Still Wondering

Tidbits on Amman

2009-12-21T07:36:00.001+05:30

While I was in Amman, Jordan for almost 10 days, I didn’t get many opportunities to roam around in the city. However, during my travel in taxi-cabs to various meeting venues, around the city, I observed the following –

People: In Amman, I found people to be very warm and friendly, at least to visitors. Every time, they get to know that you are out of the country, they will say “Welcome to Amman, pleasure to have you here”. Almost everyone speaks English and is very courteous and ready to help with directions, locating the address, speaking to the cab driver in Arabic to explain where to go, help you recharge your phone etc. People generally wear western clothes and local women always wear an elegant head-scarf. While women dress up in modern western clothing, the only skin which is visible is face and hands. I don’t know if it was winter effect or that’s how generally they dress up. One irritating part is that smoking in public spaces is not prohibited yet, and lot of people smoke here. We had several situations whereby people were smoking in an air-conditioned space. This reminded me of my stint as a student-trainee in Ghaziabad in 1994 at a company, whereby almost everyone used to smoke in that small air-conditioned office, making me feel choked very often.

Food: Only one word to describe food in Amman – awesome. Middle-eastern food which is tasty and cheap, is available everywhere. We went to one place called Hashim where only falafels are served. Six of us had dinner of unlimited Pita bread with 2 types of Hummus, salad, tea and falafels only for JD 10. There are many fancy restaurants all over the city, which would serve non-stop delicious food. Our last meeting was in one of these restaurants, whereby they kept serving the starters / appetizers of various kinds, and since it was all vegetarian I kept eating, only to realize that there is main course as well. Similarly, there was a huge variety of desserts as well, followed by tea/coffee. For someone like me who is used to of drinking tea, Amman is a blessing – tea without milk and with mint and honey is available almost everywhere. Lot of major US food chains – McDonald, Burger King, Hardees, Starbucks & Costa Coffee – are present in Amman, though of course, I didn’t step into any of them, so no idea how good / bad they are.

Roads: Amman has very good tarred roads all throughout the city, including connecting highways - no potholes and no filth on the road. Road signs are clearly marked and roads are lit properly during night. Flyovers dot the main city, which, probably, were constructed to ease the congestion, which by the way, still exists during peak hours in morning and evening. I think, the reason for congestion is the fact that roads are narrow and there is no separate space for parking, which results in vehicles being parked on the road-side which contributes further to the congestion. The highway exits are generally steep turns, though two major highways are connected with a typical butterfly. While I didn’t see anyone jumping traffic signals, people try to squeeze in and don’t follow lane discipline always.

Taxi-cabs: Traveling in cabs is very cheap in Amman. By meter, it was only once that our fare went up beyond JD 2. Though, lot of times, cab drivers look for a fixed fare more than JD 2 than go by meter, for the obvious reasons. There are plenty of tax-cabs available in Amman, though on some streets one may have to wait for a bit before being able to flag down one on the street. Fares to/from airport are not fixed or metered, though most commonly asked fare is in the range of JD 20-25.

Skyline: Amman has very few high rises, and almost all of them are newly built and house either major international hotel chains or offices. I think only a couple of them are residential units. People typically prefer houses than apartments. A lot of buildings have used an elegant looking off-white stone / tile as external façade which gives the skyline a very nice look, especially during day time. Since Amman is on hills, the skyline, in general, is quite beautiful on a sunny day, though there weren’t very many sunny days during my trip.

Reaching Amman

2009-12-20T20:43:00.004+05:30

Two weeks ago, I packed my bags to go to Amman, Jordan to attend a conference, hosted jointly by UNICEF and MobileActive.org, on mobile technology and its usage in social development. I was very excited about it since I had never been to that part of the world, even though I had heard a lot about it. Though, it didn’t start without any hiccup. I was supposed to leave on Sunday, and on Wednesday I received a call from Jordan Embassy in Washington DC that my visa is approved and I should go to embassy to get it stamped. I was in NYC at that time, so had to change my flights and rush to DC to get the visa. Fortunately, I reached in time, and I got the visa. Sunday, I took the flight to Amman, Jordan via Istanbul, Turkey on Turkish Airlines. Flight was quite uneventful but when I reached Ataturk airport in Istanbul, I was pleasantly surprised to see the modern and comfortable airport.

When the plane started to descend in Amman, it was evening and cloudy so I couldn’t see the skyline of the city. The plane went through the clouds, and as soon as things became visible, we touched the runway. I was surprised to find that clouds were so low in Amman. It kept me thinking all the while until I started talking to the cab driver on my way to the hotel. He told me that Amman is situated on 6 hills, and then I understood why clouds were so low. Amman’s Queen Alia International Airport is a small but decent airport. Though, I noticed that even though the air-bridges were empty our aircraft didn’t get any, and we had to get into a bus to get into the terminal. This reminded me of the Bangalore's International Airport, where same thing happens. The cab driver was quite a talkative person and he told me lot of things about Jordan including countries around it and how far the borders are. When he told me that Dead Sea is just 45 min drive, I couldn’t believe it, as I wanted to visit it quite desperately, and here I was so near to it, and I didn’t know about it at all. I was very surprised to realize that it is the first time that I was coming to new country without checking what all is around it and what are the visitors attractions, wondering what’s up with me …

Trip to DC

2009-12-20T09:30:00.000+05:30

Recently, I traveled to Washington DC to visit Jordan Embassy to get a visa for Jordan. It was quite an interesting trip in lot of respects. I traveled in Amtrak Tesla from NYC to DC, and it made me go to famous Penn station in NYC. The journey reminded me of the movie Unbreakable, which is one of my favorites, and in my opinion, shares the best movie rank of Knight Shyamalan’s (along with Sixth Sense). The journey was quite comfortable and I could easily continue with my work, thanks to good GSM coverage all along the track (except couple of tunnels). When I reached DC, I took a cab from Union station to the embassy. The cab driver was a middle-aged African-American, and he was driving leisurely and completely focused on some political talk-show on one of the FM radio-stations. From what all he said, it was very clear that he was quite involved in city level politics and neighborhood development. I was quite amazed to hear him, and I felt happy that people are involved in civic affairs of their city.

Experience in the Embassy was quite an interesting one. I went through a metal detector and baggage x-ray check. The lady at the counter recognized me as soon as she saw my passport because it was her who called me up earlier to intimate me about the approval. She took my passport and the visa fee but didn’t give me any receipt. I sat down there to wait for the process to complete, as I didn’t have elsewhere to go. While sitting there, I observed that none of the visitors walked through the metal detector – everyone got in from the sides. Though, it was also true that most of the people were either embassy-staff or courier agents (who collect forms & passport and then deliver at the embassy for visa approvals), who are all well known to the security guard on the post. After a while, I opened up my laptop and started working on it, and no one objected. It was quite a pleasant surprise for me since in US Embassy at Chennai one can not even take a mobile phone inside. Then, I decided to use my GSM dongle to connect to internet and check my emails etc. I thought someone will come and ask me to shut everything down but no one did. It was exciting to be sitting in an embassy and working on the laptop which is connected to the internet. After 2 hours or so, I got the visa stamped in my passport, and I left the building.

On the way back from embassy, I flagged down a cab to go to airport. The cab driver was a white man, and he started having a conversation with me. He asked me if I am from India, where do I live and why I am in US etc. Then he used the Hindi word “daldal” (marsh in English) and I was shocked because it is not a word which westerners typically learn. Astonishing part was that he used it very appropriately in the right context. When I asked him about it, he started speaking in Hindi ! I was stunned as this was the first time that I met a white person speaking Hindi so fluently and with such an ease. It turned out that he has traveled within India quite a bit and then he stayed in Karachi for roughly 4 years. He told me later on, that one of his grandparents was from Afghanistan. He appeared to be in love with the subcontinent and said that he is very sad about what is going on in Afghanistan.

Being a BA

2009-12-20T06:02:00.002+05:30

Last week, I went to New York City to help out a team, which arrived from India office, to kick off an Inception/Discovery process. This was the first time, I was actively involved in such an exercise, and to be frank, I was not very confident about my ability to add much value to the exercise. The week started and apart from a very stringent security check while entering the building, there wasn’t anything else which provided enough challenge. In fact, the building security was very helpful but it was the client’s security desk which was more painful. I also didn’t protest too much because it is client’s work place and I was there only for few days. As the work started, I found that I was able to plan things, guide the team and navigate through the client organization. At the end of the week, it became clear to me that I could play a Business Analyst role and figure out high level problem definition and identify epics / stories for the problem. I also could identify various users of the application, and come up with possible scenarios in which these users would interact with the application. Though, in order to be very effective at this role, I know that I still need to learn more tricks of the trade e.g. 5 Whys exercise, Ice Breaker exercise, Hopes and Fears session, Futurespective exercise etc. Nonetheless, this was very exciting for me because this could be one mechanism for me to contribute effectively in a project team. I had this feeling that I could do this, but this was the first time that I was doing it and could prove to myself that I am capable of handling it. Wondering why I didn’t try it earlier?

The Flow

2009-11-26T09:03:00.000+05:30

Recently, I borrowed this book Flow:The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly C from Chicago Public Library. I had heard a lot about this book earlier and once I checked it also in one of the bookstores in Bangalore, but didn’t buy it as the print of the book is quite small. However, recently, my desire to explore the book increased multi-fold, especially after interacting with a friend who is a lot into spirituality. So, I borrowed it and started reading it. The first chapter itself is quite amazing as it talks about what is a flow and the anatomy of the way our brain deals with “self” and consciousness. One very interesting thing which Mihaly talks about in this chapter is the relationship amongst our past experiences, goals and the way we process external stimuli. I am sure I haven’t got it right, but it was a new way of looking at why a varied set of experiences make an individual a different person. I should say that even thought the book is quite cryptic and requires solid attention while reading, I am thoroughly enjoying it. Wondering what it would take to get the book printed using big fonts. Time for Kindle, huh?

Technical Obsolescence

2009-11-24T11:03:00.001+05:30

In last few months, I have been getting this feeling that I am getting technically obsolete. Since quite some time, I was hearing about Web 2.0, Social Networking, Facebook etc etc. Since I knew what these terms represent, I was comfortable even though, I wasn't using any of them. Then, slowly, I started using LinkedIn and later on Facebook. Frankly speaking, I still don't use them, the way, probably, lot of other people use it, but then it feels good to be up-to-date on technology usage.

Some time ago, I also started using Skype as a communication tool. I must say, I found the voice quality quite good (except once in a while), sometimes to the extent of being better than usual cellphone. I got so hooked on to it, that now-a-days that's the first thing I tend to use when I have to call someone.

Recently, there was almost a bombardment of new terms - Twitter, EtherPad, GitHub, Google Wave etc - on to me. It so happened that suddenly, lot of these jargons came my way and I was left dumbfounded with the feeling that I don't know anything !!! Trust me, the feeling of being left behind wasn't a very good feeling. The only comfort (albeit a sadistic one) was the fact that I found lot of my compatriots in the same situation. They were also lost at all the geek-speak and trying to figure out how to deal with it. While I still need to act (that too quickly) to catch up with this sudden upsurge in technology, it is amazing to see so many new products/tools are being created to enable collaboration amongst people. Wondering if this is an indication to a new trend ...

Life in fast lane

2009-09-30T05:00:00.000+05:30

I witnessed the following recently -

04:15 AM - get up and get ready for a day-journey to get visa
05:00 AM - leave room to catch a train to airport
05:08 AM - catch the train to airport
05:50 AM - arrive at airport train station
06:00 AM - get to the check-in counter
06:07 AM - enter the security check queue
06:20 AM - reach the boarding gate
buy a coffee and drink it, rather, hurriedly
06:35 AM - board the aircraft
07:00 AM - flight departs
09:19 AM - flight lands at the destination
09:25 AM - take a taxi to embassy
09:55 AM - reach embassy building
10:00 AM - get the visitor pass done
10:05 AM - reach the counter and submit papers
10:16 AM - finish paying fee
sit in the lounge and work on Social Impact presentation
11:20 AM - collect the visa and passport
11:26 AM - hail a taxi for airport
11:51 AM - reach check-in counter and ask for an early flight
11:55 AM - run towards the gate as flight is about to depart
12:04 PM - reach the gate just in time to board the aircraft
12:20 PM - flight departs
12:50 PM - flight lands
01:00 PM - reach airport train station and catch the train
01:05 PM - train leaves
01:52 PM - get down at a train station near office
02:04 PM - reach office

Phew !!! what a day? I don't know how people do similar stuff almost every day or weekend :-?

Too good to be true?

2009-09-23T07:09:00.000+05:30

While traveling to London from Bangalore, recently, there were many firsts which happened with me. I didn't realize that there were so many of them, until I listed them down -
(a) During the flight, I could sleep for a while, at least ! Typically, I just can't sleep during flights and that's why long flights are very tiring for my system. Even on this flight, I think, I must have slept for 1.5 hrs only, out of long 9.5 hrs flight, but then, something is better than nothing, right?
(b) For the first time, I saw a celebrity on an airport - Mr N R N was at Immigration counter at Heathrow airport in London. I think, he was accompanied by his wife, but since I couldn't see her face, it is a wild guess.
(c) It was the first time, when my checked-in baggage arrived early in the cycle. When I walked towards the conveyor belt, mentally prepared for a long wait, I saw my bags coming in, which was such a joy, as my luggage typically arrives towards the end.
(d) The very first day, I could sleep for 10 hrs and got up at the normal hour as per the local time. Otherwise, typically, I end up either waking up too early in the morning and then fall asleep during the day :)

Wondering what to read into so many "coincidences" happening; but then, is there a need to do so? Wondering ...

Visa Ordeal

2009-09-15T22:56:00.000+05:30

Recently, I had to visit Chennai to get a US visa for myself. My appointment was at 9:15 AM, so I was little relaxed thinking that since it is early in the morning, I won't have to wait for long. Well, very soon I learnt how wrong I was.

When I reached the consulate at 8:40 AM, already there was a long queue outside, anyway, I joined in. By the time, I could step inside the building it was already 9:50 AM. The worrisome fact was that there were some people who had 8:15 AM appointment and they got in just before me !!! Nonetheless, inside there was another queue for form / doc verification purposes. It was much more orderly thanks primarily to one gentlemen who was managing the whole thing very carefully. Post this, there was another long queue to go to visa appointment hall. By the time, my turn came it was already 11:00 AM.

Inside visa hall, applicants were queued up in front of visa counters depending on what kind of visa they are applying for. The turn of an applicant was determined by the time of appointment and the category of visa. To my surprise, I saw that people who had their appointment at 8:30 AM were still waiting for their turn. While talking to some people and overhearing some conversations, I learnt that some people who had 8:30 AM appointment and have come from outside, had booked 2 PM return flights. Now that they were stuck inside, and that too w/o any mobile phone, they were struggling to make changes in their travel itinerary. By the time, I stood in the queue and reached the counter it was 1 PM. Finally, at 1:15 PM I finished my interview and walked out of the consulate.

Guess what - a day later, Times of India Bangalore has a story that the visa issuance wait time which is only couple of hours right now, will be reduced even further with the opening of virtual US consulate in Bangalore. Wondering if they know what is happening on the ground and worst part is that none of the interviewees even take this problem up with VFS and/or US consulate.

A good contrast

2009-08-31T10:04:00.000+05:30

Few years ago, I read the popular book The End of Poverty by famous writer Jeffrey Sachs, and I was very impressed by the way he dealt with the subject and the hope he rekindles in the reader. In fact, I became very optimistic after reading his book about the possibility of good times. Very recently, I read another good book Everybody Loves a Good Drought by P. Sainath, who is a very famous journalist. This book also talks about poverty but in some of the remote areas of India. The picture painted by the writer is really grim but seems to be the true depiction of harsh reality.

In some sense, after reading the latter book, I got a sense of how difficult it could be for any poverty alleviation program to reach such remote places and be able to provide direct benefit to destitute people, of course, until we make drastic changes in the machinery which already is in place.

For me, the contrast which these two books present is amazing- at a high level, the first book mostly deals with data along with a good dose of positive optimism, which would make the reader believe that complete eradication of poverty is achievable and that too in our life-time. Whereas, the second book presents the harsh reality at the ground level and depicts the multitude of problems (cultural, social, economical etc) which one needs to tackle to successfully deliver any poverty eradication program. Unfortunately, such things, which have a direct influence on the outcome of any such program, do not lend themselves well to any kind of traditional data-analysis techniques, and hence, often, get neglected at the peril of the success of such programs or intentions.

Wondering how others think about it ...

(In)consistency

2009-08-31T09:55:00.000+05:30

Somehow, writing doesn't come to me naturally :( though, I made an attempt doing so via this blogpost, but after a while, I lost interest [recently I posted after a gap of 3 yrs !!!]

I am gonna try to make it a point to keep posting once in a while. Though, I need to overcome my obsession with writing something only if it is either totally new/fresh stuff or something immensely useful for others. I think, blogging is not just about it, it is about sharing your ideas/thoughts as you see 'em.

Let me see how it goes this time ...

Campus Experience

2009-08-19T18:23:00.000+05:30

Very recently I visited an Engg. College which is probably ranked amongst the top 15 colleges in India to hire final year students. These students currently are in their 7th semester. It was very amazing to find that lot of these students were not even aware of basics [of course, this is my perspective]. During the course of interviews, I ended up asking one of the students why people are unaware of such things, and he told me, "Sir, what is the need when you have Google?" While it can be music to Google's ears but it left me thinking whether this so-called Google approach is better than the traditional one !

Well, I don't think there is a straight answer but, I believe, it is the underlying thought process which is more important. Today, it seems, most of the students assume that since they have access to Google, they need not bother about finding out "why" something is the way it is. And, to some degree it is true, but I don't think it works when one maps the same logic to everyday living. When one is faced with a human-behavioral situation one won't have the time to check it on Google why it is so, in order to respond to it in a better way. Just wondering if the young generation is thinking about this or not :-? Or may be they think that acquiring knowledge is equivalent to building an in-memory database, which has no practical use. Humnn ...

Open Secret

2006-09-10T22:29:00.000+05:30

Recently there was a news item in Economic Times about a study which found out that Indian techies are paid less than their US counterparts when they go and work in US on a project. The whole thing was projected as if a startling discovery is being made, whereas the truth is that it has been happening since long time. In fact, the very reason that Indians are being prefered and handed over work because we are cheap and ready to slog out insane hours in a country where people hardly even put eight hours of work daily. In fact, some of the Indian IT companies built their entire empire on the very foundation of this salary difference (as is evident from the first few paragraphs of the news item).

How did US discover this advantage in the very first place? The US has been a favourite destination amongst Indian students. When these students finish their course, they find a job there itself instead of returning. Since the employer is hiring an alien (to US), it has to do more paperwork and hence spend more money. Over a period of time, the employers learnt that the craze amongst Indians to be in US is so high that they won’t mind coming in at a reduced salary. The ball started rolling with H-1B quota increase and then the whole outsourcing wave.

While it is a well-known truth that Indian techies are paid far less than their counterparts in US, and that too since last, I would say, 15 years, why there is brouhaha now? May be it is an excuse to foil the recent attempts to increase the H-1B visa quota for IT professionals. While it may be more palatable argument that the difference between the salaries has recently become glaring and unacceptable but saying that the difference is a recent trend is nothing but a pile of crap.

Wonder when will Indian IT companies start thinking about something different than just offering cheap labour?

To all candles ...

2006-09-07T21:06:00.000+05:30

… who burnt themselves to light my path to be a better human being. Yes, this piece is to express my gratitude to all my teachers and those people/entities who influenced me, in one way or another, to be what I am today.

If I go in chronological order, the first one is my mom. She toiled hard, especially during my learning years, despite facing all family problems. I don’t remember how, but apart from teaching subjects like History, Geography and Sanskrit, she also taught me how to bluntly speak the truth and fight for "what is right".

The next one is my favourite - Shri R N Gupta. I am honoured to be one of the very few lucky people who got the opportunity to be his student. He taught my father also, and very reluctantly he agreed to teach me English and Mathematics when I started class six. He truely represents what a good teacher ought to be – hardworking, patient, friendly and willing to go beyond the call of duty to make the student a better person. Truely, the best teacher I have come across so far.

Devendra Srivastava was my class mate in Engineering College. I was lucky to have him as one of my close friends because he is "the person" who taught me what real learning is and how to go about it. He taught me how to dig beneath the surface to understand what something “really” means. I think he is the person who ignited the quest in me to seek knowledge. Devendra, accept my heart-felt gratitude for igniting this passion in me.

Mr. Sanjeev Sinha, a young, dynamic and non-traditional lecturer, used to take our practical classes for workshop in 1st year of engineering. He would not ask us run of the mill questions, and rather would pose practical ones, for example, why are the ceilings of lathe machine shops so high? Why is the roof made of asbestos sheet and not steel or RCC? Why the mould cavity through which the metal is poured is of conical shape? These kind of thought provoking questions made me think about lot of things which we all, generally, take for granted and don’t bother about at all.

Prof Rao taught me Fluid Mechanics in third year of engineering. He would first tell us a practical example related to a concept. Then he would take us forward through that example and explain how it actually happens. His lectures used to be like a story which is happening just in front of me, and by the end of it, I would have learnt a concept in Fluid Mechanics. I wish all my teachers had his wonderful style of teaching by story-telling.

My second employer taught me the reality of this world, in general, and Indian IT industry, in specific. Though, when it happened with me, it was hell but, in the hindsight, I think it was a good thing to happen so early in my career. It taught me how ruthless business can be and the fact that mediocrity is in abundance in this industry, which gets rewarded also just because certain people respond only to flattery.

Roy Singham is CEO of ThoughtWorks Inc, my current employer. He is a socialist by heart and capitalist by mind. I have learnt a lot from him about human values, how to be truly fair and equitable and how to have contradictory perspectives on things and be at ease with it.

Last but not the least - I firmly believe that nature has been influencing my behaviour and personality, in its own secret ways. While I still don’t understand its mechanism, I think, I am just starting to figure out how to return the favour. Though, I wonder, if this is also nature's design :-?

Virtual Reality

2006-09-03T21:13:00.000+05:30

Today being Sunday, the newspaper had more material to read. The lead story in the Times Life pullout was about how internet has emerged as the new venue for social networking with Hi5, Friendster, MySpace, Ryze, LinkedIn and Orkut emerging as the leading websites to form communities in cyberworld. As I was reading the story, there was a statement, given by one of the interviewees, which caught my eyes – “I live alone and I have no real dependence on anyone.” Just to provide full context, this lady is hooked on to few online social networking sites and believes that it is one of the good things which have happened to her.

This was not the first time when I heard such a statement. It may be a coincidence that earlier statements, like this one, were also made by my female friends/aquaintances. It surprises me how people take their environment, in which they live, breathe and make such statements, for granted. I know that most of the people don’t bother for the upkeep of their environment, but slowly, people have started behaving as if it doesn’t exist or they really don’t need it. I don’t know how one, in one’s right senses, can ever proclaim that one is not dependent on anyone else? Especially today, when most of us live in a capitalistic world where one is specialized in a skill and buys other goods/services in exchange, which forces people to be more interdependent on each other. Aren’t we dependent on farmers to grow grains, vegetables and fruits for our consumption? Aren’t we dependent on milk-cooperatives for our milk supply? Aren’t we dependent on masons and carpenters for the construction of our home? Yes, we may end up buying these goods/services in exchange of providing ours, but at the end of the day, we can’t live without them. Money can buy something only if it is available in the market, it can’t buy if it doesn’t exist.

I find it strange when people say that they have no real dependence on anyone, but they spend considerable time doing social networking online. The fact that this lady is hooked on to these sites, tells me that she craves for interaction with other human beings, though, it may be easier for her, and may be for many more, to interact with others in a virtual world rather than in real world. While it is true that internet has made the distance disappear and one can easily interact with someone sitting half way down the globe, I still believe that real world interaction is far more fulfilling and gratifying.

Though, I wonder if the huge increase in the membership of these online communities is a message to all of us about our behaviour in real world :-?

LEDs

2006-08-20T10:52:00.000+05:30

Very recently, I took few days off my work and went to some very exotic places in HP. One of my colleagues, Kartik Rajan, also joined me. Though, we had planned a long 7 days trip, for various reasons, our trip got reduced to only 4 days.

Kartik always wanted to go to Spiti (pronounced as “piti”) Valley, and so we planned to first go to Kaza, which is the main town in Spiti Valley. Though, after inquiry, we found out that it takes almost 16 hours to reach there. Considering the long journey, we dropped the plan and instead decided to go to Lahaul Valley.

We looked at the map again and found out that the town of Keylong, in Lahaul Valley, is just 115 km from Manali. So, we decided to go there. We started from Ghumarwin, and first went to Ghagas, a town on the main road from Bilaspur to Mandi. We hopped in to a Manali bound bus but got down at Bhuntar which is few kilometers before Kullu. From here, we took another bus to go to Kasol. Kartik has heard from one of his friends that it is a very scenic place, famous for trekking. While we both didn’t want to do trekking on this trip, we still went to check out the place.

At Bhuntar, we got into a private bus which was packed, and by the time it started, it was overflowing. People were perched on top of the bus also. When bus passed through Bhuntar town, few foreigners boarded the bus but on the top. I was surprised to see that they were at ease with the fact that they were traveling on the roof top of the bus.

The bus crossed the bridge on river Beas and very soon, it started going up hill. As usual, the roads were in zigzag form with hair-pin bends etc and a positive gradient. The unusual part was the speed and the way with which the bus driver was driving. He seemed to be playing with the steering wheel. There were times, when bus wheels were just six inches away from the edge and you could see the mighty-roaring River Parbati (one of the main tributaries of River Beas) flowing at a few hundred feet just below you. Incidentally, I had a window seat and at times, I wondered what would happen to us if the bus tumbles down. The only consoling factor during this thought was the presence of lots of trees on the steep slope. Overall, the journey was wonderful.

When we reached Kasol town, to our amazement, we could see mostly foreigners around. In fact, most of the tourists out there were non-Indians. As we were trying to find out a hotel room for ourselves, I witnessed sign boards and posters in some foreign language. Kartik told me that the language is Hebrew. It seems that the place is very famous with Jew tourists and they come and stay in Kasol for good 6 months or so.

Finally, we got ourselves a room, and we dumped our luggage and immediately went out for a walk. Within 2 min, we were walking on the road towards Manikaran. The sight was awesome. There are towering mountains on both sides with a mighty river flowing in the middle and a road running parallel to the river. It was just mesmerizing. We both were totally awestruck. We took some photographs and took a long winding path to go to the river bank. We also found a wonderful camping site with a restaurant just next to the river. After almost around couple of hours we returned back, had dinner at a restaurant and then retired into our room.

Next morning, we decided to walk to Manikaran, which is just 4 km from Kasol. The morning was so beautiful that I am short of words to explain it. The sun was out but was behind the mountain, which is on the side of the road. The sunlight was trying to sneak in between the gap of two mountains. River Parbati was its usual self – full of water and roaring. The birds were chirping and there were scattered white clouds at the peak of mountains. As we stopped by at a small dhaba (road-side restaurant) to have breakfast, I observed that trees had lot of dew drops on their leaves. Thousands of tiny droplets on the edges of thin, slender and pointed leaves started glowing like LEDs as soon as the sun-light managed to sneak in and fell on the trees. Very soon, they started emitting out different colours – shades of blue, red and orange!!! Kartik was busy taking photographs and I was busy locating different colours. Before this, I had only heard about the magical effects of early-morning dew-drops, but this was the first time, I witnessed it. For around half hour, I was totally lost. In whichever direction I turned my head there were Light Emitting Dew-drops on tree leaves, glowing in different colours.

Next to us, River Parbati was flowing with all its might, in the middle of two mountains, between the gaps of which, the sun was shining. The whole scene was very mystical. We both took our own sweet time to soak in the whole environment around us. We sat down at the dhaba for quite a while, before finishing our breakfast and moving on to Manikaran. I knew that this would go down as the best experience of the whole trip. At the end of the trip, I can firmly say - I was right.

What about people?

2006-08-13T19:26:00.000+05:30

Sometime back, I attended a session at IIT Delhi, which was one of the many reach-out sessions to invite IIT alumni to a major Pan-IIT session, to be held in IIT, Mumbai in December 2006. Lot of luminaries attended this session including Mr. Rajat Gupta of McKinsey fame. This was the first time that I attended any IIT alumni session.

During the session, I learnt that the objective of Pan-IIT is to bring the alumni of various IITs together to “transform the face of the country by involving common man”. Also, it was brought to my notice that a commonly perceived problem in the alumni members is that there is more talk than the action. Pan-IIT has tried to address this problem by starting some specific projects. They contacted a big chunk of alumnus and asked them the kind of projects they would like to participate in. During this session, the result of this finding was shared with the audience. I was amazed to see it – top slot was occupied by “creating new technology”. More than this, I was shocked to find “enabling common people” occupying last spot.

I am not sure what alumni members were thinking when they responded, but in my opinion, they are so far removed from the reality. Even though the technology revolution has definitely brought lot of ForEx and up-lifted the living standard of people in urban clusters, it is more or less useless for rural areas, which still suffer from the lack of basic amenities – clean drinking water, sanitation, electric supply, basic health care, approachable roads etc. The only technology revolution which has really affected the rural areas is telecom - mobile phones have penetrated quite deeply.

It seems that we always treat technology as a panacea for everything. It is amazing to see how easily we overlook the power of people despite the fact that we are a democratic country. If my memory is correct the mantra is - of the people, by the people, for the people - isn’t it? Or is it the problem of plenty? Many would say so. But this also doesn’t sound right – haven’t we realized that the much touted IT revolution happened only because we have so many educated, trained and English speaking people? Have we still not realized that the same population, who we always consider the bane of the country, has not only saved us from a serious financial crisis but also enabled us to go up to the next rung in the ladder of economic-independence?

I find it funny that people, especially techies, think technology is superior to human beings. In my opinion, it is just a tool, at the most, an enabler. The mere fact that technology can be misused for destructive purposes should tell people that it is a tool. It is the people who decide where to use what technology for what purposes. Therefore, I was very disappointed to see that “enabling common people” was put in the last spot, whereas, in my opinion it is the single most important thing which everyone should focus on. Once people are enabled, they, themselves, will find out what is the suitable technology for them, keeping in mind their environment, constraints and, obviously, requirements.

Wonder if IITians would realize it soon enough to focus their energies at the right place.

Living with Fear

2006-08-13T18:56:00.000+05:30

Current times are definitely “interesting”. Before finalizing the word “interesting”, I scratched my head, for some time, at the risk of losing more hair, to think of a better word to describe these events, but of no avail. Actually, I gave up quickly because I realized there is no need for me to decide whether these events are good or bad.

I am talking about the current atmosphere of terror, prevailing everywhere now-a-days. You pick up any newspaper and you will find half of it filled with terror stories across the world. Very recently, it has reached such proportions that one can’t even carry a drinking water bottle inside a commercial plane without thorough screening!!! Fear reigns supreme everywhere, whether it is Mumbai, Delhi, UP, Nepal, Sri Lanka, West Asian region, UK or US.

This is exactly what bothers me. Over the decades, we all have become used to of mad-rush-all-the-time kind of lifestyle. This has made all of us totally indifferent (yes apathetic) to our eco-system, because we are so focused on what we are doing. Our thinking is that I should focus on my work and let others focus on others’ work. Strict division of labour – the very corner-stone of a market based economy (a.k.a. capitalism). While it may have done wonders to the economy and the market, and might have generated lot of wealth and blah, blah, blah, I don’t think it has done any good to the social system, in which we all live and breathe. This mad rush has taken us far apart from each other resulting in rapidly declining respect and sympathy for each other. We tend to forget that we don’t live in an isolated cocoon, rather we are very much part of a system which has other constituents as well. The health of this multi-constituent system does not depend on the health of just one person, but of the collective. So, if we want to be healthy, we need the system to be healthy, which requires us to ensure that the collective is healthy. When it doesn’t happen, we end up living in eternal fear of catching a deadly infection, and taking all kind of precautions to protect ourselves.

The current events are nothing but a manifestation of our ever-growing apathy and indifference to our eco-system, due to which, certain portions of the collective got neglected and caught the infection of terrorism. If you believe in the age-old adage – what goes around comes around, it seems that the infection is coming back to bite us only. Right now, there is no alternative but to look for cure. But, once the system is cured (if it does happen), then what? Do we allow the system to go through the same deadly cycle of catching infection and then applying another cure? We all know that over a period of time, the bacteria becomes resistant to cures, so won’t it be wise to follow a wiser approach – prevention is better than cure?

Obviously, everything comes at a cost, and, in this case, the cost of ensuring that the system remains infection-free would, probably, be restricted individual growth. It is very obvious because it requires considerable time and effort to ensure that all the constituents of the system are in good health. It would demand lot of patience, hard work and personal sacrifice and in reuturn we would avoid living with fear.

Are we up for the game?

Transparency

2006-07-28T22:29:00.000+05:30

It seems when it comes to transparency, everyone wants it from others. When it comes to provide transparency to others, everyone steps back and offer excuses (which are always lame) why it cannot be done. A horrible, but suitable, analogy is that everyone would like to watch others in a transparent outfit but one would not like to wear one.

I have been reading all the brouhaha about RTI (Right to Information) Act, and the recent upheavals related to its trimming down, or whatever you want to term it as. I am refering to the so-called clarification by the government, which details that the file notings are outside the purview of RTI Act, and hence can not be disclosed. If you look at the root of the problem, it is like first you create a bunker of sorts and then you drill a couple of holes in it so that anyone can peep inside it. The point is - why to create a bunker in the first place? In case, inadvertently, it has been created, then just by drilling holes, one can't expose what is hidden; the bunker has to be destroyed.

As we all know, exposure can be misconstrued as nudity also. So, the pertinent questions would be - can people handle the exposure? Are they informed enough to understand various economical, social and political hues of our society to create a proper context in which a specific decision was taken? More than that, do we have the necessary setup which can help people create/build that context so as to see things in proper perspective? Do people have patience and egalitarian attitude to digest certain harsh realities, appropriately? Well, I don't think I can answer these questions with any legitimate authority because I haven't met very many people who would pass the above test, but then, I have met only a very small fraction of this populous country. Even if we don't have many people who would pass the test, is it justified not to provide transparency on the pretext that people can't handle it?

Humn... good question !!! This is where probably everyone will have one's own opinions, and rightly so, because I believe there is no perfect answer. So, here is my point of view - as a principle, there is no alternative to transparency. Though, we need to work hard to create appropriate contexts for people to see things in right perspective. Hence, I believe, we should start with baby steps and create a framework where successively, as people become more aware, we can move towards higher levels of transparency. This will work only if we have matured individuals providing information to public at large, so as to ensure that right context is built while providing information. Media's role, as main carriers of information to public, at large, will be very crucial to help build these appropriate contexts.

While the above seems to be a lot of hard work, it is well worth the toil. If we all want to be part of a fair society, where discrimination is a passe, we have to sweat it out. Though, sometimes I wonder, if we all "really" want such a society?

What is in a name?

2006-07-22T12:04:00.000+05:30

Really, what is in a name? For a long time, I used to perceive name as something which is used to address someone. I still have the same perception but with a small difference - when I say name, I am refering to only the First Name or the Given Name of the person. I, generally, address people by their first name only because, especially in India, lot of times, people's last name is either their husband/father's name or the name of their village. So, the best thing to do is to call people by their first name.

It wasn't that I used to call people by their first name, right from very childhood. When I was studying in my engineering college, there was this guy by name Sanjeev Kassi, who used to be my class mate and I used to address him as "Kassi". He was a bright, intelligent and studious fellow. Actually, there were handful of Sanjeev's in our class and, therefore, it was a convenient way to distinguish him from them. In fact, I think, most of the people used to address him as Kassi. I guess, none of us knew what "Kassi" really meant, until the day Mandal Commission recommendations got implemented by V P Singh regime. Everything turned around in just a couple of days. There was lot of uproar out on the streets and there was high tension in the college and hostels also. I still remember the night, when we got a tip that a so-called OBC group from the city is going to attack the non-OBC students in the hostel, and apparently, the OBC guys from the college have hatched this plan. We spent whole night awake, sitting together in few adjacent rooms in the hostel with preparation to defend ourselves from any violent attack. Fortunately, nothing happened, and from morning, the city administration imposed curfew in selected areas of the city, including the hostel locality.

The curfew imposition was a big relief after a night full of tension. Since I couldn't go out of the hostel, I thought of studying a bit, and went to Kassi's room to borrow a book from him. Unfortunately, his room was locked and I had to return back empty handed. The next evening, I saw him on the road adjacent to hostel. He was carefully looking around while walking slowly as if trying to hide from someone. I called him out, "Kassi, wait !!!" He kind of jumped at his place and looked terrified. I was surprised and asked him if he is alright. He looked at me with surprise and said, "You don't know, do you?" I was confused, "What are you talking about?" He said, "You know my last name - Kassi. It means that I belong to OBC. Why the hell are you shouting? Do you want me to get caught and killed?" In a complete state of shock, I murmered, "No, I didn't know that you belong to OBC." With contempt he retorted, "Now you do."

Well, after few weeks when everything slowly came back to normal (so as to say), I had a good conversation with Kassi. He told me that the night of tip off, he was caught by non-OBC group guys and was tortured to reveal the plan of OBC group, which obviously he didn't know. He told me that he himself was hiding out because OBC group had told him that non-OBC group is going to attack them. It seems that rumour mongers had a field day at the expense of us. It was that day, when I decided that never ever I am going to call anyone by last name.

Slowly, this concept got stuck to my mind that calling people by last name is nothing but a manifestation of casteism, something which I hate from the core of my heart. Then, I had this other experience, which actually reinforced by belief that last name does promote casteism. I met this lady who, when gets to know someone's name, would first find out the caste of the person, by analysing the last name. Then, she would diagnose, from her previous so-called experiences - most of which are actually narrated by others - what kind of traits this person would have. I find the whole process really annoying, and I used to ask her not to straightjacket people just on the basis of their last name. But, it seems, she has tremendous belief in her hypothesis.

Today, when I was reading the newspaper, I found a writeup where views and counter-views were given on a latest media report about some students of IIT Kanpur changing their last names to Bharat, in order to prevent any kind of casteism related issues. While I liked both the views, I still firmly believe that it is the right thing to do. For long, our society and its development has suffered from the evil of casteism. Time to say it goodbye once and for all. If we get rid of the most common way of finding one's caste, then I am sure, it will ease some of the tensions arising out of it. I know, that it won't wipe out this evil completely, but I firmly believe that it would be a big step in the right direction. For a society as large and diverse as ours, it will take several baby step to eradicate such kind of deep rooted evils but we need to start somewhere.

I wish, we could have few generations which don't have any last name at all. Would it matter to anyone? One, anyway, would know one's lineage, village, father, husband, caste etc etc, so, just wondering what is the need to reflect it in one's name ???

Infrastructure Abuse

2006-04-13T17:23:00.000+05:30

April 13, 2006 was an eye-opening day for me. I realized why we don't have good infrastructure in this city. It is like this - you, as a parent, will not give nice/expensive toys to your kid if you know that as soon as you give it, the kid will break it and render it useless. Rather you would bring in lots of cheap ones to keep your kid and your pocket happy. Isn't it?

For whatever reason(s), on that Thursday, most of us allowed just a handful of people to pelt stones, damage property, torch up buses and other vehicles. While all this was happening, most of us were relaxing within the "virtual" cocoon of safety inside our home. I wish we had tried figuring out - safety from what? And, next, probably, for how long? Well, this is probably the topic for some other time, so would not discuss anymore.

I believe, if we can not provide resistance, let alone protection, to infrastructure destruction, we don't have the right to demand, let alone enjoy, a good infrastructure. I don't know about others, but I think, I need to "live" with the reality that the real reason of bad infrastructure around me is not govt but people themselves. Truely said - one gets what one deserves.

Still wondering, what took me so long to understand this :-?