Surfing along… January 27, 2007
Posted by The Jongleur in Rants, Technology.add a comment
* Rediff.com as it looks, with and without Ad-Block. I understand websites need to make money to stay in business. But this? Wonder when Rediff will start going the way www.bluemountain.com did.
* On a separate note, Microsoft seems to have left no stone unturned in its bid to bulldoze all its webspace with the “Live” moniker.(Trivia: Microsoft and its subsidiaries own some of the larget web real estate spots in cyberspace. www.microsoft.com is technically the largest website on the planet.). CNET has this interesting article on how this attempt at re-branding its entire suite does not seem to have made a mark on user’s minds. The “Live” avatar of Hotmail at first glance does not seem to be totally smooth, but they still need to figure that people on dial-up lines are going to be tearing their hair out as they wait for an eternity for pages to load up. Those on alternate browsers can forget about even sampling various Live services; MS still seems to want to impose Internet Explorer as the de-facto browser for most of its web applications.
* Speaking of major web-mail services trying to adopt a desktop-application look and feel (a-la MS-Outlook or Thunderbird), one thing that puzzles me is the number of months (or years) the folks at Google, Yahoo or MS choose to keep their services in Beta. Honestly, whats the fun thing in letting your users know that you have been in beta for the last thirty three months? And going by the looks of it, every Web-2.0 (or whatever) company seems to think that a miniscule “Beta” next to their banner heading is some sort of fashion accessory (Think Flickr, Zoho, Orkut, etc.) . Or is it just a legal loophole to prevent irate users from suing the damn company in case they (the Web 2.0 company) mess something up?
Second coming of the Desi male January 24, 2007
Posted by The Jongleur in Desi Diaspora, India, Rants.1 comment so far
Heartcrossings has a pretty intriguing article on how us desi dudes never ever seem to grow up. And of how boys will be boys.
And how subtler, more refined or charming sophistication can never make its way into the typical desi male on the threshold of the 5th decade of his existence.
At the risk of sounding flaky HC, here is your very own desi dude trying to stand up and submit a rather delayed rebuttal (Hey I just got through reading all her archives!) on behalf of his very own desi brethren. Here’s my two cents- for what its worth.
Let me start by saying that typical desi males (for I cannot vouch for firangi variants of the male species), has stashed away memories on what he presumably recounts as the formative years of his existence. I for one, have not met a single person who did not feel that college years were the most rewarding years of his life, irrespective of where and how he spent them. That glow of been there, done that and had a whale of a time does not ever dim out and disappear, it merely steps into the sidelines and quietly takes its place among other feelings that evolve out of age, maturity and circumstances. Simply put- it’s a form of nostalgia that goes beyond mere definition.
We write mile long emails filled with bromide everyday not so much because our lives are now mundane and unworthy of type space, but merely because thinking about memories and people we shared it with triggers off a second youth within us. One that we wish could be replayed over and over again. I will have to beg to differ with you again, for pecking away amateurish jokes at 40 or wallowing in the memories of inane nicknames is NOT a reflection of hyper-immaturity. It is NOT about living within the confines of the comfortable college-coterie of backslapping friends and PJ’s. It’s just an extremely unrewarding attempt at reaching out and trying to make a connection with a world you would never wish to leave behind. It can never totally quite equate to anything else.
And I find it hard to subscribe to the fact about these individuals leading unfulfilling lives, or for that matter that they are challenged on multiples areas of maturity intellect and IQ. It’s a blanket statement based on the (very) limited sample size of an e-group. As is with any sample, I am sure that a few of same people cracking those demented jokes within the confines of a bulletin board in fact are tremendously articulate, responsible and conversation-worthy. Some may even be extremely erudite, and a few of them may actually be great family guys. And I am in no doubt that a handful may in fact boast of greater achievements than merely parading their university admit letters from two decades ago.
I believe any type of generalization is inherently flawed HC, and you leave precious little in way of substantiating your inferences about your ex-classmates being abnormal people with short-circuited brain receptors and exceedingly redundant lives. Sorry, I simply can’t understand why this (and a multitude of other points you have observed) can make them seem “exceptionally pathetic” or equate to the “state of jejune juvenilia”.
I think you write some great stuff HC, but on this occasion, I think you were a tad off target.
Closed Conversations January 16, 2007
Posted by The Jongleur in Chennai/Madras, Desi Diaspora, India, Miscellaneous, Rants.2 comments
What do you do when all the people you know – from the best buddy you shared a samosa with to that older cousin whom you confided your heart and soul to, to the pesky grandmother next door and even the milkman start pestering you about your job, salary, marriage, return plans etc.? It takes a lot of effort in dealing with different people in the loyalty hierarchy who are essentially bombarding you with deeply personal questions that you would rather not want to face, let alone answer. There are other equally impertinent questions that increase my discomfiture levels tenfold- Why are you working there and not here? What is your designation? When are you going to become “a manager?” Ad nauseum.
I have realized that the best way to tackle such eminently avoidable questions is to, well, avoid the questions and avoid the people who ask them. For no level of courteous dignity is capable of quenching the curiosity levels of these pesky folks. Sometimes I wonder if my attitude is a manifestation of expectations that come from (a few) years of living abroad – a subtle but undeniable expectation of individual privacy. But there are occasions when you have no choice but to provide an answer, which will inevitably be dissected and analyzed at length after you have boarded the plane out of Madras. A piece of counsel for my fellow bloggers- answer everything in as vague a manner as you can. A confused audience asks lesser questions.
And I realized that it’s no longer possible to distract the elder folk under the pretext of describing life in America. Almost everyone who is anyone has an offspring(s), an in-law, a neighbor, an aunt or a pet skunk etc. who is currently working in Silicon Valley (as a hypothetical example, take a look at the Matrimonial section in the Sunday edition of the Hindu). Or take a walk through the alleys of the crowded concert halls, now that it’s the peak of the December music season- you will be amazed how many intersecting discussions there are on topics ranging from the merits of the American Interstate and demerits of Medicare as well as about four hundred thousand different descriptions of Yellowstone National Park. Most lead dual lives- six months of playing with their toddler grandchildren in Palo Alto followed by 6 months of bitching about how rude the daughter-in-law was to them. Some of them have even state of the art hearing aids and designer Casio watches. Its not uncommon to walk the Parks of Luz Corner (for the men) and the slimy streets of Thanni Dorai Market (for the women) and hear extended discussions about how fair(sic) their grandchildren are because of the weather and how cute they sound with their devastating accents. And so on. Anyway, I digress.
Having bitched enough about myriad topics, its time to reflect and rationalize. It’s during such discussions that you suddenly start to feel the unbearable heat of our social structure, our responsibilities and commitments. All of a sudden you want to scurry back into that huge abyss that is America, away from the “heat, dust and grime” of “Indian society”, of nosy relatives and curious neighbors. And once there, you start the same process all over again – of dreaming about that next great trip to India, where you can hope to “spend some quality time” with friends and relatives alike.
It’s a sunrise cycle that never ends, for the laws of gravity always pull one side towards the other. Each side will continue to remain green “er”, and the pendulums in our souls shall never cease to oscillate. After all we are all one and the same – opportunists of trapped in different grades the human form. And driven by the wonderful euphemism of greed that we shamelessly masquerade as ambition.
