strange experience

How would you feel when you have to ask a favor from a person you lost touch for a long years? And that person in the foregone years, had expected something from you and you had refused at that time. That becomes tricky.

After going through such interactions, I feel how we view situation when we are at giving end and how we see things while asking or receiving. It is strange.

If god was a banker

Very few books fall in the category read-through-in-the-night. This book made it. I thought of reading couple of chapter before sleep, but ended up reading the whole book in the night. The story line was so catchy that there was no break point to leave the book down. Great book!!(Note to self: Never ride bike after a night out; couldn't open eyes while riding)

The book narrates the corporate world and the power struggle in it. Each chapter takes a twist+turn and carries a suspense till the last page. We feel sorry for Swami at many instances. Real life business practises are narrated when required. Adequate eroticity sprinkle to turn the heat on.

As with the recent book, the author, Ravi Subramanian, made his story run through Marina beach and Nariman point - which makes the Indian readers at home.

Few points that didn't vibe well in the book:

• Lack of Stability in characterization. All folks in the play are quite clear, except Sundeep. He swings between extreme intelligent, aggressive guy to a total stupid. Many a time he does senseless deeds and foolish decisions out of greed. All of a sudden, indication about his intelligence, skills of past or present are highlighted - as thou to compensate the black image furnished in earlier chapters. Then again it goes down and starts showing a foolish Sundeep. Not sure if this see-saw effect was intentional by the author.
• Too many names to remember. Most of the chapters introduces a new character. Some of them dont last over a para or two. Too many such names made me to skip all names and it was difficult to keep track of who is who.
• Flimsy ending. The last few pages were far from reality. An ex-employee, Aditya, being invited (he was flown from Mumbai to NY) to go through a sensitive case. Also Tedd & management confronting Sundeep and then giving options for his exist.As I haven't climbed any corporate ladder, I cannot confirm if these are feasible or not.

Overall, if you like a story line on money, power, sex .. this is a good book to read.

Magical eraser feasible

Looks like Science is in the right path towards human imagination. Whatever we could think about, technology pounce on that and makes it possible.

The selective memory erasure I blogged about is feasible, it seems.

http://www.technologyreview.com/biomedicine/22187/

Freakonomics

I wanted to read this book for a long time and happened to buy this recently. Real life scenarios are narrated in puzzle like manner and the answers surprise us. To apply our scientific mind on trivial matters produces interesting results. For example, to study the business dealers' business or a sumo wrestlers' life style etc are nicely covered in this book.

For a long time I was suspicious about the manner society names their children. Example, a name Ramalakshmi Ammal seems to be from a far gone era. May be a catchy name at that time. Many of the upper society folks named their daughters, later on the lower sector started using that name. Upper society had to move to a new set of hype names, say Lakshmi or something.

Freakonomics explains the naming trend and many other topics. Good read.

Barbers change

Heard about latest SRK movie? It was named 'Billu Barber'. The barbers' association demanded the name be changed on the context that the word 'barber' is derogatory. They prefer to be addressed as hair stylist or hair dressers. (Not sure what they call their association).

The word 'barber' seem to have gone through a phase of euphemism. It is going out. The word got enough negativity that it got to be pulled off. Another classic word in Indian context is about addressing the SC/ST community. Olden day nomenclature went with 'Sudras'. That is a big no no. Gandhian era gave a name as 'Harijan', to mean god's people. These days people get offended with harijan. Preferable word today is 'dalits'.

I guess there is nothing wrong in words. It is the context and meaning we fix the words. Many neutral words gather negativity and slowly the neutrality usage drops out. Only negative context associates with the word. After a while, we start looking for a new word to mean the old thing.

It is highly probable that the word 'style' becomes negative charged because of these barbers, oh sorry .. the hair stylists.

The Transport office saga continues

The officer asked me to come and collect the letter for the followup from City A. However the concerned officer was not in the office when I went there. That was a lucky thing to happen, as they skipped the letter part. Now they dont need the letter from city A!! I had to carry the paper from one building to another. There was a small record verification in the other building. Not sure how they managed to store info in a slim register. After few signatures, rubber stamps there, I came back to first building. Submitted the documents. I have to go there in 15 days to see if things are done. I cant check the status through phone or through agents. My physical presence is wanted.

Hopefully I dont have to go there further on.

Searching at RTO

After buying an other state vehicle, we started the vehicle transferring ritual. City A (which in other state) had to issue no objection and other artifacts. After going through many to and fro transaction, we are almost in the final stage. The last task is to apply for a vehicle number change.

I took all required documents and originals. The officer went through the papers and told that he would have to look for the acknowledgement card from City A office. He was going through a bundle of postcards. Then another. I couldnt compare his search with the database queries and indexing techniques. After failing to find, he shifted his focus on one or two office files. I was hoping that we wouldnt have to dig through the pile of sacks that were tied up.

Since he couldnt get that postcard, he is going to write a letter to City A office. I am suppose to follow up with that office to get this acknowledgement.

This office was quite a big one to hold lots and lots of files, bags, and more files. I am sure they have not heard about the words like work flow model, computers, paper-less office etc.