Written on
May 15, 2008
by
Sid
An ex-colleague came home a while back. We hadn’t met for a few years and in the meantime, he had gotten hitched and we were meeting his wife and daughter for the first time.
His wife was quite friendly and a nice person to spend time with, perhaps a bit on the quiet side, but then he himself is quite a mild mannered person. The surprise of the evening was his 4 year old daughter. An unpleasant child, she was spoiled rotten and we were, quite honestly, shocked.
Never *once* doing as she was told, the child would lie on the restaurant table (where we proceeded for dinner) and kick, bite and scream on being asked to sit and eat her dinner. On one occassion, she went up to her mother and delivered a resounding slap on her face. The response: a mild ‘no, sweetheart’, without any hint of disapproval from the parents.
Now, I’m not advocating being harsh or whacking the child. However, the very least *required* is the presence of strong disapproval for the child’s actions - which was missing. How else will a child know he/she is doing something wrong?
While we would love to have these guys over again, we haven’t done so for the last 2 years, just to avoid the kid. That may seem a bit extreme, but you would have to see the little storm to believe there are actually children like that… and parents.
- Sid
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Written on
May 14, 2008
by
Sid
Sometimes you wonder what kind of misfits see terror as a way to further their goals or be accepted - this time they’ve hit Jaipur, a city which has largely remained a non-target for such activities.
But that isn’t the main topic of this post.
I saw a photograph where an injured person was being pulled away by his hands, head lolling and feet dragging. Is this where we are after more than half a century of what we call progress? We call ourselves a nuclear power and we do not have paramedics or emergency medical staff? We boast of a high degree of progress in the telecom and IT sectors that generates significant revenue for the country and we cannot afford stretchers?
I guess I should be thankful we have electricity for 4 hours a day. If the dimwits running the country had their way, we probably wouldn’t have that either. I’m wondering if our wimpy prime minister who always maintains a saintly expression on his face will note that we have serious issues with emergency infrastructure across the country and think of doing something about it. Then again, he’ll probably need the cooperation of the babudom, who seem to be perenially occupied with their own private agendas.
Sid
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Written on
May 13, 2008
by
Sid
Its finally out in the open - the sordid mess that is Delhi’s only international airport.
Whenever I’ve been there, travelling myself or dropping someone off, the first thing to hit you is the unorganised, undisguised chaos that we call an airport. Complete lack of trolleys, system or procedures, it is a national shame. When returning from a trip one time, I happened to look up and see the plastic ceiling peeling away, revealing wire and dirt lined insides. There are no facilities to speak of and maintenance is something its never seen. Bathrooms are filthy and unkept, staff are rude and unfriendly and all infrastucture is sadly ineffective, inefficient, in short supply and those too are on their last legs.
I felt ashamed of what we show others in their first glimpse of our country - guess our government officials have the shame bred out of them.
- Sid
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Written on
May 12, 2008
by
Sid
I love reading Dilbert comic strips. For those of you who missed the first part - I LOVE READING DILBERT COMIC STRIPS.
So There.
Some people (read Norman Solomon) seem to be taking Dilbert a bit too seriously. Ok, so most of us identify with one strip or another at some time or another. Yes, it targets various people and blatantly tells tales of discrimination. So? It is a comic strip, isn’t it?
But our man (Read Normon Solomon) doesn’t seem to think so. He insists on making a stripper out of a strip (sorry, bad pun) and proceeds to (try to) tear Adams apart when he says downsizing is good for large corporations.
Read all about it here and here.
Guess some people just have to have opinions.
Sid
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Written on
May 9, 2008
by
Sid
That driving licenses aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on, is common knowledge and applicable to most parts of India. Reading the paper today about an enforcement drive by the Delhi Police, I found mention of at least two people who illustrate this point very well.
The first was a ‘Dr. Sunita’. Engaged in an honorable profession, she claim she wasn’t speeding. According to her, she was only ‘driving’ at 64kmph on a deserted stretch of road. The highest speed limit in Delhi is 50kmph. Silly, but thats the law. How she didn’t know that, I cannot imagine. She also says, there were no warning signs. If the speed limit for that road was a funny number like 35kmph and she was driving at 45kmph, one can give some credence to her point. However, if she’s over the maximum speed limit imposed for the CITY, then one can only say that ignorance is no excuse for breaking the law.
The other lady, Jyoti is a school teacher - supposedly an example to children. She stopped in a ‘no stopping no parking zone’, was prompt fined, and then says ‘I only stopped for a few seconds’. She might as well have stopped for an hour - its the same thing.
For a city the size of Delhi, we badly need proper driver training classes and some semblence of knowledge prior to receiving drivers licenses.
- Sid
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Written on
April 26, 2008
by
Sid
I’ve heard of road rage, but I don’t think I’ve ever experienced it. Coming back from Nehru place a couple of days back, a young chap on a bike stopped next to my car, rudely gestured to my driver to pull down his window and then proceeded to scream at him.
It turns out that the parking chaps in Nehru place at put a paper cup with a magnetised bottom on the car bonnet for some reason, which had dislodged itself and flown into the bikers face. I could understand his irritation, but no amount of explaining could convince him that it wasn’t thrown out of the window.
This in itself is shocking. When someone takes the trouble to explain something, purely for human purposes and the other chap refuses to believe him, there’s something wrong in the environment. Is the level of routine dishonesty so high in Delhi, that people have completely lost faith in one another?
Finally giving up, I re-entered the car and asked the driver to proceed. The biker however, had other plans and wasn’t willing to let go so easily. He followed us for nearly two kilometres, mouthing the filthiest of abuses all along, trying to kick the car and so on. He was angry and needed some outlet for his rage.
Quite unnerving. It also makes me understand that the incidents we’ve heard of, where one chap shoots another simply for overtaking him, can and do happen.
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Written on
April 4, 2008
by
Sid
I have an account on Naukri.com, and I guess so do many thousands of us working class people.
Recently, there’s some idiotic manager there who has become overly enthusiastic about his targets. He’s probably in charge of the resum writing business of naukri and also probably been well chewed by his boss for some reason. As a result, he has told his staff to throw caution, good business sense and fair practices to the wind and spam!
Yes, Spam. Naukri.com is a spammer!
They now send mails EVERY DAY, sometimes 4 - 5 times a day, advertising their resume writing service. I called up one of their executives - Pallavi Gupta. She says, that since mails are being sent from the back end, the only thing one can do is to make ones resume inactive, otherwise they will continue to spam me. Of all the stupid responses I’ve heard till date, this one is probably the most brainless. After I confirmed this, her voice took on a ‘go fuck yourself’ tone and she says ‘you’ll need to talk to customer support and this is the number. bye’.
Interesting business tactics. Since Sanjeev Bhikchandani has a captive market here, he’s actually given his team carte blanche to do whatever they need to, so he makes more money. The best part is that this chap actually gives lectures on business tactics and so on. I wonder when he’s going to include ‘SPAM’ as one of his ’secrets’.
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Written on
April 2, 2008
by
Sid
Running a small company, one quickly realises that the programmer I’m looking for and the kind of programmer Mr. Bluechip-Manager is looking for are the same. Problem is, most people would prefer to join a larger company, obviously. Thing is, they sometimes work at my company for 10 days, yes, 10 days before quitting to join a larger company. I’m not sure if thats the right attitude, but then since I’m the one who was dumped, its obviously the wrong attitude.
What does one do?
There simply aren’t enough intelligent, well spoken, hard working and talented people to go around. I’ve spoken about McDonalds in the past - illustrating the kind of people manning the counter these days, as opposed to the earlier days - there’s a world of difference.
I hired this chap a few days back. Young, well spoken, talented and hardworking chap. Quit in 10 days because an interview with a larger company came through and it was apparently his ‘dream’ to be working for that company. Can’t deny a chap his dreams - but what about me?
One wonders what exactly is the solution. Should we remain outsourcing and broking outfits till a larger office can be purchased? Do we never think of growing and be content to remain where we are?
I’m thinking… why would anyone, the right person, work for a small company anyway. Yes, there are those who dislike working for large companies and other who like the energy in a start up and so on. I don’t think there are many of those going around and too few to come around anyway. Is it the maturity of a talent pool that indicates whether people can make a balanced choice between large companies and small companies?
Intelligent, well spoken, hard working and talented young person. Bah! Humbug.
- Sid
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Written on
March 26, 2008
by
Sid
Over the past year, I’ve been hearing many stories about this clan called ‘Gujjars’. I should also add, that not one of those stories has portrayed this community in a positive light.
If all the incidents are laid side by side, you find yourself looking a group of people who are apparently devoid of any moral values, education and respect for law and order. You also see a kind of rabid clannishness, supersized egos and a viciousness that would be more at place in a hyena than a human being.
Can this be for real? Could there really be such a group of people, who share so many (negative) characteristics? You tend to believe these stories as everything remains the same despite coming from many different sources. I also remember that these are the same people who killed, looted, damaged and pillaged for a change in classification in our much celebrated caste system.
- Sid
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Written on
January 22, 2008
by
Sid
Yesterday, I received my phone bill and stuck to that was someone elses bill. The standard code of ethics states that I should give them a call and let me know that their bill has mistakenly arrived at my address and tell them the amount etc.
So, thats what I did and called a certain Mr. B. Kaul, who lives in Sector 61, NOIDA. He picks up the phone, hears what I have to say, inquires about the amounts, says ‘Ok’ and then puts down the phone, without a single word of thanks.
While, one musn’t expect civilties like ‘thank you’ from most of those who live in Delhi/NCR, however, I would have thought an act of civilty by an unknown person would have brought out the human even in crude forms of civilized life like Mr. B. Kaul. He, in fact, went a step further - his tone conveyed that he was *entitled* to receive such a call, being the great person he is and that *I* should be grateful for the opportunity - simply amazing. Chances are, his descendents will imbibe the same set of values and amplify them further.
And then we wonder why Delhi is going the way it is. Mr. Kaul - if you’re reading this - think of coming back to the human race, will you?
Sid
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Written on
January 16, 2008
by
Sid
I was copying a file - a virtual machine - about 8 gigs from an external HDD to my laptop. Here’s how much time Windows Vista thought it should take.
Microsoft is amazingly consistent in the quality of their software - low or high - you decide.
Sid
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Written on
January 6, 2008
by
Sid
India is creating dents on world industry at a scorching pace. Indian professionals are making a mark in virtually every profession and trade across the world. India and Indians are rapidly becoming ‘preferred’ even over the natives everywhere we see.
Good.
… what worries me is that we have a very laid back attitude towards quality, processes, safety and most other such supposedly non-tangible areas - each time, every time and within just about EVERY native Indian and first generation immigrant. Perhaps second generation too.
Ouch.
Shudder poor world - you’ve got it coming.
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Written on
December 1, 2007
by
Sid
I fail to understand why we routinely choose brainy horse-faces for our Miss India. The contest started out about female beauty - today it is about IQ, political leanings and cellular structure among others. Oh, did I miss out beauty? I guess that it something that the judges may be looking at too.
Seriously, has anyone taken a close look at Manpreet Brar? Yecchhh!
I’m watching the Miss World 2007 now and guess what, India isn’t anywhere in the running. Perhaps our Miss Indias’ should try participating in the Aspen Derby.
And… China wins! Was she the prettiest of the lot - naah! Brainy? probably. Politically safest - definitely!!
Sid
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Written on
November 30, 2007
by
Sid
Every day, I receive about 10 mails from recruitment agencies looking to fill positions. I’m sure many thousands of people experience inbox-clutter from such people.
At one level, I don’t have a problem - I’ve signed up with a website, which has my resume and so they’re sending me mails. No issues.
Where I have a problem is the idiots who send mails like ‘your resume has been shortlisted for a fortune 500 company, so send us the following details’. Big deal. So, you’re looking to fill in a position. The least you can do, is tell what the f*****g position is, where it is located, what the responsibilities etc. But no - most of these morons continue their practices, till they are at the receiving end of my highly toxic tongue.
For example, take this ass from a company called ‘Tech Drive’. He sends me a mail stating, ‘your CV has been shortlisted’. The mail goes on to explain why Tech Drive is the greatest and then says, ‘if you’re interested, send the following details’. Is this just that Mr. Lalit Kumar is too stupid to know how to send mails or is he so damn arrogant, that he expects people to jump up and respond immediately.
Stupid jerk-offs!
Sid
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Written on
November 27, 2007
by
Sid
There is this family that stays in the ground floor of our apartment block ‘B’.
On the face of it, they are a normal family, with a retired father, housewife mother, daughter looking like she’s finishing college or just started work etc. Looking closely however, you find an attitude here that reflects Indian society at large. They insist on using public/shared resources for any and every personal situation that comes up.
Need extra parking? There’s the neighbours slot, we can always park there. Work to be done in the house? No problem, just pile the bricks up in the neighbours parking slot. Family function? No issues whatsoever, just call the neighbours, ask them to park elsewhere, make holes in the road and parking, pitch tents, hire a DJ, keep the whole neighbourhood awake, don’t even have the decency to invite them and block the entry to residents of two apartment blocks. Whats more, the tents are cleared overnight and whats left behind is a garbage dump - plastic glasses, bottles of water, mountains of waste food, roads stained with oil, ash and coals from a tandoor and the rest of that. Appalling!
These idiots refer to their family as one of pandits and probably justify this kind of hooliganism using some kind of warped religious logic. They have two cars, a driver and have a respectable income, thanks to a son abroad.
Respectability, civic sense, respect and class however, are assets this bunch will have to wait a few generations for.
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Written on
August 30, 2007
by
Sid
Going by the recent happenings in India, one wonders who is the real cause of the terror tactics prevailing? On one hand we have terrorists running amok, and on the other hand we have the protectors of society [read 'Police'] dragging criminals on motorcycles. We have misguided elements wreaking havoc and then we have cops who are barely literate, have no semblance of preparedness when it comes to tackling such elements.
Of course, right on top of the roost we have politicians who again, are barely literate, are known criminals and never lose an opportunity to make a fast buck. Political workers damaging public infrastructure, minority groups indulging in killing sprees, politicians using every trick in the book to gain political mileage [the effects on the country be damned] and more.
One wonders - is the government really in control of the country?
- Sid
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Written on
August 8, 2007
by
Sid
I have increasingly moved from commercial software to community supported open source software. Guess what I found? Even stuff that I had been using for years, faded into quick oblivion when faced with its open source alternative. Here are my top 10:
- 7-Zip: Handy, powerful, accessible and fast, 7-zip is a great and better alternative to WinZip.
- Ubuntu Linux: I’ve used a bunch of Linux Distributions. This is by far the best when it comes to end users.
- Joomla!: A web based content management system, Joomla! is written in PHP, uses mySQL and is probably the best web CMS out there. Usable by end users and programmers, it has a very active developer community and is extremely easy to implement and use. It is also extensible as hell.
- Audacity: Simple, easy to use and effective sound editing studio.
- Firefox: Ever since I’ve moved from IE to FF, I’ve never, ever looked back. FF is highly extensible, it doesn’t crash (very rarely, and thats usually because of me) and is very very powerful, not to mention easy to use.
- Sid
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Written on
July 30, 2007
by
Sid
I have to connect to a wireless network in the house as well as in the office. My home network works on automatic settings via DHCP and my office network due to some reason, works off static IP addresses for everything (PC, gateway, DNS…). Switching between the two every day was rapidly becoming a royal PITA (call me if you’re not sure what that is).
After scouring the Internet for a workable and possibly free profile manager, IP switcher, I found the solution in Windows itself. What I now have is a little system of batch files and VB script that works perfectly well. So, in case they may be of use to other hassled souls, here they are.
System 1 works off one VBScript file and two batch files - one for setting the home network settings and the other for office. System 2 works off a single batch file that does the same after prompting you to choose a location. While they are rather simplistic with not the slightest bit of sophistication, they do the job. :) Note that my DNS addresses are the same for both locations, so that isn’t included here. Let me know if anyone needs to change that as well.
———- Method 1 :: SwitchIP.VBS
SwitchIP.vbs
Set WshShell = WScript.CreateObject(”WScript.Shell”)
If MsgBox (”Are you at Office?”,vbYesNo, “IP Switcher”) = vbYes Then
‘ set IP for office
WshShell.Run(”setofficeip.bat”)
Else
If MsgBox (”Are you at Home?”,vbYesNo, “IP Switcher”) = vbYes Then
‘ set IP for home
WshShell.Run (”sethomeip.bat”)
Else
‘ quit
End if
End if
setofficeip.bat
@echo off
REM note the ‘1′ at the end of the netsh command
netsh interface ip set address “Wireless LAN” static <PC_IP_Addr> 255.255.255.0 <Gateway_IP_Addr> 1
sethomeip.bat
@echo off
netsh interface ip set address “Wireless LAN” source=dhcp
ipconfig /renew
———- Method 2 :: SwitchIP.BAT
switchIP.bat
@echo off
title IP Switcher
setlocal
set OK=N
:loop
set /p choice=Choose location 1[Office], 2[Home] or END
if /i [%choice%]==[END] endlocal&goto end
if [%choice%]==[] goto loop
if [%choice%]==[1] goto 1
if [%choice%]==[2] goto 2
set /p xxx=wrong entry, press any key to exit.
endlocal
goto end
:1
echo Setting up IP address for Office…
echo — IP Change Output —
REM note the ‘1′ at the end of the netsh command
netsh interface ip set address “Wireless LAN” static <PC_IP_Addr> 255.255.255.0 <Gateway_IP_Addr> 1
echo — IP Change Output —
goto end
:2
echo Setting up IP address for Office…
echo — IP Change Output —
netsh interface ip set address “Wireless LAN” source=dhcp
echo — IP Change Output —
echo Renewing DHCP Lease…
echo — IP Change Output —
ipconfig /renew
echo — IP Change Output —
goto end
:end
Its all included as a file here for convenient tryouts. SwitchIP Code Files
- Sid
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Written on
July 7, 2007
by
Sid
There will be no more food related posts on this blog going forward - they will now be on food.sidkhullar.com. Thought I should separate my rants and raves from serious food talk. :)
Sid
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Written on
July 6, 2007
by
Sid
Saw this Sanjay Dutt starrer yesterday, in spite of numerous protests from the wife.
Turned out to be quite a good movie, very different from your ‘boy meets girl’ stories. I *was* a trifle disappointed to hear that it has been ‘inspired’ by a Korean film. All said and done however, with the exception of a certain fight sequence where the Dutt is pitted against about 25 Thai not-so-gentle-men (*very* poor direction here), the overall movie certainly kept me at the edge of my seat and made for one memorable evening - which is more than I can say for most Hindi movies that come my way.
- Sid
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