Note to the West!

I would like to draw the attention of westerners who outsource work to India, either to sleep peacefully or to make cost savings for their organizations or to go on holidays with their dear ones!

 The months, October and November are month of festivals in India.  Every week there will be lesser working hours than usual.  Sometimes the working hours are too less that people here do not find it worth travelling to work!  

So what is the message? The message is if you are planning your critical project activities in these months please do not do so.  Plan well and have them somewhat earlier in the months of August and September or have them after October. 

Well, it may sound weird, but you can try planning critical activities in these months to believe in what I just said!  The culture has changed everywhere, Indians also travel long distances to spend time with their families.  We also want to have holidays and festivals.  Good or bad, we copied this culture from you.

 

If you want to go with the tide, you are most welcome to celebrate Indian festivals with us like we celebrate Halloween and Thanksgiving with you!!

East Vs West

Hellooow!  How are things?  I am writing after a very long time.  I am in India now and I work with customers from the western world.  We always contrast and compare the westerners culturally (perhaps they do it as well!).  I came across a website that was doing this contrasting between the east and west.  I have given some pictures ,that I liked, from the site.  These images do not represent my opinion though.

Blue is for Westerners and Red is for Asians.  Click on any of these images to visit the site and see the other pics. 

Punctuality

Waiting in Queue

Happy Virodhi Varusham

Happy Tamil New Year!  May this Virodhi varusham bring all happiness and prosperity to you. 

Well I just wanted to know how this new year is being celebrated by Tamils in other parts of the world. 

I came across this website which published its newsletter on the internet with almost all the details required to start a great new year!  I think this is the first one that I have seen to have the newsletter published on time and it carries enough details.  It is from Singapore and click here to access their newsletter.

I wish they publish this newsletter every month.  This has very interesting information.  It starts with a sacred utterance, calendar of events for the month, significance of the month with dates and the festivals in the month. 

Sivane Potri!

Kovakkai

After I came to India, today is the first time I happened to taste Kovakkai (a vegetable called ivy gourd).  But this has been classified as a fruit!  This vegetable(fruit) is famous especially in Chennai (perhaps I have not seen it anywhere in India).  I really like it and it goes well with any type of rice or chapathi.  It is sliced into small discs and deep fried in oil with spices and salt.  It resembles a Jalapeno in shape and it is red inside with tiny and soft seeds.  But it is not very hot and spicy like a Jalapeno.

I am not surprised when the poets in India compare it to the color of women’s lips.  Well atleast women ought to have lips in that color!

It has some medicinal uses also.  It is used in treating diabetes, skin eruptions among many others.  It is used as a herb in Thailand.  May be you can refer to wikipedia to know more.

Pets resemble their owners

A scientific research has concluded that most pets resemble their owners.  I could not believe until I could see these pictures.  See it to believe it.  Here you go…        

Picture courtesy: Google images

Keep Green. Keep Clean.

When I visited my hometown (nearly 350 Kms from Chennai), myself and my wife went out for an evening walk on the banks of river Cauvery.   We saw a guy selling Pani poori (a famous snack from the northern part of India).  We were quite impressed by the banner that he put near his roadside shop.

We had a samosa channa, another snack which is a combination of chick peas and samosa.  It was not bad and the level of hygiene was decent enough.  He makes it hot and spicy on the spot and serves in a “use and throw” plate.  In summary, what the banner said is, “Keep the place clean by throwing the used plates in the dust bin.  Do not litter” and strangely it was polite enough!

He sets up his shop in the evening and serves hot snacks.  He carries a commercial gas cylinder with him to heat and serve the food.  All said and done, he has his own problems staying in business and he said operational costs are high!!  Are we not talking the same thing in our daily corporate lives?  But I would appreciate his consciousness to have a litter free zone around him.  The whole world will be a better place if everyone of us think of keeping our surroundings clean.

Litter free or free litter…. it is up to you!

P.S: If you want to know about the dishes I have mentioned here.  Please go to google and find it out yourself.

Hiatus

Helooow, I am back again after a hiatus.  I have travelled to Chennai, India and it is not unbearably hot and humid.   In fact I found the sea breeze cooling down the city in the evenings.  Perhaps it is just the beginning of Indian summer. 

I have been meeting up with friends and relatives.  I also did quite a lot of travel in this 1 month after I arrived.  I had real good Indian food from some of my favorite restaurants.

I have been catching up with my personal chores and this hiatus has been really good for me!

Ranganathan Street

A Colombian asked me what is the difference between Bogota and Chennai.  I was tempted to elaborate on that (ofcourse good and bad!).  But the main difference I told him was the weather and then the population.  Size of Chennai is nearly the same as Bogota, but the population is twice as much!

I told him, wherever you go you will see people... people... people...  There will be a lengthy queue for everything and anything.  Just to make him understand, I wanted to show the picture of our Ranganathan street in Chennai.  I would say it is a shopper's paradise.  You get everything that you need (The same goods sometimes at a low price, sometimes at a higher price!!).

The problem is, it is difficult to get into the street and come out unscathed.  Once you get in, you do not need to make an effort to walk, you will be pushed by the people around you and when you find the shop you want to get in, you can push yourself towards it.  But start doing it a few yards before the shop otherwise you may get into the next shop.

Especially during festive seasons, it is too much crowded.  If it rains and after you get out of Ranganathan street, you would like to cut your legs than to clean it!

It may sound exaggerating, but it is *almost* true.  If you take a daylight picture of Ranganathan street from top, you will find it pitch black in colour because you will see only heads... heads... heads...  If you drop something from top, it does not reach the ground.  Just take a look at the picture below to believe it.

 

Photo Courtesy: Google Images

What wives say...

I came across this image while I was surfing the Internet. 

It is funny (for those who have not thought of marriage yet), it is unbelievable (for those who have decided to get married) and I leave it to the imagination of those who are married, to decide what it could mean to them!

Bogota is unsafe!

Don't be surprised at this.  Anybody traveling to Colombia would have investigated about the safety and other things.  If you read my blog (Dec 2007 to Feb 2008), I would have done the analysis as well.

You can easily get mugged on the road.  The government also does not seem to take it seriously(may be there are plenty of such incidents coming to their notice and it became a day to day affair for them).  But people in Colombia say things have improved in the last 5 years.  I cannot imagine how bad things could have been.

Recently, one of my colleagues got mugged on Halloween night when he was walking towards his apartment.  The thieves took advantage of the Halloween and were dressed like witches, covering their face etc.  They pressed a knife on my colleague's back and robbed his mobile and the cash that he had.

There is another group of thieves who target foreigners.  They catch hold of you and say they are special officers from narcotics division.  They ask you relevant questions like where are you from, how long you have been here, do you have your passport or identity card and the like.  They tell you that they have classified information that some foreigners are trafficking drugs in and out of Colombia and it is for your safety that you should go with them and get registered in a police station nearby.  They take you to a deserted place nearby check your ID card, ask you to provide all that you carry (Eg: Camera) to them so that they can register it in the police station.  They also ask you whether you have any currency and they are checking whether the currency is fake or not.  You will be asked to handover the currency to them.

If you ask for the police identity card, they will show you the identity card!!  Needless to say they faked it.  To make everything look natural they make one of their own person to participate along with you as a foreigner.  That *foreigner* will say that he/she has traveled to Colombia many times and it is quite natural in Colombia and they do this check at times and it is safe to you give your things to the *policeman*.  They fully cooperate with the *policeman* by giving away all that they have and make you believe.

Not knowing what to do and out of fear of accusation of drug trafficking you will give all your money, belongings etc.  Once their mission gets accomplished, they ask you to wait and then they walk away in different directions.  You will still be confused, what's happening and in which direction you should go and look for them.  By the time you realize that something is wrong they vanish into thin air.

The thieves sometimes carry weapons and so it is better to give away things and come back home unscathed.

The only thing that you can do is lodge a complaint in the police station.  But you will never get your things back. 

You can ask "Are these not happening in any other country?".  The answer is "Yes, they happen!".  I have witnessed these and so I am writing to create awareness.