Suramya's Blog : Welcome to my crazy life…

Well that’s what it looks like right now. Till last month I used to drive pretty fast going to work and back as at that particular times the roads would be empty so it was normal for me to hit 100-120. This was the case for the past year and I would get a fuel average of about 14 (I did hit 16 a couple of times) consistently on my Honda City.

This past month I haven’t been driving that fast and have kept to a speed of about 50-60. This was mainly because a) mom found out that I drive that fast and I got a lecture b) I wanted to save fuel. The funny part is that this time I only got an average of 10.5 which is the absolute lowest I have hit in ages.

So I believe the moral of the story is that I should drive faster as it will give me better millage. 🙂

What have your experiences been with fuel averages?

– Suramya

Personally I don’t like talking on the phone a lot. There are only a few people with whom I can stay on the phone for more than a couple of mins at a time. (You know who you are).

My phone usage graph looks pretty much like the one shown below:

In fact according to my phone which I have had for a little less than a year now, I have talked for 36 hours and 45 mins so far on it. The funny part is that I know people who talk that much on the phone in a week.

BTW, these stats don’t include the time spent on conference calls at work. The longest I have been on a conference call was about 6 hours and I must have talked for about 30 mins during the entire call. (A server was down and different departments in the company in different locations were trying to fix it)

– Suramya

A lot of people go around complaining that their life is so hard and it sucks… They don’t know the meaning of a hard life.

Today while driving to work I noticed a bunch of kids in rags squatting down in the middle of the road picking something. At first I had no idea what they were doing. As I was driving past I saw one of the kids lick her palm which had a white powder on it, so I looked closely at the road and realized that at some point in time sugar was spilled on the road and these kids were picking it up and eating it as if it was a treat. To them it is a treat.

Now think about the times that you have thrown food away because it didn’t taste right or you didn’t feel like eating. Or because you were greedy and took too much and couldn’t finish. Feeling bad yet? No? You should. I am.

You may think that you have a hard life when you had to work an extra 3 hours or didn’t get your favorite food at home. That’s not a hard life. A hard life is when you have no idea when you are going to get your next meal. A hard life is when you are 12 years old and you know by personal experience that mixing a little bit of flour in water and drinking it will make you feel full and not get hunger cramps.

So still think your life is hard?

– Suramya

Its a big loss to the literary world. Michael Crichton died on Tuesday, November 4th from a lung cancer at the age of 66. He was a great author and I loved all his books. He will be missed.

RIP Michael Crichton.

The Associated Press: ‘Jurassic Park’ author Michael Crichton dies at 66

– Suramya

I am sure most of you have heard about the bomb blasts that occurred in Delhi earlier this month causing massive damage and loss both in terms of life and property. One of the areas that was hit by the blasts was Connaught place (CP) and obviously after the blasts happened security has been tight around these areas to try to prevent another such incident from happening.

I was in CP this weekend meeting with friends for lunch, we were walking about CP when we got the craving for an icecream so we found one of the road side vendors and purchased ice-creams. Now we had to throw the wrappers but couldn’t find a dust-bin (garbage can) next to the guy so we asked him where the garbage can was. His reply was that after the bomb blasts the cops have banned people from keeping garbage cans… (The bombs were hidden in the cans) We had to throw the wrappers in a pile of garbage that was stinking pretty badly under the upturned garbage cans.

At first I thought he was joking, then we confirmed it with another vendor. He said that they are not even allowing people to keep small cardboard boxes next to their carts to collect thrash. They all had to dump it on the ground. I can’t understand the logic behind this. Yes they hid it in a thrash can this time, next time they might hide it in a waterbottle, or in a backpack.

All they were succeeding in doing was create a mess. I don’t know if the terrorists will attack again but an attack by diseases is almost certain if this keeps going on for long…

This is what I call security theater. There is no appreciable gain in security but it looks and sounds like the cops are doing something.

– Suramya

These are words you might have heard people mentioning. What exactly is Security Theater? Basically its security precautions that do nothing to make you safer but look impressive and make you feel safer. What am I talking about? Lets take a couple of examples:

In India if you visit a Mall or movie theater they frisk you before they let you come in. They also check your bags for explosives/whatever before they let you in. 95% of the time I have been to either places they just check me from my shoulder to my pockets. I could be carrying a bomb strapped to my feet or in my shoes and no one would know. So how is it making me safer? Its just an additional hassle that I have to go through everytime I want to shop/watch a movie.

Plus to make things even more secure, girls/women are not frisked. They get to walk in without any checks at all. So if I wanted to blow a bomb all I had to do was find a female crazy enough to believe that killing a bunch of innocent people was a good idea and I got the bomb in without issues.

Now lets take a look at the bag check they have. I have gone to the mall a couple of times with my laptop, (No I wasn’t planning on using it there. I took it with me because I didn’t want to leave it in the car) and those of you who know me know what a mess I carry around with me (chargers for my phone, camera, laptop, bluetooth, My camera, couple of headsets etc) and I know its hard to figure out whats in there unless you know (like I do) or you take everything out and look at it. Every time I have taken it inside the guy didn’t spend more that 30 seconds looking through it. I could be carrying anything in there and they wouldn’t know. In-fact once while flying to NY from kansas I was asked what all I had in bag as the security people couldn’t make out what was in it. I had to tell them what all I had in there (Those days I had a blackberry, ipod with their chargers in addition to everything above) before they let me board the flight. So I know you can’t look through the bag in 30 seconds.

So what does all this do? It makes people feel safer. The public sees something being done and is happy. The people in-charge can point to these measures and claim that they are taking actions to protect people. In reality nothing changes to reduce the threat.

Second example: In the sector where I stay all cars leaving the premises after 10 pm have to be logged with the house no where the owner stays. This is supposed stop people from stealing cars from the sector. My question is simple: What is stopping a thief from saying he is from B-xyz and then happily driving away? Nothing. Is there some list where all the cars in the sector are listed? Nope. So the guard has to believe what the person driving the car tells them. So how does it make the sector safer? It doesn’t. What makes people safer is the guards patrolling at random intervals and the patrols. This check at the entrance is just irritating and of no particular use.

Are there other examples of security theater? Absolutely. Though I am not going to go through all of them here ’cause that can fill a book.

Stop being so scared people. If you act scared, they win. Live your life normally. Don’t let terrorists win. When I was in the US in 1999 I was told not to go to Times Square for New Years eve as it was a terrorist target. Guess what I went there and had a blast. If I had acted scared and not gone I would have missed a once in a lifetime experience (I am pretty sure I won’t be around for 2999 celebrations) and nothing would have changed.

I am not saying don’t take basic precautions but there a difference in taking precautions and living scared. Don’t let them win.

– Suramya

Its been a while since I last blogged mainly because of work but another factor is that once you get home from a long day at work you just don’t feel like thinking and creating a coherent blog post, but I guess I should post a bit more regularly.

I was reading Shipra’s blog and she has a post over there about culture shock that got me thinking: What exactly is culture shock?

In my opinion its just a catch all term that covers all the differences between the culture you are from and the culture you are encountering. This can be as small as finding people driving like sane people instead of drug fueled crazies playing carmagedon and as big as finding women walking around barely clothed (on any US/European beach).

Thanks to the global media and the internet the world is a lot smaller and there are lesser number items that could cause shock. Usually its not the big things that strike you, its the small things. As some of you might know I went to the US for my bachelors in 1999 and was there for ~8-9 years. People asked me if I felt culture shock and my answer to that is yes there was a period of adjustment and you can call it culture shock.

Just to give an example, in India its considered extremely rude to call an elder person by their first name but in the US its common and expected. Infact I have been told to stop calling people sir/mam because it made them feel old.

Another example: In the US if you are good friends with a person you hug them when you meet them, it doesn’t matter if the person is a girl and you are a guy. Infact its expected. While in India this wasn’t the case (Now it has changed and this is a common practice. But 8 years ago it wasn’t the case) I remember being a bit uncomfortable with it when I first went to the US and then when I came back I had gotten used to it and attempted to hug a good friend. She very nicely reminded me that this wasn’t the US.. Now whenever we meet we hug each other.

Office manners differ a lot in the US and in India. In the US you call everyone by their first name no matter what their post is and how much above you that person might be in the hiearchy. In India you call your seniors ‘Sir’. The environment is a lot more formal compared to a similar company in the US. Even in the US there is a difference between offices on the East coast and the West coast. The west coast offices (I have only seen offices in California) tend to be a bit more relaxed and easy going while offices on the east coast (Again, only seen New York and New Jersey Offices) are a bit more strict (as compared to the west coast).

Clubbing is completely different in the US, you can’t go to a club dressed in Jeans and sneakers, you have to wear shoes and trousers (semi-formal/khaki’s etc). In India I have gone to a club in Jeans and T-Shirt. The way you dance is also very different and the dance eticates are completely different.

Recently we had our office anniversary party and after the party me and a friend were discussing the party (Basically making fun of everyone who was too drunk to know what they were doing) and she made a comment about one of my co-worker’s who was asking all the girls to dance a bit too enthusiatically and she said that a couple of the girls were uncomfortable with that as he was acting too familiar with them. I was surprised and didn’t really say anything at the time but afterwards I was thinking that I didn’t find anything wrong with the way he was behaving. I guess it was because I had gotten used to the way people behave in Clubs in the US and for me it was normal behavior in a club.

So is culture shock real?
Absolutely.

Is it really that big an issue?
Depends. On where you are from and where you are going. A person from the middle east will have a major culture shock when they come to the US while a person from France might not have that big of a shock.

I will probably post some more of my experiences later but that depends entirely on how much interest this post generates and how lazy I am feeling at the time. 😉

What are your experiences with culture shock? Do share.

– Suramya

You have got to be kidding me…

The US chain Dunkin’ Donuts has pulled an advert following complaints that the scarf worn by a celebrity chef offered symbolic support for Islamic extremism.

This is the image with which the idiots had a problem with:

What I can’t figure out is how a nice looking girl drinking coffee makes anyone think of terrorists. If she was standing next to a bomb/fighter plane etc it would still make sense. But in this case she is standing on an empty road drinking coffee… Scarves are not terrorist symbols people. They are just something that looks pretty.

I think Michelle Malkin(the person who started this silly process needs some serious therapy if seeing a scarf makes her think of terrorists. Whats next? Terrorists wear pants too… so is everyone who wears pants now a terrorist? People do wear stuff just because it looks pretty or they like it. Everything doesn’t have a hidden meaning in it.

Stop living in fear! Stop this stupid campaign of fear!

Thanks to Open… for the link.

Complete story on BBC NEWS

– Suramya