A video for thought

Here is a very interesting video. Though it really doesn't pose any great mathematical question, and is quite simple to explain using simple co-ordinate geometry, it did teach me something else ...a different lesson about life.



Often times, our lives are like the 1st short, with the different shapes being tasks that we do taking up all our time and energy. We do crib and complain about not having time to anything. Perhaps all that we need to do is then take a step back and rearrange the things in our life, change some priorities, maybe take a look at how things are and what the should look like...Maybe in the end, we did have the time and space but we just put things in the wrong order to just eat up every bit of time and energy we had...

Food for thought...ain't it?

Intelligent person in the room

Not much to be said here ...all that is to be said has been said in the quote below

"If you’re the most intelligent person in the room, you’re in the wrong room”James Watson

 That reminds me of another good one by Jim Carey ( i guess) 

"The only time everything in life is coming your way, is when you are on the wrong side of the freeway"

Life has ways of putting you down when you least expect it and pulling you out of miraculous mess when you  have almost lost hope. So, bottomline 
Life ain't fair and I ain't the intelligent person in the room  

India - Sooper Power with a Power cut?

Sometimes only when things do not go your way do you realize that things can be done maybe differently. I think soon some "India" as a nation will realize this. India although being always termed as the "IT super power" has no product of its own to speak of. Yes, we as a country have done a lot when it comes to IT processes and have been able to meet the customer expectations with respect to the coveted time, quality & cost paradigm. If we take a step back and look, most of the work that we get is from the western countries who are really making products be it in the field of IT or otherwise. India has always been looked upon more like a LCC or when expanded "Low Cost Country", rather than someone who has the technical expertise to do something in the best way. In fact many of the more popular software development methodologies which IT engineers swear by like the SCRUM or the Agile should have been invented by India, if all the talk about the superpower were to be true. 

As I dig deeper, it gets dirtier. With a ranking of 46 based on study conducted by Business Software alliance in terms of competitiveness, we are clearly off margin by a fair amount. One shouldn't feel undermined if someone says that one engineer from country X is equal to how many engineers in India. Quite naturally, the term "Full Time Equivalent" is coined because the number of Indian engineers to equate to that from country X is greater than 1. 

While i do not discount the fact that in many cases Indian engineers are far more capable than their western counterparts, but when we look at it statistically the numbers might not be really pleasing. If i just look outside my domain of engineering and concentrate on other aspects like business things take a turn for worse. We have some of the richest people in the world, take Mr. Ambani for example, but we have some of the worst run businesses too. Corruption and business are almost synonymous. The word "Honest businessman" or "Honest politician" are used often as oxymoron in the Indian context. 

I have more to say...but then i have less of what we call "Free time"...so the rest has to wait for the next post...

 

Germany - Here i come

I think it doesn't take a wizard to guess that i have reached new heights of procrastination after seeing my blog timeline. In this year (2013), this would be my first blog; thanks to the fact that i am in Germany and on a 2 week official trip. Here in Germany, since i have most of the evening for myself and if i don't plan to put my culinary skills to test, i usually have the time to do other things like blog.

It is also true that since i don't have anyone with whom i can converse for long, without having to either put my patience or my German speaking skills to test, i find blogging simpler and quicker. This time a few things are for the "first time" for me in Germany although if i do my math right i would have traveled to Germany six times so far.

For starters, i traveled in a plane that really looked like one. I have always traveled by "Air France" so far and that looked typically liked a B-grade bus. Lufthansa on the other hand had large screen TFT displays, provided wonderful in-flight service and best of all the breakfast served was really something to write home about. Second was the Frankfurt airport. The magnanimity of this airport can undermine any international traveler. In-fact the airport is so huge that you have horizontal tracks to carry people from one point to another. Trust me i would have easily covered about two kilometers within the airport just to reach from terminal "A" to terminal "B". This might sound funny, but if you were to carry a load of about 8 Kgs on your back, i am sure you would have a different opinion.

Last but not least, i traveled on a weekday. Needless to say, the plane was packed with non-official travelers (i.e. who were paying from their own pocket). It is also very funny and strange to see that we indians some how have this funny notion that only the US of A is the place to be and if they find a traveller who is not going to this sacred land, he is somehow seen as a second grade. One dude asks "Are you traveling to Dallas?"..I say "no". He says..."Really? i thought all indians in this place will take the connecting to Dallas. Why would you go else where? " I say " I am going to Germany.".  "Ok" says he and walks off as if i would ask him to lend me his Iphone.

The world is funny....and everytime i travel i find it had a new experience to present....My advice...if you got money and time...travel, best way to discover yourself.