culture
A Married Man’s Angst
Back in 2003, while waiting for an auto to go to the Koyambedu bus station, my brother blurted out all of a sudden, “They think something is wrong with you… you know? You are 30 and still not married?” Of course! My brother was being very polite: once an elderly gentleman, on a train, asked me, ‘So are you married?’ I said ‘No.’ He frowned and said, ‘Go to a doctor. You should never let these things prolong.’
There’s another pattern that I have noticed. Suddenly, Venguttu mama and Suresh mama are prowling around, trying to spot unmarried boys and girls. These guys, well over 50 now, have become self-proclaimed matchmakers. They do it for free too! It’s like “So why should we be alone in the misery? Bitch?” It’s sadistic. Until you’re married they just won’t stop hounding More...
Wanted: imagination when hiring talent
Dear Indian software company, I didn’t want to write this, but you forced me to this. I am stunned at that apathy and lack of imagination in the way you try to hire talent. When you want a guy to come for an interview, the least you could do is, giving him parking space. That’s fine, I can live without parking space. But you claim you are ‘going green’ and yet, you insist on ‘a printed copy of your resume’ ‘printed copy of this e-mail’… My small brain can’t fathom how that is exactly ‘going green’ Did you realize this is 2010?
Now that’s just getting to your gate. The experience is, subtly put, fucking irritating. If I somehow managed to enter your hallowed precinct, your staffing team, sure as hell, ups the ante. “Be seated. I’ll call More...
Even God Needs Science
Saw this mechanized drum at a temple near home. Earlier temples hired drummers to play during daily ceremonies.
Chennai Vs Bangalore Debate
I wrote this post as a response to SelAm’s post. First things first, I am a Chennai boy that lived in Andhra Pradesh for 20 years. I moved back to Chennai in 1993 and quit the city in 2001. I moved to Bangalore about five years back. I have lived in Pune and Indore. When I say lived, I mean lived there for at least six months.
I visited Bangalore first in 1996. I was deputed to Tata Yellow Pages’s Bangalore office. I spent a couple of months there. As I was a salesman, I had to go around the city and thus was well acquainted with the city and its culture in a short time.
I don’t know if one is predisposed to be biased about his home town, but I thought Chennai was better More...
Hats-off Chiba San!
At Toyota Kirloskar’s 10th anniversary do, a Japanese employee does the late Shankar Nag proud in the land of his birth, in the language of his life. [link]
Aside:This is an Ilayaraja number, which makes it more special.
Hindutva Logic
“I do not know Pragnya Singh at all. But I know she is not a terrorist.” “No Hindu can be a terrorist.”- Praveen Togadia, leader of Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP).
Are we, the average citizens, morons? At least, that’s the impression I get from speeches of the Thackerays and the Togadias.
While we hang our heads in shame…
“My appeals to the policemen who were standing nearby and watching only resulted in further beating. At one point the nun slipped away to plead with the police for help but she was dragged back by the mob and her blouse torn,” he said. The nun was gang raped in a nearby building, and he was doused with kerosene by the mob, which threatened to set him on fire. [Via The Hindu]
If we turn a blind-eye, it will come back to haunt us. It is such acts of barbarity that widens the divide. I don’t want to get into the argument about how some missions are forcing conversions. There is no excuse for raping women, like there is none for killing innocent people in the name of Jihad. Hinduism as I know it does not condone it. We More...