My Desultory thoughts

May the weak win

shashwatblog — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 11:02:47 +0000

With time, I have learned one or two things on human behaviour.I always had this feeling that human mind favours weak, And this appear to apply almost in all sphear of life. Whether consiously or subconsiously A person work to make balance on things which is out of control. When person can not directly influence the result, he puts his mental weight towards weak to make a balance.So If I put my theory in a line “if a person is not a party in a contest, his mind try to balance out remaining things”

In an traffic accident,Mistakes are assumed to be done by person with bigger vehicle. I have read about people torching truck or bus when it hit a bicycle, and concerned person died. No One takes a word that bicycle person could have been wrong or he might have made major blunder by coming under truck wheels. First thing people assume is innocence of disceased and go after murderer.

Same thing I have observed when two teams are playing match. If you do not find any ground to support either of team, you will for sure take side of weaker team. I have seen people supporting england in England vs Australia match, Even when it does not affect your health if either of the team win. But somehow you hate Australia,because they had been so dominant in the game. When same england plays against say bangladesh,One takes side of Bangladesh… reason? You make a case to support a weak in your mind.

I have myself seen this happening, When two footballing clubs are playing say Arsenal vs Chelsea. It really does not matter to me if either of them wins… but for some reason I start supporting team which is down at the point, I switched channel. It does not stop there, If I watch the match for longer time,I start switching my side in between game.So whoever is loosing at a point, I am supporting that team.. What the hack, I am always on loosing side.

There is also one case study. Both Avis and Hertz are leading car rental company US. In fierce comptition days both were running big ad compaigns. Avis came up with their Ad “We are number 2 so we try harder”. Soon more and more people started moving to Avis. After 3 years they came up with another Ad “Now we are number 1″. Suddenly their sales dropped and people started flocking back to Hertz. So what exactly is forcing people to switch side?

In wars or fight people both the party ague as if they have been victimized. As Israel has always been victimized by Arab or America was victimized by Iraq,Afganishtan

It seems to now start happening with Microsoft too.. last month one of my teammate posted a video on facebook on “Microsoft’s vision of future”. One of comment under that video was “What the hell… there is microsoft in future too”. I have seen people commenting on fhttp://shashwatblog.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=172&action=edit&message=10orums against microsoft as a company,Microsoft’s product,Microsoft’s strategy , Bill gates,Steve Ballmer and any thing that is microsoft. Theymay be using microsoft’s windows phone or Microsoft’s Windows 7 to post comment like this.. Their career run on microsoft’s product like MS Office.. But for some reason they hate MS.Reason? Microsoft has been dominant for last 25 years in computing and people see it as natural thing to do.I myself was one of biggest supporter of opensource software Linux in my college but alas!! I never coded for any opensource,never funded any open source software, And Here I am, working in same company.Microsoft has one of most classic smartphone in a market, But here is result people are preferring Android and iOS over windows phone…Reason remain same, people think – enough of you Mr. Microsoft. But beware google and Apple,people will fight against you when you become big guy yourself,

May the weak win!!!

Pointless to point

shashwatblog — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 02:43:22 +0000

I happened to watch this awesome play by Dramanon in NIFT Auditorium today. I had spent 200 bucks on it, so I was hoping that they better make some points. Theater people did not disappoint me, their act simply blown me away. It was fantabulous acting by all actors, beautiful sound and lighting effect worth every dime.
Play was comprised of 6 stories and all of them superbly acted. First story, where you will find yourself privy to a phone conversation between confounded taxi driver and his discontented central coordinator, whose only choice is taxi driver no. 274. Play was taken away by fantabulous acting of pranav kadambi as taxi driver.His expression of fear, love was breathtaking. Second story, where a remorseless madame tried to deceit her governess for rightful money, Was also great. Third story was best of all, here a terrified priest goes to dentist to elevate his pain, instead he find himself in hand of newly learned compounder who wanted to try his hands on priest. Their amusing conversation would invariably take you to your last dentist visit, lighting effects and witty dialog delivery was awe-inspiring. I almost lost myself till light went out. Fourth play(named ”no play’) was about conversation between a pessimist husband and her over enthusiastic wife. When husband talked about poverty, Crime, corruption.. Wife talked about sparrow, trees and sunset. Both protagonist was awesome in their act. Their conversation would invariably question our attitude towards life. ‘Diet Another day’ was story about waiter and diet conscious lady who was given overdose of choices in food. In final act you will find yourself at a busy street and witness an incident, Here People from different hue and shape found themself handling dying person, This play made some political statement too. A great climax of great play.
Overall I loved it, and would recommend everyone to watch it

Huha Huha Huha

shashwatblog — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 05:13:49 +0000

GachirGachirGachir -HuhaHuhaHuha

I have never heard of this nara(Slogan) Before.But I was so pumped up that I was one of noisiest person in hall with nara (ok so I feel).No matter what’s his rank are in company,everybody were jumping like a kid who has won a Xbox in lottery. environment was electric,adrenalin was very high..as expected from Indo-pak match in world cup semifinal.A word of caution for fainthearted people Never-ever watch a Indo-pak match,If you are on winning its ok, But if otherwise u just played with your precious life.

So All of it started that when India made it to semifinal after beating australia in Ahmedabad. Our team decided to watch high intensity match together,with cocktail.snacks.and dinner in end. A Place was booked in HICC..arrangements were made ..Indian tricolor paint was placed in the room with along with loud bhopu.All we needed match to get started.. I left office after lunch (I did not want to miss sehwag’s first ball boundry which did not come actually).. And sehwag delighted us all with flurry of boundries in opening session itself.. It was absolute delight,As match progressed we witnessed up and down through out the match.When Pakistan Inning started some of euphoria died down with each of Akamal’s boundries.But when Indian bowler really started to tighten screw.. we were overjoiced..they were really madness in room ..really really crazy. A High voltage game ending in our team’s favour.. could not have asked for more.Everybody were congratulating others.

If an atmosphere inside was electric outside it was even more so, I left HICC at around11’0 clock after match… It should have been usual deserted look on Madhapur street at this time.. But there was traffic jam.. people were literally dancing on road..inside and over bus. passer-by shaking hands congratulating each other, People from auto are shouting slogan. I really for first time enjoyed traffic jam.. there was no hurry .. I was also shouting slogan and congratulating other people.

Another match awaits us 3.5 hour from now and a cup that has alluded us for last 28 years..

Packing my bags

shashwatblog — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 22:56:08 +0000

Probably this is last time, I am writing from Pune for this season.I am moving to hyderabad as a part of job change. Exactly 3 Years and 6 months has been passed since I entered in Pune for very first time. This turned out to be second longest stay at a single place for me after my graduation. To be true to myself, I never intended to stay so long. But as saying goes if something is destined to happen, It will, at the end. As soon as I get rid of mice and CAT game, I got another job offer luckily.Now on last night when I am all set to go, I cann’t resist myself to ponder over last 3.5 years that has passed by so smoothly.When I look these years,I found a sea change has gone in me since the first day.Now I do not want to put here everything in black and white about two differnt me, But yes I see things lot differently(probably better) now.

I should have felt excited now,as I am moving to a company which half of IT professional can only dream of and a city which is one of world’s most beautiful. After all this is what I always aspired of.But somehow I am not feeling great, I am filled with emotions.I am still thinking about my team in my office and Nice people I have met there.Those long brainstorming about solutions,cracking weird jokes in team meeting,project events(and that dumb sherad), arguing over TOC ,kabala shabbat, Onsite holidays(yaa couple of them were ),those endless recourse on lunch table, and ofcourse Mafia game.. It would be tough for me to forget them.I am still thinking about friends for life,I have made here.I hope that I can keep in regular touch with all of them.

And Finally about my flatmates, I have never shared better rapport with anybody then people living here.Always a fun, I do not know from where we used to get crazy ideas in everything we did (or just thought of).A long time quesion of finding a person responsible for our huge Baketi(bakar) still remain unanswered.We shared everything (yes literally everything ..). I do not know if it would be easy to forget , those long baketi talk about what is more important in life,arguing over Work/life imbalance(more life) and pet name we had for each of us.I hope that everybody get the best in their life as they certainly deserve it.

Life goes on, I will be on hyd flight today afternoon.Expected to see a new world there but really miss everythng here.

Petrol pump

shashwatblog — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 09:14:01 +0000

It was rainy sunday morning and we had already taken a heavy breakfast (ofcourse cooked by me). My friend (Nilesh) had interview in Infosys at around 3 PM,So I was in favour of having a quick sleep of 2 hour before we leave for Hinjewadi.We were sure that it was going to be tough journey as hinjewadi was around 40 Km away. My bike had not yet travelled such a large distance in a strech.
At around 1 PM we left for Hinjewadi. To my disappointment I saw that my fuel tank meter was touching empty mark.All petrol pump on route was quiert congested so we skipped them. Finally we found one petrol pump near railway station which was less crowded. This petrol pump was following new trend of employing girls( Which I presumed are more honest).I was in all praise in my mind pump owner for employing girls as means of empowerment.
I jumped in the line to get my tank filled up. As soon as I reached to pump itself, I realized that I have only 100 bucks in my pocket so I asked Nilesh to take out some money. After little discussion we thought that Rs. 200 petrol should be suffiecient for whole trip. But before we can say anything to lady on pump, she thrusted nozel of pump in my bike. I was wise enough to see 0, as I had heard various stories of patrol cheating on petrol pump. suddenly one more girl popped up in front of us with usual money collecting bag and recipt book in his hand. With smiling face she asked us if we want reciept. we politely declined it. listening ‘No’ she started giggling and said “Many people asked for recipt so I asked you guys”. To which my friend promptly replied – “thanks, but we do not want it”. Before we can take our eyes back to pump meter,pump lady had already finished with petrol.After moving out of petrol pump, I said to my friend that all petrol pump should take this pump as example and employ girls. this will be good way to empowerment to girls and beneficial for owner too(as girls takes less money for same work).
After we moved couple of kilometers I realized that my fueltank meter has not gone up enough.In a matter of minute my thoughts got changed All thoughts of women empowerment went in air and thoughts of cheating entrenched me. I felt agnoy all over my body. We realized that it was collusion of pump lady and giggling girl, and they actually succeeded in decieving us. This is not first time that petrol pump personals had cheated me, but this is first time that girls was able to get better of me.As Interview was at 3 PM, It looked unwise to go back to petrol pump. But I decided that I would go back to pump on my back journey and take both girls to task.
After Interview I made sure we come back through same route(Even when it took me 2 More KM for my home). I parked my bike in front of pump and went straight in the cabin of pump owner. I was sure that if such thing is going on, it could not go without blessings of owner.Manager of pump stopped me and asked me what exactly I wanted. I demanded to meet owner and refused to talk to him.Pump manager relented at the end called owner from inside room. Owner was 6 feet height,fair coloured around 45 year old chap. As soon as I saw owner, I stated my case in front of us. he tried to consol us. But consoling was not enough, I demanded to get my tank filled up with rest of patrol. By this time Nilesh also pitched in, he also tried to add some points. But owner refused to talk to him, and told rudely I could talk to time one person at time. He asked me if I had seen ’0′ before she started filling petrol to which I replied affirmatively.Then He asked if you have seen 200 mark, then also I responded No . Then it was his turn, He blamed us for not being awake and also accused us of getting “tempted” by girls. That was enough for my friend Nilesh, He repeated word “Tempted” couple of times. After that he blasted that was enough buddy, If you had no plan to get our tank filled again that’s Ok but you could not abuse us for such thing. He dragged me out of cabin and told me “let us go man” .. We won’t fill it petrol from here again. By that time many people started looking towards us… realizing that he could not possibly let us go without petrol and bear bad publicity( Now with so many speactator). He literally ran to catch Nilesh. He caught Nilesh by hand and said sorry couple of times for his words.But Nilesh was in no mood to listen him. Owner told me -”you can take anything from my shop but do not go this way”. I was on bike by that time but he was still holding Nilesh’s hand. He literally bagged us to get our tank filled.Finally I decided to get our tank filled by Rs 100(For which earlier came). Later he said ‘sorry’ couple of times more for his rude words.
When I now think of that incident, I can not stopped smiling about how we went about it, Owners words were used as tool to meet our ends.:)