Finally I landed up in India for Diwali (Festival of lights). Story has it that people started celebrating it when the great Ram (of Ramayana fame, assisted in parts by monkeys, monkey gods, brother and wife who preferred to die than continue marriage), returned to Ayodhya after killing Ravana. I do not know if this is true or not, for me, gourmet ever, Diwali is lots of fun and time to eat variety of sweetmeats. I also had my vacation on the sea (Dapoli, west coast Maharashtra) and had lot of quality time with family.
Returning to India is always mixed feeling for me. I like to see the western finess in India and Indian culture in US. Sometimes I think we are really an orphan generation. Due to economical situation and other factors we definately have much better life in India or US, but we do not belong to either countries. In India my parents can not simply accept the ways of modern world. In US I can not relate to the individualism. I belong to that community which has no identity and no context in either society. I have seen many of my colleagues in US trying to find their sense of belonging in NRI communities and hindi movies. On the other hand colleagues in India find significance in buying an imported car. Where do we belong? To Diwali or X'mas that browns can not relate?
Monday, November 07, 2005
Sunday, September 25, 2005
Parking Attendant in US
Ok..so I had my first well profiled remark in US of A. Time was Friday evening, when most of the world is enjoying themselves about the fact that they don't have to work for next two days. I went to this hip Japanese place for Sushi (big picture with naked girl and remark, "She Sue" and then a picture of a Fish with remark, "Sue Shi"; I thought it was fun). By and large I am not much in favor of Sashimi (fresh sliced raw fish), but the art and style of making Sushi always gets me.
Since we were in hurry I chose Valet Parking. In Phoenix AZ most of the city is always in short pants. Either the heat gets them or it is a fashion statement in this part of the world. Following do as Romans, I had my work shirt (white) and short pant for an evening outing. Little did I realize it was the dressing disaster (as style connoisseur would have it). The restaurant did allow us to get in and finish our dinner. We came out exchanging good tip and thanks with our Sushi-chef and waited for Valet to get my car. At this time two 'Friday evening' attired girls came out of the restaurant and almost handed over their parking ticket to me and asked me to get their car.
I did not get it first time, I asked, "Do I look like Parking attendant?", one of the girl said, "yeah sure, you are wearing this white shirt and dark pants and standing by the parking booth". I laughed it off, my friend consoled me that we could have really taken her card and probably drove in her car, which could have been better... Eventually I got it, she was not referring to my dress at all, she thought, genuinely, that I was the parking Valet. I was overwhelmed by the acute feeling of racial profiling. It was funny and at the same time very real. I told the 'real' parking attendant about it, we all had a good laugh about it and he was worried whether I pocketed the tip from her.
Driving home I realized what racial discrimination meant. In workplaces and people I meet are too influenced by world economy, it is only outside the ordinary people can give you the real feeling of social undercurrents.
I always get this question, "if you travel to US so much, why don't you stay here forever?", now I think maybe I should, afterall parking attendants make way more money in US than imported software engineers with bad dress code.
Since we were in hurry I chose Valet Parking. In Phoenix AZ most of the city is always in short pants. Either the heat gets them or it is a fashion statement in this part of the world. Following do as Romans, I had my work shirt (white) and short pant for an evening outing. Little did I realize it was the dressing disaster (as style connoisseur would have it). The restaurant did allow us to get in and finish our dinner. We came out exchanging good tip and thanks with our Sushi-chef and waited for Valet to get my car. At this time two 'Friday evening' attired girls came out of the restaurant and almost handed over their parking ticket to me and asked me to get their car.
I did not get it first time, I asked, "Do I look like Parking attendant?", one of the girl said, "yeah sure, you are wearing this white shirt and dark pants and standing by the parking booth". I laughed it off, my friend consoled me that we could have really taken her card and probably drove in her car, which could have been better... Eventually I got it, she was not referring to my dress at all, she thought, genuinely, that I was the parking Valet. I was overwhelmed by the acute feeling of racial profiling. It was funny and at the same time very real. I told the 'real' parking attendant about it, we all had a good laugh about it and he was worried whether I pocketed the tip from her.
Driving home I realized what racial discrimination meant. In workplaces and people I meet are too influenced by world economy, it is only outside the ordinary people can give you the real feeling of social undercurrents.
I always get this question, "if you travel to US so much, why don't you stay here forever?", now I think maybe I should, afterall parking attendants make way more money in US than imported software engineers with bad dress code.
Tuesday, September 06, 2005
Life is short, buy the Shoes
Labor day (Labour for us General Indian English folks) is a long awaited holiday in US. It is official start of Autumn. Compared to India, in US the official holidays are very few and insecure Americans keep working through these holidays anyway!
The last holiday was the independence day on 4th July. Of course in capitalist world holidays translate in more retail sales and high turnover. Even the mall barber shops are open during holidays. Both holidays, 4th July and 4th September translate in more sales as these are immediately after the payday for most of the average Americans (yes in contrast to what many people in the world believe, average Americans make approx. $45K per annum and have limited disposable income). So I joined the bandwagon of many million Americans in holiday spending spree. It is important for my business that American economy is stable and growing, so I contribute wherever and whenever I can. I buy the stuff, I may not need, would never use, but hey, this is business not personal (The Godfather - it is a bible of life and has answer for everything, "What to pack for travel?", "..leave the gun take the cannoli.").
Well anyway, I had to do my bit so I tried multiple things. It is very difficult for me to go buy something at a whim (called incidental shopping in US). Especially with all that middle class background in Indian family. This is true for the things I need, now imagine trying to do incidental shopping for the things that I don't need!
At first I tried with some gift articles I wanted to buy for my relatives back home, this proved to be quite time-consuming exercise and I was not convinced that the salesperson knew any better. I decided to do some internet research before buying. Then I tried something for my own use (or not)... I could never submit myself to buying clothes in US, since majority of them are made in India, Srilanka, Malaysia or Pakistan and I could buy them much cheaper back home. To my mind this is last step before Americanization, so never do it.
Finally I zeroed on shoes. The story goes like this, in past few months, my weight went up exponentially, so I had to do lot of exercise, one of the things I do is a long run in the morning on Green belt behind my apartment. As it turns out, I have never done the hard court running in the past. This resulted in shin splints (very painful at that!). The 'wise' people advised me to buy better shoes than my $15 Walmart all purpose athletic shoes. As if I needed another reason to spend money. I went through internet running sites, branded goods sites and Men's Health magazine (yes the same one!). Nike had new 'human engineering' shoes, which were supposed to be much better cushioned for runners. Well, that was enough convincing for me to buy the $85 shoes. Sports Authority was very close and the commitment to run 2-3 times a week seemed very much achievable. So after 5 mins long research and a resolve to run everyday, I was ready to spend the $85 plus tax (gotta pay Uncle Sam!). Now the most needed thing was bought, I was thirsty for more.
Typically when I travel I carry one formal shoes pair and one casual. But now I realize how uncivilized I was. What I really needed was one casual, one athletic, one for running and one formal. Ignorance is never bliss. Now I know why I was feeling so out of place in United States. I just did not had enough shoes! I wanted to fix the problem so I went to another shoes shop in the mall, now the kindly people at the store were offering me half price on second pair. It would have been very rude of me to just reject their offer. We checked various shoes and finally managed to leave with only one red cordovan shoe pair. It took me long time to select the red shoes, but you know, there is never such a thing called perfect shoe. So you have to buy more than one imperfect pairs, at least you would get closer! Thus, after $200 on shoes and a Joni Mitchell CD (Both Sides now - Love is life's illusion - I heard it first time in Love Actually, nice songs), I was out of the mall. Happy that I contributed something to the $9 trillion economy of US. 25% of that comes from Retail. If I am ever to be known to the posterity, I would be known as one good shopper in US who spent lots of money on shoes. After all life is short, everybody needs to buy more shoes, whether in US or otherwise.
The last holiday was the independence day on 4th July. Of course in capitalist world holidays translate in more retail sales and high turnover. Even the mall barber shops are open during holidays. Both holidays, 4th July and 4th September translate in more sales as these are immediately after the payday for most of the average Americans (yes in contrast to what many people in the world believe, average Americans make approx. $45K per annum and have limited disposable income). So I joined the bandwagon of many million Americans in holiday spending spree. It is important for my business that American economy is stable and growing, so I contribute wherever and whenever I can. I buy the stuff, I may not need, would never use, but hey, this is business not personal (The Godfather - it is a bible of life and has answer for everything, "What to pack for travel?", "..leave the gun take the cannoli.").
Well anyway, I had to do my bit so I tried multiple things. It is very difficult for me to go buy something at a whim (called incidental shopping in US). Especially with all that middle class background in Indian family. This is true for the things I need, now imagine trying to do incidental shopping for the things that I don't need!
At first I tried with some gift articles I wanted to buy for my relatives back home, this proved to be quite time-consuming exercise and I was not convinced that the salesperson knew any better. I decided to do some internet research before buying. Then I tried something for my own use (or not)... I could never submit myself to buying clothes in US, since majority of them are made in India, Srilanka, Malaysia or Pakistan and I could buy them much cheaper back home. To my mind this is last step before Americanization, so never do it.
Finally I zeroed on shoes. The story goes like this, in past few months, my weight went up exponentially, so I had to do lot of exercise, one of the things I do is a long run in the morning on Green belt behind my apartment. As it turns out, I have never done the hard court running in the past. This resulted in shin splints (very painful at that!). The 'wise' people advised me to buy better shoes than my $15 Walmart all purpose athletic shoes. As if I needed another reason to spend money. I went through internet running sites, branded goods sites and Men's Health magazine (yes the same one!). Nike had new 'human engineering' shoes, which were supposed to be much better cushioned for runners. Well, that was enough convincing for me to buy the $85 shoes. Sports Authority was very close and the commitment to run 2-3 times a week seemed very much achievable. So after 5 mins long research and a resolve to run everyday, I was ready to spend the $85 plus tax (gotta pay Uncle Sam!). Now the most needed thing was bought, I was thirsty for more.
Typically when I travel I carry one formal shoes pair and one casual. But now I realize how uncivilized I was. What I really needed was one casual, one athletic, one for running and one formal. Ignorance is never bliss. Now I know why I was feeling so out of place in United States. I just did not had enough shoes! I wanted to fix the problem so I went to another shoes shop in the mall, now the kindly people at the store were offering me half price on second pair. It would have been very rude of me to just reject their offer. We checked various shoes and finally managed to leave with only one red cordovan shoe pair. It took me long time to select the red shoes, but you know, there is never such a thing called perfect shoe. So you have to buy more than one imperfect pairs, at least you would get closer! Thus, after $200 on shoes and a Joni Mitchell CD (Both Sides now - Love is life's illusion - I heard it first time in Love Actually, nice songs), I was out of the mall. Happy that I contributed something to the $9 trillion economy of US. 25% of that comes from Retail. If I am ever to be known to the posterity, I would be known as one good shopper in US who spent lots of money on shoes. After all life is short, everybody needs to buy more shoes, whether in US or otherwise.
Friday, August 19, 2005
Staying in America
Every time I visit, United States of America it is always a new experience. At immigration counter, I get questions like, how many times you visited US? I am usually tempted to answer, this is my first time..
Every time I visit, there is a new crisis the country is going through, last year it was war, year before that there was homeland security, this year it is gas prices... The list goes on. I do not watch the news closely enough but I think US probably has crisis every day. One day it was missing girl in Aruba, another day it was Drunken Driver going bersek, few days ago it was a dead news reporter. I love the media in US. They cover each and every thing as if it is first time it is happening. The US media is so powerful that it can help an average (and not so average) American Joe/Jane to become a president.
US is also considered as "melting pot" of various cultures and ethnicities. I love this part, anywhere in US you would get a Chinese eating place, Mexican restaurant, Outback (Australian), Indian eatery, Jewish food... the list can go on. Seriously one can get all kind of food in America. Another thing I like about US is, despite such large land mass, one can get seafood
practically anywhere. For a gourmet like me it is indeed a party.
There are three most important things in US a person should have... Credit Card, Car and a Cellphone (also known as 3C's). Practically every bank would open an account for you (if you have sufficient money), with or without a SSN. A Car can be rented and pre-paid Cellphones are available (now!). Most of the companies now issue international credit cards so no worries about frauds or authorizations.
Saturday, July 16, 2005
Filet Mignon
Filet Mignon - French Derivative, it means small or dainty fillet (filet = boneless meat - mignon=small dainty).
So we were at Monty's steakhouse. This is American thing. If you are in America you have to eat the steak. Americans from early days of settling were infatuated by the beef and have carried that tradition very well. I was convincing my friend to eat a steak, he naturally was afraid, being an Indian Hindu Brahmin, perhaps it was more of my fault than his. One of the things I do not like about American steaks is its flatness. Even the best steakhouses do not serve the spicy richness that is required to go with the red meat. So I always go for Filet Mignon, thanks to the French, it is gurranteed of being same taste world over. Also thanks to the food fashion statement of calling everything French, Filet Mignon is known as Filet Mignon in most parts of the world. Some places in US they sell it as Tenderloin Steak but it means pretty much the same thing.
I can say that I do have some authority on the steak in particular (10 yrs of eating as opposed to getting used to it as a lifelong staple food!). It has to be medium rare for best taste and the meat has to be tender, not the heavy duty fat content stuff... Not because I am health concious (at 170 pounds you generally become one!), but mostly due to the chewi-ness that comes with the fat.
Thankfully I have sharp teeth, so not much worries about choking hazards.
Filet Mignon goes very well with Cabarnet. In Matrix (first part) Cypher says, "You know, I know this steak doesn't exist. I know that when I put it in my mouth, the Matrix is telling my brain that it is juicy and delicious. After nine years, you know what I realize? [Takes a bite of steak] Ignorance is bliss". Except in my case it did exist and was juicy and delicious...well and I missed Cabarnet as well. Being the designated driver in the group I had to sip on Iced Tea.
Sometimes I wonder, what would world have been, had it not been for French to invent how to cook beef?
So we were at Monty's steakhouse. This is American thing. If you are in America you have to eat the steak. Americans from early days of settling were infatuated by the beef and have carried that tradition very well. I was convincing my friend to eat a steak, he naturally was afraid, being an Indian Hindu Brahmin, perhaps it was more of my fault than his. One of the things I do not like about American steaks is its flatness. Even the best steakhouses do not serve the spicy richness that is required to go with the red meat. So I always go for Filet Mignon, thanks to the French, it is gurranteed of being same taste world over. Also thanks to the food fashion statement of calling everything French, Filet Mignon is known as Filet Mignon in most parts of the world. Some places in US they sell it as Tenderloin Steak but it means pretty much the same thing.
I can say that I do have some authority on the steak in particular (10 yrs of eating as opposed to getting used to it as a lifelong staple food!). It has to be medium rare for best taste and the meat has to be tender, not the heavy duty fat content stuff... Not because I am health concious (at 170 pounds you generally become one!), but mostly due to the chewi-ness that comes with the fat.
Thankfully I have sharp teeth, so not much worries about choking hazards.
Filet Mignon goes very well with Cabarnet. In Matrix (first part) Cypher says, "You know, I know this steak doesn't exist. I know that when I put it in my mouth, the Matrix is telling my brain that it is juicy and delicious. After nine years, you know what I realize? [Takes a bite of steak] Ignorance is bliss". Except in my case it did exist and was juicy and delicious...well and I missed Cabarnet as well. Being the designated driver in the group I had to sip on Iced Tea.
Sometimes I wonder, what would world have been, had it not been for French to invent how to cook beef?
Sunday, July 10, 2005
In Routine
I am still not over the Groundhog Day... More time I spent here, more I feel like man in prison. Agreed I have more activities now, I play tennis, I go swimming and even shopping... but in the end it is simply a mechanism to pass the time. Like Red in Shawshank Redemption says, "in prison a man will do anything to keep his mind occupied." So I keep doing my routine activities. Like prison, my life at present contains of routine, and then more routine.
I liked the Shawshank Redemption, first time I watched.. eventually I watched one more time on the Star Movies. I never read the original short story by Stephen King (Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption)... and I am being honest here, I liked the Screen play better, so much that I am not looking for the story book anyway. Morgan Freeman is good as usual and I really enjoyed his comment about being Irish..very funny...
I liked the Shawshank Redemption, first time I watched.. eventually I watched one more time on the Star Movies. I never read the original short story by Stephen King (Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption)... and I am being honest here, I liked the Screen play better, so much that I am not looking for the story book anyway. Morgan Freeman is good as usual and I really enjoyed his comment about being Irish..very funny...
Thursday, July 07, 2005
Apartments and Credit Reports
It is interesting to rent apartments in US. For example, every apartment advertises about fair housing and does a thorough background check on you before signing a lease... I love the way they represent the case about credit check and criminal background check. Mind you, most of these leasing consultants get commission on the number of rents they sign up.
Another interesting thing in US is credit report. It is almost close to the Orwell book...1984. Your SSN is tracked for credit history. Somebody (the big brother or the cartel of private companies) keeps track of money that you spent (or in some cases did not spent) and then for a little charge everybody but you can see this report and make a judgement about you. I appreciate the value of such information and perhaps it makes many others in the society feel safer. However it still feels very creepy... I certainly do not appreciate the fact that everybody can see it. And if it is so publicly available what prevents intentional interference with my report by some real wise guy(s) out there?
US is a free country with very high price for freedom.. some times I wonder whether it is really worth.... From driving the car to renting an apartment, law and regulations make it so intrusive that you can not breath without worrying about breath analyzer... I am sure Thomas Jefferson did not imagine this society...
Another interesting thing in US is credit report. It is almost close to the Orwell book...1984. Your SSN is tracked for credit history. Somebody (the big brother or the cartel of private companies) keeps track of money that you spent (or in some cases did not spent) and then for a little charge everybody but you can see this report and make a judgement about you. I appreciate the value of such information and perhaps it makes many others in the society feel safer. However it still feels very creepy... I certainly do not appreciate the fact that everybody can see it. And if it is so publicly available what prevents intentional interference with my report by some real wise guy(s) out there?
US is a free country with very high price for freedom.. some times I wonder whether it is really worth.... From driving the car to renting an apartment, law and regulations make it so intrusive that you can not breath without worrying about breath analyzer... I am sure Thomas Jefferson did not imagine this society...
Thursday, June 30, 2005
Groundhog Day
I saw Groundhog Day one more time on the TV today. I saw this movie first time in UK in 1996 on a tape given by Paul Klaassen. It turns out the background of the movie is real. The plot is simple, an egoist weatherman (Bill Murray) gets caught in the time warp in the small town of Punxsutawney until he becomes a better person. He faces the same Groundhog Day again and again and again... well you get the point.
I remember Paul saying that we are very much like Phil Connors (Bill) in the movie... and I agree. We are all caught up in the same day. We do same things every day, wake up, goto same office, drink same coffee, meet same people and talk about same things. Next day it is all same day again. Gosh.. I even have same wife to meet every day! My travelling engagements have also become kind of routine now...
I liked the movie first time and I still like it every time I see it. I generally like Bill Murray and his tongue-in-cheek comedies.
Here is one more thought.. According to the legend, Punxsutawney Phil (the groundhog - website ascertains that there is only one !) has been predicting weather for 119 years on every 2nd February.. how much more routine you can get?
I remember Paul saying that we are very much like Phil Connors (Bill) in the movie... and I agree. We are all caught up in the same day. We do same things every day, wake up, goto same office, drink same coffee, meet same people and talk about same things. Next day it is all same day again. Gosh.. I even have same wife to meet every day! My travelling engagements have also become kind of routine now...
I liked the movie first time and I still like it every time I see it. I generally like Bill Murray and his tongue-in-cheek comedies.
Here is one more thought.. According to the legend, Punxsutawney Phil (the groundhog - website ascertains that there is only one !) has been predicting weather for 119 years on every 2nd February.. how much more routine you can get?
Friday, June 24, 2005
Rental Car
It is rather interesting experience to travel on business. Staying in hotel has its own advantages (e.g. late night TV and room service). But most I like is rented cars. Everytime I travel to a different country my stay is never long enough to actually buy a car for while. So I end up doing these monthly rents. My fav. company so far has been Hertz. And they get me new cars every time. So far I have driven, Chevy Impala, Explorer, Focus, Elantra, Camry, Corolla and many other models that I even don't remember... I guess it is my little fantasy world. I drive new car every month which otherwise wouldn't have been possible for me at all to buy.. Definately not in India where I stay. Most of these cars when imported would be hugely costly and some are not even available...
It is just funny to think about it. The person who could not otherwise even dream of buying these cars can drive them with relative ease and cost in a different country at very less cost when rented.. welcome to globalization and capital world...
It is just funny to think about it. The person who could not otherwise even dream of buying these cars can drive them with relative ease and cost in a different country at very less cost when rented.. welcome to globalization and capital world...
Thursday, June 02, 2005
Beer for the breakfast
Ok.. it is almost one and half month now that I landed in US of A. Routine business.
One of the first things I did at Chicago airport was eating a big mac. Now..I know there is quite a bit of political uproar about big burgers (remember 'Super Size Me' ?) but for me it was the begining of my stay in America. For some reason or other I could not imagine an American trip without eating big mac.
Another advantages of travelling alone on business is you get to stay in hotels all by yourself. You can watch TV at 3:00 AM in the morning and nobody bothers you. You can use one towel everyday and housekeeping cleans it. You can run the AC for entire day and utility guys are not after you.. God I love the business travel. I have a Waffles House (Good food since 1955.. yeah right!) right across the hotel, I enjoy very lazy breakfasts there (and they are cheap - just what the doctor ordered). However on a recent weekend, I dozed around till late and actually had to cook breakfast by myself. Naturally I needed a cold drink to go with my breakfast. It turned out to be Mexican Corona. Now I am not against imported beer, I believe Americans have their own share of good beers, but it just turned out to be at right place at right time... Well nearly, I have a Circle K few blocks away from the hotel and at present they are my primary suppliers of quality beer. It is little scary place where the guys behind the counter ask ID for every transaction and think twice before opening the cash register for return money. But they have a good stock of beer, a cold room and lots of Corona. At first I did not catch the Corono with lime (its not lemon) taste, but now I have learnt to appreciate it... Afterall it is not everyday one has beer for a breakfast.
PS: Another Americanism: Everything is a chain across the nation. CircleK, Waffles House, Old fav. McD.. Thus thankfully anywhere you go in America, there are same TV commercials, so you know when is the time to sip a beer between TV shows.
One of the first things I did at Chicago airport was eating a big mac. Now..I know there is quite a bit of political uproar about big burgers (remember 'Super Size Me' ?) but for me it was the begining of my stay in America. For some reason or other I could not imagine an American trip without eating big mac.
Another advantages of travelling alone on business is you get to stay in hotels all by yourself. You can watch TV at 3:00 AM in the morning and nobody bothers you. You can use one towel everyday and housekeeping cleans it. You can run the AC for entire day and utility guys are not after you.. God I love the business travel. I have a Waffles House (Good food since 1955.. yeah right!) right across the hotel, I enjoy very lazy breakfasts there (and they are cheap - just what the doctor ordered). However on a recent weekend, I dozed around till late and actually had to cook breakfast by myself. Naturally I needed a cold drink to go with my breakfast. It turned out to be Mexican Corona. Now I am not against imported beer, I believe Americans have their own share of good beers, but it just turned out to be at right place at right time... Well nearly, I have a Circle K few blocks away from the hotel and at present they are my primary suppliers of quality beer. It is little scary place where the guys behind the counter ask ID for every transaction and think twice before opening the cash register for return money. But they have a good stock of beer, a cold room and lots of Corona. At first I did not catch the Corono with lime (its not lemon) taste, but now I have learnt to appreciate it... Afterall it is not everyday one has beer for a breakfast.
PS: Another Americanism: Everything is a chain across the nation. CircleK, Waffles House, Old fav. McD.. Thus thankfully anywhere you go in America, there are same TV commercials, so you know when is the time to sip a beer between TV shows.
Tuesday, March 08, 2005
Knowledge is Constraint
Right.. start with the philosophical thought for the day. I have been thinking about this thing for a while. A month ago one of my colleagues, Sandeep, came up with the idea of software development automation. His idea was to create agents which could organically learn and create software constructs. This spurred thoughts in my mind about how much constrained we are about what is possible. Say we are facing a problem, we typically tend to solve it using the knowledge that we already have. This in turn prevents us (or our minds) from having new ideas. As usual our mind keeps thinking of what is feasible, based on prior knowledge. This is more emphatic in information technology. The new techniques come up every other day and we have to some extent glorified the term "innovation". Essentially what we do is use old discoveries in new contexts.. some people even went ahead and termed it as "applied innovation", wow talk of play of words!
Human minds are tuned to reuse the knowledge, to an extent that majority of us could not trust any new notion. History is full stories of this kind. A scientist proposes a new idea and rest of the society turns its back on it, terming it is one of those "new ideas". Even Julius Caesar at one point of time wondered whether there was anything beyond "known universe". Fortunately in modern times (ok... these are modern times because I am in it; Time like everything else is relative!), we are less opposed to new ideas. However coming back to problem solving, our knowledge of existing techniques and tricks is always a constraint. If the problem could not be solved using existing tricks we think it is difficult to solve... Ok I am not advising the creative mind theory here, but I think if we remove the constraint we are probably half way there. It is important to remove this constrain, as a fellow blogger quotes, What ur mind doesn’t know, ur eyes wont see.
Removing constraints of knowledge would also mean freeing mind to solve problems as a child would. Theoretically a child has no knowledge so your mind free of knowledge and child's mind should be at equal advantage (or disadvantage depending on way you look at it). Thus a child can solve the problems much better than an adult. But this does not seem to be the case... so what is missing in this theory ? I do not know... I am still thinking...
Human minds are tuned to reuse the knowledge, to an extent that majority of us could not trust any new notion. History is full stories of this kind. A scientist proposes a new idea and rest of the society turns its back on it, terming it is one of those "new ideas". Even Julius Caesar at one point of time wondered whether there was anything beyond "known universe". Fortunately in modern times (ok... these are modern times because I am in it; Time like everything else is relative!), we are less opposed to new ideas. However coming back to problem solving, our knowledge of existing techniques and tricks is always a constraint. If the problem could not be solved using existing tricks we think it is difficult to solve... Ok I am not advising the creative mind theory here, but I think if we remove the constraint we are probably half way there. It is important to remove this constrain, as a fellow blogger quotes, What ur mind doesn’t know, ur eyes wont see.
Removing constraints of knowledge would also mean freeing mind to solve problems as a child would. Theoretically a child has no knowledge so your mind free of knowledge and child's mind should be at equal advantage (or disadvantage depending on way you look at it). Thus a child can solve the problems much better than an adult. But this does not seem to be the case... so what is missing in this theory ? I do not know... I am still thinking...
Thursday, January 27, 2005
Meet Me, My Best Friend
Occassion: Vidyapeeth Highschool 1985-86 batch Re-union. Kolhapur..
I have never felt so lonely in a social occassion. There I was, standing amongst familiar (and some not so familiar) faces. Some came forward and shook hands, others required introductions. Some deliberately ignored. However people were jolly and at the same time nostalgic. In general the mood was up-beat.
We went through the routine rig-morale of finding what people are doing now (or who-is-who) I was asked to introduce myself. It was a moment in remiss, they wanted to know what I do for living. Not that many cared. I did not try very hard. It is hard enough to explain to my wife what I do in a software company with a designation of IT Architect, it is practically impossible to explain it to bunch of strangers (well..er let us say remotely familiar people). I was also not aware how many of them knew about computers and internet in general. Then there was a form to fill in. Some took very deep interest in filling it in, assuming that would be printed in a class directory. I filled in the relevant part, ignored 'achievement's section...well I had none to note anyway and put 'reading' under hobbies.
Thinking about it...it is not rational on my part to expect them to know me. I was hardly at the school for 2-years, that too in two different divisions. My thinning hair and broadaning face did not help either. There were some close friends (in fact I hoped for more of this species..). They were also not that close as I expected. Probably they just got old.
In short everything was happy, nice get-together but I was feeling terribly lonely. Travelling back to home today, I imagined of number of things I could have told them. About my hobbies, about my cooking, about my family, about my world travels, about my professional achievements (if they could understand it :-)...then it finally occurred to me, just like that...the occassion was not to know about 'unknown' people, it was to know more about 'known' people. I was unknown then and I am unknown now. Obviously nobody was interested in knowing me.
It also occurred to me that I do not have many friends in my social circle (or is it otherway round? social circle is made of friends? not sure...). I could count few from school on my fingers and probably few from college in remaining. In the college-friends group there is always discussion of a reunion. Thankfully we never get to actually doing it...now don't assume that I simply hate people, but on social occassions I do not know what I could converse with them. Everybody is interested in how much money you make, what you do for living, how many kids you have. Probably socially these are the only things that you could ask. Very few would be actually interested in knowing, how you are. Is that what makes me run away from such social occassions? Maybe...
Probably it is better for everybody, that I stay away from reunions of such 'known' people. I probably could converse with myself better than most of these people anyway. Is there an inclination to stay with me always? Maybe I am the only person I could befriend with (little scary isn't it?). Maybe I am not a social animal after all...
I have never felt so lonely in a social occassion. There I was, standing amongst familiar (and some not so familiar) faces. Some came forward and shook hands, others required introductions. Some deliberately ignored. However people were jolly and at the same time nostalgic. In general the mood was up-beat.
We went through the routine rig-morale of finding what people are doing now (or who-is-who) I was asked to introduce myself. It was a moment in remiss, they wanted to know what I do for living. Not that many cared. I did not try very hard. It is hard enough to explain to my wife what I do in a software company with a designation of IT Architect, it is practically impossible to explain it to bunch of strangers (well..er let us say remotely familiar people). I was also not aware how many of them knew about computers and internet in general. Then there was a form to fill in. Some took very deep interest in filling it in, assuming that would be printed in a class directory. I filled in the relevant part, ignored 'achievement's section...well I had none to note anyway and put 'reading' under hobbies.
Thinking about it...it is not rational on my part to expect them to know me. I was hardly at the school for 2-years, that too in two different divisions. My thinning hair and broadaning face did not help either. There were some close friends (in fact I hoped for more of this species..). They were also not that close as I expected. Probably they just got old.
In short everything was happy, nice get-together but I was feeling terribly lonely. Travelling back to home today, I imagined of number of things I could have told them. About my hobbies, about my cooking, about my family, about my world travels, about my professional achievements (if they could understand it :-)...then it finally occurred to me, just like that...the occassion was not to know about 'unknown' people, it was to know more about 'known' people. I was unknown then and I am unknown now. Obviously nobody was interested in knowing me.
It also occurred to me that I do not have many friends in my social circle (or is it otherway round? social circle is made of friends? not sure...). I could count few from school on my fingers and probably few from college in remaining. In the college-friends group there is always discussion of a reunion. Thankfully we never get to actually doing it...now don't assume that I simply hate people, but on social occassions I do not know what I could converse with them. Everybody is interested in how much money you make, what you do for living, how many kids you have. Probably socially these are the only things that you could ask. Very few would be actually interested in knowing, how you are. Is that what makes me run away from such social occassions? Maybe...
Probably it is better for everybody, that I stay away from reunions of such 'known' people. I probably could converse with myself better than most of these people anyway. Is there an inclination to stay with me always? Maybe I am the only person I could befriend with (little scary isn't it?). Maybe I am not a social animal after all...
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