My parents visited me recently. Sometimes, I saw my Dad just sitting on the sofa staring off into the distance through the large windows. I don't think he was looking at anything in particular. I do know that he was deep in thought. When he gets that way, I find myself overwhelmed with a whole lot of thoughts myself. I also feel sadness inside that I have trouble defining.
What's he's really thinking about? I have no idea. I have posed that question to him a few times. Each time, he turns towards me and flashes a warm, slightly guilty looking smile. He shakes his head and says, "No. Nothing. I'm not thinking about anything."
His response makes me feel somewhat less melancholy. I feel good about myself for having asked him to tell me what he seems to be preoccupied with. I let him know, in my own way, that I gave a damn. That I wanted to share his concerns if he so wanted it.
His response also makes me feel just a bit more sad. I don't know why. Why does the act of my parents gazing away into the emptiness make me sad? For all I know, they're probably happy and contented - now that my Dad's been semi-retired for a while now, and my Mom doesn't have young kids to look after. They have a lot more free time on their hands. Time enough for them to sit down and relax, watch TV, read their favorite books, travel a bit, do yoga every morning and go meet friends and family similarly unburdened with looking after thankless offspring 24/7.
Maybe.
Still. I can't seem to get over the sadness I feel. Especially when all they tell me is that it's nothing at all. Perhaps it's because their visit was too short and I wanted to spend more time with them. Perhaps it's because they're looking visibly older and more vulnerable with each passing year. Perhaps it's because of the guilt I feel for having left them back home by themselves - for not being around in their old age when they probably need me the most. Or perhaps seeing them deep in thought makes me feel that they're feeling the weight of many worries. Worries that I should have been able to ease somewhat by now but I have failed to do so. Perhaps it's all of these reasons put together. And I want to do something about it - if I only knew what.
My Dad saw me sitting quietly staring away into nothingness one evening. He asked me what I was thinking about. The irony didn't escape me. I took a couple of seconds to compose myself before I turned around to face him. I knew what to say - I had been learning from him apparently.
Thursday, November 15, 2007
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Gujarat 2002 in perspective
It's official then - well - at least more official than it has been before. A lot of you may know about this already - Tehelka.com dug it all up recently. I'm referring to, what Dr. Manmohan Singh recently referred to as, the genocide in Gujarat in 2002 that followed the horrific killings of several dozen people in a train in Godhra, Gujarat. Tehelka just brought to light what a lot of us felt that we knew already- that the whole thing had indeed been planned right from the start and had the sanction of people in high positions of power.
We also know that this wouldn't have happened however if the groundswell of tacit support for committing such atrocities hadn't existed / didn't exist. That this culture of hate is rampant - is a reality that cannot be wished away. At least, not just yet.
Warning: The report is a disturbing read.
We also know that this wouldn't have happened however if the groundswell of tacit support for committing such atrocities hadn't existed / didn't exist. That this culture of hate is rampant - is a reality that cannot be wished away. At least, not just yet.
Warning: The report is a disturbing read.
Thursday, October 04, 2007
Excavation
Digging your nose on the day, or the day after, you've clipped your nails can be very frustrating - those nasty boogers seem to slip away at the last possible second.
Moral of the story: Don't clip your nails down completely. Leave a little bit on for digging in and for chewing on purposes (in any order - I don't necessarily favor a particular sequence of actions).
Moral of the story: Don't clip your nails down completely. Leave a little bit on for digging in and for chewing on purposes (in any order - I don't necessarily favor a particular sequence of actions).
Tuesday, October 02, 2007
The world is a flat circle
... going round and round.
NY Times, which a couple of years ago had made its Op-Ed section a paid access site, has finally realized the error of their ways and are now back to allowing free access to all. In case you can't make the connection - they have come full circle. That's good news - right?! Perhaps. Trouble is, most of their columnists have really lost credibility, at least in my opinion, since their blind support for the war on Iraq and the no-questions-asked clean chit to the bullcrap fed to them by the Bush administration with respect to Iraq.
One of the chief defaulters on the credibility front is Tom Friedman, columnist and author who wrote, among others, the famous "The World Is Flat" which touts outsourcing as a great positive movement. Recently he wrote this column in the NYTimes.
While the article may not signify a full circle traversal by him - it clearly implies a backtracking from his earlier position of being gung-ho on the war on Iraq. In fact, he's backtracked so much so that, off late, he has been rather apologetic about that error in judgment. Well - good for him, I say.
But it's difficult though to figure out what his true intentions are with all this - to borrow a Republican term used very effectively against John Kerry - flip-flopping. Tough to figure out if he's just trying to win back credibility and through that, readership for his next edition on outsourcing or Iraq - or that he really thinks deep-down inside that he somehow screwed up and now he's trying to make amends for it. He may be back to being on Bush's case now - but when it really mattered in the buildup to the most useless and counter-productive war in recent times, he failed f***ing miserably in exhibiting good sense.
But then again, he wasn't alone in that.
NY Times, which a couple of years ago had made its Op-Ed section a paid access site, has finally realized the error of their ways and are now back to allowing free access to all. In case you can't make the connection - they have come full circle. That's good news - right?! Perhaps. Trouble is, most of their columnists have really lost credibility, at least in my opinion, since their blind support for the war on Iraq and the no-questions-asked clean chit to the bullcrap fed to them by the Bush administration with respect to Iraq.
One of the chief defaulters on the credibility front is Tom Friedman, columnist and author who wrote, among others, the famous "The World Is Flat" which touts outsourcing as a great positive movement. Recently he wrote this column in the NYTimes.
While the article may not signify a full circle traversal by him - it clearly implies a backtracking from his earlier position of being gung-ho on the war on Iraq. In fact, he's backtracked so much so that, off late, he has been rather apologetic about that error in judgment. Well - good for him, I say.
But it's difficult though to figure out what his true intentions are with all this - to borrow a Republican term used very effectively against John Kerry - flip-flopping. Tough to figure out if he's just trying to win back credibility and through that, readership for his next edition on outsourcing or Iraq - or that he really thinks deep-down inside that he somehow screwed up and now he's trying to make amends for it. He may be back to being on Bush's case now - but when it really mattered in the buildup to the most useless and counter-productive war in recent times, he failed f***ing miserably in exhibiting good sense.
But then again, he wasn't alone in that.
Saturday, September 29, 2007
Safe
One thing about being in school for so long means that you get used to a different kind of reality. You don't really have to watch what you say unless you're facing a committee of professors. You don't have to look and behave like a normal nine-to-fiver, unless, once again you're facing the said committee. People argue aggressively, vociferously with another and yet there's usually no ill feeling at the end of it all. Abusive language is a necessary part of making a strong case to back up your arguments and views. Basically, it's a different world where a lot of the norms that exists in the life outside of the sphere (or any other volume) of influence of a university aren't exactly adhered to. And that's putting it politely. In most circles, some of which I have been involved with and have been an active participant of, those "outside world" norms are downright derided.
But at some point, you have to leave your safe environs and step outside. Leave your cheap apartment where your roommates and neighbors consisted of other poor students, graduate or undergraduate and move to better areas so you can be closer to work. At some point, think about getting rid of your cheap car - the one you love, loathe, respect, abuse and fear in equal parts. Stop wearing crumpled T shirts, and smelly, old worn-out pairs of jeans. Stop ogling at people thinking that you're complimenting them by doing so. And most importantly - watching what you say real hard. You will have to do all of this when you leave those safe university environs and start living in what's called the real world.
It's like when you leave the theatre after a movie or a play that you really enjoyed watching, and found yourself immersed in. Once you open the wide exit doors to step out on to the street you're suddenly brought back to reality, rather rudely sometimes, with the sounds of dozens of cars and the jarring music blaring from them, people milling around in front of the ticket window talking, shouting, cell phone ringers going off. It's a "Welcome back to reality, bitch!" experience.
The longer you are in the theatre, the longer it takes for the effect of the alternate, make believe world you just escaped to, to wear off and for you to come back to reality. School's like that.
When you step in to the real world outside, you've got to start looking, dressing, acting and moving like you belong to it so that other real-worlders can accept you, and not be scared of you, and maybe even like you - although that last part is perhaps stretching it a little. And why all this is important, is because the real world is where the money is - and to make it in there you've got to make the adjustments. And sometimes it takes really long for the adjustment to be made. It's not that school doesn't equip you with the tools to adjust. It's just that the adjustment is a drastic one sometimes. Some look forward to it. Some don't. Most though are unprepared - no matter how they've prepared themselves.
I find myself at that curious transition state of having left that shade of the large tree I was living under and making my way into what's waiting for me on the outside. All that I've studied in school doesn't prepare me though for the complex terminologies spoken in outside circles, like the APRs, 401K's, etc. I pretend I know what they mean. I even understand what they speak of in those circles sometimes. But mostly I just end up realizing that I'm hopelessly out of my depth. And all I end up doing is pissing people off with my posturing that I don't care about what I don't understand, while what I'm really trying to do is get a handle on the fact that I don't know jack really.
Yup. I am hopelessly lost. Now, just where did I put my drink down.
But at some point, you have to leave your safe environs and step outside. Leave your cheap apartment where your roommates and neighbors consisted of other poor students, graduate or undergraduate and move to better areas so you can be closer to work. At some point, think about getting rid of your cheap car - the one you love, loathe, respect, abuse and fear in equal parts. Stop wearing crumpled T shirts, and smelly, old worn-out pairs of jeans. Stop ogling at people thinking that you're complimenting them by doing so. And most importantly - watching what you say real hard. You will have to do all of this when you leave those safe university environs and start living in what's called the real world.
It's like when you leave the theatre after a movie or a play that you really enjoyed watching, and found yourself immersed in. Once you open the wide exit doors to step out on to the street you're suddenly brought back to reality, rather rudely sometimes, with the sounds of dozens of cars and the jarring music blaring from them, people milling around in front of the ticket window talking, shouting, cell phone ringers going off. It's a "Welcome back to reality, bitch!" experience.
The longer you are in the theatre, the longer it takes for the effect of the alternate, make believe world you just escaped to, to wear off and for you to come back to reality. School's like that.
When you step in to the real world outside, you've got to start looking, dressing, acting and moving like you belong to it so that other real-worlders can accept you, and not be scared of you, and maybe even like you - although that last part is perhaps stretching it a little. And why all this is important, is because the real world is where the money is - and to make it in there you've got to make the adjustments. And sometimes it takes really long for the adjustment to be made. It's not that school doesn't equip you with the tools to adjust. It's just that the adjustment is a drastic one sometimes. Some look forward to it. Some don't. Most though are unprepared - no matter how they've prepared themselves.
I find myself at that curious transition state of having left that shade of the large tree I was living under and making my way into what's waiting for me on the outside. All that I've studied in school doesn't prepare me though for the complex terminologies spoken in outside circles, like the APRs, 401K's, etc. I pretend I know what they mean. I even understand what they speak of in those circles sometimes. But mostly I just end up realizing that I'm hopelessly out of my depth. And all I end up doing is pissing people off with my posturing that I don't care about what I don't understand, while what I'm really trying to do is get a handle on the fact that I don't know jack really.
Yup. I am hopelessly lost. Now, just where did I put my drink down.
Monday, September 17, 2007
Randy Executives
NYTimes ran this article,which made it to their most emailed list, and which is where I saw/found it. The piece is on Ayn Rand and her legacy - how several successful folks in higher up positions in corporate America had, in their youth, read books written by Rand and how their lives were never the same again from that moment on. That pattern (of young lives being changed irrevocably once they picked up Ayn Rand's books) is hardly unique to these guys. I first read "Atlas Shrugged" and then "The Fountainhead" while in college getting my Bachelors degree in Engineering. I identified with all her characters - both strong and weak - and, in my own way, I know I have imbibed portions of her message and rejected other portions. I daresay my life did change in some ways. I also saw others around me - around the same age as I was - who too were... well... mindf**ked a little after reading either one of the two afore mentioned books. Now, looking back, I don't really know if I couldn't have done without having read them.
The whole thing sort of reminds me of those slick military commercials glamorizing military life for recruiting/propaganda purposes. They prey on young, impressionable minds, showing them all the "good parts" of being a soldier: a life full of adventure, lots of shooting automatic rifles and acting all bad-ass, and oh yes! protecting your country from "the enemy", and finally getting your Dad to show some respect to your formerly good-for-nothing ass for once. All that just to get them to sign up and do their bidding. These kids may end up seeing the life they imagined they'd be living as soldiers, or just doing just the exact opposite - depending on whether they enrolled to shoot up people or save innocent folks, parachute stealthily behind enemy lines or dig trenches for human waste, making a difference with their lives or dying needlessly. Whatever.
Ayn Rand and her books are recruiting tools for the corporations. Some examples are in the linked article. Her books justify, glamorize and deify idealism and greed to ambitious young people who believe in personal success above everything else. Corporations want and need such driven foot soldiers who will one day push the corporate agenda near and far as a means to get to their own individual, grand successes. Just as army soldiers who one day discover the difference between early perception and ground realities though, I suspect several of these future execs never prepared themselves for the fact that when naked ambition collides with naked ambition, nasty things happen. Stuff they never planned for.
And besides - if you do take me as an example - it's clear that Rand's voodoo doesn't always work. I've yet to see the personal success she inspired the other folks to accomplish. Take that - big corporation executives!
The whole thing sort of reminds me of those slick military commercials glamorizing military life for recruiting/propaganda purposes. They prey on young, impressionable minds, showing them all the "good parts" of being a soldier: a life full of adventure, lots of shooting automatic rifles and acting all bad-ass, and oh yes! protecting your country from "the enemy", and finally getting your Dad to show some respect to your formerly good-for-nothing ass for once. All that just to get them to sign up and do their bidding. These kids may end up seeing the life they imagined they'd be living as soldiers, or just doing just the exact opposite - depending on whether they enrolled to shoot up people or save innocent folks, parachute stealthily behind enemy lines or dig trenches for human waste, making a difference with their lives or dying needlessly. Whatever.
Ayn Rand and her books are recruiting tools for the corporations. Some examples are in the linked article. Her books justify, glamorize and deify idealism and greed to ambitious young people who believe in personal success above everything else. Corporations want and need such driven foot soldiers who will one day push the corporate agenda near and far as a means to get to their own individual, grand successes. Just as army soldiers who one day discover the difference between early perception and ground realities though, I suspect several of these future execs never prepared themselves for the fact that when naked ambition collides with naked ambition, nasty things happen. Stuff they never planned for.
And besides - if you do take me as an example - it's clear that Rand's voodoo doesn't always work. I've yet to see the personal success she inspired the other folks to accomplish. Take that - big corporation executives!
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Radio GaGa
A list of some of my preferred FM radio stations when driving, either in and around the Raleigh-Durham area, or on the interstate. It's good (for me at least) to know that a lot of these stations can be streamed too.
Don't know what your preferences are but I think a lot of you may find a decent station in the list below. For those thinking of finding a good contemporary pop station here, I suggest you quietly navigate away and I won't ask you what kind of music you listen to - and then make fun of you.
Note: This list is NOT a ranking of any sort.
1. WUTK New Rock 90.3 (Listen Live)
WUTK is a station based in the University of Knoxville, TN playing mostly alternative rock music (commercial free for the most part). I discovered this station while I was temporarily in Knoxville in the early part of the year. This is a great radio station playing quality rock music - super to listen to at work or while driving (if you're in the Knoxville area).
2. WKNC 88.1 The Revolution (Listen Live)
WKNC is NC State's radio station, broadcasting from the NC State campus in Raleigh, NC. I never really thought the station played any good music until Rohit really made me listen to it for a while. WKNC specializes in mostly "Underground" music. That also means that they cover a broad gamut of genres. Only it's not the usual ditzy music playing on every other station. I tend to enjoy their evening and late night material ("After Hours on WKNC") more than their daytime material however - that's when they play reggae, rap and electronica and metal. If you're listening to at work in India - chances are high that you'll be listening to their "After Hours" music.
3. WUNC 91.5 (Listen Live)
WUNC is the station for North Carolina Public Radio broadcasting from Chapel Hill, NC. During the day they mostly play NPR (National Public Radio) programs. Late nights - it's usually news from the BBC Worldservice. And on weekends it's "Backporch music", which essentially means a whole lot of Blue Grass music. Regular news and information programs during the day keep you updated with the latest happenings. Tuning in to NPR stations on long drives also helps keep sleep away, for those who haven't tried it yet. Then again if you have satellite radio, don't tell me about it and make me all jealous and mad.
4. WNCW 88.7 (Listen Live)
WNCW is a radio station broadcasting from the Isothermal Community College, Spindale, NC. They play a mix of different genres and the station itself has a pretty good range too. First discovered it on one of my several road trips to Knoxville, TN. Since then, I tune in on every trip to Knoxville and back.
5. WSHA 88.9 (Listen Live)
WSHA broadcasts from Shaw University, Raleigh, NC. They mostly play Jazz during the day, but also play the Blues, Reggae and Latino music - especially on weekends. My cousin Pradeep played this station often in his car - that's where I first heard it. WSHA's range isn't that great which is probably it's only disadvantage.
Other notable: 96 Rock (FM 96.1) , a commercial rock station playing in the Raleigh-Durham area. They play a lot of really good rock music. They also play a lot of bad rock music from a plethora of sissy rock bands. No names for now though - that's for another day. Another bad thing - the commercials, of which the first five stations have almost none.
Happy Listening!
Don't know what your preferences are but I think a lot of you may find a decent station in the list below. For those thinking of finding a good contemporary pop station here, I suggest you quietly navigate away and I won't ask you what kind of music you listen to - and then make fun of you.
Note: This list is NOT a ranking of any sort.
1. WUTK New Rock 90.3 (Listen Live)
WUTK is a station based in the University of Knoxville, TN playing mostly alternative rock music (commercial free for the most part). I discovered this station while I was temporarily in Knoxville in the early part of the year. This is a great radio station playing quality rock music - super to listen to at work or while driving (if you're in the Knoxville area).
2. WKNC 88.1 The Revolution (Listen Live)
WKNC is NC State's radio station, broadcasting from the NC State campus in Raleigh, NC. I never really thought the station played any good music until Rohit really made me listen to it for a while. WKNC specializes in mostly "Underground" music. That also means that they cover a broad gamut of genres. Only it's not the usual ditzy music playing on every other station. I tend to enjoy their evening and late night material ("After Hours on WKNC") more than their daytime material however - that's when they play reggae, rap and electronica and metal. If you're listening to at work in India - chances are high that you'll be listening to their "After Hours" music.
3. WUNC 91.5 (Listen Live)
WUNC is the station for North Carolina Public Radio broadcasting from Chapel Hill, NC. During the day they mostly play NPR (National Public Radio) programs. Late nights - it's usually news from the BBC Worldservice. And on weekends it's "Backporch music", which essentially means a whole lot of Blue Grass music. Regular news and information programs during the day keep you updated with the latest happenings. Tuning in to NPR stations on long drives also helps keep sleep away, for those who haven't tried it yet. Then again if you have satellite radio, don't tell me about it and make me all jealous and mad.
4. WNCW 88.7 (Listen Live)
WNCW is a radio station broadcasting from the Isothermal Community College, Spindale, NC. They play a mix of different genres and the station itself has a pretty good range too. First discovered it on one of my several road trips to Knoxville, TN. Since then, I tune in on every trip to Knoxville and back.
5. WSHA 88.9 (Listen Live)
WSHA broadcasts from Shaw University, Raleigh, NC. They mostly play Jazz during the day, but also play the Blues, Reggae and Latino music - especially on weekends. My cousin Pradeep played this station often in his car - that's where I first heard it. WSHA's range isn't that great which is probably it's only disadvantage.
Other notable: 96 Rock (FM 96.1) , a commercial rock station playing in the Raleigh-Durham area. They play a lot of really good rock music. They also play a lot of bad rock music from a plethora of sissy rock bands. No names for now though - that's for another day. Another bad thing - the commercials, of which the first five stations have almost none.
Happy Listening!
Monday, August 27, 2007
Monster Truck Damn
Rising gas prices don't really bring smiles to anyone's faces. Here in the Younited states, cheap gas, for decades, has been a fundamental right of all Americans - rich and poor alike. Higher gas prices don't just mean that the wings of ordinary Americans are being clipped, but also means that their money stretches even lesser than it already does. Basically, there really isn't any good news on that front for us ordinary folks, not just in the US but all over the world. (In fact the rest of the world woke up to the bad news a long, long time ago.)
That being said most of us have been aware since childhood that the supply of fossil fuels was limited and would one day be exhausted unless we found other means to produce energy. What I don't get is that, despite this knowledge people continued/continue to buy gas-guzzling vehicles without any thought about the future, only to now complain about how the price at the pump is killing them. Cleaner, efficient vehicles have always been sold side-by-side with the gas guzzlers for about the same price. OK - they've been smaller and aren't best suited to "extreme", off-roading enthusiast types, or people anticipating a whole bunch of kids (that's another topic altogether). But they've been around.
Instead, people - especially those with no real functional need for them - continued to buy large SUVs, and now, for the most part, these SUV's hurtle around with single occupancies. Sure, driving pleasure is important. If they're happy with these vehicles - fantastic. But if these people (especially those in lower income groups) bought these vehicles thinking that pump prices would stay the same, or even drop - and now complain about how gas prices are hurting them ... well....
In some way, it makes me happy that the sales of gas guzzlers are down. Now, whenever a huge-ass SUV whizzes dangerously by me on the highway, I resist the urge to curse the driver (using my choicest Indian Maa... and Behen... gaalis) and instead laugh to myself (with an almost but not quite the Skeletor-like laugh, or the Thriller-like laugh... you know the kind I'm talking about!) thinking about how much it's going to cost the f*&^er at the pump the next time (read - an hour later) he/she's in for a refill. What can I say - I can be a vindictive mother.. sometimes.
Or maybe I'm just bitter. Oh yes - besides being occasionally vindictive, I can also be bitter about things once in a while. Usually, with my kind it's the memory of some rejection of some sort by a female somewhere that triggers the bitterness, which usually prejudices me against all things related to that person and the rejection (places, people, beds - just kidding about the beds, etc.). But, when it comes to large SUV's, I just don't know what it is about them that makes me not too happy. I mean there are several possible reasons but I'm still not sure which one of them is the prime cause.
I'm all for people getting those big machines though. It neatly categorizes humanity for me. People who drive/buy them, if not involved in landscaping, or transportation, or some commercial activity that actually requires those large vehicles, are either a.) stupid, or b.) not very visionary or imaginative, or c.) the sort that just don't give a f*&k about the rest of us, or d.) all of the above.
Not to be left behind too far behind (not) choking on my (car's) cleaner, low on carbon emissions exhaust, they too probably have categories for people like me. For them, people like me are either a.) whiny sissies, or b.) bitter f&*ks, or c.) people who care too much about everything to do anything meaningful about one particular thing, or d.) all of the above.
Hmmm...
I still don't know why I so dislike large SUV's.
Help me.
That being said most of us have been aware since childhood that the supply of fossil fuels was limited and would one day be exhausted unless we found other means to produce energy. What I don't get is that, despite this knowledge people continued/continue to buy gas-guzzling vehicles without any thought about the future, only to now complain about how the price at the pump is killing them. Cleaner, efficient vehicles have always been sold side-by-side with the gas guzzlers for about the same price. OK - they've been smaller and aren't best suited to "extreme", off-roading enthusiast types, or people anticipating a whole bunch of kids (that's another topic altogether). But they've been around.
Instead, people - especially those with no real functional need for them - continued to buy large SUVs, and now, for the most part, these SUV's hurtle around with single occupancies. Sure, driving pleasure is important. If they're happy with these vehicles - fantastic. But if these people (especially those in lower income groups) bought these vehicles thinking that pump prices would stay the same, or even drop - and now complain about how gas prices are hurting them ... well....
In some way, it makes me happy that the sales of gas guzzlers are down. Now, whenever a huge-ass SUV whizzes dangerously by me on the highway, I resist the urge to curse the driver (using my choicest Indian Maa... and Behen... gaalis) and instead laugh to myself (with an almost but not quite the Skeletor-like laugh, or the Thriller-like laugh... you know the kind I'm talking about!) thinking about how much it's going to cost the f*&^er at the pump the next time (read - an hour later) he/she's in for a refill. What can I say - I can be a vindictive mother.. sometimes.
Or maybe I'm just bitter. Oh yes - besides being occasionally vindictive, I can also be bitter about things once in a while. Usually, with my kind it's the memory of some rejection of some sort by a female somewhere that triggers the bitterness, which usually prejudices me against all things related to that person and the rejection (places, people, beds - just kidding about the beds, etc.). But, when it comes to large SUV's, I just don't know what it is about them that makes me not too happy. I mean there are several possible reasons but I'm still not sure which one of them is the prime cause.
I'm all for people getting those big machines though. It neatly categorizes humanity for me. People who drive/buy them, if not involved in landscaping, or transportation, or some commercial activity that actually requires those large vehicles, are either a.) stupid, or b.) not very visionary or imaginative, or c.) the sort that just don't give a f*&k about the rest of us, or d.) all of the above.
Not to be left behind too far behind (not) choking on my (car's) cleaner, low on carbon emissions exhaust, they too probably have categories for people like me. For them, people like me are either a.) whiny sissies, or b.) bitter f&*ks, or c.) people who care too much about everything to do anything meaningful about one particular thing, or d.) all of the above.
Hmmm...
I still don't know why I so dislike large SUV's.
Help me.
Thursday, July 05, 2007
The scream rises to the top?
Watching yesterday's highlights of the Venus Williams versus Maria Sharapova Ladies Singles QF match at Wimbledon 2007, I realized more than ever that I just don't like watching Sharapova play tennis. I think she's a tough competitor and all with great mental strength, the ability to come back from behind and play well in the clutch, take her game to the next level when the chips are down, blah.. blah.. blah.. No really - I do think all those things about her.
But her guttural screaming for every play (regardless of the effort level) is just too "off-putting" for me. And if as a TV viewer it can be so distracting - I can't even imagine how her opponents feel. Even if I hit the Mute button to tune her and the accompanying commentary out, her playing style is also not very entertaining really. She doesn't really cover the court well and pretty much gets to the ball and hits it -hard. If she's in trouble, she digs deep into herself, focuses - and just hits harder. She's a champion for sure - and she wins games. But she's definitely not a looker when she's playing.
By contrast, Venus' playing style is so much more pleasing to watch. She's fast, agile and covers the court extremely well. Her movements are fluid and her long limbs allow her to reach for balls most players would let go. She also relies on the angles and slices as much as she does on raw power. Most importantly, Venus doesn't grunt anywhere close to the decibel levels of Sharapova. All that makes it fun to watch Venus play.
Both players do have one similarity however - they're both tough competitors and are potential greats in the making. In most cases, when great players play one another, I usually don't care too much who wins as long as the match was entertaining. In this case though, sadly, prejudiced ol' me preferred Venus over Maria. The result, needless to say, made me happy.
But her guttural screaming for every play (regardless of the effort level) is just too "off-putting" for me. And if as a TV viewer it can be so distracting - I can't even imagine how her opponents feel. Even if I hit the Mute button to tune her and the accompanying commentary out, her playing style is also not very entertaining really. She doesn't really cover the court well and pretty much gets to the ball and hits it -hard. If she's in trouble, she digs deep into herself, focuses - and just hits harder. She's a champion for sure - and she wins games. But she's definitely not a looker when she's playing.
By contrast, Venus' playing style is so much more pleasing to watch. She's fast, agile and covers the court extremely well. Her movements are fluid and her long limbs allow her to reach for balls most players would let go. She also relies on the angles and slices as much as she does on raw power. Most importantly, Venus doesn't grunt anywhere close to the decibel levels of Sharapova. All that makes it fun to watch Venus play.
Both players do have one similarity however - they're both tough competitors and are potential greats in the making. In most cases, when great players play one another, I usually don't care too much who wins as long as the match was entertaining. In this case though, sadly, prejudiced ol' me preferred Venus over Maria. The result, needless to say, made me happy.
Friday, June 08, 2007
Hiatus Explanation (for those who don't care)
My apologies to those regularly checking in to my blog on the very long gap in posting. Several events occurred in a very brief spell of time - such as (but not limited to) interviewing for jobs, lots of traveling, finally getting some job offers and then selecting one, then starting work, and also moving to a new apartment in a new zip code.
Relax. I still haven't left the area. Suffice to say that these last few months have been very eventful - all the ups and downs made things very interesting. I will make the effort to be on here more often than I have in these last couple of months.
Relax. I still haven't left the area. Suffice to say that these last few months have been very eventful - all the ups and downs made things very interesting. I will make the effort to be on here more often than I have in these last couple of months.
Thursday, June 07, 2007
Highway Projects in India - Photos
Earlier, I posted a thread from SkyScraperCity that had some supernice pics on the Mumbai/Bombay skyline at night-time).
Here's a thread - once again from SkyScraperCity, that has some decent resolution pictures of ongoing highway and road projects in India. This thread/forum is a good example of the benefits of citizen journalism and reporting - that of providing far more information than the mainstream media. However, just to keep things in perspective, since the posters are largely India-biased - it seems that only the better looking pics have perhaps been put up. Nevertheless, it does make for informative and pleasant browsing. The discussions in the thread are also pretty balanced and informative - which reflects really well on the people participating in it. More importantly, the posters have done a remarkable job in gathering and posting the pictures.
It would do good for most people who aren't living in India currently, to contrast those pictures with the actual driving experience. Suffice to say there's a lot of work to be done. But then - a lot has been and is being done.
Drive safe. Stay protected.
(Image on top of post is a sample from the SkyscraperCity thread discussed above. The image was posted by user SunCity is a view of the Mumbai-Pune expressway.)
Tuesday, April 03, 2007
The Dream TARDIS
When I wake up in the middle of the morning, I think about how sleepy I still am. Then I decide if I just have to get up for anything in particular, or if I can afford to sleep off that sleepiness.
That's way too much thinking to do when you really just want to sleep though. Thinking kills sleep. Makes the mind wander to non-dreamsy places. No harems or space travels anymore for a few more hours.
I wish though that my dream TARDIS had a little less randomness. Perhaps it could be programmed better - maybe a few minutes before I actually formally declare to myself, "I'm now ready to go to bed". Now, here I must digress further to clarify that when I say "I'm ready to go to bed" - I'm not saying that "I get ready to go to bed". That clarification is important.
Back to dream programming. There's an important difference between watching programmes on TV and dreaming. At least from my perspective. The difference is that it's you that's making up the dreams (since there's no known scientific proof of it being broadcast from some outside-the-body source) , which means that perhaps you could control the programming somehow. Instead of looking at TV Guide to decide which shows you want to watch, and/or TiVoing your favourite shows when their timings clash with one another, you could perhaps program your dreams so you could tell your dream TARDIS where you want to go, what you want to do and how you want to be doing it all.
So, when I'm ready to go to bed, I could tell my mind:
"Allright, here's stuff that I am interested in:
(1) For the first hour of my dream, I want to relax a little bit. No nasty surprises that jolt me out of sleep. Take me somewhere where I'm playing some kinda outdoor sport. Show me doing well, playing hard. And I don't really care so much if I win or lose, as long as you show me using my real-life bad knee like there's nothing wrong with it. I'd be happy with that.
(2) Then for the next hour, take me back to my childhood. And make my nephew - who's now 6 years old - join in and play with me and my childhood friends. Show us participating in cool adventures, like the several times we'd go climbing that hill that when I was a kid. And of course, some cool adventures I never really had but would have loved to. (Don't ask me which ones those are. Just do it - damnit!) Make sure my nephew and me end up bonding together as best buddies. I'd really like that.
(3) Keep the Shotime and Skinemax dreams out for the third hour. I think tonight I'd like to spend some time with my parents. Show me as I am right now. With a lot more hair on my head. Ok then - that's not as I am right now - but don't you start getting too cute with me now! Anyways, back to hour 3: make sure to show my parents young. Show my Dad the handsome young man he was. Show my Mom as the young, striking beauty she once was; Her hair long, free and show her laughing away carefree - like a little child watching a cartoon show. Show me as being respectful to them and make sure they're having a good time with me, not dreading the next rebellious thing I might spring on them. My sister needs to be around too - bubbly and pretty young girl that she was. Show us two getting along really good without those fights we constantly had.
(4) For hour number 4, I think I might be in the mood for spending time with my lady love. No. No. Not just that kind of time. Take us back home when we were dating then. Make sure I have a lot more money to show her a good time around town - catching a movie, eating at a nice restaurant, walking around the historical sites, perusing the books and interesting items being sold by the street vendors. Better still, make all of that not require any money. Show people around us being kind to lovers - not the suspicious, kill-joy moral police types. Then show us travelling back home in the evening - in the upper level of a double decker bus - sitting side by side, holding and squeezing each other's hands as the young lovers were were then, looking out of the window from above at the sea of humanity below us - mesmerised by the interconnectedness of millions of lives.
Ok. That's all I could think of. For the remaining hours, I'll let you decide what you want to show me. Make it interesting though. And entertaining. And while you're at it, make it illogical if you want to - I'm not a great practitioner or exponent of logic anyways.
I think that should be it for tonight. Tomorrow, we could do an all-nighter on me and my friends. I'm looking forward to it already. In fact, one of my friend's birthdays is coming up - so mix that in as well. But all that's for tomorrow.
Oh - and TiVo the stuff I enjoyed tonight, so we could do a re-run some other night!"
Unfortunately that dream machine of mine is not programmable. Or controllable in any fashion - not in any way that I really understand. I don't have any way to control where it takes me - no way to comprehend that randomness. Nor do I really understand all the stuff that seems to manifest itself into those random trips.
But then there's a lot of stuff that I don't. Including why I want the dreams I want.
P.S. In case you're wondering what the hell a TARDIS is - please read or watch Dr. Who.
That's way too much thinking to do when you really just want to sleep though. Thinking kills sleep. Makes the mind wander to non-dreamsy places. No harems or space travels anymore for a few more hours.
I wish though that my dream TARDIS had a little less randomness. Perhaps it could be programmed better - maybe a few minutes before I actually formally declare to myself, "I'm now ready to go to bed". Now, here I must digress further to clarify that when I say "I'm ready to go to bed" - I'm not saying that "I get ready to go to bed". That clarification is important.
Back to dream programming. There's an important difference between watching programmes on TV and dreaming. At least from my perspective. The difference is that it's you that's making up the dreams (since there's no known scientific proof of it being broadcast from some outside-the-body source) , which means that perhaps you could control the programming somehow. Instead of looking at TV Guide to decide which shows you want to watch, and/or TiVoing your favourite shows when their timings clash with one another, you could perhaps program your dreams so you could tell your dream TARDIS where you want to go, what you want to do and how you want to be doing it all.
So, when I'm ready to go to bed, I could tell my mind:
"Allright, here's stuff that I am interested in:
(1) For the first hour of my dream, I want to relax a little bit. No nasty surprises that jolt me out of sleep. Take me somewhere where I'm playing some kinda outdoor sport. Show me doing well, playing hard. And I don't really care so much if I win or lose, as long as you show me using my real-life bad knee like there's nothing wrong with it. I'd be happy with that.
(2) Then for the next hour, take me back to my childhood. And make my nephew - who's now 6 years old - join in and play with me and my childhood friends. Show us participating in cool adventures, like the several times we'd go climbing that hill that when I was a kid. And of course, some cool adventures I never really had but would have loved to. (Don't ask me which ones those are. Just do it - damnit!) Make sure my nephew and me end up bonding together as best buddies. I'd really like that.
(3) Keep the Shotime and Skinemax dreams out for the third hour. I think tonight I'd like to spend some time with my parents. Show me as I am right now. With a lot more hair on my head. Ok then - that's not as I am right now - but don't you start getting too cute with me now! Anyways, back to hour 3: make sure to show my parents young. Show my Dad the handsome young man he was. Show my Mom as the young, striking beauty she once was; Her hair long, free and show her laughing away carefree - like a little child watching a cartoon show. Show me as being respectful to them and make sure they're having a good time with me, not dreading the next rebellious thing I might spring on them. My sister needs to be around too - bubbly and pretty young girl that she was. Show us two getting along really good without those fights we constantly had.
(4) For hour number 4, I think I might be in the mood for spending time with my lady love. No. No. Not just that kind of time. Take us back home when we were dating then. Make sure I have a lot more money to show her a good time around town - catching a movie, eating at a nice restaurant, walking around the historical sites, perusing the books and interesting items being sold by the street vendors. Better still, make all of that not require any money. Show people around us being kind to lovers - not the suspicious, kill-joy moral police types. Then show us travelling back home in the evening - in the upper level of a double decker bus - sitting side by side, holding and squeezing each other's hands as the young lovers were were then, looking out of the window from above at the sea of humanity below us - mesmerised by the interconnectedness of millions of lives.
Ok. That's all I could think of. For the remaining hours, I'll let you decide what you want to show me. Make it interesting though. And entertaining. And while you're at it, make it illogical if you want to - I'm not a great practitioner or exponent of logic anyways.
I think that should be it for tonight. Tomorrow, we could do an all-nighter on me and my friends. I'm looking forward to it already. In fact, one of my friend's birthdays is coming up - so mix that in as well. But all that's for tomorrow.
Oh - and TiVo the stuff I enjoyed tonight, so we could do a re-run some other night!"
Unfortunately that dream machine of mine is not programmable. Or controllable in any fashion - not in any way that I really understand. I don't have any way to control where it takes me - no way to comprehend that randomness. Nor do I really understand all the stuff that seems to manifest itself into those random trips.
But then there's a lot of stuff that I don't. Including why I want the dreams I want.
P.S. In case you're wondering what the hell a TARDIS is - please read or watch Dr. Who.
Sunday, April 01, 2007
Sample and Savour
(1) House, techno, electronica - and add to that heady mix the talented DJ and my buddy Rohit Sharma - and his blog (which I just belatedly discovered) called Profound Sounds (Yes - I think it's a cool name too!) You can also listen to some of his latest mixes here.
(2) ...And a dose of reality - Ketaki style - at Same Page, not a recent discovery by any means unlike Rohit's, but in fact a blog I visit often to derive cutting-edge insight from.
In case you aren't doing so already you should be get to any or all of the other people's sites I've linked to - so you can actually get to interesting things to read.
(2) ...And a dose of reality - Ketaki style - at Same Page, not a recent discovery by any means unlike Rohit's, but in fact a blog I visit often to derive cutting-edge insight from.
In case you aren't doing so already you should be get to any or all of the other people's sites I've linked to - so you can actually get to interesting things to read.
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Babel
It's been a while since I watched a good movie. I did see 300 recently, a movie inspired by Frank Miller's graphic novel of the same name and while I did think the action in the movie was shot in truly exhilarating fashion, the acting and the dialogues in contrast were unoriginal and one-dimensional bordering on being comical even and ultimately detracting from the experience. In short - pretty crappy. I do want to clarify that I haven't read Miller's novel. It does seem to me though that people who read the book were far more immersed in the movie and ultimately found it to be more enjoyable. Perhaps I should have done the same.
But this is a problem with movie adaptations of famous or great books. Moviegoers who've actually read the original book usually go on like, "Man! You haven't read the book? You should have - it would've made a lot more sense to you!" I know they say that - because I do that a lot myself!
And while deriding the book-challenged among us is all well and good, the truth is a good movie ultimately must stand on its own without having to be a companion piece to something else all the time. For example, I found the "Lord of the Rings" motion picture trilogy more enjoyable than the J.R.R. Tolkien book trilogy (Yes Raoul, Yes. I do know there's more to LOTR than "just those three" books) even though I read the books before the movies came out. Consider Frank Miller's other famous work - the Sin City series brought to life on the screen by Robert Rodriguez as another case in point. Sin City is one of the most amazing movies ever made. In both above cases, while reading the original books do perhaps enhance the experience of watching the movie, the movies themselves can easily stand alone by themselves. Ah! If only Rodriguez had directed 300.
Overall, not such a bad movie but doesn't quite live up to the hype. For a fan's review of 300, do check out Sibin's here.
This post though is basically about Babel, a movie I saw on DVD in the comfort of home a couple of days ago. Babel is directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu and among the more prominent stars of the movie are Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett. The movie also stars several lesser known actors and as is often the case - these lesser known actors are exceptional.
The story (not necessarily told in a linear format) begins in Morocco with two adolescents - both brothers - minding their goats armed with a hunting rifle given to them by their father solely for the purpose of shooting away jackals. To while away their time, the brothers start to carelessly shoot at far away boulders on surrounding hillocks. Soon, the target shooting moves to moving targets, in this case shooting at vehicles passing by on the winding road below in full view from their hilltop perch - an activity only kids could possibly think of. One bullet fired from some distance by the more talented marksman among the brothers finds its way into the flesh of an American tourist in a bus full of foreign (and all white) tourists visiting Morocco. This single event then triggers a whole series of events and circumstances, actions and consequences that changes the lives of several people across four countries.
Babel could be loosely compared to Crash in the manner in which it weaves different stories within its main storyline. But where it differs from Crash is in that these stories aren't weaved tightly to one another. Babel lets the story threads run their own courses. It's pace may seem laborious and the movie may ultimately disappoint those bottom-line hunting , road-rage-suffering, ADD afflicted among us looking for an explicit payoff or resolution of some sorts fed intravenously at the end of the movie into our lazy blood streams as we are accustomed to; for the few others the superb acting on display from several actors (especially the Moroccan cast of the movie), the intricate storyline and the wonderfully captivating background score will keep you riveted to your seat.
With that I must now correct my first statement. It had been a while since I saw a good movie. At least until I saw Babel that is.
(pic courtesy www.apple.com )
But this is a problem with movie adaptations of famous or great books. Moviegoers who've actually read the original book usually go on like, "Man! You haven't read the book? You should have - it would've made a lot more sense to you!" I know they say that - because I do that a lot myself!
And while deriding the book-challenged among us is all well and good, the truth is a good movie ultimately must stand on its own without having to be a companion piece to something else all the time. For example, I found the "Lord of the Rings" motion picture trilogy more enjoyable than the J.R.R. Tolkien book trilogy (Yes Raoul, Yes. I do know there's more to LOTR than "just those three" books) even though I read the books before the movies came out. Consider Frank Miller's other famous work - the Sin City series brought to life on the screen by Robert Rodriguez as another case in point. Sin City is one of the most amazing movies ever made. In both above cases, while reading the original books do perhaps enhance the experience of watching the movie, the movies themselves can easily stand alone by themselves. Ah! If only Rodriguez had directed 300.
Overall, not such a bad movie but doesn't quite live up to the hype. For a fan's review of 300, do check out Sibin's here.
This post though is basically about Babel, a movie I saw on DVD in the comfort of home a couple of days ago. Babel is directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu and among the more prominent stars of the movie are Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett. The movie also stars several lesser known actors and as is often the case - these lesser known actors are exceptional.The story (not necessarily told in a linear format) begins in Morocco with two adolescents - both brothers - minding their goats armed with a hunting rifle given to them by their father solely for the purpose of shooting away jackals. To while away their time, the brothers start to carelessly shoot at far away boulders on surrounding hillocks. Soon, the target shooting moves to moving targets, in this case shooting at vehicles passing by on the winding road below in full view from their hilltop perch - an activity only kids could possibly think of. One bullet fired from some distance by the more talented marksman among the brothers finds its way into the flesh of an American tourist in a bus full of foreign (and all white) tourists visiting Morocco. This single event then triggers a whole series of events and circumstances, actions and consequences that changes the lives of several people across four countries.
Babel could be loosely compared to Crash in the manner in which it weaves different stories within its main storyline. But where it differs from Crash is in that these stories aren't weaved tightly to one another. Babel lets the story threads run their own courses. It's pace may seem laborious and the movie may ultimately disappoint those bottom-line hunting , road-rage-suffering, ADD afflicted among us looking for an explicit payoff or resolution of some sorts fed intravenously at the end of the movie into our lazy blood streams as we are accustomed to; for the few others the superb acting on display from several actors (especially the Moroccan cast of the movie), the intricate storyline and the wonderfully captivating background score will keep you riveted to your seat.
With that I must now correct my first statement. It had been a while since I saw a good movie. At least until I saw Babel that is.
(pic courtesy www.apple.com )
Friday, February 23, 2007
Upgrades
No.. No.. no upgrades to my desktop, laptop (I don't have one), MP3 player or appendages (I won't comment on whether I need one or don't anyways!). Just some upgrades to the blog as seems to be permitted - even facilitated - by Blogger. I guess competition from Wordpress has made all of this possible, although I'd like to see a lot more enhancements before I am satisfied. Nothing like an unpaying customer or client like me asking for the world, and then some. For free! Heh! Heh!
Actually, I have been meaning to switch to Wordpress for a while now, but inertia and the just-in-time new Blogger features have prevented me from doing what I should have done already. Never mind. It's on my agenda anyways. For now, I am partially satiated with the ability to list (and cross-list) posts by labels - a feature common to other sites and providers. Hopefully it will be a lot more easier to navigate through the worthless posts on this blogsite anyways.
Then again, there are more labels on my blog than posts. That's to show you how multidisciplinary my writing can be. Or - to put it plainly - how all over the place the whole f**king blog is!
Actually, I have been meaning to switch to Wordpress for a while now, but inertia and the just-in-time new Blogger features have prevented me from doing what I should have done already. Never mind. It's on my agenda anyways. For now, I am partially satiated with the ability to list (and cross-list) posts by labels - a feature common to other sites and providers. Hopefully it will be a lot more easier to navigate through the worthless posts on this blogsite anyways.
Then again, there are more labels on my blog than posts. That's to show you how multidisciplinary my writing can be. Or - to put it plainly - how all over the place the whole f**king blog is!
Monday, February 12, 2007
Peter Straub
The last few posts ( 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5) have been largely book related. That tells you the amount of free time I have these days. But talking about works of fiction that I thoroughly enjoyed, I do feel it would be criminal to not mention Peter Straub and his works. Yes - I know most of y'all (except for BrijWhiz) probably haven't heard of him.
Straub is usually classified as a horror writer - much like the more famous Stephen King, probably because he's collaborated with King. But it's tough to call Straub a horror writer. Usually his stories are built around a premise that you'd find in psychological thriller type novels. But his novels go much deeper than that. His characters hold up a mirror for you, compelling you to introspect, while his writing compels you to turn pages. And in that sense, he has very little in common with King, much less with most other authors I've read.
I picked up The Throat written by Straub for a train journey from New Delhi to good ol' Mumbai in '98. I thought I'd picked up a cheap, slasher novel. Instead, behind that cheap sounding title was a self-indulgent, but utlimately superb psychological thriller. The Throat, the third and final book of what's known as the "blue rose" trilogy, deals with the return of a serial killer to a small American town, who scrawls "blue rose" besides his victims. And here everyone had thought that the killer had been caught after the first spate of murders died out (no pun intended). By the time the book was over, I was looking for others from Peter Straub.
I did pick up the remaining books from the "blue rose" trilogy including Koko and Mystery, thereby ending up reading the whole "blue rose" trilogy backwards. No harm done though. I found the experience extremely rich. The Throat and Koko, especially are two of my favourite psychological thrillers. And I highly recommend both these avant garde psychological thrillers by Peter Straub to start with. The links should lead you to Amazon pages for the books along with summaries/ editorial reviews.
Special props to Brijwhiz for helping me keep my interest in Straub before.
Straub is usually classified as a horror writer - much like the more famous Stephen King, probably because he's collaborated with King. But it's tough to call Straub a horror writer. Usually his stories are built around a premise that you'd find in psychological thriller type novels. But his novels go much deeper than that. His characters hold up a mirror for you, compelling you to introspect, while his writing compels you to turn pages. And in that sense, he has very little in common with King, much less with most other authors I've read.
I picked up The Throat written by Straub for a train journey from New Delhi to good ol' Mumbai in '98. I thought I'd picked up a cheap, slasher novel. Instead, behind that cheap sounding title was a self-indulgent, but utlimately superb psychological thriller. The Throat, the third and final book of what's known as the "blue rose" trilogy, deals with the return of a serial killer to a small American town, who scrawls "blue rose" besides his victims. And here everyone had thought that the killer had been caught after the first spate of murders died out (no pun intended). By the time the book was over, I was looking for others from Peter Straub.
I did pick up the remaining books from the "blue rose" trilogy including Koko and Mystery, thereby ending up reading the whole "blue rose" trilogy backwards. No harm done though. I found the experience extremely rich. The Throat and Koko, especially are two of my favourite psychological thrillers. And I highly recommend both these avant garde psychological thrillers by Peter Straub to start with. The links should lead you to Amazon pages for the books along with summaries/ editorial reviews.
Special props to Brijwhiz for helping me keep my interest in Straub before.
Friday, February 02, 2007
A Good Story Comes To An End
Not all is bad in the world of paperback fiction though. However the death of Sidney Sheldon whom I curiously mentioned a few days ago, will leave a void in many ways. A work of fiction generally involves telling a story. The story need not be true in any way. And while there are several people who can perhaps describe scenes or events really well, the fact is - a work of fiction cannot wholly succeed without a good underlying story that connects all the peices (well described or not) really well. Sidney Sheldon, in that regard, was a master at telling a good story.
When I first picked up his books in my adolescent years, it was mainly to get to the lurid sex scenes several of his books seemed to be filled with. I know I wasn't alone in doing that. But like others, I also realized little by little that the stories he told were very captivating. It was the essence (believe it or not!) of the characters that came through those aforementioned scenes that made me track back to pages before these scenes and continue reading far after they were over. His classics like If Tomorrow Comes, The Other Side of Midnight, and The Doomsday Conspiracy are superb examples of stories with great appeal and solid content.
Youngsters these days may have internet pron to educate themselves. But I seriously doubt if it's ever going to lead them to great stories like those Sheldon once wrote. Whatever. It'll be their loss. Sidney's probably living it up wherever he is right now.
When I first picked up his books in my adolescent years, it was mainly to get to the lurid sex scenes several of his books seemed to be filled with. I know I wasn't alone in doing that. But like others, I also realized little by little that the stories he told were very captivating. It was the essence (believe it or not!) of the characters that came through those aforementioned scenes that made me track back to pages before these scenes and continue reading far after they were over. His classics like If Tomorrow Comes, The Other Side of Midnight, and The Doomsday Conspiracy are superb examples of stories with great appeal and solid content.
Youngsters these days may have internet pron to educate themselves. But I seriously doubt if it's ever going to lead them to great stories like those Sheldon once wrote. Whatever. It'll be their loss. Sidney's probably living it up wherever he is right now.
Bad Science and Imaginary Weapons
One of the books I read recently was Imaginary Weapons: A Journey Through the Pentagon's Scientific Underworld" by Sharon Weinberger. The book is a study on how the military establishment in the US, in its quest for new, deadlier weapons to stay ahead of all competition, funds fringe research ridiculed and dismissed by mainstream science. Pseudo-science backed with little and in several cases dubious rigor can capture the imagination of top military funding agencies. The prime example used in the book is the quest for devising a super weapon using a halfnium isomer that could theoretically be put inside a container the size of a hand grenade but could have more power than a conventional nuke. Moreover, it could theoretically penetrate concrete and steel making it impossible to guard against.
Musings:
The trouble with such a quest is that mainstream phyicists of repute who have researched this idea have already found it to be highly infeasible (i.e. un-doable) for several reasons - the least of which being that for such an endeavor to actually succeed would require seriously violating known laws of physics. But that somehow did not or does not deter fringe scientists from taking up this cause repeatedly, and, even more scarily, for the military establishment of the most powerful nation on the planet to continue to fund such dubious science by millions of dollars.
And just why do these scientists eagerly propose such research time and time again? Maybe, because in absence of any proper scientific funding (probably denied to them because of the dubious nature of their proposals in the first place) their only option is the generous military. Or maybe because they somehow believe strongly in the feasibility of these fringe topics, no matter how contrary known evidence is.
As a scientist myself(Hee! Hee! Still get a kick out of saying that!), all this is a good reality check that there are a lot of scientists out there who either lack scientific rigor or who somehow believe that they're better and know more than the system that produced them. Who needs equations and proofs to back one's gut feelings, right?!
But more importantly a scientist who actually craves for recognition which he or she knows that mainstream science is never going to grant them, but they're going to make a run for it one way or the other is a very dangerous one. Such people are eventually going to not only self-destruct at some point, but will also end up taking a lot of people (innocent or otherwise) with them.
Book Review:
The book itself did tend to get a little tedious (like this post), not because of all the scientific details inside but because the writer explains events, people and her interviews with them in far too much detail. A lot of the material could have been condensed and published in a major newspaper as an exposure piece.
Also, while the title says Imaginary Weapons, i.e. implying the plural, the author only really talks about the halfnium weapon in some detail. While, in the beginning of the book, the writer does allude to military funding for an acoustic weapon, i.e. one that uses sound waves to neutralize the enemy, or funding for harnessing gravity waves in some destructive fashion, she makes very little or no further mention about these other topics later on in the book. That's kind of a let-down really, because I did want to hear about other dubious projects funded by the military. However, her sarcastic, almost satirical writing style makes it easier to plod through the more weightier (read boring) topics. On the whole, informative but a slightly dissatisfying experience.
Tailpiece:
With that troubling thought of bad science and scientists in my mind, it's time to hit the textbooks again then for me - just to make sure I have all the facts right. Heh! Heh! More book reviews, observations coming up later. Textbooks won't be included, fortunately.
Musings:
The trouble with such a quest is that mainstream phyicists of repute who have researched this idea have already found it to be highly infeasible (i.e. un-doable) for several reasons - the least of which being that for such an endeavor to actually succeed would require seriously violating known laws of physics. But that somehow did not or does not deter fringe scientists from taking up this cause repeatedly, and, even more scarily, for the military establishment of the most powerful nation on the planet to continue to fund such dubious science by millions of dollars.
And just why do these scientists eagerly propose such research time and time again? Maybe, because in absence of any proper scientific funding (probably denied to them because of the dubious nature of their proposals in the first place) their only option is the generous military. Or maybe because they somehow believe strongly in the feasibility of these fringe topics, no matter how contrary known evidence is.
As a scientist myself(Hee! Hee! Still get a kick out of saying that!), all this is a good reality check that there are a lot of scientists out there who either lack scientific rigor or who somehow believe that they're better and know more than the system that produced them. Who needs equations and proofs to back one's gut feelings, right?!
But more importantly a scientist who actually craves for recognition which he or she knows that mainstream science is never going to grant them, but they're going to make a run for it one way or the other is a very dangerous one. Such people are eventually going to not only self-destruct at some point, but will also end up taking a lot of people (innocent or otherwise) with them.
Book Review:
The book itself did tend to get a little tedious (like this post), not because of all the scientific details inside but because the writer explains events, people and her interviews with them in far too much detail. A lot of the material could have been condensed and published in a major newspaper as an exposure piece.
Also, while the title says Imaginary Weapons, i.e. implying the plural, the author only really talks about the halfnium weapon in some detail. While, in the beginning of the book, the writer does allude to military funding for an acoustic weapon, i.e. one that uses sound waves to neutralize the enemy, or funding for harnessing gravity waves in some destructive fashion, she makes very little or no further mention about these other topics later on in the book. That's kind of a let-down really, because I did want to hear about other dubious projects funded by the military. However, her sarcastic, almost satirical writing style makes it easier to plod through the more weightier (read boring) topics. On the whole, informative but a slightly dissatisfying experience.
Tailpiece:
With that troubling thought of bad science and scientists in my mind, it's time to hit the textbooks again then for me - just to make sure I have all the facts right. Heh! Heh! More book reviews, observations coming up later. Textbooks won't be included, fortunately.
Bad Writing
I picked up some more books recently (continuing on with my book reading spree). My last foray into reading paperback fiction (of the Dan Brown sort described here) made me realize two things:
1. It had been a while since I had read a novel of the airport quickie variety and somehow this time around, I found this kind more difficult to digest. Reading Dan Brown and Digital Fortress was really the last straw for me. I know it sounds pompous but I think I have sort of graduated from books of this sort. Why do I feel this way? I dunno! Probably because I don't want to read badly written books anymore! The last good work of fiction that I had read - sometime last year - was The Five people You Meet In Heaven by Mitch Albom which was immensely readable when compared to the Brown kind of tripe.
2. I don't really understand how mediocre writers get recognition or acclaim while the real good ones don't ever get anywhere. It brings up the question: Just who are those reviewers quoted on the back of these bad books who extoll non-existent virtues of these books, and just how much do they know about writing?
I do know that reading a book (or reading anything), watching movies, listening to music, or appreciating a work of art for that matter - has all to do with how much appeal it holds for you. And what appeals to who has not necessarily been captured in a bottle and/or is sold off the shelves of drug stores. However, some bad writers seem to have gotten a whiff of that essence somehow.
Of course Reason no. 2 is an oversimplification of complex social, cultural and psychological issues that determine what works and what doesn't. And no one really knows everything about it all. That doesn't mean I can't be a snob and diss stuff I don't like.
1. It had been a while since I had read a novel of the airport quickie variety and somehow this time around, I found this kind more difficult to digest. Reading Dan Brown and Digital Fortress was really the last straw for me. I know it sounds pompous but I think I have sort of graduated from books of this sort. Why do I feel this way? I dunno! Probably because I don't want to read badly written books anymore! The last good work of fiction that I had read - sometime last year - was The Five people You Meet In Heaven by Mitch Albom which was immensely readable when compared to the Brown kind of tripe.
2. I don't really understand how mediocre writers get recognition or acclaim while the real good ones don't ever get anywhere. It brings up the question: Just who are those reviewers quoted on the back of these bad books who extoll non-existent virtues of these books, and just how much do they know about writing?
I do know that reading a book (or reading anything), watching movies, listening to music, or appreciating a work of art for that matter - has all to do with how much appeal it holds for you. And what appeals to who has not necessarily been captured in a bottle and/or is sold off the shelves of drug stores. However, some bad writers seem to have gotten a whiff of that essence somehow.
Of course Reason no. 2 is an oversimplification of complex social, cultural and psychological issues that determine what works and what doesn't. And no one really knows everything about it all. That doesn't mean I can't be a snob and diss stuff I don't like.
Thursday, January 25, 2007
Crichton and Programming
My good friend Brij discussed earlier a fantastic piece of fiction - Dune by Frank Herbert here. My cousin Sanjay first lent me the book - although I had heard much about it before. Idle reading these days (being unemployed and all) involved finishing Prey by Michael Crichton. The connection between Prey and Dune being that they're both categorized usually as science fiction (i.e. sci-fi). And you're right - that connection I made was the result of some serious analytical skills. I do understand though that sci-fi is generally classified into hard and soft. With that in mind, Dune's probably on the soft side, while Prey's probably on the hard side.
I know I wasn't all that excited about wanting to read Prey. Crichton's last book that I read i.e. Timeline was a good thriller incorporating quantum science in interesting ways, but pretty much typical run-of-the-mill in terms of writing quality. I decided to give Prey a read anyways however, since I am prone to rushes of magnanimity and Crichton's been begging me for a while. I won't go into the book summary and all that - you'll find a much more detailed account here. But the story deals with the confluence of nanotechnology, genetics and computer science, and the implications of it all to the future of mankind. Food for thought indeed!
While some of the notions and ideas in the book are far fetched given that Crichton's works are usually based on current ongoing or proposed scientific research, there were a few that I did find relevant. Especially those about computer programming. In the book, programmers of the Silicon Valley regularly indulge in designing and developing virtual, autonomous agents to work in distributed computing scenarios. Also, most programmers know how to power these agents with evolutionary or genetic algorithms that allow them to combine with other agents and come up with efficient solutions for a broad range of complex problems. Just like people getting together with other people to solve problems. (Or stone other people - probably the same as solving problems actually!)
It is my understanding, based on what is normally taught in programming that such programming is still far from the norm in the Silicon Valley or any valley. Most programmers are still rooted to using algorithms for which upper bounds and lower bounds, both in terms of memory use and time are known or can be evaluated. Such algorithms are essential for commercial software development right from analyzing the cost-benefit of program code at the lowest level, up to the setting of milestones, deadlines, etc. up at the higher, project management levels.
But, while such programming is still pretty essential, the truth is - the theory and practical applications of genetic algorithms may soon become important for all programmers to study. Besides off-the-shelf resusable code or code libraries are used extensively for known problems. Why keep re-inventing the wheel? More importantly, complex problems are solved better using a combination of traditional as well as heuristic techniques just as humans tend to problem solve.
Off-late, several computer science as well as bio-informatics graduate programs across the world do offer courses on genetic algorithms and such. And while programmers armed with this knowledge may not quite be the norm in Silicon Valley, not quite as Crichton potrays, they will probably become necessary in the not-to-distant future.
A mildly compelling page turner at best, Prey however is nowhere close to Crichton's best. I do think that this phase of reading paperback quickies may not last too long.
I know I wasn't all that excited about wanting to read Prey. Crichton's last book that I read i.e. Timeline was a good thriller incorporating quantum science in interesting ways, but pretty much typical run-of-the-mill in terms of writing quality. I decided to give Prey a read anyways however, since I am prone to rushes of magnanimity and Crichton's been begging me for a while. I won't go into the book summary and all that - you'll find a much more detailed account here. But the story deals with the confluence of nanotechnology, genetics and computer science, and the implications of it all to the future of mankind. Food for thought indeed!
While some of the notions and ideas in the book are far fetched given that Crichton's works are usually based on current ongoing or proposed scientific research, there were a few that I did find relevant. Especially those about computer programming. In the book, programmers of the Silicon Valley regularly indulge in designing and developing virtual, autonomous agents to work in distributed computing scenarios. Also, most programmers know how to power these agents with evolutionary or genetic algorithms that allow them to combine with other agents and come up with efficient solutions for a broad range of complex problems. Just like people getting together with other people to solve problems. (Or stone other people - probably the same as solving problems actually!)
It is my understanding, based on what is normally taught in programming that such programming is still far from the norm in the Silicon Valley or any valley. Most programmers are still rooted to using algorithms for which upper bounds and lower bounds, both in terms of memory use and time are known or can be evaluated. Such algorithms are essential for commercial software development right from analyzing the cost-benefit of program code at the lowest level, up to the setting of milestones, deadlines, etc. up at the higher, project management levels.
But, while such programming is still pretty essential, the truth is - the theory and practical applications of genetic algorithms may soon become important for all programmers to study. Besides off-the-shelf resusable code or code libraries are used extensively for known problems. Why keep re-inventing the wheel? More importantly, complex problems are solved better using a combination of traditional as well as heuristic techniques just as humans tend to problem solve.
Off-late, several computer science as well as bio-informatics graduate programs across the world do offer courses on genetic algorithms and such. And while programmers armed with this knowledge may not quite be the norm in Silicon Valley, not quite as Crichton potrays, they will probably become necessary in the not-to-distant future.
A mildly compelling page turner at best, Prey however is nowhere close to Crichton's best. I do think that this phase of reading paperback quickies may not last too long.
Brown's Fortress and the Brown Code to writing
On to Dan Brown then, the famous author of the Da Vinci Code. I did read the Code earlier. And I also happened to read one of his earlier works (if you could call it that) called Digital Fortress much more recently (I still wonder why!). The story is basically run-of-the-mill Brown I guess: cryptologists searching for secret codes in the backdrop of a standard text-book race-against-time thriller format of paperback fiction. One really sad part about the book is just the sheer number of inaccuracies and misrepresentations of computational theories. The story itself is badly written with the cheapest, totally unoriginal and completely predictable gimmicks you've seen before and you just can't believe people still use them. All the while I also felt the ghost of another book I'd read many years ago while reading parts of the more interesting story arc of Fortress. The entire part about a man tracking down all those people between who an all important ring changed hands (No. No. Not Frodo's ring.) reminded me vaguely of The Doomsday Conspiracy by Sidney Sheldon.
Dan Brown should probably be excused for writing a sorry book such as The Digital Fortress, since it was early into his fiction writing days; much before he became famous for the Da Vinci Code. We all know however that the Code itself was haunted by complaints of plagiarism. Suffice to say that the only thing Dan Brown can do is incorporate symbols and codes and ciphers into his stories. I don't even know if he does a good job at that either. And that's his calling card. Just like Grisham generally incorporates courtroom dramas and the finer points of the law into his stories. But unlike Grisham, a lawyer himself and Crichton, a scientist himself, there's little that Brown brings to his books (so far from the two that I have read) that makes someone meaningfully smarter about the complex world around us.
And as a final note on Brown and ...Code, here's Dave Barry's absolutely hilarious analysis of the Da Vinci Code techique. The original article was published in the Miami Herald, but it requires registration. Barry's piece is in the first post of the forum I linked to above. I read it a couple of years back. And it's still funny as hell. Enjoy!
Dan Brown should probably be excused for writing a sorry book such as The Digital Fortress, since it was early into his fiction writing days; much before he became famous for the Da Vinci Code. We all know however that the Code itself was haunted by complaints of plagiarism. Suffice to say that the only thing Dan Brown can do is incorporate symbols and codes and ciphers into his stories. I don't even know if he does a good job at that either. And that's his calling card. Just like Grisham generally incorporates courtroom dramas and the finer points of the law into his stories. But unlike Grisham, a lawyer himself and Crichton, a scientist himself, there's little that Brown brings to his books (so far from the two that I have read) that makes someone meaningfully smarter about the complex world around us.
And as a final note on Brown and ...Code, here's Dave Barry's absolutely hilarious analysis of the Da Vinci Code techique. The original article was published in the Miami Herald, but it requires registration. Barry's piece is in the first post of the forum I linked to above. I read it a couple of years back. And it's still funny as hell. Enjoy!
Monday, January 15, 2007
Air India sucks
I realize this is going to be my first post of the new year. And it saddens me that it starts on such a sour note for one of my friends Subhayu, who had to suffer through a terrible travel ordeal on account of the folks at Air India. I am reproducing his email here - bear with us because it's slightly lengthy.
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Air India - National Airline or a National shame !!!
This is a absolutely true & horryfying experience that I just went through with our national airline - Air India. It was so traumatic for me that I couldn't have imagined in my wildest dreams. I have heard of stray incidents of various types happening with different people, just couldn't believe when ALL of those happened with me in 2 days. Here's my experience.
Day 1:
I walk into the Mumbai airport at 12.15 pm for a 14.55 pm flight to london. (AI 131). After about 40 minutes, AI counter representatives just start walking around and chatting amongst themselves. Maybe 15-20 minutes after that, someone raises some noise about their behavior and then they come out open stating that the flight was full and that the flight was overbooked. Now overbooking as AI puts it is a very common action that most airlines resort to, even in peak seasons such as the one I was travelling in. To my outmost surprise, they had overbooked a flight of 210 passengers (they fly a Boeing 767 for this flight) by 40 odd passengers. Absolutely ridiculous !!!. Thats when this whole saga of trauma began. We fought with the AI officials to come up with a reason and tell us what they were gonna do for us. But they refused to budge and did not give any reasonable explanation. After about 30 minutes of screaming and fighting the duty manager arrived at the scene and the very second statement he made was that we are going to put you guys in a 5 star hotel. The next possible flight that they could put us on was AI 101 which would leave at 7.10 AM the next morning. They couldn't arrange for any other flight citing that they were all full, but they did not confirm with anyone before making that bold statement, just because they wanted to save the buck for AI. My case was a bit complicated cause I had to make it to the US the next day on a American Airlines (AA) flight. So they promised me to rebook me on a different flight and also provide me a hotel accomodation in London since I wouldn't make it for my original flight.
After that around 14.00 pm, there was a change of shifts, which meant a new duty manager was to arrive and be briefed about the situation. Some passengers like me, decided to take the lead and explained him the situation. He promised us that he would take care of us and would assign a hotel and boarding passes ASAP. Before that he had to head to a small meeting for 15 mins. That 15 mins, took him 2 hours and then he comes and states that out of great difficulty he could get us to the next flight at 7.10 AM, which we should have always been given priority to board since we were bumped off our original flight. But he refused to check in our luggage and give boarding passes, asking us to come to the airport some 6 hrs in advance. We refused and decided not to budge, and maybe after an hour he agreed to check us in. Still no hotel and it was 5.00 pm. One of the fellow passengers lost his head since he was travelling with his 80 year old mom who was struggling to sit through this trauma. Another family with an infant just wanted to know if they r going to get a hotel and still no action on AI's behalf. Finally around 6.30 pm, they come out and say that they cannot find hotels for us and offer to put us up in the airport area, where they have some facilities. Some of us went and checked the facilities. There were some beds with some dirty linen, no bathrooms, no TV's, no kind of entertainment and full of mosquitoes which would definitely give you malaria before leaving india. One guy mentioned that he wouldn't even let his dog stay there in that room. Such were the facilities offered to passengers who paid full fare, after being promised 5 star accomodation. Little did we know that this was a beginning of what we had to go through. After that we all went to the duty managers office and sat there and he refused to give us priority. After forcing him to give us his attention and forcing him to inform his seniors of our position, he negotiated with us.
After about 2 hours of this, AI made another offer to us. Find a hotel on your own and get us the bill tommorow and we'll reimburse you. The ceiling limit was set to Rs. 5000 / passenger or Rs. 7000/family, which is really a small amount given the costs of hotels in mumbai. Anyways, we tried hard to negotiate with them to give us a reasonable limit since we would never get a decent hotel around the airport for that kind of money. Sensing that we weren't making much progress with this issue with AI after an hour of debating and they still looking or acting to look for hotels for us, some of us decided to take the offer and share rooms. To our surprise, AI said they would not give us cash and we would have to produce a bill after paying it on our own. Some of the passengers had no indian currencies, some students have very limited credit card limits which blocked them from taking this limit. So we again tried to negotiate, but with no success with the thick skinned inconsiderate AI people. Also at this stage, AI managers told us that turn up at the aiport only around 6.30AM next morning since AI 101 is delayed to 8.00 pm. That would give us an additional 1 hour of sleep. By then the next shift came into work who again argued with us that every airline rebooks and they are justified with their hostile behavior and actually gave us a hard time to even dispurse the mininal taxi costs to us. Finally, around 10.30 pm in the night after spending more than 10 hrs at the airport, some of us decided to take a cab and give it a shot to look for a hotel on our own. Found one at around 12 in the nite and spend the next couple of hrs trying to get some sleep.
Day 2:
Next morning when we got to the airport at 6.20 AM, we noticed the same story being repeated with the AI 101 passengers who were dumped thanks to us. Similar shouts and screaming and determined AI officials fending off all allegations of mismanaging reservations. Infact funnily, the AI desk officials kept blaming AI reservation ppl for messing things up and telling us that they couldn't do much about it since thats how its been since the past couple of years. One of the AI officials mentioned that the whole overbooking saga was going on for the past 7-8 days, but surprisingly they still did not have hotels booked and they just kept using their strategy to hold passengers in the airport until they got frustated and left on their own. Suddenly we get rushed stating that we were delaying the flight. To our surprise the flight is stated to be on time. So we go thru immigration and then identify our luggages and finally make it to the flight. It leaves as stated - i.e. at 8.15 AM.
During the flight, I fell sick with the previous days food. The moment we landed, I was throwing up and had a very hard time keeping myself hydrated. Go to the luggage claim area in london and after about 1 hour, AI official comes and says that they did not board some 20 passengers baggage. Guess what .... all the 20 ppl were from AI 131 flight. It was so ironic, that they did not board things like the old lady's wheel chair. Can u imagine that ? After all this .... they do that. Also, with AI, something else we learnt is there is no compensation for your baggage if they do not arrive with you. I tried to negotiate, but one of the AI london officials mentioned that they would not entertain any requests unless the luggage was lost for more than 48 hrs. Nice !!!Thot I was done and so I went to the AI customer service and asked for the 1 nite hotel stay that I was promised in bbay. AI flatly refused stating that their responsibility ends in London. They do not care anything beyond that. Infact this one lady in the AI customer service was so rude and so insulting that I was amused if this is what "Customer service" meant for AI. No other airline counter had such rude officials. I decided to wait and speak to the duty manager, who also refused but after he heard my traumatic story asked me to stay there for a bit. This is like 3 hours since I landed in London still trying to get something I was promised. Finally, he took pity on me and decided to give me a room for a nite and he was perhaps the only AI official who had backed his words with some real action. I went to the hotel & crashed thinking I was done with AI for good ....I was dreaming .... yes, I was. Next morning, I reach Gatwick and presented my booking details to AA to take my flight to the US. They see my booking and ask me for a paper ticket. AI did not give me any paper ticket. They just gave me a piece of paper and thats it. The reservation was a no go and they asked me to buy a new 1 way ticket to Raleigh. At that stage, I couldn't think of anything to do. But i remembered that my original booking was a refundable, changeable ticket. So AA looked up my old reservation and the lady at the counter did some magic and I made it to the my flight to Raleigh. AA tried to trace my luggage, still no information and I am still waiting for it after 40 hrs of my flight.
Apathy:
In this whole experience, the thing I was surprised by was the sense of accountablity (or lack thereof) of the AI employees. Its a true government organization where there is no accountablity and everyone is trying to pass the buck onto someone else and run away from the responsiblities. I pity the old parents, families with infants and foreigners who get screwed and swindled with this kind of treatment. The saddest part of my experience is the AI officials behaviours and no sense of urgency to deal with our issues. It just seems to be a every day issue at AI and I personally noticed so many people losing their heads at the AI counters. After this experience, I have decided that I am going to pay additional money and travel any other airline but AI. They simply do not understand a passenger's or a paying customer's plight after making them go thru such hell. Not to mention how bad the AI website is to dig out any details. A nation like India which is the world leader in IT, our national airline's website sucks and doesn't get me any reasonable information.I just felt that after this experience I need to let every Indian whom I know in the US know about this. AI will not get off the hook this easy. They need to learn a lesson and I am gonna put every effort in trying to do so. I have refrained intentionally from naming individual AI officials since I dont think that would help cause I believe its an organizational issue and the attitude needs to change from the top to bottom, just changing some officials will not make this airline any better.So adios AI .... national airline .... my ass.
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Tailpiece: My wife and I had a harrowing experience ourselves in India trying to fly Air Deccan. It's a long story by itself, but one that reeks of the same complete lack of accountability that Subhayu wrote about - this on the part of the employees of and the Air Deccan management itself. Anyways, its sad that so many of our country's people are continued to be treated like crap.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Air India - National Airline or a National shame !!!
This is a absolutely true & horryfying experience that I just went through with our national airline - Air India. It was so traumatic for me that I couldn't have imagined in my wildest dreams. I have heard of stray incidents of various types happening with different people, just couldn't believe when ALL of those happened with me in 2 days. Here's my experience.
Day 1:
I walk into the Mumbai airport at 12.15 pm for a 14.55 pm flight to london. (AI 131). After about 40 minutes, AI counter representatives just start walking around and chatting amongst themselves. Maybe 15-20 minutes after that, someone raises some noise about their behavior and then they come out open stating that the flight was full and that the flight was overbooked. Now overbooking as AI puts it is a very common action that most airlines resort to, even in peak seasons such as the one I was travelling in. To my outmost surprise, they had overbooked a flight of 210 passengers (they fly a Boeing 767 for this flight) by 40 odd passengers. Absolutely ridiculous !!!. Thats when this whole saga of trauma began. We fought with the AI officials to come up with a reason and tell us what they were gonna do for us. But they refused to budge and did not give any reasonable explanation. After about 30 minutes of screaming and fighting the duty manager arrived at the scene and the very second statement he made was that we are going to put you guys in a 5 star hotel. The next possible flight that they could put us on was AI 101 which would leave at 7.10 AM the next morning. They couldn't arrange for any other flight citing that they were all full, but they did not confirm with anyone before making that bold statement, just because they wanted to save the buck for AI. My case was a bit complicated cause I had to make it to the US the next day on a American Airlines (AA) flight. So they promised me to rebook me on a different flight and also provide me a hotel accomodation in London since I wouldn't make it for my original flight.
After that around 14.00 pm, there was a change of shifts, which meant a new duty manager was to arrive and be briefed about the situation. Some passengers like me, decided to take the lead and explained him the situation. He promised us that he would take care of us and would assign a hotel and boarding passes ASAP. Before that he had to head to a small meeting for 15 mins. That 15 mins, took him 2 hours and then he comes and states that out of great difficulty he could get us to the next flight at 7.10 AM, which we should have always been given priority to board since we were bumped off our original flight. But he refused to check in our luggage and give boarding passes, asking us to come to the airport some 6 hrs in advance. We refused and decided not to budge, and maybe after an hour he agreed to check us in. Still no hotel and it was 5.00 pm. One of the fellow passengers lost his head since he was travelling with his 80 year old mom who was struggling to sit through this trauma. Another family with an infant just wanted to know if they r going to get a hotel and still no action on AI's behalf. Finally around 6.30 pm, they come out and say that they cannot find hotels for us and offer to put us up in the airport area, where they have some facilities. Some of us went and checked the facilities. There were some beds with some dirty linen, no bathrooms, no TV's, no kind of entertainment and full of mosquitoes which would definitely give you malaria before leaving india. One guy mentioned that he wouldn't even let his dog stay there in that room. Such were the facilities offered to passengers who paid full fare, after being promised 5 star accomodation. Little did we know that this was a beginning of what we had to go through. After that we all went to the duty managers office and sat there and he refused to give us priority. After forcing him to give us his attention and forcing him to inform his seniors of our position, he negotiated with us.
After about 2 hours of this, AI made another offer to us. Find a hotel on your own and get us the bill tommorow and we'll reimburse you. The ceiling limit was set to Rs. 5000 / passenger or Rs. 7000/family, which is really a small amount given the costs of hotels in mumbai. Anyways, we tried hard to negotiate with them to give us a reasonable limit since we would never get a decent hotel around the airport for that kind of money. Sensing that we weren't making much progress with this issue with AI after an hour of debating and they still looking or acting to look for hotels for us, some of us decided to take the offer and share rooms. To our surprise, AI said they would not give us cash and we would have to produce a bill after paying it on our own. Some of the passengers had no indian currencies, some students have very limited credit card limits which blocked them from taking this limit. So we again tried to negotiate, but with no success with the thick skinned inconsiderate AI people. Also at this stage, AI managers told us that turn up at the aiport only around 6.30AM next morning since AI 101 is delayed to 8.00 pm. That would give us an additional 1 hour of sleep. By then the next shift came into work who again argued with us that every airline rebooks and they are justified with their hostile behavior and actually gave us a hard time to even dispurse the mininal taxi costs to us. Finally, around 10.30 pm in the night after spending more than 10 hrs at the airport, some of us decided to take a cab and give it a shot to look for a hotel on our own. Found one at around 12 in the nite and spend the next couple of hrs trying to get some sleep.
Day 2:
Next morning when we got to the airport at 6.20 AM, we noticed the same story being repeated with the AI 101 passengers who were dumped thanks to us. Similar shouts and screaming and determined AI officials fending off all allegations of mismanaging reservations. Infact funnily, the AI desk officials kept blaming AI reservation ppl for messing things up and telling us that they couldn't do much about it since thats how its been since the past couple of years. One of the AI officials mentioned that the whole overbooking saga was going on for the past 7-8 days, but surprisingly they still did not have hotels booked and they just kept using their strategy to hold passengers in the airport until they got frustated and left on their own. Suddenly we get rushed stating that we were delaying the flight. To our surprise the flight is stated to be on time. So we go thru immigration and then identify our luggages and finally make it to the flight. It leaves as stated - i.e. at 8.15 AM.
During the flight, I fell sick with the previous days food. The moment we landed, I was throwing up and had a very hard time keeping myself hydrated. Go to the luggage claim area in london and after about 1 hour, AI official comes and says that they did not board some 20 passengers baggage. Guess what .... all the 20 ppl were from AI 131 flight. It was so ironic, that they did not board things like the old lady's wheel chair. Can u imagine that ? After all this .... they do that. Also, with AI, something else we learnt is there is no compensation for your baggage if they do not arrive with you. I tried to negotiate, but one of the AI london officials mentioned that they would not entertain any requests unless the luggage was lost for more than 48 hrs. Nice !!!Thot I was done and so I went to the AI customer service and asked for the 1 nite hotel stay that I was promised in bbay. AI flatly refused stating that their responsibility ends in London. They do not care anything beyond that. Infact this one lady in the AI customer service was so rude and so insulting that I was amused if this is what "Customer service" meant for AI. No other airline counter had such rude officials. I decided to wait and speak to the duty manager, who also refused but after he heard my traumatic story asked me to stay there for a bit. This is like 3 hours since I landed in London still trying to get something I was promised. Finally, he took pity on me and decided to give me a room for a nite and he was perhaps the only AI official who had backed his words with some real action. I went to the hotel & crashed thinking I was done with AI for good ....I was dreaming .... yes, I was. Next morning, I reach Gatwick and presented my booking details to AA to take my flight to the US. They see my booking and ask me for a paper ticket. AI did not give me any paper ticket. They just gave me a piece of paper and thats it. The reservation was a no go and they asked me to buy a new 1 way ticket to Raleigh. At that stage, I couldn't think of anything to do. But i remembered that my original booking was a refundable, changeable ticket. So AA looked up my old reservation and the lady at the counter did some magic and I made it to the my flight to Raleigh. AA tried to trace my luggage, still no information and I am still waiting for it after 40 hrs of my flight.
Apathy:
In this whole experience, the thing I was surprised by was the sense of accountablity (or lack thereof) of the AI employees. Its a true government organization where there is no accountablity and everyone is trying to pass the buck onto someone else and run away from the responsiblities. I pity the old parents, families with infants and foreigners who get screwed and swindled with this kind of treatment. The saddest part of my experience is the AI officials behaviours and no sense of urgency to deal with our issues. It just seems to be a every day issue at AI and I personally noticed so many people losing their heads at the AI counters. After this experience, I have decided that I am going to pay additional money and travel any other airline but AI. They simply do not understand a passenger's or a paying customer's plight after making them go thru such hell. Not to mention how bad the AI website is to dig out any details. A nation like India which is the world leader in IT, our national airline's website sucks and doesn't get me any reasonable information.I just felt that after this experience I need to let every Indian whom I know in the US know about this. AI will not get off the hook this easy. They need to learn a lesson and I am gonna put every effort in trying to do so. I have refrained intentionally from naming individual AI officials since I dont think that would help cause I believe its an organizational issue and the attitude needs to change from the top to bottom, just changing some officials will not make this airline any better.So adios AI .... national airline .... my ass.
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Tailpiece: My wife and I had a harrowing experience ourselves in India trying to fly Air Deccan. It's a long story by itself, but one that reeks of the same complete lack of accountability that Subhayu wrote about - this on the part of the employees of and the Air Deccan management itself. Anyways, its sad that so many of our country's people are continued to be treated like crap.
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