Buying Rubber

I read a post in Sujoy Sir Blog (http://masti-time.blogspot.com/2005/12/buying-condom.html) about his experiences in buying condoms for the first time to test the social stigma associated with the “f” word…. I read and thought… What’s the big deal.. Go to a pharmacy and say “Please give me condoms”…. With this in mind, I thought I will buy a pack myself… The first thought was wh not buy it from a local pharmacy…. Then thought, this guy I visit often to have my daily dosage of chocolates…. So, lets not spoil my image there… (As if I was going to commit a crime.. But then Ok… Anyway I am buying the stuff… right… So, I went to a little far off pharmacy…. And on the way all my machoism vanished…. I was thinking how fast I can ask for it and run off as if I had marijuana…. With these thoughts, I reached the pharmacy…. Initially there was an uncle with a his bald head shining…. We Indians always had respect for age and we never talk about physical stuff in front of them… So, lets wait till he leaves…. I showed extremely unnoticed trait of mine… read patience…. Once the uncle left…. I was about to ask what I wanted, when I saw a lady approaching…. I thought “Aasmaan se gire, khajoor pe latke… What if Aunty comes and sits here???”…. I mumbled something fast…. The shopkeeper nodded… I gave him money and I had my rubber… I thought about the usage and soft, rubbery and a balloon came to my mind…. I had 2 “Boom Boom Boomer” in my hand worth Rs 2/- :D and for all practical purpose, I was ashamed… So much so for a self proclaimed “Liberal”… Finally I decided to go back to the shop, once Aunty is no longer there…. I waited in the corner of the street, till dark green shade pallu of Aunty is no longer to be seen. Once she is gone, I went back to the shop… and I said “Condoms”!!!.... I don’t remember, listening my own voice… May be the shopkeeper was so much used to the “Great Indian Dilemma” that he could lip-read or could get my response. He gave a smile… I thought he said “Hota hai beta!!!” or may be “All the Best!!!”…. Either way, I had passed the test, may be with a grace marks :(.. There was no more test pending that evening.. I repeat, there was really nothing in plans for the evening…. I rushed down the street… Had a look at the box and then dropped the box at the garbage box…. :)… Are you kidding!!!! I couldn’t have brought that home… What if my roommate saw me and kicked me out of the home for bringing bad influence to him and his brother…. Anyway!!! Mission Accomplished…. But definitely, if an educated person and self proclaimed “Liberal” like me felt so embarrassed, no doubt population explosion and AIDS “Un-”Awareness is something which is knocking our door dangerously….

A short story

One Mr. John reached Airport some time in advance and checked in. While waiting in the bay, he decided to get his weight... He went to a weighing machine and dropped a coin... The ticket read "Hi John, You weigh 70 kgs and you are going to catch A22"... John was astonished and he decided to drop another coin to check if it was a prank... The slip now read "Hi again John... U still weigh 70 kgs and you still are going to catch A22"... Now John is confused... He goes to the loo and changes his clothes and puts a wig so that machine cant recognize him.... Then he goes to the machine and puts a coin..... The slip read ""Hi again John... U still weigh 70 kgs and have MISSED your A22"....
Disclaimer : This is not an original story from me... Original author unknown
This is the irony of our lives... How many A22s have been missed because we are stuck with our weighing machines....

State of Affairs of Indian IT Industry

Thomas Freidman (forgive me if it is wrong) said World is Flat and Indian IT Industry became euphoric. Infosys even changed its punch line in many PPT from "Powered By Intellect and Driven by Values" to "Winning in Flat World". World is Flat was discussed in almost all Meetings and Statements. So, in Summer of 2007, I finally read the book and as soon as I read it I had only one line to summarize the book "Earlier we had nothing to eat... Now we had shit..." I can understand the American Concerns but not Indian Euphoria.

All Indian Software Industries be it Indian or MNCs barring few new startups are all here to take benefit of labour arbitrage that India offers. What we can bill for 36USD an hour would be billed by a consultant in US for close to 60USD. So, lets exploit that.. US company pays 36 USD instead of 60 USD and Indian company or Offshore arm pays 10-20USD to the Employee and pockets rest. The Fresh Engineering Graduate today earns 3 times in Bangalore than what he would have earned in a small manufacturing firm in an obscure village besides a boiler at 70 degree Celsius. A perfect win win.... true... but... is India really shining....

I doubt and reason is simple. There are people who can reverse the trend. Brazil and China are educating their kids in English and they are capable of providing even chaper options and better quality. So what is there which we can say is Indian Core-Competency. The favorable winds of today may change their direction tomorrow and then would India and Indian IT Industry still be shining?

The Indian greatness lies in its creativity and free will. Are we the Software Engineers creative??? Yes we are but in all fields but our work. Unless we incorporate that in our work, the future doesnt look so great. We not only need to work hard but to work smart. We soon need to build another IBM and Google rather than just doing their work at lesser cost. Then and only then we can say Indian IT is to stay long. We need to utilize our leverage today to harvest tomorrow. Else, one day we might become what South Korea was for Manufcturing.

My path

Lots have already been talked about in this blog about Greatness of mankind. Probably no longer required to underline that again...

But 1 question.... are we really great?????

We have created farms which fill our granries... but millions still starve... we have costumes which enable us to endure extremes of moon... but people die of cold of Delhi and heat of UP..... We create great sky scrappers but still Salman Khan crushes ppl sleeping on roads... We can exchange hearts but ppl still die of small diseases like fever....

We all agree uptil now... And then we say .. bad... but we need to accept reality... this is how it is supposed to be... And here I differ.... We were not supposed to fly... but we did... We were not supposed to go to ocean beds... we did... We were not supposed to go to moon,.. we did.... Then why not this....

This is what is greatness of mankind....

Now the question how.....

I have no lost love for Communism or Politicians whose speech may also feature all these.... "Aam Admi..." new name for people...

Development is more communist than communism.. Growth results in equlity of opportunity thru:
1. Creation of more and more resources to increse scale of production leading to reduction of cost per item and thus make it more accessible to people.
2. Provide opportunities of economic well being to people directly or indirectly connected with them...

Example is no more than my recent encounter with a Auto wallah... He asked me how much did it cost me for the flight from Kolkata to Bangalore.. I said 2500 bucks..... He asked me abt the flight... whether there are TVs in each seat, abt air hostesses [;)] and others...

Then he told me he wont travel in Deccan but King Fisher which costs 5000 bucks but there are TVs in each seat and gud Air Hostesses. I was amazed.... Not because a Auto wallah prefers more comfortable journey over cheap one. But by the fact that a Autowallah today has resources to access this when it cudnt have been thought about a decde ago...

This is what is really called development... Development doesnt lie in increasing GDP or improving million other statistics... But lies in how many people reach at a level where they can access all facilities or those facilities which help them living a better life.... And that doesnt come from rationing... But comes from creating a level field....

But still large dark corners lies in India and this world and that is where I need to go with the lamp... That is the path I have decide to take... To do my bit of manly thing....

Continue reading this section for more posts and feel free to comment... And dont ask me what I am doing in Infosys and in Bangalore.... U dont know what is darkness unless u know light....

Greatness of Mankind and my dillema......

What makes mankind great.... Isnt it a question worth asking...


Most answers I get... We rule the world...Correction... We rule Lands except Arctics..... Deep forests.. mountains... marshes.. deserts..... However, even if there are some regions outside our rule but still to an extend they are acessible to us.. so are great oceans, skies and universe beyond that to an extent.....
Some more feats include... our ability to pollute environment, push even great whales and deadly carnivores to extinction...

Are these sufficient reasons of our greatness... I doubt.... Our greatness lies in the capability to beak free the constraits nature gave us... ability to communicate knowledge and then mass produce it... in our capability to create beautiful... in our capability to love beyond reproduction needs.... in our ability to dream of a better tomorrow and achieving those.... in our ability to create means to contain monstrosity of nature and then say to nature 'Come On.. Lets have another round'...

IN SHORT MAN'S GREATNESS LIES IN HIS CREATIVITY... AN APETITE TO CREATE NEW, BIG, BEAUTIFUL...

Now my dillema....

Where do I fit in grand scheme of mankind.... I dream a better tomorrow... but that tomorrow is abt my promotion or a visit abroad.... I work hrd.. but crete no new knowledge for mankind nor create something beautiful... I create a maze of 0s and 1s which are repetitive and our "Processes" make sure they have no creativity at all.

So, how am I a great creature??? I dont become great by using inventions of others... I dont become great by watching great art or listening a great music or reading a great book.... I dont become great by living in 130 ft tall building...I dont become great by working in a Great Economic System... I dont becme great by living in a great Political System... I dont become great by working on a grand software unless I design it different and something never done before or never dremt before...

Probably I belong to a new species of human being....(Homo Parasitus... One who look like humans sans the creativity and who depend on creativity of other human beings and dwell on the greatness achieved by them, things created by them, thoughts thought by them, systems made by them). And probably there are many freinds of mine co-habiting in my specie......

My purpose in life

"From Soil it came... To soil it went...." The person who said this should be hanged....

It demeans the very creativity of mankind. Man as I mentioned in my previous posts is not a collective sum of chemicals designed to look like what our eyes perceive it to be, but a entity... an entity who is not here to born, eat, grow, copulate, nurture his kids and then die, he is not a furniture in Nature's play but a participating actor....

We today have technology, science, arts, humanities which all defies nature. We fly fater than fatest bird, travel faster than fastest beast, travel moon, communicate till end of solar system, live twice the life than expectancy, etc etc... However, motive here is not to display the superiority of mankind but to ask whether this really make us(the users of all these marvels) great???????????

If we really ask ourselves, how many of us really have broken the chains of nature.... How many of us perform additional roles than what nature intended. How many of us are adding new dimensions to mankind? How many of us are striving to make next generation even more successful.... I dont see many hands up... And if we ask, you wont find many hands up in past as well... There is a huge population of CATTLE (however little more sofisticated) for each man we find....Who is man.... I will define in my later post.....

Today when I see myself, I see me in a vast herd of cattle, being rowed by few people of past and present.....

To transform from cattle to man is my purpose of life......

A small Clarification
This post is not meant to compare some people... Please dont take it hard... The motive is to state superiority of man lies in his traits and not in the fact that he/she is born in that species

My deep insights :D

I wonder hours and hours together.. What is Life? Why r we alive... ANy purpose or a purposeless combination of life giving chemicals as Scientists may prefer to tell...

If that was all not enough, then we are something that we refer as intelligent... In fact it takes intelligence to understand that we are intelligent.. Is intelligence all attributed to our unusual brain to body ratio... No purpose no responsibility...

If so, I see this as third gift infact.... but man doesnot understand anything taht was easy, so he searches purpose of life... So, do I....


I identify all people into 3 types....

1. Those who want money,fame,power, recognition, etc, etc which all die as soon as he dies
2. One who lives for his passions and interestes like artists, fighters, Scientists,Social Workers etc... They die but there ideas live much longer
3. One who is above all.. Who thinks that this Universe is closed balanced system.. So, whatever u do.. overall system remains same.. So, no point in doing anything....

Where do I stand?
Another nice question and for which I have no great answer. I salute people of type 3, inspired by people of type 2 but dont want to be seen to bad in the parameters of 1. Confused.... who said who am I is a easy question.

Look in this place for more stories about ..... who else 'ME'