Weekend TV connection episode

We decided to get Digital TV at home this weekend. On Saturday, I had called for one representative from a Digital company, BA, to get the connection. By afternoon, I noticed that we get a discount if we book online. We then decided to book the service make the payment online. When I tried the first time, the payment section showed, "Error... Please try again later." After trying couple more times, I stopped redoing it. I checked my bank transactions online and found that the payments had gone thrice.

After finishing customer center calls to refund the money of two payments and consider only one order, I finalized the installation for Sunday morning. Installation was done within an hour on Sunday. Now, the picture clarity is so neat that we feel like watching TV!

Traffic in Bangalore

(courtesy - web)

Traffic in Bangalore is a nightmare. People move at all speeds - right from empty autowala moving at 5Km/hr to zooming freaks at 120Km/hr. Seeing the current traffic, I can say that Bangalore will choke in the next 5 years. Though roads are becoming better day-by-day, it is the congestion which is a main concern.

Just buying new vehicles every few years will not help anyone. It won't help the owner as well as the city commuters in Bangalore. What are the options of reducing traffic in Bangalore? We don't want more Nanos to block the intersections. Lets see the options:

1) Make Monday-Wednesday-Friday as 'even number vehicles on the road'. Vehicles ending with an even number must use the road. Other odd-number vehicles must stay out of road. Exceptions are - Public transport like buses/taxi/autos. On other days of the week, even-number vehicles must go to garage. Only odd-numbered ones should ply.

2) Keep a quota for driver's license issuance. Don't issue more than 5K licenses per month. If the quota is met quickly, let others wait to get it slowly. People should be made aware that getting license is not the means to use the road. Without this too, they can use more of public transport.

3) Create awareness among people to use more of public transport. Let these facilities get better with more Volvos. If the Transport Dept., could create awareness, people will atleast make an effort to try using it. Once more people use it, the department will get more funds to improve their system. Hopefully this will happen soon.

Indian TV

Indian Television has taken many concepts from American/UK Television. Below are some which we know:
1) Who wants to be a millionaire - Kaun Banega Crorepati
2) American Idol - Indian Idol
3) Deal-Nodeal - Deal-Nodeal

The list keeps growing...

Working in an IT company

Working in an IT company is a life of its own. It is way different than other work environments. There are few things which run in every IT company which, in a way, helps in the growth of IT and on the other side, is the cause for its debacle.

1) Fast paced and Fragile - It sometimes happens that nobody knows whats happening. Everybody is doing something. Work is so fast paced that within 2 years, the technology or tools become old enough to give way to new developments. Though everything starts with 'Keep It Simple' policy, pretty soon, the technology explodes to a very complex system. With many big-brains putting in stuff to that technology, simple solutions become round-abouts. Cooking so many things at once will spoil the whole stability idea. Just when we think, 'looks stable now', things start to fall apart.

2) Limited research - This is again a positive and a negative aspect of IT. Positive - new things come up in no time. Negative - Things which come up cripple down fast if not competent enough. Compare a IT product with a pharma product. I would say, an IT product can come up in days (if not hours). Whereas a medical drug goes through a whole lot of research and tests before being offered to consumers. IT forums, online groups, open source ideas - all lead to ideas of coming up with products in real quick time. 'Agile Programming and development' solely talks about this concept of how fast we could produce a software product.

3) No mentoring - I see this as the major subject in the IT industry. Everybody is in the whirlpool and is trying to stay afloat without sinking. That is the way IT looks from outside. I have never seen clear-cut documents/explanation to any tool/product. When new joinees enter a company, first thing they will need is an overview of systems around. People inside any company are so busy that one really finds it very hard to get the right mentor who could explain the basic architecture. Positive side of this - Every individual has to figure out things himself; downside - many gray areas left out and consumes lot of time and effort.

Diwali photography

Experimented with Diwali photography this time. It was a nice experience trying out new things. Few things I kept in mind -
1) Have slow shutter speed
2) Have aperture of f/10 or so.
3) No night mode or preset modes. Used Manual mode

One thing I did wrong was the ISO - I used a higher ISO. I should have used 100 or lower. One more point I missed was a tripod. That would have been handy for shooting 2-3 second exposure shots.

Diwali 2009

Writing a typical blog... (How did we celebrate Diwali this year?)

On the eve of of Diwali, we shopped new clothes for our son. Also, since it was our son's first Diwali, we wanted to show him some fireworks. My wife and I purchased a few flower-pots, 'bhoo-chakra-s and sparklers. We went to place where they were selling crackers. It was such a mad rush that we could hardly step in. Profit margin for crackers is so high that sellers just quota 60% discount for everything. If the total amount is X, they say, "ok sir... pay Y". No big calculations there. Just some random number approximately matching 60% discount.

Diwali day was good. Morning oil shower (customary of Diwali) was a good relaxing one. Lunch was planned at my in-laws. In the evening, our son enjoyed the fireworks. Smoke coming out of flower-pots or bhoo-chakra-s is very intense. It was very hard to keep him away from that. Late in the evening, there was little bit of firecrackers on TV when RCB defeated Delhi.

In the night (after 10:30), it was very hard to put our son to sleep. Diwali is indeed celebrated at the cost of others when it comes to noise levels. When people burst crackers up to midnight, there is no way one can avoid the noise. While official rules don't permit bursting after 10:00pm, that rule not is valid when it comes to Diwali night. It looks like that rule applies on other days of the year. We finally had to wait upto 1:00am or so for noise to disappear and put our son to bed.

India life vs US life

People keep asking me "how was life there in US?" or "how do you feel coming back to India?". It has been more than a year since we returned from the US and for me, answering such questions is neither easy nor short. One of my friends recently told me that he rejected an intra-company transfer to US as he thought that life there was not easy. Bad part is, he has never stayed in US for more than 2 weeks to decide that.

Comparing India life and US life is completely based on one's priorities. If one dreams of leading a life in the US, then he/she has to overcome all the hassles. On the other side, if one thinks India is the dream place to be in, it shouldn't end up in -'kuupa mandUka' story (frog in the pond story) . Also, returning to India is not a good choice if children were born and brought up in the US. They will surely feel the change in lifestyle. Returning to India is the best option if one expects no growth in career and wants to spend more time on family/social activities/etc. We have seen many returning when they are in mid-30s and kids are still young.

Bottomline, as the saying goes, "Be a Roman in Rome", we got to adjust to the place in which we life and enjoy the benefits of that place.