The Vs and Ws. Pronunciation of Indians

It wasn't long ago that my girlfriend pointed out that I pronounce V and W in some English words incorrectly. After a feeble attempt at denial, I realised that indeed, its quite accurate. I tried to trace the root cause in Marathi (my mother tongue). Marathi has a single letter which denotes both W and V sounds depending on the context. Moreover, its fairly common, and quite acceptable, for people to use one sound instead of the other. Hindi, the national language, and Sanskrit, the language of ancient India and the origin of many Indian language, share the same (Devanagri) alphabet. So its hardly surprising. She even pointed out that most Indians (even those who use English everyday) are blissfully oblivious of this problem.

A few days ago, I noticed the same mistake in pronunciation in a SriLankan colleague at work. I don't know Sinhalese, but I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't distinguish between V and W either.

Luckily, its not hard to correct. All it takes is some conscious effort to touch the front teeth to the lower lip while saying V (like we do when saying F). Ws, on the other hand, call for the lips to form a circle (like the one while saying O).

I think I've fixed my problem. Of course, she disagrees.

Where are computers leading us?

I spend pretty much all of my 8-10 hours at work looking at a computer screen. I then come home and check my personal email, pay bills, check the news etc. All while staring at a computer screen. The internet allows you to do so many things from the comfort of your home, but the caveat is that it involves the discomfort of staring at a screen. An iPhone screen is still a screen. I go to bed feeling exhausted from all this staring.

I have a bad feeling about this. Maybe I'm being paranoid, but is this modern-day geekery keeping me from seeing the "real world"? Will I forget how it is to queue up to pay a bill? To take a walk and buy a newspaper? To even actually talk to people? True, there is nothing which actively stops me from doing all these things without using a computer. But I think the convenience of not having to step out of the house is just too much to forsake. And then we have to go to these gyms to get the only exercise we ever do.

Something is not right.

R.I.P. Randy Pausch

Its never tiring to hear an inspirational person talk, especially if one can see the reason behind his advice.

Stop. Think. Continue...

A significant chunk of our day (and thus our life) is spent doing "routine" things. By that, I mean, activities we are used to doing, and almost do them subconsciously. In my case, for example, brushing teeth, or washing the dishes.

I am almost always thinking about something else while doing the above activities. I thought about it, and as of now, feel that its a mistake. It will be nice to concentrate on what I'm doing rather than something else. So now the idea is to repeat the Stop what you're doing - Think if you can do it better - Continue doing it at regular intervals, to keep myself honest. My mind has a tendency to wander, so I am resorting to this.

Lets see how it goes.

Dharmaandh

Paradox of the month-

Ram bhakti (devotion) can lead to harmony among all religions - L.K. Advani

(For those who do not know, Ram is a Hindu mythological hero)

Money... get away...

I cannot see how acquisition of wealth can be the purpose of anyone's life. In spite of trying, I don't quite understand the rationale behind that. I think of it this way - I try to remember some of the best moments in my life so far. None of them had anything to do with monetary gains.

I unabashedly apply this thinking to corporations as well. I think the purpose of a corporation should be more than just making money. While many claim to have grand visions and missions, it all falls apart when confronted by the almighty $. Excellence is reduced merely to a word on their powerpoint presentations.

Anyway. Hope I make more sense the next time I'm tipsy.

Cheers...

The problem with growth

Growth is generally equated with success for a company. But it doesn't have to be true all the time. Here are my top few reasons why.

Finding suitable talent

While growing rapidly, it is important to realize that the pool of talent is most likely not going to expand at the same rate. Now when there aren't enough suitable people available, It is easy to fall in the trap of lowering expectations from prospective employees just because there aren't enough good people available. (In the hope that the good ones will carry them through) While there is some merit to this argument, it is invariably stretched too far. In such a situation, if a company keeps hiring aggressively, it probably does okay for some period of time (until the lack of good results from these people manifests itself in the results). After that, the customers generally realize that they should be moving on. Maybe this is why some companies which rise meteorically fall at the same rate.

Imbibing the vision

The more the number of people, the harder it is to find people who subscribe to the vision of the company and whole-heartedly feel that they are a part of it. A more aggravated version of this problem is that the company becomes like a machine with many parts which aren't working in synchronization towards achieving a common goal.

Management overhead

This is probably the least of the worries, but cannot be ignored completely either. Many companies fail at effective project management. And if its happening for a company, it can only get worse when as they become larger in size.

Managerosis

managerosis noun :

A corporate disease characterized by the infestation of an organization hierarchy by Managers; most of whom add no value.

Now reading...

I liked reading when I was a kid. Somewhere down the line, I just lost that habit and the desire. Maybe it had something to do with my obsession for music and playing the guitar. But now, I think (or hope) its coming back slowly. And what a difference it makes! Its not just the knowledge you gain from the book that counts. It also changes the way you look at things. I know that sounds cliched, so here's an example. I recently got a copy of Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture by Martin Fowler (thanks to my growing interest in my work and meeting great people like Tom from ThoughtWorks). While I'm reading it, I am exposed to the thinking of the co-authors as well. And soon, I might start looking for their books, which exposes me to more and more ...

The bottom line is that if you feel passionate about something, get a book by a leading personality in that area. In the worst case, you'll be just reading a book. In the best-case, you'll be transformed.

Spam can be interesting

Here are my top 3 emails today with the most interesting subject line -

1. I carry a bazooka in my pants, walking around.
2. One inch just leads to another, and 9 inches leads to the ultimate women pleasuring machine.
3. Okay. I admit it. I'm just here for the sexual thrills.

I find them quite hilarious.

What's common in an inkjet printer and an electric toothbrush?

Printer ink is way more expensive than it needs to be. I did a bit of googling to see if someone else thinks so too. I stumbled on an article which says that printer ink costs $13,000 a gallon. Printers are being made cheaper by the manufacturers whereas ink prices have soared.

In another story, I noticed that in the local store, an electric toothbrush costs as low as $10 and a set of 3 toothbrush-heads cost $32.

Consequently, whenever I feel that my toothbrush head is wearing off, I am tempted to throw it away and buy a new one rather than going for the pack of overpriced toothbrush-heads. Also, in the long run, people will end up spending more since the part that needs to be replaced frequently costs so much more.

Isn't the best way to control the huge amount of plastic waste that we generate is to simply make stuff that lasts longer and doesn't need to be chucked out of the window every few months?

Its sad that for instant gains, companies are all too ready to hurt the consumers; and the environment; in the long run.

Wants

What we want is often not what we get
We ask for wealth and we get jobs to work hard at
We want to be loved and we get people to love (and be loved in return)
We want to be compassionate and there are needy ones around us
We want to be courageous and we get fear and danger
We want results and we get opportunities
We get not what we want but what we need to get what we want
Coz if we get everything we ask for, we are nothing but a mere consumer
And making this life worthwhile means being not a consumer but an achiever.