Indians thread

[Laura F.]

I've just deleted a handful of messages in this thread at the request of their owners.  I did not delete any message that was requested to be deleted by someone else other than the person that posted that message.  If you feel you may have posted other messages that you would like deleted please review your remaining messages in this thread and flag any that should be deleted.

Thanks,

Laura

[parthabe]

---

Laura F. wrote:

I did not delete any message that was requested to be deleted by someone else other than the person that posted that message.

---

No. My angriest reply to Somil already got deleted [by at least 10AM IST today] NOT based on my notification, but somebody else's.

But, if it was not you who deleted it, then I m just curious to know who it was...

I notified all the messages that looked (I felt) irrelevant to the present context of this thread only after seeing the deletion of my aforesaid reply.

I suggest you to delete Somil's this reply at least by yourself without waiting for his notification, since it is totally irrelavant without my preceeding reply.

[Vaibhav]

---

parthabe wrote:

Hi Vaibhav, 

I would say that it was "anger".

Anger is the state of mind that hides all good from our view. So, after thinking over-night, I have reported all those messages which I thought irrelevant to this thread.

But I wish to tell you to have a look here. This was the same feeling I conveyed in my first reply telling that it is a "bad trait" to misspell names. But it was never taken in the right spirit. 

I seldom type names, instead copy & paste it from the quoted text.

---

It was an anger due to an attitude or an attitude due to an anger, is difficult to say. But let's not go into it. What is more important is your "thinking over-night" and that is what shows your positive side.

So everyone will go ahead with what both of you did finally - reporting to the moderator.

Congratulations for this good attitude! 😉 😄

Once you wrote a famous quote/phrase, altered according to your belief here, swapping positions of "attitude" and "aptitude" and that "attitude" (of showing attitude). So after the infamous heated arguments, when Mathan said about the "attitude" I thought he has found the right word. 😛

Ok, enough of this attitude thing. Let's not discuss this. Not even for the sake of replies.

And let me congratulate you for getting promoted - I noticed the 3 dark bars and you being Enthusiastic (remember yesterday Mathan said about 2000 posts).

PS: I usually try to "type" the names correctly, instead of copy+pasting. This makes me remember the real name and correct spelling. The copy+paste utility helps us stay with the ignorance. These are two different perspectives. In some official letters, IF we are not confident enough, it's good to use copy+pasting, but for a forum, we should train ourselves for correct typing instead of copy+pasting.

PPS: You know my name is much more difficult to "pronounce." Any non-Indian reader, here, must have wondered at least once about "how on Earth does this name sound like?" because here, even if I am there to explain the pronounciation, people often stay with "fear" and "shyness/shame" to speak my name, because they basically do not know how to speak "bh" and the beginning "Vai" and ending "av" is too much to remember in a single word. You would laugh how I have heard people calling me - children and adults alike - in Russia and here in Portugal. I just have to be patient and "teach" them how to turn their tongue and blow air and separate lips etc. I think important is that they "try" to speak/write correctly and not avoid. Just like someone writes a wrong spelling, and we feel that the person is just not being sincere enough, copy+pasting can also mean the person is not being sincere enough (otherwise would have taken care of typing carefully).

Take my words easily. 😉 .. Just too much to think. If anything, just forget and enjoy the new status! 🙂

[Vaibhav]

---

parthabe wrote:

---

Shruti G wrote:

seems that you are full ready to be at home...

well same is the case with me....waiting for the 14th to come as i will leave on that day for home.......

---

Hi Shruti,

I m also planning to leave on 14th itself by taking 2 days off (read as absence like in college, NOT official leave):smileyvery-happy:, since 16th is a holiday for me, to be home a bit early.

Madurai is known for its throughout-night shopping on the approaching days to Diwali. And it is famous for its Jasmine & jasmine-like hot-n-soft Idlis.

Send me some pure Nagpuri Haldiram sonpapdi.

---

Wow, Mathan, Shruti, Partha... everyone just going home for Diwali.

Ok, let me jump in and say "I also planned to leave on 13-14th so I reach India by 15th (after changing 2 flights), and take one more flight till Ahmedabad." But (as always a BUT), the work is not yet finished and I cannot go just like that. I would like to finish everything, and then stay there till Makarsakranti (the kite-flying crazy festival, for which Gujarat is more famous). 😄

I was in Madurai for just 1 day (spent in site-seeing in and around Madurai and at night went to that grand temple). Nice place though.

Send me some pure Nagpuri Haldiram sonpapdi.

yummy yummy... But I think Nagpur is more famous for the Orange halwa... 😄 Had it more than 7-8 years back, still feeling the taste.

[Vaibhav]

---

Mathan wrote:

Same here Partha. Didn't booked tickets. When the tickets are opened in IRCTC website 3 months back, i reached half an hour late to office and surprised to see all the tickets in all the trains have been booked online within 15 min from the start of issue time.

---

Felix (and any other non-Indians, who may be planning to visit India), are you reading? This also happens here in the highly-populated India.

The Indian railway is the world's largest network of Railway lines and we have a lot of trains, still we always need more trains. New trains are declared every year, still we always need more trains.

[Vaibhav]

---

parthabe wrote:

Not fully!  Would have been, had you written as 'Mukund'...

Any proper noun should begin with a capital letter. This was the way I was taught English in my school.

Okay anyway, let me NOT teach/take English class here & end up in one more argument. It is just fine, unless & until (y)our names are written sans spelling mistake(s).

---

😄 Well, and what about Partha, then? Or is it already not a proper noun since it's "partha+be" ?

@ muks

Well, my best bet was (yea, 😉 I also tried to guess like any other curious being), Mukesh. But you being from South India, didn't support this name.

You, by revealing your name, have given a breath of relief to many... 😄

[Vaibhav]

Answering something unanswered -

---

Ben wrote:

I have to admit that I am a little gun-shy contributing to this thread since.... I don't spell* check. So please be gentle with me.

First I want to thank you all for sharing parts of your world with us. Is this just a specail time of the year or are Y'all always plaaning a party (festivals).

---

Welcome to the thread Ben, and I liked you considering yourself to be ahead of time. 😄

What you have asked is what I often mention to my non-Indian (that means most people around me) colleagues/friends. Every 1-2 weeks we have a small festival that corresponds to some community/region/religion/culture/historic event/ancient (mythological) event. Our grandmas and grandpas would even celebrate those small festivals (not all, but "some" that have "traditional" significance to them). Like, the full moon is a special day in the Indian calendar. And the 11th day of the moon is also a special (holy) day in the Indian culture. And then there are "special" and "very special" full moons and 11th day/night of the moon. And they are celebrated by observing a special fast (eating only once in the whole day, and that too, only specific food ingredients). I do not kow all these special days, but once in a while would hear from the grand parents/parents or sometimes would read inthe "cultural" sections of or newspaper - Just by curiousity, or usually by chance. 😄  Like wise, there would be some birth/death anniversary of a saint or a sage, or some famous (political/cultural) figure.

But apart from this, there would be a bigger days with anniversary of a very strong idol - like we had Gandhi Jayanti (Birth Anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi on 2nd Oct), or our Republic day or Independence day (like any other country that has seen "Independence" movements).

And then there are grande festivals, every 1-2 months - which could be either a cultural festival or a religious festival. Like we have birth anniversaries of Lord Krishna or Lord Ganesha or we have cultural festivals like "Rakhi" (Rakshabandhan) which is a unique festival that symbolizes the bond of love and protection between a brother and a sister, and there are cultural festivals which are celebrated in some cultures (regions) of India - like Makarsakranti (kite flying festival in Gujarat) and Pongal (the Sakranti festival during the same period, but for more days, in Tamilnadu) and there is Navratri (a festival of 9 nights of worship of Goddess Amba, celebrated by cultural dance - the most hyped festival among young hearts ;)) which is celebrated as DurgaPuja (in Bengal, by worship of Goddess Durga), and Dashera (victory of Ram over Ravan - the tenth day after the 9 nights) which is celebrated all over India, and more famously in the South India (with the complete decoration of the Palace in Mysore, and a grande parade of elephants) and then there is the King of all festivals, Diwali - that comprises of 5 days, each day with its cultural significance - worship of Goddess Lakshmi (for wealth), worship of Goddess Kali (against evil spirits), Diwali (the festival of lights - to mark welcome party of Lord Ram after victory in the war), the Indian New Year (yes, Diwali - the 3rd day of the festival is the last day of Hindu Calendar, so the next day is the New Year), and BhaiBeej (Beej means Two or Second - meaning the 2nd day of Moon, since Diwali is the no-moon night - again a festival for brothers and sisters).

In the Northern India, in Punjab, there is Baisakhi (marking/welcoming the spring and harvesting season - am I right somil?) when people do their cultural dance of Bhangra.  Then there are Moharram and Eid (for Muslims) and Pateti (for Parsis - the Persians), Natal/Christmas and Guru Nanak Jayanti (by Sikhs) and many more. 

This is an incomplete list of the total festas. 🙂

And many of these festivals are celebrated by people of all the religions - my friends - Muslims and Christians - would dance in the Navratri festival and so would I go to their home to eat Eid and Christmas sweets and wish them. Kite-flying festival, when we also organise an International Kite Festival, is a festival that is celebrated by people of any religion and any economic status (because almost everyone can afford a few kites, and if not, they better catch some freely floating kite and start flying it). Unlike in western countries, where Kites are rare and monstrous (big I mean 😉 ) , in the Kite-flying festival, we just buy hundreds of small kites and fly them while making a "war in the sky" with kites only. 🙂

I hope I could give some glimpse of "(crazily) festival loving" India. 🙂

[Vaibhav]

Ah, and while editing for my typos in the previous message (which I couldn't complete because while editing, I wrote so much that it timed out 😄 so here it is...), I remembered one festival which I must not forget to mention. The festival of colours - Holi - which is more famous than any other Indian festival. The symbol of brotherhood when we are supposed to forget old fights and make friendships - celebrated by throwing colors (or colored water) on each other - which sometimes may result into a new fight :D. Like the Kite-festival ("Makarsakranti" or "Uttarayan"), this festival is also celebrated by almost anybody who has a passion for celebration (irrespective of one's religion and caste and social/economic status).    

And the most important part is the food or rather sweets. Each of these festivals have their own specific food (mainly a sweet dish, or rather sweet dishes)

In Onam (in Kerala) they make payasam (a porridge like sweet from milk and wheat noodles), in Pongal (in Tamilnadu) they make different varieties of Rice, in Kite-festival they make sweets from seasame seeds and peanuts, in Diwali ... 🙂 😉

I hope I could give some glimpse of "(crazily) festival loving" India. 🙂

[Somil]

Hi

A loooooooooooooooootttttttttttt of activity in this thread. Great

First of, i have reported the post which parthasarathi pointed at, to the moderator. 

---

In the Northern India, in Punjab, there is Baisakhi (marking/welcoming the spring and harvesting season - am I right somil?) when people do their cultural dance of Bhangra.

---

 Yes, Baisakhi is a harvest festival there in Punjab. Actually, right now, i am really missing those green fields. I have already shown you the location of my home earlier. So tomorrow Chennai and day after PUNJAB!!!

 Festivals, hahaha. I think every week in india, there comes some day which is auspicious. Like today itself, KARVACHAUTH is there. Ladies fast today for the well being and long life of there husbands. The ones who are not married, fast to get a loving and caring husband. Whole day they wont drink a drop of water even. At night, they will eat only after watching the moon and then der husbands.

So, I believe for every guy here, someone is fasting today

Then after festivals, coming to English.

 HAHA, i remember a very funny incident from my school days.

Our school  cricket coach, who doesnt know english at all  (he followed the state board and state boards are punjabi medium)  was on a regular  inspection of each and every classroom. So when he entered in our class room, some names of the emperors and rulers were written on the black board  (because our history teacher had just left).

He thought that these were the names of some rowdy students in the class. He took out his ruler and shouted in anger "All these troublemakers come out and show me hands"

Our class just bursted out laughing

So such things also happen

[muks]

Ok todays news

My inbox just exploded!!!!

Ben,

 Thanks for stepping in.Regarding conveying bad news. Let me tell you a sea strory for a change. I started my carrier  as an engineer in a machine vision division. I will voice my opnion everytime the customer expected some thing magical out of the machine. Please note that i will tell me opnion to the business head/ marketting head. We had our first enquiry in a months time of my joining. With a young team we went to the clients place and delivered the machine.

Then the enquiries came pouring in and we could easily reject a few as "not do-able" and convey the same to the heads. It was their responsiblilty to talk to the customer and to the management for reasons. One fine day after my third successful install I was made the tech lead and made to talk to the customer directly from the enquiry stage. It was at this time I realised that I was not able to say no to a customer. The best I can come out with is "I will get back on that" or "It is a bit difficult but can be done" with this one I will add the cost factor or the time factor to make the customer say "ok you can do this later".

We had a really good R&D division. So before conveying the almost not doable task , I used to go the division and find a direct/indirect way of acheving the requirement. Slowly I forgot saying no or conveing the bad news. All that mattered was customer satisfaction. As someone has pointed once you are at a clients end you will most likely be asked to add a extra magic in a days time free of cost for which we obviously will say a "yes definetly but........." pretty politely. I suppose thats the games rule isnt it?