Monday, December 21, 2009

Royal Bird

On Sunday, we went to the Royal Enfield showroom to check out the new 500cc classic. G is crazy about bikes, so this was going to be the first on his list.

This is the pic

At first, the guy in the showroom thought, it may not be possible for us to take the test ride, G being the persistent one, somehow got the bike out of the workshop. He took it for a ride and then asked me if I wanted a ride... Ofcourse, I went :)

Things I did not like :

1. Looks - Nothing special. Its a classic, so ordinary looks, esp with the back seat, looks too ordinary... Our Thunderbird has got super looks
2. Feel - It just dint feel like riding a bullet. Well, if it was 500cc, dint feel like it.
3. Sound - Well, seems for the wonderful sound, they would have to add another silencer for Rs.3000. Else, its bullet with no sound !!!!
4. It costs a min of Rs. 1,40,000 on road. Even if we are ready to pay the total amount in cash, it can be delivered only feb end.

Thinks I liked:
Dint like anything... May be I like the thunderbird better.

As for G, I am still not sure if he liked it or not. But I dont think he is ready to pay the price for it... So the thunderbird is here to stay with for a while :)

Saturday, December 19, 2009

Let's do charity instead?

I have read it in many articles, seen it on TV, but fail to understand. Why should we not enjoy just because it can go to charity instead?

Before, anybody thinks I am mean. Let me clarify. People say, instead of doing such and such a thing, you can give it to charity. I agree, charity is a very noble thing to do. But, I don’t understand, just for the sake of charity, why are we depriving ourselves of the little joy.

Let’s say I am spending Rs.1000 on something, it irks when people come and say, it’s a waste of money, and some needy person could have used it better. I agree, but this is my hard earned money. If I feel happy spending it in one way, why should I always think about a needy person. I might be donating a 5000, when I really feel like it. At such times nobody says, oh you really deserved it.

Charity shouldn’t be forced. If people feel like contributing, they will definitely do it. I also think sometimes people do charity more for the peer pressure rather than the actual feeling for it.

Next time, when somebody wants to promote charity, why tell people to kill their desires for the sake of charity. Instead suggest that they can share it with the less fortunate people.

PS: Nobody has come and told me anything like this. But I have seen people saying – Instead of spending money like this they can as well give it to charity. Come on it’s their money, their wish :). I do charity too. I dont need anybody telling me that instead of enjoying I should be giving this money to some one

Friday, December 18, 2009

Blunder

The incident happened couple of years back. I was at the client office in US. We were used to the people overloading their desks with photographs, magnets, souvenir and lot of stuff on their desk. One of client project managers also had a lot of photographs. He had his wedding picture, Then a picture with 3 beautiful ladies. I couldn’t recognize him in his wedding picture, it was a few years old. There was another picture with one beautiful lady in it. This lady was one among the 3 beautiful ones. I assumed it was the eldest daughter. I went and complimented him.

“Hey Brian, Your daughters are beautiful, especially the eldest one. She is very pretty”

And I pointed to the single picture. “Oh! She is my wife” was his response. This was so embarrassing, I wanted to go and bury my head in shame.

He sensed this, and then comforted me “Not your fault, This picture is 10 years older, and yes she is very beautiful. I take that as a compliment. I am sure my wife would be thrilled to hear this”

I was so relieved, that I just scraped out of the blunder I had just commited.

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Techniques

Attended a session few months back. The instructor said this quote, which makes a lot of sense

The quote :

You tell me, I will forget
You show me, I will remember
You involve me, I will understand....

As I type this, I go back to my 6th standard, where we had to read details about a leaf (botany) and cockroach(zoology).

I am not the kind of person who can by heart/mug things... I need to understand what the topic is all about. I tried my best to read about these 2, but in half an hour I was just forgetting this. And my usual resort for all my problems is just one person –MOM. She has a very good ability to make me understand things. She read the whole stuff and explained it to me. My brain, I think had taken an off that day. It just wasn’t registering in my mind.

Point 1: You tell me, I will forget

Next my mom got a leaf from the hibiscus plant from the garden. She showed me each and every part of the leaf, according to what was in the book. I could slowly remember what a leaf is all about. The same thing with the cockroach. I could remember it for days after that.

Point 2: You show me, I will remember

I had to keep going back to the books to keep my memory fresh. An idea struck and I got a leaf from the plant and read the whole stuff again with the leaf in my hand, I did the same with cockroach(this was yukky!!). And I never had to read this part again as I had totally understood how things were :)

Point 3: You involve me, I will understand

Isnt it amazing that these simple rules are followed in our daily lives but we never realize that all we are doing is following certain techniques :)

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Time

There are times when we wake up in the middle of night and wish the sun rises a few hours later than usual.

Last night, I happened to wake up and saw that it was still dark and there were no sunrays trying to peep in through the thick curtains. I thought it might be around 5.00 AM, and I would just have an hour more of the blissful sleep and then the rush for office would start.

I just turned around and checked the time in my cell phone. When I looked at the time, I felt like dancing around, but then I did what was best to do. I slept again peacefully, it was just 2.00 AM

On Call

When you are on phone, and if you happen to be in front of these:

computer or laptop.

On the desktop, keep clicking the right mouse button and then refresh. I wonder what special animation is going to come out of the desktop.

If you have a paper and pen

The artist in you emerges and all sorts of sketches appear on paper. The moment the phone call is done, the pen stops and you don’t know what needs to be done to complete the sketch :)

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Candles or Charity

Recently, as a mark of respect to the 26/11 victims, lot of drives happened. People payed their homage in many ways. One of this was the candle lighting event. I thought like many other people, what a sweet gesture until I saw this programme in the evening.

I don’t remember the channel or the name of the programme. This is one, which my Father-in-law doesn’t like to miss. There is a senior journalist and every now and then he puts a lot of politicians on the hot spot and asks them some rigid answers to his questions. I like this show too. On 26/11, the guests were a retired army officer, 2 wives of late army officers. One of the ladies runs an organization, which helps the family of the officers who are no longer alive. When asked about the candle lighting event. This is what she had to say:

These are not the exact words, but the gist of what she said.

She respects and is very grateful that people have cared to remember the men who have sacrificed their lives. But, instead of lighting the Rs.5 candle, if they could have just collected that same amount from all of them, it would have actually helped the families.

This made me think. What she said really made sense. Just imagine, even if 10000 people had lit the candles, it would be around 50000. This could have really helped the families. May be the money which was collected by selling these candles were sent to these families. I don’t know what happened, but if such a thing happened then the candle lighting has actually served the purpose.

Whatever may be the way, just remembering them on the anniversary of this incident and then forgetting the rest of the year, is of no use. If we really need to help them and pay our respects, this has to be a progressive activity.

Saturday, December 05, 2009

Belts on the seat

“Why don’t you wear the seat belt?” Anvesha yelled at Nikhil for the 5th time in 10 minutes.

Nikhil impatiently replied - “It’s not mandatory anyway”

Anvesha was tired of this excuse “You always wore it when we were in US. Why do you ignore these things when you come back to Bangalore?”

“You can also take it off. It’s free without the seat belt” saying this he took off her seat belt too.

A truck in front of them made a sudden halt and Nikhil put sudden brakes. Anvesha was sitting at the edge of the seat, and the sudden break and collision pushed her forward to the windshield.

This jolt suddenly woke her up. She was happy to see that, there was no collision. Nikhil was just frustrated with the traffic, and was trying to find a way out of there. They were still on Hosur Road. Anvesha checked if she had the seat belt on and drifted back to sleep.

Tuesday, December 01, 2009

Lesson learnt

Traffic in Bangalore is too exhausting. It can teach you the value of time though. Since we take a bus to office, we leave at a certain time daily. We reach office in half an hour. One day we were 5 mins late to the bus stop. Ofcourse, we lost our usual bus, but got another one in 5 mins. But to our dismay, the traffic had increased so much, that we had crossed only 2 blocks in 10 mins. This time it took 45 mins to reach office.

We learnt the lesson, delay of 5 mins caused us a final delay of 15 mins. If we had stayed someplace else, where its only 1 bus every morning. They would value each and every second.

It is said, every place has a lesson to teach, may be Bangalore is trying to teach time management.