Edge of the Seat Thriller

If you think that this post is about some thriller movie that I have seen recently, you are mistaken. The heading reflects how I feel each day when I drive my new car out to drive to office and back. It has been couple of weeks since I got my new car, a Chevrolet Spark. Though car is pretty good to drive, driving in the chennai traffic is like riding a bumper car.

I had been driving car for the past couple of years, but this is the first time I drove in chennai. I think only another driver can understand the plight of the a driver in chennai, or for that matter anywhere in India. Some of the things that I noticed which makes a typical Indian car driver

1. Jumps signals.
2. Jumps lanes.
3. Rushes towards your left side in the signal and take a diagonal turn and park right in front of you.
4. Keep honking if someone is ahead of you.
5. Never give way to an ambulance, and speed up like anything as if you are an escort.

And the worst is the bikers. I am biker myslef and I have driven the same way as anyone is driving today. Only when I sit in the driver's seat that I see how irritating the bikers are when they whiz past you from your left side or when they squeeze in a small space between your car and the road divider. I have been in to couple of accidents when I was riding a bike - which was no mistake of the car driver. When ever I see a bike in the rear view, those accidents come to my mind and makes me nervous.

But I understand I would be driving fine until I have a tiny fear in my mind about driving in the city. If I ever overcome that fear factor, I am sure that would be day my car would get it first scratch.

Slumdong's Oscar and the Post Mortem

When I was with my previous company one of my senior colleague used to say that we Indian are always good in Post Mortem. What he means is - if there is problem he spent the whole night to solve, his managers will question him about the problem and try to understand the root cause, but they never take any steps to prevent the same problem happening in the future. They keep on talking without any solution at all. Eventually that problem would be forgotten when the next one comes. He used to say that post mortem is common with almost all the Indians, they love to discuss something without any logical conclusion back and forth.



I remembered the conversation I had with him when I was watching the debate of whether India could take credit for the "Slumdog Milloinaire" oscars. Slumdog is basically a movie out of a Vikas Swarup novel about a rags to riches story. A R Rahman and Resul Pokutty won Oscars for their work in the film. The film went on to win 8 Oscars in total.

As soon as the Oscars are announced, a debate was started by most of the TV channels - whether India should rejoice about the oscar got by Rahman and Resul. I really don't understand what is so sentimental about it. Rahman got the oscars for the Music and the song, Resul for his sound mixing. It is not one of Rahman's best, but the fact is, it is the best out of the nominated ones. Rahman and Resul got their awards for their individual brillance in a global stage. We should be rejoicing. Getting nominated to Oscars is a collective factor. Although many mediocore movies have got the award before, more than one award would be given only for deserving movies. The fact that the Slumdog got 8 oscars is itself says that movie was loved by many, atleast among the judges.

I am sure if not Slumdog, Rahman would have done it with another international movie soon. Even I don't think Slumdog is a great movie and all, but it has a feel good factor and optimism. May be in this gloomy recession, many might have felt the optimism touching. Let's not post mortem their success - let us just enjoy the victory and glory of Rahman and Resul at the global stage. A big bow to both of them.

Going to a Government office:

I have never been to a Government office baring a couple of times for a Driving License and for a EB registration. I have heard lot of stories and seen movies depicting the aristocracies that happens in a government office. Well, I had a first hand experience of the same for the past couple of weeks.

If you move to a new place in India, you can realize how difficult it is to get a Address proof. I never worried about that until I got married. Three months ago, I submitted my application for a Family Card in the Civil Supplies Department. They did their duty well, they came for inspection to my home, they verified my identification and my wife's - told me that I will be getting the card in a months time. Within a week's time I had to leave to US for two months and I totally forgot about the family card for two months.

Once I came back, I went to collect my card to the office. When I went there and showed my receipt for my application form, that employee there too around 1/2 an hour to search for my family card. I am not saying that to criticize the people there, I just felt very sorry for them for the way they are forced to work. They have a office of about 2000 Sq Feet, with 15 people to work. The amount of people they handle would be around 500. Without any computerization, with only paper and ledger for tracking things, it was pitiful the way they are working. They have 30 - 40 years of paper work in that place and if a paper get lost it will become next to impossible to get a lost paper in that maze of papers.

I thought my plight was over when I got my Family Card. But they had printed my name, my address and my Ration Shop id wrongly in my card. When I went to the inspector with that card, he was very sorry. He said it is their mistake, but he cannot help, since changing anything in the card would have no effect in the database from where they print the card. He asked me to submit a affidavit again for processing for the corrections in my card.

As I saw, I could not see only the lazy government official at the office, but only pitiful people, who even if they want to help hundreds of people coming to office cannot do so because of lack of modernization, lack of people. I think it is the duty of the government to modernize and sophisticate these offices and the employees to help people get better service. I see crores of Rupees being spent on the modernization of the politicians vehicles and their security, but these people are working like this for ages without any improvement. I would simply brand this neglect as cheating the people.

Target 50K / Week:

For a serious runner under a marathon training, this would seem too little, but for a novice like me, to do a 50KM per week would be something like a dream. I have done this almost a year before. But now, with absolutely no training for about 9 Months and overweight of about 10Kg's, being married and a baby on its way, I know it will be huge task.

Still, I have started running positively yesterday. I did a slow, small distance run of about 3Km near MCC and waited to see whether I would do it again today before writing a blog entry. Good that I went to the run today too, 1KM more than what I did yesterday.

What I am planning to do now is to track the running distance and timing I do online through my blog and google docs. Let us see how good my determination is.

Update after a long time:

I has been more than 6 months since I have wrote my last entry here. Very few people have been able to make a come back blogging successfully after a long break. I really hope to join the successful ones - lets see how does it goes.

India Wounded:

It has been 2 weeks after one of the worst terrorist attack against India, the was one of the worst 3 day. It is nothing new for India to face a terrorist attack, what made it worse is that it dragged for 3 days with people watching in horror as the brave commandos and the police were fighting the terrorists. All the previous incidents would spread across the country only in the aftermath of the incident, but in this case the whole country was watching it live and in horror. It was horrific to watch the videos of the terrorists shooting the innocents and fighting the Army. I know Mumbai will be on its leg in a day or two, but the city is never the same again. Until the government and the security agencies prove to the people that they are really vigilant, taking necessary and sensible step to curb this menace, I think people is not going to feel safe in Mumbai. I think India had one too many lessons in terrorism and should have taken steps to keeping its people safe. Hope the new Home Minister does something to improve it.

The most logical outcome of this 3 day ordeal was a huge public anger against the politicians which was evident on candle vigil that happened on all the major cities across the country. I sincerely hope something really good comes out of this anger, some real leaders emerge instead of the current uneducated, bureaucratic, rich politicians.

In the Silicon Valley:

I have traveled to California for a project for 2 months and will be back in India by 1st week of Jan. California is an amazing place with great weather and it is just perfect for run. Though I have traveled on for a project, the general mood in Silicon valley is gloomy and very tense. There were lot of lay offs in the past one month and company's are generally struggling to survive. If at all the Auto Makers, (GM, Ford and Chrysler) did not get any bailout packages, US will head to a huge depression which might take years to come out.

My work here isn't that great either, but my stay is absolutely wonderful. I have been staying with my cousin's family and we have been traveling around a lot. It feels as if I have been for vacation rather than work. It has been two years since I last met my cousin and she was a just overly excited to show me all her favourite places in the country, I just have to reminder that I am here for work.

Trip to Los Angeles:

The week before Jaswanth was to leave to India we had a trip to Los Angeles. It was a great trip with Arun, Arun(#2), Jaswanth and Yathin.

Me and Arun at Universal Studios

Arun, Jess, Me and Arun

At the horror House

Arun with Pricess Fiona

Jess and Me

Most interestingly, Yathin is Jaswanth's friend from School and they have not met in the last 14 yrs. Everything in LA seems to be so huge and for anyone being in LA for the first time will feel surreal.

Trip to Lake Tahoe and Reno:

My Anna's family and me went to Reno and Lake Tahoe for the Thanksgiving weekend.






It was my first trip to a real casino and a gambling. I lost some $300 that night, but it was still fun.

Fearless Mind:

I have read this poem a number of times, still every time I read I feel refreshed.

Mind Without Fear

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;
Where words come out from the depth of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.

From Geetanjali by Rabintranath Tagore

Adrenaline Rush...

I did a uphill training in chennai today. Wondering where is the hill in chennai to run, we run over the bridges and call it uphill training ;). I ran like hell today.t Initially I was running slowly till I reached the bridge and then I pushed myself to the limit. It would be the fastest I would have ever run. My fellow runners when they saw me sprinting were cheering aloud. I did the speed slow routine couple of times over the RK Salai bridge and the Alwarpet bridge. When I reached the endpoint and stopped, I could feel the blood pumping in my head. Wow.... that felt so good.

I remember when I was in school we used to play a game called Kings and Queens, where the player with a ball have to hit the fellow players with it. We used to run like hell to avoid getting hit by the ball. Usually at the end of the game, I used to feel the blood pumping in my head. After so long I felt that today. Feels great.