Past, Present and Future Tag ..

Another tag from Gasper. Tags are like forwards, when you get one, you get the same one some three times from three different sets of friends. If Gasper tags me, I am sure I will see Rat, Soo etc doing the same tag. The exception will be people like Sand who have dedicated their blogs to once in a year technology updates J.

The tag:

Two questions in each category answer them and then tag your friends from the blog-o-sphere.

I. Yesterday

A. Your oldest memories

Gasper has gone to great lengths in fishing out his oldest memories. Even engg days are listed under his oldest memories. I wonder how old he considers himself to be now ;) Not to be left behind, Rat has come up with a list of his curricular and extra-curricular activities till tenth. Soo can’t force herself to stop even after listing out 15 of her oldest and fondest memories, so she has announced the rest to a new post.

Oldest memory is a confusing term for a memory challenged person like me. Memorizing stuff has been one of my weakest points. I used to prefer maths over bio because the latter involved a lot of memorizing. I don’t remember my birthday, your birthday or even my better half’s birthday. The first two are comparatively harmless compared to the consequences of the third action J

I don’t have any vivid memories of my childhood. I have tried hard to remember things happened before my school days and all I remember are two cloudy events. One in which me tripping on something while running around my preschool, falling, my head banging on the side of school varandha, and me getting a permanent mark under my eyebrow. The second memory is of my friend and me bending down and looking under the passing vehicles to check for something, while we were taken back from our preschool. I forgot what we were checking, but we used to do that religiously whenever any vehicle passed by us.

B. What were you doing ten years ago?

Going gasper’s way, ten years back, in 1998 Nov, I had just joined CET and Bethany hostel. I think my classes started towards Nov end. Soon after I joined my hostel, it was time for our Xmas celebration. I remember we all doing night outs decorating the hostel, under Koshy’s decoration committee. One of those days, after a night’s toil, may be around 4 in the morning, the committee members were all assembled near Bethany college, a couple of them on top of coconut trees extracting ripe coconuts while the others waiting patiently for the fruits to come down. I guess that’s what I was doing ten years back, enjoying my wasteful years.

II. Today

A. Your first thought in the morning

Nothing specific. I wake up with a blank to-do-list and keep adding stuff to it as and when I am faced with something. So there are no recurring thoughts in the mornings.

B. If you build a time capsule what would it contain?

The obvious choice for me will be a memory device which stores all my fav pictures. But then, now that I have dropped and damaged my external hard disk which had all my pictures so far, I am thinking about having a number of memory devices J, if at all I decide to rebuild.

III. Tomorrow

A. This year…

A year which taught me to take my work seriously. So far ‘layoff’ was a term which used to mean somebody lost job somewhere. When I see lookups on names of some my teammates from across the glob returning blanks, I realize the meaning of that term. But unlike the majority who say this is not a stable carrier and they would want to look out for something else, I still want to hang on, I still like my job and I want to continue in this industry. I like the challenges associated with my job.

The tomorrows of this year look promising as usual. A trip home is planned and so is the annual release of our product. Exciting days ahead.

B. What do you see yourself doing 14 years from now?

Driving an imported SUV through the beaches of Goa. Add the ownership title of the beach bungalow where I am going to park that SUV to the wish list, will ya?

I am still way too materialistic J

Cocktail collage

Here is a tag passed on by Vimal. To what all lengths does people go to be innovative! I thought of finishing this in 10 minutes, but it took me around half an hour.

The rules are
1. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Google Image Search or Flicker Image Search. I'm using Google

2. Pick an image, form the first page of results.

3. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker.



Lo and behold... here is my mosaic ->

Q&A

1. What is your first name?
A: Geo

2. What is your favorite food?
A: Gyro

3. What high school did you go to?
A: St.Augustine’s

4. What is your favorite color?
A: Black

5. Who is your celebrity crush?
A: Salma Hayek

6. Favorite drink?
A: mojito

7. Dream vacation?
A: Bahamas beaches

8. Favorite dessert?
A: Caramel

9. What do you want to be when you grow up?
A: An entrepreneur

10. What do you love most in life?
A: Missus

11. One Word to describe you.
A: Drifter

12. Your flickr name.
A: I don't have one...

The 2 mistakes of my life

From: ArunKGeorge@gmail.com
Sent: 06/3/2008 10:48 AM
To: info@chetanbhagat.com
Subject: The 2 mistakes of my life

Dear Chetan,

This email is just a confession letter. You have let me down and I have no reason to read your future books. You don't know me. I'm an ordinary techie from Bangalore who read your books. And somehow I felt I could write to you after that. I can actually tell others what I am feeling right now, and that I am anyway doing through my blog - which is to request you to stop writing for everybody's sake. (I know this was kind of a strange sentence, but had to match with your hero's)

I made two mistakes, I want to go into details, as I am not a fool like your hero who just gives sneak previews and no details in his e-mails.

My first mistake - I bought and read your second book "One night @ a call center"
My second mistake - I bought and read your third book "The 3 mistakes of my life"

Now if you ask me why I bought your second and third books, its simple - because I am a huge fan of your first book. It has all that ever needs to be told about the college spirit. College to my friends and me was a place where we did everything except studies. Your book was such a refreshing one at retelling our own stories to us so well that I could see myself in most of the situations narrated in your book. It evoked memories about our (mis)adventures, pricked nostalgic senses and often brought a lost-in-memory-kind-of-smile to my face each time I read or thought about a passage.

Now after that path breaking book, you came out with ON@CC. In my opinion, it was a poorly written sequel to your first book. I was still ready to give you the benefit of doubt as you were not an experienced writer and also because you had at least selected a modern plot. Even though the story was a complete bore, the setting and some of the incidents had something attractive about them, because it was all happening around a call center. Now since your readers somewhat accepted that book also, you somehow thought you could come out with any damn nonsensical story line and still manage to get away with that. That is evident from your third book. What kind of a story is that? Apart from that utterly stupid story-line, do you think the book has any other USP which will take it through to the shores? Stories of unemployed youth trying out their luck in a number of business ventures, at the same time engaging themselves in their other passions is told over and again by countless storytellers of our nation. Do we need an IIT+IIM->IBanker to offer us the old wine in an old bottle yet another time?

Your books tagline says its "Based on real events,..." Márquez sets some of his works on his Macondo in a magical way. Rushdie also showed us how to tell a story interspersed with real events through The Midnight Children. If your attempt was to do anything similar to that, I am afraid, it was a failure. In your story, the real incidents looked more like forced into the storyline because there is a need for a catalyst. I don't think they jelled well to the storyline. The real incidents were kind of standing out from the main flow. Something like the characters read newspaper and found out that there was a volcano eruption happening somewhere or that somebody landed in mars. The effect of these incidents on the storyline was minimal except for the last major incident mentioned. But then that is the bare minimum one expects from a book ‘based on real events’. Anyways, as somebody mentioned somewhere else, an attempt to describe the relevance of the real incidents to the storyline will be like opining on the saltiness of pickle in a hootch shop where a spurious hootch catastrophe just took place.

This e-mail is not a sentimental decision. As many around me tell me, I am a good techie because I have little emotion. This is no knee-jerk reaction. I waited over three days, watched my missus' silent face whenever I was reading your book. But after all that, when I finished the book, I felt like throwing the book out of the window, I had no choice left. I have no regrets either. May be I’d have wanted to talk to some random bimbette once more but that doesn’t seem like such a good idea right now, as my missus might read this.

Sorry to bother you with this. But I felt like I had to tell someone. You have ways to improve as an author but you have written a decent book (when you contained yourself to IITs, IIMs and may be I Banking). So, please please restrict your creative freedom to your familiar terrain and abstain from venturing into the love life of gujjus, marwaris, punjabis, mallus and the like. There are umpteen numbers of stupid idiots out there, who call themselves 'writers', to do that job. Please don't add yourself that long list. Have a good day.

Regards,
Techie

If you are completely clueless as to what this is all about, please read this.

Medical Insurance Trap

A friend of mine recently fell from his bike while taking a turn, and ended up getting some minor bruises on his leg. He approached a 'reputed' hospital in Bangalore to get his leg attended to. On realizing that my friend is an IT professional, the doctor casually asked him whether he had medical insurance coverage. When my friend proudly produced his TTK card, the Dr advised him to get admitted for a day so they could start their treatment. They gave him a local anesthesia and proceeded to clean the small wound on his leg and then dressed it up. He was asked to take rest under observation and was subsequently discharged after a day. The bill for a day of treatment was 22,000 Rupees. My friend was not that bothered as he could use his TTK card to foot the bill.

A win-win situation for you and the Dr, right?

WRONG!

We are actually allowing ourselves to be trapped into a black hole. We might think that medical insurance premium is anyway covered as a part of our cost-to-company and we don’t have to keep contributing anything in an active manner. The premium we pay may look poultry when compared to the bills we are able to pay using the card. But one simple thing we need to realize is there is nothing called a free meal. We will have to pay the prize, if not today, then tomorrow. And if might be a case of us paying through our noses.

We are going through the nascent phase of medical insurance industry in India. All the sops we enjoy now are part of the incentives the medical insurance industry is sowing for a grand harvest for them tomorrow. In simple words, they are promoting medical insurance policies by making them easily affordable for the majority. They will be more than happy to foot your bills for a limited period, gain your trust and then suck you in.

Some of the hospitals in Bangalore have two different rates. A lesser rate for people who pay without medical insurance and a rate which is multiple times the original rate which is for people who pay using medical insurance. Nobody complains as they are not aware of the danger yet. In future, as more and more people are lured in to taking a medical insurance, these hospitals will start making the hyped up rate their default rate. Insurance companies will start increasing the premiums to their liking. You and I will be left with no option but pay the high premiums as the medical costs will become unaffordable otherwise.

Cut to USA. One of the major issues in this year's presidential election is going to be related to medical expenses, universal medical care and affordability of health insurance. Each of the presidential candidates has come out with their own strategy to address the issue and most probably this is going to be the single largest issue which will decide the outcome of the poll. The way the medical industry functions in USA is really pathetic. Costs of hospitalization and treatment are astronomical and are not affordable for general public. You cannot survive without having a health insurance policy. And the insurance policies are not cheap as they are here in India. The policy will amount to a substantial part of your salary, if you are opting for full coverage for the entire family.

Something from my personal experience: A simple dental root canal surgery costed me around 2200$. Because I had a copayment insurance I had to pay around 400$ and the rest was taken care of by the insurance company. Just compare this with the current rates in India. Even the copayment I made is much more than the entire cost of surgery if performed in India now.

According to Wiki:
The U.S. spends more on health care, both as a proportion of gross domestic product (GDP) and on a per-capita basis, than any other nation in the world. Current estimates put U.S. health care spending at approximately 16% of GDP. The health share of GDP is expected to continue its historical upward trend, reaching 19.5 percent of GDP by 2017. In 2007, the U.S. spent a projected $2.26 trillion on health care, or $7,439 per person.

Americans without health insurance coverage at some time during 2006 totaled about 16% of the population, or 47 million people. Health insurance costs are rising faster than wages or inflation, and medical bills are overwhelmingly the most common reason for personal bankruptcy in the United States.

Cut back to India. If anyone goes to Manipal Hospital for delivery with a TTK card, they will invariably opt for cesarean and hand them a bill of 50,000 Rs. The simple reason is that is the upper limit set for a delivery by TTK. I have heard rumors that TTK has blacklisted Manipal Hospital because of their atrocious claims.

In India, we have a chain of solid, reliable and not so expensive state owned and private hospitals due to the good work of a lot of doctors, hospital administrators and government regulations. We should not allow that backbone to be broken to satisfy the greed of a bunch of private hospitals and insurance companies.

Things we can do
1. Spread awareness.
2. Even if you are paying using insurance, make sure the charges are just and reasonable.
3. Find out the regular rates at the hospital. Object to paying more and try to bring it to higher authorities' notice.
4. Pay from your pocket and get it reimbursed later. (suggested by Sand)

Idiot Box News

If there is a poll to find out the worst English news channel, I am sure 'Headlines Today' will win it by miles. You get trash and only trash from that channel. The channel is dedicated to airing stupid celebrity gossips 24 by 7. Day before yesterday their prime time was dominated by the breaking news "Shahid Kapoor and Sania Mirza spotted together in a Mumbai mall". Since they didn’t even have the visuals to go with it (not that having visuals will make that gossip any more newsworthy), they caricatured Shahid and Sania and kept repeating those cartoons over and again. Yesterday their main news was about Sanjay Dutt calling off his marriage to whoever that girl is. If there is some event related to the word cricket taking place anywhere, then the entire day is dedicated for cricketers. So many things happen in the world and all they can find are these stupid celebrity news. They are not happy with reporting these gossips as passing news items, they take pains to turn these gossips into full-fledged shows for an hour or so with the so called 'reporter' reporting directly from the scene and 'experts' from all over the country calling in with their opinion about the incident.

The advertisement they show for their channel is an apt one for them. The adv shows some news channels airing pointless 'blah blah blahs' as news and debate, and for a 'refreshing change' the suggested channel is Headlines Today. In fact the adv looks more like it is a straight lift from what gets aired on Headlines Today.

When writing about Headlines Today, how can I miss their super hit show "Grand Stand"? Is that stupid lady who anchors that show really mad or is it only acting? How can people tolerate her in the studio? Is the recording man deaf and blind? I am sure if he sees what he captures he will grab the chair next to him and whack this lady. Her accent, actions, hairstyle and the way she presents things will convince you that either she is mad or you are going to become one soon. If she is really not mad, then I must appreciate her acting skills as it is too close to call.

From the worst channel to the worst programme - MTV Roadies 5.0.

I happened to watch a couple of episodes and now I am confused about the meaning of the word Roadie. I took Wikipedia’s help and here is what I got "The road crew (or roadies) are the technicians who travel with a band on tour, usually in sleeper buses, and handle every part of the concert productions except actually performing the music with the musicians." But that wasn't the meaning I had attributed to the term. I don’t think that is what the game show organizers also mean.

A roadie to me is someone who can ride (preferably a bike, as driving a car is much too simpler) in adverse conditions and who is a bit rough and tough to handle difficult situations and perform difficult tasks. Keeping that in mind, the show is a big disappointment to say the least. All you get to see is a set of real dumb girls and sissy guys arguing and bitching about each other throughout the show. Very few of the participating 'Roadies' know the art of driving a bike. They already had 2 accidents; one was a collision among their own bikes. Doesn't that talk volumes about their driving skills? All of them are such great stunt performers that most of them couldn't complete even one of the tasks assigned to them. That too tasks such as bowling at unmanned stumps and others like that. After a string of tasks with no results, the organizers had to invent tasks such that there will be natural elimination of one participant and hence they can declare the other as winner. Most of the episodes are filled with arguments between the lady participants on 'interesting' topics such as who among them has been flirting with the most number of guys and who is using a push-up bra (or is it pull-up?) and such crap. The guys too chip in once in a while with their contribution like "That day you tried to flirt with me. Don't you have any feelings for me?"

CRAP!

Now to the worst commercial - Pepsi YungiStaan

No words to describe this adv which features Shahrukh Khan, Deepika Padukone and Ranbir Kapoor. Let me just say that the adman who directed that adv should be shot dead. Or better still, he should be forced to watch his own creation a couple of times every day. Since I hate this adv so much, I was delighted to see the spoof by Sprite. The one in which a Ranbir-look-alike falls down after getting an electric shock when he tries to climb up the wall and then crying out things like "I am from JungleStaan, Kabaristaan" and all that... And the way the Shahrukh-look-alike cries out "Kaanthiii" is also funny. It is too good a reply and a slap on the face to the original absolute crappy adv. I am not a Sprite fan but I couldn’t resist myself from going out and buying myself a Sprite as a salute to the adv.