Judging Vs Understanding

Judging is fast, easy and instant.. Who wouldn't want instant results.. But before we judge, if we get a chance to understand a person and understand the reasons behind their actions, may be we cannot be judgmental.. I could even go to the extent of saying, both are mutually exclusive..

There is an argument that supports Judging after thoroughly understanding. Just like the way our esteemed courts work. But do we really have the moral authority to judge anyone? Personally, I doubt it.

Two new inventions..

A while ago, i figured, that the salad dressing is the culprit in the weight gain. Loaded with fats and unhealthy ingredients, we are better off without the dressing. But how many of us can eat a salad without any dressing.. I bet, very few..

On top of it, "all leaves" salad has no carbs or protein in it. Either you have to supplement it with meat like grilled chicken or stick to vegetarian soy chunks..

One day i just mixed sambaar with my salad and ate it.. It felt good.. then I went a step ahead and mixed Yogurt with Sambaar and used it as salad dressing.. End result, "Awesome"

This invention has given rise to the second one, mix regular Daal with Yogurt and use it as dressing. On the contrary to the regular dressing, these two have good carbs and protein with the addition of calcium and vitaman A from the dairy..

Well, i thought i would name it after me.. ,, but then heck.. The dressing with daal is called Rayalaseema Dressing and the one with Sambaar, "Chennai Dressing".. How abt it?

Cultural differences

It has been almost 13 years since I am away from India. One thing that strikes me vividly is how westerners treat the gifts. Its absolutely normal to open a gift right in front and at times its expected to do so.. But back home, it is not a norm to open a gift right when its received.

Another interesting norm in the western countries to respect the privacy and not to pry up upon personal details like weather or not married, if so, how many kids and what kind of job and how much do one make etc.. In fact its considered outright rude to ask.

On the contrary back home in India, it is quite normal and OK to ask above questions and its considered rude not to answer these questions.. Cultural difference ....

Products and prices..

Its just over 3 years since i have landed in USA. Life is good and I tried my best not get carried away by the consumerism. But guess what, spent more money in the last 3 years than i had ever spent before. Then came the realization.. That there are intrinsically two things at play when i go shopping. The product and the price. I observed, that i have been buying stuff just because i liked the price and eventually regretted the purchase..

Now, I got my act together.. I will go shopping only if I need something and i go looking for it. Lets say a shirt, and i need to like it very much.. Not just like it, but i should feel that i cannot do without it.. Price is not a consideration (well of-course within a reason based on my affordability) when i find something like that. Then again there are rare circumstances where in I like the price and the product. But not happens always..

Now my satisfaction to spending ratio is much higher..

Butter chicken without butter.. Oh please..

Lately moved to the free land of the brave. Enough of Europe..

Its interesting to see my co-workers, getting cappuccino from the vending machine. Most of them choose close to half liter of decaf coffee and non fat milk.. It kept me wondering why bother drinking it at all

Air conditioning in India : Cooler the better!

Canned foods in India are much more expensive, compared to the fresh produce which is abundant in India. I had a perception that they must be more tasty and its a symbol of class to eat them. I realised what an idiot i was, when i first landed in Germany.

Lets think of Air conditioning in India. In my first company in India, I use to shiver under the air conditioning. There were no controls (thats what i was told) to reduce the chill factor. Another reason was, others were objecting etc.. There were times when I used to get soar throat due to the excessive chill in the office. I am sure the perception of chill varies from person to person.

In my opinion and experience, the regular temperature maintained in the Indian offices is around 20°C to 19°C. Which I feel is quite chilly. Lets suppose medically accepted temperature figure for a human body is, say 22°C.

If temperature limit is increased by even 2°C, could bring in huge savings in energy which is good for the bottom line of the company and also for the environment. Alas I dont have any chance to experiment with AC as our offices in Germany have only heaters and I feel pretty comfortable at 22°C when its zero outside. And i am sure one should feel ok at 25°C when its 40°C outside. May be you should just give it a try.

Is it really, "cooler the better"?

On Crystal Blur's Mera Bharath Mahaan

Crystal Blur, one of the few bloggers I read, has a good grip on words and puts things in a good perspective. But again, lets see how I view Bharath vis a vis developed nations. And we cannot ignore the progress made by those nations.. May be Cry should think again, why on earth did she choose US in the first place. And I personally think its of no use to compare the isolated instances and establish the equality with ill behaved people like 60+ men clamouring for seats. May be if we consider knocking door in any small town back home in the middle of the day for water, there is 90% chance of you getting water. But I wonder if you get the same favour back in States. So if we can judge people and the country by just once instance, we score much higher points than many countries.. But life's is not that simple.. I just wonder if Cry has called a taxi to escape the rush? She might venting out her anger on select desis, but has brought up a good topic to blog upon.

Can we pat on our back and say we have achieved enough and conclude "Mera Bharath Mahaan"?

Consider one particular instance:
I frequent home every 8 months in an year and I dread the idea of waiting in the immigration queue in Hyderabad Rajiv Gandhi international Airport. It never took me less than 1.5 hrs to get out of the queue, and the same in Frankfurt would take me 15 to 20 mins maximum. And there is absolutely no reason why we are so behind in providing little comfort to the travelers.. Imagine my plight with a small kid of 3 yrs so rest less and my wife totally exhausted during the flight keeping up with the demands of the little one. At the end of the ordeal, the passport officer begs like a cheapo for any amount of dollars. Believe me, I am not making this up. I had two instances where he has begged (mark my words, it was not a demand, but like, whatever you please?) for money.. Why on earth should we stoop so low. So much for inefficiency and lack of pride.

This doesn't mean we Indians are inefficient as a whole.. But we can have so many instances of inefficiencies which we can easily eliminate without spending money. Just careful & intelligent planning. Its never always about money, but a thoughtful action.

To conclude, we are way behind developed nations like Scandinavian countries, where they have achieved quite some development, respecting the environment. And the good part is we are slowly but surely catching on with development.