Dinner in 3 minutes flat

If there were a competition at speed eating, I think I would be pretty good at it. I have developed this habit singlehandedly because of Indian television serials. Let me explain.

While growing up, my family always had dinner together. We used to eat early, about 8-8:30. This happens to be prime time for the pathetic, completely unbearable and worst possible Marathi soap operas. My parents were avid followers, and my dad rules the remote at home. I always ate with my back towards the TV, but still just listening to the dialogues used to drive me crazy. I used subtle hints, sarcastic taunts and open cribbing to express myself, but nothing worked. I guess soaps are addictive and my parents were hooked. It may seem trivial, but soap operas really do irritate me that much. Its not just the stories, or the lack of it, but the tilted camera angles, sudden zoom ins, the stinging background scores..... Also trying to figure out why my parents actually liked these programs made me even more mad.

To save myself of the ordeal, I started eating faster. Usually I would complete my dinner in about 3-5 minutes flat (roti, sabzi, daal and fruit too sometimes). This had no affect whatsoever, and I wonder if my parents even noticed. One day, I took my plate from the dinner table, like a buffet, and ate in my room. Now this had a marked affect. Suddenly the sanctity of our "eating together" ritual was broken. It was important to eat together, even if you were just watching TV. Now it wasn't as if we didn't ever have good family conversations at dinner, just not during the 8-9 time slot, when my parents most cherished soaps came. Late dinners and weekend suppers were always nice. Anyways my father compromised, and started muting the TV during dinner.

Unfortunately, I was almost out of college and the habit has stuck on. Even still, I usually gulp down my food, rather than savoring it. I have to make a conscious effort to eat slowly , especially with my European friends. Now these guys take their own time while eating. People here sit for hours over a meze and some nice wine. When I settle down, I sure will make it a point not to keep the dining table and TV in the same room.

PS - Sympathies with those who suffered Hindi soaps. They seem to be a notch higher on the Irritation Quotient

The coolest travelogue

If you ever had dreams of traveling the world, check this out:
http://www.betzgi.ch/en/main.html
This is by far the coolest travelogue I have come across.

I would categorize myself as a proud Indian, and usually don't wish I were born somewhere else. But I have to make an exception when it comes to traveling. Plannig any long trip across multiple countries for an Indian is a pain in the ass. We never get any Visas on arrival (except Sri Lanka and Nepal maybe). Nevertheless, I wonder how much planning and effort such endeavors require, and how these people finance it.

Answer to the finance qustion:

Do you love your job as much as him?

Let me start from the beginning

Today I had a rather boring design review from 6-7 pm (to accommodate for the California colleagues on the conference). My teammate was presenting the design. He is very methodical, and was going over each and every part in a lot of detail, so naturally the rest of us were looking at each other exasperatedly. From time to time, the Californians were stirred awake from their slumber and "Pardon me, can you please repeat the question?" was heard frequently. Added to this, there were a lot of queries from the testers, so in all, most of us were concentrating on the clock.

While explaining a long flowchart, my teammate made a mistake, and said, "Let me start from the beginning". There was a collective gasp from the entire room!!

Developed Indian Male

My friend was telling me about a friend of his who got into Asian Institute of Management, Manila (How so many of my transitive acquaintances seem to land up in IAS, IIMs, IITs is a discussion for another blog). Now this dude had applied for a scholarship to Asian Development Bank for his MBA. A person from ADB called him up regarding this, and regretfully informed that he was rejected. He went on to explain a couple of reasons as to why he was not awarded the scholarship.
Firstly, the dude was from India, and the ADB person said that they were looking for a candidate from a less developed country! .... wtf!
Secondly, the dude was told, "We prefer a female candidate. Of course, you cannot do anything about that."
As my friend said, "Good to have a sense of humor, even if you are rejecting someone"

Want Work?

Driving through Limassol Town Center today, I remembered an old incident which happened here about a year and half back. My flatmate and I were walking down the pavement, when a posh Mercedes S class slowed down near us, the driver lowered the window and asked my fiend, "Want some work?". Having been in Cyprus for a while, we knew the Cypriots well, so this didn't really surprise us. For most Cypriots, every coloured guy is a day labourer.

Anyways, my friend answered "No". The man was taken aback, I guess he expected an inquiry at the least. He asked again "You don't want work?". My friend calmly said "I already have work". The man sort of apologized and drove on. Now it so happens that this friend of mine is filthy rich, is from a very well to do business family and his father is a Politician. I was feeling offended at this prejudice and told my friend "You should have said something. How can these fuckers always assume that we are illegal Bangladeshi immigrants?" (now I have nothing against Bangladeshis, its just that there are a lot of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants here). To my surprise, my friend was least bit perturbed, and said calmly, "are Rajat, if I had said something, the guy would think twice before stopping and asking someone else, and some guy in real need of work, would probably not get it". I was taken aback. Now how the hell does one build such a perspective about things?

The Bad

I watched "The Good, The Bad and the Ugly" AGAIN last evening. Undoubtedly the best Spaghetti Western, I am sure enough lines have been written praising the movie. In fact if you just type "the goo" in the search section in a Google toolbar, Google brings up the rest for you. Now that is the true measure of fame and success if you ask me.

Anyways, each time I have seen the movie, a completely different facet amazes me. At first it was the brilliant sound track and the catchy plot. Having loved the movie, I went on to see the prequels by Sergio Leone - "A Fistful of Dollars" and "For a Few Dollars More". Now these are good movies, and the character of Blondie slowly grows on you. So when I saw "The Good, The Bad and the Ugly" for the second time, it was Clint Eastwood who stole the show for me. I was also intrigued by the depiction of American Civil War, and read a little bit more about it. So in my third attempt, I was left fascinated by direction of Sergio Leone. The director did not speak English and had never seen the American Old West - curtsy Wikipedia - so I find it phenomenal that he wrote and directed the film.

Yesterday, I found myself gaping at Eli Wallach's portrayal of "Tuco", the bruto. I don't remember when I last admired the comic timing of any film character as much as Tuco. It's not just the witty dialogs, its the impeccable manner of dialog delivery which makes Eli stand out. The "Bad" is undoubtedly the best part of the movie, i.e. until i see it once more, and discover something altogether disparate to admire.