ExpertDabbler

My wife works in a private college as a senior lecturer. The way these colleges are administered will make all those in the ‘code eludhara coolie’ junta feel like being part of heaven.

Form 16 - in all these years in the IT industry, I had them delivered via e-mail. Even smaller organizations would appoint some one to hand deliver/distribute Form 16. The distribution usually happens in the month of May to facilitate filing of returns by the 31st of July.

Cut back to the private college, my wife basically was behind the administration for more than a week, just to get her Form - 16. One fine day, she finally got it only to find that she had been given a form with 2009-10 details in a 2008-9 form. Now, don’t ask me how that can happen. Any type of somersault is possible in places like that.

She goes back to the accounts department, points out the mistake, and Voilà! we get Form 16 version 2.0. This time we find there is no mention of the taxes collected and paid to the Central Govt. Account. When asked, the administrative folks explain that no tax was deducted from her salary - absolutely untrue.
We do one more round of auditing to find the month(s) in which taxes were deducted from the bank statements. And now we have the version 3.0 just few days before the July 31st deadline. Of course, in all the versions, the guy had basically declared ‘all the contents in the form are true and nothing but the truth’.

Compare this with the fuss some of my colleagues make with the company transport desk, when there is a few minutes delay in their cabs to key junction points, which till date is free for all employees. I realized we take so many things for granted in the IT industry.

Some other complaints I keep hearing in my office:

Fridge la butter milk illai,
Pantry la nalla biscuit illai,
Youtube block pannitaan, etc.

One visit on a weekend will reveal the kind of housekeeping machinery at work to present an office environment that we are so used to.
Youtube, I know so many of my colleagues who were basically watching full length movies in office bandwidth.
On the other hand there are so many IT companies where even a personal mail check is rationed for one hour a day, and people still work there. I am sure there will be nitpickers even in Facebook/Google kinda offices in India.
Most of the IT folks at least in my office suffer from what Charlie Munger calls ‘Excessive self regard’ tendency.
And I keep saying this to my friends in tea breaks, ‘Count your blessings, for things can and eventually get a lot worse than this’.

Fifteen months since I wrote part 1, i still keep getting comments which I think are more interesting than the post.

I still stand by everything I wrote. Just to add:

None of the brochure or the persons I interacted with said, ‘This course is not for those who are happy with themselves currently’. The folks were only too happy to take Rs.950 from me and let me join. I am still happy with my life which i now learnt is a disqualification for courses like this.

Someone pointed in my comments section that ‘Every dog has its day’. True. Same holds true for every ‘volunteer 100% driven organization for those seeking the ultimate truth’ especially for those in the US of A who can afford to pay $200 USD.

How many of you watched AVATAR? I bet a lot of you. And it was what I call a single dimensional movie supposedly made in 3D. Now, how about a truly multi dimensional movie shot in single D? Or was it? I do not know for sure.

The trick this Christopher Nolan plays on you is that you are being fed this thought that you are solving a puzzle with optimal level of difficulty, made just for you, and you are just about to finish it, and then something happens…

I came out of the theatre yesterday evening and still could not stop thinking about this film. I am not walking around like a zombie, but this film still runs in my head at a corner.
One can ask anyone she comes across who has seen the movie , and the other person can tell and yet it does not matter…for once spoilers does not matter…because that person can never tell everything because it is very hard to digest this movie in one sitting. One can grasp it but not completely digest it. That is the trick.

It’s incredible that our friend Christopher Nolan can write a script like this. And I am running short of superlatives to tell you about his execution. What conviction! He takes like 5 minutes and dialogues to tell the audience the rules of the game..and it sticks..like an idea whose time has come…
Christopher Nolan is a complex genius.
INCEPTION, my best film of 2010.

PS:
Indha padathai sathyam la premiere show partha celebrities, ipdi madam edukaradhai vittutu, Ennamo ramayanam, silapadhigaram nu mokkaya pottukittu…..adhayum urupadiya edukaama…adhileyim ‘naanga adapt pannalai.. Yedho oru silla similarities irukalaam’ nu safe side goal pottukittu….

All the bored IIT professors who write editorials in The MANDU family newspapers think Foreign University Bill is a useless idea. They argue that India needs way more universities than what a few foreign universities can provide by setting up shop here. There is an estimate that India needs at least 800 universities and these foreign shops will not solve our problems. Let us call them the ‘IIT dhaan best’ gang.

On the other hand, all the bored retired DINAMANI editorial reading tamil mamas think allowing foreign universities will mean education becomes business - ‘Ahaa kalvi vyabaram aayidum’. Alas they are yet to realize that business is a better idea than day light robbery. Let us call them ‘the Dinamani gang’.

For the Forbes reading ‘market economy’ gang the only thing that matters is whether the Whartons, MITs, Harvards, INSEADs will setup shop in India. Since they are as likely to come to India as Namitha is likely to act, we need to allow for profit companies to run universities.

I, for one will welcome foreign universities for different reasons. There is way too much money being paid to local third rate private institutions. A PG dental seat in any private dental college in and around Chennai fetches about 15-20 lakhs. This should be more for a PG medical seat. So in essence, this is PG auction, just like 3G auction. And it is no secret that these institutes are run by MPs, MLAs, Ministers or by their 1st/2nd/3rd wives/veppaatis etc. The principals and the HODs are mere puppets. The corruption levels in the education sector in India will make ‘Telecom’ Raja’ look like a saint.

Those who raise objection to foreign universities assume that the likes of Leeds Metro, and Edith Cowan universities would be worse than the Kaduvetti Guru college for degrees. I do not share such view. At least they are in the business of running educational institutions in their own countries and do not have liquor shop/jaadhi sangam background like some of the local patrons running private ‘professional’ colleges in India. Even conservatively assuming the ‘quality of education’ - god alone knows what that is, remains the same, I am hoping that more seats will bring down the current rate of 15 lakhs per PG seat to say, 8 lakhs per seat, and that is a good thing. Is not a 50% discount a good thing?

And as for the clichéd ‘Kalvi vyabaram aaydum’ dialogue, a businessman in a competitive setting will do more good for the society than a politically connected goonda indulging in daylight robbery under the guise of ‘Kalvi’. So, I welcome Foreign Universities!!!

The theme music humming of ‘madhrasapattinam’ which I hear on tv is so reminiscent of the humming in ‘anarkali’ song in ‘kangalal kaidhu sei’. Anyone thinks the same?

Long long ago, Hotel Saravana Bhavan was the undisputed king of the FMID business aka Fast Moving Idly Dosai business in Chennai - they came with quality food, more or less introduced neatly dressed waiters, expanded branch network. And then something changed - changed for the worse with the group. The waiters got arrogant, the quantity of the food kept going down while the price kept shooting through the roof, the customers were taken for granted, the branch network hardly expanded beyond the old strongholds even as the city was expanding. All the while A2B (Adyar Anandha Bhavan) was basically concentrating in the SKC ( Sweet kaaram coffee )business.

Post 2005 A2B sensed the once formidable HSB was getting complacent and quickly seized the opportunity. Now 2010, A2B has spread it’s wings far and wide across the city. Whether you are in Mahabalipuram, or Velachery or Chromepet, there is an A2B nearby providing decent food at decent prices with good service. HSB? Too pre-occupied with Annachi’s court cases. Some may think the jury is still out there. But I am convinced we are witnessing the end of the brand HSB era in chennai.

Tai O, originally uploaded by expertdabbler.

Tai O is a small fishing village near Hong Kong. I visited this place on my way back from US. A boat race was happening in the village. All the ‘18 patti villages’ were participating in this prestigious boat race.

Reminds me of the Kerala boat race which i have never witnessed.