The pursuit of purpose

My friend Madhu, an excellent game developer, tells me that games mirror life in a great way. I've realized that it's a very true statement, especially in the fact that while playing games after completing a difficulty level we increase the level to a more difficult one and in real life we keep on looking for more challenges.

So just like the pursuit of happiness is enshrined in the American constitution, pursuit of purpose is wired into some of us humans. This must be the strong inspiration behind my second attempt at entrepreneurship

Salt and Pepper

The thing I like most about the Malayalam movie 'Salt & Pepper' is the beautiful way in which my home city of Thiruvananthapuram is shown. Most Malayalam films, if they are city based, focus on Kochi.

Apart from that, there are many reasons to watch the film- it is a light comedy, with the comedy aspects well woven into the storyline without having a separate comedy track. The movie is an out and out foodie movie (as the title suggests) and one would end up feeling really hungry by interval time.

That someone could make a movie so refreshingly different in Malayalam industry which has already tried various genres is really commendable. Also noteworthy is the lack of any big names in the cast.

Highly recommended, especially if you live to eat (and not the other way round)

Hire & Fire

I keep hearing from folks and relatives in Kerala on how the IT sector jobs are not offering enough job security. The level to which job security is taken for granted (layoffs during recession notwithstanding) became evident to me while I was having dinner at a restaurant near my office last night.

An elderly staff was suddenly scolding a young staff member. It soon turned out that he had, instead of having food in the restaurant itself, packed it for home consumption. (I wonder why this is prohibited - what commercial harm could befall if a staff member takes out 1 plate of parotta?) And then the elderly gentleman passed the verdict on the young chap's crime - "don't come to work from tomorrow onwards. You are fired". All for packing his dinner to take home, probably to share food with a brother or a friend who stays with him.

And we say there is no job security in IT industry.

Media, sensationalism and safety

With all the brouhaha over the Mullaperiyar Dam issue, the media is not helping ordinary people in any way. As a Malayali living in Chennai for the last 7 years, I have never faced (touchwood) any discrimination based on my mother tongue.
In the last couple of weeks I have had umpteen conversations with Malayalis in Kerala who ask questions like whether it is safe to speak Malayalam in Chennai openly - I am both amused and saddened by this. Media in Kerala are apparently highlighting attacks on businesses run by Keralites in Tamil Nadu, and here in Chennai I do hear a lot about alleged attacks on Tamilians in Kerala. While folks in Kerala assure me that the average Tamilian in Kerala is still not attacked, I am sure of the same in TN. This sensationalizing of the issue only leads to retaliatory attacks against (fictional?) attacks on either side.
My guess is that whichever businesses were attacked, may have been done by general anti-socials/rowdies/goons who are making best use of the situation to settle old scores, and may not have anything to do with the Mullaperiyar issue or the mother tongue.
I wish media on both sides become more responsible in their reporting and help Malayalis in TN and Tamilians in Kerala live a normal life.

The futility of legislation

At a petrol bunk near my office, I found a very young boy (must be in his early teens) working to fill air. As I was getting my tyres inflated, I had a casual chat with him, which went this way:

Me: "How old are you, thambi?"
Him: "18"
Me: "Oh, have they told you to tell you are 18?"
Him: "I have my certificates to prove I'm 18"
Me: "Relax, young man, I am asking casually. I have no intention of complaining"

His supremely confident rejoinder: "Sir, even if you want to complain, you can't do anything. I have all relevant documents - school TC, birth certificate, etc which says I'm 18"

I was stumped by the confident with which he spoke. He was clearly lying, and he knew that I could see through that. The tone with which he gave the reply was sort of challenging me to try and disprove his claim.

It is instances like these which make me think that legislation to eradicate social evil may not be very effective. This boy clearly knew what he was doing was illegal, and (probably with help of others/relatives) found out means to get around these 'hurdles'. He probably would have paid at most a month's salary equivalent to get a fake certificate. People who really want to continue such 'illegal' activities will anyway find a way out - if someone takes it to the point of a bone marrow test, I'm sure he might still find a way out through bribing. In fact, with such kind of legislation, we are putting one more layer of rent seeking / scope for corruption. Such legislation is as effective as the "Pollution Under Control" certificates - better save the money for everyone concerned.

What's the alternative then? Better awareness creation, perhaps. Maybe make these children see 'whats-in-it-for-me-if-I-study-a-little-more', a promise of a better life.

The mystery of Saravana Bhavan

Note to my friends living abroad: you are excused if you are a fan of Hotel Saravana Bhavan

Ever tried to find a seat during lunchtime at any of the HSB outlets in Chennai, ac or non ac? The whole experience of having an overpriced meal is unpleasant, that after the ordeal of finding a seat and beginning your meal, you find the next customer standing very near you trying to 'reserve' the seat you are occupying and waiting for you to finish.

On top of that most items are highly priced (for that kind of food) and one unit will never be filling. One can't have a filling meal without shelling out at least 150-200 per head. That doesn't deter scores of people thronging the place, such is the brand value. The only really tasty item to have from HSB is the real fruit ice cream.

Contrasting this with the new chain opened by the well known Shree Krishna Sweets, called Gokulams, they serve tastier food at around 60% of the price but their restaurants are mostly empty. For some reason they are not able transfer their brandname in sweets to their restaurant business.

How does one explain this kind of consumer behaviour? Maybe we must take a relook at the first principle of economics: humans make rational purchase decisions.

The sad aspect of women's reservation

The much touted women's reservation has a major drawback- there is no provision to stop proxy rule. The ward councillor from my hometown constituency is the wife of a politician who would have contested if the ward has not been notified as a ladies only constituency. The husband is the de facto councillor.

The same is the case with many women panchayat president. Similarly, the so called young MPs are sons/daughters from political dynasties. I would like to see more first generation young MPs and real women leaders instead of proxies.

Yet another mobile blog post test

This time from my first android phone, which is more powerful than the first computer I owned. But then it doesn't look like I will get back to posting regularly. Let's put the blame on facebook and twitter, where thoughts get instant capsulated expression without any deep thinking unlike blogs.

testing posting from mobile

i suppose this may not permit posting in rich text. no, found out otherwise

Encounters with Art of Living

With all the controversies surrounding Sri Sri Ravishankar's 'attempt on life' I am reminded of the few encounters with his Art of Living classes and its evangelists.

The first and most interesting incident occurred while I was traveling with my friend Murali from Thiruvananthapuram to Bangalore in the slow moving 'express train' - Island Express. The journey is pretty boring and long. After some time, we started chatting with the fellow travelers in the adjoining set of next 8 seats.

We were in our 2nd year of engineering, and a young man working in the then dream field of IT held our attention. After chatting on general topics, he slowly moved on to religion and spirituality. Then he began his sales pitch by saying 'Life is an art, you must master the art to have a proper life'. Then he said that the only way to master the art of life is to join the preliminary course at Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's Art of Living course. With his skills, he had almost convinced the other 4-5 people sitting there to join the course at 1500 rupees. Seeing the crass commercialization of Hinduism, we got piqued and started picking on his statements and presenting counter statements.

During this, he made a mistake of saying 'Why are you folks thinking like this - if a girl tells you I love you, you believe it, whereas if someone tells you he hates you, you don't believe it'. We picked on this and said, no, its the other way round - if a girl tells I love you, she may be saying it with ulterior motives, whereas if someone says I hate you, it is more likely to be straight from the heart and hence more trustworthy. Others who had earlier agreed to join the preliminary course agreed with this point of view. We then went on to say that everything is a part of living, and even art of living is a part of living, playing on silly rhymes.

By this time everyone dropped their plans to join the Art of Living course much to the irritation of our evangelist friend. He more or less threw us out from there but that didn't give him any brownie points with those who had dropped the plans to join the course. At Coimbatore station when we stepped out to have tea, this dude ran away from us when he found we were headed to the same tea shop on the platform.

My second encounter with an Art of Living evangelist was when this distant relative of mine, himself an instructor of the preliminary course, took 'pity' on my living conditions (!) and took me to a higher level instructor. To solve my 'problems' (all in the imagination of my relative) he needed a picture of Sri Sri to be gifted to me. The simplest way to escape was to accept the pic, which I did, and later in turn gave it away to another Sri Sri fan in my extended family.

I do not know Sri Sri personally, nor have listened to his discourses. Whatever may be his real knowledge/powers, his followers are definitely taking religious commercialism to new lows