The logic of spending money …

I spent a good hour at Landmark (which is a pretty large bookstore in our city) the other day – having nothing to do. I ended up buying two books even though I entered the shop with the intent of just casually browsing through the store and passing some time …

While browsing, I had picked up a couple of books with the intent of buying them – but later placed them back on the shelf, changing my mind the last minute.
The books I eventually ended up buying were – The Alchemist (something that I have wanted to read since a long time) and Games Indians Play (a book in which the author tries to explain why Indians behave the way they do using Prisoner’s Dilemma in Game Theory)

The books I ended up placing back on the shelf were – “A Thousand Splendid Suns” by Khaled Hosseini (not the right time to jump into a large novel) and “It Happened in India” by Kishore Biyani (wasn’t very keen and would be able to borrow it from a friend later).

Anyways, getting back to the topic at hand – the reason I wrote this post – is because I was wondering — how we willingly spend money for different things.

I have never felt the pinch while spending money on books – I spent a good 400 bucks on books I didn’t even intend to buy when I got to the place.
Similarly, I never quite feel the pinch while buying computer hardware – say a new hard disk or some ram.

Honestly speaking, I have started feeling the pinch (computer hardware) a little as compared to my college days – but nothing compared to spending a similar amount on getting my bike serviced — or on buying clothes for example.

I found it ironic that I could buy books worth a 1000 bucks in the morning – and cringe when my mechanic told me later that evening that I would have to change the brake liner of my bike which would cost me 250 bucks.

I really wonder why…

Maybe its because the way we are brought up.
Maybe because I had a sort of a “no questions asked fund” for buying books as a kid – that I continue not to feel the pinch now.
Or maybe I just strongly believe in the benefits of buying books.

I really don’t know – but I definitely do believe — different people do have different policies on spending money on different things. I just really do not know why.

Talking pictures …

One thing I love to do – sometimes even more than reading is watching films.
In my humble opinion, a good film talks to you at so many different levels and takes you to so many different places in those 120 minutes – that nothing else compares to it.

Well, there are books of course – but the joy of watching a well made film comes very close to that of reading an extremely good book. I do believe that making a film is a lot more difficult than writing a book.
A director has to deal with gazillion different things simultaneously as well as please the millions of people who would throng the talkies to watch his masterpiece.

Excuse me while I get all sentimental and emotional about films – because I have just come back from one of the most horrific film moments in my life. I have just returned from watching the Bollywood film – Black and White.

The greatest of the directors — the Peter Jacksons, Steven Spielbergs, Martin Scorseses, Quentin Tarantinos, the James Camerons give you — the viewer — the respect that you deserve when you walk into the talkies to see one of their films.
They know that their audiences are not stupid idiots who will watch and take any crap dished out to them.
Walking out of the theatres, watching one of their creations — you feel special — pampered in some sort of a way and take that nice, happy, satisfied feeling all the way home.

I’m extremely sorry to say that Indian directors on the other hand – are exactly the opposite.
They think — we — the audience — are a bunch of morons who will lap up all the meaningless, mind-numbing crap that they throw at us — with our mouths wide open – asking for more.

There are definitely some good film makers in India right now (Aamir Khan, Nagesh Kuknoor, Anurag Basu, Anurag Kashyap) — but the percentages of the films these guys produce compared to the vast numbers that are being churned out annually is very, very meager.

I have no idea why such crap is made and even accepted by the masses.
Today’s film for instance (Black and White) would insult the intelligence of even an eight year old. The research these guys do is limited to their imaginations – and the dialogues are as cliche’d as ever.

It’s about time I think – we guys really refine our tastes and get some quality cinema out.
Please God – let it happen soon :)

(If you are wondering why I went for this movie if it was full of horse shit – was because my mom wanted to see it for some inexplicable reason and me and my brother volunteered to take her.)

The pain and agony of those 140 minutes I tell you – was unbearable.

The Band’s Visit …

After all these years, I have come to realise that blogging is a lot like going to the gym.
You start with all the gusto – only to find that you have a blog space somewhere and you don’t feel like writing anymore.
One can always try again .. right?

The Band’s Visit

Anyways, I am sorry about writing another movie review out here – but I just wanted to get the word out on this movie which I just caught.
It’s called – The Band’s Visit and it has to be one of the simplest and sincerest movies I have seen in such a long time!

The movie is for most parts in Arabic — and is about an Egyptian police band which comes to Israel and ends up in the wrong town. The movie has an extremely high rating on Rotten Tomatoes (98% critics) – and that is how I came to know about the movie.

The movie is advertised as being a comedy – but it does not have many ha ha moments. On the contrary, it is pretty sad at places. However, the characters are extremely endearing and five minutes into the movie and you know you have gotten a winner. Once the movie was over, I could not believe how something so simple could be so enjoyable and captivating at the same time.
The way the characters interact with each other and the social situations that they get themselves into is extremely heartening and a pleasure to watch. You can relate to the movie at so many different places!
The movie is by director Eran Kolirin and he does a marvelous job at it. It also happens to be his directorial debut.
The runtime of the movie is about 1 hour 20 minutes — and if you are into foreign films and don’t mind sub-titles, this will be an extremely refreshing change to the mind-numbing, fast action paced movies out there.

Two thumbs up from my side :)

Network Solutions stole my domain name!!!

Please do not use network solutions for searching for domain names. And I mean DO NOT with caps in bold …

This is what happened – and it is my worst nightmare come true!
I wanted to book this domain name today – saga2008.com and I went to search for it on network solutions which told me that it was available. (I always use network solutions to search for domains)

After seeing that it was available, I went to GoDaddy to book it – because GoDaddy sells domain names for 7 dollars (5 times cheaper than Nework Solutions which charge a whopping 36 dollars)

Believe my shock when I found that the domain name was booked.
I hurried back to network solutions which told me that the domain was still available.

Back to GoDaddy – booked!

So I go back to Network Solutions and do a who is lookup on the domain.
Imagine my shock when I see that Network Solutions booked the domain name under its own name and is holding me at ransom to pay 37 bucks for a .com domain which I can get for 2 bucks elsewhere …

This is utterly despicable behaviour and I am really hurt and angered by this all.
So much so that I need to get the word out and warn everybody about this tactic.

So, please please do not search for domains on Network Solutions unless you want to be held hostage.

It’s unbelievable!!!

Om Shanti Om :)

I have been wanting to write a couple of blogs since some days now …
But have had to put that off for more important work (read writing Requirement Documents :p)

Anyways, its 1:54 A.M. right now — and I am back after watching one of the most enjoyable films that I have watched in a while – so I am just going to go ahead and gush about it in this post.

I don’t know what reactions other people had about Om Shanti Om – but I absolutely loved the movie!
It makes me want to put on my music full blast at 2 A.M. in the night, get creative and do some loud, colourful design work!

Initially, I was expecting the movie to delve into a deep reincarnation love story by looking at the initial promos.
However, thanks to a few early reviews that I read, I dropped all such expectations.

In short – Om Shanti Om is a complete entertainer!
Do not expect a complex story out of it – or any story whatsoever.

It has all the right ingredients — which make hindi movies what they are.

It has the following in ample proportions:

1. One of the best hindi music scores I have heard in a long time!
2. Sharukh Khan (for some, Sharukh Khan – topless!)
3. Cliche’s
4. Deepika Padukone (She is sooooo pretty !!!!)
5. Shreyas Talpade
6. Ample of jokes, gags and intelligent parodies.
7. The 31 stars song!

Om Shanti Om is all loud music, decent humour, larger than life sets and plenty of colour.
Something western audiences go to hindi movies for — and I am dead sure its going to do as well abroad as it will in India.

The songs are lovely and if nothing, go and watch it for Deepika Padukone. She looks absolutely gorgeous in the entire film!

Even though going for a movie at prime time nowadays, costs a sizeable fortune, I felt this movie was complete worth it – total paisa vasool.

If you wanna know, the first “half” lasts for one hour and is completely fun to watch.
The second “half” lasts for around an hour and forty-five minutes — pegging the runtime of the entire movie at around two hours forty five minutes.

But at no time did the movie drag. It was always fun and though in the middle I felt Farah Khan was losing it, she managed to pull it back with a decent ending.

Even the rolling credits in the end are fun to watch and lets you leave the theatre feeling good about the entire experience.

In short, a complete fun, enjoyable, masala movie!

When life gives you lemons …

I met up with a friend of mine recently who is working with this big multinational company.
Lets assign this company a completely random name – just because I am too lazy and don’t want to keep typing it again and again … Umm .. lets call it TM.

Okay …
So this friend of mine – an extremely bright, intelligent and hardworking student from back in college joins TM thinking that its a big company with thousands of people – and he’ll have every opportunity to grow and learn there …

He couldn’t be more wrong …
When he met me, he was completely stressed out – and very dejected …
I couldn’t believe it was the same confident guy I knew back in college …

He was suffering from something I call – “The Big Company Syndrome”.
I’ve had so many of my friends tell me the same story this friend of mine tell me – and about this same company – TM.

Moreover, you can smell something fishy when a company asks its employees to sign a two year bond of Rs. 100,000 (or was it 200,000?) as means to retain them…

Anyways, in bigger “service” based companies such as TM, people get treated as resources.
Most often than not, your superiors don’t give a crap about you and you end up being the extreme end of the tail in which everyone above you is trying to please everyone else above them and as such, don’t bother with those below them.

A very common occurrence in companies such as these – is having no work and ending up on bench for a long, long time.
This might be extremely hard for many to swallow .. but according to me, you are already in an awesome spot.

If life gives you lemon … Make lemonade!

How difficult is it anyways?

1. Cut the lemon in half.
2. Get a glass of water.
3. Squeeze each half of the lemon into the glass.
4. Add a pinch of salt.
5. Some sugar to taste.
6. Stir well and drink chilled :)

My friend here, tried his best to get work – but his superiors just neglected him …
All his requests were met with a few peanut jobs – which he completed in a matter of days – and again, had nothing to do.
This, he explained, bothered him a lot – and rightly so …
When you have been hired to work, it hurts not getting any responsibilities …

But the really sad thing is that in such large companies, nobody really cares …

Unless you have a terrific team leader or project manager, you are going to be in the same predicament.
And chances of getting a great superior are very, very low …

If you are stuck in a similar situation, you have two options:

Option A
This is the more ethical and fun option to do:

1. You type out a nice resignation letter.
2. Pack up all your stuff.
3. Delete all the personal files from your machine.
4. Walk up to your manager – preferably when he is surrounded by other co-workers.
5. Tell him what a jackass he has been.
6. Throw the letter at his face.
7. Storm out.

You’ll definitely get a better job. Don’t worry.
If you were good enough to be hired by this company, many other companies will take you easily.

Option B
Though I agree that this option borders on the unethical side, it is completely justified in such a situation.
Company loyalty can go take a hike.

In this option, the first thing you should do is stop asking your boss for work. That is simply the dumbest thing to do.
Come to work on time, punch in and relax.

You’re still getting paid right?
Do the work they give to you – but don’t be too enthusiastic about it – because honestly, nobody cares!

In your free time – and you’ll have tonnes of it, read, blog, write some pet hobby projects, put it up on the internet for others to use and grow yourself …

If you really get good at it, you can even consider freelancing – but this depends on how good you are hiding it during company hours.

I have heard stories of people running entire software side businesses using the company phone of TM itself.
They work as software contractors – getting work from some people – outsourcing to others – and taking a cut in the middle. They make this money in addition to also getting paid from the company for doing nothing.

This would be entirely shocking to many – but sadly, this is the way most large Indian software companies work.
You just have to learn how to work the system …

If you can’t, you’ll probably screw up your health with all the tension or commit suicide with all the depression.
And if you look at it – in the long scheme of things that is life – a couple of bad years in a bad company does not make any difference …
On the other hand, it just makes you stronger and wiser …

So when life gives you lemons, just make lemonade yaar!!! :)

[ Min number of posts to go till Mar 17, 2008 : 75.]

The ups and downs of blogging …

There have been umpteen number of times I have really stopped blogging.
And being the really lazy person that I am, I always tend to post some crap as to how I will start blogging (regularly) soon – and then eventually, I stop again.

There have already been some failed attempts.
Exhibit A, Exhibit B, and Exhibit C.

But then I met an old college friend of mine today who asked me as to why I had stopped blogging all of a sudden.
I sheepishly replied that I had no time nowadays – even though I know how wrong that is …

I have lots of time – its just that I prefer to do other things then.
Also, somehow this proves that I am doing atleast some work at my new job.

The reason I was blogging regularly at my previous job (apart from the fact that it sucked so bad – it would be a wormhole to another dimension) was that I didn’t have much work…
Now that I do, I generally prefer do catch up on some reading everytime I switch on the computer at home.
Either that or I am chasing some other billion dollar idea which just cropped up my head.

Anyways, in view of this and the fact that the blog limit I had set sometime ago for me needs work, I intend to start blogging more regularly …

I promise ;)

[ Min number of posts to go till Mar 17, 2008 : 76.]

Let there be light …

Today has been a pretty horrendous day actually …

We had no electricity for almost 12 hours …
From about 12 in the afternoon to about 12 now …

It is a pretty sad experience really – something we haven’t faced for a while …
There was a time – about a year ago, when there would be no electricity for 4 hours daily in the summers due to load shedding …

Thankfully, that situation has improved tremendously now – and electricity disappearing has reduced quite a bit …

Anyways, what was really cool today – was the experience of it all …
Allow me to get a bit philosophical (and a little kooky) while I try to explain what my experience was …

Before I get started, just a little background information …
Our house has two floors and each floor has its own UPS (inverter) backup which allows us to run a couple of tube lights and fans for 4 – 5 hours …

When initially the power went out, it was still bright outside – and everyone — in the optimistic anticipation that power would be restored soon (it generally does by around 6 P.M.) – spent the back up electricity running fans when they could actually do with some discomfort – in order to save the power up for later …

However, when the inverter beeped and let us know (at around 7 P.M.) that it was almost drained — and there were no signs of the power coming back, we cramped up into two rooms (from four initially) to save up on the remaining power …

After a while, when the inverter complained again, we were forced to move into the drawing room to further save up on power …
And we eventually had to switch from the single bright tube-light to the very dim, power saving lamp — when the inverter started beeping – notifying us of its final stages …

This is a pretty depressing feeling – knowing that you’re at the end of your line …
The inverter would give up any second now – and we’d have to spend the rest of the night in complete darkness …

At around 10:30 P.M., the inverter finally croaked. All of us gave up, switched off the lamp and went to bed.

A lot of work still had to be done.
Mail had to be replied to. Some coding was still left. My brother had to do his assignments and journals.
Everyone felt so helpless…

I somehow could relate to the movie “Children of Men” – in which there was no hope for mankind even at the peak of their civilization — when all the women become infertile.
(However, I related to it at a slightly different level)

At around 11, I crawled into bed – anticipating an extremely hot and humid night – with the guilt of leaving tonnes of work incomplete — that needed to be done by today.

Suddenly, just as all hope was exhausted, the inverter clicked – letting us know that power was back on.
Electricity was finally restored!!!

The street lamps outside — slowly came to a glow, televisions were switched on in the neighbourhood and the fans in my house started rotating again…
Suddenly, out of nowhere – I felt hope …

I don’t know how and why … but I felt everything was going to be alright …
Whatever the worries – at home, work, about the future, etc – I felt everything was going to be okay …
(This is the kooky part I was mentioning about)

I am not being an idiot by pinning my hopes on the state government – and every time they restore power – but on a more general phenomenon …

So many times in our lives, when we’re feeling down and out due to situations not within our control — something miraculously happens and everything is back to the way it is supposed to be…

Though this may not happen everytime – it does give us something to live for…
Perhaps this is something which makes humans – humans…

As ‘The Architect’ from the Matrix aptly put:

“Hope, it is the quintessential human delusion, simultaneously the source of your greatest strength, and your greatest weakness.”

Or as I would prefer to put it:

“Everything will be alright in the end. If it is not, its not the end!”

:)

[ Min number of posts to go till Mar 17, 2008 : 77.]

Over-connectivity anybody?

I know that this topic must have been done to death uptil now, but the immense realisation of it all just hit me.

My uncle from the states, sent me an email and asked me to reply back with everybody’s phone number in the house.
I say okay, hit the Reply button and go:

Home (primary): XXX
Home (secondary): XXX

Dad’s Cell: XXX
Mom’s Cell: XXX
My Cell: XXX
Bro’s Cell: XXX

When I keyed in the last number – was the exact time it hit me.
6 phones !!!!

6 bloody phones for 4 people!!!

And just about 4 years ago, we were extremely happy with one landline number – which I would proudly tell everybody.
And now, the first thing I grab hold off – even when I am moving through rooms in my house is — yeah — my cell phone.

Technology is a very funny thing.
You do not realise how badly you needed something until you start using it.
I resisted buying a cell phone till I was in my final year for this very same reason — and now, it’s something I cannot do without.

There was a time when I had only one email address and was extremely happy with it.
Now, I have one personal email address, one for spams, one for business and a couple more which I need to check for the websites that we have (activeciti, thinkingspace).

I have an account on each popular IM (GTalk, Yahoo, MSN, Skype) and a couple of social networking sites (Orkut, Facebook, LinkedIn).

The thing which really baffles my mind is – do we need all this?
And if we really do, where do we stop? How do we know where to stop?

I can see kids in the future spending a good couple of hours checking all their mail and then checking all their messages in their social networking circles, etc. etc.

Makes you really really want to run away to a distant village for a couple of months – with nothing except some cash and some clothes — an exile from being digitally connected.

PS: I found the calvin strip above by searching on this awesome tool: http://www.reemst.com/calvin_and_hobbes/stripsearch

[ Min number of posts to go till Mar 17, 2008 : 78.]

You can’t have your cake and eat it too …

If you really think about it, India is in a pretty mixed up place – economy wise …
We’re nowhere near a capitalist economy – nor are we entirely communist either …
We are somewhere in between …

I am talking about this because of late, there have been incidents in my life – caused by this aspect and I was wondering – whether a right balance could ever exist …

When I was returning from Proto a couple of weeks ago, I was to come to Mumbai by flight and then catch a bus from there to Pune. My flight was supposed to land at 10:40 PM – but it being Indian Airlines, it only landed sometime around 12:20 AM.
Luckily I had no checked in baggage and I was able to get out of the airport by 12:30.

I rushed to Dadar, and in my heart knew — that the last State transport bus would have long left and I would have to spend the night at the bus stop. I reached the bus stop at 1:00 AM.
Unbelievably – there was still a bus going to Pune (which I think would have probably been the last one).
It left with around 10 passengers (out of a capacity of 35 – 40) at 1:15 AM and albeit an extremely bumpy ride, I was home by 5:00 AM.
I secretly thanked the government for running such buses – even when there were hardly any passengers at such odd timings.

This is the other incident.

I live on the outskirts of Pune. As such, we have all the benefits which come with such a setting.
Clean, calm and pollution-free surroundings, lots of open spaces, etc. etc.

At around 10 kms – the main city isn’t too far either …

However, we also face the problems which come along with such a setting.
Namely, that of infrastructure — in this case, the internet.

The place where I live, there are no private players providing high speed internet services (or broadband).
This is primarily because not many people would go for it – so it does not make sense for these companies to lay fibre cabling all the way for a handful of subscribers.
The only one which does – is the government owned BSNL.

Until sometime ago – they had the monopoly in the telecommunication sector – and if you had a phone, it had to be from BSNL.
As a result, they have cables already setup – through which they provide the internet services.

The service though, leaves a lot to be desired – and the sorry fact is – being a government enterprise, no one gives a damn.
I’ve been having connection issues since eons (it works sporadically and mostly, only at nights) – but no one seems to be bothered. After about a hundred complaints, nothing comes of it.

I seriously have started believing that if anything needs to come of a government run agency, some palms eventually have to be greased. Haven’t tried that yet – but sadly, we’ll probably have to do it eventually.

So coming back to the issue.
Living in an entirely capitalist economy definitely has its merit. I honestly believe that the entire country progresses at a much, much faster rate as compared to living in a communist one.
People who are smart, talented or hard working get their just rewards – encouraging more people down that road, thus leading to faster growth of the entire nation.
(Monopolies are a negative – but then, thats just the way you look at them)

However, if we were actually in a completely capitalist economy, I would have spent the entire night at the bus stand and would still be on dial-up connection at home.
And if the government does step up and provide services like the state transport bus running at night or me getting my broadband at home (even though its on only half the time), am I right to demand good service — or should I just be grateful that I am getting such services in the first place and be happy with it?

The Indian consumer at large, I think, follows the latter ideology …
What do you people think?

(My connection went off and on 7 times while I wrote this post)

[ Min number of posts to go till Mar 17, 2008 : 79.]