Update from India

Its 6:22am on June 18th, 2011 in India. I woke up about 30 mins ago. What I find most interesting is, even in these times of pollution, deforestation etc, I find the same sparrows which used to wake me up when I was a kid. I hear sparrows, I hear cuckoos, and I hear atleast two more birds sing, which I cannot name. I am with my brother in his studio apartment, in a colony that resembles the colony we used to live when we were kids. Its very peaceful here.
I came to India for my brother's wedding. It got over on 12th of June and his reception was over by 13th June. The wedding and the reception were hectic. Too many works to do and too little resources to do the works. Both me and my younger brother were exhausted by the time the wedding and the reception got over.
Hyderabad, from where I am, has changed quite a bit. Traffic is bad as usual, but there seems to some improvements. Earlier people used to junk honk their heart away and none used to complain about it. These days honking is considered a bad thing, and there is increasing unrest from the people who are honked at, if the honking is unnecessary. Honking has gone down a decibel.
Every mall, theatre etc have security check points, where they pat you down. This is definitely a no place for folks who are afraid of getting patted down. In US you would certainly think the guy patting you down is gay.
People's perspective also changed. Earlier people used to earn money and save in banks. They hardly used to spend money. Even if want to spend, there were only a few avenues to do so. Now, people dont seem to think much before spending. there are a lot of places, things you can do and people certainly seem to avail of these avenues.
Few other things I observed. Mobile texting is extremely cheap here. And hence people seem to text at every opportunity they get. My cousin was texting away while talking to us, in theatre, while wedding was going on, almost every moment. And she is just 17 and has just finished her 12th. I dont know where she is getting the money for this, since she doesnt work at all. People talk on their phones in movie theatres. And they dont even realize they are disturbing others.
The infrastructure has grown a lot, and I think it is time for the people to improve their attitude.
Btw, I found very interesting posters, graffiti and boards here. I will post them soon.

Work is just part of life!

First, its been a while since I had updated anything on this blog. I should spend a little more time than I am doing now to update this blog.
Now for the reason of this title. Now a days I find myself thinking about the issues that I've to solve almost all the time. At least 10 out of past 15 days I woke up with a thought on how to solve a problem faced at work. I also find myself scrambling to get to laptop to check emails or regression results, just as a kid cannot wait to open the christmas presents. the only difference is, a kid finds presents for him, and I find more bugs in our analysis :)
Most folks who know me know that I take work as part of life and now life itself. Well, off late I dont seem to be really behaving that way. If I think about recent past, almost always my thoughts were filled with work. I forced myself to work late hours. Coming to think of it, most of it was unnecessary. I could've well managed the same work, if I had taken a bit of time to plan more carefully.
Typically work never gets to me. It never bothers me. Occasionally there is a problem that you the solution is just around the corner but flirts with you so long, those ones bar, work is pretty comfortable for me. Not offlate. I seem to be solving lot more non-technical challenges than the technical ones. With a bunch of new team members, it is definitely hard to make them gel together and build that team spirit. At last, the team seem to function as a team. Right when everything seems to work properly, I am going to miss the action.
It is verge of a long weekend. More than that it is verge of a really hectic personal schedule for me. First, I am going to Vegas tomorrow. I have to pick up my brother from LA tomorrow early morning. Two days in Vegas and drive back. Next week I got to travel for one day. And the next weekend, I will be off to India for my brothers wedding. It is going to be hectic.
Marriage, a beginning of new phase of life, one filled with unknown territories, which two people explore together, and explore each other, a phase which completely changes your lifestyle and outlook, can make or break you depending on your spouse, is a very inetersting one. Wedding, which symbolizes the beginning is even hectic, at least in Indian culture. A lot of rituals, hell lot of family and friends, overwhelming speed at which you loose your bachelorhood, and all those pre-marital jitters if you are venturing into right thing or not, phew, wedding is hectic :)
I should write more often and keep my mind off the work! This is fun!

Meet Mr & Mrs Nachiketa Sharma

Today I had the privilege of meeting two wonderful people: Mr.Nachiketa Sharma and his wife Ms. Saloni Sharma. Nachiketa is a friend of mine from REC, very pleasant to talk and always has a smile on his face. I was in Bay Area and I met him and his wife for dinner.  This was first time I was meeting his wife. Sure enough Nachi had his broad smile and friendly attitude that personifies him, so did his wife. She was kind enough to suggest good dishes at that restaurant we were. After we ordered the food, we started discussing about work, life, and other activities.
I mentioned about my car business, my current work and assisting the telugu association etc. Even though I did take a good amount of time explaining these, I would cut short those details and concentrate on him for now :)
Nachiketa has been active in the local alumni network attending their meetings, talking to seniors and usually plugged in. He has good contacts and knows who is doing what. While conversing, he mentioned that currently he is dedicating part of his time to an orphanage in J&K, and trying to establish a NPO in USA. He is currently sponsoring couple of school children for their education. What a noble cause! Education is the sure way to progress in India. India hasnt grown to a stage where college drop outs with no background can make millions like in USA. Basic education is still a luxury in India, and it is people like Nachiketa who is transforming it into a basic right. Kudos to you folks! Nachiketa and his wife do dedicate a part of their life analyzing and trying to come up with solution with which citizens of India can be empowered better. Inadvertently the conversation turned to politics. Keeping the details short, one of the reason for the current plight is the lack of turnover of educated people for elections. Nachiketa words "if the citizen doesnt exercise his / her right to vote, he/she deserves whatever he/she gets from govt. you need change, then start with you." What impresses me is that he is not just saying it, he realizes the difficulties, time commitment and lethargy of people to move their butts and go to voting station. He outlined a plan with which the working professional can vote without taking a lot of time off their lives.
The idea is to create a system with which you dont have to go to the polling booth. You can just logon to a portal and vote. Of course the idea is simple, and of course we can poke a lot of holes into. Sure enough I did say "there are a lot of problems with this. easy to hack, election commission will have tough time. we will not get approval etc etc." I liked Nachi and his wife's response : "no one said it is easy. but thats where educated people with will power need to take action. be a conduit and work with election commission. get the voters database up. establish identities, protect them. it is upto us, the educated crowd to make such changes happen." Folks! I am truly impressed. Glad to have know such people. My evening was enriched.
Nachiketa asked me how he can raise money for charity. I gave him some suggestions that I know some friends and I did:

1. Conduct a game night. Have a ticket or entry fee or something. Provide beverages etc, but put a donation box where you have beverages
2. Poker tournament: poker seems to be kicking in to Indian community as well. A poker tournament is a good way to let the donors enjoy, the winner gets to boast and the money goes to charity. If there are 10 people who turn up, with $20 entry fee, you raised $200 in an evening. Add food, drinks etc and you can raise $300 easily
3. Fund raising dinners: a friend of mine does these. Not sure how much he raises.
4. Run for charity
5. Of course you can always ask your friends to donate. But this doesnt seem to work very well. Some fun return for donation seems to work much better

If you have more ideas, please do comment. I will forward them to Nachiketa, Also if you are interested in charity and general improvements in India, contact him. I am sure he is all ears to listen to your ideas.

Share the conversation!

The simplest and one of the most difficult things to do in a conversation is to let other people speak. Very few of us understand the importance of listening. A lot of people feel that to get recognized they have to speak and contribute something, anything to the conversation. Very often than not people jump into a conversation to contribute by speaking, saying something, some words which really lengthens the conversation without adding anything to it. Yes, you need to express your opinion, sure, but let the other person finish first, let what he/she said sink in, before you speak. Best way to add to conversation, if you dont know about the subject being discussed, is to ask questions, rather than bluffing you know something and making a totally ridiculous statement. Ask questions as why they said what they said, why they feel so and why not other way. You can ask about the history of events, who the major players are etc. Dont bluff!
The biggest problem for a person who knows that the best way to contribute is by keeping healthy conversation is that when he sees a person cutting him in, he knows a person who cuts in has no understanding of what a good conversation is and he still has to deal with this person. Its like there is a piece of bread on the road, and the mad dog jumps on it to tear it apart. Good conversations are when you share it, enjoy ; not stealing it and tearing it apart.
How and when will people realize not to grab the conversation but to share it? I feel sorry for such folks!

When everything you try fails.....

Every once in a while I find myself in a situation no matter what I do, how much I try, I feel I am stuck at the same point, not making any progress. I feel incapacitated, depressed and totally helpless. I find myself trying and trying harder. I get frustrated. And then, poof! nothing.. feel nothing..
Whenever I feel like this, it reminds of Keanu Reeves's speech in "the replacements". When asked to talk about their fears,  KR says he is afraid of quicksand. His explanation is more or less like what I feel. He says, he is afraid of things going smooth, one bump and everything just sinks.
In flying, if the plane stalls, spins etc., there is a procedure to recover it. The last rule is if nothing works, just let it go, and plane might fly on itself. I guess its the same with feeling dejected and helpless. If everything you tried fails, let life take its own course. Just relax and enjoy the ride!

People and Music

Is it possible to learn something about the people by knowing the kind of music they listen to? I got this doubt after realizing that most rock/ heavy metal singers have either committed suicide or are drug addicts while most classical singers seem to have a very happy and very satisfactory life. Thats quite a difference to oversee. I started noting what my friends listen to and what their qualities are. Interesting finds:
- most friends who love heavy metal/ rock love to go to clubs and get drunk
- most friends who love classical music like to spend quiet evenings at home and with laughs and food
- very few friends seem to enjoy all types of music, most do like classic rock, soft rock

I feel that most people who are depressed listen to heavy metal if they dont want to get out of it and soothing music when they are trying to get out of it. A soothing music definitely has impact on one's mind. It is no coincidence that kids sleep to a lullaby. I really doubt if anyone can sleep in a heavy metal concert.

It could be the urge to be different that drives people to these extreme music tastes, some to the extreme classical and some to the extreme noisy, banging sounds with no apparent harmony in the sound. I for one just like to listen to music to calm my mind and to lift my spirits. I listen to someone of the sweetest sad songs and cant believe how one can put those feelings into such moving words and compose music that just melts my heart. Even though I can feel the pain, it is such a sweet pain that I dont mind having it again and again. One such song is here:

One of the reasons I was interested in knowing whether we can profile people by knowing their music habits is to find and help potential people who could end up with depression. In the past two months I have read at least three shootings involving innocent people. Lets say there was a way to find these people out, we could've stopped these shooting. Agreed that what I quoted is an extreme example, but what about people who are mentally eaten by their emotional distress and have problem expressing it? You never want people who are like ducks, calm on the surface and kicking their legs inside having problems.

I wonder now if music is used as part of therapy. I am pretty sure they do. Music helped me calm down when I find myself feeling out of control. Very fascinating that people studied music as early as the start of civilizations. May be they realized the importance of sound on human mind :)

10 minute exercise - 2

Whenever I need to calm myself down and regroup my thoughts, I find writing whatever I feel out lets me do that. Here is the second such exercise.
I am currently watching a movie called "Chariots of Fire." Its a very well made movie. I always feel people need to play games and sports since that develops competitive spirit, builds character, builds team play mentality, teaches us to work with the team members. Understanding the game is just one small part of the equation (I am talking about the games played at a semi-professional and lower levels). What is more important is the chemistry between players and the ability to come up with a plan to surprise your opponents and outwit them.
How often have you seen someone trying to bend the rules to win? How often have you seen someone not taking a loose in a good sportive spirit? Play for winning, I agree. But better yet, play for fun! Play the game, try to win and if you loose, be proud that you gave a hell of a fight for opponents. Your attitude should humble the opponents. Thats what I call a true win.
I often have trouble facing people who bend the rules and say, oh come on its just a friendly match, why are you following rules to the extreme? For example, if you shoot a pool ball so close to the pocket and it didnt go in, people will say, damn, please please let me have another shot. I go laughing and say , nah. you lost your chance. There was one of my friends who picked up a fight for this. Lol! Anyway, my take is play the game and play within the rules. True enough, this friend tries to bend rules even at work, in personal life. He tries to push things on others and when the other person refuses, he gets angry. What else is a better exhibitor of character than sports? :)
I feel my mind has already calmed to certain extent. And its already more than 10 mins since I started writing this. So I rest!