Oxford - The Wine, The Sub-Fusc And The Lingo

So I've been getting all these documents from Christ Church, Oxford and it seems the first time I compulsorily need to don my subfusc is in the middle of October, during the matriculation ceremony. Of course, I'd need to don the gown before that as well if I head to the formal dinner (that happens everyday at the Tudor Hall) but I can skip it and choose to go for the informal dinner.

I had often lamented how I never got to wear the topi and throw it in the air at BITS after my graduation. And so, now I get all the gown action I want! The subfusc is also compulsory for examinations at the Said Business School (as it is at all other components of the Oxford University)

According to Wikipedia:

In 2006, a referendum held amongst the Oxford student body showed 81% against making the wearing of subfusc voluntary in examinations — 4,382 voted in the poll, almost 1,000 more than voted in the previous term's students' union elections. This was widely interpreted by students as not so much being a vote on making subfusc voluntary, but rather a vote on whether or not to effectively abolish it by default, as it was assumed that if a minority of people came to exams without subfusc, the rest would soon follow. The defeat of this motion showed clear support throughout the Oxford student body for the retention of the subfusc tradition.

Oh, I'm so kicked about wearing the gown!

Christ Church has sent me a form using which I can pre-order the subfusc. The dressers are an institution called Ede and Ravenscroft. They were founded in 1689, to put it in perspective, that's only a couple of decades after Taj Mahal was built!

The form says:

Ede and Ravenscroft was founded over 300 years ago and has produced royal garments for 12 British coronations as well as numerous state openings of parliament and countless royal, civic, legal and academic ceremonies.

Whoa!

The Graduate Fresher's Guide in itself is a very, very interesting read. It's funny to see the modernity contrasted with the oodles of tradition. For example, the college dues are called "battels" (the last time I read that word was in a Shakespeare play!) and it's funny when they talk of ethernet cards and laser prints being billed directly to your "battels". Your mailbox is called "the pidge" (short for pigeon hole!) and the porters are authorized to sign for Amazon packages on your behalf. Amazon sending packages through pigeons!! :))

And the guide keeps talking of wine and cheese tastings in the GCR (Graduates Common Room). I've gotta attend one of those!

If you're a BITSian, you'd fondly remember that t-shirt "A to Z of BITS", which listed out all the lingo. The Graduate Guide ends with a similar collection of words from the Oxford (and Christ Church in particular) lingo. Some are listed below (the most awesome is "Other Place"):

Alice Tree - The most famous person ever to reside at Christ Church (apart from Einstein, Locke, Sidney, Gladstone etc... possibly) was Alice Liddell of Alice in Wonderland fame. Charles Dodgson (known by his pen name of Lewis Carroll) was a mathematics tutor at Christ Church, and wrote the story for Alice who was the daughter of the Dean. The Alice Tree was where the Cheshire Cat supposedly appeared. It is located in the Pocock Garden.

Bod - Oxford-speak, short for the Bodleian Library... or a children’s TV show that really old British graduates will remember, and go on and on about if asked.

Bop - Where we get to put on our dancing shoes and show the younger generation how to really get down. Or not. Good fun regardless.

Dining Club - These clubs are generally social in design, small in number, and very alcoholic in content (especially with regards to the stomach and head). They exist in most colleges and can be for both men and women. They tend to find you, so don’t put too much thought into it.

Gaudy - A reunion party for old members of the house. Some of them are very distinguished. Others are asleep a lot.

Harry Potter - Since they filmed portions of the Harry Potter films here and based the Hogwarts Hall on ours, we get plenty of tourists who want to bathe in the glory of the place. Sometimes they wear costumes...

The House - Christ Church’s nickname. Comes from Christ Church’s Latin name Aedes Christi. Find a classicist to explain.

Mercury - The statue in the middle of the pond in Tom Quad, guarded by George, the great white carp. (a gift from the Emperor of Japan) Made famous by Evelyn Waugh in Brideshead Revisited.

Other Place - Cambridge University.

Quad - Square things, occasionally with grass. Known as a ‘Court’ at the Other Place.

Staircase - Rooms in Oxford colleges are located via their staircase. For instance, St Aldates 3:9 is room number 9 in Staircase 3 of St Aldates Quad.

Tourist - You’ll see lots of these. They are drawn here by Alice and Harry, and to a lesser extent, the magnificent architecture and famous historical associations. As they bring the college over £1m in revenue every year, don’t even try to compete...

Under-graduates - Young people who listen to ghastly music and use too many profanities. They go home during the vacations, at which point the college fills up with conference guests instead.

Wicket key - The key to Tom and Canterbury wicket gates, bike sheds, St Aldate’s main gate and laundry rooms. Also known as the Tom Gate Key. These have mostly been replaced with magnetic keys that log your name and time of entry/exit. Who needs Big Brother...


:D

Seles in the Hall of Fame

Monica Seles was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame today.

I was a Graf fan, I didn't like the way Seles grunted, I found the fact that she hit a double-handed forehand extremely weird. But yes, except on grass where that legendary Graf slice was really, really effective, Seles was kicking some serious ass. I remember matches where Graf switched to hitting top-spinners on that backhand coz Seles used to kill the slice. I willed Graf to overcome, I was vociferous in my support.

And then that idiot in Hamburg ruined one the greatest women's tennis rivalries forever. It took Seles two and a half years to recover from the stabbing and by the time she did, tennis had moved on. From Jan 1991 to Apr 1993 (when she was stabbed), she won 7 grand slams tournaments and had overall been the world number 1 for 178 weeks. To put it in perspective, in men's tennis, such a phenomenon is called Roger Federer.

She did come back, it took her 2 years to take the courts again. She reached the '95 US Open final, she won the '96 Aus Open. I remember I had stood up and clapped. But that was her last grand slam win. Her form was patchy, you'd see her in the quarters and semis for a few years after, and she never went all the way.

I was never a fan. But you didn't need to be one.

Respect.

Rod – Bjorn – Pete – Roger!

Here is my blog again after a slam final in which Fed played. And he WON!! YAY!! One more racquet under his belt. He won his 15th slam of his career – highest by any player. Pete will be happy that on his 1st visit, as per his promise, it was achieved.

This time after Rafa withdrew coz of knee injury, it was predicted that Roger will be able to get his 6th Wimbledon title. But for 4 hours during the final, Roddick defied all those predictions. Andy’s strongest point in the game was his serve. He has the fastest serve record after all. But yesterday I guess he played above that. Roger fired 50 aces and Roddick almost half of it - 27, but still Fed just converted one break point. And he got just 7 in 77 games.

What made me go :O was Roddick defended 9 serves in the last set when he was serving to survive in the match and remember he was playing against Federer. BBC commentator said a very true thing, “In a match against Federer’s opponent comes with a mindset that today mostly he will lose”. And to control those nerves and make yourself believe no-you-can-do-it against Fed is not easy. Roddick did that. He pushed him to 5 sets and to play maximum games in any finals. But Federer on the other side played like a genius. His experience of 21 slam finals definitely helped him. Last set felt like a never ending set as he played equally impressive. He saved those 2 crucial break points and then grabbed the only championship point he got. He is no doubt now greatest ever player.

What is next for Roger now? I don’t think even he is clear on that. Maybe all slams in this year, may be even break Pete’s record for 7 Wimbledon, maybe something else. But I am sure he is far from over. We are still to see many more memorable finals as he will be there to make them so.

PS: I didn’t witness this live on court :( but I had strawberries and cream last weekend on Wimbledon Court 1 for the Gonzales - Ferrero match :D

~ Parul ~

Google Chrome Vs Mozilla Firefox

Firefox had been my browser of choice for a while and I installed Chrome on both my office box and my laptop the day it was out in beta. I've been using it pretty regularly since then, and so figured I had enough expertise to do a comparative analysis.

For the record, on both my machines, I'm currently using Google Chrome 2.0.172.33 and Mozilla Firefox 3.0.11. Both Chrome and Firefox are set to accept updates automatically, so I'm always on the latest browser versions. My most browsed sites include Yahoo Mail, Google Reader and Facebook and YouTube, all of which use high-end browser features in their user experience. I usually have at least 3 browser tabs open, the average would be about 6.

So here goes:

1. Google Chrome has a much faster load up time compared to Firefox. Really. I click on the Firefox icon and I have to wait for a few seconds. Chrome is up and running almost immediately.

2. The UI is uncluttered in Chrome and I like that. But I find it weird that it doesn't have a "stop loading" button visible. If it's there, it's not been immediately apparent to me, so even that is a negative point.

3. Overall Chrome is faster than Firefox (though not by much) but sometimes, for no reason, it slows down to a crawl only to get back to normal speed again. It drives me crazy!

4. When compared to Firefox, Chrome has a lower memory footprint if left open for a couple of days.

5. The Flash plugin on Chrome crashes a lot more than on Firefox. This particularly seems to happen when I have 5-6 YouTube windows open. It's irritating because the functionality goes off on all the tabs and the browser has to be restarted. I guess the "tabs are different processes" idea doesn't seem to help there, which is a little weird.

6. I often go back to my History and I find the Chrome idea of opening it in a new tab on the browser very clean. However, the fact that I have to press the enter key to search is annoying. I'm used to the Firefox way where the search is automatically carried out on keypress.

End result - Chrome is better in some ways but not so good in others. And those "others" are more important to me. Firefox remains my browser of choice. Expecting great things from v3.5!

The Earth Is Hiring

I got this in an email forward a few days ago and I see that Cashewman has written about it as well. It's the commencement address delivered by Paul Hawken at the University of Portsmouth a month ago.

In case you're one of those who gets put off when you see too many words, here's a snippet for you and maybe it will spur you into reading the whole thing..

"There is invisible writing on the back of the diploma you will receive, and in case you didn’t bring lemon juice to decode it, I can tell you what it says: You are Brilliant, and the Earth is Hiring. The earth couldn’t afford to send recruiters or limos to your school. It sent you rain, sunsets, ripe cherries, night blooming jasmine, and that unbelievably cute person you are dating. Take the hint. And here’s the deal: Forget that this task of planet-saving is not possible in the time required. Don’t be put off by people who know what is not possible. Do what needs to be done, and check to see if it was impossible only after you are done."

Not convinced? Here's another one..

"Ralph Waldo Emerson once asked what we would do if the stars only came out once every thousand years. No one would sleep that night, of course. The world would create new religions overnight. We would be ecstatic, delirious, made rapturous by the glory of God. Instead, the stars come out every night and we watch television."

Now go ahead and read it. Here's the link again!

You Can't Protect Them From Time

You may have noticed an increase in the number of links I've been posting. Basically, I put in my notice at Vendio yesterday and have been scanning through my inbox, bookmarks et al for these various tidbits that I've saved up over time.

Here's another link from a random blog that I thought was worth saving. Go ahead and read it, it's beautiful.

On a separate note, we figured as the runners-up in the eBay Star Developers Award list. I'd like to think my "significant contributions" had something to do with it :D. It was awesome, someone in Marketing (probably) came up with a hilarious blog about it!

Quarter Life Crisis

Found it. I had first read this when I was interning at Andale, thinking about some of these quesions, wondering what had changed and when. And where. It helped coz it made me realize that even though I had "[stopped] going along with the crowd", I wasn't alone.

Goodbye IE8 Widget

The confirmation box I had added for IE6 users has been removed. Shilpa forced me to take it off with her repetitive cries of "aarrggghhhh" as she moved around the blog.

For the record, I stand by my opinion that IE6 is a sucky browser and people need to upgrade for the internet to be a better place!

Peace!

JRD Tata

I got this in an email forward. If I let it stay in an email, it will get buried amongst the gizzilion emails I get everyday and would be lost forever. Adding it here is a much better way of remembering this beautiful piece.


----------------------------


It was probably the April of 1974. Bangalore was getting warm and gulmohars were blooming at the IISc campus. I was the only girl in my postgraduate department and was staying at the ladies' hostel. Other girls were pursuing research in different departments of Science. I was looking forward to going abroad to complete a doctorate in computer science. I had been offered scholarships from Universities in the US. I had not thought of taking up a job in India.

One day, while on the way to my hostel from our lecture-hall complex, I saw an advertisement on the notice board. It was a standard job- requirement notice from the famous automobile company Telco (now Tata Motors). It stated that the company required young, bright engineers, hardworking and with an excellent academic , etc. At the bottom was a small line: "Lady Candidates need not apply."

I read it and was very upset. For the first time in my life I was up against gender discrimination. Though I was not keen on taking up the job, I saw it as a challenge. I had done extremely well in academics, better than most of my male peers. Little did I know then that in real life academic excellence is not enough to be successful.

After reading the notice I went fuming to my room. I decided to inform the topmost person in Telco's management about the injustice the company was perpetrating. I got a postcard and started to write, but there was a problem: I did not know who headed Telco I thought it must be one of the Tatas. I knew JRD Tata was the head of the Tata Group; I had seen his pictures in newspapers (actually, Sumant Moolgaokar was the company's chairman then)

I took the card, addressed it to JRD and started writing. To this day I remember clearly what I wrote.

"The great Tatas have always been pioneers. They are the people who started the basic infrastructure industries in India, such as iron and steel, chemicals, textiles and locomotives. They have cared for higher education in India since 1900 and they were responsible for the establishment of the Indian Institute of Science. Fortunately, I study there. But I am surprised how a company such as Telco is discriminating on the basis of gender."

I posted the letter and forgot about it. Less than 10 days later, I received a telegram stating that I had to appear for an interview at Telco's Pune facility at the company's expense. I was taken aback by the telegram. My hostel mate told me I should use the opportunity to go to Pune free of cost and buy them the famous Pune saris for cheap! I collected Rs.30/= each from everyone who wanted a sari. When I look back, I feel like laughing at the reasons for my going, but back then they seemedgood enough to make the trip. It was my first visit to Pune and I immediately fell in love with the city.

To this day it remains dear to me. I feel as much at home in Pune as I do in Hubli, my hometown. The place changed my life in so many ways.

As directed, I went to Telco's Pimpri office for the interview. There were six people on the panel and I realized then that this was serious business. "This is the girl who wrote to JRD," I heard somebody whisper as soon as I entered the room. By then I knew for sure that I would not get the job. The realization abolished all fear from my mind, so I was rather cool while the interview was being conducted.

Even before the interview started, I reckoned the panel was biased, so I told them, rather impolitely, "I hope this is only a technical interview. " They were taken aback by my rudeness, and even today I am ashamed about my attitude. The panel asked me technical questions and I answered all of them.

Then an elderly gentleman with an affectionate voice told me, "Do you know why we said lady candidates need not apply? The reason is that we have never employed any ladies on the shop floor. This is not a co-ed college; this is a factory. When it comes to academics, you are a first ranker throughout. We appreciate that, but people like you should work in research laboratories."

I was a young girl from small-town Hubli. My world had been a limited place. I did not know the ways of large corporate houses and their difficulties, so I answered, "But you must start somewhere, otherwise no woman will ever be able to work in your factories."

Finally, after a long interview, I was told I had been successful. So this was what the future had in store for me. Never had I thought I would take up a job in Pune. I met a shy young man from Karnataka there, we became good friends and we got married.

It was only after joining Telco that I realized who JRD was: the uncrowned king of Indian industry. Now I was scared, but I did not get to meet him till I was transferred to Bombay. One day I had to show some reports to Mr. Moolgaokar, our chairman, who we all knew as SM. I was in his office on the first floor of Bombay House (the Tata headquarters) when, suddenly JRD walked in. That was the first time I saw "appro JRD". Appro means "our" in Gujarati. This was the affectionate term by which people at Bombay House called him. I was feeling very nervous, remembering my postcard episode.

SM introduced me nicely, "Jeh (that's what his close associates called him), this young woman is an engineer and that too a postgraduate. She is the first woman to work on the Telco shop floor." JRD looked at me. I was praying he would not ask me any questions about my interview (or the postcard that preceded it). Thankfully, he didn't. Instead, he remarked. "It is nice that girls are getting into engineering in our country. By the way, what is your name?"

"When I joined Telco I was Sudha Kulkarni, Sir," I replied. "Now I am Sudha Murthy." He smiled and kindly smile and started a discussion with SM. As for me, I almost ran out of the room. After that I used to see JRD on and off. He was the Tata Group chairman and I was merely an engineer. There was nothing that we had in common. I was in awe of him.

One day I was waiting for Murthy, my husband, to pick me up after office hours. To my surprise I saw JRD standing next to me. I did not know how to react. Yet again I started worrying about that postcard. Looking back, I realize JRD had forgotten about it. It must have been a small incident for him, but not so for me.

"Young lady, why are you here?" he asked. "Office time is over." I said, "Sir, I'm waiting for my husband to come and pick me up." JRD said, "It is getting dark and there's no one in the corridor. I'll wait with you till your husband comes."

I was quite used to waiting for Murthy, but having JRD waiting alongside made me extremely uncomfortable. I was nervous. Out of the corner of my eye I looked at him. He wore a simple white pant and shirt. He was old, yet his face was glowing. There wasn't any air of superiority about him. I was thinking, "Look at this person. He is a chairman, a well-respected man in our country and he is waiting for the sake of an ordinary employee."

Then I saw Murthy and I rushed out. JRD called and said, "Young lady, tell your husband never to make his wife wait again."

In 1982 I had to resign from my job at Telco. I was reluctant to go, but I really did not have a choice. I was coming down the steps of Bombay House after wrapping up my final settlement when I saw JRD coming up. He was absorbed in thought. I wanted to say goodbye to him, so I stopped. He saw me and paused.

Gently, he said, "So what are you doing, Mrs. Kulkarni?" (That was the way he always addressed me.)

"Sir, I am leaving Telco."

"Where are you going?" he asked.

"Pune, Sir. My husband is starting a company called Infosys and I'm shifting to Pune."

"Oh! And what will you do when you are successful."

"Sir, I don't know whether we will be successful."

"Never start with diffidence," he advised me. "Always start with confidence. When you are successful you must give back to society. Society gives us so much; we must reciprocate. I wish you all the best."

Then JRD continued walking up the stairs. I stood there for what seemed like a millennium. That was the last time I saw him alive. Many years later I met Ratan Tata in the same Bombay House, occupying the chair JRD once did. I told him of my many sweet memories of working with Telco. Later, he wrote to me, "It was nice hearing about Jeh from you. The sad part is that he's not alive to see you today."

I consider JRD a great man because, despite being an extremely busy person, he valued one postcard written by a young girl seeking justice.

He must have received thousands of letters everyday. He could have thrown mine away, but he didn't do that. He respected the intentions of that unknown girl, who had neither influence nor money, and gave her an opportunity in his company. He did not merely give her a job; he changed her life and mindset forever.

Close to 50 per cent of the students in today's engineering colleges are girls. And there are women on the shop floor in many industry segments. I see these changes and I think of JRD. If at all time stops and asks me what I want from life, I would say I wish JRD were alive today to see how the company we started has grown. He would have enjoyed it wholeheartedly. My love and respect for the House of Tata remains undiminished by the passage of time. I always looked up to JRD. I saw him as a role model for his simplicity, his generosity, his kindness and the care he took of his employees. Those blue eyes always reminded me of the sky; they had the same vastness and magnificence.

(Sudha Murthy is a widely published writer and chairperson of the Infosys Foundation involved in a number of social development initiatives. Infosys chairman Narayana Murthy is her husband.)

Article sourced from: Lasting Legacies (Tata Review- Special Commemorative Issue 2004), brought out by the house of Tatas to commemorate the 100th birth anniversary of JRD Tata on July 29, 2004.

Unphotographable

Sometimes, you just come across the most amazing things on the internet. I was randomly surfing, going from link to link, when I stumbled upon the site Unphotographable. It's a brilliant concept, a blog maintained by photographer Michael David Murphy about the images that he saw but couldn't click. So, it's just a write-up of his memories of the shot, as he saw it, as he remembers it.

He explains it in the why section of the site...

What is this?
Unphotographable is a catalog of exceptional mistakes. Photos never taken that weren't meant to be forgotten. Opportunities missed. Simple failures. Occasions when I wished I'd taken the picture, or not forgotten the camera, or had been brave enough to click the shutter.

Why do you do this?
I'm a photographer. But I'm not the kind of photographer who prefers looking at life through a lens. If we take photographs to remember, what do we do when we're not taking photographs?

When did you start this?
In October 2004, I travelled to Ethiopia for a two-week trip. I'd been advised against bringing my camera, but leaving it behind didn't seem like an option. In predominantly Muslim communities (such as Harar, Ethiopia) photography is shunned, particularly photographing women. Consequently, at many times during my trip, there was so much to see, and no way to capture it, except through words. Hence this site - a place for all the moments I was unable to photograph.


I loved the funda. Really beautiful. I've spent all morning reading through his archives and some of the entries are just amazing. Funnily enough, perhaps our imaginations paint a better picture of what he saw than an actual picture ever could. Or maybe not.

Sample this one entry:

This is a picture I did not take of four men standing in the DC Metro on their way to Barack Obama's inauguration; three of them African American, in matching black leather jackets and knitted black ski hats, each hat emblazoned with the sequined word "OBAMA", and the fourth man, Chinese, standing right beside them in jogging sweats, wearing a knitted black ski hat embroidered with "The Beatles".


:))