Layshmun

This is one more travel related post.
it was rather foggy that morning.
just two days earlier, flights out of Bangalore were delayed. i was hoping that it was a rare occurrence in Bangalore.
the drive to the airport early that morning, felt suddenly strange. i noticed that many vehicles had their hazard lights on! but still driving at top speed.
my driver did not know if that was any convention to be followed and so, drive with normal lights.
on arrival at the airport, i checked with an airport taxi driver - who confirmed that it is their convention to have the hazards on, as it improved the identification of the vehicles by those that follow.

for the first time in Bangalore, i could see - or rather not see - that the visibility was so poor. all flights that morning were delayed by about 2+ hours!

the other strange experience on the road was in Noida.
as i was moving on an expressway, suddenly noticed that cars were coming in the opposite direction, fairly fast.
the driver was not very concerned.
he also slowed down, made a U turn and drove as if nothing happened till he came to an exit to get off the expressway.
apparently that is a normal thing to avoid any jams ahead.

but one thing from this trip that amused me was the steward on the flight.
it was an economy airline, and i could understand their austerity measures.
this person took it to an extreme in economizing on the announcements.

from what i could recall from other announcements, i could guess that Layshmun - is the economized form of Ladies and gentlemen!

My first step - need your help!

After many years in thinking, I took the first step to formalize my thoughts related to a pet topic.
it is about creating a self development framework for individuals- professionals in particular and professionals in the software industry, to be very specific.

it is a more serious attempt compared to this blog. and may not be of interest to many of you, who have been following this blog.

I call the model the Software Kundalini.
I have discussed this idea with many friends over time and so, may not be very new to some of you.
while it has been an intention - and i had decided not to make any new year resolutions, one of my good friends - Rali - had taken this as his resolution - to push me to start.
By his theory, once you start, the stream might meander, but find its way to the destination.

Rali, thanks. i have taken the first step - after yesterday's call.
.
The first choice to be made was the structure of the documents, i want it to be an interactive and collective project, where i hope that the inputs from my well-wishers would enrich the work product.

after a very quick, not very scientific, comparison, i chose a different technology platform for that - on wordpress.

I would like to invite you to my other blog, look not only at the blog posts, but also the pages.
right now, it is very sketchy.
i hope to evolve it over time.
but early feedback from you all would be very valuable.

do spare some minutes to go to my new project  and share your thoughts.

i will continue with my thoughts on other topics here.

Power Points on trains

as i travel to chennai these days by train, i have been trying to find the most effective timings and options to use the transit time.

i prefer the day trains to night - as the night train timings are not very convenient - and they are usually full.

I try to catch up with some sleep as well reading which, of late, i have been finding it difficult to get time.

the last time i was in the I AC night train, i noticed that they had power points in the coach.
on shatabdi or lalbagh, i noticed that there were plug points, but not for every seat.

when i traveled last week, i was hoping that i would get a seat near a plug point.

i was lucky to get such a seat both ways and could be connected to the net with the data card.

now, i am convinced that day train travel to chennai is a very productive way of travel, as i can also catch up with the mails..

Cool! no?

the transcience of time

i did not know how else to put it.
going through another turn of the calendar year, it was an overdose of looking back, looking forward everywhere, mostly in the media.
add to that the flood of new year wishes.
and some contrarian thoughts.
about the futility of new year resolutions.
or the myth of the self-improvement programs.
or the themes around the anger and frustrations of the effects of terror.
or the invitations from 5 star hotels, resorts and event managers to drink up and usher in the new year.

this time, i decided not to send out any greetings - or even post in this blog - till after a few days in the new year, so that everybody would have cleared their flooded mailboxes..

coming to the topic, i can understand the special days created by - i guess, archies, to promote sales of cards - such as fathers' day, mothers' day, pets' day, secretaries' day, or the festivals that occur throughout the year.
but, new year?

it does not coincide with any other years [birthday - at least for most of the people], financial years, academic years etc around which our plans and activities spin..
as legends have it, the current new year on Jan 1 was also forced from march 1 - when it used to be somewhat synchronized with the advent of spring..
last year, the tamilnadu government moved the tamil new year from sometime in april - according to the tamil calendar - to jan 14, pongal day - which is the harvest celebration.

i feel that we should have anniversary dates for various activities in our lives.
for self improvement - though it may be a myth - or the guilt-washing resolutions, it should be one's birthday.
for financial planning - sync it with the financial year, so at least your taxes would he managed in time.
for holidays, sync it with the school year.

make the current new year a day for social contribution and increase the social awareness around you.

go ahead and indulge, if you wish, but spare a thought and some action for others not so fortunate.

the Fog Effect

One of the e-newsletters that I get daily had this editor's note yesterday..

EDITOR'S NOTE

FOR THE NEXT WEEK OR 10 DAYS, THE UPDATES WILL BE MAILED OUT ONE HOUR LATER THAN USUAL DUE TO THE EXTREMELY BAD FOG IN DELHI AND NCR.


WE REGRET THE INCONVENIENCE THIS MAY CAUSE, BUT REQUEST YOU TO PLEASE BEAR WITH US.

The Armadillo Cut

I enjoy cutting vegetables and fruits from childhood.

next to watering plants, this is one of the activities i find very soothing.

every vegetable or fruit has its own personality and style. if you understand that, you can make the cutting activity interesting.

one of the first techniques i learnt from my father was to cut oranges for people who like the fruit, but not the pips and do not prefer to bite and spit the seeds.

the idea was to split every piece [or whatever it is called]so that it can be opened like 2 wings.

the seeds can be easily removed and it is served without the seedds. for thosethat want only the fruit, they can help themsleves easily.

later on i used to wonder why some cuts are called french cuts - particularly beans.

all i can associate with french cuts is that they have slanting cuts.

i remember my stay in one of the suburbs of Paris called Cergy Pontoise, which was a modern township.

among the nice things there was that one could get from one part of the town to another completely on foot, and not have to cross any of the roads.

the town planners also believed that while a straight line might be the shortest path between two points, it is not necessarily the prettiest. and their focus was to make the town pretty.

coming back to my vegetable cuts, to make the job interesting, i try different ways of cutting, to reduce the time taken as well as the presentation.
which was when i figured out that i could name [and patent?] a way of cutting okra!
i call it the armadillo cut.

the technique is to arrange the lady's fingers in a pyramid - with the large ones at the base and stack the smaller ones on top.

as the height grows, you reduce the number of okras, till you reach the top with a single okra.

then it is very easy to cut all of them together with very few strokes of the knife.

the cut okras resemble an armadillo, with its scaly skin.

the armadillo cut for okras is fast and fun..

other fruits i like cutting are : jackfruit, watermelon, coconuts.

i still have not figured an easy [ane least messy] way or cutting pineapples..

any suggestions?

IISc @ 100

due to bad planning, i could not register for the centenary celebration conference @ IISc, my alma mater.
initially, i was not sure of my travel plans - though, of late, i have reduced it substantially.

then it was not knowing if any of my class / batch mates or immediate seniors / juniors would also be there.
and then, the registrations closed - as they had an overwhelming number of registrations.

that is good, in a way - as IIScians have been known to be very quiet and aloof.
compared to some other institutions, the activities of IIScians have been more of individual contributions and not so much in social gatherings and exchanges.

that was also a reason for my skepticism of finding some others i know.
but, then, that is somewhat like a reason for the IIScian behavior!

anyway, when i got the invitation to attend a get togethe and dinner on friday - pre conference - for the alumni, i jumped at it.
one class mate and a batch mate said they were going.
after reaching teh venue, i called a couple more and one of them also turned up.

what was surprising was that some persons had come to bangalroe exclusively to participate in this. one from mumbai and a couple from hyderabad and about half a dozen from chennai!

made me feel ashamed that i missed registering.

i also could meet many more seniors, who were also there at the dinner.
when they started calling out the batched - from 1954 -- i felt not so old.

this institute has been an institution [could not find any other words].
i have many fond memories of not only the knowledge acquired during the three year stay there, but also the wonderful people i got to know - such as faculty and also opportunities to interact with the likes of Prof. Satish Dhawan - who had made tremendous contributions to the indian space programme.

here's wishing the institute more centuries of continued contributions to the community.