In a strange nation

Of late I have been thinking that India is living in paradoxical times. On one side we have an agency crying hoarse about pesticides in colas and on the other we get to see thousands throng voluntarily to Mahim beach to drink sweet sea water believing it to be a miracle..and of course there are still plenty in the country who do not have access to clean drinking water but then cola bashing is that much more politically correct. Also there is this strange argument that the CSE has put up..food items that are essential to nutrition have a greater permitted level of pesticides and non essential nutrition items have to have far less amounts of chemicals..why would that be..I am more likely to consume essential items..am I not? Now people really really concerned about pesticides would have checked stuff that is consumed the most...but checking samples of the fruits and vegetables we produce across the country would be a far more involved task than taking samples at a few known cola factories..and would not provide the short cut to the media coverage...so there it is..its like trying to improve performance of the code where it least matters..trying to optimize that .01% time-taking string manipulation code just because it has something to do with strings :)

Then we have a progressive legislation in the Right to Information act that is followed by a quota legislation that is as regressive as it gets.. One trying to weed out corruption and the other corrupting the social fabric and productivity of the nation further. Why is it so? It brings us to another one..I earn more than the President of India when all I have is 5 yrs in the industry and a President generally reaches there towards the end of his career..Sometimes one wonders why aren't civil services and legislative positions in the government "legally" the ones that pay well..I mean the official salary of the President is 50000/- of course he gets to live in a very big house and would have other perqs..and ya occasionaly gets to fly in a fighter jet..but I am sure a lot of corporate head honchos do better than that..It sounds simplistic..maybe it is not..but then these jobs are important factors for a country's growth and economic sense says that they ought to pay well and if they do we would surely see competent people doing their jobs and possibly a double digit growth rate and hopefully then it would feel strange in a different, more positive way.

Where am I?

Well I have been a bit busy with work and family for the last month. Release dates are coming up and the product quality is still suspect :( So lots of bugs to catch up with. Was in Pune some during the 1st week in August to meet my parents and sis who will be going away to Bangkok for studying animation for about 8-9 months in 2 weeks time. It was nice to be in Pune after a long time and it always feels nostalgic there recounting my weekend trips from Bombay to Pune and the beer binges with all my friends...and of course the beer binges reduced in number when I met Megha and the great time we had together romancing in Pune is one of the happiest memories I have of the city! :)
However back in the real world I noticed that city has been defiled beyond recognition..so much so that I felt Bangalore is better now :) The roads are in a complete mess there..there is slush by the road side everywhere you go with garbage rotting up as a bonus.
I got to gatecrash yet another company party this time around. Last time it was Veritas and this time it was some Synechron if i have managed to name it correctly :) Of course the credit goes to my Pune friends who manage ways to accomodate me :)
The weather though was very wet, cold and gloomy and I came back with an infection. It was not too bad but enough to get me worried about my talk scheduled on 11th at RSDC. Well the infection did not trouble me much and I manage to not sneeze violently on stage but since the talk as the last one that too on a friday evening it meant a thin attendence and one feels a bit let down after preparing for larger show. But so it was and probably the next time would be on day 1 and consequently better.
Right now need to get back to work and get some defects fixed in time for tomorrow's beta bit freeze.