3 Idiots - The recent hit

Watching Aamir’s three idiots at Vizag with my college buddies was a wonderful experience, I did enjoy the movie quite a lot, but then there was a lesson to be learnt, a hard fact, something that not only engineers of our time but other professions also have to deal with. Was I a part of  the herd, yes..was I motivated enough, yes. But was I sure as to what I wanted to get is what I actually did, umm..Now there’s a doubt. I was going through Maslow’s heirarchy of needs, usually taught as an HR ideology, this theory assumes that “Esteem: the need for achievement, respect by others and self-esteem” comes after the other human needs such as “Physiological: Food, water, sleep etc”, “Safety: security, employment, resources etc” and “Love/Belonging: friendship, family etc”. Well, if that should really be the case, then why is that for some people the esteem factor plays a larger role, why is it that in such cases you find people missing out on basic physiological needs such as “food, sleep”, as work takes control  of a greater chunk of the person’s time as compared to ”family, friends” and that old feeling of Safety from a heath perspective.

Is that a possible criterion for satisfying one’s “esteem”, is that the path that the greats and the runners follow or is it just a  compromise that we make and are missing out on the good things in  life in this process?

And there we were all set with the luggage on the road waiting for the cab when the moron finally showed up at 5:45. Having just half an hour to get inside the train,  i decided to cut the complaining and asked him to step on the gas which he did. As we raced towards Howrah station, there were freaking jams in M.G. Road, and then at the station where am entire queue of taxis was there in front of us  sluggishly moving towards the far extremity of the new station where our train was.

I had almost given up hopes of making it when a Messiah came to our rescue, the Coolie, the guy who belongs to the clan who I despise because of their extraordinary charges for moving pieces of luggage around. 140 bucks..we said lets go..he ran towards the platform, my partner up front, behind him the coolie carrying a large suitcase and a mid-sized carry bag which must’ve been close to 20 kilos and i, wearing a school bag and pulling a trolley.

We found our compartment after having crossed some 8-9 (22 meters each), got inside, paid the coolie 150 bucks and breathed a sigh of relief!

         Today i walked to office. Now, you’d probably say that i am doing it to loose some weight, but trust me, u’d not want me to lose any if you meet me. Jokes apart, i had to walk all the way because of the HaraKiri caused on the road leading to my company’s office, which incidentally, is located in one of the prime locations of Kolkata. Sector-5 or Salt Lake Electronics Complex as its popularly known as, is always buzzing with the sound of vehicles and is the source of income for over 50,000 IT professionals, including, yours truly. 

Kolkata always had its share of trouble in controlling the traffic situation and today was no exception, my walk to work was bad to say the least, it was  traumatizing, thanks to the noise and pollution. 

Ramalinga Raju during good times

Funny as this title may sound, the crisis that shook ‘Satyam’ is a very serious one. Satyam, one of the leading Indian Software giants has not only shook the faith of the investors and its employees but it has also sent shockwaves running through the IT industry. 31st of december, 2008 was a day that marked the end of possibly one of the worst years in Indian history, considering the fact that i was not there  in 1948, and was too young to discern facts in 1984. With the advent of 2009, i was quite confident that this year would mark an end to all the miseries we went through last year, but  Mr. Raju had other things in mind. In what might possibly be one of the most blatant confession of frauds in the Indian industry, B. Ramalinga Raju, the disgraced ex. chairman of Satyam has sprayed black ink over what looked like a clear sheet, this new year. His confession, as he put it with “deep regret, and tremendous burden that I am carrying on my conscience” is quite an articulated one, and showcases  in details the lies that Satyam was reeling under.  Another surprising fact is that a scandal of such a large magnitude went unnoticed by the auditors of Satyam, PwC,who are also to blame for this.

What else is going to unfold in the coming days, cannot be predicted, but what happened today is pretty much one of the biggest scams in Corporate Governance ever.

       Long time coming, this second post is propelled by an event of great catastrophe. Yes, here i am blogging once again on one of my favourite subjects, Floyd, but oh! this time i am mourning, yes, my friends, 15th of September was a dark day that witnessed the demise of the legend, Richard Wright. Rick, as he is known among the millions of Floydians around, lent Floyd the essential ingredient, the keyboards. Be it the awe-inspiring synthesizer sounds and fills in “Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun” or the improvised sound effects in “Echoes”. Rick blended diverse melodies to produce the right effect, the effect for which Floyd stood apart from the rest of the screaming and wailing bands in their time. Richard Wright, i salute you, thanks for all the music. Shine on!

Music from a different planet? Here’s an excerpt from their film “Live At Pompeii” shot in 1971.

The Author’s perspective:

Well, the sound, the enigmatic feel, the music, the mystifying vocals and the incredible solos, its Floyd.

I’d like to talk about my favorite band, Pink Floyd. As I sat next to my computer my brain was hardwired with the sounds of pure cool. The soothing guitars, tight kick drum and bass line, and entrancing vocal harmonies built in me a template against which I would measure all music even to this very day. “The Dark Side of the Moon “,” Wish You Were Here and “The Wall” have each spent a rather long tour of duty in my winamp’s playlist.

As an ardent listener:

One thing that has always struck me about Pink Floyd is the existential nature of their lyrics. As a son, I am deeply touched by “Mother” from The Wall, a song that presents a dialogue between a son and his mother which turns out to be sort of a commentary on the role of the family in shaping children. Here is the first half of the song:

Mother do you think they’ll drop the bomb?

Mother do you think they’ll like this song?

Mother do you think they’ll try to break my balls?

Mother should I build the wall?

Mother should I run for president?

Mother should I trust the government?

Mother will they put me in the firing line?

Oooh is it just a waste of time?

It is the all too familiar need that all of us have to look to our parents to give us guidance and to explain this harsh world in which we live. Most of us initially trust that our parents both care about us and know what they are talking about. The mother responds:

Hush now baby, baby don’t you cry

Mama’s gonna make all of your nightmares come true

Mama’s gonna put all of her fears into you

Mama’s gonna keep you right here under her wing

She won’t let you fly but she might let you sing

Mama’s gonna keep baby cozy and warm

Oooh babe Oooh babe Oooh babe of course Mama’s gonna help build the wall

This song speaks of “building the wall.” That is, the dividing wall between all of us and the reality of the world we live in. The wall is created, perpetuated, and maintained in part by family, where children blindly trust their parents to guide them and give them explanations, and their parents pass down their own insecurities about the world and their place in it to their children.

Yet another example of this might be the song “Another Brick in the Wall [part 2]“, an amazing power ballad, the lyrics emanate from the

very heart of children who are frustrated from the teachers and the

administration of the school who keep making new rules and impose severe [read as physical] punishment on them. The song’s chorus is a breathing satire on their existence in the school as well in society.

“All in all its justa..nother brick in the wall,

all in all your justa..nother brick in the wall..”

A musician’s perspective:

“The Floyd sound” is the most apt description of the music that the band has created; it is more of an artwork which consists of a captivating amalgamation of blues, jazz and country music. “Progressive Rock” might be a suitable categorization of their music. The song “Shine on you crazy diamond” dedicated to Syd Barrett has a melancholic feel to it. The lyrics’ dealing explicitly with the aftermath of his breakdown whereas “Wish you were here” again dedicated to him has a delightful feel to it in spite of it dealing a similar theme, “absence”.

Floyd, when you’re High:

Listening to “Comfortably Numb”, I sometimes wonder, “Is this heaven or just a manifestation of it?” The feeling surpasses everything that exists physically and I am taken to a place which I can be best described as “ethereal”. The moment when Gilmour’s voice says “hello..is there anybody in there”, I am dispatched on a blissful voyage to unfamiliar places of this universe that I cannot even relate to in the state of sanity.

Watching the live concerts, especially PULSE is something out of the ordinary. The lavish stage setups combining over-the-top visual experiences with their music, create a show in which the artists themselves are almost secondary. Additional special effects in the concerts include lasers, pyrotechnics, and oversized balloons. I used to wonder about Floyd being called a psychedelic rock band when I had just started listening. It never struck me until I watched PULSE.

For me there’s music and then there’s Floyd.