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Refer to the ‘Wattha Hell Series: The introduction’

The best way to get popularity these days is to get involved in a controversy. I really wonder if the people who take controversy as a short cut to the popularity really care about or respect the stand that they take in that particular controversy. The latest is the war between Raj Thakrey and Big B over Jaya Bacchan’s statements hurting the sentiments of the Marathis (while the truth is that she made some statements supporting Hindi or UP).

All the country protested when Shilpa Shetty was hectored at the Big Brother show in a foreign country. When we expect the foreign countries to respect us despite the fact that they are foreign, how can someone expect/entertain statements like Mumbai belong to Marathis. What would this do to the reputation of Marathis living in other states, leave alone those living in other countries. Ain’t this attitude a hindrance to the development of our country?

Of-course ‘wattha-hell is the first thing that came across my mind when I read about this article, but how desperate are the politicians to gather some support from the innocent public.

Wattha Hell Series: The introduction

Guys, I decided to start ‘wattha hell’ series of posts on my blog. This is not something that I am writing out of frustration, vexed with the lax ways of human lives ;) or to show my compassion for all the atrocities, obscenities of the society around me or with the concern at the plight of the country … or … or whatever.
So what is this? Inspired by my friend’s series of cartoons on his blog, I too wanted to start a series. And considering the fact that my sense of creativity is little too far for cartoons, I decided to stick up with this series.

Many a times we come across some thing or the other, be in when reading news or watching some programs on TV, happenings at work place, or general gossip where the first thing that comes as a dialogue is ‘wattha hell’. This series is all about those incidents that deserve a ‘wattha hell’.


In Short this series is dedicated to pure nonsense.
All the posts in this series will be labeled ‘wattha-hell’. If you come across anything that’s worth a lot of ‘w-h’s (now you should know that w-h means wattha hell) you can post them as comments to this post or any of the post under this label.

Fried Maggi

‘Dho fried maggi’ I ordered at the counter in ANC(All Night Canteen) before we pulled few chairs to sit in the open air at 11 PM on an august night for a gossip. I had to skip the dinner that day as the apti (aptitude test) for the Juno Online started in the evening and went till late in the night. But I’ve nothing against them for I believed that ‘If you have something in your heart, it will be shown in your eyes' and I didn’t want to take ANY chances during my Campus Interviews. While Bhagawan ji was busy cooking the maggi, we resumed to cooking the strategies to crack the campus interviews. Here I take the opportunity to tell you the importance of having friends who can boost your confidence and make you believe in your strengths - when you need them the most, and thank Manoj for being one such. I was not sure if luck would be with me all the time that I get the questions from the very few I glanced at the last summer but this time it is definitely with me. Then started the weird feeling and prayed to god for 2 things

1. Others didn’t write the apti as well as I did (except my friends of-course)
2. Power to read the interviewer mind so that I can give him the answers he is expecting

A zap on the fast forward button, in filmi style ‘After 3 years’ (with background music of bullets firing) I sit in the ANC as one of those whose minds I wanted to read some time back, explaining my friends in Fiorano the greatness of ANC’s fried maggi.

Thank god that cars have no life/feelings etc etc, otherwise the Honda CRV would have thrown us out waaaay before we reached Pilani because of the awesome (read as awful) roads and the cool driving (I’m sarcastic here) of Delhites. But the feel of being in campus seems to be worth that entire nightmare journey to the land of Birlas’.

Listening intently to the PPT (Pre Placement Talk), (with main focus on the CTC the company has to offer this time), helping the company employees as a placements volunteer, the anxiety to see the Questions when the papers are distributed, waiting impatiently for the extra rough sheet, showing the skills in acting when the interviewer asks some puzzle that I am already aware of etc all looked familiar at the same time interesting to see from a different eye. It is like watching the audience from within the theater screen ;).

Watching the entire episode so closely, I started realizing how silently defining moments of life are made. I was a little aware of what life has for me when I accepted my offer in Fiorano. Congratulations to all those who got placed in Fiorano and for others who couldn’t clear the interview, ‘your destiny is waiting for you. It is just a matter of time you find it'.

This flight back to Bangalore is looking longer than the 30 odd hours of train journey to Delhi during college days (even though trains do not have air hostesses) marking the end of my hectic/brief stay in campus that dug out a lot of memories and added one to the same stack.

Watch-out for the signs

Few signs to tell you that you're wasting your time

1. When someone says ‘you look sooooo beautiful’ without giving you any flower.

2. 18 months in 10-6 routine. No raise.

3. When she says, “IF you felt bad, I’m sorry.” (There would be no if, simply “I’m sorry”, if she is really sorry)

4. You read any e-mail when the subject line starts with "Fwd: Fwd:”

5. You’re on diet but still saying, “McDonald's, ba da ba ba baa ... I’m lovin` it!”

6. You listen to Hard-Metal for any other reason than to show your so called COOL friends that you are COOL too.

7. When the anchor in a reality TV show starts saying, “And the winner is …” Better get up and start applying Olay Age Defying Anti-Wrinkle Replenishing Night Cream.

8. You mail shows ‘Zero New Mails’ more than 70% of the time you open it.

9. Your Boss says ‘You are almost there’ all the time. (You should have been there by now, if you were almost there last time)

10. You stare at an orange juice container because it says CONCENTRATE (I’m actually talking about being over obedient to your boss)

P.S: You can add more to the list as your comments. ☺

Sparks

These days, i've become little busy to write blogs, or rather am too much into routine that i am not gettning topics to blog on.

But have been reading quite a few of them, and felt this one exceptional - "Chetan bhagat speech @ Symbiosis pune". Read it fully and leisurely and you will surely appriciate it.

Many a times, when it comes to *selling happiness* things begin with childhood and stop with college. It feels a little odd to me, as all the time i was a child i wanted to grow *big* and when i was in college, I've have had a constant eye on the career after college. When ever i see kids trying to impress that they have grown up , i feel that i was no different from ordinary children. But still why do many a times we keep hearing people yelping about the life that is past, something that you really wanted to be the past?

When i hear a very good review about a movie or a book, i feel very excited about checking that out. And i feel disappointed sometimes even if it is good, claiming that it is not up to the expectations. May be same is the case with everyone of us, may be we fail to live up to the expectations we set for ourselves in our dreams/immaginations etc ? And may be that is the reason we fail to see these sparks in people when they grow older?
But the fact we fail to realize is - No one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending!

Coming back to the post of Chetan Baghat, this is what i liked the most of it and highly relevent to the thoughts running in me. (It sometimes feels that other people know more about me than myself)

" Most of us are from middle class families. To us, having material landmarks is success and rightly so. When you have grown up where money constraints force everyday choices, financial freedom is a big achievement.

But it isn’t the purpose of life. If that was the case, Mr Ambani would not show up for work. Shah Rukh Khan would stay at home and not dance anymore. Steve Jobs won’t be working hard to make a better iPhone, as he sold Pixar for billions of dollars already. Why do they do it? What makes them come to work everyday?

They do it because it makes them happy. They do it because it makes them feel alive. Just getting better from current levels feels good. If you study hard, you can improve your rank. If you make an effort to interact with people, you will do better in interviews. If you practice, your cricket will get better. You may also know that you cannot become Tendulkar, yet. But you can get to the next level. Striving for that next level is important."


Hope that you also enjoy the post as much as i did.

Live Differently

Are you one of those who want to live differently? Do you take extra care to make sure your presence is felt and respected? Do you dream of, yourself as an emperor in the world of yours? Then this one is just for you. Am not talking about an empire or something here, but a house (an apartment rather) that matches the hype I’ve given. If you are one of those who follow news regularly, you might have heard of this “World's first rotating skyscraper unveiled in Dubai”. The 420-meter (1,378-foot) building features 80 apartments that spin a full 360 degrees around a central column by means of 79 power-generating wind turbines located between each floor.

I am trying my best not to mull over the questions my mediocre physics had raised on the stability of such a huge structure which is free to rotate at its will (or rather at the will of its master). Check this video out to understand how different people think. An expert of the video is the architect David Fisher challenging one of the fundamental techniques in constructions that the structures are to be built to resist wind. And this guy has just taken a U turn to make use of the same wind energy to rotate them.


Read Full Story at Telegraph.co.uk

May be there will be a time in future when we see intelligent buildings that think, move and even fight among themselves. May be a subject for a fiction movie/novel something like “raise of the buildings” or “battle of the edifices”? (Gosh I am getting creative ☺).

Coming back to reality, rotating apartments is all you have as of now. The apartments will take between one and three hours to make a complete rotation, and at 30,000 dollars per square meters, Just about 36 million dollars (Rs150 crores) for a home. And not just it, there is another trade off. You have to move to Dubai if u are interested in this. (Yes, this is being constructed in Dubai). Too much to spend for a house huh? There are things that money can’t buy, but for others my salary is not enuf ☹

Cross Roads?

These days I rarely get to think of anything other than the happenings and work @ office. And should say that I’ve met an Oasis on my recent visit to my grand father’s place. A get-together of all our cousins and relatives after I entered the software world is not just a dream after all. Many things came across in our discussions and conversations but the most significant one, I think was ‘the cross roads’ (that is what I would like to call the endless series of group discussions and debates on my cousin’s after 10th academic career).
My friends from Andhra would be quite aware of such a drama happening at home, if taking biology stream was your choice, more so if you do not fall under any of the reserved sections. It seriously is amazing to see the knowledge people retain on the career-oriented stuff amid their addiction to the TV serials that take the audience to the new heights of nonsense each day (while, doing a plastic surgery to change the character artists stopped shocking me of late, a recent brain transplant stunt to retain a character’s memory after it is dead, left me bewildered. What is interesting is, they do it at the ease of changing the hard disc of my PC, and the audience still finds it convincing :O).

This poor chap had taken 2 valiant decisions, 1. Wanting to be a doctor while the rest of Andhra is engineers 2. Announcing his decision and staying open for an opinion (This blog of-course is not a poll asking for what would be better for his career). Though in his case it is highly visible (at-least to me) that he is being pressurized to live others’ life, many a times there is a subtle pressure on all of us from the family/friends/society from taking the path we wanted to when we are on cross roads (be it career, hobbies, love and anything that is important to YOU). The irony is that the people who make these brick walls are the people who care for us, who are afraid that we may not succeed or that we are being hasty, immature et al.

Deep down I had an urge to support this chap, tell him that it is okie to follow what your inner voice tells you (this inner voice stuff, I read in one of the self help books recently. Its not my own!! ). But I had no answer to the thousands of questions that hushed me up when I tried to tell him that it is sensible for him to follow his heart. The best one I would say is the example one of ’em quoted about a not very bright distant relative of mine getting settled in a s/w company where as another bright (again) distant relative of mine still struggling to complete his MD/MPhil in medicine. I have no answers to any of these but for sure the concept of ‘proof by example’ is awful in practice.

When I think about all this a little later I started making complete sense of Carnegie Mellon Professor Randy Pausch saying in his last lecture that “these brick walls are there for a reason. They're not there to keep us out. They are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something”.
After all a diamond is another piece of coal that did well under pressure. I pray to god that I see another diamond being made of my cousin.