I think it's just plain disrespect

This is going to be a rant, so bear with me.

Have you ever been to meetings where the meeting was supposed to start a particular time, but people arrive a LOT later than they were supposed to? I know this happens predominantly in India, so my apologies to someone from outside this country who is reading this. But if you have interacted with Indians in general, you would know what I am talking about.

This all stems from an incident that happened last week which really got under my skin. I obviously cannot narrate the details of the event, but it bothered me nonetheless. I meant to post sooner, but hey, I have people wasting my time, so...

There have been times when a meeting starts a few HOURS after it was originally scheduled and all this while, one is just sitting there twiddling one's thumbs. Now I've been working for quite a few years now and should be fairly inoculated to this behaviour, but I'm NOT! I still get riled up over people not sticking to the time they commit to.

And the crux of the matter is this: Indians have no respect for anyone else's time except their own. They have this distinct feeling that only what THEY are doing is of paramount importance and everything else can wait. What they fail to understand is that EVERYONE is doing exactly that. That's why you see the traffic in chaos...everyone is in a hurry to get where they are going and inevitably cause a delay for everyone.

Earlier, I used to think that we Indians are short on patience. That this impatience drives our behaviour in traffic as well as places where you are expected to queue up. Naturally everyone wants to get their work done as quickly as possible, so has to be impatience, right?

Wrong!

It's sheer disrespect for the other person. "I don't care what you think, I think this way and I'm going for it". That's why we see Indians breaking queues (if they even exist), invade people's personal spaces without realising, talk out of turn, cut people off, etc etc etc.

And there lies my point. being late for something is DISRESPECTFUL to the other person. It is a blatant way of saying "I don't respect you and your time. Your time has no value for me!"

People think punctuality is a good character trait to have...and it is - don't get me wrong - it most definitely is, but not for the reasons you would think. Punctuality means that you are willing to make an effort to stick to a commitment you made, but more importantly, it conveys that you respect the other person and his/her time to not want to waste it by making them wait.

We all have a limited few seconds on this glorious planet. Is there any point in wasting them in some waiting room or some conference room or some phone call or a traffic jam? Instead, if we just respected the other person and their time and their right, as much as yours, to exist on this planet, then we would be a much better country.

It sure as hell won't change overnight, but it has to start somewhere. Change always starts with one, and I for one am going to make it a point to let people know how I feel when they abuse my time.

End Rant!

Language barriers

I know I make it a point not to blog about work stuff, but I just had to talk about this.

I was recently in Bangkok for a business meeting and while a lot of people there understand English, it is not the preferred language of communication. Of course, that would be Thai. There's also the extremely polite "Sawasdeekaaa" with the end sound dragged out and the joined hands welcome that everyone gets.

Now, as an outsider, it becomes a bit difficult to convey everything one has to say to be effective. Especially for me where my play on words helps me to inject some humor in the proceedings. So needless to say, communication becomes a bit of a problem. There are whole parts of the meeting where an entire conversation can happen in rapid fire and then we get a summary of what just transpired. So we end up losing a lot of information. Not to mention the possible jokes at our expense which our local counterparts are too polite to tell us (I'm guessing).

I had a similar experience when I was in Japan last year. With an added complication. We had to present using a interpreter. Now this was my first experience at that sort of thing, so we have to do a dry run of the presentations or the material with the interpreter so that she could effectively translate it during our meetings. What that also meant was that I could not speak more than two sentences for the most effective translation.

I have to admit...I have a fairly fluid presentation style and I don't plan on what I'm going to say. I just go with the flow based on the audience and the mood they are in. In Japan, I had to completely change my style and now think of the two most impactful sentences which could be translated while the interpreter was working on what I had just said. I completely changed my thinking about presenting in a place where English is not the main language.

But the most amazing thing? I was at an offsite with my team from all across APJC and we were at Bintan in Indonesia for a few days. I was getting to meet with all the great people I had met during my trips to all these regions and spend some time (over drinks, of course) with most of them. Guess what? I had the best time sitting around my Japanese colleagues!

Here I was surrounded by six Japanese gentlemen - some much older than me and some around my age or younger - and there were so many topics of conversation. Of course I had to talk about the absolutely awesome food I had there (Shabo Shabo, I love you) and I would get a question like "Malhar-san, which sauce do you prefer with the Shabo Shabo? Soy or Peanut?" and I would wonder if it was a trick question. I even said so. Cause in my time in Singapore, I had been made aware that people make judgements about your provess (you decide which one) or when you will get married simply by the way you hold your chop sticks! So I didn't want to say I like one or the other that makes me sound ridiculous. But no, all they wanted to know was my palette and choice so that they could recommend more restaurants.

The topic went from Tokyo to Kyoto to Osaka and eventually how I "have to" go to Sapporo the next time I'm there. One of my colleagues even volunteered to chaperone me around and take me to the "right" places.

We were having such a great time and laughing so loud that our VP came around wondering what was going on at "the table that's having the most fun".

So there you go folks...languages can be a bit of a deterrent, but the people are just as much fun, as long as you are willing to have some :)

At least take the label off!

Now I see this a lot whenever I travel, especially to the northern part of the country and especially so during the winter months. Almost everyone there is wearing a suit or at least a jacket. And without fail, more than half of them still have the brand label either still in it's pristine condition on the sleeve of the jacket OR hanging on for dear life from that flimsy tack they put in (so that the label can be easily taken off in the first place).

I'm not sure these people realise it, but the label is there just to make it easier to identify the brand in the store. It's not there to be paraded around for the rest of the said jacket's lifetime.

And yet, there's scores of people who do that anyways!

You can see similar evidence at the bottom of formal shoes as well. During meetings, when your co-conspirators in the meeting are sitting in the famous "one leg over the other" pose and pretending to listen, they don't realise that the label for the price is still stuck on there.

Maybe they want me to know that they are into expensive shoes, maybe they just forgot, maybe it's like the label on the jacket sleeve all over again! They just won't take it off.

Do us all a favor, will you guys?

Rip it off, Puleeeeeze!

Bald (again) or Pony tail (again)

This is the question on my mind right now.

Have been considering shaving my pate and go back to a glistening top...but then I realize that my hair is currently at the point where in a few months, I will be in the position to start tying them in a pony tail. So it's a call between Bald and Pony Tail. Between B and P.

To B or not to B. To P or not to P. Those are the questions.

On the one hand, I long - no pun intended here - for my pony tail. I miss the head banging with the music and the feel of tresses on my shoulder. I just love the feeling of long hair. But on the down side, I end up losing a lot of hair and it only precipitated my predisposition towards balding, albeit gracefully.

On the other hand, the bald feel is very soothing. Very very low maintenance and just about nothing to do. Not to mention the velvet feel as the hair starts to grow back. And the really cool feeling on the golf course as the wind rushes over my head.

So am caught in a quandry. To B or to P. And I'm not sure which route I'm going to take.

Decisions...decisions...

Bits in the air

I felt like the total geek I am when I was setting up the spanking new D-Link Dual Band Wireless N router, the Apple TV and the HDMI hub. The satisfaction after setting it up was immense. Made all the effort to consolidate and digitize my media these last few months worth it.

First up, the wireless router. Now being the super anal person I am, I had to set up the wireless network EXACTLY as I want it. No default settings would do. But to do that, I had to login to the router for administration. The Quick Start leaflet that came with the router mentioned that the username for the administrator is "Admin". Nope, the router refused to log me in. Then I tried "admin" and voila! it worked. Set up both the bands and now it was time to setup the Apple TV.

The setup is unsurprisingly simple...typical Apple. A couple of clicks using the included remote and I was at the network configuration screen. Here is where I thought Apple could have done better with the keyboard. It's a pain to type in my WiFi password using that keyboard, especially considering that the password I have is 26 characters long! I had the same problem when enabling "Home Sharing", a pre-requisite to start streaming from my iMac. Putting in the Apple ID and then the password was a painful affair. All said, the whole thing took me 15 mins to get thro and I was ready to start.

iMac at the ready, Apple TV waiting to receive...Start the Movie! And it works, Ladies and Gentlemen!

Next up, pairing the iPhone "Remote" application to the Apple TV. Piece of cake. Easy Peasy. Done. Now am browsing my library and controlling everything using my iPhone. Cool!

Now the HDMI port switcher. Connected the DVD player, the Apple TV and my Kodak zx3 HDMI cables to the 3 input ports and the output to the TV. And just like that, I have a tiny device - with a IR remote along with it - that I can not operate sitting back on my bed, being the lazy person I am.

It was a great experience to watch HD quality being streamed thro the air and into my TV. The kicker was the 5.1 channel surround sound after I hooked the Apple TV - via optical cable - to my Cambridge Audio amplifier.

And finally, just tried Airplay from my iPhone to view an episode of "The Big Bang Theory" on my HD TV. Also realized that a video ripped to support the iPhone screen format is of good enough quality to watch on a 42" screen. Not necessary to get the videos in large formats and so a good idea to save space. Will try it with a couple of DVDs and if that works, will start ripping all of them to the iPhone format so that I can cram more media on the same hard disk space.

All in all, a very satisfying evening! 30 minutes of work and 6 hours of pleasure!

Pain in the neck

Ok, so several pains in the neck.

An actual one to begin with. For some reason, my neck has been hurting the last few days. And no, it's not from the way I slept, cause I tried sleeping in different positions to no relief. So have been walking around with a twinge in my neck that spikes up to severe pain every now and then...or should I say every Ow and then. Yep, that's my pathetic sense of humour...and I get to blame it on the pain in my neck.

Next up, Bose. Not the several good natured Bengali families who carry that last name. Bose, the makers of sound equipment, you know...speakers, headphones and the like. As you all might remember, I blogged a long time ago that I am the possessor of the Bose Quiet Comfort series QC3 headphones. These are amazing headphones that cancel noise and make the audio experience so much better. I have carried them around with me everywhere since the last year and half. So why is Bose the pain in the neck you ask?

A month ago, the battery charger for my Bose QC3 died mysteriously. One moment it was charging my battery, the next moment it was just sitting there doing nothing. Out of the blue, just phlat! So I went to the Bose service station to check on a replacement. Guess how much they told me a replacement charger cost? Rs 3000! Close to $70! What the ^%$@?!?!

So I politely declined, went back home, opened up my QC3 charger, only to find that they have sealed a bunch of stuff inside which makes it impossible to DIY repair it. So left with no choice, I went back to the service center and agreed to pay the ransom they demanded to get my headphones working again. Only this time, I asked them what the warranty is on the charger. Guess what? NONE! Not even for a day. All they would agree to do was to show me that it charges a battery and that's it. Nothing more. After that, I'm on my own!

Now my question is: are they penalizing me for buying their stuff? I can understand companies like HP selling cheap printers to make money off the printer cartridges, but Bose already charges a premium for their products. So why be so inconsiderate towards their customers? Once thing is for certain. I am not buying another Bose product in my life. They just lost a customer.

On the flip side, my headphones are back where they belong...over my ears :)

And finally there is Tata DoCoMo, whose latest 3G service is something I have wanted to try for a while now. Since I have an extra iPhone (thanx Vasu) which I am using to test the Android OS on the iPhone, I can use that as a backup phone while I use my 3GS to test the DoCoMo call quality as well as the power of the 3G network. So I walked into the DoCoMo store on Richmond Road and asked for a pre-paid card. They were very helpful and quickly took care of the formalities to get my card ready and topped with Rs 373 to get me off. What they forgot to tell me was that the account balance would not show that amount, it would show only the buffer amount (Rs 10) in case I overstep my charged amount. Also, they forgot to tell me that I have to enter an APN number (TATA.DOCOMO.INTERNET) to get my 3G connection going. Since I did not know this, I kept getting a connection error. That meant another trip to the store to resolve this. A completely unnecessary trip. Another pain in the neck.

As far as I can tell, the network is just a shade better than Airtel's and my phone has lost signal a couple of times, but has caught it back on quicker than Airtel's. Also, while the 3G browsing experience has not exactly knocked my socks off, it is visibly faster than the Edge network I get on Airtel. More testing and network reviews coming, so keep a lookout here.

All those magnificent men / women in their flying machines

Nope, not talking about the movie, but am using it to reference another set of machines.

I have been busy digitizing and reformatting my entire media collection the last few weeks in anticipation of the arrival of my AppleTV device (which needs the help of someone coming in from the US, so if anyone is heading in that direction and back, please give me a shout!). I finally managed to convert most of my video files to work in the AppleTV format and added them in the library. Only way to test how they would look is if I went into Front Row on my iMac and saw how the library would show...since I assumed that's how the AppleTV interface would look like too.

To my surprise, my Movies section was showing every piece of video I had added to my library. Now some of these videos are part of TV series' which I am in the process of ripping from my DVDs. Things like "Yes Minister / Yes Prime Minister", "The West Wing", "Coupling" and "Seinfeld". Problem is, all these shows with all their many episodes from many seasons were now showing up in the list of Movies in Front Row.

To my dismay, the solution on the Apple support website was anything but. It said I had to change the media type of the files to something other than TV show, then move the files out of the library, delete the media references from iTunes and then push them back and change the media type back to TV shows. This is no solution! There had to be an elegant way to do this.

Evidently, Doug thought so too!

He created these Applescript scripts which can be added to iTunes and which help fix this problem with ease. An adult solution to a problem that should not exist in the first place.

This is one magnificent man in his flying (computer) machine!

The reason my post title says "men / women" is because of another reason I had to go to the community to solve my problem.

I have been trying a new software which will help me backup some of my stuff from my iPhone a little easier than iTunes can. Was having a bit of trouble getting the connection to work and so thought I need to restart the phone. Ended up restarting in recovery mode (force of habit what with all the hacking to jailbreak my current and earlier iPhone). Here's where another set of magnificent men/women came to my rescue.

All I did was download iRecovery, type in "setenv auto-boot true;saveenv;/exit" and there it was! My phone booted like normal.

There have been so many instances when some selfless coder sitting in some remote part of the world has come to my assistance without even knowing it. These people put out these pieces of code just because they encountered some problem and thought that making the solution public would help someone. Or maybe just because they love this stuff. Either ways, people like me benefit from the brilliance and work of others.

This post is to thank these magnificent men and women. They have made my life a bit better and a little less stressed. Thanx a lot, folks!

Addicted to a series?

How often does that happen to you? You watch one episode of a series that someone recommended...and then handed you the entire season of that series on DVD...and you end up watching all the episodes back to back?

The first time it ever happened to me was with The Office. Not the American version. The British version. The original. The one with Ricky Gervaise in it. I was recommended the series by one of my buddies from the Singapore office when I used to work there. He even got the DVD sets for the two seasons the series ran for. At that time, I waited for everyone to sleep before I started watching, mainly cause I had been told that the Office needed a different kind of humour appreciation to enjoy it. So I stuck the first DVD in, fired the first episode and watched in horror as the first episode hurtled past. Really didn't understand what the hell was going on. So almost gave up on it. But then I thought "might want to watch another episode and see what happens". By the time the second episode came to an end, I was starting to get what the series was all about. By the end of the third episode, I was laughing freely. And before the DVD came to an end, I had to bite down on my finger to not laugh out loud! So I had to go into the special features section to see the outtakes and see Ricky Gervaise just keep hammering at some really funny stuff that would have been great in the series. Needless to say, I was done with both seasons in 2 days (well, two nights) and would have loved to watch more.

The next time that happened was with The West Wing. I had heard of the series for a while, but never really managed to catch an episode, so didn't really know much about the series except for the part that it was about the White House and the President of the US. So when my buddy from the office volunteered to give me the DVDs for the first two seasons, naturally I jumped at it. And guess what? I'm addicted!

I watch episodes back to back. I love the characters and the twisted scenarios that come up every episode. And I have come to appreciate the role that Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and yes, even George W. played while in that office. I also realized how difficult it is to enact legislation in a country which is a bit more mature than my own country. So I can only imagine the horse trading that must be going on for getting a single piece of law passed.

Now you know that both the above series have a bit of continuity in them. As in, the events of the previous episodes have some bearing on the current and future ones. But there are the remarkable sit-coms which I am addicted to as well. First there was M*A*S*H which was, in my opinion, one of the finest shows I watched growing up. Then of course is Seinfeld, which is still the funniest series I have ever seen in my life. And then came Coupling, the british series which is currently my second ranked funniest series. All of these make me want to watch the next episode as soon as one ends...and then the next...and then the next...and then the next.

And then of course, there's the Big Bang Theory. My third ranked all time favorite comedy series. Once again hilarious, smart, intelligent and sometimes just plain crazy. The only thing that makes BBT stay alive with me more is that the series is still ongoing and is currently in it's 4th season. It is also the only series to which I do not have access to DVDs of, so I am stuck to watching these episodes on free streaming site which have a time limit on how much one can watch in one shot without having to pay for it.

Now the question I have for you folks is: Do you have a series that made you watch one episode after another?

PS: If your answer is "24", then please spare me!

The score does not tell the truth

Another round of golf. Another tale of woe. Another parameter to misjudge.

A very early morning tee off from the back nine saw me hit 6 pars, a bogey and two double bogeys to shoot 5 over for 9 holes. This was including two putts that lipped out that had no business not dropping in. Aah, to hell with it, says I. That's how the game goes. Some days they drop, some days they don't.

The front nine started very nicely. A great drive, a delicious 30 yard chip and then a 3 foot putt to make birdie. I should have known that it was going to be all downhill from there. Two magnificent double bogeys, four bogeys and two pars later, I had scrambled down to a fabulous 13 over round for the day :(

Problem is, the score does not show how badly I played. I played some exquisite shots to compensate for absolutely horrible shots elsewhere. A few absolutely beautiful chips and a few putts which either dropped or didn't made me feel better about myself and my game, but overall I was soooooooooo disappointed with myself and my game.

I need to do better. I know my game has the potential, but I am not playing up to it yet. Need to work harder.

Lights and roller coasters

Do you ever feel like you are on a roller coaster in life?

One moment, everything is fine and looking like it's on the way up. A steady rhythm clicking under your feet as you shuffle thro the day. And then all of a sudden…BAM! The floor leaves your feet and you find yourself plunging down towards some hell hole drawing you nearer like a magnet whose pull you cannot fight. It could be one call, one meeting or even a chance reading on someone's blog. And just when you thought gravity is going to crush you under the might of it's force, you pull out of that free fall are gliding on your path like the hell hole you just left behind never existed. Once again, the chance call from a friend or a piece of good new or just a funny video someone share on Facebook saves the moment, presenting the necessary distraction.

And then another plunge and another lift…and then another…and then another…and yet another. Until at the end of the day, you are exhausted and just want to sleep. But the ride does not end there.

Even in your dreams, you plunge and you soar and then plunge again, only to wake up covered in sweat to some unthinkable nightmare that you cannot even remember. And then a peaceful slumber in the arms of a beautiful dream…that you could not remember yet again in the morning…only remembering that you had a nice dream and that it made you smile as you woke up.

What has all of this got to do with Lights, you ask?

Absolutely nothing! He he he…

The only reason lights is in the title of the post is because I went out and bought a remote trigger for my speedlight yesterday. Yep, it's one of those cheapy Chinese made stuff that is good only for firing a strobe remotely and nothing else. But I tell myself that I am not even fit to be called a novice in this area and therefore don't deserve a PocketWizard or ElinKrome set of transceivers. So with my wallet a couple of thousand rupees lighter and the spring in my step a couple of inches higher, I tried out the combination last night. And came away with a big grin on my face :)

Just thought I will let you know. After all, I won't have a rant every day to put up here. And so this is my attempt at blogging at least once every day to get back into the habit.

It's what you say later that matters

Yep, this is me trying to get back to regular blogging. I know it's been a couple of days, but I've had a bit of a back ache, so sue me.

So you might recollect that I mentioned my buddy is in town. He is usually the one who carries my stuff from the US and his family is the one I piss off most with all my shopping packages landing on their doorstep :) Anyway, I had bought the Vibram FiveFingers (the most comfortable pair of shoes I have ever worn) online and needed someone to help me carry them back. Enter DC. So I got these guys together so one could pass on my shoes to the other to carry back. Lo and behold, they hit it off and had a lot of fun. So naturally, when this guy from the US lands up, we get DC involved and meet up for a drink…and that was last week.

DC invited us for dinner on friday night and most of the evening was spent ragging each other mercilessly…mostly everyone ganging up against me to try and get the better of me…apparently I am hard to rag…

That got me thinking (yeah, what were the odds) about what we say out openly and what we don't. I mean, when we were all together, we spent most of the time screwing the other guys…all of whom are close friends. How often do we say out loud what these friends mean to us…especially when they are not around?

Which makes me think…ideally, your best friend is someone who stands by you and speaks in your favour when you are NOT around. Anyone can give lip service and support you when you are there to defend yourself, but of all those people, how many of them would give their full throated defense to your case when you were not around. How many such compliments would you get? How many would you give?

Do we really know who our friends are any more?

You can make out from my tone that I have gotten even more cynical than what was earlier believed possible. Meatloaf was right…"Life is a lemon and I want my money back"

The world is your spittoon, the country your trash can

I'm finally back…after 6 month and a few days. Yeah I know…this is becoming my usual theme. I promise to be back and then there's a long silence and then a post.

So here's hoping to an improved attitude towards blogging and trying to be regular. I am immediately reminded of Master Yoda's statement: "Do…Or do not…There is no try". Now you know why I am not a Jedi Master yet. Wish I was tho. Would have loved to do the Jedi mind trick on so many people.

Now to the reason for the irate heading. And here starts the rant…

My buddy and I were walking from UB City to the office (had to do some shopping at the Apple Store) and we had to cross the hellish intersection that is Richmond Circle. In the space of a few minutes that it took us to cross the road, we heard so many car honks that we could not hear each other think, least of all hear each other's voice. And every one of those people who honked somehow had the impression that honking would make them move faster.

On top of that, in the same time span, I counted at least 7 people spitting or throwing trash out of their car. What the hell is wrong with these people? And to top it all, the traffic police constable at the intersection was the model of apathy. Can't really blame him for being apathetic, cause he probably sees what I saw a few hundred times every day. It's easy to get desensitized when you are overexposed to these things.

Now that got me thinking as I was driving back home from office. It was a rare occasion that I was leaving office before peak traffic hit and so made it smoothly home in 20 minutes. As you folks would have read in my earlier posts, I have a very intelligent car that is the Skoda Laura. On it's mainframe display, I get readouts on how many kilometers I have driven since the engine was turned on, what speed I was driving at and most importantly, how much fuel I consumed on my drive. And to my wonder, I had run a mileage of 14.7km/l for my 20 minute drive back from work. Which meant I had consumed less than a liter of diesel to get from office to my home. The worm in my head started chewing on something.

The next day, I hit peak traffic on my way to work and noticed that this trip, I had averaged 9.8km/l and taken 40 minutes of starts and stop traffic to get to office. Hmmmm! That evening, my buddy and I were meeting for a drink at The Beach in Indiranagar and thought it would be best to drive straight from work. Guess what…we covered just 3km from the office in 41 minutes! 41 minutes! That's insane. By the time we got there, we had spent almost an hour in the car (for a short 8km) drive and averaged 8.2km/l.

Now let's do a bit of math.

If I did not hit traffic every day, I would average between 3 km/l and 5 km/l better during every drive. My car has a huge 60l fuel tank. Even if I use the pessimistic number of 3 km/l, that means that my car would have run for a hundred and eighty kilometers more on the same amount of fuel! That's a saving of more than 15 liters of fuel…translating to more than Rs 600 for every tank of fuel I pump into my car! An improvement of 25%!

Here's another interesting figure. I have had my car for the last 3 years and am on the verge of hitting 40,000 kilometers in it. That means I am averaging about 12,500 kilometers every year. Now extending the same calculation as above, considering the same efficiency (that is not completely accurate as I tend to do long drives - I love to drive - and that drives up the fuel efficiency even higher…so we are still pessimistic in our calculations), we would be able to drive the same amount of kilometers every year with 33% less fuel. Let's see how much we save, shall we?

12,500 kilometers x current average of 11 km/l = ~ 1140 liters of fuel = ~Rs 48,000.

12,500 kilometers x efficient average of 14 km/l = ~ 890 liters of fuel = ~Rs 37,000.

A saving of Rs 11,000! Eleven Thousand Rupees saved by one car! Just by improving traffic conditions and therefore fuel efficiency!

Not to mention the implied benefits of lesser smog (from lesser stops and starts), lower noise pollution (hopefully) and time saved for everyone.

And here's the kicker! As per the Petroleum Conservation Research Association, 51% of India's domestic fuel consumption is done by transport vehicles…cars, busses, trucks, rickshaws and all the rusty old things you see on the road that make you want to get a Tetanus shot just from looking at them. From the same PCRA website, India has more than 75 Million registered vehicles. Think about the sucker punch I'm about to throw at you.

If every vehicle saved Rs 10,000 annually due to better fuel efficiency achieved due to better traffic conditions, we would have saved…wait for it…16 BILLION DOLLARS!

16 BILLION DOLLARS!

Say it again after me…

16 BILLION DOLLARS! Savings!

Savings worth 16 BILLION DOLLARS!

Imagine what part of that money can be invested to better the traffic conditions going forward. And as technology improves, we will have better, more fuel efficient cars which will only improve our savings number.

How's that for analysis?

But for sure, there are people already doing this analysis. From the PCRA page again, we learn the New Delhi alone burns more than 990 Crore Rupees due to stopping at traffic lights. Just imagine!

And here I come back to the heading of the post…part of the money that we save can go towards putting trash cans every few feet. I think the current problem is both lack of social decorum as well as lack of opportunity to demonstrate it. To give you my example, I carry litter in my pockets until I see a trash can (which can sometimes be once I reach home). More trash cans and a cleaner city will only shame some people into not spitting everywhere and making this country a better place.

A long time ago...

Thirty six years ago to be precise, an abomination on the face of this earth was created. This useless weight on this earth has trundled around and stumbled along in life, starting from becoming a boy, then a man, then a father and finally an annoyance to everyone who knows him.

And yet, today, so many of these people stood up and wished him a happy birthday and completely overwhelmed him. He was touched by a few thoughtful acts by people, kind and considerate statements from quite a few and mainly, warm wishes from so many people who accepted the abomination and learnt to live with it.

I thank you all for making my scourge-of-a-birthday a lot more tolerable.

More than a 1000 people have something to talk about

So I might as well scream from the mountain tops.

I LOVE MY NEW SHOES!

This might make me sound gay (and as Seinfeld rightly pointed out…Not that there's anything wrong with it), but I just have to tell you guys about the shoes I have. They're called the Vibram (pronounced wii-br-um) Five Fingers and they are the closest I have felt to barefoot while still wearing shoes. You have to check these out.

I got these shoes two weeks ago and ever since I have put them on, I have not wanted to put any other shoe on…and if I have to, I do so grudgingly.

Now these shoes don't exactly look like the shoes you are used to. These are distinctly different and actually have a pocket for each toe, hence the name Five Fingers. They look a bit different and so get used to people staring at you. If I'm in the elevator, the whole elevator stares. If I'm in the bus at the airport taking me to the airplane, the entire bus stares. If I'm in the office, the entire office has asked.

Since the time I have gotten these shoes, there must be at least a thousand Tamilians with a new story to talk about. And at least 200 Bangaloreans. Which should tell you how much time I have been spending in Chennai for the last few weeks.

Long story short, the shoes attract attention…and usually the wrong sort of attention with people sniggering or smiling or just shaking their head at the contraption I am wearing on my foot. And most of your friends will try to make your life a living hell over the shoes. Only 2 out of those >1000 people have looked at them and said "They look really comfy. I wanna get them."

Luckily for me, I really don't care about what anyone has to say. And at the end of the day, my feet thank me. And that's what matters to me.

Thank you Vibram for creating this fantastic product and I am proud to be an exponent of this fantastic piece of footwear.

My feet are sooooo much happier these days!

A candle lit dinner and a fabulous game

Saturday was Earth Hour. It meant most people in the know shut off their lights between 8:30pm and 9:30pm to save energy and to show solidarity with the energy conservation movement that's gathering momentum all across the globe.

I was pleasantly surprised to see 90% of my apartment complex go dark and stay that way for the entire hour. And since it is slap bang in the middle of dinner time for most Indians, we had a nice dinner in candle light. Not the least bit romantic, but functional nonetheless.

What followed was the match between ManU and Bolton where Berba showed all his detractors why is is worth the money paid for him. His beautiful control over the ball, a couple of amazing flicks (one which was ridiculously hard to do and was saved by Jaaskelienen) and then a couple of goals. But the highlight was the completely stupid own goal by the Bolton defender who neatly slotted the ball into the far corner of his own net.

A nice game, a return to the top of the league table and a delicious match to look forward to when we host Chelsea next week. Hope we get over the exertions of Champions League football since we are on the way to Bayern Munich on wednesday.

All the best, United. Two more cups to go!

How can they be happy at a time like this?

I was flipping thro the channels on a lazy Sunday evening and "Jaane Tu…Ya Jaane Na" came on, right about the time when the friends have gone on a drive when the car breaks down.

So while they are cursing the guy who owns the car and are looking for someone to give them a lift, there's not a word about what happens to the car. And then they get into the back of the truck and start singing a song. No worries that their car is in the middle of nowhere.

How can you sing at a time like this?!?!

Or maybe it's the ability to sing especially at a time like that is what I need to learn. Shit happens. Shit happens on a daily basis. So why worry.

Only problem is: My folks would have kicked my ass all the way to Guantanamo Bay had I left my car in the middle of the road. I would have heard about it every time I took the car out for a long drive. Oh, now I remember why I can't sing at a time like this!

But hang on, I didn't get my dad's car to go on long drives anyways! The first long drive I ever did was when I bought my own car. And even if it did break down, there's very little hell my folks could put me thro. After all, it is my car! So I do need to learn to sing at a time like this!

But then, what about all the luggage? What about vandalism? What about people just taking my car apart piece by piece? After all, I am paying for that car with my blood, sweat and tears. Plus it's my first car! So you can say I am quite a bit attached to the car! So I would worry and I would worry some more till I got the car back home and to the garage. Hmmm, another reason not to sing at a time like this.

So much confusion!

I guess movies show a lot of young folks living care free lives and having a ball. And as A-Ha said more than 20 years ago, "The Sun Always Shines On TV". But most of us, who live in the real world, have to worry about these things, but subconsciously we are all fed the same fairy tale. We all want to be care free and really live every moment to its fullest rather than get bogged down by worries.

I guess responsibility is life's way of saying to us: "Hey now, Hey now, Don't dream it's over!"

Early 30's

I was wishing a friend of mine on her birthday and she mentioned how she was still in her "Early 30's" which got me thinking.

Of course, this thinking has been on for a while now, specifically as I was hurtling towards my 35th birthday last year. The thought all this while was that I was approaching Half Time in this game that is my life and it had been a pretty uneventful first half with no real goals and not enough creativity in the play. So the whole of last year was about changing all the things that are dragging my life - and my performance in the game that is my life - down and to embark on things that stimulate my thought and fire up my spirit.

While I have been successful with a few of those - I have started writing again (still sketching the framework for my novel), my photography is improving (but is still a long LONG way to go), golf has never been better - I have not yet seized my life and taken complete control of it. Which is where the catch is. I still haven't found what I'm looking for (Sorry U2).

And so the chat yesterday about the early 30's rang a bell in the same tiny part of me that is my brain, reminding me of the quest I embarked on more than a year ago.

In a couple of months, I will no longer be in my early 30's. I will have officially stepped across a boundary, all in the matter of a few days, which will carry me into the realm of the late 30's. Everything after that spells O.L.D. Even if you say you're in your early 40's, it's still old, isn't it?

So here I am, on the crossroads of my life, on the threshold of starting the second half of this game. Let's hope I will do better in this half and that this half will be a lot more exciting than the first half (which was boooooring).

Wish me luck!

1411

That's how many Tigers are left in India.

Just to put things in perspective…

1. There is 1 tiger for every 830,000 people in our country.

2. There is 1 tiger for every 5 square kilometers of "Tiger preserve" marked reserve forest.

3. There is 1 tiger for every 100 kilometers within India's Wildlife Sanctuaries.

Let's face it. As a people and as a race, we are not helping the environment. And I know it is easy to say that this is all talk and that nothing happens in this country and that nobody does anything. But think about it. Even if two people read this blog, and those two people tell it to two more people, who tell it to two more people, eventually we will have together raised a lot of awareness and hopefully some action to solve this problem.

After all, this is the Year of the Tiger (according to the Chinese calendar) and we owe it to every single species that shares this planet with us.

If you have a better idea, please share it and we can all get behind it. If you don't, the least you can do is spread the word and increase awareness. Help me.

What nationality?

Now before there is furore, let me clarify right away. I am a proud Indian thro and thro! Love this country (despite all its flaws and its problems) and very strongly believe that it's people (not the number of them, but their characters and culture) that make India different from any other place in the whole world.

But this post is obviously not about my patriotism…

This worm started with someone accusing me of switching sides when Schumi (Michael Schumacher for all you F1 neophytes) joined the Mercedes F1 team this year. Having been a long time supporter of Schumi and therefore Ferrari, I was very much a part of the Tifosi, the largely in red support group around the Prancing Horse.

And that got me thinking…and I realized:

I am Indian when I watch cricket.

I am Swiss when I watch tennis (except when it's doubles, where I am Indian again).

I am American when I watch golf.

I am British when I watch football.

I used to have dual citizenship (Germany and Italy) while watching F1, but have turned in my Italian citizenship to be an all and out German.

I am Indian again when I watch hockey.

I am Finnish when I watch the World Rally Championship.

I am American again when I watch basketball.

Wow! When it comes to sport, I am a global citizen :-)

i-dont-Pad

Yesterday, I watched Steve Jobs create the now familiar Reality Distortion Field when he took the stage to announce the "iPad". And as expected from Steve, words like Amazing, Fantastic, Revolutionary came thick and fast as the new sleek iPad was unveiled.

It's a really nice looking gadget. 9+ inches of screen real estate, up to 64GB of flash space, Wifi/3G, etc. And to start at $500.

And all thro the presentation, I was thinking to myself…all of this I can do on my 2G iphone! Everything except the iWorks part (which I really don't want to do on my phone). And it became a YAWN device for the moment. For the following reasons:

1. $500 for something that I absolutely don't need and that really does not add any real value.

2. I'm getting started with eBooks, having bought a couple of them from the Amazon store (Kindle edition), but I read them on my iPhone with the free Kindle app. So all I end up paying for is the book…which is 30% of the printed book cost. So that works for me.

3. One more device to carry around. I'm always going to carry my iPhone (I sometimes forget my wallet, but never my iPhone) and I'm going to need my laptop to do stuff the iPad will probably never. Case in point: Aperture! My photograph manipulation software that I need to sync my Nikon to when I'm going crazy with the shutter. So the iPad will be just another device that I will end up carrying with me and will only make my already heavy bag heavier by a kilo (it's only a kilo, so what?), not to mention the accessories that will eventually come with this device.

4. The number of books available for the Kindle is far greater than the ones for the iPad. Of course, you can say that's because there is no iPad today! But in 3 months time, when it is available, I believe the Kindle will still have a decent lead on the books available as compared to the iPad. And since I can buy the Kindle edition books and read them on my iPhone, I don't need to spend $500 for this.

5. I keep coming back to this $500 part, cause it's easy to misrepresent. For 500 bucks, you get the Wifi only 16GB version of the iPad. If you want the 64GB 3G enabled one, it's going to cost me $829! Now that's a lot of money to spend on something that I'm not sure I will use to the fullest today.

6. I wish Apple had put a tiny iSight camera on top of the iPad. Now that would have been a really cool thing to do. Then you could have used the iPad to do video conferencing on so many different platforms. Now you can chat with your friends on Google or Yahoo, but if you need to switch from chat to video, it's not a click away…it's a full device away.

I'm a huge Apple fan and usually love all the things they do. I like the iPad a lot as well, just don' t think it does much for me just yet. What I do believe is that it will probably bomb away the Kindle market and a large part of the Netbook market. It also might be a nice thing to give to kids, rather than a whole computer, but I did not hear too many things from Steve about Parental Controls on this device and so am not sure they thought about this market slice.

I'm hoping that as it happened with the iPhone (cost reduction by $100 within a few weeks of launch), Apple will lower the price for the 3G 64GB variant. Cause that's when I will seriously consider buying this thing. Until then, it's nice to look at, but that's all it is!