King style

This is the welcome kit provided by Kingfisher when you apply for the frequent flier program.

For someone who is used to getting just a number on the internet followed by a plain card, it was a shocker to me!! The kingfisher flight experience in itself was way unusual - for someone used to sitting in rickety old fleet of Northwest/American Airlines with hardly any entertainment and soda/peanuts as the only refreshment served, the spanking new RED fleet of kingfisher with individual monitors, awesome food, and the little bag of welcome goodies everytime you fly, was a "HAAN?!!" experience!

Unfortunately for a skeptic like me, instead of feeling like a satisfied customer, it ends up feeling like a sticky affair.. Too much of red, too much of warmth and too much of long legs in short skirts.. (he he..)

Somehow it brings back teenage memories of being followed closely on the road by a stranger and complimented ad nauseum..

When i fly, my expectations are for the flight to be dang on time, have friendly cabin crew who are efficient and make social conversation (i wonder if any frequent flier gives a damn about the dress as long as it is neat), a pilot/announcer who communicates flight details frequently along with a dose of good humor and someone's there at the door with a smile when i push off.. everything else, for a frequent flier, is dispensable..

i remember, one tired friday evening, on a AA return flight to chicago, the flight reached half hour ahead of the scheduled time.. the announcer said with a delight in her voice "we have reached early today, next time we are late please do remember this instance" the whole flight broke out in a chuckle and it washed away most of my work-week's fatigue..

now THAT's what i would like from an air commute, the company of an acquaintance who is efficient in getting me to the destination, topped with cordial words and body language. NOT a sticky red hollywood street character showering hugs and kisses!!

Zen and the art of subtle correction...

In many ways I find Zen very similar to Gandhiism, with Zen having a tinge of arrogance and sarcasm that I find adorable.. In my mind a Zen teacher is like a mix of Gandhi and Pai Mei of KillBill..

Here is a Zen story that teaches how to correct without saying the obvious:

Many pupils were studying meditation under the Zen master Sengai. One of them used to arise at night, climb over the temple wall, and go to town on a pleasure jaunt.

Sengai, inspecting the dormitory quarters, found this pupil missing one night and also discovered the high stool he had used to scale the wall. Sengai removed the stool and stood there in its place.

When the wanderer returned, not knowing that Sengai was the stool, he put his feet on the master's head and jumped down into the grounds. Discovering what he had done, he was aghast.

Sengai said: "It is very chilly in the early morning. Do be careful not to catch cold yourself."

The pupil never went out at night again.

Bengalooru Habba

Sunday evening was a treat at the Palace Grounds - we went to the bengalooru habba - a b'lore cultural event that happens every dec. Yesterday was the grand finale of the 8 day long event.

It started with Rangageethe - select songs from theatres (i.e., live theatres - yatras) - performed by B.Jayashree, that lady had some dum in her voice, it was ecstatic..She and her group seemed to be enjoying the performance to the hilt!



Then came some fashion shows - raga watches, peter england shirts (that asbsolootly bored us) and a wow bridal collection! The surprise of the evening was Arjun Rampal, with his wife Meher Jessia. Then entered Malaika arora (the chaiya chaiya lady) , she was alright.. The show wound up with kailash kher (mangal pandey ka singer). there were some good fireworks overhead throughout the evening..


the best part of the evening was, imho, that the tickets were freee!! and we by luck got tickets that had 'vvip' written on them (the hubba organizers must be devoted promoters of lady luck!) and got to sit right near the stage!

most good things in life come without a price tag haan! :)

here is bellary road in rain - we went on this road for the first time.

That Chennai of ours..

Last weekend I was in Chennai - here are some of the observations:
- ze weather!!! warm sun with the coastal breeze - no s ign of the signature humidity...mmmm... there was som ething in the breeze that brought back memories of scho ol and college days - a feeling of " there is nothing i can't achieve"

- Autowallas - a marked difference from the rude bangalore ones! yes they will pinch an extra 5-10Rs. from you but they will gladly go anywhere u want them to go!


- Elliots beach - where is that vast expense of sand ending in rolling waves?! now it is bajji shops, kadlai shops and bhutta shops covering most of the sand, and there is such a crowd at the coast getting a little space to sit down is tough. heard that post - 10pm it is like old elliots though..

- T-nagar - Retail boom is o-so-obvious here! Pothys has dropped its kachda image of Raja Rani and stuff and become a la spencer with very affordable collection..branded and non-branded apparel side by side. a clean food court on the topmost floor... 6 glaswalled elevators.. each floor decorated according to its collection (the pattu saree floor was traditionally decorated with lamps, the western wear floor had contemporary posters)... Saw the poshlooking Saravana Stores building, heard that they ahve everything under one roof and very affordable.. .sorry b'lore, henceforth my shopping bucks go to chennai..

Children and their link to Parental Ego

Recently I was analyzing the development of ego in children and how much contribution parents have in this process. I have not found the answer yet but in this process I realized how parental ego gets fuelled heavily by having children.

By the time a person reaches his adult age, enters married life, he has achieved a certain social and financial status. In this process he has also got mired in the complexities of life, the shrewd calculations to stay ahead in the race, and the constant fuelling of the ego to excel.
At this point, the desire to have a child would have these initial expectations:

1) A desire to return to innocence.. remember again how liberating free, selfless flow of thought and action can be.

2) Stay in touch with the creativity and youth of childhood.

3) Be instrumental in another being's existence and survival, thereby being selfless, giving preference to object libido (love towards the outside, away from self) over ego libido (love towards inside, towards self)

4) However, if the parent has faced a few significant failures in his life, there is a subconscious expectation from the yet-to-be-born child to succeed in those areas that the parent failed in. This could be the only appearance of pre-parental ego.

But as the infant is born, here are the ways these expectations take a different turn:

1) Association of the parent's physical and behavioral features with the child's - directly linking the parent's ego with the child's being (a reason that prevents adoption from being popular)

2) Comparision of the child with the peer age group, constantly throughout the growth phase. This again fuels the ego of the child as well as the parent, to be better than others.

3) Inhibition of the child's free expression and interests, to conform with the societal norms of success.

4) An expectation of a emotional/financial 'return' from the child when he grows up. In Indian society this return mainfests in gestures like taking the first salary to the parents, taking care of the parents when they are old, etc.


This is just a summary of the two lines of thought that may be working subconsciously in a parent's mind, before he has the child and after. This summary is not judgmental but purely analytical.

Rediscovery of India?!

1. 3 years is enough time to get dumbed down and forget how to survive here... Took me 2 months to truly get used to the roads again (ie to drive at par with the auto/cab guys)

2. lack of tools.. while putting up a train passenger list, the railway guy was using his bare hands to spread the adhesive on the train... a simple brush would've looked so much more elegant in the artist's hands!

3. garbage ...garbage .... everywhere! just an efficient garbage disposal system will give India a huge facelift.. while travellin from cbe to blr, the bushes right out of the station looked like cotton trees from some distance...when the train pulled closer they were vast fields of dry bushes covered with plastic bags...

4. public transportation.. the lovely and the ugly

the lovely: city buses have recognized market need surprisingly well! along with usual city buses, BMTC has fleets of shining volvo buses that are air-conditioned, have plush seats and play the hip radio channels on lovely speakers! the ticket price is thrice the usual city bus ticket price, but worth every paisa! (here are some pics from one mr.ravikumar's blog)



the ugly: auto-rickshaws of bangalore! the rick drivers have more attitude than any child actor of hollywood/bollywood! they will agree to go from point A to point B only if:
1. point B is en route to their home
2. point B is right on an autostand so they don't have to waste a second of their precious time waiting for passengers..
3. you are willing to go by the 'meter+50' demand...

if none of the above points are met, you may have to ask some 15 autodrivers and see them turning away (without bothering to say "no") before you find one who will say 'yes' and you'd feel blessed!

5. themepark... i've been only to Wonderla since coming here but that one experience has highly impressed me! No individual ride tickets, no impolite park employees, no kachda lying everywhere, no line jumping... the last factor caused the most exhileration in me - there was a long line for the dashing car ride, and a little girl got impatient and jumped the line and wiggle right to the entry spot where a security guy was letting the next batch in.. the security guard sternly told this girl to go out of the line and not come back for this ride!!! even though i felt bad for the little girl, i felt like clapping my hands at the enforcement of discipline!! if only more law enforcers knew the meaning of 'enforcement', india could have its common man less frustrated...

6. vehicles.. the most evident sign of a booming economy - shining cars, are clogging the roads. a new bike (ie the motorcycles) model comes out every two months! and Reva... makes me really proud - the world's cheapest electric vehicle, quite a few of them on Bangalore roads.. only problem is charging it...only parking spots of private houses are equipped with the 15Amps outlet that the battery charger requires..

Throw-away..

Today i dug in the bag of old clothes that i had packed to give away cos they don't suit me..Took out a green shirt and wore it to work..Didn't give it any thought until at the starbucks line a lady approched me to say how lovely the shirt was.... Ha! Obviously, this shirt will not go back to that bag - long live the public!

3 and more reasons why i like the US of A..

1. Overall quality of work, work culture
2. Outdoor life - Hiking, biking, watersports..
3. Comedy clubs
4. Told my boss that I will be leaving the project and firm in a month and she still backs me up like ever before, if not more! (out of gratitude that I gave her ample time to re-staff)

(wrote this while i was in US.. now i'm in India!)

3 and more reasons why i want to go back to India

1. In the first place, never wanted to settle down here..
2. Won't get fat as easily in India, as i do here..
3. Can watch those two brats grow up and hear their cribs and be part of their triumphs..
4. Can wear lovely colorful salwaars to work, or graceful sarees..so much variety!!
5. Can afford to visit the beauty parlor every month and get lavishly pampered!!
6. Can start my own business any time..
7. Easily identify with people around..
8. To add spice to the end of a dark day, I could choose to drown myself in aampanna, moghlai parota, fish roll, fish orly, chaatpapri, panipuri, aloo tikki chaat, daab chingri, malpoa, ilish paturi, crunchy jalebis, mutton chop, and otherrrslurrp...

Update on 13-July-2006: Yes! finally here!

Castaldi's Ozdust

Had a wonderful evening at Castaldi's.. The servers sang from classic musicals and they all had amazing voices.. I had my jaws drop at 'Old man river'...and was delighted on hearing 'I am not that girl' from Wicked, sung by the same lady who served us..

The O'Reilly factor in IT consulting

Picture Bill O'Reilly - a cutting edge IT consultant... Difficult??!! Perhaps not if you are an oldtimer in this game, perhaps you yourself are one!! He would have some interesting conservative thoughts in the information sharing area:

-- blogs, instant messages encourage 'instant gratification' in society
-- blogs, wikis and websites in general contain 'too much information' and are more of 'legal liabilities'

Wondering how to weigh this..

Gotto get a haircut, i look like Yoko Ono..






Added on 04 Oct:

I figure that the co-existence of this conservatism in the IT economy is important. While the IT area is dominated by Gen Y onward, Generation X may seem old-fashioned and conservative but the huge experiencebase that they carry is quite humbling for us... This addendum is to recognize that a bit of the 'o'reilly factor' is important in every team..

Random thoughts at end of work-week

In the subway train to airport today my head was heavy with the nuances of the work week.. nothing earthshatteringly important, yet they occupied every corner of my upper story like cockroaches in my baton rouge student apartment... :) I tried to sleep those off but sleep was already having a friday party somewhere..i even tried thinking of my favorite things (not ' Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens' though, there was the snow missing outside.. :) )..

Then..in the airport lugged the suitcase and my heavy backpack and paused at the ben & jerry's.. Got the smallest cone of the littlest scoop of the low fat Cherry Garcia...Took the first bite and it was nirvana... one could hear the hymnical 'aaaaaaaaah' in the back ground and me floating above all others... looking back it was like kumar and harold taking a bite of their Whitecastle sandwich.... after a long bizarre night...
(lest this blog be misread as product endorsement, i like coldstone more than b&j)