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Showing posts with the label Discussion

When Destiny Sends Its Helpers

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Keep running. The right people find you on the way. At different stages of life, you’re confronted with different challenges. And each time you cross a hurdle, you feel that familiar sense of accomplishment. It’s tempting to attribute that success to your own skill, tenacity, and willpower — to pat yourself on the back and feel proud of how you handled it. But when you zoom out and look at the moments where you somehow managed to trump the odds, a quieter realization sets in: It’s never just you. There is always an unseen army that shows up at the right time. It was 2005. I had decided to pursue my Master’s in the US. I picked a few schools in the Midwest where the expenses were manageable, and that’s how the University of Missouri–Rolla entered the picture. But funding was still a massive question mark. I hadn’t secured any assistantship, and we didn’t have the means to pay out of pocket. We went from bank to bank, hoping for an education loan. Each manager aske...
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Conscious Capital

A monthly meetup with my mentor today and we were, as usual, talking about many things.  I told him that lately, I have been juggling a lot of content on Advaita Vedanta.  We were talking about the mind and the pure consciousness, the concept of Brahman and so on.  He told me that it was all interesting and that he was having a conversation with his wife a week ago and was asking her, "What exactly is consciousness?".   I laughed and replied, "David, that's not a trivial question.  That's exactly what enlightened souls spend lifetimes exploring." We both laughed.   We drifted from Vedanta to investing.  He said that he doesn't want to invest in certain companies because for him, there's a line; he doesn't want to invest in companies that don't align with his principles.  I asked him how one even decides where to draw the line.   I admitted that my own beliefs had blindsided me in the past.  I used to think that if I didn't use a product ...
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Thriving

The good and bad thing about life is that you meet different kinds of people; some making quite an impression on you.  That's one of the things I like about travel.  It's not just the experience of seeing new places, but meeting some fantastic people along the way that makes a big difference.  That doesn't mean day to day life doesn't fetch interesting encounters.  All along, you have interesting conversations, and once in a while, you look back and think twice about what the other person said, and that's when you realize that the conversation has made an impact on you. Bay area is all about crazy entrepreneurs and insanely smart people that you come across almost on a daily basis.  And they talk about how they have had successful exits from previous startups and so on.  It's actually pretty inspiring. I came across one of the guys who I don't even know why he still works.  Apart from a regular job, he has side projects, and talks about passionate...
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The general elections

Nothing grips a nation like general elections.  There is constant buzz and chatter all around, with each person supporting a leader of his choice; arguments and tensions rising galore.  While in school, I used to spend my summer holidays in Tamil Nadu.  In front of our village home was a huge maidaan , where leaders of all parties would deliver their speeches (of course on different days).  So, I have had the chance to see Jayalalitha, Karunanidhi, Vaiko, Ramadoss and the others from close quarters.  I wouldn't understand most of the things they said, but the crowd and chatter before the speech was riveting. Anyway, I always wanted to vote during the elections.  And you weren't able to do that until the age of 18.  But, by the time, I got myself registered as a voter and all the verifications were done, another election went by.  So, in 2004, I was very much excited when I was cleared to vote.  I was very clear that I wanted to support one...
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The quest for the better half

People say it is tedious, but the maamis have always lived with a single minded focus of bringing people together.  They have derived a deep sense of pleasure by doing this favor to the society.  As soon as they know that there is a boy in the household, they just have to look into their massive database to get a girl into the threshold.  Google pales in comparison to the way the maamis organize and process data.  But, how do the maamis know what kind of girls are compatible to the guys and vice versa? Today, I was having an interesting conversation with a friend of mine.  By the way, I am not one of those guys compelling people to get into a wedlock.  Rather, I am the last guy to do something like that, save of course, for the leg pulling.  My friends are so thick skinned that the leg pulling will hardly purchase even the remotest kind of blush. What's up man! What's happening to your love life? Oh, nothing much! Just not interested now. ...
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The Chinese way

It has always been appalling at the way China treats its dissidents.  It quashes even a remote hint of authoritarian overture by suppressing any speculation that could develop into a movement over a period of time.  Freedom of speech is not restricted, rather, it is something that is not even heard of.  A democratic tone is killed without any trace and the "nipping in the bud" phrase is followed in the most precise way.  If you had the guts to take on the government, you are virtually left naked.  There is absolutely no place to hide.  The jail terms can be astounding, and the jail conditions absolutely dark, literally as well as metaphorically. As I was talking to one of my Chinese friends, I was stunned by the level of control that the government exercises on the common man.  The fundamental rights of the citizens are snatched and the suppression is taken to a level that virtually leaves a person with no way of getting information that is not gover...
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Kansas Mallya

The boring routine of everyday evening was further compounded when the usual "humorless" suspects of the group caught up at my place. We were languishing around, and were laughing at our wisecracks, as our low level humor was hitting rock bottom. Some of the jokes (if I may call that way) did not deserve a second hearing, but there was no stopping us. We were watching Godavari , the romantic Telugu movie. If Emani was with us, he would have been proud of us. He would have also tried to impress us with his trivia about Telugu cinema. Not that we cared about all that, but as I said, anybody in the group can talk, whether anybody else wanted to listen or not. It was always one way traffic. When somebody talks, not that the other person would talk, it is just that there would be nobody else to listen. All said and done, the movie was good, and I like Kamalini Mukherji, and thanks to Dhake, I realized that the other girl in the movie was Neetu Chandra (Man! I really liked ...
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Maami, the match maker!!!

In what can be termed as the most orthodox form of arranging a marriage, the match making process is tied to fate rather than love.  Though the conservative image of India is changing, arranged marriages still form the most popular way of tying the knot.  Speculation and analysis fills the household as soon as people realize that there is a boy or girl of marriageable age.  The mega event begins not just a day or two before the marriage, but months, sometimes years in advance, so that the best proposal is sealed.  In this duration, magically, every elder in the house will remember you, and each time, you are encountered with, Ennada (What's up?), as if their sole aim in life is to extract a blush from you.  You are hardly the type to care about such things. Anyway, Karthik Chandramouli ( remember the protagonist of the Boston video mimicking Rajini ) and I came up with a gist of the conversation that would take place between two tamil maamis.  I have to...
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A reason to flee - Quick(x)star

The greatest pleasure I derive can be attributed to the incoming flux of new people that I get to befriend. I have always found it fun to hang out in groups, come up with long discussions late into the night, hit the right topics of interest and venture out for some outdoor activities. As I came to Boston, my enthusiasm for meeting new people never died down. My enthusiastic fervour as a student remained the same even after employment, and I went on to grin and smile as soon as I met a fellow Indian. Not that I did not smile at an American, but it is just that a fellow Indian provides a local solace! I realized over a period of time, how wrong I could be. Here in Boston, hardly the Indian public returned the smile. Oh! Let alone a smile, it was a stare like that of Shoaib Akhtar giving at Sachin Tendulkar after the latter hits a six. This did not happen just to me, but to a couple of other guys too from school. We were all in a fix. We did not know whether to continue grinning or smili...
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Why vernacular?

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The latest court verdict in Karnataka concerns the 2000 odd schools in the state to switch to Kannada as the medium of instruction bypassing English. English is the global medium of communication and it is imperative that we get a good grasp of the language that would aid us in the development process. Here, it is not the question of promoting your local language, but you are effectively terminating the ability of the children to come up in a competitive environment. In India, every state has a language of its own along with the national language, Hindi. Being born and brought up in India, there is no doubt that it is important to learn your local language as well as the national language. But that doesn't mean that you should shun English. India is emerging as a major global power and we are dependent on our western allies to work in close co-ordination and improve the economy. As long as a person has the basic knowledge to speak, read and write in the local language, it should mo...
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Emotion(less)!

Last week, we had a discussion about the different facets of emotion in human beings. The movie field is a fascinating field just because it is such an important source of entertainment for the common man. Of course, it has its share of controversies and other big issues, but over a period of time, it has emerged as an important industry in terms of revenue. Movie business is really big money. Getting back on track about emotions and movies, where is the relation? We have our special actors and actresses who gladden our hearts during those two hours, and we are taken to an ethereal world, where imagination takes over everything in an atmosphere filled with pure gloss. This is when we felt how difficult it is for newcomers to cope up with this profession. Any actor has to display various emotions in those two hours, which actually would have taken months of filming involving different artists, and at the end of the day, he has to come out unscathed from the reel life experience. That is...
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Man..Man..What man!!!

Indians have this habit of translating the conventional thought of native tongue to the superfluous English language. Obviously, it does sound awkward at times, providing food for thought about the sentence formed. Somehow, many words have just found its way into the day to day sentences. Be it a North Indian or a South Indian, there are some typical words that get essayed in normal usage. It is not uncommon to find two Indians in a "man"ly conversation. A typical desi style talk would meander on these lines x: Hi! How are you man? y: I am good man. What about you? x: These days, I am busy man! Lot of work man!!! y: OK man! Catch you later!! Notice the gist of the conversation, an average of "one" man per sentence, and as the complexity of the sentence increases, the "man" increases proportionately. At a particular point, the conversation was too funny once my roommates and I realised the "manly" usage of the word. RL: Good man, I did this! ...
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In a daze...

As I look at the calendar and see the number of days that are attached so called special significance, I wonder where we are heading. Every day is more or less commercialized. Father's day, mother's day, friendship day, valentine's day, dog's day, cat's day, pet's day....and the list seems never ending. Half the time, I end up forgetting people's birthdays, and also wonder what the fuss is all about. As long as you like a person, you would end up doing good for the person. Why wait for a particular day if you have to express your love and affection? Open a website, and the message would prop up Express your love to your mother, buy some roses for your valentine, do this to your best friend...... I would never wait for Mother's day to remember my mother. I don't even know when Mother's day actually falls on. I get reminded about it from numerous television programs and thousands of web pop-ups that disturb my browsing peace. I wonder w...
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Reason or Time?

Off late, I know that my blog entry titles pose seemingly outrageous questions. But, that's the way it is! This was some talk we had at the apartment some time back about the intricacies of religion and beliefs. Faith is one such quality which can never be questioned. There are certain things that have been going on for 2000 years and we certainly do not have the wisdom to find out about its inclusion in our daily lives. Faith and veracity are two contrasting qualities, not that faith lacks veracity, but just that faith just cannot question even when there is something outrageous. Science throws a lot of questions at some of the obscure practices of man, but faith just accepts these things without much ado. Our lives have been structured to follow certain things, and we do not believe in reasoning when it comes to the basic norms of the day to day activities. We were having this discussion about the intricacies of religious faith. There are certain things that just cannot be...
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How the hell does it matter?

The other day, it was just me and Yadu catching a late night movie from the late nineties, Dilwale Dulhaniye Le Jayenge (DDLJ) . The other two roommates of ours had got into bed early, and we had just got up after our evening sleep. Strange things prop up while watching movies and strange ideas give rise to funny situations. It is baseless to equate the cinematic moments with real life scenario. But, it is fun to see to what extent we can go to simulate what we see on screen. I have this "terrible" habit of posing questions out of thin air. No wonder my friends complain when I sit back to watch movies with them. As we started watching the movie, we came across a scene where Kajol is supposed to marry a guy whom she has never met before. Come on, this is actually not an all out surprising scenario for people like us. But, I still had the nerve to ask Yadu, " Maga, tell me what will you do if you were in such a situation? " Yadu gives that glance which could m...
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The Mystery Month

August 2006 was certainly a mystery month for three protagonists in Rolla. Before I get into the details, let me clarify a few points. If somebody comes and asks us how much we spend on an average in Rolla, we will definitely not say that it is about 250$. If somebody comes and asks us whether there is any possibility of saving with a quarter time, we will trample him. If somebody says that Rolla is a small town where you will never spend a penny, send him to us. He desperately needs to talk to us. All these conclusions stem from the fact that Rama made the monthly calculations for the last three months and ended up giving us devastating figures. Now, let me round up on the mystery month. Rama comes up with these huge grins and expressions when he gets excited, and today morning at 3:30 AM was no different. Yadu matte Praveena, do you know how much we spent in the month of August? What the hell do we know? We were obviously clueless, and gave out a loose figure of about 250$, the ...
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Mahabharat - Not anymore obvious

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Once upon a time, Indian mythological stories used to take centre stage amidst the growing kids. As generations and generations of children grew up, it was not anything out of the way to have the characters of Ramayana and Mahabharata etched in the young minds. Tales of valour and honesty were retold by grandmothers and it was one of the key factors of the growing up process for Indian kids. I had the good fortune and privilege to be associated with several such narrations at various stages of my childhood. My mother retold several hundreds of mythological stories, and my grandmother supplemented with more during the summer vacations. Summer vacations were fantastic, in the sense that all the cousins used to sit together to get the briefing dating back to good old times. Grandmothers are the best companions for young kids, and we were awed and surprised by the turn of events in Indian Mythology. Apart from this, we also had Amar Chitra Katha to look forward to. The Amar Chitra ...
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Global Capitalism

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The mail in my inbox read Dr. Andrew Bernstein of the Ayn Rand Institute will be speaking on the topic of global capitalism... I had no second thoughts. I am attending this seminar. I did not even know who Dr Andrew Bernstein was, but his affiliation to the Ayn Rand institute was more than enough to motivate me. Having read The Fountainhead , and in the process of reading Atlas Shrugged, I did not need a second invitation. Let me tell you something. The motivation levels to attend a seminar at 7PM at the Havener Center is no joke what with the temperature tending to sub zero levels. The walk from the department to the Havener center and then back to the department chills. I was one of the thirty odd guys to be present in the hall. The talks on Capitalism was not on an economic point of view alone, but on the fact that how different parts of the world are in a better position today thanks to capitalism. He said how the Asian power houses are emerging due to the advocacy of capitalism. T...
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Premarital sex and Hinduism

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It is not everyday that a talk on pre-marital sex can lead to Hinduism and religion. It was just one of those days, where everyone spoke and about a lot of things! How (im)moral is it to have pre-marital sex! It is always good to elicit different views on this rather subdued subject. Obviously, in India it is still a taboo to talk about sex and related issues. No wonder, we get to study the related topics only in the tenth grade and that too not in all the mediums. Imagine a student taking up electronics or computer science in his eleventh and twelfth grade. He would have no formal way to learn about sex. And this is what the majority of the country is into at this time - no person has no definite say in this subject! So how right is it to have pre-marital sex? Or rather should we be saying Can we talk about pre-marital sex? But being mature enough individuals, it is always good to vent your opinion for/against this topic. What has been subdued for so long should atleast have a common...
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The need for conversion!!

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I am not a religious leader here campaigning for a particular religion. If you think that this is going to be one of them, then you are completely wrong. What is so obvious in a foreign country? To compare the price of a commodity back in India. That's exactly what I am doing. The whole point is whether it is right comparing prices in two different countries. The topic which started as a very casual talk at 9 o' clock in the night ate away almost two hours. Four of us had our own ideas. One of my roommates said that comparisons were inevitable and that is the whole point of having conversion rates. Imagine buying a coke for a dollar here, which costs around 20 rupees in India. By the way, the dollar conversion rate is approximately 44 Indian rupees. Does that mean that coke is cheaper in India or here? Various factors have to be considered to determine which is economical. Consider an average working personnel here with a monthly salary of approximately 3000$ and consider the s...
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Aaj ka vichar...

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It was 6:30 in the evening. All of us were feeling cosy due to the warmth of the snug rug adorning the living room of the apartment. All of us were lazing around after another tiring day running between the university and the apartment. We got into a long conversation. Guess about what! The talks were centered on India, India and India. Politics, condition of roads, owning independent houses, fields, farms, temples, food served in South Canara temples, Dharmasthala, Sringeri, Udupi, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Kancheepuram, Kanchi madam ( Mutt), Jayendra Saraswatigal, corruption, concerns, goodwill, railway lines in India, Indian economy, Impact of Chinese goods in the United States, textiles in India, Why Chinese bikes didn't hit the Indian market? , Assembly and Lok Sabha elections, Sri Atal Bihari Vajpayee's Golden Quadrilateral dream, state highways, national highways, use of local dialect in the respective states and what not!!! An Indian atmosphere is ...
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