yeah reached london last week, after 5 weeks in New York, and damn the stark difference absolutely hit me on my face.
first was the issue of finding food at 11 PM in the night, and damn London especially in the sort of commercial area where i live absolutely sucks.
But the pavements of london are not stained with the marks of Dog Piss.
Like in Mumbai there are notices of please dont spit on the walls, (the crazy betel pan chewing habit which is not only disgusting, but leaves its art work on all walls and lamposts in the city) In new York there are similar notices about PLEASE RESTRAIN YOUR DOGS
More over, the New York subways are ugly, though air conditioned, but the stations look like the set of a climax of hindi movie, where the villain has tied the heros mother and girl friend,
just before the final fight sequence.
More over back to seeing shorter buildings, cars being driven on the left of the road (contrary to americans who believe they always have to be "right")
Here i am back to following sports which i do understand, (well baseball and american football i didnt find particularly interesting and back to cricket and soccer. )
As regards with the people on the streets, though both London and NY are both extreemely diverse, in NY people all become homogenous New Yorkers and in london (due to its proximity to europe) people retain their identities, and speak more often in their mother tongue, and are recognised as polish, or french or german or indian for that matter.
There is also some form of Xeno phobia in London through out. (Same in the US as well)
now that bulgaria and romania are joining the EU, its been a lot about migrant workers coming and stealing their jobs.
Here i too am a migrant worker, and i do feel, well in the 17th and 18th century when these guys went and exploited the others, who was stopping them? when they had factories post industrial revolution which kept people poor in the third world countries.
US does take it to other extremes, by having quotas for h1B visas. Who is the champion of fair trade?
Why now it isnt survival of the fittest?
same thing is when Shiv sena and the marathis cry that all jobs are taken by the UP Bihar people, and nothing remains for ethnic population of bombay.
This is the part which is common every where.
people who are born in a location, feel its their privilege to be there, and other guys coming in and lowering the wages is incorrect.
(though i still believe and say i am not a low wage option :P, but a person chosen on merit, and deserve to be in the position, irrespective of my nationality)
yeah this form of xenophobia is atleast portrayed in the Newspapers in all three cities.
Give and take, the human nature is the same across continents.
Arent we all the same animal?
Saturday, September 30, 2006
Saturday, September 23, 2006
Last blog from NY
Good bye New York,
I am writing this from the lounge at the JFK Airport in NY, 2 hours before my flight,
next post shall be from home in London, (yeah now i have started calling London as home) The month spent here was a wonderful time, though cant wait to get back to work (ooops i might soon regret that with the long work hours that might be put in) .
Hopefully there shall be a few more blogs about the good times i had in NY.
Till then bbye NY
I am writing this from the lounge at the JFK Airport in NY, 2 hours before my flight,
next post shall be from home in London, (yeah now i have started calling London as home) The month spent here was a wonderful time, though cant wait to get back to work (ooops i might soon regret that with the long work hours that might be put in) .
Hopefully there shall be a few more blogs about the good times i had in NY.
Till then bbye NY
Monday, September 18, 2006
Stand up comedy
Well i always wanted to go to a stand up comedy show in NY, and when no one else was willing to come i thought lemme go for it alone.
I thought being not in a group would help no one would pick on me, and it would be good fun.
And even if some one picked on me come on it cant harm one much, especially not some one like me who has been through some of it (Come on, being fat, with spectacles, clumsy, bad in sport, good at math, kids could be rude in primary school to such guys and add to that a funny surname, which even indians cant pronounce correctly) And i am not adding anything about college or business school nick names. But as usual, boy was i mistaken.
the standup comedians sure know one thing, you neednt be funny, but sex and obscenity sells. Add to that political incorrectness, stereotypes, rude jokes and there you have the audience guffawing. So being the lone indian in the audience (lone brown guy) I was too conspicuous, so i had a bunch of computer programmer geek jokes, homosexual jokes, homophobic jokes (come on those comics were not even consistent), shopkeeper jokes, man finally when he asked me what work did i do (ahhh i have been at the wrong end of that one so many times) I had the wide smile on my face and said, "I price interest rate derivatives"
Damn that was the moment, i got that point, ... he was clueless, finally i added at an investment bank, and he mumbled something about indians being good at math.
Well all said and done, it sure was fun, the comics were hilarious and surely were fair to all,
Jews, Nazis, Blacks, Rednecks, Cops, Druggies, Drunks and chinese, not to mention indian computer programmers, ... all were made fun off. All for all they had quite a few comics, from a half arab to a african american female.
and thanks to the 18 year old californian dude who came ot the show with his parents and grandparents, man had it not been for him (and my moment when i told him about my job) I might have been weeping and calling back my mom.
But sure this was the first time, I actually scored a point when i described what work i was doing. Damn it felt good.
I thought being not in a group would help no one would pick on me, and it would be good fun.
And even if some one picked on me come on it cant harm one much, especially not some one like me who has been through some of it (Come on, being fat, with spectacles, clumsy, bad in sport, good at math, kids could be rude in primary school to such guys and add to that a funny surname, which even indians cant pronounce correctly) And i am not adding anything about college or business school nick names. But as usual, boy was i mistaken.
the standup comedians sure know one thing, you neednt be funny, but sex and obscenity sells. Add to that political incorrectness, stereotypes, rude jokes and there you have the audience guffawing. So being the lone indian in the audience (lone brown guy) I was too conspicuous, so i had a bunch of computer programmer geek jokes, homosexual jokes, homophobic jokes (come on those comics were not even consistent), shopkeeper jokes, man finally when he asked me what work did i do (ahhh i have been at the wrong end of that one so many times) I had the wide smile on my face and said, "I price interest rate derivatives"
Damn that was the moment, i got that point, ... he was clueless, finally i added at an investment bank, and he mumbled something about indians being good at math.
Well all said and done, it sure was fun, the comics were hilarious and surely were fair to all,
Jews, Nazis, Blacks, Rednecks, Cops, Druggies, Drunks and chinese, not to mention indian computer programmers, ... all were made fun off. All for all they had quite a few comics, from a half arab to a african american female.
and thanks to the 18 year old californian dude who came ot the show with his parents and grandparents, man had it not been for him (and my moment when i told him about my job) I might have been weeping and calling back my mom.
But sure this was the first time, I actually scored a point when i described what work i was doing. Damn it felt good.
Sunday, September 17, 2006
American TV
Dammit, I dont have a TV at home in London, and i am sure i am happy, else my spare time would have been spent watching the idiot box, like i do here in NY.
Though all the American sitcoms are great (particularly Seinfeld, Everybody Loves Raymond, and FRIENDS) , some other channels are absolutely pathetic.
Take for example MTV, which is nothing more than a reality TV show, hardly ever they show any music.
Some of the programs i saw were:
Sweet Sixteen here you have children turning 16 celebrating their birthday bashes, with their parents spending around 500,000 USD on the party.
DAMN, that is shocking, but what is worse the way the children behave (dammit calling these teenagers children makes me kinda feel real old)
some of the comments
"... the theme of the party is YOUNG and HOT coz i'm YOUNG and HOT" says a boy, who frankly weighing close to 300 pounds (140kg) and resembles a lazy sloth.
With them having invites for friends and saying those not invited are not "cool enough" and their temper tantrums are worth watching.
Each kid thinks they are the best, most handsome/beautiful or sexy and desirable whilst they are not. (Only when your parents are stashed with cash do you become so sexy, else you are nothing but a plain jane)
Next
this program is a speed dating kind of an event, pretty dumb, but mindless entertainment none the less, especially when someone gets rejected and they scream out NEXT
Parental COntrol
this is when parents dont approve of their kids current boyfriend/girlfriend and thus they set them up with 2 dates whilst the current boyfriend/girlfriend sits with the parent and watches the dates on television (live as its being taped by MTV)
This can be hilarious when the parents and the person whom they dont like sit next to each other and the situation does get nasty.
All in all, MTV is aimed at lots of teenagers, and this simply reflects the way of life here. With people having dreams and aspirations for a Mercedes or BMWs as 16th birthday presents, other jealous kids gawking, some gate crashing, and the teens self importance all coming from not what htey have done, are capable of but simply the stash in heir parents wallet.
Guess finding these programs weird has a lot to do with my conservative middle class brahminical upbringing in suburban mumbai.
But well this television is for the masses, and we get what we ask for, so its a reflection on the society, and shows how shallow, materialistic and empty the society has become.
And If you were thinking how come i am so preachy but find time to watch this crap you figured how come i am watching this, then you realised, how empty my life has become, with no cricket on television (I cant figure out much in Baseball or American Football) and idiot box is called so for a very specific reason, making bigger idiots out of existing idiots.
Pranksters at MIT
Well, on the first weekend i went to Boston to meet my friend Hemant Sahoo, who is a PhD student at MIT.
MIT being the Mecca of Engineering across the world is home to many geeks, and if you thought that they were the boring muggu types then you are definitely wrong. (Actually even i thought like that)
I had a preconceived notion that particularly the grad students were all lab rats, but i realised that they too have a sense of humour (albeit a wicked one)
they have an institutionalised system of pranks, most of them outright mean.
The best one was
These Chemical Engineering grad students didn't like a particular guy, so they took one of the lab rats (actual mouse, not another grad student) in liquid nitrogen (in high school chemistry i learnt nitrogen liquefies at -196 degree centigrade) and then the mouse crystallizes and becomes brittle, then they throw this crystalline mouse in some ones room, when each crystal breaks there are thousands of fragments scattered all around the room.
Soon as it reaches room temperature you have flesh of a dead mouse all over the room and it stinks like crazy.
This in it self is some punishment, and these grad students do make good use of the resources that they have liquid nitrogen from cryogenics lab, mice from the the pharmaceutics lab,
Wicked wicked guys these people are.
More over i saw the buildings in MIT, one in particular was a weird building in odd shapes, and was a maze within, the elevators stopped at a certain level from where you had to find another elevator bank yourself, this is because they did research on mice, that mice who were in complicated mazes became smarter, and thus hopefully same would happen with humans,
to be frank i think these crazy researchers do have a kinky fetish for mice :P
MIT being the Mecca of Engineering across the world is home to many geeks, and if you thought that they were the boring muggu types then you are definitely wrong. (Actually even i thought like that)
I had a preconceived notion that particularly the grad students were all lab rats, but i realised that they too have a sense of humour (albeit a wicked one)
they have an institutionalised system of pranks, most of them outright mean.
The best one was
These Chemical Engineering grad students didn't like a particular guy, so they took one of the lab rats (actual mouse, not another grad student) in liquid nitrogen (in high school chemistry i learnt nitrogen liquefies at -196 degree centigrade) and then the mouse crystallizes and becomes brittle, then they throw this crystalline mouse in some ones room, when each crystal breaks there are thousands of fragments scattered all around the room.
Soon as it reaches room temperature you have flesh of a dead mouse all over the room and it stinks like crazy.
This in it self is some punishment, and these grad students do make good use of the resources that they have liquid nitrogen from cryogenics lab, mice from the the pharmaceutics lab,
Wicked wicked guys these people are.
More over i saw the buildings in MIT, one in particular was a weird building in odd shapes, and was a maze within, the elevators stopped at a certain level from where you had to find another elevator bank yourself, this is because they did research on mice, that mice who were in complicated mazes became smarter, and thus hopefully same would happen with humans,
to be frank i think these crazy researchers do have a kinky fetish for mice :P
Dont you think so as well?
Saturday, September 02, 2006
Bankers with a Heart
Ok you might say this is just another oxymoron (Investment Bankers involved in M&A, Sales and trading of securities are nothing more than savage animals who daily go in for the hunt that what some say)
Well though thats partially true, (making money and generating fees is the biggest, naah the only driving force here) the HR managers who had designed the Associate training program for the class of 2006 thought otherwise. They planned a community service day as a part of our training program. You might smirk and say whats the big deal and what would you change in a day, well if Beauty pageants say they are doing it for charity and say its beauty with a purspose, so should we when we do our bit for rest of the world.
Merrill Lynch supports philanthropy and supports many charities and in particular one of them in New York is the Public School 9 (PS9) in brooklyn.
Thus Last friday we were all taken there (160 of us) and divided into teams and each of us had a task to do, which would be useful to school, before it opened in fall after the summer vacation.
My team was supposed to paint a classroom. Some were painting the lines on the basketball court, tennis courts, external walls around the playgrounds, some were organizing and moving the books in the library and so on.
I know i am a clumsy guy, but just this simple act of helping out someone and thinking if we did a shoddy job, then some small kids would be spending the whole year in that room, made me put in some amount of effort.
It is surprising that though in tasks where you benefit yourself (like group assignments in business school) in any group you would find some slackers, but here every body was helping in their own way, I was painting the long walls and being one reaching out near the top wiht a brush attached at the end of the pole while some others where using smaller brushes and painting the corners. being a complete novice, i simply followed the directions of people who had actualy painted their houses (yep being in india where labour is cheap spoils you like crazy)
Painting the ceiling was a bit of a chore with the paint dripping down on your face and though i was wearing overalls and goggles it did get a little messy.
i did some kind of a messy job initially the painted wall looked like a patchwork but then with the help of others i did another coat and hopefully we did a great job and the children studying in class room 108 in PS9 in Brooklyn hopefully should be in a cheerful mood in the brightly coloured classroom this year when the school reopens.
Here is the pic of me in the overalls, clicked in the beginning, as after i finished with the job i was in some complete mess, with more paint on my body than on the walls.
US Open
Just saw the US open match between Andre Agassi and Markos Baghdatis, and man that was one hell of a match.
Though I was cursing Merrill Lynch on how stingy they were in getting Centre court tickets on a Thursday for a 2nd round match, and that to some where at the top where in I could only get some kind of a helicopter view (borrowed that phrase from my colleague Sathyakama) but it was completely worth it.
though the first match we saw was a bore, martina Hingis lost to unseeded Virginia Razzano 6-2 6-2, (Razzano had some powerful backhand and hingis wasnt fit enough)
But then the bigger match came, the veteran Andre Agassi playing his 21st continous US open (since 1986) and this is definitely his final one, (I guess he started out from the juniors US Open) and his opponent was the 8th seeded Cypriot Markos Baghdatis. Baghdatis is a great surprise package of this year, being runners up at the Australian open and a semifinalist at the wimbledon, losing both the times to Roger Federer.
I bet on the old veteran Agassi being whipped by the young gun, (damn he is so much younger than me, it makes me feel old) but boy was i for a surprise.
At the Arthur Ashe Center court in flushing meadows, there were 23000 fans and only i guess 23 were supporting the Man from Cyprus, whereas the rest were all rooting for the american hero Agassi.
The atmosphere was absolutely electric and so was the tennis. Both had all round games, with strokes being played from the baseline, and aces at 133 mph, long rallies, acrobatic slides and some serve and volleys from the net as well. The match being a 5 set thriller shows how even the match was (6-4 6-4 3-6 5-7 7-5) and it went on for 3h 40min and was complete with great display of tennis.
Agassi definitely had the advantage of the home support, and sportive crowd though applauded both sides on winning long points,
in the latter half the americans started booing Baghdatis (when he nearly was running away with the match)
Though he eventually lost, I was really impressed by Baghdatis, he had more winners, more aces, better game but many many more unforced errors than Andre Agassi, who won the game by playing simple error free tennis, while his opponent was really flashy, but more of a scatter gun. He clawed back from being 2 sets down and won the next two (he was 0-4 down in the 4th set when all seemed to be lost, though he had the advantage ofa tiring old opponent)
This US Open had a new innovation where a player gets 2 chances to dispute the lines man call in each set, and TV replays would decide the actual position of the ball.
Agassi was applauded whenever he challenged the referee, and aghdatis was booed.
The crowd apart from being partisan was a great spot, we had a few mexican waves, with one which went on for 3 circles of the center court. This only ended when the great man Andre applauded us as that was being distracting to the players.
Even thoguh i have been rambling on for so long, nothing nothing actually describes the actual experience of watching the match.
Thankfully we actually saw this match live (which couldve been a simple boring affair) with games in the 5th set lasting 10 minutes and being 8-9 deuces in a game, (which might have been some kind of a record)
Anyways had a great time, now i should go watch a Yankees game or a basket ball match
Though I was cursing Merrill Lynch on how stingy they were in getting Centre court tickets on a Thursday for a 2nd round match, and that to some where at the top where in I could only get some kind of a helicopter view (borrowed that phrase from my colleague Sathyakama) but it was completely worth it.
though the first match we saw was a bore, martina Hingis lost to unseeded Virginia Razzano 6-2 6-2, (Razzano had some powerful backhand and hingis wasnt fit enough)
But then the bigger match came, the veteran Andre Agassi playing his 21st continous US open (since 1986) and this is definitely his final one, (I guess he started out from the juniors US Open) and his opponent was the 8th seeded Cypriot Markos Baghdatis. Baghdatis is a great surprise package of this year, being runners up at the Australian open and a semifinalist at the wimbledon, losing both the times to Roger Federer.
I bet on the old veteran Agassi being whipped by the young gun, (damn he is so much younger than me, it makes me feel old) but boy was i for a surprise.
At the Arthur Ashe Center court in flushing meadows, there were 23000 fans and only i guess 23 were supporting the Man from Cyprus, whereas the rest were all rooting for the american hero Agassi.
The atmosphere was absolutely electric and so was the tennis. Both had all round games, with strokes being played from the baseline, and aces at 133 mph, long rallies, acrobatic slides and some serve and volleys from the net as well. The match being a 5 set thriller shows how even the match was (6-4 6-4 3-6 5-7 7-5) and it went on for 3h 40min and was complete with great display of tennis.
Agassi definitely had the advantage of the home support, and sportive crowd though applauded both sides on winning long points,
in the latter half the americans started booing Baghdatis (when he nearly was running away with the match)
Though he eventually lost, I was really impressed by Baghdatis, he had more winners, more aces, better game but many many more unforced errors than Andre Agassi, who won the game by playing simple error free tennis, while his opponent was really flashy, but more of a scatter gun. He clawed back from being 2 sets down and won the next two (he was 0-4 down in the 4th set when all seemed to be lost, though he had the advantage ofa tiring old opponent)
This US Open had a new innovation where a player gets 2 chances to dispute the lines man call in each set, and TV replays would decide the actual position of the ball.
Agassi was applauded whenever he challenged the referee, and aghdatis was booed.
The crowd apart from being partisan was a great spot, we had a few mexican waves, with one which went on for 3 circles of the center court. This only ended when the great man Andre applauded us as that was being distracting to the players.
Even thoguh i have been rambling on for so long, nothing nothing actually describes the actual experience of watching the match.
Thankfully we actually saw this match live (which couldve been a simple boring affair) with games in the 5th set lasting 10 minutes and being 8-9 deuces in a game, (which might have been some kind of a record)
Anyways had a great time, now i should go watch a Yankees game or a basket ball match
US Open
Just saw the US open match between Andre Agassi and Markos Baghdatis, and man that was one hell of a match.
Though I was cursing Merrill Lynch on how stingy they were in getting Centre court tickets on a Thursday for a 2nd round match, and that to some where at the top where in I could only get some kind of a helicopter view (borrowed that phrase from my colleague Sathyakama) but it was completely worth it.
though the first match we saw was a bore, martina Hingis lost to unseeded Virginia Razzano 6-2 6-2, (Razzano had some powerful backhand and hingis wasnt fit enough)
But then the bigger match came, the veteran Andre Agassi playing his 21st continous US open (since 1986) and this is definitely his final one, (I guess he started out from the juniors US Open) and his opponent was the 8th seeded Cypriot Markos Baghdatis. Baghdatis is a great surprise package of this year, being runners up at the Australian open and a semifinalist at the wimbledon, losing both the times to Roger Federer.
I bet on the old veteran Agassi being whipped by the young gun, (damn he is so much younger than me, it makes me feel old) but boy was i for a surprise.
At the Arthur Ashe Center court in flushing meadows, there were 23000 fans and only i guess 23 were supporting the Man from Cyprus, whereas the rest were all rooting for the american hero Agassi.
The atmosphere was absolutely electric and so was the tennis. Both had all round games, with strokes being played from the baseline, and aces at 133 mph, long rallies, acrobatic slides and some serve and volleys from the net as well. The match being a 5 set thriller shows how even the match was (6-4 6-4 3-6 5-7 7-5) and it went on for 3h 40min and was complete with great display of tennis.
Agassi definitely had the advantage of the home support, and sportive crowd though applauded both sides on winning long points,
in the latter half the americans started booing Baghdatis (when he nearly was running away with the match)
Though he eventually lost, I was really impressed by Baghdatis, he had more winners, more aces, better game but many many more unforced errors than Andre Agassi, who won the game by playing simple error free tennis, while his opponent was really flashy, but more of a scatter gun. He clawed back from being 2 sets down and won the next two (he was 0-4 down in the 4th set when all seemed to be lost, though he had the advantage ofa tiring old opponent)
This US Open had a new innovation where a player gets 2 chances to dispute the lines man call in each set, and TV replays would decide the actual position of the ball.
Agassi was applauded whenever he challenged the referee, and aghdatis was booed.
The crowd apart from being partisan was a great spot, we had a few mexican waves, with one which went on for 3 circles of the center court. This only ended when the great man Andre applauded us as that was being distracting to the players.
Even thoguh i have been rambling on for so long, nothing nothing actually describes the actual experience of watching the match.
Thankfully we actually saw this match live (which couldve been a simple boring affair) with games in the 5th set lasting 10 minutes and being 8-9 deuces in a game, (which might have been some kind of a record)
Anyways had a great time, now i should go watch a Yankees game or a basket ball match
Though I was cursing Merrill Lynch on how stingy they were in getting Centre court tickets on a Thursday for a 2nd round match, and that to some where at the top where in I could only get some kind of a helicopter view (borrowed that phrase from my colleague Sathyakama) but it was completely worth it.
though the first match we saw was a bore, martina Hingis lost to unseeded Virginia Razzano 6-2 6-2, (Razzano had some powerful backhand and hingis wasnt fit enough)
But then the bigger match came, the veteran Andre Agassi playing his 21st continous US open (since 1986) and this is definitely his final one, (I guess he started out from the juniors US Open) and his opponent was the 8th seeded Cypriot Markos Baghdatis. Baghdatis is a great surprise package of this year, being runners up at the Australian open and a semifinalist at the wimbledon, losing both the times to Roger Federer.
I bet on the old veteran Agassi being whipped by the young gun, (damn he is so much younger than me, it makes me feel old) but boy was i for a surprise.
At the Arthur Ashe Center court in flushing meadows, there were 23000 fans and only i guess 23 were supporting the Man from Cyprus, whereas the rest were all rooting for the american hero Agassi.
The atmosphere was absolutely electric and so was the tennis. Both had all round games, with strokes being played from the baseline, and aces at 133 mph, long rallies, acrobatic slides and some serve and volleys from the net as well. The match being a 5 set thriller shows how even the match was (6-4 6-4 3-6 5-7 7-5) and it went on for 3h 40min and was complete with great display of tennis.
Agassi definitely had the advantage of the home support, and sportive crowd though applauded both sides on winning long points,
in the latter half the americans started booing Baghdatis (when he nearly was running away with the match)
Though he eventually lost, I was really impressed by Baghdatis, he had more winners, more aces, better game but many many more unforced errors than Andre Agassi, who won the game by playing simple error free tennis, while his opponent was really flashy, but more of a scatter gun. He clawed back from being 2 sets down and won the next two (he was 0-4 down in the 4th set when all seemed to be lost, though he had the advantage ofa tiring old opponent)
This US Open had a new innovation where a player gets 2 chances to dispute the lines man call in each set, and TV replays would decide the actual position of the ball.
Agassi was applauded whenever he challenged the referee, and aghdatis was booed.
The crowd apart from being partisan was a great spot, we had a few mexican waves, with one which went on for 3 circles of the center court. This only ended when the great man Andre applauded us as that was being distracting to the players.
Even thoguh i have been rambling on for so long, nothing nothing actually describes the actual experience of watching the match.
Thankfully we actually saw this match live (which couldve been a simple boring affair) with games in the 5th set lasting 10 minutes and being 8-9 deuces in a game, (which might have been some kind of a record)
Anyways had a great time, now i should go watch a Yankees game or a basket ball match
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