Random Rants/Adventures in Life

Pretty Long piece, but worth a read "Being Twenty-Something"------------------------ They call it the "Quarter-life Crisis." It is when you stop going alongside the crowd and start realizing that there are many things about yourself that you didn't know and may not like. You start feeling insecure and wonder where you will be in a year or two, but then get scared because you barely know where you are now. You start realizing that people are selfish and that, maybe, those friends that you thought you were so close to aren't exactly the greatest you have ever met, and the people you have lost touch with are some of the most important ones. What you don't recognize is that they are realizing too, and aren't really cold, catty, mean or insincere, but that they're as confused as you. As you look at your job, it is not even close to what you thought you would be doing, or maybe you are looking for a job and realizing that you're going to have to st...

Pakistan - Should it be Balkanized ? While discussing my earlier post on 'A Weak India' with people, I realized that there was a total lack of awareness among the Indian Diaspora about what is going on back home and in general the subcontinent. I did get a few intelligent responses and one particularly interesting discussion was what is the rationale of having Pakistan as an independent country ? Life is the gift of nature, but beautiful living is the gift of wisdom", says a Greek adage. Maverick Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf needs to suck up this sage saying down to his glib throat; whether he and his predecessors have been helpful in providing a " beautiful living" to the people of Afghanistan, their own denizens who had clamoured for Pakistan, and to the hapless Moslems of Kashmir, on the eastern fringe of truncated Pakistan. The leadership in undivided Pakistan, by pursuing unsound policies, had on the contrary played fraud on its own people. ...

After spending so much time away and enclosed in my own world, it is really unfortunate that very few articles or happenings move me. However, while watching the new Bollywood movie, Tango Charlie, I started thinking about my home country and its general indifference towards anything and everything. Tango Charlie is about a BSF soldier who is rescued by two Air Force pilots from a remote Kashmir post. While ferrying him back, they start reading his journal which outlines his work from the forests of Mizoram battling Bodo militants to Naxalite extremism to riot control in Gujarat. The finale is in Kashmir while guarding a vital supply bridge.Tango Charlie brought home the very valuable lesson, "History forgets a country that forgets its soldiers". How easily we as an Indians forget the fact that it took the sacrifice of nearly 600 of our brave soldiers and a Kargil to awaken us from our slumber. And it is slumber again that we are in again. Every day, every hour, someone in In...

Mumbai dabbawallahs Dabbawallahs: Mumbai's best managed business Source : Rediff news - http://www.rediff.com/news/2003/nov/04dabba.htm (Links open in the same window, right click and use 'Open Link in New Window' to stay on the blog) Prince Charles is not the first person to show an interest in the dabbawallahs of Mumbai. In fact, the first time they actually shot to international fame was when his compatriots at the BBC did a documentary on them way back in the late 70s. But it was in the 1990s, when management lexicon became a part of daily life, that the interest in Dabbawallahs, now synonymous with Mumbai's blurringly fast life, grew. Today, they are feted regularly and invited to lecture students of business management. Corporate chiefs applaud them, management gurus use them as a models. So what makes the dabbawallahs so unique? And how do they work? At the simplest, the dabbawallahs deliver home-cooked meals to individuals at their workplaces and return empty ...

In case you meet the following, you can "while" away time at Universal (like I did) 1. Have some dough to spare 2. Have two complete days on the weekend The guide to any theme park visit is strategic web research and some innovative scheduling once you reach the park. The most important thing at Universal is to reduce your group size. The ideal group size is 1, but it can get pretty lonely standing in the lines. Get someone along but in no circumstance increase the group size and include children, spouses, girlfriends, etc. etc. etc. In short if you have to be with people be with people who can move as fast as you can and don't need to stop at all rides to get a souvenir picture. I "completed" 3 parks - Universal Studios, Islands of Adventure and SeaWorld. First steps first. 1. Get an AAA advantage card - beg, borrow or steal (This gives you 10-15% off regular prices) 2. Do some web research on 2 day flex tickets before you land at the park. 3. The park opens sh...

Ever wondered, how slowly the time passes when you want it to end ! This might be the first weekend which I want to end so that I can get back to work !! Okie, I take it back, the real reason being because of the 'drip-drip' snow that has been falling since Saturday evening. Was planning to go to Allentown but that got chucked out the window. Made some lists and did some cancelling on them. Nothing to do really, and a lot to do actually. Might while away time by calling people and surprising them with my new found 'social skills'. Should post a picture of the 'drip-drip' snow but am too lazy right now to take out my camera and even click anything. Is is time to watch a movie ?? Naah, better laze around and do nothing !!!