Check pics around California on my fotu blog. I have selected the 3 best places I have been to-
1. Santa Cruz
2. San Fransisco
3. Monterey Bay and 17 Mile drive
Ciao till next time...Harsha
Monday, April 16, 2007
Thursday, April 05, 2007
Bah... discipline- I hate it !
There are some things I can do, there are a few others I can try to do. But there are those last few which I simply can't. And one of them is- to be disciplined.
Somerset Maugham would have commented- 'Strange ol' things happen when you least expect them'. Yeah, quite true.
Well, I have fairly quickly come to know that I can't- wake up early, drive in a straight lane, make proper coffee, iron my clothes properly and catch breakfast on-time every day!
Now these small things add up over the day and make you feel a little bad about yourself. But hey, so what- I usually sleep late (seldom before 1 AM), drive crazy back in bangalore- but till date have never got into an accident (mind you- the roads and craters of moon have a standard deviation of zero), I prefer jeans that require minimal pressing and I love to drink milk...
Yeah, I can live with these defects, can't I? One of the things which Uncle Sam has thought me after coming to US is- follow the routine, make the right decisions, dont be uncommon and everything will be fine.
But, hey if everything is so systematic, mundane and regular- where is the chance for new ideas, new thoughts to come up? One would see people here in US thinking only on linear scale- 'X' + 'X' = '2X', burger for breakfast everyday, follow the same schedule week on week... year on year... take those quaterly paid time offs- go on the pre scheduled vacation, live to be sixty and one day retire.
There is always someone behind you making every decision for you. Someone always guides you- if you are unemployed you have social security, if you want to cross the road- press the pedestrian walkway button... which will tell you when to cross the road, if you get lost on road- check your GPS, ad infinitum..
Now, I am not saying this is bad; its very good- excellent to have things defined, made easy and quantified. But with these comforts come some difficulties- people are happy to live on social security and wait for the perfect job to come by, if there is a power-cut the whole life comes to a standstill- traffic goes haywire... automated systems go crazy, you don't know how to go back home from places near your neighbourhood because you did'nt have the map, ad infinitum..
These things never happen back there in India- because one has to make these decisions all the time- 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. One is very adaptable- flexible as they say here in terms of work, living conditions, dressing sense, social setup, etc etc. Our thinking process is more complex- we make calculations based on number of factors, recalculate decisions, challenge thought process every single time. We look at different ways to solve the same thing- 'X' + 'X' can also be XX, its not just the straight line that connects 2 points, even a circle can pass through it.
Uh ha... now I've written enough! Do write back for any arguments. I love being in US- It makes me think so much.... Well, may be that is the reason they say that US is the most free country in the world! It's liberated my thoughts, isn't it?
Ciao till next time...Harsha
Somerset Maugham would have commented- 'Strange ol' things happen when you least expect them'. Yeah, quite true.
Well, I have fairly quickly come to know that I can't- wake up early, drive in a straight lane, make proper coffee, iron my clothes properly and catch breakfast on-time every day!
Now these small things add up over the day and make you feel a little bad about yourself. But hey, so what- I usually sleep late (seldom before 1 AM), drive crazy back in bangalore- but till date have never got into an accident (mind you- the roads and craters of moon have a standard deviation of zero), I prefer jeans that require minimal pressing and I love to drink milk...
Yeah, I can live with these defects, can't I? One of the things which Uncle Sam has thought me after coming to US is- follow the routine, make the right decisions, dont be uncommon and everything will be fine.
But, hey if everything is so systematic, mundane and regular- where is the chance for new ideas, new thoughts to come up? One would see people here in US thinking only on linear scale- 'X' + 'X' = '2X', burger for breakfast everyday, follow the same schedule week on week... year on year... take those quaterly paid time offs- go on the pre scheduled vacation, live to be sixty and one day retire.
There is always someone behind you making every decision for you. Someone always guides you- if you are unemployed you have social security, if you want to cross the road- press the pedestrian walkway button... which will tell you when to cross the road, if you get lost on road- check your GPS, ad infinitum..
Now, I am not saying this is bad; its very good- excellent to have things defined, made easy and quantified. But with these comforts come some difficulties- people are happy to live on social security and wait for the perfect job to come by, if there is a power-cut the whole life comes to a standstill- traffic goes haywire... automated systems go crazy, you don't know how to go back home from places near your neighbourhood because you did'nt have the map, ad infinitum..
These things never happen back there in India- because one has to make these decisions all the time- 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. One is very adaptable- flexible as they say here in terms of work, living conditions, dressing sense, social setup, etc etc. Our thinking process is more complex- we make calculations based on number of factors, recalculate decisions, challenge thought process every single time. We look at different ways to solve the same thing- 'X' + 'X' can also be XX, its not just the straight line that connects 2 points, even a circle can pass through it.
Uh ha... now I've written enough! Do write back for any arguments. I love being in US- It makes me think so much.... Well, may be that is the reason they say that US is the most free country in the world! It's liberated my thoughts, isn't it?
Ciao till next time...Harsha
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)