Snapshot

I think we all treasure different moments in our life. Taking a photograph is one of our desperate attempts to lock that moment of presence permanently. We also very fondly remember when we look back at stuff, though we might not have thought about it much when it actually happened. Anyway here is some recollection of things that made me smile and i wish i had taken a 'Snap Shot'.

Location : My Apartment , Tulsa Oklahoma, USA.

Characters : Me, Mom , Dad and my brother.

Situation : My parents had come from india to visit me. There 3 month trip was over and they where going to catch a plane the next day morning. We where finalizing the luggages , travel documents etc. After a busy conversation i had just excused myself for the restroom , and when i got back

Dad : 'All luggages are packed and i have checked the tickets and timings we should be good'

Brother : 'Check my flight timings too , you have to drop me at the airport also after mom and dad leaves'.

Mom : ' Where did you disappear suddenly i started missing you already' - :) Snap shot

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Location : Ciaos Restaurant on the beautiful cherry street in Tulsa .

Characters: Me and my salsa buddies

Situation : 'Salsabor' a live salsa band tulsa was playing and we were dancing our hearts out with little conversations in between to catch a breather.

Me : Hey did you know that the owner of ciaos was arrested for selling Marijuana.

Kari : Really?

Me : Yes, it seems like whenever a live band plays its kind of a incognito sign of letting others know that the 'weed' would be available today.

Kari : Wow are you sure?

Me: Yes i read it in the daily Oklahoman , it has to be true .

Kari: I cant believe it this is such a nice place. who would have thought.

Me: right , apparently the band members are involved too.

Kari: huh... Un believable.

Me: Oh come on .... Kari cant you tell i was lying ... of course its not true. You know what you are so 'gullible'.

Kari : Im not gullible im just 'Trustworthy'. :) snapshot.

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Location: Bangalore , HSBC Cafeteria

Characters: Me and my pal Suraj.

Situation: I was explaining Suraj how i got my pizza bill mixed up with my electricity bill . The funny thing was my usual pizza bill for one pizza comes to Rs.450 and my monthly electricity bill comes out be about the same amount too. And its my apartments security guard who pays my electricity bill. So very brilliantly i had given my pizza bill with the money to the security guard and had asked him to pay my electricity charges for the month.

Me : It was really embarrassing da , to have given my pizza bill thinking that was my electricity bill.

suraj: It is quite hilarious.

Me: You know these days my job makes me so disconnected i dont know whats going on in the outer world

Suraj: True .

Me: I stil cant understand how the cost of one pizza and my monthly electricity bill can be the same.

Suraj: Thats what the software industry has done to india da, you have these fancy foods that costs you much but our basic amenities are still cheaper because they are subsidized by our government

Me: I can see that , so why are we working in this industry where you constantly live inside a bubble ?

Suraj : what else .... to eat pizza man ... :) snap shot.

Boon or Bane?

Hmm .. i really wanted to blog about this for a long time. Anyway here goes, since i have had an opportunity to live in america for a while i always compare and contrast living in america and in india. One of the things i really missed when i was away are being with my family. I don't know how to put it.... whenever i spend time with my family it feels great and may be its because i don't think about myself a lot when i am with them. But also one of the reasons i liked living in america was i had plenty of space to sit and contemplate, it's almost a feeling of discovering ones self. When all the noises and voices around you are silent you kinda figure out slowly but surely what you are really like and what you are not, i personally feel nothing teaches you more than your own company. After moving back i often wonder how many indians really get this space.

I mean lets face it India is a country of a billion people, Just to make a decent living you need to be extremely hardworking and diligent and thats just for starters. So if you have to do anything to standout you would need to be that much more industrious, so i often think the concepts of likes, dislikes, passion and interest gets lost to full fill the basics of our human needs to get food clothing and shelter regularly. Often i wonder is it because of this the family system is so much important in india. I mean thats the only easy and direct way of having something to look forward to and keep you occupied in the rat race around you. So the question then becomes would we have a such boasted family system if all our basic needs gets satisfied easily outside of it?.

Also i find people live and die by other's opinions in india. With so of them all around you everybody is ready to share their piece of advice on anything, and most of us including me are affected by what we hear and see around us. Often wonder if most of us just lead a second hand life so that we can appear to be somebody in front of the crowd. The question i have repeatedly is would everybody do what they do today if no one was around them to influence. As i see people at my work , family and friends everybody wants to be somebody, probably more so in india than other countries. Creating this idea of being some one seems to be much more important than living itself. I would think most of them would die rather than to lose their identities they have built about themselves. So if you are india with so many of them around how many different lives would you live? how many of them would you satisfy ? what happens to your own inner voice that gets drowned in all the commotion ? as life itself is a huge paradox ... are the most important things we cherish in our lives.. are they really boons or banes ??????

Bangalore House Hunting

Just about settled in a apartment in Bangalore. So thought I'll share what i went through. Here is the top three things one must avoid if you are looking for a house.

1. Not willing to share i.e No Roomies

2. Being single (apparently its a big deal)

3. Looking for a house by yourself (not going through the middle man).

UN fortunately i was kind of stuck up on these. Lets talk about them.

Room Mates - The general culture around here seems to be to live with a room mate. People often give weird looks when you say you want to live alone. The general day to day activities people do seems to involve another person just naturally. It almost seems like a way of living, but having lived separately for some years i could not come in to terms with it.

Marital Status - This is probably the most important aspect when you are looking for a place. I had to let go so many good houses just because i was a single guy trying to live alone. The general perception is that married folks are more responsible and take good care of the house.While i can understand this perception i thought it was quite ridiculous to have this as a parameter in judging a tenant. The high points were when i would get in to a conversation with the home owners they would say something on the lines of ' I know this is a personal question but when are you planning to get married? ???????????????? ;( '.

Doing your own search - The first few weeks i was just looking for a house by myself . But most often than not all the good houses get filled up immediately in Bangalore because there is such a high demand, and without the middle man you are just lost. Even the classifieds and online advertisements usually give you the contact details of a broker and not a the home owner. So i had to compromise on this one. If you really want to find a good house you gotta worship the middle man.

Any way all said and done i did find a apartment very close to my work. Though its quite big for my needs its a nice one.

So moral of the story unlike America in India its about whom you know and how you work the system.

For My next post - Resident or non resident alien - but where ?

Bangalore First Impressions

After much thought, trepidation and planning i'm at Bangalore. The out sourcing mecca of the world. Here are some of my first impressions.

The city seems to be buzzing all the time. There is moving traffic even at 4 in the morning. The one thing that strikes you momentarily when you reach bangalore is just the number of people around you. Its just a sea of humanity. I don't know if you would feel the same way if you moved from an other city in india. But coming back from a place like tulsa it was just so very evident. I did feel so claustrophobic at times inside my apartment. It almost like being surrounded by a layer of humans and concrete from all ends.

But what surprised me more is just the general attitude of the people here. Everybody seemed to be calm, focused and had a grip on all the madness around them, and with so much activity going around there is abundant people to do all the services/work needed.
In fact there is a boy at the temporary accommodation the company had provided who cooks cleans and takes care of the guests need and every apartment complex has a boy like this. At the work place there is a person allotted to take care of any personal belongings that you might want to leave at the door( just imagine he is like a walking safety locker). So theres just people everywhere to take care of even the mundane of the work.

You walk in to the workplace and the awe continues. But Strangely with so many people around the place sounds eerily quiet. If you close your eyes for a few moments you might think that there is no one around you, but the moment you open your eyes you can see the top of a hundred heads at the same time. I did get some looks for my weird accent now and then but all in all it is a pleasant looking workplace.

Most of all one thing that struck me was india humbles you very easily. You are surrounded by honest hardworking people trying their level best to lead a good life. Be it the boy who works at my apartment, the guy who collects items at the doors or the avp of my team its just a bunch of people trying to make a living doing all they can do. Among all the commotions , the pollution , the traffic jams, the crowds the humility and hard work of people around just shines through. It will make you feel insignificant and humble all at the same time.

For my next post --- House hunting in bangalore.

Truth and acceptance

As more and more time goes on i am beginning to realize that our constant irritation and sufferings comes from not accepting a present moment or condition. In each and every situation i see a basic truth that i have not accepted myself and that leads and adds on to many additional ones. Example Why do my credit cards carry balances - because i spend more than i earn and i have still not accepted the fact that i spend this extra money. The moment i accept and recognize the fact that i spend carelessly i am at peace with myself and more clear actions spring out of this space of clarity. When i work late and complain about over working i have still not accepted the fact that i have not planned it well. When i complain about people acting in certain ways i have still not accepted the fact that i have no control over the other persons actions. It was kind of profound when i read that "Everything that irritates you about an other person is only a part of yourself that you have not forgiven". If you feel irritated that your boss complains about stuff all it means is you are irritated with your self when you complain. As you forgive others you forgive yourself. As i am beginning to be more and more truthful in all what i do and say i find a tremendous power of healing in it. You see that you are essentially connected to one and all around you. Every body that you like and dislike are nothing but manifestations of yourself. At this level all questions about self righteous morality and rules and regulations fade away and you find yourself in peace.

Yoga - Being In the moment

Its been a year and half that i have been actively doing yoga. Thought i should write something about it. The common essence of many spiritual books from the gita to the bible and gurus from patanjali to contemporary leaders like eckhart tolle and nityananda is that you become conscious of your consciousness by quietening your mind. Mind seems to be the source of all evils and once you conquer that your life flows in . This seems to be common theme. I see myself becoming calm, peaceful caring and loving at the end of each yoga session. Ultimately all you are ever going to have is this very moment. Past which you cannot change and future which you cannot predict. So the challenge is to be present every moment fully without judgement. It becomes easy during your yoga classes but its not when you are away. But whenever i apply this in whatever i do iam calm peaceful and serene. Just letting go of the results seems to fulfill me with so much energy which i would have otherwise spent worrying about the results. Example - working on a problem at work - when i constantly sit and cram my brain for a solution it does not come to me, but when i let go and be silent things flow in. What a paradox. Just so speaks against the conventional wisdom that we are usually thought. Hard work and effort has no meaning when you sink in to the present moment and be conscious of what we do. But i am extremely happy that i have found the practice of yoga to hone this skill.

It's a Mac thing

The moment anybody asks me what should i buy? a 'mac' or a 'PC' i find myself automatically saying 'mac'. Do u even have to ask?....
If its a geeky person i would start ranting about how mac has no viruses, how its built to last, how its unix based operating system is much more stable and how it is a OS without security loop holes... yada yada. And i can give a pretty good narration of how elegantly designed a mac is with all its simple to do interfaces for the non techie person.
Recently i got in to a pretty intense conversation with one of my friends who had recently got a lap top for a third of a price of a mac. Here is part of our conversation

friend: "You know i can buy 3 laptops for the price of a mac book"
me : " Yeah that's ure 2nd laptop in 2 years a mac easily lasts for 5 years"

friend: "The new windows vista is so cool"
me: " Dude it's just a bad copy of the mac OS"

friend:"browsing with the new ie 7 is so much better"
me: " Just wait till it installs a stupid active x that's going to load up your computer with viruses"

friend: " But u just cant install all third party apps in a mac"
me: " didn't u know there is 'boot camp ' a software that enables to run windows on a mac"

................................................... so after many such flared up dialogues one Sunday evening(after finishing up all my laundries) i found myself wondering...why do i like a mac so much?.
Which eventually led me to the mac store where i saw the new i-books, after fiddling around with it for about half an hour i cannot pin point and say this is the "one" thing that makes a mac more desirable. Say it be the little pop up animation that comes when u maximize ure windows or the way ure picture collection swivels around or the instant boot up...when u open the lid ....the mac just does things in a better way. Isn't that what every one wants to do all the time. "To do things in a better way".
Next day someone at work asked me " why do you think i should buy a mac?" ...before my artisitic and logical side could take over i found myself smiling and said "Coz Its a Mac".

If u are still asking why ...."Its just a mac thing" .......

Compugirl

I Know i got you all wondering with my Title, Computer and girls... The two things that is always on the Mind of a male Techie. Guess What i think there is a very good relation between them both...lemme explain.....
Heres how my day generally goes, i wake up at about 9.15 in the morning and reach my work place at say about 9.30(i take quick showers), and oh ya my job is to "CODE", in simple words my job is to speak in a language that is understood by the computer.O.k O.k matterku varuvom(let us come to the point) It usually goes like this
I sit in front of my Computer and start running the program that i was working on the day before............What the Heck it doesnt Run......it was working so perfectly yesterday,
Iam at the Completion of a major module and my computer shuts down for no reason!!!
Almost during the end of the day when no amount of debugging is working out u start cajoling and coaxing ure computer to be nice to you, i hear my self murmuring "Dont do this to me", "please dont gimme an Error"

I do wonder a lot of times...Is this a Computer or a highly temperamental girl.....Or lets just say Compugirl!!!!!!