Thursday, April 8, 2010
Importance of Individuality (An excerpt from "Crime and Punishment" by Fyodor Dostovesky)
I like them to take nonsense. That man's one privilege over all creation. Through error you come to the truth. I am a man because i err. You never reach any truth without making 14 mistakes and very likely 114, and a fine thing too in its own way. But we can't even make mistakes on our own account. Talk nonsense, but talk your own nonsense and i will kiss you for it. To go wrong in ones own way is better than to go right in someone else's. In first case you are a man and in a second case you are no better than a bird.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Monday, March 1, 2010
My workplace Restroom Messages
I always laugh when i see "Every Drop Counts" message on the Urinal. Wonder which drop they are referring to??
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Friday, February 26, 2010
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Monday, February 8, 2010
Monday, February 1, 2010
Gross misrepresentation of facts by BBC
Generally BBC does a good job at providing reliable news. However here in this news titled "Alarm at Mumbai's teenage suicide trend" they have done something terribly wrong.
In this piece of news they have discussed that a recent movie "3 idiots" is in a way encouraging kids to take their own life.
The content is as follows.
One theory behind the recent rise is the influence of a recently released Bollywood blockbuster, Three Idiots, which has a scene where an engineering student is shown committing suicide after a mediocre exam result.
The film's impact has been debated and scrutinised in prime time television shows, with many directly blaming it for adding to the problem.
As i recently saw this movie, the engineering student didn't commit suicide because of mediocre exam result, it was because he failed to complete the required practical assignment and proff didn't give extra time to finish it.
BBC should check their facts before publishing such error.
PS: I completely agree that these days competition is very tough and is takings toll on young kids. For this we need a change in our educational system and more than anything parents and teachers should be engaged in a eye opening discussion such as there are other things more important than a grade/percentage in class.
However life is always tough and that's the way it is. That doesn't mean someone will always commit suicide. A final year boy in engineering college should be more sensible to do such stupid thing. And should we stop showing truth. Further parents should take time to interact with kids and explain them the difference between movie and real world. If mom and dad don't have time to talk to kids, then it is their fault above anyone else.
In this piece of news they have discussed that a recent movie "3 idiots" is in a way encouraging kids to take their own life.
The content is as follows.
One theory behind the recent rise is the influence of a recently released Bollywood blockbuster, Three Idiots, which has a scene where an engineering student is shown committing suicide after a mediocre exam result.
The film's impact has been debated and scrutinised in prime time television shows, with many directly blaming it for adding to the problem.
As i recently saw this movie, the engineering student didn't commit suicide because of mediocre exam result, it was because he failed to complete the required practical assignment and proff didn't give extra time to finish it.
BBC should check their facts before publishing such error.
PS: I completely agree that these days competition is very tough and is takings toll on young kids. For this we need a change in our educational system and more than anything parents and teachers should be engaged in a eye opening discussion such as there are other things more important than a grade/percentage in class.
However life is always tough and that's the way it is. That doesn't mean someone will always commit suicide. A final year boy in engineering college should be more sensible to do such stupid thing. And should we stop showing truth. Further parents should take time to interact with kids and explain them the difference between movie and real world. If mom and dad don't have time to talk to kids, then it is their fault above anyone else.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
An interesting topic from "The Tipping Point" by Malcom Gladwell
This is from the chapter "The power of context". Enjoy!!
The mistake we make in thinking of character as something unified and all-encompassing is very similar to a kind of blind spot in the way we process information. Psychologists call this tendency the Fundamental Attribution Error (FAE), which is a fancy way of saying that when it comes to interpreting other people's behavior, human beings invariably make the mistake of overestimating the importance of fundamental character traits and underestimating the importance of situation and context. In one experiment, for instance, a group of people are told to watch two sets of similarly talented basketball players, the first of whom are shooting baskets in a well-lighted gym and the second of whom are shooting baskets in a badly lighted gym (and obviously missing a lot of shots). Then they are asked to judge how good the players were. The players in the well lighted gym were considered superior.
The mistake we make in thinking of character as something unified and all-encompassing is very similar to a kind of blind spot in the way we process information. Psychologists call this tendency the Fundamental Attribution Error (FAE), which is a fancy way of saying that when it comes to interpreting other people's behavior, human beings invariably make the mistake of overestimating the importance of fundamental character traits and underestimating the importance of situation and context. In one experiment, for instance, a group of people are told to watch two sets of similarly talented basketball players, the first of whom are shooting baskets in a well-lighted gym and the second of whom are shooting baskets in a badly lighted gym (and obviously missing a lot of shots). Then they are asked to judge how good the players were. The players in the well lighted gym were considered superior.
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Sunday, January 3, 2010
New Year 2010
2009 is over. It has brought all kind of feelings this year. Lost a job, found another. Parents came and stayed with us. Kundan (my son) had his first birthday. Anshu finished her MBA (congrats to her :-)). Looks like an eventful year. But the good thing is that it was a fun year.
So we decided to celebrate this year end in a more fun way. We have been living in bay area for more than 3 years now. Many a times we have been to San Francisco, for either seeing Golden Gate Bridge, or Fisherman's wharf. But so far we have been mostly driving through the city and always promising ourselves that we will someday come to see the beautiful buildings and other attractions of the SFO downtown. So this time we decided to just do that.
In advance we have booked a room in Holiday Inn for 31st night. This hotel is on the main street of SFO (Van Ness Ave). If you are planning to stay here, get a room with view. It is definitely worth the money.
We started about 11 from our house, took the bus and reached Fremont BART. It takes about an hour from Fremont to reach SFO. We got out at Powell BART. Last night i had done extensive research on what bus to take and what to do etc. But my god. It is so confusing over there. There are 4 different kinds of buses. We were supposed to take Powell Hyde cable car. But after running here and there for more than 20 minutes we couldn't figure out where we will get it. Finally patience ran out and hired a taxi. We reached on top of crooked street.
(More of the events soon as i am running late for bed.)
So we decided to celebrate this year end in a more fun way. We have been living in bay area for more than 3 years now. Many a times we have been to San Francisco, for either seeing Golden Gate Bridge, or Fisherman's wharf. But so far we have been mostly driving through the city and always promising ourselves that we will someday come to see the beautiful buildings and other attractions of the SFO downtown. So this time we decided to just do that.
In advance we have booked a room in Holiday Inn for 31st night. This hotel is on the main street of SFO (Van Ness Ave). If you are planning to stay here, get a room with view. It is definitely worth the money.
We started about 11 from our house, took the bus and reached Fremont BART. It takes about an hour from Fremont to reach SFO. We got out at Powell BART. Last night i had done extensive research on what bus to take and what to do etc. But my god. It is so confusing over there. There are 4 different kinds of buses. We were supposed to take Powell Hyde cable car. But after running here and there for more than 20 minutes we couldn't figure out where we will get it. Finally patience ran out and hired a taxi. We reached on top of crooked street.
(More of the events soon as i am running late for bed.)
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Afghan (Frederick Forsyth)
In fiction Frederick Forsyth is simply superb. The first i read was Dogs of War. And since then, most of the other works. Further when it comes to short story collection, Veteran is simply too good.
Lately i have been reading Ram Gopal Verma's blog. His blogs are funny with a taste of like it or not here it comes. Sometimes i wonder if RGV and Amitabh really do have such free time to write blogs, or are they simply outsourcing this work to some junior intern? Call me a skeptic. Anyways in one of the RGV's blog he had praised this novel Afghan. Now i had to read it.
I will say that this is a good peice of work. Research done by author is always good. It looks like he has been to mountains of Tora bora and seen the place himself. So vivid are the description. Story plot was a little weak for me. Or maybe my expectations are too high. I found it unconvincing that CIA and MI5 can simply put their man in a mission critical of AQ at the last moment. Otherwise it is a good entertaining book.
Lately i have been reading Ram Gopal Verma's blog. His blogs are funny with a taste of like it or not here it comes. Sometimes i wonder if RGV and Amitabh really do have such free time to write blogs, or are they simply outsourcing this work to some junior intern? Call me a skeptic. Anyways in one of the RGV's blog he had praised this novel Afghan. Now i had to read it.
I will say that this is a good peice of work. Research done by author is always good. It looks like he has been to mountains of Tora bora and seen the place himself. So vivid are the description. Story plot was a little weak for me. Or maybe my expectations are too high. I found it unconvincing that CIA and MI5 can simply put their man in a mission critical of AQ at the last moment. Otherwise it is a good entertaining book.
Christmas 2009
I love christmas songs. So i have been playing them from Youtube. Last year when my in-laws were here, we went to Fremont Church near Fremont and Central. I haven't been to a church in long time. It was fun. Then we went to see christmas decoration in a nearby neighborhood. It was simply awesome.
So this year, me and my wife decided to check out decorations again. And we were also looking for some pastry to eat. Most of the shops were closed. Luckily there is one indian restaurant near our house (Peacock Restaurant), which was open. This place also has its own bakery. First we roamed around the places to see lights. Some neighborhoods were very decorated compared to others. It looks like decoration is also contagious. If my neighbor does it, then i will do it too. We went to Peacock for pastry afterwards. After pastry we decided to have chicken biryani too.
So overall we had a very fun christmas.
So this year, me and my wife decided to check out decorations again. And we were also looking for some pastry to eat. Most of the shops were closed. Luckily there is one indian restaurant near our house (Peacock Restaurant), which was open. This place also has its own bakery. First we roamed around the places to see lights. Some neighborhoods were very decorated compared to others. It looks like decoration is also contagious. If my neighbor does it, then i will do it too. We went to Peacock for pastry afterwards. After pastry we decided to have chicken biryani too.
So overall we had a very fun christmas.
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Book Reading Update 1 (Tipping Point)
I was so excited to find so many books. But it looks like i have put more in mouth than i can chew. Library has a deadline of 3 weeks. In one week i have only been able to finish "Diary of wimpy kid". Ofcourse that is easy, as it is a fun book. Not something for which i have to motivate myself. Now moving onto "Tipping point". I am at page 60 or 70. So far i have found that this book is about special people, who are very outgoing and connect to many people. So basically if an idea is sponsored by those people, the idea is successful. It is not as if we don't know it already. But with the exaples of successful people from real life, it becomes more important. Futher it talks about knowledgeable persons (Mavens). Now i know why the famous build tool in Java is called Maven (sorry if you don't understand what i wrote in this line. Don't worry it is just a software tool for my work). More on the book reading later. Meanwhile Merry Xmas.
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Reading Great books
These days i feel very happy. From somewhere i heard about book "Outliers". Got the audiobook from library. After reading it i am so impressed with the author (Malcom Gladwell) that i went to his website and found out about his other works. Just finished reading "Blink" and now i am going to move to "Tipping Point". Meanwhile i went to shelfari to see what other readers like me are reading. From there got the great list of other books. Alas my library allows me only to put 10 items in hold at a time. Today several of my holds were cleared and have got "How the mighty fall", "Diary of a wimpy kid, the last straw.", "Microtrends", "Catch-22" and "Story of Pi". This list will keep me occupied for sometime. So which one to start. "Story of Pi" is audiobook, that i will read while driving in car. So my best bet for today is "Diary of wimpy kid" :-)
Monday, November 30, 2009
Pumdiana pumdiana
My son likes this song very much. Whenever he sees the laptop, he will make hand gestures and drag us to play it. Most of the time it is very cute. Only after hearing it for 30 times in a day it gets little tiring :-)
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Astrology on radio in SFO
Recently i came to know of a desi radio station in bay area. It is on 1170 AM. There are several shows. Typically i listen to "Morning Masti with Mantra" and "On Air Dil se with Seema". These shows happen on my commute hours to work.
The format is to either start conversation on some topic, or invite some knowledgeable person on the show. And then people ask questions and share stories or opinion etc. Several times they have invited lawyers (immigration lawyer is typically in more demand), child specialists etc.
But today was special. Today they have invited one "Astrologer". I don't believe in it, but still continued on to listen to it. What was fascinating to see that out of 6-7 calls only one caller was male, rest all were women. Does it mean that women believe in astrology and stars more than men do. Or is it simply that women can talk about issues more easily than men can? Or maybe both?
Anyways here are the questions i could remember. Answers to invariably all were on the format that everything is good. You will get what you are desiring. Maybe a little delayed. Some graha is giving you slight trouble. May need extra pooja path. Call me after the show for more details. (We all know what will happen then.)
Enjoy the questions.
1)Yahi job continue karoon ki change karoon. Green card kab hoga
2)Mera beta padhai main bahut stress leta hai. Usko safalta milegi ki nahin.
3)Main ma kab banoongi.
4)Meri beti college main hai. Uski padhai theek se hogi ki nahin. Usko badhiya job milega ki nahin.
5)Mujhe ek doosra job offer mila hua hai. Main usko consider karoon ki nahin.
6)Mera Green card hoga ki nahin. Main finally india main settle hounga ki yahan.
The format is to either start conversation on some topic, or invite some knowledgeable person on the show. And then people ask questions and share stories or opinion etc. Several times they have invited lawyers (immigration lawyer is typically in more demand), child specialists etc.
But today was special. Today they have invited one "Astrologer". I don't believe in it, but still continued on to listen to it. What was fascinating to see that out of 6-7 calls only one caller was male, rest all were women. Does it mean that women believe in astrology and stars more than men do. Or is it simply that women can talk about issues more easily than men can? Or maybe both?
Anyways here are the questions i could remember. Answers to invariably all were on the format that everything is good. You will get what you are desiring. Maybe a little delayed. Some graha is giving you slight trouble. May need extra pooja path. Call me after the show for more details. (We all know what will happen then.)
Enjoy the questions.
1)Yahi job continue karoon ki change karoon. Green card kab hoga
2)Mera beta padhai main bahut stress leta hai. Usko safalta milegi ki nahin.
3)Main ma kab banoongi.
4)Meri beti college main hai. Uski padhai theek se hogi ki nahin. Usko badhiya job milega ki nahin.
5)Mujhe ek doosra job offer mila hua hai. Main usko consider karoon ki nahin.
6)Mera Green card hoga ki nahin. Main finally india main settle hounga ki yahan.
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Marketing thugs
It is true that marketing guys are just shameless. (Friends if you are in this business, then it is not a personal allegation but it is on the marketing business in general. )They can do anything to sell a thing to you. Further i think they just take for granted that people are foolish. Following 2 examples clearly demonstrate this.
1)I have a subscription of time magazine. It costs me about $20 per year. Every now and then i will get subscription renewal notice in my mail with some quote. Typically they are about $40 or more. Why will i pay double or triple of current subscription price? And to top it on one of the notice there was something like "Enroll for automatic renewal, so that we don't have to send you renewal notices in mail and it will be good for environment." Common do you take me for that kind of sucker. If you don't want to damage environment then stop sending these junk. If your product is good and being sold at right price, i will get it. Stop emotional blackmailing.
2)I use snapfish for photo development. Lately i ordered about 50 prints from them. Using a coupon i had to pay in total about $9. Not bad. Today when i checked to see its status, i see a funny marketing message below my orders. "You've received the lowest price available for your order. You saved $186.30 on your order". Now this is an outrageous statement. Nowhere in the world anyone will pay this amount of money for photo prints.
1)I have a subscription of time magazine. It costs me about $20 per year. Every now and then i will get subscription renewal notice in my mail with some quote. Typically they are about $40 or more. Why will i pay double or triple of current subscription price? And to top it on one of the notice there was something like "Enroll for automatic renewal, so that we don't have to send you renewal notices in mail and it will be good for environment." Common do you take me for that kind of sucker. If you don't want to damage environment then stop sending these junk. If your product is good and being sold at right price, i will get it. Stop emotional blackmailing.
2)I use snapfish for photo development. Lately i ordered about 50 prints from them. Using a coupon i had to pay in total about $9. Not bad. Today when i checked to see its status, i see a funny marketing message below my orders. "You've received the lowest price available for your order. You saved $186.30 on your order". Now this is an outrageous statement. Nowhere in the world anyone will pay this amount of money for photo prints.
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