Modern Slavery

A news item, on millions in modern day slavery and half of them being in India got me thinking. 

Wikipedia says

"Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work.  Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation... "

I wonder if most of us fall into the above category. 

We are treated as property by people, companies, gods, god’s men and dozens of others. We are sold off at appraisals and by office politics. We are bought over naukri.com or some of us even ‘walk-in’.

Our mind is enslaved by the society. Though our body is free, our mind is chained. We are held against our will by responsibility, morality and fear. We are deprived of the right to leave, or is it worse? We have nowhere to go. We cannot refuse to work. We are sold and bought in open market by the illusion that we are demanding compensation.

I think the rat race of modern day life is the worst form of slavery. It is a form of slavery that we do not often realize. We train our mind to enjoy it, celebrate its success and even call it our passion.

A generation’s confusion

Each generation lives with its own confusions, complexities and fears. And this generation too has its own share. I should say confusions make life memorable, unpredictable and fun.

I am trying to list out some topics which I have discussed for significant amount of time with significant amount of people. The topics were (I think this is specific to India)
* Which college?
* Private or Public sector job
* India or Abroad
* Love or Arranged marriage
(Any more or any less to this list, do let me know :D)

It appearing to be “marriage and divorce” sort of season around, Love and Arranged marriages are the hottest topics I should say. So here I list some of the interesting things I learned

1. Parents always surprise you when they accept the partner you choose. The more conservative and arranged marriage supporters they appeared to be, the more surprised you would be when you announce the partner you have chosen (could be the case of hindi proverb ‘miya bivi raazhi tho kya karega haaji’ **).

2. Chances of arranged marriages working has come down with both partners “working”. With GenX becoming more realistic, all the funda of family support making arranged marriages work don’t hold true.

3. Never say no or sacrifice your love for the happiness of your family. Both you and family will be sad in the end.

Quoting from my favorite “loVe in the time of Cholera”

“Even if you are dying of fear, even if you are sorry later, because whatever you do, you will be sorry all the rest of your life if you say no.”

4. Love or arranged, either way marriages require a lot of work to be successful.
(But they are fun, Try atleast one)

5. Relax after all you have arranged marriage as an option…!!!! Even if you do not have girl/boy friend, never worry too much and enjoy the peace of mind :D. (Arranged marriages are definitely not bad :D)

On one of my travel (long time back), I met a US guy who said “At least you Indian do not have to be stressed up about one thing... you won’t die a virgin even if you do not find a date … in case you fail your parents will succeed.”

Also on the same note, somewhere I once read “Love is one place ‘where never tried it’ is better than ‘tried it and failed’ … ”

** roughly means: if husband and wife agree then others can’t anything about it.

Nostalgia - Too much

This post is based on a comment from my office friend AS on the post Nostalgia.

“If you extremely wish to re-live the past then you are not doing enough to love the present”

Well I agree with him a happy smile on the face as you recollect past is fine and healthy. If you find yourself longing excessively for the past and remembering the past brings in a huge sense of loss then definitely you have lost you soul somewhere after that past. Looking back 10 years on from now you will have nothing to remember this day.

It is true we should live in the present. Move on in life, make new friends, try new things, and learn. After all it is important to forget too.

The Cool and The Careless

This post is born from a discussion with a friend about movie Jab We Met and about being “cool”. The movie was quite philosophical is a really non-preachy way. The leading lady is running away from home to marry her love and to escape from the arranged marriage with a childhood friend for whom she has no sentiments now. And the hero a very mature and serious guy who is a guest at ladies house has to accompany her.

The hero (the kind of practical guy he is) is shocked and advices her to think before doing such a stupid and risky thing and asks to be a bit serious about life. And girl with all her cool attitude talks about the importance of thinking less. Afterall problems even happen to people who are serious about life she reasons. This movie has been a catalyst for mushrooming of a few Jab We Met motivated cool young guys and girls around.

I believe there is a very fine line between a real cool one and a careless looser.

Majority of the cool guys I see are plain careless looser acting to be cool. Most of these so called cool people thrive on running away from or ignoring anything even remotely looking like a problem. Neither do they have an aim nor do they take up any responsibility. The emptiness inside them is often packaged in attractive covers, garnished with 3 table spoon of smile, a table spoon of luck, a pinch of sense of humor and traces of attitude.

But then I have also had the fortune of being with some real cool ones, chronic optimists, with a huge attitude and surprising confidence to take any problem at hand with right sense of humor.

Talking about problems and challenges in life, I feel all of us share one boon with King Bali. King Bali in epic Ramayana had this cool boon that any enemy he fights looses half of his strength which gets added to Bali’s own. So the stronger the enemy the stronger he gets. In the same way bigger the challenge we face, out comes the best within us.

Nostalgia isn’t what it used to be

I always liked stories. I always looked for stories in my life and in life around me. And I am a big fan of nostalgia.

When friends meet up the best moments are when we browse through the chapters of our memory and there is a flow of funny and interesting stories. Often with a sweet surpise we realize there was more to the stories than what we knew. Many of these moments were probably not so funny then. It is sad to feel that we would have already forgotten a lot of those funny or sadistically funny things about life.

It is fascinating to know how much this world has changed. Not those big changes that become history, but small changes that go unnoticed. I loved the old time stories my dad and mom told me as a kid. I liked the old time stories my brother told me. Then in school and college I liked the stories that seniors told me. It is sad that as our worn out brain forgets or even worse when old bones go to the graveyard we loose all those stories and memories.

And so I liked the very idea of a site for Nostalgia. Actually it’s a site on the way things were. It is fun. Check it out.

Link: The Way Things Where

It would be greater fun if we could make up some kind of a book or a website about all those fun moments from school and college and life there after that I could read and enjoy.

I also like the comment that came along “Nostalgia isn’t what it used to be”

An Old Beggar

I was coming out of the restaurant after my meal. I could see the regular old beggar sitting on the foot path in front of the restaurant. Exit of the restaurants should be the second most lucrative location for begging. After god in the heart (or mind) it is food in stomach that makes people dig into their purse and part with well earned money.

There is also something about old people begging on Bangalore streets. These old and wrinkled faces, brought closer to earth by the hunch gifted by old age, having difficulty to move their arthritic joints do strike our conscience. They evoke more sympathy in Bangalore than in Kerala, as we see them shivering in Bangalore’s colder climate, often the worn out blankets not providing enough warmth.

I saw him from a distance as I was walking down the steps of the second floor restaurant. Hands instinctively checked both the back pockets of the blue jeans which were my usual storehouse of change. They were empty. With no change on me, I took a route farthest possible from him, making an effort to avoid any eye contact and started walking away. Suddenly he called out to me in English and that too in an accent that would put to shame any average Indian government employee “Hey man, I am a beggar, I need your help, Please give me something and go.” I looked back shocked and he gave me the final blow with his warm toothless pleasant smile.

Quite a marketing gimmick I should agree. He managed to extract from me the most lavish donation I ever gave a beggar.

Pic: From some forwarded mail :)

Common men uncommon wisdom

Words of wisdom from my friends
"its becomes a monologue where you have to force the other one to talk"
“I would be lying if I say I am putting in my 100% because I am putting in 110”

Feeling Vs decision

... Love is therefore a "decision". Not just a feeling. You can "make" love ...

I got a forwarded mail long time back which had this comment. And I got this again sometime last week. And even before I had got these mails I was firm believer of this philosophy. I should call it really unromantic but true :). Epics, history, poets, writers, movies and everyone like to call it a spontaneous felling.

In the same line, I also logically have a problem with love at first sight. I think love at first sight happens when you already have made a sketch of your partner in mind and you see someone who fits the bill. So in this case the decision to love was mostly taken earlier itself. At times this is so much in the unconscious mind that one does not realize the decision taken.

I feel that I have a congenital knack for giving out-of-place examples or comparisons. Continuing with that tread, first thing that came to my mind when I saw this line was my bike :). I had a bike. It was not fast, had poor pickup, it was not sporty, it was not good looking, it was too common and was popularly described as old men’s bike in college. And I was not too excited when my dad bought it for me. But once I had it I decided to love it. Soon I loved this thing much more than I expected and religiously fought any friend who called it a junk :) and any day I could state 101 good points about it.

Toss and Decide

Quite early in my life I started tossing a coin to decide. The earliest I remember is tossing a coin to decide if I should eat my packed lunch or throw it away as early as 3rd standard.

But at certain juncture of time someone slightly changed the way I made decision after the toss. I really don’t remember if I read this somewhere or was it word of mouth. But since then toss was a slightly more serious affair

The theory was that you could do a toss when you could not decide between two options by weighing the pros and cons. The starting steps are as usual, fix one option each on head and tail. Toss the coin and you will have your decision. Now for the slight change part…
* If at knowing the result of the toss. You say “oh shit”, or there is slight pinch in the heart. Do the opposite of what the toss said
* If the result brings a smile on your face or you feel some relief, go with the toss
* If neither of the two above happened then certainly you should let the toss decide and go with it.

And then there are more serious things where not time taken to decide but the decision itself is more critical. For this there is an extension called “devils advocate”. Here you go with decision you have got in the above process. Fight for it, reason for it and live it for a week. At the end of one week you could again do analysis on how you feel about the decision and then pick the final one. And of-course this option has the side effect of being called mad if you end up changing your decision at the end of the week.

But probably the most important part is that once the decision is made there is no looking back “fight to death to make the decision a success”

pic source: here

local KERALA liquor shop

Not a picturesque “Kallu shaap” (local liquor shop) in Kerala but the advertisement of “SOMANY Tiles” on the Wall made this interesting to me. SOMANY - that it is an integral part of Kerala's culture/cuisine. They have "Kallu" (alcohol) shops on almost each street.

SOMANY - that Kerala has the largest per capital consumption of Alcohol at 8.3 liters (Kerala is a state were 30 % of population believes in a religion that forbids even going to a place that serves Alcohol). Not bad at all.

SOMANY that they also have Kerala Booze lovers Association. - Kerala Booze lovers association Kerala is also a land of Association. Anyone and everyone have associations. And all associations have meeting. And all meetings serve Alcohol (If it is a religious or political meeting alcohol is served unofficially)
Also of interest will be this link on "Vellamadi Singing" -- Mallu's not only add soda or Ice but also add plenty of music to their drinks.

On Bench at work

Thanks to all the local Malayalam news papers “being on a bench” in an IT company has become a common term even to small town flocks. Although I suspect how well they understand the concept.

At home in Kerala for a vacation I got trapped in a local road side meeting of who’s-who of our town. An elderly gentleman who’s kid happened to be working for a reputed IT company in Bangalore, commenting on why his kid did not want to relocate to a branch of his company nearer to home town said “Avanu bench-il irikan vaiyya atha natileku sthalam maatam medikathathu (he does not want to sit on the bench, so he does not want to get transferred to home town”. Following this comment was a discussion on how miserable the working conditions of workers in IT field was and how important it was to have a CPI-CPIM lead workers union for the IT field.
Another gentleman who had the information that I was one among the exploited IT engineers and also an NRK (Non Resident Keralite, courtesy my dad’s central government job that kept me traveling around India) with limited proficiency in writing Malayalam had worse opinion about my state of affairs. According to him unfortunate souls like me had life worst. We could not even write a PSC (Public Service Commission) test and get a clerical job as Malayalam was mandatory for that. Of-course the status of a man who does an honest days job to live is much below anyone who has a job that can get him bribe.
And now we at IT companies had to sit on benches. My parents were visibly worried by this information. Back home my parents were of the opinion that I should buy my own chair with good backrest and not sit on bench as that was bad for my back. Grandmother was overheard giving free career advice for her friends grandchildren “Engineers are not like they used to be in our days. It is no more a respectable job. They sit on benches and are worked like slaves”. Her friend too seemed to agree. She knew a boy who learned electronics in far away places for long years and now makes chips for a living. Her son-in-law had never gone to college and could still make the best banana chips in town. They concluded the discussion with a pinch of sympathy for the young “Pillerude kariyam kashtam thanne”.

Also read this from yahoo.news. A very popular forward now-a-days about marriage prospects of IT engineers.

pic: From some forwarded mail

Clean Indians

This is one of the many posters that have appeared in the office as part of a noble move to educate us on keeping our rest rooms neat.

I feel these were long due. We Indians feel that we are a great race. We teach our children big things about spirituality, politics, history, morals etc. But miss out on very basics. There is a lot of talk about need of sex education in school, but it is classes on cleanliness that we Indian need the first. Working at an Indian software major I do not understand what is that stops a well educated man from flushing the toilets after use or what is it that makes him spill water all over as he washes his hand or leave big food particles in sink to make it clog. We can also notice this on international flights. The Indian leg of any flight will be dirtier than the international one.

Most of us expect “some poor chap” to clean after us. But yes it is not entirely our fault. For centuries now we have been used to open spaces and green toilets. A sink and a tap which you need to be press to get the water flowing can no way replace a river or a pond. These cramped toilets probably are a crime against us.

As you can judge a man by his shoes, you can judge a house and its inmates by the toilet

Driving on Indian Roads

Browsing through some random Blogs I ran into this Blog by Adhiraj Joglekar. He has come up with a blog to educate at least the net browsing Indian population. Now this is something that I appreciate a lot.

Please Visit this blog and also try to follow some of it. Driving-India

Even before I had visited any foreign country I had seen better driving etiquettes in one area with in India. Early part of my life was in various Air-force stations. Inside the camps it was absolute order and outside I always noticed the conspicuous absence of traffic order. After traveling outside India I notice the sorry state of affairs in India even more (and the worse part is I enjoy it to some extend).

Terms like blind spot, defensive driving etc were an essential part of driving lessens that I got from my father. From him I heard how the driving instructors in Army/Air force stressed on driving etiquettes. And for sure educating the drivers and some strongly enforced rules can make even Indians drive sanely (Definitely proved inside the Air Force Camps). Probably that is what we need through out India. For sure it can make Indian road a slightly better and safer place for us.

Happy and safe driving to all

Nostradamus Vs History

It appears that people with sun sign as Scorpio (October 23 - November 21) are most interested in Astrology. This thought came after touring a few book stores where they sell separate yearly horoscopes booklets for each star sign. It is seen that it is Scorpio that is sold most. Recently in a store in US noticed that the Scorpio booklet was sold out. I remember reading horoscope right from the time I started reading newspapers. And with every new year comes a flood of forwards from friends predicting the year ahead.
But year-end is also a good time for looking back. I would call it a kind of self appraisal. So I looked back at some of the common horoscope that I check out. A few that were forwarded to me by friends were also reviewed. Most of them had a common trend.

General

What they said: Passion carries you far this year in the realms of creativity and expression. You understand what motivates people to do a good job and will find yourself in situations where people want your advice. You have a very good support system in both your career and home life, and will learn that perfect order is taking place in your life at this time. Since your career has gotten off to such a great start this year, by summer time you will have more time on your hands to become romantically involved in a new relationship (or rekindling of old), which you've been thinking about for quite some time.

How it came: Passion has carried me far in 2007. But not too far that it shows. It was another mediocre year where there were no earthquakes that shook me neither there were triumphs that are worth mentioning. Career was on fast lane and summers or winter I did take good pit stops. Another special thing about this year was that maximum of my college classmates took career making/changing decisions many left job to do MS some for MBA, few in India and a few abrode. A large number of my School friends got married too. With all these changes I did grow insecure about the lack of drastic changes in my life.

Career & Finance

What they said: Transformation is at your doorstep this year, and new opportunities await you. You are proud of your ideas and very good at expressing them. Your thinking is creative and you have a smooth management style. You could enjoy spending time traveling to foreign lands and be drawn to observing others' ideas and cultures. You love to study. You need to get away from routine to feel comfortable and satisfied. Your career seems challenging at times this year. There may be times you feel that you're giving too much to your career and that achieving your goals is being delayed. You'll definitely achieve success from all your efforts and will be reaping many spiritual and material rewards by the end of the year.

How it came: Career wise 2007 had been quite good. I tried quite a few new things. Definitely took another step towards becoming a jack of all trades master of none that every engineer in India becomes. Also took another step away from technical stuff by taking up some people responsibility. One thing that came true was the travel part. Traveled out of India quite a few times and many times time on transit was more than time in visiting office. As a sadistic joke goes I am “The One” among my friends circle who has used toilets in largest number of airports. Also did someone say something about materialistic reward?

Love & Relationship

What they said: With such a loving personality, you will certainly attract romance and passion into your life this year. When in a close relationship, you are intuitive, sensitive and psychic, and have a good sense of what other people's motives are. You will find that your relationship gives you lots of space to breathe, and yet you still have lots of spare time to take care of your own needs as well. You will find much appreciation for the finer things in life. You'll realize the importance of sharing passionate moments with your partner.

How it came: Year after year this one has disappointed me. The rosier it looks in horoscope the worse it is in reality. Another year went past without much happening on my side. Friend after friend got busy on phone with girlfriends. I still depend on a tele-marketer to hear my latest ring tone. Anyway one line came true this time “your relationship (or lack of it!) gives you lots of space to breath and yet you have lots of spare time to take care of your own needs as well”.

References

1. Picture copied from some random website, I don't remember which one.

2. Horoscope: extracts from multiple horoscope.

Tried to bring out things that more than two sources were trying to predict.

A Useful Handicap - The Unsaid

On first thought I was to put this along with the “A Useful handicap” post. But on a second thought I did not post it. Now on third lack of thought it is here.

It is my strength that touches the sky like the shoot
But it is my weaknesses that hold me strong like the root
It is the not the moon that is a beautiful
It is the darkness around it that makes it beautiful

A Useful Handicap

The common bathrooms and toilets in a government college hostel are unchallenged in lack of cleanliness. The misery of the place starts with the careless way the contractor built it. Then walk in the students who use it with equal disrespect and carelessness. The bathrooms in our college hostels too were dark and dingy places considered as unavoidable mess by students and cleaning staff. Floors littered with soap covers and pieces of clothing left over by seemingly busy but actually careless users. The constant use and lack of proper drainage of water and ventilation left the walls damp. Green algae has grown out in places where the tiles had given away or worn out. Floors remain slippery. Then there is the damp unclean smell mixed with smell of a variety of soaps and shampoos. Big spiders would have made there webs at safer heights where the students would not care to disturb and the good old cleaner would not bother to clean. The doors were creaking and wet. The doors need some brain and brawn to handle.

In my Floor in college hostel there was this one bathroom with an added handicap. It had a mal-functioning tap. Courtesy the lack of water, this one was not used by anyone. It remained dry. It got time to remain dry which ensured the well being of the bathroom floors. The green algae never bothered the white tiled walls. Worried that he has not done anything for this bathroom the cleaner always looked up and cleaned the cobwebs in this one. It was not cluttered by various junk the students leave by.

By accident I found out that a precise 3 turns and pull upwards made this tap work. It remained free for my private use then on. At regular intervals few others too inspected the tap, on failing to operate it they moved on, with few words of curse. But I always felt this was the best in the entire hostel.

About some Alien words

I was thinking about some alien words like license, copyright and plagiarism after seeing a post and comments following in this rearset blog that I visit.

Plagiarism in our life probably started in school when we first copied English and math assignment from our best friends. Then we copied our senior’s project work and that was copied by our juniors. I enjoyed Hindi movies that were shamelessly copied from English (including the scripts). I grew up enjoying songs with tunes and lines copied f rom other languages.
We grew up reading pirated novels sold on footpaths. Then came the computer revolution. We joined the revolution with pirated OS in our new computers. Heard unlicensed songs downloaded from internet. We watched movies on pirated dvds/vcds which could be rented from every other shop around. We played pirated computer games.

Probably we cannot stop copying. It is human nature. And this definitely comes as a proof for “Darwin’s theory”. Humans have inherited this ability to copy or I would call it disability to avoid copying from monkeys.

Also note the license info I added on my blog. But of-course on a lighter note, who the heck would care to copy contents from my blog?

Mind-Wander Marks

At school hostel we had two hour study time daily. Talking, discussion and all other extra-curricular activities were bared during this time. Teachers were entrusted with the “Mission Impossible” read as: make students use this time to study.
One of my beloved teachers on “Mission Impossible” was perturbed by the fact that people day dreaming were the hardest to detect and correct. I also noticed, what makes things worse is that there is no bookmark during dreaming, i.e. daydreams always starts from the beginning instead of starting from where we stopped. From school to college then to work the show has changed but the show stopper has remained the same.

Day dreams often are like the “Mirror of Erised” mentioned in “Harry potter and philosophers stone”. Dumbledore explains to Harry “It shows us nothing more or less than the deepest, most desperate desire of our hearts........ Men have wasted away before it, entranced by what they have seen, or been driven mad, not knowing if what it shows is real or even possible"

Our teacher too gave us a “funda” about wasting time. He felt a lot of useful time is spent in day dreaming. As a remedy every time our mind drifted from studies we were to draw small vertical line/mark (like tally mark) on the paper and get back to study. I call it mind-wander marks. It is noticed that the frequency of lines drawn goes down exponentially. It is quite an innovative idea for ones like me, who have nomadic mind. Actually it is wrong to call it lack of concentration, but rather call it excess of concentration on activities other than what we are doing. As the situation changed from controlled environment of school to less controlled environment of home and work, theory was extended by me for external interferences too.

Once again day before yesterday, it was a day when I could not afford to waste time and the “mind-wander marks” reappeared at my desk and it was september 5th “Teachers day”

Harry Potter - 7

Being a Harry Potter fan I finished reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows with in a week of release. Harry potter series has been like the protagonist himself "simple yet powerful". At many points it enthralled me with the great thoughts embedded in less significant incidents. I was pleased to see this one thought that had raised my curiosity articulated in the final book.

In the book great headmaster Dumbledore had these words of wisdom for Harry
"It is a curious thing, ... , but perhaps those who are best suited to power are those who have never sought it. Those who, like you, have leadership thrust upon them, and take up the mantle because they must, and find to their own surprise that they wear it well."

First in my Alma matter and then in college politics and hostel student leaders, I felt this tread. At times I saw people being forced or wandering into responsible positions, by more of chance than intension and these leaders-by-chance turn out to be most innovative and different leaders. The politics and mental preparation that seasoned leaders take up when they plan and scheme to become a leader brings a certain amount of pretence in their style and action. The seasoned leaders have an addiction for power and fear of committing mistakes which the leaders-by-chance lack. Even worse is the myopic view of realities and disability to accept mistakes the seasoned leaders have.

Probably dear India too needs a few "leaders-by-chance" those who are best suited for power and driven by love.

pic source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/22/Harry_potter_stamps.jpg

When Time Matters

With my mobile camera I am trying out more. It is said beauty lies in eye of the beholder. And while capturing beauty on camera "the time too matters". It matters more when you are using a less hi-tech camera like one on mobile phones.

In the evening just before sunset.

When it got darker

At noon

Reading more on lighting, many experts believe that the better time for nature photography is evening just before sunset and morning just after dawn. These are the times when you get the best of the colours, more of it and in greater variety.

Ofcourse I find it difficult to get up just after dawn so generally prefer just before sunset time. Things get better if it has just rained. Things look fresher and water droplets give a richer colour effects and contrasts.