Wednesday, June 27, 2007

My latest Passion

Until about 5 years ago, going on a plane was a novelty for me. I had done it only a few times then and cherished each flight. Now, it is a more a thing of routine.

In the last few weeks i have developed a passion for flying planes, thanks largely to my housemate who is a qualified pilot. Thanks again to him that he has a pilots joystick and the Microsoft Flight Simulator on his Lappy. He has been teaching me to fly and I am loving it.

I started off with a Cessna (proppelor driven) 2 seater aircraft. While taking off was quite easy, landing was the difficult bit. After a few crashes and some bad landings, i have started landing smoothly and the confidence in flying is really high. Although the Simulator is nothing more than a Simulator, i hear that the real thing is not very different, except for the fact that we are flying along too and life is at stake :D:D:D.

Chennai to Tambaram and back has been my regular route on my practice runs. After gaining confidence in handling the aircraft, I have taken off from various locations in the world including Melbourne and New York. At New york, i took off on an amphibious aircraft from the water and flew low under a bridge at about 200 ft, which is a manouvre I am proud of :D:D:D:D The other exciting thing i did was to fly at night and look for a runway and land safely!!!!

Yesterday we decided to do some landmark searching and I took off from Agra in search of the Taj Mahal. We flew alongside what we assumed to be the Yamuna but just couldnt spot anything like the Taj. Nevertheless it was a great experience.

A week or so ago, i dared to fly a Learjet and surprised myself with a great landing. The Jets are sooper fast in comparison to the Cessna and the handling was much much steadier.

Upping the ante, I am looking fwd to flying in bad weather and flying based on direction and communication from the ATC. I am getting there!!! When i have the time and the money I sure will fly a real plane!!! For now, Simulator rocks!!!!

If you wondered about why I havent blogged in a while, I have been busy flying over Melbourne or Chennai, or under a bridge in New York!!!!!

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Sivaji - The Boss. Cool?

Rajni Kant is starring in a movie after almost 3 years. The hype, the excitement, the craze, the controversy - it is all expected. With comparisons running wild betwen Rajni and Amitabh, there was bound to be interest from across India and eth world to see how this movie does. Oh yes I am talking about Sivaji - The Boss.

As an aside, I am a big fan of Kamal Hassan and in my opinion hes the best actor India has seen to date. But yes, that does not stop me from being a fan of Rajni :)

I was all excited about watching Sivaji, moreso because I was going to watch it in Melbourne and such are eth times when it gets as close to "India" as possible. My friend, his wife, his parents and I prepared early, left early and reached early and yet found that there were people ahead of us in the queue. An 800 seat capacity theatre was all but sold out. The atmosphere was exciting to say the least. We got in early and took our seats and I enjoyed a good 15-20 mins looking at desi gals wearing salwar kameez and a bindi too.

The movie started and when Rajni made his appearance on screen (when his face first showed up), the noise in the theatre was deafening. I felt like I was watching the movie at Satyam theatre in Chennai. It was so loud that we all missed the first words from Rajnis mouth. Shankar, the director erred in giving Rajni a dialogue too soon after his entry.

The movie was a typical Shankar movie, and a typical Rajni movie. No surprises. It had the style, the comedy, the social service, theputting other ppl before himself effect, the riches to rags to riches transformation. In one word "cliched".

Rajni looked old, but the make up artist had done a damn good job with him. He pulled it off decently well. Rajni was amazing when he was imitating other Tamil actors including Vijay, MGR and Sivaji Ganeshan. He also got to do a Keanu Reeves, thanks to the fight directors direct lift off from The Matrix. If you know what to expect from Rajni, you would not be disappointed.

It was refreshing to see Rajni share screen time with Vivek, who was literally on each frame that Rajni was on, atleast in the first half. Rajni also let Vivek do the punch dialogues this time round. The comedy element was good and I had a good time laughing. Vivek did well.

Shreya/Shriya was stunning. She was cute yet sexy and in some of those dance moves in the song sequences, she reminded me of "Hips dont lie". Curvy indeed. Heroines in Indian cinema, esp Tamil cinema are often nothing more than the heros love interest. Shreya in Sivaji was no different and for that she played her part well.

Guest Nayantara was HOT HOT HOT in the item number -Ballelikha. This song and Sahaana were the only listenable songs of the movie. AR Rahman continues to disappoint and in my personal opinion there is a clear Blaaze-ization of his music. There was too much rap and tunes that we are akin to attributing to 50 cents and the likes. Thotta Dharani did a wonderful job with the sets and they were reason enough to suggest the 100 crore budget.

The movie overall was good. An assumption here is that you have to have your expectations right when you watch a Rajni starrer. For me I had 3.5 hrs of great entertainment, great ambience and good fun. In all it was "Cool".

As an aside again, Rajni, I think is lining up for politics and I think he will strategically enter it when Karunanidhi finds a permanent place on Marina beach.

Thursday, June 14, 2007

Book Reading

If you are a regular here, or if you know me well, you will know that 'Reading' and 'Books' are something that dont interest me. Perhaps I must change that to a thing of the past. Atleast for now, I am absolutely loving a book that I started to read about a couple of weeks ago. And I hope that it will remain a thing of the past.

It all started off on orkut, where a couple of my close buds had this very book on the list of their favourite books. On my trip to Bangalore recently, when I met one of them, I enquired about the book and he spoke very highly of it and suggested that it could be the perfect formula to get me into reading books. I was at Forum (the mall) and popped into the book store and grabbed a copy straightaway.

The book is titled "Pundits from Pakistan - on tour with India, 2003-04" and is written by Rahul Bhattacharya, who is a cricinfo correspondent and also writes columns for various newspapers and magazines. Yes!!!! It is about Indias cricket tour to Pakistan, remembered as the tour where Sehwag got his triple century and when vajpayee was invited to watch a match along side Musharraf!!!

The book is a mix of Rahuls experiences in Pakistan, about the people there, the culture, the similarities and differences with India and ofcourse Cricket. The author has provided a very unbiased account of the proceedings on tour and presented it in a fine, simple and elegant manner - with facts, views, opinions, quotes and news, interspersed with subtle yet wonderful humour. The book also includes bits and pieces of what I call "inside stuff" that normally does not get to the press. A very refreshing read.

It has kept me so interested that since a few days I have given up my morning power nap on the train to work and my evening read of the MX newspaper(masala newspaper like midday), and instead gotten engrossed into the Pundits from Pakistan.

I have completed 200 off the 300 odd pages. Now, just because I have started enjoying reading books, I cant give writing and blogging step-fatherly treatment. Can I???? No. Hence this post. I better get back to the book now!!!! Just for information sake, theres only one book that I have completed in all my life and that was "Wings of Fire" - Autobiography of President APJ Abdul Kalam.

Just before I go, Amma - Can you believe it I am reading a book, and loving it too??? and this time I will try to keep this habit going.

Wednesday, June 06, 2007

Indias education system

I have always held this opinion that the IITs and IIMs in India are doing nothing special and nothing different to the other institutes around the world. The fact that they produce top professionals is because they only allow the cream to be part of their courses. They are not doing very little to actually transform ordinary individuals into thorough professionals.

I read an article written by Michael Backman on The Age this morning, HERE, and totally agree with his views. In this article Michael writes about how Indias higher education system is just not sufficient to support the growth that the economy is now seeing. Also, the education system is focussed in areas that do not add value to the existing knowledge base.

This brings me to the point of the process of filteration at educational institutes. On one end of the spectrum we have IITs, IIMs and the like, that filter at the entry level and at the other end we have the CA Institute that filters at the exit level. Both these models suffer from limitations and have their own advantages. Looking at each of these systems :

Entry level Filteration

Advantages :


1. Sets a benchmark for aptitude required to take up a course and lets the individual know straight away if they are upto it.
2. Optimal use of training and infrastructure resources as only a selected number of people are trained.
3. Guarantees minimum level of competence among pass-outs.
4. Ensures a competitive peer group with the difference between the best and the worst not being much.

Disadvantages :

1. Entry criteria often has no correlation to the course being taken, thereby denying some individuals to take up the course.
2. Too much reliance on a 3 hour exam, which may not be the best 3 hours for an individual.
3. The entrance exam becomes more important than the course itself.
4. Limited opportunity for people to get access to the best training and infrastructure, which might just be teh reason why most people are not as good as they could have been.

Exit level Filteration

Advantages :

1. Equal opportunity provided for anyone interested in taking up a line of study. If they are good enough, they will get through.
2. Emphasis is on learning whats in the course, and not on something that is merely a gateway to the course.
3. Guarantees minimum level of competence among pass-outs.
4. Provides the same platform and infrastructure for everyone to make the best use of.

Disadvantages :

1. Huge strain on resources as a huge number of aspirants have to be catered for.
2. Peer group is a mix of people at various levels of competence, thereby diluting competition.
3. Individuals realise late that they may not be cut out for a particular line of study.

Preference

All said and done, I have a preference for the Exit level filteration for the following reasons.
1. Equal opportunity.
2. Equal level of infrastructure and training provided for all.
3. Onus on deciding line of study and responsibility of the same lies with an individual.
4. Non-reliance on a 3 hour entrance exam.

Myself in this regard,

I hate entrance exams and know they are not my forte. I might find it difficult to clear CAT, but I am sure that I have all it takes to go through the curriculum and the grind at any IIM and compete with others who might have come in thru the CAT structure. This is because the entrance exam is not always a test of skills required in the course that follows, it is just a process of elimination.

The system

Sadly, it focusses on where one has studied from and not necessarily what one has studied and what one knows. brings be to an earlier post on this blog titled Skills vs Qualification, HERE.

Ur take??

Attachment to inanimate objects

As humans we do have an attachment to inanimate objects. We bond with our study tables, get comfortable in our couches and beds, feel connected to our accessories and even feel attached to our houses.

Recently, I felt this attachment at a totally different level. The objects in question were the non-stick kadai and tawa that I had brought with me when i first came to Melbourne. In the last 5 years, we bachelors - amateur cooks have given the utensils a good beating, and inspite of all that it has served us very well. A few months back I noticed that its use by date was approaching and promptly got another set of non-stick utensils when i got back from India recently.

For a few weeks now, I have tried, in vain, to get rid of the old set of utensils. I feel this attachment towards them. They have served me for 5 years, sometimes with amazing food and sometimes with crappy food, but nevertheless served me my food. Those utensils remind me of the spicy Choley my friend made, the gulab jamoons that I made, the sambar that my mom made while she was here, among other things. Kaise jaane doon usko!!!!!!!

Last weekend, I thought I got over the attachment and was able to keep the utensils next to the garbage bin, to be disposed off with the next garbage collection cycle. In came my other friend (who has seen quite a bit of these utensils) and asked "should we actually dispose these off?". I melted again!!!!!! Its about a month and those old utensils are still lying next to the bin, without any action being taken on them!!!!!!

"Oh Bartan(s), I am going to miss you soooo much!!!!!! Thank you for all the good times, and the bad, I will never forget you!!!!!!"

This weekend will see them done away with.

Sunday, June 03, 2007

Forgetting my mobile

Aaaaarrrgh!!!!!! I have forgotten my mobile phone at home once again!!!!!!!!

I have these phases when I seem to forget to take my phone in the morning quite often. Its not the first time I have forgotten it and I am guessing its not going to be the last. I feel so handicapped without it - not just coz i dont have it, but without it I dont know many phone numbers.

Thinking about why and how I forget it, I have come up with the following reasons :

1. It happens on days when I am late and rushing to get to the station on time.

Remedy : Wake up 10 mins earlier!!!!

2. I wear my phone pouch on my waist when I dress up and when I pick up my wallet etc, i forget to take my phone.

Remedy : When i wear the pouch, put the phone in it too.

3. On most days when i forget it, my phone is below my pillow and hence out of sight.

Remedy : If i keep my phone under my pillow, put it on the table first thing in the morning.

In spite of all this, if I still forget to bring it in - STOP WHINGEING, coz that means i am plain forgetful!!!!!

Now-here to No-where!!!!

I always look forward to and enjoy healthy discussions / conversations (sounds familiar???? yes i pulled this statement off my profile!!!)

A discussion is not healthy when one is not willing to see the point of view of the other. Differing from that point of view is a seperate issue. Thinking of these two issues as being the same, often spells doom for any discussion. Thats when EGO kicks in and when that happens, no one is going anywhere!!!!

I have been part of numerous discussions with friends, family, colleagues, blogpals etc. There are some topics that would never see a healthy discussion, and those very topics are ones where every individual is oblivious of the "other side". And yes one more observation I have made is that with such topics, the individuals are fanatic about their point of view.
When I say individual - that includes me :)

Here are some of the topics that I have discussed and have gone no where with them:
1. Microsoft vs the rest
2. Sachin Tendulkar meriting a place in the playing 11
3. Ferrari vs the rest (McLaren in particular)
4. Toilet paper vs Water
5. Egg - vegetarian?
6. Love marriage vs Arranged marriage

I will add more when i can think of them.

I am sure you all have been part of such discussions. Go on and share your experiences!!!!!