Back to the roots

Its been a long hiatus from writing, and writing again feels great. The last few months have been really a foot on the pedal with no brakes for me. I have ventured upon life in a graduate school, which is not the easiest because you have to be on the edge, multitasking, working hard and mostly keeping sane.

The last month has been a real adventure of sorts, getting to meet a lot of people, some with matching wavelengths and some from a different planet. Running around pillar to post getting myself organized, running up my google calendar to maximize my free time. Sometimes it turns out technology actually slows you down, but that a entire debate for another day. I have been a little lucky, coming in tired and landing without any jetlag. A week at my uncles place grounded in Indian tradition. A good friend who took out an unseen person to dinner.The really small things that helped me in a new environment.

Now that I am almost settled in and opened my cobwebbed blogger account, I realized its been more than 2 months since I had posted anything. So I decided to update my activities and start posting more about my studies here, general interests, debates and other myriad stuff which are generally of no interest to me. (pun intended). No goals set on the blogger time limit in my calendar for sure.

The new canon SD 780 IS - my second love

Its black, hardly bigger than a credit card and takes great photos. This is the new canon sd 780 IS. A wonderfully good camera, which trespasses the bounds on size and compactness. I would have wanted a few more features and a better ISO rendering, but with what I paid for it, this seems very good.

The portability is so good, it will fit into the back of any jeans or slide into any pouch. I would not say best picture quality I have seen, but it does have a nice macro. Shooting in auto in low light conditions is a definite no-no, the flash turns on and ruins the effects on any background. The High ISO ranges need a tripod and some real skill to get decent images.The zoom does not range long, and the digital zoom for once is not half bad, though I would never resort to it personally.

This would detract most of the users from this camera, but for a on the go snap shooter this is better than anything in the market.

Looking forward to unleash the amateur photographer in me.

Looking past differences

Generation gap, cultural divide, intellectual gap and  religious divide. As I list out these very common catch phrases I can only see  the one clear fact in front of me; the petty differences that divide and segregate us humans.

The juvenile behaviour you sometimes see from the best of adults (an uncommon phrase used to describe the  exhaustively composed individuals) surprises you to the point of awe and gape. Silly people fighting with auto drivers, scolding people on the road, making profane gestures and signs. I would say even the best of us are caught unawares. These are the common paradigms we come across in our daily lives. We start to shout and honk at people who are driving slowly on the road. We look at a temple and immediately bow down to the lord, sometimes even remove our slippers or shoes before doing that, and if we are driving slow our cars down .to see the lord. This is acceptable and the norm, but if someone slows down to find parking or drop off someone we are irate and annoyed. I have seen many a times people pass comments on the auto drivers as being illiterate brutes, a substantial generalization and demeaning attitude in my point of view. As educated and cultured folks we should be understanding of others and accepting of weaknesses and strengths.

Stemming from the streets of bangalore; one frustrated commuter to another, next time, "think before you honk". Not all auto drivers are brutes or cunning foxes who use some magical mind control techniques to veer into your path. A little patience and a great deal of calm will go a long way.

Nervous first steps

Its official now, I will be leaving for my further studies to the americas. I am hoping for a great learning experience and putting some thought into understanding the cultures and diversities. As I prepare for this arduous journey of my life, I am nervous as any other person. This is quite expected and understandable according to the many people I have talked to(wry smile).

I am keeping myself busy taking driving lessons and visiting my relatives and friends. There are many emotions that pass through as you meet a few people, you are overwhelmed, distraught, happy. Sometimes you also feel like you are not missing people, they are going to stay forever. What with the internet and all, it seems like you are in the same room. All hail skype and google.

There is still a lot of shopping and small things I have to finish. A few small trips, a few friends to meet, a few goodbyes to say. All in all, I am hoping the next few days will be exciting with the shade of nostalgia and gripe laughter. Fingers Crossed :) .

The era of fountain pens and leather bound books

My gift for my 12th birthday was a leather bound diary which started my love for writing. I have lost that diary in the numerous times I have shifted my house, but the memories of writing in that book still lingers on. A leather bound diary is very exotic and harps on the old world, giving you the unique distinction of either being a romantic or an old foolish git. I still maintain a couple of hardbound dairies now to pen down my random thoughts and musings and it still feels exotic today.

Among my recent acquisitions are a couple of exquisite fountain pens. One of them is from a chinese company, which I must admit is very good in spite of the skepticism about their build quality. The other is a waterman, my truly prized possession in the recent century. The waterman I own comes with a black body and a chrome cap, writes a medium and is supposedly made in Paris. The reactions I have received to this ownership has itself been amusing, with some thinking it to be lower than a hero, and some throwing the "awwww...." in my face. I positively beam when people come to recognize my possession, and generally start dawdling about how people today no longer use the fountain pens. (yeah, I know I'm a materialistic freak....and the yada yada that goes with it!!!, but come on if I owned the monalisa wouldn't I beam about it??)

This is the age of I pads and net-books, writing being only an obligatory indulgence to the tech-savvy who would care to maintain a fountain pen. The banias and vegetable vendors are more than happy with the ball-points and would only care less to go searching for ink. The era of fountain pens as I see it is completely dwindling.

Age of Criticism

I was talking to one of my friends the other day and came upon a rather unique critique. This in many parts was a  discussion on the critique itself. The argument stressed on the point of expert critiques of the day and age. The first point of consideration was how good Rajeev Masand and Karan Thapar are, presenting an objective view to any argument.

Digressing a little from the topic we went on to talk about the opinionated world we live, everyone I know has a opinion on everything be it sports, entertainment, politics or scandals. No one even flinches once but is ready to give an opinion and debate on a unknown topic, and before there is a barrage of criticism against this let me clarify, I am also among the people who criticize and debate on varied topics.

The point I am trying to make here is this, we all criticize the government, the bad roads, the traffic jams, bad movies, bad songs, Himesh Reshamiya, Emraan Hashmi and of course Shashi Tharoor. We are ready to make a rap sheet and list the qualities in dry sarcasm or witless humor, sounding condescending or downright irate. The bloggers are especially the most unforgiving ones, one small scandal or wrong step and there are a flurry of posts presenting their varied opinions. A few tactful people pull off am amazing round up of the events but the rest are just left staring at their opinion drowning in the ocean of mindless drub.

The opinionated are more concerned about voicing their opinion however callow they might be. Its no longer about putting a valid argument but just putting an argument. You can say "the bird is flying" or "the cat is singing" in response to Tharoor's dismissal from cabinet and viola you are an epitome to Thapar's legacy of journalism and Kushwant Singh's humour.

All I am saying is its sometimes best to just shut your mouth and swallow your pride.

Darwin, survival and all that talk

Darwin, the father of evolution proposed the single greatest phenomenon in nature. He observed "survival of the fittest", a grand plan in the scheme of nature, a descriptive force only bettered by the might of creation. The laurels to the observation can go on.

This phenomenon has single-handedly defined our generation. In many ways we are stuck in a rat race which we are involuntarily a part of. We tend to have the survival skills at our sharpest as resources are dwindling and ability to achieve depends on the ability we have.  This generation probably has a hunger that can never be satiated by  nature. 

Everything has grown in our times and gone global, if we look at just one generation before, they wanted to settle for plushy jobs working 9 to 6, have a family and try to move less frequently; today we look for the proverbial "greener pastures" in moving to other countries and taking up better jobs.Change was a dreaded word and no one ever looked forward to it. There was a lot of red tape and underhanded office politics but it was mostly manageable. In todays corporate environment there is no red tape, partly because it promotes quick decisions and brings about progress and partly because the environment is very unstable. The office politics stoops to new lows and sometimes borders on "how much kiss-ass can you give me?". 

The market today changes rapidly, the next big thing integrates more actions into one and alienates people for the most crucial part. There was a day when you were charged extra money to use the ATM and internet banking facilities were never heard of, today banks charge money if you actually step into a physical facility. Its not just the banks here, my cellphone service provider Vodafone used to provide toll free customer service, now I am greeted by a message from some machine saying, " Our IVR menu options have been enhanced to serve you better", and doles out some gibberish that I have to carefully listen. Of course not all things are bad, the exposure to events across the globe, voicing out our opinion for a just cause and easy filing  of taxes are all great. When you ponder over the need for such things its mainly because we don't have time anymore, for a quick chat with our neighbor, or standing in a queue to pay a bill. We complain about travelling  an hour or more in a comfortable bus with push back seats. Our best friends are the people we say "hi" to over a  telephone line. We mostly wait for the weekend to drown ourselves in some mindless entertainment or a pint of beer. We want to fight for causes and make a difference in other people's lives, with no consideration of our own. 

Its all down to a numbers game in the end, how many times have you gone abroad, how many  employees do you have, how much revenue was generated, how much was the profit, how much money did you make, how many people did you help, how many friends do you have on facebook and the list is endless. The rat race is on in every sphere of our lives today, from the corporate world to personal life and in the great words of Darwin "survival of the fittest".