Fibs

A
new
phenom.
A poem,
written in simple
math. Read on or create your own.

Math is not easy. Writing poems even harder. Now Gregory started this craze, and I can't stop.

Waiting for that someone perfect

Do
you
ever
thnk about
you and me or us?
Do you ever wonder aloud?

I
sleep
at night,
hoping for
a miracle. That
I wake up with you in my arms.

When
will
we be
together?
When will we be one?
When will it be two hearts in one?

A
gown.
Wedding
gown with veil.
I can imagine
the day. Will it be tomorrow?

I
know
you too
are a geek,
yet artistic by
nature. So I write in earnest.

Yes.
Time,
will tell.
Will tell me,
If its me you love,
or atleast this poem I write.

Run or you'll be tagged

Running and catching was always a favorite game of mine, with all its variations, especially Chains. I remember playing Chains even in 9th grade and 10th grade. I wish we could play agian. But this is the age of the Internet, and apparently, these games are played online.

I got tagged by Jim! So for you Jim, here is my list. I hate lists, so I've made modifications.

Guilty pleasures
French Fries
Back rubs
Gadgets
OC, North Shore
Lindt

Things you never want to forget
Names of people I've met
Shwetha's face the day I saw her first
Greece
Random acts of kindness
Happiness

Things I wish I to forget
The few times I gave up
Eating a handful of sugar before a long race
Random Stupid acts of love in 12th grade
Actually, entire 12th grade
Watching the WTC fall

Really exotic dishes you have tried
Shrimp
Spinach Pizza
Ants by mistake

Crushes
A girl in Jamaica
A really fast runner
A siren
A girl I almost kissed
A badminton player

Strangest dream
Someone saying "Shoot me, or marry me". No face absolutely.

Most valued personal possessions
Note: The most valued ones are the ones that are invaluable and thus not mentioned here.
Canon SLR Digital Rebel
Swiss Army Knife
My wedding ring
The stamp collection in the attic
Current Car

Favorite superheroes
Superman - It's not easy to use your power for the good.
Luke Skywalker - Light Saber!
Spaceman Spiff - Escaping reality

People on my hate list
Troublemkaers
Artifical peacemakers
Backstabbers
Smart people who do not think
Cowards

Close brushes with death/danger
When I was trapped in an elevator and had to squeeze through a small opening and jump down, missing the open shaft below by inches. Ya, lame, but hey, I am no VIP.

Preferable modes of suicide
Live on! That's pain enough. I would have omitted this but I can not not emphasize the fact that this is the worst thing any one could do. Ever!

And now Ashwin, Harsha, Shamli, Ajay it's your turn.

Shame Shame, dirty shame!

Singanalluru Puttaswamayya Mutturaju died on April 12, 2006. He died of a heart attack and was almost 78. He didn't smoke or drink. He acted in over 200 movies and he mostly never smoked or drank in them either. He has won 10 Best Actor Filmfare awards which is the second highest in the country. (No prizes for guessing who has won the most with 16) He was also a talented singer and he practised yoga everyday. He was awarded the Padma Bhushan and also the Dadasaheb Phalke Award. In all a great artist, a leading hero, a simple man. This is how he should be remembered.

In other news (or so you would think) on April 12 Bangalore broke into a frenzy. There isn't a logical reason, but the IT capital of India suddenly turned into arsonist heaven. Vandals destroyed over 100 vehicles, cars and buses, and destroyed the glass windows of many of the city's prided infrastructure. In the last two days, eight people have died. Schools, offices were all hastily shut down and millions of dollars have been lost.

I met some people in Delhi yesterday, who asked me why Bangalore was burning and who this crazy old man was? I told them who this great man was, told them I don't know why Bangalore is burning and asked him why he asked me those questions in the same sentence. What is the connection? I don't see it. If you've studied fish-bone diagrams and cause-effect analysis you will know to immediately relate things, and this I could not.

Could it be that people are sad that a great man passed away and that rioting will bring him back to life?
Could it be that people think it was unfair that a man of 78 years should have a heart attack and they are rioting against this strange phenomenon?
Could it be that they think sacrificing a city is the best way to pay their respect?
Could it be that they are so moved by his death that they have lost all sense of reality?

It doesn't matter because now Bangalore is a crazy city with mobs! Bangalore is an uncivil city. Bangalore is worse than Chennai which didn't let people kiss in public. Bangalore is not a city for decent human beings.

The great actor will not be remembered for his movies or his talents. He will be remembered as the man who caused Bangalore to shut down for a month when he was kidnapped and as the man whose death tore Bangalore apart. Shame.

I have always believed that the world is what you make of it. That how people remember you is in your hands. Unfortunately for this great thespian it will not be so.

Life with Google

I still remember the day I went to my friend's house to create an email account for myself. Sadly I don't remember the year. Probably 1998. After a few frantic minutes of searching for ids with all combinations of my name and scorning those with numbers in it, I decided that the best one would be calvin_hopes. (calvin_hobbes was not available). So there I was Mr.Calvin Hopes at Hotmail.com. I used it vigorously, sending corny yet enough-to-win-her-over emails to my girlfirend, now wife, Shwetha. Today that account only receives spam.

I wake up every morning, brush my teeth and drink water (good habits afterall) and then switch on my computer and log on to gmail.com. In June 2004, I got my account and I still have the email I sent to Shwetha asking her to join. Since then, I've had nothing but Google in my blood.

After a good breakfast, I head to work, and logon to my computer. I check my official email (work comes first) and then log into my personalized page at Google.com. This is my lifeline. In one quick shot, I can see my mail, the weather, all the news I want and also the blogs that I keep track of. I have a built in music player and I get my daily dose of words. It's the easiest thing to set up and now I waste less time remembering and entering website addresses. Sweet!

I get back to work, finsihing up my first round of requests. While at it, I realize I need information on a company I haven't heard of. Google Search to the rescue. Everyone knows of Google's search abilities. During my years at Penn State I even studied that Google uses Discrete Markov Chains for their search algorithms. I shall not tell you more except, Google it! I eat lunch and then when I am most lazy, I decide to upload whatever blog I might have written the previous night such as this one. Once again, a Google product, though not their own, comes to the rescue. Blogger. It is one of many blog sites, but to me the simplest to use. The templates are customizable and adding posts is easy. I might if I've had a adventurous weekend and the time to process my photos, upload those too. Ofcourse I use Picasa, another now Google product, to resize and manage all my images.

The day wears on, the analysis and the numbers, crunching my nerves and keeping me busy. Occasionaly, while reading official communications from companies to their employees, I come across terms that I have never heard of. Doesn't matter. I have, Google Deskbar. It's a small plugin in my toolbar at the bottom of my screen and all I need to do is type the word in and press CTRL + D for a quick definition. Now I know what grandfathered plans are.












The deskbar is no longer an independent download. It comes part of the larger Google Desktop. This should be an essential tool in all personal computers. Again the Desktop provides all your mail, news and other personal favorites in one spot. The best feature - the local search. Don't remember where your saved that file with all your one-liners, in the hope of becoming a stand-up comic someday? Or how about that picture you downloaded of your favorite star but forgot all about? Windows search is too rigid for you? Don't fret, type what your looking for into the desktop search, keywords, part of file names, text in the file, and instantly Google opens a page with a link to all the files matching your search and to boot, it also shows you news items that you might have read or emails from people all pertaining to your search.

At the end of the day, I head home, eat dinner and sit in front of the TV, with my computer now wirelessly connected to the net. My parents, my brother, our friends come online, and we start chatting. Tired of typing, unless ofcourse we are watching OC or North Shore, we decide to talk. Google Talk. Completely simplified but extremely efficient messenger. No Environments to bug you like in Yahoo, no annoying tabs and ads as in MSN, just a simple interface to chat and talk, yet hidden in its simplicity are features that do make you smile. Type a smiley in Google Talk and you will see it fall down your messenger window elegantly. Google humor at its best. Google Talk is now also integrated with Gmail.

My mother who visits the US with my dad, asks me about the nearest JC Penney or Walmart, and immediately I direct her to Google Local and Google Maps. Embedded within their map application, the Google researchers have put tools that can help the home maker find the nearest shops and malls, the fix-it-yourself man the hardware store, the geek the nearest Circuit city and everyone else a store for whatever it is they want to buy. Restaurants are also listed, along with cinemas and show timings. Schools, universities, libraries, it's all there. Print the driving directions from the page or for the environmentalist who loves public transport there is Google Transit. Enter your From and To address and Departure or Arrival time and it immediately tells you the different options, trains, buses, subway, all with their schedules to get you where you need to go in time. To convince you further it even tells you how much you save on cost if you take the public transport as opposed to driving your car.

If two dimensions doesn't do it for you anymore, try Google Earth. It can show you all the routes, the distances and the maps, and show it to you all in 3D. Never seen the Sydney Opera house or the Statue of Liberty? Search for it in Google Earth. Want to see how my apartment looks from the sky? Here it is...

So after, chatting, searching and emailing, I am ready to sleep. But not before checking out Google Video. It's not as expansive as Itunes, but if you want unknown funny videos, lost shows from the 60s and also mainstream tv shows and music videos, Google Video is a good place to start. Their collection is interesting. I, also, for the last 20 minutes of the day, open up Google News. The day's roundup of events from across the globe all scavenged out by the infamous Google crawlers. I know Britney received a visit from Child Welfare, I know Iran is holding on to its nuclear program, Australia is on its way to beating Bangladesh, and that the flames of 9/11 are still killing people through respiratory diseases.

Ok, almost saturated with Google, I decide to sleep. A day filled with Google, and what do I have to show for it? At the least, maybe some money? Yup, there's Google Adsense. I have ads showing in this blog and on my website, ads that try to be as tailored to the content of my sites. Everytime someone clicks on them I might potentially be making money and yes, Google too. So see that ad on top, go ahead, Click it! How do I know if I am getting the right number of visitors and the page views required? How do I do a cost analysis? I use Google Analytics. Embedded in each of my pages is a script from Google that tracks info from my visitors and gives me all the statistical data I need. Thanks Google.

Time to sleep, I have appointments in the morning. Google Calendar, the latest tool, tells me so. So there it is, my life with Google. I can't even imagine a life without.


P.S.
If you didn't understand a word of what I said, try the Google Translator.
Download most of the above tools in one pack. The Google Pack.
See all of Google's apps and tools. Google Labs.
Or just read the Official Google blog.

Skyrocketing salaries: The real losers - last year's graduates.

"MBA graduate sets new salary record."
"I am 23, I have an MBA and I earn 5 Lakh Rupees a year."
"My daughter finished her BA and then did her MBA from Indian National Management Institute of Moradabad and now is working for a BPO."

Yes, we've heard it all. India is the new hotbed for MBA dreams. Forget work experience, forget even having any knowledge of companies or management, today an MBA degree has been reduced to just that. A degree. A few years ago, one only knew of the IIMs. Then came the others. Then came ISB. Then came hundreds more. Suddenly every Indian graduate wanted to do an MBA. Every company wanted to hire an MBA. Engineering was no longer enough and a job at Infosys was ordinary. What lead to this change? How did the generation of hardworking youth suddenly turn into money minded gold diggers?

Hype. In increasing order, the schools are to blame, the newspapers are to blame and the companies are to blame. Every year we hear of salaries hitting highs and breaking records and barriers. This has fuelled the dreams of millions of our youth and fooled them into thinking that this is the golden goose. Someone got an offer for more than a crore, someone else got an offer for $200000 and someone else got an offer with 3 companies for more than 50 lakhs. Hype. But in this hype, there is an economic incongruency.

Here is a realistic look at the salaries. All data shown below has been collected from the public domain and might be off by a little. Any assumption not explicity stated assumes that all other conditions remain similar from year to year.


I have listed the salaries for 5 top schools (not the Top 5) in India over the past 3 years. First, let me state that looking at the Higest salary columns is a waste of time. The real measure is in the averages. Second, the averages themselves are skewed as it is Stat 101 knowledge that means are highly influenced by extremes. A more appropriate measure would be the median salary with a good Inter Quartile Range mentioned but I haven't seen an Indian school give us that statistic. Third, Let's take a closer look at the INR averages (Column 6).

1. The average salary offered in 2006 is around 9.5 - 10 lakh rupees.
2. The average salary offered in 2005 was around 8 lakh rupees.
3. Between 2004-2005, the average INR salary increased by 12.48% across these schools. In 2005-2006 it increased by 17.60%.


Looking at the trend chart above it can be clearly seen that there is a clear upward shift in average salaries over the years.

Hewitt Associates, in their study of salaries across industries in India, found that the average salary increase in 2005 was 11.5% - 15.4% as compared to the previous year. Now if the average salaries for fresh graduates is increasing at the same pace as average salary increases for experienced people then I am no economist, but there is clearly something amiss.

Consider this case. A graduate from IIMA would have had an offer for 8 lakhs in 2005. In 2006 his salary in the company increases by 12% approximately. Now a graduate from IIMA this year gets offered 9 lakhs. Suddenly both are making the same amount though last year's graduate has an extra year of work experience. Now expanding on this, 2 years down the line, in 2007, he is making only as much as a fresh graduate with 2 years less experience. I know this doesn't apply after a few years, but in today's greedy world, even a year of incongruency is not fair. The result, last year's graduate is unhappy. The company now needs to increase his salary more than the market rate and that is not possible.

Here's another statistic. Assuming 70% of participating students get placed in India, the average amount spent by companies in salaries for these fresh graduates just from these 5 top schools is a whopping 85,20,78,500 Rupees. 85 Crores to be spent on less than 1000 graduates and this is not even CTC. Add the tens of other "MBA" schools in India, the thousands of more graduates and the total cost explodes. I again wonder if there isn't something else amiss. Is India Inc. growing this rapidly? Are companies showing a matching growth year on year to sustain these high salaries or are they slowly working their way into the red? Is it going to be a case of planting seeds to reap the harvest in a few years, but realizing too late that it was bad seeds that were planted to begin with?

As salaries increase, companies are going to struggle to cope with the expectations and soon our home grown talent is going to look outside. This is a global world, and there are countries waiting to poach our students. India Inc., Beware! Mark my words. I said it first. This is the beginning of the MBA bust.