Part 1 - mp3
3': life's decisions
8': 'interactions' affect 'conviction'
10'-21': random narratives from school and college
24': facing your enemies (or friends?)
28': what's important?; 'micro' vs. 'macro' perspectives
Part 2 - mp3
2': the call center conflict
5': shifting positions; "proud to work in McDonald's"
9': choosing what makes you "happy"
13': the software pride
18': vacuous questions and stupid logic
22': the 'sexploiting' woman
26': personal goal
32': need of the hour: a hot cup of shut-the-fuck-up
Posts
20 comments:
Hi suresh,
Part 2 - 18'to 32' Excellent views. Nice to hear this kind of topics.
Expecting more like this!
suresh,
A lecturer in my engineering college, just in her 3rd class, decided to have a great seating arrangement with a 'free-seat' guy sitting between between a 'payment-seat' guy and a 'management quota' guy. I was so uncomfortable at that arrangement that I decided to sit alone. I came under management quota. haha...
You spoke about condescension, but don't you think it is because we attribute achievement to the perception of the relative difficulty in attaining it. I found that most of the time when my college friends who are settled in a software company talk to me. Ofcourse I enjoy the attention that my profile gets, but its boring after sometime because the people around me don't know that they could have done the same had they made a different choice. Of course there were a few who advised me that a PhD would not get me a job blah blah ..., but I ask them fuck off plainly and tell them that may be they can advise me the day I ask them for money. Anyway no one keeps in touch with me and I am happy about that.
Your podcast was good but you didn't touch on the part where your parents call and ask if you are fine monetarily. Atleast my father does. And sometimes he goes to the extent of telling me that so and so guy bought a house and he is worried that I may have made a wrong choice in my life.
The bet about the race to owning a house with your friend is superb. But as we grow old, we realise that the race is not just with our friends. Its with the entire world, which gives us a fairly decent perspective that wherever we stand, we are considerably better than most of the population.
But people like me, still talk like your 12th standard friend. I can recollect plenty of recent instances where I pissed off people, especially if they are software programmers. And plenty more when they pissed me off. I sort of like the condescension thing, because it allows me to get back at them.
It's like the time I called up home and my mom gave the phone to my aunt, though I told her not to. After some small talk, she had the gall to ask me how much I earn. I simply asked her how much her son earns and told her that what her son earns in one year, I earn in one week, which is obviously untrue considering her son works in US.
Oh this world full of possibilities, bigots, pricks, prostitutes, nice people that I love it. We can never get bored in this life. We can get hurt, trampled, spat at, provoked, but not bored. Unless we want to get bored.
pardon me for the flurry of comments. But I just feel like blabbering today.
There is another stage of condescension that you may not have experienced. Graduating in 2001, during the great depression or whatever, and getting kicked out of two jobs I had the opportunity to use the free time to read my first book. Tada.. AYN RAND's Fountain Head, because a friend of mine told me that I had to read it. Being mentally in 12th std, I bought into the rhetoric and began judging every little thing that happened around me.
I call that the funniest stage of my life when I behaved like an intellectual superior to anyone I spoke to. I can see that happening now with blogs dedicated to 'reason'. Wow, I got laughed at. I laughed at them back. I looked at buildings like I really understood them. I even argued about movies with AYN RAND as the standard. I judged people based on the movies they liked. I was so thrilled about Kannathil Muthamittal because I could see Madhavan was close to a Randian character. Do you know what? Condescension really rocks.
Now having come to the conclusion that most of what AYN RAND said was bullshit, except her beautiful stories, because she was just a bitter lady who cloaked herself with politics of reason, I find it hard to condescend against someone. Now I hate to watch movies, don't find anything romantic about achievement and even like Telugu Heroines for their cabaret dances.
Lately this slogan of 'new India' irritates me a lot. Just a couple of weeks back, an Indian student who I know came up to me with a business proposal and was very excited about 'owning his own company' and he spoke of leaving behind some legacy or something. I wanted to punch him in the face when he talked to me, but then we just signed a partnership deal so I'll let him be until the business goes bust.
Wow, that seems to be a very enticing podcast. Should listen to it tonight. :D
Sowmya,
Thanks. Will definitely try.
Subhash,
{{You spoke about condescension, but don't you think it is because we attribute achievement to the perception of the relative difficulty in attaining it.}} - well, I guess. I wanted to talk about it too; actually I had, then chopped it because of the podcast's length. The same goes to the part about parents calling you asking you if you need money: had said it, but thought it was redundant after I said it's "one of those incidents" that has initiated this podcast.
Your comments have a lot of what I've edited. It's good to have such comments that complement the podcast.
hahaha @ the last comment.
Excellent podcast yet Suresh! Thought provoking. It is bound strike a deeper chord with those of us who have strayed off the beaten track - in the eyes of the mainstream so called traditionalists. I much rather prefer my life of trials and errors than to go with the 'secure' pathway that the rest of the (?) 90% undertake. After all the destination is the same - as you say any number multiplied by zero is still zero.
Then again once having taken the route one doesnt necessarily feel comfortable saying that they made a mistake - we usually tend to justify it as though it was the best choice we'd made.. :-)
I can also relate very well to the Ferrari instances - 'if only I had made a different decision back then '
Despite all the things I say to myself about (on hindsight) liking the decisions I had thus far made I still cannot bring myself to meet up with my friends from Uni back home. There is either a feeling of inferiority on my part due to the differences - such as wealth / well established careers. Or a fear of someone actually spelling it out with pity in their tones": ' you poor thing - you missed out on so much - if only you had listened'
Whichever the case it all stems from being judged - ie no opportunity for comparision / judgment = no problem...
PS good to hear from ya again
Suresh,
A friend of mine, who did his M.Sc Int Phys. in IIT stopped it in the 4th year, got his BSc and proceeded to do PhD in Brandeis. He was the one who gave me this Ayn Rand book. So after 6 years I wanted to check him and see if we can exchange notes about our respective work.
Surprise, he became a musician. He said he doesn't want to talk about Phys. I still remember his father telling me when I was in 12th std that he didn't take up medicine and when he was leaving to US, he took BioPhysics and the father had the same grouse that he was not sticking to his original plan. I wonder what he has to say now. I love him more now.
Red,
Thanks. I know what you're saying; a lot of us do, I guess.
Subhash,
Got to love him indeed. An interesting coincidence: read/watch Rahul Bose's interview here - http://www.ibnlive.com/news/being-rahul-bose-nothing-runofthemill-please/50884-8.html.
Anurudha is such a moron. He almost said it in a few of his answers.
Nalby beat Federer. The odds before the match were 6.50 for Nalby win. The match was awesome. Federer was totally dominated. I love it. I wish I bet on Nalbandian. He is a champion (when he wants to be).
That service return. I guess the best after Agassi and Murray. Now I am going to go ahead and place a bet for 13.00 odds for a Paris masters victory for Gasquet. I hope he has enough energy to play after Lyon. The thing is if Gasquet starts to play closer to the baseline, hits a half decent forehand, he is going to be a force in tennis. Otherwise he is going to be another Nadal, minus the drive to win.
If this podcast doesn't justify 'random rambling', nothing else will. I guess people get used to their 'friends' reacting with sympathetic looks when told that they work in call centres that they decide just to say 'technical support' or sometimes, even, 'Barclays bank' or 'Citibank'.
I have first hand experience though responding with 'Yeah, I work in a callcentre. And yeah, before you ask, nothing's wrong. Am faring very well. How about you?'
Yeah, I totally agree with the 'no macroscopic purpose' and whatever purpose(s) we eventually might have is/are one/ones that we affix to our lives.
And while on the topic, people are very much in the assumption that a person who goes on to do a B. Sc is dumber than somebody who goes on to do a B.E. I have had first hand experience again when one of my friend's (he joined engineering after barely scraping through the 12th exams) mom shot me a sympathetic look, when he told her that I'd joined B. Sc, and asked, 'Oh, Sudhir? I thought you studied well?' And I was already annoyed that I couldn't afford Engineering at that time without such people having to fuel the frustration.
And yeah, like you rightly say, what everybody needs is a 'hot cup of shut-the-FUCK-up'.
Hey Suresh, Good to hear ur podcasts back.
It sounded like a casual convo with u on the phone.
Though our childhood/school/Uni experiences are very different, it was good to hear ur experiences again.
Take Care.
Durga xo
Sudhir,
Thanks for sharing your experiences.
Durga,
Thanks. Good to be "back" too. ;)
Listening to your podcast. So far so good.
One thing that i noticed - you seem to mention constanlty that you don't drink, go to the pub, have sex, even while living alone in b'lore etc. Why ?
Is it becoz., you don't want some specific people to think of you otherwise. ;)
I'll post again, once am done listening to the entire podcast.
Oh, the pleasure is mine.
Suresh is tactically defensive and naturally aggressive. A combo of left and right.
Haha, I don't think I mention it 'constantly'. I think I'm a stickler for terminological accuracy when I speak (this time, however, it was just a word). So in this instance I said "I did everything I ever wanted to.." then it struck my mind that I didn't actually do "everything". So I corrected it. Drinking was an incorrect addition to that list because I never really wanted to drink.
I didn't go to pubs because I didn't like the kind of people who hangout in Bangalore's pubs. Obviously it was a judgmental attitude toward both the people and the place. I've felt much more comfortable being in bars, though. The reason I mentioned here was just a matter of flow. As you might have noticed every line I say is full of addendums, footnotes and disclaimers.
Juvvi - adhennavo saridhan :P
There it goes Suresh. Nadal and Federer bullying Paris masters organizers to change courts to suit their games.
http://www.grandchelem.net/mon_weblo...ranois-ca.html
The relevant passage in French is
-----------------------------
Vous êtes donc allé vers les joueurs en dépêchant Jean-François Bachelot pour connaître leur desiderata, est-ce que leur soucis principal c’était la surface ?
C’était en grande partie la surface. C’est sûr que pour deux d’entre eux, c’était une condition sine qua non de leur venue.
C’est qui les deux ?
Federer et Nadal. Le numéro 1 et numéro 2. Et pour des raisons tout à faire recevables. Nadal trouvait que la surface ne prenait pas ses effets donc son jeu n’avait plus aucune valeur. C’était vrai, la surface prenait moins les effets. Federer c’était un problème psychologique, il bloquait : « Je trouve moins bien mes appuis… »
-----------------------------
Nadal has a point. He is a pusher with no talent than to get the ball back in play and dislikes fast courts. But Federer! Such a shameless act by the 'gentleman' of the game. Especially when he has already decided to turn up at the event to collect the $1.5 million that the new stupid ATP rule has put in effect that awards the no.1 player in the world who plays 8 out of 9 masters series. What the fuck does he mean by 'balance issue'? How many players are there in the world who have better balance on a court than Federer? Not even one.
I hope Gasquet steps it up in front of his home crowd and shows the arrogant swiss, the sly Serb, and butt-picking Spaniard who the master is. I am really angry today. haha...
hey suresh,
Feels great to listen to your voice after a long long time. I thoroughly enjoyed the episodes - esp the part 2. In fact, i didn't really find the episodes random. To me, it was just a coherent whole.
And your warning for the guests was just awesome! ;) Hope you do more such episodes!
Hey Suresh..
I was just listening to the podcasts... most of the topics you were discussing have come across in my life too.. i assume that it would have created the same picture for others as well.. after all, it was a nice posting..
PS: i got to know about your blogs, podcasts, videos when i searched for a string "Coimbatore" in youtube.. thanks for all your postings.. i will continue to read all your stuff..
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