Ajay's Blog

The Chennai Escapade!

2010-08-10T20:57:00.000-07:00

Feels good to be blogging again!

I've been in Chennai for a little over two weeks now and its been a thoroughly educative trip. And all the learnings have been made outside of the books!

First of all I reached here and my employer was kind enough to provide me with accommodation. The e-mail carried a very fancy name and so I was expecting something like a serviced apartment or a guest house. The e-mail also said it was located in Chennai.

When I did get off the train and boarded an auto to reach the venue (After willing to shed Rs 200!) i began to realize that I had a long way to go! Not surprisingly, I was in a different town panchayat when I reached my destination!!

At the serviced apartments (Which is what it turned out to be), I was welcomed by colleagues waiting with their baggage in the parking area. The place was full to the brim and no alternative arrangements were made due to a communication gap. And so, we were stranded at the parking lot waiting for alternate accommodation and at the mercy of another auto driver who had probably gone to enjoy a cup of tea (And even a short nap maybe, considering the time he took to return).

It was a relief to hear that alternate accommodation was arranged and so back into the auto we went. But the relief was short lived.

The 'alternate' accommodation was a SHOCKER!!

A 10x10 room with an attached bathroom (with brown water trickling from the tap), a defunct AC, windows opening out to a scenery of stagnant water and no cupboards. The icing on the cake was that this room was meant for FOUR! So I wasn't surprised to find bunker beds!

What a way to test Adaptability!

With that done, the next ordeal was to locate the office( which wasn't difficult, thankfully) and to find a place to eat. With these things settled it was back to the 'room' to spend the night!

More on my journeys in and around Chennai later!

The comfort-Luxury divider

2009-07-27T22:43:00.000-07:00

Why is it that so many people want to live luxurious lives exen when a majority of the population stuggle to make ends meet? Is it not unfortunate that so many people strive to make more money to live luxuriously rather than to do more charity??

I've come across households where there are 4 or 5 automobiles (all 4 wheelers mind you) with only 2 or 3 members who can legally drive. Its ridiculous. No amount of justification is going to validate acts like that.

There is a fine line between comfort and luxury. Yes, every earning member wants to give his/her family a comfortable life but is that what they're striving for or is it luxury? More often than not it seems that it is the latter.

I'm not saying that everybody should renounce all worldly possessinons and lead saintly lives. I just want to say that we should spare a thought (or rather an action) for the less fortunate.

It may seem difficult to distinguish between comfort and luxury at first but a simple way to do it is to analyze if it is a need or a want.

How often do we do more than uttering a "Oh.. So sad" or "How unfortunate" when we come across the poverty ridden masses??

Certainly charity begins at home but let it not stay within the four walls of it. There is nothing to gain out of living luxuriously. Even the 'happiness' derived from it is not true joy.

Accumulating wealth and material possessions is pointless. A smile on the face of a person in need who's been helped is much more precious. After all, memories are what we cherish throughout our lives. We are remembered for what we do rather than what our bank balance is.

2009-07-20T23:04:00.000-07:00

I'm blogging after a really long time now. What has prompted me a news item about Dr. Abdul Kalam being frisked at IGI.

Firstly I would like to clarify that this has nothing to do with the former president. He is one of the few politicians I have great respect for. This post has more to do with the guidelines given to airlines.

The news item states that VIP's and VVIP's have to be exempt from security checks. I wish to disagree on this because all VIP's are humans too and its quite possible for them to go in the wrong path.

Also, considering the number of criminal cases pending against some of our bureaucrats (like the famous Pappu Yadav) I see no reason why they should not be risked. I mean, its all the more reason why they should be frisked!!

Let me make it clear that I'm for frisking of VIP's, both Indian and foreign.

Talking about politicians, let me digress a bit about the kind of treatment they receive here. Its insene that all traffic has to come to a standstill if they're passing by. They should be in the same traffic to realize what the common man goes through everyday. As picturized in a Tamil movie, the road traffic comes to a halt cuz a politician's plane is passing!!

This is the kind of privileges they get (or rather DEMAND). Honestly, they don't do enough to deserve this.

God help us

Is Renuka Choudhry in her senses??!!

2008-06-24T08:25:00.000-07:00

Happened to read the article about Renuka Choudhry mooting the idea of penalizing fathers or minor drivers.
IS SHE MAD??!!
Mothers are supposed to care more for children (so much so that even in the case of a divorce, they are entitled to keep the child) but when an offence is committed, the father is penalized!!
I can't understand what the mothers are doing when their kids are committing offences.
And so much for the concept of "EQUALITY" that women want. Much like "EQUALITY with 33% RESERVATION!"
She seems to be discharging her duties as Minister of Women and Childcare, or whatever it is, with utmost dedication that she's even getting so obviously partial. Its really unfortunate that ppl in such' posts' are coming up with 'brianwaves' like these.
GOD HELP US!

Afterlife

2008-06-10T08:46:00.000-07:00

This is something thats always fascinated me. I personally believe that the body n soul are two separate entities which is what the dvaita philosophy states. This means that any living being is a combination of matter and energy or conciousness.
Coming to think of it from the point of view of science, by the Law of Conservation of Energy, energy can neither be created nor destroyed but can only be converted from one form to the other. So, the total energy of the universe is constant.
Let us assume that some 'X' dies. If the energy contained in 'X' was 'E' units, this energy dissipates out of the body of 'X'.
It could be assumed that this 'E' units of energy dissipates into the atmosphere.But it must be kept in mind that new 'bodies' are coming into existence too and they need energy to become 'living'.
So this 'E' enters a body ( or matter) and so it becomes living completing a full cycle of events.
It is not at all necessary that this 'E' units must enter a single 'body'. Depending on the quantization, it can enter as many 'bodies' as possible..