Remember I wrote a while ago about how there's a certain manager in my office that insists on hiring only pretty girls for his team? Well a month ago he decided to "promote" one of our two receptionists by giving her a job in his office. We have two receptionists and while both are good at their jobs, one of them is prettier, or atleast more glamorous than the other. Guess which one got "promoted"? Still, it was OK, no harm no foul. To replace this girl now, they have been having interviews. And all of a sudden today we were told that the other receptionist is being let go. This came as quite a shock to us since it's like a small family out here and anyone leaving is quite sad. The official version is that the girl was making a lot of mistakes. The unofficial version is that the two newer receptionists are prettier and the girl was let go to accommodate these two. Wow.
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
How cold it is out here
I'm sure I've written in the past about how hot it gets here during the summers. Apparently winter weather took offense and decided to show me who the dominant season is. It's terrible. I had a chance to get some perspective when I visited Hyderabad and the lowest temperature there was the highest temperature in C'garh. My parents kept talking each day about how it was "getting colder" and I kept saying, "If you say so," while sitting around in shorts. Here, when I come home from work, I quickly change into my nightwear and sit on the bed, covered with a thick blanket.
As I've told many people before, it's so cold INSIDE my room that my breath fogs up. One night I went to bed wearing a regular woolen cap on top of a "monkey cap", two pairs of socks on my feet, two layers of clothing and two blankets on top of each other. In the mornings, I have to heat my water for about 45 mins before I can shower with it. Normally I overheat the water so I can bring the temperature down to the exact temperature I want with a few mugs of colder tap water. Now the tap water is so cold that even boiling water cools down fast with just a couple of mugs. I have to be check the temperature of the water between half-mugs to make sure it doesn't get too cold. After showering I have to dry up myself really fast and rush into my clothes because otherwise any moisture on my skin starts evaporating in the dry air and that completely negates all the effects of the hot shower. On the days that I have to wash my hair it's worse because I have to then worry about drying my hair thoroughly or risk my head freezing up. Normally I shave after my bath. But now I can't stand there wet while shaving or I'll just freeze standing there. So shaving is a special occasion that I need to plan for in advance - TWO buckets of heated water so that I can shower, shave and then shower a little more to counter the freezing I had to endure while shaving.
This is mostly due to the poor insulation here. The walls do a very poor job of blocking the cold or keeping in the heat. I finally got my hands on a room heater with an inbuilt blower. The guy who gave it to me told me that running this thing for an hour is enough to heat up the room. Yeah right! I ran it all night long and I still had to bundle up under the blankets. But atleast it was comfortable this time. The last two nights I kept waking up every two hours from the cold. Luckily this week the work load is non-existent so it hasn't hurt me too bad. And who knows, next week by this time the warming might have already started.
As I've told many people before, it's so cold INSIDE my room that my breath fogs up. One night I went to bed wearing a regular woolen cap on top of a "monkey cap", two pairs of socks on my feet, two layers of clothing and two blankets on top of each other. In the mornings, I have to heat my water for about 45 mins before I can shower with it. Normally I overheat the water so I can bring the temperature down to the exact temperature I want with a few mugs of colder tap water. Now the tap water is so cold that even boiling water cools down fast with just a couple of mugs. I have to be check the temperature of the water between half-mugs to make sure it doesn't get too cold. After showering I have to dry up myself really fast and rush into my clothes because otherwise any moisture on my skin starts evaporating in the dry air and that completely negates all the effects of the hot shower. On the days that I have to wash my hair it's worse because I have to then worry about drying my hair thoroughly or risk my head freezing up. Normally I shave after my bath. But now I can't stand there wet while shaving or I'll just freeze standing there. So shaving is a special occasion that I need to plan for in advance - TWO buckets of heated water so that I can shower, shave and then shower a little more to counter the freezing I had to endure while shaving.
This is mostly due to the poor insulation here. The walls do a very poor job of blocking the cold or keeping in the heat. I finally got my hands on a room heater with an inbuilt blower. The guy who gave it to me told me that running this thing for an hour is enough to heat up the room. Yeah right! I ran it all night long and I still had to bundle up under the blankets. But atleast it was comfortable this time. The last two nights I kept waking up every two hours from the cold. Luckily this week the work load is non-existent so it hasn't hurt me too bad. And who knows, next week by this time the warming might have already started.
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
"... you know how it is in government jobs ..."
After a well-deserved break in Hyderabad for Christmas and New Years', I traveled back to C'garh. On my train from Delhi to Chandigarh, I sat next to a nice chatty lady who works in C'garh. She works in a govt. office here and lives in Delhi, so she commutes each weekend back to Delhi to visit her family. Perhaps the most interesting thing I learned about her was her schedule. Apparently she usually prefers to travel by bus when she goes back to C'garh and this train trip was the exception. Usually she takes the bus on Monday mornings. Now, I asked her, wouldn't that bus come into Chandigarh pretty late? "Well", she replied, "I make it to work by about 1pm or so, and you know how it is in government jobs, as long as I make it before the end of the day no one complains."
I'm obviously aware of the notorious levels of slackitude in government offices in India but this was clearly a new low. Not only does she talk about getting in to work late, she does that every week. And later she mentioned that she left work early on Fridays to get back home (to Delhi) in time. This means that in an average 40-hour week, she's working only 34-hours. That's 15%, or almost an entire day. I suppose if money is not an issue, a government job IS the best thing to do.
I'm obviously aware of the notorious levels of slackitude in government offices in India but this was clearly a new low. Not only does she talk about getting in to work late, she does that every week. And later she mentioned that she left work early on Fridays to get back home (to Delhi) in time. This means that in an average 40-hour week, she's working only 34-hours. That's 15%, or almost an entire day. I suppose if money is not an issue, a government job IS the best thing to do.
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Another new restaurant
I discovered a new restaurant in Chandigarh which left me with just one question - How can a restaurant serve such tasty food and yet have such poor service?
There's a restaurant called "Noodle Bar" that I'd heard of but never got to visit. On a lark one day I decided to check it out. I made a few calls but only one of my friends seemed interested in going. So I took him and went to the restaurant. The place specializes in Chinese/Thai food along with some Italian dishes. The food is reasonably priced and was quite tasty. ("The food was not undelicious.") It also seemed to be a very "happening" place in the sense that there were a lot of young people at the place. Maybe to visit the bar/lounge/club that was in the back. Nevertheless, that was when I decided to visit the place again. The big negative though was the service which really sucked. The main dishes took forever coming and we were quite pissed off. We left a very small tip to convey our displeasure and left.
The next weekend I was craving the food again and I went by myself this time. When I walked into the restaurant it was relatively empty (only three tables were occupied out of a total of about 30. Still, they gave me a corner table for two, which I didn't mind in the slightest. The food arrived which was quite tasty as usual. But as I was eating, the place slowly filled up. A family of about nine people showed up after the restaurant was almost full. There was only one vacant table which could seat six and it was right next to my table. As I was eating I noticed out of the corner of my eye, the family indicating that they wanted to sit at that table and the waiter explaining to them that as soon as I got up, they'd join the two tables and the entire family could be seated there. Now, to their credit, neither the family nor the restaurant staff said a single word to me about leaving early or even make a gesture (an impatient sigh, an awkward glance etc) to make me feel uncomfortable. Having said that, when six of the family members were seated by the staff at that table, and the remaining members are just walking around the restaurant making it plainly clear that they were waiting for me to leave, it really made finishing my meal very difficult. Ideally the patrons would be asked to wait outside the restaurant while the restaurant got their table ready. But by seating part of the group there and asking the others to walk around, they really ruined my dining experience.
Maybe I expected too much from the restaurant. But anyway you slice it, it showed once again that single people in this country have a horrible life. They are not allowed to live with any sort of dignity. I say "people" because while only single guys face these awkward and humiliating situations, girls have it worse because it would be unthinkable for a girl to, say, go out to eat by herself or try to rent a room by herself etc. I will go back to that restaurant again though, but this time with a group of friends.
There's a restaurant called "Noodle Bar" that I'd heard of but never got to visit. On a lark one day I decided to check it out. I made a few calls but only one of my friends seemed interested in going. So I took him and went to the restaurant. The place specializes in Chinese/Thai food along with some Italian dishes. The food is reasonably priced and was quite tasty. ("The food was not undelicious.") It also seemed to be a very "happening" place in the sense that there were a lot of young people at the place. Maybe to visit the bar/lounge/club that was in the back. Nevertheless, that was when I decided to visit the place again. The big negative though was the service which really sucked. The main dishes took forever coming and we were quite pissed off. We left a very small tip to convey our displeasure and left.
The next weekend I was craving the food again and I went by myself this time. When I walked into the restaurant it was relatively empty (only three tables were occupied out of a total of about 30. Still, they gave me a corner table for two, which I didn't mind in the slightest. The food arrived which was quite tasty as usual. But as I was eating, the place slowly filled up. A family of about nine people showed up after the restaurant was almost full. There was only one vacant table which could seat six and it was right next to my table. As I was eating I noticed out of the corner of my eye, the family indicating that they wanted to sit at that table and the waiter explaining to them that as soon as I got up, they'd join the two tables and the entire family could be seated there. Now, to their credit, neither the family nor the restaurant staff said a single word to me about leaving early or even make a gesture (an impatient sigh, an awkward glance etc) to make me feel uncomfortable. Having said that, when six of the family members were seated by the staff at that table, and the remaining members are just walking around the restaurant making it plainly clear that they were waiting for me to leave, it really made finishing my meal very difficult. Ideally the patrons would be asked to wait outside the restaurant while the restaurant got their table ready. But by seating part of the group there and asking the others to walk around, they really ruined my dining experience.
Maybe I expected too much from the restaurant. But anyway you slice it, it showed once again that single people in this country have a horrible life. They are not allowed to live with any sort of dignity. I say "people" because while only single guys face these awkward and humiliating situations, girls have it worse because it would be unthinkable for a girl to, say, go out to eat by herself or try to rent a room by herself etc. I will go back to that restaurant again though, but this time with a group of friends.
I am Santa
I dressed up as Santa at work today (two days before Christmas).
At the market the other day I saw these Christmas hats and began thinking about how I actually do miss that silly season. I don't really miss the endless Christmas songs everytime I turn on the radio on the rather materialistic aspect of the festival that turns everything into a sale. But I miss the festive atmosphere, the smiles on everyone's faces, the attitude of giving and in general the feeling of "It's the end of the year and the beginning of a new one."
So I bought myself a Christmas hat and wore it to work the next day. Immediately my team members came up with the idea of the four of us wearing these hats at work, to give it more of a festive atmosphere. So we did. And it worked exactly as I wanted it to. Everyone that saw the four of us in those hats smiled. I'm pretty sure it really cheered up the entire office. And then our wonderful facilities manager came up with his own suggestion. He had a "Santa's beard" bought at some store, along with a bag of candy. He got me to dress up as Santa (with a Black coat instead of a Red one!) and I really got into the part as well. We walked to all the departments in the office shouting "Ho! Ho! Ho!" and "Merry Christmas!" and I gave everyone some candy! It was a lot of fun.
At the market the other day I saw these Christmas hats and began thinking about how I actually do miss that silly season. I don't really miss the endless Christmas songs everytime I turn on the radio on the rather materialistic aspect of the festival that turns everything into a sale. But I miss the festive atmosphere, the smiles on everyone's faces, the attitude of giving and in general the feeling of "It's the end of the year and the beginning of a new one."
So I bought myself a Christmas hat and wore it to work the next day. Immediately my team members came up with the idea of the four of us wearing these hats at work, to give it more of a festive atmosphere. So we did. And it worked exactly as I wanted it to. Everyone that saw the four of us in those hats smiled. I'm pretty sure it really cheered up the entire office. And then our wonderful facilities manager came up with his own suggestion. He had a "Santa's beard" bought at some store, along with a bag of candy. He got me to dress up as Santa (with a Black coat instead of a Red one!) and I really got into the part as well. We walked to all the departments in the office shouting "Ho! Ho! Ho!" and "Merry Christmas!" and I gave everyone some candy! It was a lot of fun.
Thursday, December 24, 2009
... and then the elephant pooped!
OMG!! I just went to the circus! I had heard that the circus was in town but it never really registered till I saw the big tent on my way home one day. I tried to gather a group to go there but apparently people these days are too "grown up" for these type of things. Once again I was left taking only one other friend with me, so while it sucked not to have a big group, which would have make the experience even more enjoyable, I was thankful to have atleast one other person go with me.
The last time I went to the circus was about 20 years ago atleast. I don't remember much from that day except that we were quite a bit far away from the action. So this time I bought the most expensive tickets; I wanted to be really close to the action and in particular, I wanted to hear the banter of the clowns! The show started off with the trapeze. I thought I'd be watching the circus more out of ironic appreciation but I found myself at the edge of my seat as the trapeze act started. The performers were performing flips in the air, crisscrossing each other, swapping the trapeze for the arms of a teammate and then back to the trapeze. For one series they turned out the lights and being as tense as I was, I almost shouted out for them to turn on the lights! It wasn't all great though - one of the main performers dropped the person he was supposed to catch. Twice! There was net below them so that broke their fall but they were slammed, rather painfully I imagine, into the net. Since they were moving horizontally at the moment the slip occurred, both the performers who fell, slammed into the net so hard that the dust that had accumulated in the nets flew into the air around us. I gasped out loud at that point.
Then an elephant showed up, gripped a girl in its trunk. The elephant got up on a smal table with all four legs, then sat (a** backwards) on the same table. and got up on its hind-legs, all the while holding the girl in its trunk. Then the girl put her leg into the mouth of the elephant and it gripped that leg with its mouth and very slowly swung around in a complete circle as the girl hung upside down! I know it was a trained elephant but it was still very excited to watch. Of course, while making the circle the elephant pooped! It cracked me up!! How embarrassing for the organizers!
There were birds, dogs and a horse as well. There was a troupe of Africans who did a bunch of energetic balancing acts and gymnastics. A group of Armenians who did more delicate balancing acts, almost like a ballet. A group of girls, in their inappropriately sexy dresses hung on to a universal joint as they spun themselves around. More than the animals, watching these girls (aged 10-15) made me really sad. It's very unlikely that these children will have normal lives, and be allowed to grow up in a normal fashion, with normal feelings. But then again, I suppose atleast they didn't need to beg on the streets or prostitute themselves.
The other thing that made me a little sad was the attitude of the people who came to watch. Now it was a Sunday night show and maybe people were just tired. But it seemed like I was the only one clapping. Hell, it seemed like I was the only one enjoying the show. The others, including my friend who came with me, were sitting very quietly, watching with the attitude of people who had paid a lot of money and weren't going to stoop to the level of applauding a good show. It made me hope I never lose my sense of wonder and joy at these small things. It was a great show after all.
The last time I went to the circus was about 20 years ago atleast. I don't remember much from that day except that we were quite a bit far away from the action. So this time I bought the most expensive tickets; I wanted to be really close to the action and in particular, I wanted to hear the banter of the clowns! The show started off with the trapeze. I thought I'd be watching the circus more out of ironic appreciation but I found myself at the edge of my seat as the trapeze act started. The performers were performing flips in the air, crisscrossing each other, swapping the trapeze for the arms of a teammate and then back to the trapeze. For one series they turned out the lights and being as tense as I was, I almost shouted out for them to turn on the lights! It wasn't all great though - one of the main performers dropped the person he was supposed to catch. Twice! There was net below them so that broke their fall but they were slammed, rather painfully I imagine, into the net. Since they were moving horizontally at the moment the slip occurred, both the performers who fell, slammed into the net so hard that the dust that had accumulated in the nets flew into the air around us. I gasped out loud at that point.
Then an elephant showed up, gripped a girl in its trunk. The elephant got up on a smal table with all four legs, then sat (a** backwards) on the same table. and got up on its hind-legs, all the while holding the girl in its trunk. Then the girl put her leg into the mouth of the elephant and it gripped that leg with its mouth and very slowly swung around in a complete circle as the girl hung upside down! I know it was a trained elephant but it was still very excited to watch. Of course, while making the circle the elephant pooped! It cracked me up!! How embarrassing for the organizers!
There were birds, dogs and a horse as well. There was a troupe of Africans who did a bunch of energetic balancing acts and gymnastics. A group of Armenians who did more delicate balancing acts, almost like a ballet. A group of girls, in their inappropriately sexy dresses hung on to a universal joint as they spun themselves around. More than the animals, watching these girls (aged 10-15) made me really sad. It's very unlikely that these children will have normal lives, and be allowed to grow up in a normal fashion, with normal feelings. But then again, I suppose atleast they didn't need to beg on the streets or prostitute themselves.
The other thing that made me a little sad was the attitude of the people who came to watch. Now it was a Sunday night show and maybe people were just tired. But it seemed like I was the only one clapping. Hell, it seemed like I was the only one enjoying the show. The others, including my friend who came with me, were sitting very quietly, watching with the attitude of people who had paid a lot of money and weren't going to stoop to the level of applauding a good show. It made me hope I never lose my sense of wonder and joy at these small things. It was a great show after all.
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Conversion of units
At work recently I got into a little bit of trouble for mixing up my units. It caused me anxiety for about 20 mins but it got resolved immediately after. But that got me thinking about units a lot. Engineers have to be able to switch back and forth between units easily. In particular, like me, if you work for an MNC (and who isn't these days) you have to be able to switch between various systems of units. You have to know the values of various constants and material properties in these units. I'm getting quite good at it.
To add another wrinkle, I've spent a lot of my adult life in the US and now am living in India. So there are other units that come into picture as well. Like temperature. Till recently my weather add-on on Firefox was set to read temperature in F. Whenever someone tells me their weight in kgs, I mentally multiply by 2.2 for it to become a sensible number. Inches get multiplied by 25.4 to become mm. Distance is talked about in time, so that's not a problem as such. Like I said, I am getting good at it :)
But speaking of time, another situation I have to deal with is time zones. In addition to my friends who live there and whom I talk to regularly, we also have work meetings that need to be scheduled. This requires knowing the time in the US. Worst of all are the weekends in the fall - football. Life used to be so good in the US, every weekend during the daytime I'd watch College Football on Saturdays, NFL on Sundays. Monday mornings I'd read the analysis that would follow. Now the games start during my night. If there are any Longhorn or Colts games that start at 11:30pm IST (morning games in the US), I end up staying up for a few hours to follow the game online. If there are any games that are scheduled for the afternoon, I spend a restless night worrying about the results of the games and end up waking up really early to check the scores. For evening/night games (that start during the morning here) I end up staying at home for longer than is appropriate on a Monday morning. Worse, there's nothing to do during the weekends here and that just amplifies the knowledge that I'm losing out on all the fun of the Fall weekends.
To add another wrinkle, I've spent a lot of my adult life in the US and now am living in India. So there are other units that come into picture as well. Like temperature. Till recently my weather add-on on Firefox was set to read temperature in F. Whenever someone tells me their weight in kgs, I mentally multiply by 2.2 for it to become a sensible number. Inches get multiplied by 25.4 to become mm. Distance is talked about in time, so that's not a problem as such. Like I said, I am getting good at it :)
But speaking of time, another situation I have to deal with is time zones. In addition to my friends who live there and whom I talk to regularly, we also have work meetings that need to be scheduled. This requires knowing the time in the US. Worst of all are the weekends in the fall - football. Life used to be so good in the US, every weekend during the daytime I'd watch College Football on Saturdays, NFL on Sundays. Monday mornings I'd read the analysis that would follow. Now the games start during my night. If there are any Longhorn or Colts games that start at 11:30pm IST (morning games in the US), I end up staying up for a few hours to follow the game online. If there are any games that are scheduled for the afternoon, I spend a restless night worrying about the results of the games and end up waking up really early to check the scores. For evening/night games (that start during the morning here) I end up staying at home for longer than is appropriate on a Monday morning. Worse, there's nothing to do during the weekends here and that just amplifies the knowledge that I'm losing out on all the fun of the Fall weekends.
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