In spite of the chants from ‘India Shining’ (by BJP 3 years ago) to ‘India Poised’ (by Times of India, NOW) - neither the poverty nor the infrastructural weaknesses of India are hidden from anyone of us. We all see child beggars on the roads everyday, inhale dust, cement and vehicular gases every hour, pass by the slums on the pavements and sniff the smell emanating from decaying waste in our neighbourhood. Each one of us is aware of the ‘two Indias’ and each one us realizes that the gap needs to be narrowed. And each one us, so I would like to believe , wants to do something about it! But only some of us seem to be doing something about it. Anouradha Bakshi who runs ProjectWhy is one such individual. She says (in an email to her network of supporters) – “Our lives are replete with the passing the buck syndrome, with trying to find someone to put the onus on. maybe it is time we are honest enough to realise that this has failed and that we need to look at ourselves and see how we can

Evam is back with a lot of shows for you! Chennai-ites should gearn up for fun times.... Whats more, buying tickets for an evam showing has now become easier, with the launch of our own Box Office at www.evam.in . All you have to do is click on the show of your choice, choose the denomination of the ticket and the number of tickets and we invite you into ‘club evam’. No money transactions, no credit card payments – just convenience. Helping us stay in tune with you. Tickets once blocked, will be reserved for you at the Show, by my Box Office team – you just have to collect them and pay. We hope you will all use this unique service to purchase your tickets. I must warn you that the home page may take a tad bit to download – considering this is our first online effort – things will only get better from this point on. So log onto www.evam.in and see you at our shows – looking forward to busting your Stress! And do remember – evam150 starts this weekend- Now showing ‘ ART by evam ’ on 6th

Ye Office hai ya Lok sabha? On resuming work in Indian Offices, after a stint in the West, the most significant difference that you notice in the office milieu is the sheer abundance of people – a testimony to India’s population. In the UK, offices – especially corridors, lounges and hallways are mostly empty. However in India there are all kinds of people standing in these alleys – cleaners, security guards, receptionists etc. Many times a single reception desk is manned by two receptionists; there are separate cleaners to wipe doors and clean toilets, the lift has a 'lift-man' just to press the buttons and sometimes even the water filter is manned by a peon!! Clear the roads - of garbage, vehicles .... and people I was sitting on the window of a BEST bus travelling to office at around 9 AM when suddenly I had an urge to play some mind games with myself. I closed my eyes and imagined the scene if Mumbai roads* were to become like roads in London. The conversion made by my mind

Excerpt from the book: Machine Beauty: Elegance and the Heart of Technology [ italics mine ]: Gelernter suggests that the dichotomy between art/beauty and science/technology has led to inadequate academic training of computer-science students. He points out that the greatest minds in science and industry have always pursued beauty . ‘Machine beauty is the driving force behind technology and science,’ he says, and yet ‘beauty bothers us.’ Somehow it’s perceived to be softer and less rigorous to train computer scientists in art, music, architecture, and design. However, Gelernter sees these disciplines as closely aligned with the mathematics and science that are the foundation of technology. Because of this lack of aesthetic education, much user interface has been poorly designed. I had written similarly but from a different perspective in my post: In Romance with Mathematics ...

There are two kinds of people who are successful in the industry …. The first who have great talent The other who have great contacts .... and they both need each other... however the rarest of most respected are those who have both. For me the biggest difference in the transition from Academics to Professional circles has been the realization that meritocracy is not an absolute law. While in schools and colleges too, there would be some difference between different students due to their upbringing, but ultimately it was meritocracy which ruled. There are always students who do not have proper guidance at home or resources to make it to the ivy league, but unless the disparity is huge (like a slum child vs. rich brat), the meritorious always end up with a better career, even though the amount of hard work put in might be a little more for the unprivileged. Probably this is the true testimony of the Indian educational system where higher education is within reach of middle class. With f

Nowadays the whole society is taken over by the same antics which earlier were limited to celebrities. Whether it is people dancing on the street or public booing the ‘Nach Baliye’ dancers in the TV show – all the emotions, actions, sounds and gestures are cosmetic. One feels the artificiality overwhelming on occasions like the New Year’s. I am not against people going to parties or discs on the New Year’s Eve (even though I myself don’t have a preference for that). But what I find objectionable is the some people partaking such activities not because they enjoy them, but just out of peer pressure – the very next day they would end up sick, tired (and not having enjoyed themselves) sullen, sometimes even backbiting about how dull the party was or how awful the dinner was. It is even more troublesome when they choose you as the agony aunt. I am the last person who could have any solution to these problems. But, the most frustrating part is that they do not even expect you to suggest any

Mostly when we talk of slums we consider them to be the negatives in an urbane locality developed due to immigration of poor rural populace to urban areas. However, not all slums get created due to immigration of rural poor to urban areas; in a city like Mumbai one would find slums getting created due to a completely opposite reason - spread of urban populace to semi-rural areas. I live in an area known as Hiranandani in Powai (to rekindle your memories this is the area which is nowadays the most ‘shot’ area in Bollywod movies). Powai is a relatively new locality in Mumbai - there were IIT, NITIE and a Naval colony in this area since a long time, but the area was otherwise a bit unknown to the Lokhandawala-Colaba crowd of Mumbai. This was probably because the area is hilly and hence not so fit for construction. The hills surrounding this area were inhabited by small villages (2-3 villages in the whole area) However, a couple of years ago Hiranandani developers came and started c

2 different groups of people ... at 2 different locations ... The first, a bunch of slum dwellers gathered in a playgroud with flash lights erected on bamboo poles, huge speakers assembled locally in downtown Mumbai and songs run from pirated CDs The second, a bunch of posh upper class youth, in an expensive Discotheque, with Bose speakers around them and conducted by a renown DJ who uses special music CDs for DJing ... ... but both thumping to the tune of the same song - Himesh Reshamiya's 'Tera Surooor...' This is democracy in India ... 2 different groups but same mode of enjoyment ... PS: Being back in India, I am feeling the pressure of time paucity ... somehow making a post today .. hope I get net access enabled at home ASAP

Those of you who read about my Geneva Trip hassles [ 1 , 2 ] will be aware about my disenchantment with European Skies. To add to that, when we had travelled to Scotland, one of my colleagues had lost his baggage [for a journey as short as London - Edinburgh] which made our Scotland trip much inconvenient and more so mentally stressed out. But finally, as an icing on the cake, after my ' sarkari experience ' with BA/BAA yesterday at Heathrow - British Airways has managed to misplace my baggage on the way to Mumbai. The ordeal started similar to my Geneva trip, when the flight [supposed to fly out at 2130] was kept standing on the Airport for hours on the behest of long queue on the airstrip. We were finally informed at 2300 hours that some incorrect baggage has by mistake been loaded on the flight and so we had to turn back to the loading dock and re-enter the queue for the airstrip. At about midnight they informed us that the baggage problem was sorted out, but a new problem

Yes Sir .... I am blogging right from the Heathrow Airport Terminal 4, London. My flight is in another 2 hours and I had time to kill - spotted this internet kiosk and thought ... why not?? So here I am blogging right from the airport - in my final moments in the UK. I have 2 parts to narrate .... A. Service Levels in British Airways If anyone ever tells you that BA or BAA (British Airports Auth ) are better than Air India and AAI - don't ever believe him. I had another harrowing experience with the UK airports (after my Swiss trip drama) today - though quieter minor. I had a bit of excess baggage for which I had to pay some charges - no probs with that, I was ok with paying. So the check-in rep told me to go to the cashier (on the next window), make the payment and get my boarding pass from there. When I went to the cashier window, it was closed with a sign 'Go to Ticket Window for payments'. So I went to the ticket window to find a 20 minutes queue ahead of me. When