G20 - Garbage 20 "£$€¥₩руб"

The G20 was originally set up as an informal group in 1999, following the financial crisis in Asia. Their aim was to encourage international co-operation between finance ministers and central bankers. This summit in London potential costs amount to £20m, where as the one in Japan costed $285m (2008) and the Germany costed €92m(2004). THIS IS THE HIGHEST SECURITY EXPENSE in BRITISH HISTORY!

For an argument sake, if these summits had happened over video conferencing facility, we would have more money to spend today. Background work could have happened as it happens today and the key heads could have sat across the table before a best possible high-speed video line and all these money we spend could have been reduced to a pittance. People would have faced no hardship as they go to their day jobs, petty shops would be kept open, execs could have worn their suits, most importantly, Mother Nature would have been more green! Consider the emissions from the flights to & fro between the 19 countries to UK!

Ok At least let us wait to see if the result is positive; the overarching feeling is this summit will be a flop :(

Lifestyle East vs West vs West - are you having fun?

I used to say to my Indian friends that all whites are not whites! (not in a racist sense). Generally in east, any white man is considered English i.e. Brit. This confuses a lot of people who step out for the first time to either US, UK or Europe. Nature has made some differences in the human race, though we all have commonalities. Go east or west, the animalistic behaviour is same... Every one has both Yin-Yang in them.

Last week one of my family friends had been here from US, on an official trip. We met after long time - should be a few years. As it happens the topic turned over to US vs UK vs India. I mentioned in my opening statement about a confusion which people normally have. At a point in my life, I had that too. Fortunately or not, I lived in US for a considerable period of time and i moved to UK. I had this assumption, that whites are whites and continued my lifestyle as i would do in US. Later i understood the people dynamics of UK and things look different to me. I was chasing all along up to that point, then stopped for a brief period, started thinking! - I am a think tank :). I still chase, but do it smartly. That's what UK has done to me and i immensely thank them. Part of journey, some people realise there is a window to world only when the journey is about to end. In my case, I am very happy that i have found the window quite early. This is my earnest attempt to people around the world to stop them and think for a while... Its not about which is better, but about why are we here (in the Planet Earth) and what is better?

The question is, should we as an animal, enjoy as well as earn bread or should we work hard and yearn to enjoy?

In US to be a part of mainstream is a still a dream for many though the country by itself is termed as 'land of immigrants'. Where as UK has worked well in this particular aspect where irrespective of race, the polity is present (remember Yin-Yang is everywhere in UK as well). Having said that, i have observed that if your mind-set blocks you cannot be part of mainstream anywhere in the world, even in your own home turf. Raised in an Indian conservative background, turning into a liberal through experience, I can vouch for Britain's multi-cultural-ism, albeit they work hard to preserve the native culture and traditions as well.

When people talk about the US, they talk about rule of law and freedom of thought as fundamental constitutional cornerstones. How does it apply to a common man is a question one need to answer. Calling itself a secular, democratic and capitalistic country, US questions Obama's religions. Why/How does it matter if he is a half-Muslim? But the largest democracy India has got itself elected a Woman prime minister, president and a president, a prime minister from religious minority... US intervenes in Ports authority and such deals, but calls itself truly capitalistic. On the other hand UK has sold its key energy component to EDF (French), Water, airports etc have also been taken up by non-UK companies. These policies have impact on common man as it gives him price differences and quality of service.

Today people have forgotten some fundamental principles of politics and what it means to be a socialist, a communist, democrat or a conservative...

As i normally do, it would look that I have digressed from the topic of lifestyle. No, there is a subtle and strong link to the principles of governing party and the subjects of that government... coz' 'As the King So the People'. In terms of lifestyle i feel and think that UK has got a few fundamental things pretty much correctly and the US has got those on the wrong end. Especially medical benefits, benefits from national insurance/social security, holidays and lifestyle. (these views are subjective but will turn into objective as you go up the chain of philosophy).

Sometime back in FT i read how George W Bush spends one-fifth of an year in vacation and his subjects take just 3-4% of an year as vacation and in UK it is little tilted, the subjects take 25-30 days an year and the Prime Minister spends 40 days an year. India up to the 1970s followed some key aspects of British culture, now trots a lot on American footsteps... Work hard 5 days and spend the rest 2 days crazy... as things changed in US lifestyle rather work-style, work all 7 days, little family time etc, same followed here, Importantly Indians from software background have started following the trend.

End of the day we have forgotten that our base is from animal and some of the animal instincts take a beating and turns evil into the society and an increase of animal behaviour in the society... It all comes to our mindset, be where ever you are, stop for a moment and think, ask yourself are you having fun and enjoying in planet earth?

Life in the UK!

I had to appear for the Life in the UK exams and pass to move on to next stage of immigration upgrade. This is a 24 question exam with 18 to pass; Years back when i lived in US, i had to appear for a driving test which was of similar pass requirement and i failed in the first attempt due to my over-confident approach - i basically failed coz' of naivety on 'the drinks' %. I had quite a few questions testing on the knowledge of alcohol percentages such as how many of wine equals how many beers etc... I am still not up to date on that section...anyways in this exam i did not want to take any chances - so i quickly did some copy paste to highlight the important points into pdfs and left it for last minute prep. Banking on my general knowledge, i took some five-six tests on the net and i got couple of them passed and failed in a few! You should now know, how i would have felt about the exams.

Most of my friends around knew i was going to take the exams - so that added a bit of pressure as well. Aha what a man who claims to be an IT architect right there worrying about an exam. But the approach i took to the exams rightly asserted my approach to any problem and resolving them - an architect approach - did a quick summary of all facts into a let's call it a 'notebook' and from there took an aerial view to see what's the 80/20 rule and where to concentrate...

On the test day my GPS - SatNav very aptly conked off! so obstacle no 1 - how do i master the roads in UK to navigate into Hounslow east? more of a challenge i need to be mastering if i were to live in UK - so i took the choice of 'Phone - a - friend' - called my friend who was learning his drive in the UK; remembering that i switched off the call to him and rang his wife for the road name - i wasn't sure if it was Huxley road or Kingsley road; Anyways 'Phone-a-friend' worked out; Then somehow managed my life in the uk knowledge drove to Hounslow east. Given the traffic conditions on a Saturday morning the traffic was slow, with both me & my wife calming ourselves, suddenly spotted the Kingsley road! - there goes my right indicator, a quick view on right mirror and make a hasty turn to right. Racing against the time, i parked in a lot and ran to the test centre to confirm the venue, then back to the parking lot to tell my wife and took care of the little one. Now i was more nervous than her - not coz' of the test but how do i take care of this young man? Apart from a few nervy moments - he was okay, only thing he was adamant that i carried him all along!! Also he poo-ed (i did keep saying that he will do that right after my wife left for the test). She quickly answered, reviewed and passed it.

Now it was my turn. out of 7 attendees, 5 of us from India, 1 from japan, 1 from Malaysia. The Japanese girl had applied some great efforts in studying for the test - i looked over her shoulder to find the whole book marked with pens, stickers etc etc. I then realised how tough it could be for a lot of people. One thing what i noticed was all the Indians were chill-out and quite clearly coz' the constitution and political system such as speaker's role, whips's role, cabinet, Parliament elections all are very similar to India's one (actually the reverse). But for people who are not that close to these things might be finding the exam quite challenging. I whizzed through the test in less then 5 minutes and got the pass mark!

If you need the notes - let me know :)