I have miles to earn ...

There are concerns about the globe heating up, but there sure is another phenomenon going on for a while now, that is the shrinking of its radius. With globalisation and the concept of global village, enterprises are furthering their businesses across countries and continents. People are feeling unprecedented urge to go to Far Far Away, to explore the world, to see the people there. and for numerous other reasons. For some, there is also a hidden desire to earn more miles. These are ones who will feel proud if they have to apply for a new passport with reason "No Empty Page Available" and will indulge in narrating stories after looking at a VISA and Port of Entry stamp in their passport.

Air Miles, Jet Lag, Connections have become ubiquitous terms these days. Just type the words Jet Lag in google, and it will return thousands of pages describing numerous ways to tackle it. They will describe ways to dupe the body clock, to induce sleeping and waking durations by using caffeine or sleeping pills. For a frequent flyer, these are the rules to live by as are ways to control sugar for a diabetic. He cannot afford to spend time to recover from jet lag on a two day trip from New York to Shanghai. Fighting jet lag is a part of what he was signed for and through experience he has learned how to tackle it.

Distances across continents and oceans has been reduced to number of hours you have to sit in the airplane to cross these. The feeling of having come half way across the globe is termed as experiencing jet lag. Friends and family will prescribe ways to handle this feeling to someone who has just come from India to US. He has flown thousands of miles, over oceans and continents to reach where he is now, and yet it seems so trivial. This is just the start for him, he has just earned one stamp, there are others for whom the immigration officer has to look for space to put another stamp in the passport.

With lot of traveling across the US and Canada for work and few flying visits to India from US, I would well have earned tens of thousands of miles in this year. I also had to experience disorientation and felt sleepy at odd hours as a result of being transported across time zones. I have taken days and at times a full week to get accustomed to the new day-night schedule. What I felt was that one should try not to curb jet lag and along with that the feeling of flying across the globe. Jet lag which is looked at as an after result of flying should rather be experienced as the feeling of having traveled thousands of miles and crossed oceans and continents and the feeling be relished and absorbed slowly as the body would in a natural way. One can call this "Organic Flying", free of artificial drugs to curb natural body behaviors.

Departing Home

Walking towards the airport checking-in in the evening today I was really feeling the devoid of energy, although I had had lasagna in afternoon at a nice restaurant along with mom and brother. My stay at home had got extended more than initially planned, totaling 4 weeks, could spend quality time with folks back home. I got a good break from the non-rewarding job that I was doing back in US and enjoyed the stay completely.

The end of the sojourn came rather abruptly, that’s what I felt. The Jet Airways personnel started asking me the regular security questions. I was answering animately, and might have simply accepted if he would have said that there is some problem and I cannot travel back today. It was a regular drill, next was the immigration counter and I half heartedly filled the form and proceeded to the next available window.

The immigration personnel inspected the form, I had filled the wrong flight number, it was corrected. He then started asking me the regular questions, which VISA are you travelling on, who is your employer. I gave home single word answers for his questions. And then it started, the questions came pouring in, where did you work before this, what is your job, where did you do your studies. I started getting bit irritated, it was none of his job to ask me where I did my college from. I kept answering. Then he asked me what where did I apply for the job I got in US, what marks I got in ehgineering. Then I realized what he was upto, He was trying to figure out what would be required to a get a job in US.

He told me his daughter was also an engineer and had scored 95% marks and he wanted her to do M Tech . He was surprised how I managed to land a job in US on H1 VISA with just BE degree from India and that too with 68%. I told him that it was also about the job experience and I had the relevant experience for the job, During the conversation I started feeling better, I was not being sentenced to another term in US, but it was rather a sought after opportunity.

For the first time an immigration personnel smiled at me and told me, "Best of Luck :-)". I would say that made my day and gave me some energy for the long-long flight ahead.

Made in Elsewhere

The other day I was on my weekend running spree, and I thought I saw something on the manhole cover on the sidewalk. I came back the same route to confirm what I had seen earlier, and yes I was right, there was the manhole cover on the streets of Seattle, proclaiming a "Made in India" label. I observed it so many times after that on other locations. I thought it was good with all the software and call center outsourcing but can USA not make its own sewer covers.

Everything you get here in USA is made in any other country than USA, from a Cashmere sweater to a cuticle pusher(I can see some of you frowning here, follow the link, its exfoliative http://www.groominglounge.com/). There are so many big-big stores here with the "Save money, live better" themes, those are all importing cheap Chinese goods into USA. And there are hoards of such companies. I have benefited my geography by looking at the labels on some articles, because they will be made in some far flung country you wont even have heard of, Nicaragua, Azerbaijan (sounds "be jaan" but exports stuff to USA).

On so many occasions, an article is disqualified as gift for someone back in India because it bears a label "Made in India" or "Made In Pakistan" (no anti-neighbouring country feelings intended, but if obvious, I support your emotions). The last thing you want to hear after painstakingly selecting the perfect gift for someone is the guy scorning at the label (yehi milla that tujhe purre USA mein, Made in India, huh ...).

One of the communities which have benefited from all the manufacturing outsourcing in US is the flora and fauna. There are lots and lots of trees everywhere. I thought the idea of well cut lawns, nice plants and nicely pruned trees, was for the gardens and special areas, but here one can see it in every office or housing area. One thing for sure is Americans know how to maintain their landscape(not to mention all the "Made in Elsewhere" garden equipment you can order on walmart or Amazon).

Self correcting System

We all cherish the times we have spent in school, the mischiefs everyone used to do. Ask someone about the best times one has had and the answer would be school or college times. These are the times one lives life to the most. So many of us have played pranks on our class mates and some daring ones even taking chances with the teachers.

The relationship of the teacher towards the student was always supposed to be of nurturing and correcting the faults and in lieu the teacher expects respect and obedience from the students. There were instances when the teacher used to punish the student for disobedience. I remember standing out of the class on so many occasions. It might not be the best way to treat kids at school, but fear of punishment did bring some reluctance to commit the acts again.

But it gave me shivers down the spine when I saw the news item on the TOI site

8-yr-old beaten to death by 'monster' teacher. It is really unfortunate that such a incident occurred and anybody would brand the teacher a monster for what happened to the child.

The media gets a breaking news. The incident will be probed in every plausible manner. Like an attorney defending the teacher would come up with many explanations to make up a case for the acquittal of the teacher, there will be many theories discussed on the TV. The kid can be suffering from bad health and the punishment which otherwise is mild by any means resulted fatal in the case of this kid. The teacher could be suffering from mental trauma, and was not in control of mind when the act was committed. If we look at the other side of the case the sympathy is with the child's family and there are all the reasons to brand the teacher a monster and give the punishment as would be given to a murderer.

It sure is a big incident and will stay in news for a few days, but did anyone learn from the incident. Did the child loose her life in vain. Will any measures be taken so that such an incident does not happen again. I am sure there will be very few takers of these questions. Such incidents have been happening in the past and nothing was done about those. One can dig in the archived columns of a newspaper and find ample examples.

How would you imagine such a thing happening in system which has a mechanism for feedback, a self correcting system, something which is always working on the inputs and trying to devise better policies and practices. It might be sounding like a computer algorithm taking the place of government and judiciary. But it wont hurt discussing such an idea. There would be a immediate effect which might cause a policy like "Do not hit the kids in school" for the teachers. It will take a few iterations before more clauses could be added to the policy like "if the kid is in bad health" or "if the mischief is small".

Such a system sure sounds more democratic, more responsive and promising than the show being put up by our politicians and judiciary. It should be a good idea for the IT department of government to fund simulations for such a system and try to incorporate some results.

Monday Encounter

Alright, whether I am okay with it or not, its Monday :-). But this is not the first Monday I have to live after a nice and relaxed weekend, so I know the drill.

Too lazy to get up in the morning, I am waiting for some kind of intervention to break my slumber. There it comes, phone ringing at 7 am in morning!! (this is one of the drawbacks of living too far away from people you know, they seem to loose the sense of time in your timezone). But the timing was not too out of place this time. I got the reason to be alert and was kicking myself going through the morning routines to reach the pool for a swim, I did not want to miss this bus time, was already quite late.

Finally I reached the pool, the smell of chlorine prepares me to take that first dip in water. Its a bit difficult psychologically even if the water is heated, considering that it is 7 degrees outside. But this not the encounter I am going to write about today, that was yet to happen.

The pool has two lanes marked for those seasoned swimmers who like to swim laps without stopping, the rest of the pool is common area for enthusiasts like me. The two lanes being taken, I started swimming in the common area. I did not mind that because the length of the lap here is shorter than in the earmarked lanes. There was no one else in that area as most of the people had left the pool already, may be they have had nicer terms with 'Monday'. I had barely completed 5 laps when an old lady entered the pool, followed by another of her friend. The area big enough to accommodate three, I continued my laps. They started hopping in the water in small circles. I had seen something similar to this before but was not prepared to believe that it was the day. (At these non-peak hours the old ladies indulged in something called water aerobics, I had seen them do this twice on Wednesdays and had convinced myself that they do this only on Wednesdays)

One of the ladies strayed into my line of swim; I observed her movements for a while; I could still continue my swimming. While making the circles she gave me enough time to cross the area to complete my lap, so I continued to do that. But as I stopped for breath again, I could see that she was not very pleased. Nonetheless I was determined to complete my laps, and I was not even half way through, so I somehow tried to swim a few more laps; adjusting my course at the right points just to avoid hitting them. But then as though enraged by my acts, she was directly in my way and then more of their friends entered the pool. Suddenly that music started playing, they used that music during the water aerobics. Then it occurred to me that these ladies were here for their aerobics. At this time the lady gave me the look, " Come on now if you dare". I was embarrassed. I quickly came out of the pool, and apologised to their instructor, telling that I did not know it was time for their session.

I reached office. After having a not so good start to the day, I got some relief when I saw their were no emails from anyone yet. So here I am sipping my Monday morning coffee and writing this post.

Have a nice day :)

Rise in the dream

If you are in Seattle, you can safely bet for "Rain Today" with very high odds of winning. Having lived here for some time, I am trying to find my solace with the cold and wet weather out there.

I was never an early riser, but after coming to Seattle, I have managed to farther myself from being called that. In the morning, without the sun beaming the morning light into the room, it is difficult to persuade myself into believing that its time to rise. The bus I take to office has frequency of half an hour, so is the duration of snooze on my alarm. Every time I try to get out of bed, I look outside the window only to find its drizzling outside and is not very bright, and am happy to fool myself that it is not day yet.

After getting out of bed finally, I am rushing through the daily chores, trying not to be "too late" for office. After picking up my things and a breakfast in a hurry, I am heading out. Clouds will almost always greet you as you come out on the street, statistics also supporting that, "its cloudy here 226 days of the year". It is also that time of the year when the trees are shedding leaves, presenting a beautiful scenery on the streets. There are quite a many trees with the leaves changing colors from green to yellow to red. The whole myriad of colors is a treat for the eyes. These days I do not mind walking to the office, if I have missed the bus, as I am walking through the colors of fall.

The body has accustomed itself with the new environment and schedules, am going to bed late and getting up even latter. But as customary I have to "pay the price" for leading the leisurely life. With all the other daily work in place, I am left with little time for my workout routines. Also the leisure and laziness has crept into my fitness regime. Its been quite some time that I have gone to the gym two days in a row. And as a result have put on some nice sugary, fruity and tasty pounds.

The damage being done, I have been working on finding a way to reverse it. Techniques for losing those extra pounds is not hidden to anyone, you have to watch what you eat and do your workouts regularly. It is the question of my devising a routine to implement it. But my present routine has some flaws. Here is an instance of the familiar "Root Cause Analysis" that I have always found an overhead after discovering and fixing a bug. So, I had to strike at the root of the problem, "my precious snoozing time".

Going to the gym in and out for some time, I have gone through the cycles of being regular for some time, followed by a slack period and then finding the motivation, leading to some kind of determination, resulting in regular routines again. I was waiting for the motivation to strike me this time too. I was trying to get up early for the cardio sessions, but somehow run over by laziness. I used to curse myself after finding that I am late again and there is no time for a running or swimming session.

I was quite determined to get up early when I was going to bed last night. I had walked back from office in the evening instead of taking the bus, so that I feel a bit tired and go to bed early. I had tried my best to set the stage for my early morning rise.

I know the whole night as I was sleeping, I was waiting for dawn. And then the faithful alarm went off, with its "Euro Dance" tune on the Max Volume as was set by its user. As was the force of habit, I pressed the snooze and was dozing off again. Then my friend said that he would accompany me for the swimming to the gym. He pushed me and I kicked my comforter out of the way and came out of the bed. I suddenly realised that I had been dreaming, I rubbed my eyes, there were was some faint reminiscence of the dream, I felt that my friend had been around in my dream for quite some time, waiting for the moment. Though I could not picture the face. I saw time in the clock, it was 7:15, I was happy, I had a lot of time today to go for swimming and be in time at office.

Finally, I was able to kick start the morning routine. I hope I can build up on this or the friend of my dream is more persistent and helps me.

Omnipresent Communication

How would you like to live in a world devoid of cell phones, laptops, or any such modern day communication marvels. it would be like living in a closed box where you cannot reach out to anyone. These devices have become so ubiquitous today that one does not realise how important a role these play in our lives and how much we have come to depend on these for our routine lives. We have come a long long way from our pre-historic ancestors who used smoke and fire to communicate. A man from those ages would be startled if he was to land in today's world. The modern day man to him would be no less than God, performing miracles beyond his imagination.

Notwithstanding, the gadgets encapsulate the technical details in a very marvelous way. All that is exposed to the end user is a nice LCD screen with beautiful icons which can be touched to perform useful tasks. The user does not care what goes into when the Call button is pressed to make a call. Yet some people are blown away by the complexity of the technology behind.

One of the novice use of technology that I came across was in a market place bumbling with activities. There is this guy talking loudly on his cellphone, shooting instructions in the air. On a closer look, I realised that he was directing his partner who was on top of a building and fixing broken window panes. He was supervising the other man's job and telling him how to proceed with his job, his instructions reaching the man courtesy the mobile spectrum.

The communication technologies are progressing on a very fast pace. Data speeds which were unheard of a few years before have been realised. There is a lot of potential in this industry and we have to wait to see what the future will bring.