Bleep, Bleep and more Bleep

Prime time, its 8:30 PM and I was flipping channels and stopped for a minute to watch Hell's Kitchen. Chef Ramsey was running one of his kitchen boot camps and was in his worst mood (he seldom has another expression on his face). Most often he is filled with disgust, taunts his campers and fires them at the end of it. I cannot see a decent meal come out of that place...

To top it off, every sentence either starts with an expletive or ends with another expletive. Of course, it's all ok since the media bleeps the expletive. So, the sentence sounds like 'bleep the bleep out, where's my bleepin rare steak', 'my bleepin salad looks like a bleepin desert'.

Media claims that they bleep because people take objection to the expletives or children may watch this objectionable material. Here is news to them: the damn word is too obvious, so why bleep at all? Just lift the curtains or cut the crap from prime time.

Wait, we know the answer. They bleepin don't care!!

India - update 2

Being home is awesome. But, being away also teaches you to look at certain things in a different perspective. If you are in country that has infrastructure in a far better fashion, you tend to think why India cannot be that way. When you look at some of the road projects that are underway, its hardly something India can be proud of. As an example, we drove on the Nellore - Chennai highway that is fairly decent to drive on only if you don't have a RTC bus in front of you or if you don't have a truck that is merging into the highway. Some of the lane merges and bus stops defy basic civil engineering principles and the architect of these roads got to surrender his Civil Engineering license. It is shameful to say the least when you could have looked at hundreds of examples of how a road should be.

Talking of examples, a developing country like India can choose to acquire the best technology there is. Seems like that is happening in the mobile telephone infrastructure. I was travelling by the local train from my village to Chennai during rush hour. On my plinky wooden seat, there were five of us squeezed together. It was an hour's ride where I saw someone easily making a 500 bucks in matter of minutes selling his 'Lovely' juicer, a small little tool that could help the juice out. I saw three daily wage workers with the most sophisticated telephones that you could ever see. It had movie streaming, audio and syncing  capabilites and the best part all three were being put to use by someone who probably never had an opportunity to read. One of them said, 'da matchi, andha song enga anpe (send me that song)' and the other oblidged by connecting to this other device via blue tooth. In a matter of seconds, both were synced up. Beauty of technology -- present it in a usable fashion and the masses will take care of the rest. If that only were followed in our road system, we would have seen better infra.

Come elections, several of us have heard politicians promise color TV's, gold for women in the manifestos. What in the world is the Election commision doing letting this craptards promise such ludicrous agendas? When a family out there is searching for food, a color TV's in his/her dining room would serve no good.

Expecting a sensible government in India is to expect a religion without hell.

The last week was a breeze. Few dinners, last minute get togethers and a promise that I would return soon enough occupied most of it. Headed to the Hyderabad airport at 2 in the morning. The airport and its facilities are certainly world class but the security sub-standard. Neither are they patient enough to understand what the passenger talks nor are they prepared to deal with such things. I had a BA e-ticket and in my anxiety to leave home, I had forgotten to take the print out. If an e-ticket is issued, most places across the world don't need to have one. The first security guy started showing full attitude and said go get the print out. Some other person with some sense had an itinerary of passengers flying with BA. Simple solution. If the politicians let some sensible people get on board, we would soon see a much better India. In a year or more time, I hope to get there either to change or be changed.

Kaizen Technologies Review

Its H1-B time of the year when folks start searching for companies to apply their H1's. It is very similar to the scene where hundreds of deer cross the river knowing mightly the fact that there are crocodiles lurking. Their only hope, I might get lucky due to sheer numbers and escape unhurt.

After years of hearing body shopping companies exploiting folks, a friend of mine and I finally succumbed to fall in the line of GC aspirants and got suckered into a tie up with a company called Kaizen Techonlogies in NJ. The sad part was that these folks were known to me and thus felt trustworthy.

Kaizen supposedly means continous improvement and I find them no different than any other body shopping place who primarily look for ways to cover their ass while they leave their employees high and dry. In our case, it wasn't for GC's but for both our I140s.

The disagreement came when both of us had asked them to support the denial of I140 by responding in a concrete fashion to argue that they have the capability to pay our wages. They insisted that I paid 1500 dollars before and they may consider. By this point, I had already paid enough for I140 expenses and had lost all confidence in the way they respond to emails, phone calls and their so called law-firm was below par. It seems that their auditors do not approve 'such' expenses. When the company's financial strength is at question, the least you could do if you haven't earned it the wrong way is to respond. I guess their decision not to respond says quite a bit.

What is it that these companies get that they always do things that is against the very name that they started with? Kaizen -- continous improvement? You sure are improving at deceit and unprofessionalism.

Vijay who handles most of this said 'it is our first denial'. I guess at the very first denial if they decide to cop out and run for cover, my sincere advice to people who stumble across this post searching for review on Kaizen technologies -- Run real hard the other way. When the company deserts you when it matters the most, then they don't deserve a thought and definitely not your presence. Stay away.

Drunk at 10DS

10DS rocked. The crowed pickedup at 10:30 or so and at the last call,
the dance floor was packed to the brim. After spending 10K, walked away
with a few pictures that would provide a perfect reason for me to stay
away from mixing stuff..

I can't really remember the last time I was drunk. Good company, nice
music and few last shots got me this time at 10DS. Between the
combination of Whisky and Tequilla, I lost count and while I did that,
gave a perfect opportunity for my SO (significant other) to say 'I said
so'.

Drive to late night munch at Ohri's was a total blur and I
am sure I totally jay-walked raising a few eyebrows. As much fun I had,
the next day ended up with dull mood and gross hangover.

I suppose with all the fun I had that day, the only sane way is to live
up to the year of broken detoxification promise.

India -- Update 1

It often seems that the trip just started even though I have been here for about a month and half. There is so much more to explore, so many more to establish contact with and so much more to glean from. I pack up in about a week and half and this trip was a real treat.

I have had the opportunity to work remotely and seems to have contributed much more than what I could if i had stayed back. Technology has worked wonders and communication to US has been a breeze. The broadband connection I had taken was very reliable. VOIP never acted up and magicjack truly works wonders.

If you plan on working remotely and plan vacations around it, do plan for lesser ones. It seems working nights and staying awake during days does take a toll after all. I had some ambitious plans to explore North India but with airports as far as they are in Hyderabad and in other cities, the idea of flying does not seem too appealing.

My first part of the working vacation was spent in supporting Austin team. In the meanwhile, caught up with a few at a friend's wedding. Saw first hand how most people these days attend weddings mostly as a chore than to bless the couple. Most people had their own agenda at the event, never really cared for what they came in for, had their grub and checked out. Weddings have been very commerical and seems like it had to be scaled down in terms of their pomp and raked up in tradition. Nevertheless, it was fun for some of us who have missed on a few.

Enjoyed home made food, pampered my bro's kids and my own and attended a few parties. Most parties were buzz with election news, economy gloom and real estate bust. Speculation rife, the parties still had a character to them.

Plans to explore aspects of moving here were temporarily put on hold because of the state of the economy. Most feel 2009 after elections would be very gloomy and this ain't the right time. It sure did not look like one. My trip to the massive IT areas had half finished buildings with few laborers lurking around. Last time, every thing seemed closer but this time it seemed that the haphazard constructions were going to cost the city. Bangalore seemed very different with roads dug up everywhere for the metro rail.

All in all, have seen facets of good growth albeit executed in a bad way.

Why the shor?

Slumdog, after all its hoopla got its 8 oscars. If I were on the panel, I would rate as a well-made film but certainly does not deserve all the band-bhaja its getting. Damn, after the awards, the Indian media seemed like it was celebrating victory over the world. What for?

For the hype that was generated in the media, the governing body would have made its verdict a week or two back. For some of its actors, it may be a proud moment to be associated with a film that won the oscar, but neither can it be a claimed as an Indian victory nor it changes much of the persona of what Bollywood is.

For the western audience, it would just solidify their beliefs that most of us dance with women on corny scores and bullock carts are our main source of transportation. Yeah, real Jai Ho.

Krrrr Krrr...

Know what that sounds like, scratching the bottom of the barrel. On one end (no pun intended), we have Obama getting elected raising hopes in ways nobody ever dreamed off, and on the other in India, we find crooks like Sanjay Dutt and Azharuddin to run for power.

The Dutt guy cannot act, cannot live his life straight without drugs, leads both his private and public life in a despicable fashion and receives support from another scumbag Amar Singh. To top if off, Amar Singh pulls off the Manyata stunt. The other Azhar -- what a role model he is? Screws up his cricketing career, ditches his wife and children for another bimbo and now wants to find his place in politics.

How in the world do these dumbwits have the audacity to stand up after all their fuck-ups? It isn't as much crime for them to run for power as it would be if we voted them in. So, please don't.