jmurali

I can't believe that its been exactly an year and 4 days since I wrote anything here. Shame on me. I should start writing more often. How can I not give my friends the pain of reading my posts?

It was surprising that I remembered my user name and password of LJ even after an year, even though it wasn't my standard.

For the people who have no clue where I am and what I am doing.
Surprisingly enough I got a decent score in Verbal section of GRE (Math is never a problem) for UT to send an admit. This was actually about an year ago. May be thats why I stopped writing. Now I doing my Masters at University of Texas at Austin. I have loads to talk about the past 8 or so months about my life in Austin, which actually doesn't seem to exist.

My be I will start chronologically backwards with my posts. Yesterday I came across this article about PESIT
http://www.bangaloremirror.com/index.aspx?page=article§id=1&contentid=2009041720090417010718677586ceb41§xslt=

Lets see a comparison between PESIT and UT with respect to the 22 rules posted in the .

0. Are you serious your trying to compare two things that leagues apart and are not comparable....yes of course.
1. All classes in PESIT are worth disrupting. I don't understand the big deal about pathway and corridor, who is going to flying down the pathway and corridor in such urgency. Of course there is always the person who need to tend to nature's call. I haven't heard of such a thing here. Classrooms are generally pretty well behaved, haven't really been to an undergrad class. There are always loads of people on the pathways and corridors.
2. Dress code. Well whatever that is said not to be worn are the ones that is generally worn here :). I go to college in shorts and a free collarless T-shirt that I got in some event (unfortunately they are not yet giving free shorts). Females standard clothing is free t-shirt and shorts (shorts is actually shorts of a short). I still don't understand what the fuss about ID cards. Lets say it is about security, come on it is PESIT who wants to do anything with it. The only reason why people join that college is because of their parents. They should be bothered about keeping people in rather than out.
3. Inappropriate outside classroom behavior: Whats this, speaking with friends? I don't think anything of that sort exists here
4. Late arrival to class/lab and college activities. Attendance for most class is optional. College activities are boring, make it interesting everybody will come. This is election rally they just want to show numbers.
5. This utter nonsense
6. Fuck is used by all students. Sexy is used by all students and professors. Nothing more to say other than we are all adults, at least from an age perspective.
7. Who the hell is going to steal the outdated stuff?
8. Arguments are welcome and are considered productive.
9. This is true even here. First one that makes sense I guess.
10. Second one that makes sense. Smoking though is allowed in designated places.


I guess too much for one post. Will continue....

Its been some time since I 'spoke' in here. So here it is....

60 years is a long time in a man life but it isn’t very long in a country’s life, it is just 6 decades. In these 60 years India has been through some quite turbulent times. Every turbulent time has proved that we can emerge always in a better position than the way we went into it. Of all these 6 decades the last one has really been interesting. India has just rocked and grabbed attention of almost every soul in this World. Be its amazing growth rate, Indians accruing much larger company abroad, Winning series aboard or anything for that matter is an head turned for even most unconcerned. India and Indian as changed the way in which the world looks and perceives us.
In every field India and its citizens have done well, there is no doubts about it. It seems the leading newspapers in Britain has run not articles but rather supplements on the occasion of the 60th Independence day. It is said that the best place to be born today is India. It is something that is quite unprecedented.
Today Times of India has given out a 24-page supplement about 60 movers and shapers in the 60-year independent India. For a country of this size, 60 personalities are not sufficient for this kind of achievement. There must be about a million unsung heroes and we should attribute this to every one of them.
All is not rosy. We do have problems. The main problem that I see is in form of our beloved politicians. Today politicians have too much power. The power was given to them thinking that the opposition will provide a good check and balance for the policies. Today opposition is not very constructive. Every policy irrespective of its merit is opposed, that’s not very constructive, is it? They play all unite when it comes to policies that impact their vote bank. There are literally no oppositions what so ever. All policies are vote-bank and not growth oriented. TVs are being promised and not good roads and clean drinking water. Short cut solutions are being sort for and not long-term growth oriented. Part blame also lies with us (I am kind of referring to people who ever is reading this post, the so called IT engineers and the learned). How many of us Vote?
For the politicians the main vote bank is people who are not educated and who couldn’t really see beyond the short cuts being offered. This situation has to be changed. We have a moral responsibility to vote. More than the Vote, the educated have the responsibility to demystify the mystified policies. People who hail from villages and who go there regularly can do this with a lot of ease. They can analyze the policies with their colleagues and friends and take it back to their villages and pass it on to people there. This will to an extent negate vote bank polities and pave way to growth oriented long-term solutions. The vote bank politics work only till people don’t realize the ill effects of it. I am a good preacher but don’t have a clue whether I will walk the talk. Time will tell! If the preaching is about something that will help India, then why not give an ear to it. I hope you guys can take the preaching and try to walk it.
I hope in the next decade the politics of this country take turn towards even more progressive and be an example for other countries. This will take India to unimaginable height.

It is been long time since I wrote here. Hope I can get some time to write a long post!

Create your own visitor map!


Looks like my tanhayi is the only visitor today :)

Yesterday was a memorable day for all the Indians as India took a big leap in the realm Space Technology. The RLV has returned to earth. Re-entering earth atmosphere is definitely something. As a matter of fact for the first attempt, even if a small piece of the RLV would have returned, it would be a great thing. We have got the whole thing back to earth quite safely.
Every Indian should be proud of this achievement!

Setting: Hero meets Heroine in a train after 3 years and learns that she is not married and is still in love with him. So he wants to present her White roses which she obviously loves. The catch is that when the train stops in a station the white roses are available only in a platform that is quite far away.

This is what happens: Due to the urge to get the flowers, he run to the platform where it is available and buys it. The train doesn't wait for him and start from platform. The Hero sees this and starts to run, jumps couple of trains tracks together barely missing another speeding train. Reaches the platform where his train was waiting and runs even faster. The platform ends is fast approaching so he does the obvious thing, he attempts a great leap...... but misses the train and falls crashing on the track which results in couple of cuts and bruises. How can hero miss the train? Now guess people guess.








Because the heroine is in the platform!

In the previous post I have opined that Middle class is a easy target. Here is a bit more insight.

Lets first take the upper class, point one: The people who make the law, unfortunately belong to this class. Point two: Even if something is done to put them in soup they have enough cash and we are in India. Point three: Anyway everybody worships them and don't want to enforce law. One recent story being Susmita Sen avoiding the Octroi. She is willing to pay Octroi and not the fine even though she had falsely declared the value of the vehicle. Why should she be let off from paying the fine?
Now the Lower class: Even though they are huge in numbers they don't earn much and they cannot be touch as they are very well and sometimes overly protected by our beloved politicians. This is quite sufficient I guess.
Now it is over turn the Middle class: Firstly we are huge in number, Bush said it about same as the American population. More importantly daily huge number of people are being added to this list and very few are leaving list hence we have a very good growth rate. Secondly majority of the people in this class is the salaried section who simply cannot evade tax, the screws are just too tight. Hence the accountability of the income is quite high. Thirdly, we just wont break most of the laws like using kerosene or any other liquid instead of Diesel/Petrol. we don't have the guts to break it in the first place and moreover we don't have the power to get out of soup if we are caught. Hence any effort to get cash out of us is just hugely rewarding.
I feel I haven't written enough on this subject yet. Budget is not far away, I hope to write more then.

What a couple of post it has been from a water heater to economics with a little glamor and India! I think I should think of an MBA in Finance.

Please note that all “class” mentioned above are economical and not social.

Gas Water Heater – Yes that is correct a water heater that works on gas (LPG). The claim is that it will consume less amount of fuel to heat the water at least it is claimed to be less than the electric one. We will have to wait and see how true this claim is.
Recently I had been to a consumer exhibition, over there the trend appears to be for whatever one was doing using electricity; use gas and for whatever one was using gas; use electricity. One classic example is use electricity for cooking and use gas for heating water.
This appears to be totally ridiculous to me. This means we have been living completely the wrong way there by wasting a hell lot of hard earned cash. One serious flaw that I find when they calculate the consumption is the amount of subsidy that we are enjoying currently in be it electricity or LPG. the subsidy in LPG is around Rs 250 per cylinder. One day we will not be enjoying the same and believe me that day is not far off. Whenever some economic reform is the order of the day the most hurt will be the middle class and I am very certain that who ever reads this post is in that category.
I can understand why middle class is always targeted. The simple reason is that other two classes are simply out of reach or well protected moreover the yield is huge. I thought of writing explanation here but let me put it in a different post.
I am really skeptic about buying the new appliances which claim to save money. Money is not saved if we don't recover the principle that was invested and interest that would have been earned on the principle that was invested in the appliance.

Please note that all “class” mentioned above are economical and not social.

The other day I was going through the income tax act to understand the tax implication regarding having a salary outside India. Going through is an understatement. I literally had to read each line three or four times with full concentration to understand it.
One of my colleagues rightly pointed out how on earth would our respected uneducated Member of Parliaments read it, then understand it and then raise objections on the finance act being passed. This is really a good point, if it very difficult for an engineering graduate to understand the act how they understand it?
I do agree that education should not be a criterion for becoming a Member of Parliament but do they get a separate version or something for understanding the acts? If that is the case cannot we get the same?
I would say we should have two versions, one the preliminary version that will not hold in the court of law and other the actual act itself. So the person gets familiarized with it and then goes to the act for clarification if any.

A post that is long overdue, never mind here it is; Southampton trip was a very smooth one, it went better than the Tokyo trip but Tokyo was more fun with language problems, totally different people and it being the first time.

The Southampton trip was very rewarding with respect to my professional, financial and personal life. There were lots of first times. To name a few;
1. Traveled by taxi outside India.
2. Ate Cornflakes.
3. Saw people wearing jeans below their butt.
4. Cooked food for me.
5. Went without music at work for 5 straight weeks.
6. Adult movies on national TV.
7. Heard a sentence with word F*** repeated more than 5 times.
8. Washed clothes in coin washing machines
9. Experience wind of speed more than 60 KMH, it almost toppled me
10. Many more…

In a nutshell the trip was very rewarding with lots of first times.

I figured out how much the length of his trousers gives impression about a person’s dress sense. Accepted that a trouser should cover a person’s sock, why is there a double standard over here too between men and women? When in Southampton I noticed a female wearing trouser that is 7/8th of the normal size basically till her calves. This was OK and didn’t make me/others to feel it as improper trouser. But when a male wore the same sort of trouser, it made me/others feel that it was improper and we even made it an issue and discussed privately (with out that person in the discussion).

Why is there a double standard even in the length of trouser? Why are my thoughts separating men and women with respect to trouser lengths when I am so much for equality in all respects?

When you get up from your bed refreshed and the day begins with a cheerful note, the whole day is ought to be good and stuff always go without any hassles.

For that matter the post I am typing might even have fewer mistakes :)

People need to learn how to answer to the most difficult question from the masters. Look into this link. Guy never said anything more than "We will look into it on a case by case basis". For this Barkha had to travel, take an appointment, wasting his and her time.

When a person (both guys and gals) wear their jeans below their butt then what is the point in wearing them?

Different people have different priorities. Task A might be of grave importance to Person A and Task B might be of grave importance to Person B. When these two works in a Team and for the Team if Task C is important and need to be completed ASAP, will the two people be willing to down grade their individual tasks? Now this is a tricky question some will and some will not. Now when a person who is willing (teams task are more important than anything else) works with a person who is not willing then we have heavy and irritating friction.
More over if the person who is willing, fails to understand the logic behind the other person’s prioritization it is even more difficult. It makes the person to think how the hell he could priorities in they way he did. Well, I guess one needs to digest the fact and live with it.