The Greatest & The Most Popular

Well, what a river, a lake or a watering hole is to forest, a coffee machine is to any software company. Strange encounters often happen here.

The other day,
I was helping myself to a booster dose of caffeine, when I heard two people conversing.
"Kuchch bhi kaho yaar, Kishore-da ka jawaab nahi... Truly the greatest singer of all times!"

Now, there happens to be some topics in which I forget the mandate about minding one's own business.
"Excuse me," I interjected, “you can perhaps call Kishore the most popular singer, but not the greatest."
"Huh? Then who?"
"Rafi," I shrugged matter-of-factly.

They tried to argue.
I asked them to come up with a Kishore devotional to match "Mann Tarpat" or a Kishore classical to outclass "Madhuban mein" or a Kishore qawwaalli of real quality. They couldn't. I walked away in triumph.

This is not to put down Kishore.
He is definitely my favourite singer, after Rafi. There are indeed some songs that I wouldn’t wish to hear in anyone's voice other than Kishore. Rafi v/s Kishore fight is as futile & fruitless as Lata v/s Asha.

The objective is..
... to draw a distinction between Greatest & Most Popular. The two need not be the same.

Yuvraj Singh may hit six sixes in an over, people may hail dashing Dhoni.... but if you want to see batting at its classical best, you would look at Sachin.

10 Commandments for a PG

Hi,
Well, as someone who has been living as a PG (Paying Guest) for a better part of last 3 years, I daresay to be able to lay a claim about knowing what it takes to be a decent PG. Here are a few of my observations... Feel free to comment or contradict.

1. Thou shalt be a Paying guest.
   Money matters! And seriously… Pay the rent on time, no matter what.
2. Thou shalt be a paying Guest.
   No matter how amiable your hosts are... never forget that fact that you are still a guest. Avoid publicly passing judgmental comments about people around you or offering unsolicited views & opinions about events that you may witness in the house.
3. Thou shalt respect their privacy.
   It goes without saying that you shouldn't trespass on obviously off-limit premises... bedrooms, study-rooms, and kitchen (unless you are dining with them).
   Once in a while, go off for a weekend, and inform them in advance. They would really welcome this respite from you ;-)
4. Live up to the trust.
   Sometimes, your hosts would be away, leaving you in charge of the house. Avoid bringing over your buddies for overnight stay during your hosts absence. They are sure to find out from your neighbours.
5. … And expect the same in return!
   If your hosts trespass your privacy, do not hesitate to object, in a mild manner.
6. Be a good companion.
   The major driving force behind having someone as paying guest is financial gain, people also crave for something more. Try to be someone who is a pleasure to be around. If there are kids in the house, get them chocolates (…once in a while), if there are youngsters, discuss latest movies, matches (and career options) , discuss current affairs with landlord/land-lady, volunteer to get medications for the elderly (ensuring that they pay the bills!). If the family invites you out for a dinner/movie, accept graciously, and get something in the interval. If relatives of your host visit, and involve you in the talks, invite them to YOUR room and play host.
   In short, do not be a moron holed up in your room all the while.
7. … But be aware of emotional complications.
   Bear in mind that you would be staying with these people only for a while, so avoid getting emotionally involved with them... esp. if the family has someone your age and of opposite sex.
8. Use a minimum of shared resources.
   TV, Computer, Bike... try to minimise sharing any of these. If you cannot live without one, invest and get one for yourself.
9. Indulge in your vices out of your PG room.
   Smoking is bad. Smoking in your PG room is worse.
   Same applies to alcohol consumption, tobacco-chewing.... and any other vices you may have.
10. Leave your PG room better than it was
    When the day comes to bid adieu to your PG room, give a bit more than just the rent... an inexpensive wall-clock, a wall-piece... leave your memory behind.
    

An Open Letter to Forward-Enthusiasts

On February 3, 1976, a computer club newsletter published a letter sent by Bill Gates. Gates was furious that the programs written by him and Paul Allen were used by software enthusiasts for free. More details about this letter can be seen at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Letter_to_Hobbyists

Well, am no Gates. But am as passionate about my writing as he is about his software. I feel equally enraged when there are more than a few mails of mine being forwarded without any mention of their origin. So, based on that famous letter of Gates, here is my own letter to forward-enthusiasts.
------------------------------------

Dear Forwarder,
I do not know you, and wouldn't have bothered to bother you, if it weren't for an act of yours that has caused me a couple of sleepless nights.

You forward mails. No problem with that. Indeed, if it wasn't for your forwarded mails, most of us wouldn't have known so many wonderful things happening all around.
No sarcasm here.

The problem arises when you start forwarding mails as your own... Mails that someone else has taken efforts to think about and spent a few minutes of his/her life to write down.

When you are watching a movie, enjoying a night out with your friends, or simply sleeping, someone is at the computer, tirelessly giving finishing touches to a small write-up that they have been thinking whole day over. Thinking isn't easy. It wrecks the mind. Writing isn't easy. It takes time... time that could have possibly been spent in having a meal at leisure.

They mail to you. And what you do with it? You simply remove the author's name, and shoot it off to a hundred people.
I think that's cruel.

Every time you forward a mail without giving due credit to its author, you are denying someone of their right. You are creating one more reason for them to feel like never writing again. You deprive them of a few words of appreciation that may have gone their way.

I do not know what motivates you to do this. I do not want to know, either.
But I do hope you realize what you are doing.

So should you be forwarding chain mails? No.
But before you hit the send button, see that you have kept the author's name or e-mail ID. If you receive a forwarded mail, before forwarding it, keep the sender's mail ID. If you wish, feel free to make changes to your heart's content, but add a line towards the end (based on a mail by...). This not only gives credit to the author, but also makes him/her accountable for the same.

May be am expecting too much. But that's the least you can do.

-Gautam.

Peasant in a cyber-caffe

Hi,

It was a Sunday evening. I was in a cyber-caffe near my PG rooms, checking my mails, and reading posts on the various Yahoo groups that I am a member of.

Just then, a middle-aged person walked in. He was bald-headed, wearing khaadi clothes and a dhoti.. In short, not the kind of guy you usually find in a cyber-caffe.

The peasant guy walked straight to the caffe-owner. The owner nodded to him, and logged in to a G-Mail account. He read some mails from the inbox and conveyed those to the peasant guy, who listened attentively. This activity over, the peasant told the owner some matters, such as, the heat here has been unbearable, but we have had some showers during last few days; the mother is well, the sister is enjoying summer holidays, etc... which the cyber-caffe guy typed and sent off as an e-mail.

The peasant thanked the owner and left.

I was damn curious to know what was going on. Being somewhat friendly with the cyber-caffe owner, I asked him what it was all about.

It seems that the peasant person's son has got admission to IISc-Bangalore on basis of some scholarship. The family doesn't have a telephone, and with postal department striving hard to live up to its reputation of 'snail-mail', letters would have taken years to reach.

So the young boy came up with a bright idea: he created a G-Mail account in name of his father and provided the cyber-caffe owner with the ID and password. About once a month, the father comes to the caffe, the owner logs into the G-mail account and reads the mails sent by the son, translating them into Marathi, of course. Next, he types the matter as dictated by the father and sends the reply to son.

If you ask me, this must be the best application of IT in a country like India..

I do not know whom to applaud.. the son, for this fantastic scheme; or the father, for taking up this adventure at such an old age; or the cybe-caffe owner, who doesn't charge a penny for his services...

Norway Narrative...

I believe in destiny. How else would one explain the fact that one fine morning I found myself being transported from the scorching heat of Nagpur to chilly snows of Norway?

Infospectrum India Pvt Ltd gave me an opportunity to work for a month with Applied Radar Physics, as a technical writer. ARP is basically a group of scientists coming together to develop high-end radars. The company is located at Kjeller Teknologisk, near Oslo. The complex also houses a dozen other R & D organizations, specializing in a wide array of fields, right from biotech to nanotech… and then, there is a nuclear reactor as well!

Rather than writing about what food I ate ( which actually wasn’t much more than bread, butter & cheese) and the places I saw (to put it in brief, the entire Oslo), this article will focus on what I learnt as a person.

The most important thing I learnt was some good ethics. Mr. José Navarro had informed he would pick me up at my hotel at 9 am on first day. I was thinking, ‘he would probably be late by half an hour at least, after all he is the Managing Director!’. Imagine my surprise when, upon descending the stairs at 9 am, I found him waiting for me in the hotel lobby!

At work, I hardly found anyone moving about during work hours. In fact for first few days, I was the one who was most often seen moving in and out of the room for trips to coffee machine, etc. The others would rarely budge from their seats, except for work-related matters.

One thing I realized was the immense amount of work you can get done in a single day if you really focus hard and get cracking. I mean, it’s really, really amazing how much time and mental processing power we waste by just letting our minds wander during work.

Lunch time discussions were something I always looked forward too, for they were never about mundane matters. Everyone present (except me, perhaps...) being highly qualified, the talks were always informative and interesting. Mr. Navarro would say something like, “Yesterday on Discovery Channel they showed about radio-pulsars.” And then others would chip in with what they knew. Each one of them has traveled far and wide and it was a treat to hear their experiences. Being in such an elite company naturally widens your thinking horizons and you begin to read more, learn more, so that you aren’t left out!!

Another point I noted was minimal reporting procedures. If José had to tell something to any of his team-members, he would just walk in and say it. In fact most of the communication was verbal. Of course, important information was indeed passed through mails. Perhaps, ARP being a small group and everyone being senior person, verbal communication must have worked fine. But still, I do feel that sometimes we spend more time in writing mails than doing actual work.

Norwegians in general are very, very courteseous and well- mannered. They go to amazing extent to help others, even a stranger like me. And they smile a lot... it comes naturally to them. I would be walking on the streets and many passer-by’s would break into a smile, and say "Good Morning" or something. It really feels very nice. I tried this a few times after coming back to India, and was greeted with weird looks...

This visit has taught me a lot professionally and also made me a better individual. Living away from “your” people, you begin to appreciate even the simple pleasures like a chai or a warm sunshine early in morning.

For Norway visit photos, you are invited to browse through my photo album on Flickr. http://www.flickr.com/photos/gautamsoman