mindtalker

2010-04-20T12:58:00.000-07:00

He is like the Wind. He used to come when i least expect him, greets me with a huge smile on his face and the next moment he is gone. He is a man full of energy, talkative and believe me he has a great sense of humor. I used to spend only a couple of minutes now and then, sometimes at my cube and sometimes during coffee break, as he has a lot of work to take care off. Prior to this, he used to work in Navy, which he is always proud off. He used to talk about his experiences in Navy at-least once in every conversation that I had with him. By the way, I am neither his friend, nor his colleague. I am actually a friend of his friend but he always behaved like we are close buddies. He used to say that he has to work for very long hours in a day, including Saturdays. I used to appreciate him for his commitment towards work and he used to tap my shoulder and say that “its part of my job”. Anything that we ask him related to WPR, he used to get it done in minutes. He always felt that it is his responsibility to provide proper support to Employees with respect to WPR, so that we feel most comfortable during our stay in office. His name is “Manju Subramanya, Project Manager, Facilities-India-Campus”. He was a building manager while we were in SA and now he was in a similar position in Campus. A week ago, he came near my cube with some other person, checking certain things and I purposefully didn’t bother to talk to him as I was working on something. I wish, I would have behaved in a different way. Today I was communicated that he is no-more. He died of Heart-Attack at his native place K.R Nagar (Mysore). I cannot believe it, neither my friend nor his acquaintances. He will always be remembered as a strong willed, gentle natured, jovial, ready-to-help sort of a person. I whole-heartedly wish that whatever is his after-life, should be good and peaceful.

2010-01-02T07:08:00.000-08:00

Locked-up for the next 10 years...
Yeah, its true. From today, we are officially locked up to pay 30% of my salary for the next 10years to Axis Bank. On the brighter side, we officially own a piece of land in Bangalore from today. Its 30x40 in dimension and is located at the outskirts of south bangalore near to NICE road[Banshankari 6th stage]. Off-late i was thinking of buying an apartment and almosted Zeroed on a 3BHK in Rammurthy Nagar and ended up running away from it, as its going to cost me a lot more than i can currently take. I cannot whole-heartedly say that my decision is right at this point of time, but i somehow feel that spending money on a piece of land is better that spending more money on a reasonable builder where the depreciation supercedes time. If you are planning to buy a piece of land, the following are the things that needs to be considered:

0. Suppose you want to buy a piece of land at a particular place say, Banashankari 3rd block. Go and meet so many Agents and ask them the price of each sqfeet that is currently going on. Tell him that you are planning to buy and wanted to know only the prices. Do not go and see the plot along with the broker at that point of time. Once you get a reasonable idea of on-going price at that area, thats the time where you pick the least priced or reasonably priced and a decent Agent that you have met so-far and visit the plots that he has in store.

1. Always negotiate on the brokerage before you make any deal.

2. Always take 2 legal opinions irrespective of how good the sellers are.

3. Most private banks give 75% of the Agreement value and almost all public banks give 75-80% percent of registered value.

4. Always go for a minimum possible loan from the bank as the interest that you end up paying will be neutralizing the profit that you might make in the future.

5. Pay as much as possible in the first 2 years as most of the bank deduct very little from the principle amount in the first few years.

6. Always look for consistant names and addresses in the documents of the seller. For example in some documents a name like "satyavathi" might be written as "sathyavati or sathyavathi". To avoid confusions in the Demand Drafts that the bank has to prepare and on the final sale deed always confirm with the seller about the names and the bank account details.

2009-07-13T07:04:00.000-07:00

Realty in Words
1)Practice isn't the thing you do once you're good. Its the thing you do that makes you good.
2)The people at the very top don't work just harder or even much harder than everyone else. They work much, much harder.

2008-06-16T11:15:00.000-07:00

From your post i understand that I have been too metaphysical in mine.(Though I thought otherwise).

Okay, let us come to ground realities. You raised a valid question "How many instances does an average man/women spend time in a relationship without having expectations on each other in the world we live in ?" (and yeah, this question applies to Father - Kid,Teacher - Student etc as well)

Zero.Never,indeed. People ,or rather, AVERAGE PEOPLE, always have expectations from their partners.[ Note, I said average, not EXCEPTIONAL, I thought you were trying to reflect on the qualities of EXCEPTIONAL / GREAT /TRUE life partners when "you-stood-in- the-shoes-of-GOD-Himself" and came up with the anology of a doctor,with which I dont agree due to the elememt of egotism in the partner who is playing the role of the doctor.]

Anyways,coming to the Average people,as I said,and as you rightly pointed out,they do "expect".Now the questions worth asking are "How many expectations can a person have from their partners?", "what kind of expectations?" , "How many expectations can actually be met by normal,average people like themselves ?" "Is this expectation one way or Does the other partner also have a right to expect? what if the other partners expectations clash with the former's expectations?" What if one partners expectations are actually harmful for the other partners self,even though the former is well intentioned ( but he doesnt know it).who should comply? why?

These are all practical questions and they beg an answer.

let us take an example. A father wanted to be a doctor but due to circumstances he couldnt.He expects his son to be doctor.but the son yawns and sleeps off in biology class.His soul is interested in reflecting nature and capturing its essence in heartful poems.These are the facts of the situation.Solid hard core facts.Is the father wrong in his expectation? he only wanted his son to be successful in future, infact more successful than himself.Is the Son wrong in his so called disobedience?

More often than not, average people expect the other people to satisy their needs by proxy.Just as the parents in the example expected the revival of their lost dreams through their Son's life. An youngster might expect his parents to feed him even long after his college.A husband might flaunt his trophy-wife before his elite friends and earn social acceptance points.These examples which i used belong to one category of expectations which are widely seen in our society, we even have a name for this class,PARASITIC.Sadly few recognize the crime associated with them.Expecting other people to satisfy our needs , not acknowledging their potential individuality (though latent) and in the process crushing their spirit by imposing authority, inducing guilt,know-it-all-podium-preaching,better-than-thou-snubbing, emotional black mailing,physical abuse or other forms of psychological manipulation is criminal, if not downright evil.

If expectations roughly sound, "I am unhappy and its your duty to make happy" or "I want you to live my life and abide by my rules" or "You exist to make me look good " or on a serious note "I dont care if you are a tortoise, I expect you to scooba dive" we are walking rough terrain indeed.

Now if we limit ourselves to the wedlock relationship,which is between two mature individuals who are not physically dependant on each other for survival.The only valid expectation would be that of acceptance.Where there is no acceptance,how can there be love? how can I bare my soul and for a moment be my authentic self before my life partner when I know that she is going to crib about it? when she doesnt accept my whole being but only a part of me, that tiny part which exists only to serve me as a social face? How can I trust and let go? If I cant live fully even before the person who is most dear to me , how can I live at all? How can I ever be free of this prison of "expectations"?

This requires trust. Trust requires unconditional acceptance(from both partners) and this acceptance culminates in love. Interestingly,due to some strange reason beyond my comprehension,when one is loved ,more often than not,the beloved is intrinsically motivated to please the lover,and even more strangely,in the situations where there is a conflict of opinions,the beloved's disaggreement is pleasing to the lover.[for it is her best interest that he holds most dear in his heart,or so I presume.]

This is the best and PRACTICAL gift a person give to another, be it to a friend, a parent , a kid or a life partner : If you love, let go. [you will be glad you did]

PS : Just because something is "average" doesn't mean it is healthy ,normal and should be taken for granted or worse, followed !!! Average is just that. AVERAGE.

2008-06-16T02:42:00.001-07:00

A doctor does have the virtues of being a good listener, applying his skill and taking responsibility but I feel that comparing a life partner to a doctor assumes that the other partner is in some way "sick" and needs to be corrected / cured,taken care of or just plain inferior in some way than the one who is donning the hat of the so called doctor.This vanity, This pride,This egotism plays a very prominent role in making a relationship suffer.It is not very uncommon to see families in which a partner (one or both) takes it upon themselves to play saviour and tries to "fix" the other and change them to fit/match their expectations,only to result in further alienation and painful conflict.This being so, I want to highlight some fundamental differences between a doctor and a life partner.
A doctor listens to understand and cure the PROBLEM, while a partner listens to understand and honour the PERSON.A doctor cares, while a partner "LOVES".A doctor cures,A partner nurtures.A doctor gives due consideration , a partner provides acceptance.A doctor sympathises, A partner empathises.
In a doctor patient relationship,people communicate to the point.With a life partner, people commune the depths of their being.just in case I forget, speaking of responsilbility, in a doctor patient relationship, the doctor might well assume responsibility for the result of the treatment but never for the pathology (cause of the problem) of the patient.In a life partner relationship, the problem is not individual, responsibility for the cause as well as the solution is shared.The absolute infallibility of one parner who fixes the other is a (egotistic)delusion and it exists and perpetuates itself only in the mind of the fixer-partner in question.
In a doctor/patient relationship, there are two people with a situation.In a Life Partner relationship there is ONE FAMILY with a situation.As an underscore, I want to stress that a doctor is above the patient whereas the life partners are equals.
Interestingly, to quote a parrallel, A good teacher teaches his students "efficiently" but Great teachers always allow themselves to learn from thier students.They know that children are not vessels to filled (with knowledge) but lamps to be lit.The great teacher approaches the child with humility because they know that when the lamp is lit, more often than not, it is the teacher himself who benifits by the light it sheds.Similarly a good doctor cures the patient of any sickness,but a great doctor humbly leads the patient to discover the sacred place of healing deep within the patients themselves.A great life partner knows that his life partner is divine.When he listens, he does not do it with doctor-like-pride over his superiority.He listens with the humility-of-a-devotee and ASSISTS her in manifesting her hearts desires, and SERVES her in her evolution of becoming an authentic human being ,which by the way , is the only reason for any human relationship(father,mother,child,-friend,wife,husband etc) to exist in the first place.
PS : PHYSICIAN !!! HEAL THYSELF.

2008-06-15T07:37:00.000-07:00

Can a GOOD DOCTOR easily become a good Husband/Wife, good father/mother, good teacher and a good friend. It seems like i am comparing mangoes to bananas, oranges and onions[u know i like these].
I describe a good doctor as the
One who listens to his/her patient carefully,
observe the symptoms,
analyzes patients Physically and mental State of mind,
and then
suggest medicine and/or course of action to get back to his/her normal life.
Moreover, a good doc takes responsibility of the after effects of treatment he /she did.

I believe, listening with full attention is one of the most valuable aspects of human life, coz it directly affects any relationship that you are part of. If you are not a good listener, i believe the other party will consider you as a companion to spend sometime but you can never be a part of his/her life.

A relationship is always a package. It is always a bundle of things that might include some obligations that you have to take on yourself, some extra-effort and time to spend with each other, giving importance to the right thing when you have "n" important things in your calender just like a doctor spends variable amount of time and effort with some of his/her patients among "n" patients.

Any relationship will go no longer if we don't clearly understand others state of mind. Conversations can easily land on "Forbidden Zones" ruled by the Gods of destruction, if you don't or can't estimate the partners state both physically and mentally. One should always be careful in analyzing what made he/she to say, to feel, to express things that they did. I hope one can map why a good doctor need to be capable of the understanding the things right.

After doing all the above things, the course of action can be a "Simple Silence suggesting NO COMMENTS" or can be a piece of advice that would eventually help or simplify things sooner. Whatever happens as a result of your action, in a relationship, the partner finds him/her-self
responsible for it. A good doctor always feels responsible for his patients progress back to his/her normal life.

I bet, you and i myself can, question the validity of the above theory. The only reason i posted it here is because i find a "doctor" to be easily comparable for a partner in any good relationship against the rest of the careers that we choose in our day2day life.

PS: Views expressed are completely NOT followed by me as the post was written when i was standing in the shoes of GOD which i do only when i write a blog entry.

2008-05-07T21:45:00.000-07:00

Early-25's
My 24hours goes something like this, wake up early in the morning, try to go for a jog if i woke up early. Get back to house, get ready and run to the office thinking that today i am going to prove to the world, how specially able am I. Once reached, i take breakfast in the office, followed by a cup of coffee and i say to myself that i will be solving that DDTS and respond to some important mails that i knew the answers for. After a long day of sky-larking aspirations feeded with not-so-used-to-intelligence mind, i get back home for dinner which my lovely wife makes it ready and tasty on time, though she too might have reached home after a tiresome day at work. I read some mails in blr-masala and try to learn some new things which i think will let me change the world, which i am actually supposed to have learnt in my Engineering. Then i try to go to bed and my mind will take over myself, gifting me a wonderful sleepless night. I am a hero, i dont give up things so easily, i wait till my mind gets exhausted with the kind of thought processing it does and then i faint into some darkcorners of my mind resting in peace. Alarm rings and i start my day with the first instruction set to my thinking of going for a jog.

Life became routine, normal which i never liked or hoped it to be. I want to do something different, something remarkable, something important and finally something special. You can see now how my mind takes over me, myself & sarat.

Miss'in u...!
Everyday i want to fly stay by my side,
Everyday i want to dream stay by myside.
Every morning i wish i could just play,
Wish the mornings which will stay..
do dong dong dong....!

Wishing me success...
-SCG

2008-03-11T07:15:00.000-07:00

Dreamers-Dillemaa...!
Have you ever imagined yourself dreaming roughly for about 8 hours. Looks difficult isnt it.. I had it last night... i slept at 10PM, from then on-wards till 8AM in the morning... as far as i know... i was just dreaming... one of the dreams had myself stuck in Tsunami and had no-where to hide... and in the rest, i vaguely remember, i was running away after being chased by someone... uuuh.. dreams and reality doesnt differ at all when you are dreaming... the dream-pain is as good as the real pain, similar experiences of dream-sorrow, dream-happiness, dream-hatred, dream-love... anything and everything... makes you stranded, unable to differentiate between those two. My concern is... if what i said is really real.. then... what are the chances that the reality that i think is actually a dream.. even it is a dream... whose dream is it.. is it mine or am i a part of someone else's dream.. what would happen to me if i am a part of some dream...what will happen to me if that dreamer wakes up abruptly or sometime in the middle.. expecting that his normal wakeup will have completed my entire life cycle and i will be dead... lots of questions... no answers... may be the reason why people say to enjoy each moment of your life as if it is the last..coz you never know when he/she/?? wakes up...!

2008-01-30T02:24:00.000-08:00

Butterfly Effect... if you got no clue, i will let you know the importance of it in an easy way. Wikipedia says this "The butterfly effect is a phrase that encapsulates the more technical notion of sensitive dependence on initial conditions in chaos theory. Small variations of the initial condition of a nonlinear dynamical system may produce large variations in the long term behavior of the system". In layman terms, i was happy till this afternoon. I had many reasons for that. Firstly, i came from my hometown a few hours before after attending Mayuri's Sreemantam at Nellore. Secondly, had a good conversation with my mom relating to some personal issues. Thirdly, Gayathri is confident about the interview that she gave for Religare. Then all of a Sudden, from nowhere, an utterly insignificant[to me] organizational change, came all through the way to my door steps to affect me. Decisions were finalized at the higher level and my change accordingly. This is making me sad, makes me feel like a blown out balloon, making me feel like a king who lost his throne, feel like a kid feared of losing warmth of his parents. I blame it all on my Team. They were too good, extremely helpful, cares each other, supports each other, works together, celebrates all together. Nothing can be comparable to my team. I am thankful to Chasa for all the guidance and never ending enthusiasm, bchandra - one of the very few genius guys i know, master of logic, alokk- the brilliant, hardworking guy a.k.a the solution man, pobhatt- hats-off to her focus on the job, given a job to her, think that its done, cmakwana-hamara chota master of logic, sdeka- dont want to say much as we both join the elite group of affected people[Butterfly Effect]... imagining myself away from these wonderful people, seriously hurting me. Its not that i cant live without them, its like i dont want to live in that way. Only one thing i can say to myself and i told to my manager is that... "You know my mind and i believe that you had given enough thought before coming up to this decision, i dont want to complicate things by adding emotions to it.." sounds like a typical Karan-Johar film, ofcourse dude, reality seems to be that only. As there is nothing much that i can change or influence here, i will just be thankful to the team for all the happiest moments that i shared with them which i will carry close to my heart...
Status:: Listening to "wind of change" song... soothing a bit....

2007-12-10T22:11:00.000-08:00

Read to get confused
After 6 Months of my intended extended pause, today i am planning to jot down the happenings around. Firstly, it was my best friends arrival to bangalore to attend madhavans wedding, then going to Nellore along with them and then getting back to Bangalore for spending some time with akbar, who is still fighting for a new job by the time i am writing this. I think he should, by now , understand that God gave a permanant license for him in PUNE in other words its time for him to stay close to KISHORE and start settling in pune for the time being. Our boss, Bhavani started to see dollars for all the hardwork and effort he put on for the last 24 years. Myself, still surviving, still gambling with life and within life everyday. Reading books as if i am finding solace and comfort doing so. Saving money looks like a Herculian task for now. Not able to understand why i like "only" costly things on earth.
still not able to resist myself from eating those mirchi bajji's. Planned for saving 400 bucks from not going to a movie planned by sai.. and went to watch a live match, india VS Pakistan, 2nd day of the 3 test match of indian oil cup, at bangalore, accounting to a cost of roughly 600 bucks. Unable to figureout why weekends end so quickly, unable to figure out how to get most out of weekends. Unable to understand from where my wife, Gayathri, gets that extra strength to take care of me apart from taking care of herself, cooking food for myself and sai, doing household work, studying and not to mention, travelling in the BMTC buses everyday.
Not able to judge whichone is worse when unexplained: life or death. Days are passing by un-noticebly, making me believe that i am as ever young as i used to be in my teens. still not able to control my anger on small small day2day things. still not able to connect the dots either by looking backwards or by looking ahead. On the whole, i am still stuck in the rabbit hole. Lets see whats gonna happen. By the way, where is silpa.... sulekha's bday is nearby..dec 13th.. need to wish her.... tejovathy is getting married in feb, need to attend that.. just like i did for Raghunath's marriage..(my school friend).... i know i am talking all bullshit today... let me stop this here and resolve some ddts....

2007-05-30T05:17:00.000-07:00

STYLE Touching its Limits

The following video shows how these techie companies taking birth more than the human race day by day, try to show their presence felt.

Wish you a job at one such company...!

2007-05-26T16:26:00.000-07:00

This is esp.. for my dear friend.. Akbar alias abu..
Enjoy ...!

2007-05-26T16:04:00.000-07:00

Video song#2

This song is from the movie "Mungaru Male", once again a kannada movie which became a super, duper success in the industry. This song is sung by... guess... guess...

(sonu nigam)... enjoy this beautiful song... by the way to enjoy songs, you dont need to understand lyrics... music will take care of everything...

Lyrics for you...

Mungaru Maleye..
Yenu ninna Hanigala Leele

Ninna Mugila Saale, Dhareya Korala Premada Maale
Suriva Olume Aajadi Malege, Preeti Moodide

Yaava Chippinalli, Yaava Haniyu Muttaguvudo
Olavu Yelli Kudiyoduvudo, Tiliyadagide

Mungaru Maleye..
Yenu Ninna Hanigala Leele

Bhuvi Kenne Tumba, Mugilu Surida Muttina Gurutu
Nanna Yedeya Tumba, Avalu Banda Heggeya Gurutu
Hegge Gegge Aa Savi Saddu, Premanadavoo

Yede Mugilinalli, Rangu challi Nintalu Avalu
Baredu Hesaru Kamanabillu, Yenu Modeyoo

Mungaru Maleye..
Yenu Ninna Hanigala Leele

Yava Hanigalinda, Yava Nelavu Hasiraguvudo
Yaara Sparshadindaa, Yara Manavu Hasivaguvudo..
Yara Usirali Yara Hesaro Yaru Baredaro
Yava Preeti Huvu, Yara Hrudayadalli Ararluvudo
Yaara Prema Poojege Mudipo, Yaru Balloro

Mungaru Maleye..
Yenu ninna Hanigala Leele

Olava Chandamama Naguta Banda Manadangalake
Preeti Belakinalli, Hrudaya Horatide Meravanige
Avala Prema Doorinakadege, Preeti Payanavoo
Pranaya Doorinalli, Kaledu Hogo Sukava Indu
Dhanyanaade Padedukondu Hosa Janmavoo

Mungaru Maleye..
Yenu ninna Hanigala Leele

2007-05-26T15:25:00.000-07:00

THODA VIDEOS BHI HO-JAYE

From now on.. i am planning to add video songs of my choice to my blog... so the first song is "Nee Amruta dhare"...

2007-05-23T00:20:00.000-07:00

SECURITY @ FORUM, BANGALORE.. SUCKS...!

I would like to share an incident that happened yesterday night at 9:30PM at Forum, Koramangala.

As usual there is a huge crowd in and around forum by that time. Suddenly, a guy rushes into the forum security desk and begs him to call police immediately and cries for help from the crowd. He says someguys are chasing him. The guys head is severely injured...blood oozing out from his head and blood is everywhere on the ground near the security desk at forum within seconds of his arrival.

In the next moment, 5 auto-drivers run into the mall and tries to drag this guy outside where many other autodrivers are waiting. This injured guy runs into the crowd, once again begs everyone, to save him from them.

The worst part... is... there is not a single security guard who can save this poor guy. The drama begins... all security guys calls on their walkie talkie.... but noone tries to come and help this guy who is forced to come outside by the auto walas..

i shouted on one of the guard to call police at the security desk. He said.. i cant make any calls from the phone. i tried my phone to dail 100... the call fails...

security at forum... what the hell... they are all little less than the medium sized person... they dont know what to do when something unexpected happens... but one thing they can do is.. "make checkings on both sides of the entires... the security check they do at the entrance looks to me like a showoff to the world as if they are trying to save 1000's of vistiors from terrorists everyday..."

After looking at the professionals watching the show... the veryfew among the many kindhearted souls around the situation supported the guy... and fighted against the auto-walas to leave him for now and wait until the police comes....

At the end... as in every bollywood movie,,, police comes and the cameras attached to the spectators eyes rolls behind them...

i dont know what had happened between the auto-wala and this guy... i dont know who is right... but i think its humanity to save a person who requests for help when someone/group is attacking on the other..no matter who is right... until the point where law takes the situation into its hands....

2007-04-17T06:33:00.000-07:00

PRINCETON is calling...! If you think that i am gone nuts... sorry pal... you gotta believe me at times... Sometime in the afternoon, my guide sent me an email... and it read " finally the paper got accepted".. i am happy to hear those words from my guide... afterall its today that my Masters thesis got its reward, though i passed out from IIT long before ... but at the same time, if you give a closer look into the wordings.. the word "finally" caught my eye... its true that my guide tried a lot submitting my thesis for acceptance to a number of journals.. some accepted but we rejected and some which we wanted to accept, rejected us... and atlast the one which we wanted to accept, accepted us.. The workshop seems to be a good one.. LANMAN2007.

This is going to be held at Princeton from June 10th to 13th at New Jersey, U.S.A.
Some words about Princeton.. "Princeton is a state of mind and a place where the mind is valued more than the body." and "It's like another world of it's own where geniuses discuss politics, history, economics, math, and literature. It's hardly believable that some of them probably don't own television sets because they think it's waste of time and a distraction but they probably have computers instead."

I am happy that my paper got accepted and my guide is happy that , the time he spent didnt go waste... thought of travelling all the way to princeton but seems like the cost factor is making its importance felt in my life now. One interesting thing about this workshop is that.. the very company that i am currently working with "Cisco" is sponsoring the Event. I made my attempts by talking to my manager regarding the same. After his small chat with the Director, he said that its not possible for Cisco to sponser my travel.. anyways... whatever happened ... happened for a reason.. and whatever is happening .. happening for a reason only... atleast this answer makes me sleep tonight...
Long live LANMAN2007 and Long live Princeton......!

2007-02-16T01:44:00.001-08:00

Oh God.! Save Those Fathers and Brothers .... i had this bad dream last night.... it was my wife, suddenly became my sister in the dream and don't know the details of my sister's husband. Suddenly, he called me up on phone and said that my sister is not feeling well. I was worried a lot about her but told him not to worry and everything will be okay in no time. After few minutes of this conversation, I started to feel like a leftover and felt all the loneliness in the world. I was not able to tolerate the fact that all the care related to my sister is now been taken over by some alien person[Here, my sisters husband]. The pain which i experienced in the dream is unexplainable, but i tell you, it was severe, it was intense, it was deep down within my consciousness, it squeezed my heart, it was such a pain that i never experienced and i ever dont want to.

This might reflect some of the thoughts that i expressed in one of my blogposts... humanitarian actions..... but tell you this is worth giving a thought...
I never had a sister, i only had friends who were girls. Sometimes i used to think that i missed something in my life when i saw my friends who have brothers or sisters. But, after this mind-blowing dream, i feel elated that i am blessed to be the only 'one' child in the family. But to my surprise, i got this another thought when i woke up...

wont the situation be same if i have a baby girl in the near future....

God save those fathers who have daughters and brothers who have sisters from all this pain.

2007-01-03T21:51:00.000-08:00

Remembering the Times.....

Hi all,

Yet another year passed by and i can't believe that it's been 2.5 years since we left the college. Life is moving and its moving faster than my childhood days. Moreover, to my surprise, i am told that its been more than 4months since i got married. Gosh..! i cant believe all this had happened. So i thought of jotting down some of the interesting things and remarkable things that happened since may 2004.

2004

1. May 4th... completed all the exams of my Graduation.

2. May 5th... packed my bags for IIT entrance in Bombay.

3. May 11th.. got to know that i got selected.

4. May went first time to Shridi.

5. June got my first mobile phone and first ever International call from Silpa. Samsung SGH-X430

6. July left to a city for the first time to stay for more than a week.

7. Oct bhavani, Kishore comes to IIT from pune to celebrate my birthday

8. Nov finished the semester exams and packed bags back to nellore.

9. Dec my first visit to pune.

10. Dec Here comes Akbar to see a first live show along with me as part of Mood-I festival at IIT.

2005

1. Jan-Till May2006 Starts frequent visits to Pune.

2. March First Workshop ever i am involved in making it success. Convergence05 at KReSIT.

3. April First Trekking in my life

3. Oct First ever bowling at Hiranandani along with Ritesh and Anupam

4. Oct Once again Bday celebrations with ABK

5. Nov Went all the way to nellore to eat "Mirapakaya bajji"

6. Dec21 Campus placements starts

2006

1. Jan 17 Got selected to Cisco systems at night 12:45. My first job.

2. Feb Came to Nellore along with Anupam and Kamal Varma for a jolly trip.

3. Mar 15 First time boarded second class A/C to Bangalore for a party given by cisco.

4. Mar First ever flight (Air Deccan), thanks to konark for buying a ticket, back to bombay

5. April Went to lonavala from pune along with Sateesh velaga and BK.

6. April Started to think deeply about the girl in my life .

7. July Watched EuroCup foot ball at Auditoriam along with rest of IITians during nights.

8. July 10 Finished my Mtech-Defense and relieved from all the pain causers of my life so far.

9. July 14 Finally decided to get married after 2 years to Gayathri.

10. July 15 Packed my bags to Nellore after saying good-bye to IIT Bombay and esp Hostel12 and Friends.

11. July 17 Informed to her parents regarding the marriage and got acceptance from all of them

12. July 24 moved to bangalore for my first job at Cisco systems and shared a room along with my best friend Sai.

13. August Gifted a High-end Mobile phone(Samsung) to Gayathri.

14 August 7 decided to get married before August 17, 06

15 August 10 My first convocation

16. August 13 Attended my best friends Reception[Silpa & Satya] at Hyderabad along with Akbar who took his first flight ever in his life.

17. August 17 Finished Da-vinci Code, minutes before marriage

18. August 17 finally got married

19. Sept Got my first bike.. Bajaj Platina

20. November A big fight with the house owner and complained the same at PoliceStation for the first time.

21. December Made my first investment on mutual funds.

If i look back, i feel like everything happened so fast, so quick and without my notice. All those conversations which i had with Akbar during nights under a tree walking on the long streching roads of IIT bombay, all those conversations which i had with ABK whenever they come to bombay or we go to pune, all those phone calls from USA.. from the dearest Silpa.... all those movies i watched and books i read, whenever i became nervous... all those are gone atleast for the moment. I still cant forget the days when akbar used to buy me books to read and kishore and bhavani used to buy me clothes to wear for no occasion... silpa.. all together your marriage gift is the most precious and memorable gift in my entire life so far.

Not to mention, Saikrishna is always with me. His calls from korea and photos he shared with me, and the room we shared together here in bangalore... i cherish them all.. at the time of marriage the amount of concern he showed on me...cannot forget.... his cooking style, his jokes, his singing and playing the drums habit... i enjoyed each and every bit of it.

My managers and colleagues in office are too good.. they are always ready to give a helping hand so-far.. and i hope they will for the rest of my stay at this company...

Thanks to all of you for your companionship all through these years and wish you all good luck and success in the years ahead.

You're alive. Do something. The directive in life, the moral imperative was so uncomplicated. It could be expressed in single words, not complete sentences. It sounded like this: Look. Listen. Choose. Act

2006-12-07T00:44:00.000-08:00

JOHN CHAMBERS(CEO OF CISCO SYSTEMS) SHOOK HANDS WITH SARAT CHANDRA ...

WoW... it was a great feeling when John Chambers the CEO of my first company(CISCO SYSTEMS) shook hands to the people today while he came to address a meeting at Bangalore. He announced his plans of making INDIA a Globalization Centre Of EAST... I happened to be one of the many guys , who took Corner seats at the Venue... i am thankful to my state of mind at the point of choosing a seat to occoupy, as it made it possible for him to shook hands with me... The meeting started with a warm welcome to JOHN from all the BIG GUNS of INDIA branch... a traditional band followed right from the time he got down his car, till he reached the venue on a Horse cart... Many good things that i am impressed with him are.. his Body Language, his sense of humor during the entire talk , his eye contact with the audience. I started to believe that most of the leaders are natural born speakers... During the talk, he revealed that a few of his top Executives will come and stay in India for the next 3 years and see that INDIA will not only do the projects but also build a complete Product on its own and play a major role in the Market. His idea is to start a manufacturing company at Chennai to start with.. which does manufacturing of small low end phones and once the time, which he believes, comes he want to open all the windows Once... One of the interesting questions that JOHN answered today was ... " What do you think it takes to become a LEADER"... I dont know whether John had already prepared for taking such questions or not... but it looked to me that he had strong opinions on most of the things he does in his day2day life... the next moment the answer came out to be like this... " Primarily To be a successful leader one needs to be EDUCATED.. Both my parents were Doctors and they give it to me... Secondly one should have the ability to listen to OTHERS carefully and understand what it needs to be done...third is to follow the MARKET TRANSITIONS carefully....". He recalled some of his school days where he made 14 football teams comprising of 500 students.... it seems to be very hard .. is'nt it..? he said that he always does what he likes... One such example he gave was.. Once one of my friends asked me to come for an interview with IBM and I (John) said that he is not interested and then the same guy told about the 2 tickets which he had for a football match and no need to imagine where john was that evening..." Though it takes hell lot of things to become a successful leader in the world but for john all those mentioned things worked out and i dont have any doubts that he had many untold characteristics in his life that made him what he is today... The takeaway for me is to listen carefully to others at whatever they say.. anyways... getting back to the meeting thing... Through out the meeting, he addressed the employee's as a family... he insisted to even shut down the lights by which he was not able to see the people on a particular direction ,so that he can clearly see his family and enjoy that feeling...
While answering to one of the questions... John said that, he decided to choose India for further development is by looking at its CULTURE... I didnt understand which culture he was talking about... i see all sorts of people around here in INDIA and i strongly believe that we will follow all the rules and traditions... as long as they dont affect us in any manner...

Whatever might be tomarrow but at the End of the today.. myself feeling good that i met the person for whom i am working and most importantly, got a feeling that i met a person who seems to have a high morale.... For John Chambers, today might be one of the many days that he spent happily... but for me... he made it much more memorable one by "shaking my hands"......

Good Luck John... I promise that I give my best to make your dream.. your vision as mine and try to give a shape in reality...

2006-11-30T22:19:00.000-08:00

One Night at Ejipura

Yesterday seems to be the unfortunate event for many people here at bangalore....

At 6:00 PM , 3 guys from sify comes to my house to give a broadband connection.

At 6:30 PM , our owner(i stay at Ejipura, near koramangala, bangalore), steps into the picture and doubts the people.

At 6:35 PM, they show some proof that they are from Sify service and gets into the 4th floor to give the connection.

At 7:30 PM, they complains to me that owner is behaving rudely to them and suggests to better change the house.

I requested them that i would pay the bill at 9PM as i have to bring it from ATM and they accept to collect it.,

At 9:05 PM, they contact me in phone and tells that we were outside our home and our owner is scolding everybody and he is drunk.

At 9:10 PM, i arrive from outside and tells to them not to worry and i will get you the money and he behaves like this only when he is drunk.

At 9:15 PM, Owner stops me from entering the 4th floor and threatens me to stab with a iron rod. I ignored his words and i move to the 4th floor.

At 9:20 PM, i come down with the money and along with my room partner.

At 9:21 PM, the owner once agains stops.. this time my poor friend... and holds his neck and threatens to stab him too.. my friend, as most common people try to do.. wants to know the reason why wants to stab us...

At 9:24 PM, we saw the sify guys running away to the end of the road seeing this situation and owner starts giving all kinds of "gaali" in indian history....

At 9:26 PM, we both reach the end of the road and pays the sify guys and once again they advice us to leave the place...

At 9:45 PM, after a hot chai at the panwala shop near by... my friend gets a doubt whether the owner really meant what he said....

At 9:50 PM, we call the broker who showed us the house and informed regarding the issue and the broker tells back he will come tomarrow and see to it...

At 9:55 PM, we both decide not to go to house and rather to the friends house near-by.

At 3:45 AM, both of us reach our house quietly and decided to think of this matter next morning and took a nap.

At 6:30 AM, i woke up and decided to go to the brokers place and force him to settle the issue.

At 8:00 AM, broker comes and decides to talk to the owner and after a small discussion with the owner he concludes that the fault is that we didnt inform the owner regarding the connection.

At 8:45 AM, we ask the broker to think once whether was it the way to convey his intentions by threataning to stab both of us.

At 9:00 AM, negotiations fail and owner wants us to decide whether to stay or leave... if you leave you need to pay 4100 for painting a single room.

At 9:05 AM, we insist that we want to leave the house but we dont want pay that 4100 for painting a single room because it is because of owner we are planning to leave and also its been 3 months since we rented the house.

At 9:15 AM, the broker says i dont know what to do.. you both decide and i advice to pay the 4100 and leave the room.
As usual we dont wanted to settle over this.. we dont want the person who behaved so badly for no reason should continue his behaviour over others who will join after we leave...

At 9:45 AM, we both reach the Ejipura police-station, and request them whether they could do any help to us... we also requested to imagine what might have happened to us if he really stabbed us last night.. even our parents doesnt know where exactly we stay at banaglore and bodies would have spent some days alone for someone to discover...

At 10:00 AM, one constable comes with us to the residence and asks the owner to come down to police station.

At 10:10 AM, owner dails some numbers on his phone and decides to come to the police station.

At 10:20 AM, owner complains to the police officials that we might be terriorists and its his duty to safeguard the house. He also complains that we havent informed him before taking the dish connection.( mind you all.. its not a PG accomadation nor a hostel... its a rented house) he adds to this that sometimes his parents come and his wife comes to house without informing him a day before...)

At 10:30 AM, the secret guy behind those dailed numbers appears in the policestation and rightaway says that we are not kannadigas and shouts that you stupid people come from different places to here and try to complian about us....

At 10:32 AM, one of the policeman gets angry and shouts that they too are people just like us and they are not from pakistan or afghanistan to fear.. they are from our neighbour state. Police stations are meant for all.. they too have a right to lodge a complaint just like you do and dont expect to get informed for everything they do. You rent them the house and if they are doing something suspecious, inform us. They cant wait and search for you to inform that they want to fix a bulb in the house....

At 10:35 AM, this secret guy threatens the policemen that he is local and noone can do anything to him. (i dont understand why this guy came into picture and what he has in mind...) he wants us to leave the house by evening otherwise ???

From 10:36 to 10:50AM, big quarrel between the policemen and the secret guy(think he is brother to my owner)... the police says... dont forget that you are in the police station and any one can imagine how rudely you can talk to other people outside by the way you behaved here...

In between... i wondered to see , my owner..( to hell with him ..not any more...), sits quietly and looks around the police station as if he is innocent and the entire world is against him.... i am surprised to see that what a changed man he was when things arent his way...

At 11 AM, SP i guess or someone.. but for sure a higher official as he got a sepearate room and rest of the people are saluting to him... calls both the parties and after mutual explanations he aggrees to return the initial advance and accepts to take half the amount he charged for painting....

At 11:10 AM, all the police officials around the incident came to us and adviced us to be brave and call back to them if anything happens and gave the phone numbers...

At 11:30 AM, we both are at our house and to our surprise.. no current supply to only our room.. ( revenge it seems).. we thought of taking a nap after calling to some friends to look for a house...

At 11:35 AM, my friend suspects that what if they kill us to night or before night... what if someother guys sent by them kill us... i thought i was strong enough to take care of the situation upto that point and now i too dont have any idea of whats gonna happen.. though it seems to be a typical filmi story but it can prove to be real by tomarrow...

At 11:50 AM, i pack my bag to run towards the office as i have somethings to wrap up.

At 12:30 PM, we both exchange our safe arrivals at offices....( by the way my friend works for LG office near Dell at inner ring road..)

For now we decided to go to the house in the evening along with few other friends and pack our computer and fridge[the costliest of all things we have] and place them in friends house and go for searching the house and shift the house if possible by to night or so...... only thing that worries me is that... they can do anything... they can survive after doing a crime or get punished by the law.. but noone can return if a life is lost or some ungettable damage happens...

The reason why i am posting it here is... Safety: that many people know what happened to me so that info is not lost if something happens ... and people who are planning to take a rented house will also investigate on the nature of owner and surroundings apart form concentrating soley on the house...

Its already 4:59 PM and i guess its time for me to leave for the rest of things which today demands from me...

Do the house owner has any plans for these two guys to night... Will both these guys survive the night... Will they be able to see the sunrise tomarrow...

2006-09-05T03:33:00.000-07:00

The King Meets "The Queen"

Atlast the quest for the Queen came to an end on 18th July 2006, when i was able to convince myself that the girl i was looking for, was just standing beside me for the last 7-years or so. For the first time, i experienced the joy of making a decision that would change lives(my family)... i was looking for a girl which suits my personality all through my graduation and post-grad and not a single soul entered my mind. I thought no one was good enough to me but later when i analysed the situation, i found that i was comparing all the girls around, with a hidden personality, which my mind only knows and left me to break the code to get details of that angel.... it cliked few years ago, that i was liking her as the way she was. My feelings towards her went deep down to such an extent that nothing or no-one else was looking good to me.. she seemed to me as a person with whom i can dare to share my life... so on this day i expressed my feeling of sharing my life with her infront of my parents and her brother... since i know that this girl likes me for the last 7 years, i found no reason to ask her for the reason of not expressing her feelings for me all these years... the reason she gave to me was heart touching atleast to me.. she thought that, my growth in the areas of finance and academics will hamper if she enters my life and thats the reason why she didnt approached me regarding her love... i was moved... i can see the innocence in her eyes, i was able to notice for the first time how much she developed affection towards me. i thought that there will be no such idiot in this world, who dont want to welcome such a girl, who cares for you so much that she could even get ready to sacrifice her "LOVE", the greatest of all feelings on this planet...

So finally i got married on August 17th, 2006 at DR UTTAMA, Nellore to this very girl. I am happy for everything that happened in my life so far and i heard the same feeling from her. She is doing her MBA back at my hometown and myself doing a Software Engineer job at Bangalore.... though we are staying apart for this coming 2 years, we are happy to see the bright future waiting for us ahead at the end of it.......

2006-07-28T02:00:00.000-07:00

Human Nature....

It always hurts deep down... that being a human, i fail to understand its very nature most of times... the behaviour which i sometimes predict resonably well and fail to guess even close in rest of the times. Recently, i am witnessing or thinking that i am witnessing, a new behaviour, which i started to believe that most adults experience at their mid-40's and rest of us experience it in a different flavour all through our lives. Though the feeling seems so trivial for many reasons but its consequences are not that trivial when compared to what we rest(leaving adults) of us experience in our day to day lives... anyways the point which i am beating around the bush so far is.. the change in behaviour of an adult when his/her child gets older enough and then starts their so-called Own Living. The reason i feel, behind the male for a change in his behaviour might be the fear to loose The Power of Ownership and for the female counterpart may be its the New Person entering into the Family tree. The feeling to me looks so natural since losing a familer thing or fear of losing something which one enjoys for a decent amount of time is unbearable. Infact, its the same feeling that most of us experience whenever we leave any of our best friends, Lover and everytime when we use the word Good bye. But this very feeling when experienced in adulthood in a different flavour can result in some sort of disaster in entire family.. starting with the "subject".. the counterpart including the adults. After spending a couple of nights thinking about this feeling, i came up with a possible state of mind to ensure that such a feeling does not enter into oneself is " only when you experience it for such an extent that giving it away or living without it, doesnt make you feel that you are missing something in your life any longer". The next moment, to my surprise, a counter example that popped into my mind left me puzzled. I started to look back into my own life searching for instances that giving away something that relates to me either directly or indirectly and leaving me unfelt... As the answer became a STRICTLY NO SUCH INSTANCE ... i was a bit disappointed.. even after living for 24 years on this earth.. i was not able to find a single instance which can leave me as i am even after losing it. Why am i so POSSESSIVE and why i cant say the word TAKE THIS without expecting anything in return. I will become a self contented MAN if at all i could feel the feeling of not being affected by any such "HUMANITARIAN REFLEX FEELINGS" atleast for once in my entire life time.

2006-04-13T09:50:00.000-07:00

Ant-Icide: Can this Happen!!

These days i started to work late nights from my hostel.. previously i used to do that from my Department. As usual, before sitting infront of the computer, i brought a bottle full of "chilled water"... and kept it besides the CPU. After few minutes, i saw an group of Ants coming towards the bottle just like soldiers marching for a War. Being a kind-hearted person, i started to watch whats gonna happen. I was convinced that they are after that cold-water since its already mid-April and an evening walk in such a season is not a bad-idea. Few-minutes passed, meanwhile i was drowned into the magic of "e"nternet and forgot how's & what's happening around me. When i decided to sleep, i saw that so called Ant gang is no-more. Their dead bodies are lying near the bottle. I was pretty sure that this happened by mistake until the same thing repeated the other night. Then i decided to do an experiment on them. This time, no water bottle.. its just chilled water droplets on the surface. The result- surprisingly was same.. another Ant battalian comes and commits suicide. I doubt my room might be having a repository of Suicidal Ants. Whatever might be the reason... for now i believe that Ants commit Suicide atleast in my room...

2006-04-09T13:04:00.000-07:00

Sunday nuggets

Yet another day to remember in my stay at KReSIT. It all started at 9 pm when myself, and 2 of my juniors Karthik and Abhishek decided to skip dinner at hostel. We came to a mutual conscience that, whatever be the bill, I will pay 50% of it and the rest by them. After a little thought, we excluded Laxmi Hotel and went to Laxmi Dairy.. a small but well renowed hotel near the Y-Point at IIT. We ordered for dinner and special Yummy Mango Juice best drink of the season. After few minutes, we found that one of my classmates.. Anshuman just entered the same hotel. So 4 of us together had the delicious dinner after quite a long time. Yeah its true that hotel food will be delicious than this daily routined hostel food. That idiots made me to pay the entire bill.. anyways it doest matter as they are some of my good friends in the dept. Later, on our way back to dept we met Rajat and Laxmikant(alias kantu) near girls hostel-10. Hostel-10 is celebrating its valfi day and sadly there were less than 25 junta at the function. I personally believe that this number equals the boyfriends count for all the girls in the hostel(hoping one-many & one-one combinations. Given a chance we might have helped them in increasing numbers but We had another plans to night. We decided to play Hide and Seek as if its a better option than this valfi sort of thing. It started as soon as we gathered at 3rd floor and called out for enthu junta to join. In a couple of minutes we had Anirudha (alias:Roopa, ashish(alias Chotu), Sharvan Kumar( the only junior who played the game), shruti (the research scholar), Anshu Veda, Deepti (alias deeps), Kishore (alias kishoreiey) in our team. Rules were formed instantly and the result of that is.. no toilets should be used to hide, no ground floor and 4th floor. After the toss, it was kishoreiey who started the game.. followed by myself, anshu and finally shravan. Those are the places we chose to hide today....
myself hiding under a blanket... anshuman under the desktop, chotu (the one who dont want to show his face) and deeps... once again under the desktop...
. Finally, it all ended for me with a cup of Nescafe (Courtesy:: Roshan). These days, i am sure, are not going to come again... these memories are precious... may be thats the reason why parents and elders quite often say.. childhood is the most happiest part of life... i wish that i could stay as a child for an eternity.

2006-04-08T10:02:00.001-07:00

Short-cut to premier institutions in INDIA

What the heck... was my immediate reaction when i read the article about "Reservations in IIT's, IIM's and Medical colleges". Seems that politicians dont want to leave the Educational community to prosper and compete with the world anymore. Now a days, the entire world recognizes "India" for its brains. Students all-over india strive days and nights to get admitted into these famous and dream institutions and now this -so called "upliftment of the backward"... is going to destroy their dreams forever. Let us think this way.. due to reservations people join in renowed institutions like IIT's and IIM's.. i dont think they will pass all those quality tests these institutions keep as per the academic curriculam. Its my personal experience.. i am doing my masters degree in IIT Bombay.. i am an average student.. its hard for me to even get an average grade here. Suppose, we reduce the cut-off and somehow and let them complete their education.. but i dont think the companies will recruit such people as their employees. I asked this one question to myself.. if I or any of my parents or friends, fall ill for some reason.. will I perfer to go to a doctor who got admitted into a medical college through reservation and passed out because of lowered cut-offs and let him/her to operate on them. Will i want a civil engineer to build my house who survived the tests because of lowered cut-offs. I personally believe.. if govt wants to help the people, dont look at castes.. look at people who need help... provide them with quality school education, provide them with quality food, clothes and shelter. As far as undergraduate and higher educations.. plz leave it for brains.... admissions into premier instituions based on reservations is just like "cutting the branch of the tree in which you are sitting".. which i believe is not a good idea for any reason...

I sincerely pray to god that such thing's shouldnt happen at any point of time in the history of mankind...
Sarat "no reservations" chandra

2006-04-03T04:01:00.001-07:00

LIFE SUCKS

Life... not all that easy game to play when it seems that god play favourites. Life's rules change without any intimation.. what seems to be okay today is not at all acceptable tomarrow.... today it seems that the entire world is along with you, the next moment you realize you are left alone... Life SUCKS when you realize the one you know.. the one who cared for you or the one whom you care, the one you love or the one who loved you, left this so called Sacred Earth. Does Mother Earth is trying to say that she is no longer able to look after her children, or does that mean Mother Earth started to feel her children as burden... if that is so.. what we say great about our religious literature seems to be just a screen-saver used to hide the reality... i dont know whether thinking to live forever or wanting to have entire control of so called "my life" is toomuch to ask for.. but isnt hard to believe that some unknown has control on our life... Seems that kabir das thought about this issue for too long and came up this so called feasible solution that one can afford to do for his/her/guided-by-unknown life....

Kaal Kare So Aaj Kar, Aaj Kare So Ub
Pal Mein Pralaya Hoyegi, Bahuri Karoge Kub

In memory of karunakaran : i pray to god if exists that his soul rests in peace......

2006-03-31T08:24:00.000-08:00

The Saviour

Oscar Schindler, dont know much about this guy in reality but from the movie, it is shown that Schindler did save many jews from being dead. Though Schindler is shown as a womanizer for most of the time.. i dont understand why he somehow didnt made the women(jew), working as a maid under a military officer who is potrayed as the most deadly and kills-for-happiness guy, from poisoning. Since it is shown that, officer used to drink too much and beat her like anything, she might have done it so easily and most lifes might have been saved. i accept that there is a bit of risk involved within it but somehow/someway things might have been chaged to better. The action of Schindler(Liam Neeson in the movie was terrific... Similar type of holocost's did happen even in India.. may be even worse things did.. somehow movies should comeout of those real stories so that the younger generations like us... will know more about our past. Times changed, but situations are similar.. still people are living in danger in kashmir and many parts of india. How many days this underneath war continoues and how many lives are going to be penelised...!!

Given a chance for me to be "God" for 5 min, i am going to erase this entire world and will make a new begining. I am sure that things repeat themselves.. so best would be erase the entire world and place an ordinance that no "God" should create earth ever.. and do meditation for the rest of my life.....

----- JAIHIND---------

2006-03-13T10:26:00.000-08:00

Sarat Reloaded
This is my 2nd attempt to blogging arena. The first one, i was forced to quit as i forgot the important COUPLE (username, passwd). The reason behind my presence here 1-> my friend/junior Ramanand always does this blogging stuff 2-> to capture feelings and emotions of my day2day life and showcase it for my future references. Couple of things that my mind is dealing currently with are, how to finish my Master's project and how to settle in life. The first one will get answered on or before july 17th, 2006 as that day is the official last date for my batch to complete their mtp defence. Regarding the later, to the records , settling in life, is not that easy one to find a solution. But everyone are finding their own way. Music, Movies, Book reading, Friends, Chilling-out are my day2day activities so far.. does this life needs more.. do i need to bring some new ingradients and throw-out some from my previous list. I am leaving this to the ultimate master, Who can answer better to such fuzzy questions: TIME.