MONSOON,UMBRELLAS and GENDER DIVIDE

Monsoons are one of the most awaited phenomena bestowed upon us by the benevolent almighty. Rains do a lot of good to the mankind. It is a boon to farming, replenishes water table and water bodies. It provides much awaited respite from the soaring mercury. The entire flora and fauna (natural and manmade) gives out a very fresh, washed and vibrant vibes. Raindrops falling on the parched earth to quench its eternal thirst is quiet an emotional and spectacular sight to watch. Intermingling of thirsty earth and restless rain drops is like two passionate lovers reuniting after a long agonizing separation forced upon themselves by the destiny, with a hope of never separating again and ignorant of the fact that every meeting culminates into a separation.
Love prevails all around riding high on the mood and sentiments marked by marriage of thirsty mother earth and rain drops with purity at heart. Feeling of togetherness and reunion becomes the mood of the season. But this feeling of togetherness suffers every time it rains in my office.

Large and beautiful umbrellas have been provided by my office management to facilitate the journey of their employees from their respective buildings to the main exit without getting wet. But we mortal souls, so engrossed in the utilitarian aspect of life, fail miserably to understand the real purpose of such facility (I guess even the office management is ignorant about the same). These benevolent umbrellas are actually cupids, selflessly trying to maintain the natural order of things – “The state of oneness, the state where both the genders mingle freely and there is not room for distrust”. But unfortunately this natural order of the society has served a great deal due to the insurmountable wall of distrust and inequality that exists between men and women.
A usual evening scene outside my office building on rainy days is quiet agonizing for someone like me who is a great advocate of oneness between the two sexes. Few lucky men and women can be seen dragging their tired body, arranging their bags and lunch boxes towards the main exit under the umbrella, ALL ALONE. Majority of men and women wait desperately for a UN proclaimed umbrella to commence their journey ALL ALONE. Now the point I am trying to make here is why this aloofness. Few of those who share their umbrella are entirely based on the similarity of gender one has with the one carrying the umbrella. The adherence to this strange principle which thwarts any intermingling of souls of opposite gender (known or unknown) is unfathomable. But unfortunately, this behavior displayed by people in my office actually reflects the sentiments that exist in our society today. This deep divide between men and women is heart wrenching. Such feeling can be attributed (to a small extent) to the suspicion with which the society always sees a man and woman together. Even the tones of virtues (that’s what parents proudly addresses these otherwise crappy things), regarding how to deal with people of opposite gender that is implanted into us forcefully during the course of our upbringing plays a major role in deepening this divide. Time and again we are reminded by our parents to have a cautious approach while dealing people of with opposite sex. People might contradict me sighting examples of harassment that few belonging to one gender has to undergo due to few belonging to the opposite gender. I completely agree to them but most of these harassments are manifestation of the restrictions that the society has created which hinders the free intermingling of the two sexes. Ops almost got carried away from where I started; lets come back to the umbrella story.
The favorable atmosphere provided by the rains is wasted due to our inhibitions about intermingling with people of opposite sex. We can sing praises and drool over the song sequence glorified by the great Raj Kapoor and Nargis Dutt in which they walk together under an umbrella completely drenched in rain and love. But still when it comes to actually imbibing and implementing those learning, we just love to refrain ourselves. If we actually look at the construct of umbrella, we can observe it is perfectly cut out to instigate and spread the feeling of togetherness. The umbrellas that we have here in office are too big for single use and a little small for shared use. And that is where the fun lies. For many restless souls, wandering in search of love, this walk could be their “KUCH KUCH HOTA HAI MOMENT”. The accidental rubbing of shoulders because of the falling rain and quest to fit into the umbrella, the unintentional touch of the fingers in order to hold the umbrella upright resulting in those blush full glances exchanged combined with the dampness around and the intermingling warm breath are potent circumstances for the love to bloom. Unfortunately we deprive us of such situation due to our reluctance. It is not necessary that love will bloom ever time you share the umbrella with some one of opposite gender. Even if does not happen, sharing of umbrella can make your rather solitary journey to the exit a little more interesting and you will get to meet new people.
Due to environment concerns, car pooling has gained significance. I guess to bridge the divide between mankind; umbrella pooling should be the next FAD.

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SOFTWARE ENGINEER and COMPANY TRANSPORT

For most of the software engineers, irrespective of their designation, salary package and sex have commuted in company’s cab or bus (company transportation). You must be wondering, what is so significant about these travels, people across the globe do that. The remarkable things that make these journeys so interesting are the way software professionals conduct themselves during these bus rides. The range of activities that are performed on these travels is worth taking notice of.

Designated pick up points are where this journey starts. Catering to prayers and wishes for reaching these points on time is one of the most important activity that keeps our almighty occupied early in the morning. The amount of traffic these prayers generate can easily bring down any powerful server. For the winners, I mean those who manage to reach the pickup points on time, the joy is boundless. This feeling of victory can certainly dwarf the feeling that you get after coming first in NAT GEO’s Amazing race.


The scene at these pickup points, though short lived is quiet interesting. You can find software professionals forming small groups and talking among themselves. The group formation is basically determined by the number of years of experience one has (birds of same feather flock together).Group comprising of senior professionals usually talk about the news paper headlines, politics and state of country’s economy. The passion and authority with which they talk can give finance ministers a run for money. The group comprising of younger breed (often addressed as SE’s and SSE’s) are very consistent about the topic of discussion every single day. With great fervor and passion, invariably they indulge in mass vocal molestation of their supervisors. The range of people falling under this category of supervisor varies from immediate supervisors to even the CEO. All these activities come to an abrupt end at the first sight of approaching company’s bus. The diffusion of the feeling of togetherness that these groups share as the bus approaches still perplexes the elite group of gentlemen studying human behavior. This phenomenon can be compared to an intense love making coming to an abrupt end because of a premature ejaculation.
The moment you step inside the bus, quest for most convenient and strategically important seat begins. If the bus is empty when you board it, it becomes all the more confusing to decide on where to sit. A strange feeling of un-touchablity prevails inside the bus. Everyone prefers to sit alone (as long as they can). Seat selection process is quiet interesting to watch. Factors influencing this process is thought provoking. Being software professional and constant fiddling with codes helps us make this selection process a little simpler. We software engineers have a tendency to solve any problem (popularly known as issues in software world) with the help of algorithms. The moment we board the bus, our super processor BRAIN executes thousands of algorithms and comes up with the co-ordinates of a seat that best suits your requirements or rather desires.

Those who want to quickly get down after reaching office prefer the front seats. Guys bearing “LIFE IS A DRAG. DEFICIENCY OF VITAMIN FUN” looks on their face, occupy any available seat without much thoughts. The ever enthusiast young SE’s and SSE’s, fight it out for the rear seats. Professionals who peep out the window with fresh air on their face and gazing through the streets with an oblivion look prefer window seats. But their supply of fresh air is cut short by the ladies if they get the slightest hint of “BAD HAIR DAY” syndrome.

Selection process for strategically important seats is awe-inspiring. These are those much coveted seats, which are occupied by software professional every single day with just one hope that they get to sit with someone very beautiful and attractive person of opposite gender. (The male dominated part of my brain wanted me to replace the phrase “person of opposite gender” with the word DAMSEL. But these feelings were suppresses brutally by my strong adherence to the principle of Gender equality. ---“Hope my wife is reading this.”). Those boarding the bus at a later stage transform their eyes into an efficient laser target finder, if the seats are available, they lock their desired beautiful prey and occupy that seat without wasting a single second. For professionals boarding the bus at the initial part of journey, this task is little difficult and complex. Like true stock market professional, they analyze tones and tones of history data (these data comprise of seating patterns followed by person of their dreams), apply all theories of probability and forecasting and decide on a seat that has the highest probability of the person of your desire to come share the same seat you are in.

During this bus journey, you will find some avid newspaper readers. They valiantly fight out the adversities like lack of space to spread open the newspaper and strong wind. They munch on every possible news that the benevolent paper has to offer. Those news paper enthusiasts who take pride in “not spending a penny but still managing to read news paper” display great improvisation to achieve this. They devise and display prime adaptability and flexibility in their body posture, so that they can read from their neighbor’s paper with later having no hint about it. Book readers do not display any interesting characteristics apart from the skill to stick on the same page through the entire journey.

As always, the fairer sex indulges in what they do the best “GROOMING THEMSELVES”. In spite of the adverse terrain (the ever shaking and jumping bus) they are able to draw perfect colorful lines over their sensuous and curvy body part glorified by the ever beautiful Angeline Jolie( in short, their lips). It’s a delight to watch then accentuate their deep, gorgeous, men killing devise called “eyes” with black colored pencils ( when it comes to admiring women’s beauty, the turf gets a little slippery for me and more often than not, I get carried away). For love birds, this is the only time to rejuvenate their love life. All fresh and bubbling with high levels of energy early in the morning, they make the most out of this journey. Good moments spent during these rides are their defenses that they erect to fight out the miserable life they are have to experience once they reach office.

The activity in which majority of these software engineers indulge during this ride is sleeping. Quick naps taken during these rides helps them to abate the phenomena of “SLEEP DEPRIVATION” that becomes an indispensible part of you once you become a software engineer. They have mastered the art of sleeping in ever jolting bus so well, that five minutes into the ride and their head gives up to the gravitational force.
Hey friends the destination “COMPANY” has arrived. Need to get down the bus and start my day at office. HAPPY READING.

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LIFE is a BUFFET - Enjoy every byte you take

Food, I am a great admirer, consumer and promoter of food (self proclaimed). Variety is what turns me on. So naturally buffets are something that makes me experience bliss. Eating and admiring is just one aspect of loving buffets. Drawing analogy about life is another (rather a new aspect). Sounds absurd, just grab your glass of beer, sit back, relax and let me take you to the lanes less treaded to bring out the amazing learning that buffets have to offer about life.

Buffets are famous for the number of delicacies that are on offer to pacify your tantalizing taste buds (undoubtedly the best thing about buffets). Various impeccable aromas oozing out from the numerous dishes of different vivid color and texture swirls around and cast an unbreakable spell on the foodies who are ever eager to munch on these delicacies with grace and respect. Likewise life also offers you with differ colors and aromas. At times its sorrow at times it is happiness. Whatever be the flavor, you (the foodie) should always be ready to embrace them with respect, dignity and grace. I think colorful life is what makes it for a whole sum life.
The sheer number of delicacies in a buffet can be intimidating or rather inviting and confusing. The untamable heart, ever tantalizing tongue and bubbling stomach with gastronomical juices pushes you hard to relish everything at once. If you give into such formidable internal desires all you will be left with is an overloaded plate and intermingling gravies, losing their identity and charm. Such situations manifest into wastage of food, devastated taste buds and a hunger quenched but unsatisfied you. We can look at life on somewhat similar terms. You can overload you life if caution is not maintained. Our mind and heart churns out numerous thoughts (can be read as Ideas). Most of these thoughts are lost in the subconscious self. Some become your hobby, few become your ambition and some become things that you just want to do. One cannot cater to everything that is mentioned above at once. Any such attempts will certainly make your life overloaded and unmanageable. Sitting in too many boats at once is a perfect recipe for disaster. Depending on your need and liking you ought to prioritize things. Take things ones by one and accomplish them.
Buffets can be best enjoyed if you take in your plate the number of dishes that you can relish at once. In spite of being your favorite dish, it should be eaten in moderations as it will leave room to try out other recipes. Moderation formula also helps you get rid of unpleasant food quickly. Similarly a balanced approach is what makes life a rewarding experience. In such situation your bad decisions or mistakes will be over quickly. And your good decisions are quickly replaced by happiness of another good decision before the happiness from the first one becomes stale.
Eating food is not a serious business. It is an art. Food is best enjoyed when eaten at peace. Take a bite, munch it and enjoy every ounce of pleasure it has to offer. And before you jump over to another byte, take some time, admire the world around with the lingering immaculate taste in your mouth. Similarly life should not be taken too seriously. Do not get too engrossed in work or the dreams that you are chasing. Take a break, smile at people around you, admire the nature and mingle with friends. Be a part of your children growth and innocent chats, share the pain of your ageing parents. And you would be surprised to experience the satisfaction and peace you can derive from such activities.For those who have managed to read through miles of literature presented to you above (congrats), must be wondering if even one sentence written above makes sense, then why life is not as easy as having a buffet. The answer is pretty simple. In a buffet, you decide what gets onto your plate. But in life you do not realize what is coming at you until it has arrived.“SHOCKS AND SURPRISES” is what makes life worth living. Enjoy life.

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The Turning Tide – BIHAR losing its edge

Scams, Corruption, Lawlessness etc are few of the terms that in most situations (if not all) were used to highlight the state of Bihar. Bihar has always been in news for all wrong reasons. But situation seems to be changing. It would be premature to draw any conclusion at this point of time, but certainly things are changing. What is really shocking is the fact that states that enjoy the tag of being pro development and forward looking have been the breeding ground for some of the most infamous scams of year 2010.

States like Karnataka and Maharashtra were the in forefront of scams reported in 2010.Even the infamous 2G scandal which topped the charts of scams last year had absolutely no connection with Bihar. I really wonder, Bihar which has such a glorious legacy of being in the forefront of all such activities has suddenly lost edge. Bihar’s inability to give this country any major scams in past few years can be a subject of case study in any of the prestigious management institutes.
News like Husk Power generation, peaceful and fair elections in Bihar and magical growth figures have contributed further to strip this state (to a certain extent) from the tag of being a corrupt and scandalous state. On a lighter note, if the same situation persists for some more time, Bihar will face a serious identity crisis.
Prolonged emission of these positive vibes from Bihar can pose a serious threat to the social architecture of this country. Just imagine the amount of change that people of this country will have to undergo if the term Bihar and Bihari’s become synonyms for development and progress. It will be something like people adjusting to the fact that Osama Bin Laden is a great saint of all times. I guess the entire history will have to be re- written.
I think enough of me trying hard to give a different perspective of things happening in this country and Bihar. I am really happy to witness the tremendous growth and development potentials that Bihar has shown. All appreciation for people of Bihar who are a part of this great change. Please let me know your thoughts on this.

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