My birthday cake

I turned 24 on 19th August 2009. And as is clear by the title of this post, there was something different about this birthday. Well, every birthday is special, but this was more so because it was my first birthday ever outside India.

As usual, the first birthday wish call came from my Mom. But again, this time it was different!

I had my Series 63 exam on the 18th, and it was around 2:40 pm when I came out of the exam. I saw on my cell that my Mom had called at 2:30 pm. It was unusual to get a call from my home at that time in the afternoon, but then I realized – 19th August had begun in India! I called back my Mom and she wished me

My flatmates got a cake in the night and we celebrated at midnight. The cake was really good.

I received calls at midnight from friends who are in the US as well as those in India. My orkut scrapbook (which I hardly use these days) received around 55 scraps that day, and my facebook wall (which I use a lot) got around 30 posts. I remember I used to check orkut very frequently and wish everyone who had a birthday, but I hardly log in even once a week now. I like facebook much more. Anyway, let’s not digress.

My colleagues from India and here wished me. The day was unusually busy and we could not go out in the evening anywhere because I came back home at around 10:30 pm. Well, the good thing is that makes it my most memorable birthday ever

PS : You might want to read about my other encounters with 19.

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Being a widely used web portal of good repute, I do not see any reason why you should allow blunders like the following to happen, especially on the homepage! Moreover, earlier, I had observed this.

A suffering surfer

Pawan Jain

Rediff homepage spelling mistake

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“You’re fired !! “

“You’re hired !!”

Do these phrases sound familiar? If the answer is yes, then you are most likely one of the two:

1. A fan of Donald Trump’s The Apprentice.
2. Related to finance industry.

Donald Trump made these words (hired and fired) somewhat common in my life, but at the end of it all, its a competition and only one will win. So its fine – I was assured in some sense that real life is not that dynamic and risky. But, finance industry surely defies that.

As a “child”, I always thought of a full-time job as a secure, constant and satisfying source of income. I was wrong. These two words are more commonplace around me than they ever were, and I guess are for many of my friends. Unlike most of my classmates at IIT, I had opted against higher studies after my Bachelors so that I get a “feel” of the corporate world. I think I have got much more than what I was looking for!! (Yeah, trust me, I work(ed) with Lehman Brothers)

The idea of writing this post is the amazement – the words “hired” and “fired” have become so common that any emotional attachment to a financial firm is impossible. Till few months back, I used to attach immense emotion to these two phrases. But the finance industry in the last few weeks has changed all that. Perhaps, this is what they call “growing up”. Things just change too rapidly. I need not say a word about what happened on the wall street in the last month, because either it will be news, or speculation – either of which will be unnecessary. Firms having history of tens and hundreds of years collapsed in days, managements got restructured like crazy, businesses got shut, thousands went jobless, stock markets tumbled etc. Too much for a mortal to swallow.

I touched upon the emotional attachment aspect because I was involved in a big project which was used by almost every person in my team. One fine Monday morning, I find that all my work will be just a piece of code in a few days. On a personal note, I was going to part with a work on which I spent an year, and I was emotionally attached to. On a practical note, I was one of many thousands whose hard work of years was about to fall flat. Thankfully, now that Lehman’s assets have been bought by Barclays and Nomura, I am sure that my work will not go waste, even if I am no longer associated with any of these entities. Not that I do not want to, but anyway, that’s another discussion.

The post may feel incomplete, but I do not have anything else to say. Too many things going on in mind. I got to finish some critial tasks before I get to hear “You’re fired.”

You never know, it could be tomorrow !

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(Photo courtesy Norfolk website)

I hope it works.I hope this does not get away as just another enacted-but-hardly-implemented law.

In an extra-ordinary development, I found the news channels flooding with a real breaking-news (yes, for a change, a real breaking news). I emphasize that bit because a real breaking news comes as a fresh change in a nation full of news channels treating all kind of non-stories as breaking news (in the rarest chance that you do not get what I mean, read about the great INDIA TV here, here and here). Let me stop talking here about the news channels because their stupidity needs another blog post.

I strongly believe that smoking in public places should be banned. While other addictions (drugs, alcohol etc.) do not affect anyone other than the active user, smoking is one thing that affects even the most remotely concerned. At numerous occasions, I have found myself seeking freedom to breathe when I am with friends in a bar/pub.

I started the article with the “I hope” statement for a reason. Today morning, the day when this smoking ban starts, I saw a news reporting that Mumbai government will find it hard to impose the smoking ban/fine due to insufficient manpower. So, although this ban does not bring any bit of relief to Mumbaikars (including me), I am happy for frustrated fellows like me all over the country. Now they (and hopefully after some months, I) can have the freedom to breathe-in fresh air while the smokers smoke it out at their homes.

To be honest, I treat a smoker walking on a street while I am walking around him exactly like a vehicle emitting a bad smoke while I am driving around it. Just like no one would prefer to be around a vehicle emitting repugnant black smoke, I would not prefer to be in few meters radius around a smoker. A driver will try to overtake the offending vehicle asap, and I try to overtake the smoker as soon as possible. In fact at times I find them so similar that I even contemplate pollution check for smokers! (Do comment on this post if you agree with me)

Rightfully recognized by the government, these smokers have no right to destroy the atmosphere in a serene public place with their stupidity. A drunkard becomes destructive only when he is out of his senses and starts hitting and destroying public property for no particular reason. A smoker does not even have to go through the latter bit to become a destroyer.

Come on, why can’t you smokers think of other innocent people in your vicinity who have to go through the torture because of YOUR stupidity ! Pretty simple logic; no rocket science, isn’t it?

I think I have blurted out enough to show my frustration (and a bit of relief, provided the law becomes a success).

Now, the uphill task in front of the government is to think of cool (yes, I mean cool) ways to implement this law. I, on this public space, declare that I am ready to (and will) do my bit in making this law a success.

I think given their reach and influence, this is the issue that the news channels need to be talking about for a day or two. All you “India TV”s out there, wake up and use your most influential hours, for a change, on a story that deserves mention. Use your brains and try to mobilize the masses to take up a task that will help them (and give you your most coveted TRPs). Believe me, this is the time to act and make it a huge success.

If man-power is the only issue, our valuable citizen-power can be used to catch the offenders. I was impressed by the “Shoot at sight” campaign started by The Hindustan Times to clean up Mumbai. In case you do not remember, it had planted banners all around the city urging citizens to click pics of garbage-throwers using their cellphones and send it to the newspaper office. I am sure that this works. The offender will be too embarrassed to see his picture in the next day’s newspaper.

I will update the post with more ideas as they cross my mind. You are free to comment/send your ideas to me at me@pawanjain.com.

P.S. : I love my hometown. Chandigarh, the first Indian city to go smoke free.

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Nineteen words that don’t belong in your resume

A nice and useful article. All the more special for me (why?). If you know me personally, you most probably are/should be aware of what the number 19 means to me. [[I have not been documenting more recent encounters though]]

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“We regret to announce that due to unforeseen circumstances beyond our control, the publication of The Astrological Magazine will cease with the December 2007 issue.”

Can you appreciate what I am trying to show here?

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Need I say more?

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