Think outside the box!

I was at this doctor's office the day before yesterday installing their DSL connection. In the kit they provide a splitter like the one shown in the picture, so that your existing phone/fax can work alongwith the newly installed DSL. Now the problem was, that the wall outlet into which this connector goes was in one room, and the place where they wanted the fax machine and DSL modem was in another room. In the existing installation, they had a lose cable run in between the two rooms, which went through 2 badly drilled holes in two walls, over a drop ceiling which could not be opened up because it was so old that it had stuck to its support, and more such 'band-aid' type installation work. I was bewildered, I thought and thought but could not come up with a solution. I went to a local store and bought a connector like the one shown, except that in place of the male socket that goes in the wall, it had a 25 ft cable. I was hoping that I will manage to run that cable through the existing installation and have a dual socket in the room I wanted to put the DSL router. I struggled for 15 minutes with help from the medical assistants...with no luck :-(. I was about to give up and call a cable installer when the timid, high-school graduate, medical assistant said..."Can we insert the male socket in the outlet of the DSL modem, and insert the cable that is coming from the other room in one of the female sockets of the splitter?". I would have never thought of doing it, and even now I had my doubts it that would work. I tried to figure out for 5 minutes, drawing the possible way in which the internal wiring of the splitter worked and trying to guess if this solution would work. With no certain answer, I said what the heck, let's just try it. IT WORKED! I felt a little ashamed that my 6 years of technical education had made me so detail oriented and theoretical that I needed 5 minutes to give a hesitant approval to myself to try a simple solution to a simple problem. Its like the other common metaphor that people give...the doctors who have practiced in areas of wide spread disease will suspect even your common cold to have some serious internal complications.

The search paid off!!

I wanted to write something meaningful today. After discarding some initial vague thoughts, I decided to read the news for today and see if I can come up with something from that. Very soon I started reading the interesting business headline of today, which I did hear over radio during the day - Indra Nooyi is named the next CEO of PepsiCo. Soon I started reading more about her background and found out that she has actually completed most part of her education in India. I might be wrong here, but I can safely claim that she must be the first woman executive born, raised and educated in India, who has reached the pinnacle of a major international corporation. Truely a commendable feat. But what interested me more in her is a particular remark of her - In May 2005 Nooyi started a controversy when she spoke to graduates of the NY Columbia Business School describing the USA as "the long middle finger" adding the US "must be careful that when we extend our arm in either a business or political sense, we take pains to assure we are giving a hand . . . not the finger." She certainly shares a very popular opinion that most people who have migrated to the US from a third world country have. If anybody asks me about the single most negative trait of this country, I cannot put it in better words than how Ms. Nooyi said in that statement. For a majority of Americans, the world begins and ends in between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans...with the southern part just being a vestigial appendix. I still can't understand how the winner of the "National" Football League is call a "World" Champion! It still amuses me as to how can anything that is the best in America be so easily and commonly termed as best in the world! How can the most open minded and rich and technologically advanced country be so short sighted towards anybody and everybody! As they say, nobody is perfect. I guess this is the one big flaw in the otherwise close to perfect red, white and blue fabric of this nation.

Busy and relaxing weekend

Went to sleep at 3:30 am on saturday morning after the late night show of Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna. The effect...woke up late, really late, on saturday. Lazed off a little, did some cleaning work at home, and as we were beginning to freshen up for a social visit, had a medical emergency in the family. After spending most part of the afternoon at the hospital, came home and got ready. Drove for 2 hours to Long Island for Rakshabandhan. Came back at 2:30 in the morning on Sunday, exhausted. Again woke up late on Sunday, in the mood to finish up the home cleaning. In the process, with and excuse of taking a 'break', watched 2 movies. One good - The Incredibles, one horrible - can't even remember the name. I have always disliked chick flicks. Again got ready and left to attend a marriage anniversary. Stopped by at work for about 40 minutes on the way back home. Here I am now, at the end of a busy (so many social engagements) and relaxing (watched some movies on the couch) weekend, trying to write something on the blog to keep the tradition alive. I did try to think of something that would make up a meaningful write, but didn't wan't to strain the neurons a lot.....IT'S A WEEKEND!

Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna

Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna was the highlight of today. After reading some extreme reviews about the movie, I was curious to see on which side of the fence I would be after watching the movie. Having witnessed the welcome change in Bollywood over the past some years, I think I will agree with the better reviews. It is certainly a well made movie, with that element of "different" in it (well, for the most part). IMHO if the some unwanted cliches were left out and a couple of songs were deleted, it would have pushed the movie a bit more towards perfection. The movie does a good job of sketching out different types of personalities via the lead characters. It was interesting for me to see the transforming value systems of a society. For all these years our traditions suggested that the institution of marriage is unbreakable. I have seen first hand in the case of many that the two people involved in this relationship never call it quits and cling to whatever they can to maintain it....at what cost and to achieve what....I have yet not figured out. I have also seen first hand the culture in the western world, where this relationship is broken as easily as one changing homes. This movie potrayed both these beliefs in a decent fashion. I have always wondered about the rights and wrongs, the goods and bads, the blacks and whites. It always bewildered me as to which value system is 'better'. On the one hand I have seen people in our country living through hell, trying to keep a dead relationship alive. And on the other hand I have seen the terrible state of society and culture in the western world. We learnt in our pure science classes that the total quantity of chaos in the universe constantly increases, and that every process moves in the direction of this increase in chaos. I believe even our society is moving from a state of harmony (as distressful as it might be) to a state of increasing chaos!

My questions to life....

Generally, I consider myself to be a very clear person. When I have an opinion, it is in most cases unambiguous and precise, at least to me. Many a times that is to an extent that I come across to some people as a hard headed individual. However, there are a lot of questions that often cross my mind for whom I don't have any answer. I would consider myself fortunate if by the end of my life I am able to gain a better understanding of those subjects. From now on, I will periodically document those questions on this blog. I will be extremely happy and thankful to recieve feedback from people if they have anything to say about them.
Here comes the question for today...rather the description of the question. Most people that I know have something or the other that makes them go crazy. They have a passion for something, maybe a sport, an actor, material well being, books, or something as simple as stamps. The proximity to that one thing makes them happier than the most happy person, and the loss of that can even make them sob like a child. I on the contrary have no such interest. I have not yet come across anything that makes me ecstatic, that would cause an outburst of emotions by me. Often times I consider that to be a virtue, because it helps me be calm and composed when people are going berserk and the need of the hour is presence of mind. But then at others, that quality proves to be bane since I don't find myself agressive enough. When I see a person jumping with joy, I question myself as to should I consider myself fortunate to not have any external factor that can control my emotions, or am I missing the bliss of sheer excitement? On the one hand I see that as people grow older and wiser, they tend to become more unattached and lose that fervor, and on the other I think that maybe the lost of fire made them old!! I have yet not been able to say for sure as to which of these contradicting qualities can be (or should they ever be!!) adjudicated as superior than the other?

What's in a name? - A LOT

This certainly is a pretty popular philosophy - What's in a name? Ask that question to somebody who hates the name given to him/her by his/her parents. I think the name is a very important aspect for any person, corporation, place or for that matter, thing. Subconsciously, all of us attribute certain qualities to people just by knowing their name. I have always given a lot of importance to the selection of a name when it comes to forming a new company. It is very important for me that the name makes a suggestion of the prime qualities that I would like that company to have. Alongwith that, I have always had a fascination for unique names. Following the same principles, when I decided to start a blog, the first thing I did was a search for a unique yet meaningful name. Thats when I came across this word - ATARAXY.
I want that state of being to be my ultimate goal in life. Even today in introspection, I can safely claim that for 97% of the time I do enjoy that bliss. But the remaining 3% almost kills the rest, and I hate it when that happens. In my opinion, there would be no grief, no sorrow, no hatred in the world if everybody is in ataraxia. Not to my surprise, I recently found out that even the great Upanishadas have quoted that state of mind to be the zenith of achievement. I think if I can lead my life in such a way that to the people whom I am known to, ataraxia is the foremost adjective that they relate to when they think of me, I would consider that to be a big success for me.

The more important question - HOW?

Well, now that I found out and noted down a reason to blog, I might as well document how I am going to go about doing it on a 'routine' basis. In just a few days I figured that I never acted upon the resolution to use the blog as a means to improve upon my writing skills and achieve something more in the process. I have heard from people that the best way to make anything a habit is to first note it down, second repeat it to yourself as many times as you can, and third make conscious efforts or even force yourself to do it periodically untill it becomes a second nature to you. So here am I, trying my best to finish step one!! I am hoping that in the coming days I will be able to work on step two which will in turn help me get to step three and I will post more often. I am thinking that I should make this a daily affair, and type just about anything from the day that past by. Lets see if I can get anywhere this way.