In the Month of August...

Confession (Promoting Hindi)

Many a time when I have to dial a Customer Care number, and when as first step the machine asks me to select language of my choice, I choose "Hindi" and not "English". I do it so that the company or call center sees demand for Hindi speaking customer-care executives and hence would employ some more. A speck in the ocean, my intent is not 'favoritism' but to help create a level playing field for people who just happen to not know English very well.

You can do so for your local language too...

In the Journey called Life...

How time flies. I was thinking about this in the morning. We are first kids, then become youth, then middle aged and then old. It is just a matter of a few years and many of the things that we counted relevant would become irrelevant and perhaps a lot of things we thought irrelevant would be counted as relevant in the end. Are we doing enough good karma to ensure a good life in next birth? You may laugh at it but I do think about all this many a time. When I review my karma, I don't feel confident enough. Our job and our career etc - where we spend most of our energy - do these things help us earn any punya at all? Or occupation is merely a means to support life and family and other things matter which we mostly ignore...

Prize in Quiz

Happy to share with you that I got Second Prize in a technology Quiz during ‘Technotsav’ at Infosys Pune. It was a one week event similar to college days' tech-fests - with lots of events, stalls, guest lectures, and quizzes. I received a certificate and small gift in an award ceremony from the Pune DC Heads.

My Message on Independence Day 2015!

At the end, it is us who make our country either great or poor. When you buy Indian products; Indian companies' employees, suppliers, transporters, all get employment and the companies get to reinvest in India. Make a pledge to consider buying quality Indian brands every time you have to make a purchase. While buying just imagine how your money is not only being spent but also befitting a lot of your own fellow countrymen.

Happy Independence Day!

Our Security Guards!

While going in and coming out of the office campus, a string of security guards scan our laptops in order to earn their salaries. Earlier they used to do manual verifications; now they just scan a bar-code and a QR code. They are literate and adequately educated; whatever that means.

This evening while I approached them for the daily ritual; another colleague had just been there and done that while talking over his cellphone all the time. And one security guard was caught telling his fellow colleague in full attention – “wo bol raha tha… wo 'client' ko 'reference' karega…” and concluded with “aur apna 'biodata' bhejega…” Wow!

So I realized that our security guards actually 'think behind our back'! I still don’t understand what was meant by “wo client ko reference karega”, and if the security guard got confused between 'biodata' and 'big data'; but I was definitely impressed by his curiosity! I think if the security guard could actually understand what was being talked about over phone, his life would be dull. As of now he does not understand it, so his life is 'out of the box'!

Picture of the Month

Family of African Elephants. Just look at the little ones! (Pic credit Bing.com)

Website of the Month

http://annamrita.org/

Annamrita is an NGO that provides 12,00,000 meals everyday to schools all over India. Checkout its website and contribute towards a noble cause. What are you waiting for? Click: http://annamrita.org/

Disclaimer: Written by Kumar Rahul Tiwary. Views expressed are personal and do not reflect views of organization author is associated with. 

Book: The Life and Times of Layla The Ordinary by Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan

I finished reading ‘The life and times of Layla the Ordinary’ by Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan (written popularly on the front cover as Minna Madhavan) recently. I would definitely say that I am immensely impressed by her writing quality. And the book gave me mixed feelings due to miscellaneous reasons touched upon in subsequent portion of this blog post.

If I have to rate the author on writing ability; I would give her 10/10. In this book, she appears witty and funny and shows an understanding and maturity so demanded on such sensitive stories. The story told in the form of ‘journal entries’ looks very appropriate and natural. I also noticed that Layla explained why she was writing a journal and it showed author’s care for details. There are sketches in the book, making the experience very interesting. Author is very innovative in such aspects. When I started reading it; I got to know it that I had not read something like this before.

The book mentions that it is meant for ‘young adults’. I think it can also be called ‘teenage melodrama’ or ‘growing up pangs’; or any other interesting way to put it. I confess that I have already crossed the (teen) age and hence I can afford to be skeptical about it. Anyways, that counted as my nostalgia for the beautiful years gone by. The main character of the story is called ‘Layla’ (she is touchy about the spelling btw!). She is still (blessed to be) in school and the story is written from her viewpoint. Here, I did have some objections. I believe that a girl of her age can’t have that much knowledge and understanding (or pretend to lack it) of herself; as it comes out from the book. In these pages, I guess the author has taken over the stage from Layla. And if Layla indeed was like Layla; she could not have been a bit confused and a self declared ‘ordinary’ at all. 

Btw, I did not like it that Layla had to break it with Advait (the most popular boy in school). In fact what she did could very well be called ‘use-and-throw’; which boys popularly accuse girls with. But I also think that she won’t have broken up if her so called brave friend Suze was not there. It may be comforting to know that someone knows you better than you do; but we can never be sure about that. And I also think that Layla starting to flirt with Akash even when she was Advait’s girlfriend was indeed ‘cheating’. But it seemed that for Layla, the joy of no longer being an ‘ordinary’ girl was so high that she did not care at all about what was right and what was wrong. Anyways, it was her learning experience and we can’t be correct all the time. But I felt sorry for Advait; and I felt angry at Akash.

While the beginning of the book is brilliant and the author keeps the story exciting till very far; the later portions of the book became a bit boring and predictable. So I had to skip a few pages. But at an overall level, this is a good book.

Recommended only if you like to read such teenage stories; otherwise not.

- Rahul 

Why Petrol Price Won’t Reduce with Same % as Crude Oil Slumps

A newspaper published a big news item saying that in last n months, international crude oil prices have come down by 20% but in India petrol prices have come down only by 8%. It says that price of petrol should also have been reduced proportionally.

Now imagine if govt has do reduce finished product's price by the same fraction its primary raw material's price has reduced. Govt will need to reduce salary of all staffs by 20%, reduce payments to vendors etc by same 20%; each cost component's % reduction may vary but overall should necessarily reduce. It is near impossible to achieve this.

Now add to that the complexity of inventory. Public sector oil companies and refineries bought crude oil at the rate of Rs A. It takes time to refine, process and make finished product. Due to this time lag companies can't start selling petrol and diesel at much lesser price at the moment, since price will be according to the cost of crude oil it paid several months back; and that was much more than current price.

There may be other several other factors than the important ones I have highlighted. For example these companies may have long term contract with crude oil suppliers. Or they need to offset the losses made in recent past. Obviously this subject is as complex as it is interesting.

But then why newspapers and media houses run such populist stories which are half-understood? It is said that half knowledge is worse than ignorance. If you don’t know that you don’t know; it is a worse situation than when you know that you don’t know.

- Rahul 

[Disclaimer: Views expressed are personal]