Besides getting poked at and turned into a zombie, I really appreciate FB's BlogFriends app.
Tonight when I was exploring the recent blogs on my FB app. I came across something interesting that really made me forget it was 2 am and I couldnt resist the itch to read and blog it immdtly.
I was reading a blog called - An American Holiday and a Desi Dilema by Snigdha Sen, although the post was speaking about Thanksgiving day which is the biggest festival now in the US of A. Snigdha mentioned a report on wharton by eminent newspaper columnist Shoba Narayanan.
The report kept me awake. I know of people who made it to their american dream. I know the families who proudly flash their american relatives and the gifts.
What happened in the early 90's was the 2nd big flood of Indian Brain-Drain. (excuse my ignorance I was too young if something similar happened before)
Talent of all sorts was being whisked away and Indians (especially the IT folks) saw America as the promised land. where a Srinivas from Kuchipudi village landed in a job with a local IT company that greedily traded him as a consultant to Detroit.
Ok, it was not so bad as I just described but the bulk of the IT force which was employed were Indians and Indians who survived in a very different country with a strange culture.
All of them are now well settled, flash a green card and are overall doing great. India in the early 2K saw a great wave of enterpreunership, great flagships like Infosys, Wipro and Reliance earned a respectable place in the world forum.
This made a lot Indians abroad start dreaming about going back and there was a small wave called ROI - Return of Indians.
I do not have the statistics nor would dare to say the numbers were large. but still it was a good thing that happened. The Returning Indians brought back immense talent, knowledge and revolutionised the work culture in India.
Hyderabad & Banglore were known to be sleeping cities before 2K, but now you would be amazed that these cities do not sleep at all. we have major IT hubs, Call centers and reasearch being delivered from here.
The report by Shobha Narayanan is really a story of cross cultural dilema.
Considering our Hero even though he survived America, got a good dowry and a beautiful bride in a couple of years and yeah had a couple of kids thereafter.
He had been remitting like a loyal Indian would do for his parents, his kid brothers extravagance or his sisters marriage whatever. had now a family of his own.
While our Hero had seen his kids growing up and turning American everyday. raising them was a parental nightmare. so what does he do..he starts dreaming of R2I - Return To India.
His family was used to getting these nice gifts from him and wanted him to stay there successful forever..how hypocritical we can be.
Well, with this struggle of acceptance (a sort of) and his phobia that his kids might get the wrong culture ingrained. He starts loosing his patience.
he experiments by coming down for vacations, social events in the family - offcourse He realises that he has to buy few cartons of mineral water to avoid diahorrea and also gets the vibes of hypocrisy around him.
His relatives expect a lot from him, he has to bribe them with imported gifts and what not.
So our Hero and his alikes are as confused and troubled as those aspiring to get the american visa.
Human beings are such a disillusioned lot, we want things that we might soon repent & discard.
Saturday, November 24, 2007
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Amazon: Reinventing the Book | Newsweek.com
Amazon: Reinventing the Book Newsweek.com
After reading this great article on Amazon's new (ebook reader) device - Kindle, I was impressed with some of the references Steven Levy made.
Especially the epilogue is interesting. I totally agree with him and to add to it, there would be no more trees to produce paper to be processed into books.
I would bet on shares of companies investing in recycling of existing waste paper.
Looking at the current apathy of yuppies not being able to write a 100 word composition in plain english. teachers have reported students being addicted to sms-text english.
some interesting articles on the Gen Y & technology
- Text Messaging and the death of English Language
- The Detrimental effects of america's individualistic youth
Devices like Kindle are going to be a sure welcome relief to the gadget folks.
But still the book (quote from the article) has undergone over 5000 years of technology improvisation is sure to stay. We humans have also genetically inherited the passion towards paper/physical books. It might still stay kicking alive for a few more decades.
With technology and services like Kindle replacing the traditional way of reading a good novel, We are sure to find the last few books to be preserved by those Librarians who want to keep literary artefacts available for reference in the future.
After reading this great article on Amazon's new (ebook reader) device - Kindle, I was impressed with some of the references Steven Levy made.
Especially the epilogue is interesting. I totally agree with him and to add to it, there would be no more trees to produce paper to be processed into books.
I would bet on shares of companies investing in recycling of existing waste paper.
Looking at the current apathy of yuppies not being able to write a 100 word composition in plain english. teachers have reported students being addicted to sms-text english.
some interesting articles on the Gen Y & technology
- Text Messaging and the death of English Language
- The Detrimental effects of america's individualistic youth
Devices like Kindle are going to be a sure welcome relief to the gadget folks.
But still the book (quote from the article) has undergone over 5000 years of technology improvisation is sure to stay. We humans have also genetically inherited the passion towards paper/physical books. It might still stay kicking alive for a few more decades.
With technology and services like Kindle replacing the traditional way of reading a good novel, We are sure to find the last few books to be preserved by those Librarians who want to keep literary artefacts available for reference in the future.
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Chiu Tai, Chiu Tai - where have you gone ?
I remember there was a poem in Marathi (one of the Indian Languages spoke in the State of Maharashtra) which i learnt during my primary school days.
It was a rhyme by a kid asking Chiu Tai (common house sparrow) where it has gone.
it brings a lot of nostalgia to me personally as the poem influenced us to observe and care for the sparrows. I also faintly remember how a sparrow would get into my room the moment it found the windows open and then peck at its refelected image on the mirror.
The sparrow is a feeble bird, the gender of its kind can be distinguished by the dull woody brown - Male and the dark reddish brown-Female.
They collectively build a nest from hay & twigs and the female lays around 3-4 eggs at a time. The venue for the nest is usually at the loft or in the unreachable spots of an structure like an apartment. unlike the weaver birds, the sparrow's nest is a bit clumsy structurally and built to just to fit the need.
I am no Ornithologist nor did i do any reasearch on birds. but i think this might be one of the reasons it got its name as the common house sparrow as it prefers to stay close to us - Humans.
let me ask you my dear friends - When did you last notice the Common House sparrow in India.
answer - a year back or maybe when you were hit by someone and you saw stars and chiu tai singing around your head !
nah.jokes apart, I was shocked when I heard this news but its true.
Pls read the article in the following link. http://www.indiatogether.org/2005/aug/env-sparrow.htm
Its pathetic we (humans) have sucessfully wiped out yet another of the species.
It high time we care for such beautiful creatures around us !
we will have rhymes but would be in a dilema if our little ones ask us the same question back....Chiu Tai, Chiu Tai - where have you gone ?
regards,
Ganesh
It was a rhyme by a kid asking Chiu Tai (common house sparrow) where it has gone.
it brings a lot of nostalgia to me personally as the poem influenced us to observe and care for the sparrows. I also faintly remember how a sparrow would get into my room the moment it found the windows open and then peck at its refelected image on the mirror.
The sparrow is a feeble bird, the gender of its kind can be distinguished by the dull woody brown - Male and the dark reddish brown-Female.
They collectively build a nest from hay & twigs and the female lays around 3-4 eggs at a time. The venue for the nest is usually at the loft or in the unreachable spots of an structure like an apartment. unlike the weaver birds, the sparrow's nest is a bit clumsy structurally and built to just to fit the need.
I am no Ornithologist nor did i do any reasearch on birds. but i think this might be one of the reasons it got its name as the common house sparrow as it prefers to stay close to us - Humans.
let me ask you my dear friends - When did you last notice the Common House sparrow in India.
answer - a year back or maybe when you were hit by someone and you saw stars and chiu tai singing around your head !
nah.jokes apart, I was shocked when I heard this news but its true.
Pls read the article in the following link. http://www.indiatogether.org/2005/aug/env-sparrow.htm
Its pathetic we (humans) have sucessfully wiped out yet another of the species.
It high time we care for such beautiful creatures around us !
we will have rhymes but would be in a dilema if our little ones ask us the same question back....Chiu Tai, Chiu Tai - where have you gone ?
regards,
Ganesh
Friday, October 12, 2007
Foreigners flock to India for good jobs
Foreigners flock to India for good jobs
For a change this is a reverse trend of RFs (Resident Foreigners) or firangs coming to India to work not to rule or setup a mission.
What is quiet interesting is the geographical locations and domains is not the most sought for,
HR and Customer services executives, managers and other specialists in the globalisation effected markets like FMCG and Hospitality are the attraction factors.
To Indian businessmen this means having a Firang greeting rich desi's and making them feel good about it. giving whatever the service is a 'pohren' touch.
I like the idea, and would love if the government by some magic can lure skilled workers in domains like oil exploration, medicine, electronics and fabrication to name a few, into seeking jobs here in India.
The initiative that some governments like Singapore employ is to get the best talent from around the world and tie them down so tight that they contribute back the profits both to the community as well as the government in form of ERP, Professional TAX or GST. at the sametime they reduce the burden on Lower income sections, provide more relaxation to the Aging citizens.
I know some of you might snigger i am comparing a drop of water (Singapore) to the ocean (India).
But IMAHO- good things come in small sizes and can come from the tiniest to the youngest.
India as a nation drastically needs to improve on its wealth - manpower, human investment, living conditions, health, security.
Thinking and converting everyone who read this blog is the only thing I can do now, when I meet a group of like-headers, My vision is to go ahead with the planning, logistics and implementation.
More of such news articles are predictable. After all who can ignore the fact that we are the 2nd largest population on this planet.
Lets make it a place that more of us and our future generations can prosper on.
ciao.
For a change this is a reverse trend of RFs (Resident Foreigners) or firangs coming to India to work not to rule or setup a mission.
What is quiet interesting is the geographical locations and domains is not the most sought for,
HR and Customer services executives, managers and other specialists in the globalisation effected markets like FMCG and Hospitality are the attraction factors.
To Indian businessmen this means having a Firang greeting rich desi's and making them feel good about it. giving whatever the service is a 'pohren' touch.
I like the idea, and would love if the government by some magic can lure skilled workers in domains like oil exploration, medicine, electronics and fabrication to name a few, into seeking jobs here in India.
The initiative that some governments like Singapore employ is to get the best talent from around the world and tie them down so tight that they contribute back the profits both to the community as well as the government in form of ERP, Professional TAX or GST. at the sametime they reduce the burden on Lower income sections, provide more relaxation to the Aging citizens.
I know some of you might snigger i am comparing a drop of water (Singapore) to the ocean (India).
But IMAHO- good things come in small sizes and can come from the tiniest to the youngest.
India as a nation drastically needs to improve on its wealth - manpower, human investment, living conditions, health, security.
Thinking and converting everyone who read this blog is the only thing I can do now, when I meet a group of like-headers, My vision is to go ahead with the planning, logistics and implementation.
More of such news articles are predictable. After all who can ignore the fact that we are the 2nd largest population on this planet.
Lets make it a place that more of us and our future generations can prosper on.
ciao.
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
We need to find alternate habitat in the galaxy: Kalam - Yahoo! India News
Hi Folks,
This article on finding alternate habitats in the galaxy compliments my earlier post - Men are from Mars.
well not actually, but the gist is that yes, we need to go ahead and seek virgin habitats once we have made our planet earth unhabitable..in other words polluted it beyond compare..what a shame indeed !
We need to find alternate habitat in the galaxy: Kalam - Yahoo! India News
This article on finding alternate habitats in the galaxy compliments my earlier post - Men are from Mars.
well not actually, but the gist is that yes, we need to go ahead and seek virgin habitats once we have made our planet earth unhabitable..in other words polluted it beyond compare..what a shame indeed !
We need to find alternate habitat in the galaxy: Kalam - Yahoo! India News
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Is Man really a Social Animal ?
Hi Folks,
I was discussing this topic in a different context with one of my colleague. I had always carried this thought in my mind, which I call it as one of my many theories (aka Gyanopdesh's)
The theory is a bit poetic and not really well framed (grammatically...but who cares)
"Man vies for a social life and in a group tries to be unique or different from the rest"
True, Dont you feel the same ?
Ok, take your time and close your eyes. try to recollect the guy/babe you hate the most and the one whom you can associate with words like - snob, show-off, et all
Thats right, there are many folks around us. and we are also one of them.
we live in a society which recognises what appears superficial, successful, glaringly bold, unconventional and all those weird things which we were taught in our school as not being right.
so what do we do, we do our best everyday to be noticed. dress up the best way, we strive to be cool (sometimes we are so cold that we have frozen expressions!)
we try to be indifferent to emotions, nostalgia, others around us. thats being cool right ?
I had heard about an experiment conducted by an psychologist studying human behaviour.
Luckily the psychologist did not use anyone but himself as the guniea pig.
He stayed away in isolation (siberia, alaska..i'm not sure where though) for few months. He had taken all the rations that would help him survive and basic needs to protect him from extreme weather.
He made it very clear that anything he carried need not have any labels on them, no markings, nothing which he can read. He had no communication device, nothing which can connect him to the rest of the world !
He had planned to stay in such condition for 6 months, but had told his friend to check on him in 3 months.
when his friend as promised went to see him. he could not believe his eyes.
The psychologist had aged more than a decade. he was worn out and unfit.
He begged his friend to abandon the experiment before he kills himself.
The psychologist had kept notes, daily log which he had updated to the tiniest detail. his observations were and are research material for experts in fields like Wild Life, Ice, Seasons, you name it.
When the psychologist came back to the civilized world, He was welcomed, honoured and praised for his will power, perseverance and determination. He was the guest of honour, speaker, & chair for many conferences and felicitations.
He continued adding to his notes/log, and later after few years He was back to normal.
He called few of his colleagues and asked them to use his notes to infer the changes he had been through.
The observations were made and the desicion was un-biased and unanimous.
1) In Solitude, the psychologist had explored beyond his interests, field of study. Each daily log had an unwritten claim and angst to be back into the society.
2) Back in Society, the psychologist had initially being happy to be loved and recognised. He carried this further when the felicitation had dried up, He became rude, commanding, demanding and proved he was an step ahead of all those experts around him.
well, I am not sure if this is a real experiment as this story was narrated to me as a kid. I dont have citations nor was i successful in finding any material on it on the internet.
The other incident which I want to share (confess) is really something which had embarassed me. but I was enlightened by a stranger on one of the IRC chat rooms where I boasted of being in the Deep Purple show in Banglore, India. which infact I never had been to, offcourse I used do listen to other classic rock bands and had nearly negligible knowledge of the legends.
when we were chatting about the show, the guy figured out i was faking and he said something which embarrased me but was really cool, I would love to quote it here.
"The Higher the monkey climbs the tree, the more of its butt can you see !"
well, you know who was the monkey now !
hope you enjoyed this post, do drop your comments and let me know if you think we are really social animals or just animals..grrr...!
I was discussing this topic in a different context with one of my colleague. I had always carried this thought in my mind, which I call it as one of my many theories (aka Gyanopdesh's)
The theory is a bit poetic and not really well framed (grammatically...but who cares)
"Man vies for a social life and in a group tries to be unique or different from the rest"
True, Dont you feel the same ?
Ok, take your time and close your eyes. try to recollect the guy/babe you hate the most and the one whom you can associate with words like - snob, show-off, et all
Thats right, there are many folks around us. and we are also one of them.
we live in a society which recognises what appears superficial, successful, glaringly bold, unconventional and all those weird things which we were taught in our school as not being right.
so what do we do, we do our best everyday to be noticed. dress up the best way, we strive to be cool (sometimes we are so cold that we have frozen expressions!)
we try to be indifferent to emotions, nostalgia, others around us. thats being cool right ?
I had heard about an experiment conducted by an psychologist studying human behaviour.
Luckily the psychologist did not use anyone but himself as the guniea pig.
He stayed away in isolation (siberia, alaska..i'm not sure where though) for few months. He had taken all the rations that would help him survive and basic needs to protect him from extreme weather.
He made it very clear that anything he carried need not have any labels on them, no markings, nothing which he can read. He had no communication device, nothing which can connect him to the rest of the world !
He had planned to stay in such condition for 6 months, but had told his friend to check on him in 3 months.
when his friend as promised went to see him. he could not believe his eyes.
The psychologist had aged more than a decade. he was worn out and unfit.
He begged his friend to abandon the experiment before he kills himself.
The psychologist had kept notes, daily log which he had updated to the tiniest detail. his observations were and are research material for experts in fields like Wild Life, Ice, Seasons, you name it.
When the psychologist came back to the civilized world, He was welcomed, honoured and praised for his will power, perseverance and determination. He was the guest of honour, speaker, & chair for many conferences and felicitations.
He continued adding to his notes/log, and later after few years He was back to normal.
He called few of his colleagues and asked them to use his notes to infer the changes he had been through.
The observations were made and the desicion was un-biased and unanimous.
1) In Solitude, the psychologist had explored beyond his interests, field of study. Each daily log had an unwritten claim and angst to be back into the society.
2) Back in Society, the psychologist had initially being happy to be loved and recognised. He carried this further when the felicitation had dried up, He became rude, commanding, demanding and proved he was an step ahead of all those experts around him.
well, I am not sure if this is a real experiment as this story was narrated to me as a kid. I dont have citations nor was i successful in finding any material on it on the internet.
The other incident which I want to share (confess) is really something which had embarassed me. but I was enlightened by a stranger on one of the IRC chat rooms where I boasted of being in the Deep Purple show in Banglore, India. which infact I never had been to, offcourse I used do listen to other classic rock bands and had nearly negligible knowledge of the legends.
when we were chatting about the show, the guy figured out i was faking and he said something which embarrased me but was really cool, I would love to quote it here.
"The Higher the monkey climbs the tree, the more of its butt can you see !"
well, you know who was the monkey now !
hope you enjoyed this post, do drop your comments and let me know if you think we are really social animals or just animals..grrr...!
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Varna's aka Vedic Caste System
Hi Folks,
Sharing a short story which I had read during my school.It is a letter being written by an old man to his grandson, demystifying why do we need to earn money and make profits.
I have to put in a disclaimer - this is my personal view, not meant to be read as an output from research nor based on any facts.
The old man explains in his letter about an mystic village in the pre-historic age.
where the population of the village is a one hundered human beings, who all do the same things over and over again.
he explains this by narrating their daily routine.
The villagers wake up every morning and start their daily chores by gathering food and water for the day's consumption.
Each family of villagers does this. So to fetch water from a brook which lies on the other side of the valley where the village lies. everyone lines up with a vessel and crosses the mountain seperating the village and the brook. this daily activity takes them almost half a day.
but human as they were who could not survive without the basic needs. they had no choice but to undergo this painful task.
one of the villagers - the dreamer as they would call him, starts thinking about a way to minimise this daunting task. He observes the mountain highs and lows, steep curves and bends. He makes note of his observation and starts digging a channel from the brook to the village. The channel gets filled with water and ends into a pond near his hutment.
this channel has costed him few extra hours daily, he would digg before he reached the brook, so in a way he worked backwards from destination to source.
And when the villagers started noticing him lazing and dreaming with abundant water at his disposal they started to envy him.
one of the villagers approached the dreamer and asked him if he could fetch water from his pond instead.
The dreamer allows him to do so but with a condition that, he should spare 5 minutes of his time to work for the dreamer everyday.
The happy villager readily accepts the offer, he has just profited from half-a-day's toil.
Slowly everyone realises that they can save time and energy. everyone approaches the dreamer and offer their five minutes. The dreamer welcomes all and is happy that he has got literally nothing to do. He carried on dreaming and worked on inventing few more things which would help not only him but all of his fellow villagers. He became powerful and his booty was abundantly filled. The village profited from each other and everyone led a happy and prosperous life.
wow ! what a tale.
This was explained by the narrator, our old man to his grandson in his letter.
Now to the other angle to this story. I interpret this story as the very begining of community and caste system - Varna in Sanskrit in ancient India.
The dreamer is the Brahmin who focusses on invention, remedies, medicine, science and discovery.
He employs various skilled craftsment who are sub divided into Shudra's.
The intial belief was all Shudra's are artisans and craftsmen beyond compare. their alienation and decline in social strata is the degeneration history of the caste system. I would not delve into that now.
The accountants and traders were the Vaishya's. who would classify, maintain, log and distribute the benefits amongst everyone fairly.
When the bounty, crop or wealth whatever you call it was abundant. There was a need to protect, secure and save the bounty from man, animal and nature.
The protectors were the Kshatriya's. Their strength and valor was counted for.
In this distribution each individual contributed to the well being of the system and the equation worked well for one and all.
I am sure that you might feel I am crazy but this is a hypothesis and I want to believe in the noble cause which might have helped design the Varna in Hindu system.
I want to believe that there is a much better reason for being a Brahmin because I am born as one. I want to believe that I am what I am not by birth but by pure virtue alone.
Pls let me know your comments on my thoughts.
Sharing a short story which I had read during my school.It is a letter being written by an old man to his grandson, demystifying why do we need to earn money and make profits.
I have to put in a disclaimer - this is my personal view, not meant to be read as an output from research nor based on any facts.
The old man explains in his letter about an mystic village in the pre-historic age.
where the population of the village is a one hundered human beings, who all do the same things over and over again.
he explains this by narrating their daily routine.
The villagers wake up every morning and start their daily chores by gathering food and water for the day's consumption.
Each family of villagers does this. So to fetch water from a brook which lies on the other side of the valley where the village lies. everyone lines up with a vessel and crosses the mountain seperating the village and the brook. this daily activity takes them almost half a day.
but human as they were who could not survive without the basic needs. they had no choice but to undergo this painful task.
one of the villagers - the dreamer as they would call him, starts thinking about a way to minimise this daunting task. He observes the mountain highs and lows, steep curves and bends. He makes note of his observation and starts digging a channel from the brook to the village. The channel gets filled with water and ends into a pond near his hutment.
this channel has costed him few extra hours daily, he would digg before he reached the brook, so in a way he worked backwards from destination to source.
And when the villagers started noticing him lazing and dreaming with abundant water at his disposal they started to envy him.
one of the villagers approached the dreamer and asked him if he could fetch water from his pond instead.
The dreamer allows him to do so but with a condition that, he should spare 5 minutes of his time to work for the dreamer everyday.
The happy villager readily accepts the offer, he has just profited from half-a-day's toil.
Slowly everyone realises that they can save time and energy. everyone approaches the dreamer and offer their five minutes. The dreamer welcomes all and is happy that he has got literally nothing to do. He carried on dreaming and worked on inventing few more things which would help not only him but all of his fellow villagers. He became powerful and his booty was abundantly filled. The village profited from each other and everyone led a happy and prosperous life.
wow ! what a tale.
This was explained by the narrator, our old man to his grandson in his letter.
Now to the other angle to this story. I interpret this story as the very begining of community and caste system - Varna in Sanskrit in ancient India.
The dreamer is the Brahmin who focusses on invention, remedies, medicine, science and discovery.
He employs various skilled craftsment who are sub divided into Shudra's.
The intial belief was all Shudra's are artisans and craftsmen beyond compare. their alienation and decline in social strata is the degeneration history of the caste system. I would not delve into that now.
The accountants and traders were the Vaishya's. who would classify, maintain, log and distribute the benefits amongst everyone fairly.
When the bounty, crop or wealth whatever you call it was abundant. There was a need to protect, secure and save the bounty from man, animal and nature.
The protectors were the Kshatriya's. Their strength and valor was counted for.
In this distribution each individual contributed to the well being of the system and the equation worked well for one and all.
I am sure that you might feel I am crazy but this is a hypothesis and I want to believe in the noble cause which might have helped design the Varna in Hindu system.
I want to believe that there is a much better reason for being a Brahmin because I am born as one. I want to believe that I am what I am not by birth but by pure virtue alone.
Pls let me know your comments on my thoughts.
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