Beloved

Sure signs of Climate change...

Emissions Targets - The reality

Prompted by the targets set by some nations to tackle climate change, global warming blah blah.. take it as a layman point of view, from a thinking citizen.
Well to start all the nations seem to have geared up to tackle the problem, even the people are too, or it seems. Go ask anyone on the street if they want the Government to t do something about it, the answer would be a definite yes, but the problem is whether they want to go the extra mile? Well, its a rather maybe.
I have lived in 2 countries India and USA. While India is already a mess, I would talk about USA, because the people here seem to be more concerned (80% population in India wont understand global warming), and say want to do something.
BUT, would they buy the cars which have low emissions, or give more milleage rather than a luxury car(even if they have the money). May be not Definitely. Would they use the bus instead of car, say if they have to walk half mile. Well may be, not definitely.
Now take the government, last year it passed a resolution saying by 2020, every car should give a 35 MPG. Well consider this, my Honda Civic 1998 model, gives 35 already on highway, and around 30 in city. So in short, they have put in a milestone which they already achieved 10 years back, meaning they are running 20 years behind.
Whether its an oversight of the Government or a whitewash of the public is debatable.
If you ask me, I would say by 2015 it should be 40 MPG(ideal conditions). dont know how they do it, see the money going to the account of the company board and sitting there, should be better utilized in research, might create some jobs too.
Now we come to the G8 summit going on, India, china, Brazil dont want any targets set, it hampers there growth. I dont know what makes them think that industries and emissions hamper growth. Specially India, which was at the pinnacle of civilization with only agriculture. Anyways, so the "industrialized" nations have set targets, for 2050. cut green house emby 80% by 2050. I dont know what makes them think they would make it to 2050, when people are already looking forward to the adventure in 2012.
Oh that 80% is from the 1990 standards, that was 20 years back. I want to ask just a simple question, cant we just set short term 5years target? say 5% in 5 years? Well have the 40year target if you want too, but what if when we reach 2050 and stil we didnt do anything? I do that everytime, I think I will do something by a week, and a week passes and I set it for the next. So I am worried.
The countries are again waiting for a global consesus on how much should they cut. I mean hello, if you are ready to cut emission why dont you go ahead and do it? Why do you have to wait for other countries to sign a treaty first? The industrialized countries want the developing ones to sign those too? If you showed the way into it, cant you take the lead and show them the way out? No they want a global consensus. Like Australia can cut by 5-25% by 2020 depending on what others agree. If you know you can cut by 25% why not go ahead and do that? That too Australia, the first country to be affected by Ozone layer hole.
The last point the fuel prices, I had an argument with a friend who was angry that they were increasing fuel prices in India, In India the prices are regulated and the government decided when to raise it. there are heavy subsidies on the price. When there is a global price hike the government looses money. So I am in favor of price hike, not only because it would save money for government, it would put a check on the fuel usage. The guy said, "see so many people need gas in everyday life, my Dad goes to office in his scooter, I go to college in bike and my sister uses a moped, an increase of 2 Rupees means 1000Rs more in a month. For example I used to fill my tank every 3 days. It would leave us crippled." My answer was all the things you said is the reason why I support the price hike. Look at USA, the prices are so low, that people dont care, they drive a truck when a bike can suffice. And in India we have a very good public transport system. I say increase the price by 10Rs and build a good public transport system. Increasing price would make them use it less, use the public transport more. It will do a lot of good. I should know, after I got a bike in India, I never touched my bicycle, even when I had to go a mile.
And when people use it for pleasure why should the government bear it? In India, Diesel is highly subsidized, because it affects the transport of essential goods. The price is half as of petrol. So people tend to buy diesel cars instead of petrol cars. I am in favour if the government puts a tax of 50000Rs on the diesel cars. Or makes it a rule that the subsidy is only for trucks.
Why should the government spend for your pleasure, then you will crib when the taxes increase.
What happened to logical thinking?

My Takes

This one is for myself. My quotes, yet to be famous.
Putting it here, so that I have a proof that its my quote if it becomes famous...
(Wishful thinking?)
- Life is the Universe's quest to understand itself.
- Everything in life is so overrated, while life itself so underrated.
- Marriages are made in heaven, no wonder so many of them break when they hit the ground realities.
- He who plants thorns, might have already stolen the roses.

Truth about Amazon shipping...

Hmmm judging by the things I write, the topic seems off. Or may be not. All I write is my experience. Well for the last 3 years I have used Amazon extensively (I think), 32 orders to be accurate its almost 1 order per month. Anyways, they have these 3-4 shipping options, charging according to the speed. Of course I choose the slowest one possible.
They even have a free shipping, which again I have used extensively. They are kind enough to give an explanation of what the shipping and delivery date times mean and how is it calculated. So the free shipping is delivered in 5-9 days after shipping and shipping itself takes 3-5 days. Its free so why complain. I am not. But there is a funny way they operate. Like you see something is in stock, and if you choose 2 day delivery you would get in 2 days flat, But when you go for standard or the free shipping it wont be shipped for 3 days. I always wondered if they have the stock and the order, why not ship them. Anyway may be they want people to go for the 2 day ship. Anyways, now when it comes for delivery you see it can take 5-9 days from shipping. So you get an item shipped mail on 10th then you expect it on 15th.
Once I checked my mail and the item was shipping from Bell,CA. In terms of package delivery its like next door :). but guess what it took its own sweet time to arrive in 5 days. As I was wondering whats happenign, I was checking the tracking on usps and amazon both. Although Amazon said item is shipped, usps said no detail available for whole 3 days and then it had some update. So I thought amazon guys are cheating.
It happened 2-3 time, I think I had to cancel one order too.
When it happened with an UPS order I could figure out what was hapening. for those 3 days UPS showed status as Billing Info received, and explained that this means The shipping label has been printed but the package is still not with UPS.
Now if you have shipped with UPS/Fedex and used the print at home option you know, that it means they just paid for shipping and printed the label (or stored locally). Now they are not going to ship that for next 3 days, the shipping label would be for 13th I guess. And on 13th they send it to UPS and 15th I get it.
so no matter from where the item is coming it would surely take its designated 5-9 days to come to you.
this is how you cheat and stay politically correct :)

The best thing about working in USA

There are a lot of pros about being in USA, money being a prominent one. There is also the sense of being close to the place where it happens. Getting to know the upcoming technologies first hand, exposure that is. On the sidelines, getting to drive a lot, which I love personally. In India, having a holiday means train/flight journeys, I hate that. Driving gives the pleasure of being in control.

But there is one thing which seems to me the best experience of USA when I think of it. Its the opportunity to meet and work with people who are so apart, from different countries, cultures. To give an example, my first client manager was of Russian descent (Inna), then there was a guy who I suppose was from Brazil (Tunji), we worked with a Brazilian team. Then there was my offshore team from Shanghai, China. Now I am with client, which seems to have people from all over the world. Like the lead developer from Afghanistan (now US citizen), QA lead from Iran, and my client manager born in Pakistan, and now a Canada citizen.

We dont indulge in discussing ethnicity, or cultures at the workplaces neither does it matter of where they come from ( well in most cases), but when you come to think of it, its quite an experience. For people in California, this might not seem that obvious but, for a guy who spent the first 21 years of his life seeing only Oriyas around it is.

Train Of Thoughts...

Recently someone asked me to describe myself, state my likes and dislikes. Normally I think before I write, this time I thought lets write as I think. So here it goes my train thoughts about myself...
That's the most difficult thing to do. Like describing myself. I am not at all good at this. You see I would spend half of the time thinking where to start :)
(I actually stopped here for 5 minutes.) OK so lets start with dislikes. I don't like getting up early, but I do like early mornings. Somehow I feel nights should have been a little longer.
I don't like being alone, but then again when I find myself among others I find myself bound, and so hate being not free. But there are some people with whom I can be free too, sadly enough they are less in number and at this point are married or are heading towards it :) I am introvert, and you might find me talking less the first time. Well I will tell the reason, before starting a sentence I tend to think what conversation would it lead to. By the time I am done with my imagination, the conversation would have already been over.

I am an optimist, but I don't expect success. I think if its a failure it might have/add some other value. I am imaginative. I don't like reading books because, I think that's controlled imagination. Movies are a little different, you don't have to imagine. So I like them. I remember some of my dreams and at times they get mixed with reality. May be because I am sleeping a lot now a days.


I don't like routines. I like a clean room but I don't like clean it myself :) I am lazy, and sometimes I get complimented for being patient because of that. I am impatient. I like to finish whatever I have started as soon as possible. But I want it to be done correctly. No both of them never happened simultaneously. I tend to switch over from one thing to another frequently and with ease. My mom says its being fickle minded, its lack of concentration. There is hardly any time when I am not thinking anything. It doesn't stop while sleeping, that's why I dream a lot. I like my dreams, so I sleep a lot. I have made tunes in my sleep, I like to sing, I try to play keyboard, I can play a song or two. I am a better singer when I am alone. I feel more lonely in a crowd(when alone) than in my closed room.


I have a hobby to have one, I sketch, I sing, I play music, photography, traveling, play snooker, table tennis, like to workout, I don't like yoga because I don't have patience. If I am not moving, I would rather be sleeping. Oh so we are back to sleeping again, its one of the hobbies too. Reading as I said No, movies yes. Love stories are getting boring for me, action thrillers are in now a days. I tried collecting stamps at school, but gave up.


I don't like being given choices, choices confuse me. That's one of the reason I cant start a conversation. I have to choose what to say. I can answer questions better. Some of my classmates called me Answering Machine. Here is an example, If you ask if I like Cafe Mocha or Cappuccino, I might not be able to answer and say both. But if you ask me what coffee I like, I would say Cafe Mocha. I like coffee, twice a day. But I don't like my teeth getting yellow. I try to brush twice day for that, and use Listerine at night. But then I don't like routines. That's why I don't like alarms, It takes me 3 different alarms to wake me up. But I can stay awake an entire night and work the other day. Just that when I sleep I want it to be complete. Or not end soon. That's inertia of rest.

I like to drive, I like to ride a bike more. I like to ride a bike in rain. I like rain, and getting wet. I like water, the ocean, the sunset, mm sunrise. Have seen the sunrise twice in my life. I rode my bike to the river to see the sunrise at 5 o'clock. I like nature, and so I like photography. I take pictures of nature and I like to draw people, mostly female. The reason being it keeps me interested, other wise I would change the subject.
I like music, no specific genre. I like silence, Its the most silent time at around 3:30 in the morning. I won the Most Silent student Award in Class 2. I had to pick up a fight in Class 4 to show that I am not boring. I chose the weakest guy. I feel bad about it. I don't like fighting. Except with my brother. I like my brother the most. I like to ride the bike with him on rear. He encourages to speed up, I can take up any vehicle on the road if he is behind. We have had accidents, those are secrets. We lied at home. I lie. I lie only for small things for better. I don't hate liars. I would hate some of the reasons to lie.
I don't hate people. I try to understand them. And classify them as those whose understanding match with mine and those whose doesn't. That's why I think a lot. And I listen a lot. My mouth is smaller than my ear. (did you notice?) some people like my smile. My mom doesn't like it, because I show my teeth. I have a broken tooth. I broke it while trekking. I like trekking. We went for trekking a lot in Mangalore.
I like Mangalore, I liked Goa too. I like San Francisco, I didn't New York. I like India more. I like South India more. I like south Indian food. I love food. All kinds, like music. I like non-vegetarian, well Chicken. I don't like beans. I like Biriyani, I like to cook. I don't cook everyday, I don't like routines. I like Coke, I like water the most.
I like to take long showers, I pretend its raining. I like to pretend to myself, I am imaginative. I like to look back on my past. I analyze myself a lot, I analyze other a lot. I think a lot.
and so I stay calm a lot. I don't react, I respond. I don't get angry, except with my mother. I look like my Mother, I behave like my Father. My father analyzes and my mother is artistic. I took some from both, I believe my brother is my upgraded version. but he talks a lot. All the more reason why I keep silent. I have to listen to a lot of people.
All my friends are talkative. I like people who talk, takes the pressure off me. But at the end, would you say I don't talk at all?