The TimePass of India

Gail: What is life?
Howard Roark lifts up a fallen branch, bends it in the form of a bow and says - THIS
Gail: Strength?
Howard: no...the fact that I can make something useful with my hands...thts life...

-The Fountainhead(by Ayn Rand)

I am not a fan of this novel...But this is my favourite part in The fountainhead...
For the uninitiated, Howard Roark, an architect, is the hero of the novel. He looks for creative satisfaction. While Gail, a businessman, looks for power.




Its been more than a month in the factory...I have seen the transformer come to life. From the very first conductor being wound on the winding to the stacking of the core. The transformer is currently in the assembly stage.
Looking at it, I cant help think about what a bunch of men could do if they put their head and hands together. Ofcourse only a couple of men are gonna receive the accolades, but deep inside we all know tht it wudnt be possible without us...And I keep using the pronoun "us", inspite of the fact tht I haven't done anything tht wud add value to this transformer...I am trainee...I am expected to observe...Then why am I counting myself as one of them?

Even observing something come to life is exhilarating...
The thought tht this transformer would touch lives of thousands of people itself is so fulfilling...It might make electricity available to villages, It might help run an industry...There are endless possibilities...In every which way, it would help them to make their lives better...

Today,we(Akshay, Komel and me) were having a discussion with one of our seniors as to how ppl in the software industry were earning more than us. I stressed on the fact that core engineers should work in the core engg rather than in software...I would still give up a job in a software firm any day for a job in core engg.(no offence meant to the software guys)

Its not tht I enjoy the job or anything...I still hate gettin up early in the mornings (a lot of guys do..check out the comm on orkut! There r more than 2 lac ppl in the I-hate-waking up-early comm)...I still hate working 6 days a week...Maybe I wud do an MBA in future, maybe I wud start sumthing on my own, wht the heck, I might even join a software firm...But I would still maintain tht seeing something come to life in 3D will never cease to amaze man...

Tell me... as kids didn't you enjoy planting chili seeds or mango saplings...Tell me...didn't do rush to the balcony in the morning to check whether the bud has bloomed into a flower? I hope you do these things even now tht u hav grown up... If not, Pls do...
I have seen the windings and the core being assembled into a transformer...Some lifeless copper and iron getting converted into something really useful...really beautiful... I feel proud... I feel satisfied....I feel amazed...sometimes I feel like God.


Its amazing what men can do, isnt it? Its amazing what men can do!

I was checking my emails on Gmail when Pushkar buzzed me...

11Aug.

6:30 AM pushkarsheth: hello
6:31 AM me: heylo

6:32 AM pushkarsheth: go and see chak de india
6:33 AM me: is it gud?

6:38 AM pushkarsheth: awesome
every pessimistic indian needs to see it
me: SRK didnt overact?

pushkarsheth: na
6:45 AM me: rare..
for SRK not to overact...
hes not ur fav, is he?

6:46 AM pushkarsheth: umm............no but this movie has a few residues of Swades..........the Just Do It attitude
me: hmm...i liked swades
maybe i wud lik this too..



And as usual Pushkar was right... This is a movie recommended for every Indian who while sippin tea and eating bhajiyas thinks is desh ka kuch nahi ho sakta..
Its for every Indian who feels bad when countries with one tenth of India's population earn tons of medals and we dont! Its for every Indian who thinks it can't be done! Its for every Indian who thinks it can be done!

The movie is very much like all other sports movies but is brilliantly adapted to the Indian scenario.
Every minute detail is taken care of...Then it maybe the way rest of India treats north-eastern states and its people or the behaviour of senior team members with the rest of the team...



The screenplay is excellent. The character sketching is brilliant. Just think how difficult it must be sketching charcters of more than 15 girls and just think how brillantly it must be done for you to feel for them when they lose and rejoice with them when they win!

I am self professed Pro-man (is tht a word?). It means tht I believe tht men are better than women at most of the jobs (Maharashtra mahila sangh are gonna sue me after this). There is a scene when the girls beat up a half a dozen boys. There is another instance in which the women hockey team almost beats the mens hockey team. I found myself supporting the girls!!


Parallels will be drawn among Chak de and other Indian movies like Iqbal and Lagaan. Which one is better?- people will ask. I dont think they are comparable! I dont even think they belong to the same genre!
While Lagaan had better actors, it fell short on technology and Iqbal was made at a very small budget.



If you are still reading this, u must be wondering why nothing has been said bout SRK. I guess thts coz SRK himself didnt want to be in the limelight in this movie... Everytime SRK gives an endearing performance, the movie flops.(eg. Swades). So the next time he overacts to make his movies work.(eg. KANK) Thankfully hes done well this time.His performance is realistic and endearing. And when the reports last came in, CDI was declared a hit!

Watch it if you are an SRK fan! Watch it even if you are not! Watch it for SRK...Watch it for the girls...Watch it for the national sport of India...
WATCH IT! They dont come that often....

Girl Power Chak de

This post is dedicated to Santosh! He has tagged me and here are rules. (If you dont know wht a tag is and how it works read this.)

Rules for tagging :
*************************************************************
1. Players start with 8 random facts about themselves.
2. Those who are tagged should post these rules and their 8 random facts.
3. Players should tag 8 other people and notify them they have been tagged(subject to availability :))
*************************************************************

So here are my random 8 facts about myself...

1. I hate getting up early. This is one of the reasons I didnt wanna do a job. This is also the primary reason why I am tryin to start something of my own.

2. Pizza Hut and Dominos are my favourite eateries.

3. I believe a smile can do wonders.

4. I consider Hrishitaa Bhat to be my ideal match (a bit too ambitious I am)

5. Three qualities tht I look for in an individual are honesty, loyalty and innocence. If you find someone with these qualities, treasure him/her for life.

6. I love running. I feel there is nothing more liberating than a good run in the park.

7. I stopped reading the newspapers and watching the News on TV because it was too depressing for me.

8. I love watching American and British sitcoms. My love for sitcoms is second only to my love for sleep!

Here are the ppl whom I hav tagged

Abhijit

Sukhi

Simply sam

Pushkar

Bullshee

Tagged!

Its been a long time since I posted! I received many smses from ppl who allegedly read my blog and they thanked me for taking a break from all the crap tht I have been publishing all so religiously for the last 6 1/2 months.... But you know wht...the celebrations are over! Jack is Back...er..srry I got carried there...

So? Wht do you wanna talk about? (Dont even bother answering, I cant hear you!) Let me tell you about my workplace...

As you know I work in (beep)... Some names have been changed (or beeped) to protect their identity...
My company is the leader in er...actually they are the leaders in whtever they choose to do! Transformers, Power distribution, automation, etc. etc. They are World no.1 (or thts wht they tell us) in all the fields I mentioned above...

The factory where I work is the Salma Hayek of factories... Its so clean tht you can even sleep on the shopfloor! (Actually you can sleep anywhere if you can sleep in my room...)
The canteen is amazing! Its the Hilary duff of canteens... The food is provided by a mallu gentleman. And if we continue with the analogy it turns out tht Hillary's father is a mallu! Hillary Kotian!! hahaha....


But obviously you came here to read my rants! But you havent got any yet...Its like David Dhawan trying to direct Swades! So here are my ramblings...

There are somthings I wud lik to change here... Firstly I want the timings changed... I dont particularly like getting up early. Also I want a off on saturdays. Who made this rule about core companies workin on sats and Software cos gettin a holiday...

Oh, yeah! maybe the softys get real tired of typing on the PC... And we dont get tired of working on the shopfloor... Who do they think we are? Who am I ? Spiderman? Its my gift..its my curse... (oopsie! I wasnt supposed to reveal my identity on my blog)


Warning: Despo mechie talking crazy..
And yes! I want more girls on the shopfloor! And I dont mean the anjuman types...

It will be an insult to the pretty factory! I want girls like Courtney cox and Salma hayek working it out on the shopfloor... For Pete's sake, whatever happened to gender equality in this country! (I can see my face being blackened by Shiv sena's mahila mandal...)

And...hmm...How about increasing our salaries ? I mean, we are working for cashew nuts! I mean cashew nuts in Goa! (Cashew nuts are cheaper than peanuts in Goa)

And how about makin me the President of operations, India...er... maybe tht was too ambitious of me... k.. Vice President will do for now...

Btw, inorder tht you guys believe tht I work a lil bit...lemme tell you tht I have my own Dell
laptop (2 gb ram) and my own fone (all calls are free!). Maybe its time they gift me a car... Honda Civic is wht I want... But wht the heck? I can work with a Honda City too...

God...they are gonna kick me out after reading this....So much for blogging...





Salma Hayek of all factories...

The first week at Siemens was pretty good. I didnt really expect it to be so much fun. Everything at Siemens is so god damn lavish. The plush convention centre where we spent our days, the wooden ceiling (yes, wooden), the pretty canteen, the beautiful enviorn, did I mention the wooden ceiling?

Now, this is not my first time visit to a corporate office. I have been to Schlumberger's office and while it was pretty, it wasnt anything like Siemens.

We joined on Monday. We were asked to sign our names at the security centre. The security centre is wired and always has hip-hop songs playing.(Pretty cool, u wud think..Wait till u see the guard gyrate to the beats)

We were then asked to assemble at the convention centre.We were alloted table nos. At the tables we saw placards with our names inscribed on it.

I searched for "Arshat Chaudhary".

A rose was placed on the table along with a welcome message and a leather bag.

The hall was dressed in white! White tables,white chairs, white curtains...There was a big screen projector on the wall. There were two 43' LCD displays positioned halfway through the hall. The hall could seat more than 160 people!

Monday and Tuesday were spent attending lectures and getting a feel of the things around us.

On Wednesday, we visited the Kalwa factory which is actually situated near Airoli. This day was the only day I got really tired. But you might expect tht when you have to tour factories (five in no.) spread over 50000 sq mts of land.

Mine is a new factory,and its so new tht you can smell the paint! Most of the eqiupment was shipped from Germany. The doors are imported from Dubai and they open vertically (Like they show in sci-fi movies).
The storage area is airconditioned and its so large tht a 6 storeyed building would stand there! The shop floor is air pressurised. The girl:boy ratio was 1:137 when the reports last came in. There are 138 employees out of which only the receptionist is female!(subject to change without prior notice)
The project is top secret so I cant revel much data.

Thursday and Friday were real fun. We had settled down by then. All we did is sit on the last row and crack jokes all day long. Komel would come up would one good joke and 19 bad jokes every fifteen minutes. Abhijit should be proud!
I gotta learn a lot from Komel. Quite philosophical he is! Among all tht philosophy its good to have Akshay's cool attitude around.

I loved the breaks we got. The tea break being my fav, not coz of the tea but becoz they used to serve mouth watering cookies! We must have had atleast 12 different types of cookies - choclate chips, tuti-frooti, cocoa cookies etc. (And all tht free of charge! Mouth watering or what!)


Now the most imp question the mech guys must be dying to ask! "Were there any girls?" Lots! LOTS! Its been ages since we have been with with so many XX chromosomes in
one room. At all times (esp. during lectures) we had an option of admiring any of the 3 pretty HR ladies who were almost always present in the hall.We had both western and southern zone GTEs at worli. And since I have always had a weakness for Tamil girls, this place was to me what Lords is to Ganguly.

I was really smitten by this dusky damsel. But the loser tht I am, cudnt gather the courage to talk to her.

Saturday was an outbound training to Silent hills resort , Palgher. More on tht later.Will keep you wonderful people posted as Siemens happens.

Siemens, cookies and damsels!

A lot of words in this post are in marathi. But read on you, will get the main idea of the post.
This is one experiences that I wanna share with you.

I know tht some of the readers here know about my plan about the classes I wanted to start.

As you might know, one of the best method of advertising is through pamplets. So we decided to print some (800 copies) for our classes.

Once these copies were ready we had to distribute them to prospective students. This is where the fun starts. I and my cousin, Aroop, decided tht we choose K.J.Somaiya coll of engg. as the distribution site.

There was no security at the coll gate, so I went about my business, distributing pamplets to any kid with a hint of facial hair. In my entusiasm I forgot tht I was standing within the campus. Aroop, the law abiding citizen tht he is, was standing outside the gate, distributing pamplets.

All of a sudden, a kaka type guy (uniformed security) comes from god knows where and catches hold of the bag in which I had kept the pamplets.


kaka: Chalo, saab bulata hai.
Me: (realising tht kaka is surely marathi) Kaka pun zala kay?
kaka: te saheb tula saangtil...

Me: Alfa to Aroop..Alfa to Aroop...We have a Broken Arrow! Alfa is down! Alfa is down! This is not a drill! I repeat!This is not a drill!

Aroop came running. Aroop has a way with marathi kaka type guys.He has done his schooling from King george dadar(Sukhi's school). They give special training there.

But this time his charm didnt work. We were asked to sit near the security's cabin.

Kaka: Saab busy hai.
Aroop(to me):Tu tension mat le! BMC aur police mein apun ka bahut pechan hai(this was the King george in him talking)
I felt better after he said tht.

After 10 mins we got bored and started talking about our joining date, movies etc.

There was a bigger(in size and post) kaka who I thought was hinting at some chai pani.

Me:Bigger kaka, kahi tari kara na tumhi!!
Bigger kaka: Ata me kay karnar?? Tumchi pavti (receipt) fadnaar mothe saheb. Je karnar te saaheb karnar

What? there is an even bigger kaka?

After 5 more mins every body got bored but Aroop looked amazingly cool. He was like his father owned somaiya's. It was like it wasnt somaiya's but chaudhary's.

The original Kaka: Sahebaana thoda chaha-paani dya.
Aroop: Kay kaka? aamcha kade swatah nokri nahi!! aamhi kay denaar?

For the record, Aroop is placed in Infosys. And I am placed in Siemens.

Still, we gave him 50 bucks and got out of there.

Was a lot of fun!! We felt like we were a bunch of 22 yr olds(coz thts wht we are...)

One gyaan Aroop gave me was-No matter what happens, confidence lose nahi karne ka!
Point noted mate!



Of pamplets, kakas and Aroop!

This post is to thank Pushkar for all the hardwork he put in making this Header.

There are a lot of things I love about the header. I mean look at the Elephant. I wud have named him Jumbo or Appu(if he was Indian). But Pushkar name him TP. Yes! The name of the elephant is Mr.Time Pass.

I also like the Unlimited edition and Rs.2 on the top left of the header.
Also my name in the centre of the header looks pretty neat, doesnt it?

Great work dude! Thanks Pushkar!