Our freedom

This is a story I heard recently from a Guru. ‘Sankaran Pillai’ (You may have guessed who the guru is, if not let me not disclose it right now) once went to a bar. He was drinking happily with his friends round after round. The clock stuck 8 and Sankaran suddenly went rigid. He put down his glass and headed home. His friends mocked him saying “Sankaran! Are you the man in your house or a mouse ?!”. Sankaran replied, “Hey, I’m the man in my house. If I’m a mouse my wife would be afraid of me” and left hurriedly.

His wife was waiting at the doorsteps. She was quite angry that Sankaran hadn’t turned up at house even though she had asked him to be home at 8 no matter what. Now, Sankaran showed up at the entrance and the wife tried to pounce on him. He jumped over her and went inside the house. The wife ran him behind him chasing him wildly. Sankaran ran around in the house, went to the bedroom and hid himself under the cot. His wife came into the bedroom and eventually located him. But being a huge woman she couldn’t reach him under the cot. She told, “Are you the man in the house or a mouse? Come out right now”. Sankaran Pillai said, “Yes, I’m the man in this house and I can be wherever I want to be”. Moral of the story is, even though Sankaran couldn’t have been in any other place at that moment in his house, he claims to be a free man being where he wants to be; Similarly we, inflicted by our fears and prejudices claim to be free souls, though we are in fact bound by those thoughts. :-). It made perfect sense to me. Think about all your unnecessary habits, be it smoking, drinking, or just a plain harmless habit such as going to the restroom with a book or laptop in hand. Some food for thought, ain’t it?

Paris Trip Notes

Aug 31

Sainte Chappelle

This is one of the Gothic chapels in the heart of Paris very close to the Seine river. Requires a Museum pass or $8 entry ticket. Here are a few photos:

    

After that we were roaming around in the downtown near the river and sitting in a park in the middle of the road (I used to smirk at tourists I see in NY City or any busy city for that matter!).

Eiffel Tower

We then took the Metro to Eiffel tower and walked. We saw a lot of artists, vendors selling mementoes, water, drinks, etc. There were quite a few Indians who were selling the mementoes in Hindi.

There was a huge line at the bottom of the tower but kept moving fast. A sign board said “40 Minutes wait time to the top”. I thought this is going to be one of those not so good experiences. There are actually 3 levels (At the 1st level there are restaurants, which may need reservations on a busy day). 2nd level provides a good view of the river and park. 3rd level which was really crowded and we had to wait for a few minutes to get a view from certain vantage points. But it was all worth it (I thought this is not going to be very different from the views at the top of NY – Empire state building or the Boston Prudential Tower. But it was totally different with all the historical sites, scenic parks and very few high rise building around).

   

Sep 1

Notre Dame

Next day morning we started late because it was dark and looked like it could rain at anytime. We had brought umbrellas and took just the camera and some snacks with us. When we reached Notre Dame by Metro it had started raining. When we stepped into the Chapel, I was astounded with the majesty of the inner architecture. For a few moments imagined the French kings stepping into that majestic structure and felt bad for thinking of missing all this (My wife is an art and museum enthusiast whereas I love nature, hiking, etc).

It took more than 2-3 hours to see everything in there.

 

Hôtel des Invalides (Napolean’s Tomb)

Walked around this marvelous site and the bridge leading to it.

Champs-Élysées

A very lively cultural melting pot akin to Times Square in NY.

Arc de Triomphe

A huge arch that looks like the India Gate, Delhi.

 

Eiffel across Seine

There are no words to describe this.

Sep 2

Basilique du Sacré-Cœur

When we saw this basilica from the distance we were not very sure where we had seen it but it looked very familiar. After getting closer and looking at the stairs and the environment we knew that we had seen it in ‘Amelie’ (One of my all-time favorite movies). The atmosphere(The musicians, living statues, carousel) so good we didn’t want to leave. But Louvre was awaiting.

 

Musée du Louvre

I feel tired even thinking about Louvre. Such a huge palace with what seems to be an infinite set of collections ! We decided to buy the Voice Guide for the Louvre without which we wouldn’t have understood even a single art and would have just taken pictures in front of them not knowing their significance.

Monalisa was a disappointment for me (as expected). I’m probably not artistic enough to notice the geometry and presentation of the picture. Some of the arts/statues that really turned our attention are here:

Sep 3

We started early around 8:30 for our flight back to Newark. This is my second time at Charles De Galle airport and once again I realized it was a poorly designed airport. We got off the Commuter train and had to walk and cross 2 terminals to reach ours :-).

 

Technorati Tags: Europe,France,Paris,Louvre,Eiffel,Eiffel tower,Seine River,Sacré-Cœur,Notre Dame

Who helped Moghul kings when they invaded South India

Few weeks ago, I wouldn’t even have dreamed about writing on a subject like this. This question was raised by a gentleman I met at a scenic overpass near Echo lake in New Hampshire white mountains area. He started asking me how come he’s seeing so many indians in that area. I explained that there was a surge in Indian population due to the IT uprise in the past decade and this young indian generation travels a lot (Of course some of us still spend more time taking pictures of ourselves, than exploring what’s in there :-) , but that’s besides the point).

He introduced himself as a traveler from Israel and started talking about India in general… education, number of engineering graduates passing out every year, interesting places, etc. He has visited Trichy, my birthplace and likes it a lot. I thought, “Wow, finally I meet someone who’s talking good things about Trichy”.  Moving on, he threw this question out and stunned me. I had no idea about the initial Muslim immigration into India, though I knew that a number of invaders came through the Himalayas sometime around 1100 –1300 AD. His exact question was, “When the Moghul kings invaded South India, there were a number of people who helped them in their conquest. How did this Muslims exist there already?”. I was dumbfounded and started a small research reading the “Vandhargal Vendragal” book by Madhan. But couldn’t find the answer. After some variation in my search finally stumbled upon the answer for it.

In fact Muslim traders migrated to South India (Which had sea-route trade relations with Persia, Greek and Arab) much earlier,  around 1000 AD. They were welcomed by Rashtrakutas and other kings. They were given land and other facilities to develop trade in their region. They were manufacturing Catapults, paper, etc and the catapults started being part of every kingdom’s army. 

Here’s a link to read more about this early migration:

http://www.indianetzone.com/38/early_muslim_advent_into_india.htm

Technorati Tags: History,South India,Trichy

North & South

There is this proverb in our state back in India which goes like “North keeps growing and South keeps deteriorating”. I was on a 2-day trip to New Hampshire White Mountains area for the fall foliage viewing. So we were seeing brooks, creeks and springs all along. Having Watched a spring all along a scenic route, this sudden thought came across. How many rivers flow from North to South and how many in the reverse direction? Almost all the rivers that I know of flow from North to South. After a few searches it turned out that majority of the rivers flow in that direction. There are a few exceptions and even they are partial. i.e. They flow in the reverse direction for a small stretch, not the entire length.

The northern regions benefit from cooler weather and the dams built before they reach southern ends. I’m planning to do a small case study on this and will publish the same if I do.

Technorati Tags: Economy,Rivers,North South

The Goal

Completed reading “The Goal” – touted to be the book that every operations manager should read. To put in a line: The protagonist Alex Rogo turns around his plant from near closure to one of the best in his division and industry with the help of  a Physicist cum Management Guru. The book ends when more challenges lie ahead for Alex and his team and  with a hint that thinking about the root cause is the solution to all problems. Boy, isn’t that common sense :-) Of course the book quotes that common sense is the most uncommon thing after all.

When Lalitha told me about the book and suggested me to read it, I immediately recognized that I had read a Tamil translation of this book in a Tamil Weekly. Though, I didn’t remember all the details I remembered the scout picnic pretty well. It was a really light read for a management book and well worth the time. 

 

Technorati Tags: Goal,Management,Operations,Management Techniques