Pat and Linda have started carpooling to their offices. Pat works in a large retail outlet as a ‘Store Manager’ and Linda works in a healthcare insurance company as an ‘Analyst’. Their work times don’t quite match but Pat reaches his store thirty minutes ahead of time in order to carpool with Linda. On the way back from the office on a Friday, when they stop at a light on a county road, Pat says,
“Honey, try and switch off the engine on this light. It takes more than three minutes for that thing to turn green and we can go 1.5 miles more with that much gas.”
“Okay” says Linda and turns off the engine. “You know, we should turn the van in to the Toyota dealer and buy the new hybrid model - Prius. It is supposed to go 50 miles on a gallon. We can try and squeeze in with the kids in a Prius; I think we can manage.I wonder what will happen this winter. We haven’t yet seen the cost of heating.”
The light turns green, and they pickup their daughter, Erica, from the baby sitter’s. As soon as Erica settles in her car seat, she pleads, “Mommy, can we go to Chuckies today ? It’s been a month since we have been there! Please, let’s go.” Linda tries to console her, “Sorry dear, we can’t. We can try to go there on Thursday next week, en route to Shoprite.”
Linda and Pat drive forty miles to their offices each way. Since their work times did not match, both drove their cars to office everyday. Gas expenditures for them were $350 a month then. But now, with the current gas prices, if they continue driving their individual cars, they would pay in excess of $800 a month. With the home mortgage monthly payments, car loans monthly installments and Erica’s school and day care expenses, they decided to car pool. Linda carefully plans out her trips and now mixes her groceries trips with library, drugstores and does that on Sunday morning after her visit to the church. Instead of weekly groceries, it’s biweekly now. She makes intelligent use of Microsoft Excel to prepare her checklist, making sure she misses nothing. Unless anything is high priority and gets missed, it gets added to the checklist for the next round after 2 weeks. Gas prices have not stopped climbing, in fact they are estimated to touch in excess of $5.5 by year end. That will also be the time when the heaters will be running. Linda and Pat haven’t yet figured out the plan of action for the coming winter.
According to a graph displayed on congressman George Miller’s website, national gas price in USA was $1.5 on first day of 2004, $2.2 on first day of 2006, $3.1 on the first day of 2008 and more than $4 today. It has more than doubled in a period of 4 years. There may be a rare set of people whose incomes went up in the same proportion, but most of us still don’t believe the way gas prices have shot up. Linda and Pat, too, belong to the latter category.
In 1980, there was a similar hue and cry over gas prices, which had soared to $103 per barrel (in today’s dollars) then, as per an article in BusinessWeek dated July 23 (titled ‘Should oil be cheap’), about rising gas prices. The country responded by buying smaller cars, installing more efficient heating systems, and boosting oil exploration and drilling. America learned to use half as much energy per dollar of GDP as it did before the crisis. The efforts greatly helped but US being the largest consumer of oil in the world, there was excess supply of oil worldwide. Less demand more supply and the prices obviously plunged. But they plunged so much that a barrel of oil was worth just $11 eventually. Excess supply, rock bottom price. The result was that for the next two decades there was excess of oil in the world. In 1985, Saudi’s slashed the drilling from 9.9 million barrels to 3.4 million barrels per day, as per the same BusinessWeek article mentioned earlier.
The last two decades have experienced the biggest boom in the auto industry. Every car manufacturer introduced a luxury performance version of their sedans exploding with engineering prowess. Each had double the engine capacity, double the power, double the thrill to drive and less than half the mileage. Also became popular the gas guzzling SUVs. These had even better power, stability and some of them came with a four wheel drive option. From four cylinders, we moved to six cylinder and then eight. The auto commercials depicted the cars climbing snow peaked mountains, tearing through sand dunes or a river and taking the proud owners in the wild. What was never advertised was the mileage of these environment monsters, the brown haze of air pollution hanging over many of our parks, images of weather disasters linked to global warming or the oil derricks and tankers needed to feed gas-guzzling SUVs. They spew out 43 percent more global-warming pollution and 47 percent more air pollution than an average car. According to studies conducted by Sierra club for global warming, switching from driving an average car to a 13mpg SUV for one year would waste more energy than if you left your refrigerator door open for 6 years, left your bathroom light burning for 30 years or left your color television turned on for 28 years. Now, hybrid car sales have more than doubled in the last 9 months while the sales of SUVs and vans have plunged by 36%.
Pat and Linda, too, feel the burden of rising gas prices, and so are thinking of trading in their van for a hybrid sedan. This can keep their gas expenses in check till gas becomes $10 a gallon and they hope that day never comes. They are also contemplating searching for a job in the city and moving to a suburb, where they can use public transportation to go to their offices. There are no more 500 mile long weekend road trips. Instead of taking their daughter to the grandparents who are 400 miles away, they take her to a local state park. And, a visit to Chuckies is always when Linda does her groceries. Pat and Linda have adapted to the changing lifestyle and perhaps so will millions of fellow Americans.
Wednesday, August 06, 2008
Sunday, July 20, 2008
My brothers best friend
I watched a Youtube video of Mandar playing the mouth organ and Guitar simultaneously. The mouth organ was mounted on a fixed stand and Mandar had to bend to make sure his lips touched the device. He played a tune on a Hindi song and played it beautifully. Mandar was my brother’s best friend when my brother went to college. My brother is 11 years older to me and so is Mandar. But, that had not stopped a close friendship developing between Mandar and me when I was a kid.
Mandar owned a huge dark green bicycle. My earliest memory of it is when my brother had a fall while riding it. That afternoon, my sister was applying an antiseptic medication to my brother’s knees, which were badly bruised as blood did not stop trickling. Brother was groaning with pain at the top of his voice as my sister tried to calm him and apply the cotton soaked with the medicine on his knees. There were tears in his eyes as the medicine started having its effect. I had never seen my big brother in such pain and eventually got to know from my mother that brother had a nasty fall on Mandar’s bicycle. I stepped outside to take a look at the menacing bicycle, only to find that it seemed normal without any scratches on it. It seemed unaffected.
The bicycle was the biggest and the sturdiest bicycle I had seen then. It had a handle grip cover which was bright green and had pointed things on it to help grip the handle. I frequently gripped them and imagined riding on the beast and had an itchy and a slightly painful sensation. I could not hold it for more than a minute. The seat was as high as my neck and the beast’s weight was tremendous. More than anything, it could make my big brother cry. It had to be something extremely difficult to conquer. How in the world did Mandar manage to ride it without getting hurt. He must be a really strong guy.
Mandar visited our house frequently and he always chatted with me. While talking to him, it never occurred that I was talking to someone of my brother’s age. He seemed to be very interested in listening to my tales and I liked to listen to his. I liked to tell him a lot of silly jokes and he found them really funny. He listened to all my stock of jokes on a single day and I used to make sure that I have something new, the next time he came.“Two ants are walking in a single line. The first ant says there is an ant behind me. The second says that there 2 ants in front of me. How is it possible?” I posed the question and Mandar pretended to think hard. Excited that he could not get the answer, I announced, “The second ant was lying!” And he laughed out aloud unable to control himself.
As our friendship developed further, when he visited our house and my brother wasn’t around, he took me for rides on his bicycle – the beast. I remember the pride and the thrill I experienced when I climbed on the pedal and sat on his bicycle for a double seat ride, the very first time. He always asked me whether I was comfortable and ready for the ride. After an assurance from me, he would take a run up and hop on to the bicycle. He called the beast a ‘horse’ and from that day it was a horse for me too.
The first few times, we went on our rides, he took me around in the suburb of Mulund – East, where I lived. My school used to be the farthest place for me and we went near it. It was thrilling to sit high on the bicycle and feel the breeze on the face as he showed me some areas of Mulund – East, where I had never gone. We went to a creek which was on the other end of my school, where Mandar did fishing when he was a kid. As we started going for the rides regularly, we got bored of the same places and so we started exploring the Mulund – West area. I was not familiar with most of the areas there and it felt adventurous to explore new areas and new roads.
It was during one of the rides that Mandar mentioned to me that earth was round. It was a total shock to me. “Imagine an elephant walking away from you. Will you see it smaller as it goes farther away from you ?” he asked. I agreed and it suddenly made sense that earth was indeed round. The next question was, “If earth is round, then if I go to it’s edge and jump, will I fall down ?” The conversation continued and when I came home, I talked about earth being round with everyone in my house and for the next couple of days with every person I spoke to.
As our cycle rides continued, we had covered most of Mulund – west too and I knew many of the roads there. It was time to go even farther and so he took me to the next suburb – Thane. I had hardly every gone to Thane, maybe once or twice, holding my fathers hand. Going there on a bicycle and that too without my father was like going to a foreign country. Those days, it felt as if I new the world and after every ride I proudly narrated our rides to my school friends, the next day, as my friends heard me in awe.
In one of the science projects in my school, I needed some help in creating a working model of earth revolving on its own axis and I had to keep the earth in a cage. Mandar had visited my school and helped my group and getting this model to work. He had done this during his study leave, sacrificing his precious study time for me. That really felt special.
As I grew up and Mandar got a job, our bicycle trips stopped completely. He had purchased a motorcycle and it not even half the fun going on the motorcycle. We continued to meet but much less. I missed those bicycle rides but by then I had purchased my own bicycle and I had started traveling the same roads which we once went. After the last day of my final examinations in seventh grade, I had taken three of my school friends to Thane by the same road which Mandar had once taken me. I was the proud navigator of the group that day.
As it turned out after many years, Mandar became my brother’s brother-in-law. Yes, my brother was courting Mandar’s sister all these days when we went for the rides. Suddenly, it felt as if Mandar filled the gap for my brother and did what my brother would have otherwise done. Oddly enough, after the relationship formalized, we met even more infrequently.
Last year, my wife and I met Mandar in a Starbucks in New York city. He was in the US on a business trip and we managed to squeeze in some time from our lunch break. My wife and I must have chatted with him for about an hour and he had to leave. We mostly talked about life in the US and the times we had shared together during my childhood, mainly the rides on the horse.
Mandar owned a huge dark green bicycle. My earliest memory of it is when my brother had a fall while riding it. That afternoon, my sister was applying an antiseptic medication to my brother’s knees, which were badly bruised as blood did not stop trickling. Brother was groaning with pain at the top of his voice as my sister tried to calm him and apply the cotton soaked with the medicine on his knees. There were tears in his eyes as the medicine started having its effect. I had never seen my big brother in such pain and eventually got to know from my mother that brother had a nasty fall on Mandar’s bicycle. I stepped outside to take a look at the menacing bicycle, only to find that it seemed normal without any scratches on it. It seemed unaffected.
The bicycle was the biggest and the sturdiest bicycle I had seen then. It had a handle grip cover which was bright green and had pointed things on it to help grip the handle. I frequently gripped them and imagined riding on the beast and had an itchy and a slightly painful sensation. I could not hold it for more than a minute. The seat was as high as my neck and the beast’s weight was tremendous. More than anything, it could make my big brother cry. It had to be something extremely difficult to conquer. How in the world did Mandar manage to ride it without getting hurt. He must be a really strong guy.
Mandar visited our house frequently and he always chatted with me. While talking to him, it never occurred that I was talking to someone of my brother’s age. He seemed to be very interested in listening to my tales and I liked to listen to his. I liked to tell him a lot of silly jokes and he found them really funny. He listened to all my stock of jokes on a single day and I used to make sure that I have something new, the next time he came.“Two ants are walking in a single line. The first ant says there is an ant behind me. The second says that there 2 ants in front of me. How is it possible?” I posed the question and Mandar pretended to think hard. Excited that he could not get the answer, I announced, “The second ant was lying!” And he laughed out aloud unable to control himself.
As our friendship developed further, when he visited our house and my brother wasn’t around, he took me for rides on his bicycle – the beast. I remember the pride and the thrill I experienced when I climbed on the pedal and sat on his bicycle for a double seat ride, the very first time. He always asked me whether I was comfortable and ready for the ride. After an assurance from me, he would take a run up and hop on to the bicycle. He called the beast a ‘horse’ and from that day it was a horse for me too.
The first few times, we went on our rides, he took me around in the suburb of Mulund – East, where I lived. My school used to be the farthest place for me and we went near it. It was thrilling to sit high on the bicycle and feel the breeze on the face as he showed me some areas of Mulund – East, where I had never gone. We went to a creek which was on the other end of my school, where Mandar did fishing when he was a kid. As we started going for the rides regularly, we got bored of the same places and so we started exploring the Mulund – West area. I was not familiar with most of the areas there and it felt adventurous to explore new areas and new roads.
It was during one of the rides that Mandar mentioned to me that earth was round. It was a total shock to me. “Imagine an elephant walking away from you. Will you see it smaller as it goes farther away from you ?” he asked. I agreed and it suddenly made sense that earth was indeed round. The next question was, “If earth is round, then if I go to it’s edge and jump, will I fall down ?” The conversation continued and when I came home, I talked about earth being round with everyone in my house and for the next couple of days with every person I spoke to.
As our cycle rides continued, we had covered most of Mulund – west too and I knew many of the roads there. It was time to go even farther and so he took me to the next suburb – Thane. I had hardly every gone to Thane, maybe once or twice, holding my fathers hand. Going there on a bicycle and that too without my father was like going to a foreign country. Those days, it felt as if I new the world and after every ride I proudly narrated our rides to my school friends, the next day, as my friends heard me in awe.
In one of the science projects in my school, I needed some help in creating a working model of earth revolving on its own axis and I had to keep the earth in a cage. Mandar had visited my school and helped my group and getting this model to work. He had done this during his study leave, sacrificing his precious study time for me. That really felt special.
As I grew up and Mandar got a job, our bicycle trips stopped completely. He had purchased a motorcycle and it not even half the fun going on the motorcycle. We continued to meet but much less. I missed those bicycle rides but by then I had purchased my own bicycle and I had started traveling the same roads which we once went. After the last day of my final examinations in seventh grade, I had taken three of my school friends to Thane by the same road which Mandar had once taken me. I was the proud navigator of the group that day.
As it turned out after many years, Mandar became my brother’s brother-in-law. Yes, my brother was courting Mandar’s sister all these days when we went for the rides. Suddenly, it felt as if Mandar filled the gap for my brother and did what my brother would have otherwise done. Oddly enough, after the relationship formalized, we met even more infrequently.
Last year, my wife and I met Mandar in a Starbucks in New York city. He was in the US on a business trip and we managed to squeeze in some time from our lunch break. My wife and I must have chatted with him for about an hour and he had to leave. We mostly talked about life in the US and the times we had shared together during my childhood, mainly the rides on the horse.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Swimming Googles
I walk out of the bathroom after a lazy long bath on a Sunday afternoon. Water is dripping all over from my body and as I enter the walk-in closet, I take notice of my swimming goggles. Without thinking, I wear them and feel the energy developing in my body. Charged up, I walk out of the closet, ready to enjoy the Sunday remaining.
Back then, water used to be such a scary thing that being able to swim was like a special gift endowed by the almighty to a fortunate few. Memories of being pushed down a 100 feet deep well in my village and saved later by my dear brother, but coming out coughing, panting, gulping water, did not help assuage my fears. Whenever I saw an expert swimmer cruising gracefully in water, I was always envious. I secretly yearned to swim as gracefully and be fearless of water like.
A new friend, who was a regular swimmer, encouraged me to join him and try to learn. I was hesitant, remembering the episode of village well. Coughing momentarily and dreaming of making confident strokes in water, I took up the offer.
Once in water, the sight of six year olds making butterfly strokes embarrassed me while I was moving all my body parts, trying to stay afloat despite the float around my waist. How can they swim so well, when it is impossible to even breathe and stop the water entering my eyes, I thought to myself. The friend just reminded me to not stop kicking and keep trying. It was the end of first week and my float came off, but I was still splashing buckets of water all around the place and ignoring the glances of people around. One of the most bothered of all suggested the use of a good pair of goggles and keeping the head down.
Head down, goggles on, my body was much straighter and I immediately felt the difference. The best part was watching the tiles at the bottom of the pool, shinning in the underwater lights and going back as I launch myself ahead. Very soon I completed one full lap of the full. That was a fine milestone for me and I treated the goggle adviser with a free evening snack that day.
Goggles kept me focused on doing the basics right – legs straight, hands stretched, breathe the right way. They killed the biggest distraction by not letting a single drop of water in my eyes. Soon I learnt to do back stroke and it felt like I was floating on a blanket of clouds. A few times it rained and cold rain drops over my body and warm water of the pool made me feel like I was a part of the water world. I felt like a fish, free and ready to explore the pool, now that I was confident that my stamina won’t run me out. It was amazing how the stamina just builds up with constant practice as I was soon doing marathon laps.
My hectic days winded up with the marathon laps and every single day I emerged out of the pool feeling energized. Time in the pool was my time off from the world – time with myself, my thoughts and my ideas. At times, I solved some complex calculus problem in my mind and made some of the best decisions while doing those memorable laps.
Every time I wear my goggles in my wardrobe, I remember my initial fear of water, my willingness to learn swimming and then my journey of becoming a good swimmer. There is no looking back now.
Back then, water used to be such a scary thing that being able to swim was like a special gift endowed by the almighty to a fortunate few. Memories of being pushed down a 100 feet deep well in my village and saved later by my dear brother, but coming out coughing, panting, gulping water, did not help assuage my fears. Whenever I saw an expert swimmer cruising gracefully in water, I was always envious. I secretly yearned to swim as gracefully and be fearless of water like.
A new friend, who was a regular swimmer, encouraged me to join him and try to learn. I was hesitant, remembering the episode of village well. Coughing momentarily and dreaming of making confident strokes in water, I took up the offer.
Once in water, the sight of six year olds making butterfly strokes embarrassed me while I was moving all my body parts, trying to stay afloat despite the float around my waist. How can they swim so well, when it is impossible to even breathe and stop the water entering my eyes, I thought to myself. The friend just reminded me to not stop kicking and keep trying. It was the end of first week and my float came off, but I was still splashing buckets of water all around the place and ignoring the glances of people around. One of the most bothered of all suggested the use of a good pair of goggles and keeping the head down.
Head down, goggles on, my body was much straighter and I immediately felt the difference. The best part was watching the tiles at the bottom of the pool, shinning in the underwater lights and going back as I launch myself ahead. Very soon I completed one full lap of the full. That was a fine milestone for me and I treated the goggle adviser with a free evening snack that day.
Goggles kept me focused on doing the basics right – legs straight, hands stretched, breathe the right way. They killed the biggest distraction by not letting a single drop of water in my eyes. Soon I learnt to do back stroke and it felt like I was floating on a blanket of clouds. A few times it rained and cold rain drops over my body and warm water of the pool made me feel like I was a part of the water world. I felt like a fish, free and ready to explore the pool, now that I was confident that my stamina won’t run me out. It was amazing how the stamina just builds up with constant practice as I was soon doing marathon laps.
My hectic days winded up with the marathon laps and every single day I emerged out of the pool feeling energized. Time in the pool was my time off from the world – time with myself, my thoughts and my ideas. At times, I solved some complex calculus problem in my mind and made some of the best decisions while doing those memorable laps.
Every time I wear my goggles in my wardrobe, I remember my initial fear of water, my willingness to learn swimming and then my journey of becoming a good swimmer. There is no looking back now.
Monday, June 23, 2008
A 'Golfful' day
Let me step out of the serious world and delve upon a few topics of interest. First is Golf. Yes, this was a game, which I always thought was rather stupid. And finally I tried the stupid thing. The week before last, I decided to sign up for the golf club in my office. The feeling behind doing that was 'Let me at least try and see what it is '. And 'While I am in US, let me try and explore something which is easily available here and not available back home'. I remember in the city of Bombay, where I come from, I have just seen one golf course in Chembur, when I used to go to VESIT (my wife's college) during my courtship days.
With all that background, I did sign up for the golf club and when I did that, I got to know that this club has just 4 members : The SVP of my office, a senior director, a technical writer and now me. The first 3 are experienced players. In fact, I later got to know that the senior director is a champ. I know the writer at a person level and decided to talk to him and see if he could teach me some basics. To my delight, he offered to take me to a driving range that was close by from my office. Unfortunately, the weather did not hold for the next 3 days and the plan finally materialized on a Thursday. We stepped out of office at 5 pm on day with me continuously trying to keep up with him, who was in a 2 door BMW.
We reached the driving range and parked our cars. The first thing he told me that he is an average player. Now, as if I really cared about that. What mattered to me was that this guy knows the game. I hardly cared how well he knew it as long as he knew the basics and he could pass it on to me. And most of the gentlemen would make that statement before they teach anyone else. At least I would do that had I been in his shoes :-) . We picked up 2 baskets of golf balls and headed toward the striking area.
The tutoring started with his showing me the various kinds of clubs. Broadly, there are two types - wooden and iron. Now, this will be a memory test – wooden ones range from 1 to 7 and irons range from 2 to 9. In both the types, the ones with least number are the most effective in terms of how high or long the they send the ball. And plus wooden ones hit the ball longer and iron ones hit the ball higher. So an iron-2 will hit the ball much higher than what an iron-5 would. And a wooden 1 will hit the ball much longer than what a wooden 4 would.
Next thing was taking position. How much to spread the legs and how to hold the club. Overall, a right handed guy should use his left hand more and the right hand must just follow through with the swing. Shoulders should be kept straight and this was difficult to achieve. With all this, my first 10 shots were the worst. I was within 30 yards. And my last 10 shots were the best. I was beyond 90 yards.
During my first 10 shots, one of these things happened - my legs went up, I lost my balance, I did not make contact with the ball, my club hit the ground and I hurt my hands. But my friend was very patient and he kept correcting me at every stage. After the initial hiccups, I did make contact, but either the ball went too right or way too left. Now, when the ball travels too right its called a ‘slice’. I don’t recollect what is said when the ball travels left. But I will try to recollect that, hopefully by my next post.
Practice made me much better and I was making decent contact 7 out of 10 times towards the end. My friend said I did great considering that I was playing for the first time. I was happy. The next day, he sent me an email with all the key terms of Golf. I am still to go through it.
At the end of the day, I thought to myself, 'It wasn't stupid after all. Not only because I played it but also because there is so much more to it than just hitting the ball with that club'. The other thing I liked about the game was the green patch of land in front of us. Its peaceful to see the green and its really quiet out there. And I liked that. So that was a nice "golfful" day.
P.S – When I started writing the post, I was going to talk about one more interesting topic. But the first topic ate up so much real estate that I will keep the second topic for my next post
With all that background, I did sign up for the golf club and when I did that, I got to know that this club has just 4 members : The SVP of my office, a senior director, a technical writer and now me. The first 3 are experienced players. In fact, I later got to know that the senior director is a champ. I know the writer at a person level and decided to talk to him and see if he could teach me some basics. To my delight, he offered to take me to a driving range that was close by from my office. Unfortunately, the weather did not hold for the next 3 days and the plan finally materialized on a Thursday. We stepped out of office at 5 pm on day with me continuously trying to keep up with him, who was in a 2 door BMW.
We reached the driving range and parked our cars. The first thing he told me that he is an average player. Now, as if I really cared about that. What mattered to me was that this guy knows the game. I hardly cared how well he knew it as long as he knew the basics and he could pass it on to me. And most of the gentlemen would make that statement before they teach anyone else. At least I would do that had I been in his shoes :-) . We picked up 2 baskets of golf balls and headed toward the striking area.
The tutoring started with his showing me the various kinds of clubs. Broadly, there are two types - wooden and iron. Now, this will be a memory test – wooden ones range from 1 to 7 and irons range from 2 to 9. In both the types, the ones with least number are the most effective in terms of how high or long the they send the ball. And plus wooden ones hit the ball longer and iron ones hit the ball higher. So an iron-2 will hit the ball much higher than what an iron-5 would. And a wooden 1 will hit the ball much longer than what a wooden 4 would.
Next thing was taking position. How much to spread the legs and how to hold the club. Overall, a right handed guy should use his left hand more and the right hand must just follow through with the swing. Shoulders should be kept straight and this was difficult to achieve. With all this, my first 10 shots were the worst. I was within 30 yards. And my last 10 shots were the best. I was beyond 90 yards.
During my first 10 shots, one of these things happened - my legs went up, I lost my balance, I did not make contact with the ball, my club hit the ground and I hurt my hands. But my friend was very patient and he kept correcting me at every stage. After the initial hiccups, I did make contact, but either the ball went too right or way too left. Now, when the ball travels too right its called a ‘slice’. I don’t recollect what is said when the ball travels left. But I will try to recollect that, hopefully by my next post.
Practice made me much better and I was making decent contact 7 out of 10 times towards the end. My friend said I did great considering that I was playing for the first time. I was happy. The next day, he sent me an email with all the key terms of Golf. I am still to go through it.
At the end of the day, I thought to myself, 'It wasn't stupid after all. Not only because I played it but also because there is so much more to it than just hitting the ball with that club'. The other thing I liked about the game was the green patch of land in front of us. Its peaceful to see the green and its really quiet out there. And I liked that. So that was a nice "golfful" day.
P.S – When I started writing the post, I was going to talk about one more interesting topic. But the first topic ate up so much real estate that I will keep the second topic for my next post
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Long term goal
Have you ever thought "What I want to be in my life ? Am I headed towards that in what I am doing right now ?" Almost everyone must have given this question a thought while in school/college. But does everyone in his/her work life think about this at least once in a single calendar year. And I bet you, the answer will be not everyone does it every year.
So why doesn't everyone ponder over this question once in a while ? Are we so much focused on the present that there is no time and opportunity ? I think the answer is yes. But this is just one category of the people. I think the other category is folks who are doing quite well in their life, have decent and stress free life but are not those kinds who will sit and ponder on such questions.
I must say I belong and now don’t want to belong to the second type. In my quest for MBA, such questions do come up. These are the important ones which the adcoms use to select from a huge applicant pool. So having a clear answer for these questions is important.
Today was a relatively quiet day and I stepped out for a walk, thinking maybe I will find an answer. From MBA essay standpoint, its important to express how your career progression has been , what is your goal and how a MBA will help you achieve that. This is the general theme for the typically the first essay - "Why MBA".
Being a IT engineer, I belong to the most common types. Based upon my talks with some of my friends who are currently pursuing their MBA or passed out, Finance, IB, Consultancy, Strategy, Marketing, General Management are some of the broad fields which candidates enter post MBA. Now which one do I choose. Consultancy, Strategy and General Management appeared to be the most logical fields for me. Given my background, I thought I could really build up my case keeping these fields in mind for my post MBA career.
So today I tried to answer the next question. What about the long term ? Say 20 or 25 years down the line ? Where do I want to go ? I thought maybe if I try to think about so much down the line, I will know where I want to be and try and connect the dots. Well, this is what happened. I ran in to more difficulty.
I started with "To be head of a large organization will be good" And then asked myself ,"Thats it ? Is that the maximum you want to achieve ? Whenever you do become one, do you think you would sit down and say, this is what I wanted all my life ! And now I have achieved it" I said to myself, "No. This is not it. There has to be something larger - something with a social cause in it. Something with a human touch. Being a head of a large organization can't be the ultimate goal. "
So then what can be the ultimate goal ? Without running the risk of being too philosophical, I thought for a while - "Maybe the ultimate goal can be to make the literacy rate of India to 100%." Now that’s a goal which can be called a Ultimate goal. But there was a maybe there.
This is when I told myself that maybe at this stage, its important to look maybe just 10 yr down the line and the ultimate goal and be rethought with a MBA and with good amount of post MBA experience.
So why doesn't everyone ponder over this question once in a while ? Are we so much focused on the present that there is no time and opportunity ? I think the answer is yes. But this is just one category of the people. I think the other category is folks who are doing quite well in their life, have decent and stress free life but are not those kinds who will sit and ponder on such questions.
I must say I belong and now don’t want to belong to the second type. In my quest for MBA, such questions do come up. These are the important ones which the adcoms use to select from a huge applicant pool. So having a clear answer for these questions is important.
Today was a relatively quiet day and I stepped out for a walk, thinking maybe I will find an answer. From MBA essay standpoint, its important to express how your career progression has been , what is your goal and how a MBA will help you achieve that. This is the general theme for the typically the first essay - "Why MBA".
Being a IT engineer, I belong to the most common types. Based upon my talks with some of my friends who are currently pursuing their MBA or passed out, Finance, IB, Consultancy, Strategy, Marketing, General Management are some of the broad fields which candidates enter post MBA. Now which one do I choose. Consultancy, Strategy and General Management appeared to be the most logical fields for me. Given my background, I thought I could really build up my case keeping these fields in mind for my post MBA career.
So today I tried to answer the next question. What about the long term ? Say 20 or 25 years down the line ? Where do I want to go ? I thought maybe if I try to think about so much down the line, I will know where I want to be and try and connect the dots. Well, this is what happened. I ran in to more difficulty.
I started with "To be head of a large organization will be good" And then asked myself ,"Thats it ? Is that the maximum you want to achieve ? Whenever you do become one, do you think you would sit down and say, this is what I wanted all my life ! And now I have achieved it" I said to myself, "No. This is not it. There has to be something larger - something with a social cause in it. Something with a human touch. Being a head of a large organization can't be the ultimate goal. "
So then what can be the ultimate goal ? Without running the risk of being too philosophical, I thought for a while - "Maybe the ultimate goal can be to make the literacy rate of India to 100%." Now that’s a goal which can be called a Ultimate goal. But there was a maybe there.
This is when I told myself that maybe at this stage, its important to look maybe just 10 yr down the line and the ultimate goal and be rethought with a MBA and with good amount of post MBA experience.
Sunday, June 01, 2008
Visiting Central Park
Entering Central Park in Manhattan yesterday did not bring back many memories as I don't happen to be a frequent visitor to that place. But I have always been fascinated by that place. The concept of a huge green patch in the middle of a large metro city may seem so simple yet it is so much overlooked back home in Mumbai. So when I first visited Central Park, back in Feb 2007, I was in much love with it. Roughly, spanning across 40 streets in NYC, which is 3-4 miles as distance between 2 streets is 0.1 mile, this park has a width of 0.5 mile, making it a 3.4 square mile of absolute green patch in a city where land prices are sky high - such a big boon to the city dwellers and to people commuting daily to the city.
New York city, the most vibrant in US, fast paced and where people are always running either to catch a train, attend a meeting, grab their lunch, or sign off a deal. If someone walks around midtown and downtown areas of Manhattan where most of the offices are located, from 8 am to 5 pm during a weekday, that person will tend to have just this single impression of NYC. But you go a little uptown and enter the Central Park area. The picture changes completely. Sometimes I wonder where do New Yorkers get their energy from. And I am sure Central Park must be one of the biggest contributor.
Every person you see in Central Park has a cheer on his face. You will see all kinds of people in this park. Jogging, cycling, walking, sitting on a bench - relaxing, napping, reading and the list goes on. But one thing which is common among all is that they all want to get away from the busy city life and find solace in this refreshing environment. Indeed, who wont need that peace after a grueling day at work. Not to mention, the park must be doing much more than you and I can imagine to keep the eco balance of the city in check. There are acres and acres of green lawns, tall and old trees, some of them probably more than a hundred years old. The park also has 50 statues of various famous American personalities encouraging admirers to take pictures of the fine art work. There are at least 2 lakes in the park, where there are ducks, fish and water in them is quite clean. Another aspect of the park, which I liked is that the park is not uniform and does not have a set pattern of trees, lawns or fountains. This is unlike some of the famous parks in India, like Vrindavan Garden, Mysore, where everything has a pattern. And the variation gives it a much natural look and you don’t know what you can expect to see next.
Of course, this was only my second visit to the park. I am sure there are more to come and more to discover about this park. The Central Park Conservancy, a not for profit organization, takes care of this park and full marks to them for doing a great job for giving a life to New Yorkers outside of their offices !
New York city, the most vibrant in US, fast paced and where people are always running either to catch a train, attend a meeting, grab their lunch, or sign off a deal. If someone walks around midtown and downtown areas of Manhattan where most of the offices are located, from 8 am to 5 pm during a weekday, that person will tend to have just this single impression of NYC. But you go a little uptown and enter the Central Park area. The picture changes completely. Sometimes I wonder where do New Yorkers get their energy from. And I am sure Central Park must be one of the biggest contributor.
Every person you see in Central Park has a cheer on his face. You will see all kinds of people in this park. Jogging, cycling, walking, sitting on a bench - relaxing, napping, reading and the list goes on. But one thing which is common among all is that they all want to get away from the busy city life and find solace in this refreshing environment. Indeed, who wont need that peace after a grueling day at work. Not to mention, the park must be doing much more than you and I can imagine to keep the eco balance of the city in check. There are acres and acres of green lawns, tall and old trees, some of them probably more than a hundred years old. The park also has 50 statues of various famous American personalities encouraging admirers to take pictures of the fine art work. There are at least 2 lakes in the park, where there are ducks, fish and water in them is quite clean. Another aspect of the park, which I liked is that the park is not uniform and does not have a set pattern of trees, lawns or fountains. This is unlike some of the famous parks in India, like Vrindavan Garden, Mysore, where everything has a pattern. And the variation gives it a much natural look and you don’t know what you can expect to see next.
Of course, this was only my second visit to the park. I am sure there are more to come and more to discover about this park. The Central Park Conservancy, a not for profit organization, takes care of this park and full marks to them for doing a great job for giving a life to New Yorkers outside of their offices !
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Reviving the writing
Here I am back to writing again. And I will be honest as to why. It was not that I don’t enjoy writing to vent out my thoughts. But I have always fallen short of planning, time management and inclination to set aside some time and write. But now with a few months remaining to write the most critical “MBA application essays”, its high time, that I get in to the groove to write and write comfortably and most importantly with an open mind. I agree, this idea of writing to make sure I write well may sound a little odd. Most of the bloggers that I see today write because they want to write and plus most of them write well. I think, the last time I really wrote was back in the school days. After that most of it has been writing long answers in junior college, engineering days and now most of the writing is in the form of official email.
I don’t expect that a lot of readers will find my blog interesting. But if you happen to be one of them who feel like encouraging me, please leave a comment. Don’t worry about the nature of your comment. You can be blunt, straight, negative. If possible, just don’t abuse.
Keep coming.
I don’t expect that a lot of readers will find my blog interesting. But if you happen to be one of them who feel like encouraging me, please leave a comment. Don’t worry about the nature of your comment. You can be blunt, straight, negative. If possible, just don’t abuse.
Keep coming.
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