vacation

while walking through the corridors of our dept. I found this message
"vacation days are like aspirin, they only work when you take them". :)
There are very few people around me who have actually taken off this past week. So, goes on our lives...

getting nowhere

Thought of finishing a program when I planned the day. Getting nowhere and my patience is running out. The result is an utter lack of concentration. While walking in the lab I remembered my time in NM where my work mostly involved programming. We (me and my chinese labmate JZ) would wake up all night coding and drinking lots of coffee or green tea. He was three years senior to me and was a local expert on electrical and electronic hardware. A classical guitar player he is, used to tell me many stories from his music adventures and a great deal about western classical music. I should say he is the one who got me interested in it. Lent me a lot of CD's including some of the best by Bach and Beethoven (the 9th symphony and the four seasons). Other music I enjoyed includes some modern Jazz, chinese melody songs (esp. lets go, lets go...) and famous hava nagila by the surf guitarist Dick Dale. Sometimes our discussions lead to the secretary in the office miss PS :)... we always appreciated the choice of ladies our program director hired. I joined the chinese soccor (football) club and played with them for almost a semester (left due to lack of chinese language skills). Got to know about china and its culture while at the same time sharing whatever I know about India. There is a lot that we did in the 3-1/2 years I was there. Thanks to JZ for all the fun we had in the Hibay lab at STP.

Movies:

Telengana: A couple of movies (serious) I recently watched were Maa Bhoomi (based on the Telengana sayudha poratam – in pre independence Nizam’s state) and Sindhooram (I have seen it several times) which is a story based on people’s war group in Telengana (only shows a particular aspect of the problem). The first movie is about the atrocities committed by landlords and how people revolted against the state; how the communists helped raise awareness in the working class of the time through ideas brought from erstwhile Soviet Union.

Problems still exist in Telengana (may not be different from those in other parts of India) but there appears no reprieve in the near future. Politicians, as always, cashing in on the sentiment and the problems (some of which existed even before independence). Why people of India still feel segregated in groups identified by various tags? Everywhere people cash in on various tags (jobs, business, etc.). There is regionalism, casteism, religion, language, etc., playing their roles in making the life of a common man difficult. The oneness that people seemed to have felt after independence, has it vanished? If the most educated and learned people in the society can’t forgo the differences, what about the masses? I know this is a cliché question but I wanted to clear it for myself.

The argumentative Indian by Amartya Sen:

Female infanticide: the author discusses an aspect of the problem discussing its root causes of evil. The first is the gender bias in the society and inequality (many things) that make women feel inferior to men. This in turn does not generate a self awareness of well being (the author calls it agency) of women in general. When you cannot appreciate your own status in the society you would end up not respecting your own peers (other women in this case) and would feel incapable. The evidence for this kind of behavior can be seen in women killing their own female fetus or suggesting one to do so. The same is the situation with dowry (harassment from the mother-in-law, etc.). Social equality can only be achieved through self awareness and mutual respect. It is rather sad to know the statistics. Things need to improve and that needs a social transformation and attacking the problem of identity in women (urban areas may be different – but India still lives in its villages and small towns).

There are many more parts of the book I like and would write them in future.

This is what I spend my time with...

broken pieces of glass, a UV lamp, all kinds of glue, broken wafer pieces and some precious little ones in the middle which get me on my nerves everytime I handle them....

Back in the US

Finally am back in the US after a long vacation. It was a great time I spent at home and carry a lot of good memories. Haven't got used to life around here yet. Definitely miss the Irani chai on a cold and rainy day like it was today. There are two things I wanted to write and keep as part of this blog today.

Learning from experience is what we do everyday but remembering it for a long time is important. I find it useful these days whether it is related to work or people I interact.

The other thing was this conversation with one of my pals on a train journey recently. It was long due and I was happy we patched up after a rather an uncomfortable conversation we had sometime back. It was like the old days, two of us talking about everything on the earth openly. I liked it, for I felt bad when we could not speak to each other. We forgave each other (tacitly) and it lead to a happy conversation.

I will write about the happenings of my trip to home in due course, until then you all have fun :)