Glimpses of the road which veins through the IT corridor...

the abode of software giants...the reasons behind our flourishing economy...

Once again....Tagged!!!

Ok courtesy wooster here i am back to doing my bit in preserving a tagged chain :)

1. I think wayyyyy to much. Have a wild wild (growl growl) imagination which usually makes me invent absurd stories all the time :p
2. I eat to live and not live to eat..as long as it isnt sweet that its :P
3. I insist on wearing the right colour combination at all times. I hate to be caught wearing something odd.
4. I love writing. it desciplines my life..
5. I dont have a sweet tooth. Given a chance I could wipe off the existence of Cakes, Pastries, Icecreams and Chocs :P
6. Sarcasm is one of my best weapons. It hurts... trust me..
7. I talk. period. :D
8. A cleanliness freak, i am the "Friends" Monica in the making.

Phew! these random thoughts sure did take me a while...!
now here is a list of the chosen 8...


Darji
Jhol
Anand
Karen
Abhi
Manish
Vineet
Puneet

and here are the rules!

Each player starts with 8 random facts/habits about themselves.
People who are tagged, write a blog post about their own 8 random things, and post these rules.
At the end of your post you need to tag 8 people and include their names. Don’t forget to leave them a comment and tell them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.
If you fail to do this within eight hours, you will not reach Third Series or attain your most precious goals for at least two more lifetimes.

"Kalam is willing if ‘love and affection’ can get votes"

screams the headlines on Indian Express today.

Wonder whose love and affection he is talking about... the Left's? the NDA's? definetely not the UPA's!!..or maybe even theirs??? hehehehe....

tickled my funny bone to the core :P

Three Incidents…

I was performing my morning ritual of walking down canal bank road on my way to Madhya Kailash. It was one hell of a dirty walk today. The rain gods has showered their blessings on "drainage less" Madras the night before. .

Anyways getting back to my story, I was hopping and jumping down the road doing my best to avoid the slush and dirt which had made its way in overnight.

As I crossed the “Kasturba Nagar Vegetable Market” I came across a vegetable vendor dutifully cleaning his cart. Ah! Now wasn’t that a pleasant sight to see! How many of us get to see vegetable vendors with clean carts? But this Anna was doing exactly that. As I drew closer I noticed what he was actually doing.

He was cleaning the card and shoving all the plastics and polyethylene bags onto the already dirty road.

Perfect example of “I might love Madras but you keep it clean!”

I moved on taking the immediate left still ruminating about what I had just seen. Before I knew it I had reached the newly built Kasturba Nagar station. (This station serves as a shortcut to Madhya Kailash)

I entered the station only to be drenched by what seemed like a rain shower. I looked up to see thousands of water pellets on the station ceiling. The entire ceiling was wet. Did I mention that the station has just been built?

This wasn’t the end of it. Once out of the station I got into the bus and was on my way to Navalur via Tidel Park. Now the Tidel park- Thiruvanmiyur junction is victim to traffic jams every other day. Today seemed one of those. We were the first in queue waiting for the Traffic Policeman to give the green signal. Along with us the traffic proceeding towards Madhya Kailash from Thiruvanmiyur was also kept waiting. All except one stopped. A Lady, riding a scooty tried to shoot ahead of the traffic only to be pulled back by the policeman. What followed was a strong argument between the two. Seemingly educated either she had an eyesight problem and couldn’t see the red signal or she didn’t know what it meant.

Whatever it was, she and the vegetable vendor made me realize how tough it is to change Indian mentality.

An Eventful morning it was today...

A Page from My Diary

It is hard to imagine, yet I make another futile attempt at it.

“The Goa Regional Plan” So the news article proclaims.

Is it that impractical to visualize? I wonder…

An instant image of the place forms in my mind. Sun kissed beaches and sparkling blue waters, with tiny towns, villages and cities sprinkled all over-A beautiful image formed from age-old memories, deep rooted in my goan heart.

A new thought tries to make way on to the canvas of my memories. A thought crowded with IT parks and concrete jungles. I try hard to fight it off. It resists. I want to fight back…. losing this struggle would mean the beginning of the end of a certain mystique that weaves its spell around this place. I am forced to let it stay…

Can this thought exist in harmony with my invaluable memories? Would these pieces fit in like those of a jigsaw puzzle?

I doubt…

It is impossible to wipe out memories that have been collected over decades, memories so unlike all others. Amongst these treasures of mine, precious thoughts of the city that I was born and brought up in stand out the most. A city nested in a picturesque island’s greenery, characterized by Portuguese styled houses interspersed with low lying buildings, cobbled streets zigzagging their way through.

Single lane roads with a few rarely used signals were all that Panaji had, and still has. I would step out on the street only to be greeted by vibrant waves and big wide grins. Everything was located at a stone’s throw distance-The Panaji Market, Mahalakshmi Temple, Church Square, St. Inez Church, everything. I have never known Panaji to have had more than one or two tiny sari shops, couple of book stores, and two ‘pharmacias’ Most of these owned by a neighbour, a family friend, or some school friend.The city was known for its relaxed lifestyle and afternoon siestas. Easygoing weekdays ended in leisurely weekends. Come Sunday and Panaji would resemble a deserted township. Shutters down, not a single soul to be seen on the roads.

Everything about the place was unique. The “Poder” heralding in the new morning with his Pomp Pomp followed by the Nustekaan’ and her “Sungtan, Bangde Jayge” chants making me tug at my mother’s saari asking her to buy it all.

From the Konkani “Kantaara” and the “Dhaalo”, “Pink Panther” and “Tiger” the lovingly named private buses which plied on the Panaji-Dona Paula route to the soothing sound of the waves hitting against the Miramar shore …each thought with a new story to unfold.

These memories make me smile; the picture looks so colorful with all the images painted with my thoughts as the paintbrush. It’s a blissful feeling.

Suddenly the brush goes awry. A dark threatening grey appears on the canvas making my vibrant colors fade.

The grey deepens, creating sketches of malls, departmental stores, and swanky cars snaking in and out of the ever growing traffic. It leaves me shaken.

I helplessly watch as each sun kissed beach turns into a Juhu Chowpatti. It doesn’t stop at this. More grey makes its way on to my canvas. The tiny stores and the lush green fields give way to towering multiplexes and apartment complexes Myriads of strangers fill up the tiny cobbled streets, leaving me with the feeling of being just another face in the no longer goan crowd.

The thoughts have grown in number; each sniggering maliciously making me feel powerless. The sound is deafening. I gather all my memories and hide them away lest I loose them.

It pains me as I watch my freshly painted picture wash away.

I give in…These thoughts are here to stay…They make me want to sigh in defeat.A triumphant moment for the industry developers it might be, but for the goan in me it’s a never-ending moment of melancholy.

Life would never be the same again…

“Poder”- the baker. The name originates from the Portuguese days.

“Nustekaan”- Fisherwoman

“Kantaara”-Konkani Songs

"Dhaalo“ – Goan Folk Dance

Thou shall know the truth and nothing but the truth

Courtesy: www.zcool.com.cn

What do Engineering graduates from India do post their graduation?

A)MBA

B)MS

C)A Job

No this is not Derek O’Brien interrogating you unnecessarily nor am I SRK flaunting of the new KBC look. It’s just me thinking aloud.

I would say all three options take an equal share of the pie, but the ones pursuing their Masters be it an MBA or an MS are the ones who get the royal “Oh Wow” treatment. Between the two The US M.S definitely takes the cake.

In India I see engineers doing their MS in the US to be looked at with revere- the senior population are proud of their “climbing the success ladder betas and betis” while their contemporaries look at them, hearts filled with jealousy and envy. After all, going to the US has been termed as the big achievement-managed only by the crème de la crème for many Indians generations now. I was convinced too…until I came to the US.

My US corporate experience as a consultant from an IT offshore vendor to publishing companies has led to a number of over the coffee table conversations with my client side counterparts. One such conversation with P left me feeling disgusted and reproachful.

P decided to play “Spot 10 differences in the picture” game with me that day, the only difference being she had sheets to play with and not pictures. I thought it would be fun and eagerly took the sheets from her. “Ok make that 5 differences and ill take you out for lunch tomorrow” said P. I flashed my “you love me don’t you” smile and turned to the sheets.

Much to my surprise all sheets were spectacularly similar. 2 in fact had the same spelling mistakes. (P had gone the extra length to highlight all)

5 differences? It was hard to fine a single one for crying out loud I thought! All the resumes were so similar. Yes they were resumes.

I turned to P with a puzzled and lost Prof Calculus look on my face. Why do you have so many copies of the same resume I asked? She laughed. The gigantic P laugh which leaves you with a sinking “it’s going to be a looong coffee break” feeling.

“These are the resumes of 5 candidates that I just got from the headhunting agency” said P.

P and her team had just fired a Business Analyst the week before. A Business Analyst who apparently had 7 years of work experience but was yet to figure out what analysis meant. After using me as her punching bag to vent out all her frustrations she called the head hunter and asked him to call the BA back (recruits made through a headhunter cannot be fired directly. The message is sent to him/her through the head hunter).

Guess P was on the prowl for a BA again I thought.

“You know R left right? We need a BA but not someone whose work we have to do!” she started off.

“Ok so these are resumes that you have received for a BA position from the head hunter, but why are they so similar” I asked her.

“You have hit the nail on the head Seeda” she said giving me that rare “I’m proud of you” look. (I turn Seeda from Seeta while I am in the US in case you are wondering about the sudden change in name. Nothing intentional about it mind you :D)

They are all fake don’t you see? Some of them have the same spelling mistakes, the same sentence repeated across resumes. Jeez! I interviewed one candidate over the phone today. He had a few things listed out on his resume. So I thought I would ask him about them. I asked him what “Gap Analysis” was, and he goes “tap tap tap” on his keyboard and recites the definition of Gap Analysis which you get on entering “Define: Gap Analysis” in Google! I did it to actually confirm what he was reciting!” Sense seemed to prevail 20 minutes into the call and he started hitting “Mute” on his phone each time I asked him a question” P seemed to have been waiting all day to meet her punching bag and pour out all her irritation.

“Tell me how is that all these 5 candidates have been working for American Express, Merill Lynch and Lehman Brothers??”

All she expected from her punching bag was a nod of the head. Little did she know how disgusted I was feeling right then…

“There were 2 girls I spoke to” she said. They sounded ok so I called them over for a quick chat today. We asked the first one to write out some requirements and she gives us a paper with gibberish written all over, the second one was honest enough to admit though that some projects mentioned on her resume were projects she didn’t “necessarily” work on.” I wouldn’t fake my resume in a million years! What did they do in their MS? But why would they care, they get the money and that’s all that matters” bellowed P.

The thought had crossed my mind too but I was too ashamed to react. I stared at the resumes in my hand. The bold italicized “M.S” stared back at me.

Needless to say all were Indian.

Long Live Racism!

Being in the US somehow gets me much closer to India than ever before. The homesickness is marked by a daily visit to most off the popular news sites (read NDTV.com, Rediff.com and Indianexpress.com)

Like everyday I sat down with a cup of Mocha Nut Fudge (Yeah Yeah you start using all these fancy names for a plain simple cup of coffee here) glasses tipping off my nose, awaiting the familiar NDTV 24*7 and Indian express with all its advertisement pop ups to pop up on my laptop. Today unlike most other days, both sites seem to have the same headline splashed over- just that Indian Express decided to be a bit more personal about it.

“Shilpa wins ‘Celebrity Big Brother’ “Atta Girl! I would have said had it not been for the Racism Hungama which has been looming large over “our” shilpa for the last few days.

Reading the articles made me wonder what kind of damage had this so called Racism actually done to shilpa, India or for that matter the show itself. As a matter of fact none.

Shilpa had only benefited and India had nothing really to do with the whole “Tamasha”. As far as the show goes the producers must have never dreamt in their wildest dreams that increasing viewer ship to millions within a week was an achievable target. Though I must confess watching politicians scurrying around trying to be at their diplomatic best, the show hitting the top headlines of the day, “Anti Racism” signature campaigns being held did make me wonder whether this was the beginning of world war III or whether the Media and Politicians really had nothing better to cover and worry about.

Meanwhile what happened to the one who had to tolerate all the racist slurs and comments those big bad ladies spat out at her?

As of today the racism victim has made her way up most popularity charts, hired UK’s top notch publicist to manage her international work, won sympathy from hundreds of thousands across continents and has been crowned to the Big Brother throne

What more could an actress who had been on her way out of the Bollywood show business ask for?

The first Indian celebrity to have ever participated and won “Big Brother”

Now isn’t that a record made? What the heck I think she deserves the compliment I was so hesitant to give her- Atta Girl Shilpa!