Found this awesome warning near the EPIP entrance in Whitefield.

I even asked an innocent Policeman sitting inside the chowki to stand out of the booth so I can take the pic. He believed I was from the Press and that I am reporting the pathetic state of the footpath to a news agency.

Only then did I realize the pathetic state of the footpath. 😛

I could not tell him that I am a lame software engineer just out to have some fun so I carried his assumption forward and told him that im a journo for Bangalore Mirror. Ya rite!

I went to the theater to watch the most talked about movie in recent times. At Rs.180 a ticket, on the premiere weekend, I’d say it was a steal. The movie is worth a watch. Its worth every bit of the hype and I just cant stop talking good about it.The cinematography, music and editing are perfect. If this movie doesn’t win an Oscar for cinematography atleast, then I’d surely love to watch the movie that ousted this one. I met a few friends that evening and all of them had already seen the movie. It was the premiere weekend. But I wasn’t surprised. I’d got the downloaded movie on my pen drive too, about three days ago. The movie was available for download since long. Now for those who don’t know what Piracy is, this is it!

There is a line in the movie – “You wanted to see the real India. Well, this is it!”. I guess this is it. A movie that is making us proud the world over is being downloaded by people far from the slums, and maybe closer to that Million without having to sit in the hot seat. 2 things I want to clarify: I download and watch movies too. I accept that. But for a movie that’s running in the theaters, one that’s making news world over, one that’s got 10 Oscar nominations, I would definitely want to watch it in the theater. That’s a given. The effect of watching a movie in the theater is an experience in its own, be it any movie. The sound, the ambience and the whole surroundings and the time you dedicate to just watch the movie and nothing else.

Go watch the movie in the theater. I heard from many sources that Slumdog Millionaire isn’t good at all. You may be right. You have the right to your tastes. I don’t deny that right. But have you seen the movie in the theater? No! Then you ain’t got no right to talk about how good or bad it is. Go to the theater, watch it and if you still cant like it, nobody is forcing you to accept that you liked it. Go tell the world.

Avoid Piracy! I don’t give a damn about asking you to buy original DVD’s and stuff. I want people to have a better experience with their movies which you will never have in a 14 inch laptop with mono speakers or even with a 42 inch Samsung LCD HDTV and the best Bose surround system. Trust me. The theater is better any day!

And movies like Slumdog and the encouragement it’s getting from the film makers just inspires me!

Introduction

Starting today, I am putting up a series of stories that really speak of us, Humans and our interactions with our mother, planet Earth. These are an array of thoughts that look at reality through a different dimension from what we are commonly used to. Read on and be proud that you are human.

Chapter 1

An ecosystem of Dinosaurs and Humans

Humans today are undoubtedly the most dominating species on this planet.

65 Million years ago there was another kind of species that dominated this planet and plagued it. They are collectively called the dinosaurs.

Now fact is that something happened and the dinosaurs were wiped out from the face of the earth. What this something was, we have no idea. But it sure was pretty effective as we see no dinosaurs in our zoos today.

Is a little fear creeping into you now? Do you see the similarity that we have with the dinosaurs? If you didn’t, it must be pretty evident by now.

Humans are empowered with a superior brain using which we have fought off the environmental challenges and extremes that earth has to offer. And to a good amount of success, no doubt. In contrast, other species that exist on this planet seem far behind in the race of evolution. They just don’t seem to have it in them. So according to Darwin’s theory of evolution, its our moral duty to the planet to wipe out all other species as we are the most fit.

<Beeep/> Lets go back on that a bit. Are we really the fittest? How do you define fit? How do you define superiority? Are humans really the most superior specie on the planet? Of course we are. Can you think of animals that could drop atom bombs, divide themselves into religions and hate each other, emit toxic elements into the atmosphere and have great world wars where entire species of the animals would walk into a battle field with a weapons in hand and swallow bullets in the head!! Of course not. And that’s what makes us SUPERIOR. Superior, like the dinosaurs once were.

To be Contd..

Its been ages since I last blogged. And the reason is not that Ive not had a motivation sufficient enough to put it online. Instead blame it on the IT Industry, of which I am just another lame victim.

I have many stories to tell. And probably I shall pen them down (oops, type them down rather) in the coming days. And they will all have a common theme in them. That of respect for humanity and the essence of life. Why this is so, I do not know myself. But being a lame spectator to innocent crimes that we all consciously commit in our day to day lives has brought out such thoughts in me.

And of course, the long trips to office have given me the time and patience to reflect upon such thoughts. And I might dare say, I am not alone.

Jago Blogger Jago – that’s what I had to tell myself to write up atleast this post. Lets hope I get the drive to actually blog my thoughts in the coming days/weeks/months/years/decades/eons!!

It was kinda like I had unintentionally decided to take some rest after almost 16 years of educational toil. Not that I was tired of it all or that I am not going to adopt an educational life ever again. It was just that break that one takes without any hassles or income losses. From 2006 July to November…

During these holidays I did a lot of things that I would cherish for life. Among these would be my brother’s wedding, volunteering for Imagine Cup 2006, watching every Hindi or English movie that had a minimum 3 star rating on Times, the hyderabad Student Partner Meet, working for Zealous Solutions, job hunting, playing cricket, attending functions and tellin people that I am happily sitting at home without a job. I didnt regret that one bit. I didnt have to lie to my conscience. The jobs that I would love to do never camy by, the companies that I aspire for didnt have any openings. I would not like to join a pathetic company just for the sake of the society’s pressure. So I had to cook up a reason to quell the rumour hungry people around me and my mom’s visible uneasiness – the CAT was a reason enough.

After I rejected my campus recruitment offer from India’s largest software company, TCS due to various reasons including a two year bond, relocation to another corner of the country (which meant leaving Bangalore, the IT Hub of India and my dream city!!) and if this was not sufficient, a very small & insufficient pay packet that would leave me worrying about making ends meet, I started my job search spree.

After tons of applications, hundreds of mails with resume attachements, bothering dozens of known people for referrals, a few hoax interview calls along came a few opportunities that would raise my eyebrow. Microsoft GDCI Hyderabad had called for freshers. We all applied at a portal that allowed us to specify only our marks and nothing more. We pleaded and begged the people we knew at MS to atleast ensure that our resume gets shortlisted for the test and the interview procedure. But what happened later left me high and dry and very very angry as they had not even called me in for the test despite me being a student ambassador and also meeting all the criteria for the same. I was so upset about this that I decided I would not participate in any Microsoft venture in the future as a promotional clown. But yes, I will still remain as dedicated to the community as I always was. But I will evangelize against Microsoft’s selfish promotional gimmicks to use innocent minds to do their advertisement work. I will use the community against them. The Microsoft’s Student Partner Program and the MVP Program are all shit filled initatives by this company to spread their name. Beware Microsoft! I am here…

But things moved on. My close friend got a call for the same test and cleared the entire process. She is now working at Microsoft GDCI Hyderabad. Sometimes I feel that it was for good only that I didnt get called for that test. Heaven knows how much I would have regretted leaving Bangalore for a silly job had I been selected. Soon after there was a walk in at Sapient Corp Pvt. Ltd.. As I found out that most people working here were happy with their jobs and happy working for the company. I too liked their selection procedure and the way they treated me with respect. One does need respect, be it in anything. That is why one would readily pay 150 bucks for a movie at PVR and not even 50 at Kamakya. Respect is everything, and often determines who we are and also what choices we make.

And as one would expect I gave my best at the test and the interview. I was selected and they soon released the news that we should be joining on 6th November. It came as a huge jolt. I was finally going to join, going to be just another IT guy in a small company down the road, I was finally going to work. So started my final run of holidays. I had to enjoy the last few days of life in the way I wanted to. Movies, hanging out at coffee bars, eating out and the works.

Now at the end of it I wonder how four months went by. But never do I regret it. I could not have asked for anything better than what I did in these holidays. It gave me a lot of time to realise myself, be a total introvert, speaking to myself asking what I really wanted to see myself as so on and so forth. Chats with Chaitanyesh, Manoj Ganapathy of CTS, Pradiptha and Vineeth Gupta of Microsoft as well as Deepak, Jadeja, Sheeba and Reza helped me answer some of these questions. I may not have the perfect answer right now, but atleast I am confident I am heading in the right direction.

Congress following the footsteps of the British – Divide and Rule!!

Doesnt seem unnatural though, Italians are close friends of the British no doubt. But this is limits if Sonia Gandhi, of Italian origin wants to stick to the age old principles of the British of Dividing India into castes and Ruling over us. And we as usual are fighting amongst ourselves as they would most love it. What else can one say that the government is so hell bent upon introducing the quotas instead of such a huge outcry from the educated citizens all across the nation. We may never have seen such a huge uprising of the nationals since Independence.

I was totally enthralled by an illustration made by an imminent personality from the IIMs at a debate on a news channel last night. His words were- " Suppose a child has polio. He has no way out but to use crutches to make his way around. He is dependent upon those crutches for the rest of his life. What the government must plan to do is to organise mass immunisation drives to eradicate polio from its roots. But instead, what the government has decided to do is to let polio exist and spread, let more and more people suffer from it, and that we will provide crutches to the people suffering. This is what has been happening with the reservation schemes in the country till date. Instead of trying to eradicate the caste system and their backwardness from the very roots, we are helping them to stay backward and be dependent on the reservation system for the rest of their miserable lives."

What an example. Mind blowing. Hats off to you sir!!

Here are some amazing statistics that were also uncovered in the same debate by imminent personalities like the Former Director of IIT Madras, MBA Genius Arindam Chaudhauri. Over 60% of the seats reserved for SC/ST/OBC in premiere institutes go vacant every year. This because of the fact that inspite of the reservation, the students of these communities are not clearing the minimum passing marks for entrance. What a shame that atleast over 45 seats in IIT Chennai go vacant every year in the reserved category. What if those seats could have been occupied by someone in the merit category. We are spoiling many lives, careers, futures and the country because of this.

Another amazing statistic that I never imagined could be true – The last census that was made to actually find out the number of OBCs/SCs/STs in the country was way back in 1931 – that too conducted by the British. Right now no one knows how many OBCs exist in India today. And on these figures, and depending on a constitutional grant that was given out in 1964, the government is deciding to establish reservations in 2006 for the next 25 years!! Well hats off to those who maintained that file since 1931. I had absolutely no comment when I came across this, but was just able to give a mocking laugh.

What a pathetic state we are in. When will we ever grow up from this caste/religion/race/colour battles among ourselves and realise that the human brain is much more powerful than all that. And all humans are bestowed with a brain that is equally capable, no SC/ST/OBC reservations on brains made by GOD!!