The Walk of Life

Statutory Warning: This post was composed in an 8:30 class, after having drunk all night and sleeping for like 2 hours. So if you don't value your sanity, continue reading.

WHAT A CLASS!! This is going to be fun. Sample the questions on the slides being displayed in the class right now -
What is a supply chain? (Why are u asking us this question after like 8 classes of SCM?)
What is a decision?? (Are we really supposed to answer that? This is an MBA Class right?)
What are decisions in supply chain??? (Ummmm... Well, is the answer "decisions we make in the supply chain"? :P)

Please note that the number of question marks at the end of each question follow an arithmetic progression. Well, this is not exactly what the Prof. had put up in his slides. I had to make a decision in Supply Chain Management (Class). I had the choice between using what Sir had (i.e. 3 Q marks at the end of the 2nd Q), or using this AP pattern. I like the patterns. And I am allowed to make assumptions. I fact, during my internship, I became so comfortable with making assumptions that it now comes naturally to me. So I assumed that the Prof. wanted to convey the increase in his excitement as he went down the value chain, oops, down the slides.

Why am I striving to achieve this symmetry, this pattern? Because I'm blurring the patterns elsewhere. Or maybe I'm perfecting this pattern of self-destruction. I have this knack of getting inextricably (and inexplicably? :P) involved in complex situations; maybe I don't like a life devoid of complications! Anyways, too bored to continue any more. And I guess you're too crazed out to read on. I think I've successfully shown you how to implement the concept of laddering - jumping from one thought to another. What a respectable name for a random thought process. Hope u enjoy using it and making some more people crazy!

What’s with the small attention span I have??! I’d started writing something a few days back, but I just realized I wanted to write about something totally different. I had no idea what, but not what I had started. So I thought about what I’d been doing and feeling for the last few days – Nostalgia?? I mean, I had the most rocking weekend ever, literally. I spent a whole weekend jamming, with people I’d never met before. And it seemed like the most natural thing to do. It’s amazing how music can bind people. I guess that music room, those amazing alums I met and jammed with, the mind-blowing PJs Harish and I cracked, and the looks of exasperation on the faces of those who heard the “jokes” (esp. Bed and PP) will always stay in my mind.

Waking up at 7 in the morning to get to a jamming room in Andheri by 9 (I obviously got there half an hour late :P), thinking of random songs and being confident that we’ll be able to pull it off, making medleys out of continuous drum beats, discussing various stages of inebriation and what songs would be perfect for them – even song lists are decided through a lot of strategizing (although that strategy might go for a toss once the show starts). I’ll remember going to Barista to get hold of a guitar so that we could practise yet another song, the dal at the restaurant where we lunched, JBS alums telling us how things were done 4-5 yrs back, this alum talking about how his random though process led to an acclaimed book, being able to perform just 8-10 songs when we’d practised about 30. I’ll remember those 2 days as the best weekend of my great internship.

It’s amazing how seeing my batchmates and seniors cheered me up, it’s weird that it felt like I was home again, it’s incredible how ecstatic I felt when that IIMC video was shown, it’s overwhelming to see the passion and energy that “Early Days” can build up in any IIMCian. I guess this is what we’re talking of when we speak of “IIMC culture”. And I’m so thankful I came here after those amazing 4 years at Kgp. I don’t think anything other than IIMC would’ve been worth it.

Is the way you shop an indication of the way you live? I mean, all our life is about shopping - shopping for a degree, college, matrimonial prospect, job. In fact even the small things we do everyday - what to eat, choosing the template or URL for your blog, what to wear, what to sing in the next JBS party - it's all shopping. They totally accept this fact at IIMC, and hence the concept of bidding and shopping for courses.

But back to the question of does the way you shop for clothes also show how you'll choose other things in your life. There are those for whom shopping is a well-planned economized decision, they save money, make a list of things they need purchase exactly what they need and come back. They might even club the shopping with an outing. These are the organized, financially prudent people we see around us everyday. People who take decisions on the basis of a proper cost-benefit analysis. They have a simple, uncomplicated existence. They know exactly what they want, they look for it, take it and then live life as usual.

At the other extreme are those who don't know what kind of clothes they're looking for. They know they want something - either because they're short of clothes, or because they want to relax and unwind by indulging themselves. They go around looking at everything available - kurtas, jeans, tops, everything, and might end up buying nothing. I believe that for them, the experience of shopping, of pampering themselves is more important than what they finally buy.

Then there are those impulsive shoppers who just walk into a shop and buy something they're not sure they need, just because they liked it. There are those who look at something and know that this is exactly what they're looking for. There are those who need to see all their options to reaffirm their decision to buy something.

Look at recruiters shopping for people. What sort of a shopping strategy do they have? They first see the whole pool available and decide who's worth looking at. Then they try those on (interviews, GDs - I guess they are trying to find ppl who fit their company!) and decide which ones to finally purchase. In fact this is the way I shop when I have too many good things to look at. I obviously can't try on 50 dresses to decide what to buy!!

I guess the worst possible decisions are mercy purchases - when you've shopped for too long, are too bored, too tired to decide. you buy something you don't really like, because of the sunk cost of the time spent in trying to find something worth purchasing. So you buy dresses you never wear, you study Instrumentation Engg for four years and never use it again.

Please don't ask me what I'm trying to convey through this post. Frankly speaking, I have no fricking idea. In fact, most probably, only a few people who know what I'm talking about will be able to identify with this. Its just that in the past few days of shopping for blog template, blog url, foreign universities and electives that my friends and I have done, I saw these weird connections. I saw that people shop differently in different moods, different situations, for different things. I guess even the way you shop makes you unique!!

Well, there's this well-known species of people known as "Drama Queens". People who're always looking for excitement in their life, who get bored of too mundane a life and can't stick to anything. Any kind of drama will serve their purpose - romance, action, grief, pain, comedy - as long as its there. As long as its there to assure them that they're not insignificant enough to be ignored, that they matter enough to someone - a human, or a God. And you'd be amazed to see the extent they go to to feel significant. They dream of having a handsome BF/husband riding on a white horse, they tolerate abuse from their BFs because it helps them feel the pain. I've always thought of these drama queens as an alien species, who live in a world far away from mine.

But then, something a friend said to me made me think otherwise. It made me realize that even I belong to that species. Agreed I'm not one of those dreamy-eyed people who imagine having a handsome/crorepati husband. In fact, I don't even want them :P. But I do dream of a perfect life. I dream of being a great student, a hotshot career woman, the ideal housewife, which practically speaking, is next to impossible. I like to be liked, unless of course, I'm really pissed about something (God save u then :P). But ya, all those other times, when I like to be liked, I go out of my way to be good. I guess if God had made a doc enumerating the eligibility criteria for being a drama queen, I would satisfy quite a few of them. Anyways, there are many other things.

But what confuses me even more is - how can a practical person like me belong to that species? I mean, in all the decisions I take always first comes a feasibility check. Not that I don't do big things. I think of and do stuff which would qualify as breakthroughs, but then, anything which seems impractical goes into the rubbish can.

And this combo of "Drama queenliness" (this was the only way I could describe what I felt :P) and practicality is exactly what I have a problem with. Those who openly indulge in impractical drama and dreams endear themselves to people by falling into the categories of the naives, the innocents or the plain dumbs. But what about people like me - drama queens masquerading as hard-headed, practical people? Usually when we do something irrational for excitement, we let go of our senses. Since we've always been practical, we can't see when we've entered the irrational territory, in fact we end up doing extra-stupid stuff. And that's where the problems come. Because we're not dreamy-eyed enough to continue with it all our lives. And when realization comes, that's when it hurts, that's when you realize you let yourself down. I figure it's good for people like me to look for drama in the small things in life. But when it comes to big things, I guess the head's decisions are the best. Because for people like me, drama and practicality mix to form too potent a drink; we shouldn't take more than a few pegs of it! :D

In continuation of my previous post...

I left the previous post halfway. Then realized that half an hour of "sitting in the class listening to the boring lecture" was still left. So I guess I can take off from where I left because I got bored.

From my previous post, getting somewhere decent in your life leads to complacency. And we are inherently lazy. Changing ourselves needs a lot of work. I believe in conservation of energy, and so I have to push myself a lot before I start expending energy on changing myself. But I guess once I've really decided, it works. Notwithstanding the periods of extreme laziness, I usually manage to push myself hard enough. I know I've seen lots of things, but there's still so much more to see. I guess this dissatisfaction, this yearning to see and do more will do the trick.

Now I hope to God this class gets over soon. Otherwise either I or Sonali, whom I'm torturing with these ramblings, will strangle me.

What does this obsession with perfection do to people? Why do I always HAVE to be perfect at everything? Why can't I be ok with doing things wrong at times? Be it acads, music, work, extra-currics, I always have to do the job perfectly. Its good on paper - identifying what I'm good at and excelling at them. After all, what can be more useful than knowing your strengths and weaknesses? Considering the amount of value recruiters put on it, this must be a life-changing realization.

However, knowing what you're good at has its downside. It makes yout cautious, conservative. Knowing what you're good at makes you wary of moving out of your comfort zone, scared of taking risks (Yes, since I was writing this in the Corp Fin class, I had to put in the word "risk")!! With this reluctance of doing new things comes stagnation.

And since life keeps changing, even you have to change. What was perfect once may cease to be perfect in a changed scenario. So does knowing what you're good at make you imperfect and outdated?

Anyways, pretty tired of thinking now. Just one question. Am I the only person who has such random thoughts and convoluted thought process? If yes, do I need to break out of this weird art I've perfected?

Well, the last few days have been so hectic. And with so much work, my sleep cycle has got totally reversed. I've been sleeping at 5 in the morning and then getting up on time for the 8:30 classes. Just made me wonder, can this even be called sleeping? The dark circles under my eyes are turning into black holes, absorbing any light that falls on them :|.

Anyways, on Saturday, I slept at 5:30 in the morning and woke up at 3:30 in the afternoon. I remembering thinking that I was turning into an owl. But then I realized, owls get to sleep so much more than us. 8 hours of sleep are considered to be sufficient for human beings. But owls come out only in the dark hours. This gives them at least 12 hours of sleep, even in the worst case. We sleep about one-third the time that owls sleep. Is that why they are considered to be wise creatures?

Also, the world looks so good when you can't see people around. So owls effectively stay awake when most humans are asleep (except B-school students, of course)! They get to see the world at its glory, when its sleeping and freshening up for the next day, when its so calm, when there are no vehicles polluting it, very few humans spoiling the peace. They get the best of everything. And here we are, fighting it out, staying awake at nights - to get to a place in life where we get to sleep even lesser. I guess owls are wiser than MBAs.

This might cause a lot of heart-ache and dismay to you, but I guess this hobby of mine is here to stay. I've always known that I love writing, but I guess my laziness overcame my desire to write. Till I decided to start again. I believe in penning my random thoughts on blog, and this can sometimes cause pain to my friends who have to read through my insufferable writing. Anyways, after reading my previous post, a friend of mine asked me to write about "Why people write". I love taking up challenges, so here goes.

Why do people write? I can think of lots of reasons, the first of which could be simply because they love writing. You see, there are people who love to sing, or cook, or play cricket. Noone raises an eyebrow when they break their neighbours' window panes with their high-pitched snging and cricket balls. So why so much hullabaloo over someone writing in the closed confines of his room? After all, what better way to relax than to write about what's bugging you? If that doesn't do the trick, you could always resort to more violent means like hitting hard your laptop keys or mauling the paper with the tip of your pen :P!!

Then there are those who write for a living. Remember those who write newspaper columns and magazines? These are people who have managed to change a pastime of theirs into a means of living. I've always wondered how it works. I mean, I sing. But that's my refuge in the tough times. It's the shelter I go back to when I need a break from my professional life, when I want to unwind, when I want to have fun. Your professional life is supposed to be stressful; you have to adhere to rules, do your work in a way that doesn't hurt your seniors' egoes. What happens when what you used to do for fun gets limited by these constraints? Do you start doing something else to unwind? Or did you never love it so much in the first place?

Anyways, the third category is of those who write for others. They believe they have something great to share. It could be the fantasies you've had as a child, like Christopher Paolini. It could be a mother who wants to share a story she used to tell her children, like J.K.Rowling. It could be someone who wants to share her experiences as an immigrant. It could be someone who believes that he has achieved a lot in life or has solved an indecipherable puzzle, and should share his thoughts with the rest of the world for the larger good of the society. I mean, isn't that why self-help books, books that give dating tips, etc. sell like hot cakes? This category of writers could also include someone who believes that the names of the top (public!) institutions he has studied at, or the great organizations he has worked for, make it necessary for him to give back to the society. I have no idea what this person wants to give back, but empirical evidence would suggest that it'd be some sleazy, steamy material which gives people the motivation to join an IIT or an IIM, or work in a BPO, or maybe get married!!

And finally, there are people like me, who write for a very selfish motive - to stop themselves from turning into vegetables. People like me believe that thinking is too much work, and hence stop exercising our brains. And then we realise that if we continue to go this way, we might be nothing more than decorative pieces. Hell, I'm not even good-looking enough to be a decorative piece! Anyways, we figure out that to write, you need to think. That's why I decided to write - to give my brain some much-needed exercise. Not really a very romantic reason, but then, I guess like so many other things in our lives, romance has gone out of our writing too.

I now know what life at a B-school is about. It't not so much about what you learn. It's about how you apply it. It's about learning those 500 words which are a must for any manager. It's about deciding what you want to do, making the best of your life. It's not a life for laggards, and I don't intend to be one. Being at a B-school is about making processes, so as to increase the probability of your achieving your goals. It's about learning from your peers and seniors, it's about practising. After all, practice makes one perfect. Today I start a new journey. I pledge not to screw up anything else in my life. I promise myself not to be complacent, or to be afraid of anything. I will go out and take up new challenges, things I've always been scared of. I'll learn to talk to myself. I've seen in the past that only when you start working on something, you gain confidence. I intend to jump into new things - case study competitions, projects, sector-specific stuff. I will go ahead and register for things I don't know a thing about, because that's the only way I learn. This post will be my learning diary, where I'll write and track everything I learn everyday. May I reach the highest levels and get the best internship and job! Amen! :)

My 3rd speech at Toastmasters

Hi friends. A very good afternoon to all of you! Remember those days when you have an important interview and get stuck in a traffic jam? Remember those days when you start a few minutes late from your home and miss the office bus because it was a few minutes earlier than usual? My point is, sometimes things go wrong, that too at the most inappropriate moments. And you don’t know whom to blame. Take heart, because after my speech, you’ll know exactly who is responsible for all the miseries in your life.

It’s not fate, it’s not God. This villain is called Murphy’s Law. Unlike other complicated laws which you take a lot of time to understand, this law is very clearly-worded. It simply states “Anything that can go wrong will go wrong”. That means that if there is even a 0.1% probability that something can go wrong, it will go wrong in the worst possible manner.

The law owes its origin to the American Air Force. In between 1948 and1949, the American Air Force took up a project to study human deceleration. They wanted to test how many Gs a pilot could withstand in a crash – where one G is the force of gravity acting on a body at sea-level. Earlier estimates said that it was 18Gs. However some crashes during World War II proved otherwise. These estimates were used in designing aircrafts. So if the earlier estimates were incorrect, lives of many pilots were unnecessarily at risk. These tests were being conducted by Colonel John Stapp, a physician, U.S. Air Force colonel and Flight Surgeon.

During the tests, questions were raised about the accuracy of the instrumentation used to measure the g-forces. Edward Murphy, an American aerospace engineer, proposed using electronic strain gauges to measure this force. The sensors were wired. But guess what? They showed a zero reading. It turned out Murphy’s assistants had wired the sensors incorrectly. This prompted a disgusted Murphy to make the pronouncement “If there’s any way they can do it wrong, they will.”

This was how the law was born. But just how did the Law get out into the world and gain public attention? Well, John Paul Stapp held a press conference a few weeks after the incident. And he was attempting to explain his research in clinical terms when a reporter asked the obvious question: “How is it that no one has been severely injured — or worse — during your tests?” Stapp replied nonchalantly that, “we do all of our work in consideration of Murphy’s Law.” When the puzzled reporters asked for a clarification, Stapp defined the Law and stated that “you have to think through all possibilities before doing a test” so as to avoid disaster. If anything can go wrong, it will. It was a concept that seized the cumulative imagination at the press conference. So when articles showed up in print, Murphy’s Law was cited right along with Newton’s Second.

As time progressed, people found that this rule is ubiquitous. It is all-pervading. Every person I know swears that their lives are governed by this one single rule. In fact, so many people are affected by it that over the years, this law has been quoted in thousands of articles and news reports, been the subject of several books, appeared as the title of a movie and a TV show, and inspired about a dozen zillion corollaries, or correlated laws. I would now like to tell you about a few of those dozen zillion corollaries, which will make it clear to you how this law affects every aspect of our life.

Murphy’s Law governs your love life. You see a beautiful girl or a handsome guy at a party. This is THE person you had dreamt of all your life. You go and introduce yourself to this person. And the next thing you know, you are being introduced to this person’s spouse. After all, there is a corollary which says “All the good ones are taken.” “And if the person isn’t taken, there’s a reason.”

There are laws that pertain to your job. Maybe your job is well-paying, but it bores you to death. Maybe you found a job description which was fun, interesting and high-paying. You went to interview for it, and you didn’t get it. The following quote sums it up aptly. “The job you want is well-paying, interesting, fun, rewarding, conveniently located, or attainable; pick one.”

All of us who are automating test cases face a peculiar problem. When you don’t have any deadlines to meet, when you don’t have any urgent tasks to finish, the stage will work as if it never had any load problems. However, you have some important test case to deliver and you’ll find that someone has uninstalled Silk from your TPA, or better still, you cannot connect to your TPA at all. Your stage will not work, you will need to file a ticket and you’ll take hours trying to find what ticket to file. A saying sums it up correctly “If something breaks, and it stops you from doing something, it will be fixed when you:
1. no longer need it
2. are in the middle of something else
3. don't want it to be fixed, because you really don't want to do what you were supposed to do”
And there’s a law which developers would certainly identify with. It says “Bugs will appear in one part of a working program when another 'unrelated' part is modified.”

And speaking of the theme of the day, there is a corollary to Murphy’s Law which sums it up aptly. It says “Anything good in this world is either illegal, immoral or fattening.” It very clearly brings out the fact that temptations are what we want to do, and they maybe different from what we do. The key is to strike the correct balance between the two.

To sum up, it might seem to some people that I am taking a very pessimistic view of life by saying that everything in life has to go wrong. However, to me it is a reminder that life can be defined just as much by its inherent challenges as anything else. These challenges make life enjoyable. Murphy’s laws just help us to take it all with humour. :)

My 2nd speech at Toastmasters

Hi, a very good afternoon to all of you… Sydney J. Harris said “Demoocracy is the only system that persists in asking the powers that be whether they are powers that ought to be.” Last week Angesh talked about PP – “Power of Publicity”. This impelled me to think of a bigger PP, namely “Power of People”. The 15th General Elections being conducted this year are a celebration of the same phenomenon. So I thought I’d talk about a democracy, its different facets, and most importantly, the role we play in a democracy.

A democracy is a form of government where citizens hold power directly or indirectly. It is derived from the Greek work “demokratia”, which in turn was coined from “demos”, meaning people, and “kratos” meaning rule or strength. In short, democracy means rule by people or popular government. There are two major characteristic features of a democracy. One is that of equality - all citizens have equal access to power. And the second is that of liberty. All citizens have universally recognized freedoms. Moreover, freedom of speech, freedom of political expression and freedom of press are important so that the citizens are informed and are able to vote in their personal interests.

When I started reading about democracy, the first question which popped into my mind was “When did it all start, and how did it evolve into the present-day democratic system?” The answer to the first question turned out to be, as early as 2nd millennium BC. Arwad, a small island which is a part of the present-day Syria is one of the first known democracies in the world. Closer home, the city of Vaishali, which is a part of Bihar now, was one of the first known governments in the world to have elements of the present-day democracy. In the earlier days of democracy, not everyone had the power to vote. Only males of certain tribes, or families were allowed to vote.

During the medieval ages, many bands and tribes also followed the principle of democracy. A very interesting fact regarding these democracies is that this system was not based on the principle of majority. The leaders needed to reach a consensus while making decisions. Also, all the tribe members were expected to share communal duties and participate in the decision-making process. There used to be one “big man” or “big woman” who was influential. However, that influence was conditional to their continuing to demonstrate good leadership. In other words, bushmen were not only more informed and more proactive than us, they also had greater powers!!

During the 18th century, the founding fathers of America decided to root the American experiment in the principles of freedom and equality for male land-owners. They adopted a constitution which provided for an elected government. Democracy became a way of life, but not for women, slaves and free black people. It was only later that these people got the right to vote. In 1893, New Zealand became the first nation to grant universal suffrage, or right to vote.

During the 20th century, most of the democracies were formed as a result of wars or rebellions. There was a wave of decolonization and most of the newly freed countries started forming democratic governments. India emerged as the largest democracy in the world and still continues to be so. Presently there are 123 democratic nations and there is an upward trend in this number.

A major criticism against democracies is that it is a majority rule. So in the absence of a responsible government, it is possible for the majority to abuse the rights of the minority.

Another major criticism is that many voters are irrational. They might be highly uninformed about some issues or have a strong bias towards something. For example, members of a labour union are very passionate and informed about labour policies. They might come together and lobby the government to adopt policies favourable to the labour unions, but not to the rest of the population. In Winston Churchill once stated “The best argument against a democracy is a 5-minute conversation with the average voter.”

This is where we, informed and responsible citizens come into picture. It is our duty to know about different political parties, their manifestoes, their ideologies, the policies – economic or otherwise – propagated by them. Only when we know all this can we make the right decision.

Tata Tea showed a very hitting advertisement as a part of its Jaago Re initiative. It shows a young voter questioning a candidate on his policies. The voter puts it to him very aptly. We give interviews when we take up a job. You have applied for a very important job – that of running the nation. So it is quite obvious that you will be interviewed. This brings to front the role of an active citizen in a democracy.

In fact, we would do well to learn about activism from our counterparts across the border. Pakistan may shelter terrorists. However, the Pakistani citizens have shown us what the power of people can do. They forced a dictatorial president, Pervez Musharraf to conduct free and fair elections. They forced a stubborn President, Zardari to reinstate the sacked Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhary. They showed the world that when citizens come together and fight against corrupt power, even dictators have to bow to them. The day we Indians recognize the power of a billion + population, we also become the best democracy in the world – of the people, for the people and by the people.

My 1st speech at Toastmasters -

A very good afternoon to all of you!! I am here to present my first speech at Toastmasters, and what better way to do this than to introduce myself to all of you. Well, my story goes through a lot of name changes – it seems that the places I was associated with had unfashionable names, so their names had to be changed. In fact, these name changes make me feel totally confused.

So I’d like to start with something I’m very sure of, my name. My name is Sujata Rathi. Some people might say it’s not a fashionable name, but I’d point out to them that I’ve managed to get through 23 years of my life without changing it. I was born in a city called Calcutta, yes I know a lot of people will jump at me for not calling it “Kolkata” … but the fact is, when I was born, it was called Calcutta, and to me it still is. Anyways, I was born into a Marwari family, not the sort of family you see in Ekta Kapoor’s K-serials… Mine is a close-knit family of four, and apart from plotting and planning against each other, we do find time to help each other out in time of need :). My parents have always encouraged me to do the things I love and have taught me to always be optimistic. I also have a younger brother and we fight a lot, so there have been times when we’ve been locked into separate rooms, to increase the level of peace in the house. I have been brought up in Ranchi, a beautiful hill station which people recognize as soon as you say “you know Dhoni”? It used to be the summer capital of Bihar, and one fine day in 2000, it was suddenly a part of a new state called Jharkhand. But jokes apart, the competitive environment in the city was one of the main reasons for my clearing JEE and coming to the oldest IIT - IIT Kharagpur.

Kharagpur is a very small town. Its claim to fame is its 1072.5 m long platform, the longest railway platform in the world. Just imagine spending the four best years of your life in a town which is covered with houses resembling bhoot-banglas (or haunted houses), which houses all sorts of species you don’t want to get acquainted with, like snakes, frogs and insects. Sounds horrible, right? But truly, those were the four most enjoyable years of my life. There were lots of shady places to be explored in and around the campus. And because the college campus was the best hangout in the town, the students spent a lot of time with each other. The extra-curriculars were great, and the inter-hostel competitions were matters of life-and-death. People came down to blows for their hostels. Of course, being in a campus which had a male-female ratio of about 30:1 ensured that we were always in the thick of things, whether we liked it or not.

But all good things must come to an end, so even this roller-coaster ride had to. The life at IIT Kharagpur equipped us to handle big challenges, so here I am, handling the challenges which PayPal throws up every day. It has been a great learning experience working here, raising bugs and tickets, harassing unsuspecting developers :). Moreover, staying at Chennai has equipped me with the skills to stay at any place – if I have been able to stay in Chennai for more than an year and a half, I guess I could go and live in Timbuktoo and learn a few words of their native language too. I have just one complaint from this place – and that is the way my name has been mauled here. Yes, I know Shakespeare said “What’s in a name”, but I’d say “everything”. That is my identity after all. You see, the problem is that in the north the syllable “TH” is pronounced as
THA. So when my name is spelt as SUJATHA, I end up thinking someone else is being addressed, not me. Every time I get a mail starting “Hi Sujatha”, Sujatha with a THA, my heart bleeds. I once accidentally sent a mail to a friend from my official email address, where my name is spelt with a THA, and you can imagine how many jokes were cracked in my friend circle at my expense.

There’s one more thing I’d like to tell about myself. I love people. I don’t mean to say that you would find me hobnobbing with people I don’t know, or that you’d find me jumping out of joy because I’m in a crowded street. I just mean to say that I truly care about people around me. Their suffering pains me. And what pains me even more is when we human beings generate all this suffering. I wish we could get over our insecurities, the threat we perceive in other regions, religions, castes and their cultures. I wish we could start taking pride in our culture and recognize that our culture is too strong to be affected by anything, and that we would realize that living in harmony is the only way forward. After all as someone said, “Once you replace negative thoughts with positive ones, you'll start having positive results.”

All day long I can hear ppl talking out loud,
But when u hold me near you drown out the crowd