Don't know how the thought struck. Another spark in an empty brain, perhaps effect of an over dose of Dilbert's blog and his office comments. How would it be if we had alternate levels of Management and Technical expertise. Let me explain what the spark is.
What happens or un-intentionally happens is that as you keep going up the organisation ladder, you tend to loose touch of the ground realities, the nitti-gritti of the work. And this phenomenon does not end. Your manager is a manager, his manager is a bigger manager, his manager's manager is a bigger manager and so on. So in the end you reach the level where someone is just sitting and counting dollars. Darvin's theory of disuse takes its toll and the most disconnected from the base hardly understands what's been done.
Now for the discussion I call the
Techie who understands the technical details of the work (drawing from s/w industry, the coding, design, specification, execution)
Manager who understands the management of work (SOW, Schedules, Functional Spec).. in decreasing order of course.
Boss and subordinate have their usual meaning.
Now how about having a hierarchy where its mandatory that every techie will have a Manager Boss. Every Manager would have a Techie boss. Boss looks after one aspect of project and the techie the other part so no contention or duplication of work. Techie never expects the boss to understand the nitti gritty but has to report on what really matters to the 'Manager'. He in turn gets this data but has a techie boss on top who anyhow if was looking for the same things the manger was doing, would have been wasting time. He would be looking at the larger picture of managing many such managers technically. This would keep the managers subordinates on their toes and keep each one technically challenged.
Just a thought as I feel layers and layers of management just adds as an overhead. I think same would be if there were layers and layers of technical people. So an alternate layer shall have better interaction and get a better mix in people.
4/26/2006
Tadeyandamol: Trek of my life
Suppi: keeda hai. ABE KEEDA HAI!!!
Suppi: Abe mera tent unglamorous lag raha hai. Theek se bandho
Suppi: Saala macro photo leta rehta hai, maar
o saale ko
*the macro here is Kandya's. simply great.
Kandya: This is my style. Yaa this is my style.
pata bhi nahin tha ke sar par 2 topi lagi hain.
Aps: An
shul ke bag main saare chips hain aur kuch nahin
(Sorry buddy, but I can play jokes on you right. Its official now, you did carry a tent :))
Kapil: Tum logo ki body buddhi ho gayi hai. Meri body dekho, kitni fit
hai
Aps: Aakade, aag ko udhar shift kar do.
:).. this is kannada guys.
Kapil: Tu pyar hai kisi aur ka.. tujhe chahta koi aur hai
(well the joke was on me)
Ranga:
There are cheetas on the hill
Ranga: Who will be giving duty outside the camps? I can give till 2 am.
(no this did not happen)
Ranga: Lets hit the peak in 20 mins, be back in 20 mins. Guys you can have 40 mins to sleep
Ranga: My treads are worn out, have to come on all four
(and yes he came)
Kapil: Abe aaram kar lete hain, tum log thak gaye hoge
Kaps : Abe yahin se dekh lete hain yaar, upar se bhi same scene dikhega
Kandya: Maine life main ye pig pehli baar dekha be.
Kapil: Haan main ye waala pig life main pehli hi baar dekha hai.
Kapil: Abe anshul tum waste karte ho. Shatru tum bhi waste karte ho
These lines are the essence of the trip we had to Tadeyandamol, highest peak in Western Ghats. It was expected that as there were some enthusiastic budding bloggers, all/atleast three might come up with their version of the travelogue.
I still hope someone actually comes up with it. It was the first time that I had been on a trek where I carried my own tents and in a group where no one except one or two had camped ever. I had camped in my childhood in well made army camps with everything handled by school teachers who took us there (more of a resort). Since Tadeyandamol was raw, untrammelled, un-planned to some extent, the kind of uncertainities/excitement/exaustion/exhileration we felt is not easy to put down.
Tadeyandamol is conquered. That red cap is the new highest point on the peak.
*In case I have missed any good dialogue then do add
Suppi: Abe mera tent unglamorous lag raha hai. Theek se bandhoSuppi: Saala macro photo leta rehta hai, maar
o saale ko*the macro here is Kandya's. simply great.
Kandya: This is my style. Yaa this is my style.
pata bhi nahin tha ke sar par 2 topi lagi hain.
Aps: An
shul ke bag main saare chips hain aur kuch nahin(Sorry buddy, but I can play jokes on you right. Its official now, you did carry a tent :))
Kapil: Tum logo ki body buddhi ho gayi hai. Meri body dekho, kitni fit
haiAps: Aakade, aag ko udhar shift kar do.
:).. this is kannada guys.
Kapil: Tu pyar hai kisi aur ka.. tujhe chahta koi aur hai
(well the joke was on me)
Ranga:
There are cheetas on the hillRanga: Who will be giving duty outside the camps? I can give till 2 am.
(no this did not happen)
Ranga: Lets hit the peak in 20 mins, be back in 20 mins. Guys you can have 40 mins to sleep
Ranga: My treads are worn out, have to come on all four
(and yes he came)
Kapil: Abe aaram kar lete hain, tum log thak gaye hoge
Kaps : Abe yahin se dekh lete hain yaar, upar se bhi same scene dikhega
Kandya: Maine life main ye pig pehli baar dekha be.
Kapil: Haan main ye waala pig life main pehli hi baar dekha hai.
Kapil: Abe anshul tum waste karte ho. Shatru tum bhi waste karte ho
These lines are the essence of the trip we had to Tadeyandamol, highest peak in Western Ghats. It was expected that as there were some enthusiastic budding bloggers, all/atleast three might come up with their version of the travelogue.
I still hope someone actually comes up with it. It was the first time that I had been on a trek where I carried my own tents and in a group where no one except one or two had camped ever. I had camped in my childhood in well made army camps with everything handled by school teachers who took us there (more of a resort). Since Tadeyandamol was raw, untrammelled, un-planned to some extent, the kind of uncertainities/excitement/exaustion/exhileration we felt is not easy to put down.
Tadeyandamol is conquered. That red cap is the new highest point on the peak.*In case I have missed any good dialogue then do add
4/24/2006
How much do you write?
Write as in when you use the pen or pencil to write on a paper. If I was to measure, I think I would be writing at best half a page in a month here and there for some little things.
That kind of shocks me as it did to me yesterday when the ICICI bank manager asked me to write a letter to the bank manager for my work. I was happily taking the instruction and returning thinking I'd be emailing it or shall be printing it and getting the copy next time I visit the bank. The manager helpfully suggested "Sir you can just jot down the application by hand, it should be sufficient".
Writing an English formal letter in front of an ICICI manager. I am sure we never do that so often at office, email etiquettes is one thing, writing a formal letter is another. I mean its not that one cannot write it but there are always small small (one mark, half mark kind) mistakes that one cannot avoid. On top of that my handwriting was never something I could be proud of (I used to be a very happy man during ragging days though, no notes writing for the seniors) and after these years of abstaining from writing, it has developed into something of a scribble.
We don't write as things work without it. We've started typing so much that for noting phone numbers also we use notepad. Nothing bad as things ought to get more efficient. Write once copy many times but there is something charming about the good old way of writing that one does not get in typing. I think a tablet PC might bring in the benefits of both the worlds but I am yet to even see one working and its efficiency. Till then think about it. How many of you really write and how much?
That kind of shocks me as it did to me yesterday when the ICICI bank manager asked me to write a letter to the bank manager for my work. I was happily taking the instruction and returning thinking I'd be emailing it or shall be printing it and getting the copy next time I visit the bank. The manager helpfully suggested "Sir you can just jot down the application by hand, it should be sufficient".
Writing an English formal letter in front of an ICICI manager. I am sure we never do that so often at office, email etiquettes is one thing, writing a formal letter is another. I mean its not that one cannot write it but there are always small small (one mark, half mark kind) mistakes that one cannot avoid. On top of that my handwriting was never something I could be proud of (I used to be a very happy man during ragging days though, no notes writing for the seniors) and after these years of abstaining from writing, it has developed into something of a scribble.
We don't write as things work without it. We've started typing so much that for noting phone numbers also we use notepad. Nothing bad as things ought to get more efficient. Write once copy many times but there is something charming about the good old way of writing that one does not get in typing. I think a tablet PC might bring in the benefits of both the worlds but I am yet to even see one working and its efficiency. Till then think about it. How many of you really write and how much?
4/23/2006
Sagar kinare
I was kind of intrigued when I came here to Bangalore to see so many idli-vada restaurants. There are of course many things to observe when a person from the 'bhaiya' part of India travels down south. Interestingly this is one thing you might not get to see if you are a traveler.
These restaurants known as Shanti Sagar, Sukh Sagar, x sagar, y sagar have a beautiful business model. Here are a few points that I could observe about them and the reverse of the adage strikes me : "If the time has come, the idea has to"
Standard menu:
These all sagars have a standard menu of around 10-20 items. You get idli, dosa vada, chow-chow* bath** etc etc. And if I had enough memory to remember my phone number I could have written down all the 10 of them. Now this must be helping in having standard equipment, learn how to set up a sagar and get the equipment to make all these items, that's all. Also the know how of making these 10 dishes with best efficiency is by now mastered to the extent that idli is almost as good as mass produced at these sagars.
Money Honey:
Its damn cheap. Idli plate for 6 rs. Yes. To a northi this is a culture shock if not financial. People in Noida line up outside Sagar Ratna (Again sagar) and are ready to pay 25 rs for a plate of idli which I can bet is half as good as those you get here. So if you used to have the same stuff at home after a lot of effort, why not just shell out 6 or 10 rs a day and get away with all the hassles. In a way these sagars have created a market for themselves.
Efficiency and low running costs:
With ages of making the same stuff the efficiency and the cost per item must be dead sea low. I was observing one person making dosas and he could make 8 dosas on a same plate at a same time. I remember how much effort used to go in making idly for my mother, ferment a day earlier (and I don't know the rest of it) etc. Here its like a cycle in which everything is so ready that it hardly takes any time/money for them to churn out hot steaming dosas for a dosen people in 5 mins.
Mass popularity & flooding:
How many breakfast joints do you find there up north. I have traveled most of UP and Delhi but you hardly find people having at these kinds of fast food breakfast. If at all we have we have the faster food category of "bund-makkhan", juice, peti*** kinds of joints. The limit is aalu paratha joints and those too are hard to find and never thronged in such numbers on any day. If you have to see the crowd, its only during dinner and lunches. So the point I was making was that, there is a huge market here down south of people who can eat fast on the way to their office. Also there is a sagar in every corner. Its like every society should have a milk vendor and so a sagar too.
If this blog was read like Dilbert's blog then I would have definitely run a poll on whether you prefer eating at a sagar and how frequently in the same fashion Scott Adams does quite often. In my case I guess I can even call those who are going to read the post and collate info. However besides job/boss/'shadi kab karoge' we hardly discuss anything so you can also leave your opinion here itself mentioning [yes/no] and [2 days/week]
* Initially I used to even think its a Chinese dish until I discovered its half part upma and half part kesri bath.
** Bath is one thing which used to make me feel that they are going to give you enough so that you could drown yourself in it. Later I discovered that all amits became amith and sita's became sithas. All in good humor, this used to be a common teasing point for all my south Indian friends here.
*** This is the way our juice corner waala on modinagar road used to call. I mean its western UP lingo. As if you are asking one lakh rupees and that too hot and "sos ger ke" (to an uninitiated it might look after spilling the sauce somewhere)
These restaurants known as Shanti Sagar, Sukh Sagar, x sagar, y sagar have a beautiful business model. Here are a few points that I could observe about them and the reverse of the adage strikes me : "If the time has come, the idea has to"
Standard menu:
These all sagars have a standard menu of around 10-20 items. You get idli, dosa vada, chow-chow* bath** etc etc. And if I had enough memory to remember my phone number I could have written down all the 10 of them. Now this must be helping in having standard equipment, learn how to set up a sagar and get the equipment to make all these items, that's all. Also the know how of making these 10 dishes with best efficiency is by now mastered to the extent that idli is almost as good as mass produced at these sagars.
Money Honey:
Its damn cheap. Idli plate for 6 rs. Yes. To a northi this is a culture shock if not financial. People in Noida line up outside Sagar Ratna (Again sagar) and are ready to pay 25 rs for a plate of idli which I can bet is half as good as those you get here. So if you used to have the same stuff at home after a lot of effort, why not just shell out 6 or 10 rs a day and get away with all the hassles. In a way these sagars have created a market for themselves.
Efficiency and low running costs:
With ages of making the same stuff the efficiency and the cost per item must be dead sea low. I was observing one person making dosas and he could make 8 dosas on a same plate at a same time. I remember how much effort used to go in making idly for my mother, ferment a day earlier (and I don't know the rest of it) etc. Here its like a cycle in which everything is so ready that it hardly takes any time/money for them to churn out hot steaming dosas for a dosen people in 5 mins.
Mass popularity & flooding:
How many breakfast joints do you find there up north. I have traveled most of UP and Delhi but you hardly find people having at these kinds of fast food breakfast. If at all we have we have the faster food category of "bund-makkhan", juice, peti*** kinds of joints. The limit is aalu paratha joints and those too are hard to find and never thronged in such numbers on any day. If you have to see the crowd, its only during dinner and lunches. So the point I was making was that, there is a huge market here down south of people who can eat fast on the way to their office. Also there is a sagar in every corner. Its like every society should have a milk vendor and so a sagar too.
If this blog was read like Dilbert's blog then I would have definitely run a poll on whether you prefer eating at a sagar and how frequently in the same fashion Scott Adams does quite often. In my case I guess I can even call those who are going to read the post and collate info. However besides job/boss/'shadi kab karoge' we hardly discuss anything so you can also leave your opinion here itself mentioning [yes/no] and [2 days/week]
* Initially I used to even think its a Chinese dish until I discovered its half part upma and half part kesri bath.
** Bath is one thing which used to make me feel that they are going to give you enough so that you could drown yourself in it. Later I discovered that all amits became amith and sita's became sithas. All in good humor, this used to be a common teasing point for all my south Indian friends here.
*** This is the way our juice corner waala on modinagar road used to call. I mean its western UP lingo. As if you are asking one lakh rupees and that too hot and "sos ger ke" (to an uninitiated it might look after spilling the sauce somewhere)
4/21/2006
RSS comes to you
Just writing this post on a techie high. Those of you who are already conversant with Feeds/Atom/RSS (not the BJP one) please don't read any further and save me embarrassment. Just like when you are telling a joke and you ask the people who guess it to shut their mouths. You can also count me technically challenged and of course ignorant if I you think I should not be getting a eureka feeling on using feeds.
So this idea came from my friend in chennai who wanted a method so that he could see if a new post has arrived on my blog. You read mine and I read yours (Aur kya blogs become famous like this only). Of course there are other ways to popularize your blogs too. Go put crap against any sane argument and you'd attract venom from all and sundry and then accidentally many will stick on to your posts. Well I am digressing from this tech topic. So I had heard about atom/RSS but never had the time to change my happy ways of surfing the net. Every damn site said it provided RSS feeds too in an advertising way and I never cared. Just out of curiosity had clicked on anshul's blog and found it broken and so did not do much about it.
So on friend's request just tried to read about feeds link from google news page. Then looked around on the firefox extensions and got this cool extension to it - Wizz RSS. I also tried Sage, but its too minimalistic or too techie for me to discover its all features. Shall tell its good points later. Now both of them install in seconds and give you a nice sidebar (In case of Wizz avoid saying "import public lists", it would just clutter your category list). Now you can read endlessly on wizz help and see how to use it, but since I have tried it I would just give you 3 steps to get its best working for you. Rest I leave to you people.
Side bar has three sections Top- Category and channel list, Middle gives you the list of topics, and bottom gives you an abstract or preview of the article.
So
Step1: Right click on the category pane and say "Add Category" and it shall add folders. So for e.g. I say a category "blog"
Step 2: On your address bar type your truly's blog address (http://apurvashukla.blogspot.com) and when it loads you can click on the search button on the top of the category window. it looks something like this
. It shall present with a pop up and detect the atom feed of the blogger. Just drag that and put it on the folder "blog" created in the category pane. Viola you just started a spark.
Step3: The most interesting step is to get updates automatically. For that right click on the "Brain Sparks" link and say add to watch list. Now go to the Wizz Toolbar and there in the drop down of "Watch List", choose "Configure watchlist". Options there are intuitive. And then you shall be having a popup once it finds any updates on the list of blogs you specified. Don't forget to check "Automatically start watchlist".
What I was telling about Sage was that its a simplistic reader and gives you a nice rendering of the feeds it gets in a web page form but I could not find the pop up feature in it. Maybe its there but after finding Wizz, I don't have the patience to dig deep into it. Interestingly feed rendering is very customizable and cool but I think they need to work on a full package a bit.
To be the same you were, I mean if you don't like the sidebar and the toolbar. I would say after you are done with all your customizations just hide the side bar (alt+s) and the toolbar from the "view" menu. In case a new post comes the pop is anyhow going to tell you.
Now why I feel this is a good thing is that I don't need to keep any of these sites open to see if they are updated. Just subscribe to their feeds. Wizz will keep polling these sites for me and tell me if there is any update. I think this way I would be able to read a dozen more blogs in the same time. Also and it comes just as the ease of mails.
And arre haan.. gmail also gives you RSS feeds, got to check out.. haven't tried that.
So this idea came from my friend in chennai who wanted a method so that he could see if a new post has arrived on my blog. You read mine and I read yours (Aur kya blogs become famous like this only). Of course there are other ways to popularize your blogs too. Go put crap against any sane argument and you'd attract venom from all and sundry and then accidentally many will stick on to your posts. Well I am digressing from this tech topic. So I had heard about atom/RSS but never had the time to change my happy ways of surfing the net. Every damn site said it provided RSS feeds too in an advertising way and I never cared. Just out of curiosity had clicked on anshul's blog and found it broken and so did not do much about it.
So on friend's request just tried to read about feeds link from google news page. Then looked around on the firefox extensions and got this cool extension to it - Wizz RSS. I also tried Sage, but its too minimalistic or too techie for me to discover its all features. Shall tell its good points later. Now both of them install in seconds and give you a nice sidebar (In case of Wizz avoid saying "import public lists", it would just clutter your category list). Now you can read endlessly on wizz help and see how to use it, but since I have tried it I would just give you 3 steps to get its best working for you. Rest I leave to you people.
Side bar has three sections Top- Category and channel list, Middle gives you the list of topics, and bottom gives you an abstract or preview of the article.
So
Step1: Right click on the category pane and say "Add Category" and it shall add folders. So for e.g. I say a category "blog"
Step 2: On your address bar type your truly's blog address (http://apurvashukla.blogspot.com) and when it loads you can click on the search button on the top of the category window. it looks something like this
. It shall present with a pop up and detect the atom feed of the blogger. Just drag that and put it on the folder "blog" created in the category pane. Viola you just started a spark.Step3: The most interesting step is to get updates automatically. For that right click on the "Brain Sparks" link and say add to watch list. Now go to the Wizz Toolbar and there in the drop down of "Watch List", choose "Configure watchlist". Options there are intuitive. And then you shall be having a popup once it finds any updates on the list of blogs you specified. Don't forget to check "Automatically start watchlist".
What I was telling about Sage was that its a simplistic reader and gives you a nice rendering of the feeds it gets in a web page form but I could not find the pop up feature in it. Maybe its there but after finding Wizz, I don't have the patience to dig deep into it. Interestingly feed rendering is very customizable and cool but I think they need to work on a full package a bit.
To be the same you were, I mean if you don't like the sidebar and the toolbar. I would say after you are done with all your customizations just hide the side bar (alt+s) and the toolbar from the "view" menu. In case a new post comes the pop is anyhow going to tell you.
Now why I feel this is a good thing is that I don't need to keep any of these sites open to see if they are updated. Just subscribe to their feeds. Wizz will keep polling these sites for me and tell me if there is any update. I think this way I would be able to read a dozen more blogs in the same time. Also and it comes just as the ease of mails.
And arre haan.. gmail also gives you RSS feeds, got to check out.. haven't tried that.
4/20/2006
Ek simple sa blog bhi kick deta hai
This has been lying in my draft since a few days since I heard my friends case of blogging and getting caught for violating some of his company policies. One of my friend wrote some friendly article about someone and that person got a smoking fresh copy of blogging policy of the company and has properly implemented it with personal flavor of it. Now when some person catches you for violating a newly drafted blog policy, you can find the brilliance in execution. A guinea pig is used and learnings surely would go into the version 1.1 of that policy.
So some facts that I would like to mention for readers/bloggers' safety:
How do they come to know what you wrote?
Simple googling/your publicity of your blog or when they might want to get data to research on you.
How do they prove its you?
It can be any other Apurva Shukla in the world. But what I believe is that they can trace your IP from where you posted. In case you do not believe just see the site ticker at the bottom of my side bar, which I started using recently. It shows from where all your site has been accessed.
Is there a policy at all on blogging?
Every company might be having one in today's time. Since blogs are becoming slowly an active medium, companies wont mind spending some time into safeguarding their interests to come up with an internal law.
Whether there should be a company policy on blogging?
I feel yes and no.
Yes because there are a lot of things company specific which directly can get violated if you start talking on a public forum about that. That's plain easy understandable, something like an extension of the IP violation rule extension.
No for casual opinions about office life, person etc.
I think if there was any policy on restricted free speech then Scott Adams would be serving some 2000 years in prison for writing comical statements on office life. While I do agree that I would not go write something about my office on my blog, as blog is my personal space to talk of general issues but I am against any kind of policing on the blogging freedom. There are a hundred dozen blogs that want to become famous just by crying foul and attracting visitors to them but I feel there are more and more people who just want to hear plain facts (and little opinions based on them) rather than hearing false curses to anything. And if something is uttered about some person in particular without the context of company then it should be treated as out of context of office.
Interestingly today only Rashmi has blogged on the care that should be taken while blogging or expressing anything on the net. Read here.
My friend has recovered from the disaster but what's to be learnt from all this is that if you do not want such a jerk in your life due to a hobby or yours, please be careful about what you write.
So some facts that I would like to mention for readers/bloggers' safety:
How do they come to know what you wrote?
Simple googling/your publicity of your blog or when they might want to get data to research on you.
How do they prove its you?
It can be any other Apurva Shukla in the world. But what I believe is that they can trace your IP from where you posted. In case you do not believe just see the site ticker at the bottom of my side bar, which I started using recently. It shows from where all your site has been accessed.
Is there a policy at all on blogging?
Every company might be having one in today's time. Since blogs are becoming slowly an active medium, companies wont mind spending some time into safeguarding their interests to come up with an internal law.
Whether there should be a company policy on blogging?
I feel yes and no.
Yes because there are a lot of things company specific which directly can get violated if you start talking on a public forum about that. That's plain easy understandable, something like an extension of the IP violation rule extension.
No for casual opinions about office life, person etc.
I think if there was any policy on restricted free speech then Scott Adams would be serving some 2000 years in prison for writing comical statements on office life. While I do agree that I would not go write something about my office on my blog, as blog is my personal space to talk of general issues but I am against any kind of policing on the blogging freedom. There are a hundred dozen blogs that want to become famous just by crying foul and attracting visitors to them but I feel there are more and more people who just want to hear plain facts (and little opinions based on them) rather than hearing false curses to anything. And if something is uttered about some person in particular without the context of company then it should be treated as out of context of office.
Interestingly today only Rashmi has blogged on the care that should be taken while blogging or expressing anything on the net. Read here.
My friend has recovered from the disaster but what's to be learnt from all this is that if you do not want such a jerk in your life due to a hobby or yours, please be careful about what you write.
4/19/2006
Flowers!!
Things happen for a reason, flowers just point to the innocence that's still left.Wallpaperish? Don't know myself but had this lying, finding no better audience than me. Had better use of them some time back but now I feel, I can post some of them on the blog.
4/18/2006
Confused Kannada Patriotism
I recently happen to read our new avtar channel, CNN IBN's blogs. Surprisingly the one of our respected news reader gave his viewpoints on speaking in Kannada in Bangalore. I was reminded on a similar topic I had talked earlier, on the state of Hindi . Its sometimes sad that the language we speak is not recognised in the same place where we live.
But what is shocking to hear is that he goes on to say that
I atleast feel most in a rational bent of mind would try to help out without feeling that the people are rude or something.
Case 2, when you do not understand the language the question is being asked, plain simple you try to arrive at a common language between you two. So what if it has to be sign language.
What I feel is that this sort of reaction to save Kannada is totally misguided. I understand the desperation that the people who are from the north are bringing in Hindi and its kind of blending into local language. But I feel there are a lot of things about Kannada which has flown into the Hindi that we people speak here.
Exactly as I had said in the blog about Hindi, why does the reporter need to go to an English news channel? I think he could have very well gone for a Kannada news channel. But now that the quality people opt for English media the quality of Kannada media is bound to deteriorate.
In the end its not by forcing anyone to use a language makes it rich and widely acceptable, I feel its the interesting literature, movies, dramas etc in it that draw the masses to contribute to it.
But what is shocking to hear is that he goes on to say that
I was once tempted into asking a couple of slightly rude teenagers on a bike to speak in Englishand
"The prevailing feeling here has been more elegantly paraphrased before, but let me interpret it rather plainly: 'just because Hindi is the national language, it doesn't give anyone the right to expect a South Indian or Bengali to speak Hindi in Bangalore."Can't say much but will just pose a few questions? When someone asks you a way in any damn language and you understand that language, what would you do?
I atleast feel most in a rational bent of mind would try to help out without feeling that the people are rude or something.
Case 2, when you do not understand the language the question is being asked, plain simple you try to arrive at a common language between you two. So what if it has to be sign language.
What I feel is that this sort of reaction to save Kannada is totally misguided. I understand the desperation that the people who are from the north are bringing in Hindi and its kind of blending into local language. But I feel there are a lot of things about Kannada which has flown into the Hindi that we people speak here.
Exactly as I had said in the blog about Hindi, why does the reporter need to go to an English news channel? I think he could have very well gone for a Kannada news channel. But now that the quality people opt for English media the quality of Kannada media is bound to deteriorate.
In the end its not by forcing anyone to use a language makes it rich and widely acceptable, I feel its the interesting literature, movies, dramas etc in it that draw the masses to contribute to it.
4/17/2006
Unknown Indian's Rantings: Introduce School Vouchers
Quite a convincing post link which I got from gaurav's post.
Challenge I feel , as validly pointed out, is the implementation of voucher scheme. As a pessimist, I can already dream those vouchers being exchanged for money. NDTV unveiling a racket in bihar where there is not school but vouchers directly reach the school without even touching hand of a single child.
Or even that hungry farmers from Andhra are trying a way out to get more vouchers and selling it to the schools that are just interested in more vouchers and no teaching.
But surely one innovative idea which if thought can work wonders. Read the whole post.
Challenge I feel , as validly pointed out, is the implementation of voucher scheme. As a pessimist, I can already dream those vouchers being exchanged for money. NDTV unveiling a racket in bihar where there is not school but vouchers directly reach the school without even touching hand of a single child.
Or even that hungry farmers from Andhra are trying a way out to get more vouchers and selling it to the schools that are just interested in more vouchers and no teaching.
But surely one innovative idea which if thought can work wonders. Read the whole post.
4/16/2006
What Inspires?
Its been one of the common debates of us guys, what is that "inspires" us to do something better? A lot of things do come up when you talk on such matters. With the same company crowd, its generally company bashing. With the same industry crowd is generally industry bashing and with same country crowd its country bashing.
What comes to my mind as the single most important factor which inspires is - knowledge. Anywhere you see a steep climb of knowledge you get a kick to do something in that field. It is sans boundaries and hence its not about which field you have the knowledge but someone having loads of it surely inspires you. Obviously interest is a big factor in that. I mean the knowledge which is inspiring you, should be in an interest area.
So when the gap between you and another one with the interesting knowledge, that you felt you were quite competent at, is yawning, then you are on your toes to get to that new mark which is shown possible to you.
To draw from Shakespeare's line: "I'd love to have fat men around me", to grow steeper than self motivation, have knowledgeable men around you.
What comes to my mind as the single most important factor which inspires is - knowledge. Anywhere you see a steep climb of knowledge you get a kick to do something in that field. It is sans boundaries and hence its not about which field you have the knowledge but someone having loads of it surely inspires you. Obviously interest is a big factor in that. I mean the knowledge which is inspiring you, should be in an interest area.
So when the gap between you and another one with the interesting knowledge, that you felt you were quite competent at, is yawning, then you are on your toes to get to that new mark which is shown possible to you.
To draw from Shakespeare's line: "I'd love to have fat men around me", to grow steeper than self motivation, have knowledgeable men around you.
4/13/2006
Earth needs to be shaken
Karnataka people would surely agree to this. Its sad to hear of the demise of a veteran, a legend in movies, Dr. Rajkumar. May his sould rest in peace in heaven. And I have no doubt that after his exemplary years of work he shall be in heaven and also resting if his so called devotees stop embarrassing him anymore.
Some of the great accolades of the devotees of Dr. Rajkumar, especially during the past 2 days, and considering he died a natural death at the age of 77:
1. Whole of Bangalore broke into chaos with the news of his death and people reached his house at that time of grief and became angry about his body being shifted around the house.
Don't know how people can be objectionable to a mourning family at such time.
2. Bangalore police screwed up on arranging for proper number of troops to handle a huge crowd which would come to see the mortal remains of the actor. On not seeing their god from closest vicinity, people started getting angry at police and burnt buses. Police also almost met god in a way of their own. Slapped, kicked and trapped in a bus which was pelted from all sides by the angry mob.
Interestingly the dance shown on the TV channels, of the people who had a just burnt the bus was more of fun than of any mourning or anger. It looked as if some bunch of jobless people who had never had the pleasure or experience of burning one whole BMTC bus wanted to see it burn.
3. One person has reportedly died in the whole lathi charge episode at the stadium. What's the net result? One person is killed because a legend died a peaceful, natural death.
What could have been done rather, I feel, is holding prayers, a public cremation ceremony with proper arrangement for all devotees who were genuinely interested in mourning than those who wanted to rejoice the fall of the system.
Its sad and shameful for every person here in Karnataka who has acted in the way TV has shown. It was a pitiful sight for the administration when Police was shown beaten by small kids, and the CM was shown saying "this is the BEST we could have done" on TV interview with NDTV. Its funny for the our project client who does not know why all the offices need to be closed because a famous actor has died. Even strange is the fact that people should run home because angry mob might harm them for no fault of theirs. Even medicine shops were closed, god knows what happens to those who are in need of medicines today. Restaurants were closed, I myself had problem getting lunch. Its tough to understand why the whole system needs to be brought down for mourning a death.
People who were asked to leave on Wednesday afternoon from their offices took printout of Dr. Rajkumar and put it on front of their vehicles so that the mob does not go for them. I myself had plans of crying on the shoulder of the person who stops me in between to avert any problem.
With this holiday, burning of a few buses and killing one person the whole forced mourning was successful and now believe in the words of Rajiv Gandhi that the earth shakes when a big tree falls or needs to be shaken so for best effects.
Some of the great accolades of the devotees of Dr. Rajkumar, especially during the past 2 days, and considering he died a natural death at the age of 77:
1. Whole of Bangalore broke into chaos with the news of his death and people reached his house at that time of grief and became angry about his body being shifted around the house.
Don't know how people can be objectionable to a mourning family at such time.
2. Bangalore police screwed up on arranging for proper number of troops to handle a huge crowd which would come to see the mortal remains of the actor. On not seeing their god from closest vicinity, people started getting angry at police and burnt buses. Police also almost met god in a way of their own. Slapped, kicked and trapped in a bus which was pelted from all sides by the angry mob.
Interestingly the dance shown on the TV channels, of the people who had a just burnt the bus was more of fun than of any mourning or anger. It looked as if some bunch of jobless people who had never had the pleasure or experience of burning one whole BMTC bus wanted to see it burn.
3. One person has reportedly died in the whole lathi charge episode at the stadium. What's the net result? One person is killed because a legend died a peaceful, natural death.
What could have been done rather, I feel, is holding prayers, a public cremation ceremony with proper arrangement for all devotees who were genuinely interested in mourning than those who wanted to rejoice the fall of the system.
Its sad and shameful for every person here in Karnataka who has acted in the way TV has shown. It was a pitiful sight for the administration when Police was shown beaten by small kids, and the CM was shown saying "this is the BEST we could have done" on TV interview with NDTV. Its funny for the our project client who does not know why all the offices need to be closed because a famous actor has died. Even strange is the fact that people should run home because angry mob might harm them for no fault of theirs. Even medicine shops were closed, god knows what happens to those who are in need of medicines today. Restaurants were closed, I myself had problem getting lunch. Its tough to understand why the whole system needs to be brought down for mourning a death.
People who were asked to leave on Wednesday afternoon from their offices took printout of Dr. Rajkumar and put it on front of their vehicles so that the mob does not go for them. I myself had plans of crying on the shoulder of the person who stops me in between to avert any problem.
With this holiday, burning of a few buses and killing one person the whole forced mourning was successful and now believe in the words of Rajiv Gandhi that the earth shakes when a big tree falls or needs to be shaken so for best effects.
4/04/2006
Ma Rewa
Medha patkar is again on a hunger strike to stop the raising of the Sardar Sarovar Dam. I believe she must be having enough good reasons to take such a drastic step to stop a development work. They have been raging a battle against the government and claiming that mega dams don't contribute to any good cause and are only beneficial to a small group of people who get money by building dams etc.
What I feel in their approach is that they lack a little more detail to their cause. I happened to see the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) site. The site talks that the claims made by the committee on the benefits of Sardar Sarovar are highly inflated, the rehabilitation is not done and all valid causes. Which are also perfectly believable. I mean no one would open his mouth and say "Is that so?" considering that's not too way off the line of corruption our netas are perpetrating. What I feel can add iron to the stick which NBA is wielding is hard data. You can say that how many villages are required to rehabilitate the people and bring that to media. Cost-benefit or cost-loss analysis as they would want to present can be put on their site so that it can be debated openly. Why is a dam which would give electricity to a country that's starving for it, irrigation for farmers of kucch, flood protection to people in Madhya pradesh and Gujarat be a bad proposition considering mammoth costs also. This question comes to my mind even at the risk of being labeled immoral for the plight of those displaced. Here's the link to the Narmada Valley Development Authority which is not better than the NBA site but atleast has sections about the major concerns a project should have. Has some data tables to show. I am not competitive enough to verify its sanctity but atleast its left for public to verify and debate about.
No one can give you the same piece of land which you cultivated or even the same place where you have spent your childhood. But for development sake these kinds of things have to be done. Only thing is that the Sardar Sarovar project should need far more planning in these issues as its for the people that the dam is being built. If the authorities take a non human stand then perhaps we would not need any dam in the first place. So they need to have organised and transparent re-location at the cost of perhaps giving more than what they already had to compensate them. Also this is perhaps a very good opportunity for the dreamers of township planning to cut out model villages, towns along the reservoir which beats the major city planning.
I think what these hungerstrikes do is justified considering it wakes up the sleeping netas who are then forced to do something for the plight of the people. To listen to them, give proper hearing to the illiterate who might not know how to shout out for their rights. That their rehabilitation is done in a proper and satisfactory manner. But at the end of it I feel that the dam should get completed and its benefits are shown rather than it being finished half or remain unfinished for ever.
What I feel in their approach is that they lack a little more detail to their cause. I happened to see the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) site. The site talks that the claims made by the committee on the benefits of Sardar Sarovar are highly inflated, the rehabilitation is not done and all valid causes. Which are also perfectly believable. I mean no one would open his mouth and say "Is that so?" considering that's not too way off the line of corruption our netas are perpetrating. What I feel can add iron to the stick which NBA is wielding is hard data. You can say that how many villages are required to rehabilitate the people and bring that to media. Cost-benefit or cost-loss analysis as they would want to present can be put on their site so that it can be debated openly. Why is a dam which would give electricity to a country that's starving for it, irrigation for farmers of kucch, flood protection to people in Madhya pradesh and Gujarat be a bad proposition considering mammoth costs also. This question comes to my mind even at the risk of being labeled immoral for the plight of those displaced. Here's the link to the Narmada Valley Development Authority which is not better than the NBA site but atleast has sections about the major concerns a project should have. Has some data tables to show. I am not competitive enough to verify its sanctity but atleast its left for public to verify and debate about.
No one can give you the same piece of land which you cultivated or even the same place where you have spent your childhood. But for development sake these kinds of things have to be done. Only thing is that the Sardar Sarovar project should need far more planning in these issues as its for the people that the dam is being built. If the authorities take a non human stand then perhaps we would not need any dam in the first place. So they need to have organised and transparent re-location at the cost of perhaps giving more than what they already had to compensate them. Also this is perhaps a very good opportunity for the dreamers of township planning to cut out model villages, towns along the reservoir which beats the major city planning.
I think what these hungerstrikes do is justified considering it wakes up the sleeping netas who are then forced to do something for the plight of the people. To listen to them, give proper hearing to the illiterate who might not know how to shout out for their rights. That their rehabilitation is done in a proper and satisfactory manner. But at the end of it I feel that the dam should get completed and its benefits are shown rather than it being finished half or remain unfinished for ever.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)