28 March 2014

Making new friends…

As most of you know, I am nothing if not making new friends on the road, get to know “their story” and create intersection points. Sure beats airline delays, long waits at queues and such. Also personally enriches me as I get to know different perspectives that people have.

This morning, I had a very early breakfast meeting at Four Seasons in Atlanta. Reached there a little early to beat the Atlanta traffic. It was a good thing too. I got a chance to make friends with the manager at the restaurant there – Megan. Lots of interesting stories.

First, her dad is the developer of an app I use in my iPad extensively – “Notability”!! How cool is that? I do not think I have ever met anybody who has actually developed an app that I use in my day to day life! Made a note to meet him when I am in the West Coast next time.

Found out that Megan has recently moved from Boston to Atlanta. If you remember, before I moved to Atlanta seven years back, I used to work in a Boston based company!! And get this – that company was founded by a professor from her college!!!

One thing that amazes me about young folks these days is the clarity of thought they have around what they want to be. I had my usual “What do you want to be when you grow up”? question. (As you also know, I keep asking this since I am still looking for some good ideas for myself – I am still open to growing up and making something of myself).

I compared her ability to articulate her goals to mine when I was her age. I find the same superior maturity of thought in my soon-to-be-16 year old daughter too. Growing up, I did not have that many choices. I did whatever the guy from the previous year or batch did. There was never much thought put behind it. Partly because I grew up in a country with a lot more people running after very few resources and partly because taking risks was probably not inherent in me.

And then I had to leave to go to my day meetings….

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27 March 2014

Amazing!!

USA Today headline this morning “Thai satellite spots 300 objects in the Indian Ocean”.
Everybody is like “It is absolutely amazing what advance technology has made. It is unbelievable what a little piece of gadget thousands and thousands of miles away in the space can spot in the high seas….”
And I am like “Thailand has a satellite!!! Who knew?”

26 March 2014

Interesting ad

While driving in Alpharetta this morning, this sign caught my eye! Interesting how when it comes to specifying the total area, they get into the third decimal place but when it comes to the area that you can actually use, it is a very high level gross – ummmm…. plus minus 4 acres 😉

First, to put it in perspective, the third level of decimal place is equivalent to an area about 2 meters by 2 meters. This, when they are trying to sell an area which is more than 10 (American) football fields – including the two goal areas on either side!!

This is also probably symbolic of how we selfishly think about our belongings. When it comes to how much I am buying, I want to make sure the neighbors are very clear where the line goes – I am not going to give even a third decimal place area. When you ask me, “so much are you thinking you are going to use?”, I am like “Mehhhh… four acres? something like that? Why? Why does that matter to you?” 🙂

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25 March 2014

Home they brought her warrior dead…

It was an office meeting. Two of my team mates and myself were going thru some intense discussions about an important professional decision we have to make for our business in the coming months. As we started wrapping up our discussions, we started talking about the passing away of a pet of one of my teammates.

He was particularly affected since he was very close to this pet. But more importantly the discussion was about how stoically his wife had taken to this sad passage….. till an innocuous event like he sharing a very old picture of the pet with his wife got her to completely break down.

Reminded me of an Alfred Tennyson poem – on the importance of crying. After my friends left, I looked up the poem and read it up again. It is a master stroke of Tennyson to convey the importance of crying as a natural way to relieve your inner feelings. And the wisdom of somebody who is ninety years old!!!!

Home They Brought Her Warrior Dead

Home they brought her warrior dead:
She nor swooned, nor uttered cry:
All her maidens, watching, said,
‘She must weep or she will die.’

Then they praised him, soft and low,
Called him worthy to be loved,
Truest friend and noblest foe;
Yet she neither spoke nor moved.

Stole a maiden from her place,
Lightly to the warrior stepped,
Took the face-cloth from the face;
Yet she neither moved nor wept.

Rose a nurse of ninety years,
Set his child upon her knee—
Like summer tempest came her tears—
‘Sweet my child, I live for thee.’

Alfred Lord Tennyson

25 March 2014

Puzzle: Railway Track

This is one of those “shunting” puzzles. As you can see in my somewhat clumsy diagram, there is a railway track that goes indefinitely to the right. On the left, it splits into a “Y”, both ends of which merge into a finite straight railway track. There is a coach “A” sitting on one arm of the Y and another coach “B” sitting on the other arm. Both the coaches are 5 yards each.

The distance between the junction point on coach A side and the end of the finite straight track is 5 yards. On the other side, near coach B, the distance between the junction point and the end of the straight finite track is 15 yards. (See pic). In between the junction points on the straight track sits an engine “E” which is itself 10 yards in length.

Like every engine, E can go forwards or backwards and can pull or push the coaches. Any coach and engine can be attached to each other.

Here is the puzzle: Can you interchange the position of coach A and coach B? You have to get engine E back to its original position when you are done.

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25 March 2014

Chirag-e-dil (Flame of the heart)

“Jis chirag ko apney dum sey jalayaa hai
Usi chirag ne mera aashiyaan jalayaa hai
Bachata tha jisko hawa ke ek jhonkey se bhi main
Usi ney aaj mujhe gehri toofan mein phansaaya hai”

Translation:

The flame (of love) which I fanned with my breath
Is the same flame that has burnt my world to cinders
She, who I shielded even from the most gentle breeze
Has, indeed, today left me in the midst of a raging storm

(Unknown poet)

25 March 2014

From the bartender’s corner … Cucumber Gin and Tonic

After meeting Buck this evening, remembered all my MBA friends and felt great that I got a chance to have them as my friends.

Decided to relax with a cooked up drink… Took the traditional gin and tonic and improvised it. First, used Tito’s handmade gin from Texas and then Fever Tree tonic water from India. A little splash of sparkling water, a couple of dashes of Angostura bitters and a very thin slice of cucumber gently slid down the slide the glass (not to mess the gin too quickly)…. and there it was… a very refreshing gin and tonic. Can’t wait for summer!!!

Or the memories of sweltering Ahmedabad summer days….

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25 March 2014

The Buck stopped here ;-)

After a day’s worth of work, met good old C.S.Devasish aka “Buck” from my MBA days who had stopped by Atlanta for work. I had met him in Boston last year after many many years. Therefore, a lot of unfinished stories were finished today. Buck was one of our super smart guys in MBA days. So I am always intrigued by his points of views.

Today, our topics de jure included politics – American politics, Indian politics and overall geopolitics in general. From how gerrymandering is poisoning American politics to the Modi effect in India to the possibility of Balkanization of India to the greatest post President statesman Jimmy Carter to the fear of US of pushing Russia too close to China – we covered all topics under the sky 😉 The other common interest we have – big data and it’s social effects took up the rest of our time.

Before long, his ride had arrived and we had to part ways. Hoping to get the two families together this summer…

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