Manas Garg Speaks

Remember the time when coins were such a hard thing to find? No shopkeeper seemed to have coins, and everyone resorted to shelling out those toffees for 50p or 1 Re. (I bet the smart ones still do)

I’ve been facing the opposite problem for the last few months. I don’t carry coins in with me, because they damage my absurdly expensive wallet.

Every evening, I empty my pockets of all the coins I collect during the day, by virtue of buying things priced at sums that are not multiples of tens. I put them in my cupboard.

In the mornings, I never take coins with me. Reason already specified. Putting them and carrying them in pockets is also troublesome.

I now have more than a thousand rupees - all in coins. Dunno what to do with them. I think I’ll surprise the pizza delivery guy someday <evil grin>

Its hard to believe that these coins were not so long ago something hard to find - because the value of the metal in the coin was more than the coin’s value! Thus metal merchants actually melted the heavy one rupee and two rupee coins and extracted metal! That is the reason the new coins we see are so light and also the answer to where all the old coins suddenly disappeared :) Amazing, huh?

Let me share another childhood memory with you - a funny one this time.

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When I was a kid, before my voice cracked, I had a very thin voice. In simpler terms, I had a voice that sounded very much like a girl’s. I was teased a lot, and I used to wait for the day when my voice would crack.

People used to think I was my dad’s daughter if I happened to pick up the phone - they just assumed it hearing my voice. It was embarrassing. Imagine me explaining - “Uncle, I’m not his daughter. I’m his son.” Sometimes I used to correct people, most of the times I did not - just used to give the phone to my dad and wait for the day when my voice would crack.

Once it got ugly. Some guy started started blank calling our home phone thinking that there was a girl in the house! This when I am the only child of my parents and I was in class IV and I was a guy.

I used to tell that guy ‘Dude, I’m not a girl. I’m a guy. You’re wasting your time and money.’ But that dude never believed me. I used to laugh my head off when that unknown guy used to call and go like ‘Madam, please talk to me. Please give me a pappi (Hindi slang for a kiss)’.  

Finally, after years of wait, my voice cracked and I started sounding like a man. Thank god! :)

I saw Enchanted today. The new movie by Disney studios.

It begins as a classic Disney fairy tale animation, where a pretty girl meets the prince, and they decide to marry. The evil queen however, is afraid of losing her throne to this girl, and sends her to - guess where - New York! From the animated world of the fairy tale, Giselle is sent to the real world where, as per the evil queen, ’no one lives happily every after’.

What follows is a very elaborate and cute episode of love, affection and innocence. If you like cute, simple movies, with witty dialogues and laughter, you’d love this one. It has been put forward so nicely, that at least once, the whole theatre burst into applause. How often does that happen?

It is also a sarcastic take on how we have complicated our lives and forgotten simple pleasures. You start craving for the world where there are no emotions like anger, jealousy, and deceit. I came out of the theatre smiling :)  

But before you book your tickets, beware - if you like to look for too much logic, you might be disappointed. It is pure refreshment - topped with smiles :)

P.S. of course Amy Adams looks gorgeous :) 

If you are/were fond of eating at the gate of NIT Trichy, at Rajni Anna’s or Raju Anna’s or at Motel Bamboos, you must have eaten the world’s best egg dish - kalakki. After passing out, I missed it so much, that one day I decided to make it on my own. Smart as I am, I was able to reproduce the exact same taste as the annas at the gate do.

To benefit all the people who want to make their own kalakkis, here is how to do it - in straightforward terms - no confusing statements like ‘cook till its done’ or ‘add salt to taste’, which are scary for newbie cooks like me.

Required Inputs:

1 whole egg, salt, powered pepper.
A non stick pan and spatula
A spoon
A small bowl - will server both to break the egg and as the serving dish
A hot plate / heater / stove

Algorithm:

1. Break the egg, and empty the contents into the small bowl. Shell not required anymore.
2. Beat the egg with the spoon, add 2 pinch salt and 1 pinch powered pepper, mix thoroughly.
3. Put the pan on fire / hot plate
4. Unit Test if the pan is hot enough. Put a drop of water - it should evaporate immediately
5. Pour the contents of the bowl into the hot pan
6. Wait for 7 seconds
7. Use the spatula to remove the kalakki from the pan and put it into the bowl - Easier is to lift the pan with the handle and tilt it over the bowl and scrape everything out of it with the spatula. Careful - The pan is hot
8. Its ready to eat!!

Caution: When I say non-stick pan, I mean it. If you’re using a non non-stick pan (or a stick pan, as we should say), better oil/butter the surface properly before pouring the stuff into the pan to avoid smelly results.

Enjoy your kalakkis as I do every Saturday for breakfast :)

Presenting Vimal Kumar - the man who has made searching for trains so much easier for everyone with his brilliant website eRail.in. I contacted him through email and he was kind enough to let me ask him a few questions. Here we go!

Hi Vimal! I know you as the creator of eRail.in. Please tell me more about yourself. 
I have done my MCA and live in New Delhi. I currently have 9+ years of experience in software industry
 
eRail.in has become very popular now, given its ease of use. What inspired  you to start this amazing site?
One day I was booking a rail ticket, and found that it is very difficult even for a technical guy like me to find the right information and so it would be far more difficult for other people to do the same! That was the time when I thought of making a site which would be useful to people. Also, I was always a fan of trains and always loved to read time tables :) But again it was difficult to find the trains in a time table. I knew a lot more could be done through nice software and that is when eRail.in was born. I have put in all my years of experience in the eRail.in website , it has been built with a passion. The idea was to make it as user friendly as possible.
 
We see that the Indian Railways site is so cluttered with advertisements and pops, and your site runs only a few text ads. Any comments? 
I do not find any reason for the railways to give ads on their site. They have such huge budgets at their disposal - they should not irritate their users. Earlier there were image ads on eRail but some users found them distracting so I discontinued them and have only text ads. I believe that all users who come to the site should get value for the time they spend there.
 
You must get a lot of thank you mails for starting this site. How does it feel? Any feedback that you have incorporated into your site?
Yes I get regular mails. People tell me that they save a lot of time by using eRail.in. It does feel great. There have been regular feedback and I have been incorporating it all. I would like to thank all users of eRail.in who have provided their regular feedback.
 
Many students dream of starting their own online portals. What is your advice to them?
If one wants to create a portal, they should first identify the NEED and should have passion to fulfill that need. India is a big market and anything which relates to the masses will always work. So if you find any idea just go for it. It is the right time. To see whether you are correct or not – just experiment. There is no one who can tell you if it is wrong or right. Follow your instinct and do it. At least you will have the satisfaction that you did what you wanted to do. You have one life and you have to do it in this one only!
 
What is the next project after erail.in? 
I plan to make eRail.in multilingual and another travel related website will be coming up which would help travelers even more!
 
What do you like to do in your spare time? 
Usually I do not get spare time, If I get some I like to think about how to improve my work :)

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Wow! This is great inspiration for all of us who want to start our own websites! Vimal says that there is one life and we should just go for it - so true! Thanks Vimal, thanks a lot for taking out the time and sharing your thoughts with us. We wish you all success!

It is unlikely that you have not visited eRail.in, but if you really haven’t, then you should definitely take a look. I’m sure you’ll go back to it again! 

What do you think of when you think about an auto-rickshaw driver? Tampered meters, wicked ways and bad sense of driving? Let me share one trip with you. I had to take an auto from Hyderabad airport to office - a long distance. I asked an auto wallah, and he quoted me the expected 250. That is their standard rate to go anywhere from the airport! I moved ahead, murmuring something to myself and looking for a better deal. I asked another one, and to my surprise this one said “I’ll go by the meter”.

Now, first of all, no auto driver in Hyderabad offers to take you by the meter. And if he does, it means his meter is especially tweaked to facilitate one way transfer of funds. I told him “Your meter must be rigged” He said “No Sir! This is an electronic meter - cannot be rigged”. I knew better - “Ha! Who are you kidding! I’m an engineer - I know that these can be rigged too” and went on to describe him how it could be rigged. I’ll spare you of the details of how to do it.

However, seeing no other better option, I hopped in.

Now, there is a simple way to determine if the auto meter is rigged or not. When the auto is running on a clean stretch of road at constant speed, if you observe the meter advancing, it should ideally advance after regular intervals of time. A rigged meter, on the other hand, doesn’t - sometimes it is normal and sometimes it is faster. I wanted to find out and so I tried observing as hard as I could.

Turned out that the meter was not rigged after all. Reached office and the meter showed Rs 114.60, which is the lowest I’ve ever paid. After paying him, I asked him -”So.. your meter is actually not rigged?” and he was like “Yes Sir - there is talk that the new meters get burnt out if you rig them - and moreover, its more satisfying to earn an honest living and  to drop off your passengers smiling!”

Wow, if only all auto-wallahs were like you my friend.. 

So many of us looking to make a quick buck by starting websites :) See this.

Thanks Murali for sharing the link :)

I feel at home at only two places in the world - one is Ghaziabad, where I have spent my formative years of my life and one in the campus of NIT Trichy - my alma mater. I don’t feel at home in Hyderabad where I stay currently or in Ahmedabad, where my parents stay.

I was in the bus from my campus to the railway station - and I was very uneasy. And suddenly, before I could do anything about it, hot tears rolled down my cheeks. I don’t want to go back. I’m sitting in the waiting room at the railway station typing this, and how I wish I could stay just one more day.

Its my friends - Hari, Preeti, Suren, Lavanya, Isli, Maruti… - I love you guys so much! It is so much fun hanging out with you guys, and I look forward to this happen again. You guys mean the world to me!

Oh NIT Trichy - you’re a piece of my heart. A thousand salutes to you!

A thousand splendid Suns is the second book by Khaled Hosseini, the amazing author of The Kite Runner.

I read this book recently, and can’t help but write about it. The style of writing is again, amazingly descriptive. You can actually see the streets of Kabul, the house where Laila lives, the time when the rocket explodes… Hosseini makes his characters so real that by the time you reach the middle of the book, you actually have a face associated with them in mind. This resembles the way Arudhanti Roy wrote in The God of Small Things, or like the great Hindi poetess Mahadevi Verma used to describe her characters in her short stories.

As his first book is about the war Afghanistan fights, this book’s plot, though affected by the war, is more about the lives of two women. Laila and Mariam. How they come close, how their lives get intwined and how they fight their common foe.

Khaled Hosseini’s writing has this novel, terrible but splendid trait - he spends a hundred pages building up a character. He gives them a name, a face, a life, a dream and hope. Then suddenly, he destroys them. Utterly and completely. You need to be steel not to cry out aloud.

The central theme that connects both the books is friendship, trust and loyality. A very satisfying read. I picked it up just before bed time, and slept only after I finished it. You’d do the same.

Here is a list of things that change as you move out of college (a residential campus) to a full fledged job :

1. Money : Suddenly your financial condition changes. Your previous total monthly expenditure becomes you typical weekend expenditure. You can buy many things you want to without thinking too much. You get a credit card. You realize that you are not making enough money.

2. Phone : Your phone changes from a 1100 to N series. The prepaid connection is the thing of the past, and you get a post-paid corporate connection.

3. Phone Bills : Don’t ask.

4. Room : Finally a bathroom all for yourself! (Yes!). Though not very furnished initially, there are NO course books to be seen, the flooring is marble, and the walls don’t speak the history for who all have lived in the room for the last 17 years. Oh yes! There are cupboards where you can actually hang clothes AND lock them too!

5. Transport : From a Hercules Thriller, you upgrade to a Bajaj Pulsar. Or  the company cab, as the case may be.

6. Washing : No more washing clothes yourself! You get a washing machine. You actually wear clean clothes everyday.

7. Trips to home : Become exceedingly rare. Once in 6 months is the average.

8. Holidays : Become the most precious thing. People would give blood to get a holiday. You get about 12 every year excluding weekends. Add 20 Casual leaves to that. Thats it. No more.

9. Travel : No more Sleeper class, Air Deccan and Indigo become your best friends. Even when you want to travel by train and save some money, you cant coz you cant afford to take that extra day off. 

10. Bunks : If your office has swiping system, forget it. If it doesn’t, you feel so guilty if you bunk that you don’t.

11. Cleaning : A ‘bai’ comes to clean up your room and kitchen. But! She won’t clean the bathrooms! So the bathrooms and toilets (that you’re supposed to clean yourself now) resemble the hostel bathrooms.

12. Food : One pain in the ass! Breakfast and lunch @ office usually. Dinner outside. You get bored with outside food (and hate to pay so much for food, everyday!). Weekends are terrible, when you’re left to scavenge for your own 3 meals. You miss the comfort of the mess at times.

13. Treatment : For a change, people treat you nicely. The guards and support staff instead of telling you to ‘Poda’ call you ‘Sir’. Sweet sounding females call you everyday and offer you miscellaneous financial accessories ranging from credit cards, personal loans to health insurance. You tell them that you’re not interested and bang the phone. In their disappointed faces.

14. Internet : You download a 1 GB movie in an hour in office. You use office laptop to watch movies at home. You get Airtel broadband and a netgear wifi router at home.

15. Tax : You start worrying about tax. As March comes closer, you get well aquanted with the provisions of section 80c, 80cc and 80ccc of the Indian constitution. You buy insurance policies and pray to God to call you soon so that at least you won’t have to pay tax.

16. Immunity : Your immunity goes down suddenly. A glass of water outside, if  not branded Kinley or Aquafina, gives you throat infection. So does any chicken curry priced below Rs 135.

I’m sure I’ve missed many, help me increase this list :)