Saturday, December 24, 2011

The 1980s Born generation of India - Change boomers

So what is so special about the ones who were born in the decade of 1980 in India.

Lets see... We were a generation who did not have TV at their homes as if it was part of our homes. We got it as we grew - may be when we were 5/6/7 years old. So we saw TV. We had our times on Doordarshan - few selected programs. While some of these played, the roads would be deserted , everybody would be watching them like todays cricket match endings. We then got the cable television which initially seemed like a buffet dinner and lunch.


Then we went to school just like any other generations , we realized for an Indian Middle Class family - A home, food, clothes and education were the things our parents dreamt of. Most of us just stopped dreaming and even today cannot dream because we have so much within us - realities bite so hard we dont dream.

Then we saw computers , used it for programming, Saw a world without Google and then started googling. In our childhood we communicated with out friends over letters. As we graduated we moved to emails.  So we moved from one age to another age where world was so small, some student in some city of US had the same questions as us. We realized this with internet.

Remember so far not many had mobile phone.

Then came mobile phones, gadgets for calling, gadgets for texting. Still we used to browse on a desktop.
A lot of us within the age of 25 yrs have travelled more miles than our parents ever did -how? A lot of us went to US, saw a whole new culture. This culture where Car was a necessity and having a car did not mean you are rich, this culture which was very open about relationships, where you could chose your life partner , where drinking was not  a problem, it was normal to have drinks.

This brought us closer and fumed a lot of intercaste, interreligion marriages, looking at us and realizing that we are quite rational a lot of our parents agreed with this first out of culture behaviour.
Now we had money, some of us did not like what we did for this money we switched our profession - Software engineers became teachers, opened restaurants, moved to drama and theatre, with the surplus money we started experimenting. Still at 2011 we were not even thirty and few were in their early thirties.

At this moment we turned back and looked and saw that we already had nephews , neices who were already dreaming. This is the generation which had television as part of the house like food on table. This is the generation for whom mobile phones are gadgets which they started playing with. This is the generation which looks at Facebook to recall birthdays. When we look at them , we do not see us in them. Our parents cannot understand their language. We are the mediators who understand what they are talking and who value what our older generation thinks.

May be every generation thinks about itself this way, but for sure there are facts which back the 80 borns. They are the generation who have seen the values of their parents , the realize money is not easy, but they also realize that they need to live their dreams, fly freely once. This is the generation which can put the values into their kids, this is the generation which will give birth to the next new generation, the new generation which can dream. They will be the ones who will light the future of India. This is the generation which would have seen advanced technologies like laptops, ipads and impossible is not the word they will accept. They will pioneer into every fields and the 80 borns will encourage them in their dreams. Values will come back once we and the new generation realize that money alone is not sufficient for one to be happy.

We will also see a demoralized personal lives and how our lifes are not anymore about food, clothing, home alone and a lot more , but finally we will get to the right blend of values, discipline , money and professionalism.

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Fermented Salted and Flavoured Chillies

First let me explain what a salted and flavoured chilly is. For those of you who come from the southern part of India, it is called  as "BalakaDa MenasinaKai"(to be fried chilly),"UupMenasinakai"(Salted chilly) .
It adds flavour and is a must for making some of the specific type of sambars and on every foodie Sunday.

The way to prepare this is to get fresh green chillies, cut them right in the middle only on one side, so that you make some space to fill salt. Mix, Jeera or cumin seeds, Asofoetida or hing to the salt and grind it to fine powder. Fill this into the chilly. Dry the chilly in sun for 3-4 days. You then have the so called Salted, flavoured chilly. The Salt reduces the hotness of chilly, the spices add flavour. You need to deep fry this in oil to golden brown and it is ready to be used similar to a pickle with rice and sambar.

OK..... So far I explained the procedure and how to make the chillies.

Now, this is a sunday in the Month of November when the whether is cold - mornings are very sunny , but evenings are cold.We usually don't expect any rains. I went to a farmer's market nearby and saw that the chilly was looking good - fresh, succulent and green.
I bought a good one Kilogram.
With all my enthusiasm, I made the above preparation, all steps done exclusively by me alone - from washing, cutting, making the filling , filling and drying.
2 days later, I was happy to see the result, they were creamish colored with strains of green, they just needed one more day of Sun  to be the perfect little ones.

But how can god be happy always!!! He started crying the next day by mid noon.
It started drizzling , and then for the rest of the day it was cloudy. Now for some reason God was really upset and day after day for close to a week the skies were always cloudy. So much so that I was nostalgic about Seattle where I spent some time . Of course god had his reasons, his friend, The Arabian sea was angry and there was a cyclone.

Now the chillies were half dry . They are still drying as I am blogging, it is now close to 2 weeks since I prepared them. God seems getting better and I might have the perfect little late ones in a week or so.
This is the recipe of Fermented Salted Flavored Chillies - Exclusively by Gayathri and blessed by one and only God- the god of rains!!!

Murphy's law prevails

Every time I fill petrol in my car after a few days the price would rise.Its like the day I bought the car, mother earth decided , am going to stop giving petrol to these people. Now that Gayathri has bought a car, let her suffer and pay the price for me!!!
I have paid 50Rs to 74 Rs over a period of year and half. Percentage wise that would be close to 48% increase. So everytime I visit for refill, I feel I should have filled up the whole tank the previous time and would have saved some money.

The day before yesterday, I stepped out with my family and realized I was about to empty the tank. I went to the usual bunk, to fill gas. I asked for 20L, he said there is only 2L available since there was a tanker strike. I said fine and got what ever he had. I was panicking a little since I still had atleast 40kms to cover and with my driving, the fuel is not usually used in the most efficient manner. The gears are not applied at the right time  :-)
Still amateur.

Then I hit the NH and on the way we sighted another Petrol Bunk , we got in and immediately i asked the guy to load 20L , he said he has it and loaded it and there was no Tanker strike. So far so good, I was now happy that even if I travel the whole distance in second gear, I still have sufficient petrol.So all of this was post Wednesday noon.

Everything well and good, next day before going to bed I was browsing the news paper, for lack of better books and lack of good movies at that hour, so that I can strain my eyes a little and sleep. And Lo!!!, there was a article with headline "Petrol Prices decreased by 78 paise on Wednesday - Thursday midnight". What a paradox, Alas the saving is very less but still, Murphy's laws prevails in this world.

Saturday, November 26, 2011

Freedom

I am at the edge
From here I will fly
Or I will fall


If I fly I will be a Bird
I will fly far away in the blue sky
If I fall I will be  buried in the earth
I will bloom with beautiful flowers as a tree
But either way I will be free
I will be happy and wont worry

I am at the end of cliff
If I fall I will  be part of the blue sea
If I fly I will be a sea gull
I will fly to watch the roaring Sea
But either way I will be free
I will be merry and wont worry

What will I be only time can tell
No matter what happens
I am determined to be free
and I will never worry

How time season's us

Sandals
25yr : She is searching to buy a sandal for close to a month now. Passes by Bata show room and says "these guys are so boring, they will not have a single interesting model, all models will have skin color and black color, those are the only two colors these guys know. I only like woodlands" :-)

At 30 yrs: Goes to Reliance fresh/smart/safal... to buy stuff for her daily routine - groceries. Suddenly her attention goes to her sandals, she realized they are not anymore worth wearing for office and she needs to change.Right below the grocery store sees Bata, gets in picks the best of the worst , asks for her size. Gets one size higher or one size lower, wears one , walks for a few steps. Buys it . End of the deal 


Clothes
25yr : Almost every week end goes out,although there is no specific occasion, if she ever finds a good dress or dress material, buys it. Says "In commercial street there is so much variety, I just cant buy my stuff from anywhere else. I bargain like anything and finally get my dresses -only tried and tested beautiful colors.

30yr: She is speaking to her sister and the topic of clothes comes in. "accha ,  by the way, now that you say, I am short of clothes to wear to office. Do you still work close by to that shop in Avenue road. Do me a favour, next time you pass by it, buy some Kurta's/ shorts for me which will go with a white or a black salwar /chudi. End of story


Things at house
25yr: Option 1 : not yet married
    Option 2: Married and still not finished even a year. Tells her husband "You know i want to arrange my house like the way it is given in this youtube video, actually interior designing is a very interesting career, i don't know why I did not get into that", Anyways, get up and help me out here in arranging stuff around, it looks like a dustbin.
   
   
30yr : Typically by this time, they would have a kid.
    Its Saturday and she does not have to work, drops off the kid to the school or the kindergarten. comes back home and just looks around and kind of realizes it is not very well arranged. Tells her husband who now has a pounch and is slouching and reading a news paper. " Its Saturday, do some cleanup on your stuff", moves on to either TV or to Kitchen. End of story.


More often when we get out of college, each one of us thinks , "I am different, this society is like my past, I will change it. My lifestyle will be different, I will achieve something extraordinary , something great". As we get old, we mature in different ways, Nature seasons us. We realize what we are, we will be good to things which really matter and learn to let go for things which don't matter so much. We will have some achievements but at least realize that its not just us, there are a lot of more of our kind who are unique in their own ways. DVG says "Every single person on this earth is different, when you look at a person, you recognize him because he is unique. When we goto a shop we buy different things, which suits our own Family and our society, then how can our goals in life be the same. Each and every person has to realize the goal of his life by himself."    As time goes by goals change, all that is important is one to feel fulfilled in his/her life.

Sunday, November 6, 2011

Couple of movie reviews

I recently watched Inglourious Basterds .... I know the expression, I know its quite late. But then this is one of the kind of movies, I enjoy watching.
The movie has different languages and actually quite a bit of it is in other languages. I think that makes the movie more expressive. Whether it is the starting scene where Waltz explains the difference in thinking of a German Soldier and the Jews or the shoot out scene in the hotel , the foreign language is what makes the movie more interesting and worth watching.
I think the lesser I write the better it is , because whether it is Tarantino's script or Waltz's acting, you will find quite a bit of talk on the internet. It seems Tarantino planned the script for close to 10 years.
But this is one movie worth watching multiple times.

I also watched a remake of one of the best English movies - AFGM.This was in Hindi.  Its called Shaurya. Now anybody who has watched AFGM will realize this is a remake of it, within the first half hour. But then I still felt like continuing to watch it.
The story is adapted quite well for Indian Environment. Demi moore's role is modified to be a Journalist and the incident happens at the India Pak Border and the issue and the story chosen is very well suited for the Indian environment.
I do not like the idea of remakes, I usually dont watch any, but this one was a exception. I cannot attribute it to the movie wholly, I was alone at home and that added to my interest.
That all for now!!!




Friday, October 28, 2011

Eyes wide open but still sleeping

Have you ever had to sit in a meeting , which is total crap(sorry for the language but could not think of better word).
I am sitting in one of them right now, as I am blogging this article.
There is a wise saying in our language that "Empty vessels make more noise". It is the best observation ever. In the typical office world, we end up talking so much and doing so little.
If ever Gandhi Ji had to run a small office which owned getting Independance for India, I now see we would have just been reading articles in a paper till today and never attained Independance.
Sometimes office nuances take a toll. The worst part is that since you are spending so much time in office, it can start impacting your own personality. A lot of the times, i have seen that the people who start becoming very aggressive at office are aggressive at home as well.
Well for now let me go back and see what we are brewing :-)

Thursday, October 20, 2011

It happens only in India

Bike in a coracle, with 20 people, we were at the edge of our wits and were worried we will be drowned. But no this is regular in India.

This is not different , of course we are all mammals , further down on the same river side there was some sewage spilling over into the river and people taking "holy dip".

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Eat, Pray and love

For some reason, we Indians will never understand what causes divorce in the west.In this movie, i missed the first few minutes, but from what I saw I could not understand what caused a divorce for Liz. The rest of the movie was a good watch, sometimes intriguing but not really intellectual.
I never knew that Bali is a place where she will find love, I was expecting her to goto Paris. Anyways, it is a nice afternoon watch on a lazy Sunday. Julia Roberts as usual is pretty although she looks a little old especially in Saree.
For one thing, the picture these hollywood movies paint about India is so misleading. For people who had never spoken to an Indian or never saw India would think this is a stinking place, with only poverty and if I were they I would think how could it be the home of spirituality? Such a misleading picture of India for audience.
Oh well!!! I almost forgot what drove me to blog about the movie - the new word - Muffin top. I learnt it from movie, liked the analogy and how it is used in movie.
All said and done, I liked the Italy part of the movie. Happy watching.


Cost of Mama's handmade breakfast

Sometimes I am just too lazy to get up and go to office. Can't blame me, have been doing this for close to 10 years now. All these years I travel minimum of 30kms to get started with work. cant blame again , tried multiple ways of getting home close to office, the only ways are getting office close to home or stop working. For now, I continue to bank for opportunities on option one.

Anyways , one such lazy morning, I missed my cab to office. I rather took my time that day, I had a sumptuous hot breakfast of plain parantha with a variety of sides - banana crush(:-)), curry leave chutney powder, curd . Finally, had a full glass of hot without chicory coffee, and got geared for my journey towards office. I usually have to take 3 buses - 6 , 15, 15 km break up each - when I miss the cab.

This day I took an auto for the first hop - nowadays almost everybody thinks money gets dropped from trees for guys with laptop on their back. Crazy. The auto guy said Rs 60 , no meter. It would have cost me Rs 50 with , so I said fine got in.

At the next hop I waited for 30 mins to see if I had a luck with new direct bus which would avoid another hop. But god had different plans, I took the usual red bus. Another 35Rs , but this is normal, I never repent paying this money, it feels worth.

So finally the last and worst hop - tin factory it is called. You say the name to any Bangalorean, he knows its bad. Its so famous. I waited for another 30 min, for some reason Sun was very happy this day, all bright and scorching. No luck, not a single bus, usually I get one in like 10 min. Finally I said to myself, what the heck , lets take an auto. The auto guys brain in action again, said, no meter , 120Rs. It was too late by now and I was tired and just wanted to get out of the place, so I said fine. I spent 215 Rs to reach office.

Lets see what were my other options
1) nothing by cab , but no home made breakfast, got to really hurry
2) Start little earlier, hurry up , and catch buses - 3 buses
Well I don't repent a single bit it was just the price of a peaceful tasty breakfast watching some scene from one of the good English movies. For those of you who have watched Friends enough , Whats not to like in (Joey style) - breakfast good, peace gooooooood, movie gooooooooooooooood

.

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Who is watching ....

Every time I get into aero - plane, I am excited not about the travel, but the journey itself.I make sure I get window seat always. There is something about viewing the cities from high above.When I am on ground these cities seem so important for our existence but from the sky they just seem like specs, totally insignificant . Or when the sky is filled with clouds it is a different feeling to get in between them and be amazed at the beauty we are so close to but still so far. I always wonder , how nice it would be if I had a home in the cloud :-) It also brings in a kind of humble feeling and I start thinking, about what is the significance of my existence. My home is probably a dot at that high altitude and cannot even make out where it is. Imagine how I would make any difference to this world just by my existence. At the same time, I cannot stop wondering about the power such a small being has - look at the power of some of the revolutions spawned by a single leader like Gandhi / Nelson Mandela. Another thought I get every time is, we all are coached in our religions about God watching all of our actions. Looking at a view of the city- just the city i live in- and identifying the houses / monuments is such a tough task. If God has to watch the whole of earth with all the beings, I cannot even imagine how he should be or how he would do it. That is when I come back to some of our spiritual learning and realize why there is the concept of -"God Within". Every religion preaches this. The greatest messiahs , the most thoughtful people of all religion were enlightened with this concept and have enunciated this - "God is there within yourself and don't search outside for him". Just thoughts ......

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Book Review : One flew over a cuckoo's nest

Well, I took quite a bit of time to read this fiction. Ken Kesey's amazing creation. The book is refreshing , not just in terms of the new kind of story, but the narration and the language. It is sarcastic at times. I would sometimes laugh myself sitting in the cab reading some chapters. It has all of it - plot, story, jokes, philosophical views of author, reality of the society. Its one book apart from The Fountainhead which I would not mind reading again. Basically it revolves around the fact that how society sidelines some of the human beings and constantly makes them realize their deficiencies(Deficiencies in the eyes of society). If you ever felt you are an odd man out in a group and the group is constantly telling you that, thats what this book is about. But here the group is the whole system, the society, the families - knowingly or unknowingly. Good read I must say.....

Views

While reading a book -"The idealist view of life", there was one note from author where he says that - the religion and the belief, the practices are something which one inherits from his birth." If you think about it , probably it is the best reuse ever - inheritance - Inheritance of belief, inheritance of religion, inheritance of views about what is right and what is wrong and a lot of day to day practices. We inherit all of these from the families into which we are born. One way this is good, imagine if every one of us were to be born and then understand all of this ourselves - from scratch. It takes a lot of thought and knowledge for a human being to come out of this initial shield and then try to create a different view about religion imposed , and the day to day activities part of it. For example, as we start understanding a lot of the beliefs and scientifically try to reason, we unveil that not all practices are needed or are correct. In this line of inheritance a lot of things have just mutated so much that they are no more valid. Now there is no need that this new view is the right one in the eyes of your society, people who have grown so far in their thought , will now be very staunch about what they now think is right. Because they are the creators of the view, they are not just following something. This can be a better experience if our education systems were equipped to help us question rather than gather information. The Indian education system today just ensures that we know things but does not emphasize enough that we believe, with a reason about what we know and the view we have. While reading one of the books - a philosophical one rather - it was hard to keep up with the topics discussed. Often after a day's work it is hard to sit and concentrate on abstract topics like the ones above. Although the book and the topic is good, its very intense and there is no story. A story does not have to be like the way it is in fiction, but just make you come back to the book to complete what ever the chapter put a question on. This is when I started realizing the importance of stories full of life in Hindu religion to showcase principles of religion. The Vedas , the Upanishads are abstract in this sense, it requires one to concentrate with lot of thought put into whatever is being read. When they realized , it is hard to achieve and propagate this knowledge is its abstract form, the Puranas came into picture. They have colorful stories, Making it easier to still emphasize on what they want to communicate but in a different manner. This is the reason, we have rituals to engage a human beings mind on activities which will keep them busy. If all of this is taken away and if you were to just lead the life - just you as a human being , it would become monotonous for those of us who have not found the real human bonding - love.

Sunday, July 31, 2011

Amazing creation

I recently met somebody and have been quite amazed / baffled. I did not really appreciate the person sentimentally( for the short time I communicated) but for the short glimpse of few days I got to interact, I had to say I was quite Amazed and had to say "What a creation".

Nothing else other a human being be so advanced among God's creations. When you meet thinkers or beings who realize that there is something more than the usual money and fame one wants in life, it is indeed an astonishment. In one of the books I was reading where the author was talking about intuitive knowledge, he was explaining why things like studying, getting job, getting married and having kids , creating property have been the milestones for more than 70% of the human species. He was telling that we dont know what else to do with our time, and sometimes I feel what he said was right.
Take for example marriage, although there are reasons of progeneration and general norm of evolution to make this important, in the world we live in, this is close to a business. Matrimony sites showcasing available brides and grooms, talking and figuring out on blind dates and then when it actually gets finalized, all of these are business like. But then alas!!! man does not know what to do if he is not going to be married.
The rest of them have evolved similarly, today's eduction in India is an excellent example. There is hardly any use of what we study in the classrooms of life. But then we dont know what to do if we dont put our kids to school, we just follow the standard route like flocks of sheep.

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Differences

A poor man walks a mile to get a handful of rice, a rich man walks a mile to digest the same handful of rice.
I read this somewhere recently, can't recall though where. In and around us although nature just treats us like humans - just plain homo-sapiens, we have distinguished ourselves into different races, different genders. There is gender bias in office, racial bias in public places and worst further in countries like India there is caste -ism everywhere in one form or the other.
If we are stripped of all of these and if we have to look at ourselves and talk to ourselves about what is our worth, one will re-gain the right thought and right path. Tall claim of course, but read any scriptures this is what is told .
Often i wonder, why being simple is so difficult. This is the simplest thought but yet very difficult for us to realize.
As long as we don't realize differences are here to stay.

Sunday, May 29, 2011

Wars

Think about all the wars human beings are fighting across the countries. There are more than 2000 battles fought for Jerusalem alone historically and even today, as per one of the theories America needs to be engaged in a war all the time to support their economy.

Each country has fought its own battle for freedom, or to defend their territories. If only there was no war or battle or fights, where would have we invested all those resources into.

Yes, quite unrealistic, that we will ever be in a situation that requires no war ever. The people lost in both the world wars are quite enough for one to think over his whole life . In my mind, i think if the whole world had been like the typical Bangalorean - mind your own business attitude, we would have invested quite a bit of our war budget into some research, which might have improved our standards of living more than inventing the new and more advanced missiles.
Probably in bridging the gap between poor and rich, not sure or we would have already been to mars by now. You can never know .

Nevertheless its just a thought!!!!

Monday, May 23, 2011

Monday, May 16, 2011

Hard Luck?



Just yesterday, the petrol prices went up by another five rupees make it a good seventy one rupees now for a liter.

When I pick some of the situations in my life, I feel is this hard luck ?"why me God !!!!!" .
Right when I started working in electronic city, we shifted our house to the other end of the city. So I started travelling all the way about 35 kms for work. But this was fine, because it was our home, sweet and calm with least pollution and noise. Then they started building the silk board fly over and being the first generation fly overs and with worst planning, I was sitting in a bus for close to 3 hours sometimes in traffic jams.
Fine.....
Then I moved on to Whitefield , the other major IT hub, now this time everything looked good. Nice comfortable cabs, 2.5 hours reduced to 1hr commute.
Voila!!!They started a series of underpasses, metro rail road and fly over constructions all through my way to office on the ORR. Now it is back to 1.5 hours :( .Can you say hard luck?

Not yet
Then I decided to buy a car. when I decided and bought it, Petrol was 50 rupees and Diesel was 42 Rupees, not too much of the difference. Since I did not plan to commute by car to office and it was to be used for travel with family and to places there is no bus or train facility, I decided to go for a petrol car. Its going to be 11 months now since I bought, petrol prices have risen 4 times and now the price is 71 rupees while diesel remains at 45.
Hard Luck.... Well may be one can choose to think that way.

But it will be lot more easier and happier if I think, all the fly over constructions are indications of how important infrastructure improvements have become. By the way the best part is that during those traffic jams, me and my friend used to spend so much time together, I got one of my best friends for life :-).
Well talking of petrol, its deemed to increase sooner or later, in another ten years, we will have to think of a electric car or a hybrid car. As long as I can afford it I will use it, once it becomes ridiculous to travel by a petrol car, I will start thinking what to do... ofcourse it isn't easy to sell things you love :-)

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Hues of Nature


Its the beautiful Spring time again. I have slightly changed my habits and added some good ones and one of them is to take a walk in the morning.
The agricultural university - GKVK - is right in the vicinity and its more than a park, its a mini forest.

Bangalore is still livable and has traces of the old one due to these small patches of lush greenery in and around the city.The people rushing to these parks /mini forests in Lal Bagh, IISC, sankey Park, BEL, military zones are examples of how necessary it is for human's to be part of nature rather than exploit it.Its moving on from the old independent houses with a small garden to a more compacted houses without no sign of greenery around to a concrete jungle with hardly any trace of natural colors. All good thoughts, religions claim life comes full circle. I think we are on the hump of the semi-circle right now, with city being over crowded and reducing ground water to traffic and pollution. Am already thinking of where I should reside probably ten years down the line .

Meanwhile, I could not resist the beautiful colors around in GKVK and wanted to capture them permanently in memory and digitally. Here is a small sample. If you are interested in watching all the photos , please follow me into - A walk on a bright Sunday morning

Sunday, May 8, 2011

Black Swan

Last night I watched Black Swan and for the life of me , I have not been able to stop thinking about it. I went and re-read the summary and interpretations on various sites. I read through Natalie Portman , although while watching the movie , I felt the face similar but could not trace back to another movie.After realizing that she was in Closer, I was to some extent surprised and impressed with her perfect acting in this movie.

She definitely deserves the accolades she received and the director has done no less than a fantastic job.

Its amazing and mind blowing to watch movies like this which are perfections and an art in deed. In terms of the story , I just relived my post-watch experience of "Hide and Seek" and "The Hour". Whenever I watch such movies , which are open ended and food for thoughts and some serious things within and with human nature, a kind of discussion with somebody else who really understands it is something I cherish and often don't get.

To get this off my mind and to be able to sleep, I had to start watching "Gulliver Travels" :D

Happy movies

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Book Review - The Design of EveryDay Things by Donald Norman



I recently finished reading this book. It is a worthwhile read. Although not all of the aspirations of the author are realistic(atleast for the area of software), its good to aspire for what is ideal.

After reading this book, one important thing is that you will start appreciating the beauty of design even in the simplest thing like a safety pin or needle. You will also realize that not all newer versions are improved designs since there are so many factors contributing in production of a new product, its not always true that the latest is the greatest.

One needs to go by the old thumb rule that you are best Judge when you have the knowledge, so get the knowledge and decide for yourself.

The beauty of the book is in the way author communicates his ideas with the simplest things around us and with the excellent examples like door bars, water faucets, motor panel design, the mapping of vertical movement with the circular steering wheel.

There is one part of the book, which talks about how digital clock is better than analog. Whoever invented the concept of having 2 needles for the clock and why it is hard to teach a child to read a clock. Interesting things which typically we would not notice or care to observe.

Assuming that the author wrote this book in early 90s, his expectation about computer design to evolve to solve the actual problem rather than becoming a part of the problem is to some extent true if you see in today's progressed computer world. But we are still long way from becoming as advanced and perfect as a motor industry and this will take its time. The ideal day would be when using a computer becomes like using electric current, to solve the problem - lighting the bulbs and lamps, cooling for refrigerator, heating for iron . But the computer world is a lot different from the other worlds so coming times will tell us how best they evolve into.

I like reads like this , since they enhance your view or improve your perspective about what is around you, they make you more cognizant human being ultimately.

Sunday, March 6, 2011

Vacation

I took off a long vacation of complete 15 days from office. This was after a long time, so much so that i made a list of things i need to do during vacation.
Well I could cover atleast 80% of it. But most importantly it just provided me this time to just come out of office and just be somebody who I would be if I am stripped of my job.

I enjoyed it in my own way, not that I spent all the time laughing and going around the world. But I did do some thinking, some reading, some shopping and watched quite a few movies - in a sense I did a few of everything. I watched interesting movies - Hachiko, The Gods must be crazy, Memento(third time and still can watch again), The social network, Falling in love , The Lovely bones and a few more.

It amazes me how time passes by and how people are always , in their own ways, trying to make meaning out of their lives. Almost everybody understands that time is precious, but nobody is really sure if they are really using it to the fullest.

I accidentally came across Nikola Tesla's feature and about how although he was so intriguingly knowledgeable, but still did not have so much of luck with the world. Well Well well, for one thing , I realized, its not important whether the world thinks if you are good, that's a question you ought to answer yourself. You might not be famous or somebody who gets a huge salary or somebody with a lot of political influence, but it does matter how your family treats you and how you respond back . This is what probably makes one feel good , and spice it up with achievements in your work life, one would feel a life worth lived. Do check out this link about Tesla.

Monday, January 10, 2011

Meaning of life

So I am reading a serious but a very meaningful book from Viktor Frankl about Man's search for meaning in life.
I chose to buy and then read it because this book addresses something which is like a eternal question for me. I am still reading it , but it is one book everybody should read.
Its a constant thought at the back of my mind, if I start worrying about anything - is this the purpose of your life and if you continue to do what you are doing, how will you feel 10 yrs down the line?
Anyways there is no general answer for these questions , each person and each person's life is unique so I could continue to write a few pages and still don't conclude about the meaning of one's life.
I came across this very interesting site - Khan academy. The interesting thing is the person - SalmanKhan - provides online videos - like online classrooms. This guy is so learned and his effort is something which seems to make the technology we have meaningful and worthwhile. Imagine how many people are getting benefitted out of this . Some thing like this, which helps the other human beings and also gives the satisfaction for the person of achieving something - this is called as meaning for one's life in my opinion.