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.
Sunday, December 27, 2009
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.
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Hindi-on-Hindi hatred
With the recent additions we now have two employees in the office who are from Bihar. They speak English and Hindi in the stereotypical Bihari accent. For English this means that all the "sh" sounds become "s" and the sentence syntax follows Hindi grammar rather than English grammar. "What value you are getting?" "What time the bus is coming?" "Why you are doing this?" etc. Make no mistake, it's hilarious as hell and way too easy to mock.
What I find interesting is that these Biharis (atleast one of them) gets mocked mercilessly by the other North Indians here. They mock his accent and mannerisms endlessly. I was partially turned off because frankly I kinda respect this guy. But more importantly I was surprised at the "Hindi-on-Hindi" hatred. Isn't this guy "one of your own"? Obviously not. You see, in the South, I know there's a lot of inter-mocking between people who speak the various languages. I can report first hand about the way the Telugus mock the broken Telugu that is spoken by the immigrants into the state. Similarly I'm sure the Tamilians mock the "gults" and so on. It's just the way of life. So that's why it's surprising to see these people who speak the same language mocking each other.
For what it's worth, there is a huge economic component to this. Bihar being a poor state, Biharis who come to the Punjab/Haryana/Chandigarh regions come there for jobs. So the more affluent Punjabis look down upon the Biharis in general. Most of the staff that works in the kitchens etc in our office is from Bihar. But even with these new employees joining in engineering positions, the old stereotypes and attitudes are prevailing. Personally even though I have an extremely negative opinion of Bihar and its residents, I find it very hard to mock the individuals because they aren't the stereotypes that I'm come to associate with that state. For that matter, even the Punjabis (Sikhs) whom we used to tease when younger aren't mock-able because I work with them and get to know them. Sigh, I hate growing up.
What I find interesting is that these Biharis (atleast one of them) gets mocked mercilessly by the other North Indians here. They mock his accent and mannerisms endlessly. I was partially turned off because frankly I kinda respect this guy. But more importantly I was surprised at the "Hindi-on-Hindi" hatred. Isn't this guy "one of your own"? Obviously not. You see, in the South, I know there's a lot of inter-mocking between people who speak the various languages. I can report first hand about the way the Telugus mock the broken Telugu that is spoken by the immigrants into the state. Similarly I'm sure the Tamilians mock the "gults" and so on. It's just the way of life. So that's why it's surprising to see these people who speak the same language mocking each other.
For what it's worth, there is a huge economic component to this. Bihar being a poor state, Biharis who come to the Punjab/Haryana/Chandigarh regions come there for jobs. So the more affluent Punjabis look down upon the Biharis in general. Most of the staff that works in the kitchens etc in our office is from Bihar. But even with these new employees joining in engineering positions, the old stereotypes and attitudes are prevailing. Personally even though I have an extremely negative opinion of Bihar and its residents, I find it very hard to mock the individuals because they aren't the stereotypes that I'm come to associate with that state. For that matter, even the Punjabis (Sikhs) whom we used to tease when younger aren't mock-able because I work with them and get to know them. Sigh, I hate growing up.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Why are they allowing child porn on satellite TV?
Imagine the sexy Beyonce singing "My body is too bootylicious" or the incomparable Marilyn Monroe standing on subway vent while her skirt billowed around her. Just perfect, right? Now imagine a girl of four years doing either of those, complete with the dress and everything? Disgusting! So why do local stations think it's OK?
It's become very trendy to have talent shows for kids. They sell. The kids are extremely talented and very cute. It blows my mind sometimes to watch them perform, either sing or dance. One Hindi channel even has a kid perform a solo comedy sketch and she's very funny in it. And then one day I saw something that made me wish I could unsee it. A little girl, not more than four years of age, wearing something that would make even Mallika Sherawat blush, dancing to a vulgar "item song" - రాత్రైనా నాకు OK, పగలైన నాక్ OK. The lyrics of the song (translated) are - "Nighttime is fine by me, I'm OK with daytime too"; I'll leave you to imagine what the singer is claiming to be OK with. The next time I turned on the program, she was dancing to అబ్బనీ తీయ్యని దెబ్బా.
I do believe that there is a certain level to cuteness to be found in young children behaving like adults. But I also believe that there's a certain line that you shouldn't cross and this program crossed it. The sad thing is, the little girl won't realize how screwed up her life is going to get till it actually does. All she sees is the crowd going wild and the judges heaping abundant praise on her. She doesn't understand the lyrics of the song or why her dress is completely inappropriate. I just hope she loses early enough so she can put this behind her. God save her.
It's become very trendy to have talent shows for kids. They sell. The kids are extremely talented and very cute. It blows my mind sometimes to watch them perform, either sing or dance. One Hindi channel even has a kid perform a solo comedy sketch and she's very funny in it. And then one day I saw something that made me wish I could unsee it. A little girl, not more than four years of age, wearing something that would make even Mallika Sherawat blush, dancing to a vulgar "item song" - రాత్రైనా నాకు OK, పగలైన నాక్ OK. The lyrics of the song (translated) are - "Nighttime is fine by me, I'm OK with daytime too"; I'll leave you to imagine what the singer is claiming to be OK with. The next time I turned on the program, she was dancing to అబ్బనీ తీయ్యని దెబ్బా.
I do believe that there is a certain level to cuteness to be found in young children behaving like adults. But I also believe that there's a certain line that you shouldn't cross and this program crossed it. The sad thing is, the little girl won't realize how screwed up her life is going to get till it actually does. All she sees is the crowd going wild and the judges heaping abundant praise on her. She doesn't understand the lyrics of the song or why her dress is completely inappropriate. I just hope she loses early enough so she can put this behind her. God save her.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
What a difference a manager makes
We have a new manager. This marks a sad day in the history of this blog since I can no longer use the word "manager" in the same sentence as "idiot", "incompetent", "joker" etc. The new guy is at about 80% of what I'd like in an ideal manager. He knows his stuff when it comes to the tools we use. He has experience in the field and he is utterly no nonsense. I'm enjoying working with him and am loving picking his brains on various work-related topics. What I've discovered, and this is hardly new, is that for a job to be fun, both the manager and the employee should be at the same level of seriousness and willingness to work. In this case I think that is 100% true. On the flip side, he's a little weak in the fundamentals and is a little too stubborn in some situations. Today I wasted two hours trying to convince him that he is wrong and that we should solve the problem my way. Ultimately I gave up and just waited for him to leave, did the problem my way and finished the assignment. In the olden days I could easily convince my boss that I was right (if I was right). But now if the new manager also disagree with me, since my boss respects him quite a bit, I have to fight a lot to make my point. I can't complain too much since the guy before him had no idea what the hell was going on anyway and ... well, you know enough about how that guy was, I don't need to bring it up again.
On a related note, it's obscene how excited I get about work these days. The last days in particular I've been practically giddy at the thought of doing the work and discussing the ins and outs of the problem with my boss and my manager. Of course that just means I'll get promoted since "In a Hierarchy Every Employee Tends to Rise to His Level of Incompetence".
On a related note, it's obscene how excited I get about work these days. The last days in particular I've been practically giddy at the thought of doing the work and discussing the ins and outs of the problem with my boss and my manager. Of course that just means I'll get promoted since "In a Hierarchy Every Employee Tends to Rise to His Level of Incompetence".
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