work from home or the traditional arrangement

I was discussing this topic with few of my friends. I was of the view that individuals allowed to work flexible schedules at home will be both more productive and happier.

In this case, the person will get more time to spend with his/her family. More time spent with the family would mean lesser household burden on any one of the couple. Needless to say, confrontations and fights would reduce and people will be happier. A happy mind would definitely be more productive and innovative.

Another major advantage would be a life free of traffic. It might just be a wishful thinking but, life without traffic woes really be better. To add to that, by not being part of the traffic, we would not be contributing to the traffic. There would be lesser consumption of fossil fuel resulting in reduced pollution.

Even the company would be able to save on its office space, parking space, electricity bill etc.

Contrary to this, close supervision of workplace doesn’t leave a good taste in mouth. Also, human beings tend to defy rules when it stifles them. You don’t feel like belonging to the company and hence, your productivity is marred.

However, any liberty in due course of time tends to be misused. To continue with such a policy would primarily depend on the way employees respond to it.

love, parents and prices

Read on a friend’s blog – everyone has to pay the price, for his or her own fault, for loving someone, for being loved by someone.

I don’t know how to respond to this….. especially the latter half….. “for loving someone, for being loved by someone”. May be he is right…. But, i think in life we always pay the price for making choices…. any kind of choices…. Even a choice as mundane as ordering Pizza from Domino’s or from Pizza Hut comes with its own price….. here is another – buying an original book from Landmark (Vera loves this store!) or its nakli copy from a roadside shop…. the price has to be paid for making a choice, isn’t…..

The bad thing about LOVE and its pricing policy is that it involves much more than an individual…. In a country like ours, it includes religion, society, parents etc. Again, here we pay the price for being a social animal(was it Aristotle?)…. we want our parents to be happy, our parents want us to be happy….. but sadly, this entire exercise results in misery for both the parties….. we are not happy because we lost what we loved and our parents are not happy when they see us transformed into an unhappy, distressed soul…. I think that parents also somewhere feel a sense of guilt for forcing their will upon us. Isn’t it an irony that we give all kinds of freedom to our children during their process of growing up but when they have grown up, we can’t help to remind them the right way….

I crib…. so what?!

I crib when i have not a moment to rest…. i crib when i have nothing to do but rest… but isn’t that very natural…. to be dissatisfied with whatever little/great we might be having…. Isn’t that the way to seek more, to keep inching towards perfection, to go beyond the blue montains….. Yes ! the verdict is out – “To be dissatisfied is to prosper”

The Outsider

Finished reading The Outsider by Albert Camus….. Didn’t like it much…. but would surely like to read it once more….. few things remain on my mind though – Meursault’s (the protagonist) wish that there was an after-life as nothing more than his desire to be rich, or to swim very fast, or to have a better-shaped-mouth.

By the way, Sree! where is my copy of The Outsider? For those who would like to read a better informed analysis of the book you can read it here

A new look, book and few good movies

A new look for my blog site… But the quote which followed the header seems to be lost…. Needs to be investigated…

Watched two Hollywood flicks: Iron Man, The Forbidden Kingdom. The good thing about Iron Man was the humor which thankfully stayed till the end. And the bad about The Forbidden Kingdom was that the two teachers Jackie Chan and Jet Li could not carry humor when together. They looked too old and Jet Li was too stiff to be humorous… esp. the scene where he snatches the wine jug from Jackie was too animated…. And the boy-turned man-turned boy again was too boyish to be taken as a man…. he kept failing at all the occasions….. The fight sequences were the usual ones…. fight scene b/w Jet Li and Chan was too long and boring…..

I have started jogging everyday in the evening and my Squash has taken a backseat at the moment….. The new t that I’m wearing today is cool…. soothes the eyes….. The life is beautiful….

Started with The Conquest of Happiness by Bertrand Russell…. the book is gripping… i like it… a line from the book – “Animals are happy so long as they have health and enough to eat”

A coward !

What could have gone wrong

so wrong that you chose to die -

a death so bloody horrible

and painful too…..

To be hanged till death!

When the entire world mulls

over abolishing capital punishment

here you are – choosing it.

Did you debate before you chose

this manner of dying?

Did it occur to you that it might be painful -

your mother had cried

when you came with a bruise here

or a swelling there

Did you spare a thought for her?

People might shed tears for you

but I call you coward….

Nothing in particular

Yesterday was like any other day except that i was feeling low for no reason whatsoever. And when i feel low, people around me do get infected. I must find out some ways of coming out of my sullen moods. There are many options i have – I can start singing Elvis’ “Can’t help falling in love” at the top of my voice, count all the prime numbers starting from 2, do a brainstorming over what went wrong, call up someone and talk to him/her, eat chocolates, shop something for someone ( or for yours truly)…..

But some things really worry me a lot – like why market has gone from BAD to WORSE just when i decided to start investing in it, why lottery system was introduced for VISA allotment just when my turn came, why can’t I find good track pants for myself…..

Anyways, i’m enjoying my daily game of Squash these days and am planning to buy a costly racket… praobably Head !!

Gone to dogs….

Lost Tutu to AIM, Manila….. was a great company…. Vera and me gave him a copy of ‘The Conquest of Happiness’ by Russell. Hope he reads it. The guy (Some Gadgil) who sold this book to us quoted Pound at 85 INR. Once back to home, i checked it on XE.com and it had not even touched 80. We were cheated !! Vera is right when she says “Our country is going to dogs”. I think it has already gone……

Vets might fly

Reading James Herriot’s Vets Might Fly… another from Vera’s collection….

After my brief stint with (stray) dogs, I have come to believe that as humans we are very cruel…. too cruel and selfish to think of animals and our mother nature….. it gives you pleasure as much as it gives them when you caress a puppy or give her milk to drink and biscuits to eat…. sometimes you feel they have a lot to say and just because they can’t they do things to show, to acknowledge…. they jump at you when they meet you, they run after your bike for as long as they can… I think all these are their way of showing that they love us too…. And believe me, if you really have to know whether you have a human side or not just try and see if you can feel for the things and beings which are not exactly human…..

18-Mar-2008

Completed Vets Might Fly…. nicely written book and it made me laugh at many instances…. Hilarious and very humane…. I liked it when in the course of story, Herriot kept going back to Helen – his wife.

 

For Rosy AKA Lucy

Rosy is the name of a stray puppy who chose to make Vera’s society compound as her place of residence. We all took a liking to her and despite protests from an agony aunt living in the same society Vera continued to feed her religiously. One day Sharayu and I took the puppy to a vet to get her vaccinated. Our plan was to get her vaccinated and leave her at Ranade where we could visit her every now and then. I wish we had done that. Yesterday evening was the last when we could play with her. She was killed by some motorist this morning…..