Discussion and more

I was talking to someone and he shared with me one of the principles which were told to him by his professor at his college. The professor said that consider a company with a president and some vice-presidents. Then if a situation comes where the company has to select a new president from among the vice-presidents, the one who would be selected would, more often than not, be the one who is in charge of Finance department. The person who told me this gave a few examples where he himself has experienced the same. Even I had observed this in some cases in the corporate world, where a retiring CEO is replaced by the existing CFO e.g. Indra Nooyi becoming CEO of Pepsi from CFO.

One of the reasons for this is that working in the Finance department makes you knowledgeable of a large variety of issues concerning the company. Every employee of the company is affected by different departments of the company to different degrees. But most of these are indirect. What happens at the company’s marketing department, the production department etc. is important but only at a macro level. Also, the involvement is minimal.

But when it comes to the Finance department, it is a different story. Firstly, the connection comes every month (in fact, saying every minute would not be an exaggeration) from the pay packet, the sole reason for people working. (If you disagree, and are ready to give a list of the reasons, apart from compensation, why you work then; ask yourself, what would you do if I give you say $50 million; would you still be doing your job?). Next, finance is at the core of everything. You have a worthy project in mind, you are confident of its success etc. but one of the first things you ought to do is to prepare a plan keeping in mind, what the management will feel about the revenue generation as well as the costs associated; whether the finance people have enough funds at their disposal; how can I put across to the people who would fund this, in a manner in which they understand what I am planning and why they should release their money.

The fact that you ensure that the finance people understand everything reiterates the fact that they become more and more knowledgeable. Also, as funds have to be sanctioned by the Finance department, irrespective of the department concerned with the project, everyone has to make contact with the finance people sometime or the other. And as such, the finance guys (I have recently realized that guys has become so common a term to address, that even a group of females is being referred to as guys; maybe this is because females keep on saying that they are in no way inferior to males) know everyone and everyone knows the people in finance. This makes them the default choice for the top position.

One other unrelated thing. There’s a conception that parents always consider their children as kids, irrespective of the age (physical or mental) of the children. The person I was talking to gave another remarkable insight. He says parents do not feel that they have no longer remained modern. This is due to the fact that they have always been “more modern” in their teens, when they saw themselves with their own parents. Now, they cannot somehow digest that their children are a few steps ahead of them.

One other thing he mentioned was that we should always remember the people with whom we shared some kind of relationship; wherein, it was not necessary for these people to behave in a manner which would be beneficial to us, but they did. Suddenly, what came to my mind was my stay at IIT. Though I can write the book with the most number of pages on this, I will cut it short to about one post. At IIT Delhi, I had been assigned a particular hostel, J but I started staying at my local guardian’s place, and so I no longer had any hostel room allocated for me.

Though there were not many close friends, I had formed a kind of group (now, incorporated in the bigger group called ‘bpappu’©) with fellow students of my department who were staying in one particular hostel, S. Initially, my contact with them was limited to the academic area and had not extended to their hostel rooms. It was not long from the time that I first went to their rooms, that I became an integral part (at least I see it as such) of the group and the hostel at large. People of other hostels at IIT started assuming (and still do) that I originally belong to hostel S. When someone asked about my hostel, I started to say ‘hostel S’. However, when someone asked my room number, the answer was not that apparent. Not giving the room number was also not an option (in that case, I would have to tell them the entire story). So, I started giving them room numbers of any one of the group members.

Some specific mentions are essential. Mr. KS has been very instrumental in my incorporation in the group. With nowhere else to go, I used to stay at his room for most part of the day; when we did not had classes or when we wanted to think that there were none; when I wanted to just vile my time; and even when I had some motivation to work. In short, if I was not in a lecture I was at his place. Initially, I used to think that he would not be comfortable with my staying in his room, but his sheer adjusting nature left me dumbstruck. I still feel that if I had been in his place, I would not have such an understanding behaviour. He never said ‘no’ to my proposal to watch F.R.I.E.N.D.S, regardless of whatever his plans were and the time the proposal came.

Mr. RKM, Mr. AR were the people with whom I spent my nights. Now, before, you start jumping to conclusions, I mean these are the people in whose rooms I used to sleep at night. There was a single bed in their room so one had to sleep on the ground. However, unlike what normally would happen elsewhere, these two did not mind sleeping on the ground, if they saw that I had already fallen asleep on the bed. If the times we slept did not overlap entirely, they took care that I was not disturbed by their (and for that matter, anyone else’s) movements in the room. On the other hand, I was not that sensitive to their sleep and did not give the same kind of treatment (which they, surprisingly, never complained of.

Mr. NJ was the kind of person who would do anything for a friend. Though a nocturnal creature and sometimes hard to meet for a few days, yet, when in times of need, he was always the first to reach. He was the first to offer to give me a duplicate key to his room. The feeling was as if it was my own room. It made my life very easy as otherwise I always had to search for some hostelite (so that I do not find all rooms locked) before I can think of going to the hostel.

Though there are many others which require a mention, it is because of my laziness that I am ending here. Hope they will overlook my offense.

Letters from London - Zeroth

I reached London on the 9th of September, on a day when the climate was ready with a warm welcome. Now, almost half way through my stay, it has not given me any reason to complain. Though I can make this a long post by mentioning all the details of my travel, there is something more than the characteristics of my travel, which I would like to share; things which are so much different than in India.

One thing which I had heard from almost everybody who had been to a place outside India is the degree of cleanliness they experienced in the foreign land. Though I always believe that we ourselves are responsible for the untidiness we observe in India, but I leave that topic for a different post. What I will say though is that the information was indeed right. The scene on the roads was pretty different. The buildings, the shops, the roads, the traffic, everything was different. Yet, there was kind of a lack of awe which I had somewhere subconsciously expected. May be it was because it was me and any other person would not be writing this.

The amount of Asians you encounter is quite remarkable. For that matter the number of people who are not speaking English is also remarkable, atleast for a city like London, the capital of England. This only reiterates the cosmopolitan demographics of the city and that it can be said to be a land of the inhabitants. Even in my office, I encounter people of many many different nationalities. The Asians however are one class I can easily identify and hence admire their volume. This weekend I went to a place near West Ham, which is such that you definitely cannot distinguish from a place in Asia, if you just look around at the people and the shops. There were shops selling sarees, sweets (which is rare in this part of the world) and even freshly prepared sugar cane juice; shops playing Bollywood music (and for that matter, Himesh Reshammiya); gurudwara; temple and most importantly not a single non-Asian. It was kind of a small Indian subcontinent within London.

Some things, which I encountered in the city, I found remarkable. One is the amount of information provided; you normally do not have to ask anyone for directions. There are signs and directions everywhere and even a first time visitor can easily come to terms with the city, in that aspect. The railway, or the underground/tube, system and network is incredible. There are various lines or routes that are available. You can reach from any end of the city to another using these; though you might have to change trains/lines. Add to that a reasonably good bus transport which hardly leaves any place you will have to walk.

And finally a well integrated system of public transport with a single card (known as Oyster) which could be used for both buses any kind of line you want to travel. There are regular announcements in the trains as well as on platforms giving relevant up to date information about the services. Entire city is divided into zones and the tickets are based on zones rather than particular places. For a traveler like me, a good option is to buy a travelcard (available on the Oyster) for a week (or whatever time you plan to stay) of the zones you would be traveling the most and then travel as many times as you like. A top-up on the card would be helpful if you want to travel in other zones.

The people in general are nice. Though there is an initial reluctance to talk to them, yet whenever you come in contact with someone, the reluctance is rendered without any basis. In general, what I found myself doing was to put every person I saw (non-Asians) into categories or characters. These categories and characters were those which I had encountered earlier with my virtual interaction through Hollywood films, watching television etc. And some of the people fitted in the categories very well due to different reasons ranging from their attire to their looks.

Also, though I had seen the fairer sex to be obsessed with makeup, I found it to a larger extent here with females carrying all their tools in their handbags and using these whenever they had times available to themselves, like while sitting in the train. One widespread thing that people do in the train is reading. If its morning, we have people with their newspapers (many of which are available for free). Otherwise they do not forget to carry a book to utilize their time.

Vegetarians can come across some problems with the food, but I found these much below what I had expected. In general, almost everything is available in a form which is ready to be eaten (no surprises there!). And a feeling of independence (I do not want to comment, if this is good or bad) already creeps in when you are buying things alone from a superstore; things which you had never purchased earlier yourself.

I met some of my mates from my alma mater here on the weekend. They had been staying in London for the past month. They have started handling their daily homely chores rather well, and I sometimes feel if I would have been able to do so myself.

One thing that this trip has reiterated within me is my desire to stay in my own country. I just cannot find the incentive which would compel me to setup a base outside India.

What do you know of the world's oldest profession?

Up to now, when someone referred to the term ‘the oldest profession’, I interpreted it as you would do. For, by now I had come to know what, the user of the phrase, wanted me to understand. But, recently I came across another article which claims to challenge this. It says that ‘commodities trading’ is the one which should be holding the title. The title goes as:

“The idea of a commodity future in the true sense is not an invention of the 19th and 20th centuries but goes back over two thousand years. One of the earliest recorded types of commodity derivative was in options. Around 500 BC, a copper mining industry developed in the Mediterranean. When Phoenician traders had guaranteed a sale of material, space was limited on board the Greek ships to deliver their goods. To avoid this problem and put themselves in a position to trade, the Phoenicians bought options on vessel space to guarantee their business, at the same time allowing them to fix the price the customer would pay for the copper.”

A look at the Wikipedia entry for prostitution gives:

“Prostitution is often described as "the world's oldest profession." It has been thought prostitution (at least in the modern sense) cannot have emerged before the emergence of money, which can only have taken place after the emergence of several trades, and it has been claimed that midwifery, or perhaps gardening or teaching, are really the world's oldest professions. However, prostitution in exchange for goods or services may have been common for many thousands of years and may date to early man. Additionally, prostitution has been noted in Bonobo chimpanzee behavior based around access to food and gifts of food, and in penguins in regard to access for suitable stones for nest building. Until the age of industrialization the world was basically agrarian, so goods and services were most often obtained by barter.”

I think the claim makes sense, at least for the case of humans. If the concept of prostitution to be the oldest profession is based on the assumption that it may had been used for exchange of goods, the exchange (or trade) of these commodities were taking place. In addition, commodities were considered to be kind of important, as people were virtually agreeing to do anything for this. So, the concept of ‘commodities trading’ has to be born before the so called ‘the world's oldest profession’.

Long time no C (mostly perl and java)

For a long time the only one speaking on this blog was probably Silence. Yes silence speaks... learnt that recently from some reliable source.

Anyways, since the last time I posted (that would be long long ago, when there was a king...) , things have changed drastically. I got employed and relocated to hyderabad. Its almost two months now and I have sort of settled. Till now I am satisfied with the work I do and the work I don't do here.

So today my friend Mr. SS (also a contributor to this blog) sent me this. If you have seen the Matrix trilogy and your thoughts did not wander on similar lines, you must now consider watching only Karan Johar + Shahrukh "cult" movies, because you were easy meat (rather batteries) for the machines. Yes you are mere power resources.
I can go on and on on this topic, but I choose not to, reason being going on and on sounds like the job of Amaron batteries, and it would be amusingly ironical to do that after calling most of you easy batteries.

Moving on... the title of this post should give an idea about the work I do here. Although it may sound as a plain old coding job, but we have to have some knowledge about the financial world that our codes deal with and hence we are not totally like the "techies".

The first month we joined here was spent in training and apart from perl and java and some other technical stuff, we enjoyed foozeball to the extent of breaking down one of the two tables and one of my two thumbs... Now our cricket team has got active and I am really excited about that. Heard there is an intra company match this weekend and some corporate tournament starts the weekend after that.

Well I'll try to keep posting here and hope other contributors too start doing so more frequently.

Friday evening stock market report

As I mentioned, I have joined an investment bank. So, my posts have got to be influenced by what I do (or at least am trying to do). This post is the first in what would probably be a long series of posts related to things I do. But I would definitely try to keep it on the lighter side rather than giving you something, you are not expected to comprehend. Below was a Friday evening stock market report. (Courtesy: one of my team members)

Stock market report

Today's Stock Market Report:

Helium was up, feathers were down.

Paper was stationary.

Fluorescent tubing was dimmed in light trading.

Knives were up sharply.

Cows steered into a bull market.

Pencils lost a few points.

Hiking equipment was trailing.

Elevators rose, while escalators continued their slow decline.

Weights were up in heavy trading.

Light switches were off.

Mining equipment hit rock bottom.

Diapers remained unchanged.

Shipping lines stayed at an even keel.

The market for raisins dried up.

Coca Cola fizzled.

Caterpillar stock inched up a bit.

Sun peaked at midday.

Balloon prices were inflated.

Scott Tissue touched a new bottom.

And batteries exploded in an attempt to recharge the market.

I am back, but for how long

I have this amazing ability of persuading myself to avoid doing something which I would love to do. This sometimes happens due to consideration for others. However, at the centre of the ultimate intention is my own self. This ability which has grown into a habit has been with me for a long time now. It has grown and expanded encompassing newer and newer things and widening its scope. Sometimes, I feel like getting rid of it but after some reconciliation I realize that on the balance, I believe it to be an asset; one that has helped me a lot.

Blogging does not come under the above category; but is definitely becoming a strong contender given my performance and consistency. I posted a long time back. Then one of my colleagues Mr. SS was good enough to come up with something or else the blog would have become unheard of.

A lot has happened meanwhile. I have officially started my career with an investment bank. Definitely, not a bad to place start, some would like to say for anyone but I have my reservations about that. I have moved to Mumbai, in many ways my home town. I am back with my family; but the family I had been a part of for the last 4 years have been disintegrated, but only physically (I hope).

But even during this gap, I never stopped thinking of blogging. I was sure that one day I would return to it. I have even went as far as to note down many points on which I definitely would like to blog, ones which I came across and did not want to miss the opportunity to speak about. So, you can expect my posts to cover these points. But it will all depend on the frequency with which I blog. I cannot promise but will try to be as regular as possible.

Something The Lord Made

I watched the movie "Something the Lord Made" yesterday on HBO. It was a wonderful movie. The whole process of researching, struggling and then finally getting success is perhaps the only reason why we all are living.

In brief the story revolved around a black man, Vivien T. Thomas and a white surgeon, Alfred Blalock. The story depicts their coming together, starting to research on dogs for the blue baby cure for their hearts. The operation is a bit too complex for me to understand and explain but I can imagine that it saved millions of lives. Vivien had to leave college because of financial crunches and starts working as an assistant for Alfred. The movie also deals with the racial discrimination issues. In spite of doing top class work Vivien is not given proper treatment and pay. But Alfred helps him in this. Ultimately they are together able to find a way to do the surgery. It was a joint effort where without any one it could not have been possible. Everyone is against the operation. The church says that this operation is trying to do something against god's will. Alfred's friends tell him that he is risking his reputation and he should not do that.

On the day of the surgery, Alfred, 2 other surgeons and an always supportive doctor Helen Taussig are in the operation theater. Alfred realizes that he cannot do the operation without Vivian's guidance and makes an emergency call for him. Vivian can't operate since he does not have a college degree. The operation is a huge success and is claimed as a break through in medical science. Dr Alfred and all other doctors even remotely connected with this operation are considered godly. However because of racial discrimination no credit was given to Vivian. Vivian confronts Alfred regarding this and then leaves the lab. Alfred tries to stop him but it is shown that he has too become a little arrogant now. Vivian tries to go to college again but he is 35 years old and it does not seem worth it. He returns back to Alfred's lab and Alfred mocks him a little and at that point Vivian says "It is not about you doctor, its about the work. I like the work."

Many years later, after Vietnam and many other important events happen in US, in 1964 Alfred is on a wheelchair and Vivian is escorting him around John Hopkins and a room where many famous people have their portraits. At this point Alfred admits his mistake and tells Vivian that "Vivian, they say in order to live a full life you need to have regrets. I have many regrets Vivian, I have many regrets" while looking at his portrait. After some time Alfred dies. In 1976 Vivian was awarded the honorary degree Doctor of Laws by the John Hopkins University.

This story is indeed provoking. It gives you both a feeling of happiness over the triumph of science and the failure of human society. A society where people are not even given credit for their work because of social biases and discrimination and I don't think I am wrong in saying that these biases still exist. People even today do not get what the deserve and here lies the failure of our society.

A tale of two cities

This would probably be my last post from Delhi as I would be moving to Mumbai this week. Before coming to Delhi, 4 years back, I had spent most of my life at Mumbai. So, throughout the 4 years one question that people kept asking me was to do a comparison of the two cities and maybe give them my choice amongst the two. The answer kept on varying with time spent in Delhi but the conclusion has remained the same till now.

I will enlist the points I had been stressing in my answers.

The public transportation system in Mumbai is better (at least the part I had been in contact). You have local trains in Mumbai plying at the frequency of 3 minutes. I did not had the opportunity to take the benefits of the new Delhi Metro, so I cannot comment much; but I feel that its utility is being overestimated and making the decision (of who is better) solely on the basis of it is rather presumptuous.

Also, though the crime rate may be comparable in both cities or maybe higher in Mumbai, yet the crime in Mumbai is of the “larger” kind. So, there are more murders in Mumbai but less of pick pocketing etc. (the part which generally affects the common man, like me). The fact that Delhi is more unsafe for women is pretty widely known.

Delhi, or in general the north of India, has a lot of variety when it comes to foodstuffs of practically all kinds.

Mumbai has the added advantage that my immediate family has chosen it for their stay. But it is not that Delhi does not have anything on that front. Most of my relatives are in Delhi or in the NCR region.

So, I have been concluding ever since, that my choice would be Mumbai. However, after having lived in Delhi for some time, the gap between the cities has lessened (in my heart). I learned and developed so many things here. I developed my habit of reading; got acquainted with the better of my friends; did my engineering; got closer to my relatives (whom before I could meet only once a year). Finally, the city witnessed my personal growth and it had a major role to play in it.

Disclaimer: You may not find much relation between the picture and the text that follows.

P.S: One other not-so-related stuff. The city of Calcutta or Kolkata has gone from riches to rags. The communists, who in theory are the well wishers of the labour class, have (in their 30+ years rule) exploited this very class in West Bengal. However, this is still not apparent to most of them. They have become poorer due to the government policies but are made to believe that only the communist government is their last hope. To me, the irony is unbelievable. Bengal, which was the most happening place in the British time, has become a place where almost nobody likes to start a new venture.

Recently, we were in the middle of our campus placements. So, we had people from outside the country visiting. There was one chap, who was visiting India for the first time. On his trip, he went to Kolkata and then came to our campus in Delhi. He wanted to setup his base in India. In the middle of his presentation, he asked the audience regarding the place they would like to work at within India. He gave us options and asked us to raise our hands if we would like to work at that place. When the option of Kolkata was given, no one seemed to raise their hand. At this, he said that even he would not like to set his base there. At this, I pitied the state of the city. Even a stranger, on his first visit to the country, decides on not dealing with the city in the future.

'Independence'

I wrote about the Google spreadsheet invitation becoming easy in my last post. Some people seemed interested. Well at least I am interested in a lot of these new innovations in technology. Mr. SA, one of those interested, asked me about my comments about the innovation. Well, the concept is worthwhile and for a lot of people it actually makes sense. Simultaneous editing and viewing of spreadsheets, and for that matter, other applications like the word program can go a long way. I would like to say that it would be helpful to me, but I am not that much sure, as the field I am going into involves a lot of secrecy in its work. So, though we would be working with spreadsheets for the entire time, it is quite probable that people in the field would not be enthusiastic about making content available on the web, inspite of the privacy being promised. As of now, the features are also only basic but good enough for bloggers to get excited.

Sometime back (precisely 4 years, when I just started my undergraduate studies), I started listening about the concept of independence and freedom. This was the first time I was out of my home (and into the world, so to say). At that time, I could not relate to it. But now I can and am enjoying it a bit. I was not sure why anybody would like to have it, but now I feel that how can anybody live without it. It is not to say that complete freedom is the way to go; but upto a certain level it is necessary for the very existence. A recent example was when I along with my friends had to go on a hunger strike. None of us asked about the same but after committing, the information was sent via our cellphones.

I like reading autobiographies, and not biographies. The reason being that biography again is like hearing about someone from someone else, which is something we are accustomed to. An autobiography, on the other hand, lets me hear from the person himself. The views expressed may not be 100% authentic, but whatever we can get is worth the reading.

Currently, I am in the middle of the autobiography of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. It is a good embodiment of a life, which anyone interested in the Indian freedom struggle can have a look. It covers, in detail, the period of his life upto 1934, when he was in jail (or gaol) as he like calling it. He wrote the autobiography in jail and so not much is present of after 1934. Only a chapter has been added in 1940 filling in some gap. However, I would have liked more details of the period closer to independence as well as the time he was the Prime Minister of India.

It is a good read; not only because of the fact that Nehruji was good at English, but also because it enabled me to see the other side of the picture, and maybe the person. This generation are filled with those who believe that most of the freedom fighters could have done a lot better. They took a lot of time in “gaining” independence for the country. Some may even believe that it was not even gained and was just a result of the weakening of the British after the second world war. This generation believes in the methods of Bhagat Singh and party to be used as a means to meet their ends.

Reading the autobiography made me think if all of the above was actually true. Whether we were justified in taking the sacrifices as things which were unnecessary and useless? Nehruji has put Bhagat Singh and others in the category of terrorists, which is certainly not something which one would do now; but at that time may be the concept of terrorism was quite different. One thing I have started admiring about Nehruji (important to note, that before the book, all the things I had heard about him or rather believed about him, were not something to be admired) was his persistent demand for Independence (and nothing else). While many others, including Mahatma Gandhi, gave way to things at the cost of Independence, but Nehruji did not.

May be I have started relating to him due to this ‘Independence’.

Start contributing

Every time I open this site for a new post, I expect (at least subconsciously) that the other “contributors” might have done something so that they can be called with that name in the future. Nevertheless, I get delighted (surprisingly) when I see that no such thing has happened. Maybe I feel happy about the fact that I am the only one adding to the value of Myself SpeakingÔ (had not used the trademark for a long time now). I do not know why, I keep postponing the idea of writing posts, when the entire day, I think about how to frame the events occurring into words and sentences for the next post. The things, which actually manage to reach the posts, are only a tiny part of those intended.

(I think I have not told you that, every post, I first write it into some word processing application and then transfer it here. This would explain the reason of my posts being free of grammatical and spelling errors).

Everybody has a style of writing. You can many a times guess the author (if given some manageable number of alternatives), just by reading his work. This phenomenon includes the writers of blogs as well. Like, here at Myself SpeakingÔ, though others contribute so less, yet if you see the title of a post with some full stops at the end (i.e. blah blah ….), you know that Mr. AR would have been responsible for those; or if you see more than one exclamation marks sticking together, then Mr. KS has got to be held guilty.

I had talked about various social networking groups before and how they help you to be in contact. Well, the phenomenon is far from dying. Not only is the number of such group increasing, but also the time spent by people on these is phenomenal. I am myself present on Orkut. This particular service has changed some verbs and has created a few new ones. So, if someone asks you whether you have been orkutted, (my word processing application does not recognize it, as of now) do not look puzzled. ‘Getting scraped’ is no longer derogatory and infact people have started measuring the extent to which a person is extrovert, by the number of times he has been scraped. In addition, deleting a scrap is considered as a sin in the religion, Orkutism.

I sometimes feel, I can start a completely new blog on Orkut; and I constantly try to control the temptation. So, get ready for some more of my comments and suggestions and experiences with this new found tool of the world.

Is everybody leaving blogger.com? For, whatever blog I visit at blogger.com, I find the top post giving the address of the newly found home of the writer. May be they have moved on, but I do not have any such plans for the near future. Finally, I would be joining the sole company who has offered me a job in the first week of July. I have heard that will provide us with internet connection; but there would be no accessibility to personal mails. Also, sites like blogger.com and (yes, you guessed it) Orkut would b out of bounds. How will I survive, I am a little skeptical.

Yes, it will rain; No, it won't

After living in Mumbai for about 15 years, one thing I learned was that the weather was far from being predictable, especially the monsoons. You carry your umbrellas the entire day only to bring it drier home. And the day you forget it or consciously avoid taking it (looking at the bright sunshine in the morning), you are up for a couple of showers.

But the Meteorological departments and other institutions dealing with climatology across the world are doing their best to prove me wrong. How much they have succeeded is debatable but at least the majority believes that this is something to be discussed about. The hurricanes, earthquakes, floods and other natural calamities that we hear frequently and the accompanying large damages of life and property keep adding fuel to the above talk.

I do not know what educational qualification is required to get an entry into the Indian Meteorological department; but rumours say that the money (from the entry level itself) is good. Some say that it is comparable to the highest salaries paid in India. One thing I am sure is that a lot of money is going into the department for the equipments required have got to cost a fortune as well as the satellites being flown require advanced technology and huge amounts of money.

But is this spending – in the name of the human quest to know and somehow control nature – justified. I have come across cases where either these people were not able to predict some major happening, climatically speaking or had gone terribly wrong in their predictions. This winter the temperature in Delhi reached 0.2°C when it usually goes to a minimum of 4°C during that time of the year. As usual, there were no indications before hand. There was also news that BBC had given a better prediction about the climate of Delhi than those given in India.

A more recent example – and one which has a lot more effect – was the case of predictions for this year’s monsoon. The predictions were that it would be below normal. This has ruffled some feathers as India – which is a more agriculturally oriented country – had been trying to revive the agricultural industry and such a happening would have spelt doom for the same. Also, the stock markets became a little jittery at the news.

However, the result is again similar. Not only has the monsoon reached the country before schedule, the meteorological department itself has now predicted a normal monsoon for the country. I know that predicting the climate is easier said than done, but what I ask for is some positive progress.

You have to cross the Threshold

You had always been behaving and acting in a certain way. Then, slowly or sometimes abruptly, you change the method followed and do things in a different way or maybe add and delete items from the things you do. This happened only because, either your threshold changed or the threshold of the thing changed. In short a relative or mutual change in the threshold.

For every thing there is a threshold and may be even a threshold value, if you wish. You had been traveling by train forever and that too in the second class. Suddenly, you feel that in future, if you travel by train that would only be in the air conditioned coaches. After some time, the train journey ceases to be an experience you might wish to experience. You are all for air travel even if that is a little too much for your pocket. That is the time to realize that a threshold has been crossed (or achieved!).

There might be a number of reasons for the same. Like in the previous example, affordability may be an important parameter. The cost of air travel may have decreased or your income might have increased so that it was strong enough to support your new mode of travel. Various other reasons can be searched for, but the thing to notice is that there was a threshold which had to be reached.

You come across these, almost daily. You come across a stranger; talk to him/her for a while; find him to be a nice guy/gal; decide on the next meeting; have a few meetings. The virtual threshold of making him a friend could be crossed at any stage of the above interactions or it may happen that it is never reached at all. Also, you would see that there are a number of points/milestones to be reached and with each one of them, there is a threshold value attached.

Now, the value depends on both the people interacting and the situation or the behaviour involved. Thus, the value varies with the person involved and as such different individuals in a similar situation might have the milestones at different levels in the journey. The value interprets and translates into different variables like time taken, money spent, quantity of work required to be done etc. So, different persons may take different amount of time to become friends with a particular person, or may have to employ distinct amount of labour in similar work profiles.

This threshold value is more dynamic than it seems. So, it is possible that it increases or decreases according to the change in the parameters on which the threshold (and thereby its value) is based. So, when you move out of the comforts of your house for the first time, the value hill is steep; but once the initial phase is over, it kind of becomes a plain and for many, the other way (i.e. moving from the independence in the outside world to the confinements of the home) becomes a mountain.