Be nice to my "neice"

"Neice" is how this news item on BBC on-line calls a female relative. With the number of errors cropping up, I would think BBC stands for "Bloopers Broadcasting Corporation".

Begone, Bengali guilt!

Today is Bengali New Year Day. OK, it is the start of the Tamil and Malayalam Years too. And, it is Ambedkar Jayanti. But, we digress.

On this auspicious day, I shall endeavour to assist the Bengalis to get rid of the guilt around their language: The use of the same word ("kha") for both "to eat" and "to drink". Bongs usually hang their heads in shame when a Hindi-speaking person points out that Bongs eat food and eat water. Well, there are two ways to respond to this.

The defensive way
First, people need to understand that because "kha" means "to eat" in Hindi, it need not mean the same in Bengali (For example, "raNDi" means "come" (in a respectful sense) in Telugu, let us not discuss what it means in Hindi). Why not take "kha" to mean "to consume"? Follow this with a variant of the classic English question, namely, "Since you have two different words for solid and liquid consumption, do you eat soup or drink it*?"

The offensive way
This method is suited for the impatient as well as to address audience who can't reason. "You guys eat air (havA) and eat promises (kasam), so why do you have an issue with my eating milk?"

I hope that with this piece of sage advice, Bengalis will be able to get rid of shame of the centuries.

* So, what do you do with soup - eat or drink?

Tata Carrier Services?

Tata Parking Services
Originally uploaded by Sudarsan.

Parked in front of the same house on all weekends is the staff bus of the big daddy of Indian IT - Tata Consultancy Services. Last heard, that house was not an employee's residence. Wonder what the bus is doing there.

TCS is known as the driving force, this photo is proof that they not only do the driving, but also do the parking ... anywhere.

Polaris-ing presence

DSCN1134
Originally uploaded by Sudarsan.

Polaris - Power of precision ... and parking anywhere.

Seen here is a Polaris staff bus parked on weekends in front of a government library - I suppose that a visit to the government library was part of Polaris' process consulting goals. That should explain the presence of the bus outside the library.

Who wants to explain the absence of the employees inside the library?

Cognizant - Celebrating work and ...

DSCN1135
Originally uploaded by Sudarsan.

Cognizant report a record fourth quarter earnings, but does not report where they park their staff buses.

Seen on a Saturday (in fact, on all Saturdays and Sundays) adjacent to a house at an undisclosed location in Chennai is the bus pictured here. The bus is always parked around the corner, effectively blind-siding turning motorists.

Cognizant - Celebrating work ... and roadside parking.

Roadside parking or penny-pinching?

Big companies, lot of money. Does it behoove them to park their staff buses on the roads?

Is it not there in the values system to be model organisations? Or, are they conveying a message to the public that they are one of them and they will do what they want when they want?

The next few write-ups (or, should I say pin-ups) will feature a few interesting photos. Watch out!