Thoughts
16.06.10 21:55 Hrs
"I attend to my ship"
This is a story which was forwarded to me by my friend, Sudeep Culas
An old sea cptain uused to take day-trippers to islands. on one trip, the boat was full of young people. They laughed at the old captain when they saw him say a prayer before sailing out, because the day was fine and the sea was calm
Howevere they weren't long at sea when a strom suddenly blew up and the boat began to pitch violently. The terrified passengers came to the captain and asked him to join them in prayer.
But he replied, "I say my prayers when the sea is calm. When it is rough, I attend to my ship"
The moral of the story: if we cannot and will not seek God in the quiet moments of our lives, we are not likely to find him when troublestrikes. We are more likely to panic. But if we have learnt to seek him and trust him in quiet moments, then most certainly we will find him when the going gets rough
19.04.10 22:35 Hrs
Mother and Son"
A telephone conversation between a very religoius catholic mother and an even more religous catholic son
Mother - How are you my son ?
Son - I am doing fine mother.
Mother - did you go to mass last sunday, my dear son ?
Son- No mother, it was snowing heavily here.
Mother - Hmmm.. son..did you read the news about the volcano erruption in Finland ?
Son - Yes mother.
Mother- Did you read the news about the earth quake in China ?
Son - yes mother.
Mother - Dear son, better start praying, it is a sign of the end of the world.
Son- Should I pray only because the world is going to end ? If the world was not going to end then I need not pray ?
Mother - now now son....do not start debating with me ...you know exactly what I meant.
Son- Yes mother ..I know what you meant ..but fear is not the best means for motivation.
Mother- well my son..remember how you used to study just before the exams..that fear did have some positive results .....or am I wrong ?
Son - That is exactly what I am trying to say..one should not learn out of fear ..but due to interest in knowing new things..
Mother - well..well this studies out of fear ..did after all make an engineer out of you .. so it cant be that bad ehh
Son - yes mother. Fear does have its practical advantages. But I will be praying not only when I afraid but also when I have no particular reason to pray.
Mother - That is even better my son.
Son- Mother..why do you see so much television ..and keep getting worried ..why not sit and pray during that time ?
Mother - Yes. my dear son..in the future I will ponder over your advice...
03.03.10 23:05 Hrs
Varun and Arun
A discussion between two budding indian business men over a round of toddy (an alcoholic beverage made from the sap of coconut trees).
Varun - I am raising guppy fishes in my fish tank. They breed better than rabbits. In one weeks time I will have 1000 guppy fishes. I will sell it in Bangaluru at a profit of rupees 2 per fish.
Arun - Pah man, you are wasting your time. I had been raising piranaha fish on a large scale in a fish farm. You can make real money with Piranah fishes. I sold the entire business for a profit of 1 million rupees. I am a tiger, when it comes to acquaculture.
Varun- real impressive. I am also raising jasmines in my garden and trying to sell it in the local market. That brings in a lot of handy cash.
Arun - Pah man, you are wasting your time. I had a rose farm where I used to sell 1000 roses a day. Roses cultivation is the real business. Sold it to a multinational for a profit of 2 million rupees. I am a tiger, when it comes to horticulture.
Varun - Hmmmmm
Arun - I see that you are trying your hand at tapioca cultivation. It is a waste of time,man. I had a big farm with water melons. Used the latest drip irrigation technolgy. This Tapioca business is for losers. I say to you man. Water melon : that is where the real money is. I know what I am talking, man. I am a real tiger, when it comes to agriculture.
Varun - Hmmmmmm...
Arun - By the way ..what the hell are you doing in this small boring village at the end of the world, man..dont even get decent beer in this dump. I will talk to Ajay and set up a brewery here. Necessity is the mother of invention, man and I am tiger when it comes to invention.
Varun - Ajay who ..
Arun - Ajaya Manjaya, man..I am real close to him, man. I am a tiger, when it comes to networking
Varun - Hmmmm.. I have a question.
Arun - Any time, man. I am a tiger, when it coms to consulting.
Varun - Did the tiger come to your house or did your mother go to the forest ?
Arun - Hmmmm...
26.01.10 00:05 Hrs
Meaning twisters
"Gift" in German means - Poison
"Pagoda" in Russian means - weather
25.01.10 00:05 Hrs
Laufenburg - Two countries, one city
I first came to Laufenburg in August 2008. It was for the annual reunion of our masters Batch of 2005. It was a tradition that each one of us took turns in hosting teh calss reunion in teh city in which one was residing. One of our friends was working in Laufenburg, Switzerland.
At that time I was working in Germany and I came to Laufenburg with the train.
What I remember about Laufenburg is the view from the train on the german side of the border. At first the city reminded me of a film set from a medevial film. These films and novels have fascinated me since my teenage t days. After reading those novels I used to have a mental picture as to what a medevial city would look like. The city of Laufenburg seemed to come right out of one such novel. There are those old narrow houses. Hugging each other, built on the banks of the river Rhine. The bridge linking Switzerland and Germany , where the Rhine narrows. The narrow winding streets laid with cobbled stones. The old church built on a small hill overlooking the town and the river. The bells fom the church sound at regular intervalls , have a soothing effect reminding us of the passage of time
Laufenburg: LocationLaufenburg is laocated on the Rhine river on the border between Germany and Switezerland. There are two cities named Laufenburg. Laufenburg, Germany and Laufenburg, Switzerland. The river Rhine becomes very narrow here and the Romans built a bridge crossing the Rhine river here.
Laufenburg: History24.01.10 22:35 Hrs
Sayings
Entscheide niemals heute was, was nicht unbedingt entscheiden werden muss, denn morgen bist du immer etwas weisser
Samih Sawaris , egyptian businessman
There are only two great tragedies in life. One is not getting what you want, the other is getting it.
Oscar Wilde
03.10.09 23:40 Hrs
Changes
I happend to go home last July and was struck by the changes that were taking place in India at a rapid pace. The issues resulting from a socitey that was making its transition from a farming/trading society to a knowlege based society.
I hail from a family whose livelihood was generated from farming and trading. The family had its roots in a small village named Katoor in the district of Trichur. My father moved to the city of Kochi and started a business.
It is a frightening feeling for a person when he moves from an agricultural/trading phase into a knowledge phase.
In the agricultural / trading phase there are a lot of parameters which a person cannot control. People in this pahse of evolution tend to be very pious and pray a lot to cover the uncertainities in life that they are faced with.
,,,, In a In the knowlegde phase of the evolution of a society a person can be compared to a product. We buy a product for its poperties. To be continued27.05.09 22:09 Hrs
Online cookie
A chat session on a popular indian marriage website
--------------------------------------------------------------------------Woman: Hi
Man: Hi
Woman: How are you ?
Man: I am doing great and how about you ?
Woman: Me too
Woman: He he..sorry boss..I just saw in your profile that you are shorter than me..
Man: hee hee I just noticed the same !
Woman: well then..bye bye and take care
Man: bye bye
Is that what you call an online cookie... Aaha.. quickie ?
27.04.09 23:10 Hrs
Getting married
Spend another two hours oggling girls in the marriage web site.
An amazing fact I noticed today is the number of malyalee catholic girls who choose the nursing profession and are working through out the world.
I have a feeling that if all the malayalee nurses decided to simultaneously go on strike, the world health system will be crippled.
26.04.09 13:49 Hrs
Getting married
I am slowly understanding that getting married involves a lot of hardwork. Today I spend 3 hours looking through profiles in a marriage web site.
What I learned today :Girls want their husbands to be their best friend.
Girls brought up outside Kerala seems to be terrified of boys brought up in Kerala.
14.04.09 13:35 Hrs
The apple tree
It was the start of spring when I noticed that my eyes were itching and I was having a heavy cold.
I gave my body one week time to recover by itself. After one week I decided to go to the local heilpraktiker. The heilprakiter is an alternative medicine doctor who practices a mix of plant medicines and homeopathy.
The heilpraktiker whom I visited was a big boned fellow with a thick beard and an unruly mop of hair.
He had mesmerising balck eyes which somehow made me think that he could hypnotise me if he wanted to.
His appearance resembled the photos of Rasputin (remember the Boneym song "Ra RA Rasputin..lover of the russian queen.."). So my pet name for my heilpraktiker is Rasputin.
Rasputin did a few tests and asked me to wait for him in the consultation room.
After half an hour he comes into the consulation room and takes his seat:
Rasputin: Well, you have got pollen allergy.
Me: How come, I have never had it before ?
Rasputin: It is a special allergy against the pollen of apple trees
Me: aaha..that you mention it..opposite my flat there a lovely apple tree..now it is in full bloom.
Rasputin: Soo..soo. Lovely and deadly. Your body is trying to block the pollen from entering your system, that is why your nose is blocked and your eyes are itching.
Me: Mmmhh
Rasputin: This is a sign of high sensibility of your body. Many artists suffer from this. Do you have any artists in your family ?
Me: Aaaah...no...mhhh I have an aunt who is a writer and she also suffers from asthma ...
Rasputin: Soo...Sooo. yes I think I can see a hereditary connection.
Me: All my relatives have diabetes also..does this have any connection ?
Rasputin: Connection with what ?
Me: With artistic genes ..?
Rasputin: Naah.. that means they are all eating too much..and it is purely an insulin problem.
Me: Is there any thing we can do against this allergy ?
Rasputin: I will give you some medicines that will reduce the sensibility of your body.
Me: Is there any medicine that will clear my blocked nose, without reducing my sensibility..
Rasputin: It is either that or you can continue snorting like a pig.
Me: aaha..
Rasputin: Did this aunt of yours..the author.. ever mention that she feels more creative when she has symptoms of asthma ?
Me: Mhhh. my aunt suffers from asthma, high blood pressure, high cholestrol and diabetes. So she finds it difficult to seperate the symptoms. But she once mentioned that she feels highly creative when she goes through financialy tough times.
Rasputin: So...so ..Necessity is the mother of creativity..Well you can try out these medicines and come by next week.
I went home, and decided to sleep early that day. My nose was completely blocked and was amazed at the amount of slime my body was producing. I decided to try out some breathing tricks. I tried to hold my breadth and see if the nose would clear after 30 sec. I was slowly suffocating and could see that I would have to breath through my mouth. I was amazed at the amount of pressure the slime was able to resist. Thinking about it ..if one could manufacture it commercially we could use it as a construction material..must talk with my small sister who is a civil engineer.
Suddenly i feel that that my left nostril has become free and I have a short time where I can breath normally through my nose. The relief is unimaginable. But this is a short lived interval and after some time my nose is blocked again. I toss around about and then the unimaginable happens.. I suddenly have a latte.. I had developed my own theory that man is by nature a pleasure seeking animal. But this pleasure seeking part comes into play only when his essential life important things like air, water and food are fulfilled. Wee.. to prove my theory wrong..I could see that I was having a latte when I was not able to breath properly. What I absolutely hate is seeing my well thought of self developed theories being proven wrong. I think that must be hell on earth.. not being able to breath and at the same time having to tackle a latte. This would have been the dream of Marquis de sade. After an hour I manage to get some sleep before the alarm wakes me up ...
03.04.09 18:00 Hrs
An interesting fact
Something I read in a friends blog:
"The thing that makes you exceptional, if you are at all, is inevitably that must also make you lonely".
Lorraine Hansberry, playwright and painter
10.03.09 23:00 Hrs
The recession
A fact I read in an article about the new economics resulting from the recession and the government support to failing institutions:
"Profits are privatized but losses are socilaized."
09.03.09 23:00 Hrs
Life as it is
Something I heard in a film and keeps on reoccuring in my mind :
"The enormous distance between life as we dream it and life as it is...."
08.03.09 23:08 Hrs
Cultural confusion: The last orange
Two swiss employees and one indian employee are sitting in an office. In this office there is a fruit bowl containing one orange.
The indian wants to eat this last orange.
Indian employee to the swiss colleague on his left:
"Would you like to have half of the orange ?"
Swiss employee on the left:
"Yes. Thank you"
Indian employee to the swiss colleague on his right:
"Would you like to have half of the orange ?"
Swiss employee on the right:
" Yes. Thank you"
Indian employee : "Hmmmmmmmmmm"
18.02.09 22:10 Hrs
Converstaion between father and son
Father (in Kochi, Kerala, India) telephones his son in Switzerland:
Son: "Hello father, how are you ?"
Father: "Oh my son, inspite of lying inside a moquito net, the mosquitos are biting me."
Son: "Why dont you come to Switzerland for a month."
Father: "If I come then I am going to stay for a year."
Son: "Mmmmm... you make it very difficult for me to be a loving son."
18.01.09 24:00 Hrs
From the book "Getting things done" by David Allen
It does not take much strength to do things, but it requires a great deal of strength to decide what to do.
We must strive to reach that simplicity that lies beyond sophistication. -- John Gardner
To ignore the unexpected (even if it were possible) would be to live without oppourtunity, spontaneity and the rich moments of which "life" is made. - Stephan Covey
Your ability to deal with surprises is your competitive edge.
When you are not sure where you are going, you will never know when enough is enough.
The sense of anxiety and guilt does not come from having too much to do; it is the automatic result of breaking agreements with yourself.
Out of the strain of the doing, into the peace of the done. - Julia Louis Woodruff
Bailing water in a leaky boat diverts energy from rowing the boat.
The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks and then starting on the first one. - Mark Twain
I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happend.- Mark Twain
It would be great to be born with 80 years and grow old to 18 years. - Mark Twain
Talk does not cook rice. - chinese proverb
There are only two problenms in life: 1) you know what you want and you do not know how to get it; and/or 2) you do not know what you want. - Steven Snyder
An idealist believes that the short run does not count. A cynic believes the long run does not matter. A realist believes that what is done or left undone in the short run determines the long run.
A vision without a task is but a dream, a task without a vision is drudgery, a vision and a task is the hope of the world. - From a church in Sussex, England
01.11.08 23:02 Hrs
Partner search in modern times
Every culture has its own ticks when it comes to marriage.
In order to understand how a culture works, or to really understand the inner workings of a country or a group one can analyse the marriage habits of the members of the group.
This is a short story about the trials of a 30 year old Indian trying to get married in the traditional Indian way.
Francis is a Catholic born and brought up in India.
In India there are small pocktes where the christian population is concentrated.
The state from which Francis hailed, Kerala has the highest population of christians in India.
The majority of these christians are catholics.
The catholics are again divided into several sub groups. The two major catholic groups in Kerala are the Roman sysrian Catholics (RSC) and the Latin Catholics (LC)
Francis was 30, of dark complexion and short of stature.
He was a chemical engineer working for a pharma company in Austria.
In the traditional indian way, the first aspect that would be checked when a marriage proposal came was whether
the families matched.
Before the advent of the IT revolution, the men had it comparitively easy getting married, because the girls found it difficult to find suitable employment and the majority of the girls had no option other than to get married.
There was also pressure from the parents side on the girl to get married after a certain age.
But with the IT revolution in India, employment oppourtunities abounded for girls and the girls and their parents also were not in a hurry to get married, unlike in the "good old days".
Upto 15 years ago almost all the marriages were arranged by marriage brokers who used to get a provision when they brokered a sucessful marriage.
But in the last 10 years the young people were going out of Kerala to work and the christian community had embrassed online partner search sites, offically recognised by the catholic church and run by christian priests.
One had to pay a certain amount and register oneself in this website. One has the possibilty of posting a photo,d giving ones vital statistics, information about oneself, requirements about the partner and so forth.
Francis's parents had already registered him in one such website.
Altough Francis was 167 cm, his parents had made him 170 cm in the website.
He occupied a normal engineering position, but his parents had already promoted him to a manager.
Francis had made it a habit to log in this website very day and check out the new entries.
It was the first time in his life that he felt happy about India's large population. At least there was no shortage of christian girls wanting to get married in India.
One could enter the expectations about ones life partner and Francis was astound by the absurdity of some of the requirements.
Some of the requistes he saw were as following, after reading these requirements he had to wonder about the priority of his countrymen and women.
Some of the interesting requirements for bridegrooms are listed below:
A girl who was a doctor wanted a doctor:
"Doctors, tall from well to do family"
Some girls and parents were more general:
"Height above 5'8"(172cm), fair, respectable family. Maximum age 29 yrs. Prefer Thrissur Candidate."
Others just wanted to escape from India :
"Preferably employed in U.S.A"
Some were worried about the profession:
"Should be professionaly qualified and height above 165cms"
Some were adamant, that the boy should be employed, Bill Gates need not even try:
"Good job (no business), clean habits. Age below 30 yrs. Height 5'6" or above"
Others were focussed on the grooms salary:
"Well employed with a monthy salary of Rs.40,000/- and above"
Few wanted boys with indian culture but living outside India:
"Postgraduate qualification(any branch) from middle class family, christain values, indian culture, Malayalam speaking, ambitious grooms currently working or settled in USA"
Some had only physical requirements ( Brains no bar, poverty no bar):
"Height above 172 cm, age up to 31 years"
Yet others wanted boys who were employed only India:
"Height above 5'8", age inbetween 28 to 32, financially good, good family background, jobs only in India"
Some wanted brilliant boys from noble and well off families:
"Age upto 30yrs, height above 165cm. fair, God loving, academically brilliant. Financially sound and noble family".
There were also girls searching for romatic guys:
"Should be godfearing,simple,smart,optimistic,Good Family Background,understantable,loving caring nature.....knowing each and every beats of my sweet heart....like a sprit of my body"
Some parents were downright practical in their requiremenst:
"Any field, but should be able to take care of the girl".
Francis was getting iritated by the constant requrements of height.
It was as if height was directly proprotional to the reproductive capacity of the male.
He was also nerved by the fact that his parents had given the false information regarding his height.
To his dismay he found that one could not change ones height in the website once it was typed in.
For the first time he was able to understand the prdicament in which indian grils found themselves.
India is a nation of brown skinned people and the skin fairness was a sign of beauty. So a girl had a tough time if she did not posses this fair skin. In the mariiage web site a typical profile of a girl was as following:
Name : Mixy Maxy
Age : 22
Complexion : Fair
Christian Denomination : RC Syrian Catholic
Height : 154 cm(5 Feet 01 inch)
Qualification : MSW doing
Occupation : Not working
Francis was also disappointed with himself that he found himself contacting girls who he found pretty. There was an amount of hypocraciy of which he was guilty of concerning his partner search. He wanted to marry an intelligent girl. But he found that when searching for girls intelligence itself was not sufficient.
He was looking for an intelligent and pretty girl.
The value of moneyAmong the syrian catholics, there was a lot of emphasis put on money. Being very industrious syrian catholics were one of the richest groups in Kerala. The advantage of being rich was that the children were provided an excellent education. The society also put an emphasisi that people make money.
The young people were aware that their standing in society depended on the amount of money they would make. Higher education skills guaranteed a high level of income an resulted in putting a high emphasisi on education. The pressure to make money to maintain the social standing in the society is mentally exhausting. The men felt the pressure in a suffocating manner.
Francis remembered a conversation he had with his father when he was 20.
Francis's father used to take a digestive after his dinner and on some days when he had a digestive too many and
when Franci's mother was out of hearing range, the father would advice him about the tough facts of life.
One night his father revealed to him a simple truth, - without money not even your wife wont respect you.
Francis did not understand the full meaning of this at that time, but with the passage of time and on observing his surroundings
with the eye of the grown up, Francis recognised that for many people making money was a way of getting respect.
He noticed that when a broke and poor guys gives advice nobody takes it serously. But when a rich man says something people hang on to his words.
The mothers worry
Francis mother was terrified that he would marry a non malyalee, non catholic.
Like in many traditional socities when children marry out side their communities,
the parents are blamed by the society for not keeping the children in line. The weight of the stigma of marrying outside their community is born by the parents.
This makes the parents spend uncountable sleepless nights.
Francis mother was under enormous pressure from her family circle. Whenever she used to meet relatives,
the only thing everybody was asking
about was why is Francis not yet married with 31.
The selection of choosing a partner is approximately as following:
Initially the parents would take a look at the CV of the bride or bridegroom.
What was strange in this was that although the qualifications and the physical attributes of the biride or bridgroom were important the qualification, adventures or misadventures of the family forefathers weighed in with a significant factor.
Francis found some real examples of this selection process during his search.
He had found a qualified girl fulfilling most of his crazy requirements and asked his family for further approval. His father and mother poked around a bit and found out that some relatives of the girl were a bit abnormal once they reached their menopause(Francis had read that all women share this problem..) . An aunt of the girl had set her house on fire.
Although this was a rumour (India is always full of rumours) this was enough of a K.O criterion as far as Francis´ss parents was concerned. Francis was a logical thinker, but he believed that one should cover as many angles as possible. He was hoping that not many girls had aunts who were so adventurous once they reached their menopause. Franics logical explanation was that in a suppressed society people find a ventil for their frustration in different ways.
Francis was astounded by the enormous amount of time and energy that his parents were spending on his behalf. He was begining to undersatnd the old sysing that the time you devote for someone is the true measure of love.
If the parents found that the families would match then the first round is cleared. But this was the most delicate part of the whole process. There is a kind of unwritten checklist where each point had a certain weightage. Some of these points in the decreasing order of importance are as following:
1. The financial status of the family.
2. How did the family make its money ? If the family had come to money recently then this was a negative factor.
3. The educational background of the family members. If both the families got together for an occassion would the family members be able to strike up a lively conversation without embarassing each other ?
The practise of naming childrenFrancis had always beeen aware of this, but he found it atrocious only when he was serously thinking of getting married.
Many catholics in Kerala had a strange practise when naming their children. The alphabets of the father`s name and the alphabets of the mother`s name would be combined to make the name of the child.
The result of this was that if the Father`s name was Francis and the mother`s name was cicily, the name of the child would be "Frency".Francis was saying a number of intersting comibations like "Mincy" "Shincy" " Tomcy" and so on. It was very romantic from the side of the parents but at the same time very cruel on the children.
Well the parents should try out the old mongolian custom of naming their children. In Mongolia (supposedly) the mother makes a list with the names she has shortlisted for her child (the father has supposedly no say in such matters). The mother goes to the front door and shouts out each name at the top of her voice 20 times over. After shouting "Frency , come back here immediatley" twenty times, normal mothers will settle for something more down to earth. This way the parents get over their romantic sentiments and get downright practical while naming their children.
Walking the trodden pathFrancis's grandmother hailed from a family of academicians. His grandmother was always moaning the fact that she had been married into a family of uncouth traders with nothing but a lot of land and coconut trees.
As a hangover of the caste system people gave grudging respect to businessmen and risk takers but the majority of the population wanted their children to become academicians and have a safe job.
Francis's father was found of saying - " A large population of Kerala was waiting to get a job so that they could fall sick and then take sick leave".
When his grandmother mourned the lack of intelligencia in her husbands family , her husband used to retort that although his family was not cultured he certainly did not have highly intelligent relatives who were up to all kinds of surprises.
As a boy, Francis did not understand this retort from his grandfather. But after a certain incident occured Francis understood the significance of his grandfather's statement.
While growing up, a cousin of his from his grandmothers was a role model for Francis and all his cousins. This co was a brilliant student. He had cleared one of the toughest entrance exams in India and was studying in an elite egineering college. All the other kids were in awe of this cousin. They used to refer him as straight arrow because he seemed to be unwavering in acheving his and more irksome his parents goals.
Just after he had passed out from this college and he was being paraded as the dream bachelor, straight arrow
sprung a surprise which showed that he was after all not a straight arrow.
Without much advance warning stratight arrow packed his bags and left for the Himalays.
The rest what the people heard were part rumor, part fact. There were rumours flying around that straight arrow had joined a group of sadhus who were smoking ganja and travelling through the foothills of the Himalayas.
According to other very reliable sources- Straight arrow had himself become a guru and was deep into meditation.
Francis was really moved by this adventure of Straight arrow. He was irked to see the grownups now talking about Straight arrow in hushed up tones. Straight arrows parents were conservative peopel who were heart broken at this step of straight arrow.
Francis' grandfather was in high spirits, chuckling and reminding grandmother every now an then about the effect of too much academics in a family.
Then one day , Straight arrow turned up again in his village. He had grown a beard, was thin like a scare crow and had become a vegitarian.
Straight arrow was now maintaing a low profile and recovering from his Himalyan adventure.
His relatives gave him no respite and put him immediately back on the marriage market.
Unfortunately Straight arrow was already branded as a high risk commodity. Straight arrow had a tough time finding a bride.
The elders who were used to parading Straight arrow as a pin-up, now found yet another use for Straight arrow.
Whenever the subject of Straight arrow was raised all the aunts would put a sad face and remark in a remorseful way as to what a waste of a brilliant boy , who would ever marry him now.
All this remorse was addresed indirectly to the youngsters sitting around , just to remind them -"see what happens when you stray from the safe trodden path".
Francis's parents had never been able to easily settle upon a common solution for any issue there were facing. During his childhood Francis used to think that this was a lack of ove, but as he grew up he begin to recognise that this disagreemnt between his parents was also an indication of a certain level of intelligence.
Most issues in his household had to go through a process of long debates, sulking from his mothers side , some shouting festivals from his father, before ultimately a common solution could be reached. As a grown up, Francis had grasped that he was seeing how a democarcy really functions in the basic unit of the society -the Family.
When it came to the question of finding a bride for Francis, the parents were really divided in their opinion. Francis's mother had a somewhat extra-terristrial requirements about the bride. She should be smart but not too smart. She should be from a good family but not too posh and so on. Franci's father had more lofty ambitions about the bride. The brides family should have the necesary background so that when the families got together they would be on the same wavelength. When Francis's father talked to Francis about a prospective bride he would say aw When his mother
01.11.08 23:02 Hrs
The Company
I have made a shift in my career. Till now I was working with physical products that means products that you could see and touch. Now I have joined a company that is an electrical grid operator. The company is responsible for the high voltage electrical grid of a country.
The european union has stipulated that the elctrical energy market in Europe must be liberalised.
That means that the electrical energy market has to allow free access to any company wanting to take part in the selling of energy to the end customer.
Usually as the electrical grid has evolved over a period of time a company has the generation units that produce electricity as well as the electrical grid and all equipmens like transformers and circuit breakers that are necessary to tranport the electrical energy to the end customers.
In order to ensure a non- discriminating market , one of the first requirements is the separtation of generation of electricity and the transport of electricity.
The reasoning behind this seperation is that suppose generation and transport of electricity belongs in the the hands of one company, when a new player enters the market of electricity generation, the existing company can put hurdles in access of the new company which is generating electricity to transport the energy using the old company's grid.Thus the new player cannot sell its generated energy to ist customers.
This reminds me of the seperation of the state and church which was one of the important basis of the renaissance which marked the end of the dark ages. As long as the state and church were not separted new ideas of governance could not flourish . Today when we take a look at the countries where the state and church are not seperated, we can see that in those countries democarcies do not flourish.
The aim of liberalisation is to inculcate an environment of innovation, new ideas, new solutions and new startergies.
My company is situated in a city called Laufenburg, which lies on the banks of the Rhine river. Across the Rhine r is Germany. For lunch we stroll acroos the bridge connecting Switzerland and Germany and have our lunch in Germany. The view from the bridge is a dream.
To be continued
< h3>.11.08 23:02 HrsThe ice cream factory
To be continued
01.11.08 23:02 Hrs
What I want to be in my next life
In my next life I want to be a german girl.
let me explain how and why I came to this conclusion.
I had been working since one month in my new company.
I was making a presentation for an important training in our department regarding a new system that was going to be implemented.
My boss who was responsible for this training was under immenese pressure to get this new system implented and running.
He was a German, but did not look like a typical German.
He was a thin tall guy, and half bald at 31 years. He had the fine features and eyes which was always bubbling with entusiasm. Having know him from my student days I knew he was inteligent and also had a sense of handling poeple.
He has one character trait which I appreciate the most in people. I call it the Einstein to Jack the ripper spectrum talent.
You come across pople, very seldom in your life who can comfotably move in all kinds of circles. Right from the pick pocket circle to the CEO circle. My boss had this talent.
The first week I see him working hard, planning critical startegy, handling diffiuclt contract meetings, making brilliant conclusions, and the next week he invites me to take part in a poker game held in one corner of the company after office hours. Some members of our company get together every tuesday evening for a game of texas poker and my boss was in the midst of action, as if he did nothing else as play poker , swear like a ruffian and get drunk .
The next morning he would be at work early in the morning as if the late night poker session was a bad dream.
My boss and me were woking on a presenatation and I was thinking that we were in for a long day, then suddenly my boss says that he has to go home. To my surprise he says, today he has to cook. At first I thought he was joking and then I see that he meant it in all earnst.
I also noticed that he was not absolutly happy with this cooking issue, but he had given his word to his wife that he would cook that day and he felt he had to fulfill his word. I also had a suspicion that if he did not keep his word, his wife would make make his life a wald water rafting session.
25.10.08 21:10 Hrs
The Meeting
I had been working three weeks in my new company.
At 10 am one tuesday we were having our monthly department meeting.
It was a sunny autmn day.There were 10 people sitting jam packed in our small meeting room.
Tightly packed, it was a cosy feeling, heightening the effect that we were all sitting in the same boot and that we either sail together or sink together.
Me and Mr Pacholek were the two new members in our department, all the others were old hands.
Mr Pacholek was a German. He was a tall handsome guy, with a small french beard.
He was always very well dressed and wore two rings , a bacelet and a fat silver chain. He wore a graceful watch and an Armani spectacle. His hair was the most remarkable. It was gelled and the hair stood out like the horns of a porcupine.
I had my writing pad with me and as the meeting started I began to write down the things I did not understand and there were many things which I had no clue about.
I was also trying to put an expression of interested enthusiasam which can be very tiring when you try to hold out for a long time. It is trying to pose for a photo session whith a wide smile for a long time.
It is tough on the face muscles.
After 10 minutes I began to slowly find my orientation and the meeting beame interesting, I was slowly getting a grasp of the issues that were being discussed. I could relax and my face muscles got their well deserved rest.
In betweeen I happend to look around and to my embarrasment, I found Mr Pacholek dozing.
He was sitting opposite to me and taking a small nap. At first I thought he had just closed his eyes, but on longer observation, I found that he was actualling taking a nap.
I looked around the table, but none of the others seemed to have noticed this.
Every now and then, Mr Pacholek would open his eyes a wee bit and I think he was looking at me and I heave a sigh of relief thinking that he was alt last waking up. But no, his lips would curl up, smile a lazy stupid smile, which seemed to be full of contentment and then go back to dozing.
Although it was none of my business when Mr Pacholek was dozing in a meeting I found it very embarrasing, especially when we were the only two new memebers in the team.
I compare it to a situation where you are hearing a presentation and the person making the presentation has his zipper open. You want to let him know but at the same time you dont want to embarass him and so you sit tight and hope that you are the only one who has noticed this. You find it impossible to concentarte on the presenatation, you hope that the presentation ends quickly without much embarrasment.
I could see the others slowly nudging each other and laughing. The the project leader continued with the discussion without a sign of anything untoward. I had to admire the tact and dipomacy of the swiss. At the end of the meeting mr Pacholek woke up and none of the others mentioned a word about it.
19.10.08 23:01 Hrs
Life and work in Switzerland
11.10.08 12:20 Hrs
My shift to Switzerland
I had been offered a job in Switzerland under the condition that I would be given a work visa.
Normally when one has a work contract, this is just a formality.
So I rented an apartment in Switzerland and was planning to shift on the 25th of September.
In Switzerland one had to get the permission from the central government as well as the from the Kanton, which can be compared to a state government.
I was planning to shift on a Friday from Moosburg in Germany to Laufenburg in Switzerland.
On Wednesday, I received the paper Swiss central govermnment in Bern and from the canton Argau stating that I had been alloted a work visa.
Since I had to finish off some pending work I had planned to work during the day and do the packing in the evening.
In my hurry I did not read the complete document from the canton.
On wednesday nNight my colleague Toni came with two of his friends and they started painting the apartment.
My plan was to rent an auto on thursday afternnon, load all my furtniture and luggage on thursday evening, clean my partment and then give the key to my apartment owner on friday morning.
On thursday morning , I am sitting and arranging all the documents that I need to take with me to Switzerland.
OOOLa, I see that the canatonal goverment has written in very small (but) bold letters that I have got to get a Visa for Switzerland !
MY colleague Tony was going to collect me at 9 to take me to my company where I was to bid goodbye to my colleagues.
I read this new information at 9:45 am. I immediately call the Canton goverment in Switzereland . A lady informs me that I have to get in touch with the Swiss consulate in Munich.
Yet another lady in the Swiss consulate tells me that I can get a visa if I get there before 12 o clock.
At 9.00 Am Toni picks me up at my apartment and I ask him to take me directly to the railway station.
At the railway station, I mange to get the train for Munich. On the train I call the lady in the Swiss consulate to ask for the exact address.
Now the lady informs me that I also have to bring a passport photo.
I look in my small plastic folder in which I carry my passport . Normally I also have some passport photos but as misfortune will have it,
I see that there are no more passport size photos only stamp size photos.
So I get down at the next station called Langenbach, in Langebach I find that there are no taxis !
So I decide to call a taxi from Moosburg, but none of the taxis in Moosburg are answering their telephones.
I am really getting upset. In my frustaration I ask a lady coming from a bank if she knows, where I can get a taxi.
She informs me that there are no taxis in Langenbach, but offers to give me a lift to Moosburg.
I accept and heave a sigh of relief.
I get to Moosburg, run to my apartment, get the photo and try to call a taxi. Again no luck..none of the taxis are responding.
I am slowly panicing and I decide to call my friend Gerd from the tennis club. He is a pensioned bank employee.
Gerd offers me to drop me at Freising railway station.
On the way to Freising railway station, there was a road construction and Gerd leaves me at a tank station.
From the tank station to the railway station is around 10 min walking distance.
I see a taxi filling up and decide to save this 10 min. I ask the taxi driver if he is free, he tells me he is not free but he calls another taxi for me.
We wait 5 min, before the promised taxi comes.
The taxi is a run down van, driven by a Veitnamese driver, I hop into this van and give him the address, he immediately calls up a friend of him and begins to ask directions...
I am loosing my confidence and patience ..I ask him how much time it will take, he tells me that normally half an hour but now we are having October festival and it could take up to one hour.
I change my mind and tells him me to take me to the Freising railway station.
The taxi driver is not at all pleased at this new information and keeps on saying" shit shit" for the rest of the journey...
In Freising I get into the next train to Munich. The train is jam packed with peopel going to the October fest.
Every body has a beer bottle in their hands and are having a jolly good time on train.
In Munich I get into the metro and reach the station, spend an excrutiatingly long 10 minutes searching for the swiss consulate.
In the consulate, a slightly irritated lady is already expecting me. I fill up the form pay the dues and she tells me to come back at 14hrs,
I begin to beseech her whether it can be earlier ( I have got to collect my truck at 15. hrs in Landshut)
The swiss lady shows no mercy and informs me that she can do nothing.
I want o wait there till 14 hrs , but the lady informs that I cannot wait here, so I walk out looking for a restaurant.
Nearby I find a restaurant and order a coffee with cutlets and potato salad.
Then I call the auto rental and inform that I will be a bit delayed.
I spend 2 excrutiatingly long hours eating , drinking my coffe and praying and ogling the girls of Munich.
At 14 hrs I am back in the consulate and get my passport with the coveted swiss visa.
Then I run to the metro and got back to the Munich railway station, there I see that the next train to Landhut is after 45 minutes.
So I decide to take a taxi.
The taxi driver is very surprised and informs me that it will be around 100 euros , I am pretty much calm as I say yes.
My wallet and my heart is bleeding thinking about the expenses incurred during this day.
In one hour we reach Landshut and I tip the driver 5 euros, as we say in my fathers village "when you are anyway going broke then do it in style."
I drive my rented van back to Moosburg and start loading my stuff...
I am exhausted.....
11.10.08 12:20 Hrs
"Rich dad, Poor dad"
Cynics criticise, winners analyse
Winning means being unafraid to loose
Everyone wants to go to heaven but no one wants to die
h3>08.10.08 21:15 Hrs"Menschen fuehren- leben wecken" by Anselm Gruen
Die Ruhe ist offensichtlich die Bedingung, gut zu arbeiten.
Unterscheiden und Mass halten. Wer unterscheiden kann, der kann auch entscheiden.
Ich mussmein Mass einmal ueberschritten haben, um zu erkennen, wo meine wahre Grenze liegt. Wenn ich nie an die Grenze gekommen bin, weiss ich auch nicht, wieviel in mir drin steckt.
In einer Firma, in der die Schwachen hearausgeboxt werden, leben alle in der Angst, dass sie die nächsten sind. Keiner kann immer stark sein. Die Angst, der naechste zu sein, der den Anforderung nicht mehr gerecht wird, laehmt die Mitarbeiter und schneidet sie von ihren eigentlichen Stärken ab. Wahre Staerke kann ich nur zeigen, wenn ich es mir auch erlauben kann, schwach zu sein.
Mark Twain " Als sie das Ziel aus den Augen verloren, verdoppelten sie Ihre Anstrengung"
Wer vom Ziel nichts weiß, wird den Weg nicht finden.
30.10.08 23:34 Hrs
Visiting Cards
The man was looking through the file containg all the visiting cards he had collected during his seven
years abroad. Although he thought of himself as a boy, he was a grown up.
On each of the cards, he had written where he had met the person and on which date.
On some cards some personal details like the hobbies, number of chilfdren were scribbled in a hurry.
When he looked at each card he colud recollect the faces of the people he had met.
He rembered the hopes he had when he met them, hopes of having a business deal with them and how most of them never materialised.
The man used to think of collecting visiting cards and being able to recollect the characteristice of all those
persosn as an art. He had learned it from his father.
His father was a businessman in a small town in India. He was a civil contractor who used to build buildings.
The man could remember the struggle his father had to go through.
When he looked back, what he vividly rememberd was going to collect the money owned to his father.
This was something he never understood as a boy. In a shop when you buy something the shopkeeper does
not come after one month and beg you to pay him.
He sometimes accompanied his father going from one office to another, to collect money for the
buildings he had build one year ago.
Then he had to visit different people so that he would get orders to build new buildings,
then he went to banks to ask them to lend him money, then came the suppliers who also had to be coxed into lending him the material to build the buildings.
What especially made him crazy were the finance departments of some government organisations.
He remebered one man sitting and scratching his balls, yawning and asking his father to get the necessary
file from the next tabel. Then he looked through the file and tells his father to go to the next table.
In the next table, the person is equally uninterested in speeding up things.
The man had to admire his father for his patience, for the excellent acting performance he was seeing from his father,
he knew that his father was bursting with anger, but he manged to put on a humble face and continue creeching with the employees, till his file was cleared.
He rememeberd one month when his father could not pay the wages for his employess, as one of their major customers had defaulted on their payments.
On such evenings when his father came home, he knew he had to be very careful in order to avoid unnecessary outburts.
When he was a boy, his father used to come home in the evening and ask him the multiplication tables.
The man used to find this an incredible torture as a boy.
He would be happily lazing around and in comes father and asks what is 13 times 14.
The boy could never get these right, this would be followed by a some hot advice with the instruction to go to his room amd learn the multipilcation tables.
The boy, after accompaning his father on his daily rounds understood , why his father used to be very angry some evenings when he came home from the office.
Why he used to shout when he did not study. The boy also understood that if he did not study as if his ass was on fire he would also have to face a lot of people,
put up a very humble face in front of peopel sitting and scratching their balls, people shouting at you for no reason, as a grown up he had come to the conclusion that
most of these ill tempered men must be having tough wives at home, wives giving them hell at home.
The father
The father came from an entraprnaurial family and had always wanted to start a business. He was a man of enormous optimism. The calling of being an entraprenauer needs a unedning amout of optimisim . Especially if it was during teh 70s and 80s Licence raj of India, the optimist also had to have a talent for self-illusion to survive. The man had seen this in his father. His father used to talk of some his "well-wishers" among hsi customers. The man used to think that these well-wishers of his father were chummy pals who were intereted in doing business with his father. This changed when the man met some of teh "well-wishers " with his father. The fathers definition of a "well-wisher" was someone who did not directly throw you out of the office. Like all businessmen, when he found himself in a rut, teh father had to make believe that th erut had its advantages. The man could remember his father and his partner slooging for twenty yeasr to build a factory making steel frames for foundations. He remembered his father prodly talking about buying a new bending machine, a new drilling machine, employing 60 people. After five years , of eeking out a living an waiting for teh big orderfs and trying to pay the wages on time , the father was trying to trim his staff , sell the machines and was having a court cse against him asking him why he was laying off hi semployees. At the same time one of the investors who was a retired accountant began to have doubts as to whether teh company was being run properly by the mans father. So this partner starst a movement to remove the father from his post of managing director. The retired acoountant was now drumming up support among th eother share holders to oust his father from th emanging directors post. The father was used to running his business like a small empire and this frontal attack on his authority fazed him. In order to insure that the accountant would not have any say the onl way was to ensure that the the father owned enogh of thje companies share. At the same tikme th eworkers case had gon eto teh supreme court awaiting the next round of decison. So th efather issued a new batch of shares under th epretext of requiring money to pay teh court cahrges. The newl issued shares wwere brought by a trusted friends wife. The father later brough out these shares. According to the father this was divine providence of two unfortunates reults collding to solve themselves. During all this time the fathers main worry was that his children would not be able to finish their education. So all his frustration, fear was focussed on his childrens future. AYfter some time even the self -illusin could not hold up against the pressures of teh daily grind and the father had slowly but steadily taken to drinking to replace the the dreams he had given up.
14.06.08 21:35 Hrs
The Book of Ecclesiastes
The book of Ecclesiastes in the old testament in the Bible, contains the thoughts of "the Philosopher," a man who reflected deeply on how short and contradictory human life is, with its mysterious injustices and frustrations, and concluded that "life is useless." He could not understand the ways of God, who controls human destiny. Yet, in spite of this, he advised people to work hard, and to enjoy the gifts of God as much and as long as they could.
Many of the Philosopher's thoughts appear neagtive and even depressing. But the fact that this book is in the Bible shows that biblical faith is broad enough to take into account such pessimism and doubt. Many have taken comfort in seeing themselves in the mirror of Ecclesiastes, and have discovered that the same Bible which reflects these thoughts also offers the hope in God that gives life its greater meaning.
Some excerpts from the book of Ecclesiastes
Wise men:
-------------
Ecclesiastes 1-18: The wiser you are, the more worries you have; the more you know, the more it hurts.
Work and worry:
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Ecclesiastes 2-22: You work and worry your way through life, and what do you have to show for it ?
As long as you live, everything you do brings nothing but worry and heartache. Even at night your mind can't rest. It is all useless.
01.06.08 20:35 Hrs
Proverbs
Some proverbs from the Bible that I find applicable for my day to day life:
Education:
-------------
Thinking:
------------
Proverbs 4-23: Be careful how you think; your life is shaped by your thoughts.
Planning:
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Proverbs 4-26: Plan carefully what you do, and whatever you do will turn out right.
Talking:
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Proverbs 10-19: The more you talk, the more likely you are to sin. If you are wise, you will keep quiet.
Proverbs 12-23: Sensible people keep quiet about waht they know, but stupid people advertise their ignorance.
Proverbs 12-16: When a fool is annoyed, he quickly lets it be know. Sensible people wll ignore an insult.
Proverbs 13-4: Be careful of what you say and protect your life. A careless talker destroys himself.
Beauty:
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Proverbs 11-22: Beauty in a women without good judgement is like a gold ring in a pig's snout.
27.05.08 23:34 Hrs
Marriage through divine guidance
Jaison was 27 years old when I first met him. A friend of mine from the office told me that he knew another Indian living in Karlsruhe and we agreed to meet for coffee one evening.
Jaison was a small built fellow, with curly hair. He had a certain confidance that you see in children who know that they can bluff their parents into believing anything.
During subsequent meetings I came to learn more about Jaison.
He was a native of Mysore in South India but grew up in Bombay.
He came to Germany to do his masters in the university of Berlin
A very intelligent student, he managed his course work easily and soon after found a good job.
Jaison was of the opinion that he had struggled a lot in his life and now it was time to enjoy his life.
For him enjoying life consisted of going to the discos every weekend and having a jolly good time.
Once the decison was made he set about implementing it.
He went to discos on almost every weekend for the next 3 years. Talk about enjoying life consistently.
Jaison was working in a high-tech industry where without constant skill upgardtion, one becomes a liability to the company.
Jaison was not upgarding his skill sets. In between he fell in love with a girl he met in a disco.
At the same time the job was becoming increasingly challenging and he was not able to cope with the technical demands of his job.
He was working on a project for an automobile parts supplier. This is a high pressure industry where half an hour outage of the production line will cost thousand of euros. During one long and difficlut project, his love left him for another guy.
This combination of stress on the job and a broken heart can have diffrent effects. In the case of Jaison it lead to Ulcer.
Jaison had a friend named Armin. He was a palestenian christian working as a software engineer.
Jaison used to seek his advice whenever he found himself walking on thin ice. Jaison seemed to have a tendency to find himself often on thin ice.
Armin had lost his mother at the age of 14. Then at the age of 24 he became a refugee.
This heavy loss had a profound effect on him. People who have lost their moorings often find an outlet for their frustration in arts.
Armin was an avid painter and poet. Having seen somebody near to him die at an early age, Armin was very aware of the shortness of life. According to him, the fact that we are aware of our mortality is the reason we do anything creative at all. This fear of death, and the desire to leave back something in the world is what spurs people to be creative.
Talking with Armin was an exhausting action, beause he challenged your basic coventions. Being a Arab christian, he found himself aleinated form the arab muslims and he could not build a rapport with the western christains. The actions of the western countries were leading to an increasing anti-christian sentiments in palesten.
Having had a strict christain upbringing, Armin was always telling us about the need for interpreting bible for our daily life. One of the major points of discussions was women.
Armin was of the opinion that there is so much written in the Bible about the dangers of women, because running behind women meant a waste of time. His line of reasoning was as following - What does God have to loose if men run behind women ? What actually happens is men loose their time and money. Now this time and money should ideally be invested in doing something creative. Armin was repeatedly saying that there is another world out there that most of us have never seen. A world where our creative talents are waiting to be utilised.
Man is a stupid animal with simple animalistic desires. Now in order to protect men the Bible calssifies several time wasting things as sins.
With a certain basic intelligence and a few minutes spend with the hormones turned off, one would realise that all the things that consitute sin in the Bible somehow hangs together with waste of time and loosing ones peace of mind.
Armin's line of thinking was that when you loose your peace of mind, you cannot be creative and the monotony and the mental sluggishness of daily life is what constitues hell.
The long discussions with Armin and the precarious situation in which he found himself finally had an effect on Jaison.
He decided that the phase of enjoyment of life was over and it was time to grow up. The first logical step on the way to growing up, according to Jaison was getting married. In this way he assumed that he could at least get laid regularly.
So the search for a suitable girl started in all ernst. It was not easy to find a smart, high qualified girl from a good family. One year of searching the big land of India yeilded no satisfactory results.
Jaison belonged to a particular hindu cast, and it seemed that in India, in this particular caste "smart" qualified girls were not easy to come by.
One year passed by and Jaison was getting frustrated mentally as well as physically.
Jaison's mother came to hear about a temple where a particular deity was worshipped. People from all over India came to pray to find a suitable partner.
Indians might be sloppy in a lot of things, but when it comes down to finding a partner for their children they are
as methodical, systematic and scrupulous as a scientist doing reasearch in CERN.
Jaison's mother attended a special puja in this temple and also gave her sons details to the temple priest.
Now the temple had built up an extensive data bank of men and women, with all kinds of horscopes, financial details, physical dimensions etc.
The temple priest did a bit of searching and matching in this data bank and he found a matching girl for Jaison.
The girl was studying for engineering in the final year and seemed to match Jaisons mental and physical requirements.
Before taking any major decision Jasion was in the habit of consulting Armin. Armin's first comment was that he should not marry till the girl had finished her studies.
But Jaisons physical frustration had clouded his mental decision making abilities and he was in a hurry to get married.
Jaison's parents did a bit a bargaining and got the maximum dowry for their son. As an engineer working in Germany, Jaison commanded a high premium in the marriage market. The fact that Jasion was an unemployed engineer in Germany would have been a catastrophe as far as the marriage market was concerned.
They married and lived happily ever after......
Jaison then flew home and he got married in style. After marriage he was in a hurry to bring his wife to Germany in order to start the next phase of enjoyment. His wife was equally willing to start this phase. But there was one hickup. Jaison found to his utter dismay that his "smart " wife had 20 backlog papers starting form the 3rd semester.
Jaison was in Bombay for his honeymoon. The honey moon had to be cut short and the " smart" wife had to fly back to Mysore, becuse the 4th semester supplementary exams were coming up. Jaison was fiiled with dismay but studies come first and he decide that he would postpone his honeymoon . His wife reached Mysore, where she was studying on time, but the exams had been postponed because there was an agitation going on. The reason being that a Tamil filmstar had insulted a Kannada fimstar. In these parts of India, people are very sensitive and take issues about arts and culture very seriously.
Jaison had to fly back to Germany, just to keep up apperance in India. In fact he had no hurry to go back to Germany, but how do you explain that to a whole bunch of inquiste relaitives and inlaws who were enquiring every day about his date of return to Germany ?
Once in Germany, Jaison used the free time at his disposal to get all the papers cleared so that his wife
could come to Germany. Within a month, his wifes visa was approved and his wife flew to Germany the next week.
Jaison was filled with an undescribable happines at the thought of enjoying his delayed honey moon.
On the 3rd day, of his " smart" wifes arrival, the farther-in-law, called to inform that the dates for the 5th semester supplementary exams had been preponed and was scheduled for next week.
Jaison could not control the his frustration and was really mad at the Mysore university.
But there was nothing to be done, his " smart" wife had to fly back.
So his wife flew down to India wrote her exams and flew back to Germany.
Jaison had major plans for his " smart " wife. He wanted her to quickly learn German and he was confident she would find a good job.
One day, Armin called up Jaison to enquire about his married life.
Armin found Jasion a bit edgy and irritated. It turned out that Jaison's "smart" wife had no intention of learning German or for that matter anything. Her passion was cooking and watching televison. In between these two passions she used to spend a lot of time in the neighbouring house. In the neighbouring house lived an old Turkish lady, who spoke only Turkish. Jaison was trying to figure out how his smart wife communicated with the old lady.
Now being happily married, Jasion was in a hurry to see that all his other friends also get married quickly. His logic was that, when you are having the same problems, the friendships tend to deepen. Armin was already married and was always advicing his friends not to get married quickly.
Armin was fed up with the hypocracy in his society. He belonged to a certain sect of christains that had an old tradition. They are believed to be one of the oldest christains originating from Greece. They were a seperate race and felt that they were superior to the normal arab christians. In the society, marrying anybody outside ther sect was a taboo. The major reason was the belief tha they were a superior sect and marriages from outside their sect would have an impact on this. So the system of arranged marriages were practised.
Armin had to agree that arranged marriages had a number of advantages. The parents take a calm look at the economical prospects of the bridegroom and only if the economical backgrounds matched would a marriage be sanctioned by the parents. In the last generation, the yound people were financially depended on the parents, and the threat of financial difficulty was enough to keep the hormones of most Romoes and Juliets under wraps. But with the advent of the booming IT business in Israel, were young people, men and women were being paid excellent salaries, the youth were attaining financial freedom, right out of the university.
12.05.08 23:55 Hrs
Perseverance and Motivation
The thing I admire in some people is their seemingly unending source of motivation.
I am talking specifically about my present boss and let me illustrate what I mean with one example.
My company manufactures medium voltage equipment and panels. I work in the
marketing and export divison.
All projects in non-german speaking contries are the responsibility of my boss. Occasionaly we get enquiries that seem to have such a less probablity of yielding a result, that I have a decision crisis just deciding whether to respond to such an enquiry or not.
But my boss seems to able to run down every enquiry, however remote a chance it might seem to have and have a try at it. It is heart wrenching to see that after so much effort when many of these projects end up in dead ends.
One project that comes to my mind was intended for an east european country :
In February this year, we recieved an enquiry for a medium voltage panel from a German construction company.
This company develops shopping complexes all around the world.
For this particular project, they had to provide a susbtation for a tram in an easter european city.
This project had four basic components. The first component was the ac medium voltage panel made by our company, the second was the transformers to step down the voltage to low voltage, the third was an AC- to DC converter for making the DC supply. The fourth was the steel container in which all these had to be housed.
As the first step, we had to get the price of the individual components.
The lack of detailed technical specification was a major hinderance.
It was a bit like walking in an unknown room in the dark.
I made the price for our AC panels, we got the prices for the DC panels from a swiss company, the transformer prices from an Italian company and the compartment prices from an Austrian company.
Then we made an offer for the total project in english.
The day after, we got the feeedback that the offer had to be resend in an east european language.
So I set about cajoling the other companines to translate their offers and found a translating company that did the translations for us.
Then for the next two weeks it was absolute silence. One Monday, my boss recieves a call and is informed that the end customer has requested a meeting on thursday in that eastern european country.
So my boss approaches the management and gets the go ahead to travel. He then cajoled the other comapnies to send their peopel to the meeting. Parallel to this issues like organising the visa, arranging the tickets had to be clarified.
My boss flies to the city on wednesday, attends the meeting on thursday and flies back on thursday evening. After this there were some more emails and then dead silence for one month. After this period of calm, my boss recieves a call one afternoon informing him that another consortium ogf bidders have won the project.
I could see the stooping shoulders and feel the dejection that my boss my going through.
The next day, he had to explain to the management this and he would have to answer a lot of questions.
I was pretty shaken up after this to see that my boss jumping into the next project with the same energy.
I am searching for this undeing source from where he seems to draw his motivation.
12.05.08 23:55 Hrs
Money Matters
This is a story about a banker. We are not yet friends and only time will tell whether we will become good friends.
This is the story:
He was an engineer turned investment banker.
I met him at party in Erlangen in south Gremay. We were a group of six and we went out for dinner that night.
I was amazed and dismayed by his lavish spending.
At that time I was having one of my decision crisis. This is something which I face when I have to take a decision that makes me leave the trodden path in my life. This one was whether I should try for MBA, and as a first step take the GMAT.
During the course of the dinner we stared talking about MBA and the person, lets call him J, was all for my taking a try at GMAT.
He made an interesting point for entering the world of finance. He said that we are all working to make money, and in finance you work directly with money, whereas as an engineer you are working with some product which then has to be converted into money. So his conclusion was that in terms of money making an engineer would always have to play the subordinate role to the finance personnel.
We exchanged our email address and I used to write to him and ask my doubts. He helped me out by giving some links to excellent economic journals.
Then came the financial crisis.
The next I heard was that, he had lost his job by the investment bank he was working in. When I called him up to offer my mental suppport, he was really down and out. I came to know that he was talking medicament against depression. He asured me that, he always had to take anti-depresants in the winter and this had nothing to do with his present situation.
He called me the week after to tell that he was trying to sell his fathers stamp collection in order to raise some cash. He asked me if I knew anybody who would be interested in taking a look at his stamp collection.
He reminded me of a friend of mine from my engineering college days.
This dear friend of mine was a very generous person with a constant cash flow problem.
He had a simple short term solution.
He used to go the the local pawn broker and sell parts from his gold chain.
After a few months the chain was not fitting around his neck.
I was wondering what he would do now, well talk about finding solutions, he used it as a bracelet after that.
By the end of the first year, it did not fit around his wrist.
The next year his parents gave him a gold ring, the logic being that cutting the ring would be impossible.
After that the ring was pawned every month.
Getting back to the story of the banker.
I called him up after two weeks to enquire how he was doing. He told me that he had found a job in an american brokerage firm, and was slowly getting back on his feet financially.
I felt relieved that he was out of the rut.
The next week I recieved a card from him send from Italy. It turned out that he was on a tour of Italy. I was surprised that, he was doing this while he was still getting back on his feet financially.
I reminded myself that it was none of my business how he managed his affairs.
I had always wanted to tour Italy with my backpack, so a month after recieving the italian postcard I called the banker, to get some advice about travelling in Italy.
He was in no mood to talk about Italy as he had lost his job in the brokerage firm.
I was a bit peeved at myself for having called at such an unfortunate time and putting myself in an uncomfortable corner. I felt obliged to offer him some kind of financial support.
After all said and done, you can see the real person when it comes to money matters.
My immediate feeling was that I was betting on a horse, whose pedigree I had not throughly researched. The chance that I would get my money back seemed bleak.
What I knew about him, did not inspire much confidence. But as the punters say, sometimes you must also bet on horses against whom the odds are high.
I offered to lend him 300 euros and he accepted gladly. It was after a lot of soul searching that I hit upon this amount. My calculation was that this was the maximum amount that I could afford to loose.
I have read that accquaintaces takes time to evolve into friendships, sometimes you get to a crossroad and then the accquainatnce will either deepen into a friendship or it will wither off. I was seeing a concrete example this.
I am hoping that the financial markets pick up soon and my banker finds a job.
06.05.08 22:55 Hrs
The Clean Up
03.05.08 23:55 Hrs
The Book Basket
The city of Moosburg, in the state of Bavaria in south Germany has a
a small city library.
This is like any other libarary except for one small difference.
When one enters the library, right next to the main door, there is a small yellow basket.
In this basket people put those books that they do not need any more. Everytime I enter the library I go through this basket and often I find some books that I can take home. Recently I found a collection of Somerset Maugham stories.
What is so wonderful about this book basket is that it appeals to two rather conflicting emotions of mine.
On the one hand I am extremely pleased when I get a book free of charge.
This appeals to the business man part of me.
But when I put a book in the basket, a book which I have enjoyed reading and know with certanity that somebody is going to enjoy reading, it fills me with deep contenment on having done something worthwhile.
02.05.08 23:55 Hrs
Travelling on trains
I love travelling on trains.
I fills me with a feeling of freedom.
I love to see country side gushing by, observing the people sitting near to me, making Sherlock Holmes type
deductions about them and just letting my mind wander.
Till recently I always wanted to sit on the window seat, in the direction in which the train was travelling.
I search the entire train for an optimal seat to start my day dreaming in the train.
When I get only a seat by a window facing opposite the direction in which the train is travelling, I am like a small child, who is disappointed because he did not get excatly what he had dreamed of.
What disturbs me when sitting against the direction in which I am travelling is that, you cannot see what is coming.
You only see the things after you have passed by.
It is like the feeling that you get when you walk backwards, that queasy feeling in the pit of your stomach.
Well, recently I was on yet another train journey and to my great disappointment, I could not find an optimal window seat. I had to settle for a window seat opposite to the direction I was travelling in.
Prepared for an uncomfortable journey, I took my seat with a gloomy heart.
When gazing out of the window, an interesting thought occured to me.
Sitting opposite to the direction of travel and looking out of the window is similar to our daily life.
In life we do not know what is going to happen next, we are in a state of ignorance regarding our future.
When something happens you do no t have much time to react, but once the event is over you have a lot more time to ponder about it.
Since this I am not very gloomy, when I have to sit in a seat facing opposite to the direction in which the train is travelling.
28.04.08 22:50 Hrs
Driving on the German Autobahn
Autobahns are the german highways. Germany is one of those countries where there is no speed limit on the highways. However, there are are certain sections on the Autobahn where there are speed restrictions.
For this years Hannover messe, I drove to Hannover from Moosburg with my colleague, Christian.
Moosburg is in the south of Germany near to Munich, and Hannover is in the north of Germany. The distance is around 540 km.
I was driving a medium sized Puegot.
There are sections of the Autobahn with three tracks. The right one is for trucks and the slower drivers, the middle one is for the medium speed drivers and the right track is for the fast drivers.
I am a person who does not believe in taking unnecessary risks. When you observe there are so many things in life over which you have no control, so you should al least try to reduce the risks where possible.
My earliest memories of driving are that of me driving our Mahindra Jeep in Cochin , and once the jeep touched 70 kmh, my father sitting next to me would give me a a gentle slap on the back of my head, packed with a lot of advice. In short, I get nervous as the speed increases. During my driving test in Germany, I had a mental block in pressing the accelerator when on the Autobahn.
On my way to Hannover, I touched 160 kmh while driving on the middle track, and on the right side I could see other cars zipping by. I just cannot understand what compels peopel to drive so fast. Statistics prove that there are lesser accidents on the autobahns than on the normal roads. That is also not tallying with my principle of reducing risks and makes my whole theory of risk reduction seem a bit weak.
Depending on the car you are driving, you have a different feeling when traveling at high speeds.
When driving this Puegot at 160 kmh, I could feel the whole car vibrating and me having to hold the steering wheel hard with my hands. My eyes always darting to the speedometer, trying not go above 160 kmh. It is a special feeling when the Autobahn makes a curve or when you are driving on a down hill slope at 160 kmh.
I get the strange feeling of being on the threshhold of danger.
After 4 hours of driving, I felt that I could not concentrate any more. I drove out of the Autobahn to a rest place and Christian took over.
Back on the Autobhan, Christian was driving at 200 kmh. I was praying hard and trying to look relaxed.
Sitting in the passenger seat of a car that is travelling at 200 kmh is something that is contardictory to my principles of risk reduction, and I found that extremly uncomfortable.
I just cannot stop thinking what will happen if one of the tyres has a puncture when we are travelling at 200 kmh.
I do keep asking myself whether I am a coward or does my kind of thinking signfy a certain level of inteligence ?
We reached Hannover without incidence and I am learning that the more I travel on the Autobahn, the lesser I am concerned with what the speedometer is showing.
26.04.08 22:55 Hrs
The mothers influence in a child's life
When it is time to get married, you start thinking about the traits your partner should have.
This reminds me of a novel I once read in which the story revolves around bull fighting in Spain.
The breeding of bulls for fighting is an old tradition and the process of breeding these bulls is a time consuming
one.
The quality of a bull fighting depends to a large extent on the willingnes of the bull to attack the man.
When the bull does not attack, the man tries to provocate the bull into attacking. But some bulls are so cowed down that they do not attack.
When breeding bulls for bull fighting, the father bull is selected based on its height, width of the shoulders and other physical characteristics. But selecting the mother cow is a much more complex procedure.
It is believed that the baby bull inherits its courage and temperament from its mother.
The cow is let open in an arena and a man attacks it with a spear. The majority of the cows get cowed down after a few attacks with the spear and give up the fight. But some cows keep on attacking irrespective of the injuries inlicted upon them.
Only those cows who keep on attacking are slected for breeding.
From my observations, if you meet a selfish person and if you dig a bit you will find a selfish mother. There are subconsious things that a child learns during its childhood which is very difficult to change later. A very good example is selfishness.
One of the things I admire in my mother is her willingness to give others what she has. There is one incidence from my childhood which is entrenched in my memory.
We were living in a rented house and fathers business was in the doldrums.
We had a visit from my mothers relatives and they had brought us four packets of chocolates. I remeber especially the nutties from Cadburys in a red packet with golden letters.
It was the first time that I had seen so many chocolates at home.
The next day, we were planning to visit a friend of my father. He had a big family with five children and they were not doing well economically.
Mother suggested that we gift the chocolates to that family.
There are certain incidents from ones childhood that one never forgets. For me, to agree to this suggestion of my mother,( I was around 12 then) was a very difficult .
I remeber vividly, me sulking with the chocolate packets on the stairs that led to the terrace and my mother sitting next to me and patiently talking with me.
Finally after a lot of patient persuasion I agreed to part with the chocolates.
Now I recognise that mother was inculcating in me a habit that has helped me make freindships that will last a life time.
17.04.08 23:30 Hrs
Mission in Paris
My cousin and his girlfriend Yumi were coming to Paris. I had not seen my cousin for ten years and I was thinking whether I should go to Paris to meet him. I was yet to make up my mind. Then my aunt informed me that Alex was planning to propose to Yumi in Paris, and I should take a photo of that moment. So entrusted with the most delicate mission of my life I started off to Paris. I met Alex at the hotel they were staying. First stop was Eiffel tower.
On the way to the Eiffel tower we stopped at a number of cafes and by the time we reached the Eiffel tower it was late. I think Alex wanted to climb on top of the Eiffel tower and propose.
Well, too late on that day.
That day we had dinner in a lovely thai restaurant.
The next day, it was raining. Since it was not very romantic ( together with the rain and me tagging along). Alex and Yumi, decided to go to Louvre. I tagged along with my camera, just in case.
After seeing a lot of paintings and sculptures, I was overwhelmed. Alex was also overwhelmed by so much culture in such a short time, thet he was feeeling too shy to propose.
Alex made some practical comparisions like, the buildings in London had a pure white shade, and that the buildings in Paris had a dirty white colour. Me being a francofone, had to keep reminding him, that it was not dirty white but european medevial age chic.
That evening we visited the arc de Triumph, the wheather was still lousy, I was still hanging around, and Alex didnt propose. I thought it to be a very romantic moment
I was slowly getting worried that I might have to disappoint my aunt.
So I told Alex, that he better propose right away. The fact that I knew the big secret made Alex a bit shaky. But as we say, there are no secrets in a loving family.
The next day, they were going to Reims for champgne tasting, and I was supposed to return. That night, at 12 in the metro I gave Alex the last chance, but he was waiting for the right moment. It seemed that the metro was not romantic enough
11.04.08 23:40 Hrs
Writing vs Cooking
I have recently stumbled upon a great truth.
I have always wanted to write. I was always waiting for that lightning of inspiration to strike. But nothing was happening.
I was hoping that once my hormones settle down or to borrow a phrase from a friends blog "once my fallopian tubes stop doing cha cha cha"( yes, I was always weak in biology) I would just sit down and start writing.
Well, I am 30 now and the general public are already having doubts whether I have a problem with my fallopian tubes, but there is still no sign of the much awaited inspiration.
Gradually I have come to the realisation that writing is much like cooking for oneself.
When I am cooking alone, I am very adventurous and try out the most dazzling combinations, and the most of the times, something eatable comes out. I am not under any pressure to satisfy a demanding spouse. I cook for my pleasure.
Writing is similar when you write out of a desire to vent your feelings. When you are not worried about the reaction of others you attain a new level of freedom.
Once you have decided to write and is on the look out for a topic to write, you begin to observe your daily life in a different angle.
One notices so many things that one had not oberved before.
There are so many mundane things in our daily life about which we can write.
The only requirement is that you need discipline to sit down and start writing.
One has to motivate oneself.
Unlike cooking, where hunger is a good motivator, the motivation for writing seems to have a spiritual
touch about it.
The really beautiful thing about writing is that, once you have really tried it and find that you really are having no success you can always blame it on your genes and upbringing.
10.04.08 22:40 Hrs
Life
One of my aunts has been diagonised with cancer.
She is undergoing chemotherapy right now.
Although the distance from home acts like an insulation against sadness whcih I feel, I find myself thinking about her a number of times during the day. Saying quick prayers to God to help her.
Questions as to why something like this happens ...
Questions as to whether we should really plan our life so much, if we are so helpless when fate truns against us..
The desire to let go of this disciplined life, all this rules and regulations, all this dos and donts, all the tests and exams, and finally do what really what one wants to do and care a fart about what the other guy has achieved or not.
Just get to a river and float down and go where the river is taking us.
As I have read in a book, our life is like a long journey up a winding road on a mountain.
We see a light on the summit of this mountain, and we are industriously struggling to get there, we need to be a
bit selfish in order to maintain our place on the road, we are jostling with others, we are holding our feeelings and desires under control. All to reach this light which we presume is the destination of our life.
But once we reach this light on the summit, all fatigued and worn out, old and tired, when we look down from the summit, we see that the long winding path that which we were climbing were filled with small glittering lights.
Life was on the way up to the summit.
09.04.08 22:40 Hrs
The Telephone Conference
Last evening I recieved a call from home:
Me : Hello, .
Father: hallo, calling regarding a very urgent thing.
For our company, we need a busbar bending machine from the company Novopress.
Try to find a real good second hand machine, but try to get it real cheap.
Understood ! Good quality but real cheap. You are so many years in Germany, but no use for the family or for the general public.
(Background Info - Father has a electrical panel building company.
In my home state of Kerala - half of the things are done for the sake of the general public and half of the things are not done because of fear of the general public)
Me : Done, will do it.
Father: your samll sister is coming in August, we have a found a boy for her.
Why dont you also come in August and get married.
That would be very practical regarding the wedding organisation.
Me: Mhhhhhhhhh ( This sudden shift in topics always confuses me)
Father: What Mhhhhh, you are already 30, the general public will start saying you have a PROBLEM !
Me: Mhhhhhhhhh
Father calls mother from the kitchen.
Mother: Appuniiiiii, how are you ??????
(Background Info : I have got two sisters, being the only son I am mothers pet.
My pet name is Appu, unni means baby in malayalam. Mother calls me appunii when she is in a good mood.)
Me: Fine, mother
Mother: Did you say your prayers ?
Me: yes, mother.
Mother: Did you eat dinner today ?
Me: yes, mother, I made mushrooms today.
Mother: Dont forget to put the yellow spice, it is good for digestion and your health in general.
Me: yes, mother.
Mother: Dont use too much oil !
Me : yes , mother.
Father: remeber to put in a lot of onions....
Mother : Do you wash your clothes ? do you change your underwear and socks every day ?
Me: Yeeeeeeees , mother
(Background info : The first time , I stayed on my own was went I went to study engineering.
I was staying with freinds in a rented house . There was no runnig water, we had to draw water from the 15 feet deep well. In order to save time, I hit upon the brilliant idea of not washing my underwear and socks everyday, but hanging it out in the fresh air, and next day I used to turn it inside out and wear it).
When I returned, home I told my mother about this ingenoius time saving idea.
My mother is generally a very cool person, but this was one of the few times where I have seen her really loose her compusure. After that I have given up this inside out trick.)
Father : You remeber our Murthy uncle ? Remeber his son Jagal ? Well, Jagal is working as a CA in Dubai. He has brought a new flat in Marine drive for 25 Lakhs !
Me : Mhhhhhhhhhhhh
Father: Remeber, George uncle opposite to the church, what about his daughter. She is an engineer, and I heard that she can cook very well !
Me: Naaaaa, that girl is too skinny, I like chubby girls.
Father : dont worry, son, once she marries into our family, she will become chubby. That seems to be contagious in our family.
Father to mother: What about the girl we see during the baptisim of Johns brother-in- laws sister's baby ? A very beutiful girl, also on the chubby side.
Me: heee, now listen, no use talking too long and wasting money, lets us do it the modern way, lets put together a profile for the girl.
Mother: OK. the girl should be from a good catholic family, she should be nice and pious.
Father: She should be able to cook well....
Me: She should not be too skinny ..
Mother: OK, we wil start looking.
Me: Mother, what about me finding myself a nice, pious german girl from a good catholic family !!!!
Father: Hoo HO Ho..which german girl is going to marry you !!!
Me: Well, you would be surprised !!
Mother: dont give our son any dumb ideas, he might end up doing something stupid.
Father: I dont have anything against a smart german girl. We could use a german engineer in our company !!
Me: and eat german food for our whole life.
Mother: Just think son, quarreling in german for your whole life ???
(and father keeps on telling - Mother is not practical !!! )
Father: yes son, being able to quarrel in your mother-tongue is a great relief. I am speaking from experience. Being able to have a good quarrel in your mother-tongue is the corner stone of a successful marriage.
Me: Mhhhhhhhhh
Father: Dont forget to look for the the busbar bending machine, try to get it real cheap.
Mother: Hey man... dont talk Chena matters in between elephant matters !!!! (Background info: Chena is a typical vegetable of Kerala).
Me: May be we should add intelligent to the girls profile. I recently read an article that says that children tend to inherit 90 % of their inteligence from the mother.
Father: Dont believe everything you read .
Dont keep on reading sillly stuff, instead try to find that busbar bending machine. At lest some use of you being in Germany !!!
Mother: And we will do the searching for the girl. You dont have to start looking for girls. You just sit and pray. We are anyway too old to learn German.
Me: OK. Done. You find the girl and I will find the busbar bending machine.
I have got to sleep now. Good night.
Faher, Mother: Good night.
08.04.08 23:45 Hrs
Passion and Leidenschaft
The german word for passion is leidenschaft.
This word consists of two parts : "Leid" which means suffering and "schaft" which is derived from "Eigenschaft" that
means property.
Christians talk about the passion of christ when he was crucified.
So in effect, "leidenschaft" is something which can cause suffering.
Till I understood the meaning of this word I had misundertsood the difference between liking something and having a passion for something.
After this, I asked myself, is there some real passion in my life ?
Am I passionate about something ?
That means, am I willing to devote so much time and energy, that inspite of the suffering that it will cause me, I will continue to do it.
Now I understand why some people keep on repeating that they love their spouse passionately
I have always wondered, why is it so difficult to create something beautiful ? Why is it that a normal person, never manages to create a master piece in his life ?
I have started taking classical guitar lessons and I was feeling that I had at last found a real passion in my life.
When I am practising I am lost in that and forget myself.
The only problem is that about after 1 hour of practising, my fingers and hands tire and the pain sets in, and
then I exit this wonderful zone.
Now classical guitartists who gives concerts practisce 6 to 8 hours daily .
That puts my passion for guitar in the proper prespective.
06.04.08 20:45 Hrs
The search for knowledge and "BlissISM"
Wise people have said that our whole life is a search for knowledge.
Why is it that in todays system of education we stop studying after a certain age?
Why is it that we are taught the most impotant things in our life (at least from the point of view of schooling- 11th and 12 th std,) which decides the course of our life to a large extend, during a period, where our hormones are the most active and we have the least inclination to attain knowledge ?
How about a new system that allows a person to study what he wants to study when he is 30 years old ?
All the house hold bills, expenses caused by the hubby, chidrens education etc are footed by an organisation and the person can pursue his dreams ! Wouldnt such a system be a dream !
After the downfall of communISM, capitalISM is reigning supreme in the world of "ISMS"
Wouldnt a new society, where grown ups can continue pursuing their dreams, without the contant pressure of making money be great ?
Well, for me that would be real bliss, and I would name such a system "BlissISM"
A more practial minded friend of mine, on hearing my ideas about "BlissISM", told me that I am a bloody dreamer ! I guess the world is not yet ripe enough for "BlissISM".
17.03.08 24:03 Hrs
Questions
Why do some people put on sunglasses when the Sun is not shining ?
Why does superman put his underwear over his pants ?
17.03.08 24:03 Hrs
A Curious Thought
On curoius thought that occured to me today is that the first time I met and talked with a Pakistani,
a Srilankan and a Bangladeshi was in Germany .
18.02.08 6:07 Hrs
Influence of Weather
I happend to read the blog of a friend of mine who had shifted to UK from India recently. She writes that what struck her about the people in UK are that they are willing to obey new rules without much questioning.
This was an aspect which had also struck me when I first came to Germany.
From my experiences and observations I feel that the weatherr has a very important role in forming the people.
The fact that in Europe the whether is cold plays an important role in how the people think and behave.
Let us take the case of a farmer living in Germany during the middle ages. The time when he could sow his crop is limited, if he does not do his planing and execute his work during the limited time available, he would not survive the harsh winter that would follow. Compare this with the case of a farmer living in Kerala, south India. In a normal year he can sow and reap three times in a year. The whole year around he can cultivate alternative crops like bananna. He has more chances to make errors and still survive because the weather is not harsh.
This might be a reason that in Germany the emphasis is more on punctuality and effectiveness rather than politeness.
In Germany there is a saying " Punctuality shows the politeness of a king"
It has also struck me is that what people understand under politeness is different in different parts of the world.
In countries with harsher wheather conditions, peopel tend to talk less and are less open. In short, there is hardly any small talk.
In countries with moderate climate, small talk is supposed to be a part of politeness.
Could it be that the harsh weather in Rajasthan has made marwaris the best business men in India ?
A concrete example of this line of thinking is something that I have observed in my daily life.
I stay in a small town called Moosburg, near to Munich, with approximately 16000 inhabitants.
I use my bycycle to commute to work. It is a 10 minute ride to my company.
I start from my house at around 7.00 am. In winter the temperatures normally hover around zero.
After this 10 minute ride, I am all frozen up.
After puttting my cycle in the cycle stand, as I walk to my office , I meet a number of colleagues.
Normally, when I meet colleagues and greet them, it is with a genuine feeling of friendlyness.
But during the first 10 minutes, my immediate thought is to get my ass warm again, and I have noticed that
my early morning greetings tend to lack in their usual friendliness.
As the saying goes " Humans are selfish by birth"
If we are honest with ourselves, we can observe that we tend to put the comfort of ourself and our families before everything else.
In order to have a organised social life, we have accepted the fact that we must obey ceratin rules, although we
would rather not have obeyed them.
I have observed that, in some countries peopel tend to accept and follow more of the social ruels than in other countries.
Could this also have something to do with the weather ?
Could it be that in countries with moderate climate, the peopel can afford to be a bit more self centered because they know that this is not going to cost them their lives ?
12.02.08 23:30 Hrs
Poor Jokes
Old wife to young wife -
" Men are either hungry or horny, so if you see your man without a hard on, please make him a sandwhich"
11.02.08 23:30 Hrs
The Value of Time
My first three months in Germany, were spent in a language school in a small city named "Prien am Chiemesee"
in Bavaria where I learned German.
It was the first time that I was interacting closely with foreigners
I had a danish friend called Rasmuss, during one of our discussions about diffrences in cultures, I mentioned
that what peopel understand under morality seems to different from one culture to another.
I grew up in a conservative catholic family with very strict rules.
Rasmuss, made an intersting statement then. According to his parents, the only sin in this world was that of wasting time.
This was for me a new line of thinking and when I observe people here, I found that this line of thought had a predominant effect on how life was organised here.
My mother always used to tell us as children that the " Television is the devil's tool box ". I never grasped why she was saying that and repeating it like a parrot. I doubt whteher she herself was convinced why she was saying it.
I agree that the television is very informative, but the question that we should ask is what percentage of the time we are watching television is spend on informative programmes and what percentage on silly stuff.
Now when I used to have a television, I used to switch channels and watch some progarmme or the other. On an average I used to watch one hour of non-informative stuff. If I did that for 10 years, it wiould have been 3650 hours.
Now, if I didnt have a television and suppose I started doing something active, like learning an instrument, or trying to write, I could push myself to new limits, which I had not believed possible.
Now when I think about value of time, one thing that comes to my mind is that at home we eat three warm meals a day.
That means during a normal day, my mother used to spend at least 2 hours in the kitchen every day.
During the weekends when we used to have three warm meals that would beat least around 3 hours a day. Now in a week that is around 16 hours, in a month it is around 64 hours.
Now suppose there are 100 milllion women in India, who are spending 64 hours every month only for cooking. That makes around 64 million women hours every month so that we can eat our delicous meals.
No wonder, that indian food is the best food that I have ever eaten .
Now deviating a bit from the topic..
When I started cooking on my own, I was surprised that I have got a special talent for cooking.
Normally, nothing comes naturally to me, I have to practise or repeat things before I get good at it.
Usually any beutiful thing for egs a painting, a piece of music is associated with a lot of hard work andpractse.
Cooking and making children seeems to be the only two things that you can do without practise, but by the latter I must agree the the end result is much more delighful.
Although in both cases you will have to do a lot of cleaning up.
Now getting back to my experience of cooking on my own, what really astounded me was why do we need three dishes for every meal ? Why dont we decide to have only one warm meal in a day ?
Why do we have to eat three warm meals a day ?
Why not eat something simple like awal and carrots for one meal. Just imagine the amount of time that the women are going to save. They could use this time for some constructive activity, or devote more time for their children.
Also, when the mothers are less stressed, they will have more patience with their children and I think a patient upbringing is the best thing that can happen to a child
I was so surprised by the astounding simplicity of my idea
So the next time I was back home, I explained my path breaking idea about time saving.
Now my family has a healthy sense of humour and my father especially enjoys new ideas, but this is one of the few times where I have seen him really irritated.
In short he told me that I am a smart ass and I should try out my new ideas only on myself and leave him and his tummy in peace.
When I discussed this idea with a friend of mine he pointed out an interesting aspect that if the time saved by the women in cooking was spend watching television, then it might as well be good when we continue eating our multi course meals.
10.02.08 14:30 Hrs
I took a new blade to shave today.
It is Gillete Mach 3 balde, what I like about it is that you dont get cut and it is very comfortable.
The disadvantgae is that it is very costly and the decision when to change the old blade and take a new one is
one of those small decsions on which I tend to hesitate and deliberate.
For me it is a pleasure anticipating the day when I will take a new blade, and the thought of shaving
with this new blade fills me with a feeling of satisfaction.
I think this is what one calls, the simple pleasures of daily life.
Hobbys
My hobbys are reading ( favourite authors - James Michener("The Covenent","Poland"), James Clavel ("King Rat", "Shogun"), T.C Boyle, Frank McCourt("Angelas Ashes"), and Tennis.
Karlsruhe University has a beutiful tennis facility. The clay courts are surrounded by trees and it is a teriffic feeling playing there(even when you are losing). It is affordable and the courts are well maintained.
Cultural confusion: The last orange
Converstaion between father and son
From the book "Getting things done" by David Allen
Partner search in modern times
What I want to be in my next life
Menschen fuehren- leben wecken
Marriage through divine guidance
Driving on the German Autobahn
The mothers influence in a child's life