Archive for July, 2007

Long distance parents

July 25, 2007 at 5:57 am · Filed under parents

Of late, I have been wondering what goes on in the minds of parents who live all the way across the ocean from their kids. As they get to 60 plus years of age how do they feel about their kids living so far off. These are the parents who got their daughters married off to a groom in far off land or sent their sons/daughters to far off land for education/job happily. Looks like they didn’t think through when they sent them off. I see so many parents now regretting that they sent their daughters/sons to far off land. I have seen 3 kinds of parents so far.

First kind: They would love to have their kids nearby but they are happy for their kids. So they put up a happy front and live life with optimism.

Second kind: They would love to have their kids nearby. They keep nagging their kids to come back.

Third kind:  They think it is their kids duty to be with them. They hate their kids for living so far away. They make sure they let their kids know about it and make them feel guilty. They pick up a fight every time they talk to their kids. They lead a very unhappy life and also create an unhappy environment around them.

I have seen examples of all 3 of these parents. Irrespective of what kind of  parent/in-laws one has, it is a tough decision making time for the kids when the parents need them. God forbid, I am not in the position yet. But how do others handle it. Do the kids talk to their parents about their expectations, etc., Is it always possible for the kids to stay with their parents even after they return. I mean the kids family and the parents have lived independently on their own for so long. Is it posisble for them to co-exist with ease now? I mean two women of the house under one roof.

Is the above rant meaningless and am I making a mountain out of a mole? Do we just go with the flow? I am confused.

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Strange Airport Security Guidelines

July 23, 2007 at 6:50 pm · Filed under airport, security

I was traveling from a major airport to my hometown. Now that I pretty much know the security routintes, I placed all my liquids/gels/paste in the check in and just kept my backpack. After I checked in, I found a water bottle in my backpack. Managed to guzzle the rest of the water and walked through the security with reverence. Opened my backpack, laid out my threatening laptop, dangerous slippers, scary backpack in the belt and guess what happens, the security personnel is just talking to her friend without even a glance at the baggage x-ray passes my baggage. The same thing happenned to the 5 passengers that were standing before and after me. And what do I see at the end, everyone is carrying water and I am the only stupid one with no water and running to find a restroom quick. If this is the way they secure us, why bother posing all the restrictions and confuse stupid people like me.

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People

July 23, 2007 at 6:01 pm · Filed under Rant

I think I am an outgoing person. Most people acknowledge that. I always take active part in conversations. But I do have moments when I am quiet and listen. (It might be a shocker for people who know me to believe that I listen. But almost all of them don’t know about the existence of this blog.. Hurray!!) I understand that people have talking moments and quiet moments. What I am not able to understand is about people who don’t even smile. I have been in a conference. All of us have all the meals together. As soon as we enter, the host of the dining hall, finds a seat for us. It could be in any table. When I go and sit, half the time, the people in the table greet, introduce themselves if we don’t know each other and talk and have lunch/dinner. The other half of the time, I go sit, the people in the table don’t even acknowledge my existence even if I am sitting in the middle of two people who are talking. I try to smile, say hi, to no avail. They talk, they eat and they all leave the table leaving me all alone in case I haven’t finished my meal yet. Don’t you think it is strange. Initially I thought maybe I am one of the two foreigners here and they don’t know what to talk to me (Maybe they thought I don’t speak their language). But looks like it is not. Another one of my colleague who is not a foreigner was given the same cold treatment. I wonder what goes on in these people’s minds.Do they just hate talking to strangers or is it just a few people that they hate. These are people who are managing a bunch of people in a big corporation. I wonder how they manage and who in the right mind selected them to be in management. I wish I had taken their names so that I can find out how they are with their employees. God save them!

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Interesting Link

July 11, 2007 at 4:00 am · Filed under Uncategorized

Came across this link while websurfing. What a wonderful find!

Check this out!

http://a-hole-in-the-head.blogspot.com/2007/07/eyes-wide-shut-in-1947-life-magazine.html

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Blogging Anonymous

July 7, 2007 at 4:50 am · Filed under security

I see many debates going on whether publishing personal information and photographs in the internet is safe or not. Here is what I do. There is already a lot of information about us on the internet whether we want it or not. As soon as we bought our house, our name, address and the price at which we bought the house were on the internet since they are public records. Since most of those are out of my control, the least I could do is not put my personal information by myself on the internet. Google used to have this feature where you enter a person’s phone number and it gives you the name and address. They took that feature down recently. I guess it is a win for the people. StreetView might end up with the same fate. It totally depends on people’s response. Maybe Google will come up with algorithms to mask number plates and people’s faces. But it will still bother me.

I came across this article about corporations digging the internet to find out about a person before hiring them. But I don’t think they can do it for long, since most of the younger generation have their life opened up in the myspace and orkuts. So if corporation in another 5 or 6 years will run out of young people if they rely on information from the internet.

As for posting pictures, even if you have it in a yahoo/picasso/flickr account password protected, it is still out there in the internet. How strong are our passwords? Maybe not tagging the pictures with names might help. So posting pictures for everyone to see in the blog is not that big a deal if you already have pictures in the internet somewhere. You are protected only if you don’t ever upload your pictures in the internet.

All said and done, I still choose to be anonymous to the strangers.

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Airport security

July 6, 2007 at 4:57 pm · Filed under security

I grew up in a country where airport security is a norm. No liquid restrictions at that time, but one is patted down all over the body just to make sure you don’t have any concealed weapons. So I am used to it. When I came to the US, I was surprised at their airport security or the lack of it. Wait.. this was before 9/11. Remember when the world(read the US) was a safer place.  Now coming to the present day, the airport security in the US makes one wonder, are they really doing these for security reasons or just to keep people in fear. Take the liquid restriction for example, why wouldn’t they allow unopened/sealed bottle of water while I can carry 10 tiny bottles of some other liquid in a ziplock. And what’s with selling only the VASA  brand water. Who owns it? I have never heard of this brand of water before this liquid security restrictions started. Anyone knows who owns this brand of water. I couldn’t find any information about this brand of water. One cannot stop from wondering if this is all a scam to sell this VASA water.

Don’t mistake me! I am all for security. But all I see in these security measures are loopholes nothing but loopholes. Take for instance, the CLEAR plan from the airport security where you register for 99$ a year, they check your background, once you are cleared as a good person, you don’t have to take your shoes, belts, etc, off in front of the whole world. But who is to say that the person who is CLEAR won’t change the next day. Don’t you think it is just a scam to make some money out of us. Do they really care about security.

These are just a few random thoughts that came to my mind while traveling last week. I have couple of more flight trips to look forward to (By the way, did I mention, I hate flying). So I am sure more will come to my mind. Watch the space.

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