Sunday 18 April, 2010

40,000 lifes were under threat!

The headlines in all the news channels today is the Bomb blast in Chinna swamy stadium!


This is what happened…

There were around 40,000 people inside the stadium when the blast occurred.

One police official said that people doesn’t need to panic. Everything is under control. The match will start shortly. The police men will do the thorough check before the start of the match.

After one hour delay, the match started. Everyone was happy.



I have few questions in my mind…

 Why did not the officials called off the match?

 What is the necessary to continue the match by risking the life of more than 40000 public?

 As police official said, bomb squad screened the stadium. But, how can one do the search operation in the crowd. They should have evacuated the stadium carefully before do the search operation, shouldn’t they?

There is possibility that the people will panic if they were asked to evacuate the stadium. This would have resulted chaos and stampede at the gate. Considering this only, the police didn’t opt this, I guess. But, what would have happened if they found any bombs in the stadium? That is more risky than the stampede, I think!

Last year, congress president Mrs.Sonia Gandhi visited my company to inaugurate one new building. The previous night, the entire campus was evacuated and bomb squad did the thorough check. Morning, all the vehicles were parked in the identified parking place outside the campus. All the employees were screened before entering the office campus.
Just for one person, of course for VVVIP, the entire campus was evacuated. Yesterday, over 40,000 people were there in the stadium. For the safety of everyone, police didn't evacuate the stadium. They didn't stop the game.  Instead, in a hour delay, the match was started.  It is practically impossible to screen the entire ground in one hour. That too when 40000 people are occuping the seat, it is never easy to search.  And, I don't think the bomb squad is well equipped to search the ground in one hour.  Then, why did they start the game so quick?  First of all, why did they conduct the game?
Of course, security was tighten up after the blast. More police personnel were put up in the stadium. They should have done something to ensure the safety of the public in the stadium. After all, they are the trained professionals. That is why they allowed the match to continue.  But, I couldn't understand what they did…  atleast do you?

-Ramprabu

Friday 8 May, 2009

Wild Thoughts

I think a lot about myself. As I have been staying alone for few years, I get lot of free time. When I'm alone, some wild thoughts pop up into my mind. Most of the time, it revolves around me.
Sometimes, it is very wild.

Some of my wild thoughts:
During cricket season, I become a cricket player.
When I read about Manivannan IAS (who has been rocking in Mysore) more often, then I'm an IAS officer blasting all politicians.
One bad day, I lost the way in island. Some random day, I got promoted as Manager.
In some pleasant day, I resigned my job and teaching school kids!

Like this, there are thousands of wild thoughts! I don't know why these kind of thoughts are coming. Some day, I like it. Someday, I laugh about it. Someday, I try to forget it.

Sometime these thoughts come to mind like mega serials. yes, it will continue from it left last time! As a cricket player, completed 10-15 episodes. It's really crazy!
Like this, for last three months one wild thought is coming in installments.

Before that, It is good to describe a little about my apartment where I'm staying. It's a 5 floor apartment. No houses are there in ground floor. In each floor, 8 houses are available. Stairs are in the center and 4 each in both side.

Ok... coming back to the topic... For last three months, I have been getting a big doubt whether I am the only person staying in the entire apartment!
Yes... It's really crazy! But, I couldn't dismiss it till now.

On Feb 8, I came to this house with house owner and my customer. I and my customer were looking around the rooms. I heard some voice outside the house. House owner was discussing probably with my neighbor. I agreed for that house immediately. Very next day, I came there and signed the agreement. When I was discussing with my house owner, I heard big sound. Something had fallen down. My house owner said that one of tenant is vacating the house. That's why it is noisy that day. Otherwise, the apartment is very silent. Yes, whatever my house owner said is cent percent correct. The apartment is very silent!

The apartment is really nice. No disturbance from my neighbors. My neighbors go to their work early morning. I could hear people closing the door and walking in the corridor every morning. Before 8, everybody leave the apartment. I get up from bed around 8 only. I go to office around 9. By that time, the entire apartment will be empty.
As it is very boring to stay in house alone, I roam around the city in the evening. After dinner, (around 9) I come back to my apartment. By that time, entire apartment will be dark. Hope everyone would have gone to bed.

Like this, one month got over. Then only, my mega serial started…
In my mega serial, I am the hero who is the lone person staying in 5 floor apartment. House owner is the villain. He is the mastermind behind this mystery. He does all the things in the apartment just for the hero to believe that all the portions are occupied. Why is he doing all these? This is revealed only in the climax. But, I don’t know when will the climax come.

To add fuel to my mega serial, I have never seen my neighbor till now. In fact, I haven’t met anybody in my 5 floor apartment for first 2 months.
Then, situation improved a bit...
I saw the car parked in front of my apartment. Apartment main door was open. Some parcels were lying on the floor.
Other day, the corridor light was switched on when I came back from office.
One day, I saw that lift going to top floor.
Like this, I got lot of evidence to say that I am not alone in the entire apartment.

My mega serial was giving other meaning to these in parallel. It said these were gimmicks done by villain to make me believe that I am not alone.

Similar to my wild thoughts some strange things happened. Infact, that time it looked very ordinary. Now only, it looks strange.
Whatever happens in the horror, exactly happened in my apartment also!
Midnight, I heard someone walking on the corridor.
Around 2 am, some rock song was played in the floor above my floor.
Early morning (?) 7:30, someone closes the door in next house and walks on the corridor.
Someone knocks the wall from all side of my apartment at late night.
Everything happened. Still, I never worried or frightened. It may be because, I would have been doing something very interesting that time like sleeping, having my food, solving Sudoku or reading some old newspapers (online). Or it may be because there was no back ground music like in horror movies.

Then, situation improved further…
When I was coming from tram stop, I saw one person coming out of my apartment main entrance.
One fine day, when I entered main entrance I saw one old man coming out of lift.
I was really happy to that person. I said hello to him. He too greeted me.
Then that day came… You don’t believe this, I met one person on first floor! I was very happy and energetic for the whole day.
But, I have not met anybody in my floor yet. Hope I will meet my neighbors soon… atleast to end my mega serial.

Waiting to meet my neighbor,
Ramprabu.

Saturday 21 March, 2009

இக்கரையும் பச்சை! அக்கரையும் பச்சை!

"I heard that people eat everything and that too half cooked. I wonder how they eat that!"
"They are not family oriented as we are"
"They don't have culture at all...! Their half naked dress shows that!"
Nowadays, I am hearing these kinds of comments more often. These are the comments about Europe people given by my Indian friends/relatives/colleagues.
I don’t understand how people can come to this kind of conclusion without knowing much about them. I always say to my colleagues that you can interpret into many ways with one data point. For example: One manager took a team satisfaction survey and announced the result happily that more than 50% of people are satisfied with the team. I wondered how that manager can be happy for having close to 50% of unsatisfied team members. Like this, with the same data you can interpret it into many ways. That is what happening here too. We know some of Europe people behaviors. Based on that, we are just concluding the things. And other reason is that our pride over our culture. We people have pride about our culture. If we see something that deviates from our culture, we simply don’t accept them.
I always have a feeling that culture is the one you cannot compare at all. It is something like comparing Cricket and football. Both are games. But, both have completely different rules and regulations. Can you say cricket is bad just because it is played for a whole day and football is good just because it requires just 2 hours. Huge fan following is there for both games. So, that is meaningless to say one game is bad. The same applies to culture too. Millions of people are following one culture in Europe. So, we can’t say that all Europe people are not cultured as Indians.
Generally, food, family attachment and dressing fashion are the main comparison topics. I observed some points on these topics during my stay in Europe.

Food – Yes, people are eating raw vegetables. Half cooked meats from chicken, pork, beef to whatever is available. They don’t add any spices. We should understand that this is also one kind of cooking style. The climatic conditions also one of the factor for the food habits. One south Indian family who are living in Delhi said that wheat gives more protection against cold than rice. The family, who believed they can’t live without rice, now eating wheat food everyday. For Europe weather, just wheat is not sufficient. They need more strength against cold weather. Meat gives more heat to the human body. That’s why they are having meat everyday. To give a variety to that, they are exploring pork, beef, turkey, duck… And they eat all sorts of breads prepared using wheat. We know that more vitamins and proteins are there in half cooked/ raw vegetables than fully cooked in Indian style. First of all, I don’t accept the term “half cooked”. How do you decide that it is half cooked? Is it just because you cook more time than that? Why can’t we say Europe people eat fully cooked vegetables and Indians eat over-cooked vegetables? Europe people have this kind of opinion on Indian food. Last year one swiss person saw my colleague’s lunch box and asked “You murdered brinjal! How can you eat this?”


Dress- Even, I had an impression that all Europe people roam around sea shore just wearing inner garment!
Inner wears, Shirt, Jeans pant, pull over, very thick winter jackets or two thin winter jackets, woolen scarf for neck, monkey caps, hand gloves and finally shoes. These are the things they wear before going out in winter. It will take minimum 10 minutes to wear everything. In summer, they wear very minimum clothes. So, it is just the weather which drives the people to choose the dress.
Now, my questions…
How overcoat become business wear in India? According to me it is just a winter cloth. Similarly, how jeans pant become casual wear in India? According to me this is also a winter cloth. And both, never suits Indian weather conditions.


Family attachment-
In the middle of one farewell party, my customer stood and said, “Excuse me Gentlemen. I need to pick up my wife from departmental store. So, I have to leave now.”
My other customer said that once in 3 months he takes one week leave and go out with his family.
I know one old person, who is still bachelor. His lady love left him when he was studying in university. So, he didn’t think of marriage. Now he is 50!
You can see how much importance they are giving for their family.
Still, we can argue that Indians stay with their parents till their marriage. This is just because of the difference in economic status. In India, it is impossible to survive if you don’t earn money. So, till you get a job, you have to be with your parents. And, earning money is the first criteria for the marriage too. So, we are with our parents till we get a job. Not till marriage! In Europe, economic status is high. Unemployed people will get social security. So, they don’t need to worry. That’s why people take decisions independently.

These are observations just in one year stay in Europe. If we stay more time, we can understand their culture fully. Then, we will understand that we can’t compare the culture blindly! We will appreciate both culture!

Tuesday 9 December, 2008

Think without ink



வணக்கம்!


...

"இந்த உருளை எவ்வளவு?"

"ஒரு கிலோ ரூ.9.50 "

" இது ரொம்ப ஜாஸ்தி. முக்கால் கிலோ ரூ.6.50 க்கு தாங்க"

...

"ரெண்டு ஈரல் கொடுங்க"

"350 கி இருக்கு. 49 ரூபாய் கொடுங்க"

...

" 7 தேங்காய் 10 ரூபாய்"

"6 ரூபாய்க்கு 5 தேங்காய் தாங்க "

"அது கட்டாது மா . 8 தேங்காய் 10 ரூபாய் க்கு வாங்கிக்கோங்க"

...
These are the magical words which I heard it in my school days. Before realising whether the deal is good, my mom would have returned home after purchasing everything!

Calculating the market value of the land is one among the discussion which I never liked. My uncle is a king in this. He say that so much feet length and so much feet breadth. He calculates the total area and subtracting the area which are going for the public road. He further moves on to give the market value of land.
I wonder how these people are able to calculate such complex things without using pen and paper. Infact, they love to work out these without using pen and paper.

Then, I tried to work out such problems like these people during my college days. It was like doing meditation for 2 hours. In the dark night when no external sound is disturbing, I close my room and sit on the floor and close my eyes (for concentration !). Slowly I bring out the blackboard in my mind and start solving the problem. To solve the simple problem, it took me around 30 minutes whereas using pen and paper I could able to solve it minutes. Sometimes, I was able to be in deep concentration for hours to solve the problem, finally got up early in the morning and realised I really slept off.
Then, I decided that some problem was there in my preparation.

What went wrong in me? Infact, I was jealous at my uncles and aunts. Only console was my friends,who are like me.

I went back to my school days. I was studying 5th standard. In every winter and summer vacation, we go to our grandpa's house. There we play தாயம் . By considering, all other 3 opponents' position one has to decide which number is good for him (though getting that particular number is not his hand!) I have never taken more than a minute to think. Infact, nobody consider that even this game improves your aptitude skills. Infact, no need to calculate so much before putting the dice. But, everyone do the calculation!
And the next game is பல்லாங்குழி! One has to decide from which container he has to take the coins, so that he ends up with gaining something. In software terms, it involves dynamic allocation/de allocation of memory that keeps on varying in each move! (it's so complex that even I don't understand!)

So, what I conclude is that I was very good at solving puzzles in my 5th standard.

Then, coming to 6th standard. My brother was studying 10th standard. His daily activity in the evening was studying the subjects. And my daily activity was disturbing him from studying! Sometimes, he reports to our mom. Sometimes, he shifts to some other place. Sometimes, he gives me some mathematical problems (from 10th standard) to stop me.

"1,4,9,16,25... fill the series"

And he started continuing his studies. I took his note book which is for rough work and his pen. Started solving the problem!
After half an hour, the gave the answer.

"36, 49"

He was surprised to hear this. he asked for another two numbers.
I took another ten to fifteen minutes.
"64,81"
This time, I had big doubt. I asked my brother how did he set the question so quickly without thinking or using pen and paper, whereas I took more than half an hour.
Then, he asked me how did I solve the problem.

1
4 (+3)
9 (+5)
16 (+7)
25 (+9)
36 (+11)
49 (+13)
64 (+15)
and so on.

Here, you may appreciate me. But see the difference. Till fifth standard, I was able to solve the problem using mind calculations. In sixth standard, I could able to solve the problems by writing it down. May be because I was curious in writing using pen particularly. (Note: Till 5th standard, using pen is not mandatory. One can use pencil also. In High school, it is mandatory to write using pen)

Ok...coming back to our old story.

From 7th standard lot of new subjects I started learning.
Algebra, Calculus, Probability, statistics to name few.
These are new and interesting concepts. yes, I agree. Instead these topics concentrated more on formulas than the concepts. In every chapter, there would be minimum ten formulas. Just think...having 10 chapters in one subject from seventh till 12th. you are ended with mugging up around 600 formulas.

Finally,in 12th annual exam,
"If you are tossing the coin, what would be the probability of getting tail? - 2 marks"
" Total number of sides = 2
Space=S={HEAD,TAIL}
n(S)=2
Expected event=A={HEAD}
n(A)=1
P(A)=n(A)/n(S)=1/2=0.5 "