Monday, September 1, 2008

Strange Things

I guess this is the take off from the movie Wild Things, which I am sure every engineer has seen wide eyed. Anyway, in a lighter vein of things, I have modified the line Dilios says in 300 to suit any engineer to tell the truth:
“The old ones say that we engineers are descended from Newton himself. Taught never to look at women, never to sleep. Taught that cheating in the exam is the greatest glory he could achieve in his life. Engineers: the finest drunkards the world has ever known”
So moving on, with the song Cocaine stuck in my head.. “if you wanna get down, down on the ground; cocaine; she dont lie, she dont lie, she dont lie..cocaine” Actually this is the product of a person whose senses right now are numbed to the point, where coming up with something to put on the blog is becoming a pain itself. So over the weekend, read a book called War 2020, a world in which the US influence is decreased due to increased Japanese technology whose laser weapons have created a stalemate in the world. Basically Russia is down, and the Cold War continues with Japan and US on opposite ends. The US military is obliterated by the Japanese war machines, and the economy due to extensive outsourcing is controlled by outside forces. Now the Americans decide to support Russia in an unprecedented move to push back the rebel forces in Russia and thus regain some of the lost pride which they lost in wars to South Africa, Mexico, Los Angeles(internal gang rebellion) and Latin America in general who were being supplied by the Japanese. Also a disease without a cure ravages the western world while the eastern world somehow survives it unscathed. Now this all sounds very unbelievable to the point of being ludicrous, but hear the author out after the setting. It’s a pretty interesting book as to what happens and all. I personally think that this has to do with the outsourcing issue and the irrational fear that the Americans have about it. I mean the jobs that are being outsourced to other countries are the non essential jobs, that one could argue could have generated jobs in US but is being outsourced to India. But the fact remains that the corporations save a lot of money here, which they reinvest to have meaningful jobs back in the US. I mean, they pay software engineers in India the equivalent of what a guy flipping burgers in a McDonalds in US. Would people want to really do those jobs, or will the corporations be willing to pay them higher for those jobs? It could signal the end of the software bubble that India has been riding on for the last couple of years. Otherwise, it could lead to a monumental loss to the US market, as the jobs don’t get filled and the corporations claim the taxes… However, with both candidates set against outsourcing, we will have to wait and see the results of their policies.
Also the other thing was seeing John McCain selecting Sarah Palin as his running mate. This is a disappointment coming from a senator of 30 years to select someone who does not seem qualified to hold the post of Vice President. I don’t have anything against her, but it just seems an amateurish way to capture the women vote and appease the Conservatives… It just seems like this might blow up in his face with Sarah Palin being inexperienced whereas McCain attacks Obama on being inexperienced.
Anyway, enough of the American elections, I am too tired to discuss that any further today. I instead wanted to talk about a section I belonged to while in IIT Roorkee. It was called Program Management or PM for short, part of Cultural society. Once upon a time in my first year, I remember going to an interview with a group of people. I thought generally at the time, to stay away from my room. I figured, either I should be in the room to study or outside enjoying. So I sat down, and two people took my interview. It was a weird interview. In two minutes they figured out I didn’t know hindi, could not draw, and wasn’t all too imaginative. I figured, that’s the end of it, lets have pizza at Nescafe and go back to the room, but for some reason they passed me through. Again, probably a clerical error of putting my paper on the wrong stack now that I think back to it. So I made it to this group at the time. It seemed like a fun group and the people seemed fun. The first meeting we had, I was christened Yella at any rate. One of the seniors found Rahul too hard to remember and thus shortened my last name to that.. Now four years later, that’s the name everyone knows me by. I honestly don’t think anyone knows me as Rahul. I even wrote an article in third year in a magazine claiming I am not Yella. Actually I tried to emulate Leonard Nimoy who plays Spock in Star Trek. He wrote a book I am not Spock as everyone associated him with that only..Later he wrote a book called I am Spock. Anyway after that article, people called me Yella even more… Back to the story, PM was a big part of my time in IITR. I worked and the people in the group were fun and energetic as hell. It involved basically organizing events for Cult Soc. Through this group, I had some very cool seniors and some very good juniors. I made some of my best friends there and four years was too short a time to spend with you guys there. I will always treasure the moments with you guys. Actually the trip down nostalgia lane was brought upon while discovering a greeting card given four years back by these guys on my birthday. I found it when I was packing my parents stuff so that they could move. I guess at the end of all things, all you are left with are memories of a time you left behind.

3 comments:

SAM said...

hi yella(there you go!!)nice blog man...as much as u miss PM i m sure all of us who have worked and spent time with u miss u...I think selection of Palin was a great political decision,now McCain is leading Obama!!!...see how creative people become in a democracy :)

anky88 said...

all that i got to say after this "we miss u YELLA "

Unknown said...

You "worked" at PM? Ahem!