ExpertDabbler

Have you ever wondered how the Chennai cab drivers drive the way they do? Here I do not mean the auto drivers. Let’s talk only about the call taxis and the ones who pick and drop IT/ITES junta in Chennai. That’s not driving. Maybe calling it ‘madness behind wheels’ would be more appropriate.

There is an interesting backdrop to this. How long do you sleep on an average? I manage between six to eight hours. Six makes me feel groggy and eight is a luxury. Seven is more realistic. Many cab drivers on the other hand run virtually 24/7 managing to sleep only during gaps in the trips. Reason? Money baby.

The IT companies as far as I know usually get into an agreement with some taxi agency.
The taxi agencies are mere coordinators. The guy who drives for a shift is getting paid by the kilometers he drives, not for the hours he is on duty. This is more like a freelancing job. During my trips from Tambaram to my home during nights, I have seen taxi drivers asking if they can take the GST route. The reason is simple – that is the longest route, which means more money for him from the company. He drives, submits the bills based on the kilometers driven, leaves for the day. He comes back the next day or night as the case may be.

I am not sure if there is an efficient way to check he does not drive elsewhere during off-shift hours. Going by the way they are on the roads, I strongly suspect that is the case.

Much has been said and written about DUI (driving under influence) but not many know that driving without adequate sleep is equally dangerous. I would even say more because, there is no way to find out if the guy has had enough sleep unless he kills someone. It’s even more alarming that nobody even talks about this.

Try working without adequate sleep for two days in a row, your colleagues will realize how irritable and anti-social you have become. Whenever I have slept less, I develop a disrespect and disdain for everybody.

No wonder these call taxis and cab drivers are menacing on the roads.

People are elated about Tata’s Nano. Taking nothing away from Tatas, I would’ve been happier had they invented something which would sense the eye and detect if the person has slept enough. The ignition should work only if the person behind the wheels has slept enough. Why Tatas? They make the Indicabs, don’t they?

There are much safer methods to reduce population in the city. Let’s not take cab drivers help for this purpose. I wish somebody takes this issue to the next level and does a proper study.

Headphones MUST.You will know why

This one is a classic example of how a mokkai time pass film can be made watchable once for ARR, general funny tone of the film, and Genelia. Typical bollywood launch film.

Once upon a time there lived a UI designer, who with another designer in another continent completes a UI specification document in the second week of May.

Rest of May, Vetti

June vetti.

July Vetti.

As we are getting into the month of August, grapevine has it that due to developer resource constraints, the project will get de scoped. Which means lot of what we designed some months ago will be plain removed.

I suspect this will also be like that classic Vadivelu - Parthiban ‘Ingu nalla meen virkapadum’ comedy.
Only that I am gonna play Vadivelu and some other folks who wanted the UI spec ‘now’ during the month of May will play Parthiban.

Please tell me if you know any ashramam. I am okay even with Captain selvam types. I want to be away from all these dubukku documents, mokkai meetings, kandraavi conference calls for a year and have fun with wine, women and oor vambu.

Sigh.

Sorry about introducing the math question in my blog. The fact of the matter is i have around 9000 spam in moderation.
Some brahaspathis i depend to move the ISP are very busy nowadays. So this is a stop gap arrangement till i sort out this issue.
Till then, please remember to do the math before commenting in my blog!

I promise I will remove this ASAP.

Now Ahmedabad!!

I returned to my seat at 3.20 PM. Saw rediff.com. Immediately called by friends over in Bengaluru. The phone lines were jammed, part of the tradition. Had tea. Attended a meet. Called again at 4.30 PM. Relieved that my friends were safe.
Went back to work.

It was good to know only gelatine was used as against the industry standard RDX.
It was almost a relief that there was only one casualty.

I only hope some minister does not give statements like, ‘When compared to terror attack in other states, we are happy to say this was very mild’

This has become almost like an annual affair, only the venue gets shifted randomly among the major metros.

I think we can formally publish a process document for terror attacks. Who should say what can be picked from a template - handiwork of terrorists, city on full alert, request to maintain calm and peace, a media report about how our people showed resilience by having masala dosa tomorrow.

I feel like impotent

Is this for real???

During my morning walk, I saw a poster supposedly put up by some Nadar groups who had taken offence to some dialogues in ‘Dasavatharam’. Honestly, I did not find anything offensive in the movie about any community for that matter. Looks like someone wants to stir up community passions and gain publicity at Kamal’s expense.

Twelve years back, the state government removed all references to leaders names in the public transport corporations.
Till then, it was Dheeran Chinnamalai, Thandhai Periyar, Cheran, Chozan, Kattaboman, Pandian etc. People were keen about the community the leaders belonged to. Now it’s just State Transport Corporation. Did anyone stop taking buses because of this?

What would be the nations loss if we just stopped identifying ourselves on community basis at all levels - from government records to personal references?

At present, there are many little countries within India. And we should do all it takes to build a cohesive, unified India out of this. Till then Kamal will always be seen as X community member and the HCL technologies chairman will always be seen as Y community member.

For the past one week, I was updating my blog regularly, responding to mails – personal and officials promptly, going for long walks etc, all the while writing my final sem MBA exams. Yesterday and today, I decided I should focus on my studies and guess what, these two were my worst performances so far. So much for focus!

Now that I am done with it, I wanted to jot down some stuff that struck me this one week. My university study material sucks. All university study materials, except those that I’ve seen from ICFAI, totally suck. In fact we should do away with study materials. For the kind of fortune these universities charge, they should give us standard text books.

This being the reality, all our universities and their professors strongly oppose the entry of private and foreign universities citing ‘decline in quality of education, education becoming a business’ blah blah. Believe me, it’s worse than DMk calling ADMK
corrupt.

Actually it is the UGC accredited universities who have made education, especially the distance education, a huge looting avenue. It’s not even business. Ethical businessmen will turn in their graves if I call it business.

One of my study material talks about the ‘newly introduced economic policy 1991’. It’s like reading Dondu sir’s blog in English. I am sorry I can’t help if you don’t get it.
Agreed I joined this course like five years back, but still can 1991 be new enough in 2003?

Then why am I doing this crap? Home ministry pressure. My mom thinks her son getting an MBA is cool, even if it takes 5-6 years. Lot of beautiful young women of marriageable age think being professionally qualified means what you have as degree. They want only BE or MS or MLA err MBA etc degree holders as grooms. My neighborhood aunt who is also a family friend had passed some snide comments about me not being educated et al to, of all people on earth, my mom! So my MBA has far more significance than the Indo - US nuclear deal in Velachery area. For once I am giving the excuse Kollywood directors are fond of giving – Makkal idhai dhaan edhir parkaraanga!!.(This is what people expect!)

Now I understand why my friend paid that passing fee.

Anyways, my employers have not rejected me for the past seven years and that’s a comforting fact - helped me finish some of my financial commitments. And it’s good to get introduced to networking concepts and so on which I otherwise would’ve missed. I am not even sure if I will ever finish this MBA, but more likely I will figure out more about some of the subjects I liked in the course. Sh!!! Please don’t tell this to my mom