Death of English

Sad to read about the death of English Language ;-)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/13/AR2010091304476.html

And its not over still ….

18 years is time enough, you would think to find a solution to the Ayodhya dispute. But no, Supreme court has now stepped in to defer judgment till 28th. It is done in public interest, they say ..

Which public is this and what interest do they have ? 99% of the population just want to move on with life, we have other things to worry about.

Irrespective of what the court decides, whether to build a mosque or a temple or something else on the site, what likely impact would it have on your or my daily life ?

And everyday the commonwealth games fiasco seems to throw up even more stink. Lalit Bhanot , what an absolute idiot. Thanks for letting me know the difference in hygiene standards between India and rest of the world. I am tempted to deliver the “one tight slap” advocated by MTV , rarely has someone been more deserving than you, Sir.

What makes you happy ?

A nice meal ? Company of friends ? A good book ? A funny movie ? Time spent with family ?

Well, my daughter has provided a clear answer to that question over the past three days – Time spent with grandmother !!
And of course she has got a brand new bicycle as gift from Grand-mom as well. I was watching her sleep a few minutes back, her facial expression says “What more do you want from life ?“

Buying time : From Paulo Coelho's blog

Gem of a story on Paulo Coelho's blog. http://paulocoelhoblog.com/2010/09/11/buying-time/

A man came home from work late again, tired and irritated, to find his 5-year-old son waiting for him at the door.
“Daddy, may I ask you a question?”
“Yeah, sure, what is it?” replied the man.
“Daddy, how much money do you make an hour?
“That’s none of your business! What makes you ask such a thing?” the man said angrily.

“I just want to know. Please tell me, how much do you make an hour?” pleaded the little boy.
“If you must know, I make $20.00 an hour.”
“Oh,” the little boy replied, head bowed. Looking up, he said, “Daddy, may I borrow $10.00 please?”

The father was furious. “If the only reason you wanted to know how much money I make is just so you can borrow some to buy a silly toy or some other nonsense, then you march yourself straight to your room and go to bed. I work long, hard hours everyday and don’t have time for such childish games.”
The little boy quietly went to his room and shut the door. The man sat down and started to get even madder about the little boy’s questioning. How dare he ask such questions only to get some money?

After an hour or so, the man had calmed down, and started to think he may have been a little hard on his son. Maybe there was something he really needed to buy with that $10.00, and he really didn’t ask for money very often. The man went to the door of the little boy’s room and opened the door.
“Are you asleep son?” he asked.
“No daddy, I’m awake,” replied the boy.

“I’ve been thinking, maybe I was too hard on you earlier,” said the man. “It’s been a long day and I took my aggravation out on you. Here’s that $10.00 you asked for.”
The little boy sat straight up, beaming. “Oh, thank you daddy!” he yelled. Then, reaching under his pillow, he pulled out some more crumpled up bills.
The man, seeing that the boy already had money, started to get angry again. The little boy slowly counted out his money, then looked up at the man.

“Why did you want more money if you already had some?” the father grumbled.
“Because I didn’t have enough, but now I do,” the little boy replied.

“Daddy, I have $20.00 now. Can I buy an hour of your time?”

Fashion

Maybe I am getting too old, but I am not a big fan of this low-waist jeans business.

I was in the Paris airport couple of weeks before, when I saw a young guy, maybe around 18 years old, wearing a jeans which was half way up his thigh !! It was almost on his knees, not even close to the waist !! And he was walking around in his boxer shorts essentially. Why he bothered to wear the pants, I have no idea.

After some googling, I have come to realize that this style is called Sagging, which apparently is a predominantly male fashion.

If this is fashion for the future, things look kind of “low”, don’t you think ?

Creativity and books

“The secret of creativity is knowing how to hide your sources” . I have heard of this one before, still makes me smile every time I hear it. And with the power of Google at one’s disposal, I tend to agree with the above statement.

Finished reading a few books which have sort of disappointed me. The best of the lot was undoubtedly “Immortals of Meluha” by Amish. Based on Hindu mythology and a premise that what if the Gods were ordinary human beings like you or me who got elevated to a cult like status by means of their deeds. Shiva is the central  character of the novel and it is quite decently written. I did not find it moving fast enough for my liking though. And it is the first part of trilogy. As a rule, I hate trilogies, don’t think I have ever found the patience to even attempt completing one.

Also managed to plough my way through the massive autobiography of Steve Waugh : Out of my comfort zone . Well over 750 pages. Boring and irritating for most of the time and an incredible pain to hold in your hand and read ( nearly sprained my wrists just holding the book! ). Unkind readers may suggest that the book is not unlike Steve Waugh himself. A much better review can be found at the following location : http://www.cricinfo.com/ci/content/story/234157.html

Currently thrashing my way through In the Line of fire by Pervez Musharraf. Musharraf is genuinely un-aware of world history or is a blatant liar. His portrayal of India is as the rogue state and Pakistan is the friendly neighbor who is minding its own business. I doubt if he believes in this himself !! More controversies regarding the book can be read from the Wikipedia entry above. Overall he comes across as a pompous man who is desperate to prove to the reader that he was a great man. However the end effect is quite to the contrary. 

Must try and find better books. The growing collection of books in my home is again forcing me to look at e-book readers. In the next year, I hope the companies can sort out the pricing of the readers as well the e-books themselves.

Economy to Excess

So finally I am in the US of A. If Europe is the land of economy, this is the land of excess. The point hammered into me yet again when I went to the Hertz counter to pick up my hired car

"The car you booked is not available, so we are free upgrading you to a mid range SUV"
"Ok, what would that be ?"
"It is a Ford Explorer"

Ford Explorer ...... Mid-range SUV she says. Really, what would be a full range SUV ? This one itself almost qualifies as a bus !!

Flight into US was also eventful, I flew in the A380 . Plane itself is comfortable. Extra comfortable for me as I was seated in the exit row, with tons of leg room !! However getting into the plane is sort of a night mare. Takes a long long time, imagine 580 people trying to board the flight. And imagine the luggage collection area once you exit from the plane. Not very pleasant, I can tell you that.

Landed in JFK too, loud, dirty, crowded ... Should try and avoid it in the future.

Here for a week only this time, flying back on Saturday. Still some more electronics shopping to do. I am like a kid in candystore when I enter BestBuy. Controlling somehow, the $ x 48 conversion will really hurt when I go back :-)

Swiss expedition

Long time no blog ....

Well, I am in Switzerland now. Locarno to be more specific. Here on a business trip for a week.

A trip that started of well in Bangalore with Air France upgrading me to premium economy. Basically means more leg room, slept very well in the flight after a long long time. Why the airlines can't provide a tad more room in economy class, I don't know. If you are any taller than 5'10'' you would know what I am talking about.

For a change my flight landed 45 mins ahead of time. Unfortunately it meant a 5.5 hour wait in Charles De Gaulle airport. Terminal G is the designated terminal for connection flights to Zurich. Not very big, but still enough room to ensure that people can remain comfortably seated. Something for Frankfurt airport to see and learn.

Swiss railway network is a work of art. Typical itinerary leaves you around 3-7 minutes to catch a connection train. And usually all of them run on time. On this particular occasion, I missed my first connection, caught my second connection , but that got delayed, which caused me to miss my third connection again. But trains run at frequent intervals, so if you miss one, usually you can catch another one in 30 mines or so.

Reached my hotel late evening on Sunday night, only to find that the elevator had broken down. Had to lug my suitcase up 4 level of stairs :-(( Shoulder and Back ache after that. Swiss hotel rooms are .... well, they are economical in terms of size. The door to my room opens in and it just about clears the foot of the bed. Had to struggle to pull my suitcase in through the narrow gap. The feeling of claustrophobia gets amplified in the shower stall. My hands are constantly banging the sides as I am trying to take a shower :(

Had a stroll outside to grab some dinner. Locarno is a tourist destination, so I am faced with this sight of couples everywhere. No one is eating alone, every restaurant is filled with families or couples. Looks very odd if I go in and sit at a table alone. So I hit the McDonald's nearby. Consistent taste around the world - consistently bad, that is. I have no idea why people find this to be tasty food !!

The sights that I saw on the train from Zurich to Locarno were good. Nice mountains, steep valleys, big lakes, mountains again, valleys, lakes, mountains, valleys, lakes …… That is all this whole country has !! But very impressive all the same ...

More on this to follow

The number one

After the farcical F1 race last weekend at Hockenheimring and a brutal press conference later ( see especially the section saying Questions from floor in this link), Felipe Massa has now come out and said he is not the number two driver in Ferrari.

Barring Massa, I am not sure how many other people in the world would share that belief. But I agree completely with the temperamental Brazilian. Sure he is not number two, Fernando Alonso is number 1 and 2 in Ferrari !!

Hope someone gives poor old Felipe a hard slap so that he wakes from his state of denial :-(

Tour de France

What better to fill the void left behind by the World cup football, Paul the Octopus , Jabulani et.al than Tour de France ??

Surely one of the purest forms of human suffering that you can witness in sports. 3 weeks of sprints, crashes, lung bursting mountain stages and exhilarating descents. I have been a follower ever since I read Lance Armstrong’s books.

Armstrong, sadly had a disastrous tour this year. But the battle between Andy Shleck and Alberto Contador has been enthralling  so far. I just witnessed a brutal attack by Shleck up the Col du Troumalet that tore up every other cyclist except Contador. After nearly 3 weeks just 8 seconds seperate them. The time trial on Saturday will be interesting. Contador is the favorite on the time trial, but this has been a tour full of surprises.

One of the things that I find very different about cycling is this concept of fairness. If the leader of a race crashes, the rest of the pack would wait for him to catch up. The concept being that Le Tour should be won by the strongest rider, not the luckiest.

The other is the total commitment of the team towards their leader. I saw Shleck’s team mates sacrificing themselves one after the other to set up a brutal pace to propel their man to the front

Both these are quite unlike any other sport that I have known.

Makes for fascinating viewing all the same ….

Life is like that

Flashback to some Friday around 6 months back. I am tossing an turning in my bed, it is 11.30 in the night. Sleep is distant. I feel restless and tense. I try to read but I cannot focus. What is happening , I wonder ?

Now back to the present. Friday evening around 9.30 pm. I am settling down in by bed. My daughter is snuggling close to me, her head on my shoulder, arm clasped across me. I look down at her and see two expectant eyes staring back at me.

“Story”, she demands.

I start off with some impromptu story, my daughter keeps giggling. I keep asking her questions during the story and she keeps responding. Suddenly there is no response to a question, I look down and see that she has fallen asleep.

I have probably mentioned this before, but the feeling of having a little one snuggle up and go to sleep in your arms is the most relaxing feeling ever !!

My bed-time story time is over, the story of my life continues. Only things seems suddenly so different from 6 months back. I cannot find a single word to describe the difference. It’s as if everything that I wished for came true … Complete, maybe that is the word, I feel complete again.

World Cup

World cup football and my daughter – 2 strong reasons that have kept me off the blogosphere.

World cup has been a pleasant surprise, I was not too sad to see Brazil and Argentina go early. I don’t like their attitude, always whining to the referee, overacting when fouled, they act more like a bunch of kindergarten students than professional football players.

So finally it is Oranje vs La Furia Roja. My prediction is for Netherlands to nick it. I like watching Spain play, but they are one dimensional. They could be choked by the Netherlands midfield. van Bommel and de Jong have been the best defensive midfielders on display this world cup.

Just a couple more hours and we will know the winner !!

Also busy with my little one. I am in charge of sending her off to school and receiving her once she comes back. A few minutes with her is the best stress reliever  ever !!

Wonderful Wuhan

June 22nd, 2010 : Wuhan, China
If Beijing revived my deeply hidden fear of skyscrapers, Wuhan bumped it up a couple of notches. The city looked every bit as big as Beijing, with insanely tall skyscrapers everywhere.

Courtesy of the late flight from Beijing, we reached there pretty late. Checked into Ramada , they upgraded me to a suite room. Very luxurious. But alas, they had to do this when my time spent in the  hotel was going to < 10 hours :-((

In the morning we ran into couple of Delhi-ites in the hotel lobby. They were from an Indian firm supplying plastic fuel tanks to variety of car manufacturers. They do manufacturing in China. Indian company, manufacturing in China, supplying parts to German and US companies. World is so small …….

The place was called optics valley, I am told that there are like zillions for optics and laser manufacturers in that area.  The “optics valley” comes from Wuhan National Lab for optoelectronics, one of the five national laboratories in China. The Laboratory is managed by Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), which has about 50,000 students !! A more comprehensive look at this impressive university is found on the following Wikipedia article. Among others, it also house the National Center for High Magnetic fields, another impressive feat of planning and Engineering. When fully commissioned, it can do pulsed fields of up to 80 Tesla, possibly the largest capability in the world

This is another thing that I notice about China, there is no chest thumping or boasting. People are quietly building up world class research, science and engineering facilities. Very focused vision, with loads of government support. There are surely lessons to be learnt from them.

To crisply summarize Wuhan – World class !!

The only downside being the Smog that hangs over the city at all times. You get an acidic sort of smell in your nose all the time too :( Massive urbanization does have its de-merits in terms of air quality.

Left in the evening from Wuhan to Nanjing, my mental image of China as a low cost manufacturing hub has rapidly altered in the past couple of days.

Let us see what Nanjing has in store

Beijng Bites

20th June
12 pm Hong Kong time: I am sitting in the massive Hong Kong airport. The approach for landing offered the most breathtaking view I have see so far from air. The Hong Kong high rise and Harbor are lovely to watch from air.

1 pm : My flight to Beijing is in couple of hours. The airport is definitely a bit warm, I am beginning to sweat slightly. 

6.30 pm : Landed in Beijing, yet another huge airport. I have been forewarned by my colleagues to ask for a hotel pickup. The cab drivers do not understand English well.

7.30 pm : I am finally out of the airport. Beijing is pretty warm. I see a lady holding up a printout with my name. I follow her to the parking lot, which is underground. Surely she won’t be able to drive a car in those heels  ???!!!  Sure enough there is a car waiting for me with a Chauffer. An Audi !! I can play football in the rear seat.

7.40 pm : We are on our way out. Already impressed by the roads. Airport is in the middle of nowhere, I can’t see anything on either side of road. No sign of the infamous Beijing smog as of yet. I am settling a bit apprehensively into my seat, I know that Beijing has lots of skyscrapers. I am mildly scared of them :-( Never been all that comfortable around skyscrapers, I don’t know why

7.55 pm : First wave of skyscrapers hit us, this is not too bad, I can hold on.

8.05 pm : We pass the Bird’s nest stadium in Beijing. Beijing looks massive and with a traffic to match its big city status. Roads look better than in the US. And the driving style worse than in India

9.00 pm : Checked into the hotel, headed out for dinner with a colleague. We go to one of these traditional Chinese places. Menu includes Chicken, beef, pork, fish, soup, noodles and rice. I decline the pork, I sample everything else. The food is very hot, I like it !!

10.30 pm : Back in my room, make a couple of calls home. Internet is not free, scandalous !! Hotel is very nice and comfortable though

21st June

7.30 am : Breakfast is not free either !! Tremendous selection for breakfast. I eat heartily.

8.30 am: We are checked out and ready for our university visit. Our colleague is held up in traffic. He stays only 5 kms away, but has taken him more than 30 mins to reach us.

9.15 am: We reach the university and start our meeting. We are served tea, black, with leaves floating at the bottom of the cup. No milk, no sugar. First sample tastes awful, manage to take in a few mouthfuls. The cup gets refilled at alarmingly regular intervals, Chinese seem to be very caring hosts !!

12.30 pm: We are off for lunch with the faculty. Lunches, I am told, are grand occasions in China. I can see why. Lots of food, wine and talking. Talking is all in Chinese, so I focus on sampling small morsels of everything. Tastes pretty decent, just looks and smells very different from what I am used to seeing everyday. The fish looks as if it has just been dunked in hot water once, almost looks alive :-(( But surprisingly taste is good.

3.00 pm : On our way to Airport, Wuhan is the next destination. Flight is delayed by almost 2 hours. I am deeply engrossed in a book that I picked up at Bangalore airport. Open : An autobiography by Andre Agassi.

Sports ?? and Indians ?? No way !!

Honduras, with a population of 8 million can qualify for world cup, not us.  We have 1000 million people in India, imagine that. 1000 million !! We can’t even get past the first round of qualifiers.

Did I hear a voice of objection ? Did someone shout, “But hey, we have Vishy Anand, who is the Chess world champion yet again”, “What about Abhinav Bhindra, gold medalist in Shooting?”, “Haven’t you heard of Geeth Sethi and Pankaj Advani, ace billiards champions ? “.

My point is all these sports are so called “stationary” sports. Any sport that requires us to get off our backsides and move around, we pretty much SUCK royally.

And please don’t mention Cricket to me. It is a more or less a stationary sport. And about 9 countries around the world play it seriously.

In the meanwhile, Switzerland, with a population of 7.8 million has defeated Spain. Slovenia has 2 million people, New Zealand has 4 million, Slovakia has 5 million.

And Mumbai alone has 13 million people.

Where are those 11 folks who can kick a @#$%^& ball ????