Free as in free coffee

“What are you upto these days? You have not blogged since July 08!!” Well, if you thought it was a question from somebody very keen on reading what Mithun Varma writes, then you are totally mistaken. But then I ‘ve been hearing this question for some time now, from a person who actually loves every word yours truly scribbles down (You might know him I guess). And I don’t want the person to wait anymore. After all Chetan Bhagat has wrote his next book and what the hell stops me from making a post! I started reading the book today in the morning and was impressed by the title “2 States”. “Shall I write something with the same title?” The person I mentioned above snapped “ Are you shameless?! Don’t you know that this is plagiarism.” If he feels so, I cant deny that fact. “Sorry mate, I wont plagiarize.I will come up with a title when I finish writing this.” So at the time this line materialises on my screen, this post is “Untitled”. I have this uncanny knack of screwing up my first para with totally unnecessary information !!

The point is “I am amazed”. The question that would follow this is “Of whom/what”. And the answer is “I am amazed at the way the demi-Gods at the higher echelons of this corporate world come with policies which are totally beneficial to the employee!!” . For instance, lets take an example “Coffee”. All my life I have been notorious for my coffee drinking habits. “You drink too much of coffee”, “This is too high a number of coffees /day for your age” , “Hey, you should reduce this count drastically. Drink may be 2 or max 3 glasses” “Buddy, this is not good” has been the some of the very frequent statements which I had stumbled upon. And what did I do to improve?! Frankly, nothing!! And while coming to work ,Coffee was something I looked forward to every day. “Free as in free coffee” was my favourite line inline with the fact that “Free as in free beer” was something which I was unable to correlate with my habits!(Fortunately or unfortunately)

This is exactly where my company came for the rescue. They simply introduced a policy where you have to pay for even a single drop of coffee! How can they be so helpful, so careful about employee’s health?!! The end result is that I don’t drink more than 2 cups a day! Something else surprises me more. I bow to the gentleman (or her ladyship!) who rephrased the depressing sentence “From now on pay for the coffee you drink” and coined the words for the mail which mentioned exactly the same thing, but reading the mail you would feel that this is a great privilege. It said about the privileges of having multifarious options as tea , coffee and the many health drinks and a lot more! As only free coffee tastes good (proven by research! ), I decided to stop taking coffee from the new tech-savvy machines which would allow you to draw coffee only if you flash the “card”, which comes at a cost and needs to be recharged as soon as you drain out the money it carries. As it turned out( atleast to my not-so-perfect eyes) the new machines offered only one more addition to the earlier machines that it recognises the card so that you don’t get free coffe. “Didn’t I hear something mentioned about options?!! Didn’t I hear something about health drinks?”.


Looking back at it I find that the abrupt end of the “Free Coffee” era was again something quite unique! Usually curb on something happens in a very slow manner. There are numerous examples I can think of now. When those were implemented I was unaware that it was getting implemented. This slow manner will make sure that nobody feels bad about it. For example , I will analyse the algorithm on how curd served with the meals is reduced. When it starts there will not be any restriction on the quantity of curd being served.You will be allowed to take as many cups as you need. As days pass by they will slightly reduce the amount of curd in the container. This will reach a point where they fill only a half of the cup. People will complain about it and they will allow those who complain to take more. This continues till the point where the size of the cup itself reduces. By this time people would have got used to the cups being half-filled! So now they serve half a cup in the small cups. At the end of it, one fine morning they will say that you are not allowed to take more than cup of curd with the meals. People will complain for some time. But as time goes they will get used to single cup of curd!! Even after all this nobody can complain that they don’t serve curd. They still “serve” curd!!


That’s the tactics and a brilliant one too. This example applies to many more areas (Unfortunately!!) . And the “sweet ,sugar-coated” mails continue to flow in, about the welfare and the privileges that each employee in the organisation is vested with. You are deprived even from the privilege of knowing that you are deprived of many privileges (Whats this?! Recursion?!!). But when you earn your salaries sitting in a/c rooms, you can (rather should) adjust to these sort of manipulations. After all you are a bunch of over-paid (in comparison to other industries) labourers! It has been real fun to watch all these “happenings” from inside the system, being a silent observer of “the art of deception”!

“(Corporate) Life is a tragedy for those who feel and a comedy for those who think”.
And I cannot agree more!

The 3 mistakes of my life!!

Greetings! After wailing about my life in Bangalore in my last post, I am back with a new "experience". One thing I should say is that I have acclimatized myself to the ways of Bangalore life which I mentioned in the previous update ;) One year into production support in a software company has made the word "update" a regular usage in my everyday life. When you earn your bread by giving more "updates" than solutions, you have every right to that :D. Atleast I feel so. Forget all that, this was just something for the first para and does not have any relation to the context of this post. So pls continue to the next para. I know you dont feel like, but pls read through as I am about to spend my valuable time tonight (ofcourse I am writing this after the day's office work) on the other paragraphs which do not exist as of now! :)

Thanks for considering my request. This post has no relation whatsoever to Chetan Bhagat's new book "Three mistakes of my life”, other than the fact that I am adopting his title for this post and the 2 characters other than me in the events mentioned are given the names of the hero and heroine of the book (I think I should mention that I had a good time reading the book). So the hero of my story is, as the name goes Govind and the heroine Vidya and the lead role (a ridiculous one unfortunately) is yours truly. :)

Govind and I grew in our hometown together. And having grown together, we knew each other pretty too well :). The 3 year age difference was no bar for our friendship and let me tell you,Govind my cousin is one of the sweetest persons I have ever come across in my life. It all starts with Govind well settled with a good job, and the most eligible bachelor of the neighbourhood and myself the boy next door who just completed his graduation and having a pretty decent job offer in a multinational(Pls allow me to project myself at par with the hero, atleast make an attempt). That’s it for a general intro on the state of affairs when our story takes place.

Some of the mistakes a person makes, starts with some prejudices that person keeps in his mind. The mistakes of my life belong to this category. I always had the notion that Govind was the "good boy" of the group (trying to look things from a parent's perspective). He may make comments on girls when in our company, he may talk freely with girls whom he knows, but I always thought "He will never fall in love with a girl”. The first mistake of my life!!

Our "most eligible" is still a bachelor getting a lot of marriage proposals. I knew about this as Govind himself had told me so. The stage is set for the second mistake. I was killing time with my new hobby of reading the Orkut profiles when I happened to go through Govind's profile. I thought of scrapping him and opened his scrapbook. My dear reader here comes the third character to the story. Vidya,our heroine's scrapbook entry :) As there were no other scraps from girls and there were two from this lady, I clicked the link which took me to her profile. Sorry Govind no mood to scrap you now! As expected no photo of the lady who will eventually become the heroine in this blog. After some more days I saw her scrap again in Govind's profile. The next day I saw Govind and asked him "Hey man! Been seeing too many scraps from this girl Vidya in your scrapbook. You know her?” And the reply came "Met her in orkut. We chat sometimes. Thats it". "Will this end up a love story? Or you are already in l.., hehe" I teased him. He replied, with the very innocent Govind expression, "Nothing like that". I believed that statement from Govind.Of all the certainties I believed in this world, this one was the most certain (melodramatic exaggeration, sorry for that), "I will be the first to know if Govind falls in love with a girl". And that makes the second mistake!!

Now there is a long duration in time and by this period, I had made my previous post :). I was on a weekend visit to one of my relative's house in Bangalore. I was busy talking to them when my phone ringed. The name "Govind" was displayed. Since I had a talk with him 2-3 days back, I was surprised and thought why he will be calling now. A very odd time, of 3 on a Sunday afternoon, knowing the person who was calling. Usually Govind will be busy "THINKING" at these times after the lunch. :) I answered the phone, with a modulated "Hello" since I did not want the relatives to hear our usual way of talk. And then I heard the shocking news! No it was not "I am in love". I could have withstanded that news pretty well. But this one was worse. "Hi man, my marriage is fixed" Govind's voice rang reverberations through my head (sorry again for giving such terrible and pathetic melodramatic descriptions repeatedly).I could not ask anything else. I just heard all the events at his end for the day. How he and his parents went there to see Vidya and how everyone liked her. My third mistake was this: ‘I believed I will know well in advance from Govind if he was going to see some girl as per some marriage proposal which was proceeded forward by both families!’

All is well that ends well. It turned out that Govind had asked his parents to proceed with Vidya's proposal(horoscopes, go to hell !) since both of them were in love( I am not sure how much Govind and Vidya will agree on this statement, but still I believe thats the truth).Govind and Vidya are happily married now and the best of it all is that I find Vidya fitting easily into the talks and friendship that myself and Govind share. The one moral of this story, which I learned "Never trust your cousin when it comes to matters regarding love ;)". This blog materialized after a chat Vidya and I had in Gtalk. During the chat I came to know that Govind had gone to Vidya's house to see her once, much before he went "officially"!!!!!. No, I cant add more to the count of mistakes. :) "Upon God, never trust your cousin when it comes to matters like this". :) I called Govind the moment I heard this last revelation and promised him "For all this secrets you hid from me I will make them public. I will blog them!". And this one is for you Govind. :)

Last nail in my coffin :

I am trying to present a love story of myself before Vidya during a chat session (Ofcourse with the finesse Kevin Spacey's character tells the story in "Usual Suspects"). I messaged Govind that I am going to tell a story and the name of my lady love :O and that he should co-operate. With this I started crafting a magnificent story with all the essential ingredients for a love story and presented it to Vidya. I said it in the most convincing manner and even showed her my lady love's photos!! I was so impressed with my imagination and was about to stop the story when Vidya said "That was a nice story, I enjoyed it". Govind had told her what I am doing!! Thats it, the last nail in my coffin. I am dead!! May my soul rest in peace ..

Changing times

Well, time goes so fast. Atleast your engineering college life. And that is something very depressing. You will be reminded in every single moment, that you have passed the best moments of your life and that you wont ever get back those memorable 4 years,and you cannot do anything about that. So thats exactly the situation in my life. I have moved from the sweet "college life" to the "corporate life". And with that i have moved from Kerala to "namma Bengaluru". Obviously this one is on my 'experiences' of my first few weeks in Bangalore.

Let me start on the positive note. With that previous statement you got the whole point.'This guy is going to throw dirt on Bangalore life'. This is strictly my personal view and as one of my good friends puts it, "the view of a person who should have been born 60 years back". I am sure there wont be many takers for these opinions.Please bear with me.

Let me try to see the glass "half full". The climate here is really good and having a job is nice i agree. I am free to spend money on whatever i think of, just because it is my own. I dont feel that pride when i buy a shirt or shoe or anything like that. But i feel that pride when i eat something. Seems silly? But thats truth. I can eat as many icecreams as i want. I can have as many chocolates as i want. Wow! i like this state of things.

Well cherish those statements guys, the rest of the blog sees it "half empty" almost everywhere. And the characters who are being mentioned are mostly not Bangaloreians. They are from all parts of India and most of them,if not all, are seen in the corridors of the corporate world. So this is not on Bangalore as it is but on corporate world. I have started seeing many things that i have not seen for the past 22 years of my life. And most of them are not pleasant,atleast for me.

Within these very few days here, i have found one fact. The only thing that matters here is "money". You have value only if you have money. And that too in large quantities. Not only you should have money, you should show it in the way you dress. That fact is the most evident when you enter shopping malls. If you are not wearing branded attire, the sales people in the shops dont even bother looking at you. So the next time you are out to shop in any mall make sure that you have that branded jeans and shoes and other accesories in display on your body.

The next is about my food eating ways here. All my life i have eaten iddlis,dosas and rice with my hands. But now i eat it with a spoon!!! Why i cant eat it with my hands is simple. Ego.Its a prestige issue. With all the people eating around you eating with spoons and forks you have no choice but to eat with spoons. If you eat with your hands, its "really nice" to see the look on the faces of the waiters serving the food to you. You can see this statement on their face,"Duh! Third rate cultureless fellow, eats with his hands in this high class hotel!! ". If you think this is an over statement, well i have seen it in Bangalore many a time.

Following is about the traffic here in Bangalore. The driving habits of the people here is really good. They dont know their vehicle has a thing named "horn" fitted into it. And if they enter some main road from a pocket road what they will do is to drive on till the middle of the road and then put a brake on the wheels. The bikers are the best. They "invent" roads on footpaths. I have seen persons driving their bikes right through a bus stop!!!!

Being born and brought up my entire life in Kerala i have seen women smoking cigars and taking liquor only in movies and that too villanous characters. But here i see 'heroines' enjoying these things without even a bit of second thought. If men can smoke then women surely can, i agree. But then it is a very disturbing sight for a person who comes from a village in Kerala.--You loser from Kerala this is 21st century. "Zamaana badal gaya hei !!".

So what was the whole point in this blog. Nothing i guess.Just something for a new post. But these are some of the thoughts my first few days in Bangalore evoked. As i said "The thoughts of a person who should have born 60 years ago!".

Kanyakumari Trip: The Road to Kanyakumari

The blog is turning into “updated once in a month” category..Well didn’t find anything worth blogging..Unlike the previous posts this time I am making it a bit more personal. I had gone for a Kanyakumari trip last week and so have decided to blog about the trip. I have been living at Trivandrum for 4 long years and have not gone for many outings during this time( I mean to places which are nearby). Everyone from our house wanted to go for a trip to kanyakumari but it never happened .. We had made the plans many a time but it never “happened”..Finally it happened last week and I learned a lesson-The trips don’t happen if u plan them too early..We decided to go for the trip on Wednesday and went on Friday. Such quick planning is the best way to go for a trip. Just pack your bag and go.

So we are ready to go for the trip..4 from my house Vivek, Sharath ,Varun and me..Two other friends Shabeer and Mujeeb joined to make the total 6. They arranged a car and Mujeeb was to do all the driving. As per schedule we started at 9.15 in the morning. I noted down all the timings in the morning newspaper –“save trees, use less paper” . After a light breakfast and filling diesel we started the journey..We just moved 1-2 kms when Sharath thought it was high time the music system came to the scene.. The first was a Tamil song “Kattippudi kattippudidaa” (one “hell” of a song for me, actually)..But since such a fast song was too unavoidable for others I decided to try enjoying it..Suddenly I missed Chandu(my room mate) very much..This song is one of his favourites and I really missed his presence all during the tour..But still the tour was great..

10:00 am : Shabeer has gained his form..Started with his bunch of comments and jokes..Mujeeb is going fast and Sharath reading the sign boards well to know the routes to take..Its 10.55 now and we have crossed the Tamil Nadu borders. The “Welcome to Tamil Nadu. Enjoy 56 % reduced (??) roaming rates now.” sms was delivered to our mobiles. I noted down the place- “Kuzhitura”. Still the sign boards were in Malayalam and English and we did not have problems knowing the directions. But it was not to be so, as we were soon to realise. Our first destination was “Pathmanabhapuram Palce” at Thakkala ( the one shown in 'Manichithrathazhu'). Without much difficulty we found the place where we had to take the deviation from the main road. Thus we reached the palace at around 11.15. The palace was much more magnificent than my expectations. The architectural beauty was beyond description. We roamed around the palace relating every place to the scenes of Manichithrathazhu. Having seen the movie more than 25 times, I could say which shots were at which place quite easily. There were people to describe each and every room about their purpose and all. I liked the room where the famous “Oru murai vanth parthaya” was shot. Another place was where the song “Varuvanillarumee” is shot. A long corridor where you can see your reflection on the floor. When I saw the movie I thought it was because they had sprinkled water all over the place that they got that mirror effect.. We took a lot of snaps there Varun being the photographer..I was really wondering why I havent seen a beautiful girl yet..(Kaanan kollavunna penkuttikal tourinu pokku nirthiyo eeshwaraa !!) And then….. This paragraph is getting too big; let me move to the next ;-)

And then , I saw her..The most beautiful girl I had seen that day (Strictly speaking the title of “most beautiful” was to remain till the afternoon only, hehe). I was relieved. So the beautiful girls have not stopped going for tours.(Samadhanamayi..) As there were no more of the above mentioned category to be found anywhere at the palace I decided to watch her.(Njan oru vann vaayanokki alla tto..Plz don’t misunderstand me ;-D ). We moved around the palace always sticking to the gentlemen attitude “ladies first”. Or to put it more frankly “beautiful ladies first”. Even though I watched the girl now and then, I never forgot the scenic extravaganza offered by the palace. I really envied the kings who lived there. What a great place to live in. With each nook and corner of the palace gleaming with uniqueness in one way or other, it would be the best home one could have. Atleast I felt so. As Sharath exclaimed “It would have been easy for the people who lived here to spend time. Start walking at one end of the palace and by the time you finish you will have spent a large part of the day!! Simple.” . We didn’t think of the time that passed by. By the time we were out of the palace and completed a quick walk around the archeological museum it was 12.45. Vivek reminded that if we cannot reach Kanyakumari by 3 we wont get a boat to the Vivekananda rock. So we dropped the idea of having lunch there. After having a small refreshment we all got in to the car and started to Kanyakumari..(Mujeebe vittoo..3 maNik ethaNam) .

Now if I don’t mention Mujeeb’s driving expertise it would be a big mistake. He was really fast and at the same time very cautious. I was wondering why the Tamil Nadu roads were so clean..After having travelled to Madurai during our s3 trip I really had the notion on how the TN roads were..But this time the roads are clean!!! We didn’t have to wait too long..The roads started showing their real nature. Whatever I had thought in praise of the progresses in cleanliness of the TN people was flown down the drain..Old Chankaran still on the coconut tree..("Pandathe chankaran thengumme thanne" ,hehe). Considering the fact that Mujeeb was driving at 90 kmph(not a tint of exaggeration in mention of the speed) we were sure to make it easily before 3 and get there before the boat service stopped. Now to our dismay the rain clouds were starting to show . By the time Vivek finished saying that the trip would be spoiled if it rained, it had started to rain and that too quite heavily. Was this going to be the sad end of a much awaited Kanyakumari trip?? No way..It was destined to happen this time..The rain stopped soon and the skies opened up and after a few more kilometres it was again bright sunlight. And the sign boards were encouraging too..We were nearer and again the roads were in the best of their conditions as Mujeeb would prefer it. The car started gaining speeds again and I was now looking at the speedometer . Frankly, I am little bit afraid of high speeds. But then I saw that the others were not at all concerned of the speeds. So I kept watching at the speedometer without saying anything. And finally it happened..The meter showed the 100kmph mark..No comments on that coz speed is still increasing and I saw 110 kmph..The only thought in my mind,though I didn’t mention it to anyone then , was to reach there quickly so that I could get out of the car soon. And to my great relief the first signs of the Kanyakumari town were showing up. Its 2 pm and we saw the Kanyakumari railway station. Soon I could see the sea right ahead. We parked the car by the roadside and got down. Now to the boat jetty to get a boat to Vivekananda rock..This is the end of the beginning..

Krishnaa Nee Begane Baro Baro..

I am sitting in very "quiet" surroundings when making this post!! Its festival time at the temple near my college and the speakers are roaring. You thought it was some 'mantra' chanting by the priests or some hymns in praise of the deity "SreeKrishna"?? Naaa..What I am hearing now is a peppy number from the Tamil movie "Anyan"(song is Andangakka kondakkari !! Now u get it)..What has such a song got to do with my favourite Lord?? I dont know..Even if it was some form of prayers in praise of the Lord I dont think it is too amusing considering the volume with which they are playing the music..Now you think that I am living very close to the temple and so its quite natural that there is a speaker being put in front of the temple during festival time.. Sorry to disappoint you but I am living almost 1 km away from the temple..Its not the speaker at the temple that is making such loud noise(thank God they didnt manage one), we have got one right at the start of our lane..Sadly thats not the last one,the speakers are there after about 1.5 kms too..My heartfelt condolences to the unfortunate souls who have their houses close to temples..

There is something else that provoked me to make this post. I was going out to have lunch today with my friend Chethan. We just reached the college front when I got a call and i just walked on answering it without looking if Chethan was with me..After the call I looked back to see him far behind surrounded by 4-5 people..Since a technical festival was going on in our college I thought he was talking to some friends who happened to come for the event..Then I saw him taking money from his purse and giving it to one of them..I still thought they were friends but then why was this guy handing over a receipt..Nothing special, the "friends" were people collecting funds for the temple..The way they does it looked (atleast to me) as if they were robbing..Not many people will have the guts to say no to a group of 4-5 people who demand money surrounding you..I am not against receiving funds for temple festivals..I agree there will be many expenses ,but making every passer-by make a donation is something I strongly disagree..There is not much of a difference for this act to burglary..


The second is something which I did not see but was told to me by my room mate..He was passing by when he happened to overhear a Christian nun asking a person who was setting up the 'notorious' speakers in front of the college.. She was asking if they could reduce the volume..Though my friend did not wait for the person to reply,I am sure what the reply would have been..If he was polite enough he would have told he cannot reduce the volume because the temple authorities wanted it in full volume or a curt reply would have been something against Christian churches.. I pity the One who gets most of the disrespect because of these "loud speaker preachings"..Yeah thats it, our own "Lord Krishna"..The next in line is the majority of the Hindus who are against this "loud speaker bhakthi"(in which I am one)..Though only a minority is responsible, the label of a 'public nuisance' goes to Hindu community as a whole..This phenomenon is common to all religions I presume..The majority being labeled intolerant for the actions by a minority..

The authorities wont be able to make any prompt action because the moment they try to curb on the use of speakers, these unworthy souls who put up speakers, would take the ultimate weapon in modern day India..Violence in the name of religion..They would make umpteen statements on how their right to pray was infringed by the authorities and how the majority Hindus was ill-treated by others..You may be thinking what the purpose of this post was..I know this wont make a change in the social setup and the speakers will continue to roar as they do now..But then everyone has the right to be sad..I just wanted to express the dislike I feel on such happenings in the name of the religion..A religion that has been in existence for centuries..One that has taught us to practise ours without "bothering" others..Only thing I can do is to pray to God stop this blatant blasphemy..The song has changed (thank God) to a more melodious one but still the sound has not reduced ..I have been lamenting for long and I dont want you to be bored more..I conclude this post with a song in mind :
"Krishna nee begane..Baro.. baro.."

The Humble Programmer

I think I made a wrong assumption in my last post..I wanted myself to "walk fast", but cant do it whatsoever..Now I realise something..You cant be a good blogger overnight..So I have decided to try walking slow, though with some difficulty I am managing it..I read an interesting book today titled "The Humble Programmer" by the pioneer computer scientist Edsgar W Dijkstra..The way in which he has presented the book in simply excellent..The book reflects Dijkstra's own experiences being a programmer and what he thinks should the thought process be like in the development of programs and for that matter any technological project..

The book depicts many interesting experiences from his life..This is the one he mentions as the incident that changed his life..-"Full of misgivings I knocked on the door of Prof. van Wijngaarden's( his boss at Mathematical Centre in Amsterdam) office door asking him whether I could "speak to him for a moment";when I left his office after a number of hours I was another person. For after having listened to my problems patiently ,he agreed that up till that moment,there was not much of a programming discipline, but he then went on to explain quietly that computers were here to stay,that we were just at the beginning and could not I be one of the persons called to make programming a respectable discipline in the years to come? This was a turning point in my life. One moral of the above story is ,of course, that we must be very careful when we give advice to younger people: sometimes they follow it!"

Some of his personal experiences that he shares are quite interesting as he has presented them in a humerous manner..Thought of sharing it with you..Dijkstra was asked to change his profession name from "programmer" to "theortical physicist" by the authorities when he filled his marriage certificate..At that time programming was not considered a "profession" and few people knew what it meant too..Quite hard to believe that such a social setup ever existed ,considering the fact that most of the youth nowadays try making a living doing just "programming"..

The concluding statement is the most infallible one: "We shall do a much better programming job,provided that we approach the task with a full appreciation of its tremendous difficulty,provided that we stick to modest and elegant programming languages,provided that we respect the intrinsic limitations of the human mind and approach the task as Very Humble Programmers."

I find the book very inspiring..It has something about it that motivates you..That encourages you to think different and think beyond the present state of existence of things..It is the proof from a man who decided to take a path less travelled and found his way to glory..The most worthy message this book puts before you is a virtue named "humility"..The world calls for more and more "Humble Programmers"..

The first step

I have been thinking for long of seriously starting a blog after reading all my friends' blogs. I was amused by many of them, by the manner in which they put down what they thought and a bit amazed how they could do it .What to blog and how? I was not sure.I've been wondering when would i be starting my experiments with blogging. I've not formed an answer in my mind regarding "how and what to blog" question even now. But have decided to make this post and see if blogging is really my piece of cake.

The inspiration for starting a blog all of a sudden was the quote i read somewhere on the net.

"The distance is nothing; it is only the first step that is difficult."

So i dare make the first step. I hope to travel long distances and try making something really creative. Now that i have made the difficult first step i hope to continue walking really fast..