Co-ordinate Geometry and Perspective

This is going to be a philosophical post, don’t say that I did not warn you at the beginning. But, I have came across an a-ha! for myself at work. This just does not apply simply to Good v/s Evil, but it can be applied to life itself.

Good and Evil are two sides of the same coin, that means, if I were to have an axis (similar to say X-axis), then Evil will be on the left hand side of the Y-axis and Good will be on the right hand side. Thus, Good and Evil are opposites. Now, my friend, what do you do to eliminate Evil? Think. Don’t move ahead and read the answer, please think. Think Co-ordinate Geometry.

You delete the origin (0,0), you take out the Y-axis. You take out the definition point at which Good starts being Evil. You take out that Evil-defining-perspective (Y-axis). I am defining each axes as a perspective on life, and thus, a way of defining (aka constraining) your perspective. Take out the Y-axis and now you have only a degree of Goodness left.

Now, ask yourself – what happens when you take away the X-axis? That translates into a change in your perspective. A shift which fundamentally changes the way you look at things, look at the world. How much more of the co-ordinate geometry concepts can I apply on this? Does this make sense to you? Would appreciate some feedback on this.

Familiar Strangers

If you travel everyday in a Mumbai local, then you are bound to have certain trains (and their times) in your mind. For e.g – I take the 8.24 Churchgate Slow from Andheri in the morning, if I miss that, then there is the 8.45 Churchgate Slow and the 8.51 Churchgate Slow, etc.

Most of the people think in these terms, so its obvious that you keep on seeing the same people everyday in your trains. Its their train as well. The mousy faced fellow, the guy who keeps on playing on his Nokia N-series, the guy who carries the Milton dabba. You see them, you have placed them and even named them … but what you don’t do, is befriend them. Maybe over a period of time, the ice breaks and you become good friends, but that takes many a train journey. The strangest thing is – that when you see the same person anywhere out of this morning train context, you still recognize him … and you see that spark on recognition in their eyes as well. But, you don’t talk. Strange aint it?

Then and Now

My first job was in IRIS, in the year 2002. I loved my job. I had joined with seven other software engineers. We bonded really well together. We used to work on different projects, but lunched together … discussed problems, solved them … and generally helped each other out. Life was good, life was beautiful. I loved my life of a programmer. Our batch was one of the best the organization had, in fact some of us were awarded as the most valuable programmer, et al. No, I am not being modest :-), but we loved helping each other out … contributing to the organization.

My last job was in I2I. It was a simple transaction for me. I went to work, I stayed there till 6.30pm everyday, I came back – the company paid me for it. The very transactional nature of this perspective made me shudder … I had to leave the organization in search of greener pastures.

My new job is with Illumine, where the culture of the organization is to actualize the paradigm shift from transactional thinking of a job to contribution thinking. Will post more on this later, but at the moment think about it. Is your job a transaction for you?

Ram and Hillary Clinton

On this occasion of Ram Navmi, my family and I ended up discussing Lord Ram. My sister made this funny remark about Ram being the perfect politician, and then proceeded to compare him to Hillary Clinton.

I won’t explain further, what are your thoughts on this?

The Weaker Sex

• There is a 30% quota on all engineering seats in Mumbai, reserved for girls
• Women have a higher tax bracket of 1.8 L.p.a
• Free education for girls in all public schools
• Have you tried getting a facial? Or your limbs waxed? A bikini wax?
• Or delivering a child?
• Or handling cooking and other chores alongside your job?

I sometimes wonder why they don’t call men the weaker sex?

Then, Now and Will be

Got tagged by Archana, I know this tag is going to make me do a lot of introspection; much needed at that. Tags spread through viral referrals, and I hope that this one spreads out ... through me and through my friends (you are going to be tagged!!).

The tag:

Two questions in each category answer them and then tag your friends from the blog-o-sphere. Leave a comment on their blog letting them know they have been tagged and you are all set.

Then:

Your oldest memories

• Getting spanked on my derriere by the nurse ... ohhh the blood rushing to my head ... for crying out loud!! (he he .. was just kidding :-) )
• Throwing toys down the 9^th floor and watching them disappear as they fell fell fell ... from my grandparents flat in Churchgate when I was a toddler
• The glee when I saw my first horse at the age of 6
• The achievement I felt when my aunt taught me to draw a horse shortly afterwards ... I was addicted to horses after watching the movie Betaab ... had seen the movie 3 times in one night!! ... for the horse ... no I dont mean Amrita Singh :-D
• Seeing my first computer at the age of 9, it was a 80386 and my mothers brother had forked out one lakh for that machine ... shucks ... so much for Moore's Law. Played Prince of Persia for an hour, I was thrilled ... decided then and there that I would be a computer engineer :))
• Owning a XT 8086 with a monochrome display and 640KB of RAM, the machine did not have a hard drive, and I was happy
• Feeling the pride when my Maths teacher called my parents to commend my papers and explain the empty class notebooks in my 4^th standard
• Feeling an even greater humiliation when I finished last in class during the mid-terms of 9^th standard ... cable TV is a great evil
• My first ship cruise to Goa ... fresh fish and a choppy sea
• Standing atop a spiked gate and then the horror I felt when I saw that my new cream chappals had turn blood red ... weirdly I do not remember feeling any pain

What were you doing ten years ago?

November 1998, I was a first year engineering student, the first semester was coming to an end; and I was fast learning that I am loving engineering more and more since it does not adhere to the sad mugging pattern of school. I remember going to college, attending tuition, bartering notes, copying assignments, discussing over the phone, the long bus rides along the beach. My engineering college was Fr. Conceicao Rodriguez College of Engineering ... it is on bandstand, Bandra and generally a very nice place to hangout if you get over the engineering studies :). I was having a rocking time.

 

Now:

Your first thought in the morning

I should not have stayed up late in the night to finish Brisingr.

If you build a time capsule what would it contain?

Hmmm ... good question. It would contain nothing; the present is to be lived ... enjoyed ... why give the future excess baggage to dig up. (pun intended)

 

Will Be:

This year…

I intend to get married to the love of my life, possibly shift jobs and find a way of means to be near my loved ones. Activities such as blogging, web dev, tweeting, et al are bound to happen!!

What do you see yourself doing 14 years from now?

Why the no. 14?? Well ... I would be attending PTA meetings ... and planning my retirement as well. Archana, are you up for co-authoring that book?

 

I tag:

Amol

Sudhir

Amit

Ashish

End of the tag

The joy of achieving

I have a classmate from school. The fellow was brilliant. Is infact ... brilliant. After school, we joined the same junior college, and he promptly started gunning for the IITs. He cracked IITJEE the first time around, he also managed to get a decent percentage with the Maharashtra board. God knows how he managed all that, I had a tough time to mug up all the studies. Engineering was a relief, and so was normal working life ... MBA was a blast for me. I lost contact with him as the years gone by. The last I had heard was a brief article in the news about him starting his own company which made RSS readers for the blind. I remember thinking like a business person, how is this going to make money!?!

Recently, out of the blue, I get a call from him. For old times sake, we decide to meet. The guy is happily chatting about his business plans and all that. I naturally assumed that he finally found a way to monetize his RSS readers. After 2 hours or so, I realized that this was something else he was talking. Apparently he had closed down his company and was now working full time as a network marketing professional. For the uninitiated, that means he will sell some company's products directly for a commission, and the people he sells them to can do the same, whereupon all the middle men in the transaction get a decent commission. Incredulously I agreed to attend one such sales pitch ... I will not name this person (you know who you are!!), and I certainly wont name the company.

I have been avoiding him ever since. How can you forego your education, your training, your ambitions, your dreams ... for money? Where is the joy of achieving in that ... did he not feel that when he got into IIT Bombay, Comp. Sci?? Did he not feel that when he started his own company? How do you let go of that addictive feel of achieving ... for the sake of money. What a waste.

Remember the Teacher

I was reading my feeds when I came across -

A Teacher on the Front Line as Faith and Science Clash and Now THERE's a Teacher

Takes you back to movies like To Sir, with Love, doesn't it? Just that the students are not half that bad. What often moves or works against the teacher are the preconceived notions of the students. In our lifetimes as students hell bent to finish the term as soon as possible, we sometimes forget the main task at hand - knowledge and learning.

I remember one of my Services Marketing professors in this regard, Prof. Ram Kumar, who was the faculty at IIM-A. In the second lecture, he gave us senior students as quiz, one simple question - "What is services marketing?"

Having finished our preliminary year with a lot of poppycock, we had learned the management mantra and more than eager to try it out. At the end of the quiz, Ram Kumar made us write a textbook definition of the same, 20 times on the back side of the question paper. Honestly, I felt like a school kid. The only thought that was going through all our collective minds was - "This is what they do at IIM-A, huh?" or "All this effort for doing this?". The rest of the course was awesome, with presentations and assignments which made us think ... no, really think. Come out with ideas, collaborate, discuss the merits and demerits of different services, and most importantly, learn to ask the question Why?

At the end of the course, the last session had us sitting in the class, with one minor change. The class' mike was attached to a mini stereo system. Our disastrous quiz papers were distributed amongst the class ... I was staring at my bad handwriting and wondering, what am I to do with this paper? Ram Kumar, then hit the stereo's play button ... and asked us to tear up the quiz sheet where we had expressed our rote learning and throw them in the air. The background music was - Another Brick in the Wall by Pink Floyd.

Tearing up a piece of paper never felt that good.

Innovation and Dilbert

 

Was going through the Dilbert archives when I came across this two strips. Real example of what happens when management makes uninformed decisions about technology where they are clueless. Seems familiar to you too?

You are what you listen

Do you identify with your genre of music?

What I mean to say is that when you are listening to a particular genre or an artiste, then do you feel the emotion of that song within you?? Sometimes I think that most of the bands which have shot to fame are not simply because they write good melodies or great lyrics ... its because their target group can identify with the emotion underneath the song.

Do you not want to listen to a specific genre depending on your emotion?

Think about it in this way ... a fan of Marilyn Manson, would most likely be wearing gothic makeup, would have had a troubled teenage life, feels unduly wronged ... a fan of DJ Tiesto or Paul Oakenfield would love to dance to a good tune and definitely loves a smooth life ... Linkin Park listeners would have a pent up frustration within themselves, occassionally wanting to shout out against the system. Or have I wrongly analysed the situation?

So whats your groove?

Inertia

What do you do when you seem to be cruising on a wide highway ... and suddenly out of no-where a sharp corner comes into view? Well, you hit the brakes, slow down and turn with the curve.

Fair enough, you can drive. What would you do when the same analogy applies to your life?

Let me explain, what is a person supposed to do when he realizes that the nice and easy life is going to change (I never said end) ... mostly for the better. But the lazy person that he is, is opposing the entire change, just because of its inherent nature ... change. The person just like the car, lurches forward out of his rut and into the new direction given to his course. Heading for the unknown.

Nostalgia

It has been 2 years (and 2 days) since I have left the campus on the molehill. All the spirals are lying safely packed in my room, the strategies and ideas have given way to the practicalities of real life. Nonetheless, when I was reading Sumedh's post on CounterStrike ... a stream of memories rushed forth. Those hours of insane midnight gaming, those supercharged competitive section matches, those mid-game strategy sessions and counter-attack theories.

Sat today and played CS with a friend and some bots. It was not that great, but the nostalgic feeling is being rekindled with a fuzzy warm feeling about how we used to play CS in 2004-2006.

Sigh! Heres to days gone by.

Interviews

Have you ever been in an interview thinking "What am I doing here?" ... its probably a good thing if you have not been in such a scenario. I have been unfortunate enough to be in such a situation while being on both sides of the table viz., interviewee and interviewer. Being the interviewer is much more fun and a lot more relaxing.

Some of the things to watch out for if you ever are stuck in such a situation -

• Ask yourself this - Are you that desperate that you want to be in such a situation to filter out those maybes from the definitely nots? If yes, then please fire away
  
• Look at the time, it is a precious commodity. If the person you are interviewing is tryign to mislead the interview, remember you decide when the interview stops, do not feel afraid of being too rude
• Some candidates can really be upto-no-good, drop them at the first sight. Do not entertain such people further ... its an injustice to them if they think that they are worthy of showing interest. I once ended up wasting a good hour trying to find out why did the candidate apply for what he did ... answer was simple ... employment
• Have your HR/Recruitment guys screen them at the start itself, this eliminates all the definitely nots from the list
• If that person has applied for a role in your department, ask a simple question to yourself ... would you want to see this face daily? There is a lot more to face value than just the face

Will post more my experiences as soon as I manage to reconcile those resumes.

Juno

Have any of you watched the movie Kya Kehna - its the one in which Preity Zinta gets pregnant while still being an undergraduate. The entire movie is one sob story followed by next, how the society shuns her, how her college shuns her, how Preity's character simply buckles under all the pressure ... well, I have to confess that I could not stand to watch the entire movie. I had to switch the channel, I do not like to watch people roll about in their self-pity.

That is precisely the reason why I loved Juno. The outline of the plot is the same ... Juno, the main character of the movie, finds out that she is pregnant. The first 30 minutes go about in how the news has impacted her and all her friends ... her parents, and their reaction about the news. The fresh perspective comes now ... her parents accept it naturally and extend her the much needed support. Her friend also helps her out in her own inane way ... by finding out a surrogate family to whom Juno can donate the child to. Juno meets the loving family, and decides that her baby would be safe with this family. The baby's father is Juno's good friend Bleeker (played by Michael Cera from Superbad) who is completely unaware and not there during the entire pregnancy. The movie has its fair share of twists and turns ... where we are forced to think about relationships as the plot unfolds.

Juno is shown as the unpredictable, cool chick who is simply not ready for this, and yet she takes this on and goes through it ... without victimizing herself. Without feeling sorry for herself at any moment. And thats why I loved it so much. Definitely a 8.2

I for Implementation

I was watching the idiot box when I was at home, when I saw the new IBM ad. Here's its original one.



And then it struck me. How true is this? Especially for IIM grads :-). When we were at IIM-Indore, we had this urge to name almost all initiatives with the letter I. And all the initiatives would have some words starting from I to connote the message, mantra, dictum, et al.
Always it was something like ideation, incubation, inspiration, innovation, etc. etc. ... you got the drift right?

What we did not think was I for Implementation. That word strikes us right in the middle of our eyes the moment we start our work, since up till that point the majority of us are involved in theory and not practice. Hence ideas, innovations, strategies, etc... and not roll-out plans, implementation plans, work schedules. Even as I am typing these words, the earlier ones seem more glamorous than the later. Its not that we made out elaborate plans and never fulfilled them when we were students, we managed to get them done as well. Just, that it amuses me that most of us are geared to do the strategies rather than the execution.

Interesting, huh ... sort of like Lions for Lambs :-), just a 6.2 on IMDB.

Meetings

Its 4pm today (read day-before-yesterday), when I have started doodling this blog post. Yes, I am one of those people who sometimes write their blog post on paper before they digitize it. This is being done in the throes or should I say meanders of a meeting. It had started 2 hours ago, and I am getting shudders remembering it. From the start, all of us knew that it was going to be a monster of a meeting.

Still, we managed to touch base upon pollination of flowers, onion and potato rates and how interesting the commodities market is becoming. We had assembled to finalize SAP process flows. We are a retail merchandising firm. I love meetings.

The ideal number of people in a meeting is 3-4, the moment it goes above that, you are asking for trouble. You will have atleast one person (like moi in this case) who will be doodling on a piece of paper.

Focus Prasad!! Focus!!!

Its 8pm now, and we have managed to cover some ground, but it looks pretty glum from my end. I decided to put together a small list that people like me can do when they end up in meetings such as these -

• Think about the more recent interesting stuff you have read
• Start a screensaver in your mind, I personally like the Hufo's Smoke on a linux machine
• Butt into the meeting with something that borders between sense and incoherence to make your presence felt
• Try listening for a change and even add "value" to the meeting
• Try playing your favorite tune in your head
• Send stratified SMSes to your loved ones
• Make lists such as these, preferably with a straight face
• Think about new ways to customize your blog and your website
• Order for coffee and biscuits
• Move about the meeting as if people are calling you out for something important or the other
• Drink enough coffee/water that you have to visit the water closet

Got any more? Do drop me in a line then!!

Cheers.

Valentine's Day

So its that time of the year again. When all the retailers and big brands of the world try to woo the lucky couples off to a romantic time and great gifts!! Fly a couple and get 10 tickets free, buy for two and get 10% off ... is it really all just a marketing gimmick? Open any newspaper or surf to any channel, and you will see what I am hinting at.

Abstract from Wikipedia -

Saint Valentine (in Latin, Valentinus) is the name of several martyred saints of ancient Rome. Of the Saint Valentine whose feast is on February 14, nothing is known except his name and that he was buried at the Via Flaminia north of Rome on February 14. It is even uncertain whether the feast of that day celebrates only one saint or two or more saints of the same name. For this reason this liturgical commemoration was not kept in the Roman Catholic calendar of saints for universal liturgical veneration as revised in 1969.[2] Traditional Roman Catholics continue to venerate St. Valentine on his feast day, February 14.

Funny, isnt it? If so little is actually known about the group of saints who gave their life for the masses, still this day is celebrated on such a vast scale.

Aamchi Mumbai

This just in.

Thank god for some good sense!! Saamna was bound to slam one of their own. The moment Raj Thackeray must have said those words, there would have been some minds tracing the eddies those remarks must have caused in the social currents of the city.

Slamming non-mumbaikars to garner the vote of the marathi manus is one thing. This is more like trying to take the cake and eating it too. At any point of time, if you see what is running a huge city like Mumbai, then it is the corporates, the financial markets, bollywood, underworld, politics, et al. How many maharashtrians (I am trying to use the politically correct term here!) do you know in any of these fields?

Take the non-mumbaikars out of Mumbai, and the city does not remain Mumbai!! It looses its proverbial charm! The economy goes down, unemployment goes up ... from a T1 city, it might plummet to as low as a T3 city. I am not exaggerating here!! What are you standing to gain after coming to rule in such a city?

Some things are better when shared. Aamchi Mumbai is open to all. It feeds on precisely that.

Microsoft Vista

Do not worry, I am not going to complain about (or sing paeans) on this product of MS. Its about their much needed SP1 release. Just read a release here.

This is precisely the kind of impatience that results in a bad product. I do not blame the firm for this excuse of an OS. I blame its users and its channel partners. Microsoft is a business organization after all, also one that is customer centric. So, it will follow the market demand ... needless to say, if customers want a new thing now!!, then a new thing they will have. Who cares whether it works properly or not.

This reminds me of Howard Roark from The Fountainhead, and his stubborn indignation to do things his way. At least that way a good product is delivered. Could this be a case of escalation of commitment? Now that you have decided on Vista being a marketable product, make it better and within a given timeline.

I do not envy Microsoft. Lets leave it at that and thank the Ubuntu guys for making it run perfectly on my laptop.

Democracy

I just finished reading the sixth book of the Dune series. The story behind the plot is so esoteric that I do not want to divulge the details of the same in this blog ... what is more interesting is that how the book sheds lights on issues like religion, governance and governance using religion.

If you decide to reflect on the same, then you will realize that there is some sense to it all. Right from our childhood, we have been taught that democracy is a government of the people, by the people, for the people. Is that really true ... from school we come into real life all misty-eyed and full of ideals, then real life hits us with shades of grey and a despairing need of black and white.

The very leaders we adulated over, and voted into power, we know are of no good. The false promises that they make will be of no use. Thus, democracy itself is based upon and runs on mistrust. I do not trust my government, thats the whole reason for having an opposition party in parliament so that I have a double check on them.

The entire system is based layer upon layer of mistrust. The lower layer knowing and not trusting the higher layer. And surprisingly, it works!! Well, thats just democracy for you. What will heckle you further, is that when you think of a governing system which is hierarchical (like democracy) and is based on trust (rather than mistrust), then we have dictatorship!!

Funny, isnt it, whats good at an individual level, is not a necessary thing at a cumulative level? hmm...