Every morning, I reach the parking lot and I enter through "Ëinfahrt".
Every evening I leave office and I am wished "Gute Fahrt".
I exit the parking lot through "Ausfahrt".
If this continue like this fahrt would become a fixation and the whole environment would stink..if you know what I mean.
This whole country is fahrting you know!
In the office the most common discussion topics are "who is fahrting what" or whether "i fahrt better than you" or whether "women are better fahrters than men" or "which navigation device allows one to fahrt better".
Today morning while coming to work I got lost while fahrting and I tell you it was not funny.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Professional - to my surprise
I had a very pleasant experience with a local car dealer in Bangalore - Classic Automobiles. I sold my 2005 Honda City VTEC to them this month and they not only gave me a decent deal but also allowed me to keep the car for a week after the agreement was signed with them.
Payment was also promptly made and they were very proactive in pursuing the legal paperwork etc.
I would heartily recommend them to all.
Payment was also promptly made and they were very proactive in pursuing the legal paperwork etc.
I would heartily recommend them to all.
Intertial Displacement
Have you ever wondered why is it so difficult for most of the people to relocate? I have a reasoning around it and that is that humans being social animals are very good in growing "roots". The longer an individual stays in a location the stronger the roots become. Stronger the roots more difficult it is to uproot them and move on. In scientific terminology an object having more inertia would require more force to change its state.
I know any lame duck would understand where I am going with this. Well, yes I relocated lock, stock and barrel after spending 8 odd years in Bangalore. Over the past couple of days I am settling down in my new location and checking the soil to see how soon the new roots will grow.
Over the last weekend I spent time at the new apartment which will be my home for the next few years. It is so very beautiful. It is located quite close to the town center but is in a nice, quiet burrough. The place is comfortably large but not monstrous, has a covered parking, has nice ventilation and cheerful sunlight, warm colors, a green balcony and a private garden. Behind the apartment complex are huge expanses of wineyards where one can go running and mountain biking as there are small hills and rough terrain. It is quite a big change from the previous apartment I had and needless to say I love it.
By the way, I am celebrating "Indian summer" in the beginning of "European winter" as all my warm clothes are in the shipment which is somewhere in air and somewhere in sea. Waiting for bank account and credit cards to be available to make some purchases. Maybe its the start of new roots, eh?
I know any lame duck would understand where I am going with this. Well, yes I relocated lock, stock and barrel after spending 8 odd years in Bangalore. Over the past couple of days I am settling down in my new location and checking the soil to see how soon the new roots will grow.
Over the last weekend I spent time at the new apartment which will be my home for the next few years. It is so very beautiful. It is located quite close to the town center but is in a nice, quiet burrough. The place is comfortably large but not monstrous, has a covered parking, has nice ventilation and cheerful sunlight, warm colors, a green balcony and a private garden. Behind the apartment complex are huge expanses of wineyards where one can go running and mountain biking as there are small hills and rough terrain. It is quite a big change from the previous apartment I had and needless to say I love it.
By the way, I am celebrating "Indian summer" in the beginning of "European winter" as all my warm clothes are in the shipment which is somewhere in air and somewhere in sea. Waiting for bank account and credit cards to be available to make some purchases. Maybe its the start of new roots, eh?
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Right to life or Right to choice
In the past few days the question about Right to Life or Right to Choice has come up.
In Mumbai a couple's foetus has been diagnozied with a heart condition and they moved the court to allow aborting the same. The parent's plea was that knowing that the baby if born will face a life of constant struggle they want to spare themselves and the new born the pain. The court rejected the plea on the basis of medical reports which couldnt categorically state whether the child would be born with a defect or not and an archaic law which was drafted over 30 years ago.
If we really talk about Right to life my contention is whether it is the foetus' choice to be born even though when born it might not have a fruitful life. At what point of time does the child get the Right of Choice - when he/she is conceived, when he/she is born, when he/she is 5 years old, when he/she is older...when? If we disregard the moral dilemma and just concentrate on the facts then I find it weird that the decision was based on a law which was drafted 30 years ago. Since that time medical science has advanced so much that the basis on which the regulations were drafted would be defunct. Would it not make sense then to relook at the statutes of the Indian Penal Code instead of debating only the moral grounds of this question?
In Mumbai a couple's foetus has been diagnozied with a heart condition and they moved the court to allow aborting the same. The parent's plea was that knowing that the baby if born will face a life of constant struggle they want to spare themselves and the new born the pain. The court rejected the plea on the basis of medical reports which couldnt categorically state whether the child would be born with a defect or not and an archaic law which was drafted over 30 years ago.
If we really talk about Right to life my contention is whether it is the foetus' choice to be born even though when born it might not have a fruitful life. At what point of time does the child get the Right of Choice - when he/she is conceived, when he/she is born, when he/she is 5 years old, when he/she is older...when? If we disregard the moral dilemma and just concentrate on the facts then I find it weird that the decision was based on a law which was drafted 30 years ago. Since that time medical science has advanced so much that the basis on which the regulations were drafted would be defunct. Would it not make sense then to relook at the statutes of the Indian Penal Code instead of debating only the moral grounds of this question?
Friday, July 25, 2008
Dharma Yudh
A couple of days back one of my old team members quit the company. The person was one of the oldest members of the team as well as one of those with whom I enjoyed working a lot. Infact over the past few weeks lots of people from my old team have left.
Since I keep on mentioning "old" its pretty obvious that I am not part of that team anymore. The point as to why I call it a "dharma yudh" is because most of the people have sought my advice and guidance before quitting and somewhere the thought comes up whether I can influence them to stay back. The latest colleague also was facing a dilemma and was unsure about the final decision. I thus had detailed discussion and helped in the decision making process.
My take on this is clear though. I believe if a person has decided to move on he or she will move on either today or a little later. One should not try to hold the individual back but should try to give the fellow team member a perspective which helps in the decision making. I do not think that one is loyal to the organization if one tries to hold a moving colleague. I also believe if I am contributing unbiased opinions and offering a sounding board to the people who have worked with me and trust me I am doing the right thing. The decision is theirs but probably the sounding board helps them to decide. If the decision is to leave am I being less loyal to my company? I strongly dont believe so...
Since I keep on mentioning "old" its pretty obvious that I am not part of that team anymore. The point as to why I call it a "dharma yudh" is because most of the people have sought my advice and guidance before quitting and somewhere the thought comes up whether I can influence them to stay back. The latest colleague also was facing a dilemma and was unsure about the final decision. I thus had detailed discussion and helped in the decision making process.
My take on this is clear though. I believe if a person has decided to move on he or she will move on either today or a little later. One should not try to hold the individual back but should try to give the fellow team member a perspective which helps in the decision making. I do not think that one is loyal to the organization if one tries to hold a moving colleague. I also believe if I am contributing unbiased opinions and offering a sounding board to the people who have worked with me and trust me I am doing the right thing. The decision is theirs but probably the sounding board helps them to decide. If the decision is to leave am I being less loyal to my company? I strongly dont believe so...
Thursday, July 24, 2008
"I voted according to my beliefs"
So finally we have the nuke deal on track. For months a lot of esteemed and not so esteemed people have been debating about the deal which was struck in 2005 between Dr. Manmohan Singh and George Bush to no definite conclusion one way or the other.
I purposely use the names of the personalities here and do not mention the countries because I am not sure whether the countries really signed on the dotted line, metaphorically, ofcourse a country is not a living being so she cant sign anywhere. A country is represented by the leaders and it is they who put their initials whenever and wherever it is required in place of the country. Hence it should be the moral duty of these leaders to do something which is good for the nation as they are not initializing as individuals but as representatives of the nation.
However with this new deal I am not so sure whether India was represented. Please do not get me wrong - I am strongly for nuclear energy and whatever is required to make it a feasible and sustainable source of energy. But like most of the fellow Indians I am in dark about the details of the pact. Being fortunate enough to be an educated individual I do appreciate the fact that renewable sources of energy are crucial for India and anything which ensures constant supply of fuel for our reactors as well as latest technology to upgrade the facilities should be welcomed. Inspite of this an option to understand the pact in detail would have been appreciated not just by me but also by all.
So I went by common sense in supporting the deal however after watching the proceedings of the trust vote being streamed live from the Parliament I did realize common sense is not so common. It seems 275 individuals voted to keep the government in power and 250 odd individuals to keep the government out of power and I thought the vote was about whether we should go ahead with the deal or not. Less said about the people voting the better. All voting for the government and all voting against, went from TV camera to TV camera ( pillar to post eh?) claiming that their vote is based on their conscience and their strong beliefs - it was just incidental that they are getting to become ministers, chief ministers, getting cash in suitcases, airports in their names and so on.
To summarize it in word the whole "tamasha" was shameful with the players being as shameless as ever. Our MPs again made a laughing stock of our country. Where was their common sense? I am not expecting them to know the details of the agreement but is it so difficult to understand that our energy needs are rising and fossil fuels cannot sustain them for long? In metros if the monsoon fails there are power cuts for 6-7 hours then what can be said about the interiors? If they had decided to vote on common sense then maybe this whole "tamasha" would have been avoided.
The question which comes up though is that who sends these people to Parliament - is it not us - are we also voting according to everything but common sense?
I purposely use the names of the personalities here and do not mention the countries because I am not sure whether the countries really signed on the dotted line, metaphorically, ofcourse a country is not a living being so she cant sign anywhere. A country is represented by the leaders and it is they who put their initials whenever and wherever it is required in place of the country. Hence it should be the moral duty of these leaders to do something which is good for the nation as they are not initializing as individuals but as representatives of the nation.
However with this new deal I am not so sure whether India was represented. Please do not get me wrong - I am strongly for nuclear energy and whatever is required to make it a feasible and sustainable source of energy. But like most of the fellow Indians I am in dark about the details of the pact. Being fortunate enough to be an educated individual I do appreciate the fact that renewable sources of energy are crucial for India and anything which ensures constant supply of fuel for our reactors as well as latest technology to upgrade the facilities should be welcomed. Inspite of this an option to understand the pact in detail would have been appreciated not just by me but also by all.
So I went by common sense in supporting the deal however after watching the proceedings of the trust vote being streamed live from the Parliament I did realize common sense is not so common. It seems 275 individuals voted to keep the government in power and 250 odd individuals to keep the government out of power and I thought the vote was about whether we should go ahead with the deal or not. Less said about the people voting the better. All voting for the government and all voting against, went from TV camera to TV camera ( pillar to post eh?) claiming that their vote is based on their conscience and their strong beliefs - it was just incidental that they are getting to become ministers, chief ministers, getting cash in suitcases, airports in their names and so on.
To summarize it in word the whole "tamasha" was shameful with the players being as shameless as ever. Our MPs again made a laughing stock of our country. Where was their common sense? I am not expecting them to know the details of the agreement but is it so difficult to understand that our energy needs are rising and fossil fuels cannot sustain them for long? In metros if the monsoon fails there are power cuts for 6-7 hours then what can be said about the interiors? If they had decided to vote on common sense then maybe this whole "tamasha" would have been avoided.
The question which comes up though is that who sends these people to Parliament - is it not us - are we also voting according to everything but common sense?
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Why dont we feel passionate about our work?
Yeah I know its a controversial question. After all it got you interested, didnt it? But honestly for the past couple of days this thought has been coming to my mind continously - we as Indians are we really passionate about the work we do? Let me narate a few incidents which have triggered this thinking.
I have a new apartment. The electric meter had to be transferred to my name. I and some other fellow residents got together and hired an agent to do the running around of the BESCOM office and get this work done. We all pooled in Rs.750 each and paid to this fellow. We gave all the required documents and thought with the money we have paid we would get the meter transferred without us running around. Sadly money cant buy everything - it cant buy the person doing his job well. After numerous running around, the very thing which I wanted to avoid, I got my meter transferred. The latest electricity bill was received this month and lo behold the name on it was Chandra Reddy and not yours sincerely. So I again run around to find this person and talk to him to be told that his job was to get the transfer done but if the transfer was not recorded in the BESCOM system its not his problem. Finally I went to the office and spent 3 hours to get Chandra Reddy erased and my name entered in the system.
The other day I went to get a photocopy done of a document. The person refused to make a copy since I had Rs. 10 with me and he wanted precise Re. 1. I returned with the required change and again requested for the service to be delivered since I was ready to pay. The machine operator was kind of enough to oblige me. I had 2 documents stapled together. He made the copy of the first one and without removing the staple started to make the copy of the second one. Now this was obviously not working out. I asked him to separate the documents and try. According to him it was a waste of time but he was coming out with bad copies one after another. I got exasperated, removed the staple and handed him the documents. This hurt his ego which he satisfied by charging me another Re.1 for the wasted staple for which he asked me to get another coin as change.
I got a new passport and since the police verification was not done I decided to go myself to the Police station. Early morning I was at the local station and mentioned that I was there for the verification so that they dont have to worry about it. I was told to wait since the policemen were having breakfast in the room where the relevant file was kept. So I waited and waited and waited. After 30 mins. I decided to check again and got to know that the concerned official had gone for his morning coffee. Can you believe it? I was asked to wait again which ofcourse I didnt.
People, I am not complaining. The point is that we always view our politicians as incompetent, our officials as incompetent, the system as incompetent but didnt somebody mention that a person gets what a person deserves. Somewhere I get the feeling that the "chalta hai" atttitude which we have as a country pervades in everything we do or dont do. Maybe our general lives have been so difficult and jobs are at such a premium we just look at work as the means to get roti, daal and not as something which we can be passionate about. There is this minority who believe work is worship and believe me they are a frustrated lot.
I have a new apartment. The electric meter had to be transferred to my name. I and some other fellow residents got together and hired an agent to do the running around of the BESCOM office and get this work done. We all pooled in Rs.750 each and paid to this fellow. We gave all the required documents and thought with the money we have paid we would get the meter transferred without us running around. Sadly money cant buy everything - it cant buy the person doing his job well. After numerous running around, the very thing which I wanted to avoid, I got my meter transferred. The latest electricity bill was received this month and lo behold the name on it was Chandra Reddy and not yours sincerely. So I again run around to find this person and talk to him to be told that his job was to get the transfer done but if the transfer was not recorded in the BESCOM system its not his problem. Finally I went to the office and spent 3 hours to get Chandra Reddy erased and my name entered in the system.
The other day I went to get a photocopy done of a document. The person refused to make a copy since I had Rs. 10 with me and he wanted precise Re. 1. I returned with the required change and again requested for the service to be delivered since I was ready to pay. The machine operator was kind of enough to oblige me. I had 2 documents stapled together. He made the copy of the first one and without removing the staple started to make the copy of the second one. Now this was obviously not working out. I asked him to separate the documents and try. According to him it was a waste of time but he was coming out with bad copies one after another. I got exasperated, removed the staple and handed him the documents. This hurt his ego which he satisfied by charging me another Re.1 for the wasted staple for which he asked me to get another coin as change.
I got a new passport and since the police verification was not done I decided to go myself to the Police station. Early morning I was at the local station and mentioned that I was there for the verification so that they dont have to worry about it. I was told to wait since the policemen were having breakfast in the room where the relevant file was kept. So I waited and waited and waited. After 30 mins. I decided to check again and got to know that the concerned official had gone for his morning coffee. Can you believe it? I was asked to wait again which ofcourse I didnt.
People, I am not complaining. The point is that we always view our politicians as incompetent, our officials as incompetent, the system as incompetent but didnt somebody mention that a person gets what a person deserves. Somewhere I get the feeling that the "chalta hai" atttitude which we have as a country pervades in everything we do or dont do. Maybe our general lives have been so difficult and jobs are at such a premium we just look at work as the means to get roti, daal and not as something which we can be passionate about. There is this minority who believe work is worship and believe me they are a frustrated lot.
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