जो शहीद हुए हैं उनकी, ज़रा याद करो कुर्बानी

These words moistened the eyes of Nehru (in spite of him enjoying top slots in the India's biggest bastard list). 5 decades on, as a billion Indians hurtle thru the rat race that is an average Indian life, its saddening to see my country just chug over the sacrifices millions of men are making for us.

Thanx to rediff.com, I came across these articles about the fate of some of our army's officers. The series is very aptly titled "Lest We Forget".

Posting the links here for public viewing. Read every single one of them. Shed a few tears and be grateful. We live and run after millions while these men lay down their lives.

Capt. Saurabh Kalia - http://specials.rediff.com/news/2004/jun/07kalia.htm
Capt. Vikram Batra - http://specials.rediff.com/news/2004/jun/17batra.htm

This is one of those few times when I appreciate the Indian media (more of my cynicism in some later post). Thanx to them, such stories get etched into contemporary public memory and unite (one of those few times we do) the nation in grief, pride and rage.

But don't for one moment think that reality is only full of such paeans of valor unsurpassed. Read the next two articles and feel a pang in your heart. (If you don't, you are not human. You might as well go and start monkeying around in some zoo.)

Flight Lt. Abhijit Gadgil - http://www.rediff.com/news/2003/aug/13inter.htm
Lt. Colonel S. Ravi Shankar - http://specials.rediff.com/news/2007/apr/23slide1.htm

This is just the tip of a gory, deathly iceberg. The cries and woes of the families whose sons don't make it to the media's fancy go unheard. And you better not ask for data on this one. Some simple arithmetic can easily lead you to this conclusion.

Let's talk of just peace times. War times, to me, are too scary and blood-boiling to comprehend.
Think about how many officers and jawaans die every year thanx to terrorism and anti-insurgency operations. Think about the no. of MiG crashes that happen for pilots in training. These, at least, make the headlines.
Now think about the scale on which the Indian army operates. How many cantonments, how many offices, how many posts manned in how many locations. It isn't preposterous to then assume that many a scrupulous Lt. Ravi Shankar's would be turning martyrs. And, all the Defence Ministry and the administration can do is think of a cover-up to protect their slimy, blood-soaked asses!!

That said, it triggers a tsunami of rhetorical questions.

1. What sort of a nation treats it's soldiers this way? How can we forget our war heroes so easily?
2. What becomes of a soldier's family if he dies at service? Is the future of old parents or a young infant-son of a soldier secure if he is not around?
3. Why doesn't the government - those dickheads who parade themselves as the saviors of the nation - have the balls to stand up to Pakistan and take perpetrators to task?

Surely, conferring a medal, giving a notional compensation, best case - a post in some God-forsaken public service, can never be commensurate to a mother's loss of a son. Perhaps nothing can ever be.

Then, what should we be doing? Have a system in place that is rich enough to provide on-going care for soldiers' families and not just one-point braggadocios. A few thought starters are listed below:

1. A corporate can set-up a fund that provides for the welfare of martyr families.
2. A simple campaign by the army will generate selfless millions in donation, if they willfully wanted to do something for these families.
3. The media can take this cause up which would open tons of avenues of help.

As with any other system that aims at mass-welfare, the biggest challenge is in ensuring reach to the families of those countless, faceless jawans that die unglorified. This segment will be the largest and the one in biggest need of support as their families would be the most strained for survival. (Jawans are usually not super qualified and would be the main bread earners for their families).

The clamor for a defence-mechanism against such tsunamis should have been irrepressible by now. Sadly, it just remains a trepid, indiscreet murmur masked out and lost in the loud honks and blares that are India.
We are eons away from where we should be. Guiltily, it hurts to know we could've been there but apathy and indifference again got the better of us :(.

If I make something of myself some day, this post should serve as a reminder for me to do something for this cause. A few tears though is what I close the note currently with. It's the least each of us can do.

Country roads...are taking me home :)

Country roads, take me home
To the place, I belong...

Am going home this coming Friday. Will see Mama and Dad after 4 long months.
4 months that have been more happy than sad. Had some great weekends with friends here, had friends visiting from India, roamed around Singapore - a city I am fully enamored with by now :).
Made a coupla trips to Philippines, fulfilled a long cherished dream of watching a Grand Prix.

But, am going home now - there's simply nothing quite like this feeling.
There's much to look forward to - friends, relatives, food, warmth, peace, belonging and some much needed counseling and advice. Yoohooo... :)

GoogleCard - The future of communications

Computers, the World Wide Web and demi-gods like Yahoo, Google have expedited the rate of change that mankind has had to deal with more than most people acknowledge or are even aware of. Our habits and life-styles, egged on by these developments, are changing rapidly without us even knowing about them.

The once ubiquitous post-office and paper-mails are an endangered speices now. Our next generation will see artifacts like stamps on some fossil plate in a museum ;).

Voice chats, Webcams have whittled geographical distances away to just a matter of a few clicks.

But, this post is not to extol the generous blessings of the .Com age. It is my take on what the biggest leap in technology for the coming century is going to be. Am going to write that in the form of an ad concept. So, here goes...

"A web-chat is no substitute for that live, chirpy voice of your sister on the telephone call from home.
A faceless voice on the telephone is no match for the human presence and warm touch of your beloved over a cup of coffee.

The only thing technology can't do is be human.
For everything else, there's Google ;) "

Frustration soother - An unsung virtue of Blogs

Another listless, staid Sunday has gone by. I end it frustrated, despondent, fuming and tired - like others before this one.

I am really thankful at such times that I have a blog. It's a fantastic vent for seething out all your galls and exasperations. I don't think I have paid my salutes to this virtuosity of blogs :).

It's my blog. I can write what I wish and feel. So, at such times, I let all those extra-charged, anger causing, mind derailing hormones seep in to the white spaces of my blog.
No hurting anyone, no arguments, no getting gyaan, no favors...just plain and simple - problem fixed!!!

Tomorrow is a new day :). I just got a new project at work involving system design, my first love. I want to do it well and excel at my work. Don't want anything to get in my way now.

Friday evening takes me back to Mama...Yoohooooo....It's a week worth looking forward to.

The world's most profound Good Morning greeting!!

The perfect morning. Wake up to the sun beams weaving a gossamer of a myriad colors, as they disperse thru the glass panes of the apartment blocks on the far side of the road. Pay your daily homages as you listen to the light morning breeze rustle among the leaves. Break your diligent (hopefully) fast with a sumptous helping of cereal and fruit as you tap along to Mark Knoffler crooning away on the radio.

Tuck that dapper shirt in. Run your hand thru your hair one last time and step out! (I don't have a honey to kiss good-bye as yet ;) ).
The pep in your step, the confidence in your stride, is unmistakable. Relive John Travolta whistling Stayin' Alive as you embark on your conquest of the world.

And Whack!! IT almost hits you like a hard slap right across your pretty visage. You almost feel as if the Devil himself took lengthy pains to ensure all your morning blues and reveries were shaken off as you trudged to office (hell? Naah... :) ).

What is IT?

Well, IT's the billboard outside the church opposite my apartment which reads
"What on Earth am I here for??"

Yep, you read it right. Read IT once again, just to be sure. :).

Such profoundness! Every single day, at whichever hour - IT unfalteringly screams that life-halting question at you which every dude/dudette in his/her mid-twenties dreads!!

How's that for a morning greeting! The question never leaves you - you mull over it all along as you almost ghost-walk your way to office. Dreams of conquest retire to some forlorn corner in your attic (Duhhh...your brain ;) )..

The sun beams glare down and smirk at you, the wind flees to lure another unsuspecting soul, the radio bores you down with news :).
Lunch hour is now the salvation you solicit. Your work now assumes the role of your worship, your road to emancipation. Necessarily :).

Just 7 innocuous words - In the right place, at the right time!

Talk about the the power of words and the power of placement :).

Prince or Pauper eh??

Who is the richest, yet a not so rich, soul on the planet?

And no, this is not one of those philosophical questions mandating a sagacious answer from the 14th century like "one who has lived but never loved" kinds!! To me, those are classical top management replies - in from one ear, out the other in the same breath ;).

In my opinion, it is the dude at the government mint who prints/bundles/makes our money notes. The guy literally eats money, breathes money - millions pass under his very eyes and hands daily ;). And yet, if he's in that job, 8 out of 10 chances are he'd be just another average Joe!!

A classic case of "haath ko aaya, muh na lagaa" ;).

What do you guyz think?

Lol.

15-15: Consumer banking in India vs. in Singapore

Here's a surprise - Singapore banks still have passbook accounts :). Yes, those little resin-bonded logs, which if we ask our fathers, will prove to be as valuable as a Passport!!!

My first few months in Singapore, having seen the passbooks and the banking services here, gave me the belief that Consumer banking in India was leagues ahead.

Although the difference in the levels of penetration of ATMs in the two countries is of the magnitude of the leagues between the Australian and Indian cricket teams ;), I got the feeling that Indian banks were far more fleet-footed in innovating on the gamut of services they provide.

India outpaces Singapore as far as accessibility of credit cards/loans etc. are concerned. And this in spite of the fact that credit risks in India are Goliath sized compared to the Lion city's levels.

But then, my biggest leveler came last week when I discovered the automatic passbook updating machine at Orchard!! Now, whether this is a statement of my utter ignorance of the external world, I ain't sure, but I found that particular piece of technology fascinating. These guys are fast moving to a world of fully automated, teller-less banking. The bank will be reduced to a 2 ft x 6 ft metal frame on a corner of the road!!!

So, till I come across any more differentiators, I'll take the score as 15-15 :).

Oh...just a good-bye note to all ya I-bankers!! Earn & hoard those insane Dollars as quickly as you can. It's not impossible to comprehend that some day some dawdler (relatively speaking) geek sitting somewhere in Redmond or California might just come up with another disruptive innovation obviating the need for the ridiculous human concentration that you guys are donkeyed around for :).

The World & me

I'd much rather be the world to someone
than be someone to the world.

Starbucks - A disappointment for me...

Well, I've had the hallowed opportunity of consuming the ambrosia called Starbucks coffee once I touched the shores of the Lion City.

Turned out to be a big let down for me personally. Tried most major coffees from the Frappe to the Latte to the Cappuccino. Have visited the twin-tailed mermaid about 4/5 times now without any retribution.

I haven't thus far been able to nail the exact reason for this. My lead hypotheses are:

1. The steamed milk they use makes the coffee too bland for my palate. I prefer the classical south-Indian creamed milk coffee boiled on the stove.
2. There's something odd about the sugar at Starbucks. I have to empty half-a-dozen sachets to somehow force my tongue to allow the coffee right-of-way till my epiglottis (that's what the nerds with white overcoats call the throat valve :) ) !!

Starbucks? No, thanx!

I haven't had a coffee experience quite like the Baristas closer to home. The old guitar, the rusty glaze of the tables, the familiar brown of the text, the soft rock melodies humming in the background and an ambience radiating the warmth of many a memorable evening...

It's all about "how" and not "what" you say!

My biggest learning after about a year of working:

Most inter-personal misunderstandings/issues arise out of not what you say, but how you say it.

Obviously, such situations arise in cases of negative feedback or criticizing work/ideas etc. There are very few people have a skill of being able to communicate exactly what they disagree with or what they find bullshit without making it sound a caustic attack on the other person.

It's a good skill to have, me working on it :).

The Sound of Silence

An unusually quiet day. Actually, no longer unusual. Seem to have one of these every couple of weeks.

Total no. of words spoken in the last 24 hours - less than 50!

And it wasn't as if I was a lone warrior in Siberia trakcing down mammoths or something.
During the day, was in a training during our functional meet amidst some 80 odd people. Evening saw the silence brooding along at a friend's place over dinner. Ate, sat, ate more, came back :).

I get that creepy feeling that there's more to this than meets the eye. Which means more mulling over a zillion cause-effect analysis, sorting out the gossamer of a million question threads in my head...
Damn it, stop overworking my already numbed brain!

Where is the steed that was once so lively? Where is the horse that rambled on unfettered by worldly bonds?

I miss the Horsie of yore...

A tale of two city...airports - Manila & Mumbai!!

Returned from the Philippines last evening. The similarities between India and the archipelago are many.

A similar exchange rate to the Dollar, similar population prosperity indices, similar "excellence" of governments, similar consumer behaviours, same unorderliness of life, energy and chaos in the people :). Heck, I was elated to see those junk shops, those roadside foodstalls, the one-window Sari-Sari stores - was so reminiscent of home. Felt nice to be out of the almost mechanized realm of Singapore.

The traffic is much worse though. 1-0 India ;).

Manila airport flew my mind back home to Mumbai airport. And I couldn't help smirking after observing the extent of similarities.
The same long-twining queues, more security staff than travelers, inefficiencies galore, ridiculous rules for personal screening...ah, twas uncanny.

1. I couldn't help being bemused by the super-beefed security. I don't care about being condescending - Philippines is some inconspicuous country in an obscure corner of the world. Nobody would even bat an eyelid if the islands were to disappear. And there's hardly anything there to steal or anyone noteworthy to harm!! So, why all this psychosia for security?
   
   Given that terrorists aren't the next Einsteins around, but I'm sure even they are not as harebrained as to waste their petty lives trying to plot something against the archipelago.
   
   
2. Then came that insanely long queue at immigration. And for no apparent reason other than good-old inefficiency. And, though as pretty as the islands are, there aren't exactly flocks of tourists clamoring in and out of the airport!
   
   
3. It gets better! Next in sequence is the personal security check. Man, I haven't seen a more hypochondriacal race! As you'd normally expect - you are required to empty all pockets, screen all hand baggage. But hereth the clincher - You are to remove shoes, belts, jackets, all sortsa accessories. Basically, just proceed to the X-ray machine in your bare essentials - a shirt and your pants!
   
   It was ridiculous. And they could've most definitely done with some shoe scent there!
   
   I am willing to bet that a few year's down the line, people will be asked to strip to their briefs for screening. (Obviously, you could be hiding two bombs in your underwear ;) ). In the next stage of evolution, we shall all have the immense privilege of feeling like Adam and Eve in the Garden of Manila :).

I was smirking all the way to my aircraft as I was observing these hilarities unfold around me. What a big fuss we humans make of moving across borders! And come to think of it - at the end of the day, it's just a line!

It was a good, fun day :).

Thus spake the Illuminati - The symmetry of our days...

There will be both good days and bad days in life. They are both an integral part of the enigma called "Stayin' alive" ;).

1. The good days give you great memories. Cherish them and smile.
2. The bad days give you experience. Learn from them.

Enjoy life...it was designed precisely for that :).

A Mother is really God on this planet

I have been in the Philippines for most of this week doing consumer research on diapers. It's been a mind opening visit!!

This was the first time I actually visited and saw my consumers. Saw them in flesh and blood and tried to understand what my product really means to them. There's something surreal about a Mom embracing her kid. The smile on the baby's face upon seeing its mother, the smile on the mother's face seeing her baby laugh, speak his baby prattle, do those silly baby things - that's what I'd truly call a Kodak moment :).

My personal learnings are noted here. The business learnings will be compiled in some word document which just won't ever be able to do justice to what a Mom can do for her kid.

1. Only a Mother can make the unconditional sacrifices that she does. I met moms, educated women in their 20s, who had dreams of their own and everything needed to achieve them, who just let them go in a flash to raise their kids.
   
   
2. We, the ones with those fancy looking cars and fat looking figures in the banks, crib about our lives and how difficult it is. It's just surprising how time n again life throws me into these situations where you realise how grateful I should be for what I have.
   I met moms who lived in as abject conditions as you can imagine. Moms who had no guarantee that their husband will earn money the coming week. And yet, she only gave the best to her kid - food, diapers, soap, milk - you name it!!
   For them there was no concept of "I/me" - it was all "You".

I suddenly feel so much respect for my business and brand. In our own small way, we are helping millions of mothers around the world take care of their babies and is something I am really really proud of :).

Even with a million adjectives, I still won't capture that mother-child relationship for what it is. Call it love, belongning, acceptance, safety - whatever...there is nothing quite like a Mother :).

Love ya Mama...And innumerable but insufficient Thank You's.

What would Kalpana Chawla have seen from her space shuttle?

Have you ever wondered what a soul observing our planet from those gaping skies above would see?

Let's make this uncomfortable. We humans, time n again, keep on passing judgements on the various speices around us - dolphins are "intelligent" mammals, leopards are "savages", monkeys are socially advanced....blah blah blah!! We just love assigning these attributes and playing God :).

For once, lets put us under the microscope. What do you think an alien observer's judgement would be? Let's add the most interesting dimensions - time and evolution.

My vote - We are primeval!! Downright "junglee".

My reasons:

1. Have you ever seen a speices which bickers so much with its own members? And that also so incessantly?
   
   Even the most vicious and savagest of animals co-exist in harmony. They establish might once and that's that!! Sharks, cheetahs, raccoons - don't go around eliminating fellow predators. (A poser. Why did the great white kill the hammerhead?).
   
   And humans, we have a tendency to come up with the most ludicrous of reasons to just embed a bullet in someone! "She called me drunk..", "I didn't like him.", "He was wearing a turban."
   
   
2. Right from dogs to crocs, animals mark their territories and then the sole aim of their lives is to just defend this territory - irrespective of whether a threat is real or perceived.
   
   Humans - exact same behaviour!!
   
   Take physical territory. In historical times, the sword decided the proprietery of land. Physical aggression and barbarism were a part n parcel of that life.
   
   Today's world - what has changed? Only the manifestation of aggression. Instead of physical aggression, it is a wielding of power thru a few pieces of paper with heads of various famous men printed on them - economic aggression.
   Breach the tacit economic equilibrium, you are bound to cause an uproar!!
   
   
3. In other animals, members of a group trust each other. There won't be sniding undercurrents and backstabs in the darkness.
   
   Humans - We haven't been able to trust each other since eons. And I don't think we are about to change for all our planet's worth in the next 1000 years.
   
   
4. I think the Creator intentionally didn't program humans to practice two critical virtues - Equality, non-hypocricy. Had he by chance given us these, we might not have had such a vibrant history!!
   We have discriminated among Men and from this discrimination stemmed some of the most abused "isms" of modern history - colonialism, feudalism, communism, slavism (okay, that was a cheap trick, but you get the point :) ).

So, at the end of the day, humanity works on the law of the jungle - might is right. Just that in Africa, the might is of AK47s, in USA it is of "billion and trillion $". From a green jungle, the arena has moved to a black jungle of death or a grey jungle of warfare.

Not saying that all that has happened is bad and that we are the scum of the universe ;). Just that when seen thru a critical eye removing all the frills away, you get an idea of the true rate of progress of the human race. It's nothing that I feel proud of!!

Think about "what can be" or "could have been". Unfortunately, "what is" seems like the other side of the magnet.

And yet, there is still Hope. And that Hope, ironically, is us! Conservationists, peace brokers, economic experts who genuinely led to wealth distribution among their people, reform thinkers have borne the beacon thus far. Hopefully, we'll keep it burning so that our kids won't see the same sight as this.

This Hope is the one thing that preserves this miracle called "Life" on this planet :).

Adios,
Harsh.

Hello Darkness my old friend..I am back with you again!

Well, off late have started kayaking every weekend. It's good fun.

Placid water, nice weather, early morning breeze...Row away, make your own wake!!

I can draw a parallel from my kayaking to my life as well. Unfortunately, the parallel ends at the fact that I am the sailor.

The winds are not as gentle, the current not as placid. The boat not as steady.

1. The first lesson I learnt on the kayak was that however hard you may want to think that you are in control - reality is starkly different. I have broken all my delusions about being in complete control of my life. It's a fundamental realization of apocalyptic proportions - it's broken thru all previously held beliefs, thought processes, action plans...everything.

2. While rowing, you have to be careful when rowing among a group of kayaks - ripples caused by others can easily topple you.

Similarly, been a rough week for me - and I don't know which whirlpool I stirred to cause the swirl. Relations strained at work. Incessant workload pressure, ridiculously long working hours for making presentatios. Stress in general as well on other fronts - Mom's not well, Dad needs me, questions on decisions I made, am about to make - some of the old demons which I had quelled returned.

Repeatedly found myself marooned away - like a lone survivor finding his way to land.

3. On the kayak, you can't keep rowing endlessly. You have to take breaks, else you gonna burn out your arms real fast.

Had made a plan to visit Langkawi this weekend. Had to cancel that for a hoard of reasons. Now am beginning to feel I shouldn't have cancelled the trip.

I need a break...a long one. Want to be cut-off from the world, from those million chores and issues that I need to attend to. Feel like just scurrying off one weekend - no mobile, no internet...nothing!

Just me, my thoughts and some introspection on where the hell I want to take my kayak.

Eating the bread I earn...Quite literally

Ate bread today for all my meals - two toasts for breakfast, a sandwich for lunch, two sandwiches for snacks, toast sandwiches for dinner. Hell, I even feel like a bread now...I have all the pores and the soft center (I am a pragmatist you see ;-) ).

Let me narrate the story of my 6 months, and all the bread!!

I can truly claim that I have eaten all the bread I have earned with all my effort and toil for the past 6 months.
What the heck! I have been eating so much bread, even the Subway lady on duty during lunch knows my choice of bread by rote now!! She sees me entering the restaurant, gives me that knowing smile, pulls out the loaf she needs to from her rack, cuts it into half and passes it along the quay to her colleague handling the vegetables.

So here I am, all confident and beaming with pride that I have finally come of age, earning and eating my bread. Surely, as the wisdom of yore reverberated in my head, I'd now find contentedness, true happiness and success in life. So, day after day, month after month, I diligently follow the path that hath been layeth, in anticipation of glory that lay just round the bend.

But hey, 6 months have already gone by in a whiff. And sadly, to my utter disbelief and a reverie-breaking shock, I am beginning to realize that the bread isn't the sweetest and satisfying grub as the age old aphorisms had me believe! All I have to show for it is an horribly upset metabolism rhythm :-).

So, in my agony and depression, the realization dawns on me, like the streak of first morning light, that the "time is now" (Ref: Previous post - The ToI India Poised 2007 campaign). Time for the bread to stay on its rack and for the new age foods to roll out!! Thank you ToI...as you truly self-admittedly and humbly had said - you are the best! :P.

From tomorrow, I say, bring on the Ice-creams and the Pastries and the Maccaronies Babieee...

P.S. - Technically, "now" should have implied today, but unfortunately it's already past dinner, and my next meal is only breakfast tomorrow morning. Hence, the breaking of the shackles of bread shall happeneth from tomorrow. Ain't I a fast learner!!

India Poised - Anthems with a meaning...

ToI is running a 6-week long campaign called "India Poised" on its website and their news channel - Times Now - to mark 2007 as the year of India. The campaign's base theme - The time for India is now.

Yeah right!! Will someone please come forth and explain to this dimwitted soul which year isn't the year of India? When is "now" not the time for India? If you can explain such lofty concepts into my weasly head, I will revere your benevolence all my life!!

The skepticism and "respect" for ToI apart, the website is running a series of notes, called anthems, on India from respectable celebrities like Amithabh Bacchan and Gulzar. It is for these notes that I am putting up this blog entry. Will keep updating it as I download more of these notes from their website.

Note: I make absolutely no claim to any of these anthems. None of them are my work at all. So, ToI, please don't sue me for plagiarism or IP rights infrigement. :-).

This is Amitabh's take on India which he feels is on the verge of breaking all shackles restraining her at the moment and bound away to touch the sky. As Ian Malcolm (of Jurassic Park and The Lost World fame, played by Jeff Goldblum) would call it, "at the edge of chaos."

But, how would you like Amitabh recite this anthem out to you? That'd be a different experience altogether. Human expression paints a completely different hue of even the most mundane notes!! And this is as far from mundane as can be...

You can treat yourself to it here. Amitabh's anthem recitation.

I found the note to be quite meaningful and a subtle reality-check rap on the shoulder for someone like me living away from my homeland.

You can visit the India Poised website at http://www.indiapoised.com.

Till I am back, quietly letting the spirit sink in...

There & back again...

Well, almost two months since my last post. A lot's been going on in my head all this while.

Celebrated a lonely birthday. Was fun actually. The highlight of this birthday had to be the international telecon, 6 of us Infosys friends had. Giddy, terrific idea, though you unknowningly engendered the group which will now ensure that Jigna never experiences peace again :D.

Well, I had to leave for India the immediate morning after my birthday. Due to the elongated telecon, just barely woke up and managed to scramble onto the flight home :). That adventure deserves a separate post by itself!!

3 weeks in India were full of a lot of introspection, clearing of a mind overclouded with doubts, realizing constants in life. Questions still continue to berate me like silent sea waves upon a beleagured rock, just that the lashing is significantly less corrosive now.

Returned to Singapore today morning. And to my shock, almost everything seemed new, almost unfamiliar! Home is truly where the heart is...

And as for today itself - it was a day of surprises.

1. There was a nice layer of soot on my bed, on my furniture, on my clothes awaiting me when I opened my room. A layer of fungus on some of my clothes inside my cupboard added zing to the surprise. The recently begun construction just outside my condo is sure to give me lots of such gifts over the next few months.
2. My boss, who sits in India, arrives into Singapore today. And guess what, he flew the same flight as I. And I had zilch clue...Gulp :).
3. My mailbox saw a deluge of 600 new mails, replete with shabbily written ramble-ons from my agency, scores of attachments and million follow-up requests on a million things from various people.
4. For a change, my To-do list for the month looks half as empty as I have come to expect by now.
5. Saw an email in my box which brought totally unexpected and livening good news way ahead of their time :). Keeping my fingers crossed...(they are all pretty much knotted by now anyways).
   

As for the non-surprises, my lazy flatmate didn't get his copy of the house keys made from my set (which I had left behind with him for precisely this purpose).
Business, as usual, is "fati padi hain" ;).

Well, I am back again...in Singapore, have to ensure that I stay here, in body, mind and soul over the next few months. They are gonna prove critical.

Cheers everyone!

Technology eh...

Only now am I beginning to appreciate the labors of companies who had outsourced work to India/China.

My Bodhi tree was my call today with one of my suppliers in Beijing. An urgent issue had arisen which mandated calling her during her travel.

Try and picture this and you'll understand what I am trying to say.

Dialing No. Connected to reception.

Receptionist: @^#*%^#@ (A 5-Star hotel reception, ladI y mutters something in Chinese).
Moi: R-o-o-m N-o. 9 0 3 please.

Some music. Sounded Chinese in origin.

Room No. 903: Hello, this is XYZ here.

Moi: Hi XYZ. How are you?
XYZ: Hi Harsh. I am sorry, I can barely here you. What is it you wanted?
Moi: I need the final file.
XYZ: What?? The original bill?

Moi: The F I N A L file.
XYZ: Can you please call me again to see if we can get a better line?

Hang-up. Process repeat, go back to Dialing no. Make 6 iterations.

Finally, I gave up thinking you might as well send me the bill for all this pain!!

Imagine the fun when you are calling from America (accent or no accent) to a telephone line in India in a plush BPO office some 40 kms outside Chennai village and trying to explain your payroll process to a "I can & will vonly speeeg Taamil" employee. You will end up getting pay-slips with all sorts of "Jalebi-like" sketches all over it!!

Today's lesson: Technology's goal is to introduce innovative avenues of hilarity in our lives ;).

Harsh.