her chulha and mixed it in the earth and we planted the seedlings all over again. This time, they bloomed. At that time, my father's transfer order came. A few neighbors told my mother why she was taking so much pain to beautify a government house, why she was planting seeds that would only benefit the next occupant. My mother replied that it did not matter to her that she would not see the flowers in full bloom. She said, "I have to create a bloom in a desert and whenever I am given a new place, I must leave it more beautiful than what I had inherited". That was my first lesson in success. It is not about what you create for yourself, it is what you leave behind that defines success.

My mother began developing a cataract in her eyes when I was very small. At that time, the eldest among my brothers got a teaching job at the University in Bhubaneswar and had to prepare for the civil services examination. So, it was decided that my Mother would move to cook for him and, as her appendage, I had to move too. For the first time in my life, I saw electricity in homes and water coming out of a tap. It was around 1965 and the country was going to war with Pakistan. My mother was having problems reading and in any case, being Bengali, she did not know the Oriya script. So, in addition to my daily chores, my job was to read her the local newspaper - end to end. That created in me a sense of connectedness with a larger world. I began taking interest in many different things. While reading out news about the war, I felt that I was fighting the war myself. She and I discussed the daily news and built a bond with the larger universe. In it, we became part of a larger reality. Till date, I measure my success in terms of that sense of larger connectedness.

Meanwhile, the war raged and India was fighting on both fronts. Lal Bahadur Shastri, the then Prime Minster, coined the term "Jai Jawan, Jai Kishan" and galvanized the nation in to patriotic fervor. Other than reading out the newspaper to my mother, I had no clue about how I could be part of the action. So, after reading her the newspaper, every day I would land up near the University's water tank, which served the community. I would spend hours under it, imagining that there could be spies who would come to poison the water and I had to watch for them. I would daydream about catching one and how the next day, I would be featured in the newspaper. Unfortunately for me, the spies at war ignored the sleepy town of Bhubaneswar and I never got a chance to catch one in action. Yet, that act unlocked my imagination. Imagination is everything. If we can imagine a future, we can create it, if we can create that future, others will live in it. That is the essence of success.

Over the next few years, my mother's eyesight dimmed but in me she created a larger vision, a vision with which I continue to see the world and, I sense, through my eyes, she was seeing too. As the next few years unfolded, her vision deteriorated and she was operated for cataract. I remember, when she returned after her operation and she saw my face clearly for the first time, she was astonished. She said, "Oh my God, I did not know you were so fair". I remain mighty pleased with that adulation even till date. Within weeks of getting her sight back, she developed a corneal ulcer and, overnight, became blind in both eyes. That was 1969. She died in 2002. In all those 32 years of living with blindness, she never complained about her fate even once. Curious to know what she saw with blind eyes, I asked her once if she sees darkness. She replied, "No, I do not see darkness. I only see light even with my eyes closed". Until she was eighty years of age, she did her morning yoga everyday, swept her own room and washed her own clothes. To me, success is about the sense of independence; it is about not seeing the world but seeing the light. Over the many intervening years, I grew up, studied, joined the industry and began to carve my life's own journey. I began my life as a clerk in a government office, went on to become a Management Trainee with the DCM group and eventually found my life's calling with the IT industry when fourth generation computers came to India in 1981. Life took me places - I worked with outstanding people, challenging assignments and traveled all over the world. In 1992, while I was posted in the US, I learnt that my father, living a retired life with my eldest brother, had suffered a third degree burn injury and was admitted in the Safderjung Hospital in Delhi. I flew back to attend to him - he remained for a few days in critical stage, bandaged from neck to toe. The Safderjung Hospital is a cockroach infested, dirty, inhuman place. The overworked, under-resourced sisters in the burn ward are both victims and perpetrators of dehumanized life at its worst. One morning, while attending to my Father, I realized that the blood bottle was empty and fearing that air would go into his vein, I asked the attending nurse to change it. She bluntly told me to do it myself. In that horrible theater of death, I was in pain and frustration and anger. Finally when she relented and came, my Father opened his eyes and murmured to her, "Why have you not gone home yet?" Here was a man on his deathbed but more concerned about the overworked nurse than his own state. I was stunned at his stoic self. There I learnt that there is no limit to how concerned you can be for another human being and what is the limit of inclusion you can create. My father died the next day.

He was a man whose success was defined by his principles, his frugality, his universalism and his sense of inclusion. Above all, he taught me that success is your ability to rise above your discomfort, whatever may be your current state. You can, if you want, raise your consciousness above your immediate surroundings. Success is not about building material comforts - the transistor that he never could buy or the house that he never owned. His success was about the legacy he left, the memetic continuity of his ideals that grew beyond the smallness of a ill-paid, unrecognized government servant's world.

My father was a fervent believer in the British Raj. He sincerely doubted the capability of the post-independence Indian political parties to govern the country. To him, the lowering of the Union Jack was a sad event. My Mother was the exact opposite. When Subhash Bose quit the Indian National Congress and came to Dacca, my mother, then a schoolgirl, garlanded him. She learnt to spin khadi and joined an underground movement that trained her in using daggers and swords. Consequently, our household saw diversity in the political outlook of the two. On major issues concerning the world, the Old Man and the Old Lady had differing opinions. In them, we learnt the power of disagreements, of dialogue and the essence of living with diversity in thinking. Success is not about the ability to create a definitive dogmatic end state; it is about the unfolding of thought processes, of dialogue and continuum.

Two years back, at the age of eighty-two, Mother had a paralytic stroke and was lying in a government hospital in Bhubaneswar. I flew down from the US where I was serving my second stint, to see her. I spent two weeks with her in the hospital as she remained in a paralytic state. She was neither getting better nor moving on. Eventually I had to return to work. While leaving her behind, I kissed her face. In that paralytic state and a garbled voice, she said, "Why are you kissing me, go kiss the world." Her river was nearing its journey, at the confluence of life and death, this woman who came to India as a refugee, raised by a widowed Mother, no more educated than high school, married to an anonymous government servant whose last salary was Rupees Three Hundred, robbed of her eyesight by fate and crowned by adversity - was telling me to go and kiss the world!

Success to me is about Vision. It is the ability to rise above the immediacy of pain. It is about imagination. It is about sensitivity to small people. It is about building inclusion. It is about connectedness to a larger world existence. It is about personal tenacity. It is about giving back more to life than you take out of it. It is about creating extra-ordinary success with ordinary lives.
Thank you very much; I wish you good luck and Godspeed. Go, kiss the world.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Friday, July 16, 2004

75 children killed in school fire in Kumbakonam 

My heart goes out for these children. It seems that the fire had spread from the kitchen to the nearby class rooms. The teacher had told the children to stay inside the class and they have obeyed. Eventually they paid the price for obediance. Iam saddened. Let the children's soul rest in peace. God take them in your lap.

Thursday, July 15, 2004

Breathing Space Atlast!! 

Actually Iam not free these days. Maybe God heard me on a Sunday!!. He had made me sweat it out now. Presentations, Presentations and more Presentations. Either u make one or u listen to one. It is the real pathetic moment in ur life- u know. Sitting in the first row first seat and sleeping isnt that fun?. If this isnt Fun, what else is?. As the prof goes on to the back end of the hall, all we first row people get a great oppurtunity to sleep. Had been making 3 presentaions and sat at atleast 3 of others. How Boring!. Here we have a peculiar practice of having all students sit through the Summer Project Presentation irrespective of whether he is interested or not. Let alone Acads, we have the Presentations of other Committees and Forums in TAPMI. We specifically have this BRANDSCANandAtharva . Brandscan is the largest MR fest in India involving a B-School and Atharva is a cultural intercollegiate fest. I am in the Event Management Committe for Brandscan. We work as a team of 3 seniors and 3 juniors. So we need to make a presentation for that. Senior memebers are elected whereas Juniors would be selected. Just Yesterday finisihed off with that work. Got some breathing space today. Will continue with blogging from now on.

The words of wisdom from Steven Wright 

These are words of Steven Wright. Got really thought provoking thngs at times. Just to know them, feels nice

If you're not familiar with the work of Steven Wright, he's the guy who once said:

I woke up one morning and all of my stuff had been stolen. and replaced by exact duplicates. " Here are some more of his gems:

1. I'd kill for a Nobel Peace Prize.

2. Borrow money from pessimists - they don't expect it back.

3. Half the people you know are below average.

4. 99% of lawyers give the rest a bad name.

5. 42.7% of all statistics are made up on the spot.

6. A conscience is what hurts when all your other parts feel so good.

7. A clear conscience is usually the sign of a bad memory.

8. If you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain.

9. All those who believe in psychokinesis, raise my hand.

10. The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese. (Think about it some more.)

11. I almost had a psychic girlfriend but she left me before we met.

12. OK, so what's the speed of dark? - How do you tell when you're out of invisible ink?

13. If everything seems to be going well, you have obviously overlooked something.

14. Depression is merely anger without enthusiasm.

15. When everything is coming your way, you're in the wrong lane.

16. Ambition is a poor excuse for not having enough sense to be lazy.

17. Hard work pays off in the future, laziness pays off now.

18. I intend to live forever - so far, so good.

19. Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.

20. What happens if you get scared half to death twice?

21. My mechanic told me, "I couldn't repair your brakes, so I made your horn louder. "

22. Why do psychics have to ask you for your name?

23. If at first you don't succeed, destroy all evidence that you tried.

24. A conclusion is the place where you got tired of thinking.

25. Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.

26. The hardness of the butter is proportional to the softness of the bread.

27. To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism, to steal from many is Research.

28. The problem with the gene pool is that there is no lifeguard.

29. The sooner you fall behind, the more time you'll have to catch up.

30. The colder the x-ray table, the more of your body is required to be on it.

31. Everyone has a photographic memory, some just don't have film.

32. You can't have everything...where would you put it

Monday, July 12, 2004

Does Life really Suck? 

I have been asking this question all Sunday. I have started disliking or being indifferent to Sundays. Invariably Sundays tie up me without any work and that is one thing I hate the most. Idealing away time without any work. There has to be something to do n the entire Sunday went off just with starring at the monitor not knowing what to do. Atleast weekdays are sympathetic. They atleast give u something to work on and make ur life a bit more funfull.
Didn't do any damn thing this Sunday. Today again has been a tight day what with three hours of continuous lectures and then loads of assignments to submit tomorrow.I haven't finished an assignment yet and I just found sometime to scribble something. I had taken a conscious decision of not blogging for atleast two days. I think I cannot live with that. Here I'm blogging my way to happiness(momentary ofcourse)
Also went for a dinner with all the juniors. Got our freshers party next Sunday. Hope atleast next Sunday would give me some work.

Saturday, July 10, 2004

Democracy- Boon or Bane to India??? 

I think of the system that is in place in India- Political System. Has Parliamentary Democracy failed in India. What happened was that, I had quite a bit of talk with our Professor.Sekhar. He takes Business Ethics for us and we were struck at the point of the system in India. Then, we discussed about the setup of "Democracy" in India. Sure I am unable to think of anyother model of Governance(may b because i have lived with it for so long, may be i cannot think out of the box). The only idea that would work in India is Democracy. But surely Democracy as a system has failed India - that too miserably. What have we acheived in fifty years of work- may be some IIT's which were more of a pampered lot of higher education, than the more important aspect of primary education. Had we had worked properly, we would have been atleast decently literate, not the absymmal level of 50% as we are at now. The Software boom has worked not because of any systematic interventions or policies of the governement, but because, of the need for a cheaper source for the multi national business. In my opinion, the democracy system as practiced in India has not delivered what was expected of it. Sure, there had indeed been certain things that were taken for granted in India like freedom of thought and expression, but what have we acheived by them?. The freedom of expression has given us freedom to express but has it given any chance to change what is wrong?. No, the system has seen to it that, though there are laws, nothing can be effected. Democracy as a system needs a high level of participation from the people, but had we given it to them? Why has it not happened in India?.Are we as people to be blamed for this state? Are we Indian's been practicing this Democracy well before the concept took shape with its current name in the west? There are many referrences in earlier Tamil Literature about the way the adminisatrator is elected in villages of the "Sangham" period. Then when did we slid down the path?. Why do we behave like people who doesnt know that to claim a right, the corresponding Duty has to be performed? How many of us complained about an erring Policeman to his seniors?Can we then complain about corruption?
Democracy has lead to India being seen as a soft state, uncapable of standing on its feet when hit. This was proved to a point when even at a commanding position, we gave back all the POW's after the Bangladesh war. We were the one to take the Kashmir case to UN. Had it been under military rule or under the rule of a person with a bit of realism, would have we been spared the humiliation, that we undergo now-a- days at every conceivable grouping. In the name of Democarcy, we stiffle with the Genuinely good projects- how long had it been that we came across a good project as Golden Quadrilateral, nou with this Govt in power, why arent we hearing anything about it now-a-days? Has not for Democracy would have we been able to acheive this much before. 50 years is far too long to prove urself.

Friday, July 09, 2004

How Bosses view Men & Women @ Work ! 

Male Chauvanism from a free female prespective- an email forward I got recently.
Nice reading though- but are they true by any chance?

How the company views its employees. (HE VS SHE) (and belive me ....MOST of them are true! Arent they ? )

1. The family picture is on HIS desk.
Ah, a solid, responsible family man.
The family picture is on HER desk.
Umm, her family will come before her career.

2. HIS desk is cluttered.
He's obviously a hard worker and a busy man.
HER desk is cluttered.
She's obviously a disorganised scatterbrain

3. HE is talking with his co-workers.
He must be discussing the latest deal
SHE is talking with her co-workers.
She must be gossiping.

4. HE's not at his desk. > > > > He must be at a meeting.
SHE's not at her desk. > > > > She must be in the ladies' room.

5. HE's not in the office. > > > > He's meeting with customers.
SHE's not in the office. > > > > She must be out shopping.

6. HE's having lunch with the boss. > > > > He's on his way up.
SHE's having lunch with the boss. > > > > They must be having an affair.

7. The boss criticised HIM.
He'll improve his performance.
The boss criticised HER.
She'll be very upset.

8. HE got an unfair deal.
Did he get angry?
SHE got an unfair deal.
Did she cry?

9. HE's getting married. > > > > He'll get more settled.
SHE's getting married. > > > > She'll get pregnant and leave.

10. HE's having a baby. > > > > He'll need a raise.
SHE's having a baby. > > > > She'll cost the company money in maternity
benefits.

11. HE's going on a business trip.
It's good for his career.
SHE's going on a business trip.
What does her husband say?

12. HE's leaving for a better job.
He knows how to recognise a good opportunity.
SHE's leaving for a better job.
Women are not dependable.

Escape!!!! 

I was really worried about going there without book and with some nasty clothes(remember i was in my night clothes and all other guys have left except the HR ones and their dresses wont fit me even in my wildest dreams). Then thankfully, Chocka came and he is one among us "Tamilzhan". Got a pair of trousers from him and went to the institute.Then came the ultimate shock instead of having the lecture in a normal class room, our lecture had been shifted to a sort of informal chatting room, where the chairs would be arranged in a open space and everyone sits in a circle,so that all can be seen head to toe. I was terrified- what with the nasty clothes and the bathroom slippers I was wearing. Our Director is particular about Dress codes atleast to his class rooms and i really got worried.
Great escape really. Diro wasnt asking for any book.Moreover, he didnt even speak about my attire.Thank god and ofcourse Chocx. But for both of u- GOK

Iam (out) House-Arrest!! 

Ya, My roomie has locked the room and gone to the class with the keys. I didnt have the keys with me and I am still in my night dress roaming about the corridors of our Hostel. I have Diro's class now, and If iam not going its gonna be bad to say the least. My roomie has got the keys but he will b having class till 11.30. My class starts at 11.50. I havent done anything yet. I have jus woken up and I came out to the CC, when this guy has locked the room and gone.Man i gonna s**** him for this. Infact I know that the room is locked only now, whereas he would have gone to the class way back at 10.00. I have just now messaged him to come to the hostel immediately, without freaking out anywhere. God I dont wanna even bath just get my books out-else I will be F***** today.

Thursday, July 08, 2004

My 100th Post 

My 100th Post has gone without my notice. Only when I accidently went to my profile page did I realize that the one i posted last was my 100th post.It is good that my 100th post was on Sharapova. Amazing girl she is- such a cute face....God..Bless her..For her wonderful talent. At 17 she is a world champion, and she makes me a bit jealous of her and I can't hide it. Let she be the numero uno for some time. It was getting boring to see the sisters playing a friendly match all the way along.

What is Love? 

What is love?
This question has been through my mind for quite some years. I haven't felt "In Love" any time b4. May be the closest I came to that was when I was in Engineering college.There used to be a girl from Cochin who studied in the same college as mine, but in different department. I used to kinda like her- the way she conducts herself, her mannerisms, her charm, her any other thing... Wait here. I'm not gonna describe her here. I am just trying to find what I liked in her that I thought I love her. Still I am unable to tell the exact reason. This is what intrigues me.
Is it just the "Feminist Part" in her or her mannerisms or her any other thing.Then does that mean that I liked only the attributes, and not Her. Is it?. How can I separate attributes from personality?. Then is Love just a matter of fact statement or is it more towards the Poetic side. Is it mere attraction towards another or is it like what Kamban n Tagore would like us to believe? Love is Divine - is then what people call here not Love- coz I haven't seen any Divinity in their relationships. Now I don't even recall that Girl's face.What made me think that I love that girl in the first place. Why not any other girl? If is it beauty alone then I am very sure that there were other girls who were more beautifull than she was. Is it pure chemistry that some chemical played its part when I saw her and at other times that chemical was hibernating? If it was a function of some nerve cells in the brain , then are those nerve cells now dead?. The term Love itself is a bit fuzzy I think. I donno what to call it. May be I'm bit confused now as to the etymological meaning of the word "LOVE". Or is it that I should not relate the meaning of the word to practice? The meaning has to be seperated from Practice-
Means "Love" is Management
Yahoooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!. I have got it ;-)

Wednesday, July 07, 2004

What is Education in India? 

What is education in India?- Is Indian education overly systematized? Had the “education” process in India stuck in its colonial mindset? In the early times Indians didn’t get a compartmentalized education, like Mathematics, Science, Social Science etc., the education that the children of current age receive or of course what we received is a highly differentiated education. It’s a third degree differential with no scope for a holistic picture. An adolescent in the 12th standard would know what is integration and differentiation, but does he know to apply this in other day to day life?. For ex. Can he relate that what his mother does daily by cooking is a fine art of integration and the digestion part is a differential of Nth order? Does the present education let him appreciate our own innate “Indianess”, in that we try seeing the holistic picture (Of course without worrying about the basics)? The earlier gurukul system made this easy because he was not given education in broken down structures like Maths, Physics, chemistry etc. When a principle of mathematics is used in physics, will I be able to relate the two and understand the interrelation between streams?. This system produced some of the best known minds of India. But what has happened now?. As the former President Mr.RadhaKrishnan said, India hasn’t contributed to the world in terms of Ideas for the past 400 years. I don’t know whether the gurukul provided Comprehensive education. But am sure, such an education would make us more competitive. When Indians are still groping in the medieval Victorian education system, the western education has come a full circle to begin with Chaos theory and Fractal Geometry and the entire face of western education is undergoing change.

This post comes as an after thought of Drucker’s “Post-Capitalistic Society” in which he argues that “Applying Knowledge to knowledge “ would be the next best thing. The book was written in 1993 and it has been 11 years and it still holds good. If the earlier years were characterized by the “Knowledge Ignorance” or “Applying Knowledge to work”, this new age would be “Applying Knowledge to knowledge”. Can India afford to loose this and remain for ever as “Cyber Coolie”


Tuesday, July 06, 2004

What a day! 

Yesterday was a great day in itself. Besides the smooth Summer's Presentation, it was also a day for meeting all the "Tamil Junies".There are somewhere about 15 guys/gals in the batch 2006 from tamilnadu. Good batch. Then we proceeded for a movie - Drive. Pathetic to the core. Nothing short of a Vijayakant movie. The story is nothing but a guy driving some vehicle and running for his life till he kills his tormentors. The guy is fitted with a Biological Enhancer( Now i need an Einstein to explain me that). So his tormentors wont kill him. They would like top have him alive for some F***** reason. The reason is never told. They also have a "Boss" who like the Raghuvaran of "Badsha" kills the guy who brings bad news. He also has a trump card to tackle the hero- another Biological Enhancer guy, whose heart functions and strength levels can be controlled sittng in front of a monitor and pressing some keys. Then our hero kills the other guy in a sensational action filled thriller (supposed to be a comedy too with the Goondas sent by the villian performing all sorts of stunt comedies that our own people do).Atrocious movie.

Sunday, July 04, 2004

Greece Wins!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Greece Wins!. I get 100 bucks. This was a bet with one of my friends. Today morning when we were in the summit meeting about the "Loga-Ishaemam", we got into a dual as to who will win the match today. Invariably the match was loaded( Atleast I thought so) in favour of Portugal. So, I bet him that Greece would win (True to the name of the blog). Out of over-confidence, he bet me a 200/100 deal for Greece win and a 100 win on portugal win. Nou, Midnight masala-100 Bucks. Viola!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Greece near win!!!!!!!!! 

Greece has got one goal at the 57th Minute. Portugal's fate has been sealed by Charisteas.
The striker beats his marker, Costinha, and the Portuguese goalkeeper to the ball to power his header home from the corner.- the description of the goal. Ronaldo and Ricardo fail to deliver. Unable to see the match because of preparation for presentatoin but when the net is near nothing is far. This is big dilemma in getting used to internet. When u dont get it 24 hrs, u get to feel boring and disgusted. The lure of net is great for me and even the cheapest ISP will have a good business with me

Today had been a great day. We had the induction for our junior batch( I hate to call them Junior but the other option was Batch-2006) i think this is better. It seems with time the batch gets better. The next batch is a bunch of talented guys with lotz of enthu!!. We had a great evening with both of the batches putting up a music show and man that was fun and exciting.
Tomorrow I think will be my Judgement day. We have a quiz on Brand Management, Assignment on Organisational Psychology, My Summer Presentation and a presentation on Strategic Management. God I donno how am i gonna manage this. But on second thought we have been doing this for the past full year and this should not worry us.Jus another day in the ocean of life(Philosophical a bit isn't it).
Gotta know India has tested the Agni Missile. When it comes to country I think iam a fundamentalist.I want India to be Great (this implies Peace loving with an arrow in hand). The image of India being a soft state unable to tackle the menace of violence and the one who went to UN for issues that should have been settled by force haunts me much. I still dont think what Nehru did was wrong, and what Indira Gandhi did was Stupidity. WE are paying the price for it. God change this mindset

One More test-funny! 

Got into some site from some other blog. This is what i got. Funny isnt it?. Have added that to the side bar also.
Hello, Wizard.

Character Stats:

Rogue (2)
Warrior (17)
Wizard (21)
Paladin (6)


Your Profile:

You're intelligent, educated, and just a bit superior to everyone you know. If you're still in school, you probably make A's, if you're not too bored to waste the effort. If you work, your annoying boss relies on you to solve the problems no one else can figure out. You've never met a puzzle you can't solve. When it comes to leisure, you'd rather read, play a strategy game, or surf the 'Net than run around getting sweaty. You're a brainiac, and you're not ashamed to admit it.

Above all, you're a mastermind and a great thinker. You see the unknown as territory to be conquered, and the mysterious as something to be systematically unraveled. You don't have time for fools; you only spend your time with people who can comprehend your obfuscatory convolutions. You enjoy amassing knowledge, both useful and trivial.

Your Mission:

You were put on this earth to enlighten people. They will listen to you, because they are impressed by your vocabulary, your erudition, and your ability to grasp concepts that invariably elude them. You are the one who has to figure things out, because let's face it - you're the only one smart enough.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to Discover Something. Something small, or something big. Find an unknown insect in your own backyard. Discover a cure for sunburn. Develop a faster way to get the dishes done. Calculate the number of molecules in the Andromeda galaxy. Discover a comet. Discover SOMETHING.

And do make it a priority. The Famous Adventurer of Silmaria has a crystal ball trained on you, and will be noting your progress.

A Warning:

Try to remember: you're not infallible. If people around you are all nodding and smiling, it may just be because they don't have the faintest idea what you're talking about. Check your facts and admit the possibility that even you can make mistakes. Loosen up. Make friends with a Rogue and have him or her try to poke holes in your theories. Who knows; you might actually have fun.

On another note - making plans and formulating theories can be quite stimulating, but at some point, you are going to have to actually DO something. Employ a Warrior, if necessary, to put your brilliant schemes into action. Just be sure your instruction manual is written in very small words.

What Next:
Don't know a Rogue or a Warrior? Maybe you do, but just don't yet know how to properly classify them. To discover the heroic archetypes of all your colleagues, display the following on your web site to arouse their curiosity:


More on Drucker 

Was reading the book"Post-Capitalist Society" by Drucker. Iam really surpirsed how I have been taking alll those political things availbale for granted.The concept of nation state as we now know was first mooted by a french thnker Jean Bodin in his book Six Laviers de la Republique in 1576. To understand the purpose of the book we need to look at the condition of Europe at that time. Then Spain was in its peak and it was the only country to have a standing army and support a cavalry. But then the empire began to fall and French empire started it's ascent.Then came the idea of Nation State as we know it today with a centralised administration,central law, Central Judiciary, Centralised Tax collection and building up of the Notion of a Nation. The times should have seen a sea change as there were only individuals and their armies and nothing like a state. The "State" wasnt known at that time. Looking ourselves now I feel we are pretty gifted in that we have some system in place. I also feel that, we cannot think those systems that were in place that time are anything "Bad". Because in the great saga of Time nothing stays constant and the only thing that remains unchanged is "Change".May be even this system that we practice today "Democracy" may be replaced by a even better system-Who knows?. But I am an ordinary human and cannot think of a better system than "Democracy". I know "Democracy" has nothing to do with "Nation State" but the Polity that is in place today in many nations is this and it is to its credit that this world is what it is.
However, I agree with Drucker in his view that "Nation State" is slowly giving place to yet another system of "Regional" or "Continental" groupings. The EU is the greatest example of all. The mere fact that French and German can come together to form a union is in itself a remainder to the direction in which the world is moving.
But I dont agree with Drucker in his view that "Post-Capitalist Society" has to form from the Developed Nations only, because Capitalist Society came from it. Not necessarily. If that is the case then the Industrial Revolution that replaced Manual work should have started in the Present Day Third World Countries because Manual Work- Meaning any settled Work started in the present day Third World countries like China , West Asia (Iraq etc) and India.
However, couldnt hide a feeling of disappointment when drucker says" Nehru's India Failed" in Socialist Experiment. When he speaks of Third World Countries(Developing) there is mentioning about China, Brazil, Argentina but no INDIA- disappointing :(

Saturday, July 03, 2004

Formula 1 facts - pretty amazing 

Got to know certain interesting facts about F1 racing. Thought to share with everyone.
An F1 car is made up of 80,000 components, if it were assembled 99.9% correctly, it would still start the race with 80 things wrong!
Formula 1 cars have over a kilometre of cable, linked to about 100 sensors and actuators which monitor and control many parts of the car.
An F1 car can go from 0 to 160 kph AND back to 0 in FOUR seconds F1 car engines last only for about 2 hours of racing mostly before blowing up on the other hand we expect our engines to last us for a
decent 20yrs on average and they quite faithfully DO....thats the extent to which the engines r pushed to perform...
When an F1 driver hits the brakes on his car he experiences retardation or deceleration comparable to a regular car driving through a BRICK wall at 300kmph !!!
An average F1 driver looses about 4kgs of weight after just one race due to the prolonged exposure to high G forces and temperatures for little over an hour (Yeah thats right!!!)
At 550kg a F1 car is less than half the weight of a Mini.
In an F1 car the engine typically revs upto 18000 rpm, (the piston travelling up and down 300 times a second) wheres cars like the palio,maruti 800,indica rev upto 6000 rpm at max. Thats 3 times
slower....
The brake discs in an F1 car have an operating temperature of approx 1000 degees Centigrade and they attain that temp while braking before almost every turn...that is why they r not made of steel but of carbon fibre which is much more harder and resistant to wear and tear and most of all has a higher melting point....
If a water hose were to blow off, the complete cooling system would empty in just over a second.
Gear cogs or ratios are used only for one race, and are replaced regularly to prevent failure, as they are subjected to very high degrees of stress.
The fit in the cockpit is so tight that the steering wheel must be removed for the driver to get in or out of the car. A small latch behind the wheel releases it from the column. Levers or paddles for changing gear are located on the back of the wheel. So no gearstick! The clutch levers are also on the steering wheel, located below the gear paddles.
To give you an idea of just how important aerodynamic design and added downforce can be, small planes can take off at slower speeds than F1 cars travel on the track.
Without aerodynamic downforce, high-performance racing cars have sufficient power to produce wheel spin and loss of control at 160 kph. They usually race at over 300 kph.
The amount of aerodynamic downforce produced by the front and rear wings and the car underbody is amazing. Once the car is travelling over 160 kph, an F1 car can generate enough downforce to equal it's
own weight. That means it could actually hold itself to the CEILING of a tunnel and drive UPSIDE down!
In a street course race like the monaco grand prix, the downforce provides enough suction to lift manhole covers. Before the race all of the manhole covers on the streets have to be welded down to prevent this from happening!
The refuelers used in F1 can supply 12 litres of fuel per second. This means it would take just 4 seconds to fill the tank of an average 50 litre family car.They use the same refueling rigs used on US military helicopters today.
TOP F1 pit crews can refuel and change tyres in around 3 seconds. Race car tyres don't have air in them like normal car tyres. Most racing tyres have nitrogen in the tyres because nitrogen has a more consistent pressure compared to normal air. Air typically contains varying amounts of water vapour in it, which affects its expansion and contraction as a function of temperature, making the tyre pressure unpredictable.
During the race the tyres lose weight! Each tyre loses about 0.5 kg in weight due to wear. Normal tyres last 60 000 - 100 000 km. Racing tyres are designed to last 90 - 120 km (That's Khandala and back).
A dry-weather F1 tyre reaches peak operating performance (best grip) when tread temperature is between 90C and 120C.(Water boils boils at 100C remember) At top speed, F1 tyres rotate 50 times a second.
Believe me this is no bull shit some of it is hard to believe i know but that just shows why the sport (and F1 in particular not F3 or any other crap) is so big and most importantly how much MONEY goes into it


Friday, July 02, 2004

Iam disgusted!!!! 

The changes I made in the blog also include the Matrix Form Header but I donno whats the reason, that which comes so beautifully in the preview isnt seen in the page. The Preview version of the page displays the Matrix version of the header but the end page gives a sorry picture of the heading- compare it with the situation where a guy expecting a mercedes gets an ambassador. Plz dont encourage me telling Ambassador is more suited for Indian roads.

3rd in row 

We got our first year rank list today. 37th rank - sort of improvement from 52nd in first term to 58 in second term to 33 in third term and finally 37 for the first year. To celebrate it another film tonight and it just got over. Arul- starring Vikram and Jogthika. But spoilt the mood. As i was in mumbai for my summers i wasnt able to c this movie then and after coming to chennai also i didnt get a chance to watch this film. I only regret to watching it now. Such a pathetic movie it is- made a sankalp of not seeing any of such movies- but till u really watch one, how can u say it is one such or not. Checked the blogger site. Made some stunning changes in the page. But theyrnt loading on to the page. Made a matrix style header, changed the title to "Balanced Insanity"-thought that would describe me more closely. Chose an Oxymoron to remind me that there would always be two sides of a coin co-existing and that anything should have contradictions. As in Miltons Words:
"Where there is much desire to learn, there of necessity will be much arguing, much writing, many opinions; for opinion in good men is but knowledge in the making." John Milton (1608-1674).
I also thought of opening a new column on kural so that it would remind me of the richness of tamil but then i need to get the feed from somewhere. It might take some time. Let me see.
The worst part of today is that we got our dates for Summer Project Presentation and mine is on Monday. On oneside it is happier that i would finish off that earlier and rest but the down side is that i dont have enough time to prepare for it.
Even now we are preparing that side by side and in the other window iam posting this blog. Got Kaats's mail. Even nou, I couldnt understand what he meant. Let me change the Bg of the popup menu to a more darker colour.Thanx Kaats for the suggestion.

Thursday, July 01, 2004
One more film today(just now) -"The Terminal". The movie starts off as a true Stephen Speilberg's flick with the opening shot showing a busy airport terminal and the chaos there. Then comes the story- the stroy of a man getting stranded in the airport because of a sudden war in his country and subsequent derecognition of his country by the US of A. So now he is a citizen of a country whose presence the Govt doesnt recognise. The airport authorities doesnt know what to do. So, they give him some basic aid and let him stay in the airport only as it doent require a passport or a visa. They also take his passport to prevent him from leaving America, and the remaining part is a classic remainder of our own "NalaDhamayanthi" starring Kamalhassan. I dont know who copied from whom but my Sittrarivukku ettiyavarrai, "NalaDhamayanthi" should have been a copy just for a simple reason that our guys have access to those films but they doesnt have it with ours.

This is my second post through Email. The last post was done through the mail and it was amazing. When I think of the technology that had made these things possible, it makes me wonder at the genius of Men. He had been able to control nature, some time even conquer it( Though this may face some criticism). He had been able to change the entire world according to his wish. But the downside of it had been the problems that the modern man faces in terms of various ailments and other natural calamities.
However, the power of thought can never be questioned. As Victor Hugo's words " Nothing can stop an idea whose time has come" suggest, the world is gonna be a great place to live.( It had been and it still is). Also tried some changes in the page. Had been trying to get that popup menu over links for a long time. Now I got it from a web site. Nice stuff. Made the necessary changes and had put that thing in the page.But had to slog a lot because of some network problems- it didnt get saved for 3 times and I had to repeat the same coding for 4 times. How boring?.
Continuing with the "Post Capitalistic Society"- had to come across such controversial wordings yet. I will post them as and when I get to see them.
Yesterday had a great chat with my roomie(Avis- If u can get the meaning of the name- surprise prizes awaits u). He has a girl frnd and they are going steady. So our talk started from being conservative and just went on towards my opinion towards love.As a previous posts would suggest, Tamilians are seldom seen with girl frnds. This had always been a heart burn for me( True Feeling). But had to accept the fate. Then the talk slowly turned towards our would be life partners. I couldnt imagine ( r may be I didnt want to expose them) that way but the way he had been telling rather defining beauty, it seems southerners have to learn a lot in this. For me Beauty had always been a "kumkum" clad face with long hair and a cute face. I dont knou whether I need to increase the number of attributes in my definition of beauty.


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:: Adam Smith's Controlled Greed ::



Swarnasrikrishnan/Male/28. Lives in India/Tamilnadu/Chennai, speaks Tamil, English, 

Malayalam, German, Hindi(??). Eye color is black. I am a god. I am also optimistic.
It's me machan:

Swarnasrikrishnan, Male, 28, India, Tamilnadu, Chennai, Tamil, English, Malayalam, German, Hindi(??)


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