gajabhuja funda

im leaving for madras tomorrow { 30th december }.in case you were planning to donate materials for the tsunami victims you still have time !
happy new year to you all !
K.Shyam

Posted by Unknown at 10:35 AM 0 comments

shocked.that is the only word i can say as of now after the tsunami struck.
well in case you want to give away clothes or any form of aid { except cash } feel free to get in touch with some of the ppl whom i know are co-ordinating this :
kiruba : 98415 97744
priya : 044-25506284
murali : 98840-82182 or 044- 23773181
K.Shyam

Posted by Unknown at 2:11 PM 0 comments

well it's christmas weekend and the city looks so empty ! anyway good for me that i managedto get buses easily and that too empty ones.gave my radio system for servicing.
ceylon radio station is back on air folks.so if you are craving for latest and good tamil music tune into it on the medium wave.oh yes you can listen to it in bangalore.if you are in madras you have mirchi and suriyan fm stations to pep you up but nothing of that type in bangalore except hindi thinippu { thrusting! }
my sister and nephew are here with me over the weekend.promises to be loads of fun !
and read this article !
merry xmas to you all guys/gals out there !
and ya over the next week a revamped blog is on the cards with some blogrolling !
K.Shyam

Posted by Unknown at 10:58 AM 0 comments

after that win in the cycle race it has spurred me on to cycle the 5km trip to my office daily ! so now-a-days i do the 5km cycling.the only thing in my favour is that there is an empty stretch of a road for 3km and hence not much pollution in it.so makes my cycling life kind of easier !
K.Shyam

Posted by Unknown at 9:33 AM 0 comments

That was my trophy i got for a 20km cycling race held over the weekend here in bangalore.
there were enthusiastic participants from quiet a lot of schools in bangalore. however the so called "elite" schools did not have any participation ! that is so sad. but then when their drivers drop them off to school in swanky cars or they get two wheelers from their dads and when you have dads ready to spoil these kids what else will you get ?
this trend must stop ! god knows when it will happen.in a causal chat with the organizers i learnt that there were just 500 participants here in bangalore but madras had 3500.now that should tell you something about my motherland !
K.Shyam

Posted by Unknown at 7:53 PM 0 comments

goodbye radiocity!

if ur in bangalore and a tamilian sick and tired of listening to the hindi thinippu { hindi thrusting } called radio city relax.my roommate { thanks to him ! } has managed to get tirunelveli station on the Medium wave band ! after some fiddling around i manged to get in two more stations trichy and coiambatore { i guess } so you can now have uninterrupted listening to radio.
this certainly brings back some real nostalgic memories.back in those days when i was in school and doordarshan was the only channel available on telvision, we even used to keep track of time thru radio and also listen to radio quite frequently ! so many songs ! anyway so seems like i will be listening to songs like those for some more time !!
weekend is here and got some real important things to do !
K.Shyam

Posted by Unknown at 9:15 AM 0 comments

i noticed a pretty unusual thing today.i saw a person talking on his mobile.no not like a mobile but more of a walkie-talkie.he would first bring the mobile close to his mouth speak into it and then take it to his ear and listen into it.on asking him as to why he does that he seems surprised ! he goes on to say that this is the way so many ppl whom he knows uses it ! man that was pretty intresting ! couldnt get a snap of it though !
K.Shyam

Posted by Unknown at 10:03 AM 0 comments

a very sad railway accident happened today. seems some signalling failure.i guess unless we get in some kind of advancement in detecting collisions we cannot have bullet trains.
im thinking " why is it that no one has put in a thought to this ?" or has someone put in and failed ?
why is it that the so-called IT whizkids are not thinking about problems like these which will help the common folk ?
let me get my hands dirty on this front sometime.got to do some reading for this if i have to contribute something useful.atleast an article someday.
K.Shyam

Posted by Unknown at 6:17 PM 0 comments

today's newspapers are screaming with an article that says hyderabad and madras set to overtake bangalore and bombay and delhi as favourite destinations for outsourcing.
well before i express anything at this outburst let me just hope that it comes true ! if you were living in bangalore for the past few years you would actually hope that it comes true ! man this place really sucks !
K.Shyam

Posted by Unknown at 11:45 AM 0 comments

it was an intresting weekend ! met up with kribs and jogged for around 10kms in the anna univ campus.hope to do it again sometime with him ! ya was planning to post about something but that kind of escaped my mind.!
K.Shyam

Posted by Unknown at 12:28 PM 0 comments

this was a image i took in the waiting room of jaipur railway station during my recent north india trip ! .to be more honest i see more richness in jaipur than in any other place in india.every car every model you name it you can see it on the roads ! im off to madras { yipppe!!! } for a 3 day break { why ? just like that man !! } so shall try to blog on whatever intresting i see out there !
K.Shyam

Posted by Unknown at 9:36 AM 0 comments

ah training !

was in an all day long training in office on communication and stuff.im really surprised as to why we dont use much of what i learnt today in day to day life.got to do something about that !
K.Shyam

Posted by Unknown at 6:08 PM 0 comments

the weekend that was!

the weekend went of pretty smoothly i say ! saw a ok movie called manmadhan.ya i shall rant/rave/review it at some other point of time.
which brings me to an intresting article i read today.
it seems that the ongoing "bangalore habba" which is a conclave of artists and artisans is facing protests from pro-kannada activists that they are not showcasing the local artisans.
so what do you expect ? i fully agree with the pro-kannada supporters.one of their rants is that the local performers are not being encouraged while ppl from other states are.frankly speaking bangalore has always been encouraging the ppl from other parts of the state only !
my poser to the organisers is this : there are quite a lot of brilliant artists here in bangalore.a very young musician named nikhil joshi.he is not featured in this concert.why ? that would have been a good platform for him to showcase his skills.
this attitude of always looking on the other side for greener grass must stop !
K.Shyam

Posted by Unknown at 10:21 AM 1 comments

lead footed !

man im absolutely dead tired today ! as a part of my practise for the madras marathon i ran the half marathon today.managed to do it in precisely 2 hours.that is a bit too loong.got to shorten it to manageable time !
since the race is on feb20th i guess i would have enough time to practise up for the full marathon ! as of now with the current form im in a half marathon looks an easy possibility except that by the time i finish it in 2 hours the more serious runners would finish the full marathon itself in 2 hrs and 45mins !
anyway a few points
1. if u r living in bangalore in & around koramangala and planning to participate in the madras marathon and want to practise send across a mail
2. do not in any case practise on the roads with heavy traffic.man the dust is real bad and saps you quite quickly.
so all my practise will be confined henceforth to the ring road between domlur and koramangal.that is a 5km stretch on the single direction so should be ok if i do that stretch 4 times !
3. a big thanks to my roommate who has a mobile with fm radio graciously lent it to me !.also thanks to radiocity which usually dishes out some shit in the name of songs, but from 6am to 7am it was playing some real good old hindi songs ! {dil pukarae haare haare} types !
4. and finally im thinking of moving my practise to 5am ! it is quite difficult but let me see!
K.Shyam

Posted by Unknown at 11:54 AM 0 comments

got a snap of a very nasty pothole on the road when i came from home to work.shall upload it shortly.the problem is that due to flyover construction the road is by itself very narrow and to top it this pothole ! when will things change ?
K.Shyam

Posted by Unknown at 10:51 AM 0 comments

hmm looks like there is some high octane video floating around.got to get my hands on it sometime around !
been bunking my jogging practise sessions for the past few days in the guise of doing my college stuff.got to do something about that !
K.Shyam

Posted by Unknown at 12:14 PM 0 comments

i rest my case with this article for today !
sometimes it is so true that most s/w engineers get caught up with their silly professions that they do not see the world around them !!
K.Shyam

since that article may expire im pasting it here !
You are here: Home > COLUMNS

ARBOR MENTIS
The cucumber seller of Chennai
At peace with himself and with the world rushing past, this man was dressed in poverty. But in his presence, it was I who felt poor
Subroto bagchi
Feedback to this article | e-mail this article
The author is co-founder & chief operating officer at MindTree Consulting.

On a hot July day, my colleague Moses and I were trying to locate our car on Chennai’s Nungambakkam High Road in front of Nalli Silks when I saw a roadside cart laden with cucumbers. The seller was vacantly gazing at passersby. Clad in a white shirt and a dhoti worn in the traditional Chennai style, he had long hair and an unkempt beard. I did not know Tamil, and asked Moses to find out the price. One rupee apiece, came the reply.

We wanted one piece each. The cucumber seller began deftly slicing them to put salt and the delectable red chilly powder on the neat halves. As we bit into the cucumber, I asked Moses to tell him that his pricing was too low, and that he should raise it. Moses conveyed this. The seller shook his head, and replied that “customer satisfaction” is more important than extra profit. The words ‘customer satisfaction’ were in English. I gulped my patronising comment. At this time, Moses excused himself to find our car. After a few moments, the seller asked me in English where I was from. From Bangalore, I replied. What follows here is our conversation. His statements are highlighted.

Isn’t the Karnataka budget due to be presented tomorrow? Yes, that is true. Living in Karnataka, it was easy for me to concur on this.

I wonder how the governments of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu will ever solve the water-sharing problem. Man cannot solve this problem. It has to be God. After all, it is an issue of how much rain is going to fall! I nodded. I was not sure if I had a view at all.

See the way the monsoon is progressing. It does not look good. The progress of the rains is leaving a ‘V’ of a dry patch as the clouds move north. Bihar, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh and the states up north will have problems. Politicians are the ones who use such problems to create a divide among people. They always do it. They use water, religion, anything they can, to create a divide. Look at the way Amarinder Singh of Punjab is taking a stand. I looked at him, in part admiration and part disbelief.

You’re from Bangalore. Things are going well for you folks. But I don’t understand how people with shady business interests can become representatives of public opinion there. It was part complaint and part observation.

At this point, a fellow peddler arrived — helped himself to some of the cucumber, and the two had a quick conversation on some issue I did not understand. After the other person left, I asked him if selling cucumber was his full-time vocation. He told me that right now it was. Earlier, he sold lottery tickets, the trading of which has since been banned. As a result he had to switch his business to selling cucumbers on the wheeled cart. No complaints and no issues. Meaning to engage him further, I asked him his religion. This drew an instant look of disappointment from him: “Sir, I am an Indian. That is my religion. In my eyes, all people are equal, and it does not matter to me at all.”

The clarity of his response and his conviction took me completely by surprise. His net worth was probably equal to his day’s turnover. The newspaper and magazines he reads, to keep abreast of things, wipe off the disposable income he generates. Bare feet on this busy, dusty road, he sold a low-value, perishable product from a rickety cart. At peace with himself and with the world rushing past, this man was dressed in poverty. But in his presence, it was I who felt poor.

We are not complete if we are not connected. It is only when we are connected that things make sense. Only when things make sense, we can form an opinion. Standing there, I wondered how many in the corporate world know who the chief minister of Punjab is, and about the progress of the monsoon! How many have an informed view on river water politics and budget proceedings of another state.

Soon, Moses appeared with our car. It was time for me to go. I shook hands with the nameless cucumber seller of Chennai. Actually, I wanted to touch his feet.

Posted by Unknown at 9:14 AM 0 comments