Cup and Coffee -- Choice is yours

Cup and Coffee

Narrating an incident with a hope that, this will be bring atleast a small change in you. If not, forget this as a normal incidence.

Once old students of a college decided to meet their professor. All those students occupy good positions in various big MNCs. When the meeting started, they were all describing what kind of high pressure situation they undergo and how much stress they face in their work, etc.

In between the professor got up and went to kitchen to prepare coffee for all his students. He brought coffee pot and cups and kept them on the table. Some of the coffee cups were expensive and rest were very ordinary. Professor requested his students serve themselves.

All of them picked up expensive cups and no one selected normal, worn-out kind of cups.

"When I said serve yourself, all of you selected only expensive/good-looking cups. None of you picked up normal ones. All your attention was on expensive and high quality cups; none of you seems to be enthusiastic about quality of coffee. Rather enjoying good quality coffee your attention was on neighbors' cup.", said the professor.

He continued, "Life is like coffee. Position, money, etc. are like cup. Cup is just an instrument to hold coffee. On many occasions we give importance to cup, swallowing bad coffee"

So, it is your choice -- want a better coffee or an attractive cup.

Astronomy Workshop and Amazing Career Twist Story

Attended a workshop on "Career in Planetary Science" organized by Bangalore Astronomical Society. Even though number of enthusiastic attendees was very less, but the speaker himself and insight I got into US PhD/Research Program was of great interest.

Main speaker was Dr.Vishnu Reddy, who is Research Professor in North Dakota University. His life story (so far) from Bollywood association to journalist in Asian Age to a Research Professor in Planetary Science is amazing. Looks like a Bollywood film story itself.

He gave insight into different fields of Planetary sciences, interdisciplinary concept, etc. I was a little bit damped after hearing path to get PhD in US and struggle involved during post doc period. Routine work involved writing as much as paper for publication and do more of networking, etc didnot hit me well. But nothing is bed of roses. You can do what you want once you pass that hurdle, that's too in the field of your interest. No one else will decide your destiny (to some extent).

I was more interested to do some piece of Amateur Astro sitting at home, without building/purchasing a telescope. Got some leads, need to peruse further.



20th Sept

Taking Pride in One's work

When I was in ISRO, I thought making satellites was greatest thing and no one in India was doing as great work as I was. When moved away of ISRO, came to know there was whole lot of world out there, doing small or big -- contributing to the country and taking pride in that achievement. I was humbled.

I was elated to see the picture of earth from Satellite camera, whose electronics I had designed (apparently after 3-4 years of work). Eventhough I take pride to see the output of my first work at ISRO -- it is more of souvenir now. When I look back the work/process, I feel -- o sh**, it could have been done so smartly, without spending so much money and effort and more importantly could have done better end product considering the whole eco system in place.

The Camera I designed had resolution of 1km (for Geosyn. sat) and was done to beat then existing camera with 2km resolution (designed by another group), where as end user had capacity to handle only 8 km resolution !!! It was just a dry pride and hardly used on ground even today.

After coming out of ISRO, I learnt importance of creating a piece of product making a better eco system, rather than a standalone great piece. Somewhere we Indian (not just folks in govt labs) lack that attitude

Traffic Problem due to Mantri Square

Entering Malleshwaram from Majestic side has become horrible during week-end afternoon, mainly due to newly opened Mantri Square Mall. The biggest mall in India created the biggest mess in Malleswaram. The planning and approval of such a mall on such a road is highly questionable. I hope the mall collapse itself, after initial euphoria, due to lack of clean entry and exit points and car parking space.

WHEN I SPORTED BEARD

Beard, I feel is a natural gift to the “unfair sex”(read men) on this earth. It does not require any of nourishment nor investment. But unfortunately very few people cultivate this priced crop.

One day I decided to grow beard. The decision did not have any obsession., nor any spiritual, financial, logical, emotional, physiological or intellectual reasons. A coupe of days after my resolution, beard sprouted around and across my chin and cheek, forcing me to pass a few traumatic nights: felt as if sleeping on a thorny pillow. This experience taught me sense of tolerance.
Neither beard per se nor change in my look, amused as much as the observations, suggestions and critical reviews poured in from all corners around me. The comments were with all hues- candid, sarcastic, impudent, nostalgic etc.

The first remark was from Girish, a pessimist, who called me as “Modern Devdas” asked me “Who is that unfortunate Paru that rejected or dejected you and brought you to this state?” Rahul passed a sarcastic remark” A girl might have said that you would look nice with a beard that is raiason`d`eter for your funny face. ”Sunny was curt,” In either style you won`t look impressive.” I received a warm welcome from a regularly bearded fellow to his “Dadi dal”. An elderly person staying at my neighbourhood sensed a relation between on going “”sacred month (according to Hindu calender) to my owe of not shaving. On the other hand to an economist working at my office, my ‘bearding “ appeared as an austerity measure to save money for feeding petrol to my newly purchased scooter. Some female collegues had an oblique look at me, but did not dare to whet their appetite of curiosity. Similarly my bosses had inwardly smile, may be nostalgic, remembering their hey-days with such experiments and experiences. My beard was a hot topic in my bachelor friend circle. It was considered as a strong signal towards my home, indicating preparedness for marriage. So many jokes and shares were tailored, all impromptu.

I never knew that just by maintaining beard can bring such a dramatic change in ones personality. Some compared my bearded face to that of a typical kashmiri militant`s, where as to Subbu,a south Indian friend, it appeared like that of Telugu cine star Chiranjeevi. The cruelest of all was my look terrified a small kid of my neighbour. I became personanon grata in that house since my look was sufficient for that child to cry for atleast an hour. But the saddest part of the story was that, the dogs in my colony considered as a thief and started to bark and chase me calling the attention of the whole colony.
I had to listen to a variety of suggestions on how to maintain beard, what sort of style, and types suit me, etc. From stubborn Fidel Castro to revolutionary Ho-che-Minh, Bulganinand Kruschev to our own I. K. Gujral and tytler fashion were all referred to follow. The list of illuminaries whose beard I was advised to study included Tagore, M.F.Hussain, Salim Ali, Carl Marx etc.

All good things have to come to and end. One day Axe fell…..sorry razor fell on my lovely attractive beard. I received an interview call letter from an multinational company, supplying shaving cream, for a plum position its marketing division. Obviously a shaving cream company strictly expects its employees (or aspiring employees)to be clean shaven. Thus my experiment with beard ended. But the queries did not end, just changed their course, ”Why did you shave?”

Down the memory lane -- My visit to Ahmedabad

Hi,

I happened to visit and stay in “Apnu Amdavad” almost for about a week. Thought to pen-down (rather key-in) my experience and observation with some apt subject line.

During Dasara vacations, I toured with my family, Udaipur and Mt Abu before reaching Ahmedabad.Exactly 10 years back (mid Oct 97) I bid adieu to Ahmedabad, in search of greener pastures(?!). Lot of water might have flown along Sabaramati (!!) during this period and I was expecting some changes in Ahmedabad and was ready for many surprises.

The first observation, which had not changed, was getting an auto-rickshaw. At 9:30pm from Paldi to Vastrapur, I could easily get an auto and that too without demanding any extra fare (It was just Rs 27/-). Unheard of in Bangalore. Three main changes I noted immediately were – wide roads, CNG run autos (and buses) reducing pollution, flowing water in Sabaramati river (even in the month of October).Most of the roads in Western Ahemdabad have been spruced-up drastically. Leave alone the likes of Satellite road and Vastraupur main road, even Ramdev Nagar main road connecting Sangam Apartment looks quite wide and neat and path-hole free. (Did not find any pond at the mid of road, which were forcing us to walk or drive our scooter on edge of the road. ) All roads have good markings and sign boards both in Gujarathi and English. With less cars on the road, the traffic seems to be very comfortable, especially one haling from Bangalore.Was put up at Vastrapur at my wife’s cousin’s house, had an itinerary to visit DriveIn, SAC, Akshardham, old Ahmedabad Area, Law Garden, CG Road, Sangam, a few friends, Garbha etc. etc. Quite a hectic plan with about 5 days stay.

I could enter SAC with prior appointment (C P Sharma was the officer I was to meet officially) on the pretext of a technical discussion, after some formalities. The main gate itself has been shifted a bit inside and we have to pass through second gate to enter SAC area. The second gate is manned and employees have to swipe for each entry and exit. All the vehicles (including staff vehicle) were parked within the area between these two gates. There was a café in that area open all along and even for outsiders. The security, I was told, very tight, but there was no frisking or checking through metal detector etc., which is common in some offices in Bangalore. To me it looked still laxed, almost as it was earlier. Quite a few new buildings have come up; lot of new divisions, groups, areas etc. Naturally many familiar names/faces are group-heads or division heads (R K Dave and Samudraih are GDs);friends have become Project Managers etc. Like IT folks, many seems to be visiting abroad – from French Guyana to Moscow ; Israel to Iran. With all the surfacial changes, the undercurrent seemed to be same – warm and casual. People were discussing about 6th pay commission, HRA Changes, CDR, DDR, MRB,…..,still using multiple node locked licenses of expensive tool suites…low salary Vs productivity discussion, ….After meeting many in (old) SED, I was back at SAC gate at around 5:30pm, lots of familiar faces rushing past me in scooter or cars (from PFF, RSAG, IPDPG, …..). Never had “I know this person ..” kind of experience more than 100 times in a span of about 10 minutes. Would have been one of them had I stayed there !?.

The unbeatable Drive-In is exactly same as what it was, eventhough the drive-in road has changed a lot. The ticket rate been increased to 30, which is quite less than what I pay at Multiplexes in Bangalore. My kids especially, enjoyed the show or the environment (not the movie), where they can move around freely while watching movie or even lie-down on bench/lawn. Since Navratri was on, the crowd was relatively thin. After having “snake” during interval we left the venue at around 10 pm, watching the movie for about 2 hours. The road beyond Drive In, towards Sarkhej-Gandhinagar road (now called SG Road) is completely packed with shopping malls, apartments etc. No more looks like out-skirt of the city.

One spot which has astonishing changes is Satellite road – Highway crossing. Remember, we used to go for a night walk to get a cool breeze till highway? Now that area seems to be most posh and happening place in the city. Shopping malls and Cineplexes are dotted along, seems whole of CG road shifted here. Vikram Nagar has come well within the city and in this posh area. Lifestyle, BigBazar, Crossword, Reliance Mart have all crowded the spot. May be, as a consequence, Ramdev Nagar ‘char rasta’ is very clean and all shops have been pushed sideway. I missed the cows which were acting as traffic controller and failed to locate them even anyway near by.

Vikram Nagar has become quite clean, vast and lively. Went to Nathu’s place at Vikram Nagar for dinner and also had short visit to Anna (Govinda Raju, who was playing with his one year old son!!) and Bhalerao. Seems whole Vikram Nagar is one big family; Nathu’s daughter was freely moving around in neighbouring houses (including Anna’s house); Sharmaji was pointing out

among many playing children --- Asha ben’s (Asha Sharma) kid, Pradeep’s daughter, Ravi’s son etc etc. (Amzing, considering cellular city where we live in). Comfortable and contended life ? Attaching photos taken from Nathu’s balcony (located on 7th floor) – new part of Vikram Nagar (my daughter and Nathu’s daughter posing as models). Ramdev Nagar – Bopal road is also wide and occupied.With good road conditions and new d

evelopment at around SAC, Bopal area seems to have become very good residential area. New ring round is touching Bopal and old societies like Param dham, Kalindi etc are stone throw away from there. Again, big shopping area developed all long that area. I stayed with Sharma for two nights as last leg of my tour. Sharmaji has an enviable bungalow in a nice colony near Bopal, with many SACians as neighbours. His villa has 4 bed rooms with large front side lawn, place for parking atleast three cars, wide road within society… Attaching one of photo capturing the grandeur. Paul, Mala Bhavsar Verma, Nitant Dubey, Pankaj Srivastav.. were some of the ISRO faces I could remember who stay around in that colony.

Undoubtedly Garbha was the ultimate item of this visit. The same enthu, sound, color, smell crowd, dress, beauty, beat and the magic. Felt for regretting moving out of Ahmedabad. The whole city was looking like dancing the tune and beat of Garba song ..”Sarasateene……..”. Guess you cannot find such a stage and fun anywhere in the world. Also visited Akshardham, Gandhi Ashram, Ratan Pole and Teen Darwaza area, Vishala etc.

With heavy heart, left Ahmedabad on 21st Oct morning enroute to Mumbai with lots of “Ifs, buts, could have been, should have been,…….”.

Wish you happy Deepavali.

November 2007